I'm good at basketball too

Chapter 227 Surprising First Half
Calipari's final starting lineup is: Livingston, Li Ran, Kirilenko, Millsap and Gasol Jr.

On the other side, the Lakers are still regular starters: Fisher, Kobe, Artest, Gasol, Yao Ming.

Calipari did not report any hope for this game.

But after the start of the game, the performance of the Grizzlies shocked the battle-tested Calipari's jaw.

Yao Ming jumped the ball over Xiaojia's head, Kobe dribbled to the frontcourt, and broke into the inside under the cover of Gasol.

Naka took off in the penalty area, stretched his hands to it, and gently threw the ball to the basket.

Just when everyone thought the ball was a sure thing, a pair of long arms suddenly appeared in everyone's sight, and they slapped Kobe's shot cleanly.

Such a scene has actually appeared countless times in the Grizzlies this season.

But what's different today is that it wasn't Li Ran, the protagonist in the past, who blocked Kobe's shot.

But Kirilenko!

After Livingston protected the ball, he directly threw it to Li Ran who was about to play with one hand. Li Ran quickly counterattacked and helped the team win the first place.

According to the previous defensive habits, such a counterattack cannot be pushed, because Li Ran is responsible for blocking shots, no matter how fast he runs, it is unrealistic for him to run from one end of the court to the other and then score the ball.

But today the ball is different.

When Kirilenko blocked Kobe for a layup, Li Ran was standing outside the three-point line.

Li Ran is confident that no one in the league can surpass him in the sprint for three quarters of the game.

Sure enough, when Li Ran was hanging on the basket, Fisher, who was in charge of returning to the defense with old arms and legs, had just passed the midfield and hadn't even made it to the three-point line.

Bryant smelled a bad taste in this first ball.

Kirilenko briskly ran to Li Ran's side.

He hadn't felt this way in years.

"In this game, you concentrate on offense and leave the defense to me."

The AK47 looked like a loaded rifle, and said to Li Ran confidently.

Li Ran shook his head: "Defense is not just your task."

It would be a waste if his defensive ability is not used at all.

Moreover, Li Ran is extremely looking forward to what kind of defensive strength Kirilenko, who has returned to his peak state and himself, can play.

After Iverson left, the pace of the Grizzlies was slower than in the first half of the season.

Curry also missed this game due to injury, and Livingston played, which further slowed down the Grizzlies' offensive rhythm.

But it's not that the team's performance is poor if the pace is slow. On the contrary, in this game, the Grizzlies played a ball that everyone couldn't understand.

Li Ran was in charge of the main defense on the perimeter, and the target of defense was of course Kobe.

Kirilenko, on the other hand, was responsible for assisting in the defense and sweeping around Li Ran.

His defensive range is amazing, from beyond the three-point line to the penalty area, he can be seen all the time.

Li Ran has never felt that defense is also a fun thing.

Under the immersive defense of the two, when the first quarter ended, everyone wiped their eyes subconsciously when they saw the game on the field.

22-11.
The Lakers only scored 11 points in the first quarter!
Kobe played extremely uncomfortable this time, and he only made 7 of 1 shots in the first quarter.

After finally breaking through Li Ran's defense, there was actually Kirilenko who was no less difficult than Li Ran.

Phil Jackson sighed on the sidelines and did not know how many times he sighed.

But he can't help it.

If you expect Zen Master to make an outstanding on-the-spot performance, you might as well expect Kobe to score another 60 points.

Even Calipari was overjoyed.

He really didn't expect Kirilenko to be in such a good state in this game.

If he had known that Kirilenko could play such a performance in the Grizzlies, Calipari would have brought him here even if he sold the pot.

The defense is pretty much the same as it was five years ago.

You know, the combination of Li Ran and Kirilenko's defensive capabilities is not as simple as 1+1=2.

Both of them can be outside and inside, and blocks and steals are all easy. Kirilenko was the only outside block leader in the league at his peak. At the same time, he also set another record that season.

The first player in league history to rank among the top five in blocks and steals at the same time!

But Li Ran is even more terrifying this season.

He even started the first game, and he ranked first in the league in blocks and steals!

Dribble?No luck!

breakthrough?Sorry, the inside line is a no-fly zone!

The Lakers are now facing such a situation.

Artest was sullen, and managed to get past Kirilenko's defense, and was hurt by the bones on his body.

But when he came to the inside line, as soon as he made a shot, he stretched out a big hand from another direction.

"Snapped!"

This slap was clean and neat, directly fanning Artest's shot out of the court.

After landing, Li Ran excitedly bumped his chest with Kirilenko to celebrate.

Bryant, with his hips akimbo, bit his jersey collar.

It's better than chatting, and I don't know what to do in the face of this situation.

Li Ran and Kirilenko are obviously crazy today.

Seeing that the point difference has been stretched to 15 points, in this abnormally slow pace, it is almost impossible to make a comeback.

At this moment, Yao Ming stood up silently.

The low-key Oriental giant scored three goals in a row at the basket and caused Kirilenko's second foul. He abruptly pulled the point difference back to within [-] points, which is equivalent to forcibly helping the Lakers survive.

At halftime, 32-41, the Grizzlies led the Lakers by 9 points at home.

李然上半场打满24分钟，砍下15分11篮板2助攻2抢断3盖帽。

基里连科则是9分4篮板3助攻3抢断2盖帽。

Kobe Bryant's feel did not recover in the second quarter. He scored 11 points on 3 of 7 shots in the two quarters.

However, his scoring is already the second most of the Lakers.

Artest's score in two quarters was an astonishing zero. . .

Li Ran and Kirilenko scored one steal and one block on Artest alone.

Another thing that surprised Li Ran was that because he came out of the Jazz, Kirilenko's timing of the pick-and-roll was almost perfect.

He was able to score so many points in the first half, a large part of which was due to the pick-and-roll Kirilenko gave him.

You know, Sloan has played pick-and-rolls all his life. After hearing and seeing, players from the Jazz have a better understanding of pick-and-rolls than most players in the league.

During the intermission, Calipari did not hesitate to praise Kirilenko and Li Ran.

At the same time, he was very surprised that Li Ran hadn't missed the recruitment strategy so far.

It can be said that after the Grizzlies traded for Li Ran, all signings were made according to Li Ran's request.

And what was the result?
The Grizzlies made a triple jump. From last year's No. [-] contender to the current top three in the league, Li Ran contributed a lot!

Even if the player Li Ran asked for couldn't play on the team, taking it out would still be a high-quality bargaining chip.

And with so many deals, what surprised Calipari the most was the deal for Kirilenko.

You know, the Grizzlies not only established such a big lead over the Lakers in this game, but they also lost two absolute main players, Curry and Randolph!
(End of this chapter)