Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

Coach Stevens' intuition was sharp and his reaction was quick. He made adjustments in the second quarter, further emphasizing the defense against Zhuang Yu and asking the players to double-team him. He would rather miss other Lakers players than let Zhuang Yu play alone.

However, after hearing the coach's arrangement, Brown and Tatum couldn't help but become more depressed and a little shocked.

In their opinion, this was a sign of the coach's lack of trust and dissatisfaction with them. They believed that it was impossible for them to defend against Zhuang Yu and they couldn't even limit him.

Of course, this is true.

Noticing the two's strange emotions, Coach Stevens was moved and smiled and comforted them, "I don't mean to blame you. You are all very talented and defend very seriously. It's just that Zhuang Yu is the scoring champion after all. He is very strong. Even if other players, including those selected for the All-Defensive Team, are replaced, they will not be able to defend him."

The two looked at each other and could only smile bitterly.

Although this was the case, the two young men still felt uncomfortable.

When it was time for them to go on the court, Coach Stevens called the two players over and said, "Come on, play well. I have confidence in you."

With the encouragement from the head coach, the two men's eyes lit up again.

If one person couldn't defend against Zhuang Yu, they didn't believe that two people couldn't defend against him.

......

Soon, the pause ends.

At this time, a few minutes into the second quarter, both sides began to make substitutions, gradually replacing their main players. The Celtics replaced Brown, Tatum, and Baynes.

The Lakers also replaced Zhuang Yu and Anderson, and the lineup became Zhuang Yu, Clarkson, Anderson, Kuzma, and Nance Jr.

Celtics have the ball.

Smart was in charge of holding the ball at this time. After reaching the frontcourt, he first called for a pick-and-roll, and then broke through and passed the ball to Brown.

At this time, Brown was no longer facing Zhuang Yu, but Clarkson.

So he played very decisively. He broke through as soon as he got the ball, relying on his height and physique to push Clarkson aside, and then hit the rebound.

When they returned to the defensive end and saw Zhuang Yu advancing to the frontcourt with the ball, Brown and Tatum looked at each other and both rushed forward to Zhuang Yu.

"Hey, has the double team started?"

Zhuang Yu raised his eyebrows slightly, but was not panicked at all. He passed the ball to Anderson, then gestured to his teammates, indicating that everyone should run according to the tactics.

The reason why the ball was passed to Anderson instead of Clarkson was because the ones who came up to double-team were Brown and Tatum, and Tatum was the person opposite Anderson. His coming up to double-team Zhuang Yu meant that Anderson's position was left vacant.

Another point is that although Clarkson has outstanding scoring ability, his organizational skills are average.

In this lineup, Zhuang Yu plays the No. 1 position and is responsible for organizing the offense. Facing the opponent's double-team, he needs to switch to off-ball mode. Then other people are needed to take on the organizing task. Since Holiday is not on the court, the task naturally falls on Anderson.

Suddenly the Lakers players moved quickly.

Zhuang Yu was also moving, first running back and cutting to the inside, then with the help of his teammates' cover, moving along the baseline to the three-point line in the right corner.

Anderson and Clarkson ran alternately, Clarkson set a screen for Anderson, then turned around and cut into the inside. Anderson stopped and raised the ball over his head as if to pass it to Clarkson who was cutting.

"not good."

"Be careful with the empty cuts..."

Someone shouted from the sidelines.

Suddenly, the Celtics players' attention was drawn to Clarkson, but Anderson did not pass the ball to Clarkson, because Zhuang Yu had already gotten rid of the defense and came to the right three-point line. Anderson stared at Clarkson, but passed the ball to Zhuang Yu.

Oops!

It was only then that the Celtics players reacted, but it was too late for them to pounce again.

Zhuang Yu received the basketball and adjusted it slightly, then jumped up and shook his wrist. His movements were very chic and beautiful, and the basketball obediently went into the net.

Hollow hit!

"nice shot."

"Haha, I thought Anderson was going to pass the ball to Clarkson, but I didn't expect it to be a three-pointer."

“The Celtics were all ripped off.”

This was obviously a three-point tactic, which made the Celtics players very depressed. Brown and Tatum looked at each other and could only smile bitterly.

I thought that double-teaming Zhuang Yu would definitely limit his scoring, but it didn't work.

Scoring champion, this is too scary!

However, the two did not get discouraged and continued to defend actively.

......

After a while.

Zhuang Yu and his teammates played a no-ball tactic, using his teammates' screens to get rid of the defense and return to the outside to receive the ball. This time Tatum jumped quickly, and Brown was blocked by the Lakers players. He immediately left Anderson behind and rushed to Zhuang Yu, and jumped up to block the shot.

However, when he jumped up, he found that Zhuang Yu did not jump at all, it was just a fake shot. The two men's eyes met in an instant.

"be cheated."

Tatum's heart trembled, and Zhuang Yu's mouth corners slightly raised. It was obvious that he was deliberately tricking him into jumping and making him commit a foul.

But at this time Tatum was in the air, with nowhere to gain leverage, so even if he wanted to dodge, he couldn't do it.

The next moment, Tatum pounced on Zhuang Yu.

"beep!"

The referee blew the whistle and gave Tatum a foul, but Zhuang Yu had already raised the basketball and shot it out the moment Tatum jumped on him.

It's a pity that the ball didn't hit the target.

However, Zhuang Yu made all three free throws, which could be considered a score.

"Damn it, I was fooled by him." Tatum was very upset.

In front of Zhuang Yu, he was like an elementary school student who couldn't play basketball. His defense was useless and he kept making mistakes. It was really infuriating.

Coach Stevens shook his head helplessly. There was nothing much to say about this ball. He could only say that Tatum was still too young. After all, he was still a rookie and lacked sufficient experience. He always liked to jump on the defensive end, so it was inevitable that he would be fooled and used by the opponent.

This is also the price of growing up, just think of it as paying tuition.

Not only Tatum, Brown also paid the tuition.

At this time, facing their double-team, Zhuang Yu changed to playing without the ball. However, what made Brown and Tatum depressed was that if they failed to jump in time, Zhuang Yu would directly shoot after receiving the ball; but if they jumped too fiercely, Zhuang Yu would foul again.

It's really depressing, it seems like everything I do is wrong.

......

Before I knew it, it was already the end of the second section.

The Celtics had one last chance to attack. After Irving reached the frontcourt, he ignored his teammates' requests for the ball and chose to finish by himself. After a series of beautiful moves, he rushed to the basket. However, the Lakers had already tightened their defense and there were too many people in the interior.

With a bang, the basketball bounced out of the frame.

The ball was not scored and the second quarter came to an end.

Several Celtics players quietly left the court and walked back to the locker room. Everyone had a grim look on their face because they were already trailing by 22 points.

Trailing by 22 points at halftime!

This is not the performance that the second best team in the Eastern Conference should have. Facing the full-fire Zhuang Yu and the Lakers' defense, they were crushed.