NBA: James wants to team up with me

Chapter 106 Can Prince prevent Wang Chong from dying? joke!

"Although the Pistons don't have any particularly outstanding players, they are a complete whole. The five main starting players each perform their duties and work together to build a super strong defensive system. Therefore, even though the opponent is the Pistons, we cannot take it lightly."

Phil Jackson gave a pre-game mobilization in the locker room, "After a whole season of hard work, we have finally reached the stage of the finals. I believe that no one can accept that we have fallen short at this time, so we must all work together and strive for victory without any mistakes. Other ideas…”

When he said this, he glanced at Kobe intentionally or unintentionally.

Wang Chong knew that Kobe was going to cause trouble in the finals. That was because as a time traveler, he already knew the established facts.

But obviously Phil Jackson also noticed some clues, and that was really due to his rich coaching experience as a head coach.

But I am afraid that even Jackson could not have imagined that his warning would not be effective at all, and even he was unable to control the game on the field.

-

There are no changes to the Lakers' starting five, which are still Payton, Kobe, Wang Chong, Malone and O'Neal.

There is no surprise on the Pistons side. The starting guards are Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, forwards Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace, and top insiders. Defensive player Ben Wallace.

I have to admit that as a blue-collar center, Ben Wallace's achievements at this stage are really very rare.

Ben Wallace, who is registered by the league as being 2 meters tall, is actually estimated to be less than 06 meters tall, minus his iconic afro.

When jumping the ball, Ben Wallace and O'Neal stood together as if they were one size smaller. It is hard to imagine that this is one of the few players who can slightly top O'Neal at the basket.

But this is indeed the case. Ben Wallace cannot compete with O'Neal in terms of height or tonnage, but his strength is rare in the league, and because of his lack of height, although Ben Wallace is an inside line He is a center, but he is very mobile. He was able to win the Defensive Player of the Year DPOY award four times because of his ability to help defend in the penalty area.

The two teams started to jump the ball, O'Neal violated the ball, and the ball was awarded directly to the Pistons.

Rasheed Wallace served the ball to Billups in midfield. The latter stood outside the three-point line with the ball, waiting for all his teammates to be in position. Then he passed the ball to Billups who was covering without the ball and then pulled outside the three-point line. Sid Wallace, the latter shot from a 45-degree angle on the right side of the three-point line, and the basketball hit the ball steadily!

3: 0.

After Malone returned from injury, he really felt like a piece of chicken ribs to the Lakers. It was a pity to throw away the food without taste. Not only was the offensive end inefficient and useless at all, the same was true on the defensive end. His footsteps were heavy and slow. Let him often become a colander on the defensive end.

Rasheed Wallace is originally a striker-guard type player. He is tall and agile, and has a relatively accurate long-range shot, which is really difficult to deal with.

The Lakers attacked, but Rasheed Wallace hit a three-pointer due to his own mistake. Malone was somewhat unconvinced and chose to beat Wallace on the offensive end.

But when he caught the ball in the mid-range, his back fell away. Rasheed Wallace didn't even raise his hand, and the latter's shot went straight away from the basket.

Malone has rarely played highlight games since entering the playoffs. Not only does his shooting percentage hover around 40%, but his scoring average is barely in double figures.

However, the Lakers are also used to Malone's forging. Before Malone made a move, O'Neal had already taken the lead and got stuck in position. After grabbing the offensive rebound, he took off and dunked with both hands.

3: 2.

O'Neal's strong response caused the Lakers home fans to cheer loudly.

The game continues and the Pistons serve from the sideline.

Payton actively stepped forward to press and received a foul directly, but he continued to persevere and was full of enthusiasm.

Payton obviously felt very humiliated after being beaten by Parker in the Western Conference Finals, and vowed to avenge his disgrace in the Finals.

The high-intensity close pressing from the beginning made Billups quite uncomfortable. He was accidentally intercepted by Payton. However, when Payton got the ball and wanted to attack, he was surrounded by Pistons players and could only barely pass it. The ball was passed to the outside, and Kobe, who received the ball from the outside, didn't wait for his teammates who were returning to defense to come back, and took a shot directly from outside the three-point line.

"哐——!"

The basketball hit the rim hard, making a crisp sound, and then the rebound was protected by Rasheed Wallace.

The Lakers players, who had just turned around, could only readjust their direction and continue to defend.

The Pistons' tactics are mainly defensive, and their offensive tactics are mostly based on Billups' pick-and-roll and Hamilton's off-ball movement.

During the regular season this season, the Pistons' top scorer was Hamilton, who averaged 17.6 points per game, followed by Billups, who averaged 16.9 points, followed by Wallace, who averaged 13 points, and Prince, who averaged 10 points per game.

The Pistons win by reducing their opponents' scoring ability to a level that is even worse than theirs. To put it simply, they are slow and ugly, and the game is very ugly.

The vast majority of ordinary fans don't like to watch Pistons games. Many of the so-called Pistons Five Tiger fans do it because of their names and the so-called grassroots team names who want to highlight their own. Be different.

The Pistons' offense in this round clearly demonstrated its characteristics.

Hamilton, known as the king of mid-range shots, has always been recognized as a top player in off-the-ball movement.

After the Pistons players were in position, Hamilton led Kobe in circles around the court. After some running and covering, he received a pass from his teammate and shot against the basket when the 24-second offense was about to end.

Then... "哐——."

The same crisp sound of striking iron sounded.

As a defender, due to the characteristics of Hamilton's playing style, most of his shots are long two-pointers, and they are the kind of long two-pointers that are less than half a step away from the three-point line. Naturally, the shooting rate is not much higher at such a distance.

-

At the beginning of the game, both teams were testing each other, and neither team's offensive efficiency was high.

On the Pistons' side, Hamilton was constantly attacking, but there was someone on the Lakers' side accompanying him, and that was Kobe.

In the first quarter of the game, Kobe showed a strong desire to attack, but his efficiency was not high because the Pistons' defensive intensity was indeed not overwhelming.

Although Hamilton has never been selected for the best defensive team, his defensive ability is not bad at all, and the Pistons' defensive system allows him to have a certain fault tolerance rate. When the offensive player passes him and rushes into the Pistons penalty area, he must also Facing the "special care" of top defensive expert Ben Wallace.

That's the case with Kobe.

Choosing mid-to-long-range shots, Kobe could not completely get rid of Hamilton's defense, and the shooting effect was not good. Instead, he chose to break through with the ball and use speed and explosive power to get past Hamilton. Kobe often had to face a more difficult opponent. Ben Wallace, a rookie in the 96 class.

The result was that after the first quarter, the score between the Lakers and Pistons was only 21:19.

For the Pistons, Hamilton made 4 of 1 shots and only scored 3 points.

Kobe Bryant was not much better on the Lakers, scoring only 6 points on 2 of 4 shots. The team's offense in the first quarter was entirely supported by O'Neal. Facing Ben Wallace's defense, O'Neal's dominance at the basket Undiminished at all, he made 5 of 4 shots, 6 of 3 free throws, and scored 11 points in a single quarter.

As for Wang Chong, he unexpectedly encountered some trouble in the first quarter.

Tyshawn Prince, this name may be very unfamiliar to future fans, but in this era, Prince can definitely be regarded as a genius.

<divclass="contentadv">Height is 2 meters, with a wingspan of 06 meters. Prince, who plays a small forward, has a height and wingspan comparable to that of a power forward or even a center.

The advantage of static talent has allowed Prince, whose original ability is not very outstanding, to be selected to the All-Defensive Team four times in his career.

Prince, who entered the league with the 02rd overall pick in the first round of , was only one year ahead of Wang Chong and is currently only a second-year rookie.

Originally, Wang Chong didn't take Prince to heart at this time, and didn't think his defense could limit his offense.

But apparently he underestimated Prince.

Perhaps in a frontal one-on-one defense, it would be difficult for Prince to guard against Wang Chong. After all, his static talent is outstanding, but compared with Wang Chong, he seems a bit mediocre.

But Prince or the Pistons have obviously studied the Lakers' tactics very thoroughly. Prince's defensive position is very particular, and he usually blocks the passing route between Wang Chong and Payton. Whenever Whenever Payton wanted to pass the ball to Wang Chong, he had to give up because of the risk of being intercepted.

This kind of defense can actually only target those fixed-point shooters who can catch and shoot. If the defensive target can attack with the ball, it will have no effect at all.

But here is the problem.

Wang Chong's current tactical position with the Lakers is that of a fixed-point shooter. It's not that he doesn't have the ability to attack with the ball, but with O'Neal and Kobe, his tactical position with the Lakers is indeed limited to this.

Although hugging the thighs has the benefits of hugging the thighs, it also has all the disadvantages.

The poor performance in the first quarter did not affect Kobe's determination in taking shots at all, and even intensified. In the second quarter, Kobe took 8 shots, but only hit 3 goals. O'Neal made 3 of 2 shots, and scored 6 points like Kobe. .

The Lakers only scored 17 points in the second quarter and were completely caught up in the Pistons' defensive rhythm. Although the Pistons only scored 24 points and the difference between the two teams was not widened, it was obvious that the Lakers were gradually at a disadvantage.

Phil Jackson frowned slightly.

In the first half of the game, he warned Kobe many times not to blindly take shots and fall into an infinite loop of singles, but to cooperate with the team's overall tactics as much as possible to create better inside offensive opportunities for O'Neal.

However, Kobe turned a deaf ear and even worsened.

In the first half, he made 14 of 5 shots, with a shooting percentage of only 35.7%. Not only was his offensive efficiency not high, it also led to other teammates not having many opportunities to take action.

O'Neal, who was feeling hot, only got 8 shots in the entire first half, while Wang Chong only took 4 shots, hitting 2 goals and scoring 4 points.

If the game continues at this pace in the second half, the Lakers are likely to lose the home victory in the first game of the Finals.

In fact, the problem does not only lie with Kobe.

Malone and Payton, as expected, habitually stretch their hips.

马龙上半场5投0中，佩顿3投0中，均是0分。

The Lakers' offense is almost entirely supported by O'Neal, who is efficient but can't catch the ball, and Kobe, who is inefficient and relies on a large number of shots to score.

At this moment, a voice sounded in his ear.

"Coach, in the third quarter, let me give the main attack a try."

Jackson, whose thoughts were interrupted, turned around and saw that the person speaking was Wang Chong, who had been on the bench since the second half of the second quarter.

Wang Chong's performance in the first half of the game was average, or he didn't have many opportunities to perform.

Under Prince's targeted defense, he didn't have many opportunities to touch the ball. He hit 4 goals in 2 shots and only scored 4 points.

In fact, after discovering the defensive strategy deployed by the Pistons against Wang Chong, Phil Jackson also thought about using Wang Chong as a breakthrough point.

But after thinking deeply, he rejected the idea.

Although during the regular season, Wang Chong proved his strength as the core of the offense in the few games when O'Neal and Kobe were both injured and absent, but that was the regular season after all, and the playoffs... no, it should be the highest level confrontation. The intensity of the finals was completely different.

He is optimistic about Wang Chong's strength and potential, and is very sure that this player will become the league's top superstar in the future. But at this stage, can Wang Chong, who is still a first-year rookie, take on this important task?

Once such a decision is made, it is a huge gamble! On such an important stage as the finals, no one can afford to bet.

But at this moment, Phil Jackson looked into Wang Chong's eyes, what kind of look was that.

Calm, calm, and... absolute confidence!

After thinking for a moment, Phil Jackson looked at Wang Chong and said: "After the start of the second half, Shaq and Kobe will rest off the court for 2 minutes."

He didn't say it all, but the meaning was very obvious.

In the first half of the game, O'Neal and Kobe almost didn't rest for a minute and played the entire first half.

After such a long intermission, he had to wait another 2 minutes before playing in the third quarter. These 2 minutes were an opportunity for Wang Chong to show and prove himself.

In these 2 minutes, Wang Chong must prove himself in order to gain the trust of Phil Jackson and take on more tasks in the next game.

"2 minutes?"

Wang Chong's mouth curled up slightly.

Is it time for a song?

No problem, 2 minutes is enough for him!

Prince's defense is indeed very good, but for Wang Chong, whose overall ability score is now as high as 89, the threat is actually not great.

The reason why he was unable to perform in the first half was mainly because of his position as a fixed-point shooter in the team.

Once Wang Chong gets the ball, he will let Prince know that guarding him is not that simple.

On the other side, in the Pistons locker room, Larry Brown also kept urging the players to defend well in the second half.

When Prince was mentioned, Brown gave the opponent a thumbs up and praised: "Tyshawn, you did a very good job in the first half. Continue to defend like that and prevent that guy from catching the ball once!"