I'm good at basketball too

Chapter 160 The Low-Level Mistakes of the Lakers Coaching Staff
When facing the Bulls imitating the Warriors' elevator door tactics, Kaka's defensive choice was perfect.

According to Xiaoka's choice at the time, the Lakers should defend this ball like this.

Before the Nuggets' elevator door screen was formed, Kobe could not follow Li Ran's movement, but signaled Ariza, who was defending Anthony, to pay attention to switch defenses in advance.

At the same time, Kobe stared at O'Neill face to face, and was distracted by Li Ran.

In this way, Kobe can do more defensive contingencies.

At the same moment that O'Neal and another Nugget were set up on an elevator screen at the free throw line, Bryant needed to get up there quickly.

He needs to stand directly at the door of the "elevator door" when the two of them open the door.

At Kobe's stop, the Nuggets had no chance to open the door, and the elevator door screen became O'Neal's single screen.

And because of Kobe's one-to-two defense, Ariza, an elite flank defender, has the opportunity to cruise around and wait for opportunities.

At this point, the elevator door became O'Neal's one-man pick-and-roll against Li Ran.

But for a while, the Lakers couldn't think of such a defensive response.

Although they couldn't find a correct solution, the Lakers coaching staff is not a vegetarian. After a night of research, they finally found a defensive method that seemed useful.

That is to let Kobe or Ariza pass the gear early, run to the other side of the elevator door, and wait for Li Ran who runs over after the door opens.

On the other side, there was Gasol and Anzhu, so there was no need to be afraid of Li Ran not going through the door and shooting directly.

It seems that the tactics are very beautiful, but the Lakers have ignored a fatal problem.

This problem was directly exposed after the third game between the two sides on the second day.

After the two sides kicked off, the Nuggets still adopted the elevator door tactics without hesitation in the first offense.

The Lakers also moved according to the tactics arranged by the coaching staff yesterday.

Kobe directly abandoned Li Ran, and Anzhu, who was in charge of defending O'Neal, watched Li Ran temporarily, while he bypassed the wall formed by O'Neal and Nene and ran to the outside.

As long as he stands in front of Li Ran, this tactic has no power. Li Ran also needs to face the problem of how to get inside, because he ran out with his back to the basket.

Tactics look good, but the reality is beyond everyone's expectations.

Li Ran was dumbfounded when he faced the empty basket with the ball.

He didn't expect that this elevator door tactic could put so much pressure on the Lakers.

Even made a low-level mistake because of this.

The current scene is like this - O'Neal, Nene, An Zhu and Gasol are all standing high near the free throw line, Anthony leads Ariza in circles outside the three-point line, Billups after the pass Taking Fisher around the bottom line on the other side.

Li Ran originally followed Kobe behind him, but now Kobe has already run to the outside line ahead of schedule.

Then the problem is coming.

The Lakers' insiders all came out, and their basket was empty.

After O'Neill passed the ball to Li Ran, Li Ran saw this situation in front of him.

Because of the positioning problem, the Lakers player closest to Li Ran is An Zhu on his side.

Li Ran changed his focus instantly, forcibly pulled the ball back, and headed straight for the basket.

Phil Jackson felt like an idiot.

They paid too much attention to Li Ran's three-pointers, but forgot how Li Ran became famous.

After Li Ran dunked the ball in with an elegant [-], the sidelines of the Staples Center became very different.

The Lakers fans were silent.

But the Nuggets fans who only occupy a small piece of land, came from afar, cheering loudly.

The Nuggets completely shattered the Lakers' defensive strategy with just one offense.

You send the defender on the outside in advance, it looks beautiful, but what about the inside?
Phil Jackson called a timeout again, and arranged for one of Gasol or An Zhu not to leave the bottom line and pay attention to the frame.

But on the other side, George Karl made corresponding adjustments in advance.

His adjustment is very simple, replacing Nene and replacing Yi Jianlian.

This time, O'Neill did not hand the ball to Li Ran who came in from the flank, but handed it to Ah Lian who was beside him.

Unguarded, Ah Lian dribbled the ball and took a step outside, making a mid-to-long-range jumper.

In the past few rounds, the exchanges between the Lakers and the Nuggets have been dazzling, and it can be called extremely exciting.

It's just that from the final scene, the Nuggets still have the upper hand.

In fact, it's not that George Karl's coaching ability crushed Phil Jackson, but that the Nuggets have too many cards to play.

Although O'Neal's big contract took up a lot of salary space for the Nuggets, Li Ran's child labor contract gave them enough room to sign players to strengthen their lineup.

So, Yi Jianlian came, Szczerbiak came, Livingston came, Gortat came.

With such a lineup, George Karl is very calm in the formation of troops and can adjust according to the opponent's style of play.

After the fierce battle in the first game, the Nuggets finally played their regular season performance in the next two games.

Strong, powerful, and seemingly without weaknesses.

At halftime, the Nuggets once again led the Lakers by 12 points, and the situation of the game seemed to be moving towards the rhythm of the previous game.

But at what cost?

The price was that Anthony's shots dropped again in Games [-] and [-].

He has scored only 14 points in this game so far.

Before he knew it, Li Ran had become the core of the Nuggets' offense in the playoffs.

It took him two full rounds of competition to achieve his current status.

George Karl was still a little greedy. He felt that if Li Ran could develop his organizational skills, then Li Ran would be a perfect player.

Although Anthony is still ahead of Li Ran with 26.7 points in this round of average data, Li Ran's scoring average has also reached 25.5 points per game.

In the previous two rounds, the data of the two were:

In the first round, Anthony averaged 27.2 points and Li Ran 15.6 points.

In the second round, Anthony averaged 28.5 points and Li Ran 21.2 points.

The score gap between the two is getting smaller and smaller.

If it continues like this, when the Nuggets beat the Lakers and enter the finals. . . .

If the Lakers want to win this round of the series, they must win all the victories at their own home court, so that they have enough fault tolerance to go to the Pepsi Center to challenge the Nuggets at home.

So Kobe stood up.

It's Kobe again, and it can only be Kobe.

Since the defense can't defend, let's attack.

At the beginning of the third quarter, the situation changed suddenly.

Kobe made sudden shots and scored 17 points in a single quarter, abruptly narrowing the difference between the two teams to only five points.

This black mamba finally showed its sharp fangs at the most critical moment, and spit out deadly venom towards the Nuggets.

Li Ran was sitting off the court with his face covered in sweat, with a towel on his head, listening to the dignified George Karl laying out the tactics for the last quarter.

(End of this chapter)