Healing Basketball

  Chapter 779 Chapter 779. Then go on defense!

  Liu Xiu saw a news before, saying that Magloire wanted to return to his hometown Toronto to play. During the offseason, when the contract year was about to come, Magloire applied for a trade to the Raptors.

But the Raptors already have the twin towers of Milicic and Bosh, and they are unwilling to ask Magloire for more than 8 million US dollars and a contract, even for one year. Leuer once had the idea of ​​retiring, and the Bucks hurriedly sent him to the Lakers. Otherwise, it would not be that simple for the Lakers to get such a center who averaged 9+9 per game last season. The Lakers are unwilling to renew the contract with Caron Butler with an annual salary of tens of millions of dollars, and do not want to give more chips.

   But even if he didn’t retire, Magloire has already started to slack off, his self-esteem has been hit, he has lost enthusiasm for basketball, and his performance in the preseason was extremely poor... But tonight, Magloire played very actively.

   According to Liu Xiu’s visual inspection, this guy feels that he is being valued, and he is playing in a big city again, and wants to work hard, and Wang Zhizhi wants to get back the starting position... Zen Master is playing!

  After squatting on the toilet for a few minutes, Liu Xiu came out of the bathroom, communicated with the coaching staff and reached an agreement...

  The offense went from 34 points in the first quarter to only 25 points in the second quarter, showing a serious decline in performance, and the opponent's offense is getting better and better.

   Then play defense! Knock!

   Just leave the offensive end to a few stars!

  …

  Back from halftime, Liu Xiu and Ray Allen's super back line were replaced. In the frontcourt, Maurice Cheeks replaced the trio of Stevenson, Millsap and Kwame Brown.

Millsap was very excited. He only played 6 minutes in the first half and kept the defending champion team in the core lineup. I was prepared to lose, but I didn't expect to make it to the first round.

He is a very mature and smart player. He has understood the treatment of ordinary rookies in those championship-level teams. Back then, Jermaine O'Neal averaged more than 12 minutes per game in the fourth year of his career. In 2019, he averaged only 5.8 minutes per game, which is the case for all strong teams.

  He reckoned that in his rookie season, he was very lucky to be able to play more than 10 minutes in a game in the rotation stage. He didn't expect to be entrusted with an important task!

  Although he is fighting a war of attrition as a 'death squad', this is a rare opportunity for him!

   On the other side, the Lakers sent a combination of Juan Dixon, Kobe Bryant, Maurice Evans, Radmanovich, and Wang Zhizhi.

Maurice Evans, who played for the Pistons last season, played a very important role in the finals. Although he failed to help the Pistons win the championship in the end, he averaged 10.5 points per game in the finals, with 41.7% Three-point shooting made 2.5 three-pointers. The Pistons wanted to renew his contract, but he wanted to play in a big city. He rejected the Pistons' 3-year $10 million, and then turned around and joined with a 3-year $7.5 million. lakers.

  The lineup of the Lakers is defensive enough, and it is going to attack.

  But after the start of the third quarter, the way the Trail Blazers slammed on defense stunned Zen Master.

   The Trail Blazers, a team that averaged the top three points per game in the league for two consecutive years, actually started hand-to-hand combat!

  In the first half of the third quarter, the two teams scored 8-8, and the score came to 67-66.

  The Lakers, not to mention regaining their offensive efficiency in the first quarter and the first half of the second quarter, played worse than the second half of the second quarter.

After the official timeout came back, Liu Xiu took Kobe to rest and beat Deron violently. He scored 3 goals and scored 7 points in a row. He played a wave of 7-2 alone. The Trail Blazers opened the point difference to 6 points, and the score was 74-68 !

Liu Xiu beat him violently, forcing Zen Master to replace Kobe who had just rested for less than two minutes, and then the two started a duel. Kobe scored 5 points, Liu Xiu also scored 5 points, plus 1 assist. Mourning, who came off the bench, scored two points, and the Trail Blazers opened up another two points, leading the Lakers by 8 points 81 to 73!

Relying on Kobe's two goals and two strong three-pointers at the last moment, he scored 6 points in a row, and Liu Xiu was pinched to score. At the end of the third quarter, the point difference was reduced to 4 points.

   After three quarters, the Trail Blazers lead the Lakers 83 to 79.

   Liu Xiu scored 14 points in this quarter, raising his personal score to 32 points, helping the Trail Blazers score 24 to 21 in a single quarter and successfully suppressing the Lakers' offense!

  …

   Zen Master knows that the opponent will change their style of play in the second half, but based on his experience, if the core lineup of the two consecutive championship teams has not changed, it should focus on offense. After all, defense is more tiring.

   But now he discovers that he made an empirical mistake!

  He made the mistake of equating the Trail Blazers' two-peat championship with his three-peat two-peat, and now he sees it's a different story.

Randolph is not O'Neal. Although Randolph is also a rare super genius, the gap with O'Neal is very obvious. O'Neal can be fat and average 20+ per game. After getting fat, the lazy thing is defense. The offense is still invincible, but Randolph can't .

  Other players on the Trail Blazers, due to factors such as age and fatigue, are mostly scorers, not young and strong defensive high school players like Kwame Brown, Stevenson, and outlaws.

In the first half of the third quarter, due to his wrong prediction, the offensive lineup he sent was restrained by the Trail Blazers. But during that time, Kobe was going to stare at Liu Xiu. They didn't play well either. Stevenson, Millsap, and Kwame Brown played together. The preseason was fine, but at the intensity of the regular season, they cooperated for the first time. The offensive end really lagged behind.

   But when Kobe went down to rest, the Lakers' offense was still unable to move, but Liu Xiu lost the outside line and quickly played his form. The Trail Blazers took the opportunity to widen the point difference...

   However, even so, the Zen master did not panic.

  The current situation is not that the Trail Blazers have taken the lead, but an open state!

  If the Trail Blazers had taken the lead, the Lakers would not have been able to narrow the gap 6-2 in the last two minutes just now, so he thinks they still have a chance!

   After the intermission, he replaced the combination of Deron, Kobe, Radmanovich, Odom, and Wang Zhizhi.

  He didn't choose to slam defense, the configuration was far worse than the opponent.

  What left a deep impression on Zen Master tonight was the rookie named Paul Millsap opposite him. His fierce and fearless appearance made Zen Master quite envious.

  He really needs a defensive champion who can rush to the front line, so he doesn't need Kobe to be the defensive arrow.

  He is also convinced. The Trail Blazers have made no achievements in the free market and have been "targeted" by the entire league. But the 70-win draft pick can select such a rookie with outstanding combat power!

  …

  …

   Now go out to the hospital, and continue to update at night~ It is said that there is no need for isolation treatment, and you can come back after taking the medicine, but there are too many people, and you may have to queue up.

  (end of this chapter)