After the first hurdle, Li Chen and his Lakers will next have to face a difficult opponent - the Utah Jazz, and the scheming Jerry Sloan and his group of wolves will sit in Salt Lake City to wait for the challenge of their old opponents in the Western Conference.

This game is still quite important for the Lakers, and the Jazz currently happen to be in eighth place in the West, and if nothing else, the Lakers' opponent in the first round of the playoffs is likely to be this highland team. This is not good news for the Purple and Gold, after all, the home court of the Jazz is a notoriously devilish home court in the league, and how many heroes have fallen in this place because of damn altitude sickness.

In addition to the difficult climate, the Jazz also have a hardcore fan base that is not much inferior to Motor City, and Salt Lake City fans are among the loudest and most passionate in the league. At the Energy Solution Arena, you can't even hear what your teammate is saying, you can see his mouth open and close, and there is a buzzing noise all around, and sometimes, you feel like your head is about to explode.

Of course, the Jazz are best known for their meritorious coach Jerry Sloan, who has excellent defensive skills and shows incredible resilience and courage as a player. And as a coach, he can also manage the team in an orderly manner. As the longest-serving coach of the same team in one of the four major U.S. leagues, he is destined to write his name in the history of coaching in American professional sports.

As one of the only few coaches in the league, many people think that Malone and Stockton have made Sloane, but the fact is that Sloan's greatness does not need anyone to achieve, not to mention his blocking and dismantling tactics that can be called his signature means, Sloan is very good at managing players, no matter how unruly the player, he can always govern and obey him.

After Stockton's retirement and Malone's Los Angeles dream was shattered, the Jazz were once in a predicament, and the original core AK47 was never ruthless, causing the old Sloan to be expelled from the inner circle in anger, and the team's large-scale injuries also made Sloan unavailable for a while, and the Jazz missed the playoffs for three consecutive seasons.

The turning point occurred in 05, and those who are familiar with history know that this year's NBA belongs to the twin stars, although Paul's star is too bright to cause people to often ignore Salt Lake City's chubby dun, but in fact, Delon's strength is second to none among many point guards in the league. For this goods, Sloan even did not hesitate to use three first-round picks to exchange the No. 3 pick from the Trail Blazers that year.

Sloan's efforts proved to be worth it, and although Delong's performance was never as good as CP3 in the Hornets in the eyes of the outside world, at least Chubby Dun was always able to complete the tasks given to him by Sloan.

He has become the offensive engine that the Jazz have been looking for since John Stockton retired, and the tacit understanding between Delon and the super anti-bone boy Carlos Boozer also gave Sloan Sr. a glimpse of the prototype of the new Utah twins, and he continued to offer the signature tactic that allowed him to stand in the league - blocking and pick-and-roll!

As one of the simplest but most practical basketball tactics, the key to the pick-and-roll strategy is "blocking" and "pick-and-roll", which is usually done by a big interior player and an outside guard player. Big men certainly have to have the ability to attack inside, but they also have to have a hand to shoot from the outside. In addition to being able to shoot from the outside, guards also need to be good at breaking through.

Pick-and-rolls are often followed by shots of big players scoring easily under the basket or shooting in mid-range open positions. A good defender can choose whether to pass the ball or attack by himself, which has to be changed for defense, if there is no one to make up for the defense after "blocking", the guard can shoot directly or break through to the basket.

Of course, the current blocking and dismantling is by no means just a simple two-person cooperation, and the tactics derived from the blocking and dismantling are ever-changing, which is by no means explained in a few sentences. Regardless, Sloan is the coach who has put this tactic to its fullest play, and its best executors are Karl Malone and John Stockton.

As Sloan's descendant team, the Jazz have deeply implemented the style of the old guys, and the fierce defense has always been the place where the Jazz have been criticized, and everyone is always discussing how dirty the Jazz players are, but they have always gone their own way. The rewards of the ferocious style of play are also obvious to all, as evidenced by the fact that the Rockets have fallen in the first round of the playoffs for the second year in a row.

The 06-07 season was supposed to be a great opportunity for the Rockets to break into the second round, but they didn't expect the Rockets with a full lineup to die in the hands of the Jazz. In the good situation of leading 2:0, the Rockets were extremely nervous because they were about to break through the first-round curse, so another distressing 3-4, Yao Ming and Maddy also suffered another embarrassing first-round curse.

At the beginning of the new season, Maddy vented his dissatisfaction with 47 points and a big win on the road, but he didn't expect that 82 games would end, and the Rockets would still have to fight last year's old rival to the death. And what's worse is that the Rockets have lost the home-court advantage they originally had in hand. Yao Ming is not there, Alston is not there, the Rockets lost the opening two games, no one expected them to stage the Jazz's comeback last year, and it went well, and the Rockets once again hated Salt Lake City.

And this year, the Rockets can finally breathe a sigh of relief, because judging from the current record, the Rockets, who are ranked sixth in the West, are almost impossible to meet the eighth-ranked Jazz, and their opponents are more likely to be one of the Nuggets or the Trail Blazers.

Putting aside the relationship between the Jazz and the Rockets, looking back at today's game, the outside world is still unanimously optimistic that the fierce Jazz can win this game, although the Lakers have never been afraid of this dirty style, but no matter what, they are now missing their core player Kobe.

In the last game against the Wizards, who are at the bottom of the East, the Big Apple showed his ability, but the Jazz are not a bad team like the Wizards, and their ability to stand up in the playoffs in the highly competitive West is a testament to their quality. Moreover, for a rookie like Li Chen, a suffocating defense that is so dirty that it is likely to collapse directly.

Before the game, the old monk had a deep conversation with his disciple on this issue, he was worried that Li Chen would lose himself in the fierce home atmosphere of the Jazz, although the two sides had already played each other twice before, but in the end, Li Chen still did not really enjoy the VIP treatment of the Jazz.

Now, he rarely played as the core of his second game against the Jazz, and people can only lament that the character of the Big Apple is too weak.

"Hey, rookie, be careful when you play, control your emotions, and don't fight no matter what!" Kobe Bryant gloated to his younger brother, and he even used a little exaggeration, "Don't fight, it's not that the playoffs are coming, it's just one aspect, the key is that the fans in Salt Lake City are all hooligans, and it's better to keep a low profile there." ”

Li Chen looked at the boss with disdain, is it so scary, it's not that he hasn't been to Salt Lake City, he has already been prepared for two experiences, "Don't worry, although I'm a rookie, I'm not going to get to that point!" ”

The great god smiled, "Come on, try to win this game, the opponent in the playoffs is likely to be them, old Sloan is not an easy guy to deal with, winning this game can give us a psychological advantage in the playoffs!" ”

Li Chen squinted his eyes and looked at the boss, "It's okay, my psychological quality has always been very good, it's just the regular season, I don't care if I win or lose!" ”

"Get out"! Kobe kicked his little brother's ass, this guy's professional attitude has no solution, although he knows that he is joking, but Kobe still can't stand it, he threatened viciously, "If you don't win this game, you don't want to start in the next game, this is Los Angeles, it's my territory!" ”

The inhumane threat made Li Chen glare at his boss angrily, "If you don't bring such a threat, I'm going to Phil to report you!" ”

The boss was not afraid of the little brother's informant, he put on a gesture of invitation, and said with a smug face, "I believe that Phil will understand my different way of encouragement, after all, for you guy, ordinary cheering has no effect!" ”

Hum! Someone who couldn't think of a way to refute could only express his grievances by snorting coldly, and he secretly comforted himself in his heart, "Stay up, as soon as the season is over, the sky will be high and the birds will fly!" Soon there will be a bright day, and the good spring in New York is already waiting for you! ”

If Kobe Bryant knows his little brother's inner thoughts, I don't know if he will come to a more ruthless way, and everyone will be punished for being a bone boy, especially Li Chen has now surpassed Boozer to become the top of the list, everyone knows that Big Apple's heart is no longer in Los Angeles, which can be concluded from his repeated refusal to negotiate with the team's contract extension.

"She called you again?" While packing Li Chen's luggage, Lindsay asked her boyfriend like jealousy, just now, Li Chen hid like a thief to wash his hands and made a phone call, looking at the other party's appearance, the royal sister didn't have to think about it, and knew that the call must have been from Taylor, after all, if the call was from Amy, Li Chen didn't have to shy away from it at all.

Li Chen smiled slightly apologetically, "Yes, Taylor said that she would go to Salt Lake City tomorrow to watch my game, I don't know how she happened to be in that place!" ”

For the "coincidence" in Li Chen's mouth, Lindsay looked disdainful, "I think she did it on purpose, while we are not around you, she is really well-intentioned, you say, if her die-hard fans knew what their idol was like now, what would they think!" ”

Seeing the injustice in Sister Yu's heart, Li Chen hugged the other party from behind very gently, "I don't know what his fans think, after all, you have to know, I'm a movie maniac, and I've always been your fan!" As for listening to songs, that kind of elegant thing never goes with me! ”

Although the man's flattery made Lindsay a little happy, she would not easily forgive Li Chen and Taylor's ambiguity, "Are you saying that my movie is vulgar?" Well, sort out your stuff yourself, I'm not available! Lindsay pretended to be angry and threw off Li Chen's bag.

It is not easy to deal with the royal sister's temper, Li Chen hugged Lindsay in his arms very flatteringly, "Lindsay, your figure is getting better and better, I swear, I would rather have you in my arms than Taylor!" ”

Lindsay listened helplessly to her boyfriend's clumsy words, "Honey, didn't your mother tell you not to mention another girl in front of a girl?" Even if you just want to use it as a green leaf as a foil, your performance today is inferior! ”

Ah, Li Chen suddenly realized. The circle is much smaller than before, and now he is a lot stranger when it comes to romantic skills, especially for a girl like Lindsay, this kind of clumsy mistake is simply fatal.

Li Chen picked up his backpack very depressed, and stuffed back the things that Lindsay had shaken out little by little, in fact, there was nothing, a change of underwear and a few electronic devices, this was all his belongings when he went to Salt Lake City, as for the rest, it was completely unnecessary, he just stayed there for two days.

Lindsay looked at her depressed boyfriend with amusement, and she said like a child, "But seriously, I like the way you are now, it makes me feel safe, even though I never needed it." ”

"Really?" Someone's interest is back.

"Fake," Lindsey said slyly, "but is it true that you just said that my figure is getting better and better than Taylor's?" ”

"Fake"! Li Chen threw out a sentence, turned his head and continued to pack his things.

The man's teasing made the royal sister explode, and she jumped on Li Chen's back, "Okay, you're finished, come here, I want you to know how good I am, my figure is definitely better than Taylor!" ”

Li Chen casually threw the royal sister on the bed, "Come on, who's afraid of whom!" ”

Somewhere in Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant stomped his foot anxiously, "This rookie is late again, does he want the whole team to greet him, and he must be taught a good lesson later......

(It will be on the shelves on December 1st, I hope you will greatly support it!) ）