lakers championship

Chapter 242

Since being traded from the Kings to the Lakers in February, the outside world has greatly changed Cousins' style.In the media reports, the guy who likes to cause trouble disappears, and instead appears a good player who can even endure malicious provocations in order to win.The media and fans agree that this is due to the excellent team culture of the Lakers.

Now, Cousins ​​has stood up again and publicly stated that there is a problem with the coach's tactics.

It seems that the familiar Cousins ​​is back.

A look of embarrassment appeared on Wharton's face, and he said unnaturally: "The problem is not the defense, but our offense is limited. You need to run more and pass more."

When Cousins ​​heard this, he was about to say something more, but Tianyang stopped him with his eyes.

In desperation, Cousins ​​bulged his cheeks with an extremely reluctant expression on his face.

The timeout ended in a blink of an eye, the game between the two teams continued, and the Lakers attacked.

Tianyang took the ball to the right wing, and the Spurs still resolutely implemented the defensive tactics of intercepting the pass.

But this time, according to Wharton's instructions, Ingram started from the left wing and rushed to the top of the arc, and Cousins ​​started from the left elbow and rushed to the right elbow. In a daze, Randall made an off-ball screen for Ingram, Tianyang Sideways pass.

Ingram received the ball at the top of the arc and made a breakthrough towards the inside. Alder, who switched defenses, chased after him. Cousins ​​returned from his right elbow to cover. Gasol chased like a snail. Ingram took the opportunity to start the left hand basket.

Hit, get 2 points.

The Spurs changed sides to attack, and Mill dribbled the ball across half court and handed it to Leonard at the top of the arc.

Alder stepped forward to do a pick-and-roll on the right, and Randall quickly switched defenses.

That thought, Leonard, who was dribbling to the right, suddenly pulled the ball and turned to break through to the left, and Ingram hurriedly chased it.

In this way, Randall went to the right, Ingram went to the left, and Alder was completely unattended.

Leonard made an emergency stop and passed the ball to the inside. Ade took two steps to catch the ball and dunked with both hands.

Cheers resounded from the ATT center, Popovich smiled, and Wharton's eyes flickered.

……

In the TNT commentary, O'Neal shook his head and said: "The Lakers have made changes in offense, but they still haven't made any progress in defending the Spurs' pick-and-roll. If they continue to play like this, they will basically lose."

Barkley: "What is Walton thinking? Every offense, the Lakers struggled to run complex tactics to get 2 points, and the Spurs scored 2 points with a simple pick-and-roll. They didn't take advantage of the Lakers at all!"

Kenny: "This is not the Wharton we are familiar with, what's wrong with him?"

……

In the blink of an eye, the first half ended and the Lakers scored 52 points. Considering that it was the playoffs and the opponent was the experienced defensive Spurs, this result was acceptable.But what is unacceptable is that the Spurs scored 64 points, 12 points higher than the halftime average against the Thunder.In other words, the Lakers' defense is not as good as the eliminated Thunder.

In the Lakers locker room, Tianyang lay on a chair, covered his face with a wet towel, and took deep breaths to relax and recover; Cousins ​​stared down at the floor, and Nick Young wanted to make fun of him, but got no response.

After Walton accepted the halftime interview, he hurried back to the locker room and began to make a halftime summary.

"Basically speaking, our offense is no longer a problem, and our shooting percentage is within the normal range. It's just that on defense, the Spurs' pick-and-roll is not enough to deal with, and the speed of changing defenses is faster..."

"That's not the problem at all!" Cousins ​​stood up from the chair and threw away the towel in his hand.

It was the first time in the Lakers that Walton's speech was interrupted. Not to mention ordinary players, even Metta World Peace, who has always been frizzy, opened his eyes wide in surprise, as if saying, 'You are crazy! '.

Everyone felt that a storm was coming, and they all turned their heads to think about countermeasures, but Tianyang didn't take it seriously, he knew that Wharton and Cousins ​​were people who would not have conflicts.

People with a more anxious temper like Cousins ​​are often relatively simple. They don't have so many small things in their hearts. They do everything to win the game, and good communication can solve the problem.Wharton is even more self-cultivated. He has been teammates with Kobe, coached Curry, Thompson, and Green, and played under Zen Master for many years. It can be said that he knows how to get along with superstars.

"You insist that Tianyang's tactics should be used?" Wharton pointed it out directly.

"Before you were afraid of taking risks, you should give it a try now, right?" Cousins ​​was furious.

"Besides the fear of taking risks, there are other factors, Tianyang, you should understand, right?" Wharton turned his head and said.

When Tianyang was suddenly mentioned, everyone was stunned again, and Cousins ​​couldn't help scratching his head.

"At first I thought you were worried about revealing your hole cards too early. After all, Popovich is a master tactician and can easily make adjustments based on the opponent's performance, but now I think you want to completely limit the strongest tactics of the Spurs, and then kill them in one wave. Am I right?" Tianyang blinked and said.

There are two most ruthless ways to defeat a team. One is to completely let it play the strongest tactics, such as the Warriors pass and cut; the other is to completely restrict its strongest tactics, such as the Spurs pick-and-roll.

SkyOcean's tactics also restricted the Spurs' pick-and-rolls, but they didn't do it thoroughly. They used it more, and they might win a game or lose a game. What Wharton wanted to do was to kill people and defeat the Spurs from an ideological level.

"Actually, I think the analysis of EPSN experts Andrew Han and Kevin Arnolds makes sense. We can't play a protracted game with the Spurs. We don't have that much experience. We have to kill them all in one wave." Wharton's eyes flashed decisively.

"Then why didn't you say it earlier? Let me guess, I thought you were jealous of Tianyang's talent!" Cousins ​​sat down on the chair in relief.

"I don't want you to have the slightest chance, otherwise it will be easy to fail to execute defensively." Wharton finally expressed his true thoughts. Everyone in the locker room thought about it and nodded silently.

Ordinary people tend to get confused when they have two or more choices.Even after making a choice, once you encounter difficulties, you will always subconsciously think of another choice.Followed by, may be slack and give up.

"Then next, I'll defend Leonard?" Tianyang said casually.

"Well, Ingram switched to defending Green, and Nick Young switched to defending Mills." Wharton seemed to have this intention a long time ago, and was not surprised at Tianyang's words, and made other arrangements.

Everyone else in the locker room was a little confused, how did Tianyang defend against Leonard?
There is an absolute gap in weight, height, and strength. It may be possible to defend once or twice, but there are still two quarters of the game. Tianyang has already consumed a lot of energy in the first half.
In addition, they were already 12 points behind. If they didn't guard against it and the point difference went straight to 20, it would be over.

Others couldn't figure it out after much deliberation, but they knew very well that there was absolutely no gap between Tianyang and Wharton because of the previous tactical debate. Instead, they connected with each other and thought of it completely.

(End of this chapter)