Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"Requesting a timeout."

Coach Stotts called a timeout and waited for several players to come off the court. He said with a dark face, "Our defense was terrible."

Several players lowered their heads and remained silent. They didn't know what to say. They had actually tried their best to defend, but still allowed Zhuang Yu to score too many goals.

The fourteen-point difference is in front of us and is irrefutable.

"Turner, you go ahead."

Coach Stotts spread out the tactical board: "Substitute Lehman, and you will defend Zhuang Yu later. Give him physical confrontation, defend a little bit, and don't give him the opportunity to shoot three-pointers. Also, everyone else should pay attention, if he gets away with the screen, you must rush over to make up for it immediately."

"Yes."

"clear."

Several people agreed.

The most urgent task now is to limit Zhuang Yu's offense and not let him score so recklessly.

After some arrangements, Coach Stokes looked at Lillard and McCollum again: "We need to play more resolutely on the offensive end, but don't play too simply. The Lakers' defense is very strong. We must try our best to seek mismatches and find good enough opportunities before shooting."

They both nodded.

......

Soon, the pause ends.

At this time, there was not much time left in the second quarter.

After returning to the court, the Lakers had already made another personnel rotation, and only then did they change to the starting lineup.

In fact, the last few minutes were just an attempt by Coach Scott.

Compared with the Trail Blazers, the Lakers did not take the outcome of this game so seriously.

For the Lakers, it's not just this game. The first half of the regular season, or even the entire regular season, is not the focus. The focus is the playoffs.

Unless there are any unexpected events, it is a foregone conclusion that the Lakers will enter the playoffs.

Therefore, the regular season does not mean much to them, and they do not want to pursue the best regular season record like the Warriors did in the past or the Rockets last season.

They have only one goal, and that is to defend their title.

So everything has to serve the playoffs.

As the defending champions, the Lakers have enough confidence to ignore the regular season games, even if this is the first game of the regular season.

So when the Trail Blazers saw that the situation was not right in the second quarter, they immediately replaced their main lineup, but the Lakers were not in a hurry to make substitutions and continued to respond with a rotating lineup.

It was not until this time that the Lakers changed their starting lineup.

After coming onto the court, the Trail Blazers attacked.

Lillard pushed the ball to the front court, but did not rush to attack. Instead, he gestured to his teammates, indicating that everyone should run according to the tactics...

After a series of passes and runs, they finally got a chance to shoot. The ball was given to Aminu, who made a low jump shot on the right side.

"Hey, it's not Lillard or McCollum who's shooting this time?"

"It seems that the Trail Blazers have also reacted. They obviously played this game with more patience."

Some people are discussing.

Zhuang Yu also noticed it.

He winked at his teammates, and they understood and began to strengthen the defense on Turner, Aminu and Nurkic.

For the Lakers, they are not afraid of Lillard and McCollum attacking with the ball, and they are even happy to see them attack more.

Because the Lakers have one of the best backcourt defenses in the entire league.

The back line composed of Zhuang Yu and Holiday can effectively limit Lillard and McCollum and reduce their offensive efficiency. Even if Lillard and McCollum can score some points, as long as their efficiency is not high enough, it will be difficult for them to gain the upper hand.

But it doesn't allow the Trail Blazers to play more points. Once they play more points, the offensive efficiency may improve.

The Lakers strengthened their defense, and the Trail Blazers also strengthened their defense against Zhuang Yu. Previously, it was McCollum defending Zhuang Yu, but now it has become Evan Turner.

Turner is 201cm tall and is better at defense than McCollum. With the help of Aminu and others to assist and make up for the defense, the effect is indeed much better.

However, it’s not just Zhuang Yu who can score on the Lakers side.

When the Trail Blazers focused on defending Zhuang Yu, Holiday, Korver, Anderson and Lopez from the Lakers began to exert their strength and scored points one after another.

This made the Trail Blazers very helpless. They defended Zhuang Yu but failed to defend other players of the Lakers.

After a few rounds, the gap between the two sides only narrowed slightly. By the end of the second quarter, the Lakers were still leading by 2 points.

This did not satisfy Coach Stotts. He frowned and made some arrangements during the halftime break.

......

Soon, the second half begins.

Entering the third quarter, both teams sent out their starting lineups.

The Trail Blazers wanted to play in more places, but the Lakers only let Holiday and Zhuang Yu defend Lillard and McCollum, while the others did not relax their defense against other Trail Blazers players at all.

In terms of overall lineup, the Lakers are undoubtedly stronger, especially in defense.

Even after more than three minutes of the third quarter, Coach Scott replaced Korver with Nance Jr., letting Nance Jr. play the 4 position and Anderson play the 3 position.

In this way, not only are the defenses of positions 1 and 2 strong enough, but positions 3, 4, and 5 also have sufficient individual defensive capabilities. When combined together, the Lakers' defense becomes even tighter, like an iron wall.

Faced with such a defense, the Trail Blazers can only rely on Lillard and McCollum for offense.

However, McCollum's defensive efficiency against Zhuang Yu was very low. He also tried to use pick-and-roll to switch defense before playing, but Zhuang Yu's predictive ability was too strong and his speed was too fast. Even a pick-and-roll might not be able to shake him off, which made McCollum very helpless.

Lillard, on the other hand, is still scoring points.

First of all, Lillard's scoring ability is stronger than McCollum's, and once he gets the touch, many of his shots are completely unreasonable.

Secondly, it was Holiday, not Zhuang Yu, who was defending Lillard. Holiday's defense was very good, but still a little worse than Zhuang Yu.

However, even though Lillard continued to score, the Trail Blazers were always behind in the score.

Because the Lakers players are all scoring.

Zhuang Yu was scoring, Holiday Anderson, and Lopez were all scoring. Only Nance Jr. didn't score much, but he was only responsible for defense.

On one side, Lillard is fighting alone, while on the other side, the Lakers are blooming in multiple places. The offensive efficiency of both sides is completely different.

By the middle of the third quarter, the gap between the two sides had widened to 3 points again.

Coach Stokes called a timeout with his brows furrowed. Lillard played very well today, but they were still far behind.

Where is the problem?

Obviously, Lillard alone is not enough, and other players need to step up and score, but the Lakers' defense is too strong.

During the timeout, Coach Stokes first made substitutions and then made some adjustments to the offense.

When the timeout was over, the Lakers had gradually replaced their main players. Zhuang Yu, Holiday and Anderson were all replaced, leaving only Lopez to lead the bench lineup.

The Trail Blazers kept McCollum.

Although Zhuang Yu was not on the court at this time, Holiday was responsible for defending McCollum, and the defensive pressure on Holiday was still very high.

"boom!"

With a dull thud, McCollum's shot missed.

He cursed in frustration and quickly turned around to retreat.

"Hey......"

Coach Stotts sighed inwardly.

McCollum's strength is still a little lacking, especially when fighting tough battles.

......

In a blink of an eye, the third quarter ended and the Lakers led by 3 points.

Trailing by 16 points, the Trail Blazers had little hope of a comeback in the final quarter, but they did not give up.

After entering the last quarter, Coach Stotts quickly sent Lillard on the field. Now the only one who can be relied on is Lillard.

Lillard did not disappoint Coach Stokes and scored points one after another after he came on the court.

After a while, the gap between the two sides was narrowed to single digits.

However, Coach Scott was not flustered. He looked at the time, called a timeout, and sent Zhuang Yu and Anderson up.

Anderson was responsible for organization, while Zhuang Yu focused on offense.

At this time, there were only a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, and Zhuang Yu started scoring and began to dominate the game.

First, he made a step-back three-pointer from outside the three-point line, and then he broke through and scored 2+1. He scored 6 points in a row, widening the gap between the two sides to double digits.

Lillard was still trying to turn the game around on his own. He shot from beyond the three-point line and indeed made two three-pointers. In a short period of time, he made 3 of 2 three-pointers and scored six points.

However, turning around, Zhuang Yu returned an answerball, shooting directly from two meters outside the three-point line, making an ultra-long three-pointer and hitting it steadily.

After the ball was made, Zhuang Yu looked at Lillard and gave him a provocative look.

Lillard was annoyed, and when he came to the offensive end, he also shot a long three-pointer, but this time he missed.

For a moment, the situation completely turned in favor of the Lakers.

Although Lillard was still scoring later, it was no longer important.

"Shh!"

With a slight click, Lillard made a layup.

Anderson frowned and asked Zhuang Yu: "Should we just pull him down?"

"No need." Zhuang Yu said with a smile: "What if he gets a high score? The game is already a foregone conclusion."

"That's right." Anderson also laughed.

There were only two minutes left in the game, and the Lakers were still leading by more than ten points. The game had already lost its suspense in advance. What would it matter even if Lillard scored a few more points?

In the end, it was just an empty attack.