Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

This is actually one of the reasons why Westbrook has always been criticized on the defensive end.

Sometimes it's because Westbrook was only thinking about grabbing rebounds and didn't focus on the person he was defending; sometimes it's because no one knows what he was thinking and he was distracted for no reason.

In short, it is not surprising that this kind of thing happens to Westbrook, and it has happened not once or twice, but many times.

Meanwhile, on the Lakers bench.

A group of players all jumped up and cheered loudly, applauding Zhuang Yu.

Coach Scott also smiled.

It was not just because the dunk was so exciting, but also because he knew that Zhuang Yu was about to start scoring again.

......

really.

Just one minute after completing the tip-in, Zhuang Yu received a pass from his teammate, took off into the air, and turned 360 degrees in the air.

At this moment, the fans were stunned.

I just watched Zhuang Yu soar into the air and head towards Capella. It was clear that they were going to collide with each other, but at the moment when their bodies were about to touch, Zhuang Yu pulled in his abdomen and bent his knees, curled up in the air, and then began to rotate his body, turning 360 degrees close to Capella.

This is so magical.

I’ve seen people dribbling the ball and turning past opponents, but I’ve never seen anyone do this in the air!

People were stunned, staring at Zhuang Yu turning 360 degrees in the air and bypassing Capela. He had already flown under the basket, then stretched his body, held the basketball in his left hand and sent it towards the basket. The basketball bounced off the backboard and fell into the net.

"this......"

"God, this is crazy."

"This is impossible. Is it possible to play like this in the air?"

"Oh my god, this ball is so beautiful. He is just like dancing, this is the waltz in the air, yes, this is the waltz in the air, it is really beautiful."

For a moment, people were all shocked.

Various screams, exclamations, and exclamations rang out...

A group of Lakers substitutes all stood up. They were also very excited, waving towels and jumping around excitedly.

This ball was so beautiful, not inferior to the previous tip-in, both of which could be included in the top ten balls - there is no doubt that Zhuang Yu has already won two of the top ten balls.

Maybe even in the top two of the top ten.

"Requesting a timeout."

Coach D'Antoni called a timeout.

A tip-in, plus this ball, dealt a heavy blow to the Rockets' morale, and before they knew it, Zhuang Yu's personal score had reached 40 points.

In just three quarters, Zhuang Yu had already scored 40 points.

What a terrifying scoring ability!

Several players came to the sidelines with grim looks on their faces. They all looked at Coach D'Antoni. No one spoke, but their eyes told it all. They didn't know what to do, so they had to seek answers from Coach D'Antoni.

How can we defend against Zhuang Yu?

Coach D'Antoni understood the looks in the players' eyes, but he could only smile bitterly. He didn't know how to defend Zhuang Yu. Given Zhuang Yu's offensive state today, even double-teaming would be useless - they had already tried it just now.

"We can only rely on offense." Coach D'Antoni said: "There is still enough time, but we have to play better offense."

He looked at Harden and Westbrook: "I need you to score as much as you can."

The two looked at each other and then nodded in unison.

At this moment, the estrangement and contradiction between the two seemed to have melted away a little, and they reached a tacit understanding.

The most urgent task is to deal with the current situation and win the game, rather than arguing about who is the boss of the team, who should have more ball rights, or whether to trade Love...

After some arrangements, the pause ended.

Both sides returned to the court. The audience was silent at this time, and Zhuang Yu's personal data so far was displayed on the big screen.

Seeing that Zhuang Yu had scored 40 points, the home fans had nothing to say.

The Rockets attack.

In a depressing atmosphere, Harden pushed the ball to the frontcourt, but this time he did not choose to call for a pick-and-roll and play it himself. Instead, he came to the frontcourt and passed the ball to Westbrook, then pulled away from him.

Westbrook called for a pick-and-roll and attacked the basket. After attracting the Lakers' defense to shrink, he passed the ball to Harden.

Harden took a three-pointer as soon as he received the ball.

Swish!

The ball goes in.

"Huh......"

Zhuang Yu was a little surprised.

This was actually a cooperation between Westbrook and Harden. He didn't believe it was a coincidence, after all, they had just returned from a timeout.

During the timeout just now, Coach D'Antoni must have made some arrangements, which will be reflected in the offense after the timeout.

It seems that Harden and Westbrook have temporarily put aside their conflicts and started to cooperate with each other.

Facts have proved this.

In the next few rounds, when the ball reached the frontcourt, it was given to Westbrook, allowing Westbrook to break through.

If there is an opportunity, Westbrook will go for it himself, and if there is no opportunity, he will pass the ball outside. Harden will wait outside the three-point line as a three-point shooting point. If there is an opportunity, he will directly shoot a three-pointer, and if there is no opportunity, he will restart the attack.

In the first half, Harden was always responsible for advancing the ball, and he was also responsible for handling the ball in the frontcourt, but this is actually unreasonable.

For example, in the first half of the first quarter, Westbrook became an off-ball shooter, but he is not good at outside shooting.

On the contrary, Harden is better at outside shooting.

When the Rockets replaced Westbrook to initiate the offense and Harden served as a three-point shooting point, the effect was obviously much better.

And even if Westbrook passed the ball, Harden did not have the opportunity to shoot directly. With Harden's personal ability, he could have restarted the attack.

It seems like just a change of order, but the result is very different.

After a while, the score gap that had been widened to more than ten points was narrowed to single digits, and the Rockets were only 8 points behind.

"call......"

When the score difference returned to single digits, the home fans breathed a sigh of relief, at least it was a relatively controllable score difference.

Soon both sides began to make substitutions and rotate their lineups.

Westbrook remained on the court to lead the bench lineup.

The situation at this time was similar to the second half of the first quarter, with Westbrook still performing well. Under his leadership, the Rockets had a slight advantage.

Although Clarkson of the Lakers performed well, he was still a little worse than Westbrook, so when the third quarter ended, the Rockets were only 5 points behind.

"It's only five points behind, which is completely acceptable."

"This is a score we can catch up with. As long as we play well in the last quarter, we can turn defeat into victory. Come on Rockets!"

The home fans saw hope again, and the Rockets players regained their confidence. With a full quarter left, a 5-point difference was nothing.

But Zhuang Yu has already scored 43 points so far, and this number is really dazzling and makes them uncomfortable.

43 points in three quarters, this guy is outrageous!

You have to know that so far Harden has only scored 26 points and Westbrook has scored 24 points. Their performance is already very good, but the two of them combined only scored 50 points, which is only 7 points more than Zhuang Yu.

And their scoring efficiency is not as high as Zhuang Yu's.

If we don't just look at the scoring numbers, but make a comprehensive comparison of the hit rate and scoring efficiency, the two of them together may not be able to beat Zhuang Yu alone.

Of course, this is not to say that the gap between Harden, Westbrook and Zhuang Yu is really that big, it’s just that Zhuang Yu did play better in today’s game.

......

Soon, the second section began.

Both sides fielded rotation lineups.

In order to ensure competitiveness on the court, Coach D'Antoni still sent Harden up, intending to let Harden play for three minutes first, and then replace Westbrook and play for three minutes, and then the two of them would play together for the last 6 minutes.

In fact, as long as Harden or Westbrook is on the court, the Rockets play quite well and can even have the upper hand against the Lakers' rotation lineup.

At this time, Harden led several substitute players to play well, and even narrowed the score difference to only one point.

At this time, the Lakers began to make substitutions, gradually replacing their main players.

Although the score difference was narrowed to only one point, Coach Scott was not panicked. His expression remained calm. He said to his players: "The opponent will definitely replace Harden with Westbrook. Today, both of them played for a long time. Their physical strength should be reduced by this time. We must take advantage of this, give them confrontation, strengthen defense, and I believe their offensive efficiency will definitely decrease."

When both sides returned to the court, the Rockets indeed replaced Harden with Westbrook.

On the Lakers side, Zhuang Yu, Anderson and Cunningham all returned to the court, and only Holiday and Zubac were left on the sidelines of the five starting players.

Zhuang Yu was responsible for holding the ball and advancing. After reaching the frontcourt, he made a tactical cooperation with his teammates, attracted the defense, created opportunities for his teammates, and passed the ball to Anderson.

Anderson passed the ball to Clarkson again, and Clarkson took a three-pointer, but missed.

In addition to Westbrook, the Rockets also sent out Capela.

Capela grabbed the rebound and passed it to Westbrook. The Rockets launched a counterattack, and Westbrook stopped after reaching the frontcourt.

At this time, he was facing Zhuang Yu's defense, so he did not play one-on-one directly, but called for a pick-and-roll to try to get rid of it.

But Zhuang Yu immediately bypassed the pick-and-roll and returned to Westbrook.

Westbrook frowned and tried to break through. With his excellent explosive power, he squeezed past Zhuang Yu, but failed to completely get rid of Zhuang Yu.

There is a height difference between the two, and Zhuang Yu's jumping and explosiveness are also excellent, so Westbrook did not choose to attack the basket directly, but passed the ball.

boom!

There was a dull thud, and the Rockets also missed their shot.

In the next two rounds, neither side was able to score.

The ball returned to the Lakers. After reaching the frontcourt, Zhuang Yu did not pass the ball, but signaled his teammates to pull away from him and play one-on-one.

At this time, House was still facing Zhuang Yu.

House raised one hand and placed it across Zhuang Yu's face, staring at him intently, trying to determine Zhuang Yu's next move.

But Zhuang Yu suddenly raised the ball, and House subconsciously took another small step forward. As a result, Zhuang Yu did not jump, but pushed the ball forward to accelerate.

House cried out inwardly, "Oh no!" and quickly turned sideways.

But at this moment, Zhuang Yu suddenly stopped, and House also subconsciously stopped. Before he could figure out what Zhuang Yu was going to do, he saw Zhuang Yu speed up again, using a change of rhythm, stopping and starting suddenly, and passing House cleanly.

Then he took another step forward, and Zhuang Yu jumped up to face Capela who came to defend. He leaned his body back in the air, flicked his wrist, and made a beautiful fadeaway jump shot.