NBA: James wants to team up with me

Chapter 78 Anxiety from Kobe Bryant

Wang Chong's unexpected factor wiped out the Rockets' slight advantage.

In the first quarter of the game, the score between the two teams was 33:30, and the Lakers were only 3 points behind.

As the game entered the second quarter, Kobe's touch began to gradually pick up. He made 7 of 4 shots in the entire quarter and 2 of 2 free throws. O'Neal, who made 4 of 3 shots and 6 of 4 free throws, scored 10 points at the same time. The Lakers once again scored 30 points in the second quarter. Scored a high score of points, but the Rockets' firepower obviously began to fail to keep up.

Facing O'Neal who launched a fierce attack on the Rockets' penalty area, Dayao was not to be outdone and scored 6 points on 4 of 8 shots. However, although he could compete with O'Neal, other teammates could not.

Francis was not as efficient as the first quarter in the second quarter. He made only 4 of 1 shots and only scored 2 points and 2 assists. Among other main players, only Jim Jackson scored 6 points.

As a result, the Rockets only scored 24 points in the second quarter, and their slim 3-point lead in the first quarter was overtaken.

In the third quarter of the second half, things got even worse.

The Rockets' offense suddenly misfired. Francis continued his poor touch and made 5 of 1 shots. Even Dayao made 3 of 0 shots and failed to score a single point in the quarter.

火箭队在第三节一共只有16分入账，湖人却轰下27分，其中科比10投4中再得11分，王崇也得到6分。

In the last quarter of the game, the point difference had widened to more than double digits, and it seemed that the Lakers' victory was almost certain.

Unexpectedly, Kobe Bryant was actually having trouble with Fred at this time. He made 7 of 1 shots in a single quarter. He obviously had a bad hand but still took crazy shots. The Lakers took this opportunity to launch a 12:2 attack wave, closing the score in one fell swoop. to within 2 minutes.

At the critical moment, Phil Jackson decisively put Kobe on the bench, and the offensive tactics were changed to Payton and Wang Chong's pick-and-roll tactics and O'Neal's inside singles.

The effect of this adjustment is outstanding.

Wang Chong's efficient performance in the first three quarters of the game has made the Rockets take shots and invest more defense on him. As a result, Payton used this to rush to the basket to cause damage, scoring 3 points in a row on 2 of 4 shots. In addition, O'Neal forced a big blow under the basket. Yao fouled and scored a free throw. The Lakers finally stabilized their victory and won the game.

104: 99.

The Lakers had no danger at home and won the game with a 5-point advantage.

In the CCTV studio, Director Yu sighed. "Unfortunately, just a little bit, the Rockets fell short in the end and failed to achieve a major comeback."

In the game between the Lakers and the Rockets, Chinese fans will definitely prefer the Rockets to win. After all, Wang Chong is only a Chinese-American, but Yao is a real player from China. However, the Lakers themselves have won the championship in the past four years. A super strong team that has won three consecutive championships, the Rockets are a mid-to-lower team in the league that has not been able to break into the playoffs for several seasons. It is already rare to be able to push the Lakers to this level in Los Angeles.

"The Lakers have indeed become stronger with the arrival of Wang Chong. They no longer need to rely on Kobe Bryant alone to attack the outside. When Kobe is not feeling good, Wang Chong can also shoulder the important scoring task from the outside."

"In this game, although Kobe Bryant scored a game-high 26 points with 9 shots and 23 field goals, Wang Chong, who made 13 of 7 shots, 2 of 1 three-pointers, and 4 of 4 free throws, scored 19 points. Beating Kobe Bryant in terms of offensive efficiency."

"If I were the head coach of the Lakers, I should have started to consider increasing Wang Chong's playing time and number of shots at this time."

"Although the Rockets lost this game, the long-awaited Yao-Shark battle was extremely exciting. Yao made 14 of 8 shots, 6 of 5 free throws, 21 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks, including 5 All the rebounds were offensive rebounds, and he did not fall behind in the face of the league's No. 22 center O'Neal, who scored 9 points, 3 rebounds and blocks in the entire game..."

All in all, the outcome of this Christmas war satisfied most people.

<divclass="contentadv">The Lakers won the victory. Witnessed by fans all over China, Yao had a 50-50 fight with O'Neal, the league's number one center, and exalted the national prestige of China.

The only one who is not very happy may be Kobe.

Kobe, who made only 26 of 9 shots in this game and a shooting percentage of only 34.6%, almost became the team's biggest war criminal.

You must know that in this game, including Wang Chong and O'Neal, there was no second player on the team who took more than 15 shots. However, Kobe took 26 crazy shots regardless of the game, almost costing the team the victory. .

At the post-game press conference, a reporter directly asked Kobe why he continued to take a lot of shots even though his hand was not feeling good? How did you feel when you were substituted in the last few minutes of the game?

How does Kobe feel? He wanted to say the F-word to the reporter who asked the question, but he held back.

He used a set of official language to deal with reporters' questions, but Kobe was in a terrible mood.

"Damn..."

The Lakers currently lead the league in record, and his scoring average is also the team's highest at nearly 23 points per game.

But despite this, Kobe still felt a lot of anxiety, because his tactical position in the team began to gradually tilt towards Wang Chong.

The triangle tactic that Phil Jackson is best at requires a player with strong finishing ability in the mid-range.

Jordan during the Bulls era and Kobe Bryant during the Lakers era were all in this position. They had strong singles ability with the ball, and also had the ability to catch and shoot without the ball.

But now, the Lakers have a player who is more suitable to serve as the offensive end point than Kobe, and that is Wang Chong.

Although his mobility is slightly inferior to Kobe's, Wang Chong's height and wingspan coupled with his outrageously accurate mid-range shots clearly make him the most suitable person for the offensive point in the triangle tactic.

Not only that, the existence of the pick-and-roll shooter badge makes the pick-and-roll cooperation between Wang Chong and Payton one of the important tactics when the team attacks.

As the regular season progressed, Kobe gradually discovered that the more critical moments came, the fewer opportunities he had to touch the ball.

How is this possible?

It took a lot of effort, but finally, when O'Neal reached the end of his career and his dominance had declined and he could take over, Wang Chong suddenly appeared again, seriously threatening his tactical position in the team.

What's even more annoying is that O'Neill, who had the foresight to do so, had already drawn Wang Chong into his faction in advance.

Now Wang Chong has a very good relationship with O'Neal, Payton, Malone and others, but he has no off-court interactions with Kobe.

But Kobe was a relatively withdrawn player and had few friends in the team. Because he felt the threat from Wang Chong, the two basically had no communication except on the court.