Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"Haha, what's the Suns? They're the bottom team in the league. When did a team like that dare to show off in front of the defending champions?"

"Do they think we can't do it without Lopez and Rose? What a joke! As long as Zhuang Yu is here, the Suns can't challenge us."

"The main reason is that I failed to protect Zhuang Yu."

"That's right, the Suns' defense is still too bad. Even with a double-team, they couldn't stop Zhuang Yu. Later on, it seemed that Zhuang Yu didn't score any more points, but in fact, the Suns' defense is still very bad. Everyone is staring at Zhuang Yu. Do they really think that the other players of the Lakers are just for show? After all, they are the defending champions. Holiday, Anderson, Zubac, can't these people score?"

"Zhuang Yu is too strong. Even double-teaming can't stop him from scoring..."

Some people mocked the Suns for overestimating their capabilities; some shook their heads and complained that the Suns' defense was too bad; others lamented that Zhuang Yu was too strong and that the Lakers were worthy of being the defending champions, and they were still strong even without two big players, Lopez and Rose.

On the sidelines.

Coach Scott smiled and praised the players.

The players performed well in the first quarter, both the main lineup and the substitute lineup, and they all achieved the results he wanted.

However, the opponent's strength is so weak that it is difficult to truly verify anything.

......

Section 2 begins.

Entering the second quarter, both teams sent out rotation lineups. The Lakers still had an all-substitute lineup, while the Suns had a mixture of main players and substitutes.

In fact, the Suns did not play with their full lineup. Their starting center Deandre Ayton was unable to play in this game due to injury.

Although the Suns had a mixed lineup of main players and substitutes, they still were unable to gain an advantage against the Lakers' pure substitute lineup.

First of all, Clarkson performed very well, and Kuzma also played well today. He made 5 of 3 three-pointers and scored 9 points.

This is also the reason why Coach Scott once wanted Kuzma to replace Korver as the starting small forward.

Kuzma's talent and strength are quite good. If he were placed in other teams, such as the Suns, there would be no problem for him to start.

After a while...

A few minutes into the second quarter passed quickly, and the Lakers were still leading by 2 points.

"Requesting a substitution."

The Suns requested a substitution, and Coach Williams had to send out the main lineup in advance, hoping to narrow the gap.

After replacing the main lineup, the Suns launched a small wave of attacks and quickly narrowed the gap to 4 points.

However, when the Lakers requested a timeout and replaced their main lineup, the Suns quickly fell behind again...

"Take up defense."

"Don't let him score again."

People yelled.

Saric of the Suns also jumped up and tried to block Zhuang Yu, but he failed in the end. Zhuang Yu threw the ball out with one hand, and his left hand.

Saric pounced on Zhuang Yu, the referee blew the whistle, and the basketball fell into the net the next moment.

This is a beautiful 2+1!

The home fans cheered again.

After this 2+1, the difference between the two sides has widened to 11 points.

Although the Suns once narrowed the gap to only 4 points, they still couldn't stop Zhuang Yu after the Lakers replaced their main lineup. Under Zhuang Yu's leadership, the Lakers widened the gap to double digits.

This made the Suns somewhat helpless.

This was somewhat different from their expectations. They originally thought that without Lopez, they would be able to compete with the Lakers' main lineup. However, the result was that they could not beat them at all and could only beat the Lakers' substitute lineup at best.

This is a bit too depressing.

"It's okay, it's only the first half."

Coach Williams called a timeout. He was feeling a little depressed, but he could only patiently comfort the players, cheer them up and encourage them to keep working hard.

Then, Coach Williams looked towards the Lakers, his eyes fell on Zhuang Yu, and he sighed: "I still thought it was simple."

In fact, he knew very well that the most important reason why they couldn't beat the Lakers was that they did not limit Zhuang Yu's scoring very well.

Even if they used double-teaming.

It was only the first half and Zhuang Yu had already scored 23 points. Their double-teaming not only had no effect on Zhuang Yu, but seemed to have become a catalyst.

But in fact, it was because Zhuang Yu changed his way of playing today, putting more energy on offense and focusing more on scoring.

He always chooses to score more efficiently and reasonably.

When the Suns double-teamed him, he passed the ball, then looked for opportunities to get away, and then looked for opportunities to shoot without the ball, and most of them were three-pointers. In the first half, Zhuang Yu had already shot 8 three-pointers and made 5 of them, with a hit rate of over %, which was quite good.

In the first half, Zhuang Yu scored 23 points. There would be no problem for him to get 30+ today, but this also means that the Suns' defense failed.

In a blink of an eye, the first half ended with the Lakers leading by 12 points.

......

Entering the second half, the Suns continued to double-team Zhuang Yu, and their defense became more aggressive. However, when they double-teamed Zhuang Yu, Zhuang Yu was always able to use their double-team to transfer the ball to the teammate in the best position and create opportunities for his teammates.

With the team leading by more than ten points, Holiday, Anderson, Zubac and others naturally did not slack off and seized the opportunity well.

After a few minutes, the gap between the two sides did not narrow, but instead widened further to 16 points.

Coach Williams called a timeout with a wry smile, but he knew very well that calling a timeout would not solve the problem.

......

Sure enough, after the timeout, the Suns still failed to gain the upper hand.

Although Devin Booker played well, he only kept the score difference at a dozen points.

Until the end of the third quarter, the Suns were still trailing by more than ten points.

Entering the fourth quarter with a deficit of more than ten points, the Suns' morale had become very low and the players' mentality began to collapse.

They started to get anxious, desperate to catch up, but how could it be so easy? Instead, because they were too anxious, they missed shots one after another and even made mistakes.

Seeing that the score difference reached 18 points, Coach Williams called another timeout.

He knew that this competition was basically hopeless.

"I still want to keep it simple."

"After all, they are the defending champions and have strong adjustment capabilities. Even though Lopez and Rose were injured one after another, they were able to adjust quickly and still have strong competitiveness."

Coach Williams made a substitution with a wry smile.

After this substitution, the Suns regained their main lineup, but they still couldn't gain the upper hand and the score gap between the two sides was still large.

After a few minutes, the game had completely lost its suspense, and there was not enough time left for the Suns.

Coach Williams thought about it and decided to replace the main players one after another and announced that he would give up the game.

Seeing the other team replace their main players, Coach Scott also replaced Zhuang Yu, Holiday, Anderson and others with a pure substitute lineup.

Sumner and Little also got a chance to play.

The last few minutes of garbage time allowed the Suns to gain the upper hand, but they only narrowed the score gap a little and did not change the overall situation.

When the game ended, the score was 124:112. The Lakers easily defeated the Suns with a 12-point advantage and won another victory.

Although Zhuang Yu was double-teamed throughout the game today, he still scored 30+, got 33 points, plus 8 rebounds and 9 assists.

Anderson, Holiday, Zubac and others performed normally, and Clarkson from the bench set a new scoring record today, scoring 25 points.

After all, he is now the absolute core of the bench lineup, with enough ball possession and shooting rights, and an increase in his statistics is foreseeable.

Devin Booker on the other side was the highest scorer for the Suns.

He scored 27 points, plus 5 rebounds and 4 assists. His performance was still very good, but the gap between him and Zhuang Yu was a bit too big.

Except for Devin Booker, no one else on the Suns scored more than 20 points. Rubio scored 18 points, Baynes 17 points, Saric 14 points...

This game once again proved the strength of the defending champion.

Even without two key players, Lopez and Rose, the Lakers are not something that can be defeated by just any team.