Super Legendary Superstar

In the previous life, the Lakers defeated the Rockets 4-1 to advance. This time the Lakers have another Sun Zhuo, and there will be no suspense in defeating the Rockets.

Although the little giant Yao Ming is one year ahead of Sun Zhuo, like Sun Zhuo, today is the first time he has played in the playoffs. The first game is against the big shark O'Neal who makes everyone helpless. This is definitely not a good situation. the beginning of.

For Sun Zhuo, the first opponent in the playoffs is the Rockets of Yao Ming and Francis, which is good. They will let Sun Zhuo feel the difference in the playoffs without putting too much pressure on Sun Zhuo.

In the first game of the playoffs, the Staples Center Arena was almost full. Although the fans were not uniformly dressed, there were not many well-known celebrities watching the game. Except for the unbeatable actor Nicholson, the commentator on the sidelines Luke Walton's father, Bill Walton, has been praising Sun Zhuo's rookie performance while constantly belittling his son. He also predicted that Sun Zhuo will complete his evolution again in the playoffs, which shocked everyone.

Sun Zhuo started this game with O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton, and Karl Malone. This was earned by his dunk performance when playing against the Cavaliers. Otherwise, Phil Jackson may not give Sun Zhuo too much in the playoffs. Play time.

Facts have proven that anyone coming to the playoffs for the first time will be nervous.

Yao Ming made several beautiful passes, but he still hesitated when attacking. He would stop for a moment after receiving the ball in the high post, and then choose whether to take a shot. Unlike the later Yao Ming who immediately shot once he had a chance, he still hesitated when defending O'Neal. Fearing that he was beaten by O'Neal twice and left the game in the first quarter.

The Lakers unswervingly hit O'Neal's point from the beginning. The ultimate goal of all moves, dribbling and passing is to successfully hand the ball to O'Neal in the low post. Sun Zhuo is also one of the supporting roles, positional offense. When playing, he basically just keeps running, passing the ball, constantly feeding O'Neal, and then seeing whether O'Neal scores a goal. Only when playing defensive counterattack or the opponent makes a mistake, Sun Zhuo has the opportunity to perform. However, Sun Zhuo only has the opportunity to perform. The share of open shots and all the fast break power with the ball must be given to Kobe and distributed by Kobe.

Naturally, Phil will not completely forget to train Sun Zhuo. He will let Sun Zhuo also get some opportunities to attack with the ball. However, in his debut in the playoffs, Sun Zhuo's performance was not good. There was one thing that made him unable to adapt. That’s it: too many hands.

Every time Sun Zhuo holds the ball or dribbles for a breakthrough, there is always one hand reaching for the basketball in his hand. Sun Zhuo's current ball control ability is not good and his speed is not fast enough. He will be intercepted in the regular season. In the playoffs, , it is easier to be intercepted, often when Sun Zhuo just dribbles the ball and breaks through the first step, and then hears a snap, and the ball in Sun Zhuo's hand is cut away by the opponent.

The physical confrontation in the playoffs is more intense, and defensive players attack more frequently. They don't even give you a chance to start quickly, and the referee's penalty scale is not so strict. Like this time, Sun Zhuo was intercepted, even if his whole body was intercepted. In the end, I almost fell to the ground, but the referee still didn't call it. This was still the Lakers' home court.

Phil Jackson cut his hair short and looked calm, but he was also a little worried: "Sun's jumping talent is good, but his ball control and physical confrontation are still a bit lacking. He is still unable to adapt to the playoff level in a short time. In terms of confrontation, it seems that he needs to arrange more offenses without the ball. Rick, I remember Sun's open three-pointers are pretty good, right?"

Phil Jackson likes to listen to Rick Fox talk. He thinks that the latter can always say words that satisfy him. In private training, Sun Zhuo and Rick Fox also communicate more, mainly because Sun Zhuo is very curious about this person. Why did the star finally choose to make movies in the sea? Sun Zhuo wanted to know his views and understanding of this industry.

Rick Fox said: "Yes, Sun's open three-pointers are pretty good. I remember once competing with him on several three-pointers, and he beat me."

As soon as Rick Fox finished speaking, the assistant coach had checked the data and reported to Phil: "Sun's three-point shooting percentage in the regular season was only 31%, but his three-point shooting percentage from both corners It’s relatively high, 70%.”

Phil Jackson nodded. He knew that Sun Zhuo shot very few three-pointers in the regular season, and the level of his shooting percentage was insignificant. Phil said: "During the fast break, put him outside to shoot three-pointers. What do you think?"

Rick Fox said: "Sun's bounce is so good. Isn't it a pity to put him outside without directly attacking the basket?"

Just as he was talking, the Lakers launched a fast break. Kobe quickly attacked the Rockets basket with the ball. In the end, he missed the layup. Sun Zhuo, who did not jump too high, grabbed the rebound from behind. He was about to attack again, but was quickly given up by Francis. Break.

If it was the regular season, Sun Zhuo would have made a tip-in this time, but in the playoffs, there is no give and take. Every defensive player must fight for it, let alone a rookie like Sun Zhuo, even Karl A veteran like Malone was defeated several times by his opponents in this game, and in the end he was defeated.

After seeing it, Phil said: "Let him try it. He is not used to working under the basket now. The fight there is too fierce."

As a result, Sun Zhuo was gradually placed far away from the basket, and Phil told him: "You can try to shoot more open three-pointers, especially your corner three-point shooting rate is pretty good."

Sun Zhuo could only smile bitterly. As a level 30 SF, how high can his three-point long-range shooting value be?

In this "NBA World" game, SG (shooting guard) has the highest three-point value. SF's strengths lie in rebounding and dunks. As for Phil telling Sun Zhuo that his corner three-point shooting rate is good, Sun Zhuo didn't take it to heart, because he had only made a few three-pointers from the corner during the entire regular season, so his shooting percentage didn't mean anything. Moreover, Sun Zhuo had tried his three-point shooting percentages at various positions, but none of them were actually very good. .

The most important thing is that when Sun Zhuo was placed outside the three-point line, his teammates did not dare to pass the ball to Sun Zhuo, because Sun Zhuo has not proven that he has an excellent three-pointer, so it is not a last resort or appears. There is a completely wide open space. Neither Kobe nor Payton would want to let Sun Zhuo complete a long shot.

At the beginning of the game, the Lakers were able to suppress the Rockets. After receiving the ball, O'Neal dribbled with his back to the low post. Once he reached that position, he would turn his back and slam dunk. The method was simple and effective. Once the opponent double-teamed O'Neal, O'Neal would He will choose to distribute the ball, and his teammates will have an opportunity to shoot easily.

But as the game progressed, the Rockets' defense against O'Neal became even more powerful, forcing O'Neal to score the ball every time, and other people's defense was also very fast, often falling into the situation where Kobe forced a shot at the end. At this time, Kobe, He hasn't learned low-post offensive skills from Olajuwon yet, so the effect of strong shots is not ideal.

Karl Malone was also extremely tough today, shooting 3 of 14. Instead, Gary Payton became the team's third scorer, occupying the position that Sun Zhuo should have occupied.

In the first game of the playoffs, both sides played relatively nervously. The less accurate the shots, the more they would focus on defense. In the end, the two teams combined for 143 points in this game. The Lakers finally relied on Kobe's Three consecutive shots and O'Neal's dunk after receiving the ball gave him a crucial two-point advantage and won the final game.

After the game, Bill Walton commented: "Neither the Lakers nor the Rockets played at their level today, but this is a playoff game. In the playoffs, it's pretty good if you can achieve half the level of the regular season. , Eric Sun completely explained this to us. He averaged 17 points per game in the regular season, but today he only scored 8 points and made 6 turnovers."