Jim Bass Ambition

Chapter 301 The highest winning percentage in team history

Marcus Camby's rebounding and blocking numbers are gorgeous, but his defensive efficiency is really not very good.

However, as the only player in the Nuggets to wear the label of "defensive champion", in the eyes of many experts in the league, Camby was blamed for the non-defense in the other four positions of the Nuggets. Among them, everyone agreed that with four colander teammates, even if you are Zhang 12 who came back from the dead, and the Lord of the Rings was rejuvenated, you can't make the defense become the forefront of the league. Camby can average 3 rebounds and [-] blocks per game. The data is definitely doing its best.

However, Lakers assistant coach Jeff Bzdelik is one of the few people who knows Camby's true defensive level. If we only talk about defense ability, relying on physical fitness and mobility, Camby can indeed build an air defense net under the basket. But all the defensive contributions he has made will be reflected in the statistics. He will take a step back and deliberately shoot the opponent's defender who breaks in in order to get blocks. below the level.

Those who are good fighters have no great achievements. For example, although Duncan's statistics are never gorgeous, no one doubts his defensive deterrence inside. Just like the world's top goalkeepers rarely appear in the highlights, they will go through the selection first. to block the shot route, and the end result is as if the attacking player is shooting at the goalkeeper.

In response to the overall defensive habits of the Nuggets, the Lakers increased the proportion of pick-and-roll offenses in the second half. Lots of easy mid-range shots.

There is no other reason. When Bzdelik coached the Nuggets last season, he was often beaten to death by this routine. Although the Nuggets' power forward has been upgraded from Skitishvili to Kenyon Martin, but The problem of weak pick-and-roll defense has not improved, and since George Karl left the Sonics, he has also lost the fast rotation defense of the striker that he relied on to reach the finals. The Nuggets played more freely and freely this season.

With the unremitting efforts of Battier and Nocioni in the first half, Anthony also had the embryonic form of "melon quarter", scoring 15 points in the first quarter, 7 points in the second quarter, and 4 shots in the third quarter. 0, no score.

Seeing that the point difference between the two teams continued to widen, George Karl had to make adjustments. Anthony, who was not feeling well, stopped playing the Jazz as the main attacker and relied on Kenyon Martin and Andre Miller's pick-and-roll offense to find opportunities. Martin forced a dislocation to eat Billups alone. Fortunately, Martin felt good in the second half. Those half-hooks and small throws that were missed in the first half were all scored in the second half.

Under Martin's performance, the Nuggets have a tendency to narrow the gap.

However, after a fierce ideological struggle, Stevens chose to continue to stick to the current tactics and increase his defensive strength. He knew that once the score stalemate reached the second half of the third quarter, the physical fitness and touch of the Nuggets starting Both are down, and George Karl will have to field guys like Earl Boykins, DeMar Johnson and Skitishvili -- whose defense is three notches weaker than the starters.

At that time, it will be the Lakers' chance to win.

It's just that Stevens still underestimated the team's combat effectiveness and considered things too complicated.

Marking Kobe is not an easy job at any time. Voshan Leonard is 31 years old. He is 5 centimeters shorter than Kobe and weighs 20 pounds, but he suffers from the fact that the team has no other matchup personnel. There was no plan to let Anthony defend Kobe, so Leonard had to do this thankless job silently.

Unfortunately, what he met was Fei Xia, who had performed poorly in the previous game and was holding back his anger and waiting for an opportunity to vent his anger.

Scoring 17 points in the first half, Kobe's performance can only be described as a routine operation, but in the third quarter, Kobe completely relieved, releasing the suppressed prehistoric power, scoring 4 consecutive three-pointers, plus a pull-bar layup 2 Plus 1, in 2 and a half minutes, he played a wave of 15 to 4 shock waves alone, widening the point difference to 20 points.

It was too late for George Karl to react. After searching the bench, he couldn't find any player capable of defending Kobe. Byron Russell had been out of battle for a long time and had fallen out of the rotation for a long time. Ni White?Does he need to try it?
Carl shook his head and decided to let Kobe go, the hope of winning this game is not great.

With a 20-point lead, the Lakers turned the entire fourth quarter into garbage time, and Ariza and Varejao got hard-won opportunities for actual combat training.

109 to 91, the Lakers beat the Nuggets. The best player in the game was undoubtedly Kobe. The Fei Xia scored 7 three-pointers and scored 42 points. Anthony, who scored 34 points on the opposite side, had no choice but to join the empty scoring group. Brought a free taco to the home crowd.

"I'm not sure if I'm dreaming now, but this is the NBA, a place where miracles happen. Since I was in college, I have always dreamed of being able to stand on the NBA court one day, although not as a player. but I still did it thanks to Mr. Jim Buss who brought me to the Lakers while I was still a volunteer and the rest of it... it was beyond my imagination and I only saw it in the movies Had a similar experience. To be honest, coaching a team is much harder than I imagined. In the first 5 minutes of the game, my mind went blank. The team fell behind. I wanted to do something, but my brain was Uncontrollable, Jeff has much more experience than me. He used to be the head coach of the Nuggets. He reminded me that I should make changes in defense and gave me good advice... Later, our tactics started When it comes to the effect, Kobe's performance is unmatched. We are lucky that we have so many good players on the team. Just put them on the court and they can solve many problems by themselves. In the case of the last loss, we need this game Victory, Mr. Bass once said, if your determination is to compete for the championship, then losing streak is unacceptable." After the game, Brad Stevens, who served as the acting coach, still couldn't restrain his excitement .

Instead of going back to the apartment, Stevens came to Jim's hospital room after the game, bringing the post-win arena tacos, which Jim loves as a snack.

"Congratulations, Brad, you have become the head coach with the highest winning percentage in the history of the Lakers, and you have successfully saved me from the embarrassment of a losing streak, but in the next game you may drop this winning percentage by 50%. My headache is not completely healed, so, are you willing to take the risk?"

(End of this chapter)