Chapter 248: Stuck in the Quagmire
As the game continued, it was clear that the 76ers' twin towers would have struggled to keep O'Neal on the inside, but at least their presence prevented O'Neal from scoring recklessly under the basket. Facing the strange twin towers of the 76ers, O'Neal's mood also changed from anger at the beginning to a little confused, he never imagined that he would be blocked here.
Chang Wei on the sidelines laughed to himself, in his previous life, this round of the finals Mutombo had no power to fight back on the inside, largely because of his age, he was born in 1966 and is 35 years old this year, although Uncle Mu did not announce his retirement until the 2008-09 season, but at the age of 35, he obviously can't compete with the 29-year-old O'Neal who is in his prime.
However, after Chang Wei gave him a rejuvenation potion, Mutombo's overall rating this season has reached the quasi-first-class level, and his defensive rating has reached the first-class level of 95. As the so-called art industry has specialization, O'Neal's offensive ability is indeed very strong, but Mutombo's defense is not vegetarian, and now he is mainly as a defensive player, and there is naturally Makloch on the front to confront O'Neal head-on, so that his 95 defensive rating is more than enough.
O'Neal was still able to score on the inside under Mutombo's interference, but the efficiency was not flattering, and although the Lakers played a triangle offense under the guidance of the Zen master and liked positional battles the most, such a slow pace was not what they wanted. So the Zen master took advantage of Iverson's free throws to come to the sidelines and whispered a few words to Fisher, asking him to find an opportunity to pass the ball to Kobe.
There is no rift between Zen Master and Kobe Bryant now, and he may be more inclined to let O'Neal lead the attack, but Kobe Bryant is also a scoring point he relies on. After seeing O'Neal unexpectedly restrained by the twin towers, he decisively asked the players to give the ball to Kobe Bryant to play alone, hoping that the latter could help O'Neal relieve the pressure by constantly attacking the basket.
The Zen master's idea is very good, and it is also the easiest and most effective solution for the Lakers at present, but unfortunately, Kobe Bryant met one of the so-called "Kobe Terminators" in his previous life - Laga Bell. You must know that at that time, the players who were known as Kobe Bryant's terminators were all limited to him when Kobe Bryant led the team alone, and now Kobe is still the second leader next to O'Neal, although he has shown the talent to become a top star, but obviously has not achieved great success.
Unlike in his previous life, Maddie in this life is already much stronger than Kobe under Chang Wei's tutelage, and even he feels a headache in the face of Bale's defense, how can Kobe Bryant get Bell by himself? He was disgraced by Bale in the first round of attacking with the ball, and although Bryant's good ability to protect the ball prevented Bale from making a steal directly from him, it also forced him to pass the ball, which is a shame for a player with a strong desire to attack.
Bryant was naturally unconvinced, and the fact that he didn't face any challenges in the first three rounds of the playoffs made him start to become arrogant, but now Bale has woken him up. After waking up, there was a raging rage, and in order to get back on the court, Kobe Bryant still insisted on asking Fisher for the ball in the next offensive round, hoping to kill Bell directly.
From the personalities of O'Neal and Kobe, we can know that it is a matter of time before these two guys who also think highly of themselves break up, and in the previous life, the Lakers were defeated by the Pistons in the 03-04 season finals just a fuse, in Chang Wei's view, even if the Lakers won four consecutive championships, the OK combination will still fall apart, it's just a matter of time.
Fisher peeked at the Zen master on the sidelines, who was still expressionless, and he looked at O'Neal on the inside and Mark Loach, and took the ball across the half court to Kobe Bryant at a 45-degree angle on the wing. Seeing that Kobe Bryant got the ball, Bell posted it again at the first time, but he still kept a half-step distance from Kobe, which Brown explained to him before the game, Kobe's long-range shot is not to be feared, be careful of his breakthrough, so now Bell is not a break-through shot, there is a kind of you shoot me......
Kobe Bryant obviously can't shoot the opponent, and he didn't plan to shoot directly at first, but the position where Bell stood made him feel very uncomfortable, he knew that as long as he dared to rush inside, Bell would definitely destroy the rhythm of his dribbling, and at the same time reduce the speed of his assault.
He snorted, shook his shoulders and took a tentative step, hoping to shake Bell's center of gravity. But as a first-class gate on the 76ers' outside line, Bell will not be deceived so easily, he is still standing firmly in place, his right hand is outstretched, ready to directly steal and counterattack. Kobe Bryant saw that he couldn't fool Bale, so he had to force himself to rush inside, and after coming to the free throw line with difficulty, he made a difficult step-back jumper, and his whole body was twisted in mid-air.
Even so, Bell did his best to reach out and interfere with Kobe's shot, and the basketball smashed into the basket without incident. O'Neal, who was blocked by Makloch, couldn't get to the ball in the first place, while Grant was no match for Mutombo, who pocketed the rebound with ease. Kobe Bryant ran to his half of the court in frustration and glared at Bale, who only smiled slightly, for him this is where his value on the court lies.
As the two most important points of the triangle offense, Kobe Bryant and O'Neal got bogged down as soon as they came up, and the Lakers couldn't rely on anyone else to score. In fact, during the regular season, only three players on this team scored double-doubles, O'Neal's 28.7 points, Kobe's 28.5 points and Fisher's 11.5 points, and after entering the playoffs, Kobe and O'Neal's average shots per game have further increased, and even Fisher's average points per game have slipped to single digits.
Even if the triangle attack is a very advanced tactic, when the two strong points can't score wildly, do you expect others to add to the score? The Zen master sighed and called the first timeout of the game, and now he had to make adjustments. Otherwise, when the two sides send a bench lineup, the Lakers will either put one of the OK combinations on the court, or they will be directly bombarded by the opponent, which is what the Zen master does not want to see.
For him, it's time to figure out a way to get O'Neal and Kobe Bryant out of their defenders, and although they can't get rid of it completely, they will make their opponents pay as long as they can get some room to move.