Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

Here, Coach Scott frowned slightly.

Obviously, his tactical intention during the rotation time in the first quarter was not achieved. Although the score was indeed reversed, the lead was only one point, which was not what he expected at all.

This resulted in subsequent plans not being able to proceed as expected, and their rotation plan had to be changed accordingly.

Coach Scott turned his head and looked at the Nets team. His eyes fell on Zhou An. "This guy is really a bit of trouble."

Because of Zhuang Yu, Coach Scott studied Zhou An seriously and did not underestimate him, but he did not expect Zhou An to play so well in the first quarter.

Became a surprise soldier.

"coach."

Zhuang Yu came to Coach Scott and said, "Zhou An seems to be in good shape today. We can't underestimate him."

Coach Scott nodded.

Zhuang Yu added: "I am very familiar with him and I have some small suggestions."

Hearing this, Coach Scott raised his eyebrows and couldn't help but smile: "Hurry up and tell me."

Zhuang Yu said: "Zhou An's awareness of positioning is very good, which is the key to his ability to grab rebounds. However, his height, wingspan, and jumping ability are not particularly outstanding. We should give him enough physical confrontation. This is the finals, and the referee also encourages confrontation."

"Also, although he has a certain ability to assist, he lacks ball-handling skills. Why not let Howard play against him..."

After listening to Zhuang Yu's suggestion, Coach Scott's eyes lit up and he gave Zhuang Yu a thumbs up: "You know him well. This is a good suggestion."

Zhuang Yu chuckled, they were brothers in normal times, but now they were rivals, you see, the advice I gave you in the past is now in use, isn't it?

What? You said I don’t have martial ethics?

Go talk to the championship trophy!

......

Soon, the second quarter begins.

Entering the second quarter, Coach Scott did not send Zhuang Yu to the field, but let Holiday play with several substitute players. He sent Howard up and specifically told Howard to go against Zhou An, just as Zhuang Yu said.

Zhou An felt a little uncomfortable now.

At this time, it was a rotation lineup. The Nets were not in a hurry to send Durant and Irving, but let Zhou An and Drummond form a double tower. As a result, Howard did not go against Drummond, but came to defend him, constantly confronting him physically, which made Zhou An very uncomfortable.

Facing a big man like Howard, Zhou An was at a disadvantage in the low post. He was inferior in both strength and height, and could not stand up to Howard at all. Even though he had good footwork under the basket, he had no room to operate at all, after all, there was little Nance next to him.

Zhou An could only go to the outside and seek opportunities for outside shooting as much as possible.

However, Howard was not vague. He rushed directly to the three-point line and did not give him a chance to shoot. Either you pass the ball or you break through with the ball.

But to be honest, Zhou An's ball-handling ability is far inferior to most NBA players, and he has no need to hold the ball to attack in the Nets itself.

As a blue-collar center playing alongside players like Durant, Irving, and Dinwiddie, he has no chance to attack with the ball at all, so he is inevitably a little stretched at this time.

"Pick and roll."

His teammates called for help, Zhou An went forward for screen and Dinwiddie moved to the left, but there was no chance of a breakthrough, so he passed the ball to Zhou An at the top of the arc.

Howard rushed over as soon as Zhou An received the ball.

He raised the ball and made a fake shot, but Howard ignored him and just raised one hand across Zhou An's face.

"hateful."

Zhou An was a little annoyed. He quickly put the ball down, accelerated and broke through Howard.

However, just as he was about to pass the ball for a layup, a hand suddenly reached out and cut the ball off with a snap. Zhou An's palms were empty and his face changed drastically. He turned around and saw that Holiday had grabbed the ball and launched a fast break, rushing to the frontcourt and making a layup.

"Oops, mistake."

"What happened to Zhou An these few minutes? He was struggling a bit."

Some fans are discussing.

Coach Nash frowned. He could see that the Lakers were targeting Zhou An, and their methods were very targeted and effective.

Keeping Zhou An on the court was not a good option, so he immediately called a timeout and replaced Zhou An...

Here, Coach Scott smiled and came together with Zhuang Yu: "Your method is really good, and the effect is quite good."

Zhuang Yu smiled and looked towards the Nets team. Alas, for the sake of the championship, my dearest brother has to suffer a little.

Zhou An did not play for a few minutes after the second quarter, and the Nets were always at a disadvantage. Fortunately, Durant was still unstoppable. Whenever the score gap between the two sides widened, he could always stand up and help the Nets stabilize the situation.

When the first half ended, the Nets were trailing by 7 points.

During the halftime break, Zhou Zhiming found Zhou An and said to him, "Zhuang Yu knows you too well, so the Lakers' defense against you in the second quarter was very targeted."

After hearing this, Zhou An also reacted and couldn't help but smile bitterly. I was wondering why it was so awkward. This is the emotional problem.

Indeed, Brother Zhuang knows himself too well.

I was almost transparent in front of him. He knew my technical characteristics and game habits very well, so he could naturally launch targeted defense.

Zhou Zhiming asked: "Uncle, what should I do now?"

For a moment, Zhou Zhiming also frowned.

This is indeed a problem. It was not a big deal in the previous games, but now when facing the Lakers, Zhou An is in trouble.

But it is not easy to break the deadlock.

First of all, it is unrealistic to ask Zhou An to temporarily change his playing style, offensive habits, etc.

Secondly, where is his role positioned? If he doesn’t play like that, his teammates won’t be able to adapt and he will lose the role he should play.

what can we do about it?

For a moment, Zhou Zhiming had no choice but to ask Zhou An to go to the coaching staff and talk about the matter to see if the coaching staff could come up with any solution.

However, the coaching staff did not have a good solution.

Nash frowned and thought for a while, and finally told Zhou An to focus on defense and protect the rebounds.

Facing the Lakers' targeted defense, Zhou An's role on the offensive end will be reduced, so if he stays on the court he will have to focus on defense to play a role.

Zhou An agreed with a bitter face, and came back to find Zhou Zhiming, and said depressedly: "We should have thought of this a long time ago, and then thought of ways to deal with it in advance."

Zhou Zhiming also smiled bitterly: "It's not your fault. The key is that the Lakers' defense is very good. It would be useless for other teams even if they knew how to do it."

Zhou An nodded, then his eyes turned: "Uncle, Brother Zhuang knows me, and I know him too, do you think it's possible..."

"No." Zhou Zhiming knew what he wanted to say and shook his head. "You know Zhuang Yu, and not just you. All NBA teams know him. The coaching staffs of 29 teams are studying him. They know Zhuang Yu no less than you do, but is it useful?"

Uh......

Zhou An was speechless.

This is the gap.

Zhuang Yu understands him, so he can let the Lakers defend him in a targeted manner, and it can achieve good results. The fundamental reason is that Zhou An is not strong enough.

Zhou An also knew Zhuang Yu, but he had no way to make the Nets target and restrict Zhuang Yu in the same way as the Lakers targeted him, because Zhuang Yu was too strong.

The same thing will have different effects on different people.

......

Entering the third quarter, the Nets launched a counterattack to catch up with the score. Durant and Irving stepped up to score points one after another, but the Lakers scored from multiple points. In addition to Zhuang Yu, Lopez, Holiday, Anderson and others also scored.

After a few minutes of back and forth, the Nets still couldn't catch up with the score.

At this time, both sides made substitutions, and Zhou An was substituted again, but he did not explode as the fans expected and become a surprise weapon again.

At this time, Coach Nash left Durant on the court, while Zhou An honestly served as a blue-collar worker, responsible for defense and rebounding.

Durant played well in the past few minutes and his personal score has reached 25 points. It should not be a problem for him to score 30+ today.

But Zhou An still didn't perform well, only getting 1 point from free throws, and his personal score barely reached 9 points, which was not even in double digits, and the Nets were unable to catch up with the score.

Still lagging behind.

"It doesn't matter, the last quarter is the crucial one." Coach Nash comforted the players, his eyes swept over Zhou An, and hesitant about how to use Zhou An.

In the previous three rounds of the playoffs, Zhou An's performance was getting better and better. In the Eastern Conference Finals, Nash even sent Zhou An on in the last few minutes of several games, letting him play crucial minutes.

But today...

......

In a blink of an eye, the fourth quarter begins.

Both sides sent out their rotation lineups. The Lakers had Lopez lead several substitute players, while the Nets sent out Drummond.

No last week Ann.

After just over two minutes, the Lakers extended their lead to 9 points.

There are still differences in the rotation lineups of the two sides. In addition to Lopez, the Lakers also have Rose and Clarkson, while the only one who can really play in the Nets' bench lineup is Dinwiddie. Even if he can offset Clarkson, who will offset Rose?

Relying on Jordan Jr., LeVert, Shamet, Bruce Brown, Taurean Prince and others?

Originally, Zhou An and Dinwiddie were the ones who supported the Nets' bench lineup. One of the "three cores" could support the rotation lineup with Zhou An and Dinwiddie. But today, Zhou An was restricted, and it was obviously not enough to rely on Dinwiddie alone.

"Requesting a timeout."

Nash called a timeout and started replacing his main players.

At the same time, the Lakers also began to replace their main players. Holiday and Anderson returned to the court, while Lopez was replaced to rest.

Five minutes into the fourth quarter, the Nets were still trailing by 8 points.

At this time, Nash was a little restless. He waved his hand and replaced all the main players, but Zhou An was not among them.

In these last few minutes, he didn't plan to rest last week.

Zhou An sat on the stool feeling very depressed, he knew that he had been abandoned.