On the afternoon of the 17th, the SuperSonics headquarters training facility.
Swish, brush, bang…
Rashard Lewis works on his 3-point shot with the help of assistant coach Nate McMillan.
This is Lewis's second season, which is certainly better than his rookie season. His current field goal percentage has reached 50.5%, including 35% from three-pointers. This shooting rate is also good for a forward who can only shoot from the outside. Not bad.
Of course, one of the reasons why the shooting rate is so high is that Zhou Quan creates open opportunities for his teammates, otherwise Lewis's shooting rate would not be so high.
However, the three-pointers are a bit lower, because his three-pointers are basically open shots, and the 35% open shooting rate is not enough.
In addition, Lewis basically waits for open shots to catch the ball, so he doesn't have many chances to take action. His playing time is limited, his shooting percentage is high, and his statistics are not up.
Practice three-pointers well, this is what the team requires of Lewis.
Lewis can't defend inside, so he is assigned to play the third position, but he can't defend on the outside. He is the height of a power forward, and his athletic ability is not good. He cannot keep up with ordinary small forwards. The Sonics are also a defensive team. The team only has some open shooting ability, which makes him not very competitive in the team.
Now at the third position, Bruce Bowen's playing time has caught up with him. His playing time has dropped from the previous 18 minutes to 10 minutes, and Bowen's playing time has increased from 5 minutes to 10 minutes. The two are equally divided. The rest of Maggeti's time.
"Bang bang bang bang."
Zhou Quan stood aside and watched. Lewis immediately panicked and struck the iron four times.
"Rashad, stop."
Is this psychological quality too poor? Zhou Quan couldn't stand it anymore and immediately stopped Lewis' shooting training.
"King of Iron Fist?"
Lewis looked at Zhou Quan in panic.
Zhou Quan came up and said, "Rashad, why are you panicking?"
"I……"
Lewis was so panicked that he was speechless.
Zhou Quan asked helplessly: "Your shooting posture is a bit strange. It doesn't matter. Just practice your own rhythm. But your shooting rhythm must be fast. Your opponent will not give you many open opportunities. Do you understand?" "
"Understood." Lewis said hurriedly.
Zhou Quan thought for a while and then said: "When your shooting rhythm is not fast enough, if there is a small opening, you can try adding a fake move before shooting to shake the opponent away before shooting.
Fake moves must be realistic, and they must be done properly during training. Otherwise, you will not be able to deceive your opponent when you go on the court, and there will be no small openings. When your opponent comes in front of you and your passing ability is not good, the ball may be lost. Death by your hands. "
"I know, Iron Fist King, I will train well." Lewis nodded.
"Rashad, you practice on your own first."
Zhou Quan walked away from Lewis, and McMillan followed and asked softly: "Iron Fist, do you think highly of this young man?"
Zhou Quan shook his head and said, "No, I just couldn't help but say a few words."
"He's not good. His defense is too bad. He often loses his position and can't keep up with his opponents." McMillan, who is good at defense, said a little disgustingly.
"There is no way, we just have this lineup, he doesn't take up much space, let's keep it for now, what if we develop a great pitcher?" Zhou Quan said with a smile.
"Don't worry, I will keep an eye on him." McMillan said.
Zhou Quan thought for a while and then said: "Lewis still has his advantages. His height and shooting are a high fort on the outside. He has a shooting package that ordinary big players in this era do not have. There are not many as tall as him now." There are many players who can shoot three-pointers, but at the third position, he is basically out of position."
McMillan couldn't help but nodded, and Zhou Quan continued: "Let him practice his shooting skills, and then enhance his offensive ability with the ball, so that he can have the ability to shoot with the ball when he is out of position.
We can't create so many openings for him. If he never has the ability to attack with the ball and has no defense, his playing time may continue to shrink. "
"I will teach him defense." McMillan nodded.
Zhou Quan said with a smile: "We have too many young people. If they all grow up, we can't all stay. Someone will definitely leave, so it doesn't matter if Lewis grows up slower."
McMillan blinked, somewhat understanding what Zhou Quan meant.
…
On the evening of the 17th, Microsoft Center Arena in Seattle.
At 7:30, both sides announced the starting lineup.
Lakers: O'Neal, AC Green, Glen Rice, Kobe Bryant, Ron Harper
SuperSonics: Ben Wallace, Campbell, Corey Maggette, Brent Barry, Zhou Quan
The game was broadcast live nationwide on NBC, with commentators James Worthy and John Moore.
CCTV also broadcast this game. At this time, Zhang Lili said: "The SuperSonics lost the first two regular season games. The main reason is that they can't limit the Sharks. It's useless for anyone to play. It's useless to play several games. O'Neal is now under the basket." The dominance, some media even said it has reached the highest level in the history of the league."
"I heard that Ben Wallace's highest bench press exceeded 200 kilograms, and he couldn't hold O'Neal." Xu Jicheng said.
"O'Neal is mainly about tonnage plus strength, plus his explosive power. It's too scary! Ben Wallace's tonnage is too short, how can he withstand it?" Zhang Liji shook his head and said.
…
At eight o'clock, the game starts.
O'Neal took the lead in touching the ball and the Lakers attacked.
Ron Harper received the ball and advanced, and Barry Jr. defended.
Barry has only one main task. Now Harper has no offensive ability, to prevent his pass to O'Neal.
The task of Corey Maggette and others is also the same, which is to prevent others from passing the ball to O'Neal.
He kept waving his arms and blocked Ron Harper's downward passing angle. Harper could only pass the ball to Glen Rice outside the left three-point line.
Rice received the ball, and rookie Corey Maggette directly confronted him. He was like a muscular stick. He used his strong upper body strength to force Rice to have no good shot opportunities, and he was unable to smoothly pass the ball to O'Neal under the basket.
O'Neal, who was about to reach his position under the basket, saw that three seconds had expired and immediately ran to the left wing low post to regain his position and demand the ball.
Glen Rice took a step back with the dribble and lobbed the ball low to the left wing.
Taking advantage of the lob opportunity, Campbell immediately implemented assist defense. When O'Neal received the ball, he completed the assist defense and sealed O'Neal's bottom to prevent him from slipping to the bottom.
If it was under the basket, O'Neal would have no other choice. He would dunk directly. It would be meaningless for him to be double-teamed by several people. He could completely push everything under the basket.
But when he is double-teamed in the low post on the left wing, he cannot act recklessly. The triangle tactic requires him to see the opening on the outside at this time, and then quickly release the ball.
At this time, his ability to handle the ball when double-teamed is tested.
During the Magic era, his ability was very poor, but after playing for the Lakers for several years, his ability has improved substantially.
After Glen Rice passed the ball, he immediately ran towards the left corner. Corey Maggette was half a step behind and had a chance to catch the ball.
At the same time, Ron Harper at the top of the key was running to the left wing, taking over the position of Zigang Glen Rice, and also had a position to receive the ball.
In addition, Kobe Bryant on the right wing was running towards the top of the arc and was in position to catch the ball. Zhou Quan was half a step behind.
Who?
O'Neal held up Ben Wallace with his left hand and backed Campbell. With a wave of his right hand, the ball flew to Glen Rice who was running to the left corner.
Ron Harper and Glen Rice both had three-pointers, but Harper's health was failing, so he chose Glen Rice.
As for Kobe, he knew Zhou Quan's defense so well that he didn't dare to pass Kobe in the slightest opening.
When Gus Rice received the ball with both hands, Magas pounced on him. He took off directly and when flying towards the baseline, he made an extremely difficult drifting zero-degree angle shot.
"boom!"
Unfortunately, although the difficulty was high, the basket was not strong enough and the ball was rejected.
Short, the basketball rebounded, and Ben Wallace turned around and grabbed the rebound.
"Good defense!"
The handsome Paul Westphal cheered the players on the sidelines, attracting the attention of many cheerleaders.
"The SuperSonics' defense is not weak, especially the outside defense." Zhang Li said with a smile.
"Director Zhang, the SuperSonics' defensive system should not be established yet. Zhou Quan rarely participates in interior defense." Xu Jicheng said.
Zhang Liji nodded and said: "It still takes time. The team is equivalent to a complete rebuild. There are so many young people with basic salaries, and the system is not that easy to build.
Although Zhou Quan's defense is good, there is a flaw. He is a point guard, not an inside post. Therefore, no matter how strong his defense is, it is usually mainly used for single defense and assist defense on the outside and to a certain extent, assist defense on the inside. The kind of defensive system that covers the sky with one hand. "
"Is that so?" Xu Jicheng didn't quite understand.
Zhang Lili said: “The so-called self-contained defensive system simply means that a player uses his defense to support the team’s defense.
Such people are all inside, close to the basket, while outside players are far away from the basket. When the opponent attacks from the other wing, his defense cannot take care of it, so outside players cannot have their own defensive system. "
"So that's it." Xu Jicheng nodded.
On the court, after Ben Wallace grabbed the backcourt rebound, he wanted to pass the ball out quickly and directly launch a fast break.
The Sonics have always been known for their fast-paced offense and defense. Now there are a large group of young players in the team who are more suitable for fast-break tactics, and head coach Paul Westphal has not abandoned this tactic.
In fact, this tactic was not used much last season because Zhou Quan was away and without a top-notch point guard, this tactic was easy to mess up. But now that Zhou Quan is back, Westphal will naturally pick up this tactic.
But the head coach of the Lakers is Phil Jackson. He is too experienced in how to defend against the Sonics' fast break and has already made arrangements.
After Ben Wallace grabbed the rebound, O'Neal, who was closest to him, immediately blocked his fast pass and also destroyed the Sonics' fast break.
In addition, Ben Wallace lacks the ability to directly initiate fast breaks, has poor vision and average passing ability.
The fast break failed, and Zhou Quan, who was preparing to break quickly, immediately came back to take over the ball, and then immediately advanced quickly.
"This guy!"
When O'Neal saw it, he threw off his arms and ran towards the backcourt, like a mammoth galloping, and his speed was really not slow.
Seeing Zhou Quan's advancing speed, Phil Jackson remembered that Zhou Quan used to play like this against the Bulls. He had no chance for a fast break, but he had to forcefully speed up the offensive rhythm, increase Mutombo's physical energy consumption, and even not give Mutombo any chance. Mbo's opportunity to return to defense was now used on O'Neal.
But he also made arrangements for this tactic.
When Kobe saw Zhou Quan's advancing speed, he immediately used pressing movements to slow down Zhou Quan and give O'Neal a chance to return to defense.
His behavior did achieve some results. Zhou Quan was forced to slow down after halftime, and O'Neal took the opportunity to return to the penalty area.
But Zhou Quan didn't stop for a moment. After reaching the frontcourt, he immediately launched an attack without giving O'Neal any chance to breathe.
When Kobe blocked the shot, Zhou Quan feinted with one hand and passed Kobe from the right. When he reached the 45-degree three-point line on the left wing, he made an emergency stop jumper.
Kobe jumped from the left to block the shot. His current defense has reached the league's first-class or even top level, but the rhythm is still half a beat slower. With Zhou Quan's current shooting skills, game experience, mentality, etc., this kind of opportunity is a small opening. Shooting, shooting 78 out of 10 can't run away.
"brush!"
The water splashed and he hit a three-pointer.
"Oh ho!"
The Central Gymnasium immediately burst into loud cheers.
Zhou Quan waved to the fans, and when running to the backcourt, he shouted to Kobe who was running beside him: "Kobe, your defense is good!"
I didn't guard this ball, and you still praise me?
Kobe felt humiliated by the man in front of him, and he vowed to double his defense next time and let the Iron Fist King see his defensive level.
But Zhou Quan was actually telling the truth. After two years of not seeing each other, Kobe's defensive level was ten times better than in his rookie season. He was on the defensive level of the second team, even close to the level of the first team, so he praised Kobe.
"Look, the galloping mammoth, I feel the earth shaking. Shark, are you feeling tired?"
On-site commentator Hernem Chrisman loudly teased O'Neal, causing fans to burst into laughter.
O'Neal had just run to the backcourt, but Zhou Quan's offense had ended, and he had to run towards the frontcourt with elephant legs. When he heard Chrisman's words, he couldn't help but gasp and curse: "Damn fast break! "
Fortunately, Ron Harper is very experienced and the pace of advancement is not fast, deliberately giving O'Neal some breathing space.
(End of chapter)
