When pride still matters

Chapter 409 This is the king. Do you have such a king?
Yu Fei didn't leave many options for Kobe.

Continue to rest? Of course, but after Yu Fei completed the four-pointer, the Lakers had gone from being 7 points behind to 11 points behind.

This is just the beginning of the second quarter.

After a few more minutes of rest, Yu Fei's threat might become a reality.

Kobe took off the towel from his neck with his finger-protected hand and proactively asked Jackson to play: "Phil, they need me."

The Zen Master, who has been criticized for his slow decision-making on the spot, was very decisive tonight.

Seeing that the situation on the court was not right and that Kobe was going to play early again, he immediately agreed.

Half a minute later, the Lakers committed a defensive foul and Kobe returned to the court.

Because the Sonics are now flying with Durant, Childress, Frye and Nick Collison. There are four young people in this lineup. Under the intensity of the Western Conference Finals, their performance is generally not as good as in the regular season.

But with Yu Fei, some people will realize the true meaning of Jermaine O'Neal on their own.

However, after thinking about it for a while, Jackson realized that all these problems, in the final analysis, can be traced back to Yu Fei playing more than half a quarter of the game.

The good situation was about to be reversed by Yu Fei's personal ability. Master Zen made a prompt decision and asked the players to let Childress go, thus drawing extra defensive resources to restrict Yu Fei.

His concerns couldn't be more correct.

When Kobe and Kidd were struggling for a reversal in the second half, Yu Fei had already put on his uniform and was waiting for the last two minutes to come.

What Jackson is worried about is whether Yu Fei will still find Childress to feed him cakes under such circumstances?

He single-handedly disrupted the Lakers' rotation and widened the point difference even with four young players, causing them to not dare to replace core players at all.

Kobe needed a break, but he couldn't.

Because although Yu Fei went down, Roy came up again.

Childress's outside shooting is unstable, and his scoring method mainly relies on eating cakes from the inside.

He doesn't even have to take on a lot of offensive duties like he did in the first quarter to relieve pressure on the Lakers' offense.

If Kobe doesn't rest, then Kidd can't rest either, because he is the only person who can reasonably regulate the balance between Kobe and the system.

Yu Fei rushed to the scene in response, ignored Kobe's defense, and made two crotch dribbles from the outside to step back and hit a three-pointer.

The Lakers, who should have focused on the inside, now have to focus on the outside because of Kobe's strong performance on the outside.

At this point, the Lakers' defense was like paper in Yu Fei's eyes.

Kobe can not only bear the pressure of defending Yu Fei, but also serve as the main offensive point to attract the defensive pressure of SuperSonics.

The Lakers were completely trapped in a deadlock.

On the SuperSonics side, there are still too many young people who are not accustomed to high-intensity confrontation.

The Lakers encountered a defensive crisis.

As a result, Yu Fei dropped to the low post, received a pass from his teammate, and sensed that Kobe's defensive focus was behind him, so he immediately stepped back and turned around to shoot a jumper.

This person's threat is certainly not as good as Yu Fei's, but if there is no one of Kobe's level to restrict him, with Roy's state tonight, it is certain to kill the Lakers while Kobe is away.

If you can't defend him alone, double teams will be defeated by the pass.

Like Kobe, Kidd's physical strength is also severely exhausted.

Yu Fei gave his teammates reassurance, and then blocked Kidd on the defensive end, catching up with the floor ball and scoring a defensive counterattack.

Considering that this is how he played in the past quarter, it remains to be seen whether Kobe, who is severely depleted, can maintain the same impact on the court in the second half.

When Karl replaced Yu Fei and replaced other main players, the Lakers did not dare to replace Kobe.

Even a dog will become better around Da Fei.

In the five minutes he led the team alone, the Lakers not only failed to narrow the score, but he also opened the point difference to 10 points.

That's not something the Lakers need to consider right now.

The more Jackson thought about it, the more frightened he became.

Kobe immediately fired from the outside and once again recovered 3 points for the Lakers.

If they don't double-team him, no matter who is left to defend alone, he is confident that he will blow them up.

After a few minutes, the SuperSonics struck again and again, and the Lakers chased the point difference to 5 points.

The main impact of Kobe Bryant's return on the Lakers is that they have absolute strengths on both offense and defense.

How strong can one person's influence be to turn a team like the SuperSonics into the top favorite in the Western Conference within a year?

There was nothing they could do against Yu Fei, and this situation lasted for five minutes.

When the Lakers' double attack approached, Yu Fei was protecting the ball while looking for opportunities. He spotted Childress's opportunity to cut to the basket and threw the ball out with one hand.

Yu Fei, who played for 17 consecutive minutes, was finally replaced.

He left comprehensive statistics of 16 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists.

Childress dunked.

"Shh!"

Kobe's return immediately stopped the decline on the court.

From his playing days to his coaching career, Jackson is a living piece of modern basketball history. He played with Chamberlain in his twilight years and witnessed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s entire career. Jordan became the best in history under his hands, but it was hard for him to believe it. , if they come to Yu Fei's position, they can lead Supersonic to the same height.

Could it be that his strength has surpassed all his predecessors?
The idea flashed through Jackson's mind, but he didn't believe it.

He understands psychology. This fantasy of infinitely magnifying the enemy is a psychological suggestion that "we may not be able to defeat them."

How could he have such an idea?

The Lakers don't have a chance. If they were no match at all, the SuperSonics would have swept them away like they did in the first two rounds, and there would be no need to play Tianwangshan. Jackson's eyes were focused on the court, the man who might bring about the miracle.

Kobe, who looked exhausted, still attacked with full intensity.

But on the defensive end, his intensity dropped.

He began to use his experience flexibly and asked Xiao Ou, Foster and others to help him defend.

Roy suffered from experience and fell into traps several times.

However, Durant, who had been languishing for four games, suddenly found his touch after flying off the court.

When Roy fell into the trap, the only one in sight was Durant, who passed the ball without even thinking about it.

Durant opened his hand and shot and hit.

This happened three times in the second quarter, and Durant made all of Roy's throwaway shots.

However, luck can help the Sonics for a while, but it cannot always favor them.

The Lakers, who have shortened their rotation and greatly increased the playing time of their core players, are already fighting tooth and nail on the court.

The comparison is the quality and strength of personnel.

Four and a half minutes later, with 90 seconds left before the end of the first half, the Sonics will fly back to the field.

The Lakers replaced both Kobe and Kidd.

59 is better than 55
Two veterans over 30 years old played for 22 consecutive minutes in order to control the point difference to an acceptable value.

After Yu Fei came on the court, the Lakers tried to control the rhythm and defended with all their strength.

This move worked within the next 85 seconds.

The Lakers didn't score, but neither did the Sonics.

Then, the time came to the last 5 seconds of the first half.

SuperSonics possession.

The Lakers pressed like crazy, trying to stifle the Sonics' final attack on the wing.

Yu Fei had to come to a position near the center circle to have space to catch the ball. Then, time passed quickly and they were no longer able to carry out normal tactics.

4 秒

3 秒

Yu Fei stepped on the SuperSonics team logo, showing strong contempt for Walton's defense. He directly took a backward step and suddenly pulled up eleven meters away from the basket.

"This fucking shot can't be made!" Xiao Ao yelled.

Kidd shouted: "Luke, give him a distraction!"

Walton did interfere, but it had no impact on the shot.

Yu Fei shot a midfield three-pointer with an extremely standard posture.

The noisy Key Arena was all focused on the constantly rotating ball. For a moment, the scene was silent, but soon, at the moment the buzzer came on, the ball carrying countless expectations hit the backboard, strongly bounced into the basket.

“BANG!!!!!!”

"BENG! BENG! BENG!" Mike Breen let out his iconic roar, "He did it! Frye Yu hit the LOGO shot before the end of the first half!"

Kidd opened his eyes wide and opened his mouth slightly.

He really doesn't know what Luke Walton can do. From their perspective, the defense just now has done its best.

Yu Fei's teammates ran to him one after another to congratulate him.

On the opposite side, the Lakers' faces were full of frustration.

To them, it was a lucky ball.

The LOGO shot at the buzzer hit the board, what is this but luck?
But does luck being on the side of the SuperSonics mean that the Lady Victory will also open her hands to the Seattleites tonight?

Without that last ball, the Lakers would have been embarrassed in the first half, but the result would have been perfect.

Kobe and Kidd fought hard for 22 minutes to keep the point difference at 4 points entering the second half, and they could still fight by then.

The gap is now 7 points. Although it is not big, the psychological blow and damage caused by Yu Fei's last vote to the Lakers is immeasurable.

"You could really feel the energy drained out of a lot of the Lakers players in an instant," Jeff Van Gundy said. "Frye negated all their efforts with just one shot."

Before meeting Yu Fei, George Karl always felt angry that Jackson could coach Jordan and OK. He couldn't help but think that if he were to coach these people, he could win so many championships.

Over the years, his resentment has disappeared.

Whenever he hears someone say that he succeeded because of coaching Yu Fei, he feels so happy that he can't help himself.

Yes, I succeeded because of Da Fei. Who told you that you don’t have players like Da Fei?
Yu Fei's last play in the first half allowed Jackson to personally experience the mentality of "I'm in a big hole" when his opponent obviously did everything well but unexpectedly Jordan was too outrageous.

It feels so good, so good. This is the feeling of holding a king in your hand.

"George, how much luck do you think Frye's last shot of the first half had?"

"luck?"

I bet a million dollars that George Karl, as a staunch basketball purist, would never believe that the LOGO shot hitting the board was not a lucky ball.

But what happened? That's another thing.

"Listen," Carr said like a believer, "none of the big fly balls come in by luck."

PS: Chapter 2 is the same as yesterday. I will be conservative and update it before 4 o'clock today, so it should be fine. If it’s not updated, it’s not finished.

(End of this chapter)