Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"drop......"

The whole game is over.

Lillard continued to score in the last two minutes, narrowing the double-digit point difference to single digits, but it was of no avail.

In the end, the Lakers defeated the Trail Blazers 119:110, won the game and got off to a good start in the new regular season.

A group of Trail Blazers players looked depressed and in a bad mood.

This was not the effect they wanted. They thought they could defeat the defending champions and make a good start for the new season. They were indeed leading in the first quarter and had the upper hand, at least in terms of score, but that was just an illusion.

Lillard put his hands on his hips, his eyes full of unwillingness.

He played very well today, scoring 34 points, plus 5 rebounds and 3 assists, the highest score in the game, but what's the use?

In addition to Lillard, McCollum scored 21 points, and others also scored, but not much.

For example, Nurkic, as the team's starting center, should have been one of the team's important scoring points, but he only scored 12 points and 8 rebounds today.

The Lakers, on the other hand, scored from multiple points.

Zhuang Yu scored 28 points, Holiday scored 17 points, Lopez scored 20 points, Clarkson scored 15 points, Rose scored 14 points, Anderson scored 10 points, Korver scored 9 points... Many players on the team scored in double digits, and the overall strength is obvious, which is stronger than that of the Trail Blazers.

However, compared to the Trail Blazers' depression, the Lakers were also happy, but they were not particularly happy because there was no need for it.

Winning this game was expected.

Beating an average playoff team wasn't enough to make them ecstatic.

After the game, the Lakers went to the away game and challenged the Phoenix Suns one day later.

This season, the Suns have added players such as Trevor Ariza, Jamal Crawford, Ryan Anderson, and established Devin Booker as the core of the team. They will build the lineup around Devin Booker, 18 No. pick Deandre Ayton, TJ Warren and other players.

As a fourth-year player, Devin Booker showed great talent and strength, averaging 22.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game in his second season in the NBA. In his third season, which was last season, he averaged 24.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.

Such an outstanding performance made the Suns very happy, and they decided to build the team with him and the new No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton as the core.

Of course, winning the championship is still a long way off.

But as long as they can make it to the playoffs, it will be a victory. After all, they haven't made it to the playoffs for almost ten years.

The last time they made the playoffs was in the 09-10 season, when the team's main players were Steve Nash, Amar'e Stoudemire, Jason Richardson, Grant Hill and others.

Almost ten years have passed in the blink of an eye, and the Suns are still in the quagmire.

This feeling is naturally very uncomfortable, especially for a group of young people who all want to achieve something.

However, they were still a little nervous facing the Lakers.

However, the result was somewhat different from what they expected. The Lakers did not seem to have the intention of giving their all at all. Instead, they seemed to be training and frequently changing their lineup.

This made the Suns feel a little humiliated, but at the same time they were secretly relieved. If the Lakers really played seriously, they might not be able to beat them.

The Lakers had a slight advantage in the first quarter, but in the second quarter the Lakers attacked more frequently, which allowed the Suns to gain the upper hand. However, Coach Scott didn't care. He was just training, or you could say he was testing the lineup, to find a suitable way to rotate the lineup.

The Suns still led until the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

In the last few minutes, the Lakers kept changing players, trying the starting lineup and mixing the starting lineup with the substitutes...

This made a group of young players of the Suns very happy, and they played more excitedly, especially Devin Booker, who made consecutive three-pointers to help the team gain the upper hand.

When the game ended, the score was 114:109 and the Suns won the game.

"Well done."

"Haha, Booker played really well."

"Defending champion is just so so..."

The home fans cheered excitedly.

A group of Suns players also cheered and hugged each other in celebration.

However, there was no smile on the face of Suns head coach Igor Kokoskov. He looked at a group of Lakers players with dull expressions, then looked at Coach Scott, and finally smiled silently. Even though the Suns won today, the Lakers didn't exert any effort at all and were just training.

Even if we win, we will only win a practice match.

If the Lakers really go all out, can we beat them?

If we successfully make it to the playoffs this season and meet the Lakers in the playoffs, can we beat the Lakers like we did today?

Coach Igor Kokoshkov could only smile bitterly, he had no answer, or rather, that answer was one he did not want to accept. However, at this moment a group of his players were celebrating happily, and he naturally could not pour cold water on them, so he let them be happy.

......

The Lakers defeated the Trail Blazers before, but lost to the Suns.

This surprised many fans and generated a lot of discussion.

However, the Lakers don't care about these discussions. They are just training and testing the lineup. As for losing the game, it's just losing one game, and they will win back more.

After the game with the Suns, the Lakers rushed to their next away game to challenge the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Lakers were still training in this game, but the game with the Timberwolves was still close. At the last minute, Jimmy Butler stood up and scored consecutively, helping the Timberwolves beat the Lakers with a two-point advantage. Butler scored a game-high 32 points.

"What's going on with the Lakers? They've lost two games in a row."

"Yeah, the Lakers could have won these two games, but for some reason, they lost to their opponents in the end."

"The substitutions are too frequent. Coach Scott is just messing around. And Zhuang Yu, in three games, he didn't score 30+ in any one game. He doesn't look like a scoring champion at all."

Some were disappointed with the Lakers.

These are the people who only look at the results.

There were also some people who watched the game seriously and knew that the Lakers were training their players. They didn't care about the gains and losses at all.

As for Zhuang Yu...

Although he did not score 30+ in any of the three games, Zhuang Yu had 20+8+7 in all three games, averaging more than 8 points per game. In addition, he had 7 rebounds, assists, and a shooting percentage of %. Isn't that good enough?

Los Angeles.

Staples Center.

After the game with the Timberwolves, the Lakers returned to Los Angeles. They will have two days to rest and then face the Nuggets at home.

In the training stadium.

A group of Lakers players are training, and they are divided into two groups for group confrontation training. One group is the starting players, namely Holiday, Zhuang Yu, Korver, Anderson, and Lopez, and the other group is Rose, Clarkson, Cunningham, Kuzma, and Nance Jr.

This is almost the starting lineup vs. the bench lineup.

At this time, the main lineup still had the upper hand on the field.

Although the Lakers' bench lineup is very strong, it is still not as good as the main lineup overall. Whether it is defense or offense, it is somewhat worse than the main lineup.

"Pause."

Coach Scott called a halt to the scrimmage and waited for the players to come off the court. He then began to make substitutions, replacing Korver with Kuzma and putting him in the same group as Zhuang Yu.

After this substitution, Anderson moved to the No. 3 position, Kuzma played the No. 4 position, and the others remained unchanged.

When the players returned to the court, Assistant Coach Madsen and Coach Scott had a discussion.

Assistant coach Madsen said: "After three games, we have tried many lineup combinations, but it seems that the previous starting lineup is better, which can combine defense and offense. It's just that Korver is still a little bit lacking in defense and will miss people."

Coach Scott nodded: "So I want to try to let others fill Korver's position, but our starting lineup needs to have enough space to allow Holiday and Zhuang Yu to break through better. Only in this way can we create better mobile phone opportunities."

Assistant coach Madsen also understood this and looked at the court.

Coach Scott replaced Korver and put Kuzma on the same team with Zhuang Yu, Holiday, Lopez, and Anderson for this purpose.

Now that the team is full of talent, they can try many different lineup combinations, such as the regular lineup, or one big and four small, or even a five-small lineup.

For example, let Zhuang Yu, Holiday, Anderson, Lopez and Clarkson play together, so that it is a lineup of one big and four small.

This lineup is undoubtedly the most powerful on offense because there are so many people scoring, whether they are on the outside or on the front line or inside, they all have sufficient scoring ability.

However, Clarkson's defense at this point is a problem.

Moreover, when Clarkson, Holiday and Zhuang Yu are all on the court together, Zhuang Yu needs to play at the 3rd position. Although Zhuang Yu's defensive ability is very strong, if he faces the league's top 3rd position players, such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, etc., Zhuang Yu still suffers from the disadvantage in terms of size.

So if we change to this lineup of one big and four small players, although there will be enough firepower on the offensive end, there will be loopholes on the defensive end.

In addition, Coach Scott has also tried a five-small lineup.

For example, Zhuang Yu, Holiday, Clarkson, Anderson, and Kuzma.

This lineup does not have a center, and is at a disadvantage in terms of height inside. It may suffer when facing teams with excellent inside players.

But the offense, especially outside shooting, will be greatly improved, because Holiday, Clarkson, Zhuang Yu, Kuzma can all shoot three-pointers. Even Anderson can shoot, but Anderson's shooting is not stable.

This lineup is somewhat similar to the Warriors' five-small lineup, and Anderson can play the role of Draymond Green, responsible for organizing the connection, while Zhuang Yu, Holiday, Clarkson, and Kuzma can all serve as shooting points, which will maximize the Lakers' three-point shooting.

For example, let Zhuang Yu, Holiday, Korver, Nance Jr., and Lopez play together.

This is a regular lineup. Relatively speaking, both offense and defense will be more balanced.

However, Nance's scoring ability is not outstanding. He is a blue-collar player, and a blue-collar player who is more defensive. He can defend well at the 4 position and fight for rebounds, but it is difficult to expect him to make much contribution on the offensive end.

Then there is the substitute lineup.

If the starting lineup is to be adjusted, then the substitute lineup must naturally be adjusted accordingly.

At present, Coach Scott still wants Holiday and Lopez to lead the bench lineup respectively, but to free up Zhuang Yu and not let him lead the bench lineup and play rotation time. In this way, there are also many combinations to choose from.

For example, let Rose, Holiday, Clarkson, Cunningham and Zubac play together to form a lineup of one big and four small.

Or maybe Rose, Clarkson, Zubac, Nance Jr., Lopez Sr....

In short, the Lakers can have many lineup combinations, but this actually gives the coaching staff a headache, as they don't know which lineup combination to use.

Of course, in theory they can adapt to the situation and change their lineup combinations according to different opponents.

But this will lead to another problem, that is, they do not have a regular lineup combination, the tactics will become more messy, which is not conducive to the establishment of the team's tactical system.

When the training game was over, Coach Scott and the coaching staff came to the conference room and had another discussion. They needed to finalize the team's lineup rotation and tactical system.

"I think it's better to keep our starting lineup from last season," said assistant coach Madsen. "We don't need to make any big changes to our tactical system. This is a mature tactical system and lineup that we have verified last season. There is no need to make any changes."

"Yeah." Coach Scott nodded.

Then Coach Scott said, "Assistant Coach Madsen is right. Our lineup and tactical system last season have been proven. We defeated strong teams like the Warriors, Rockets, and Cavaliers and won the championship. Why should we change it?"

"but......"

Then he changed his tone and said, "Considering that we need to free Zhuang Yu from the rotation time, as well as Korver's physical fitness and defensive issues, I think our starting lineup's playing time needs some adjustments. For example, replace Korver earlier. Who do you think is more suitable to replace him?"

Several assistant coaches exchanged glances and had no objection. Then they began to discuss when to replace Korver and who to replace him with.

Some people said to replace Clarkson, others said to replace Rose or Kuzma, let Kuzma play the 4th position and Anderson play the 3rd position...

However, after the final discussion, Coach Scott decided not to use Clarkson, Rose, or Kuzma, but Cunningham.