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patreon.com/Chuga320 (Have than 50 additional chapters)
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Kobe continued to attack with the ball. With the experience from the previous round, Kobe no longer underestimated the unknown player who was responsible for defending him.The opponent's reaction and defensive awareness when facing his back-to-the-basket move just now were very outstanding among all the guards in the league.
In the second attack, he was obviously more cautious. Although he still did not call for a pick-and-roll, he put more effort into the offense than before. He used fake moves to trick Bell into breaking through to the mid-range and shooting a quick stop jump shot.
"Swish!"
The basketball went into the net.
No matter how you defend, it will always be half a beat slower than attacking because you need to make judgments based on the opponent's movements before you can act.
Therefore, it is impossible to expect Raja Bell to completely limit Kobe's scoring.
The Bulls were on offense, and Wang Chong continued to hold the ball and play one-on-one against Odom. He broke through the opponent's defense and made his signature mid-range jump shot.
6:2! As soon as the game started, the Lakers' home fans were delighted to see the scoring battle between Kobe and Wang Chong.
But the game did not develop as they imagined.
Although both teams had these two players holding the ball a lot in offense.
But it is obvious to see the difference in offensive efficiency between the two.
Kobe missed far more shots than Wang Chong did.
This caused the score between the two teams to widen rapidly at the start of the game.
From 6:2 to 10:4, and then to 15:7...
Just as Wang Chong expected, the more this happened, the more Kobe insisted on competing with him in scoring. As long as the basketball was in hand, the opponent would shoot resolutely, regardless of how strong the defense in front of him was.
On the surface, Kobe was facing Raja Bell head-on, but that was not the case.
Tyson Chandler, who guards the basket, is always ready to assist in defense, using his height and wingspan to make Kobe's offense extremely difficult.
In addition, Luol Deng, who was responsible for guarding Caron Butler on the wing, was also ready to move. Once Kobe's dribbling breakthrough path approached him, he would step forward without hesitation to double-team with Bell. Anyway, Kobe would basically not choose to pass the ball when he was already in a state of overwhelmed.
Wang Chong is different.
Also because of the large number of shots, more defensive players were assigned to him.
When facing double-teaming from Odom and Butler, Wang Chong would decisively choose to pass the ball.
With a height of 2.10 meters, a ball-handling ability of 90 and a passing ability of 85, Wang Chong can easily find a gap in the opponent's double-team and pass the ball.
The one who receives the ball is often Luol Deng, who was abandoned by Butler. He receives the ball at his favorite position on the wing and then rushes directly into the penalty area to score.
Unlike Kobe's solo play, Wang Chong does not feel any guilt for playing this way.
After all, this is a basketball game, not a one-on-one event like boxing or tennis. There has never been a real one-on-one duel on the court.
Besides, Wang Chong and Kobe did not directly face off on the court. Even Kobe, who was selected to the All-Defensive First Team for many years in a row, had no intention of defending Wang Chong. The two had different positions and a huge height difference, which made it impossible for Kobe to defend against Wang Chong's attack.
In addition, Wang Chong is also very aware of his own weaknesses, or rather, the weaknesses of top scorer Kevin Durant, which is that he is not good at dealing with double-team defense.
Although his ball handling ability is not low, he is still too tall after all, and his center of gravity is too high when dribbling. After all, it is easy for him to be intercepted on the court. He can never face double-team defense as easily as Kobe, although the latter's offensive efficiency under double-team is not high.
As one side gains, the other side loses. After the first quarter, the Bulls took an 8-point lead in the away game with a score of 28:20.
Wang Chong made 5 of 9 shots, including a three-pointer from outside, and 2 of 2 free throws, scoring 13 points, 2 rebounds, and 3 assists in a single quarter.
Kobe made 4 of 12 shots and 3 of 4 free throws, scoring 11 points.
The two have very similar scores, but their offensive efficiency is very different.
This scene seems familiar. Last season, similar situations occurred many times during the Lakers' games.
Although they were on the same team, Kobe and Wang Chong had very different offensive efficiencies. At that time, Kobe's fans believed that Wang Chong's high offensive efficiency was due to Kobe's influence. If Kobe hadn't attracted the double-team, Wang Chong wouldn't have had such an easy opportunity to shoot.
But now the two are facing each other again, and the result is still the same. So what is the problem? For a moment, the fans at the Lakers home court did not dare to think about it; it was simply terrifying.
The game goes on.
But the more Kobe was obsessed with scoring, the more he was controlled by the Bulls' defense because whether it was Bell or other players who helped double-team Kobe, they could be sure of one thing: no matter what kind of opponent he faced, Kobe would not choose to pass the ball.
When Kobe was in hot form, he was truly an unstoppable force no matter how many people double-teamed him.
But that state did not occur very often. In most cases, Kobe, who was too reckless, only got a continuous sound of sharp shots.
On the Lakers bench, head coach Phil Jackson had a gloomy look on his face.
Before this game, he had anticipated that Kobe would be unable to extricate himself from the state of competing with Wang Chong in scoring.
For this reason, he specifically asked Kobe about this issue. Compared with his personal scoring victory, the team's victory means more to them because even if Kobe's score is higher than Wang Chong, as long as the team loses, it does not count as a win.
More importantly, if Kobe loses to Wang Chong in scoring, then he would be losing both the wife and the army—a complete defeat.
Therefore, on the court, he should still base his decision on the team's victory before worrying about his personal gains and losses.
But Kobe just said, "Will I lose to him?"
At that time, he knew that the game would most likely turn out like this.
As a former teammate, Wang Chong knows Kobe too well. He will definitely ask the Bulls to arrange defensive tactics against Kobe, and Kobe will definitely fall into the trap.
In the second quarter, the situation started to get worse.
The Lakers' offense came to a complete standstill. Kobe's offensive efficiency was low, and he was stuck in a cycle of being double-teamed, forcing shots and then missing them or making direct mistakes.
And the other players on the Lakers field do not have the ability to break the status quo.
Phil once hoped that Eddy Curry in the interior could break through the opponent's interior like O'Neal and break the situation.
Although small sharks and big sharks are both sharks, their lethality is very different.
Eddy Curry faced Chandler in the paint. Although he had the advantage in size and strength, his hands were quite rough under the basket. Chandler successfully defended his several strong attacks in the paint, and he was even blocked from the front. He looked very embarrassed.
The Lakers home fans were stunned.
What the hell is this? A player like this deserves to be called a shark? This is just a joke!
Phil also gradually understood why, although the Bulls let Eddy Curry start last season, Chandler's average playing time was not much less than that of Curry, the starter.
He does have certain inside offensive capabilities, but they are limited to the three words "certain." His offensive skills are not proficient, his attitude towards the game is negative, and his rebounding and defense are weaknesses. If the Bulls had allowed him to play for more than 35 minutes per game and reduced the playing time of Tyson Chandler, who made great contributions on the defensive end, they probably would not have been able to achieve the fourth place in the Eastern Conference last season.
Although the Lakers also have players such as Odom, Butler, and Hinrich, in terms of ability, they are actually not much different from the Bulls' Luol Deng, Bell, and others.
More importantly, Wang Chong is not as inefficient as Kobe. His continuous scoring made the Lakers' defense exhausted, and they had to invest a lot of defensive strength to stop Wang Chong from scoring, but this also led to insufficient defense against other players.
At the end of the first half, the gap between the two teams had widened to more than double digits.
This was the result after Ben Gordon came on the court in the second half of the second quarter and scored points for the Lakers; otherwise, the score difference would have been even bigger.
During the half-time break, after some adjustments, or to be more precise, in the locker room, Phil Jackson patiently persuaded Kobe, and finally Kobe, who had been in a state of excitement for two quarters, calmed down a little. He said that he would not continue to blindly compete with Wang Chong in personal scoring ability in the next game.
Kobe did just that after the second half started.
Kobe broke through the penalty area with the ball and was double-teamed by Bell and Chandler. He did not throw out a low-scoring shot like before, but decisively passed the ball to Odom, who was open on the side.
Odom then made a quick shot.
"Swish!"
The basketball made a beautiful arc and flew into the net!
But Wang Chong's offense had also begun to improve at this time. With the ball in hand, he continuously attracted Odom to assist in defense, and every time Odom stepped forward to double-team him, Wang Chong would pass the ball to Butler, who had been abandoned by Odom on the wing.
With the powerful scoring capability of Wang Chong, he could not be limited just by double-teaming. On the contrary, when facing multiple defenses, he often turned into a master of offense.
Wang Chong's series of assists allowed the Bulls' overall offensive rhythm to gain an advantage once again.
The score was still increasing, and the gap between the two teams widened again!
The game was still going on, and when the final whistle blew, Wang Chong scored 50 points, 15 assists, and 10 rebounds, achieving a triple-double!
End of this chapter
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