As a Kobe hater, he was actually teammates with Kobe!

Dirk Nowitzki dribbled past two players and made the shot.

The Lakers responded quickly. Kobe Bryant received the ball at the left midfield position and immediately ducked, dribbling past Adrian Griffin. Josh Howard came over to help on the wing, but Kobe, with his eyes fixed on the back of his head, quickly passed the ball to Zhou Ze on the left wing.

To be honest, Kobe's pass this time was not good, and it did not completely attract Josh Howard's defense; simply put, with Josh Howard's athletic ability, as long as he did not overly assist Kobe, he could quickly return to defend Zhou Ze.

At this moment, the Mavericks coach Avery Johnson smiled and thought to himself, "Kobe, after all, you are not a pass-first guard."

What Avery Johnson didn't expect was that after catching the ball, facing Josh Howard who was rushing over, he just pulled it out!

With a height of 207cm and a wingspan of 221cm, he almost threw the ball towards Josh Howard's fingertips.

With a sound of "Swish!"

hit!

"OMG!"

"This ball was really too far."

"yes..."

"Zhou Ze is like a calf version of Larry Bird."

The Lakers' home commentator directly praised Zhou Ze.

"Terrible rookie!" Dirk Nowitzki was stunned when he saw Zhou Ze respond to his long two-pointer with a top three-pointer.

As for Mavericks coach Avery Johnson, he was silent. He didn't expect Zhou Ze's three-pointer to be so brutal. Josh Howard had really defended in place, but he was helpless.

Next, the Mavericks continued to try to let Josh Howard assist in defending Kobe's breakthrough. Although Kobe's pass was not at the master level, it could still be delivered to Zhou Ze's hands.

Facing a defense that was almost in his face, Zhou Ze made 4 of 2 shots.

This directly caused the Mavericks to abandon this defensive strategy.

...

...

The Mavericks' current style of play is very close to the small ball era, constantly passing and cutting, looking for open shooting opportunities, or cutting into the basket.

This is a big challenge for Zhou Ze who is sitting under the basket...

Even now, Zhou Ze's height has grown to 207cm. The last time he took the [Height Increaser], Zhou Ze's barefoot height reached 207cm, but the difference of 1cm was difficult to see with the naked eye.

After all, the insole is a little thicker, that's 1cm.

Josh Howard, who was beaten hard by Zhou Zeqiang on the defensive end, faced Odom's defense on the defensive end. After setting a single screen, Odom basically disappeared.

Josh Howard cut inside again, received the ball and rushed to the basket. Facing Zhou Ze's rim protection, Josh Howard also avoided the strong and attacked the weak. Suddenly, he changed the direction of the layup and hit the bank, 18 to 26!

Zhou Ze was hit by Josh Smith's face-to-face layup. Although there was no expression on his face, he was quite annoyed in his heart.

In terms of rim protection, we are a bit powerless.

This is mainly due to Zhou Ze's "static talent", "defensive positioning" and "shot blocking awareness". Although he is much stronger than when he first entered the NBA, he is still not enough to face the attacking of the forwards.

This is also a flaw in Zhou Ze's upward swing to play the 5th position. He can do well in single defense, top defense and help defense, but he is only good at protecting the rim, especially when facing some teams that like to play pass and cut.

However, Zhou Ze quickly returned it.

In the Lakers' positional attack, Zhou Ze, after getting into position in the interior, directly forced Josh Howard, and scored with a hook shot before DeSagana Diop could provide assistance.

"drop!"

At the same time, it also caused Josh Howard to commit a defensive foul.

"ouch!" Josh Howard couldn't help but hold his head with his hands.

Including this foul, there have been 2 fouls in total.

On the other hand, with Zhou Ze's presence in the interior, Kobe played very comfortably.

Kobe Bryant ran off the ball to the right wing mid-court, then caught the ball. Facing Adrian Griffin, who was running around the pick-and-roll, Kobe appeared to be driving to the right wing, but in reality, he made a quick turn, leaning over Adrian Griffin's body and darting past him. Mavericks center DeSagana Diop seized the opportunity and rushed out. Kobe dodged the attack, twisting his waist in mid-air and hitting a reverse layup, making the score 24-34.

During the entire breakthrough process, there was no harassment from the wing forwards, which allowed Kobe to better attack the basket.

...

...

Josh Howard played a single block and got rid of Lamar Odom. The Lakers quickly rotated their defense, Kobe quickly made up for the defense, and Josh Howard missed a three-pointer from the outside.

After the Lakers grabbed the defensive rebound, they immediately launched a fast break. Parker connected with Zhou Ze who was at the front, and the latter made a layup with Josh Howard, making the score 36 to 48.

During Zhou Ze's entire fast break layup, Josh Howard did not cause much defensive interference. To put it bluntly, there was no physical confrontation.

Did he not want to?

Obviously not, it's just because of the fear of "foul trouble".

At this time, 7 minutes and 11 seconds into the second quarter, Josh Howard had already committed three defensive fouls.

This made Josh Howard cautious when defending Zhou Ze.

The Lakers, seeing the clues, also planned to attack Josh Howard.

"drop!"

The referee whistle sounded.

The Dallas Mavericks called a timeout.

Josh Howard was replaced by Avery Johnson, and Marquis Daniels was about to come on; at the same time, Eric Dampier replaced DeSagana Diop.

Fans in front of the TV could clearly see Josh Howard walking towards the bench with a staggering gait, as if he had aged a dozen years.

Using the No. 3 position to defend Zhou Ze is indeed a good idea...

But the weight difference between the two is more than 25 kilograms. In addition, compared with the regular season, Zhou Ze has developed the low-post ability of "punishing mismatches", and his layup finishing has been visibly improved.

Simply put, Zhou Ze is now more than just dunks and three-pointers.

These newly developed offensive weapons are mainly used for hand-to-hand combat.

This undoubtedly increased Josh Howard's physical exhaustion.

Oh...

Also, Zhou Ze is now a "quasi-physical monster".

...

...

After the timeout, the two sides continued fighting.

Dallas Mavericks' star player Dirk Nowitzki took the initiative to step forward. Facing Kwame Brown's defense, he received the ball at the top of the arc outside the three-point line and faked a shot. Although Kwame Brown resisted the urge to jump, his center of gravity moved up and both sides were fake. Dirk Nowitzki immediately lowered his body and accelerated the breakthrough, driving straight in. Facing Zhou Ze, he avoided the real and attacked the fake, and suddenly changed his layup action to score off the backboard.

"mine!"

"mine!"

Kwame Brown immediately patted his chest, saying that he failed to defend this ball.

Kwame Brown defended Dirk Nowitzki very well tonight, much better than Darko Milicic, and for this, he got more playing time.

Also, NBA trivia: Kwame Brown is faster than Kevin Garnett. Garnett's physical test data reported that his explosiveness was rated "inadequate."

Garnett's speed is "agility", which means quick hands and quick turns, but not "speed" and "explosive power".

Of course, as a historical superstar, Dirk Nowitzki is impossible to be completely defended.

But U1S1!

Kwame Brown's defense was pretty good.

He made 10 of 4 shots, with a hit rate of only 4%.

The Lakers can totally accept that.

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