Chapter 229: Take the King lightly
"I know our boss's beautiful daughter, Agerie, likes this Li Mojie very much, but so what? We don't need him to make the playoffs! Cousins told reporters in an interview before the game. The Kings' current record is 4 wins and one loss, which gives Cousins a lot of confidence, and Cousins is very dissatisfied with the fact that India Shih Tzu Agari has been showing favor to Li Mojie on social media, and he thinks that the Kings have him as a "king" is enough, and there is no need for another king!
"When he gets to the playoffs, he'll be talking to me!" The reporter immediately told Cousins about this sentence to Li Mojie, hoping to do something, but Li Mojie just smiled faintly and did not make any response, in his opinion, Cousins did something bad like this, and he would not be surprised if he said anything, after all, this is a ruthless character who can go to the championship team at the age of 28 to get a basic salary, what else can you tell him?
The Suns sent a lineup of Gordon, Middleton, Lee Mojab, Marcus, Gobert, Marcus became the team's starting power forward after Markieff was traded, and Jokic and Capela can also take a step forward.
On the other side, the Kings starters have changed a lot from last season, with center DeMarcus Cousins, power forward Jason Thompson, small forward Rudy Gay, scoring guard Ben McLemore, and point guard Darren Collisson.
The two sides jumped the ball, Cousins got the ball for the first offense, Darren Collison controlled the ball and met Gordon over half the court, Darren Collisson, who averaged 11.4 points + 3.7 assists + 2.4 rebounds per game in the Clippers last season, became the team's starting point guard after moving to the Kings this season, but this is only the result of Isaiah Thomas transferring to the Celtics. As a result, the Suns finished the season with 39 wins and 43 losses, ranking 10th in the West. This season, Li Mojie came to the Suns and performed well, and the management naturally would not be interested in Thomas, so the Celtics got Isaiah Thomas in advance.
Cousins ran out to block the pick-and-roll, and then Darren Collison handed the ball to Cousins, who held the ball at the top of the arc and Gobert defended it in time, and Cousins hit a three-point shot. That's a problem for Cousins, who admittedly has a decent shot and a good range, but there are times when he believes he's shooting from mid-to-long range. This kind of shooting rate naturally can't be compared with the inside, and the closer you get to the basket, the higher the shooting percentage, which is still right after all. Cousins' low-post offense is really good, but the Kings have never found a point guard suitable for him to pass the ball, Isaiah Thomas can't, Darren Collison can't either, so this season Malone's task for Cousins is still to mention outside blocking and free-throw line positioning.
Marcus picked up the rebound and dribbled directly to launch a fast break, but the Kings' athleticism was still good, and the fast break didn't make a turn position. After Gordon and Middleton ran and didn't find a shot, the ball was handed to Lee Mojab.
Li Mojie took the ball, Gobert pulled out to block and cover, so Cousins was forced to defend in front of Li Mojie, Li Mojie raised the speed and directly changed hands to the layup to avoid Cousins at the same time, and scored the ball.
"You seem nervous?" Li Mojie smiled at Cousins after scoring in.
"Fack!" Sure enough, Cousins immediately got angry, picked up the headband and flicked his head hard.
The king launched an attack, and it was Collison who took the ball, Cousins mentioned the high blocking, Collison did not give the ball to Cousins this time but dribbled and rushed to the inside, although Gobert defended it, Li Mojie and Marcus could defend it under the basket, but Collison rushed to the basket with one brain, and when he wanted to pass out, he couldn't see the figure, his height of 183cm was blocked by two big men of more than two meters, where could he still see people, he could only force his hand to hit the iron, and then Li Mojie easily took off the rebound
Li Mojie directly hit the fast attack, leaving Collison, who lost his balance and fell to the ground, Rudy Guy still wanted to block, Li Mojie directly dribbled behind and then left Guy directly behind him with a speed.
After the Kings half, Li Mojie rushed into the interior, Cousins immediately moved his feet to step forward to make up for the defense, Li Mojie seized the opportunity to stuff the ball directly to Gordon under the basket, and assisted the latter to dunk easily.
"What are you doing?" Cousins was immediately dissatisfied, shouting at his teammates.
The timeout ended quickly, players from both sides returned to the court, and the Kings launched a tactic that went straight to Cousins for singles.
So next, Cousins directly asked for the ball to single Gobert inside, I have to say that Cousins's offense is indeed excellent, although his offense in the low post is not very much, but his excellent strength and foot movement still make his low post very lethal.
Squeezed Gobert into the three-second zone, Cousins immediately turned around, hit a layup, and scored 2 points, Gobert had enough strength and body, and the turn was not as fast as Cousins.
The Suns' offense continued as before, with Lee possessing the ball until half-court, and Gordon and Middleton taking the lead in running for a goal.
Both of them have very good off-ball running ability, and there are Marcus and Gobert as covers, the King's defense finally has a hole, Collison was blocked by Marcus, and then Gordon faced the 211cm Thompson, which is a big misalignment, a quick stop and strong up directly out of the shooting space, three-point shot.
"Beautiful!" This three-point shooting lifted Hornacek's spirits on the sidelines, and Middleton, Gordon, and Li Mojie can all shoot three-pointers, which is the purpose of the Suns management trading Bledsoe for Gordon this season!
As if hearing Hornacek's applause, Cousins suddenly had his habitual bitter and bitter expression on his face. At halftime, he took the initiative to pass the ball again, but this time, not in the low post, but in a step forward on the left side of the free throw line.
Although he had just taken Gobert in the low post, Cousins wanted to attack with the ball head-on in this round, and he still preferred to attack with the basket after all.
Standing in front of Cousins who holds the ball in front of the basket, Gobert does not dare to be too careless, unlike many big men with excellent physical fitness who can only rely on others to feed the ball, Cousins has excellent offensive ability with the ball, and he can not only shoot but also dribble and break through in the basket.
"I have to guard against him!" Gobert muttered, this season he successfully rose to become the team's starting center, but in the last game he was almost blown up by Gasol Jr., plus the team's second-round pick selected this year with a mid-range shot and a strategy Jokic also put a lot of pressure on Gobert, Gobert mainly relies on eating cakes on the offensive end, so he must make his own contribution on the defensive end!
Cousins took the ball for a moment, then took the ball to the right and began to attack.
Breaking through, Cousins chose to break to the right, Gobert gritted his teeth and pushed it to the opponent's side, not allowing Cousins to break through the defense easily. Cousins rushed to the three-second zone with Gobert on his head, slowed down after seeing that he wasn't particularly far from the basket and that it didn't seem easy to completely break Gobert.
Taking a big step forward and stepping straight into the three-second zone, Cousins immediately pressed Gobert and jumped. At this time, Gobert was indeed suppressed by Cousins and had no power to fight back, although he was still able to stick to Cousins' side, but he couldn't jump at all, but Gobert's arm span was long, although his jump height was not as high as Cousins, but it still interfered with Cousins.
“duang!” Shoot the iron.
"It was Li Mojie who grabbed the rebound in the front court, launched a fast break directly, and handed the ball to Middleton to chase three points? …… Pregnant! ”
Grabbing the rebound in the frontcourt, Li Mojie saw that Ben McLemore and Guy were in front of him, so he passed the ball again, and this time, Li Yang did not give the ball to Gordon again. Li Mojie and Middleton have been teammates for a season, he obviously believes in Middleton more, the ball was sent to Middleton's hands, Middleton is also worthy of Li Mojie's trust, the three-point line outside the hand hit steadily, the opening Suns determined the advantage, and then in the second quarter Cousins sent three fouls in a row and was forced to go off, the Suns played a wave of 11:0, and at halftime, the Suns had led by 18 points at 59:41.
In the end, the Suns clocked out in the third quarter, and finally defeated the Kings 121-103, Li Mojie played 33 minutes, got a triple-double of 25 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and 1 steal, shooting rate of 47.7%, three-point shooting rate of 36.4%, shooting rate average, the best play is Eric Gordon, this game 193cm Gordon faced 183 Darren Collison Physical Advantage is too great, it is simply how to play, playing 34 minutes, scored 41 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, shooting 51.5% from the field and 39.5% from three-point range, winning the MVP of the game. I want to talk about "The New Magician of Basketball" with more like-minded people, pay attention to "excellent reading literature" on WeChat, talk about life, and find confidants~