Slam Dunk: My Study Abroad Career in Northern Hunan

Chapter 722 Qualifying to the Western Conference Finals!
Kobe relied on his outstanding personal ability to score successfully with a high-post pull-up jump shot, and his "picturesque" shooting posture was 80% similar to Michael Jordan's.

As the basketball went into the net, cheers rang out from the stands.

Amid the cheers of the fans, Kobe spread his arms and enjoyed the moment.

For players, what could be more exciting than the applause of fans in the stands?

Kobe could clearly feel that he was in excellent shape today. Players at their level can feel how he feels today with just one shot.

Kobe could feel the smooth feeling of the shot he just made.

When attacking, you don't need to think about anything else. You just need to rely on your body's instincts to successfully send the ball into the net.

At that moment, Kobe had no eyes for the defenders, only the basket.

The cheers of Lakers fans gradually subsided as the basketball was thrown from the Spurs' backcourt. The Spurs' offensive and defensive system was built around Duncan and David Robinson. Even coach Popovich had instructed his players to pay more attention to possible opportunities for Wilperdo in the interior.

But the team's overall rotation still revolves around Duncan and David Robinson.

As David Robinson moved to the high post and set a screen for Avery Johnson who had the ball, with the help of his teammates' screen, he quickly dropped the ball with his left hand and broke through. Robinson's opponent, Shaquille O'Neal, was relatively large in tonnage. When facing the Spurs' offensive rotation, he did not come out of the paint area to the outside to defend Avery Johnson, which gave the opponent ample space to shoot.

If Shaquille O'Neal has any weakness, the only weakness is his ability to move.

It’s not that O’Neal’s steps are slow and he can’t keep up with David Robinson’s movements. It’s just that O’Neal is a relatively “lazy” player when defending. When facing this kind of ball, he simply won’t block it in the first place.

O'Neal's weakness of "being unable to defend" is not actually caused by O'Neal's physical defects. His displacement speed is actually quite good and can keep up with David Robinson's movements.

But the Lakers didn't ask him to defend such a ball.

The Lakers, with O'Neal as the first finisher, actually need O'Neal to do a lot of things. Not only attacking the basket in the interior, O'Neal is also responsible for grabbing rebounds. Most of his offensive positions are in the low post. In this position, both scoring and grabbing rebounds are very physically demanding tasks.

Coupled with the unstable shooting of the Lakers' outside players, O'Neal also needs to bear more pressure on both offense and defense.

As a big center, his playing time is already a bit "over the top". If O'Neal needs to run to the high post to defend pick-and-rolls during such a long playing time, his physical fitness will not be able to support him to perform effectively on both offense and defense in such a long game.

Letting go of the opponent's outside shots is actually a way for O'Neal to save energy.

This is actually different from Duncan of the Spurs or Garnett of the Timberwolves.

Yao Ming also had this weakness of being unable to defend during his time with the Rockets. His weakness was actually somewhat similar to that of O'Neal. In fact, before Yao Ming increased his weight, he was also a player who could defend on the outside.

However, the Rockets management was not a good person. Instead of providing Yao Ming with an excellent power forward, they expected Yao Ming to have strong enough dominance under the basket.

This caused Yao Ming to gain a lot of weight to enhance his dominance in the low post, but correspondingly, as his weight increased, Yao Ming's speed was completely lost and his flexibility was greatly weakened, so that in the middle and late stages of Yao Ming's life, he had a weakness that could not be defended.

The shortcomings of these two centers are actually caused by the team system, not that there is a limit to the players' personal abilities.

Since O'Neal entered the league, his personal characteristics have been thoroughly studied by various teams. Popovich also has his own unique understanding of how to deal with O'Neal as a player.

"brush!"

As Avery Johnson "trained" O'Neal from the outside and successfully scored, the advantage that Kobe had just helped the team build was immediately eliminated.

In fact, the twin-tower Spurs and the single-core Lakers have one thing in common, that is, the inside presence of both teams is so strong that other players on the team often have better opportunities to shoot from the outside.

In Wudao's opinion, the final outcome of this game still depends on the shooting accuracy of role players and the protection of rebounds by both teams.

The team with a higher hit rate and a stronger rebounding ability will eventually win the game!
The development of the second quarter was just as Wu Dao expected. The offensive tendencies of both teams were concentrated on the outside line. On the Lakers side, Nick Van Exel and Kobe took up a lot of the team's shots in the inefficient areas.

As for the Spurs, Jaren Jackson seemed to have a hard time under Kobe's defense. He was unable to convert the limited opportunities he received the ball into points. On the contrary, under Kobe's defensive pressure, Jaren Jackson made two turnovers in a single quarter, and these two turnovers allowed the Lakers to seize the opportunity and counterattack to score.

With Jaren Jackson silent, the Spurs' outside offensive task almost fell on Avery Johnson alone. Fortunately, the Lakers' defense against center Wilperdo was relatively loose, allowing Avery Johnson to have someone to break through and score on offense.

Duncan also often used his personal ability to beat Robert Horry of the Lakers. After attracting O'Neal's backup defense, Duncan would choose to pass the ball to David Robinson in an open position, or to teammates in other positions with relatively better opportunities.

With the connection between Duncan and Avery Johnson, the Spurs were able to stabilize their position by relying on team basketball, and the game with the Lakers became increasingly intense.

In the second half of the second quarter, the Spurs' physical strength declined. Popovich noticed this and promptly replaced Jaren Jackson and David Robinson with Vinny DeNagro (193cm, 84kg, No. 1988 pick in the second round of 4) and Chuck Person (203cm, 100kg, No. 1986 pick in the first round of ) on the back line.

Vinny DeNagro is a veteran who has been in the league for many years. Although his physical fitness is not as good as before, he has comprehensive skills in the back line and has a certain ability to score independently. He can also average ten points per game in the regular season.

Chuck Person is also a player with relatively comprehensive skills. In his peak period, he was even able to average 21 points per game. However, as he gets older, his decline is obvious. During this year's regular season, he averaged only six points per game.

It can be seen that Coach Popovich substituted these two players on the one hand to balance the physical fitness of the main players, but the more important reason is that he intends to strengthen the scoring ability of the outside players.

There are also two inside players, Will Perdue and Duncan, on the court. Although their strength is not as good as the three inside players, their ability to grab defensive rebounds should not decline too much.

However, the results after these two substitute players came on the court did not satisfy coach Popovich. Players in decline are players in decline after all. No matter how strong they were in their peak period, for players, age is ultimately a threshold that no one can cross.

As the game progressed, the gap between the Lakers and the Spurs gradually opened up.

At 29:22, Kobe scored 13 points in a single quarter, causing great trouble to the Spurs with his breakthroughs and shots. He relied on his outstanding personal ability to shine in this quarter, and with a hit rate of nearly 70%, he helped the team to successfully widen the gap. On the other hand, the two players who replaced the Spurs did not show their explosive abilities in this game. Their performance was almost the same as their regular season performance, and there was no "explosion".

Under the strong offensive of the Lakers, the Spurs gradually showed signs of fatigue.

Inside the arena, the cheers of Lakers fans were deafening, reaching the dome.

This is the Lakers' home court. When the team gained the advantage, the fans saw the balance of victory tilting towards their side. As the gap between the two teams gradually widened, the fans' cheers became more and more enthusiastic.

They can already see the Lakers standing on the Western Conference Finals stage.

On the sidelines of the court, Sakuragi Hanamichi was extremely excited. The Lakers' ability to gain the advantage also made him extremely excited.

Wudao glanced at Sakuragi Hanamichi beside him speechlessly, and couldn't help but advise: "Calm down, Hanamichi."

"Someone is filming you."

Even though the game on the court was very exciting, Wu Dao and Garnett, the Timberwolves' star players, were still able to attract the attention of many media reporters. Whenever Kobe performed well on the court, the media would often subconsciously cut the camera to Wu Dao and Garnett.

Obviously, as the situation on the court became clearer, the attention of the Los Angeles media has gradually shifted from the Spurs players to the Timberwolves, their next opponent.

The red-haired Sakuragi Hanamichi next to Wudao and Garnett is very eye-catching!
In the third quarter, the Lakers made some adjustments. Shaquille O'Neal, who had played for two consecutive quarters, was replaced by the coach and Elden Campbell came on as a substitute.

At the same time, Robert Horry was also substituted off the court and replaced by Corey Blount (206cm, 109kg, 1995th pick in the first round of 25, Bulls).

After this guy was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, he was not favored by the coaching staff like Kobe. In the early days of the Lakers, his average playing time was only 2 minutes per game, and in the second season he averaged 18 minutes per game.

However, he averaged only 4.8 points per game and was soon abandoned by the Lakers coaching staff.

Up to now, this player's role for the Lakers is equivalent to "pause". His existence is to give the main players a rest, and his playing time is often only two or three minutes.
For players like Robert Horry and O'Neal, five or six minutes of continuous rest time in such a crucial game is quite precious.

After a game, apart from the 130-second rest period between quarters, the only time the players can rest is during the long and short timeouts of the two teams and between free throws.

Every player who can play in the NBA has extremely terrifying physical reserves. For these players, five or six minutes of continuous rest time can allow them to quickly recover their physical strength and energy.

At the beginning of the third quarter, David Robinson returned to the court. Duncan, who had played for two consecutive quarters, remained on the court. Popovich did not even give Duncan too much rest time.

It’s not that Popovich is unwilling to give Duncan some rest time, but the current situation on the court does not allow the Spurs to have such a vacancy.

While Shaquille O'Neal is not on the court, this is actually the best chance for the Spurs to catch up.

The Spurs' performance at the beginning of the game was just as coach Popovich had expected. Relying on the abilities of Duncan and David Robinson, the entire team operated smoothly on the offensive end, with a 100% hit rate in the first few attacks.

As for the Lakers, although Kobe and other outside players still maintained a good shooting percentage, they also made some mistakes under the Spurs' pressure.

In just three minutes, the Spurs narrowed the gap to 5 points.

This terrifying reversal momentum also scared the Lakers coach Del Harris. He reminded the players on the court to commit fouls and then put the Big Shark O'Neal, who had rested for a short time, back to the court in order to curb the performance of David Robinson and Duncan.

Although O'Neal has a huge flaw that cannot be defended, his defensive deterrence at the basket is far beyond the reach of other players.

Even if a fat man weighing nearly 300 pounds just stands under the basket, the sense of oppression is enough to shake the offensive players' determination to attack the basket.

As for the Lakers, with Shaquille O'Neal returning to the court, their defense quickly stabilized.

On the offensive end, Kobe, O'Neal and others played outstandingly, and on the defensive end, Kobe and O'Neal, one inside and one outside, had a strong suppressive effect on the Spurs.

With the Lakers players working together, the situation of this game gradually became clear.

At the end of the third quarter, the gap between the two teams had widened to 20 points. Although the Spurs players were still fighting hard, Wu Dao could see that Duncan and David Robinson's physical strength had been exhausted in the confrontation with O'Neal.

The fourth quarter of the game will become garbage time.

As the fourth quarter began, the situation on the court did not go beyond Wu Dao's expectations. Relying on the outstanding performance of the players, the Lakers quickly widened the score difference to nearly 30 points. After Coach Harris secured the team's victory, he substituted O'Neal off the court early for rest.

In this game, what the Spurs lacked was not "talent" or "potential", but enough combat effectiveness.

Although the Spurs have a total team salary of nearly $3100 million this season, role players worth $100 million to $300 million take up too much of this salary space.

The Lakers' total salary has reached a terrifying $3600 million. Regardless of other factors, the $500 million difference alone can buy an All-Star level player. Tom, who averaged nearly 20 points per game last season, only earned $550 million in the Timberwolves.

The Lakers also spent their money wisely. Putting aside Kobe, the inexpensive rookie, and O'Neal's salary of $1286 million, the Lakers' configuration in other positions can also be described as luxurious.

The fact that the civilian Spurs can play against the Lakers to this extent shows their ability.

As the final whistle of the game sounded, the score between the two teams was fixed at 107:88.

The Lakers eventually won the Game 7 at home and advanced to the Western Conference Finals.