Chapter 17: A Lesson for Jennings
Phil knew about Wang Meng's physical problems, and pressed him to the bench for the rest of the first quarter, not only that, but Wang Meng was not allowed to play at the beginning of the second quarter.
Wang Meng looked at Jennings, who kept scoring on the court, and panicked.
It wasn't until the end of the second quarter that Phil put Wang Meng on the court, at this time most of the two sides were playing as substitutes, the Lakers had Odom, the super sixth man, and the Bucks did not have a sixth man who could get it.
Opposite Wang Meng is Jennings' substitute Earl Boykins, this is a 5-foot-5" point guard, the second shortest in history, Wang Meng stands with him and feels like a center, Boykins may have good strength, but that was when he was young, he is now old, Wang Meng easily broke through him, and scored a layup with a low hand.
Secretly wiping the sweat off his head, Wang Meng always felt that fighting with this guy was like bullying minors, too short, 5 feet 5 inches is actually a little more than 1.65 meters, there are many such people on the streets of China, but this kind of person playing basketball in the NBA is a little rare.
However, since Boykins has been able to work hard in the NBA for so many years with a height of 1.6 meters, he naturally has his reasons, and his height of 1.6 meters makes him very flexible, and his speed is very fast, and he is a player who defends him, and he has to lower his head to see him, which is very troublesome, and it is very uncomfortable to keep up with his speed. He also has a good shooting skill, which is what he has been able to do in the NBA until now.
Changing Wang Meng to defend Boykins, Boykins made Wang Meng suffer immediately, when he was next to Wang Meng, Wang Meng lowered his head and couldn't see the basketball in his hand, it was too low, before Wang Meng could see where the basketball was, Boykins slapped the ball to Wang Meng's crotch, and bypassed Wang Meng's right side, and immediately passed Wang Meng, taking advantage of the lack of defensive players to jump and score.
Let Wang Meng feel a little embarrassed to play like this, he continued to eat Boykins in the next ball, and finally met a body that was not as good as his own, so he didn't bully Wang Meng and felt sorry for him.
Forcibly squeezed into the inner line, the opponent's substitute center came up to make up for the defense, Wang Meng did not show weakness at all, forced to jump and layup, causing the opponent's center to foul.
After hitting all two free throws, Wang Meng's free throw shooting rate is very high, and after playing so many games, although there are not many free throws, his shooting rate is as high as more than 80 percent, and only a few free throws are missed, and they are all away from home.
Boykins handed the ball to Gooden, Gooden relied on Odom to turn around and hook the hand, let Odom grab the rebound and make a long pass to Wang Meng, Wang Meng quickly burst into the inside line, and gave the ball to Shannon Brown, Brown scored with both hands.
Wang Meng came on the court, and the Lakers immediately scored six points in a row, pulling the score of the two teams apart, and the Bucks immediately called a timeout and replaced Boykins with Jennings, hoping to use Jennings to limit Wang Meng, but is Jennings' defense good? At least Wang Meng thinks so. It's not that he has poor defensive skills, but a poor mentality, he is more inclined to attack than defensively, and how good is Jennings, who puts all his mind on offense, good at defense?
Whether Jennings defends well or not is none of Wang Meng's business, but his offense makes Wang Meng feel a headache, the higher Jennings scores, the more difficult it is for Wang Meng to complete his task, but how to defend Jennings is a big problem, Wang Meng's defense is not very good, unless he uses an instant explosion, it is difficult for him to prevent Jennings.
Today, Jennings' hand is very good, and now the second quarter is almost over, he has reached 16 points, and has five assists in hand, it seems that this game is going to 30 points, Jennings takes 30 points normally, after all, he has won 50 points before, but Wang Meng thinks that it will be difficult to get 30 points, not to mention his own ability, but Kobe Gassol These players are present, Wang Meng has to give them most of the ball.
He is different from Jennings, Jennings is the cornerstone of the Bucks' rebuilding and has unlimited firing rights, but Wang Meng is not, he is just a rookie for the Lakers.
Wang Meng now has seven points and five assists, and if he wants to complete the task, Wang Meng needs to do better.
Looking at Jennings who was standing in front of him with the ball, Wang Meng narrowed his eyes slightly, "If you fight normally, you will definitely be inferior to Jennings, the only way is to break his confidence first, so that he has no confidence, so that the second half of the battle will be easy to play." ”
Staring at Jennings, Wang Meng didn't hesitate, "Burst out in an instant." ”
Jennings, who was still controlling the ball and trying to break through the route, suddenly felt a black shadow rushing in front of him, and before he could react, a gust of wind blew, and the basketball in his hand was gone.
Wang Meng broke the ball and broke through, he ran too fast, I didn't expect his speed to be so fast, look at Jennings who was chasing in vain behind, he had been pulled away from a long distance, the basket in front was unguarded, Wang Meng jumped up and dunked with both hands! Wang Meng scores! The Lakers' commentator shouted passionately.
"Damn it, careless!" Jennings gritted his teeth and took the free throw and possessed the ball for half time.
However, in the same place, in the same way, Wang Meng steals again, this time back to the basket, Wang Meng is fully prepared, jumps with both feet, completes a 360-degree turn in the air, and then dunks the basketball into the basket with his back.
Seeing this dunk that can only appear in the slam dunk contest, the whole audience erupted in huge cheers, Wang Meng waved his fist at the audience and retreated to the halfcourt.
This time, Jennings's face was a little dark, and everyone would feel very shameless if he made two steals like this in a row, and let Wang Meng, a rookie who had just entered the league, score consecutive steals, and also performed a dunk that he couldn't use, Jennings felt even more ashamed.
"Boy, just wait, I'll give you a good look this time." Jennings said to Wang Meng.
Wang Meng didn't speak, and suddenly stepped forward with one foot, Jennings was startled, and hurriedly protected the ball with both hands.
"Why are you in a hurry, I'll just take a step forward." Wang Meng's smile made Jennings almost angry.
The bursts of laughter from the audience closer to him made him even more embarrassed. Faintly, he could still hear someone on the bench shouting again, "Wang Meng, blow Jennings." ”
At this point he had stopped the ball, and it would be a violation to dribble again, and he was still two steps away from the three-point line, so he couldn't attack at all, and he patiently waited for his teammates to come over, handed the ball to his teammates and then asked for it back. At the same time, he stopped his teammates who wanted to block him, and said loudly: "All pull away, I want to single him." ”
"Singled me?" Listening to Jennings's words, Wang Meng laughed happily, although he opened it twice in a row and exploded instantly, and his physical exertion was serious, but Jennings said this sentence in his heart, and he felt that it was worth it no matter how tired he was. "You can play alone, I will never fight with you anyway, you can fight us alone."