Chapter 35: The Thirty-Point Reversal

Although the strength of the Clippers is certainly far inferior to our Lakers, our lazy attitude to the game has made them see the opportunity to win at the beginning, and when the score between the two sides is more than 10 points, the silver fox Harris should make adjustments.

However, in fact, the Silver Fox Harris doesn't feel very good today, and he usually talks a lot today, he didn't specifically design tactics today, nor did he say some chicken soup words, but gave the power to the players to perform by themselves.

I didn't get a chance to play after the first timeout, and although I felt that replacing me at this time would definitely help the Lakers recover their slump, but Harris the Silver Fox just stuck to his pre-game rotation plan and was not willing to change at all.

I myself looked a little listless, watching my Lakers teammates on the court continue to be bullied by opponents who are much weaker than me, and I didn't feel good in my heart, and as a result, the Lakers trailed the Clippers by as much as 15 points at the end of the first quarter.

In fact, in the second half of the first quarter, the Lakers players have begun to wake up, and their defensive enthusiasm is much better than before, but several players of the Clippers have completely played out of the state, it can be said that almost everyone is playing at a super level, and the overall shooting rate of the Clippers in the first quarter is more than 70%, on the other hand, the Lakers side except for Shaq's shooting rate is above 50%, and none of the others even has a shooting rate of more than 33%.

Finally Silver Fox Harris began to instill his unique set of chicken soup for the soul again during the intermission, anyway, I was not interested in his set at all, my attention was focused on Jessica, who was sitting a few rows behind the Lakers bench at this time, I saw that her eyes were also a little empty and confused, I could only shake my head slightly, ready to play after the start of the second quarter.

Shaq has been substituted, and after the start of the second quarter, I completely led the Lakers' bench players on the court, and in fact, the gap between the Clippers' main force and the bench strength is not very large, their playing time is relatively average, and there should be no one who averages more than 30 minutes per game, which is why it is difficult for Silver Fox Harris to formulate a more targeted defensive and offensive strategy, because he does not know these players on the other side at all.

To be honest, I got into the game very quickly today, but unfortunately there were two offenses that broke through to the basket and failed to score, although it caused fouls from the opposing defenders, but if they could be scored, it would be two twos plus one, and the score gap between the two sides would be narrowed to less than 10 points.

It backfires on the other hand, the more I try to chase points, the score between the two sides is getting bigger and bigger, it turns out that the Lakers' bench lineup is too weak, if you only look at the strength of the starters, the Lakers are definitely the top three teams in the league, but all the other players on the bench except for me have the ability to score independently, and all the other players say something unpleasant, that is, even if they go to the CBA, they can't play the team's main level.

As a result, I was able to keep playing singles, and my teammates seemed a little disheartened when they saw me focusing on my own singles, and they were even more reluctant to contribute on the defensive end, and the result was that the opponent's attack became smoother and smoother, and our attack became more and more rigid.

But I can't help it, it's not like I don't have the idea of passing, but every time I pass the ball to my teammates in the open space, they either hit the iron or they don't shoot and rush into the inside to be cut and then let the opponent play a defensive counterattack.

I really felt like everything was going too hard, and by the time the Silver Fox Harris called a timeout again, the Lakers were already trailing the Clippers by as many as 23 points, something that no one could have imagined before the game.

The whole Staples was silent, you must know that although the arena is nominally the common home of both the Lakers and the Clippers, in fact, because of the historical achievements of the Lakers and the accumulated popularity, the Clippers and Lakers are playing away from home when they play here, because the vast majority of fans in the stadium support the Lakers.

Before the end of the half, the Lakers were beaten like this by the Clippers, who were two or three grades worse than themselves, and no one as a Lakers fan could bear it, so after the timeout came back, the Lakers encountered constant boos, because they did perform too badly today and only deserved such boos.

My personal performance is actually reasonable, in the first 8 minutes of the game, 5-of-10 shooting plus 6 free throws, a single person cut a whopping 16 points, but in that time the Clippers scored nearly 30 points, in fact, the Lakers bench except for me scored alone, the other players were 0-of-8 shooting and 0-of-0 free throws.

When I returned to the bench, I kept shaking my head, and I didn't know where to vent the nameless fire in my stomach.

When the Lakers' main team returned to the court, they still couldn't change the disadvantage that had been laid down at the beginning of the game, and the Lakers trailed the Clippers by as much as 30 points after halftime.

The Clippers scored 65 points in 24 minutes in the second quarter, while the Lakers scored only 35 points, which is a bit too absurd for the Lakers, who have three All-Star stars in the starting lineup, one of whom is still a superstar.

At halftime, the atmosphere in the locker room was extremely weird and dull, everyone was silent, including the head coach Silver Fox, his expression was uncertain, as if he was thinking about what kind of words should be used to criticize us, but after thinking for a long time, he gave up this plan, and the more he didn't speak, the more uncomfortable we players, this is like a child making a mistake and hoping that adults can directly criticize themselves, and I don't want adults to use this silent attitude, This can be very frightening and uncomfortable.

But it's true that everyone is holding a fire in their hearts, and no one believes that their performance in the first half will continue, but at this time everyone has a sense of unity, although no one has expressed it in words, but their eyes are much more determined than before the game.

Sure enough, after the start of the second half of the game, the Lakers' level on both offensive and defensive ends was directly improved to the level of the playoffs, and on the other hand, the Clippers actually fought hard in the first half, but their physical talent was limited after all, and their physical fitness could not support the high-intensity investment of the full 4 quarters, so the shooting percentage fell off a cliff compared to the first half.

After the start of the second half, the Lakers directly used 3 minutes of full-court tight defense, and the Clippers, who were not particularly experienced in the game, and lacked personal strength, made frequent mistakes under the Lakers' mad dog defense, and soon were beaten 10-0 by the Lakers in less than 3 minutes, and the difference between the two sides instantly returned to 20 points.

The coach of the Clippers immediately stopped the game when he saw that the situation was wrong, and the head coach Silver Fox Harris suddenly regained his spirit at this time, and it was obvious that the vitality shown by the players in the second half also affected him to some extent, allowing him to return to his usual active state.

Of course, in my opinion, many of the tactics he said are useless at all, because our Lakers' tactical system on the court is very simple many times, to put it bluntly, there are three, one is a combination of inside and outside, one is to pull away singles, and the other is to block and dismantle in a high position, and any other more complex tactics are actually given in vain, and the more critical moments, the more you need to rely on the player's personal ability, and everything else is nonsense.

I was looking off the pitch and looking eager to try, but obviously my playing time wasn't up yet, and the better the starters, the less time I played.

I watched the situation on the field while secretly looking at Jessica's location, but it was okay not to look, I looked over and found that Jessica's previous position was empty, although I was very worried about Jessica's situation, but there was still nothing I could do, I couldn't leave the bench now to find her, maybe everything was my own worry, people are adults anyway, and they can take care of themselves.

So I collected my worries and focused on the field again.

When the Lakers played a wonderful counterattack, Staples once again burst into enduring applause, and each applause was a little more enthusiastic than the previous one, and the audience seemed to be completely unleashing the passion that could not be released in the first half at once.

With the Lakers' state greatly warmed up, the situation on the court began to completely subvert, the Clippers' personal strength is not as good as the Lakers after all, so when the whole game situation is unfavorable to them, they will begin to have some changes in their hearts, the more they can't shoot three points, the more these guys have to shoot, and there is no guarantee of rebounding, when the Lakers counterattack and play, they can either only foul, or watch the opponent score an easy layup.

Especially Shaq, don't look at him acting like a second-rate center in the first half, when he really shows his sharp shark teeth, the opponent can only let him slaughter, Shaq can not only destroy the opponent's willpower on the inside, but also use his speed to join the fast attack counterattack, and even a Shaq himself grabbed the rebound and dribbled a fast-break ball, I remember that such a ball also appeared in the first few games of this season.

When Shaq was completely relaxed, he would use some moves that he didn't usually use, so the score gap between the two sides quickly came to 12 points, and the Lakers outscored the Clippers by as many as 18 points in the entire third quarter.

However, after the start of the fourth quarter, the silver fox Harris once again let me lead the bench players alone, and he was not wrong in a sense, on the one hand, it can fully exercise my personal ability, and I can indeed make up for the shortcomings of the bench, but to be honest, I think his deployment will still have some shortcomings, especially allowing Shaq to play the first and third quarters full, which can allow him to rest a few minutes early, and then return to the game in the fourth quarter earlier, Or just have Shaq and I lead the bench so that the other side is more difficult to target.

In fact, this arrangement has been reflected in the previous games, but today in the face of the Clippers who are not strong enough, it is estimated that the Silver Fox Harris is too light on the enemy, and he did not take the Clippers team into account at all, so he simply arranged the rotation at will, and did not make pre-game preparations as carefully as he did when facing strong opponents before.

If it weren't for the fact that the gap in strength between the Lakers and the Clippers was too big, how could it be so easy to recover from a 30-point deficit at halftime, and now there is still a 12-point difference between the two sides, and there are only 12 minutes left in the clock, for a head coach, he obviously lacks enough consideration in these aspects.

After the game, I was once again ready to turn on the scoring switch, relying on my personal ability to narrow the score gap between the two sides, but today my substitute teammates are like joining forces to play me, the main players played poorly in the first half, but in the second half from attitude to state are much better, but these substitute players still continue the first half of the pit daddy state, not only the attitude of the game is not positive enough, even some very good offensive opportunities can not be grasped.

And there are some balls that I really don't believe they can score due to their lack of ability, and I don't even feel like I'm going to be able to play like this with 4 CBA teammates.

As a result, although I have been struggling to support the game with scoring, the difference between the two sides was stretched to 18 points again within 3 minutes, and the head coach Silver Fox Harris couldn't stand it anymore and decisively stopped the game, he probably knew that it was not fun to fall behind by 18 points with 9 minutes left in the game, and if you didn't make changes, the rest of the time would be garbage time.

Finally this guy put me and Shaq on the court again and replaced the rest of the bench as well, putting me as point guard with a couple of other Lakers starters.

Although I say point guard, the actual style of play must have nothing to do with point guard, because the run-in between me and Shaq in the first few games has already developed a considerable degree of proficiency in the high blocking and pick-and-roll tactics between me and Shaq.

When facing opponents who are far stronger than the Clippers, Shaq and I are able to take advantage of the high blocking and pick-and-roll tactics of the offense, not to mention their team with little talent today, many times there is no way to overcome the gap between talent and strength by relying on willpower alone.

In the next two minutes, Shaq and I scored five points each to lead the Lakers to a 10-0 spurt again, and the difference between the two sides narrowed to within 10 points for the first time.

The opposing head coach called a timeout, but I don't think his timeout made any sense at all, because when Shaq and I got into the groove in the fourth quarter, no one was able to stop us.

My score today has also come to more than 20 points, but because of Shaq's stroke in the first half, he has only scored 17 points until now, and he has 13 rebounds, 5 of which are offensive rebounds, and with his strength, I think it is not impossible for him to grab 10 offensive rebounds under the Clippers basket in a row.

However, the Clippers obviously didn't intend to give up the victory so easily, and they even started to press us frantically, not because their players' defensive level was not good, but because there were many times when you suddenly faced the opponent's full-court pressure, there will be some panic.

What's more, their full-court pressing this time is the kind of three people who forcibly wrap one person, and will quickly wrap you when you are about to pass half-time, and many times you can't pass the ball in time, which will lead to mistakes.

In this way, after I was made two mistakes in a row, my mentality was about to explode, but with my character of not admitting defeat, the more I sandwiched me, the more I wanted to prove myself, and I was determined not to pass the ball, and a voice in my subconscious said this to myself.

But fortunately, the opposing players' full-court pressing mainly relies on enthusiasm and sudden attacks to win, I am already familiar with their routines and am not so afraid of their double or even triple packs, I use my skillful dribbling, very easy to break through from their bags, the reason why it can be so easy is also due to the bad defensive habits of these defenders, in my opinion their gambling is like digging the ball is the best time for me to break through their defense.

Shaq was completely defenseless on the inside at this time, and was desperately waving to me to let me pass the ball, but at this time, I had just crossed the bag of the opponent's three, and of course I didn't want to give Shaq the opportunity to perform, so I rushed to the basket at full speed again.

This time I chose a 180-degree turn to be dunked, Shaq directly under the basket became the background board of my violent dunk, when I returned to the defense, I could see that his eyes were like he was about to kill, and I just spread my hands and smiled at him slightly, and then retreated with all my strength.

I'm not worried about Shaq at all about what he will do to retaliate against me, during this time I have basically figured out Shaq's personality and temper, he is actually the kind of very simple and kind like a child's temper, if you steal a child's toy, he may be angry, but he will definitely not do a lot of terrible retaliation like an adult.

Shaq may spray me a few words after the game, or say something angry, but I'm not afraid of him, hahaha!

It is even said that being able to make him angry gives me some kind of psychological pleasure, and this pleasure is the pleasure of bullying the strong, although he is a strong man, he still has to be bullied by me!