super small forward

Chapter 372 372. Get upset!
After playing the Celtics, the Lakers' next opponent is the Washington Wizards.

A team with a record similar to the Celtics.

It's not that the Wizards are worse than the Celtics, but that the Wizards are really unlucky this year.

In the third game at the beginning of the season, the shooting guard Bradley Beal, who they had high hopes for, was injured, and then Humphries was injured, and a 6-game losing streak dragged them into the quagmire.

However, this also gave Wall a chance to perform. Wall, Pierce, and Gortat supported the team, and finally returned to the top eight in the Eastern Conference at the beginning of December, with a record of 12 wins and 7 losses.

After the Lakers defeated the Celtics in the last game, the Wizards successfully took advantage of this east wind to surpass the Celtics.

Wall temporarily ranks first in the league in assists, averaging 10.9 assists per game more than Paul and Rondo.

But with only one assist leader, not many people think that the Wizards have a great chance of beating the Lakers.

And Pierce's old pace doesn't seem to be able to stop Liu Ren from continuing to get 40+.

But basketball is round, anything can happen.

After the start of the game, Liu Ren missed consecutive shots which is rare this season!
Liu Ren's performance in the first 14 games can be described as phenomenal, and it is basically impossible to maintain this state at the same time.

It just so happened that today his state of throwing whatever he wanted was over!

It's not that he's not as capable as before, or that he's slipped or something.

It's because he has become more and more dazzling recently, and opponents have begun to pay attention to him. In addition, he has played more than a dozen consecutive high-scoring, high-scoring and high-scoring confrontations, so he is inevitably a little tired.

He didn't feel it himself, but the body was honest.

Now as the season progresses, the opponents know him better, the opposing players are defending him more and more ruthlessly, the opponent's coach's tactics are also targeting him, and his fatigue has also increased.

Maybe any one of these reasons is not a problem, and he can deal with it, but when the accumulation of each item reaches a certain limit, the effect will be quite obvious at once.

When he was in full swing in the previous dozen or so games, he was used to being able to shoot from any position near the three-point line, but today he can't find the feeling of shooting as he likes as before!

This guy Liu Ren is a bit screwy. The more he can't make a shot, the more he wants to shoot. Although Pierce's pace is slow, his defensive shooting is still good.

Pierce defended very tightly, and Liu Ren shot half a step away from the three-point line as usual!

Still miss!

Liu Ren made 9 of 1 three-pointers today!

By the end of halftime, Liu Ren had scored 17 of 6 and 10 of 1 three-pointers!

Liu Ren is still very sure of scoring from the inside. As long as he makes a successful shot from the inside, he basically goes in, but he misses consecutive shots from the outside. When the opponent is on the outside, he only uses Pierce as a single defense. Regardless of whether he breaks through or not, Pierce only defends against his mid-range and long-range shots .

It has to be said that Pierce brought the Wizards toughness and tactical quality that they didn't have before, and played out all the defensive strategies arranged by the coach.

The Wizards' strategy is to defend Pierce against Liu Ren's outside singles. Liu Ren makes a three-pointer from the outside and makes it. As long as he enters the inside, a group of people will double-team.

Since Kobe, Nash, and Gasol are resting today, the Lakers have no other accurate outside shooters. Once Liu Ren's three-pointer is not accurate, the Wizards can shrink the inside as much as they want.

Although the Portland Hammer Gortat is not Whiteside's opponent, he can't hold back the Wizards!Kevin Seraphim, Drew Gooden, and the former Spurs player Blair, who was dug from a young girl, are all players who are good at stalking, and they have restricted the Lakers by shrinking the inside.

After the first quarter, the Lakers trailed by 24 points 29 to 5.

D'Antoni didn't care at first. He didn't pay much attention to the Wizards, otherwise he wouldn't let the three veterans take turns. He was confident that he could easily defeat the Wizards.

In the second quarter, Liu Ren continued to slump. The inside line was crowded and he could only shoot from the outside line, but he missed consecutively.

At this time, D'Antoni felt that something was wrong, but there was no solution.

Originally, when Liu Ren couldn't play well, Kobe could go up to the opponent at any time, but today Kobe took a break!
Even Gasol is resting, Antetokounmpo is still too young, McCollum can't replace Kobe for the time being, Whiteside is hard to beat with two fists, and Green's words don't match him with two top shooters. Unable to fully utilize his organizational skills.

Ever since, the Wizards actually maintained the lead from the beginning to the end when the Washington fans were very stunned!
The Lakers were chasing points throughout the game, and Liu Ren also found some feeling in the fourth quarter, mainly because Pierce couldn't keep up physically, but the score couldn't catch up in the end!

99 to 90, the Wizards' home upset ended the Lakers' 19-game winning streak!

……

……

Depend on!
After the game, Liu Ren really wanted to find a crack in the ground to get in!

Today, he only made 17 of 6 shots in the first half, and he was better in the second half, but he was only 18 of 8. Although he did a lot of damage by rushing to the inside with the ball regardless of the fourth quarter, he still scored 41 points in the game. Continue to refresh 40+.

But the game was lost!

The 15th consecutive game of 40+ has become meaningless!

Liu Ren can now imagine what the outside world will think of him!
The other young players of the Lakers were silent, and no one dared to touch his bad luck at this time.

Kobe couldn't bear to see the little brother's frustrated look, so he decided to go forward to comfort him.

It's just that Kobe comforted people, and after thinking about it, he knew it was not a good thing.

"Yo, you said last time that you don't care about winning for the sake of scoring points. It seems that you really proved this today." Kobe stepped forward directly and started the mocking mode.

"Here we come! The two bosses are going to fight each other again!" The other young players of the Lakers team suddenly had this idea in their hearts.

In fact, although the rest of the Lakers are a little disappointed that today's winning streak has ended, most of them have experienced long-term losses in the past, and they have all stayed in weak teams. The degree of frustration is not as deep as Liu Ren.

Liu Ren glanced at Kobe, and instead of getting angry, he said in a low voice, "Are you just making sarcastic remarks?"

Kobe curled his lips: "Who has the time to talk sarcasticly to you? I just look like you're going to die when you lose a game. I think it's an eyesore for a guy like you to stay on the team."

"Losing a game? That's 19 consecutive victories!" Liu Ren said angrily.

Kobe's tone was still full of sarcasm: "So what? Isn't it 19 consecutive victories? What is the connection between 19 consecutive victories and the championship? The Rockets also won 22 consecutive victories a few years ago, so what? In the end, they still lost to us."

(End of this chapter)