Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"ball."

Rose ran back, asked his teammates for the ball, and then signaled others to move away. He played against VanVleet, first pretending to break through to the right, then suddenly changed direction, switched the ball to his left hand, lowered his left shoulder, and accelerated to the left. VanVleet quickly adjusted his steps and moved sideways to his right.

However, at this moment, Rose grabbed the basketball with his left hand and sent it forward to the right. His body seemed to be shaking, and he suddenly changed the direction of the breakthrough while moving, breaking through to the right.

This was too sudden, and VanVleet had no time to adjust his steps. He subconsciously reached out to grab it, but he failed to stop Rose and only touched the corner of his clothes.

If it was during Rose's peak period, VanVleet probably wouldn't even be able to touch the corner of his clothes.

Today, Rose's on-the-move change of direction is actually not as fast as in his peak period, but he still passed VanVleet.

"Back up the defense." Van Vleet shouted.

His teammates rushed forward to help defend, and Rose jumped up towards the defensive player and threw the ball in the air with one hand. The basketball drew a high arc and finally fell into the net.

On the Lakers bench, everyone stood up and cheered loudly for Rose.

In a short while, Rose had scored 4 points, which made the Raptors players frown secretly and dared not take it lightly anymore.

In the next round, when Rose came to the frontcourt, he immediately felt the eyes of several Raptors players on him, obviously staring at him.

However, Rose did not hesitate. After calling a pick-and-roll, he still broke through decisively. The Raptors quickly tightened their defense and surrounded Rose.

Ross had already scored two goals in a row, so they had to be on guard.

However, this time Rose did not choose to shoot himself. After breaking through and attracting the defense, he threw the ball to Clarkson on the outside.

This disrupted the Raptors' defensive formation. Seeing Clarkson holding up the basketball outside the three-point line, the Raptors subconsciously rushed towards him. However, Clarkson did not rush to shoot, but just made a fake shot and then accelerated to break through.

"not good."

"Reinforce defense..."

This completely disrupted the Raptors' defense.

Some players rushed towards Clarkson, but Clarkson did not go up himself. Instead, he passed the ball to Kuzma outside the three-point line in the right corner.

Kuzma was completely left alone, with no one two meters in front of him. After receiving the ball, he adjusted slightly, then jumped up and flicked his wrist. With a slight sound, the basketball went through the net.

This is a three-pointer.

Before they knew it, the Lakers had overtaken the score, and under the leadership of Rose and Clarkson, the Lakers' bench lineup gained the upper hand and gradually widened the gap.

This made Coach Nash a little depressed.

We still have Gasol Jr. on the court, while the Lakers don't have any core players, but we still have the upper hand. This is really not right.

Indeed, the Lakers did not have any All-Star players on the court, including Zhuang Yu and Holiday, but Coach Nurse obviously underestimated Rose and Clarkson.

In the season that Clarkson won the Sixth Man of the Year award, his average points per game were close to 20 points.

If Clarkson was not on a strong team like the Lakers, but on a weak team, even if he was not a starter and still played as the sixth man, as long as he was given enough ball rights, he would definitely be able to average 20 points per game.

It’s just because the Lakers have a lot of people who can score. Even during rotation time, there is at least one All-Star player on the court, not to mention Rose now, so Clarkson’s data has been affected.

Even in this case, Clarkson's personal data is not comparable to VanVleet.

And Ross.

Although Rose today can no longer be compared with his peak period, he is the youngest MVP after all, and he has some things that other players do not have.

Maybe he can't guarantee an average of more than 20 points per game throughout the entire season, but at certain times, in certain games, it wouldn't be surprising if he scored 20 or even 30 points.

For example, during the regular season, when Lopez was injured, Rose's performance on the court and his personal data were eye-catching.

Without the impact of injuries, Rose's current strength is naturally not at the All-Star level, but he can definitely compete for the best sixth man.

In other words, although the Lakers do not have All-Star level players on the court, they have two best sixth-man level players.

"hehe......"

On the sidelines, Coach Scott smiled.

The reason why he believes his bench lineup has an advantage is because of Rose and Clarkson.

The performance of the starting lineup today actually did not satisfy Coach Scott. Kerr's three-point shooting was very poor, Zubac was completely at a disadvantage in the interior, and Holiday's performance was not bad, but the opponent had obviously studied him and was very targeted in his defense, consciously not letting him break through and letting him shoot from outside the three-point line, betting on his three-point touch. Holiday's three-point shooting was actually not stable, not as good as Clarkson and Kuzma.

Fortunately, the substitute lineup performed well today.

Especially Ross.

.....

A few more rounds passed in the blink of an eye.

In these rounds, the Raptors mainly played pick-and-roll cooperation on the offensive end, with VanVleet holding the ball on the outside and playing pick-and-roll with Gasol Jr.

After that, VanVleet would shoot if he had the chance, and if he didn't have the chance, he would pass the ball to Gasol Jr., who would use his advantage in the inside to play.

The Lakers are indeed at a disadvantage in terms of Gasol Jr., and Zubac's performance is still somewhat disappointing.

But fortunately, the Lakers played very well on the offensive end.

Not long after scoring two goals in a row, Rose hit another three-pointer from the outside. In just a few minutes, he had already scored 7 points, shooting 4 of 3 and only missing one. Clarkson also performed well. The two of them almost scored all the points on the Lakers side and led the Lakers' bench lineup to gain the upper hand and lead the Raptors by 5 points.

"Requesting a timeout."

Coach Nurse called a timeout, made substitutions with a stern face, and rearranged the tactics.

After the timeout, the Raptors replaced Gasol Jr. with Lowry and Siakam, while VanVleet remained on the court.

The Lakers replaced Cunningham and Nance Jr., and the lineup on the field became Rose, Clarkson, Cunningham, Kuzma, and Nance Jr.

Coach Scott had already anticipated that the Raptors would replace Gasol Jr., so he decisively replaced Zubac with a small lineup.

Seeing that the Lakers still did not replace Holiday and Zhuang Yu, Coach Nurse smiled coldly and couldn't help feeling a little unhappy. Who was he looking down on?

......

on the field.

The Raptors attacked, and Lowry called a pick-and-roll after coming to the frontcourt, then broke through and passed the ball to Siakam. Siakam took the ball and made a fake shot, then broke through, killed into the paint and made a layup.

He has height, wingspan, and sufficient running and jumping ability. Once he rushes into the inside, it is difficult to stop him from scoring with the Lakers' small lineup.

The reason why Coach Nash replaced Siakam was to let him come up and score.

This season, Siakam averaged 16.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. His average points per game ranked second on the team, second only to Leonard and above Lowry.

When he and Leonard play together, Leonard is naturally the offensive core. When Leonard is not on the court, Siakam can fully demonstrate his offensive talent and become the offensive core of the team.

The difference is three points.

Lakers offense.

After reaching the frontcourt, Rose broke through and passed the ball to Clarkson, but just as he passed the ball, a figure flashed and stood between him and Clarkson. The Raptors were prepared and knew that he would pass the ball to Clarkson.

Fortunately, Rose reacted quickly enough, took back the ball he was about to pass, twisted his body in the air to change direction, and passed the ball to Cunningham.

After several more passes, the Lakers still couldn't find a good opportunity to shoot.

Although the Raptors replaced Gasol Jr. at this time and lost their absolute height in the interior, their flexibility was improved instead, and they switched and supplemented defense very quickly.

The Lakers wanted to disrupt the Raptors' defense with a simple breakthrough, but it was not easy to get a chance to shoot.

Seeing that the offensive time was running out, Rose once again stood up, asked for the ball, then made a change of direction, jumped up against the defense, and made a mid-range jump shot, still with a fade away.

This ball was very difficult. The Raptors had already contracted their defense and were ready to siege Rose, so Rose had no way of attacking the basket. With little time left to attack, he could only choose to jump shot facing the defense, and even had to fade away to avoid being blocked.

When Rose threw the ball, the timer lit up.

Swish!

There was a slight sound, and the Lakers fans couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, the ball went in.

......

In a blink of an eye, 2 minutes of the second quarter had passed.

After the Raptors replaced Siakam, their offense and defense improved. Fortunately, Rose on the Lakers side performed exceptionally well, scoring 9 points alone, helping the Lakers to always maintain the lead and lead their opponents by 4 points.

"Requesting a substitution."

Coach Scott nodded in satisfaction and requested a substitution.

He replaced Zhuang Yu with Holiday and Anderson, but did not replace Rose. The lineup on the court became Rose, Holiday, Zhuang Yu, Anderson and Nance Jr.

The Raptors also made substitutions, replacing Leonard and Danny Green. The lineup became Lowry, Danny Green, Leonard, Ibaka and Siakam.

After this substitution, the two sides were still unable to determine the winner, and the score difference remained within a few points.

With only three minutes left in the quarter, Coach Nurse made another substitution, replacing Ibaka with Gasol Jr.

The Raptors began to give the ball to Gasol Jr., allowing Gasol Jr. to play one-on-one with his height and weight advantage in the interior.

The effect is still very good. When Gasol Jr. plays one-on-one in the low post, the Lakers have to provide help defense, and once they go to provide help defense, they will miss people on the outside.

Once Gasol passes the ball, the extroverted Lowry, Danny Green, Leonard, and even Siakam can shoot directly.

After a few rounds, the first quarter ended.

The score became 59:58, and the Raptors were still leading by one point.

At the end of the first quarter, the Raptors were leading by one point, but unexpectedly, at the end of the second quarter, the Raptors were still leading by one point.

But the game didn't continue like this...