Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"Requesting a timeout."

Coach D'Antoni immediately called a timeout. His face looked a little ugly. He didn't expect the score difference to become 9 points, just a little bit away from double digits.

This is certainly not good news for the Rockets, and it also means that Coach D'Antoni's previous expectations have not been achieved.

Even though it consumed some of Zhuang Yu and Holiday's energy, the result was a narrowing of the score difference to 9 points. It is hard to say whether it was a good deal or not.

It’s probably not cost-effective.

"Substitution..."

After several players came off the court, Coach D'Antoni immediately made substitutions, replacing Harden and Ariza, and returning to the main lineup.

At this time, more than 4 minutes had passed in the 4th quarter.

Coach D'Antoni had a serious expression on his face. He spread out the tactical board and said, "There are more than seven minutes left in the game. These are the most crucial seven minutes. We must give 7% of our energy to catch up with the score and overtake it."

"Yes."

A group of players all agreed.

Afterwards, he wrote and drew on the tactical board and made some tactical arrangements.

......

The Lakers here.

A group of players gathered around Coach Scott, whose expression was also very serious. They were now leading by 9 points, which was an advantage, but whether they could maintain this advantage until the end was the key.

"The other team will definitely change their main lineup later, and Coach D'Antoni let Harden rest for so long, obviously wanting Harden to dominate the game in the last few minutes."

"So we need to focus on defending Harden. Zhuang Yu will defend Harden later, and the others should also pay attention to the backup defense."

"Also, let's play our offense. We have more scoring points. Don't play it too simply. Be patient..."

After some arrangements, Coach Scott clapped his hands and signaled the players to return to the court.

At this time, the Lakers also changed players and returned to the main lineup.

......

The Rockets attack.

Paul advanced the ball in the backcourt, and when he reached the frontcourt, he called for a pick-and-roll. Harden then went around the inside and returned to the three-point line.

Paul immediately passed the ball to Harden, and after getting the ball, Harden lowered his center of gravity and made a breakthrough, but only dribbled forward one step in order to force the defensive player to retreat.

At this time, Zhuang Yu was blocked by Capela. The Lakers switched defense and Lopez pounced on Harden. Lopez's speed was naturally no match for Harden, so when he saw Harden lowering his center of gravity to break through, he subconsciously stopped and took a step back.

At this time, Harden did not really break through. He just took a step forward and then immediately retreated, returning to the three-point line, widening the distance between him and Lopez again.

At this time, the distance between the two had reached two meters. Harden no longer had any concerns. He stepped back and immediately took a three-pointer.

Swish!

There was a soft sound and the ball was scored.

The home fans suddenly burst into huge cheers.

Harden hit a three-pointer right at the start, which greatly boosted the morale and excited the home fans.

So what if the difference was 9 points? Hasn’t it become 6 points now?

You'll catch up in a moment.

No, not just catch up, but surpass.

However, the Lakers soon responded. The Lakers' offense still started from Zhuang Yu. When Zhuang Yu broke through with the ball, the Rockets had to shrink their defense. Capela immediately went up to defend. However, Zhuang Yu threw the ball directly into the basket. It looked like a jump shot, but it was actually a pass, assisting Lopez to make an alley-oop dunk.

This is the effect after Lopez came on.

Once Zhuang Yu breaks through, the Rockets can only rely on Capela to provide backup defense, and once Capela goes up to provide backup defense, he will inevitably miss Lopez.

Of course, the Rockets will have other people to switch guard Lopez, but with the Rockets' current lineup, the only one to switch guard Lopez can be P.J. Tucker. His height is obviously not enough. After all, Tucker is a forward, he is only 1 meters tall, which is more than ten centimeters shorter than Lopez.

Only a few dozen seconds later, Lopez and Holiday completed a pick-and-roll. After the pick-and-roll, Lopez went down and Holiday passed the ball to him. At this time, Capela was delayed by Holiday and the inside was empty again.

Swish!

Lopez scored easily.

This made coach D'Antoni frown on the sidelines.

During the timeout just now, he emphasized the defense of Zhuang Yu, but after the timeout, the one who scored consecutively for the Lakers was not Zhuang Yu, but Lopez.

Obviously, Lopez has an absolute advantage in the interior. Once Capela is called out, he can only watch Lopez score.

"Coach, it's not a good idea to let Tucker switch to defend Lopez. How about a change?" The assistant coach suggested to Coach D'Antoni: "Let Ryan Anderson go up. He is at least 208cm tall."

"Yeah." Coach D'Antoni nodded.

Soon the Rockets made another substitution, but they did not replace Tucker. Instead, they replaced Ariza, letting Tucker continue to stay on the court and replacing him with Ryan Anderson.

Capela is still at the 5th position, while Ryan Anderson is at the 4th position. Tucker comes to the 3rd position, replacing Ariza and is responsible for defending Zhuang Yu.

Although Ryan Anderson is not a player who excels in defense, he is 208 cm tall after all. After Capela was pulled out, he was better than Tucker in defending Lopez. Ryan Anderson is also a three-pointer, which will not reduce the Rockets' three-point ability.

After coming on the court, Ryan Anderson also performed well.

First he defended a ball in the paint and grabbed the rebound, then on the offensive end he received a pass from Harden and made a three-pointer.

The effect of this substitution was immediate.

......

Lakers offense.

Although Ryan Anderson's performance was obvious after he came on, Coach Scott was not panicked or anxious, because he knew that Zhuang Yu could handle it.

After arriving at the front court, Zhuang Yu ran back to request, and then decisively played one-on-one. Since Lopez's chance was not so good, he would do it himself.

He first changed direction continuously, then suddenly took a step back and jumped up directly, facing Tucker with a mid-range fadeaway jump shot.

Tucker rushed forward and stretched out his arms.

Swish!

The ball still hit the target.

Tucker had no choice. His height was comparable to Zhuang Yu's, and Zhuang Yu also took a lateral step back and faded away. He could only interfere as much as possible.

In the last few rounds, both sides played well back and forth, and the score was slightly narrowed, but only a little bit, from 9 points to 6 points.

However, the Rockets were unable to continue narrowing the gap.

At this time, seeing that the game time was getting less and less, Paul stood up, moved sideways with the help of a pick-and-roll, and then made a three-pointer, narrowing the gap to three points.

The Lakers immediately responded. Holiday broke through and attracted the defense before passing the ball to Lopez. Ryan Anderson quickly made up for the defense, and Lopez passed the ball to Kyle Anderson who was cutting to the basket. Kyle Anderson easily made a layup.

Turning around, Harden once again staged a collision, attacking the basket and causing Lopez to foul, and he made both free throws...

Before I knew it, there were only two minutes left in the game.

"Requesting a timeout."

The Lakers called a timeout.

......

in the audience.

"With two minutes left and a three-point difference, our chance has come. We only need to make one more three-pointer to tie the score."

"There is more than enough time. If we play well in the last two minutes, we can win."

"Go Rocket!"

The home fans shouted excitedly. The score difference from nine points was reduced to three points, which gave them hope of a reversal. They were all looking forward to it at this moment.

There were also many Lakers fans shouting towards the court, cheering for the Lakers. Although the Rockets played well in the past few minutes, the Lakers were still leading.

......

"Let me tell you..."

Coach Scott spread out the tactical board and said as he drew the tactics: "There are only two minutes left. We need to further strengthen our defense, especially the three-point defense. And the offense..."

He looked at Zhuang Yu, "Zhuang Yu, I'll leave these last two minutes to you."

"Don't worry." Zhuang Yu nodded confidently.

After some arrangements, the pause ended.

Both sides returned to the field and neither made any substitutions.

At this time, the Lakers had the ball. Holiday advanced with the ball. After reaching the frontcourt, he wanted to pass the ball to Zhuang Yu. However, Zhuang Yu did not ask for the ball directly, but made a gesture to him.

Holiday understood what he meant and called a pick-and-roll first. When Lopez came up to the pick-and-roll, he moved to the left and then passed the ball back to Lopez.

After getting the ball, Lopez moved to the right, while Zhuang Yu had already run back and moved to the left. The two of them ran in a cross-position. Lopez passed the ball to Zhuang Yu and set a screen for Zhuang Yu, allowing Zhuang Yu to get rid of the defender and immediately took a three-point shot after receiving the ball.

This time, Zhuang Yu's shot was very decisive and resolute, and Lopez's cover was also very good, blocking the pursuing defender tightly.

"this is a good chance."

"We have the ball!"

In the audience, there were fans shouting.

Then the basketball went through the net and hit the target accurately.

After this three-pointer, the gap between the two sides widened to 6 points again, and there was only more than a minute left in the game.

The Rockets are attacking.

After Paul reached the frontcourt, he tried to make a tactical cooperation, but failed. He had to pass the ball to Harden and let Harden handle it.

Harden first called for a pick-and-roll to get rid of Zhuang Yu and then set up a mismatch one-on-one, but he still failed.

At this time, the Lakers' defensive intensity was further improved.

After the pick-and-roll, the Lakers quickly moved forward to delay, and Zhuang Yu immediately bypassed the defender and returned to Harden.

Harden hesitated for a moment, but still chose to pass the ball, but his teammates failed to make the shot.

The basketball bounced out of the hoop, Lopez grabbed the rebound and passed it to Holiday. At this time, Zhuang Yu had already run quickly to the frontcourt.

"not good."

"Hurry up..."

Rockets fans exclaimed loudly.

At this time, the Rockets players also reacted and chased after Zhuang Yu, but Zhuang Yu was too fast and left everyone behind in just a few steps.

Holiday pushed the basketball with both hands and it flew to the front court. It was given to Zhuang Yu just in time. Without even stopping, he reached out and grabbed the basketball. He pushed off the floor with his left foot and jumped up. He grabbed the basketball with his right hand and swung it towards the basket like a battle axe.

With a "clang", the basketball was slammed into the basket by Zhuang Yu, and he performed an explosive tomahawk slam dunk that shocked everyone.

There were bursts of exclamations and gasps from the audience.

The home fans were silent, and they had to admit that Zhuang Yu's tomahawk slam dunk was extremely explosive and beautiful.