Chapter 236: Sacrifice
Clippers fans have climaxed again, picking up an All-Star-level point guard for nothing to make up for the shortcomings, and now they will never be as passive in the face of the Lakers as before. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info
Lakers fans sarcastically mocked the Clippers who know how to pick up the rags, don't believe in their bullshit Avengers, counting Divac who has left, they are basically goods that the Lakers don't want, and even O'Neal is a guy that the Lakers don't look up to, what's there to be happy about?
Harris doesn't care about his neighbors' mood right now, and the Lakers coaching staff has been getting a lot less sleep during this time.
The main responsibility for Kidd to integrate into the team is not something that can be done with words, the main responsibility has to be borne by the coaching staff first, followed by Kidd himself and the players accommodating each other, finding a way to play that everyone feels comfortable with, and making appropriate sacrifices for others.
The Lakers have conducted 3 training sessions in the past three days, and they have also played 3 confrontation trainings, which is a very high amount of training, and the effect cannot be said to be none, but if you want the Lakers players to adapt to Kidd's organization and scheduling, it is obviously not possible to succeed by grinding guns on the spot, which will take a long time to run-in.
Zhang reduced his ball-handling weight in training and increased his off-ball running accordingly, and Finley's side began to look for off-ball cooperation with Kidd.
At this stage, the Lakers only plan to let their own outside line complete the run-in, that is, let Kidd cooperate more with Finley and Zhang Fu, the hub connecting the inside and outside line is Zhang Zhu, Kidd at most called the inside line to block and dismantle, and the other cooperation is relatively small.
This is an opportunistic way, Kidd's cooperation with interior players is gradually strengthened in the way of combat training, anyway, the main task of the Lakers' interior line is defense, as long as the outside trio runs in first, the Lakers' offense will not be worse than before.
Harris had even planned to let Kidd and Zhang Qi complete the run-in first, because Zhang Qi is the best player on the Lakers team to cooperate with Kidd, and as long as the two of them can connect smoothly, the Lakers' offense will not always be blocked.
In this case, others may not know what's going on, and even Kidd will only think that Zhang Qiqiu's quotient is too high, so he can have a more tacit understanding with him.
However, Zhang Wei himself knew that he was able to quickly form a tacit understanding with Kidd through training in the virtual space. As early as after knowing that Jerry West was going to trade Kidd, he took the first step to bring Kidd to the Lakers to play with him in virtual training, and he has been running in for almost a month.
Three days later, the Lakers will play the league's second-place Bulls on the road, and the result of the game is not even optimistic about Los Angeles fans. Fortunately, the Lakers' schedule in December is very easy, not only is the number of games small, but after playing the Bulls away, there are no strong teams to face this month, and the opponents are basically bottom-ranked fish belly teams, which are just used to run in the team.
Zhang Wei also felt that this game was more lost and won less, compared to last season, the strength of the Bulls has barely declined, and this year's record is not as good as the Lakers, more because there is no motivation to break the record, or the goal of the Bulls is no longer to break their own 71-win record, but to defend the championship. Of course, because the strength of the Western team is too perverted, all kinds of reasons add up to make them two wins by the Lakers.
The Lakers still have a five-game winning streak after the trade, so they still have the best record in the league, two wins above the second-placed Bulls, and even if they lose to the Bulls today, the Lakers will still be the first in the league and are unlikely to be overtaken by other teams in December.
"I don't want anyone to pity me, he doesn't owe me anything, I stayed in Los Angeles just to wait for an opportunity, I want to fight, but I don't want to prove that I'm better than others, I want to tell people that I must get back what I lost."
Van Axel said that he is a fan of Fa Ge movies, look at how slippery this line is.
The Clippers faced the Suns a day ahead of the Lakers, and Van Exel didn the Clippers jersey he had always hated half a month later and also helped the Clippers beat their opponents.
Van Exel's performance in this game was much better than Kidd's in the Lakers, he is a plug-and-play player, not a systematic point guard, and the Clippers only need him to play on the offensive end, so Van Crazy scored 27 points and 8 assists in his first game with the Clippers.
Lakers fans are upset, they think Van Exel is just using the Clippers as a springboard, and this guy won't stay on this team next season.
That's right, although Fan Maniac went to the Clippers, he really won't stay on this team next season, and it is very likely that the Clippers will be used as a springboard.
There are many strong teams in the East this year that lack point guards, and the Rockets and Timberwolves also lack a good point guard, he has too many options, in fact, being swept away by the Lakers is not a bad thing for him.
The Clippers won, the Lakers are dead, and this time it's finally the Clippers fans' turn to sit down and watch the Lakers fans' jokes.
However, Clippers fans don't know that there is a saying called "the heat must die"!
Although the Bulls are strong, they dare to say that there is really no team that wins the Lakers.
Don't forget, the Lakers' lineup this year is completely for the Bulls, and the Lakers have a small chance of winning this game at best, but no matter how big it is, at least it is a probability of three or seven.
The Bulls players didn't talk too much about the Lakers before the game, and they didn't say a word about Zhang Fu, and only when the media took the initiative to ask about Zhang Zhu, the Bulls players would say a few words without saltiness.
Jordan's method of dealing with Zhang Qi has always been "cold treatment", which is a strategy that his agent came up with, but the helper didn't know that David Falke felt that he was fighting with Zhang Qi in his heart, and the Bulls players were not opponents with a piece, and "cold treatment" was just to find a good excuse for himself to "coax".
But it's no wonder that the Bulls players are reluctant to fight with Zhang Zhu, because in this regard, Jordan and Pippen are scum-like existences, although Rodman can use some vulgar ways to live with Zhang Zhu in two moves, but in the end it is still a self-inflicted end, so it is better to spare Zhang Mao's life.
Therefore, the players of the Bulls have been too lazy to fight with Zhang Fu, all as if there is no such person on the other side, everything is true on the court.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with this, this is always a basketball game, as long as you win, even a scumbag like Jordan can come up and taunt her, even if Zhang Mao's tongue is evil, the loser is not qualified to return the favor.
"I'm very happy that I won last week's Player of the Week, which is an affirmation from the league and I want to thank ......"
Zhang Qi thanked the seven aunts and eight aunts before the game, which was deliberately disgusting the Bulls players.
During the day today, the league once again announced last week's "Player of the Week", and Zhang Mao defeated O'Neal this time to win the award again. Although his stats are not as exaggerated as the last time he won the award, he had three triple-doubles in four games last week, averaging a triple-double per game, and the Lakers won all four games, so he was not to blame.
As a result, Zhang Mao has won the "Player of the Week" 6 times in his entire career, and has won three awards in less than two months this season. If the momentum continues, he is on track to surpass Larry Bird's record of five Weekly Seasons this season.
In this era, the best of the week is run from the league-wide, so only one person wins the award in a week, and it is not the case that it was later split into east and west, so it is as strong as Jordan, and his record is only four wins in a single season, and only Larry Bird has a record of five awards in a single season when he was at his peak.
Many fans may think that this record should be held by Jordan at the peak.
But not really, because Jordan had a lot of awards at his peak, but didn't win in the end.
This is also to blame that there were too many data maniacs back then, and the league was reluctant to let one person win too many awards in order to achieve balance, so it always awarded awards to players with similar statistics as Jordan, so that everyone could have meat to eat.
Larry Bird was proud of being a white man to win awards 5 times a season, Zhang Zhu, a mongrel, did not have this kind of treatment, but he caught up with the good time of the NBA's renewal, and no one has been able to brush him in recent years, so it can also be said that "he really won so many awards by relying on data", of course, the more realistic situation should be "no one in the same era has him so good".
The league is also very entangled in this situation, Zhang Zhu, a bastard, can not only brush up, but his team's record can't find faults, which is difficult. Just like last week, if the Lakers hadn't won four in a row, the award would have gone to O'Neal.
But the problem is that although O'Neal's 29+10+4 data can barely compete with Zhang Mao's 27+10+10, his team record is 3-1, which makes the league very embarrassed, compared to the personal data is already very reluctant, and the team's record is still inferior, which makes the league can't get a balance if it wants to, otherwise it really can't even fool itself!
"Congratulations on your 7-game winning streak."
Before the game began, Zhang Wei congratulated Jordan very slyly.
The Bulls have recently won seven in a row, with a team record of 20 wins and 4 losses, and because they have played one game less than the Lakers, the two teams are two wins behind.
Jordan is very sore now, in general, people are so polite, do you also want to blow a wave of friendship to each other?
But let Jordan and Zhang Qi blow each other's business, this is a bit too difficult to help the lord.
Zhang Yu saw the corners of Jordan's mouth shake quickly several times, and only after half a day did he reply with a sentence of "Contribute to you to get the best of the week", and then quickly and perfunctorily hug, the helper quickly turned around and left.
Very good, this is the result that Zhang Zhu wants to see, Jordan said this not to mention how uncomfortable it is, and I am afraid that it will be even more uncomfortable after saying it, even if it is only a little bit of impact, it will help the Lakers, Zhang Zhu is so careful about the details today, it can be seen that he wants to win this game.
"Congratulations on your seven-game winning streak."
Soon, Zhang Qi said the same thing to Pippen...... And then there was Rodman...... Cooke......
A minute later, when the fans in front of the TV gave a close-up of the faces of the Bulls players before the opening game, they found that the five people on the Bulls' side didn't seem to look very good, and they didn't know why?
Bulls starters: Ron Harper (79), Michael Jordan (98), Scottie Pippen (93), Dennis Rodman (85), Luke Longley (81).
Lakers starters: Jason Kidd (83), Michael Finley (84), Zhang Mao (94), Anthony Mason (85), Deacbe Mutombo (86).
The comparison of the starting lineups of the two teams can be said to have their own merits, the Bulls are strong in the second position, and the Lakers are strong in the first and fifth positions, one side is strong on the outside, and the other is strong on the inside.
Compared with the Bulls, the Lakers are obviously more balanced in terms of lineup, and the starting five have almost no shortcomings.
But in terms of experience and roster running-in, the Lakers are a lot worse than the Bulls, and these two happen to play a crucial role in the playoffs.
CCTV also broadcast the highlight today, the first and second in the league collided for the first time in the new season, the global ratings will not be lower than the playoffs, many European TV stations are also broadcasting this annual battle, and European fans can also experience the fun of watching the game in the early morning.
Before the opening jump ball, the players given to the camera at the end were not Zhang Qi and Jordan, but Kidd.
It seems that everyone knows that he is the most stressed today, and he has no task of defeating the Bulls in Dallas, but even if the Lakers have an objective reason, they will be criticized for losing to the Bulls today, especially if he will definitely become a "backstabber" and not run.
However, Kidd's big heart is evident today, and the more heavyweight matches like this, the more he is in shape, which is characteristic of superstars. Although this thing can't have supergiant ability on the offensive end, and even the offensive power of an All-Star is difficult to achieve, as the brain of a championship team, he can definitely handle it easily.
Let's put it this way, even if Kidd is a little worse than Van Exel in terms of ability values, he will definitely perform much better than Van Exel's in key games and key rounds.
Mutombo won the scrum at the beginning, and Kidd received the ball and dribbled to the front, without even looking at Zhang Mao, and broke through with the ball......
This choice was greater than the Bulls expected, and the Lakers' first offense in the past was played by Zhang Xu, never expected Kidd to dare to play like this?
Of course, they didn't think that this was Zhang Qi's idea in the locker room before the game, and Kidd's breakthrough may not be fast enough against the small man, but against Ron Harper, who was shot in the knee, it could almost be called "fast".
Ron Harper was also a two-way guard with supergiant potential, and in his first season in the NBA, he cut an All-Star data close to 22+5+5, and at his peak, he played a quasi-supergiant performance close to 22+7+7, and was known as a low-profile Jordan. It's a pity that after a serious injury, he lost more than half of his athleticism, and the Bulls could still perform on the defensive end in the first two years, but after Payton was injured again in the Finals last year, I don't know if there is still half of the athleticism?
Kidd faced Ron Harper, who was similar to him, and was a bit of Van Exel's strength on the break, and the Bulls players felt like they were playing against Iverson and the flying squirrel in the first three minutes.
Ron Harper can also use his size advantage to squeeze the opponent's space against other point guards, and his defense tends to be stream-of-consciousness, which is very chicken thief to put it bluntly, which is a bit similar to Kidd's defense on the defensive end.
But Kidd is not afraid of confrontation, and his speed and explosiveness at this stage far surpass Harper's, which makes the latter basically unplayable.
The Bulls' interior defense is not bad, Rodman is still the nasty bug that can upset anyone, and his supplementary defense is still dominant, but unfortunately Kidd is not a stunned young man like Van Exel, although it is also a sudden point, Kidd's ball is much higher in quality, and if he makes up for the defense, he will leak people, and the success rate of his own layup is also very high.
After the Lakers players opened the game, they suddenly found that today was still the rhythm they were familiar with!
This kind of sudden point play, they are too familiar with it, the quality of Kidd's ball is much better than Van Exel's, and the Lakers actually played a 10:2 attack wave under the leadership of Kidd after the opening.
The Bulls players said they were a little confused, didn't they say that the Lakers didn't run in well and the offensive end was sparse?
The Zen master quickly called a timeout, and in the opening three minutes, he replaced Harper, who was burst into a sieve by Kidd, and replaced it with Randy Brown, who has good confrontation ability and speed.
However, there is a big hidden danger in this substitution, Randy Brown has no three-point ability at all, and his mid-range shooting is average, he is a player who can only break through and defend, and replacing him is equivalent to playing four or five on the offensive end, and Kidd can focus a lot of energy on the interior and wings.
And, for Jordan and Pippen, who are already mainly on the break, having another player of the same type on the court is completely at odds with them, and they need a shooter who can pick up their own shots from beyond the three-point line.
However, if Steve Kerr is replaced, the Bulls will not be able to solve the defensive problems. Kidd playing Kerr will not be much different from playing Harper, although the media and fans think that Kidd is very good now, but they forget that the Bulls' shortcomings are exactly the No. 1 position, even if Kidd is a little more dish, it is easy and pleasant to play the Bulls' three old, weak, sick and disabled point guards.
Kidd brought a big rhythm after the opening, and after the game restarted, Zhang Zhu began to take over the ball, and the Lakers instantly became an advanced style of play with one person attacking and four onlookers.
This is not the tactics of the Black Lakers, the Bulls' first consecutive championship period, to put it bluntly, Jordan played alone, and the other four responded, which was the best tactic under the rules of this era.
Pippen's side instantly felt that Yali Mountain was big, and Zhang Zhu's legs and feet couldn't keep up with him when he played without the ball just now, but it wasn't that his footsteps were too far behind, but Zhang Zhu's fluttering snakeskin movement didn't look like a 19-year-old rookie at all, but like Miller's old fritters.
That's right, Zhang Mao's weight of more than 240 pounds can still often snakeskin out of position, which hurts Pippen, who defends him.
Now Zhang Zhu began to hold the ball alone, Pippen is still a little unbearable, this year he has been a lot worse than Zhang Zhu in the confrontation, and the pace is not advantageous at all, if it is not for the home advantage is not easy to be fouled, he really doesn't know how to defend Zhang Zhu without fouling.
The Bulls are also Jordan's solo style of play, but in the past two years, Jordan has held the ball a lot less, and Pippen's ball holding is even more than that of the helper.
This is also an inevitable change, when Zhang Qian reaches the age of 34, I believe that he will not still be as big as he is now.
After Jordan came back two years ago, he was actually unable to fly, and his speed and explosiveness have decreased a lot compared to before his retirement, and now he is more engaged in ground operations, using technique and strength to complete the offense.
Finley has grown a lot this year, but he is still too tender in the face of Jordan, and he always can't keep up with the pace in the face of the leader's offense, and he is not fast pace to complete the breakthrough or shooting.
In the first quarter of the game, it began to enter the duel between the two generations of kings, one old and one young. For fans in front of the TV, such a game is still very high in terms of spectacle, because everyone can appreciate two completely different styles of play, one side is as fast as the wind, the other is Xu Rulin, one is aggressive as fire, and the other is immobile like a mountain.
Zhang Qiu's side is naturally the perfect combination of speed and power, crushing the opponent with unparalleled impact; Jordan is a superposition of technology and strength, and the look and feel of simplifying the complex and lifting the weight is not inferior to the former.
These two completely different styles and styles of play are not high or low in themselves, it depends on who is in good shape and whose team is more tacit.
However, the Lakers did not have much problem with cooperation today, Kidd has a deeper interpretation of "sacrifice", he chose to take the initiative to adapt to the Lakers' style of play first, and took the initiative to accommodate the Lakers players, which can be seen from his strengthening breakthrough today, he chose to let the Lakers players accept himself subtly.
Kidd's idea wasn't complicated, because instead of letting four people accommodate him, he would better accommodate the other four alone, and the impact of these two choices was completely different.
Today's game is an example of this, Kidd chose to sacrifice his global planning and strategy, using his defense and breakthrough to help the team, except for not being as good as Van Exel's mid-range shooting, he can do better than Van Exel in most aspects, and there are not too many problems with coordination in this play.
The Bulls didn't have any advantage, and the Zen master had to replace Randy Brown in order to defend Kidd's breakthrough, but the Bulls struggled more than the Lakers on the offensive end in the first quarter, which made Bulls fans a little unacceptable.
The score is 36:22, this score should make Bulls fans even more unacceptable, although Jordan scored 10 points in a single quarter, but the other players of the Bulls did not contribute much, Pippen only scored 2 points, but Rodman used his flexible footwork advantage under the basket to pick up a few leaks and get the team's second-highest 6 points, otherwise the Bulls would not even be able to score 20 points in the first quarter, which would be really embarrassing to throw home.
Zhang Wei scored 14 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists in the first quarter, Kidd contributed 4 points, 1 rebound and 3 assists, Mason used his muscles to bully Rodman, and also scored 10 points and 2 rebounds.