Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"beep!"

The referee blew the whistle, gave Nance Jr. a foul, and signaled George to stand on the free throw line to take two free throws.

This time, George broke through and attacked the basket, but was pulled down by Nance Jr.

George stood on the free throw line, gasping for breath, and took several seconds to adjust himself before shooting free throws. He missed the first free throw, so he took a deep breath and made the second one.

"The difference is only one point." Zubac was a little worried.

"It doesn't matter." Zhuang Yu said calmly, "There's less than a minute left in this quarter. The opponent may not be able to catch up with the score. Even if they catch up or overtake, it won't be a big problem. Look, George is already out of breath."

Oh, that's true.

Zubac looked at George and it was indeed the case.

Dozens of seconds passed quickly, and neither side was able to score in the last few seconds. When the third quarter ended, the Lakers were still leading by one point.

Even though the score difference was narrowed to one point, neither Zhuang Yu nor Coach Scott looked panicked at all, and they were very calm.

Just as Zhuang Yu said to Zubac, there is no need to worry too much even if the opponent catches up with the score. The worst that can happen is that we will be back to the same starting line.

But don't forget, George played the entire quarter.

George played the entire first quarter, rested for a few minutes in the second quarter, and still played the entire third quarter. So how much energy will he have left in the fourth quarter?

This is one of the reasons why Zhuang Yu does not think that using the two stars separately will be effective. It is difficult to evenly distribute their playing time and physical strength.

Because you can't really use a star as a "sixth man", that would be a waste.

......

In a blink of an eye, the game entered the fourth quarter.

The difference between the two sides was only one point before, so this quarter became very crucial.

Coach Nurse really implemented his idea and used Leonard and George separately. He sent Leonard up at the beginning of the fourth quarter, intending to let Leonard play for three minutes, and then replace him with George for three minutes. The two of them played together in the last half of the quarter.

Seeing the opponent's deployment, Zhuang Yu and Coach Scott couldn't help but laugh.

The Rockets did the same thing when they played against them.

There is no need to say more about the result.

The Lakers sent out Zhuang Yu and let him play with several substitute players. They did not use either Holiday or Anderson because having Zhuang Yu on the court was enough.

In fact, if the opponent did not send Leonard, Coach Scott would not send Zhuang Yu. He would let Holiday play for a few minutes with the substitute players.

But Holiday can't stand up to Leonard. He definitely can't be defended on the defensive end, and he can't compete with Leonard on the offensive end, so he will only fall into a disadvantage.

Coming to the court, the Raptors attacked.

When the ball reaches the frontcourt, it is given to Leonard, and the attack is initiated from this point.

Leonard first held the ball at his waist and took a tentative step, then broke through. Zhuang Yu immediately moved sideways and retreated, blocking Leonard's breakthrough route.

This time Leonard didn't pass him directly, but he leaned towards Zhuang Yu immediately, actively looking for physical confrontation, and after pushing Zhuang Yu, he directly pulled up for a mid-range jump shot.

Swish!

The ball goes in.

"Too stable."

"Leonard is still amazing. This mid-range jump shot is so accurate."

"He is the only one who can compete with Zhuang Yu."

The home fans cheered excitedly.

Some Lakers fans all looked at Zhuang Yu.

Sure enough, after arriving at the frontcourt, Zhuang Yu gestured to his teammates, signaling others to move away. He then directly played against Leonard, making continuous crossover steps, and then suddenly changed direction and accelerated.

Leonard retreated immediately.

However, Zhuang Yu immediately stopped moving, and his body went from moving to still in an instant, causing Leonard to subconsciously pause as well.

But just when he paused, Zhuang Yu accelerated again, used an emergency stop and start, instantly left Leonard behind, and broke into the inside to make a layup.

At this time, Leonard and Zhuang Yu were the absolute core of the lineup of both teams. They both knew very well what they should do at this time, so they started a confrontation at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

In the next few rounds, Leonard and Zhuang Yu exchanged blows back and forth.

The result is that no one can defend against anyone. Zhuang Yu is at a disadvantage in terms of size when defending Leonard, and Leonard is at a disadvantage in terms of speed when defending Zhuang Yu.

Moreover, both players have very comprehensive skills. They can shoot three-pointers, have accurate mid-range jump shots, and can also finish in the paint.

However, except for the first ball, Zhuang Yu did not choose to play one-on-one against Leonard in the following rounds. Instead, he used the screens and pick-and-rolls of his teammates to break away and then played one-on-one after switching to other people's defense.

In addition, Zhuang Yu consciously increased his three-point shooting.

In several rounds, he took three three-point shots, but unfortunately only made one. He did make two two-point shots and scored 7 points by himself.

On the other side, Leonard made 5 of 3 shots, which is a pretty good hit rate, but all three of his shots were two-pointers, and he only scored 6 points.

So after all the rounds, the Lakers still had the upper hand.

Of course, this advantage is not big and is completely within the acceptable range for Coach Nash.

When three minutes passed, Coach Nurse checked his watch and made a substitution, replacing Leonard with George. The Lakers also replaced Zhuang Yu with Anderson.

The reason why Anderson was substituted instead of Holiday was to let Holiday rest for three more minutes so that he could go all out in the last few minutes.

Originally, Coach Nash thought that in the next three minutes, the rotation lineup under the leadership of George would still be able to gain the upper hand, catch up with the score, or even surpass the score.

However, that was not the case.

When he was substituted back in, George seemed a little sluggish, missing consecutive shots from outside.

"what's the situation?"

"What's wrong with George? He looks like he's out of sorts."

"I don't know. He played well in the first three quarters. Why did he suddenly lose his form?"

The home fans were a little confused and didn't know what was going on.

Zhuang Yu guessed some of it. He knew George very well. George was actually a very proud person. The reason why he was not in good shape at this moment was probably related to the deployment of Coach Nash.

He is an All-Star player, but he is used as the sixth man, responsible for leading the rotation lineup. Isn't this looking down on him?

It's fine if you want to separate them and use them separately. I have no objection, but why should Leonard lead the main lineup while I can only lead the rotation lineup?

It would have been fine in the first three quarters, but George didn't expect that in the last quarter, at such a critical moment, Coach Nash would still do this.

This is a subtle change in mentality and should not be told to outsiders.

But what was reflected on the court was that George suddenly lost his form, missing shots one after another on the offensive end, and not as tough as before on the defensive end.

For a moment, the Lakers gained the upper hand and quickly widened the gap to 7 points.

"Requesting a timeout."

Coach Nash called a timeout and his face looked a little ugly. This was an unexpected change that disrupted his plans.

The original idea was to let Leonard play for three minutes, then replace him with George for another three minutes. Even if the score could not be reversed, at least the score could be kept close and the gap would not be widened.

Wait until there are 6 minutes left in the quarter and then send Leonard up, switch back to the main lineup, and fight the Lakers.

But George failed to complete the task.

Now the score difference has widened to 7 points, and the situation is not good.

"Maybe it's because he consumed too much physical energy. George played a little too much time today." The assistant coach next to him excused George.

"Yeah." Coach Nurse nodded.

George did play a lot today, playing the entire first and third quarters.

Should we replace George and give him a rest?

Coach Nurse hesitated for a moment, but finally decided not to do so. Instead, he directly sent Leonard, Gasol Jr., Lowry and Anunoby up.

At this time, there were more than six minutes left in the game, but the score was not tied. The Raptors were trailing by 7 points.

......

When the timeout came back, the Raptors sent out their starting lineup.

The Lakers also returned to their main lineup of Holiday, Zhuang Yu, Cunningham, Anderson and Zubac.

In fact, during the timeout just now, Coach Scott wanted to substitute Zhuang Yu to rest for two minutes, but Zhuang Yu refused.

He did not play any of the previous three quarters like George did. At this moment, he still had enough energy and there was no need to do so. There was no problem in letting him play the whole quarter.

Coach Scott was considering that Zhuang Yu had just returned from injury, but since Zhuang Yu said there was no problem, he simply decided not to make a substitution.

Just hit it like this.

On the field.

The Raptors had the ball. After Lowry came to the frontcourt, he immediately passed the ball to Leonard. Leonard broke through with the ball and then passed it to George. George first raised the ball and made a fake shot, then accelerated and broke through, took a step forward and made a quick stop jump shot.

"boom!"

Still failed to hit.

Coach Nash was really depressed now.

The assistant coach next to him struggled for a while before saying to Coach Nash: "Coach, I think the reason why George is in such a bad state may be that he is a little emotional."

"What?" Coach Nurse was stunned.

But he soon reacted.

He was confused before, but when the assistant coach reminded him, he immediately understood that George must be dissatisfied with his use of the players and was in a low mood.

Coach Nurse couldn't help but smile bitterly. He didn't actually mean to treat Leonard and George differently. It was just purely out of tactical considerations.

But he could understand George.

After all, he is also an All-Star level player. He came to the Raptors to form a "dual core" with Leonard, not to assist Leonard.

"Requesting a timeout."

Coach Nash was quick and called a timeout.

After several players came off the court, he pulled George aside and whispered a few words, explaining that he did not mean to treat them differently, but just did not consider his feelings. He hoped that George would not care about it and focus on the game.

Since the coach had apologized to him, George naturally didn't care about it anymore. He felt much better and immediately said that he was not that petty.

Coach Nash then spread out the tactical board and made some adjustments to the tactics.

This time he also gave George enough respect tactically, and did not use Leonard as the tactical core, and also arranged offensive tactics for George.