Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

On October 10, the Lakers ushered in the first regular season game of the new season.

This game is played at the Lakers' home court, but strictly speaking, there is no difference between home and away games because their opponent today is the Clippers.

As teams from the same city, the Lakers and Clippers share the same stadium, the Staples Center, so there is no point in the home and away games between the two teams.

The only difference is that there are obviously more Lakers fans in the audience than Clippers fans.

Of course, this is not because today is the Lakers' home game, but because the Lakers are so popular now that they have overshadowed the Clippers.

Especially after Chris Paul left, the Clippers lost a lot of fans, while the Lakers gained more fans after Holiday and Korver joined.

At this time, the Clippers players have already appeared on the field.

A group of people stood on the sidelines, with the audience seats behind them, and the voices of the fans' discussions reached their ears.

"Who will win today?"

"It's definitely the Lakers. The Lakers were already very strong last season, and they've gotten even stronger this season. I watched their last two preseason games, and they were really good. They had almost no weaknesses on both offense and defense. The Clippers are much worse than the Lakers. They had Paul before, but now he's gone. I'm afraid it'll be hard for the Clippers to even make the playoffs this season."

"Not really. Even though Paul is gone, we still have Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan."

"Oh, Griffin is still very strong. But forget about Jordan. I know you want to say that Jordan has won the rebounding title for two consecutive seasons and was selected to the All-Defensive Team many times. His defense and rebounding are indeed excellent, but what about scoring? Aren't his points, and even many of Griffin's points, from Paul's assists? Now without Paul, do you think they can still score that many points?"

"this......"

"The Clippers will definitely not be able to beat the Lakers anyway."

Listening to the fans' discussions, the Clippers players felt a little unhappy.

The Lakers are very strong, but are we weak?

There are actually people who are talking about the preseason loss to the Lakers. Ha, it was just a preseason game. What's more, neither Griffin nor DeAndre Jordan played in that game, so we let the Lakers win. You don't think we will let the Lakers win in the regular season, do you?

Griffin said with a dark face: "The Lakers are strong, isn't it just Holiday and Korver? Holiday only made the All-Stars once by chance, and averaged only a dozen points per game. As for Korver..."

As he said this, he smiled coldly: "He is already 36 years old, can he still fight?"

From the words, it seemed as if he was already sure of winning the game.

For a moment, teammates echoed.

In fact, Griffin's heart is not as relaxed as he said, but he has to appear confident.

The team used to have Chris Paul, and now that Paul is gone, he has become the absolute leader of the team. For him, this is the first game after Paul left, and he must act like a team leader and lead the team to defeat the opponent and win.

This is the only way to convince his teammates and make them believe that he can lead the team to victory.

"Wow..."

At this moment, the whole stadium became noisy.

There was warm cheers and applause from the audience.

The home team players came out.

The Lakers players walked in together, the audience was boiling, and the cheers were like thunder, echoing in the stadium.

Looking at the approaching Lakers players, Griffin frowned slightly, while his teammates around him showed disdain on their faces.

Are the Lakers strong?

Today I will show you that our Clippers are stronger than the Lakers.

......

At seven o'clock in the evening, the players finished warming up and returned to the sidelines.

A group of Clippers players gathered around head coach Doug Rivers. Coach Rivers said in a deep voice: "First of all, we have to do a good job of defense, especially the defense against Zhuang. Beverly, Zhuang will be handed over to you later. Stick to him and defend his shooting. It is better to let him break through than to let him shoot, especially three-pointers."

"DeAndre (Jordan), you have to defend Lopez well and don't let him score easily, understand?"

Coach Rivers smiled. The key point was these two people, and the Clippers happened to have Beverly and Jordan Jr., one inside and one outside.

As long as Zhuang Yu and Lopez can be restricted, the game is half won.

"On the offensive end..." Coach Rivers continued, "Blake (Griffin), you have to play aggressively. You are our strong point. The one facing you is Anderson. You have the advantage in the matchup. Just play."

"Yes," Griffin agreed.

As for the others, they have no advantage in the matchup, and Coach Rivers does not expect them to perform well on the offensive end. They just need to play according to the tactics and seize the opportunities when they arise.

......

The Lakers here.

Coach Scott said with a serious expression, "Follow our tactics on offense. Holiday, play faster and use more quick counterattacks. Let's all run. The opponent will definitely focus on defending Zhuang Yu, and the rest of you will definitely have a chance."

“Defense is the key.”

"A good team must defend well. Offense can be good or bad at times, but defense doesn't matter. We must defend well in every game."

After a pause, he continued, "The key is to defend against Griffin. The opponent will definitely focus on him, which is also the only strong point of the Clippers. Once Griffin gets the ball and plays one-on-one, the others must quickly help Anderson with defense. Lopez, you must also pay attention to the backup defense."

Now that the Clippers are without Paul, they only have Griffin as their strong offensive point, which makes it much easier to defend.

After some arrangements, Coach Scott clapped his hands and said, "Don't forget our goal for this season. This is the first game of the new season. Win it for me."

"Yes."

"The Lakers must win!"

Everyone responded in unison, with great momentum.

......

The game officially begins.

Holiday, Zhuang Yu, Korver, Anderson, and Lopez walked onto the court.

The Clippers' starting five are Milos Teodosic, Patrick Beverley, Danilo Gallinari, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan. Among the starting players, Beverley, Gallinari, and Teodosic all joined the Clippers this season.

First there was a jump ball. Jordan Jr. touched the basketball first and hit it to the backcourt. Teodosic controlled the basketball and started to advance. After reaching the frontcourt, he called a pick-and-roll.

Nicknamed the "European Magician," this European player has won numerous honors in Europe, including the EuroLeague MVP.

However, this is still his first NBA season and he is still in the process of adapting.

Teodosic tried to get rid of Holiday's defense with the help of pick-and-roll, but failed. Lopez quickly stepped forward to delay him, while Holiday quickly bypassed Jordan and stood in front of Teodosic again.

Seeing this situation, Teodosic made a gesture and called for a tactic.

Several people moved quickly, Teodosic passed the ball to Beverly, Beverly moved to the right and passed it to Gallinari... But after a lot of running and passing, they still couldn't find an opportunity. The Lakers' switching and backup defense were very quick, and the Clippers' tactics did not work.

There was not much time left for the offense, so the ball was given to Griffin, who played alone.

Griffin played against Anderson alone, Holiday moved over to help defend, but Griffin did not pass the ball, but directly made a jump shot.

"Shh!"

The ball goes in.

This ball surprised the fans a little. Griffin didn't rush into the inside, but instead made a jump shot.

The score is 2:0.

The Lakers were on offense. Holiday dribbled the ball to the frontcourt and passed it to Zhuang Yu. He then moved to the other side, signaling others to move away.

There is no complicated strategy, or rather, this is the strategy.

As soon as he saw Zhuang Yu holding the ball, Beverley rushed over, raised his hand in front of Zhuang Yu to prevent him from shooting, and pretended to steal the ball with his other hand. However, Zhuang Yu didn't care, he put the ball low, made a big loop close to the ground, and then stepped out with his right foot and broke through.

"So fast." Beverly's heart skipped a beat and he quickly turned sideways.

He knew he couldn't stop it because he was defending too far forward.

So he could only move sideways and stick to Zhuang Yu to avoid being completely thrown away by Zhuang Yu, while Jordan Jr. behind him had already stepped forward to prepare for defense.

Beverley is good at defense. His defense is fierce and he has many tricks. He keeps making tricks while sticking to Zhuang Yu's hands, putting pressure on Zhuang Yu's body and interfering with his actions. However, Zhuang Yu's ability to fight is no longer comparable to before, and Beverley's tricks are useless to him.

After taking two steps forward, Zhuang Yu suddenly stepped back and raised the ball at the same time.

At the same time, Beverly and Jordan jumped up and pounced on Zhuang Yu.

However, Zhuang Yu did not shoot himself. The action he made to shoot was actually a pass. The force and speed of the ball were very great, and he passed the ball between Beverly and Jordan Jr.

Behind the two of them, Lopez grabbed the basketball and slammed it down.

The score is 2:2.

"It's okay." Griffin imitated what Paul did before and shouted to Jordan and Beverley: "Just defend better next time."

Clippers offense.

This time the ball was given to Griffin again, but this time the Lakers' assist defense was particularly quick, and it was Zhuang Yu.

Seeing that it was Zhuang Yu coming to assist in defense, Griffin frowned slightly, but did not hesitate. He decisively grabbed the ball and rushed towards the basket, knocking Lopez away and jumping up.

However, just as he raised the ball, a hand reached out.

"what?"

Griffin's heart skipped a beat. He knew that Zhuang Yu was waiting for an opportunity, but he didn't expect that Zhuang Yu could jump so high. His arms stretched out, almost blocking his shooting space.

The timing and angle of this block were so good that Griffin had no choice but to pass the ball to Gallinari, who took a three-pointer.

Swish!

The ball goes in.

"nice shot."

"It was a beautiful shot and a beautiful pass from Griffin."

In the audience, Clippers fans cheered.

Griffin also showed a look of joy. He turned his head to look at Zhuang Yu and raised his eyebrows at him. You guys are just like this.

"You little brat, are you getting so proud now?" Zhuang Yu curled his lips and reached out to Holiday, "Ball."