start with scouting

Chapter 182 We are serious about winning the championship
During the pause, TNT commentator Reggie Miller sighed: "Since I retired as a commentator, the Lakers have played a similar opening performance in the playoffs. Only in the seventh game against the Suns in the first round in 06, the Lakers were defeated by the Suns. The defense almost collapsed, and because of Kobe's poor touch from long-range shots, it was difficult to cause damage through breakthroughs, which caused the entire Lakers team to fall into confusion."

"The current Thunder team's defense is even more terrifying than the Suns team in 06. They firmly implement the contraction double-team strategy, which is used to limit the Lakers' outside breakthroughs. The rotation of the defensive formation is also very timely. It is not like a young team at all, but rather like the Spurs .”

"If there is a chance, I would like to shoot a documentary to see how Su Yang did such an outstanding job."

The host Kevin Harlan answered: "I believe in the Lakers, because compared to 06, they have more Pau Gasol..."

During the conversation between the two, the pause ended.

The announcer informed again that the Lakers re-appointed Gasol and replaced Bynum, offering the strongest lineup.

Benefiting from the excellent work of various Thunder scouts, and as a former Lakers fan's understanding of Phil Jackson, Su Yang simultaneously arranged for Green to appear on the court and boldly replaced Chandler. On the one hand, he let Chandler rest, and on the other hand, he matched his speed.

The game resumed, the Lakers, as Su Yang predicted, the whole team speeded up the tempo, and the triangle offense was greatly simplified.

Kobe began to play two-person games with Gasol, bullying Ibaka to play fast and slow, and assisted Gasol to score in long-range shots one after another. He took the initiative to cover without the ball in his hand, and tried his best to let Artest and others find the offensive feeling, as if he was the head coach on the field, very selfless.

After Gasol scored twice in a row, Su Yang consciously and carefully observed how Kobe led the team, and found that Kobe played almost perfectly, which can be regarded as a classic case of triangle offense and even team offense, and should be used as a teaching video.

But maybe because he cared too much about the performance of his teammates, Kobe no longer shot three-pointers, and no longer cut without the ball, which was a bit self-defeating.

After Su Yang confirmed, he decisively directed Sefolosha's offensive end to double-team more boldly, even on the strong side.

After hearing the order, Sefolosa asked twice in a row, fearing that he had misheard, and then followed suit with a face full of surprise.

Then I thought, after a few rounds, I really succeeded in lowering the scoring efficiency of the Lakers by letting Kobe go.

At the end of the first quarter, the Thunder took a strong 12-point lead, and the Lakers shot only 36.4%.

During the summary of the TNT live broadcast, Reggie Miller looked even more surprised than Sefolosha and said: "Since Su Yang became the assistant coach of the Trail Blazers, I have always been refreshed by his many offensive and defensive strategies. Tonight, I actually saw him let the players Letting go of Kobe, who is on the strong side, is equivalent to deliberately letting the enemy enter his camp with nuclear weapons when the two armies are fighting, and completely ignoring..."

Kevin Harlan sighed: "He succeeded. Kobe had 0 points, 4 assists and 2 turnovers in the first quarter..."

TNT reporter Craig Sager took the two of them to interview Su Yang in surprise, and curiously asked why he dared to do that.

Su Yang said with a smile: "It's not that we dare to short Kobe, it's because he chose to give up attacking..."

Between the question and answer, the second quarter started.

In terms of lineup, the Lakers have Bynum + Kobe, with Odom, Shannon Brown, and Farmar.

The Thunder has Chandler + Green, with Harden, Matthews, and Collison, and the overall height advantage is great.

Kobe changed to the small forward position, and still insisted on letting his teammates want to find the feeling first, and prepared to take his time.

It was thought that Odom's breakthrough lethality is average, and he lacks continuity, unable to force the Thunder to change their defensive strategy, and he does not have the habit and strength to go hard to the basket.After Su Yang found out, he commanded Green to boldly implement early defensive help.

The so-called early defensive help means that the weak side players run to the potential ball holding point first to help their teammates block one side.

With Green doing that, Bynum was forced to attack more from the line direction, and the overall lethality was greatly reduced.

In order to solve the trouble, Bynum could only get stuck more fiercely and laboriously, which made it more difficult to catch the ball.

What's more embarrassing is that among the five players on the Lakers field, except for Kobe who can lob Bynum more accurately, when the other players lob the ball to Bynum, either the direction is outrageous, or the timing is not well controlled, and they are always caught by the Thunder. interference.

There were even times when Bynum tried his best to complete the card position, but Farmar raised his hand and threw the ball to the other side.

Su Yang was dumbfounded, and for a second couldn't help suspecting that Farmar had bet 50 times on the Lakers to lose.

But when he saw Brown take the initiative to run to a position where Kobe could not pass the ball in the next round, he was sure on the spot that the two were real.

After the first few minutes of the second quarter, Su Yang only gave two simple commands, and the Thunder successfully completed the transition between the second lineup and the pure main lineup. After Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka reappeared, they firmly Take a firm grip on the situation.

Kobe also gave up motivating his teammates, and began to aggressively back up or break through. He scored consecutively, but it didn't help.

After halftime, the Thunder led by 13 points. Except for fouls and turnovers, they were more than the Lakers.

Returning to the locker room during the halftime break, Su Yang was sure that the Lakers would increase their defensive strength. It is estimated that even Bynum would get out of the pick-and-roll, so he decided to let the Thunder focus on rebounds and encourage Westbrook to grab more. Offensive rebound.

As for the defensive end, stick to the second half strategy, take advantage of the Lakers' impatience, and try to draw more fouls.

The Thunder generals returned to the court with Su Yang’s instructions, and the third quarter started. Sefolosha caused Kobe’s thugs to foul on his first attack, which not only raised Kobe’s personal foul three times, but also made three free throws in a row, instantly boosting his momentum .

The Lakers were very unconvinced and stepped up their defensive actions, but Su Yang reminded that the Thunder generals had already prepared.

Durant, Westbrook, and Green hit the basket in turn and got as many as 15 free throws, causing Bynum to leave the court early for a rest. On the contrary, Harden, who is famous for free throws, did not make a free throw in the entire third quarter. Play scrims.

And after Bynum left the field early, the Lakers lacked interior protection and the Thunder frequently grabbed offensive rebounds.

The Lakers were also unable to open up the offensive end, and they were still unable to effectively break through the Thunder's zone defense. Also, because the offensive end was too deep, it was impossible to retreat in time when shooting.

After three quarters, the Thunder led the Lakers by as many as 22 points, and the key was to destroy the Lakers' desire to win.

After the start of the fourth quarter, the Lakers did not adopt the lineup of two main players and three substitutes as they did at the beginning of the second quarter. Even Odom did not play, and they directly sent five pure substitute players, including the Wannian drinking fountain Adam Morrison .

That kind of operation showed that the Lakers surrendered in advance, and Su Yang also took advantage of the timeout to deploy a pure substitute lineup.

But just like that, the Thunder lineup still had the advantage, and finally defeated the Lakers 114-89.

When the final bell rang, Su Yang walked toward the technical stage inertially, ready to shake hands with the head coach of the opponent team.

But before he reached his position, he saw Phil Jackson leading the Lakers coaching staff away, so he had to give up.

In the whole game, the Thunder's highest score was Durant with only 22 points, but 6 players from the team scored in double figures.

At the post-match press conference, the reporter asked why they played so well in the first stop and could greatly limit the Lakers on the defensive end.

Su Yang smiled and said, "Because every time we talk about winning the championship, we are serious..."

(End of this chapter)