"ball!"
Kobe ran outside the three-point line on the right wing and asked for the ball immediately.
His status in the team is very high, and he has always been the focus of training by the Lakers management. He is much higher than Ron Harper. His demands for the ball cannot be ignored by Harper under normal circumstances.
Barry's lateral movement ability is average, and his single defense ability is actually not outstanding, but his wingspan is excellent, so his steal data is not bad.
He didn't pay much attention to defense before. Like his father Barry, he paid more attention to offense. After joining the defense-focused SuperSonics this season, under Zhou Quan's request and influence, he now invests more in defense, averaging 1.5 points per game. steals.
One of his strengths on the defensive end is his excellent judgment of the ball's path, which is one of the reasons why he can average 1.5 steals per game.
When Kobe asked for the ball, he immediately increased his concentration, and when Harper intended to pass the ball, he immediately stepped up the pressure.
Under pressure, Harper could only block with his left hand, pulled up the ball with his right hand, pushed it with one hand, and passed the ball to Kobe.
He was very aware of Zhou Quan's stealing ability, so the pass was directed outward, and Kobe needed to take half a step outside to catch the ball.
But when he pulls the ball with one hand and then passes it, the speed of the ball is not fast, giving Zhou Quan a chance.
Zhou Quan stood in front of Kobe and was pushed by his right hand. When his opponent wanted the ball, his eyes were fixed on Kobe. Although he did not look at Harper, his full panoramic vision was still focused on Harper's every move. With one move, everything is clear.
When Harper passed the ball, he directly opened Kobe's right hand and used his stronger confrontation ability to squeeze out of Kobe's way and get to the front.
"Snapped!"
After stealing the ball, he rushed forward and started to play quickly amidst the cheers of the fans.
"King of Iron Fist!"
In anger, Kobe chased after him.
But Zhou Quan was faster, and his running speed with the ball was not much slower than running without the ball. Kobe didn't catch up when he reached the top of the left arc, and was still a step slower.
Holding the ball high in his right hand, Zhou Quan took a step into the paint area and then took off. He felt a strong wind hitting his back in the air and suddenly retracted his right hand.
"Damn it!"
The next moment, Kobe's left hand swept over Zhou Quan's head as he jumped up, and the shot failed.
"boom!"
Zhou Quan stretched his right hand again, and just as it was about to fly under the basket, he stuffed the ball into the basket.
"Oh ho!"
The central stadium cheered suddenly.
"I was going to have a big burger at halftime, and luckily I had it ready."
As soon as O'Neal reached the midline position, Zhou Quan's fast break ended, and he had to turn around and run back, muttering at the same time.
"Pfft!"
Ben Wallace, who was following him, couldn't help laughing.
O'Neal glared at Ben Wallace, entered the basket from the free throw line and turned to take position. Ben Wallace was trying to push him away, so he hit him with his left elbow to resist Ben Wallace.
"Hey, where is the person?"
With an elbow in the air, he looked down and saw that when Ben Wallace was leaning over to fight, his head only reached his waist.
That's it? He couldn't help but grin. With this height, how could he guard against him at the basket?
Ron Harper, who was holding the ball, had just passed the midline. When he saw O'Neal was about to reach the basket, he directly pulled the ball up, pushed with both hands, and the basketball flew towards O'Neal.
O'Neal caught the ball with one hand and passed too far. Campbell had already ran over. He immediately put the ball together with both hands without moving his left foot, and then turned around forcefully.
"What?"
Campbell and Ben Wallace were knocked away by O'Neal's turn. They felt like they were competing against an unstoppable beast.
"boom!"
Amidst the violent slamming of the basket, O'Neal hung on the basket. The basket was stretched out of shape, and the entire basket was slammed down.
"oh!"
A whirlwind of exclamations sounded in the Central Gymnasium.
"This is the Shark, his dominance at the basket is invincible!" Zhang Lili couldn't help but admire.
At this time, the SuperSonics' fast break had already begun. O'Neal, who had just completed the attack, had to take long strides and ran to the backcourt. During the transition between offense and defense, there was no chance to breathe for a moment.
"O'Neal's shooting percentage at the basket is as high as 80%. As long as he gets the ball at the basket, it really doesn't make any difference to him whether he is defending alone or with several people." Xu Jicheng also praised.
"But when several people pile up on him, his physical energy consumption will definitely be huge. In addition, the Sonics continue to play fast breaks, and his physical energy consumption will be even greater. In the end, he can't hold it anymore, and it's time for the Sonics to take advantage. ." Zhang Lili said.
Kobe still slowed down Zhou Quan through defense, but as soon as Zhou Quan arrived in the frontcourt, he immediately started attacking, still not giving O'Neal, who had just ran across the free throw line, any chance to breathe.
"Whoosh!"
He suddenly passed the ball to Barry on the right wing, who was one step ahead of veteran Ron Harper and had an opening to receive the ball.
"boom!"
Barry caught the ball and immediately made a three-point jumper, but unfortunately missed.
The basketball rebounded, and AC Green, who had just run to the right wing, caught the rebound. O'Neal, who ran to the basket, saw it and quickly turned around and ran away.
Kobe was one step ahead of Zhou Quan and reached out to Green for the ball. Green took a look and quickly passed the ball in front of Kobe.
In fact, Zhou Quan deliberately stayed one step behind Kobe. While running forward with Kobe, he looked back and started to pursue the ball the moment Green passed the ball.
His speed is faster than Kobe. Kobe's absolute speed is not very good, and his speed of 100 meters is average. After a few steps, when the ball comes, he has already caught up half a step, but he does not overtake it, but runs behind Behind Kobe.
At this time, the ball slid down, and the two of them jumped to catch the ball at the same time. However, Zhou Quan was in the back, so the position to catch the ball changed to the front.
The ball was about to be intercepted again. Kobe was anxious. He caught the ball with his right hand, but deliberately pressed down with his left arm, trying to push down Zhou Quan in front of him.
"Snapped!"
Zhou Quan's head was pressed and he didn't catch the ball. Instead, he pointed the ball away and Kobe didn't catch it.
"Beep!"
The referee's whistle has already sounded, pointing to Kobe and giving the ball to the SuperSonics.
"You have a lot of tricks! Who did you learn from? Jordan and I didn't have these tricks when we were on defense." Zhou Quan glared at Kobe.
Kobe shrugged awkwardly, looked to the side and said, "It wasn't intentional."
"Generally when you lie, your eyes will be very erratic and you will not look directly at the other person, and the smiles on the left and right faces will be asymmetrical. It is commonly known as the smile on the face but not on the face. When you explained just now, you did not look directly at me. At the same time, the left face was smiling, and the right face was smiling. The face is paralyzed, with a standard lying expression." Zhou Quan said.
"I don't have facial paralysis. That's Duncan, okay? Facial paralysis is Tim Duncan." Kobe became even more embarrassed, rubbed the right side of his face, and hurriedly ran to the backcourt.
"Ha ha……"
Everyone who heard the conversation between the two not far away burst into laughter, including several players on both sides and the referee and line judge.
In this game, the SuperSonics always adhered to fast break tactics and finally won the victory, tied with the Lakers with one win and two losses.
The score was 90:105, and the Sonics won by 15 points.
After the game, Zhang Lili said: "O'Neal lasted for three quarters, but his physical strength could no longer bear it in the final quarter. He played a total of 42 minutes and made 10 of 17 shots, with a shooting percentage of 58.8%, which was slightly higher than the normal level of this season's regular season. He made 3 of 7 free throws and scored 23 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks.
His offense at the basket was terrifying, making 6 of 7 shots and a shooting percentage of 85.7%. It can be said that the SuperSonics' inside line was reduced to rubbish by him at the basket.
In addition, he made 4 of 10 shots in the past two points, which was slightly lower than his normal level. After his physical fitness failed in the final quarter, he only made 1 of 4 shots with this kind of ball. "
Xu Jicheng said: "This season he averaged 21 shots per game, but today he only took 17. Judging from the number of shots he took, the SuperSonics' defense was successful again."
"Yep……"
Zhang Liyi nodded and said: "The SuperSonics restricted passes to O'Neal from the outside. This was successful and they won the game."
Xu Jicheng said: "Zhou Quan played 40 minutes and had a lot of fast breaks. He made 16 of 25 shots and a shooting percentage of 64%. He made 3 of 7 three-pointers and a shooting percentage of 42.9%. He made 5 of 5 free throws and scored 40 points, 5 rebounds and 11 assists. 7 steals, 3 blocks, 2 turnovers and 2 fouls.
Coach Zhang, with Zhou Quan's performance tonight, it should be said that his condition has returned to the level before his retirement. "
"definitely."
Zhang Lili said with a smile: "Tonight, the SuperSonics' overall defensive strategy is the opposite. Since O'Neal cannot be restricted, then we must restrict the people who pass the ball to O'Neal and improve the offensive and defensive rhythm at the same time.
Therefore, in tonight's game, the Lakers have been chasing the score. They did not take the lead once in the game and played very passively. "
Xu Jicheng said: "Zhou Quan's defense against Kobe was also very successful, causing Kobe to make 5 turnovers, allowing Kobe to make only 6 of 20 shots, 0 of 5 three-pointers, and an overall shooting rate of only 30%. He only scored 12 points including free throws. OK combination teamed up to score 35 points.”
Zhang Lili said with a smile: "Although Kobe is very good now, he is still too young in front of Zhou Quan.
At his peak, Jordan also allowed Zhou Quan to complete three consecutive championships on his head. Kobe's current offensive and defensive capabilities are still far inferior to Jordan's.
Where is the strength of the Lakers now? O'Neal, no matter what form is used, as long as O'Neal's scoring is limited and his destructive power is not so great, there is a chance to beat the Lakers. "
At the scene, Zhou Quan bumped fists with O'Neal and said cheerfully: "Shark, I'm going to hit you like this in the playoffs. Use your brains to figure out how to deal with it."
"That's Phil Jackson's business." O'Neal, who was exhausted, said angrily.
Zhou Quan turned around and said to Kobe, who was walking over: "Boy, there is still a long way to go before Jordan. If you want to be my opponent, you have to be stronger."
"I will." Kobe said, staring at Zhou Quan.
Zhou Quan nodded and said: "The eyes are firm and not erratic, which shows that this is the truth and not a lie."
Kobe's face couldn't help but fall. He snorted, turned around and walked towards the tunnel.
…
After this battle, the SuperSonics are 29 wins and 9 losses, and the Lakers are 32 wins and 7 losses, a difference of 2.5 games. They are still second in the Western Conference and second in the league.
Starting from defeating the Lakers, the Sonics experienced two back-to-back games and played four more games until the 23rd. Including the Lakers game, they had a five-game winning streak and achieved a record of 33 wins and 9 losses.
After the Lakers lost to the SuperSonics, they first defeated the Cavaliers and then lost to the Trail Blazers, with 33 wins and 8 losses.
In just a few days, the win difference between the Lakers and SuperSonics changed from 2.5 to 0.5.
At two o'clock in the morning on the 24th, the SuperSonics, which had just defeated the Green Team in an away game, arrived in New York and began their third consecutive back-to-back game in recent times.
On this day, the Lakers will also challenge the Jazz away from home.
He arrived at the hotel after three o'clock and went to bed after four o'clock. At 11 o'clock the next morning, Zhou Quan woke up from a deep sleep.
Although his biological clock is fragmented and his eating time is not fixed, and he often eats breakfast on the plane in the early morning, Zhou Quan is still full of energy after getting up, much better than his teammates.
"Fortunately, I have the sleeping elixir skill."
Two years after retiring, Zhou Quan still persists in practicing the Sleeping Pill Technique. Now he has reached the second state, which is the state where he can quickly enter samadhi and have no dreams for a night.
In this state, even if you only sleep for three or four hours, the time for deep sleep is actually enough. Of course, the more time you sleep, the more it meets the requirements of the Sleeping Pill Skill.
In the past two years, especially since last year, he feels that his mental strength has made some progress. He did not feel this way two years ago.
Spiritual power is mysterious, invisible and intangible, but it is a real thing.
To put it simply, for example, in such an intensive regular season schedule, a player's mind and body are easily fatigued. He was the same before, but now his mind is not as easily tired as before. This is about mental strength. increase.
This increase will be more effective in the playoff series, allowing him to maintain a better condition throughout the series.
There were back-to-back games in the evening and no training was scheduled for the afternoon. After lunch, Zhou Quan called Rodman to play golf together on Long Island.
Today is Saturday. There are many people coming to Long Island to play golf. There is only one non-membership public golf course on Long Island. The other courses are private memberships with very expensive membership fees. Basically, the people who come here to play golf are from New York. People with good economic conditions, ordinary middle class people do not have the conditions to come to Long Island to play ball.
He has a permanent membership card to the Fishers Island Club, a mecca among golf courses. He played the Hall of Fame here the year before last and won the championship, and the golf course gave him a membership card.
However, this club is 140 miles away from New York, which is too far. He chose the Bethpage National Park Black Course, which is the closest to New York and is only less than 40 miles away.
They stayed in Long Island until five o'clock in the afternoon before returning to the city center. When they arrived at Madison Square Garden, it was exactly six o'clock. After dinner, they met with their teammates in the locker room before seven o'clock.
At eight o'clock, both sides announced the starting lineup.
SuperSonics: Ben Wallace, Campbell, Corey Maggette, Brent Barry, Zhou Quan
Knicks: Ewing, Larry Johnson, Latrell Sprewell, Alan Houston, Charlie Ward
This game was narrated by ESPN TV, and the commentators were Bill Walton and Bill Laimbeer.
Bill Walton was originally at ABC TV. After his contract ended the year before last, he was poached by ESPN with a high salary. Then ESPN brought back Bill Laimbeer, who had resigned before, and paired him with Bill Walton.
Now the two Bills have formed a very famous Bill combination on ESPN. Bill Walton plays the white face and Laimbeer plays the black face. They have a group of fans to support them and are quite famous in the NBA commentary industry.
(End of chapter)
