NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 206 The Achilles' heel of the Lakers
The Rockets' final starting five were Isaiah Thomas, Kyle Korver, Kawhi Leonard, Wang Chao and Dayao.

Compared with the regular season, this starting lineup has obviously changed slightly, mainly in terms of guards. Brooks and Courtney Lee are the players who started more games in the regular season.

But in view of the tactical characteristics of the Lakers, Wang Chao decided to make such a change.

Although Courtney Lee is better defensively than Korver, he is not needed to defend Kobe in this game. Therefore, Wang Chao chose Korver, who has a more accurate and outstanding three-point shooting ability.

As for Thomas Jr., he is not as good as Brooks in three-point shooting, but his ability to break through with the ball is already stronger than Brooks, whose explosive power and speed have been reduced due to injuries.

The defensive strength of this lineup is obviously insufficient, but the Lakers' perimeter itself only has Kobe as a top scorer.

This can be seen from the starting five of the Lakers.

The Lakers' starting five are Sessions, Kobe Bryant, Artest, Gasol and Bynum.

Sessions, who was strengthened by trading before the trade deadline, played fairly well in the second half of the regular season. In 23 games played, he averaged 12.7 points and 6.2 assists per game for the Lakers, which is better than Fisher. How much was paid, and the fans of the Los Angeles Lakers believed that this was a high-quality deal that qualitatively improved the team's strength.

However, entering the playoffs, facing an opponent with a surge in defensive intensity, Sessions immediately showed his true colors.

The shooting is poor, and the offensive method mainly relies on the breakthrough with the ball after the pick-and-roll screen, but the physical fitness is also very average, which leads to Sessions's pick-and-roll breakthrough effect is not particularly good.

What's more deadly is that although he is only 24 years old, 1 meters tall and weighs less than 91 kilograms, Sessions's lateral movement speed is very slow. He can't defend against a faster defender. One step of acceleration can pass him like a tree stump.

In the first round match between the Lakers and the Grizzlies, when Sessions faced a point guard like Mike Conley who is not good at speed, he was often passed by the opponent one-on-one, and his own offense was also frequent. Take advantage of your opponents.

Throughout the first round, Sessions' shooting percentage was only 38.8%. If it weren't for Kobe and the inner double towers that happened to restrain the Grizzlies' lowered version of the inner double towers. .
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Dayao and Bynum jumped the ball from the center line. Yao beat Bynum by virtue of his height and moved the basketball to the backcourt. Isaiah Thomas held the ball for halftime, and then looked at Wang Chao.

Then he saw Wang Chao make a gesture to himself, and then ran to the bottom corner of the three-point line on one side.

At the same time, other Rockets players on the field also pulled to the outside line one after another, and even Dayao withdrew from the penalty area.

Facing Dayao, whose shooting range could reach the free throw line or even farther, Bynum did not dare to neglect, so he could only defend him.

The inside of the Lakers is completely empty.

Little Thomas immediately thought of Wang Chao's advice before the game.

"The Lakers are a team that relies heavily on positional warfare. Their speed is very slow. Using fast-paced offense and defense and fast breaks at the guard position can effectively disrupt the opponent's overall offensive rhythm!"

Thomas holds the ball against Sessions. Even if they are both point guards, the height gap between the two is like an outside player facing a long inside man.

But Thomas Jr., who had watched Sessions' game tape, knew that the guy couldn't keep up with his speed.

During the rapid continuous dribble swing, Thomas Jr. was keenly aware of Sessions' hesitation in his footsteps, and immediately took the ball to speed up the breakthrough. With only one step, he passed Sessions and rushed straight towards the inside.

Whether it was Bynum who gave up Dayao not far away and wanted to make up the defense, or Sessions who turned around and chased Thomas Jr. at this time, it was already too late.

Thomas Jr., who rushed to the basket first, directly pulled the windmill for a layup and sent the basketball into the basket.

Oops……

Watching this scene, Kobe's heart sank.

Playing like this from the beginning of the game, it is obvious that the Rockets have found the weakness of the Lakers.

"Be quick, don't let the opponent pass you by so easily!" Kobe stepped forward and said to Sessions with a calm face: "If you can't do it, back up a little and give him room to shoot. With that guy's height, even Slow down and you can interfere with his shooting!"

Bryant's tone was not very good, because he was already dissatisfied with Sessions in the first round.

He can’t shoot long distances, and his breakthrough with the ball relies heavily on pick-and-roll screens, and even with Gasol helping him with pick-and-roll screens, Sessions’ ability to attack the basket is still very limited. Scoring depends entirely on whether the referee is in a good mood or not. .

The offense is not good, the defense is not good, and why did the team send a first-round pick to sign this guy?

The Lakers attacked and was PUAed by Kobe at the beginning of the game. Sessions dribbled the ball halfway across the court, then passed the ball to Kobe quickly, and ran to the bottom corner to hang up.

Kobe stood at the top arc holding the ball, looking at Leonard with piercing eyes in front of him, staring at him.

Leonard's position was very forward, almost sticking to Kobe's body, and his hands were constantly probing, trying to take the basketball from Kobe's hands.

This forced Kobe to shield the basketball behind him and face Leonard sideways.

The aggressive attitude of the opponent also aroused Kobe's competitiveness.

"Rookie, do you want to guard me? Just rely on you? Let's see how I blow you up!"

Kobe said to Leonard.

Facing Kobe's trash talk, the introverted Leonard responded: "If you can beat me, try it."

Before the words fell, Kobe suddenly slammed Leonard hard, then turned around and accelerated into the basket.

Leonard was knocked back half a step by Kobe, but immediately caught up with Kobe with his nimble footsteps. While following the defense, his hands continued to prevent Kobe from dribbling.

Kobe has been in the league for so many years and has encountered countless opponents, including some top defensive experts.

But even among so many opponents, Leonard is a very special one.

His wingspan and hands are really outstanding among players.

Even Kobe was affected by Leonard's entanglement and his rhythm was affected. He was caught off guard and almost made a mistake and lost the ball.

Staggering to the bottom line on the right side of the basket, Kobe collected the ball, took off, drifted and shot.

Leonard jumped up, his hands seemed to cover the sky, blocking almost all of Kobe's sight.

In this case, Kobe's signature drifting jumper was directly defended against a non-stick.

Wang Chao shot out from one side, raised his hand to pick up the rebound, and then immediately accelerated towards the Lakers half court.

Fast attack!

The Lakers immediately returned to defense, but Wang Chao's fast break was too fast, and only Artest and Sessions could keep up.

Wang Chao, who rushed beyond the three-point line, made a sudden stop, took off and shot.

Artest, who followed the brakes and stepped forward to defend, was still half a beat slow, and could only watch helplessly as Wang Chao made a clean shot and hit it.

"brush--!"

The clear sound of brushing the net caused the Rockets home fans to cheer loudly.

With a 5:0 start, the Rockets gave the Lakers a blow as soon as they came up!

The Lakers continued to attack, learned that Leonard was difficult to defend against Kobe, and decisively changed their style of play. Although Leonard's defensive ability is strong, he is only a first-year rookie after all. , but the experience is still insufficient, and Kobe easily used the change of rhythm to fly to the center, and then made an easy shot.

Kobe, who successfully scored the score, was not in a happy mood, because when he turned his head, the Rockets pulled away again and asked Thomas Jr. to train Sessions.

The Rockets have really pinched the Lakers' weaknesses to death.

A few minutes after the start of the game, the Lakers had to call a timeout and make personnel adjustments, replacing Sessions and allowing backup point guard Steve Blake to come on, but Blake was only as good as Sessions. The radius is eight taels, and it's not that strong.

The Lakers tried to get Bynum back to the basket to protect the frame to limit Thomas Jr.'s breakthrough kills with the ball, but once Bynum left Dayao, the Rockets would immediately pass the ball to Dayao.

What does it look like for a center with a height of 2 meters to stand at the free throw line and shoot a jumper?
The Lakers were lucky enough to see it a few times in this game, and then Bynum never dared to go back to the basket.

In the Van Gundy era, Dayao has indeed strengthened the lethality of the basket after gaining weight, making the offense more efficient, but at the same time, many of the original characteristics of Dayao have gradually disappeared, such as flexible inside footsteps, and almost covering the three-point line. Mid-range shots from all positions.

Wang Chao’s training for Dayao is not only as simple as letting him lose weight, but also let him practice a lot of mid-range and long-range shooting. When a player of Dayao’s height shoots from around the free throw line, how many people can Can it be prevented?This is a privilege that Durant can only enjoy.

Of course, Dayao's mid-to-long distance is not as accurate as Durant's, but with the help of training potions such as Wang Chao's partner training potion and special training potion, he has already trained to the point where he has a super high hit rate in open positions. It is an existence that cannot be easily emptied.

The Lakers couldn't prevent the linkage between Thomas Jr. and Dayao. Fortunately, relying on Kobe Bryant's change of style of play, he frequently beat Leonard on the offensive end, and Gasol and Bynum scored inside the twin towers, barely fighting the Rockets. It was evenly matched.

In the first quarter of the game, the two sides fought until 26:24, and the Rockets had a 2-point lead.

The point difference is not big, but the mood of all members of the Lakers can't relax at all.

You know, in the first quarter of the game, the Lakers were completely against Thomas Jr. and Yao. The real ace of the Rockets is Wang Chao, who averaged 40+ points per game in the regular season!

Wang Chao only took 3 shots in the first quarter, all from outside the three-point line. He made 3 of 1 shots and only scored 3 points.

Even so, no one would think that Wang Chao didn't feel good today or that Artest's defense was in place.

Wang Chao's scoring ability can no longer be simply limited by these. The reason why he has not made a shot is because other Rockets players can contain the Lakers. Once the time is right, Wang Chao will be able to Take away the game directly!

And this moment, we did not wait too long.

In the second quarter of the game, both Dayao and Thomas Jr. came off the court to rest.

At this time, the Rockets' lineup became a combination of Brooks, Courtney Lee, Chandler Parsons, Wang Chao and Asik.

It looks like Wang Chao alone with four substitutes.

But in this case, it is the time for Wang Chao to exert his strength.

First, he broke through with the ball and went to the basket to score 2+1. Then Wang Chao cooperated with Asik in the outside pick-and-roll, scored 2 three-pointers in a row, scored 2 points in a row in just 9 minutes, and led the Rockets to a game Wave 12:2 attack wave, directly hit the Lakers timeout.

Kobe, who was put on the field in an emergency within 2 minutes of a break, saw that the score was stretched to double digits in the blink of an eye, and he felt only powerless.

Wang Chao's explosive scoring ability is really too strong, especially the almost open three-pointer, which can easily destroy the situation that others have worked so hard to establish.

Even if Kobe reappeared, he still failed to restore the Lakers' decline.

At the end of halftime, the score of the two teams came directly to 59:44, with a difference of 15 points.

When the game came to the second half, the Lakers still didn't have any chance.

Wang Chao carried out the game attitude during the regular season. Before the outcome was decided, he would not rest for a minute. With the support of long-distance runner talent and 1 physical ability value, Wang Chao could do it. When on the court, the Rockets have a variety of tactics to choose from. Wang Chao can also stand in the bottom corner to open up space and hang up to recover his physical fitness when the two attack.

After three quarters, the point difference came to 20 points.

In the third quarter of the game, Kobe, who had already played for a long time in the first half, began to decline in physical fitness, and Leonard's candy-style defense was not a display after all, even though Kobe was experienced and could use various offensive skills to score on Leonard's head , but it is undeniable that in front of Leonard, Kobe's shooting percentage is lower than usual, and every attack consumes more energy and energy.

In the fourth quarter, the Lakers chose to give up early and replaced all the main players.

113:94, this is the score of the two teams at the end of the final game.

The Rockets beat the Lakers by 19 points at home, and Thomas Jr.'s performance during the game surprised many people.

Throughout the game, Thomas Jr. made 21 of 9 shots, 8 of 6 free throws, and scored 24 points and 3 assists. Throughout the game, Thomas Jr. used his speed and agility advantages to pass defenders and hit the basket over and over again. The defense line was torn to pieces, which was the main contributor to the team's victory.

Thomas Jr.'s ability to score so unscrupulously has a very important relationship with Dayao's support in space.

In order to prevent Dayao's mid-range shot, Bynum had to follow the defense to the outside line, creating the necessary conditions for Thomas Jr.'s breakthrough.

In fact, in the next 16-17 season, that is, the season when Thomas Jr. played the best performance of his career and averaged 28.9 points and 5.9 assists per game, the Celtics' inside center is also a center who can open up space, Al Horford.

The reason why Thomas Jr.'s breakthrough with the ball was so strong that season is precisely because Horford's range advantage can frequently pull the opponent's center out of the inside line, allowing Thomas Jr. to break through with the ball unscrupulously. No matter how outstanding his personal ability is, facing a group of seven-foot men on the inside, it is impossible to play that kind of efficiency value.

After all, basketball is a long-term sport. Tall players have a huge advantage over short players. This is an unavoidable fact.

(End of this chapter)