start with scouting

Chapter 398 Best New Year Gift

Arriving in Houston, Su Yang took Snyder and other assistant coaches to a meeting. He noticed that the schedule in December was relatively easy, and the opponents only had two or three playoff-level teams. Get plenty of rest.

A similar plan should have been determined in advance, but at the beginning of the season, Su Yang predicted that the Lakers’ record in the regular season might be relatively poor, and their strategy tended to be conservative, but after 17 games, they had a record of 13 wins and 4 losses, tied for first place in the West with the Thunder, and there were adjustments space.

After making up his mind, Su Yang told Snyder and other assistants about his ideas, and then said: "In addition to Draymond Green, JaMychal Green and Bazemore also need to increase their playing time. The goal is to allow them to rotate in the playoffs. In just a few minutes..."

Both JaMychal Green and Bazemore will be the main rotation players in the future. They are still first-year rookies, and their biggest role is to fill the 13-man roster for the playoffs. .

"I totally agree."

Assistant coach Mike Brown said: "Looking at the news before, the Heat lost to the Knicks by big points in a row, and it was also because they were practicing rookies."

In a blink of an eye, the game between the Lakers and the Rockets started, Curry continued to truce as planned, and Su Yang arranged for Blake to be the starting point guard.

Perhaps because they occupy the home court, the Rockets players except Harden, Jeremy Lin and others performed above average. Leading the Rockets by 11 points.

Who would have thought that the Rockets suddenly adjusted their strategy, and Asik and others took turns to use shark-slashing tactics against Green to destroy the Lakers' offense
It was the first time Green "enjoyed" that kind of treatment, and his free throw percentage was also poor. He immediately hit the iron twice in a row, but because he was angry, he was cheated by Harden's European layup. Pay for the last foul.

Su Yang thought for a moment, let Green stay on the field, one is to exercise Green's psychological endurance, and second, it is not easy to replace Hill, because the Rockets are unscrupulously shrinking and enclosing because of Curry's absence, they must have more people who can pull them apart. Inside the space.

The game proceeded like a toothpaste squeeze, and the Lakers took the lead and slowly tied. Fortunately, Green’s free throws finally stabilized. In the last 2 minutes of the decisive battle, the Rockets did not dare to continue to attack the Sharks. They became even more crazy about Kobe’s double-teaming and intentionally let out other Lakers players. .

Perhaps it was due to the inexplicable loss to the Magic before, and the physical exertion of back-to-back games, Gasol and others really stretched the performance. At the last moment of the game, Artest received a pass from Kobe, and the result was an open three-pointer. The Lakers scored 105. It is a pity to lose than 107.

After the game, Su Yang's decision to keep Chasing Dream Green on the court for a long time in the fourth quarter was greatly questioned.

Fans and the media all believed that Kobe's 39-point efforts were wasted, but they ignored that Kobe made 31 of 14 shots. If Green was not on the court, Kobe would be double-teamed more by the Rockets, and they also ignored the fact that the Rockets' six players scored. Double team play.

On the bus back to the hotel, Green approached Kobe to apologize. Kobe emphasized that there was no need to apologize, and he needed to practice free throws. Apologize…"

The team rested for two days and flew to New Orleans to challenge the Hornets. Curry officially returned and led the team to clock out with 25 points in three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, JaMychal Green and Bazemore became the main force, and the Lakers finally easily defeated the Hornets 113 to 87.

The whole team flew to Oklahoma to challenge the No. [-] Thunder in the Western Conference. After fighting hard until the second overtime, they lost by three points.

Su Yang is not discouraged. The main reason is that the Thunder in the 12-13 season is really strong. The average points per game is the third in the league, and the average conceded points is the last in the league. It can be described as a combination of offense and defense. First in the league in the regular season.

The Thunder in the previous life were very promising to win the championship in the 12-13 season, but Westbrook was reimbursed for the season by Beverly.

The Lakers flew back to Los Angeles, as Su Yang expected, ushered in a relatively easy schedule, focusing on training substitutes and rookies
Against the Jazz on the [-]th, Jazz head coach Tyrone Corbin actually put Hayward on the bench, and did not recognize Hayward's tactical core position, so Randy Foye and Mo Williams started the backcourt, which made the Jazz attack A mess, almost for free.

Su Yang made a simple arrangement. The two substitutes, Jordan Hill and Meeks, scored 33 points to help the Lakers win the game easily.

NO.11 flew to the away game to challenge the Cavaliers. Su Yang knew that Kobe intended to "teach" Irving, and temporarily let the team focus more on Kobe's offense, but Kobe lived up to expectations and scored 42 points in the game. While blasting Irving, he led the Lakers to easily win the game , two consecutive victories.

NO.13 Continued the road trip to challenge the Knicks. Curry had almost no defensive pressure against Kidd. Ren scored in double figures and won three consecutive victories.

NO.14 Back-to-back challenges to the Wizards who are not bad in defense. Su Yang designed Curry to focus on Jordan Crawford, who is defensively biased. In the end, Curry made 8 of 5 three-pointers, scored 30 points and sent 11 assists. Lead the Lakers to four consecutive victories.

In the last game of the Eastern Conference road trip, the Lakers flew to Philadelphia to challenge the 76ers after the big deal. Kobe scored 34 points in three quarters and scored the game into garbage time. JaMychal Green and Bazemore led the fourth quarter and scored 27 to help the Lakers Five in a row.

The whole team flew back to Los Angeles. After a day of rest, NO.18 played at home against the Bobcats. Su Yang experimented with Jamichael Green as the starting forward for the first time. The main task was to defend and shoot three-pointers. Unfortunately, Jamichael was too nervous and performed poorly.

But the Bobcats were too weak. Kobe scored 12 points in the last quarter, and the Lakers extended their winning streak to the sixth game without any risk.

After playing the Bobcats, the Lakers rested for four days. On the 22nd, they flew to Oakland to challenge Howard's returning Warriors away.

The first three quarters were indistinguishable. At the end of the fourth quarter, the Warriors began to use the shark-slashing tactic against Green and forced the game into overtime. Su Yang was not polite. The overtime game instructed the Lakers to use the shark-slashing tactic against Howard. They narrowly won by five points .

The Lakers rested for three days. On Christmas night, they played against the Knicks without Stoudemire and won the eighth game in a row 100 to 94.

On the 26th, after the Christmas game, the Lakers flew to Denver overnight to challenge the Nuggets. They were exhausted and in a poor state. They struggled until the last 2 minutes of the fourth quarter, only trailing by 9 points, but they had three consecutive strikes and two mistakes. hope.

The Lakers finally lost to the Nuggets 114 to 126, and their eight-game winning streak came to an end. Kobe scored 40 points efficiently.

In the last game in December, the Lakers played against the Trail Blazers at home.

Aldridge made 17 of 12 shots and blasted Green, but the Lakers will follow Su Yang's arrangement and focus on defending players other than Aldridge, allowing the other four Blazers to start with 36 of 10 shots, especially Hickson's 7 of 0 shots. In the end, they beat the Blazers by 17 points.

With a record of 10 wins and 4 losses in December, and an average of 7.2 points, 3.7 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game, Chasing Dream Green won the best rookie of the month, but Su Yang did not win the best coach because the Clippers won 16 consecutive wins in December and Kobe also The best of the month was taken away by Paul.

On New Year's Eve, Su Yang and Jiang Rulan celebrated together and received the best New Year's gift at the same time: The Morgan Consortium officially launched a share purchase plan. If all goes well, they can get [-] million US dollars in cash as early as April, enough to prepare for the plan to buy the team.

On the first day of the new year, the Lakers played against the 76ers at home and won 113 to 99. Kobe showed his attitude with 36 points.

Analyzing the replay after the game, Mike Brown suddenly sighed: "We seem to be about to usher in a very difficult schedule..."

Su Yang and the others nodded silently. The benefits of the Lakers' December schedule are too strong. There are only two or three playoff teams. They played against the Knicks twice and Stoudemire was absent due to injury. He played against five strong playoff teams in a row within a day.

And the first game is against the Clippers, which won 16 games in a row in December. Fortunately, the Lakers have three days to prepare.

　Decided to push a wave of progress, do you think it is too fast?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)