warrior godfather

Chapter 372
The 15 minutes of the intermission passed quickly, and the audience took advantage of this short gap to come to the commercial area to buy jerseys, team peripherals and other products, which is also one of the important sources of the Warriors' revenue.

However, since the Oracle Center does not belong to the Warriors, the Warriors can only watch the rent of a large amount of commercial facilities flow away every year. This situation will not be changed until the construction of the new arena is completed.

The fans naturally don't care how much commercial income the Warriors lost. After eating and shopping, they returned to their seats and waited for the start of the second half of the game, but many spectators dawdled for a while until the third half. After 2 minutes of the festival, he returned to the auditorium.

After they sat down, they looked at the big screen with great interest, but immediately widened their eyes in surprise, and exclaimed in disbelief:
"What?!"

These belated spectators saw that the score of the two teams changed from 2:14 at the end of the first half to 54:54 in just 64 minutes and 58 seconds. The Warriors quickly opened up the difference. Arrived at 6 points.

"Yeah!!!"

At this moment, there was a huge noise in the arena, but it was Curry who quickly dribbled the ball across the half court and dribbled the ball to the left sideline. Ramon Sessions and Artest jumped at him. Curry took a step to the left, stood up, faced the defense of the two, and threw a difficult three-pointer!
brush!
The basketball flew past Artest's fingertips and fell straight into the net.

67: 58.

"Di-"

Mike Brown on the sidelines immediately called a timeout. The Lakers players walked back to the bench in frustration, while the Warriors gave Curry high-fives and laughed wantonly. The Oracle Center was like boiling water, "warriors "The shouts were overwhelming.

The 2-minute replay just now was played on the big screen at the right time, allowing these latecomers who were scratching their hearts to see the process of the Warriors opening the score.

This 2-minute replay is a highlight of Curry alone. He made a step-back three-pointer against Gasol, shot a cold arrow from outside the three-point line, made a super long three-pointer, and used his speed to pass Bynum. After assisting Chandler to score, running without the ball around the screen to catch the ball and making a mid-range shot, coupled with the fast break and chasing three-pointers just now, Curry scored 3 points in less than 11 minutes. With a terrifying scoring explosive power, he single-handedly opened the score to 9 points.

On the other hand, for the Lakers, only Kobe hit two difficult fadeaway jumpers to help the Lakers stop the bleeding, but it was only a drop in the bucket. Seeing that the team was about to collapse, Mike Brown had to call a timeout urgently, interrupting Warriors momentum.

On the Warriors' bench, Zhang Yu high-fived every player who came off the field, and then gathered everyone in front of him, loudly encouraging:

"Very good, let's fight like this, Stephen, if the Lakers still defend you like before, keep attacking, don't stop, they must pay a heavy price!"

"No problem, boss!" Curry responded with a smile.

After the start of the third quarter, Mike Brown slightly relaxed his marking on Curry, changed every pick-and-roll, reduced help defense, and single-handedly defended Curry. He strengthened the monitoring of the Warriors' role players to limit their scoring.

Obviously, his goal was achieved. Except for Chandler who received a pass from Curry at the basket and ate a pie, no one else even took a shot.

But Mike Brown underestimated Curry's scoring explosiveness. He regarded Curry's tepid performance in the first half as the normal state of Curry's game, and believed that the Lakers' defense had restricted Curry. Appropriately relax your defense against him.

And it was this little gap that was caught by Curry.

In front of Curry, who is fully fired, the Lakers' defense is like a mirage. Whether it is Gasol, Bynum on the inside, or Ramon Sessions on the outside, they can't defend Curry, and there is no help defense. Interference, Curry didn't need to pass the ball to his teammates, he completed the finish himself, scored like a bag, and immediately stopped the Lakers.

While the Warriors' bench was full of joy, the Lakers' bench fell into silence. Mike Brown's face was very serious. He picked up the tactical board and said loudly:
"We will change our defensive tactics later. We will still guard against No. 30 as before, and we must not give him a chance to shoot a three-pointer! Ramon, you are still the main defense against Curry..."

"Give him to me," Kobe interrupted suddenly.

Mike Brown froze for a moment, looked at Kobe in surprise, then shook his head:

"No, Kobe, the team needs you to play on the offensive end, and you have to save energy as much as possible on the defensive end..."

"I can hold on, give Curry to me, we want to win." Kobe said deadpan.

Mike Brown hesitated for a moment, but Kobe's attitude was so resolute, so he stopped insisting and could only nod:

"Okay, Kobe, you will guard Curry later, and the others will follow their defenders. We must contain the Warriors' offense! Kobe, you still have unlimited firepower. The team needs to score now, understand?"

Kobe didn't speak, he just nodded slightly, but his eyes gradually became firm.

……

The long timeout was soon over, the two teams returned to the field, the Lakers sent the baseline ball, and a burst of boos broke out from the audience, expressing a warm "welcome" to the Lakers players.

After halftime, Ramon Sessions handed the ball to Kobe, and obediently ran to the corner to open up space.

This is the fate of the Lakers point guards. From Fisher to Ramon Sessions, none of them had possession of the ball. Even Nash, who joined the Lakers later, only averaged 32 assists in 6.7 minutes per game. In one year, Nash was also able to easily get 10.7 assists in a shorter playing time.

After Kobe caught the ball at the waist, he hit Butler with his back. After shaking his shoulder twice, he turned right and shot a jumper with a backward jumper. Butler blocked Kobe's face, but Kobe entered his own rhythm and still stood against Butler. defensive hits.

67: 60.

After the goal, Kobe took a deep look at Butler, licked his lips, and then turned around and ran back to the backcourt slowly.

"Good!!" O'Neal suddenly yelled, "Did you see the look in Kobe's eyes? He's getting serious, and he's going to work hard next. The Lakers will definitely recover the score!"

Reggie Miller asked:

"Kobe has already scored 18 points in the first half, so he hasn't exerted his strength yet?"

O'Neill smiled:

"Reggie, what are you talking about? He's Kobe! 18 points is just an appetizer. Look, he was obviously irritated by Curry's performance. Kobe is like this. The better the opponent's performance, the more motivated he is, etc. He might even take the initiative to guard Curry ... Hey, look what I said, Kobe did guard Curry!"

On the court, Curry dribbled the ball halfway, and Kobe, as O'Neal said, stopped in front of Curry, with his hands open, ready to fight.

Curry was a little surprised when he saw that Kobe was defending him, and immediately looked to the sidelines.

This situation is not within Zhang Yu's tactical arrangement. He needs Zhang Yu's instructions to know how to fight next.

On the Warriors' bench, Zhang Yu stood up when Kobe blocked Curry, took two quick steps to the sidelines, pondered for a while, and then shook his fist at Curry who was looking over.

After Curry saw it, he understood, turned his head, and beckoned to Green, who immediately raised his hand to cover him.

The meaning of Zhang Yu's gesture is to let him stick to the established strategy to play the pick-and-roll, regardless of Kobe.

But Green's screen failed to stop Kobe. Kobe accurately judged the position of Green's screen and followed Curry closely.

Seeing that the pick-and-roll could not be played, and there was not much time left in the attack, Curry waved Green to leave, and took two steps back to leave room for starting, and wanted to single-handedly play Kobe.

After the fans saw this scene, the shouting suddenly fell, and then suddenly rose again. Qiqi shouted Curry's name and looked at the two excitedly.

This is their favorite star matchup!

Kobe also saw Curry's intentions. He bent his knees slightly, lowered his center of gravity, stared at Curry without blinking, paying attention to his movements, and was always ready to respond.

Curry looked up at the timer. There were 8 seconds left on the shot clock. He didn't delay any more. After his teammates had just settled down, he changed direction in front of him. He handed the ball to his right hand and his right shoulder shook, as if he was going to go right. Breaking through, Kobe immediately slid to the left, blocking Curry's breakthrough route.

But Curry followed up with a crotch dribble, the ball was handed over to his left hand, and then he paused and looked up at the basket. Kobe thought he was going to shoot, and subconsciously raised his center of gravity to interfere with his shooting.

But at this moment, Curry suddenly shortened, accelerated, and rushed from Kobe's right. Kobe's center of gravity was adjusted, and his reaction was inevitably a bit slower. Although he quickly caught up, he was still behind. Curry is in half.

After rushing into the interior, Curry accelerated again. Kobe wanted to keep up, but he was the main attacker with the ball for most of the court, which consumed a lot of his physical energy. Not only failed to keep up with Curry, but was pulled away. I can watch Curry meet Bynum's help defense, throw shots, and hit high cricket.

69: 60.

"Yes!" Reggie Miller yelled, "Curry singled Kobe to score! Shaq, is this Kobe who is 'going all out'?"

O'Neal shook his head regretfully:

"Reggie, don't forget that Kobe is also 34 years old. He can't maintain the high level of defense...and he is facing Curry. I don't think anyone can prevent Curry. He can. Scoring on Kobe is normal."

On the field, the Lakers were attacking, and Kobe was obviously affected by the successful breakthrough by Curry just now. After receiving a pass from Ramon Sessions, he made a simple feint and went straight to the Warriors penalty area. way to score.

But as soon as he came to the paint, Chandler immediately came to help defend, and even emptied Bynum for this.

The defensive tactics formulated by the Warriors coaching staff before the game are very clear, that is, Kobe can play singles in the middle distance, but he must not be allowed to score easily in the penalty area. As long as he dares to break through, he must help defend.

Even though Kobe faced a situation where there were wolves in front and tigers in the back, he still didn't intend to pass the ball at the first time. Instead, he passed the ball to Bynum in the penalty area after the breakthrough route and shooting space were completely blocked.

Kobe passed the ball very low, and Bynum bent over to catch the ball, dribbled a bit, adjusted his rhythm, and got up to dunk.

But at this moment, Green rushed over from the weak side, raised his hands, jumped high, and stopped in front of Bynum.

Snapped!
Green's right hand slapped heavily, and pressed it on the basketball. Under the wrestling between the two, the basketball was squeezed to one side, hit the backboard, bounced back, and landed in the hand of Chandler who turned around to grab the rebound. inside.

Chandler quickly gave the ball to Curry, the Warriors quickly counterattacked, Curry was greeted by the Lakers, Ramon Sessions and Kobe were in front of him, he took advantage of the opportunity to give the ball to the right wing to follow up Clay, Clay shot the ball, raised the knife and dropped it, and hit the net with a three-pointer.

brush!
72: 60.

"Yeah!!"

The Splash Brothers scored one after another, igniting the Oracle Center, the fans stood up collectively, applauding everywhere, and the atmosphere in the arena reached its peak at this moment.

The Lakers players were beaten into a daze, their morale was significantly lowered, and their movements in the frontcourt seemed weak.

At this time, Kobe stood up again. He singled Butler and hit a mid-range extreme fadeaway jumper, once again stabilizing the Lakers' situation.

72: 62.

After Kobe scored the goal, the cheers in the audience became quieter. He took a few breaths, his eyes were firm, and he retreated to the backcourt.

O'Neill said loudly:

"Good shot! As long as Kobe hasn't conceded, the Lakers won't fall!"

……

The rest of the third quarter became a stage for Kobe and Curry to perform in turn.

Zhang Yu piled up the Warriors' powerful defensive resources on Kobe's teammates, forcing him to single out Butler, and Kobe could only do so.

Not only that, but at 5:28 in the third quarter, Zhang Yu replaced Butler with Leonard. He kindly helped Kobe "change his taste", and also allowed Leonard to gain experience in Kobe.

When the Warriors were attacking, Curry no longer passed the ball to find teammates, or even played pick-and-rolls, and directly singled out Kobe, staged an exciting superstar duel.

But the audience soon discovered that this superstar duel was not intense at all. Kobe, who had consumed a lot of physical energy, could hardly parry Curry, who was recharging his energy in the first half and punching hard in the second half. Curry repeatedly made breakthroughs.

Faced with such a predicament, Kobe, who is extremely competitive, would naturally not be reconciled. He tried his best to keep up with the agile Curry.

However, he has been 34 years old for a few years, and he is no longer the courage of the past. He has to digest a lot of ball possessions on the offensive end and carry the team's offense. His physical energy is very intense, and he will soon be exhausted. It's getting slower and slower, and I can't make difficult fadeaway jumpers.

In the end, the Warriors fans all saw that Kobe was powerless. Curry could often pass him with a single acceleration, and the shouts became louder and louder.

At the end of the third quarter, the score came to 87:73, and the Warriors led by 14 points, completely gaining the upper hand.

Shaking his head, O'Neill said regretfully:
"Well, I have to admit, Kobe is no longer at his peak..."

　Ask for monthly tickets and recommended tickets~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)