Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"Beep..."

The whistle for the end of the game sounded and the game came to an end.

The final score was 116:110. In the end, the Pelicans were still chasing points, but they were ultimately unable to catch up and were still 6 points behind.

"ended."

"It's a pity that Cousins ​​was injured, otherwise we would not have lost, at least we wouldn't have been swept 4:0."

"We can only wait until next season, but...will we have a chance to go further next season?"

The home fans sighed and left silently.

What they lost today was not just the game, but also the fans' hope for them and their confidence in the Pelicans' future.

The Pelicans previously brought in Cousins ​​and signed Rondo, with the natural hope that the team could go further in the playoffs and even win the championship.

But now that Cousins ​​is out due to injury, the team was swept in the first round, which is far from people's expectations of the Pelicans.

As for next season...

Cousins ​​has a player option this summer and he will renegotiate his contract with the Pelicans. However, this may be difficult. As an All-Star level player, Cousins ​​will definitely ask for a maximum salary contract, but the Pelicans will most likely not agree due to concerns about his health.

Also, Rondo is old after all, and is far from being the third giant...

In short, in the eyes of many fans, the next season for the Pelicans may be even more difficult and even more difficult to rely on.

The fans left one after another, and the Pelicans players walked into the player tunnel in disappointment. Davis rubbed his eyes and kept his head down.

Cousins' face was wrinkled, feeling somewhat unwilling and helpless.

Rondo looked back at the stadium and saw a group of Lakers players hugging each other to celebrate. He suddenly remembered his time with the Celtics.

It was great then.

A group of players left, leaving only the Lakers players hugging each other. They were celebrating. Zhuang Yu stretched out his hand, and a group of people stretched out their hands and stacked them together.

Zhuang Yu shouted: "For the championship!"

"The Lakers must win!"

"The Lakers must win!"

A group of players roared in unison, the sound was like thunder and powerful.

Defeating the Pelicans and advancing to the second round is not their goal, this is not the end, they have only one goal, and that is the championship.

......

San Francisco.

A group of Warriors players gathered.

“I didn’t expect it to be over in just four games.”

"The Pelicans are still too weak and couldn't cause much trouble for the Lakers."

Several Warriors players were discussing and expressed their disappointment with the Pelicans. They hoped that they could win one or two more games to help consume more of the Lakers' energy.

So useless.

Listening to his teammates' discussion, Curry shook his head. He didn't think the Pelicans were too weak. They all watched the game and could only say that the Lakers were too strong. Whether it was offense or defense, the Lakers completely crushed the Pelicans and didn't let the Pelicans cause any trouble at all.

"It seems like this second round isn't going to be easy." Curry said to himself.

Clay also had a serious expression, he knew Zhuang Yu too well.

He not only knows Zhuang Yu, he also knows Clarkson, Anderson, Kuzma, and Nance Jr. He knows clearly that compared with last season, these people have made progress and improvements. With Holiday and Korver, the Lakers have indeed become stronger.

Definitely not to be underestimated.

Klay thinks it is no exaggeration to say that the Lakers are their biggest obstacle in the West. After thinking about it, he reminded his teammates: "It's not that the Pelicans are weak, but that the Lakers are too strong. We must go all out to deal with them."

"Ah."

"Don't worry, we won't take it lightly."

A group of players said they would not take it lightly, but it is unknown how seriously they take it.

Meanwhile, Coach Kerr sat with his assistant coach.

They are studying the Lakers vs. Pelicans game tape.

In fact, they had already been doing this a few days ago.

For the Warriors, advancing to the second round was a foregone conclusion and not difficult, and there was no suspense either for the Lakers to defeat the Pelicans, so the Warriors coaching staff began preparing for the second round early on.

What, you mean what if the Lakers lose?

Oh, that's even better. Even if we did some useless work, it doesn't matter. It will be much more comfortable to play against the Pelicans in the second round.

Of course, there is no such thing as a surprise, and the Lakers won in the end.

An assistant coach said: "I thought the Pelicans could win the next game. It would take at least five games to end this series, but I didn't expect it to be over in four games. The Pelicans had a chance to win today's game, but it was a pity that the Lakers had the upper hand in the last few minutes."

Another assistant coach said: "It can be seen that the Lakers are very strong in key moments and key balls, and we have to be careful of this. The main thing is Zhuang. He is too difficult to deal with. I think in the second round when we face the Lakers, defending Zhuang is the key."

This question resonated with several people.

But how to guard against Zhuang Yu?

Several people discussed this issue for a while. Some said to double-team him, some said to let Draymond Green defend him, and some said to let Durant defend him. Durant is tall and has long arms, which can effectively limit Zhuang Yu's shooting...

Everyone has their own opinions.

Listening to the discussion of several assistant coaches, Coach Kerr felt a headache. He rubbed his temples and finally said, "Defending Zhuang Yu is indeed the key."

When the head coach spoke, several assistant coaches immediately shut their mouths and turned to look at Coach Kerr.

Coach Kerr did change his tone and said, "But at Zhuang Yu's level, it's too difficult to defend him. There's no good way. Drummond and Kevin can defend him, but they can only limit his outside shooting. They can't keep up with his speed."

“So I think we still have to double-team.”

Without waiting for the assistant coaches to speak, Coach Kerr continued, "Defending Zhuang Yu well is indeed the key, but more important is our offense, which is our advantage and strength. If we still cannot limit Zhuang Yu and the Lakers' offense through defense, then we have to compete with the opponent in scoring and win through offense."

Coach Kerr pushed the information in front of him and said, "I think we should not only study the Lakers vs. Pelicans series, but also the two games we played against the Lakers in the regular season, study the Lakers' defensive strategies and tactics, and find ways to crack them, so that our offense can become more fierce and more targeted..."

After these words were spoken, several teaching assistants nodded in unison.

They had to admit that Coach Kerr was very capable and his few words were very insightful and hit the nail on the head.

Next, they found the video recordings of the two regular season games against the Lakers and studied them comprehensively...