ATPnovel Chapter 486
Chapter 486
Chapter 486
It seems that Yuan Qingshan is going to play the first quarter, and Wharton still has some ideas in the second game. He wants to put Yuan Qingshan on the court more.
Of course, the purpose is not to put all the pressure on Yuan Qingshan, but to let him help Murray adapt to the intensity of the game.
Wharton could have Yuan Qingshan defend Harden, or Paul George defend Harden, but he didn't. The reason is that the Lakers need Murray to grow as soon as possible, otherwise they won't be able to play the Warriors in the next round.
Klay Thompson had to defend.
After the game started again, the Lakers and the Rockets tried to play each other for two rounds. The Rockets' D'Antoni meant to attack Harden, and Harden was basically playing by ear.
At present, Griffin is still stable, and the rest of the players don't feel very good, especially Ariza and Capela, who are a bit timid.
The Lakers attacked much more gracefully. After Yuan Qingshan dribbled the ball across the half, he spent a few seconds waiting for his teammates to run. It was a bit difficult for Murray to run out of Harden's defense.
Facing Ariza, Paul George can only use four words to describe it with ease. Ariza was indeed a well-known perimeter gate in the league, but as he got older, all aspects have also degenerated, and what he is now facing is also a well-known star player in the league.
After the first quarter, Yuan Qingshan scored 7 points and 8 assists, five of which came from Paul George.
D'Antoni has a new headache: Paul George, he really doesn't know how to defend Paul George now, if Ariza can't do anything, the others will be even worse.
During the intermission, Towns kept complaining to Walton that he didn't have enough playing time, and Walton gave him a big blank stare, want to play?Let's take care of your body first.
Towns felt that he had been wronged even more. Before, it was just physical discomfort caused by food poisoning. He lost 8 kilograms in a week. Then because of the sudden weight loss, he sprained his left ankle in a training session. Since then, the team has strictly limited his playing time.
Food poisoning and mild sprains have already healed, but unfortunately the coach just won't let him play.
Towns watched his teammates make long shots and dunks on the court, envious.
What Wharton thought was that among the three young players of the Lakers, Yuan Qingshan, Murray and Towns, Yuan Qingshan knew how to protect himself, and Murray did not need to bear much pressure. Only as an insider, Towns was the most likely to be injured in high-intensity games, so the team must try to protect Towns as much as possible.
Going down, no matter whether you are playing the Warriors or the Cavaliers, you must have an inside core who can attack independently.
After Towns complained and begged, coach Wharton finally relented and let him play.
The Lakers lineup in the second quarter is: Murray, Korver, Paul George, Towns, Channing Frye.
Walton calculated that D'Antoni would use Harden as the No. [-] position, so he moved Murray down one position.
As soon as Murray saw Harden's beard on the court, his heart began to heal.
Harden didn't say anything on the surface, but he was somewhat relieved to see Yuan Qingshan still sitting on the bench.
The Rockets attacked, Harden took the ball all the way to the top of the arc, shaking the center of gravity left and right, Murray pursed his mouth and held his breath, trying to keep himself from being shaken.
Seeing that he couldn't shake Murray away, Harden suddenly took a step back and shot.
"Three points, James Harden." DJ's voice was low.
The current score is 31 to 26, with the Lakers leading by 5 points.
The point difference in this game was smaller than the first game. Yuan Qingshan kept pressing, and the Rockets did not blindly play the seven-second offensive tactic. The rhythm of both sides was not fast.
This situation is beneficial to the Lakers, because they have two top positional battle masters in the league, Yuan Qingshan and Paul George, and there is only one Harden on the opposite side, and Griffin is half at best.
Harden's three-pointers are always deterrent, but Walton still did not change his defensive formation. He is going to hand Harden over to Murray in this game. As long as Harden is on the court, Murray will defend. If Harden plays for 48 minutes, Murray can't fall behind for a second.
The Lakers were controlled by Paul George. He asked for a single, played a pick-and-roll with Towns, and sent two assists.
The Rockets Ariza failed to defend once, and D'Antoni began to scratch his head. If the Lakers and Paul George can't defend, how will they defend Durant and James next.
D'Antoni didn't know how general manager Morey felt after seeing this round of the series, but his thoughts were very clear. Without a small forward who could fight against them, it was just a joke to play against these strong teams.
Fortunately, with Harden's sharp offense, the Rockets did not lose too badly in the first half. Ariza couldn't guard Paul George. Similarly, Murray couldn't guard Harden.
Harden tried to break through two at the beginning. Walton immediately replaced Whiteside on the court. It would be difficult for Harden to break through to the basket. Whiteside became a solid high wall for the Lakers.
So Harden changed his offensive method, and changed from a European breakthrough to a retreating three-pointer, and made two ultra-long-range three-pointers in a row.
In the middle of the second quarter, Harden tricked Murray into a foul, 3 plus 1, scoring 4 points.
Murray held his head in frustration and looked up at the big screen.
O'Neal smacked his lips: "Harden-style fouls finally appeared."
Barkley: "The ball just now was really hard to defend. I think 85.76% of the people in this league will get it."
O'Neill gave him a sideways glance: "Your prediction is really accurate, but you are right, Harden's ability to draw fouls is amazing, and this is the stunt he became famous back then."
Harden made Murray's foul, in exchange for a burst of boos from the fans.
The Los Angeles fans thought: Isn't this ball obviously going to cheat people to foul? Everyone knows that he is going to cheat people, but there is nothing to do with him.
After the ball, Yuan Qingshan reminded Wharton that there should be a timeout to help Murray calm down.
Wharton paused, then called Murray to him, patted him on the back of the head and said words of encouragement.
Murray didn't know if he really listened, but he kept nodding.
When playing again, Harden moved to the second position, Dellavedova played, Walton let Murray and Beverley switch positions, Murray to Harden, Beverly to Dellavedova.
O'Neill watched the matchup on the court, and couldn't help but burst out laughing: "The first position on both sides is fun, basically it's not there."
Barkley nodded. Dellavedova and Beverly are not the kind of players with strong offensive power, so it is really like what O'Neal said, the number one position has become a decoration.
The Rockets have the ball, and Dellavedova catches the baseline and serves.
O'Neal said: "Look, after half court he will pass the ball."
Before his words fell, Dellavedova hurriedly pushed across the half.
(End of this chapter)