Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"Oh, interesting..."

Coach Scott also noticed this problem, but he just smiled. Maybe the situation is different from what some fans think, but the game has just begun.

After several rounds, neither side was able to gain much advantage, and the score became 8:7, with the Lakers leading by one point.

on the field.

The Rockets attacked, Paul started to advance with the ball, and after reaching the frontcourt he still played a tactical coordination first, but no good opportunity came up, so he passed the ball to Harden. Harden called for a pick-and-roll, and after switching defense, he pretended to break through, but ended up taking a step back jump shot.

After the switch of defense, the person standing in front of Harden has become Lopez, and Lopez's speed naturally cannot keep up with Harden, so he is a little slower in rushing forward, and the step-back jump shot is Harden's ultimate weapon.

The basketball drew an arc and finally hit the target accurately.

After this three-pointer, the score between the two sides became 10:8, and the Rockets took the lead.

“That was a beautiful shot.”

“Harden is awesome.”

The home fans shouted excitedly, cheering for Harden and the Rockets' lead.

Coach D'Antoni looked at Coach Scott, but Coach Scott did not call a timeout or make a substitution. He remained calm and even had a smile on his face.

"You can still laugh after being overtaken by the score?" Coach D'Antoni narrowed his eyes.

The reason why Coach Scott could still laugh was because he believed in the players on the field and believed in Zhuang Yu. It was just a matter of being overtaken by two points, which was nothing.

......

on the field.

Zhuang Yu exchanged glances with his teammates, and when they came to the front court, Holiday passed the ball to Zhuang Yu, who made a gesture. Lopez came up to screen, and then Zhuang Yu moved to the right, but did not break through, pausing to pretend to shoot a three-pointer.

Suddenly, not only Capela, who was delayed, pounced on Zhuang Yu, but Ariza, who was blocked by Lopez, also rushed towards Zhuang Yu in a hurry.

Lopez was completely left alone.

Zhuang Yu passed the ball behind his back without even looking at anyone. He grabbed the basketball with his right hand and slapped it behind his back. The basketball bounced off the floor and flew towards Lopez.

Lopez grabbed the basketball. There was no one within two meters of him. He calmly glanced at the basket before throwing the ball.

Swish!

The ball went in, and it was still a three-pointer.

The score was reversed again. Coach D'Antoni frowned slightly. He thought Zhuang Yu would stand up and fight back, but he didn't expect it to be Lopez.

For a period of time afterwards, Zhuang Yu of the Lakers reduced his personal shots and began to use himself to attract defense and create opportunities for his teammates.

Because the No. 1 position in the Rockets' lineup is Paul, who is much shorter than Zhuang Yu.

Harden is at the No. 2 position, and defense is not Harden's strong point, especially defense at the line, so they have to use Ariza at the No. 3 position to match up with Zhuang Yu.

Using Ariza at position 3 against Zhuang Yu at position 2 is itself a defensive mismatch, forcing Harden to only defend Korver at position 3. Even if Korver and Kyle Anderson of the Lakers play a simple screen and hand-off, Tucker will defend Korver while Harden switches to defend Kyle Anderson.

Although Kyle Anderson is not good at offense, he can certainly play against a guard with his height and wingspan.

For a while after Lopez hit the three-pointer, Zhuang Yu kept feeding the ball to Kyle Anderson and Korver, asking them to form a staggered offense.

The effect is very good.

Korver hit a three-pointer, Kyle Anderson first hit a layup, then broke through and caused a foul and made one of two free throws.

The two players each scored three points, changing the score to 17:14.

Moreover, Zhuang Yu soon broke through again and threw the ball into the basket, assisting Lopez to score two more points with an alley-oop dunk, and the score between the two sides became 19:14.

Coach D'Antoni was a little uneasy now.

But seeing that Coach Scott still had a calm expression, he resisted the urge to call a timeout and just rushed onto the court and gestured to Harden and the others to defend better.

However, defense is not the Rockets' strong point. Their advantage is offense and three-pointers from the outside.

So after coming to the frontcourt, Harden first took the initiative to ask for the ball, attracted the defense with a single play, and then passed the ball to his teammates, allowing Paul to shoot a three-pointer, which also hit the target.

After a while, the first quarter was already halfway through.

Coach Scott looked at the time and started making substitutions, gradually replacing the main lineup with the rotation lineup.

Soon, Lopez was the only starting player left on the court.

The reason why Lopez was kept was that the Rockets had already replaced Capela, and there was no one in their substitute lineup who could replace Capela and Lopez. So putting Lopez on the court would have a positional advantage, and Coach Scott would not worry about falling behind.

This is true.

Lopez was able to have his way in the interior at this time, constantly attacking the Rockets' basket, which made coach D'Antoni frown.

Seeing that there were only two minutes left in the first quarter, Coach D'Antoni replaced Capela again.

However, it would be impossible to gain the upper hand if we change it at this time.

When the first quarter ended, the score was 1:34, with the Lakers leading by 27 points.

"The rotation lineup is still a bit of a disadvantage."

"There's nothing we can do about it. The Lakers have the Big Three and Clarkson, while the Rockets' rotation only relies on Eric Gordon, so they definitely can't have the upper hand."

In the audience, fans were discussing.

In terms of lineup, the Rockets do not have an advantage.

At best, they are just two giants, Paul + Harden, and Paul didn't even make the All-Star team this season.

The Lakers, on the other hand, have the Big Three and Clarkson, who has won the Best Sixth Man Award. No matter when, the Lakers can guarantee that there will be an All-Star player on the court to partner with Clarkson, and the rotation lineup depth is better than that of the Rockets.

Coach D'Antoni understands this, too.

He is already considering whether to adjust the playing time of Paul and Harden in the last three quarters, allowing the two to play more time to ensure the competitiveness of the rotation lineup.

Otherwise, even if the main lineup does not suffer, it is not a big deal if they lose points once the rotation lineup comes on.

......

After one quarter, the Rockets were trailing by 6 points, which was actually not a big difference. However, when entering the second quarter, the gap between the two sides was quickly widened.

At this time, the Lakers still had a rotation lineup, but Zhuang Yu was sent to play with Clarkson and the substitute players.

Under the repeated bombardment of the two, the Rockets were somewhat unable to resist. They could not defend Clarkson, let alone Zhuang Yu, and fell completely into a disadvantage.

really……

Coach D'Antoni shook his head and substituted Harden in. Before he came on the court, he told Harden: "All you have to do is score."

"Yes." Harden responded and walked onto the court.

The Lakers were not surprised to see Harden being substituted in. Zhuang Yu smiled and patted Clarkson on the shoulder, saying to him, "Switch in a minute. I'll guard Harden."

Clarkson grinned: "OK."

This season, Zhuang Yu averaged 32.5 points per game and once again won the scoring title, and the person ranking behind him in terms of average points per game was Harden.

They are the only two players in the league this season averaging more than 30 points per game.

In other words.

If it weren't for Zhuang Yu, Harden would be the scoring champion this season.

Moreover, the two are the biggest contenders for the regular season MVP.

Last season, Zhuang Yu, Harden and Westbrook dominated the top three of the MVP list for a long time, but in the end Westbrook won the regular season MVP with an average of 30+10+10 triple-double.

This season, the Thunder formed a Big Three, and Westbrook shared some of the ball rights, and his personal data declined to 25+10+10.

Although it is still a triple-double, it is indeed inferior to last season.

In addition, the Thunder's record did not meet people's expectations, so Westbrook has been lagging behind Harden and Zhuang Yu in the MVP rankings.

After all, Harden and Zhuang Yu are better than Westbrook in terms of both personal data and team record.

Therefore, Westbrook is likely to miss the regular season MVP this season, and the most likely to win the regular season MVP are Zhuang Yu and Harden.

Under such circumstances, fans have long been looking forward to the strong confrontation between the two on the court.

In the eyes of many people, this is not just the Western Conference Finals, but also a series that determines who will win the regular season MVP.

In the past, the regular season MVP award has been announced at this time.

However, after the NBA reform last year, it began to hold award ceremonies, and the regular season MVP, best defensive player, best sixth man, best coach and other awards were announced at the award ceremony after the finals.

Although the awards are still regular season awards, since they are presented after the finals, they will inevitably be affected by the playoffs.

Some players perform very well in the regular season, but are not as good as their competitors in the playoffs. If the performances of two players in the regular season are not much different, they may end up losing to their opponents and miss out on certain awards.

Just like the regular season MVP.

During the regular season, Zhuang Yu's personal data was almost the same as Harden's.

Among the three main data, Zhuang Yu's average points and average rebounds per game are higher, while Harden's average assists per game is higher than Zhuang Yu. On average, the two's personal data are almost the same, but the Rockets' record is better than the Lakers.

Therefore, the discussion surrounding who will be the regular season MVP has been going on, but it is still confusing because both Zhuang Yu and Harden performed extremely well.

In this case, the two sides met again in the Western Conference Finals.

Whoever wins this series will have a high chance of winning the regular season MVP award.

That is the regular season MVP. Neither Harden nor Zhuang Yu has ever won it. Both of them want to win this award.

There were not many direct clashes between the two sides in the first quarter, but at this time both sides were rotating their lineups, and Zhuang Yu and Harden were the absolute core of their respective teams on the court.

So Zhuang Yu took the initiative to step forward and chose to defend Harden and confront Harden directly...