Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

Chapter 67 Christmas War, 40+ for the first time, O'Neill comes back (read more)

December 12th, Christmas game, China Derby, Staples Center.

"Kobe, go guard Jim Jackson, let me guard Steve Francis, how about Gary get Cuttino Mobley?"

Before the game started, Dunn took the initiative to apply to defend Francis.

Payton laughed and said, "I thought you were going to defend Yao Ming!"

"I don't want to seek abuse!" Du En said angrily.

With Yao Ming's height, Ben was beaten to the point where he could not fight back. Du En went to defend, he was looking for death.

If Dunn wants to win tonight's China Derby, he can only defend the Rockets' perimeter as much as possible.

It is also because Payton's physical fitness has declined too seriously, and the defensive end can't keep up with the particularly fierce Xiaoling Kuai or the hot cannon with explosive physical fitness. Duane can only volunteer to share Payton's defensive pressure.

"If you can't handle Steve, leave him to me!"

Kobe knew Duane's strength well, so he had no opinion on Duane's defensive arrangement.

It is also because O'Neal is determined not to come back, and Kobe, who is eager to win, can only put pressure on his teammates, forcing them to continue to practice hard to improve their strength.

Even for a training gym rat like Duane, Kobe often practiced with Duane, and even offered to go heads-up.

Duane also had the idea of ​​using Kobe to test his own results after digesting Pippen's template, so he didn't refuse.

In more than five consecutive iron fights, Dunn has already had an example of defeating Kobe.

Although Kobe doesn't know why Duen's strength is growing so fast, he still approves of Duen's current defensive level.

Closer to home, as Yao Ming helped the Rockets jump to the ball, the game began.

The Rockets played relatively simply, clearing one side and giving it to Francis for a single.

Dunn knew that Francis was the same type of player as Iverson, who was better at making breakthroughs, but worse at the basket.

So he took the initiative to let Francis take a step, and defended Francis' breakthrough within the three-point line.

Sure enough, Francis did not shoot a cold arrow and directly shot a three-pointer, but patiently, jumping and dribbling, shaking Dunn's center of gravity.

Dunn responded calmly and was not fooled, Francis made a sharp change and rushed to the left.

Du En immediately moved sideways in small steps to keep up, not wanting Francis to stop abruptly on his crotch, and then dashed to the right.

Just as Duen stepped back into the penalty area and blocked Francis' breakthrough route, Francis turned around and broke through again, turning to the left and rushing toward the baseline.

Grant, who was at the basket, had to come out to help Dunn defend. Francis stopped in front of Grant and protected the ball with his back.

Grant stood still and stretched out his hand to block the shot. Francis continued to turn around and break through the bottom line. Duane ran to the reasonable collision zone to block Francis' breakthrough route.

Francis turned his hips again, pulled him to the half-basket area, and threw his hand high before Grant could catch up.

Looking at one player and nine players, Francis is a bit unique in his game, but there is something really interesting about his dazzling ball control and breakthrough.

After Dunn obtained the Pippen template, his lateral movement speed increased a lot, but facing Francis' strange breakthrough rhythm, he really felt his scalp tingle.

Fortunately, small throwing while moving is a common move of Francis, but it is not a trick.Just like Kobe's back is beautiful, but it often turns into three irons.

As Francis made a throw and hit the iron, six or seven people from both teams crowded under the basket to grab rebounds.

However, the Lakers are still too short inside. The Rockets power forward Kevin Cato is 2 meters tall, which is taller than the two insiders of the Lakers, let alone Yao Ming, who is 1 meters.

Yao Ming grabbed the offensive rebound in the crowd, and then he hit two people with his back, turned around and dunked the ball into the basket, and shouted "tomato".

Yao Ming has just started to gain weight, but he already has the feeling that O'Neal is overwhelmed in the low post.

The Lakers fans at the scene saw Yao Ming, and they all missed the scene of O'Neal playing at the Staples Center.

There is no doubt that the Lakers at this time have an unstoppable O'Neal in the low post, and the game will be completely different.

It's a pity that not only is there no O'Neal on the court, even Malone, who has played more than [-] games, is nowhere to be seen.

boom--

As soon as the Rockets returned to the defense near the middle circle, they found someone hanging on their backcourt basket.

"Yao Ming, so it's your little brother!"

"Can anyone tell me why he's at the basket?"

Jim Jackson rushed to the basket, picked up the ball, slipped it out the baseline, and quickly sent the ball to Francis: "Sorry, I didn't pay attention.

He ran too fast, I was still watching Yao Ming grab the rebound, he had already run to the basket.

And his teammates understood him very well, and immediately passed the ball over. "

From the perspective of classical basketball, small forwards should be responsible for scoring and rebounding in positional battles.

But with the emergence of Pippen, the current small forwards seem to be more functional, tending to defend, organize, and switch offenses.

Duane caught Jim Jackson off guard by virtue of his excellent conversion offensive awareness and speed.

However, Jim Jackson saw Duane's unicorn arms and felt that even if he followed him closely, it would be difficult to prevent Duane from scoring in transition.

Soon, Dunn faced Francis again.

This time Francis directly bowed to Buddha and made a move, but Dunn was unmoved. As a result, Francis directly shot cleanly.

Dunn rushed forward immediately, but he missed it, but the two-pointer is not what Francis is good at, so Duan interfered.

It was also because of the two points, the ball bounced farther away, Stanislav Medvedenko, who started the game, helped the Lakers protect the rebound.

Payton reached for the ball, got it and pushed it forward quickly.

Although Malone is missing from the fast break, the Rockets have two tall men over 2 meters tall, and their return speed is obviously slower than that of the Lakers.

Ever since, Payton went straight to the middle, relying on Kobe and Duane to fly on both wings, attracting the defense, spearing straight to the basket, and making a quick layup.

Seeing the Lakers finish their fast break, the Rockets also quickly serve.

But Francis advanced halfway and came out again.

Yao Ming set a screen for Mobley at the rim, and Mobley came out looking like he was going to catch and shoot from the baseline.

Francis, who was at the top of the arc, also looked in the direction of Mobley, but when the ball was passed out, he found that it was stuffed into Yao Ming's hands.

There was no one defending Yao Ming's basket. After getting the ball, he stood on tiptoe, jumped slightly, and dunked the ball into the basket.

Can't prevent Yao Ming, the Lakers have no choice.

We can only push up the speed as much as possible, maintain the score with converted offensive points, and consume Yao Ming's physical strength with constant turnaround runs.

However, the Rockets are not unable to defend every fast break.

Payton failed to increase his speed this time. Considering that the two big and tall men under the basket are too strong to protect the frame, Payton can only hand the ball to Duane and play according to the triangle offense.

Duane played very simply, can Jim Jackson play?Can fight!

But Dunn didn't choose singles, but followed the triangle offense and asked Grant to come out for pick-and-rolls.

Kevin Cato couldn't follow up. With the Rockets' three outside players alone, it must be impossible to defend against four players.

While the Rockets defended from the outside, Dunn switched to Mobley, then turned around with a back hit and easily squeezed into the penalty area.

Du En knew that if he wanted to win this Chinese derby, he had to beat Yao Ming.So he chose to use Maggette's way to get rid of Yao Ming.

However, Yao Ming stood firmly at the basket ahead of time, with no intention of blocking it at all.

What's more, Yao Ming's frame protection is different from other insiders. Other insiders fly at a touch. No matter how Yao Ming shakes, his feet take root and he doesn't jump at all.

For this reason, Du En could only stop suddenly, take the ball and pretend to shoot, and lure Yao Ming to come forward.

Sure enough, Yao Ming was fooled and rushed over, reaching out to try to block the shot.

But Du En took the ball and took another step forward, and took the initiative to hit Yao Ming's chest.

Yao Ming was not light, and when he jumped out hastily, he couldn't control his body, and instead of standing still, he continued to take a step forward, which was naturally blocking him.

After the confrontation, Duane made a fallback jumper.

The goal was missed, but the whistle blew and two free throws were made.

"I'm sorry, Dayao, we don't have O'Neal, and we have to send you off if we want to win."

After Du En stood on the free throw line, he talked to Yao Ming with a smile in Mandarin.

"It's okay, I can understand. Being able to make fouls is also your ability, don't mind."

Yao Ming expressed his understanding and responded to Du En with a characteristic embarrassing smile.

Taking advantage of the time to prepare before the official free throw, Du En read a few words to Yao Ming.

"I also hope to play with you on the international stage.

But I'm a little worried about your status, just like O'Neal and Ewing.

As strong as O'Neal, he will also be absent for such a long time due to a toe injury, which will cause a lot of trouble for the Lakers.

Ewing is the only one of the four major centers who has no championship!

I think it's not that he's not strong enough, but that he suffered a serious knee injury early in college.

It is precisely because of the impact of injuries that the critical moment is always short of breath. "

"Do you think Kobe is strong enough? At least he is the top ten superstar in the league today!
As for me, the scoring average has now exceeded 24 points, ranking seventh in scoring.

However, Kobe, Payton, and I couldn't win even though we were in good shape.

Since Malone was injured, the Lakers have been losing!
This is enough to show that any team needs a strong big man.

If the men's basketball team wants to achieve results, it doesn't really matter whether I have me or not. The important thing is that I can't do without you.

Once you can't play, even if there are one or two more me, you can't get good results. "

With the help of the current situation of the Lakers, Du En explained his worries to Yao Ming.

When Yao Ming began to consider what Du En said, Du En had already thrown two free throws into the basket.

After the game resumed, Duane continued to guard Francis.

Unsurprisingly, Dunn failed to defend Francis. This time, Dunn, who Francis passed by, went to the basket.

But it didn't matter, as soon as Francis made the layup, Duen had already ran to the frontcourt and launched a fast break.

Jim Jackson returned to the defense in a timely manner, but failed to prevent Duane, who was hard-pressed to play singles at the basket.

Relying on Duane's more and more proficient transition attack experience and skills, the Lakers stabilized the situation in the first quarter. The two sides were 28 to 26, and the Lakers were only 2 points behind.

As for Van Gundy Jr., he actually did a pretty good job of using Yao Ming.

Yao Ming played just over 9 minutes in the first quarter, and played 8 minutes as a substitute in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, Yao Ming only played 7 minutes.

In the fourth quarter, Yao Ming himself had no physical strength, and he received the fifth foul. After playing for 5 minutes, he was replaced due to foul trouble.

At the critical moment, Van Gundy was so dizzy that he even forgot that Yao Ming was still on the bench, so Yao Ming did not return to the court.

Because of this, the Lakers did not have too much inside defensive pressure at the decisive moment. The Lakers relied on the iron chain of Payton, Kobe, and Dunn to lock the hands of Francis, Mobley, and Jackson.

Coupled with two fadeaway jumpers and an open three-pointer by Kobe and Fisher at critical moments, the Lakers defeated the Rockets with difficulty by 2 points.

Kobe and Fisher were undoubtedly the major contributors to the Lakers' victory on Christmas Day tonight!

But to be honest, tonight's Christmas game, the biggest winner was 26 of 16 shots, 5 of 2 three-pointers, 11 of 7 free throws, scored 40+ points for the first time, and won the Chinese Derby. dun.

其实姚明也不差，14投8中，罚球5投4中，拿下了20分11篮板2助攻2盖帽的两双数据。

但是，杜恩的数据太耀眼了！41分6篮板5助攻1抢断1盖帽。

Dunn, who kept beating Francis and Mobley with the ball tonight, kept killing Yao Ming at the basket.

The Lakers also relied on Dunn's large number of free throws and conversion offenses to score, repeatedly biting the score at critical moments.

In the fourth quarter, no one scored inside the Rockets, and because Francis likes to fight alone, the Rockets were flanked by Dunn and Kobe on the outside, with men on the left and right.

The Lakers reversed an 8-point deficit in the final quarter and turned defeat into victory!
However, the Lakers had just won the Rockets in the Christmas game to revive morale, but the mortal enemy from afar - the Celtics gave the Lakers a fatal blow!
After Christmas, the state of most NBA players will decline, and the same is basically true for the Lakers.

Kobe played against the Celtics, but he had the attitude of going all out against his mortal enemy.

But Dunn's interest in this is not high.In Dunn's view, not every game is a Christmas game plus a Chinese derby.

Therefore, I didn't pay much attention to the yellow-green battle during the regular season. I didn't keep running towards the basket like the Rockets before.

As a result, the insiders of the Lakers were taught by an old alcoholic like Vin Baker!Now, there is no way to hide the fact that the Lakers are all CBA insiders!
The Lakers fans were excited and strongly demanded an explanation from the Lakers management.

The local media in Los Angeles also began to criticize the management, O'Neal and Kobe who did not lead the team to success around the flaws in the Lakers lineup.

As the saying goes, the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish. O'Neal continued to die without fear of boiling water. In order to win a big contract renewal, he even prepared to delay the time further.

For the Lakers management, no one can lose the Celtics.

Forced by public opinion, he had no choice but to temporarily compromise with O'Neal and extend his big contract worth 3 million for another three years.

Of course, to a certain extent, this is undoubtedly a very large salary cut in terms of O'Neill's worth.

However, O'Neal's original contract with the Lakers was extended to the 05-06 season, and he would be 35 years old when the contract ended.

Who will give the 35-year-old fat man a maximum salary contract with an annual salary of 1500 million?
Not to mention, the Lakers also gave O'Neal a three-year contract, which is enough for O'Neal to play until the age of 38 and then retire with dignity.

After getting the desired contract, O'Neal was satisfied and immediately held a press conference with the Lakers.

Said that the Lakers are in a bad situation recently. As the boss of the team, he had to take the risk of injury and come back early.

All in all, Superman Shaq is back!

There are finally big fish in LA's lakes!

(End of this chapter)