play for it

Chapter 222

The next night, the Spurs at home ushered in a challenge from the Nuggets.The huge AT&T Center Arena was full of fans early on. Since Popovich entered the team, the Spurs' home attendance has always been among the highest in the league.

Before the official start of the game, the starting rosters of the two teams were also handed in. The Spurs' starting five tigers have not changed, and they are still led by Yang Ke and Leonard.

The Nuggets' starting five are: Raymond Felton, Kenyon Martin, Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, and Nene.

Among the five starters for the Nuggets, Yang Ke was the most impressed with Martin, who was an inside thug in the true sense.Can run and jump, dare to fight and fight, full of passion and fanaticism and very entertaining.Even if the counterpoint is blown, he will not back down.

However, in the past two seasons, injuries have come to Martin, which has caused his state to plummet. Several statistics have set new career lows, and the inside threat has also weakened.

After nearly half an hour of preparation and adjustment, the competition kicked off.With the whistle of the referee, Nene, who is at the peak of his personal career, overwhelmed Blair and scrambled for the ball to Lawson.

Lawson pushed the ball across the half court, raised his right arm, and directed the team's offense.In the NBA, although Lawson is a short point guard, he has a strong body and has an obvious advantage in physical confrontation in the same position.

Considering that Lawson is not inferior to other players in terms of physical confrontation, he also has relatively good footwork.In addition, the shooting is unstable, and the scoring methods mostly rely on breakthroughs with the ball.

After careful consideration, Popovich handed over the task of marking him to Leonard.On the other hand, Yang Ke went to mark Felton, and Green went to defend Gallinari, who lacked offensive means.

In the team's first offensive round, although facing Leonard, a new defensive star, Lawson did not show any fear.

After gesturing to his teammates to pay attention to the ball, Lawson launched an offense. He wanted to rely on the pure explosive power of his first big step to directly accelerate and change direction to pass Leonard.

But in fact, he thought too simply.Leonard has been close to him, but there is a slight safety gap in case he suddenly draws a foul.

hateful!

Steadily controlling the ball in his hands, Lawson clenched his teeth while looking at the pair of long arms that came into view from time to time.Today he finally realized personally, the so-called death entanglement.

Bending down to resist Leonard, Lawson's breakthrough gradually slowed down, and in the end he stopped completely outside the free throw line, unable to take another step forward.

Although Lawson has a super passing ability, Leonard's long arms have been shaking around him, which makes him very afraid. He knows that once the pass is likely to be cut off.

Unable to move forward, Lawson didn't want to retreat like this in the first offensive round.After thinking for a while, he gritted his teeth to meet Leonard's interference, and forcibly turned around and shot a jumper.

boom!
The basketball bounced out of the frame without any surprises, and the defensive rebound was steadily picked off by Blair.Lawson's shooting itself is not stable enough. Unless he is very lucky or feels hot, it will be difficult to hit a shot under severe interference.

Walking a few steps in front of Blair, Yang Ke took the ball from his hand, looked up and saw that the Nuggets retreated in time, so he didn't speed up, and took the half court slowly like a walk.

Stopping two steps outside the three-point line, Yang Ke raised his head and glanced at Lawson not far in front of him, then turned his head to look at his teammates.Lawson's performance on the defensive end has always been very good, so it makes sense that he didn't switch defenses.

Two seconds later, Yang Ke held the ball, lowered his center of gravity and began to approach Lawson. When he was only one step away, he suddenly increased his speed and took half a step forward with his right foot, as if to launch a fatal breakthrough.

Between thunder and flint, Lawson didn't have any time to think at all, and was forced by the threat of Yang Ke's lightning-like footsteps.Lawson subconsciously adopted a back slide defense, moving his body's center of gravity back a little.

Looking at Lawson's reaction, Yang Ke's feet stopped forcibly the moment his head moved, and he immediately pulled the ball back.

Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the three-point line in front of his toes. Yang Ke didn't stop at all. He nodded and shot a three-pointer before anyone could react. The whole process took only 0.5 seconds at most.

(In recent years, Curry's quick three-pointers, the whole process is about 0.4 seconds, and the shots are accurate and casual, really crazy.)
Swish!
The basketball crossed an arc and entered the net hollowly.Amid the cheers of the fans and audience, Yang Ke successfully scored three points.

Looking at this quick three-pointer, Nuggets coach George Karl couldn't sit still and stood up from his position.He wanted to say something, but thought that the players had no problem defending. In the end, he could only shake his head helplessly: "This three-pointer is really unreasonable."

Assistant coach Brian Shaw also stood up with Karl, nodded and said, "We also have an unreasonable player in our team."

"But he's very unstable."

Knowing who Shaw was talking about, Carl turned around and looked at JR Smith on the bench, frowning.This guy is a well-known knives, it is not a problem to hit nine out of three when he is crazy, of course, it is also possible to miss a single one.

After thinking for a while, Carl said directly: "Wait and see, if the score tends to increase, try replacing him."

The reason why Karl considers letting JR Smith play early once the score is opened is to see how the nerve knife is doing today.

Crazy, then the outcome may still be a fight.Even if you fail, you can raise the flag and surrender earlier to save the energy of the team members.Anyway, with the current record of the Nuggets, there is bound to be a playoff spot.

The game continued, and Lawson, who had an excellent view of the overall situation, was not overwhelmed by the failure of the last round. After bringing the ball to the frontcourt, he accurately found Nene.

The Nuggets wanted to use Nene's single-point advantage to open up the situation, so Lawson directly lobbed the ball to Nene after signaling his teammates to open up the space.

The Brazilian center lived up to expectations. Relying on his superior physical fitness after receiving the ball, Nene squeezed Blair away and successfully dunked with a backhand, scoring two points for the team.

In the next few rounds, the two teams played back and forth because of this.The Spurs launched an attack from the outside under the tandem of Yang Ke, while the Nuggets kept opening the space and handed the ball to Nene to handle.

However, even so, the Spurs still firmly maintain their advantage.After all, a three-pointer from the outside line is always one point more than a two-pointer. After several accumulations, there is also a score lead of about 5 points.

And in the 6th minute of the first quarter, Popovich took the initiative to ask for a timeout. He was very dissatisfied with the team's inside defense, so he took the initiative to attack.

(End of this chapter)