Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

After a warm-up, the players returned to the sidelines.

A group of Warriors players gathered around Coach Kerr, who spread out the tactical board and said, "The other team is missing Lopez, and this is something we must take advantage of. We should break through more often and go inside if we have a chance. If we don't, we should pass the ball outside. Today we will play a breakout game."

On the offensive end, Coach Kerr's arrangement is very simple, which is to break through and score.

If the Lakers had Lopez guarding the inside, then the Warriors would definitely still focus on outside shooting, but now without Lopez, of course they have to go to the inside.

Of course, the Warriors don't have a strong inside player, but they are not short of people who can break through. Curry, Durant, and Draymond Green are all able to break through.

The Lakers lack Lopez to guard the inside, so they can only shrink their defense when facing a breakthrough, but this will give the Warriors' outside shooting points opportunities.

Last season, the Warriors had a difficult time due to the Lakers' strong overall defense, but they don't have to worry about that today.

"On the defensive end, we still need to pay attention to defending Zhuang Yu, focusing on preventing three-pointers. Don't be afraid of his breakthrough. Right now the Lakers don't have anyone inside who can respond to him."

"If you see him using the pick-and-roll to get away, you should immediately go up to delay him, and the people behind him should also be quick to not give him mid-range opportunities."

"besides......"

After another round of arrangements, Coach Kerr took back the tactical board and said, "Go ahead."

......

Here, Coach Scott is also making arrangements.

The starting lineup for the Lakers today is Holiday, Zhuang Yu, Korver, Anderson, and Nance Jr.

Coach Scott was drawing up tactics while saying, "Without Lopez today, the opponent will definitely focus on our inside line, and there will be more breakthroughs. It doesn't matter, the opponent can only break through Curry, Durant, and Green, so just focus on defending Curry and Durant."

As for Green, although he can break through and pass the ball, his offensive threat is obviously not as good as Curry and Durant.

Given the Lakers' current situation, it is difficult to do everything well on the defensive end, and they can only make some trade-offs.

The focus is on offense.

"Zhuang." Coach Scott looked at Zhuang Yu, "The opponent will definitely focus on you, but you still have to fight. It's best to single out Curry after switching defenses. Do you understand?"

"I understand." Zhuang Yu nodded seriously.

In this situation, no matter how the opponent defends him, he must bear the offensive burden of the team. Without Lopez, both defense and offense have a great impact. Their advantage in the interior is gone, and they can only rely on the outside.

So Zhuang Yu had to score more points.

Coach Scott then looked at the other players and said, "Be more resolute in your shots. Don't hesitate or have any concerns. If you have a chance to shoot, shoot it resolutely, including Kyle."

Anderson's body trembled slightly and he nodded heavily.

His shooting is not stable, so he is usually cautious when shooting from the outside. Unless it is a good opportunity, he will not shoot from the outside.

But now Coach Scott actually specifically told him to take the shot decisively when he had the chance. Anderson suddenly felt the pressure on his shoulders become heavier.

Coach Scott then made some arrangements before putting away the tactical board: "Although Brook is missing, I still believe in you. Don't forget, we are a championship team."

Everyone agreed and walked onto the court.

......

Players from both teams came onto the field.

The Warriors played with Curry, Thompson, Durant, Draymond Green and Kevin Rooney.

This summer, Zaza Pachulia left the Warriors and joined the Pistons, and the team's other center McGee also left the team and joined the Clippers. The Warriors' DeMarcus Cousins ​​is still recovering from injury, and the center position is vacant, so Kevon Rooney got the opportunity.

Rooney was selected by the Warriors with the 2015th pick in the first round of the 30 draft. In the past three seasons, he has not had many opportunities and his statistics have been average.

However, the Warriors themselves are not a team that cares much about centers. Their tactical system and game style determine that they do not need a center that much.

So Rooney can be used barely, as long as he can grab rebounds.

First there was a jump ball. Rooney is only 206cm tall, so Coach Kerr did not arrange for him to jump the ball, but let Durant go instead. As a result, he still failed to get the ball.

Nance Jr. touched the basketball first and kicked the ball to the backcourt.

Holiday controlled the ball and started to advance. He glanced at the Warriors' defense in the frontcourt and called a pick-and-roll. The Warriors quickly delayed the game, Holiday passed the ball to Anderson, and Anderson passed it to Zhuang Yu.

As soon as they saw Zhuang Yu getting the ball, the fans in the audience became excited and stared at him without blinking.

At the same time, several Warriors players on the court were all staring at Zhuang Yu, but they did not double-team him and continued to defend him alone.

Seeing that the opponent did not double-team him, Zhuang Yu decisively played one-on-one. He first dribbled the ball between his legs and moved to the left. Then he suddenly dribbled the ball behind his back to his right hand and quickly changed direction.

Clay quickly moved sideways, but it was too late.

In order to defend against Zhuang Yu's three-pointer, Klay defended relatively forward, and Zhuang Yu immediately passed him.

Green hurried forward to defend, his eyes fierce.

He dived very resolutely, not giving Zhuang Yu any chance to shoot from mid-range. He was not worried about being overtaken by Zhuang Yu because Rooney was behind him.

Zhuang Yu frowned slightly and chose to pass the ball to Anderson because Anderson was left open.

Anderson received the ball and saw an empty space in front of him. He remembered his coach's instructions and chose to shoot. However, with a "bang", the basketball bounced out of the frame.

"Shit." Anderson cursed under his breath, feeling a little depressed.

The first one didn’t have it.

The Warriors got the rebound and counterattacked. The Lakers quickly retreated. After Curry came to the frontcourt, he called for a pick-and-roll, used Rooney's pick-and-roll to switch defense, and then broke through decisively.

Nance Jr. delayed the game in time, but he couldn't defend Curry and was passed by Curry. Anderson came over to defend, but Curry was prepared and threw the ball with one hand.

Swish!

A high rebound hit the target and the score was 2:0.

In the next few rounds, the Warriors made breakthroughs, either Curry or Durant, which was exactly as Coach Scott expected.

However, anticipating it is one thing, and being able to prevent it is another.

Coach Scott made arrangements before the game, but Curry and Durant are both very strong in one-on-ones, have many ways to score, can break through and shoot, and are indeed difficult to defend.

Especially after calling a pick-and-roll and switching defense, Nance Jr. was unable to play a role whether he switched defense to Curry or Durant.

This made Coach Scott smile bitterly. The reason why he didn't play Zubac but Nance Jr. was because Nance Jr. moved faster and he hoped that he could do a better job of providing backup defense and switching defense. However, it was obvious that he still couldn't defend the opponent.

"Hey......"

Coach Scott sighed secretly, but he didn't blame Nance Jr.

The reason why the Lakers' defense was able to cause so much trouble to the Warriors last season was due to the flexible and powerful defensive lineup of Zhuang Yu + Holiday + Lopez + Anderson. Whether it was on the outside or inside, they were able to provide sufficient defensive pressure against the Warriors.

But after Lopez Sr. was gone, problems arose in the team's defensive system. Nance Jr. is not Lopez Sr., and as Korver gets older, his defense is getting worse than before... In this case, it's no wonder that they can't defend.

......

on the field.

Zhuang Yu also frowned.

They were unable to defend against the Warriors' offense, and their teammates' touch on the offensive end was not very good, which led to their inability to defend and attack, and they naturally fell into a disadvantage.

"We still need to score more points."

Talking to himself, Zhuang Yu came to the front court, then ran back to get the ball, and Nance came up to screen. Zhuang Yu quickly moved sideways and suddenly lowered his center of gravity. Rooney subconsciously stopped his steps and bent down to prevent himself from being passed by Zhuang Yu.

However, Zhuang Yu did not break through, but suddenly stepped back and then made a three-point shot.

"Not good." Rooney's heart skipped a beat, but it was too late to stop it.

The basketball flew out from between Zhuang Yu's fingers, drew a beautiful arc, and finally went through the net with a "swish".

Curry frowned, and Green came up and said to Rooney, "Be more resolute when you go up to delay, don't be afraid of being passed by him."

Rooney nodded in agreement.

In the next round, when Zhuang Yu got the ball and called for a pick-and-roll again, Rooney's delay was obviously much more resolute.

Of course, the result was that he was overtaken by Zhuang Yu with an sudden stop and start.

Green quickly made up for the defense, but failed to stop Zhuang Yu from scoring. Zhuang Yu faced Green with a jump shot and hit it again.

"This guy......"

Green's face looked a little ugly and helpless.

This time it’s not Rooney’s fault, but he was unable to defend it. However, he had no choice because Zhuang Yu had too many ways to score.

It’s simply impossible to guard against.

......

Minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

The score became 15:10, with the Warriors leading by 5 points.

On the Lakers side, Zhuang Yu scored 5 points, and the others only scored 5 points in total. Although they were not far behind, they were obviously still at a disadvantage.

"Requesting a substitution."

Coach Scott made substitutions, replacing Korver and Nance Jr. with Cunningham and Zubac to strengthen the defense.

But the effect is still not good after this substitution.

First of all, Zubac cannot replace Lopez, and secondly, the Warriors quickly made substitutions after seeing the Lakers make substitutions, and simply changed to a "five-small lineup."

This made Zubac very awkward on the court, as he couldn't keep up with the pace and couldn't defend beyond the three-point line.

The Warriors seized the opportunity to launch a quick counterattack and outside shooting, and the score gap between the two sides not only did not narrow, but widened further.

"Requesting a timeout."

Coach Scott shook his head and had to call a timeout.

Although Zhuang Yu kept scoring, the Warriors' offense was too sharp, with quick counterattacks and three-pointers from the outside. It was difficult for Zhuang Yu to withstand it alone.