NBA Old Age Star System

Chapter 277 Randall: I want to improve so much
The Lakers' bench is relaxed and happy, but the Thunder will not have such a good life.

"Guys, our current situation is not very good. In the fourth quarter, Su will definitely strengthen his personal offense with the ball and be pushed to the third position. So Paul, the task of defending Sue in the fourth quarter is given to you, Russell Al, Cameron, the two of you have to take on the heavy responsibility of the team's offense in the fourth quarter, and you must ensure the team's offensive efficiency."

After finishing speaking, Donovan turned to look at Westbrook, "Russell, the rhythm of the team's offense is very important. You have to control this aspect, and be careful not to be taken away by the Lakers."

Donovan murmured for a while, and soon the intermission ended, and the fourth quarter began.

The Lakers sent a substitute lineup and Su Tian, ​​and Su Tian was pushed to the third position. Everything was in line with Donovan's prediction.

The Thunder, on the other hand, dispatched all the Big Three lineups, trying to regain the lead before the Lakers started completely.

The first ball was given to the Lakers in the fourth quarter, and Su Tian pushed forward with the ball to the frontcourt.

In the fourth quarter, Su Tian's state was immediately full, and his physical strength also recovered a lot. Naturally, he chose to play the first ball by himself.

The Thunder is also ready for battle. After coming to the front court, Paul George and Su Tian faced each other. Su Tian signaled to his teammates to pull away. After pulling away, Su Tian lowered his center of gravity while cross-dribbling.

George's defensive strength is not bad, but he is actually not the best candidate to defend Su Tian.

Su Tian crossed the dribble to connect with a crotch dribble, and then broke through directly, rushing into the basket from the right.

George quickly turned around to catch up. At the same time, Adams on the inside also turned around to defend the basket. For a while, the Thunder double-teamed Su Tian again.

But this time, Su Tian didn't rush out of the ball, but accelerated the dribble to open the distance with George, and then threw the ball before Adams pounced on him.

bang - swish -

The basketball hits the backboard and hits the backboard into the net.

90-80
Su Tian successfully scored the ball in [-]v[-], and Donovan frowned enough to kill a fly.

The possession of the ball was changed, and Westbrook held the ball and advanced to the frontcourt. Facing the defense of Hart and Pope, Westbrook directly put into gear and sprinted to break through.

The inside Nance helped defend and returned to the basket, and Westbrook passed the ball to Anthony.

Anthony received the ball and made a direct mid-range shot.

Swah——

Kuzma's defense is still a step slower, and Anthony is still more experienced in seizing the opportunity.

90-82
Although Anthony scored, Su Tian didn't panic, because the Lakers' offense was also on track.

Turning his head, Su Tian continued to play singles with the ball. This time, the Thunder's help defense double-team came earlier, so Su Tian directly passed the ball to Kuzma who was in the air.

Kuzma caught the ball and scored a layup.

92-82
Because the Thunder wanted to restrict Su Tian too much, resulting in an empty defense at the basket, which gave Kuzma an opportunity.

In the next few rounds, both sides had one goal and one goal. The situation on the court was hot, but the point difference did not change much at all.

After playing like this for 5 minutes, Donovan couldn't help calling a timeout. The point difference seemed small, but it was like a moat standing in front of the Thunder, which couldn't be overcome at all. Donovan had to find another way out.

On the Lakers side, the Thunder called a timeout on their own initiative, and they were not polite, and directly sent the main lineup to the starting lineup.

After returning to the field, the Lakers team after the break is obviously more passionate and energetic. The continuous running can easily run out of open opportunities, coupled with Su Tian's ability to attract defense, the combination of the two, Su Tian's assists The number has risen quite a bit.

And this 10-point difference was maintained until the end of the game. Even until the last minute, Donovan did not replace the main players, but at the end of the game, the Thunder's defeat was still inevitable.

In the end, the game ended, the Lakers won the game 115-104, and the big score came to 2-0. The next two games will be transferred to Oklahoma City.

Su Tian scored 28 points, 18 assists, 8 rebounds and 2 steals in the game. The number of assists broke through his personal record in the playoffs and won the best in the game.

In addition, Ingram scored a playoff high of 27 points, and Randall scored a new high of 12 rebounds.

The overall performance of the Lakers is indeed better than that of the Thunder, or the Lakers are more like a team than the Thunder.

On the Thunder's side, the Big Three did score 20+ points, but the total number of assists for the entire team was only 16, which was not even as high as Su Tian alone.

From this perspective, the Thunder's defeat is not surprising.

As soon as Su Tian's game was over, he returned to the locker room and got his phone to send a message to Harden.

"James, I've done what I said, don't let me down."

As a traverser, Su Tian naturally knew that the Rockets had lost to the Warriors in their history, but it didn't mean that the Rockets had no chance of winning at all, so Su Tian wanted to stimulate Harden and let Harden explode to win the Warriors.

If the Lakers play against the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers' winning percentage is indeed small, but if it is against the Rockets, the Lakers still have a chance to win.

Playing against the Rockets is at least more certain than playing against the Warriors.

On May 5, the whole Lakers team will go to Oklahoma City. If you come one day in advance, you can prepare one day in advance.

After arriving at the hotel, Su Tian was going to lie down on the field and rest for a while.

There are two games today, both in the Eastern Conference. Tomorrow's game between the Rockets and the Lakers will be played simultaneously.

While Su Tian was resting, Randall knocked on Su Tian's door.

"Julius, what's the matter." Su Tian opened the door and invited Randall into the room.

"It's nothing, Su, I'm here to chat with you." Randall said.

"Chat? Well, what do you want to talk about?"

"Uh, let's talk about the regular season MVP this season." Randall obviously has other things, but he didn't say it.

"What's there to talk about? The MVP of the regular season is mine, and no one can take it away. If it wasn't for this season's reorganization, there must be some kind of awards ceremony. Maybe the news that I won the MVP has already spread."

Randall nodded, and said: "Indeed, the alliance is considered superfluous. Obviously, the original one is quite good, and you can receive the award before the game, and hit the morale of the opponent by the way, but it is useless to do these things."

Su Tian looked at Randall, and continued: "You have performed very well this season. Although you can't see the regular season awards, you will definitely get a big contract next season."

Randall smiled, "Actually, Sue, I came here to tell you about this."

"Although the Lakers' forward line is not strong, there are many players who can play. My starting lineup is not so stable, and there are restrictions on the number of shots I can play."

Randall paused and continued: "So, I was thinking, should I go to a place that is more suitable for me? Of course, if Sue told me to stay, I would choose to stay, so I thought Come to discuss with you."

Having said so much, Randall finally got to the point. From the first time Randall came to find him, Su Tian knew that Randall had something to say.

"Julius, in fact, if you don't mention this matter, I will talk to you. You have shown all the results of your training in these two rounds of the series. the best."

Su Tian thought for a while and continued: "From a friend's point of view, I would suggest that you go to a team that suits you. Now is the time for you to increase your goals. Go to a team to be the leader or the undisputed second child." , is more appropriate."

"As for staying with the Lakers, the chances of winning the championship are greater, but relatively, your playing time and statistics will not be very good."

"But you are still very young, so go realize your own value first, at worst, come to me when you are 30, and I will take you to win another championship."

Su Tian smiled and patted Randall on the shoulder.

After hearing this, Randall couldn't help hugging Su Tian, ​​"Su, thank you for your understanding, my brother."

"I know that you are different from us. You are a born winner. You have a clear goal since you entered the league. The championship and the Hall of Fame are your destination, but I am just an ordinary person. I really want to improve, so brother , thank you for your understanding."

After sending Randall out, Su Tian thought about the next season carefully.

It is understandable for Randall to show his worth and not want to continue to be with the Lakers, but the Lakers can't just let Randall go away for nothing.

"Let's discuss it with Erwin later." Su Tian said to himself.

Su Tian really wanted Randall to go to a good place, but it would be great if he could exchange for some useful assets by the way.

The next day, May 5, the Lakers came to Chesapeake Energy Stadium for an away game against the Thunder.

At the same time, the Warriors' home court, the game between the Rockets and the Warriors is also going on.

The starters of both sides have not changed, or there is nothing good to change.

With the opening jump ball, Adams grabbed the initiative and Westbrook advanced with the ball.

Generally speaking, after falling behind 2-0, the lagging team will make some adjustments. Even if the adjustment gets worse, it is better than doing nothing, because this at least shows the outside world that the coaching staff is working. If there is no adjustment, the outside world will think that the head coach has done nothing.

That's why, sometimes, when such a lineup is obviously not good, the head coach must insist on trying.

But Donovan, the "master tactician", obviously didn't care about these, and didn't make any special adjustments.

After Westbrook came to the frontcourt with the ball, as expected, Su Tian was still defending himself, so Westbrook passed the ball directly to George.

George didn't hit hard when he got the ball. After testing Ingram, he passed the ball to Anthony.

When Anthony got the ball, there was not much time left, so he made a three-threat attack, took two steps forward and then made a two-point shot.

After the three-threat, shooting two points long is a move that Anthony often uses. He has formed a certain amount of muscle memory. If there is no particularly serious interference or problems with his physical strength and touch, he will generally not miss the shot.

Swah——

Anthony made a long two-pointer.

The possession of the ball was changed, Ball advanced to the frontcourt with the ball, called Lopez to cooperate with the pick-and-roll, used the pick-and-roll to attract the defense, broke through and passed the ball to Ingram in the bottom corner.

Ingram once again scored the ball to Lopez who was emptied at the top of the arc.

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

boom--

Lopez didn't feel very good at the beginning, shooting hard.

Although he hit the iron, Lopez was not worried, because Lopez had already seen Su Tian rushing for the rebound.

bang——

The basketball had just popped out of the basket when Su Tian slapped it back again.

2-2
Su Tian scored 2 points and 1 rebound in one round, Lopez found Su Tian and took the initiative to clap.

The Thunder organized an offense again. This time, the Thunder tried to cooperate with running tactics to mobilize all teammates. Westbrook took the opportunity to break through and gave the ball to George who was running.

George caught the ball and made a fake shot, shook Ingram away, and went straight to the inside and made a layup.

2-4
Su Tian frowned, and looked carefully at the Thunder players.

The Thunder's lineup has not changed, but the overall coordination has been strengthened. Obviously, Donovan has learned a lesson from the previous game and began to let the Big Three play more coordination and tactics.

However, there are good and bad things in everything. If there is too much cooperation, it is easy to make mistakes, and it is also a check on the personal abilities of the stars.

It's okay to play like this in regular time, but at critical moments, it still depends on the personal hard-breaking ability of the stars.

Despite this shortcoming, it is clear that the Thunder played better in the first quarter than before.

About halfway through the first quarter, the Thunder had already led the Lakers by 5 points, and Walton also realized something was wrong, so he called a timeout.

"Kenny, let's analyze for everyone why the Thunder played better this time than last time." Barkley said.

"Actually, this is obvious. First of all, the performance of the Lakers is no different from the previous game. Everyone did a good job without any low-level mistakes."

"The main difference from the previous game is the Thunder. Although their starting lineup has not changed much, the cooperation between the Big Three has increased significantly, and the tactical movement and cooperation between the players have also increased. The Thunder Relying on the overall strength has been suppressing the Lakers."

At this time O'Neill said: "Then why didn't the Thunder do this before? Have to wait until they fall behind 2-0?"

Kenny Smith explained: "As we all know, the playoffs are the stage for stars. I think Donovan wanted to give the three stars the best performance environment before, but unfortunately, the three stars did not lead the team to victory. .”

The three commentators cooperated tacitly, and explained to the audience the reason why the Thunder took the lead with one question and one answer.

At this time, the Lakers' bench.

"Su, the Thunder has become more complicated. Donovan is not as bad as I thought. The team needs you to make a move."

Looking at Wharton's expectant eyes, Su Tian said: "Don't worry, coach, no matter it's simple or complicated, the Thunder is not our opponent after all in the competition of hard power."

The timeout ends and both teams return to the field.

After returning, Ball took the ball forward to the frontcourt and passed the ball directly to Su Tian.

Facing George who was defending him, Su Tian called Lopez for a pick-and-roll, and used the pick-and-roll to break through quickly. Su Tian's breakthrough was too sudden, and neither George nor Adams could keep up.

Su Tian galloped all the way to the basket, collected the ball and took off.

bang——

With a loud noise, Su Tian dunked his hands successfully.

(End of this chapter)