When pride still matters

Chapter 223 Kobe is like my son

The Bucks adjusted the inside line on the court four minutes into the first quarter.

Christian Laettner and Robert Horry replaced Mutombo and Mason. Others may think this is the Bucks' regular rotation, but the Lakers, who have seen how O'Neal ravaged O'Neal, clearly understand the significance of replacing these two people.

Phil Jackson's eyes were deep, as if he was thinking about the Bucks' intentions.

After thinking about it, there seems to be no other reasonable explanation except to satisfy the need to fly on the court and torture O'Neal.

However, even if we want to deal with O'Neal, is it too early?
  This is not in line with past routines.

In the past, the Bucks would always play a few tricks with the Lakers in a decent way. They would only use this trick when they established an advantage or when the situation was deadlocked, and the results were always effective.

It has only been a few minutes of play, and the situation is still unclear. There is no advantage or disadvantage at all, but the Bucks directly played their trump card?
  No, I have to look again.

Jackson thought so, and Yu Fei ordered O'Neal in front of him.

Yu Fei called the fifth position for a pick-and-roll, and Malone replaced O'Neal to defend the pick-and-roll. This is treating the symptoms rather than the root cause, because then there is a pick-and-roll at the fourth position.

O'Neill was so angry that he gritted his teeth. He knew very well what Yu Fei was planning to do with this set of combos.

But what can he do? Run out and switch defense? This is impossible!

If you stay in the paint area and be a coward, you can also pray that Yu Fei's touch is not good. If he pretends to be a mobile inside and runs out to defend the pick-and-roll, Yu Fei will pass him in one step and then hold a dunk contest under the basket.

Since O'Neal could not hold on, the Bucks' pick-and-roll tactics at position [-] successfully created opportunities for Yu Fei to enter the penalty area.

Naturally, he won't use the pick-and-roll to create open shooting opportunities and then force his way into the penalty area to challenge O'Neal, but he can humiliate his opponent with a coquettish half-cut layup from a position where O'Neal is within his reach but refuses to move.

"Shh!"

Even Malone expressed disappointment with O'Neal's defensive attitude.

Yu Fei calmly mocked him and said, "I told you he is a piece of shit and his defense stinks."

After Yu Fei said this, O'Neill became angry.

But what if he is angry?

From the perspective of playing style, Yu Fei restrained O'Neal too much.

This is not to say that Yu Fei is a better player than O'Neal, but from a technical perspective, there are few outside cores in the league who can restrain O'Neal to this extent.

The furious O'Neal wanted to save face in the low post.

As a result, his old teammate Horry was violently fouled and sent to the free throw line.

Horry, who was cruel to O'Neal, did not feel any guilt at all. In his eyes, it was O'Neal who was sorry for him.

Last summer, the Lakers actively recruited Malone and Payton after Kobe's accident. In the player camp, no one is more eager for Malone to join than O'Neal. He knows that Malone can bring more help than Horry.

This makes Horry feel that all his dedication in the past few years has been fed to the dogs.

So he felt justified in fouling O'Neal here.

"Don't touch me with your fucking dirty hands!" O'Neal was so stimulated by Yu Fei that he was delirious, and he also said harsh words to Horry, "You are a cheap cheerleader!"

The two of them had a conflict on the inside. Fortunately, it was a superficial conflict with a lot of swearing and no unusual moves.

Staples Center was booed.

O'Neal finished his troubles and played solidly at the free throw line, missing both free throws. Yu Fei took off the defensive rebound and was about to hit the ball when he was fouled by Payton.

"Hey, want a quick break?" Payton said proudly, "You can blink and I'll know what you want to do!"

Yu Fei blinked: "What do you think I want to do now?"

Peyton, however, refused to be nagging Yu Fei and ran away.

If we look at it from a practical perspective, Payton did prevent a counterattack fast break for the Lakers that might have been converted into a score.

But blocking this fast attack allowed Yu Fei to return his focus to positional combat again.

It is impossible for Yu Fei, who has a 5 OUT lineup, to let O'Neal go.

Back to the frontcourt, it's another pick-and-roll at position [-] or [-].

O'Neal still couldn't get out of the gate, Malone was unable to do anything else, and Yu Fei, after tearing apart the Lakers' defense, passed back to Horry.

The old Lakers teammates who knew Horry's three-point threat intended to help defend, but it was too late.

Horry took a three-pointer and hit a hollow shot.

I saw Horry put on a cool and cool villain expression. The Bucks' lead reached 8 points in one fell swoop, and the Lakers requested a timeout.

Staples booed throughout the audience.

Now, Phil Jackson needs to seriously consider how to defend the Bucks' pick-and-roll at the fourth and fifth positions.

O'Neal definitely still can't go out, but he can't stay in hiding either.

On the defensive end, Jackson requires players other than Ray Allen to abandon their opponents and switch defenses whenever encountering a pick-and-roll. This is still a temporary solution, using defensive resources to fill O'Neal's holes. sinkhole. And Jackson doesn't just want to protect O'Neal. On the offensive end, he must give the ball to O'Neal. Even if he is fouled by the opponent, it will cause damage.

Then, Jackson made some adjustments to the lineup. He replaced Kobe, who had trouble with O'Neal, and replaced him with left-handed shooter Kareem Rush.

Kobe Bryant was replaced before he could unleash his hidden energy. Jackson's move undoubtedly showed his feelings to Jerry Buss at the scene.

He is still on O'Neal's side, and they don't like Kobe.

The various internal problems of the Lakers are of little significance to the Bucks. They still need to find ways to reduce the burden on the inside.

O'Neal knew that the only way the Bucks could limit his offense inside was to foul, so he squeezed in at all costs.

He needs to use his strength to get an opportunity where he can complete the shot just by catching the ball.

Of course, Laettner couldn't resist it. O'Neal came to the basket and Payton passed the ball.

O'Neal just held up Laettner with one hand and hooked lightly with the other hand. There was no easier offense than this.

O'Neal was happy and made faces while returning to defense, but Yu Fei didn't give him a chance to think about it.

After his teammates served from the backcourt, Yu Fei accelerated all the way and rushed to the frontcourt to let the Lakers ask Malone to interfere with the mismatch.

Yu Fei feinted to the right, then took a step to the left and stepped into the three-point line.

Although Malone is a reverse-growth superstar who has reached his defensive peak after his physical peak, the decline in physical function is inevitable as he ages.

When faced with someone like Yu Fei who directly used explosive force to quickly change direction and pull away, he didn't do anything.

Yu Fei created a shooting opportunity, collected the ball and pulled it out, oh!
  Phil Jackson has never liked Yu Fei's style of play. He believes that this style of play shakes some of the ancient order of basketball games.

There are mature templates for what kind of work a player does at any position, but Yu Fei brings another possibility. He is neither a defender nor a forward, but he plays the first, second and third positions. , and by the way, give the teammates around you limited roles according to their style.

But Jackson also admitted that Yu Fei has been improving. His shooting is becoming more and more stable, and he loves to play pick-and-roll military training inside. In addition, the Bucks have many shooters. This combination has made him a real shark killer.

However, Jackson still couldn't believe that O'Neal would be restrained to the point of being unable to fight back, so he would rather press down Kobe than give O'Neal enough roles on the offensive end to let him and Yu Fei have fun.

Malone, on the other hand, hopes that O'Neal will invest more in the defensive end, "Shaq, you have to come to the high post to help me!"

O'Neal saw that this old man was already out of breath in order to prevent Yu Fei's pick-and-roll attack, which showed the great pressure.

Therefore, O'Neal nodded seriously, but he didn't know how to prevent himself from flying when he was in a high position.

Ma Long was even shaken away by one step. When encountering him, Yu Fei might just need to start accelerating.
  This rare lack of confidence only stayed in the mind of the self-proclaimed Superman for half a second.

The Lakers opened up the perimeter and once again created a strong attack opportunity for O'Neal.

O'Neal raised his hand high, the ball arrived.

The Bucks' double-team was more timely than in the previous round, but Laettner's defense collapsed faster than expected.

O'Neal knocked down Laettner like an ancient god, turned around to face Horry's foul, violently smashed the dunk, and heard the whistle. The Staples Center audience was already used to this scene.

Since O'Neal arrived in Los Angeles in 1996, he has brought countless bloody and brutal offensives to fans.

The shouts from the scene made O'Neal feel that the people's support was available. This is his status in the hearts of the fans. He is still the supreme god here.

So, O'Neal roared angrily and made a vulgar "give me money" gesture towards where Jerry Buss was.

Because Laettner was injured in this defense, the game entered a brief pause.

ABC cut to a clip of Buss being interviewed at the beginning of the season when O'Neal openly showed the "money" gesture to Buss.

Different from now, Bass made it clear in the interview that the team will renew O'Neal and Jackson.

"I believe when they sign they will be the highest paid players and coaches in the league."

Yu Fei also watched the interview on the big screen.

To him, the real fun was in the questions that followed.

"What about Kobe? Will the Eagle County incident affect his future with the Lakers?"

"No, no, Kobe is like my son." You don't usually hear the boss call his players like his son, but this is what makes Kobe special in Buss' heart. "Kobe will probably reach a level that only two or three players have ever reached. I want to see him reach his peak, and that's still many years away."

Yu Fei asked in his mind: What if someone doesn't want you to witness Kobe's peak, Dr. Buss?
  ABC understood, and they quickly cut to Jerry Buss sitting in the front row.

He was not at all happy about his star's "showing off". On the contrary, what he presented to the public was an extremely solemn face.

Yu Fei turned to the sideline, and Laettner was replaced by Dan Gazulic.

Last season, Dan Dan was still the unbeatable starting center of the Bucks. This season due to injuries, his status has been up and down, and he has also lost his starting position.

But now that Karl is replacing him, he wants to use his hit and miss mid-range shot to continue to cooperate with flying pick-and-rolls.

Yu Fei also felt that the foreplay was almost over. Since the Lakers coaching staff was so crazy that they pressed Kobe down to make O'Neal comfortable, then this game would be very simple. Defeat O'Neal like they did before, and the Lakers' show of playing tricks with a fat man will come to an end.

(End of this chapter)