Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"not good."

This was so sudden that Harden was unable to react and had no time to jump. He could only stretch his arms as far as possible to try to interfere.

Swish!

It turned out to be of no use.

This ball was still a hollow hit, and it was still a three-pointer.

At the beginning, Zhuang Yu scored 5 points, which made the Rockets fans frown and feel a little unhappy.

How to prevent this?

Let the opponent score points one after another from the beginning. If it doesn't work, just double-team them.

After all, that was Zhuang Yu, and it wasn't shameful to double-team him.

Coach D'Antoni was not satisfied with this either. He frowned and thought, should he replace him with someone else to defend Zhuang Yu?

However, the game has just begun, so he still plans to wait and see. It doesn't matter if he can't defend Zhuang Yu, as long as he can continue to fight back on the offensive end and offset the damage brought by Zhuang Yu... Coach D'Antoni has no hope that Harden can defend Zhuang Yu.

But he still has confidence in Harden's offense.

When Harden came to the frontcourt, he still did not give the ball to Westbrook, but called a pick-and-roll. At this time, the person facing him was Zhuang Yu instead of Holiday.

Facing the protagonist's defense, it is indeed difficult for Harden to play one-on-one. It's not impossible with his strength, but it's a bit troublesome.

That would have been even more efficient, so he chose to call for a pick-and-roll first, and then switch defense and single out the big guy Zubac.

Yes, in Harden's opinion, Zubac is just a big fool.

He lacks defensive experience, defensive skills, and mobility, so he is a sitting duck when he stands in front of him.

But even if Zubac is really a big fool, Coach Scott is not stupid.

He had already told Zubac that when he went up to delay the game, he must jump further forward, and would rather be passed by Harden than let him shoot a three-pointer easily.

Harden's signature move is the step-back three-pointer.

As long as you don't jump forward enough, he can create distance with a step back, and even a center like Zubac who is over 2.1 meters tall will find it difficult to block you.

So Zubac had to dive further forward and always keep his hands above Harden's head.

"laugh......"

Harden sneered, lowered his center of gravity and accelerated to pass Zubac, thinking to himself, you are rushing so close to me, can't I break through?

But the Lakers were well prepared.

When Zubac went up to delay, the Lakers had already begun to shrink their defense and besiege Harden.

This situation made Harden frown. He hesitated for a moment, but still chose to pass the ball to Tucker.

At the same time, Westbrook moved towards Tucker and opened his arms to ask Tucker for the ball.

Tucker passed the ball, Westbrook received it, and found that the Lakers players had gathered inside because of the contraction of defense, all surrounding Harden, and there was no one within two meters in front of him, so he immediately decided to shoot a three-pointer.

He jumped up, holding the basketball in his right hand, protecting the ball with his left hand, staring at the basket with determination, and then shook his wrist...

This posture is quite standard except that it is not gentle enough.

boom!

However, there was a dull sound and the basketball bounced out of the basket.

"Shit." Westbrook was a little annoyed.

Damn, there was no one within two meters in front of him, it was a completely open opportunity, but he didn't even go in.

Damn it!

"What did you say?" Tucker walked past Westbrook and heard Westbrook say "fuck it", and asked with a puzzled look on his face.

This is Chinese and he doesn't understand.

Westbrook shook his head: "Nothing?"

He learned this phrase from Zhuang Yu. It was just an interjection and he himself didn't understand what it meant.

However, Tucker didn't think so. He always felt that Westbrook was scolding him, and thought to himself, didn't I pass the ball to you?

It was your own fault that you couldn't make the shot, can you blame me for that?

Tucker, feeling a little unhappy, secretly decided, I'd better stand on Harden's side later, I don't want to pass the ball to you.

Anderson grabbed the rebound and passed it to Holiday, and the Lakers launched a quick counterattack.

However, the Rockets retreated quickly and the Lakers did not have any direct chance to score. Holiday slowed down, passed the ball to Zhuang Yu, and then gestured to others, signaling them to move away. Only Zubac stepped forward to set a screen for Zhuang Yu.

In fact, this pick-and-roll was not intended to make Zhuang Yu avoid Harden, but to create more space for Zhuang Yu so that he could shoot three-pointers.

After all, Harden's defensive strategy, or the Rockets' defensive strategy, is to focus on defending Zhuang Yu's three-pointers.

Harden jumped very far forward to prevent Zhuang Yu from shooting three-pointers, trying to force him to break through, in this way to reduce Zhuang Yu's scoring efficiency.

Therefore, if you want to get a three-point opportunity, you still need to use some tactics.

When Zubac came up for a screen and Zhuang Yu moved to the left, Capela from the Rockets team immediately rushed over to delay him, with one hand raised high over Zhuang Yu's head.

"You're just not going to let me shoot a three-pointer."

Zhuang Yu chuckled.

That’s okay, I’ve made a breakthrough.

The next moment, Zhuang Yu changed direction and accelerated to pass Capela.

The Rockets also tightened their defense and surrounded Zhuang Yu.

It's basically the same strategy as the Lakers' defense against Harden, except that Zhuang Yu is taller than Harden and has more finishing methods near the basket.

After passing Capela and encountering confinement, Zhuang Yu stopped and stood a little inside the free throw line, a position that the people under the basket could not reach and the people shrinking inside were not ready to rush to the ball. Then he jumped up and made a lob shot.

Swish!

Go in again.

"nice shot."

"Zhuang Yu's shots are getting more and more accurate."

"The key is timing. Didn't you see how accurate Zhuang Yu's timing was? Several Rockets players surrounded him, but none of them could jump up. It was as if... well, it was as if everyone else was cast under a spell."

On the Lakers bench, the players were discussing excitedly.

Coach Scott also smiled.

This is the reading of the game, the reading of defense, and the control of timing, which is the embodiment of basketball IQ.

Zhuang Yu's skills are beyond words, but what is even more rare is that while he has a very high technical level, he also possesses a very high basketball IQ.

When these two things come together, this is what happens.

For a player like him, playing becomes easy.

Of course, it only looks simple to others. In fact, it is extremely difficult. Not to mention ordinary people, even few NBA players can do it.

Zhuang Yu scored another goal and has 7 points.

This annoyed Coach D'Antoni. He stood up, clapped his hands, and shouted to the court, "Defend better."

Several players nodded in agreement.

Harden's face looked a little ugly, and he wanted to fight back.

So after coming to the frontcourt, Harden chose to play alone again.

This time he broke through again, but instead of passing the ball, he made a lob shot after the breakthrough.

Harden's jump shot is also very powerful, especially since he is a left-handed player, which makes him even more difficult to defend against.

Swish!

Harden scores.

The home fans burst into loud cheers.

Harden has also scored two goals.

......

In the next few minutes, Harden performed very well on the offensive end. His scoring ability is indeed beyond doubt. Not everyone can average 34 points per game.

After a few minutes, Zhuang Yu and Harden both scored a lot of points. Zhuang Yu had scored 9 points, and Harden had scored 8 points.

However, the Rockets' other star Westbrook has only scored one point so far, and that was at the free throw line, and he only made one of two free throws.

This was somewhat disappointing for the home fans.

Wasn’t it agreed that the two stars would encircle and suppress Zhuang Yu?

How come Harden is the only one left, and Westbrook is like invisible.

In fact, Westbrook himself was also very depressed. His shooting touch was a bit poor today. He missed his first shot from beyond the three-point line, and then he took a mid-range jump shot, but still missed.

Moreover, he didn't get the ball very often. Harden didn't pass the ball to him very often, and even players like Tucker didn't pass the ball to him very often.

During these few minutes, the ball was almost entirely in Harden's hands. Without the ball and unable to make a shot, what else could he do?

After a few minutes, the score became 14:10, with the Lakers leading by 4 points.

"Requesting a timeout."

Coach D'Antoni called a timeout.

At this time, the score difference between the two sides was actually not that big, but he called a timeout not because of the score, but because Westbrook failed to play his role on the court.

Coach D'Antoni stood on the sidelines and saw the situation clearly, and he did not blame Westbrook.

Because his teammates rarely pass the ball to Westbrook, Westbrook can only wait for Harden to break through and then find open opportunities for himself.

Occasionally, when he was left open, the ball would come into his hands. At that time, he would naturally choose to shoot directly, but his touch was a bit bad.

In this situation, Westbrook needs to have the ball in his hands and play with the ball. He is not a player without the ball.

However, the ball didn't reach his hands, so he couldn't hold the ball and play, so the effect was naturally not good.

After several players came off the court, Coach D'Antoni said with a straight face: "What did I say? We need to pass the ball and coordinate. Our offense in the past few minutes was too simple. We are a team and we need to make the most of everyone's role."

Harden opened his mouth but no words came out.

He wants to say that he played very well, so there is no problem, right?

That is to say, he did not say it, otherwise Coach D'Antoni would definitely hit back immediately: "You played well, but can you compare with Zhuang Yu? Have you surpassed him?"

Obviously not.

No matter in terms of personal score or efficiency, he is not as good as Zhuang Yu.

In fact, the biggest gap between the two lies in efficiency.

Although Harden averaged 34 points per game this season, his shooting percentage was only 43.5%, which is lower than Westbrook (47.4%), and his three-point shooting percentage was only 35.2%, which is much higher than Westbrook's 25.4%.

Although Zhuang Yu's average score per game is only 27.8 points, his shooting percentage is 52.4%, his three-point shooting percentage is 44.6%, and his free throw shooting percentage is 90.2%. He is already a member of the 180 Club and his efficiency is obviously much higher than Harden.

Therefore, Coach D'Antoni knew very well that letting Harden and Zhuang Yu attack against each other would not win the game. Even if Harden scored the same number of points as Zhuang Yu or even scored more points than Zhuang Yu, the difference in efficiency determined that their help to the team would be different.