basketball kingdom

Chapter 379

Chapter 379

After the Lakers players came to the visiting team's locker room, the Rockets' away game against the Clippers also entered the final stage.Everyone glanced at the TV to see what the score was now.

Rockets 98-96 Clippers, 1 minute and 12 seconds left.

As the game entered the last 2 minutes, the Clippers could no longer implement hacking tactics against Howard without the ball, so he was able to stay on the court and strengthen the team's defense.

Paul played a pick-and-roll with Griffin at the top of the arc, changing the defensive player in front of him, and then completed the ground cooperation.Griffin caught the ball and forced a layup, which caused a thug foul by Terrence Jones.

The Staples Center is also the home court of the Clippers. In addition to the different floor signs, the overall lighting layout is also different from the Lakers, giving Xu Tian the illusion that he is playing in another venue.This does not affect the Clippers players, after all, most of them play in such a home environment.

Griffin is the top power forward in the league, but he will always lose the chain inexplicably at critical moments.Fortunately, this time he did not show softness, and made two free throws to help the team equalize the score.

Bickerstaff called a timeout and called a play each for Harden and D'Angelo Russell, allowing the two to improvise.

Coach Rivers is a chicken soup-type coach who has a great influence on the players' mental attributes. He repeatedly emphasized that Redick can guard Harden, making Redick himself convinced of this.

After the timeout ended, players from both sides returned to the court, and the Rockets sent a frontcourt sideline ball.

Redick is responsible for defending Harden, starting to restrict from the receiving stage, putting half a step, defending the left side, forcing Harden to break through from the right side that he is not used to, while limiting the shooting space as much as possible.

Harden dribbled and changed his rhythm, and suddenly leaned forward to shoot for some reason.

Redick reacted quickly, sideways to avoid the physical contact, and Harden's idea of ​​fouling was not achieved.

Harden was rushing to make a foul, he didn't pay attention to the shooting touch, and made a three-point shot.

Griffin grabbed the defensive rebound, and without waiting for the Rockets to foul, he passed the ball directly to Redick, the most stable free throw in the team.

The Rockets didn't foul and started defending from the frontcourt, limiting the speed of the Clippers.

Redick passes the ball to Paul, who drives the ball upfield.

Paul held the ball at the top of the arc, turned around and passed D'Angelo Russell who was in charge of the defense, and faced Harden's defense, he made a mid-range shot.

The basketball bounced on the rim for three seconds before it went into the net safely!

Bickerstaff called a timeout sharply, refocusing the offense and allowing D'Angelo Russell to execute the final shot.But the initiator of the offense is still the team boss James Harden.

Two minutes later, D'Angelo Russell faced Jordan's defense and made a game-killing three-pointer.

Paul's expression disappeared, he looked at the scoreboard above the arena, turned around and left the field directly through the player tunnel.

Griffin took out the braces with his right hand, supported his knees with both hands, and eased his tight breathing rhythm. His face was a little confused, and he couldn't accept the result of the game.

Coach Rivers has coached the team for many years, tolerated failure better than the players, walked over to say hello to Bickerstaff, and then returned to the player tunnel.

The post-match interviews were still playing on the TV, but no one in the Lakers locker room watched them anymore. They began to change their jerseys and sneakers one after another to prepare for the upcoming game.

After Xu Tian finished warming up, he heard the notification from the staff, took the lead out of the visiting team's locker room, and trotted into the stadium.

Fans on both sides of the tunnel stretched out their hands, trying to high-five the players who ran out.

Xu Tian opened his hands, allowing the fans to complete the high-five action, and then ran into the brightly lit stadium.

Eagles players are far less popular than Lakers players, even if this is the Hawks' home court.

In the shooting warm-up session, George showed great playfulness and completed three difficult dunks in a row, which attracted cheers from the fans.

Lloyd Pierce, who had been an assistant coach for the 76ers for many years, replaced Budenholzer as the team's new coach. (This incident happened in 2018 and has been changed) He didn't like George's publicity very much, and asked Sabo Sefolosha to strengthen his defense against George after the game started.

Xu Tian is still the most threatening player in the Lakers team, and naturally receives the most attention from the Eagles coaching staff.They watched for a long time, but they didn't see much except Xu Tian made an unknown number of shots in a row.

Lloyd Pierce watched and shook his head.He didn't expect that Xu Tian's touch would be so gentle, and he regretted the decision to let Sefolosha defend George, but then he thought that even if Sefolosha was sent to defend Xu Tian, ​​it might not be effective, and it would be better to restrict George.Thinking of this, his heart eased.

The Rockets players finished their post-match celebrations and interviews, and took the team bus back to the away hotel.The players followed Bickerstaff to the most spacious room to watch the Lakers-Hawks game together.

Judging from the current ranking, the Rockets will face the second-ranked Lakers in the Western Conference in the first round. Since they are at a disadvantage, they need to find more weaknesses of the Lakers.

There was no change in the pre-match session, the national anthem was still played and introductions were played, and then players from both sides came to the field.

Capela and Xu Tian played in the summer league together last summer, and said: "Xu is going to touch his right ring."

This habit of Xu Tian will appear before the start of every game, so many players are aware of it. Seeing Capela mentioning this, he asked: "Clint, is there any special meaning for Xu to do this?"

Capela looked at the curious eyes of his teammates and said: "When he played in the finals in China, his right wrist was seriously injured. He finished the series with painkillers and finally won the championship and FMVP. He said That kind of difficulty can be overcome, and nothing can stop him."

Bickerstaff heard the story and said, "It was mentioned in the conversation between Clint and Xu before the Raptors game last summer. But it's a long time ago, if Clint didn't bring it up. , I can’t remember either.”

Danjilo Russell performed very well in the Rockets, but he would always be ridiculed because he was a bargaining chip for Xu Tian. This situation made him always pay extra attention to Xu Tian.Hearing what Capella said, he understood how much Xu Tian wanted to win.

Xu Tian didn't know how many people were watching the game, put the braces in their mouths, and stood in the backcourt as usual.

TNT broadcast the game and announced the starting lineups of both sides.

Lakers: Xu Tian, ​​Clarkson, George, Warren, McGee.

Hawks: Jeff Teague, Thabo Sefolosha, Kyle Korver, Paul Millsap, Thiago Splitter.

Splitter is 211 cm tall and weighs 111 kg. He once played under Popovich and served as Duncan's substitute.Athletic ability is not outstanding, attitude is conscientious.

McGee's talent is crushing, he dialed the basketball with his right hand, and patted it to Xu Tian who was standing in the backcourt.

Game start!

(End of this chapter)