Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

Soon, the second game of the finals began.

It's still Scotiabank Arena.

Previously, the score between the two sides was 1:0. The Lakers took the lead and had the advantage. For the Raptors, this game was very crucial. They had to win this game to have the capital to continue competing with the Lakers.

If they lose this game, their chances of winning the championship will be greatly reduced.

By the next 3rd and 4th games, when they go to the Lakers' home court, Lopez may even make a comeback... It is conceivable that the situation will only become more unfavorable for the Raptors.

So the Raptors must win this game.

If they win this game, the score between the two sides will become 1:1. Even if they go to the Lakers' home court, even if they can't beat the Lakers, at least the Raptors can afford to lose, the series is still suspenseful, and they still have a chance.

"We have to win today."

“We have to win.”

The home fans were nervous and worried.

After all, the last game has proved that the Lakers are still extremely strong even without Lopez.

......

The competition officially started at seven o'clock in the evening.

The players have already arrived on the court and their respective lineups have not changed.

The Lakers still have Holiday, Zhuang Yu, Korver, Anderson and Zubac.

The Raptors' starting lineup was the same as in the previous game: Lowry, Danny Green, Leonard, Siakam, and Gasol Jr.

First the jump ball.

This time Zubac touched the ball first and slapped it to the backcourt. Holiday controlled the ball and advanced slowly. When he came to the frontcourt, he first glanced at the Raptors' defensive formation, which seemed to be the same as the previous game.

"Pick and roll."

Holiday called for a pick-and-roll, Zubac came to the top of the arc to do the pick-and-roll, Holiday moved to the left, but his eyes were on Zhuang Yu, preparing to pass the ball to Zhuang Yu after a breakthrough.

Today, the Lakers' playing style is still mainly fast, reducing positional battles as much as possible and launching quick counterattacks, which is suitable for the Lakers' current game rhythm.

So after reaching the frontcourt, Holiday did not immediately give the ball to Zhuang Yu, but chose to break through himself and then look for an opportunity to pass the ball.

If there is an opportunity to take a three-point shot directly from the outside, that would be the best. If there is no opportunity, let Zhuang Yu play one-on-one.

At this moment, the Raptors' defensive formation changed.

Siakam suddenly rushed out and stood between Holiday and Zhuang Yu, cutting off Holiday's passing route and forcing Holiday to pass the ball to Anderson.

However, Anderson's outside shooting was not stable. Even though Siakam, who was defending him, was not in front of him, Anderson did not shoot himself. After getting the ball, he dribbled forward two steps and passed the ball again. However, there was still someone in front of Zhuang Yu interfering, and his ball could not be passed to Zhuang Yu, so he had to give it to Korver.

Swish!

With a slight sound, Korver made a three-pointer.

Anderson breathed a sigh of relief and high-fived Korver as he ran back.

Korver also had a smile on his face. He felt that his touch today was much better than in the previous game. He made his first three-pointer.

In the next few rounds, the Raptors were consciously cutting off the connection between Zhuang Yu and his teammates on the defensive end. They did not choose to double-team Zhuang Yu, but they were consciously interfering with Zhuang Yu's receiving the ball. Especially when others broke through and prepared to pass the ball to Zhuang Yu, there would always be someone blocking the passing route between the two people to prevent Zhuang Yu from receiving the ball.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that Zhuang Yu can’t touch the ball at all.

Zhuang Yu can still use his speed and the cover of his teammates to break away from the defense, and then take the basketball from his teammates.

However, in this case, Zhuang Yu can only attack with the ball by himself, and it is difficult to form tactical coordination with his teammates.

After a few minutes, Zhuang Yu's touch time was significantly reduced.

Of course, Zhuang Yu was still scoring. When he used counter-running or his teammates' screen to receive the basketball, the Raptors still couldn't defend him.

After just a few minutes, the Raptors were leading.

"Coach." Assistant coach Madsen came to Coach Scott and said with a frown, "The Raptors' defense was very targeted today."

"Yeah." Coach Scott nodded.

Obviously the Raptors made adjustments on the defensive end. They knew that Zhuang Yu was very strong both in individual singles and without the ball, his offensive range covered the entire half court, and he had many ways to score. It was almost impossible to defend Zhuang Yu.

So the Raptors changed their strategy. They did not expect to completely restrict Zhuang Yu, but only wanted to reduce his scoring efficiency.

To this end, they interfered with Zhuang Yu's receiving the ball as much as possible. As long as the time Zhuang Yu touched the ball was reduced, the threat would naturally decrease.

Another thing is to cut off the connection between him and his teammates.

The purpose of not allowing him to form tactical cooperation with his teammates is to reduce Zhuang Yu's off-ball scoring and force Zhuang Yu to rely on holding the ball on the offensive end.

For a player like Zhuang Yu who has super shooter attributes, his efficiency when playing without the ball is often higher than when attacking with the ball.

After all, when there is no ball, most of the time, you have to rely on your teammates' screens, pick-and-rolls, and tactical coordination to get shooting opportunities.

At this time, the opportunity has already come out, and what remains is whether you can make the shot.

For ordinary players, even if the opportunity comes, it is not easy to make the shot.

But for super shooters like Zhuang Yu, Curry, or Klay Thompson, as long as the opportunity comes, they have a great chance of making the shot.

On the contrary, when you are attacking with the ball, you need to face direct interference from defensive players, or even more than one defensive player, and the probability of scoring the ball will be lower.

Of course, scoring efficiency is not equal to hit rate.

For example, Curry throws a lot of three-pointers in a game, but his overall three-point shooting percentage is less than 50%. If his two-point shooting percentage is only 40%, then when the two items are combined, his overall shooting percentage is only over %.

This is obviously not a very high hit rate, but because more than half of them are three-pointers, the overall scoring efficiency is very high.

The same goes for Zhuang Yu.

Three-pointers are an important means of scoring for him, especially off-ball three-pointers, which have a high hit rate and greatly improve his offensive efficiency.

What the Raptors are doing now is to limit Zhuang Yu's off-ball scoring as much as possible, especially off-ball three-pointers, and to reduce Zhuang Yu's offensive efficiency as much as possible.

"Requesting a timeout."

Coach Scott called a timeout.

When several players came down, he analyzed the Raptors' defensive strategy in the past few minutes and then made some arrangements.

I have to say that the Raptors' defensive strategy is correct.

Judging from the past few minutes, their defensive strategy did work, allowing the Raptors to take the lead in the score.

However, everything has two sides. If the Raptors want to cut off the connection between Zhuang Yu and his teammates as much as possible, they will need to invest more defensive strength, and the defensive strength against other players on the Lakers will naturally be weakened.