Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"Requesting a timeout."

Coach Scott called a timeout.

He also realized that something was wrong. Logically speaking, with Zhuang Yu's three-point ability, his performance should not be like this. Even if he missed the three-pointer, he should not have made 3 of 1 free throws. Zhuang Yu's free throw percentage this season is over 90%.

After several players came off the court, Coach Scott looked at Zhuang Yu. Zhuang Yu smiled bitterly and raised his hand, revealing his forearm.

Seeing the clear fingerprints on Zhuang Yu's hand, Coach Scott's face darkened and anger surged in his heart. Damn Raptors, they are too cruel.

Is this going to be a dark thing?

Restraining his anger, he asked, "How do you feel? Do you want to..."

Zhuang Yu shook his head: "I'm fine, just a minor skin injury, but it will still affect my shooting."

Although Zhuang Yu said he was fine, Coach Scott still called the team doctor to check on Zhuang Yu and then replaced him.

The pause ended quickly.

Several players returned to the court, and Coach Scott came to Zhuang Yu and looked at the team doctor to inquire about the situation.

"It's okay, just a skin injury." The team doctor replied and took out an ice pack to apply to Zhuang Yu.

Coach Scott breathed a sigh of relief, then frowned again. It can be said that almost all the players missed the three-pointer, and only Korver still had his touch.

But you can't expect Korver to carry the team alone, right?

Isn't that pure nonsense?

Although he felt very depressed, Coach Scott forced himself to calm down. This is how the game is. It is impossible for things to always develop as you expect. You need to face changes in the opponent's tactics and also face some emergencies.

Player injuries are emergencies, players not in good shape, and having bad touch are also emergencies... This is part of the game.

Therefore, even the strongest team cannot guarantee that they will be able to defeat their opponent in a certain game.

On the court, the Lakers players still had a cold touch from beyond the three-point line, as if this was contagious; if one missed the shot, no one could make it.

When the first half ended, the Lakers were already trailing by 14 points.

......

Entering the second half, Coach Scott did not send out the starting lineup, but instead used a small lineup, including Holiday, Clarkson, Zhuang Yu, Korver, and Anderson.

This small lineup allows for more space on the court and also allows the Lakers to better break through and score, with the goal of making three-pointers.

The Lakers were already at a disadvantage in the front line and inside, and without outside three-pointers, the game would have been difficult to play.

What's more, the Lakers were still trailing by more than ten points at this time.

This time the Lakers' three-point shooting was better than in the first half. In the first few minutes of the third quarter, Zhuang Yu, Clarkson and Korver all hit three-pointers, leading the Lakers to a wave of attacks and narrowing the gap to single digits.

The Raptors immediately called a timeout.

After the timeout, the Raptors strengthened their defense against Korver, Clarkson and others.

In this way, Zhuang Yu naturally got more opportunities.

Originally, Lakers fans thought that Zhuang Yu should explode at this time, but most of Zhuang Yu's shots from beyond the three-point line were missed.

"What's wrong with Zhuang today? It's already the third quarter and he only made two or three three-pointers?"

"It should be three. This is not the performance that Zhuang Yu should have. He only made three three-pointers after three quarters."

"If I remember correctly, Zhuang Yu has only made 9 of 3 three-point shots so far today. His performance is a bit abnormal."

In fact, 9 out of 3 shots, a hit rate of more than % is not low.

But that's for others.

You should know that Zhuang Yu's three-point shooting percentage throughout the season reached 43.8%, but today his three-point shooting percentage was only over %, which is lower than the average level and is naturally considered low.

"boom!"

At this moment, Zhuang Yu missed another three-pointer, making it three out of ten.

Zhuang Yu frowned, feeling a little depressed. In fact, after resting for a while, the pain in his forearm had not had much impact, but the three-point shot was iron.

This made him a little confused.

This situation is actually not uncommon. After all, everyone has a good touch. When his touch is not good, Curry may only make 10 of 2 three-pointers, or 10 of 3.

It can only be said that the previous consecutive missed shots did destroy Zhuang Yu's three-point shooting feel, so much so that he has not recovered yet.

What made Lakers fans even more depressed was that after Zhuang Yu missed the three-pointer, his teammates also missed shots one after another, and his outside shooting touch, which had just warmed up for a while, was gone again.

"Haha, isn't Zhuang Yu's three-point shot very powerful? Isn't he a three-point sharpshooter? Why can't he do it today?"

"Of course it's because of our defense. It's not just Zhuang Yu. The three-point shots of other Lakers players are also worse than the others."

"The score difference has widened to double digits."

"Well done, come on Raptors!"

The home fans were excited and in a good mood.

......

In a blink of an eye, more than seven minutes of the third quarter have passed.

At this time, the score difference between the two sides was widened to double digits, forcing the Lakers to call a timeout to readjust.

When several players came off the court, Coach Scott shook his head and replaced Zhuang Yu, Korver and Anderson, leaving only Holiday on the court.

In addition, Rose, Clarkson, Kuzma and Cunningham are on the field.

After this substitution, the Lakers no longer blindly pursued three-pointers, but chose to break through and attack the basket more often. The effect was quite good, especially for Rose, who attacked the basket and scored, helping the Lakers to narrow the gap to single digits at the end of the third quarter.

However, the Lakers were still trailing by 8 points.

Entering the final quarter with an 8-point lead, the Raptors were in high spirits and full of confidence. Several substitute players seemed to be motivated and performed very well, especially VanVleet, who scored 7 points in just a few minutes.

After a few rounds, the Raptors actually had the upper hand, and the gap between the two sides was unknowingly widened to 10 points.

At this time, the Lakers called a timeout and began to gradually replace their main players.

The Raptors also quickly replaced their main lineup.

The Lakers didn't have much of a feel for three-point shooting today, so in the final few minutes they stopped pursuing outside shots.

But in this way, the Lakers have lost their advantage, because reducing outside shooting means that they can only slow down the tempo and fight positional battles, rushing to the inside as much as possible, but with the current lineup of the Lakers, it is obviously not reasonable to play like this.

Zhuang Yu, Holiday and Anderson are all capable of breaking through.

Zhuang Yu's finishing efficiency after the breakthrough was much higher than his three-point shooting percentage today, but it was only two points at a time, and it was not easy to catch up with the score.

After all, the Raptors are also scoring.

And the Raptors shot pretty well from three-point range today. Leonard, Lowry, Danny Green, and Siakam all shot well.

For a while, we only saw that the game time was getting less and less, while the score difference between the two sides remained at around ten points, neither widening nor narrowing much.

"This is not the way to go."

"Yes, the game time is getting shorter and shorter, but the score difference has not narrowed. If this continues, we will run out of time."

"You have to have a three-pointer..."

In the audience, fans were discussing and couldn't help but worry about the Lakers, because as time was running out, the score difference didn't decrease, and it was obvious that the Lakers were not being very effective in chasing points.

If the Lakers can defend the Raptors' offense well and launch a defensive counterattack, they can still catch up.

But this did not happen. The Raptors played very well today. Not only Leonard and Gasol Jr., but other players also performed well.

Under this situation, the Lakers can only rely on three-pointers to catch up. Only by making more three-pointers and scoring more points than the opponent can they catch up with the score.

But this is also not an easy task.

The entire Lakers team had a poor touch from the outside today. Even Korver, who had a good touch in the beginning, lost his touch in the end and missed shots one after another.

But now the Lakers are faced with the situation that they must shoot three-pointers. If they take a gamble, there is still a glimmer of hope. If they don’t take a gamble, it will be all over.

Coach Scott knew this, so he called a timeout.

After several players came to the sidelines, he first made substitutions, replacing Clarkson and Kuzma who could shoot three-pointers, and then instructed the players to shoot as many three-pointers as possible.

There is naturally nothing wrong with this arrangement, but after returning to the court, the Lakers still had poor three-point shooting from the outside.

One is the players’ own touch issues.

Secondly, the Raptors are also very clear that the Lakers can only bet on three-pointers at this time. What's more, the Lakers sent out a five-small lineup, which clearly shows that they want to rely on three-pointers to catch up. The Raptors will naturally strengthen their three-point defense.

"boom!"

With a dull thud, Zhuang Yu's three-pointer missed again.

There was a groan from the audience.

"It still doesn't work."

"Yeah, I don't know what's going on. Even Zhuang Yu's three-point shot was so bad today. It's really weird."

Lakers fans were all feeling depressed. Who could have thought that the Lakers would shoot so poorly from three-point range today? Even the sharpshooter Zhuang Yu missed shots one after another.

Up to this point, Zhuang Yu had taken a total of 12 three-point shots, but only made 4 of them, which is still only a hit rate of over %.

Zhuang Yu looked at his teammates. They all had bitter smiles on their faces. Everyone's three-point shooting was poor, but they had to shoot.

......

In a blink of an eye, the fourth quarter was coming to an end, with only more than a minute left in the game, and the Lakers were still trailing by 4 points.

With more than a minute left, the score difference was 10 points, and a comeback was no longer possible.

Coach Scott took a breath and didn't call a timeout.

......

"beep!"

The referee on the court blew the whistle, calling a defensive foul on Gasol Jr. and signaling Zhuang Yu to stand on the free throw line and take two free throws.

This time, Zhuang Yu did not shoot a three-pointer, but chose to break through, which eventually caused Gasol Jr. to foul, but the ball failed to go in.

Standing on the free throw line, Zhuang Yu made both free throws, but it only narrowed the score difference to single digits.

"drop......"

The game ended soon with the score fixed at 122:115.

The Raptors won the game with a 7-point advantage, changing the score to 1:1, and the two sides returned to the same starting line.