I'm teammates with Kobe

Chapter 134 The Origin of Cutting "Huo"
No one thought that after Warcraft came back from injury, the team's offense was messed up. The original quicksilver-like offense was no longer, and it was replaced by the main inside position. Except for Kobe who said nothing, everyone else showed Obvious discomfort.

So after returning to the locker room at halftime, Warcraft said with a smile as usual, "Brothers, I always believe that my old-fashioned style of play can lead the team back to glory, even though the league's style of play has long since changed, because I can Prove yourself right. At that time, after this offensive skill disappears, I will be the only one. Hahaha, I will accept a lot of apprentices like the big dream Olajuwon. Come on, who do you have? Sign up first? You can get a discount, as long as 998, low singles can be brought home! Hahaha..."

Howard was like the kid who never grew up, he always thought people would like his bad jokes.It turned out that after finishing speaking, everyone remained silent, and no one responded, including Du Hong, Clark and others who fooled around with him every day during the injury period. They just grinned at him reluctantly, and then lowered their heads. .

Looking at Kobe again, he simply closed his eyes and rested.

"Hmph, you don't want to talk to me, and I don't like to talk to you." Warcraft thought this way, and then took out his earphones and listened to the music by himself.

At this time, the coaching staff headed by Zen Master knew that there seemed to be a gap between the two aces in the team, but this was not the first time he encountered such a situation. The Lakers had similar experiences before, and he knew very well that the two People with completely different personalities don't always have good results when they get together. This needs to be repaired slowly by themselves, and others cannot give a third voice.

Like O'Neal in Los Angeles, a young Howard approached basketball with a laid-back, smug attitude.Even if he loses, he still believes in his old-fashioned style of play, and he can laugh and laugh without being hit by a low shooting percentage.After all, he was still the most dominant player in the league at the time.

However, Chu Xiao, who was a bystander, had a different feeling. It was the déjà vu that only happened to the Purple and Gold Corps—the team's super shooting guard once again failed to reach an agreement with the team's other core.

In addition to Kobe's legendary honor, he is also one of the most brutal competitors of all time. Kobe's competitiveness is unforgettable for all.He demanded the same drive and responsibility from those around him, and when another teammate didn't meet his standards, they clashed.

Perhaps from the beginning Howard was traded to the Lakers, it was doomed that his stupid way would never be accepted by Kobe.

But Kobe still made concessions, not only tolerated his hip-hop attitude, but also changed his style of play in order to win, and actively played off the ball for Warcraft, so the Lakers have been playing around Warcraft since the start of the preseason.The result was a 6-game losing streak in the preseason and a 4-game losing streak at the start of the regular season. Coach Brown was fired directly.

Later, Howard's mediocre performance forced Kobe to take on more offensive tasks, but he told the media that he felt that he didn't get enough of the ball, and Kobe shot too much.

Kobe didn't say anything after hearing the words.

In the next period of time, injuries caused a lot of trouble for Howard. He was eager to play, but said that he was injured and could not take risks.

So a reporter counted the injuries that Kobe had experienced: He had experienced 24 major injuries, from palms, ankles, shoulders, fingers, wrist bones, knees to teeth, nasal bones, eye sockets... Important parts of the whole body Almost all suffered severe injuries.

But for the "God of War" Kobe, fighting with injuries has always been commonplace.Despite his early discord with Jackson, Jackson has always praised Kobe for his determination to fight through injuries.

So the reporter asked Kobe in an interview whether he would choose to recuperate comfortably or play with injuries. Of course Kobe chose the latter.But the reporter told the interview to Warcraft, who thought it was mocking him.

Warcraft then hit back through the media, saying Bryant was "not a doctor, and I'm not a doctor."

Since then, Kobe has stopped talking about Warcraft or injuries in front of the media, and devoted all his energy to cultivating Chu Xiao, and then waited for Warcraft to return from injury.

After he knew that Warcraft was healthy, he couldn't make any more excuses.

However, Warcraft, who came back from injury, was too obsessed with low-post singles, and his performance was still mediocre.

In the first half, when Chu Xiao and Nash were sitting on the sidelines watching the game, Nash once pointed out the reason for the mediocrity of Warcraft. He said, "Howard is at the stage of his career longing for low-post singles, but the high post is suitable for our team. Pick-and-roll, he rolls down, because he obviously has such good teammates. I think Howard wants to prove himself too much. I don’t know if it’s because of his previous back injury, he doesn’t want to run too much. But he wants to prove that he can play Low. Times are different, unfortunately."

Finally, throughout the first half, Warcraft finally exhausted Kobe's patience with his poor shooting rate of 9 of 1 shots and the way of destroying the team's chemistry.

After the start of the second half, Bryant began to lead the Lakers to fight back.First, he used a layup to score 2 points, then assisted Artest to hit a long-range shot, and assisted Gasol to make a layup. The team gradually narrowed the point difference.

Under his sorting, the team's offense became smooth again, but Warcraft's offensive opportunities were much less. In a fast break, Kobe assisted and dunked successfully, and then scored another 2 points through a tip-up. Although the entire third quarter only scored 4 points, but grabbed 7 rebounds and became the pinnacle of Dinghai.

The Lakers also chased the score to 79-84.

In the fourth quarter, the Lakers continued their style of play in the third quarter. Du Hong dribbled the ball and handed it to Kobe to sort it out after half court. , and then assisted Gasol to hit a dunk, and the Lakers were only 84 points behind the Jazz 87-3.

In the next 6 minutes or so, the two teams scored alternately, and the Jazz always maintained a weak lead, depending on who made a mistake first.

At this moment, Warcraft, who had been "honest" for a whole quarter, became dishonest again. First, he ignored Kobe calling him to come forward for the pick-and-roll, and then started playing low singles while holding the ball. Just when he turned around and prepared to face the frame At the time, the ball was taken away by Jefferson at once.

Warcraft was quite annoyed, and rushed all the way to Jefferson, knocking the latter out of bounds while completing a counter-steal, but the referee whistled to indicate that he had fouled first.

Warcraft was completely annoyed at this time, and threw the ball into the air fiercely, throwing the ball to show dissatisfaction, but was added a technical foul by the referee.

The Jazz get a free throw.

After Xiao Mo hit a free throw, he assisted Millsap to hit a jumper. The Jazz led the Lakers by 6 points and entered a timeout.

Kobe didn't understand Warcraft's behavior of eating a T just now, so he came to him and asked, "Howard, what were you doing just now? Do you know that we are only 3 points behind, isn't eating a T at this time a clear gift for the opponent?"

"I didn't? What's wrong with me?" Howard responded with a smile, not thinking that there was something wrong with his behavior just now.

The Zen master who had already dealt with the "OK contradiction" immediately separated the two, "It's okay, the game is over in 2 minutes, and we still have a chance."

Zen Master said to Howard, "You then get stuck, protect the rebound, and be ready to catch the ball and end the game at any time."

Seeing Warcraft nodded, he pulled Kobe aside and persuaded, "Howard was locked up by a veteran just after his comeback. Give him another chance to play low singles, and you will end the game and let us win this game at home, okay?"

Kobe nodded after taking a deep breath, "Yes!"

In the last 2 minutes, the Lakers 99-105 Jazz, Kobe began to hold the ball at the top of the arc.At this time, everyone knows that Kobe is going to play singles, and it depends on whether anyone can stop him.

As we all know, Kobe's one-on-one ability is unparalleled. In the long history of the NBA, almost no one can beat him in one-on-one.

A media reporter once asked Kobe, "Is there anyone who can beat you one-on-one?"

Kobe just said no!But he changed his words again, "If there was, that person would have retired in 98."

The "that person" he was talking about was the basketball god of the NBA—Michael Jordan.

Jordan is the object of Kobe's catching up and his idol in his life.As we all know, Kobe was only 18 years old when he entered the league. The reason why he rushed to enter the league without playing in the college league in 1996 was that he hoped to play against Jordan earlier. He was afraid that Jordan would retire in a year or two.

In the end, even Jordan had to admit, "Kobe is the only one who can beat me single-handed."

This shows how strong Kobe's one-on-one ability is, but when he opened his posture and prepared to one-on-one with the Jazz team, he was still "guarded".

Without him, the Jazz resorted to a new tactic-cut "Huo".

All of them fouled Howard, Warcraft made 6 of 2 free throws, and the point difference quickly widened. Kobe had no chance to make a shot at all.

In the end, the Lakers lost to the Jazz 103-113.

The "Huo" tactic was born from this.

In fact, the "Huo" tactic was born out of the "Shark" tactic.The earliest "shark" tactic was invented by Nelson, the former head coach of the Mavericks, that is, to use foul tactics to deal with O'Neal and reduce the chance of sharks shooting.Since free throws are O'Neill's Achilles' heel, after hacking "Shark", although he got a free throw opportunity, the possibility of hitting is very small.

Since then, this tactic is not only aimed at the center, but also at those players who have poor free throws but strong lethality.This makes many centers with low free throw percentages very distressed, but for centers with relatively high free throw percentages, such as former Rockets center Yao Ming, the effect of this tactic is not so ideal.

Specifically, when the game is in a hurry, foul the player to make him make a free throw, firstly to prolong his own offensive time, and secondly to waste an offensive opportunity for the opponent.

Howard's free throw percentage in his career is only 58.7%, and this season, his shooting percentage has dropped below 5%, so this tactic has been adopted by many opponents and has repeatedly worked.

(End of this chapter)