Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

Swish!

The ball goes in.

This was a completely open three-point opportunity, Clarkson seized the opportunity well and made the three-pointer.

The score became 19:13, with the Lakers trailing by 6 points.

"This is a beautiful shot, much more resolute than Holiday's."

"Holiday had two good chances before, a layup after a breakthrough and an open three-pointer, but he didn't shoot. What happened to Holiday today? Although he didn't play as well as expected in the previous few games, he wasn't this bad."

"Maybe it's because I'm back at the Pelicans' home court, after all..."

Some fans were talking, looking at Holiday sitting on the sidelines and shaking their heads in disappointment.

In a team as highly watched as the Lakers, any problem will be magnified, and Holiday, who has a five-year, $5 million contract, will naturally be highly expected by fans. The greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment when Holiday fails to meet people's expectations.

Even Lakers fans have begun to openly question Holiday.

on the field.

The game continues...

"boom!"

With a dull thud, the Pelicans missed the shot. Anderson grabbed the rebound and launched a counterattack. Zhuang Yu had already quickly rushed down, but the Pelicans retreated quickly. Tony Allen, Rondo, and Cunningham had all completed their retreat. Tony Allen was the first to stand in front of Zhuang Yu.

He was very upset because he was fooled by Zhuang Yu just now. At this moment, he stared at Zhuang Yu, ready for battle.

As soon as he saw the look in Tony Allen's eyes, Zhuang Yu decided to play one-on-one. He didn't call for a pick-and-roll, nor did he wait for his teammates to arrive. He just dribbled the ball between his legs and accelerated to break through.

"Left." Tony Allen quickly retreated and got into position.

However, Zhuang Yu immediately retreated and raised his center of gravity.

This time Tony Allen didn't fall for it. He kept his feet firmly on the floor and didn't jump hastily to block the shot, thinking that Zhuang Yu was making another fake move.

Indeed, this was another fake move by Zhuang Yu. He did not really pull up, but he did not accelerate to break through again. Instead, he paused, then really gathered the ball and jumped up.

"What?" Tony Allen was stunned. Are you serious?

He didn't expect that after Zhuang Yu failed to fool him with his fake move, he would immediately shoot and really shoot a three-pointer.

Generally, offensive players will dribble and adjust after a fake move fails. After all, the fake move is to prepare for the next breakthrough, and it takes adjustment to switch to the shooting action. But Zhuang Yu didn't have this process at all. The fake move was obviously to connect the breakthrough, but it suddenly became a connection shot. Tony Allen felt a sense of disconnection when watching it.

"This move is completely disjointed, it won't go in." Tony Allen had no time to react and was nailed to the spot, but he was not panicked because the connection between this move was disjointed. Although it was very sudden and made the defender unable to react, the offensive player was also not in his shooting rhythm.

This type of shot usually has a low hit rate.

He subconsciously turned his head to look at the basket, and then his eyes widened involuntarily, only to see the basketball actually went directly into the net and hit the target.

"This...how is this possible?" Tony Allen was dumbfounded.

This shouldn't be the case!

Not only Tony Allen was surprised, but other players of the Pelicans and fans in the audience were also a little surprised. Many people kept saying "luck" and thought it was a lucky ball.

Only the Lakers players remained calm, with an expression of expectation, because they knew how Zhuang Yu usually trained.

In order to improve his three-point shooting, Zhuang Yu would increase the difficulty of his training. Shooting like this was just a part of his training. It might be difficult for others, but it was nothing for Zhuang Yu.

It's just commonplace.

After this goal was scored, the score between the two sides became 19:6, and the difference was only 3 points.

Coach Gentry frowned on the sidelines, but did not call a timeout immediately. Although he failed to defend Zhuang Yu, he still had confidence in the team's offense.

Several Pelicans players did not disappoint him. After reaching the offensive end, Rondo directed his teammates to implement a tactic.

He first used the pick-and-roll to break through and pass the ball, then he quickly moved to the other side to re-receive the ball. At this time, Cousins ​​and Davis moved crosswise. Davis screened Cousins ​​to block Lopez, while Cousins ​​turned around and cut into the basket.

At this time, Rondo clapped his hands and made a ground pass, which was very clever. The basketball bounced through the gap between people and fell into Cousins' hands.

Bang!

Cousins ​​dunked with both hands.

Although Anderson switched defense immediately, Cousins ​​caught the ball under the basket. Not to mention Anderson, even if there was no switch, it would still be useless for Lopez to defend.

Cousins ​​scored two points to stop the bleeding for the Pelicans.

However, on the defensive end, they still couldn't stop the Lakers' offense.

Just one minute later, the Lakers' Zhuang Yu attracted the defense and created a three-point opportunity for Gerald Green. Anderson passed the ball to Gerald Green in time. Gerald Green was also decisive and shot a three-pointer immediately after receiving the ball.

The ball went in and the score difference became two points.

Coach Gentry finally couldn't sit still anymore and he immediately called a timeout.

The Lakers narrowed the original 9-point gap to just two points, mainly thanks to the Lakers' outside three-pointers.

The reason why the Lakers were at a disadvantage in the first few minutes was that they did not shoot well from the outside three-point line, and the Pelicans had twin towers inside, so the Lakers could not take advantage. At this time, the three-pointer was shot, and the situation immediately changed.

"Substitution..."

Coach Gentry glanced at the time. Nine minutes had passed in the first quarter, and it was time to replace the main players and rest.

After the substitution, he once again emphasized defense, especially three-point defense.

Meanwhile, on the Lakers side.

Coach Scott also made substitutions, replacing Zhuang Yu, Anderson and Lopez with Deron, Nance Jr. and Zubac.

......

The pause ended quickly.

Both sides returned to the court and replaced their rotation lineups. The Pelicans replaced Cousins, Rondo, and Cunningham with Darius Miller, Jameer Nelson, and Ian Clark, while Davis remained on the court.

The Lakers have an all-substitute lineup, including Deron, Clarkson, Gerald Green, Nance Jr., and Zubac.

As soon as they returned to the court, the Pelicans scored a goal, again from Davis.

At this time, he was pushed to the 5th position in the lineup of both sides, but even playing at the 5th position his strength was not restricted at all, especially on the offensive end, Zubac was completely unable to defend him.

The difference is 4 points.

On the offensive end, Deron passed the ball to Clarkson after reaching the frontcourt, and Zubac stepped forward to set a screen for Clarkson.

Clarkson took the opportunity to break free and played one-on-one after a switch of defense. However, he was facing Davis. He thought he could rely on his speed to beat the bigger opponent, but he was blocked by Davis' long arms. Instead, the Pelicans launched a counterattack and widened the gap to 6 points.

In the next round, Clarkson simply didn't call for a pick-and-roll and went straight for a one-on-one play. However, this time he was facing defensive stalwart Tony Allen.

boom!

Clarkson missed again.

This made Clarkson himself a little depressed, and the Lakers began to play tactics in the next few rounds, no longer relying solely on Clarkson's personal ability. However, the effect was still not good, and except for Clarkson, the other players' scoring ability was not strong.

For a time, the Lakers were suppressed and the gap between the two sides widened again.

On the sidelines, Coach Scott's eyes swept over Zhuang Yu, Lopez and Holiday, and stayed on Holiday for two seconds, but he did not replace Holiday in the end.

By the end of the first quarter, the score was 1:32, with the Pelicans leading by 24 points.

"The Lakers are actually trailing by 8 points."

"I didn't expect that the Lakers looked so strong this season. They easily defeated their opponents in the previous games and showed unparalleled strength on both offense and defense. But they were suppressed by the Pelicans."

"I have to say that the Pelicans management did a great job this offseason. Although they failed to keep Holiday, they made the right decision to sign Rondo and Tony Allen. Rondo can perfectly replace Holiday. He played much better than Holiday in this quarter. As for Tony Allen, it's okay if he can't defend Zhuang Yu. After all, Zhuang Yu's strength is there. It's enough for him to defend others."

"In the last few minutes, he defended Clarkson very well..."

During the break before the festival, fans in the audience were discussing.

Many people were still a little surprised about the game in the first quarter. They thought that after letting Holiday go, the Pelicans' strength would be weakened and would definitely be inferior to the Lakers.

But unexpectedly, the Pelicans led by 8 points after one quarter.

......

Section 2 will begin soon.

The Lakers sent out Holiday, Clarkson, Nick Young, Kuzma and Nance Jr.

The Pelicans sent out Nelson, Moore, Miller, Cheick Diallo and Cousins.

Coach Scott did not send out Zhuang Yu or Lopez, but Holiday, using him as the third core, hoping that he could lead the bench lineup with Clarkson to ensure the team's competitiveness when Zhuang Yu and Lopez were not on the court.

After all, Deron's condition was getting worse and worse. It was not difficult to see from the last few minutes of the first quarter that he could no longer provide much help to the team either on the offensive or defensive end, and the rotation lineup relying only on Clarkson was still a little thin.

Holiday is not only able to organize the offense and feed the ball to Clarkson, he also has excellent scoring ability. Last season, he averaged 15.4 points per game for the Pelicans, which is not much worse than Clarkson.

However, Coach Scott was soon disappointed.

After resting for a few minutes on the sidelines, it was thought that Holiday had adjusted himself, but when he returned to the court his performance was still poor.

Especially on the offensive end, he should have had enough positional advantages facing veteran Nelson's defense, but it didn't show up.

Although Holiday played more determinedly on the offensive end than he was hesitant and timid in the first quarter, his condition was very bad and every shot he made was a bang.

There is nothing more to do than forging iron.