Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"Haha, the Suns dare to show their teeth to us, what are they thinking?"

"What is overestimating one's own capabilities? This is called overestimating one's own capabilities."

"Even if we give up two more players, the Suns are still no match for us. Zhuang Yu didn't play much in the fourth quarter, otherwise we would have no problem beating the Suns by 20 points today."

"This is hilarious. The Suns probably thought they could limit Zhuang Yu with a double team, and the rest of us wouldn't be able to score. What are they thinking? How can we win the championship if this is all we can do?"

"Although Zhuang Yu scored 33 points today, he didn't shoot with full strength. If he had used full strength, he would have scored 40 or even 50 points without any problem."

After the game, the Lakers players returned to the locker room.

The atmosphere was cheerful, with everyone chatting and laughing in a relaxed manner.

Of course, they did not forget to mock the Suns for overestimating their own capabilities.

Zhuang Yu did not participate in the discussion with his teammates. He indeed did not give his all today, but the Suns were simply too weak.

To be honest, he didn't feel satisfied.

But it's a good thing to be able to win the game.

After this game, their record is still ranked second in the Western Conference, but only one win behind the first-placed Clippers.

That is to say, as long as they win one more game and the Clippers lose one game, they can return to the top of the Western Conference.

Although Coach Scott emphasized that their ultimate goal was not to have a good record in the regular season but to win the championship, Zhuang Yu knew that everyone still had aspirations of being first in the regular season.

Just like the previous two seasons, although the Lakers won the championship, who doesn’t want to have a good harvest in both the regular season and the playoffs?

......

A day later, the Lakers once again faced the challenge of the Atlanta Hawks at home.

The Hawks entered the rebuilding phase after the departure of Al Horford, Kyle Korver, Paul Millsap and others.

Fortunately, they have accumulated a lot of draft picks, and they are all relatively advanced draft picks. In recent years, they have indeed selected some outstanding players in the draft.

For example, in the 18 draft, Trae Young, who was selected with the fifth pick in the first round, performed very well.

Last season, as a rookie player, Trae Young averaged 19.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 8.1 assists per game.

He was once on par with Luka Doncic and competed for the best rookie, but in the end he lost to Luka Doncic.

Although Trae Young's physical talents are not particularly outstanding, his agile style of play, imaginative passing, and excellent three-point shooting are all eye-catching. It can be predicted that his performance this season will be even better.

Trae Young's performance in the Hawks' previous dozen games also proved this.

In the previous dozen games, Trae Young averaged 20.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 9.2 assists per game, which is almost an All-Star level performance.

In addition to Trae Young, John Collins, who was selected by the Hawks with the 2017th pick in the first round of 1, also performed quite well.

In his rookie season, he averaged 10.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.

In the 18-19 season, his personal data increased to 19.5 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.

It was almost a 20+10 performance, and he and Trae Young have become the new "twin stars" of the Hawks.

In addition, they also signed forward Jabari Parker this summer.

This high-draft player in 14 played quite well for the Bucks. In his best season, he averaged 20.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

However, he suffered injuries one after another and his condition deteriorated.

Last season, he was between the Bulls and the Wizards. Although he felt a bit displaced, his performance was still good, averaging 14.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. The Hawks signed him in the hope that he could assist Trae Young and Collins to impact the playoffs.

De'Andre Hunter, who was selected by the Hawks in this year's draft, also performed very well. As a rookie player, he averaged 11.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists in the previous dozen games.

Some other young players, such as Kevin Huerter and Cam Reddish, have also performed well this season.

It can be said that the Eagles are a very talented team. They have many young players and are full of talent, but they are not mature enough.

Such a team may not have particularly stable performances, but they can always create some unexpected surprises. They may lose to some weaker opponents, but they may surprise people when facing some strong teams.

For the Lakers, a group of young players from the Hawks are full of ambition.

Young people like this kind of challenge.

They are full of energy and they think highly of themselves. They want to challenge those old forces and want to step on the old strong teams to create their own glory and honor.

For them, it doesn't matter if they can't make the playoffs, as long as they can play their own wonderful performances, beat those strong teams in some games, leave a deep impression in the fans' memories, and write a glorious chapter in their careers...

This is enough.

Just like the Suns, young teams always have to pay a price for their young comebacks.

The Hawks played very well at the beginning of the game. Trae Young made consecutive three-pointers, Reddish also made two in a row, Hunter and Parker both performed well, and they started with an 11:3 lead, forcing the Lakers to call a timeout.

But when the timeout came back, the situation immediately reversed, and Zhuang Yu started to fire at full power, first singled out Hunter, and hit a three-pointer against Hunter. Then he broke through after switching defense, passed Damian Jones, and scored a layup with an aerial change of hands.

As Zhuang Yu scored points one after another, the Hawks subconsciously focused more defense on Zhuang Yu, but other players on the Lakers opened fire again.

In addition, the Lakers' defense has also been strengthened.

Especially the defense against Trae Young.

After the timeout, the person facing Trae Young was no longer Holiday, but Zhuang Yu.

The team does need Zhuang Yu to focus more on offense, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be allowed to play against the opponent's core players all the time.

Trae Young has no advantage in terms of physique or physical fitness, but he has excellent skills, accurate shooting, and many fake moves, so defenders can easily be dribbled past.

And Zhuang Yu can be said to be specialized in restraining guards like Trae Young.

When Zhuang Yu and Trae Young faced off, Trae Young's fancy moves were useless in front of Zhuang Yu and had no effect at all.

Under this circumstance, Trae Young can only rely on his physical fitness to get past Zhuang Yu, but his physical fitness is relatively average, and he is not as good as Zhuang Yu in terms of strength, speed, and explosiveness.

For a moment, Trae Young was completely silent.

He also tried to use his teammates' pick-and-roll to get rid of the defense before playing, but the Lakers' delay was very fast, and all five players on the court could switch defense. With just a slight delay, Zhuang Yu would be back in front of Trae Young.

When Zhuang Yu and Trae Young faced off, Trae Young missed both of his shots from beyond the three-point line and was blocked after a breakthrough, allowing the Lakers to launch a counterattack.

After a few minutes, the Lakers not only caught up with the score, but also overtook it by two points.

Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce shook his head and called a timeout.

Seeing Trae Young looking depressed, he patted Trae Young on the shoulder to comfort him, but he didn't feel anything in his heart.

After all, Trae Young is still a sophomore player. Although he is very talented, the gap between him and Zhuang Yu is too big.

The timeout ended quickly and both sides returned to the court and made personnel rotations.

At this time, both sides replaced their rotation lineups, and the Lakers still had the upper hand. Clarkson performed very well and was very eye-catching on the offensive end.

But he is not Zhuang Yu after all. While he was trying his best to score, he basically lost sight of his defense and could only rely on his teammates to make up for it.

But overall the effect is still good.

After all, all this lineup requires Clarkson to do is score.

After a few rounds of fighting, the Lakers led by 6 points at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Lakers still had the upper hand and continued to widen the gap. When the first half ended, the Lakers were leading by 2 points.

Entering the second half, the Lakers still sent out their main lineup at the beginning of the third quarter. Zhuang Yu started scoring mode again, scoring ten points in a few minutes, helping the Lakers expand their lead to 3 points.

Afterwards, Zhuang Yu reduced his personal shots and focused more on attracting defense and creating opportunities for his teammates.

At the same time, Coach Scott is also consciously making adjustments to the lineup to give young players more opportunities, such as Zubac, Kuzma, Nance Jr., Sumner, and Little.

Players like Zhuang Yu, Holiday, Anderson, and Clarkson have spent several seasons in the league. They have entered a mature stage and are mature players.

Players like Zubac, Clarkson, Nance Jr., Sumner, and Little are still on their rookie contracts, which is the time for them to improve.

It is often at this stage that young players are trained.

If a player still fails to perform well after his rookie contract ends, then he will most likely not have the opportunity to perform well in the future.

Before, the team was full of talented people because of Lopez and Rose.

These young players have less playing time and opportunities. Now that Lopez and Rose are out due to injuries, they have the opportunity to gain experience and perform.