The strongest unicorn in basketball

Chapter 153 The Shadow Emerges
In this offseason, the Lakers sent Odom and a 2012 second-round pick to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for a trade exception worth $890 million and a protected 2012 first-round pick.

This transaction uses Odom in exchange for a draft pick, which means that the strength of the Lakers' bench has declined.

On the other hand, the Thunder team, although the bench lineup has not changed much, don't look at the addition of Jimmy Butler, but Butler's strength is really limited in his rookie period, and he is currently the Thunder team's stable water cooler manager.

But Harden's progress is too great to hold back!
Sefolosha played for just over four minutes before being replaced by Harden.

After Harden came on the field, it was effective. He first hit a three-pointer against Kobe, and then made a foul by Kobe and scored 2 points at the free throw line.

It seems that the Thunder can interact with the Lakers on the point of shooting guard alone, but this is already the strongest point of the Lakers!
In this case, how can the Lakers win?

At the end of the first quarter, the Thunder were already 34:18, leading the Lakers by as much as 16 points.

Kobe was replaced with 2 minutes and 14 seconds left in the first quarter. At this time, the Lakers were only 8 points behind, but who would have thought that after Kobe went down, the Thunder's substitutes, led by Harden and Green, quickly played A 8:0.

However, of course the Lakers were not so easy to deal with. In the second quarter, Kobe and Gasol teamed up to narrow the point difference to less than 10 points again.

But at this moment, the Thunder's starting lineup has gradually returned, and the Lakers' offensive has stalled!
Gasol passed inside and handed the ball to Bynum under the basket. Bynum stepped up from the basket and prepared to dunk with both hands!
As a result, Li Pu hit his head and face with a big hit.

The basketball fell and was picked up by Gasol. Gasol leaned against Ibaka, avoided his arm and tried to hook again, but Li Pu behind Ibaka followed up with another hot pot.

Every point the Lakers scored in the Thunder penalty area was extremely difficult!
After Li Pu landed, he gave Ibaka a high-five to celebrate.

Most of the credit for the second hot pot just now should be credited to Ibaka. If it weren't for Ibaka's top defense, Gasol couldn't jump up, and Li Pu couldn't cover the ball no matter how high he jumped.

Since the basketball went out of the baseline, the Lakers continued to serve.

Gasol sent the ball to Bryant, Bryant broke through to the basket smoothly, attracted the defense and then gave the ball to Bynum.

However, what is surprising is that this time, after Bynum got the ball, he glanced at Lip under the basket, and then he chose to pass the ball out
He actually passed on...

Don't say that Kobe looked stupid at this step, even Li Pu looked stupid. Of course, Gasol, who had just returned to the court, was the most surprised. He was stunned for a while holding the ball.

"Didi!" At this time, the sideline referee raised the flag and the referee blew his whistle!
Purple No. 16 stepping on the line!
At this moment, Gasol looked down and saw that the heel of one of his feet was still on the baseline.

"What are you doing?"

Kobe felt like he was about to have a cerebral hemorrhage!How did I come across such a strange creature?Playing with him, I will lose ten years of life!
"I...I just think...that's not a good opportunity!" Bynum didn't believe what he said later in his defense!
Kobe was about to explode with anger, his chest was bulging like a bellows, and he couldn't say a word when he looked at Bynum.

"Actually, you don't have to blame him. With my defensive deterrence, it's normal for him to be afraid of me!" At this moment, Li Pu came over from the side and comforted Kobe in a cheap way.

"I'm afraid of you?" Bynum was not happy with Li Pu's words, and immediately scolded him angrily.

"Shut up! Respond to him on the court if you have the ability!" Kobe scolded Bynum again, and Bynum immediately lowered his head again.

"You'd better be careful about yourself, it's not your turn to worry about our Lakers' affairs!"

After speaking, Kobe took Bynum back to the defense.

With Kobe's lesson, Bynum's offense did take a lot of initiative, but the effect...

After receiving the ball in the pick-and-roll, Bynum directly chose a mid-range jumper to shoot, but he missed it under Li Pu's interference, and the rebound was accepted by Durant.

The Lakers offense failed again!

The Thunder counterattacked again, and Westbrook dribbled the ball into the frontcourt alone, and finally completed the fast break with a flying dunk.

With the goal scored, the first half ended, the score became 63:42, and the difference between the two teams came to 21 points.

In the first half alone, the Thunder beat the Lakers.

This is the result that no one expected.

The league has experienced such a major suspension, so it is natural to hope that the opening game will be more exciting, more intense, and the previous haze will be swept away.

Therefore, the games they arrange are all hoping to be fierce.

However, the two main games, the heat and the Mavericks, have already spent 97:65 in three quarters.

Here the Lakers trailed by 21 points in two quarters, and it took a while.

I'm afraid Stern is cursing his mother at home right now!

After playing more than 6 minutes in the second half and widening the point difference to 30 points, the Thunder began to gradually replace the main lineup, which seemed to be a bit of a retreat.

The Lakers were unwilling to give up, almost all the main players were on the court, and they were about to chase points, but until the end of the third quarter, the point difference was still more than 20 points, which still seemed to be an unreachable point difference.

During the break in the third quarter, the Thunder generals talked and laughed on the bench, very relaxed.

"Don't relax. There is news from the Heat. The Mavericks beat the Heat 29:8 in the fourth quarter, and they almost came back!"

As soon as this remark came out, everyone in the Thunder team was silent for a while, wondering if they heard it wrong, the Heat only scored 8 points in one quarter?
"Isn't it because they didn't start?" Durant couldn't help asking.

"No, James and Wade are both on!"

This time, everyone was silent.

What are the Heat doing?How did they do that?
Obviously, the Heat's running-in is far from enough.

Naturally, the Thunder will not repeat the mistakes of the Heat. With the Heat's proof, the Thunder's substitutes played very hard in the fourth quarter, always maintaining the point difference at around 20 points.

Seeing that there was no hope of chasing points, the Lakers never replaced their main force in the fourth quarter. The final score was 112:87. The Thunder beat the Lakers at home and got a good start for the new season.

In the whole game, both Durant and Harden of the Thunder scored 20+, Westbrook contributed 16 points and 13 assists, and Li Pu scored 28 points, 15 rebounds and 12 blocks in only 5 minutes of playing. Demonstrated invincible dominance.

For the Lakers, only Kobe, Gasol and Blake scored in double figures, and the others scored in single digits.

After the game, the Thunder happily finished the interview and were about to leave for Minnesota. The start of the game was back-to-back, which is evident in the devil's season.

But at this moment, a piece of news came from the team doctor, which cast a shadow over the entire team.

(End of this chapter)