Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

After a warm-up, the players returned to the sidelines and the game was about to begin.

The head coaches for this All-Star Game are Raptors head coach Dwane Casey and Rockets head coach Mike D'Antoni.

Coach Dwane Casey is the head coach of Team James, and Coach Mike D'Antoni is the head coach of Team Zhuang Yu.

The head coach of the team ranked first in the Eastern and Western Conference will still serve as the coach of the All-Star Game, but after the All-Star Game was restructured, the role of the head coach was further weakened.

In previous All-Star Games, the role of the head coach was not obvious and was just considered an honor.

After all, when it comes to the All-Star Game, you will have a group of All-Star players under you. No one will submit to anyone else, and no one will submit to you as the head coach, unless you are an experienced and respected old coach like Mr. Popovich.

Now the All-Star Game is no longer divided into the East and West, and even the team names have been changed to Team James and Team Zhuang Yu, further highlighting the status of the East and West vote kings.

Correspondingly, the status of coaches in the East and West was further weakened.

Why do you say that?

It's a very simple point. This time, there will be no division into the Eastern and Western Conferences. Instead, the All-Star lineup will be selected and then the players will be selected and divided into teams.

Logically speaking, shouldn't the head coach be the one making the selections?

But that’s not the case. Instead, the top vote-getters from the Eastern and Western conferences will make the choice.

The Eastern and Western Conference vote-getters are responsible for selecting players and teams, and the teams are named after the Eastern and Western Conference vote-getters. So what is the relationship between this team and your head coach?

This is Zhuang Yu's team.

A group of players gathered around coach Mike D'Antoni. Coach D'Antoni glanced at his players and smiled bitterly in his heart.

The Rockets had only one player selected for the All-Star team, and it was chosen by James.

Now Mike D'Antoni is the head coach of the Zhuangyu team, but he does not have any genuine players under him. They are all players from other teams, which makes him somewhat embarrassed.

In the past, coaches in the All-Star Games could at least decide the playing time of some players, such as their own players, who would naturally be given more playing time.

But what should I do now that I don’t have any loyal players?

Seeing that the head coach was slow to speak, Zhuang Yu said, "Coach D'Antoni, how should we play?"

"Oh."

Coach D'Antoni came back to his senses, smiled and nodded at Zhuang Yu, and said, "In terms of lineup configuration, we are similar to the opponent, and we are both relatively balanced. However, our movement speed is definitely faster than the opponent, and our outside shooting is more accurate, so we have to pass the ball, play at a faster pace, avoid positional warfare, and resolutely shoot from the outside when there is an opportunity."

"As for defense..."

It was a simple arrangement that emphasized the speed of outside shooting and offense-defense transition. In a game like the All-Star Game, there is obviously no tactical coordination, and it all depends on the personal abilities of the players.

As for defense, there is even less to say.

There is no much defense in this kind of game, and there is no need to emphasize it. If you take defense too seriously, how can people perform and the viewing experience will be greatly reduced.

......

Soon, the game officially started.

The starting players of both teams came onto the court.

The players on Zhuang Yu's team are Zhuang Yu, Curry, DeRozan, Antetokounmpo, and Lopez.

James' team consists of Irving, James, Durant, Davis, and Embiid.

First, it was a jump ball. Just as Lopez was about to jump, Zhuang Yu pulled him back and said, "Brook, don't go. Let Giannis jump."

Uh......

Lopez was ashamed, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed that he had no advantage in jumping the ball. No matter whether the opponent sent out Davis or Embiid, he would suffer a loss.

Let Antetokounmpo go, he has good jumping ability.

Finally, it was Antetokounmpo and Anthony Davis' turn to jump for the ball. The two jumped almost at the same time. Anthony Davis is tall and has long arms, while Antetokounmpo has excellent jumping ability and powerful explosive power. In the end, Antetokounmpo touched the basketball first and hit the ball to the backcourt.

Zhuang Yu smiled slightly, grabbed the basketball and started to attack.

In this lineup, Zhuang Yu naturally plays the No. 1 position, and Curry has no objection. Zhuang Yu just talked to Curry, and Curry said that he has no interest in MVP. When he heard Zhuang Yu say that he wanted to support Klay to give it a try, Curry naturally agreed happily and said that he would just be a three-point shooter.

After arriving at the front court, Zhuang Yu took a quick look at the situation on the court.

Sure enough, the players on James' team did not defend seriously. They just stood there, without bending over or stretching their hands, just like they were taking a walk in the park.

"Then let me open one first."

Zhuang Yu dribbled the ball between his legs and lowered his left shoulder, pretending to break through to the left, but in fact he suddenly pulled up and shot directly from outside the three-point line.

There was basically no defense on this ball.

At this time, the person facing Zhuang Yu was LeBron James, but the game had just started and he didn't take it seriously. He just raised his hand subconsciously and pretended to do so.

Swish!

There was a soft sound, and the basketball hit the net.

There was a burst of cheers from the audience.

This is in Los Angeles, and the Lakers are the host, so naturally there are a lot of fans coming to the scene.

The score was 3:0, and Zhuang Yu's team took the lead.

James fought back.

It was not Irving who was responsible for advancing the ball, but James.

After coming to the frontcourt, James did not attack by himself, but passed the ball to Irving. Irving was not polite at all. He played one-on-one after getting the ball. Facing Curry's continuous changes of direction in defense and then sudden acceleration, Curry did not defend seriously, allowing Irving to break through easily.

Diving into the inside, Irving did a big pull-up shot in the air, which was very cool and beautiful, and drew cheers from the audience.

I have to say that it is very suitable for a player like Irving to play in the All-Star Game.

The score became 3:2.

......

In a blink of an eye, after several rounds, the score between the two sides became 11:7, with Zhuang Yu's team taking the lead.

In these rounds, Zhuang Yu did not shoot again. After scoring the first goal, he did not attack again, but started to pass the ball to his teammates.

Curry missed a three-pointer, and Lopez made an alley-oop slam dunk under the basket, but the more outstanding one was Antetokounmpo, who scored 6 points in a row.

One ball was a ground pass from Zhuang Yu to Antetokounmpo who was cutting to the basket, and he performed a one-handed slam dunk.

One ball was scored by Antetokounmpo in a counterattack fast break.

There was another ball where Antetokounmpo broke through with the ball, rushed into the inside and soared into the sky, almost dunking over Davis, but fortunately Davis got out of the way in advance.

All three goals were very beautiful, showing his explosive physical fitness and attracting cheers from fans in the audience.

But soon James' team began to explode.

First, James pushed the ball to the frontcourt and broke through, pretending to attack the basket, but in fact he passed the ball to Durant outside the three-point line. Durant took the ball and shot a three-pointer. DeRozan stood in front of Durant, but it was useless.

With a slight sound, the ball went in.

Just a few dozen seconds later, James made another wonderful pass to Durant who was cutting to the basket.

When James pressed down to the low post and pretended to play one-on-one in the low post, Durant took the opportunity to cut. James passed the ball from behind without looking at anyone. The basketball bounced off the floor and fell into Durant's hands. Durant jumped up and did a one-handed slam dunk to score two more points.

Not long after, Durant also made a great pass to James.

Durant completed a steal on the defensive end, then launched a quick counterattack. After reaching the frontcourt, he pushed the ball to the basket with both hands.

James rushed over, jumped up and did an alley-oop, blasting the ball into the rim with both hands.

Then James shot a three-pointer from the outside and also hit it. The two led the team to a 10:4 wave and overtook the score in one fell swoop.

17: 13.

Coach D'Antoni called a timeout.

Several players came off the court and Coach D'Antoni began to make substitutions. It was an unwritten rule of the All-Star Game that every player on the team had to show up in the first quarter.

"Curry, DeRozan, you two come down and rest." Coach D'Antoni said: "Holiday, Klay, you two come up."

It was just a simple substitution, and Coach D'Antoni did not make any further arrangements. After all, it was the All-Star Game, and the opponent only overtook by 4 points.

......

The pause ended quickly.

Several players walked towards the court. Lopez touched Zhuang Yu with his shoulder, then rubbed his lips at Antetokounmpo's back and said in a low voice, "Antetokounmpo played very excitedly today. It seems that he wants to compete for the MVP."

In the previous few minutes, Antetokounmpo played very excitedly and performed well, but Lopez didn't say anything.

When he said this, Zhuang Yu immediately understood that it was because Clay was substituted in.

What Lopez meant was, should we reduce the number of passes to Antetokounmpo and give all the balls to Klay?

"It's okay, we'll play the way we want to play." Zhuang Yu said with a smile: "There's nothing wrong with Antetokounmpo wanting to win the MVP. He's probably not the only one who wants to win the MVP. We won't do the pre-selection thing. Everyone should have a chance. Whoever plays well will get more opportunities and the ball."

In last year's All-Star Game, several players on the Western Conference team wanted to make an early decision and kept praising Anthony Davis, which made Zhuang Yu very unhappy.

So he joined Westbrook to compete with Anthony Davis, and eventually Zhuang Yu won the MVP.

Do unto others, do not impose on others.

Zhuang Yu would not do that. He does support Klay, but at the same time he also wants Klay to do well. If Klay does not perform as well as other players, Zhuang Yu cannot force the MVP on him. Whoever can get it will get it.

Of course, the premise is that the competition is the priority.

Zhuang Yu had no objection to his teammates wanting to score points and get better stats, provided they won't lose the game. But if someone just wanted to score points, regardless of anything else, or even the outcome of the game, he would not be polite.

He is the captain and the team is named after him. If anyone dares to make trouble, he can make sure that person doesn't get on the court or touch the ball.