Chapter 360: The First Encounter, a Big Victory
“Good boy!” Hougist high-fived Turner on the way to retreat, "You can teach, your understanding is good, and your achievements in the future will not be bad!" ”
Westbrook dribbled to the front court and actually started to sit on his back from the elbow area to hit Nick. Young, but only after a while, he suddenly turned over and broke through, burst into the paint area and continued to distribute the ball to Roberson in the weak bottom corner, Robertson received the ball and faced Jeremy Lin and finally jumped bravely to shoot a three-point shot, but unfortunately I don't know if his hand was too cold or really unaccurate, this opportunity was not bad for three points and missed the basket again.
Haugist took off the rebound and dribbled to the frontcourt, Turner suddenly accelerated to the basket, Haugist was about to pass the ball in, the referee blew the whistle again, it turned out that Ibaka directly pulled his jersey in order to prevent Turner from sinking to the basket. The Lakers restarted the game, and Randle responded in the high post and distributed the ball to the empty Nick. Yang, Nick. Young received the ball and made a direct stop against Robertson's backward jumper, and the ball also missed the basket.
Adams took the rebound and handed it to Durant, Durant dribbled to the front wing, Adams set up an outside cover for Durant in the elbow area, but Durant dribbled straight to the middle to the restricted area, and after attracting the attention of the defense, hit the ground and split the ball to Adams, who was outflanked by the wing.
Adams received the ball and made a strong layup, but the front elbow came to Jeremy Lin, who came up to make up for the defense, because Adams did not raise his elbow at the beginning of the ball, but because of the height gap elbow brought down Jeremy Lin, so he was not whistled for a malicious foul, but Jeremy Lin was blown for a blocking foul.
It's a pity that Adams didn't seize this good opportunity to chase points, only one of the two free throws, the Lakers replaced Jeremy Lin at the break, let him slowly get elbowed and dizzy, Turner kicked off the ball to replace the reeds who came on the court, and the two came to the front court together, the reeds handed the ball to the wing Haugist, and then went to the middle to cut to the basket, and Randle in the low post mentioned receiving the ball at the top of the arc.
Haugist gave the ball to Randle, who forced Ibaka to miss a shot on horseback, and Adams protected the rebound again and handed it to Westbrook. The Thunder team is really not in shape today, such a simple hand-to-hand pass, Wei Shao actually failed to catch it, and the ball almost rolled out of the sideline. Wei Shao finally picked up the ball, and the 8 seconds were almost over.
Westbrook hurriedly accelerated the dribble, crossed the halfway line before the 8-second violation, borrowed Adams to cover and burst into the inside, and split the ball in the middle Adams, Adams said in his heart Why do you give me the ball if you play blocking and dismantling with me! Although he thought so in his heart, after getting the ball, Adams still didn't say a word, holding the ball and directly impacting the inside.
But Adams just took a strong step and found that Ibaka was empty in the bottom corner of the weak side, thinking that Ibaka had just scored a lot of balls, Adams immediately split the ball to the bottom corner of the weak side. Ibaka also seized the opportunity to shoot when he received the ball, but unfortunately Ibaka couldn't make this three-point shot.
Ibaka's three-pointer bounced high on the basket, Adams jumped up for the rebound, and although he touched the ball first, Turner took the lead and flicked the ball out of his hands. The Reed received the ball from Turner and dribbled along the side to the frontcourt, turned to the wing and moved to the top of the arc, but in the process of moving, the Reed suddenly distributed the ball to Hoggist, who cut to the basket from the weak side, and Hougist jumped directly against Wei Shao to catch the ball, and easily completed a flowing dunk with Westbrook's long arm.
Westbrook dribbled to the frontcourt, this time he finally thought of a way to score, he motioned for Adams to come up to cover, but did not use the cover to force a breakthrough, but used the cover to let Turner switch to his defense, at this time Wei Shao finally showed his true strength, like stepping on Hot Wheels to throw off Turner and rush inside, and returned a domineering one-handed slam dunk from the Lakers.
Wei Shao seemed to have exhausted all his strength when he dunked, and the whole basket was trembling with fright, but unfortunately the score was lost too much, such a wonderful breakthrough dunk did not have the effect of stirring up a thousand waves with one stone, and the fans at the scene only made some cheers sporadically, and soon drowned in the noisy music.
And Turner definitely wants to be angry with the whole Thunder team today, after the reed dribbles to the front court, he once again makes a simple blocking and dismantling cooperation with Turner at the top of the arc, and then divides the ball to Turner, who has stayed in the high post after covering it, Turner receives the ball and shoots directly, the ball is like opening the wisdom of humanity, and still hits steadily without hesitation. So far, Turner has scored 38 points on 18-of-23 shooting, setting a career-high score, and with plenty of game time, this record has not ended, and there is still room for improvement.
Wei Shao dribbled to the front court, it seemed to be on the bar with Turner, and continued to let Adams come up to cover and force the Lakers to change defenses, and he also had to single out Turner, this time Wei Shao still passed Turner in one step and easily rushed to the basket, but Randle made up for it in time and blocked Wei Shao's face. Wei Shao was still strong and ready to attack the basket, but before making physical contact, Wei Shao suddenly pulled the rod and handed the ball to Ibaka next to him. Ibaka received the ball and jumped up to dunk Randle, Randle jumped in the air when he was less defended and had lost his defensive position, which was supposed to be a great opportunity for Ibaka, but Ibaka's dunk was too strong and dunked the ball away.
Turner shrank to the basket to collect the rebound, and threw it to the fast reed, who dribbled to the side and rushed to the frontcourt, and flanked the Nicks. Yang formed a two-on-one situation, Reed did not hesitate to dribble and force a breakthrough, Robertson had no choice but to defend Reed in the front, but this was the purpose of Reed, after holding Roberson under the basket, Reed distributed the ball to the bottom corner, Nick. Young picked up the ball and threw the ball into the basket from beyond the three-point line before Durant's long arm reached in front of him.
Wei Shao dribbled to the front court, borrowed Ibaka's cover to break into the inside, jumped up and gave the ball to Ibaka, Ibaka hesitated to lift the ball in the high position, and then distributed the ball to Durant on the wing, Durant was so moved that he was about to cry, and finally touched the ball after a long time. However, Hougist's defense was very tight, and Durant was forced to stop the ball after taking a step, and Durant had to reluctantly return the ball to the high post Ibaka.
Ibaka saw Durant's expression and knew that he wanted to attack by himself, so he threw the ball to Durant again, and also set up a cover for Durant to the middle, Durant bypassed the cover but encountered the chicken thief Randle stood at the free throw line and waited for Durant to crash into him to make an offensive foul, Durant tried his best to turn around to avoid Randle, and threw the ball back to Ibaka before losing his balance. Ibaka went down into the paint, caught the ball and threw it directly, and the ball bounced on the basket for a long time before finally falling into the basket.
With 1:43 left in the third quarter, the Lakers led by 35 points at 100:65, with Durant and Westbrook playing almost the entire quarter. Shashewski believes that even if his side pulls off the main force, with their current stamina, they will not be able to make any big waves in the remaining two minutes of the third quarter. So after the reeds slowly dribbled through the half, Shashewski decisively applied for a timeout and replaced the three main players of Hougie Strandle and Turner.
Hogist thought that Dewey Ershao would play again in the fourth quarter to make a final fight, but he didn't expect to know that the game was over and Ershao never appeared again, and Turner's scoring record was stagnant at 38 points, and the Thunder bench played a wave of 26:19 under the leadership of Waiters' father in the fourth quarter, and the final score was fixed at 124:92, and the Lakers still won by as many as 32 points.
Haugist played in the third quarter with 27 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds on 11-of-14 shooting, Turner focused on offense, scoring 38 points and 8 rebounds on 18-of-23 shooting, while Durant on the opposite side was reasonable, scoring 16 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists on 6-of-12 shooting, and Ibaka scoring a team-high 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting. But Westbrook hit just four two-pointers from 17 shots in the game, plus four free throws to finish with 12 points and nine assists, and his true shooting percentage was only a dismal 32 percent.
After the game, the two sides shook hands, and Hoggist took the initiative to apologize in front of Dewey and the second youth, "I'm sorry two, I was really afraid of the strength of the two before, so I had to make this move to provoke the two, wanting the two to lose their minds and expose their flaws." ”
"Forget it! Trash talk ridicule is also part of the game, I was blinded by the blood you said in a few words, the key is that my own mental preparation is not enough, and I can't blame you completely, of course, if I make you ridicule in a hurry and make you lose your mind in the next game, please don't use this as an excuse to lose! Westbrook was half angry, but he still spoke with a slight sourness.
"Of course, I'll be in Los Angeles next week!" Horgist smiled and nodded in agreement, hugging Westbrook by the way.
"You bastard shoot really well, I didn't have a shooting percentage like you in my first year! You're a shooting machine! Durant also generously praised Hougist.
Hoggist sneered: "The accurate shot before was because the person defending me was too short or too slow to stop my shot, but if I shot accurately in front of you today, it would be pure luck!" ”
"Luck?" Durant raised his eyebrows and pointed at Turner, who was surrounded by reporters, with his eyes, "That guy is lucky, right?" A rookie who averaged about 10 points per game actually scored so many goals today! We didn't lose to you today, we lost to that guy completely! He's not going to be so lucky in the next game! ”
"There will always be other people who will stand up, besides, this is Kobe's team, if you want to win, you have to ask him if he agrees!" Hogist said confidently.
"There's no point in talking here now, the next one will be here soon, and we'll see you on the field then!" Westbrook said with his cheeks puffed out.
"I'll see you later, but why are you imitating Wade now?" Hoggist actually made fun of Wei Shao again.
Westbrook's face changed instantly, but the anger on his face was fleeting, and then he laughed, "I can see it, your kid's mouth is too damaged, some taste of the eighties and nineties, I hope your style of play is just as tough, don't be abused by us next week at your home stadium, if you can really beat you crying in front of 20,000 fans at home, think about my blood boiling." ”
Hougist also laughed, "We haven't lost in Staples this season, so don't be beaten by us in front of 20,000 hometown fans next week!" ”
"Stinky boy, I think you're looking for death, hurry up, be careful that you won't be able to catch the bus back to the hotel later!" Westbrook scolded.
After a night's rest in Russia, the Lakers took a special plane to fly directly to the Colorado Plateau, Denver is 1609 meters above sea level, although it is not too high, but it also needs to be adapted in advance, especially the Lakers, both Kobe Bryant and other elderly players need to be fully rested to adapt to playing at this altitude, as well as Hougist, Randle, Turner, Nance Jr., a few rookies who have not played at this altitude. So the Lakers gave up going back to Los Angeles to recuperate and chose to go to Denver early to get used to the venue.
Hoggist won the Western Conference Weekly Championship again with his triple-double of 33 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds in his eighth three-game win, giving no one else a chance at all, and Lakers fans believe that such a record-breaking back-to-back weekly weekly trophy is enough to prove that a new era of Chamberlain was born. However, just when fans were making bold assumptions about what kind of explosive stats Hoggist would play against an underdog like the Nuggets, reality taught them a bloody lesson.
Rao is the Lakers after two days of trimming and adaptation training, the Lakers several rookies on the court are still struggling, the game was not until the last 30 seconds with Hoggist's stable free throws, the Lakers finally defeated the Nuggets 111-107, Hougist played the most efficient game of his career, although 27 points, 7 assists and 10 rebounds looked similar to the previous game, but his shooting percentage fell below 50% for the first time, only 8 of 20 shots in the game, and 2 of 7 three-pointers, the shooting rate was less than 3 percent, but the free throw performance was still stable, 9 of 9 free throws, especially the 6 free throws in the last 30 seconds, which laid the foundation for the Lakers to win.
However, Kobe Bryant is experienced, and after a good rest, he carried the banner of the team's offensive end, although he only shot 2 of 7 three-pointers like Hougist, but he shot 8 of 10 two-pointers, scored 31 points on 10-of-17 from the field, and the reeds, who were also well-tested, also scored as many as 17 points.
Everyone dragged their tired bodies back to Los Angeles overnight, after a long-distance flight, the fatigue aggravated again, and the next day they had to face the Thunder at home, but it was the opponent who was waiting for work, the day before the Lakers played with the Denver Nuggets on the road, the Thunder had already picked the Clippers off the horse at 100:99 in Staples, and Durant's final big hat Paul's layup greatly boosted the morale of the Lakers who had fallen to the bottom after the previous defeat.
Now that the fully trimmed Thunder are waiting for work, Kobe Bryant has experienced a hard battle on the plateau, and this back-to-back was once again put on the rotation list by Shashefsky under the strong recommendation of Fan Xiaohong. The evening race will be up to Hoggist himself! Hoggist now really hopes that Turner can continue his heroic performance in the last game against the Thunder and can help him take some of the pressure off his shoulders.