The era of point forwards in the NBA

Chapter 226 Birthday Night (please subscribe, ask monthly pass)
The second half of the game started, and after the coach's reminder, the Lakers players began to concentrate.

In terms of strength, the current Lakers are definitely stronger than the Thunder, but their court attitude is not as good as the Thunder.

Strong teams will naturally be more relaxed in the game, not to mention, Kobe is also a person who is easy to be serious, he is too eager to express himself.

As soon as the third quarter came up, the Lakers began to play steadily. They accelerated the movement of the pass and the movement of the players.

Bryant found an opportunity by running back, and Gasol, who held the ball in the high position, made a pass, and Bryant dunked again to end the offense.

59 to 54, the Lakers changed the way of attack when they came up. They let Gasol, who has the ability to pass the ball, hold the ball in a high position, and the rest of the players run out of opportunities. At this time, as long as Gasol's pass is in place, their offense can be completed.

Even if it was Kobe, the key defensive object, the Thunder did not expect that someone who likes to hold the ball would score with an air cut.

It turns out that Kobe can play off the ball too.

After the goal, the Lakers also adjusted their defensive strategy.

Curry served Lin Yue from the baseline and allowed him to lead the half court. As a result, Kobe pressed the ball directly, and Fisher also went to entangle Curry, not giving him a chance to catch the ball.

"The Lakers are pressing all of a sudden. This is just the beginning of the third quarter." Yu Jia said, this kind of tactic is usually adopted by the team behind in the fourth quarter, so why the Lakers are pressing in the third quarter.

"It is estimated that the Lakers saw that Lin Yue was holding the ball forward, and they wanted to use the full-court press to make him make mistakes. After all, his dribbling has always been unstable." Zhang Weiping said.

However, Kobe underestimated Lin Yue too much. In one year, he was no longer the kid who would be cut off after dribbling the ball.

Lin Yue pretended to break through to the right, then quickly moved away from his position, and crossed the half court to the left.

Durant came to meet him at this time, Lin Yue gave him the ball and took the opportunity to cover.

Immediately, Durant rushed to the free throw line, made an emergency stop and made a mid-range hit.

59 to 56, the Thunder successfully cracked the Lakers' defensive strategy.

Neither team scored in the next two attacks. At this time, the score was close to tying, and whoever scored first would have the upper hand.

The fans at the scene began to cheer for the home team. With this kind of solidarity, the Lakers seemed to be more focused.

I have to say that the Lakers' defense is really strong. Once the strength is raised, the Thunder's offense, which lacks confrontation, becomes stumbling.

On the other hand, Kobe of the Lakers seemed very excited. He likes to fight hard battles the most. This kind of head-to-head games aroused his inner desire to win.

This ball Kobe was like carrying a dynamite package for a layup, which caused a foul by Collison's basket.

After falling hard to the ground, he showed a boyish smile, which is really enjoying the game.

Lin Yue originally wanted to step forward to pull up the idol, but seeing Kobe's teammates pull up, he gave up this idea.

Two free throws were made, and the point difference between the two sides returned to 5 points.

……

Until the end of the third quarter, the Thunder still failed to recover the score in one fell swoop. Whenever the point difference came to a gap of one goal, someone from the Lakers always stood up to open the point difference. It was only a short breath, but the Thunder still couldn't recover after all.

The score became 80 to 76, and the Lakers maintained a 4-point difference entering the fourth quarter.

Kobe exploded again in the third quarter, making 5 of 3 shots and 4 of 4 free throws. He scored 10 points and 3 assists.

Lin Yue scored 6 points and 5 assists in this quarter, and his assists were in double figures again.

……

In the fourth quarter, the Lakers did not give the Thunder any chance to overtake. They showed the defensive strength of the playoffs. Everyone worked hard on the defense and single defense, and the defense really drove the offense.

The Thunder played very ugly in this quarter, with no shots, no layups, and even 6 turnovers in a single quarter. Feeling the intensity of the playoffs, they realized that they are still a young team and need time to grow.

It is a good thing for the Thunder to experience playoff-level games in advance. They lack this kind of experience. The Lakers are still the defending champions. They still have the strength to defend their title this year. This kind of experience is invaluable.

In this game, Kobe scored 37 points, ranking first in the scoring list.

Durant scored 28 points and is still third in the scoring list. If he wants to win the title of scoring champion, he must score more points in the next game.

Lin Yue has 24 points and 12 assists, and his average assists are getting closer and closer to 10. Currently, he has 9.5 assists, ranking third in the league, second only to Nash, who averaged 11 assists per game, and Paul, who averaged 10.3 assists per game.

It takes time for the Thunder's three young players to grow, and Lin Yue's victory at the Staples Center can only be saved for the next time.

At the end of the game, Lin Yue had the honor to exchange jerseys with Kobe. This kind of joy even washed away the sadness of losing. This is Kobe's jersey.

Lin Yue thought of the James jersey hanging in Curry's room in Charlotte. Lin Yue decided to hang Kobe's jersey in the room after returning home, as an incentive.

The next game, the Thunder will host the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City on November 11.

For Chinese fans, this team definitely ranks first. The Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets can be called the sufferers. The Rockets met the Utah Jazz many times in the playoffs and then eliminated the Rockets.

If you want to say which team Chinese fans hate the most, the Utah Jazz definitely ranks first.

This time the game has not yet started, domestic fans have already begun to look forward to the Thunder's victory over the Jazz to avenge the Rockets. Normally, the fans simply hope that the Thunder can win, but this time, they are angry.

Yao Ming has still not been able to come back, and the fans don't even know if he will be able to play in the future.

Furthermore, November 11th is also Lin Yue's birthday, so the birthday night game is even more exciting.

Fans began to guess how many points Lin Yue could score tomorrow, 40 points, 50 points, or 60 points.

Full of anticipation.

"Lin, tomorrow is your birthday night. How about going out to celebrate after the game?" Durant said to Lin Yue.

It was the night of November 11rd, and the three of them were sitting in the living room chatting while watching an NBA game.

"Does anyone else know?" Lin Yue asked.

"Well, the coach sent a message in the group today, saying that he wanted to celebrate with a big victory, and he also said that he would go out for dinner, and even ordered the cake." Curry said with a smile.

"Hey, Stephen, he's not in that group, okay? Why did you tell all about it?" Durant was dumbfounded, why did Curry suddenly become stupid? He just said that he was a surprise to Lin Yue by keeping it secret, but he confessed it directly.

"Isn't this the birthday night you mentioned first? It's none of my business." After finishing speaking, Curry whistled, pretending to have done nothing.

"I was communicating normally, okay? As the boss of the team, I must care about the birthdays of the players." Durant retorted.

Afterwards, the two started bickering, and the night in the villa was extremely lively.

Lin Yue: ...

"Actually, I can more or less guess it. During training this afternoon, Serge asked me if tomorrow is my birthday." After Lin Yue finished speaking, Curry and Durant stopped arguing.

"Then the problem is not with us, it's all Segil's fault." Curry watched the game happily after finishing speaking.

As players, they found it more comfortable than playing at the stadium or watching at home. It didn't matter if they won or lost, as long as the game was good.

After losing to the Lakers, the Thunder's record became 9 wins and 5 losses, and there was a gap between them and the first-tier teams in the league.

"Lin, do you want to try to turn your birthday night into a record night tomorrow, such as getting a personal highest score, or surpassing your personal assists, tomorrow our whole team will help you." Durant said as the leader of the team. These are all approved by the coach.

"It's not necessary. The stats are not intentional, and the Jazz are not bad. When I watched the Rockets before, I hated this team, but the reason is that they are very strong. If you want to win this game, you can't take it lightly." Lin Yue went into the bedroom to sleep after finishing speaking.

He needs to be ready for tomorrow's game.

"Isn't it only 8 o'clock, go to bed?" Durant asked Curry.

"He goes to bed early the night before his birthday every year, and I don't know what happened." Curry recalled that in his first year at Davidson College, he wanted to celebrate with Lin Yue all night, but Lin Yue refused to go to sleep, which was too disappointing.

Lin Yue lay on the bed, recalling the events of this year in his mind. After the Olympics, he returned to Davidson College again, then entered the NCAA playoffs, was eliminated in March Madness, and then became the No. [-] pick in the NBA draft, and finally came to the Thunder. Only he knew how bumpy the journey was. So many sad nights of self-blame made his daily training volume increase.

The more games he loses, the more he complains about his lack of ability, and only crazy training can make him temporarily forget all of this.

After all, he is still of yellow race, inferior to blacks and whites in terms of athletic ability. Lin Yue is well aware of this, so he still has a bit of inferiority complex, seeing other people flying into the sky, but he himself cannot do it.

He's not Yao Ming, he doesn't have that height, he can't gain weight to that extent, and in the end he has to face reality and fight against a group of heaven's favored ones.

"Am I?"

Lin Yue couldn't get the answer. If the second place is not enough, then what is it? Now he is far ahead in the rookie rankings, and he has almost locked the best rookie in only a dozen games. Isn't that enough?

In the end, Lin Yue fell asleep amidst self-contradictions. This kind of self-doubt he only thought about when he was alone, and never exposed his inner fragility and worries to others.

When he wakes up tomorrow, he will still be that confident boy genius.

At 11:24 pm on November 9th, Thunder fans at the scene put on Lin Yue's jersey one after another, and some even held up boards with their blessings written on them, hoping to convey them to Lin Yue.

"The fans of the Thunder are really kind. Knowing that today is Lin Yue's birthday, they celebrate it in this way, which makes me a little envious." Barkley laughed, and he also sent Lin Yue his blessings on Twitter in the morning.

Not only him, Kobe, Yao Ming, Duncan, Wade and others also posted, NBA social flower stone hammer.

Waking up early in the morning, people in the 09 rookie group also expressed their blessings to Lin Yue. Westbrook, Love, who did not play today, and Griffin, who has not played, even came to the scene to watch the game, just to give Lin Yue a surprise.

This is definitely the most unforgettable birthday in Lin Yue's life.

(End of this chapter)