I just play ball

Chapter 98 Los Angeles Carnival Night
Pause ends and the game continues.

The Spurs adjusted their defensive strategy in a timely manner. Leonard once again stared at Li Yue throughout the whole process like G4. When encountering a cover, other players gave priority to switching defenses and delayed.

Li Yue did his tricks and was only responsible for taking away the defenders and leaving the high space for other teammates.

In this way, Kobe and Nash got a lot of shots through outside cooperation, always biting the score.

But at the end of the first quarter, the two sides replaced most of the main players. Because the Lakers lacked Blake, the disadvantage of the bench lineup became more obvious. Howard led the team and it was difficult to stop the Spurs led by Ginobili and Matt Bonner. The point difference gradually widened .

After the first quarter, the Lakers trailed 27-34.

In the second quarter, D'Antoni, who had been patient for a long time, switched to the main lineup in advance, wanting to take the opportunity to narrow the point difference, but Popovich also wanted to make sure, and even further expand the advantage, sending Duncan and Parker and other main Spurs ahead of time.

The two teams saw their moves, Li Yue and Kobe sent out assists frequently, Nash and Howard scored in various simple ways, but Splitter and Leonard played high-efficiency performances. The Lakers still failed to narrow the point difference. Severely sleepy and troubled, leading to a 55-64 trailing half of the game.

During the intermission, D'Antoni made a summary, emphasizing that there is no problem with the style of play, and that the Spurs were behind only because they had better luck, and many unreasonable shots were hit one after another. As long as they persist, good luck will eventually come to the Lakers.

Although the Lakers' style of play was indeed fine, Li Yue didn't like such rhetoric, and Kobe didn't like it either. When the second half of the game started, the two started to go berserk at the same time.

But Parker and Leonard stood up one after another, and responded to the difficult hero balls in succession.

After three quarters, the Lakers fell behind 85 to 96, and the gap could not be narrowed by one point.

Entering the last quarter behind by 11 points, the smiles on the faces of the audience gradually disappeared, and the Lakers' bench was also a little nervous. D'Antoni emphasized that the main players only had a 2-minute rest time based on the idea that the point difference should not continue to expand.

I thought, Popovich directly replaced the main force after the fourth quarter, and D'Antoni was reluctant to call a timeout and was overwhelmed. Fortunately, Howard led the team to play bravely and struggled to withstand the super shock wave of the Spurs. He died in 2 minutes. Clinging to the point difference, when the official timeout came, the Lakers were only 12 points behind.

...

The Spurs attacked again, and Parker dribbled the ball to the right wing, using Leonard's cover to go to the baseline.

Li Yue was delayed in switching defenses, and he did not play cards according to the routine to press down. Parker was a little slow to react, and the basketball rolled out of bounds.

Two referees whistled at the same time, one for the Lakers and one for the Spurs.

Such an embarrassing situation happened in such an important game. The referee on duty signaled the game to be suspended and needed to check the video playback to confirm which side the ball belonged to. The audience booed wildly when they saw this.

TNT commentary seats.

O'Neal slapped the table angrily, "The referee's decision is very unfair. The Spurs' main players have played longer, but now they get extra rest time in disguise. The basketball obviously flew out of Parker's hands."

"Calm down." Barkley smirked, "Please maintain a neutral attitude as a commentator."

Kenny nodded repeatedly, "This is the Western Conference semifinals. It's about whether the Spurs can play three games in a row. It's about whether the Lakers can advance directly. It's okay for the referee to be more cautious. No one wants to see what happens in this kind of game."

"The referee seems to be a little confused." Ernie turned his head and looked at the technical table. "Maybe we have to wait."

"If it's really a 3-3 tie," Barkley said, looking forward to it, "then G7 must be an unprecedented event."

...

Lakers bench,
Li Yue raised his head and took a sip of Gatorade, just in time to see the big central screen displaying 5 minutes and 09 seconds left in the game. The Lakers trailed 102 to 113, and neither team fouled enough to execute free throws.

Just thinking about whether to suggest protecting Howard from the shark-killing tactics, D'Antoni shouted in a hoarse voice: "Everyone continue to insist, the Spurs have shown signs of physical weakness, and we can force them to make mistakes with more aggressive defense."

After the voice fell, all the generals nodded one after another.

Nash seemed to think of something and looked unhappy, "Given the past history of the Spurs, everyone must exercise restraint in the face of provocations. At present, their main defensive player, Leonard, is troubled by fouls. We have good opportunities to chase points."

After saying this, all the generals looked at Li Yue in unison.

Li Yue put down the Gatorade cup, silently clenched his fist and beat his chest, indicating that he hugged him.

D'Antoni wanted to say something, but the referee came over and waved to indicate that there was something to discuss, so he got up and left.

Li Yue looked over and found that the referee had called the coaches of the two teams together and seemed to be discussing the final result.

The referee gestured for a while, Popovich gradually smiled presumptuously, and D'Antoni shook his head and sighed.

The DJ immediately announced that the ball belonged to the Spurs, and the audience shouted in unison for garbage referees.

De'Anton returned to the bench and arranged for Kobe to temporarily defend Leonard, while Li Yue changed to defend Ginobili. He hoped that Kobe would save some energy to play at the last moment. Leonard has very few shots at the moment.

...

The referee whistled and the Spurs kicked off from the sideline with 11 seconds of shot clock.

Stephen Jackson stood out of bounds to catch the ball, Parker squatted under the right basket with his hands on his knees, Ginobili stood with his hands on his hips near the left sideline near the bottom corner, and Duncan and Leonard separated the left and right sides of the free throw line.

The referee blew the whistle, Parker started to cut outside, used Stephen's cover to get rid of Nash and rushed to the top of the arc, received the ball and held it high and waited.At the same time, Duncan moved to the left and set up a wall to block Li Yue. Ginobili took the opportunity to slip to the free throw line to catch the ball.

Howard's attack was delayed, and he raised his hands to interfere with the shot's sight, and Kobe slid sideways to help defend.

Li Yue followed closely behind, and the three joined forces to double-team, like catching a turtle in a jar.

Ginobili jumped up and made a fake shot, but actually gave the ball to Leonard who was waiting in the open.

Kobe pulled back to replay, Leonard gave up his shot and went inside, Li Yue and Kobe teamed up to double-team.

Leonard took off and passed the ball, and Ginobili, who retreated to the left wing at some point, received it, and Nash hurried forward to defend.

There were only 4.4 seconds left, but Ginobili scored the ball calmly, and Parker received the ball from the top of the arc and made an open three-pointer.

The audience was too frightened to speak, the basketball was slightly weaker, and hit the edge of the rim to rebound and fall.

In the chaos, Kobe got the rebound.

The Lakers went down two lines quickly, and Li Yue rushed to the bottom corner on the right.

Kobe rushed to the right wing with the ball, and seeing Ginobili subconsciously pounced over, he immediately split the ball to the right.

Li Yue received a snap shot from his hand, the basketball hit the circle and rebounded several times, and finally came out of the basket.

Leonard jumped high and grabbed a defensive rebound, and the Spurs launched a counterattack. Parker brought the ball to the left wing in three seconds.

Seeing that there was no one at the basket, and Howard's pace was slow, Li Yue gave up guarding Ginobili for a moment after thinking about it, and turned to shrink and intercept at the basket.He planned to delay the offensive and force the opponent to score, but Parker actually chased Howard against him and intercepted him, forcing a three-step layup.

It is obvious that you want to pull the rod!

Li Yue knew it well, and jumped at the same time as Parker, with his right hand hanging high, waiting for Parker to release the ball.

Snapped!Li Yue put his hat down on the basketball, grabbed it in his hands when it landed, and lowered his center of gravity to protect him from rushing forward.

The Lakers went down multiple lines this time, and the Spurs were forced to divide their troops to defend. Li Yue smoothly rushed to the left side of the frontcourt at 45 degrees, faced Stephen on the left front and Leonard on the right to intercept at the same time, and skillfully raised his left shoulder and stepped left.

Stephen retreated subconsciously, Leonard turned around and ran towards Kobe, and Ginobili went to the basket diagonally.

But Li Yue stopped suddenly to pull the ball and turned to the right, European steps swayed away from Stephen and took three steps, jumped up to pick the basket with his right hand and hit the board.

The basketball rebounded into the net, and the Lakers chased 104 to 113, and the point difference returned to single digits. The audience cheered and applauded.

The Spurs attacked, Parker dribbled the ball to the right wing, passed it up to Leonard at the top of the arc, ran to the baseline with small steps, and circled to the left elbow with the help of Duncan, Stephen, and Ginobili. Pass the jump and jump into the three-second zone, make an emergency stop, take off and throw.

Howard jumped up and slammed the basketball into the air, winning applause from the audience.

However, the referee blew the whistle and called the interference ball, and the Spurs led 115 to 104. The audience once again chanted garbage referees.

The Lakers attacked, and the team settled in a V-shaped formation.

Nash took the ball to the top of the arc, passed it to Kobe at 45 degrees to the left, and strode to the basket.

Kobe dribbled the ball to the right at the same time to seek a breakthrough opportunity. Seeing this, Li Yue crossed from the right wing to the free throw line, and together with Nash skillfully formed a double screen, instantly blocking the three Spurs defenders.

With a keen sense of smell, Kobe took off and made a mid-range shot. The basketball crashed into the net and the point difference returned to 9 points.

The Spurs attacked, and Duncan took the ball at the top of the arc and waited for his teammates to move. After observing for a while, he passed it to Parker on the right wing.

Almost at the same time, Stephen relied on Leonard to cover, successfully got rid of Gasol and rushed to the low post on the right, with his back stuck to Kobe.

Parker took the ball and immediately passed it in. Stephen made a strong sit-up, but Kobe did not carry it hard but retreated one after another.

The two came to the basket in a blink of an eye, Stephen collected the ball and turned around, but before he could take off, Kobe slapped it off.

Popovich gestured to the thugs from the sidelines, and the Spurs bench followed suit, shouting fouls.

The referee ignored it, the basketball hit the floor and rebounded, Stephen caught it in his hands, turned around on the spot, jumped up and hit the board.

The basketball rebounded and fell, Howard and Duncan dialed back at the same time, and it happened to fall into Gasol's hands.

The Lakers counterattacked, Nash advanced with the ball,

Jackson retreated cursing, and suddenly shouted at the referee: "Why the hell didn't you call a foul?"

The referee immediately whistled a technical foul, Jackson was dumbfounded, and Popovich's face hurt.

Kobe gathered around, the whole team discussed briefly, and decided that Nash would perform a technical free throw.

Taking advantage of the referee's arrangement, Li Yue and Kobe seized the time to discuss, but Stephen kept swearing, and no one could be quiet.

Fortunately, Nash lived up to expectations and easily hit and added penalties. The Lakers chased 107 to 115.

According to the one free throw, one throw rule, the Lakers continued to attack. After Li Yue and Nash made eye contact, they walked to the right sideline to prepare.

The referee whistled, Li Yue took the pass and raised it over his head, waited for a while and then suddenly hit the ground to pass the ball.

The basketball hit the floor and rebounded, just in time to fly into Kobe's hands, and the Spurs expanded and pressed across the board.

Li Yue stepped into the field and went straight to the top of the arc, and Kobe passed back with his hands, sinking his shoulders and lowering his waist to force a breakthrough.

Leonard did not dare to resist with 4 fouls on his back, Ginobili went around to intercept, and Duncan shrank to the basket.

Seeing this situation, Li Yue passed the ball behind his back while running, and Kobe received it and took off for a three-pointer.

The basketball crashed into the net, and the Lakers chased 110 to 115. Popovich asked for a timeout, and the audience cheered and shouted.

Li Yue and Kobe celebrated by high-fiving, and were about to turn around and leave the court when the referee suddenly blew his whistle.

Stephen took another technical foul, and accumulated two consecutive fouls, and was directly expelled from the field!
Li Yue was stunned, and Kobe was also puzzled. Is it because he leads too much and wants to give away points?

...

TNT commentary seats.

"Is this guy crazy?" O'Neal suppressed a smile, "This is the last moment of Game [-] of the Western Conference Semifinals."

"To be honest, I also think Kobe is a thug," Barkley pouted, "but he is also like a golfer."

"That angle is very biased, and there are people blocking the line of sight. It's really hard to judge." Kenny shook his head. "But no matter what, you shouldn't complain about the referee. If you lose two points in the end, you will regret it to death."

"The technical foul occurred after a timeout, and the Spurs still had the ball," Ernie added.

...

The timeout ended and the Spurs replaced Splitter.

The game continued. First, Nash made a free throw for a technical foul and still made it easily. The Lakers chased 111 to 115.

The Spurs attacked, Parker took the ball to the frontcourt, passed it to Splitter at the top of the arc, turned around and ran to the right and made a cross screen with Ginobili.

Ginobili got rid of Li Yue and came to the top of the arc, took the ball and rushed to the left 45 degrees under the cover of Duncan, watched for a while and passed it to the bottom corner.

Leonard received the ball and held it high, waited for a moment to force Kobe, rushed to the free throw line to stop and jump, and threw the ball to Duncan.

The action was too obvious, and the speed was relatively slow. Gasol, who was defending around the front, made a steal halfway.

The Lakers attack, Li Yue advances to the left bottom corner,
Nash took the ball to the right wing, passed it to Kobe at the top of the arc, and used Howard to cover and cut inside.

Parker was slow to chase, Kobe went straight to the basket, Nash took the ball and took off against Splitter.

The timing was good, but the angle was slightly off. Seeing this, Li Yue rushed in and prepared to respond.

Nash decisively scored, Li Yue took off and hit the board, and the basketball rebounded into the net.

The Lakers chased 113 to 115, and most of the Staples Center audience stood up and cheered.

...

TNT commentary seats.

"Here we go, the final decisive battle!" O'Neal unbuttoned the second button of his suit, "I think the Lakers will win!"

"The Spurs seemed to be cursed, and they only scored two points in nearly 4 minutes!" Barkley was full of regret.

"The Lakers suffered a loss in the rotation before. In fact, it wouldn't be so much worse. The Spurs also lacked physical strength because they switched to the main force in advance. Leonard will never make a mistake when the ball was replaced just now." Kenny said.

"The Lakers' shooting percentage is also gradually declining," Ernie said, "Li Yue actually missed the layup."

...

inside the field.

After going back and forth and adjusting the timeout, with 54 seconds left before the end of the game, the score between the two teams was still 113 to 115.

It was the Spurs attacking again, and Parker dribbled the ball to the left wing and passed it to Splitter at the top of the arc.

Leonard and Ginobili started running from the left corner at the same time, and rushed to the right one after another with the help of Duncan's cover.

Leonard rushed to the right wing first, took the ball to the top of the arc, and Ginobili then came to the right sideline with the screen of Splitter who rolled down.Li Yue was blocked and couldn't catch up for a while, Gasol hadn't changed his defense yet, and Ginobili had already made a three-pointer.

The basketball went into the net hollow, and the Spurs led 118 to 113.

With 43 seconds left, the Lakers did not request a timeout, and Nash received the ball in the backcourt and moved forward.

Everyone at the Staples Center stood up and shouted Letsgo lA.

Nash took the ball to the right wing and used Gasol's cover to break through to the sideline.

Parker squeezed to catch up, Duncan went around and delayed, leaving Gasol unattended.

Nash made an emergency stop and then passed the ball. Gasol caught the ball and held it up with a dazed look on his face.

"Vote!" Li Yue and Kobe reminded at the same time, and the audience on the sidelines followed suit.

Gasol immediately shot a three-pointer, the basketball went into the net hollow, the Lakers chased 116 to 118, and the Staples Center exploded.

The Spurs requested a final timeout.

The Lakers returned to the bench and decided to use one-on-one defense after discussion, and directly double-team when encountering a breakthrough.

……

After a timeout, the Spurs kicked off from the sideline.

After a conduction run, Parker dislocated the top of the arc and faced Gasol, and slowly controlled it until the last 4 seconds of the attack time, when he suddenly burst into the basket and went straight to the basket.

The Lakers all shrank, blocking all distribution routes, and Parker forced a shot against Howard.

The basketball hit the basket and hit the iron, and Howard grabbed it. With 10.2 seconds left before the end of the game, the Lakers requested a timeout.

...

Lakers bench.

D'Antoni held the tactical board in his hand, "We still have 10 seconds. The Spurs have used up the timeout. The whole team is covering for Nash. After receiving the ball, we can see clearly and deal with it. The priority is to ensure that we do not lose the game."

After finishing speaking, D'Antoni began to draw tactics, "Let's play a two-way mobile screen tactic..."

...

The time-out is over and the game continues.

The Lakers kicked off from the sideline of the front court, Li Yue waited outside the left wing, Nash stood under the basket, Gasol stood on the right elbow, Kobe and Howard separated the left and right free throw lines, the Spurs man-to-man defense, but Leonard and Kyle Nobili flanked Kobe on both sides.

The DJ turned off the BGM, and the atmosphere was extremely tense, even the crying children kept quiet.

The referee blew the whistle to pass the ball, and Gasol bowed and started running, crossing the basket and rushing to the left half.

As he passed the basket, Nash took advantage of the screen and ran to the free throw line, crossing between Kobe and Howard.

Parker also wanted to pass through, but Kobe and Howard closed the door immediately, and Nash easily received the pass.

Li Yue stepped into the field immediately, and Leonard didn't dare to continue to let go, so he could only give up double-teaming Kobe.

Bryant escaped and ran to the right half, using Howard's cover to get rid of Ginobili, and received Nash's ball from the right wing.

Seeing this, the audience raised their hands, and the big-screen camera zoomed in for a close-up.

Kobe Bryant's three-threat posture followed by a breakthrough, facing Ginobili's close defense, he stopped and jumped up.

when!The basketball hit the rim and rebounded, and the sound of sighs suddenly resounded throughout the arena.

But he never expected that in the chaotic scramble for the basketball, someone pushed it outside the three-point line, and it happened to fall into Li Yue's hands.

Li Yue didn't look at the time, he jumped up instinctively, and the basketball flew towards the net like a cannonball.

Immediately the whistle sounded at the end of the game, and red lights lit up around the backboard.

boom!The basketball hit the board and rebounded into the net. The Lakers beat the Spurs 119 to 118 and advanced to the Western Conference Finals with a big score of 4 to 2 in the series.

(End of this chapter)