Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"Shh!"

Turning around, Zhuang Yu returned the favor. He chose to make a lob shot after breaking through, and threw the ball into the basket despite Capela's defense.

With a slight sound, the basketball obediently went into the net.

This was equivalent to another answerball. The home fans were very unhappy and shouted louder and louder towards the court, wanting Harden to answer with another one.

However, Harden did not let them do as they wished.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to fight Zhuang Yu alone, but he has tried and failed.

After reaching the frontcourt, he took the basketball from Paul. Zhuang Yu was defending very forward and had the advantage in height, so it was difficult for Harden to shoot directly towards him.

So Harden chose to break through, but after two attempts to change direction he still failed to get past Zhuang Yu.

Moreover, Zhuang Yu's prediction is very accurate. Whenever Harden wants to actively seek confrontation, he will retreat a little. And now Zhuang Yu's confrontation ability is not inferior to any guard player.

This made Harden very depressed, and in the end he had no choice but to pass the ball.

"What's going on? Fight resolutely."

“Is Harden scared?”

The unhappy shouts of some fans in the audience reached the court and reached Harden's ears, making his face even darker.

In the next round, Harden chose to face Zhuang Yu directly in a one-on-one match.

This time he chose his best double step-back, but Zhuang Yu's defensive prediction was too good. He jumped one step ahead, and with the advantage of height and wingspan, he directly touched the basketball.

Even though it was just a little bit, it was enough to change the trajectory of the basketball.

Bang.

The basketball hit the front of the basket and bounced back into Anderson's hands. Anderson grabbed the basketball and immediately launched a quick counterattack. Zhuang Yu and Holiday had already started together, and the two of them rushed to the front court one on the left and the other on the right. Anderson pushed the ball to Holiday with both hands.

Holiday took a look at the basket, grabbed the basketball and rushed inside.

Paul and Harden of the Rockets quickly retreated, but Paul had no choice because he was too short and it was basically impossible for him to block such a quick counterattack.

Harden subconsciously pounced on Holiday, but ignored Zhuang Yu.

Holiday grabbed the basketball and threw it into the basket. Harden subconsciously stopped and turned his head to see Zhuang Yu jumping up, stretching his arms in the air like a roc spreading its wings, grabbing the basketball, and his body stayed in the air for a moment, as if time had stopped.

In Harden's eyes, Zhuang Yu seemed to have fallen from the sky.

A bang!

The basketball was dunked into the basket by Zhuang Yu.

The audience was boiling again.

This was an explosive alley-oop slam dunk, especially the moment when Zhuang Yu stayed in the air, which gave people a huge shock.

It turns out that people can jump so high and even stop in the air.

This dunk ignited the whole stadium, even many home fans stood up and cheered loudly, and the morale of the Rockets team dropped instantly.

During the previous warm-up, Zhuang Yu's slam dunk from the free throw line had already given the Rockets players a great shock, and this slam dunk in space was like a heavy hammer, hitting their hearts again.

At this moment, Zhuang Yu's figure seemed to become extremely tall in their eyes, giving them a huge sense of oppression.

"Requesting a timeout."

Coach D'Antoni was very depressed and called a timeout. He didn't expect the game to turn out like this before it had even started for long.

After taking a glance at the expressions of his players, he called them, then spread out the tactical board and said, "Ennis will defend Zhuang Yu, and Harden will defend Korver. We need to strengthen our defense against Zhuang Yu, and we need to help defend him, and don't let him play one-on-one easily."

"besides......"

After some arrangements, the pause ended.

Players from both sides return to the court.

What made Coach D'Antoni a little depressed was that the Lakers started making substitutions so early. They replaced Korver with Cunningham.

However, the Rockets still played according to the arrangement, with Ennis defending Zhuang Yu and Harden defending Cunningham.

The Rockets attack.

After Paul advanced to the frontcourt, he gave the ball to Harden, but Harden did not shoot himself. This was just a cover to make the Lakers think that Harden was going to fight back. In fact, the ball was given to Harden just to attract defense and create opportunities for other players.

Harden broke through and passed the ball to Ennis, who passed it to Tucker, who finally made a three-pointer.

Swish!

There was a soft sound and the ball was scored.

"Fortunately."

Coach D'Antoni breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, their three-point shots were still on point and several role players also seized the opportunities.

Turn around.

When Holiday came to the frontcourt and passed the ball to Zhuang Yu, Ennis immediately rushed forward, while Harden rushed towards Cunningham, but his eyes were always on Zhuang Yu, ready to move closer to Zhuang Yu at any time to help Ennis defend.

Seeing this situation, Zhuang Yu couldn't help but raise the corner of his mouth and revealed a sneer, then he made a gesture to his teammates, indicating that the others should move away, and he would play against Ennis alone.

This is why Coach Scott made the substitution so early, because Zhuang Yu had a strong desire to attack today. Since Zhuang Yu was going to start the offensive mode, Korver's role on the court would not be that great. It would be better to replace him with Cunningham, since Zhuang Yu was there on the offensive end, and Cunningham would be more effective on the defensive end.

Zhuang Yu first took a series of cross steps, and then pretended to break through.

Harden immediately moved over here to help Ennis defend.

Zhuang Yu did not play the ball himself, but winked at Cunningham. Cunningham understood and cut to the basket along the baseline. Zhuang Yu then made a ground pass, and the basketball bounced from Harden's feet and fell into Cunningham's hands.

At this moment, Cunningham was not far from the basket, and Capela subconsciously stepped forward to defend. Cunningham did not play himself, but passed the ball to Lopez.

"It happened."

"I missed someone."

The home fans shouted, alerting the Rockets players on the court.

However, at this time Capela went to defend Cunningham, and Lopez stood in the inside like a pillar of support, and it was useless even if other Rockets players went to defend.

Because the Rockets used a lineup of one big and four small players, they did not have a real player at the No. 4 position. Tucker played at the No. 4 position, and Tucker's height was obviously not enough to pose a threat to Lopez, especially in the position under the basket.

Bang!

With a loud bang, Lopez dunked with both hands.

He hung his hands on the basket, pulling it downward and bending it out of shape. When Lopez let go, the basket suddenly bounced back, shaking the entire basketball stand. It can be seen how powerful this dunk was.

The home fans in the stands fell silent.

Although Tucker hit a three-pointer after the timeout, the Lakers immediately returned with a two-handed dunk. It is difficult to say who got the upper hand between the two teams.

It took several seconds for the fans to come back to their senses.

"Defense is always a problem. How can we play if we can't defend?"

"It's impossible to defend in the first place. The Lakers have too many scoring points, and there's Zhuang Yu, a super strong scoring point. His scoring ability is too strong and too unstoppable."

"Yes, if you want to limit Zhuang Yu's scoring, you have to double-team him. Don't even mention double-teaming. Even if it's help defense or assist defense, like the ball just now, once you do that, you will miss other Lakers players, which is basically giving away points."

"Then we can only rely on offense."

The fans shook their heads and couldn't help but lament.

Even they felt helpless. The fact was obvious that the Rockets could not defend against Zhuang Yu or the Lakers' offense.

They can only rely on their own offense, hoping to play better offense than the Lakers, to have a chance of defeating the Lakers.

So, what can the Rockets do?

Yes, there is, and that is the three-point shot!

As a three-point shooting team, the Rockets' three-pointer is their killer weapon, and it is very powerful. They can't withstand the Lakers' offense. Then they can only play against the opponent. As long as their three-pointer can be shot, their scoring efficiency will be higher than that of the Lakers, and they will have a chance to lead the Lakers.

However, what frustrated the Rockets players was that they did not get many three-point opportunities.

The defensive effect of the Lakers' lineup on the court at this time is really good.

Holiday, Zhuang Yu, Cunningham, Anderson, and Lopez, these five players all have excellent personal defensive abilities, and the Lakers also have a lineup of one big and four small players, which is very flexible in switching and assisting defense.

The excellent individual defensive ability and the overall defensive coordination with almost no weaknesses made the Rockets play very depressed, and they were not able to shoot three-pointers from the outside at all.

In fact, the only weakness of the Lakers lineup at this time is the No. 4 position.

Jokic's response in the previous matchup with the Nuggets was very correct. He let the power forward play one-on-one against Anderson, and seized on Anderson to disrupt the Lakers' defensive system.

Unfortunately, Millsap is old after all.

As for the Rockets, they don't have an outstanding player at the 4th position.

......

"Requesting a substitution."

Halfway through the first quarter, Coach D'Antoni requested a substitution.

He shook his head and glanced at the scoreboard with some frustration. They were already ten points behind.

Coach D'Antoni replaced Paul and Ennis with Eric Gordon and Carmelo Anthony.

After the two came on the court, Gordon first hit a three-pointer from the outside, and then Anthony also hit a jump shot in the low post on the right.

However, the Rockets still found it difficult to defend against the Lakers' offense.

At this time, the Lakers had already changed to a rotation lineup. Zhuang Yu and Lopez were both replaced, leaving only Holiday and Anderson on the court, plus Kuzma, Clarkson, and Nance Jr.

After a few rounds, the first quarter ended quickly.

At this time the score became 34:25, and the Lakers were still leading by 9 points.

Coach D'Antoni frowned and pondered over a solution, but after thinking for a long time he couldn't come up with a good idea. He turned his attention to Harden, and it seemed that he could only rely on Harden.