First in scoring

Chapter 505 503. Start the charge!

Zhang San: If I tell you that I am actually afraid, do you believe me? Yes!? Then I won’t say it.

When shooting, Zhang Yang didn't feel anything. He grabbed the ball and exerted force before the opponent rushed over. At that distance, he was sure that Kobe could not block him at the moment of shooting.

As a result, the ball was just thrown out, maybe less than half a second? Kobe's hand covered it!
Although he was saying "I'm scared" in his heart, he still looked extremely confident when he opened his arms and retreated.

But who is Kobe? Although every time he plays against Zhang Yang, he is always surprised by the other party's confidence which can be described as "crazy", but they are all playboys, so who is afraid of who?
Kidd saw Kobe's expression as if he was about to start the "death match mode", and he gestured to direct his teammates to move during the advancement. After passing the ball to Kobe in the frontcourt, he also began to move following Kobe's movements.

If someone compares Kidd in this year's playoffs to Kidd in last year's playoffs, they will find that they are like two different players.

He has become more accurate in his catch-and-shoot three-pointers. In the three Western Conference series, he averaged 42.5 three-pointers per game with a hit rate of 1.7%. He has become a top catch-and-shooter in the playoffs, and this is actually just the less important improvement.

The biggest improvement is that he has truly adapted to the identity of the 'third in command'. He no longer relies on his ability to organize offense as a way of organizing offense, but truly integrates into the triangle offense, freely switching between point guard, axis, and shooter, and assuming the responsibility of on-field coach.

The old blacksmith wanted to fight Zhang San head-on, and Ji Bugong immediately adjusted the best formation for his boss.

Kobe launched an attack immediately after receiving the ball. He was ready for whatever he wanted to do in the few seconds it took him to run over.

Zhang Yang did not disappoint him. His defense was very solid. His way of receiving the ball and attacking was like a surprise attack. The opponent followed up immediately... But what can this do to me?
Kobe still performed the technical moves despite Zhang Yang's close defense, and seized the difference in rhythm, took a step forward to trap Zhang Yang at his side, exerted force with his front and back feet, and suddenly burst past Zhang Yang in one step, rushing into the inside... but was blocked by Okafor.

He had forced himself to change direction by half a step to avoid Perkins's jump, and twisted in the air to avoid Zhang Yang's block, but he still couldn't avoid the third person.

Fortunately, Kwame Brown actively fought for the ball, Kidd and Garnett intercepted on both wings, and when Perkins got the ball and passed it to Zhang Yang, Zhang Yang had no chance to counterattack and had to pass the ball to Felton, falling into a positional battle.

Felton dribbled across half court, then passed the ball to Zhang Yang and ran to the left corner.

The opposing defender was Kidd and the power forward was Garnett. With the two of them on the court at the same time, Felton decisively turned into a corner cut shooter.

On Zhang Yang's side, after receiving the ball, he subconsciously glanced at Kobe who was following Afflalo, which made Ariza, who has emerged as a first-class defender this season, very angry.

Tiezha: How dare you look down on me!

Ariza defended with all his might...the wind pressure blew past his crotch, and the cheers of the fans at the scene suddenly broke out.

Tiezha was tragically pierced through the crotch by Zhang San!

Zhang Yang rushed to the right side of the free throw line and made a quick stop jump shot...but was blocked by Garnett.

Garnett, Kwame Brown and Kidd were prepared for Ariza to be passed by. As soon as Zhang Yang passed Ariza, he was already in the defensive circle of the three.

Kidd protected the defensive rebound and wanted to counterattack... but was blocked by Zhang Yang. Ariza was also blocked by Afflalo, so he had to protect the ball and move forward.

Ji Bugong: He is indeed the player who is most like me in terms of counterattack, and he is also very good at delaying counterattacks.

Zhang Yang learned this delaying method from Tyus Thomas, the Bulls' power forward whose brain seemed to be covered with muscles. He thought it was a bit silly, but it was indeed useful and could effectively delay the rhythm of the player who grabbed the rebound to make the next move.

However, this "stupid" is just his personal opinion. Tyus Thomas gives people the impression that he is not smart. Everything he does is stupid, but when his teammates do the same thing and achieve a similar effect, it is seen as witty and smart defense by their opponents.

Combined with Carlisle's starting lineup adjustments tonight, with Afflalo and Felton delaying Kobe and Ariza, Kidd's counterattack can be effectively limited.

Of course, the most important point is the change in the athletic abilities of the two high school students on the opposing team.

Garnett is 33 years old. Although he has not suffered any serious injuries because of the good protection of the Zen Master, and his short-distance explosive movement speed around the three-second zone is still there, but his physical decline is inevitable. His long-distance fast breaks are far worse than when he was with the Timberwolves. Not to mention Okafor and Ibaka, he can't even run long distances with Millsap.

Kwame Brown was a mistake in the Zen Master's arrangement. In order to deal with Yao Ming's low-post singles, he let Kwame Brown gain weight to 124 kilograms. His mobility dropped from the top three at the center position to only excellent. However, at first no one on the Lakers team could have imagined that Gasol Jr. could adapt to the rhythm of NBA games so quickly with a 130-kilogram body. Otherwise, with Kwame Brown's previous weight of 115 to 117 kilograms, he would have an absolute physical advantage whether playing power forward or center, and could fly on both wings with Ariza or Kobe in fast breaks like last season.

The Lakers' lineup structure is relatively old and slow, which is okay in the regular season. However, in the playoffs, Kidd's fast break, which he is good at, has not been very good. This is also the reason why his playing time in some key games of last year's playoffs was not as much as Fisher.

But now he is no longer troubled by this. At his age, with such a group of teammates, wouldn’t it be great to fight a positional battle?

Kidd controlled his speed and advanced to the frontcourt. His teammates were positioned as he expected, so he passed the ball to Kobe who was leaning against Zhang Yang in the low post.

Kobe caught the ball, hit it, turned over, and made a jump shot!
2 to 3, the Lakers finally scored.

In the offense-defense transition, Zhang Yang played against Ariza at the top of the arc, but his rhythm was off. He dribbled the ball behind his back, took a step sideways, and shot a three-pointer from the right side of the top of the arc... and it went in!
6 to 2, the Bobcats lead by 4 points!
Ariza looked at Zhang Yang who was retreating and pointed his gun at him. He was about to get angry... The Wolf King was dispatched...

When it was the Lakers' turn to attack, Kobe tried three different types of singles in the first three rounds, and finally the way to launch the attack was determined - Kobe started from the low post! The Bobcats had a scoring champion who could kill the opponent with one shot after another when he was in hot form. When they saw Kobe's fourth consecutive attack to single out, the Bobcats were more sensitive than most teams. Perkins and Afflalo moved in advance to double-team.

Ariza cut in immediately after being left open by Afflalo, Okafor retreated in time, Garnett pulled away at the right time, Kobe seized the opportunity to pass the ball, and Garnett just received the ball when Felton, who had switched defense, held him down. Garnett steadily raised the ball with one hand to avoid Felton from stealing the ball, and flicked his wrist...

Kidd stood on the left side, received the pass from Garnett, and took a three-point shot...and it hit!
Zhang Yang felt that this pass-and-cut coordination based on the triangle offense concept was played beautifully. Ariza cut in, Garnett circled, and Kidd brought Felton to a position where he could make up for the defense but was unable to intercept the pass... It was a smooth coordination!
Kobe's low-post singles, as tough as an inside player, and also as fast as an outside player, no one except Hill can limit him one-on-one, right? But Hill has a hard time defending Kobe's breakthrough and quick stop jumper... Zhang Yang quickly analyzed it and decided to give up thinking about it. In this situation where he has to take a knife and there is no possibility of "zero injury", let the head coach make the decision.

Zhang Yang came to the frontcourt and continued to receive the ball and launch an attack!
It's not really a competition with Ko. This time, their main focus at the beginning was his singles scoring. Looking at the lineup, you can tell that their starting lineup is incapable of complex coordination.

Ariza's defensive style changed. After being scolded by the Wolf King, he calmed down and no longer wanted to defend everything. He just shot close to the basket and let Zhang Yang go deeper as much as possible.

Zhang Yang saw through such a clearly purposeful defense at a glance. He was going to shoot from the outside, and after breaking through to the right side of the free throw line, he stopped suddenly, leaned over to pull the ball to relieve the force, pulled the ball back, stepped back to the long two-point distance to receive the ball, and jumped to shoot...but the fadeaway jump shot missed due to the interference of Ariza!

Zhang Yang quickly retreated, thinking: It seems impossible to perform a complete force movement. Tiezha has not wasted his years of defensive foundation. He has a good defensive awareness, and has been trained by three first-team defense and the former first-team defense for more than a year...

In the transition between offense and defense, the Lakers players were very excited. 5 to 6, they were attacking and were about to overtake the score!

Kobe continued to play one-on-one in the low post, following the same tactical moves as in the last attack, but this time Felton did not go to help Garnett, and Kidd did not get the chance to catch the ball and shoot!

Garnett didn't hesitate and took a mid-range shot...miss!
Okafor protected the defensive rebound, and Felton received the ball and advanced to the frontcourt to pass it to Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang received the ball and started directly, took two steps toward the three-point line, stopped suddenly, and jumped!
Ariza turned around and rushed forward, quickly jumped up, and waved his hand towards Zhang Yang's shooting point. His jumping speed and height were better than Zhang Yang's. At this moment, it looked like he could really block the shot! But...

When Zhang Yang jumped to the highest point, his body leaned back, and when he fell down, his waist, abdomen and back worked together to avoid Ariza's block and shot the ball... and it hit!
The 36-year-old minimally invasive blacksmith suffers from a lack of running and jumping ability and makes a fadeaway jump shot!

Without Jordan's ability to jump up and wait for the opponent to fall before shooting, Kobe developed his version of the fadeaway jump shot - jumping up to let the opponent judge the shooting point, then fade away to avoid being blocked and shoot.

Kobe in the 10 timeline, during the months when he was forced to rest due to excessive physical fatigue, made adaptive improvements to his fadeaway jump shot because it was known that the treatments he underwent would affect his already rapidly declining running and jumping abilities - when shooting, he assumed that the opponent would definitely block the shot, and prepared in advance to use the coordinated force of his waist and abdomen to fade away.

Zhang Yang has naturally learned this move, and he has also mastered the technical movements and force methods, but he didn't use it much in the regular season. He didn't need it in the first round against Wade because he had the height advantage. But it was used more frequently in the two series against the Hawks and the Bulls, and now it was used against Ariza!
With 5 of 3 shots, Zhang Yang scored 8 points!

When it was the Lakers' turn to attack, Garnett received the ball and missed the mid-range shot again!

Perkins protected the defensive rebound and Kidd led his teammates to retreat.

As the commander on the court, Kidd sensed a sense of crisis.

The reason was that he had rested for too long. As a 33-year-old veteran, Garnett's touch was obviously not good in his first game after resting for 5 days.

There is also Okafor's melee effect!

After 11 games of physical confrontation with Horford, Pachulia, Tyus Thomas, Ben Wallace, and even Yao Ming, Okafor's level of confrontation tonight would have put him in foul danger if it were in the regular season, with almost all of his actions being on the verge of being called a foul.

Retreating to the backcourt to direct his teammates to get into formation, Kidd saw Zhang Yang catch the ball again and decisively signaled to expand the defense.

Zhang Yang passed Ariza and entered the three-point line. He was still a big step away from the free throw line, but Garnett blocked him!

Zhang Yang passed the ball to Okafor, and Kidd made up for the defense. However, when Kidd retreated early, Felton also cut in along the left baseline, attracting Kwame Brown to make up for the defense. Okafor passed the ball to the basket, Perkins received the ball and dunked... but was slapped on the rim by Garnett!
The moment Zhang Yang passed the ball, Garnett judged where the final shooting point of this round would be and went straight to the basket... The prediction was correct!
After the two high school students let go, the ball bounced up along the rebound force of the basket. Garnett got up faster than Perkins and reached out to grab the rebound... but was knocked out of the baseline. Okafor jumped up from behind Garnett and dunked the ball back into the basket!

The fans near the baseline were screaming "Ouch!" They didn't expect that a rim-attack match could be so exciting! Of course, Garnett was knocked out of bounds with his teeth bared, which also scared a lot of people.

10 to 5, the Bobcats' lead expanded to 5 points!
But the Zen Master did not call a timeout, and the Lakers players habitually made adjustments on their own.

Kobe continued to attack in the low post. Garnett, who missed two shots in a row, did not look for an open position to respond this time, but took the initiative to cover Kidd.

This was a good response, as it drew Okafor out, but it also caused the two of them who were playing off-ball screens to lose the opportunity to connect directly with Kobe!

The two of them were in the top arc for the pick-and-roll, with no connection point in the middle, it was too far away.

Kobe turned to the basket and was followed by Perkins. Afflalo double-teamed him and passed the ball to Ariza, who was outside the 45-degree three-point line on the right side from the baseline. Ariza took a three-point shot...

There was only a wrong name, not a wrong nickname. Tiezha had a good posture for catching the ball and shooting, but his accuracy... It hit the rim of the basket with a "bang"!
In the offense-defense transition, Okafor received the ball and missed the mid-range shot, which allowed the Lakers to breathe a sigh of relief and continue to cooperate. Kobe wanted to pass the ball to Ariza, but unexpectedly, after Ariza missed the shot, he did not move to the high position, but rushed into the three-second zone around Kobe, Afflalo, and Kobe who were surrounded in a group!

Kobe was suddenly fired up, but the opportunity for a strong shot had been missed, so he could only pass the ball to Ariza. Ariza received the ball, and under the interference of Perkins' top defense and Zhang Yang's turning and stepping forward, he forced a layup but missed!
Zhang Yang grabbed the rebound, landed, turned around and dribbled the ball, using the inertia of his body weight to accelerate. The opportunity has come, go, go!

(End of this chapter)