Chapter 1243: Chapter 506: Showdown at the Summit (Part 1)
After five rounds of attempts, Zhang Yang finally tore a hole in the Lakers’ pseudo-zone defense. The Bobcats’ team coordination seamlessly switched from high post isolation to a breakthrough-based triangle offense.
The existence of defensive three seconds makes ‘real zone defense’ impossible in NBA gas. Kwa Brown, Yao Ming, and even Howard and Big Ben at the tail end of their pri are greatly affected in rim protection.
Perkins, a Center with almost no offensive ability, can still play a restraining role against the strongest defensive centers. As long as he stands one arm’s length outside the three-second area boundary, the opposing center must leave the three-second area every three seconds.
As long as Zhang Yang seizes the opportunity to ‘bully the old guy,’ he can avoid Kwa Brown’s intimidation. His long-distance breakthrough is extrely unfriendly to the Lakers’ ‘strongest defensive backcourt.’
Kobe and Kidd have maintained their physical conditioning very well, but age has caught up. Kidd is 36 years old, and that’s no longer related to athletic ability.
Kobe is less than two months away from turning 31. His short-distance explosive mobility is still there. In one-on-one periter defense, only Prince can surpass him in today’s league. However, in long-distance movent, occasionally during chase defense, he might explode, but once outpaced by a player like Zhang Yang, who is extrely fast even among Point Guards, he can at most rely on defensive awareness to judge the opponent’s timing to intervene, but more is beyond him.
This brings up Thunder Team’s genius rookie Derrick Rose’s breakout ga. At the end of November last year, during the Thunder Team’s matchup with the Lakers, Rose faced Kidd and Kobe’s tag-team defense and blew past them, making 13 shots and 8 hits, plus 4 out of 6 free throws, scoring 20 points and 6 assists, nearly leading the team to upset the Lakers together with Durant, losing by just 1 point… That night, Kobe delivered his first buzzer-beater of his ‘King of Clutch Season.’
The entire 08-09 regular season, Kobe completed 6 ‘true buzzer-beaters’. Looking at it another way, it also showed the Lakers’ regular season performance was extrely unstable, mainly due to Zen Master’s ‘old guy protection principle’ side effects.
After the defense was torn by Zhang Yang, the Lakers weren’t out of ideas. Kobe had tried forcing Zhang Yang to break through on the left, but Zhang Yang’s shooting ability was balanced, and his left-side stopping pull-up was also precise.
Additionally, Felton and Afflalo alike, can withstand pressure and maintain shooting stability in the Finals. His running awareness and shooting capability are even more outstanding than Afflalo. Not only that, he can also penetrate while handling the ball…
Despite Lakers’ defense being broken, under Kidd’s patient adjustnts, team coordination opened up!
Kidd no longer let Garnett set screens but ran positioning screens himself, keeping Garnett at the free-throw line. This adjustnt greatly increased Garnett’s catch-and-shoot threat regardless of his touch. Catching and shooting from the free-throw line, it’s roughly equivalent to a free throw if not contested, Kidd has truly mastered basketball understanding.
For Garnett, this task was completed very easily, and it even saved stamina on the offensive end, allowing him to focus more energy on defense and enhance interference against Bobcats’ offense.
The effective command from Zhang Yang and Kidd turned the match into an offensive tug-of-war.
anwhile, Garnett and Okafor made effective adaptations amidst uncontainable situations—slow down the pace and reduce the number of rounds.
The objective was to prevent their side’s poor touch from allowing the opponents to pull ahead in score.
Both had heavyweight rim-protecting Centers behind them, and the execution was very good.
With effective team offense, Zhang Yang and Kobe didn’t engage in head-to-head battles like the last match. After noticeable stamina depletion, they allowed teammates to participate more in initiating offenses.
Approaching the end of the first quarter, both teams had made significant adjustnts to their lineup.
Current lineup on the court, Lakers: Fisher, Kobe, Ariza, Garnett, Gasol; Bobcats: Felton, Zhang Yang, Hill, Okafor, Brad Miller.
In the previous rounds, Bobcats used Felton, Okafor, and Brad Miller’s pick-and-roll and facilitation combo to contend with the opponent, playing 5-6 against the Lakers, keeping the score tightly knotted, turning the score into 21-23.
Bobcats’ turn to attack, after a few rounds of rest, Zhang Yang took over possession, directly breaking into the paint, stepping to avoid Gasol, making a layup successfully.
Not to be outdone, Kobe received the ball in the low post, used a turnaround fake to draw Hill in, spun through the baseline, trailed by Zhang Yang, Brad Miller inside, and Okafor charging in from the free-throw line, under their encirclent, made a rim-reversal layup successfully!
25-23, Lakers continued maintaining a two-point lead.
Turning around, Zhang Yang broke through Kobe, suddenly stopped at the right side of the free-throw line, pulled the ball back with a big sweep, faced Kobe who regained composure and charged back, retreated and shot a long two-point… scored again!
25 all!
Lakers’ turn to attack, Kobe at the top of the arc in a triple-threat stance, suddenly leapt, dry-fired a three-pointer… scored!
Hill actually reacted to this shot, but unfortunately his jump speed couldn’t keep up, couldn’t even force Kobe to lean back.
Transitioning attack and defense, only 14 seconds left in the first quarter, Felton advanced to the frontcourt, wanted to pass to Zhang Yang, but Kobe started an overhead lee defense, Zhang Yang spun and cut in, trapped by Garnett and Gasol. These two clearly seed equally tall, but one claid to be 211 cm, causing the genius rookie’s height to face skepticism, leading to the veteran Ironsmith’s bare height changing to 1.9 ters, shrinking Kidd to low 180s.
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