Chapter 40: Intra-team training
Seeing Shaq completely ignore my outside three-pointers, there seem to be some fluctuations in my heart, human beings are such a strange creature, there is a kind of person is when the opponent takes special care of you and the defense is in place, you will play very well, because your concentration will be very high, and if the opponent completely ignores you and almost does not defend you, you may feel particularly uncomfortable at this time, and the subtle fluctuations generated by the psychology may also affect your play.
And Kobe Bryant is just such a person, the stronger the defense, the better he can play, and sometimes when the opponent ignores you, he may not be able to shoot.
Anything I do outside the three-point line is pointless, because Shaq doesn't even have to defend it, and now I have enough space and time to shoot, but I don't know what rhythm I should use to shoot.
It stands to reason that the most stable way to shoot is actually to shoot on the spot without jumping much, so that the balance of the whole body is the easiest to control, but for me, most of the training is actually more important to shoot in the case of defenders or even confrontations, and my shots are almost always to jump quite high before shooting, and now I hesitate all of a sudden in the state of large vacancy.
It was just a few tenths of a second of hesitation that was enough to make me pay, and I knew the ball was off the line after the three-point shot, and I had a premonition of the rebounding route that might appear in the rebound, and I wanted to fight for the rebound in the frontcourt.
However, Shaq's height and reach and athleticism were too terrifying, even though I had already gone to the rebounding position in advance, but this guy was like an elephant flying in the air, covering the sky and the sun over my head, snatching the rebounding ball that was about to be taken by me, I turned sideways and hit Shaq's back, and the result was that I was knocked straight out of the way.
I was knocked to the ground, but I didn't want to admit defeat, and I bounced straight off the ground with a movement similar to a carp, and I had to admire the strong core strength of Kobe's body, and such a high center of gravity could complete this action very easily.
Shaq looked at me with a smile and raised the ball above his head with one hand, and the more I looked at his smile, the more angry I became, and the fighting spirit in my heart instantly burned, raising my concentration to another level.
It's to take advantage of Shaq's appearance to relax and steal his ball, I have already prepared for it, and by the time Shaq's next attack is launched, I have changed my steal strategy, and he still seems to think that I will defend him like the first ball before, but this time I didn't take it lightly, but looked for the best time.
Although Shaq's ability to protect the ball is very good among centers, after all, his body center of gravity is still a little too high, so when he starts to dribble inside from outside the three-point line, I can still find some flaws in his dribbling.
It was this opportunity, my movements were like a bolt of lightning, so fast that even my own brain couldn't keep up with my body, and I seized the opportunity to change the direction of Shaq's body in front of the lightning, and directly pushed the ball out, and then I accelerated to chase the ball back into my hand.
Looking back at Shaq, the smile on his face disappeared all of a sudden, and his eyes seemed to say that a good boy has a set.
To my surprise, the steal seemed to irritate Shaq's nerves as well, and he finally gave up his previous defensive strategy of completely ignoring me and began to rush up to defend me closely.
Hahaha, this is good news for me, because Shaq's height and weight are too big, so his whole inertia is also very large, and the closer he is to me when defending me, then the more I can open up more offensive space after I change direction past him.
Shaq roared and rushed forward, but his movements slowed to my eyes, and in fact everything around me seemed to me to be several beats slower than usual.
Okay, let me teach you what is a change of direction in front of the body, what is not good for Shaq to learn has to learn steals, just when Shaq rushed up and wanted to use the advantage of strength to forcibly snatch the ball, I have completely depressed the center of gravity of the whole person to the lowest point, and a very extreme position has carried out a forward change of direction.
Obviously, Shaq's nerves couldn't keep up with my speed of change of direction, and even if his nerves could keep up, his body couldn't keep up, so I left Shaq behind in one step, and he rushed forward again because of inertia before stopping, and at this time I had already rushed into the penalty area in three steps, and then soared into the air like an eagle with wings, soaring through the air, and finally put the ball into the basket in style.
This ball made my whole person into a state of excitement, I haven't felt such a hearty dunk feeling for a long time, and I really have to fight against a strong opponent to be able to stimulate my potential, this feeling may only be able to surpass when I dunk Shaq, I am also looking forward to the early arrival of that day, of course, it is not that there is no chance at all today, but I am afraid that if Shaq is really dunked by me, will I be directly torn by my hand.
At this time, Shaq has obviously begun to be a little angry, his next offensive force will be much more ruthless, this time I did not find a chance to steal his dribble, in fact, when his body hit my defense, my whole body was like being hit by a huge wall, I tried to stabilize my body, but was directly overturned by Shaq's crutches to the ground.
It didn't hurt too much, I felt my head a little dizzy, and I didn't get up from the ground for half a day.
I don't know how long it took for me to find myself lying on a bench on the sidelines, and Shaq was standing in front of me and laughing arrogantly, and when he laughed, his mouth was wide open and he wanted to punch him twice in the face.
"Forget it, you guy is too vulnerable, I just knocked you out with a little bit of strength, so you didn't have a concussion, right?"
This guy is like a weasel greeting the chicken, and he is uneasy and kind, but I shook my head a little, and I felt that my consciousness was quite clear, and there were no particularly big vertigo sequelae.
"You call this only fifty percent of the force, yes, even if you only send fifty percent of the force, it's all used on the crutch, your iron crutch looks no less powerful than the postman Carl Malone!"
"Ma Long, that kid is a few oldest, I can lift him up and hang him with one hand, whether it's playing ball or fighting, hahaha!"
Shaq's arrogant laughter continued, and at this time, I saw that some players had already arrived in the stadium, of course, these guys were the same people who didn't go to Shaq's party yesterday, and I am not sure if those guys will be able to show up on time for today's team training.
"Come on, I'm not going to fight you alone, it's too much of a loss for the defender to play against the center, if we have the chance, let's find a few teammates to play a three-on-three game, that would be fairer."
"Whatever you want, today's heads-up doesn't count, and when you find a strong enough helper, it's not too late for us to fight."
"Speaking of which, I feel like I'm looking for a helper, and I'm telling you that I'm not going to look for a particularly good teammate, I just need a blue-collar interior player who can help me carry you and grab the rebound."
"Can you hold me? You're afraid you can't find a few of the top centers in this league, hahaha! And say you're not very demanding? ”
I felt a little unsure of how to answer when he said this, and what he said was indeed very reasonable, after all, there really can't be a few centers in this league who can hold him, and judging from the previous games, even the most defensive centers in the league can't really limit him.
Whether it is today's rookie inside Camby or Uncle Mu, who is close to two meters tall, or Olajuwon, the first dream in the history of block data, they can at most limit Shaq for a period of time, and when Shak is really ruthless, even several interior assistants can't stop this guy.
"It doesn't matter, I'll beat you on my own anyway, just wait and see."
"I have to say that I still admire your courage, there are not many outside lines in this alliance who dare to fight me, and even I don't think the flying Jordan has the guts, because his thin body can't carry my beast power!"
"Yes, Jordan can't hold your crutch to open the way."
I said angrily, I feel that there is still some faint pain in the place where he was hit by his crutches before, if it is just a little hard wound outside the skin, it is better to say, I am afraid that the soft tissue is damaged, then it is a bit worth the loss.
As time went by, more and more people came to train in the stadium, but Shaq stopped practicing at this time, and he also found a bench on the side of the court, and lay directly on it and snored.
I shook my head, got back on my feet, and started to join in the practice session again.
To my surprise, when the team training started, most of the players in the Lakers team arrived on time, and one or two were only a little late, although a few of them also had some dark circles around their eyes, but at least they were able to show up on time, which was not easy.
Of course, I also believe that they will definitely not be in good shape due to lack of sleep, especially considering that we only played a game against the Clippers yesterday, although we only took away the game in the second half, but the second half was really full of strength, so it must not accumulate a little fatigue.
I almost didn't feel the pain in the place where I was hit by Shaq's crutch just now, but when I did more than a certain amount of exercise, I could still feel the stretching sensation from the internal muscles of my body, which was a bad sign, but I believe that with the recovery ability of the 18-year-old Kobe's body, it won't take long to heal on his own, so I didn't pay much attention to it.
In today's team training, head coach Silver Fox Harris rarely looks more serious and serious, in fact, he was not particularly concerned about the team training this season, considering that our Lakers lineup is indeed strong enough, and there is a boss Shaq who likes to lead the whole team with laziness, so the training enthusiasm of the whole team is indeed not very high.
Even if head coach Silver Fox Harris really emphasizes the importance of training, when everyone sees Shaq's lazy appearance, they can't help but learn the same, and the energy invested in training will not be enough.
But today is obviously a little different, at least the attitude of the Silver Fox Harris is a little tougher than usual, probably because of our dissatisfaction with our performance in the game against the Clippers yesterday, especially in the first half, the sluggish attitude of the entire main players in the first half made him aware of some potential dangers.
At the beginning of the training, he repeatedly emphasized that the regular season is very long, but we can't easily relax at any time, because once we relax, it will be difficult to get nervous when we encounter a strong opponent again.
Everyone in the team listened silently to this, even Shaq, who is usually a little hanging, seems to have restrained a lot, of course he knows that some of the subtext between the lines of the Silver Fox Harris is criticizing him, in fact, the usual Shaq doesn't care about these at all, Harris's words he will only go in the left ear and out of the right ear, which is not the same thing at all, but today it feels like Shaq is a little different, is he changing sex?
I don't really believe in this, as the so-called nature of the country is easy to change, Shaq can change that big grinning character, I think the sun may rise in the west tomorrow.
Then the head coach Silver Fox Harris divided the team into two teams, he deliberately separated me and Shaq for matching, it seems that he also wants to see how I perform against Shaq, and this is exactly what I wanted, the heads-up with Shaq just now really made me a little unwilling, I firmly believe that I have a chance to lead the team to beat Shaq.
Overall, the strength of the two sides is fairly balanced, but considering that no one on the team can stop Shaq, it is a bit difficult to completely balance no matter what teammates are arranged for Shaq, in fact, our Lakers team really can't find a second person who can carry the banner on the inside except for Shak.
On the contrary, this Lakers team actually has a good depth of personnel on the outside, after all, with my strength, I can only play less than 20 minutes on the bench, and the starting backcourt has All-Star strength.
However, the next intra-team confrontation between the two sides seemed a little listless, it was obvious that these guys must have drunk and done some other sports at Shaq's party last night, and most of them were a little weak at this time, except for a few people who did not go to Shaq's party and were normal, the other competitive states have declined to varying degrees.
This kind of decline may not be fully visible on the surface in many cases, but when they get an open shot, their shooting feeling will often be much worse than when they are usually full of energy, physical fitness is amazing, when you are not bad it may not feel its importance at all, but once you have no physical fitness, you will find that the basket may be like a huge lid for you, However, no matter how good the opportunity is, you may not be able to get the basketball into the basket smoothly.
Head coach Silver Fox Harris also seems to see something not quite right, and then related to the dark circles on the faces of these guys, no matter how stupid people are, they should have guessed it, but Harris is really like an old fox sometimes, and it is the kind of old fox who likes to be smart, he just likes to use some side knocks to say, many times it feels particularly hypocritical and pretentious, I don't like this kind of person anyway.
On the contrary, Shaq's physical fitness is a bit incredible, I can't seem to tell that this guy has played all night without sleeping, although dark circles also appear on his face, but his physical condition is still very good.
Maybe another reason is that the center opposite him is too weak, I think even if Shaq is only 50% left, he can still easily crush him into slag.
I thought about what I had just said to Shaq, to find a center who could carry him and grab rebounds, and I couldn't help but smile wryly at the corner of my mouth, but I didn't expect that my seemingly innocuous words were really like a joke.
Come on, since my teammates don't give me anything, then I have to give a little bit of help myself.
Opposite me was none other than the Lakers' starting point guard Eddie. Jones, his personal strength is actually very good, but his physical talent is really not as good as mine, many times I can just use some physical talent advantages to take advantage, after all, at this time my personal skills have not reached enough height, many times I am actually using physical talent to play.
In fact, as I said before, Eddie Jones was actually not in good shape when he was paired with Shaq, and it was the same today, plus he also attended Shaq's party yesterday, so my confrontation with him today was basically a one-sided state, and he was directly blown up by me as a rookie as an All-Star, whether it was on the defensive end or on the offensive end, his performance can be described as a disaster.
That's how it is on the basketball court, if your momentum can overwhelm the opponent, then you will feel more and more comfortable playing, and the reverse is also true, if you are not in good shape, it is likely to be worse and worse, at this time, you need a very strong heart to fight those frustrations, and play stronger in the face of adversity, which is not actually something that everyone can do.
But a real superstar must have this quality, in fact, at this point I think Shaq is quite insufficient, he is really the kind of player who is good times a lot of the time, once he plays well, he may be invincible, but when he meets a player who is more horizontal than him, he may not be able to play.
I guess that's probably one of the reasons why Shaq has been swept so many times in the playoffs in his career, and his huge body doesn't really have the ability to carry the team on his shoulders when the team is behind.