NBA Old Age Star System

Chapter 270 The Lakers' First Playoff Game

After being reprimanded by Popovich, the Spurs' overall enthusiasm has indeed improved a lot, and their defense has become more vigorous.

But Green still had a hard time facing Su Tian. After all, it was not just a matter of enthusiasm.

So in the second half of the quarter, the Spurs directly changed their defensive strategy and double-teamed Su Tian.

The Spurs did effectively curb Su Tian's performance because of double-teaming, but they allowed Su Tian to bring up the entire Lakers team. With the addition of Su Tian's pass, the shooting percentage of the rest of the Lakers increased. Not only did the point difference not narrow, On the contrary, it was enlarged.

The Spurs lost the bet, at least this one.

At the end of the first quarter, the score came to 32-21, and the Lakers led the Spurs by 11 points.

In the first quarter, the point difference reached double digits, which put a lot of pressure on the Spurs. Popovich actually knew that the reason why the Spurs fell behind so much was not only because they failed to defend Su Tian well, but also because their offense was not good enough. type it out.

Aldridge's offensive strength is naturally very strong, but it is not incomprehensible or hard.

The Lakers just used Randall to defend against him, plus other people to help defend and interfere. The simple defensive tactics limited Aldridge's performance. The Lakers did not intend to lock the opponent, but just wanted to limit, so the natural pressure would be less a lot of.

The Spurs have no second person to solve the problem, and Aldridge is not a player who is good at passing the ball to organize the team, so it seems that Aldridge and the entire team have a sense of detachment.

"From the first quarter, we can clearly see that Su's competitive state has remained excellent, and other Lakers players have also performed well under Su's leadership, so what adjustments will the Spurs make?" Kenny -Smith said.

"There is no doubt that Su's MVP in the regular season is well-deserved, so the Spurs must focus more on Su's defense. They would rather let the role players explode than let Sue feel good, otherwise there will be no more Opportunity." Barkley analyzed.

O'Neal heard it and gave his own analysis, "I think the Spurs have to find a way to play their own offense. After all, Aldridge's performance in the first quarter did not satisfy me. He should be tougher. "

The intermission time passed quickly, and the second quarter began.

In the second quarter, Wharton made adjustments to let Su Tian continue to lead the bench lineup on the court, while the main starters rested off the court to prepare for the second half of the quarter.

The Spurs naturally made adjustments, and the task of defending Su Tian was passed from Green to Murray.

Murray is a rookie in 16. This is Murray's second season. Facing such a young player, Su Tian doesn't talk about martial arts at all. He continuously breaks through Murray's defense with the ball and makes Murray suffer a lot. scold.

However, the Spurs' offense still did not come out. Nance faced Aldridge, which made Aldridge's shooting very uncomfortable, and his shooting percentage has not increased.

In the middle of the second quarter, Walton called a timeout, replaced Su Tian and the substitute players, and took the starting lineup to deal with the substitute time period.

Without Su Tian, ​​the overall strength of the Lakers must have declined, but there is still no problem in coping with the substitute time period.

Su Tian was sitting off the court, but his eyes were fixed on the court. Su Tian found that Ingram's performance was not bad, and Randall also had a brilliant performance, but Ball was not as calm as he was in the regular season. Tian can still feel that this rookie is still a little nervous.

Soon, at the end of the first half, Ingram and Randall defended the double-digit point difference that Su Tian made in the first quarter. The score of the two teams came to 60-46, and the Lakers still led by 14 points. .

At the end of the halftime, he could still lead by double digits, which has exceeded Walton's expectations. During the intermission, Walton was both nervous and excited. He did not expect that his first experience in the playoffs began with defeating Popovich.

Su Tian also took advantage of the intermission to quickly recover his strength, and there was still a tough battle to fight in the second half.

But in general, the atmosphere in the Lakers locker room is quite harmonious, but in contrast to the Spurs, the atmosphere is not so good.

Popovich roared in the locker room while holding a tactical board to emphasize cooperation. The atmosphere in the Spurs locker room was very depressing.

After Popovich lost his temper, he turned around and went out, and the entire locker room fell into silence.

In fact, Popovich and the veterans of the Spurs understand that just watching the Lakers in this half of the game, they know that the Lakers are not a so-called regular season team. The playoffs are still very fierce and not so easy to bully. Spurs The playoffs are likely to be a round trip.

However, even if it was a round trip, Popovich didn't want to leave in such disgrace, at least win two games and then leave decently.

So this is exactly why Popovich lost his temper. He wanted to stimulate these players. Taking advantage of the Lakers' youth and lack of playoff experience, the first game should have been the easiest to steal.

It's just that things backfired. The performance of the Lakers really impressed Popovich, especially Su Tian.

Soon, the intermission ended and the third quarter began.

In the third quarter, Walton brought up the starting lineup, and the same is true for the Spurs.

Although Green's defense against Su Tian was not as good as expected, it was already the best choice for the Spurs.

The first ball in the third quarter was given to the Lakers. Ball advanced to the frontcourt with the ball and passed the ball directly to Su Tian.

After all, Ball is playing in the playoffs for the first time, and everything is about stability.

After Su Tian got the ball, he called Lopez for a pick-and-roll. Su Tian used the pick-and-roll to break through directly and rushed to the basket.

Both Green and Gasol are veterans, neither of them were very light on their feet, so they switched defenses directly, and Gasol sat under the basket and waited for Su Tian's impact.

But Su Tian didn't really rush in, but stopped in place with an emergency stop.

Seeing Su Tian stop suddenly, Gasol immediately remembered the scene where Su Tian was teasing him, so he didn't jump up in time.

Seeing that Gasol couldn't come up, Su Tian immediately stopped and shot a jumper.

Swah——

Su Tian made a direct hit in the shot.

62-46
Su Tian decides his next move based on the opponent's reaction, which requires strong control and reaction, but the effect is really good.

The ball is switched and it is the Spurs' turn to attack.

Mills came to the frontcourt with the ball and still passed the ball directly to Aldridge.

After Aldridge got the ball, he directly started to hit Randall with his back. Although Aldridge didn't have many offensive methods, his accurate shooting was not easy to defend.

The Lakers' defensive strategy for Aldridge is also a double-team tactic, but it's not a complete double-team, but one person defends, and the other only needs to come over to interfere with the shot.

After Aldridge hit consecutive backs, he turned over and shot a jumper. Lopez's help defense arrived at the moment of the shot.

boom--

In basketball, Su Tian rushed to the basket to compete for a rebound.

Because Randall and Lopez are going to defend Aldridge, the inside rebounds need to be guaranteed by the outside players. Fortunately, Su Tian's rebounding attributes are relatively high, and Ingram's rebounding is not bad. The Lakers' rebounds are still guaranteed.

With a better position, Su Tian successfully grabbed the rebound. After getting the rebound, Su Tian turned around and started a fast break.

In fact, there were many fast break opportunities in the first half, but the Spurs returned to defense quickly, and Green blocked Su Tian in time, so many fast break opportunities could only fall into positional battles.

This time, I don't know if Green didn't react, or he didn't catch up in time because of his lack of physical strength. In short, Su Tian successfully launched a fast break, held the ball and went straight to the basket in the front court, and directly scored a layup.

64-46, the point difference between the two teams is getting bigger and bigger, and it seems that they are about to run to 20 points.

The Spurs organized an offense again. This time Mills did not pass the ball to Aldridge, but reached out and gestured for tactics. The Spurs tried to use more tactical coordination to drive the overall offense.

After a while of tactical cooperation, Mills broke into the basket with the ball and passed it back to Gasol at the free throw line. Gasol passed the ball again to Kyle Anderson in the bottom corner.

Anderson caught the ball and made a three-pointer directly.

Swah——

Ingram wanted to interfere, but Anderson's weird rhythm was not affected, and Anderson hit a three-pointer directly.

64-49
The Spurs began to score, and the offense and defense of both sides began to get on track.

In a serious competition of hard power, the Spurs are not the Lakers' opponents. The Spurs want to win unless someone breaks out, which can relieve Aldridge's offensive pressure.

Halfway through the third quarter, the point difference was still maintained at double digits by Su Tian. The Spurs worked hard for half a quarter, but did not see any results.

Taking advantage of the dead ball, Wharton made substitutions and adjustments, took Su Tian off to rest, and prepared for the fourth quarter.

After Sue left the field, the organization of the Lakers' offense was handed over to Ball and Ingram. Randall sacrificed a lot to defend Aldridge in this game.

After the Lakers substituted and adjusted, the overall strength did decline, but the Spurs still did not dare to replace the main players. Popovich knew that if they replaced the main players at this time, it would be equivalent to surrendering directly.

So in the next few rounds the Spurs began to gradually chase points, but fortunately there was not much time left. Although the Spurs caught up a little bit, they still maintained a double-digit point difference.

At the end of the third quarter, the score came to 85-75, and the Lakers temporarily led by 10 points.

At this time in the TNT studio, Barkley had already begun to predict the final result of the game.

"The Spurs are going to lose this game. God can't keep them, I said."

"Charles, don't predict the obvious situation, otherwise everyone will think that you are not very smart, and I will be embarrassed to sit with you." O'Neill said.

"In this game, it seems that the Lakers are more likely to win, but the Spurs are not without a chance. If the Spurs can prevent the Lakers from scoring in the fourth quarter and at the same time break out their offense, there is still hope of winning. Yes." Kenny Smith said with a serious face.

Although it seems that Kenny Smith said nonsense, it actually temporarily stabilized the Spurs fans, so that the Spurs fans would not turn off the TV immediately, at least stabilized the ratings.

During the break between festivals, Wharton also rushed to inquire about Su Tian's status. After getting a positive answer from Su Tian, ​​Wharton finally put his heart in his stomach.

Although Walton knows that with a double-digit lead, it is basically impossible for the Spurs to come back, but he still has some worries.

Soon, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Su Tian brought a group of substitutes to the field.

Hart, Pope, Su Tian, ​​Kuzma, Nance.

The Spurs have a bench lineup led by Mills and Rudy Gay. After all, Aldridge fought fiercely in the second half of the third quarter and needed a few minutes of rest.

The first ball was given to the Spurs in the fourth quarter. Mills advanced to the frontcourt with the ball, used his teammates' pick-and-roll to break through, and rushed to the inside.

Su Tian made an assist defense interference, Mills did not hit hard, and passed the ball to Guy in the bottom corner.

Gay took the ball and took two steps forward, making a long two-point shot.

boom--

While playing basketball, Su Tian rushed straight to grab the rebound, held the ball and rushed to the frontcourt to start a fast break.

At this time Mills wanted to intercept, but did not catch up at all.

Su Tian rushed to the basket in the frontcourt first, collected the ball and took off, and with a bang, he dunked with both hands.

After Su Tian succeeded in dunking, he let out a roar that directly blew up the atmosphere at the scene.

The photographer at the basket position also took a picture of Su Tian's roar in time, and prepared to use it as tomorrow's headline photo.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Su Tian made a defensive counterattack and fast-break dunk, which greatly improved the morale of the Lakers.

When the Spurs attacked again, the Lakers' substitute players tried their best. Mills made another shot and the rebound was accepted by Nance.

With the improved morale, the Lakers once again defended against a Spurs attack.

However, this time the Spurs retreated very quickly, and Su Tian didn't catch the opportunity to defend and counterattack. After receiving the ball from Nance, he advanced to the frontcourt with the ball.

After coming to the frontcourt, Su Tian waved his hand to signal for everyone to pull away. After they all pulled away, Su Tian made a double change and directly swayed Murray who was defending him, and went straight to the basket with the ball.

Gay on the side saw that he quickly assisted in the defense, but before Gay could form an effective defense, Su Tian broke through the defense line and went straight to the basket, and directly scored a layup with a pull-bar.

89-75
In the first two rounds of the fourth quarter, they were beaten by the Lakers in a row, and Popovich directly called a timeout.

Popovich's reaction is still very fast. If a timeout is not called at this time, the morale of the Lakers will only increase. On the contrary, the morale of the Spurs will become lower and lower.

Su Tian watched Popovich spitting and flying on the bench, patted Wharton and said, "Coach, I guess the Spurs are going to be the main force, should we also switch."

Walton looked at the Spurs' bench, and the main starter had indeed stood up, so he nodded.

Soon, the timeout ended and the two sides returned to the court again.

Sure enough, the Spurs made substitution adjustments, taking out Mills, Murray, Green, Kyle Anderson, and Aldridge.

The Lakers also made personnel adjustments, Ball, Pope, Su Tian, ​​Randall, Nance.

After returning to the court, the Spurs attacked, Aldridge took the ball from the outside, faced Nance's defense and directly rushed in with the ball, making a mid-range jumper.

Swah——

Aldridge was fast and had a high release point, and Nance couldn't keep up in time.

89-77
(End of this chapter)