Pick Westbrook

Chapter 307 The team will pay the money for him

"what!!!"

After seeing the picture on the court, Barkley was so shocked that he jumped straight from his seat.

Arm in arm shooting?
In Barkley's eyes, this kind of shooting and playing style is shocking and even a little laughable.

"What kind of basketball is that?"

Kenny Smith was also at a loss as he sat blankly in his seat.

He originally supported Harden's foul-making style of play. It was not until such a shameful scene appeared that he began to rethink what his old partner Barkley said.

"Will the Kings make it to the finals by playing arm in arm?"

"When the time comes, the fierce duel in the finals will directly turn into an arm-in-arm foul fight?"

This is indeed some kind of basketball game.

Kenny Smith is also very sure at this time that the NBA Finals will never turn into a foul fight. If it really becomes like that, then this competitive sport will be completely devoid of blood and excitement.

What made both Kenny Smith and Barkley feel speechless at the same time was that the referee blew his whistle and called Leonard for a defensive foul.

"Is there any mistake, I will subdue you without supporting the wall!"

Du Feng, who was a player, couldn't sit still anymore. He looked at the picture on the field with contempt and asked the referee in front of him who called the defensive foul.

"Can't you see, James Harden took the initiative to hold Leonard's hand, you don't call offensive fouls and defensive fouls?"

The referee did not explain to Du Feng, who was only the assistant coach of the team, but looked at Li Lai, who was sitting on the Hornets coaching bench, with a little worry.

NBA referees who don't know that once the head coach Li Lai is irritated, he can rush out and yell at you, and then there will always be several people behind him pulling him and saying: Coach, the referee knows he was wrong up.

"Hey~"

The chief referee sighed. After seeing Li Lai sitting calmly on the coach's bench, his worries disappeared immediately.

He took the initiative to walk up to Li Lai and explained: "James Harden has already made a shooting tendency for this ball. Although the two had physical contact and entanglement before shooting, neither of them affected the other's offensive and defensive state."

"The only thing that is certain is that when James Harden took off, Leonard's hand was indeed on his wrist. This is a shooting foul in the rules."

Li Lai nodded to express his understanding, and the fact is indeed the case.

Stevens on the side was very surprised by Li Lai's reaction. He reminded: "In less than 3 minutes, Paul and Leonard were fouled."

"One of the two is a very important part of our defensive system, and the other is our court engine."

"If we don't find a way to defend Harden as soon as possible, our players will encounter a lot of foul trouble before half the game."

Du Feng then took out a game report between the Kings and the Wizards and said: "In a game last month, James Harden walked to the free throw line 18 times and made a full 12 fouls alone. Wall and Nick Young got six fouls off the field."

"Judging from the attacking desire that Harden showed tonight, he might have wanted to clear Paul and Leonard out of the court from the very beginning."

"So we have to find a way to deal with it in advance."

Li Lai pondered for a while, and naturally knew that both Stevens and Du Feng were absolutely right.

It is urgent to protect Paul and Leonard, but it is easy to replace them directly, but what is difficult is what to do after they are replaced.

Change two more players to play and get fouled by Harden?
"Harden is very clear about the rules of offense, and he is very good at using the rules to protect the side with the ball."

"Even the teams that have been created by Harden for several seasons in the previous life have no very good way to solve this, let alone now."

"Harden is the only man who gets up at 4 a.m. to memorize the rules. His fouls can't even be prevented when the league changes the rules."

"As long as a new rule comes out, he can memorize it for you or even play with it for a month at most."

Li Lai didn't have a way to completely limit Harden's fouls, but he had a strategy to reduce the number of free throws he took.

beep!beep!
"The Hornets called a timeout."

At the CCTV commentary station, Yu Jia couldn't help but want to press the broadcast camera at this moment, vowing not to watch the Kings game again.

The first few rounds were all fouled by James Harden, and then the opponent went to the free throw line again and again. What's so interesting about it?

"Don't worry."

Su Qun looked at Li Lai, the head coach of the Hornets who called a long timeout, and said expectantly: "We have seen Coach Li Lai's ability to deploy tactics on the offensive end countless times, so let's look forward to what kind of tactics he is going to use now." Defensive tactics to solve James Harden's point."

Yu Jia turned around and opened his eyes again.

After being told by Su Qun, he really wanted to see how the Hornets dealt with James Harden.

"The Hornets have changed."

Chris Paul and Lewis were replaced at the same time, and Beverly and Diaw were taken.

Beverley swung his arms around the court, James Harden alone in his eyes.

Beverly had already seen James Harden extremely impatient, playing a ball and holding his opponent's hand and dancing on the court, running around here and there.

Those who know clearly that you are playing golf, but those who don't know think that you are going to the street to buy vegetables. Do you want to sprinkle some salt in your pot later?

During the timeout, Li Lai explained to Beverly how to defend Harden, and there were more than one.

After hearing Li Lai's defensive plan, Beverly's eyes were full of desire to fight, because only he Beverly could do this defense, and only he could do it well.

The game restarts.

Hornets attack.

Diaw holds the ball high.

Seeing that Kings power forward Chuck Hayes did not choose to follow, but remained near the free throw line, Diaw made a three-pointer without hesitation.

Swish!
hit.

After scoring the goal, Dior patted his chest encouragingly.

After joining the Hornets, Diaw sorted out the offense of the team's rotation, and at the same time put a lot of effort into the interior defense, and played the best defensive attitude of his career.

Diaw has done everything on the offensive and defensive ends, and at the same time he is showing Li Lai that he is worthy of the current salary of 900 million.

The only fly in the ointment is that his three-point shooting efficiency has been lower than his career average, with only 33% shooting percentage.

"Coach Li Lai said that to become a qualified perimeter deterrent, one must have a shooting percentage of at least 35%. I'm still far behind."

However, Diaw is very confident in his three-point shooting, and he also believes that he can find his shooting touch as soon as possible.

After all, he once had a 40% three-point shooting percentage in a single season.

Kings coach.

Keith Smart didn't feel particularly flustered after seeing this three-point goal, on the contrary he was extremely proud.

"The two starters of the Hornets, Paul and Lewis, were replaced after only 3 minutes of the game. The players have completed the goals I set for them."

"Now the Hornets without Paul can't be the opponent of the Kings anyway. Then it's time for them to see the real bombing performance on the offensive end."

The reason why Keith Smart cherishes this game so much is that he really wants to show off his abilities in front of Li Lai.

After all, Li Lai is a bishop with two consecutive championships, and is recognized by the league as a master of offensive tactics.

So Keith Smart plans to lead the Kings to win tonight's game, and then listen to Li Lai's praise of him in the post-game interview.

"Li Lai will definitely say that coach Keith Smart is a master of offensive tactics who is by no means weaker than me."

Keith Smart smiled proudly and said in self-evaluation.

on the field.

Harden attacked with the ball, and Beverly pressed the ball.

The defensive change stunned Barkley and Kenny Smith at the same time.

Barkley said: "James Harden is such a strong player who is good at drawing fouls. After Beverley came on the court, he put such a lot of defensive strength and pressure on the opponent. Isn't this deliberately giving James Harden a chance to foul?"

"Is he really not afraid?"

Kenny Smith said: "Could it be that the pot is broken, and the Hornets are now going to let Mad Dog Beverly fight Harden?"

CCTV commentary desk.

Yu Jia also couldn't believe it when he looked at the picture on the court.

Su Qun signaled Yu Jia not to rush to draw conclusions at this time.

In his opinion, the head coach of the Hornets, Li Lai, is such an experienced head coach. Naturally, it is impossible for him to let Beverly simply consume Harden's physical strength and frequently send the opponent to the free throw line.

On the court, Harden has already held the ball for half court.

Beverly has been giving Harden great physical confrontation and consumption. The latter also almost violated the 8-second violation before transporting the basketball to the frontcourt.

The moment Harden passed the frontcourt, Beverly immediately changed his defensive strategy and chose to take a step back, not giving Harden an easy chance to break through.

The Kings still played the same offensive tactic, with big center Jason Thompson mentioning the pick-and-roll outside the top three-point line.

The Hornets did not choose to switch defenses. Jordan knew that Jason Thompson did not have the ability to make three-pointers, so he chose to shrink and defend near the free throw line while helping to defend Harden's breakthrough.

After Beverly went around the pick-and-roll, he changed from defending Harden from the front to defending Harden from the side.

His defensive move at this time surprised all the fans around the world who watched the game.

"After Beverly went around the pick-and-roll, he raised his hands and used his chest to block James Harden's offense. He completely exposed his hands under the noses of all referees."

"James Harden has no chance to hold hands! Beverly won't give him a chance to hold hands!"

Faced with such a sudden defense, Harden is not used to it.

He used his elbow to push away Beverly in a very concealed position and then broke through the basket. Jordan in front of him also did not give Harden a chance to foul, and retreated repeatedly to defend.

This is a great option for bigs to defend the Eurostep.

At this time, Harden completely lost the possibility of fouling. The offense he can choose is either a throw or a layup.

Because the bounce of Jordan in front of him was slightly exaggerated, Harden did not dare to choose a throw, but continued to break through and reach the basket.

boom!
"It's still covered!"

Harden was firmly blocked by Jordan, and at the same time his body fell to the ground and tried to trick the referee into calling a foul.

But the corner referee saw clearly that Jordan's block was clean this round, and he didn't have any thoughts of calling a defensive foul. Instead, Harden was warned for diving.

The Hornets immediately made a fast break.

Because Harden has not come back for a long time, the frontcourt is 5 against 4.

Carter made a steady three-pointer.

"Harden's foul was blocked?"

Kenny Smith said in disbelief.

Barkley nodded affirmatively and said, "Yes."

"Harden's foul was blocked."

"In just one round, Hornets coach Li Lai showed his ability to analyze every player on the field on the defensive end."

"You can't use your hands to defend Harden!"

That's the message Barkley read from the Hornets' defensive strategy.

In fact, you can't use your hands to defend Harden, because the opponent is very good at actively looking for physical confrontation when breaking through with the ball, and shooting directly from the hand when approaching the defender around the screen.

At the same time, because Harden has sufficient upper body strength, it is difficult for most players to have too much impact on his shooting when he violates his shooting hand.

So Harden is very good at playing 2+1 or 3+1.

Coupled with Harden's Eurostep is extremely rhythmic, Barkley even believes that Harden's Eurostep has almost caught up with the power of Ginobili and Wade.

This kind of player who is good at making fouls, countering shots, and European moves at the same time, if he does not choose to use his hands to interfere a lot with the opponent's offensive rhythm when defending, then it is inevitable that the opponent will score easily.

This is also a trick that most players who are good at defending will use when defending.

Strictly speaking, such a defense is unreasonable, but most of the time referees will not choose to whistle such dispensable fouls for the sake of the fluency of the game.

But if the defender chooses to use his hands to participate in the defense, then Harden can easily take advantage of this and cause fouls by the defensive player.

This is Harden's cleverness. He took the initiative to fully expose and magnify those dispensable fouls in front of all referees, depending on whether you brag or not.

"But now, Beverly chose to raise his hands to defend Harden, which made the opponent lose the possibility of fouling. At the same time, Jordan participated in the inside defense, and Harden's threat on the offensive end was further reduced."

"Jordan's defense is still very good."

Of course, such a defensive choice will give the other players of the Kings more or less opportunities to attack, which depends on the rotational defensive ability of the other players of the Hornets.

But even if the rotation is not in place, Li Lai will still choose this defensive strategy, which is better than being artificially made by Harden with six fouls and leaving the field.

This is also the reason why Harden's assist data in the previous life will increase significantly, because most teams end up defending like this. Coach D'Antoni can only make Harden change from an offensive player with the ball to a core role in possession of the ball.

It can also be seen from this point that Coach D'Antoni is still very good at using point guards.

on the field.

The Hornets not only blocked Harden's offense, but also played a fast counterattack. Beverly walked up to James Harden, who was still in the backcourt, very excitedly.

He imitated Harden's diving action in the previous round, and it was more exaggerated.

"That's all you have. I will vote for you when this year's Oscars award Best Actress."

Nima!

Harden looked at Beverly, who was still chattering, and wanted to kick him.

In the subsequent round, Harden was completely caught in a frantic fight and trash talk with Beverley.

The two hugged each other and squeezed each other out of the field. Beverly's great shovel foul was called malicious
Just as Li Lai expected, even if Beverly can perfectly complete the task he assigned and restrict Harden extremely uncomfortable, at the same time he will definitely be affected by the foul.

"But that's enough."

"Beverly's limit traded away James Harden, which is really too profitable for the Hornets."

In the subsequent game, Paul re-appeared.

At this time, he replaced Lewis' role and led the Hornets' substitute players to fight. The picture is not too beautiful.

Butler played his best game since his rookie season, making 12 of 10 shots and scoring 20 points and 6 rebounds.

Paul had 6 assists in a single quarter and directly helped the Hornets establish a 10-point lead in the first half.

In the second half of the game, Harden once again fell into Beverly's mad dog attack.

Because of the huge sliding foul in the first half, Harden was also pissed off. He singled Beverly to the basket in a row, but he didn't score a single time.

Finally the game is over.

詹姆斯哈登20投5中，罚球6罚6中，拿下了17分4篮板6助攻的数据，同时还有6次失误。

On the contrary, Paul George played better in this game, and frequently stood up in the last quarter of the game to help the team close the score.

保罗乔治18投9中，三分球4投2中，罚球4中3，得到了23分5篮板3助攻的数据。

During the post-match interview, Li Lai was asked by the reporters about Beverly's flagrant foul.

Li Lai said without hesitation: "I know the league will fine Beverly, but the team will pay for him."

A reporter couldn't help frowning and said, "So Coach Li Lai, are you encouraging Beverly to commit a malicious foul?"

"His sliding tackle is very dangerous. It can easily cause injury to the opponent's player and even affect the opponent's entire career."

Li Lai nodded and said, "That is indeed a dangerous move. I will scold Beverly in the locker room, and I will not allow any of my players to hurt other players."

"But the team will still pay for him because he's undrafted, and you know Beverley hasn't made any money in his entire career."

(End of this chapter)