Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

Watching Harden and Westbrook leave, Coach D'Antoni sighed again.

In fact, he and the coaching staff have seriously considered Westbrook's proposal.

This is indeed a good proposal. If they can form a lineup of the Big Three, they will have an advantage at least on paper.

Moreover, Love's arrival may serve as a tactical buffer, alleviating the problem of Harden and Westbrook's playing styles and positions overlapping too much.

Why is it that this season, Harden and Westbrook have both put up excellent individual statistics, but the Rockets' record is just not good?

The biggest reason is the incompatibility between the two people, which prevents them from achieving their maximum effectiveness.

When two people are on the court at the same time, the distribution of ball rights is a big problem, and who should handle the ball at critical moments is also a problem.

But if the two are separated and asked to lead other players separately, the role of the "double stars" will be weakened.

The defense only needs to target one star.

When the Cavaliers formed the Big Three, people also had this concern, thinking that James and Irving would not have enough ball possession.

The subsequent solution was to have Love act as a buffer zone.

If one star player is not competitive enough on the court, two will do.

It's just that there are not two players with a conflict for ball possession, but a star player who has the ball possession + a star player who doesn't have the ball possession. Love is the star player who doesn't have the ball possession, and he also made sacrifices for this.

Of course, there is another important reason why the Cavaliers' Big Three were able to play well and win the championship, that is, James is strong enough, and he is a small forward after all, and his position is not completely overlapping with Irving. There is just a problem of ball distribution. At least there is no conflict in tactics.

The Rockets' problem is even more serious. Harden and Westbrook are too similar in both playing style and position, and they completely overlap.

In this situation, if we want to play tactics around these two people, there will be overlaps and conflicts in tactics, and the two people will not be able to play on the court at the same time.

If Love is traded for, Harden and Westbrook can be used separately.

Let Harden be paired with Love for a period of time, and let Westbrook be paired with Love for another period of time, so that the time Harden and Westbrook spend together can be reduced as much as possible.

And at the critical moment, Harden, Westbrook and Love can be sent together. Love's spatial attribute can open up space for the two, so that the two have enough space to break through, and the tactics can be more flexible and changeable...

In short, there are still many benefits.

But...Harden doesn't want to.

And if the Rockets want to trade Love, they will have to send out some players, which will definitely have an impact on the Rockets' overall lineup and bench depth.

It is difficult for Coach D'Antoni to judge this matter, and he does not have the final say. Ultimately it depends on the team management's opinion.

What's more, rumors are flying everywhere now.

Many people knew that they wanted to get Love, and Westbrook and Harden even had an internal conflict because of this.

So will the Cavaliers let them get Love as they wish, or will they ask for an exorbitant amount?

Will other teams intervene to prevent them from getting Love?

Especially the Western Conference teams.

The Lakers are already strong enough, and they certainly don't want to see another team with the Big Three emerge.

He just hopes that Harden and Westbrook can put this matter aside for the time being and work hard to play the next game. Even without Love, they still have to keep going, work hard to play well this season, and charge towards the championship.

only......

Coach D'Antoni feels it's difficult to win the championship under the current circumstances, and it's also difficult for Harden and Westbrook to integrate together.

......

A day later, Houston.

Today, the Rockets will face the Lakers at home. This is the first time the two teams have met this season and it has attracted much attention.

Many fans flocked into the stadium early, eagerly awaiting the start of the game.

A man brought his daughter to watch the game. He was wearing Westbrook's jersey, while his daughter was wearing Harden's jersey. The two came together and sat next to each other, but at this time, neither of them disliked the other.

"I just think Westbrook is better. His style of play is too explosive." The man gestured with his hands, "Do you understand the aesthetics of violence?"

"I don't like violence." The daughter rolled her eyes.

Uh......

The man was choked. He couldn't preach violence to his daughter, so he couldn't refute it. He just said in a muffled voice: "Harden's data is there."

The daughter pouted: "If Harden gave up some ball rights and Westbrook played at full strength, his statistics would definitely be more impressive than Harden's."

The man choked again.

The two simply stopped talking.

Since Westbrook came to the Rockets, similar conversations have happened countless times, and even the Rockets fans are arguing about it and are about to have an internal conflict.

At this time, Zhuang Yu’s fans would be the happiest.

The highlight of today's game is the combination of Zhuang Yu and Deng Wei. Zhuang Yu has to compete against Harden and Westbrook alone, which is considered unfair by Zhuang Yu's fans.

Fortunately, Harden and Westbrook are having an internal conflict.

Haha, that’s great.

......

At 7pm, both players had already appeared on the field.

Zhuang Yu walked over to the Rockets, hugged Westbrook, glanced at Harden, and jokingly said, "I heard that you and Harden are having a conflict. Aren't you old brothers?"

This is just a case of bringing up old issues.

Westbrook glared at Zhuang Yu unhappily and said with a straight face, "That's a rumor. We have no conflicts and our relationship is very harmonious."

Zhuang Yu laughed, "Okay, okay, okay, I just heard that it happened. It's all rumors, all right. But why did I hear that it was related to Love? Brother, I just said it casually at the beginning. I didn't want to bring Love to our Lakers. You don't really want to bring Love to the Rockets, do you? Are you afraid that you can't beat our Lakers?"

"No, I didn't, you're talking nonsense." Westbrook retorted quickly. He was a little anxious, and the look in his eyes when he looked at Zhuang Yu became more and more unhappy.

Brothers are brothers, is it polite of you to provoke me like this?

wrong!

He suddenly realized that they were rivals today.

Westbrook glared at Zhuang Yu: "You did it on purpose, didn't you? Damn it, I knew you were a heartless guy."

Zhuang Yu laughed dryly: "You misunderstood, I just asked casually, hey, don't leave."

"Don't talk to me, we are opponents today."

"Russell, I think your idea is correct. Love is very suitable for the Rockets. If he goes to the Rockets, you will have a Big Three. The Big Three is the standard for winning the championship. Without the Big Three, how can you win the championship? Do you rely on Harden? Hey, I haven't finished yet..."

Westbrook was so angry that he turned around and left. Zhuang Yu shouted at him from behind, but Westbrook did not stop. Zhuang Yu's words still went into his heart.

Yeah, it would be nice if Love could come.

The Big Three are the standard for winning the championship, and there is nothing wrong with this statement.

Look at the teams that won the championship in the past few seasons, the Cavaliers, the Warriors, the Lakers, which team does not have the Big Three?

......

After a warm-up, the competition officially began.

The Lakers still have Zubac, Anderson, Cunningham, Zhuang Yu and Holiday on the field.

The Rockets' starting lineup is James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Ben McLemore, PJ Tucker and Clint Capela.

First there was a jump ball, the Lakers got the ball and started the attack, after reaching the front court, Holiday called a pick-and-roll, then broke through and passed the ball to Zhuang Yu. Zhuang Yu pretended to shoot a three-pointer, Harden raised his eyebrows, but still held back and did not jump.

Sure enough, Zhuang Yu did not choose to shoot a three-pointer, it was just a fake move. But just when Harden breathed a sigh of relief, Zhuang Yu suddenly broke through.

Harden hurriedly retreated and moved sideways, but still failed to get into position first.

In fact, defense is not the strong point of either Harden or Westbrook.

Harden's defensive effect in the low post is better. After all, he has enough weight to hold off the defense. However, when it comes to defending on the line, which requires flexibility and speed, his defensive effect is not so good.

Westbrook is fast, but his defensive awareness is always a problem. He is more interested in attacking, organizing passes and grabbing rebounds.

So Coach D'Antoni did not let Westbrook defend Zhuang Yu, but sent Harden to match up with Zhuang Yu, but this was still a mismatch for Zhuang Yu.

"Reinforce the defense!"

Capela of the Rockets quickly went up to defend, and Zhuang Yu faced Capela's defense and made a one-handed jump shot, scoring the first two points for the Lakers.

The score is 2:0.

The Rockets attack.

Harden was responsible for advancing the ball. After reaching the frontcourt, he did not pass the ball to Westbrook, but called a pick-and-roll, and then switched defense and then came up single-handedly to delay Zubac.

I saw him dribbling the ball between his legs continuously, pretending to change direction and break through, but in fact he took a double step back, retreated to the three-point line and shot directly.

Westbrook opened his mouth and was about to say something, but he heard a swish and the ball went through the net and hit the target.

Westbrook immediately swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth, and could only turn around and run to his own half silently.

What else to say, just defend.

Coming to the frontcourt, Zhuang Yu asked for the ball again and decisively played one-on-one.

Before the game, Coach Scott's advice to him was to just attack. In Coach Scott's words, "The Rockets' defense is a mess. They can only win by relying on Harden and Westbrook's individual scoring ability. Just attack. Whether it's Harden or Westbrook defending you, it's a mismatch for you. Just focus on singles."

There's nothing wrong with what you said...!

So Zhuang Yu played singles again. He had been looking forward to today's match for a long time, so he had no intention of holding back at all.

Zhuang Yu first took a tentative step with his right foot, then retracted his right foot and swayed his shoulders, making it difficult for Harden to judge which direction he was going to break through.

However, Zhuang Yu didn't even think about breaking through. He had a height advantage over Harden and jumped directly towards Harden.