The Way of the Center

"Come on, little fish hiding behind Kobe."

This sentence was clearly heard by Bynum. Except for Garnett, no insider dared to humiliate himself like this.

"Hey! Andrew, calm down." Bynum just wanted to go up to Anjie to argue, but Gasol grabbed him later.

Bynum took a deep breath and tried to stabilize his emotions. He knew that it was all An Jie's trick, and an uncool mind could easily make mistakes. And An Jie was slowly stimulating Bynum, making his mind irritable and making his openings bigger.

"I'm fine, Paul, thank you. Let's go, it's time for us to attack." Bynum forced himself to squeeze a smile on Gasol, which can also give him some peace of mind.

From the beginning of the game, after Bynum used small moves, he has always been the one who suffers. Anjie's dark elbow and this humiliation made Bynum wish to use practical actions to tear Anjie into pieces.

But that's where he gets frustrated, and the Lakers' offense is now once again taken over by Kobe. Bynum wanted to play, but couldn't get the ball. And Anjie and Morris have become the core of the Thunder's current offense. As long as they are willing, they can catch the ball inside and hit the basket again and again.

Kobe's shooting percentage in this section after a long rest was really good. Just now he scored a goal on Sefoloza's head with his iconic turnaround jumper. The more this is the case, the more shots Kobe has. The more shots Kobe has, the more aggrieved Bynum becomes.

Bynum hadn't vented his breath just now, but Anjie once again took the ball and leaned against him.

"Anjie and Bynum are still playing low post singles. Anjie and Morris have done very well in the first two attacks. Let's see what they can do this time." Yu Jia looked at the field intently, belonging to Anjie. Of course he will not let go of Jay's moment.

An Jie knew Bynum's current mood, if he was provoked like that, he would be furious. However, this is what An Jie wanted.

He kept leaning hard on Bynum, and Bynum did not show any weakness, puffing out his chest to bear the impact of Anjie again and again. The referee has already put the whistle in his mouth, the movements of these two guys are really too big!

All of a sudden, Bynum, who was hit by An Jie, was so angry that he pushed An Jie vigorously. This time, the referee who had been paying attention to the two of them could see it clearly.

"Beep beep!" The referee called a foul without hesitation, and Anjie looked at Bynum triumphantly, then walked to the free throw line.

"Fuck it!" Bynum gritted his teeth, even though it was his foul,

But An Jie didn't suffer much. In the process of the head-on collision, the two were actually evenly matched.

Bynum was in pain all over his body, but what he got in return was just a foul.

Anjie made two free throws steadily, and Bynum's behavior has begun to gradually get out of control! If talking trash can get your opponent's mind hot and allow you to score easy free throws, then Angie will be more than willing to continue the trash talking.

It's not personal, it's all about winning.

As the second quarter continued, the cheers from the Staples Center fans grew smaller and smaller. They were surprised to find that An Jie and Morris, under the joint attack of the twin towers and Kobe, actually tied the score!

Anjie is capable of both inside and outside, and cooperates tacitly with Morris. The attack power of these two people completely exceeded Phil Jackson's imagination.

By the end of the second quarter, when Bynum had to rest due to rotation reasons, the Lakers' defense couldn't do anything about them.

Odom's body can't hold Anjie and Morris at all. As for Gasol, don't compare skills with him. The harder you are, the softer he is.

Once the Thunder opened up inside, the Lakers' defensive formation would shrink relatively. As a result, the Thunder's three outside shooting spaces would increase accordingly.

Livingston and Maynor fired successively, and then Sefoloza also got a three-point shot under Anjie's ball. With Kobe feeling gratifying, and the Thunder lacking Durant and Westbrook, the two teams actually played inextricably!

47 to 47, at the end of the half, the Thunder drew with the Purple and Gold at the Staples Center. Phil Jackson can't figure it out even after all his calculations, his own twin towers will be at a disadvantage!

Perhaps because of Westbrook and Durant, Anjie and Morris are not very dazzling on the offensive end. But now Zen Master knows that the Lakers really don't have an advantage inside. If you want to win, it really depends on Kobe's performance in the second half.

"Andrew, you have to calm down! If you continue to commit unnecessary fouls on that Chinese man, you will fall into his trap!" Originally Bynum didn't have much playing time, if he still can't stand An Jie's stimulation , the Zen master can only further squeeze his time.

The defensive effect of Odom and Gasol has just been seen by Zen Master. Without Bynum, the Lakers' inside defense level really cannot withstand the Thunder's offense. Bynum's time must not be shortened again. Phil Jackson must remind the potential center that the Lakers have cultivated.

"I'm very calm boss, no matter what he says in the second half, I won't be impulsive again." Bynum replied disapprovingly, wanting to defeat him just by mental stimulation? impossible!

"Kobe, you should be more flexible in your running position in the second half..." Seeing that Bynum had no problem, Phil Jackson started to make other arrangements, which is enough to show the importance of Bynum on the defensive end. But only Gasol found that Bynum's fists have been clenched and never let go.

"Ann and Morris, you two did a good job in the first half. There is one more statistic I want to remind you, Bynum has fouled three times, understand what I mean?" Van Gundy scanned his players, especially I focused on Anjie and Westbrook.

"Let him go off the field, and then we will go all out to penetrate the inside of the Lakers." An Jie smiled. He knew the bad ideas in Van Gundy's mind very well.

"That's right, Ann, just do it. As long as Bynum is not on the court, a Gasol, I think we can handle it." It was almost a waste of effort to limit Kobe, so Van Gundy planned to make a big fuss on the inside .

"Kevin, in the second half, you should also reduce the number of outside shots appropriately. Break through more, don't be afraid of Artest, he is not the same as he was back then!" But Anjie and Morris alone can't play the whole game, On the perimeter of the Thunder, someone still needs to stand up. This is the playoffs, and just a little bit of strength can't make the team win.

"I know no one was expecting us to take the Lakers at Staples, but right here, early in the season, we beat them! Beat the defending champs! Nothing to fear, we went all the way Here, no one has ever been favored by anyone! In the last half, let the group of proud Los Angeles fans see what Thunder is!" As soon as Van Gundy finished speaking, the Thunder players gritted their teeth and were excited.

Van Gundy has fully adjusted both tactics and mentality. Now, just wait and see what kind of countermeasure Zen Master will come up with.

At the beginning of the second half, Zen master kept the twin towers by his side. He hopes that his twin towers can be staggered with the whirlwind twin towers, otherwise Bynum and Gasol will be less efficient and waste energy.

The people who take over the positions of these two are the all-round fighters Lamar Odom and Josh Powell.

Seeing the Lakers give up the inside line, Van Gundy is also unequivocal. He waved his arm vigorously, letting Anjie and Morris continue to attack!

But before they get in, the Thunder have to defend against the Lakers' offense.

How Zen Master arranged it, this ball should be able to see some clues.

As soon as the offensive formation was launched, Van Gundy found that the Lakers really gave up the inside completely. Odom was hanging around the arc, and Powell was running off-ball pick-and-rolls for his teammates. Around the entire three-second zone, no one was going to take a seat.

Fisher firmly controlled the basketball, and when he saw the opportunity, Lao Yu suddenly hit the ground and passed the ball vigorously.

Because the Thunder's defense was stretched too far, the old fish got a lot of passing gaps. Kobe easily got rid of the ball without the ball, bypassed Sefoloza, and received the ground-hitting pass that went straight into the penalty area.

After receiving the ball, Kobe had already flashed past Anjie, but Anjie reacted quickly and immediately chased him back. But An Jie could easily catch up to Peter Pan who rushed up.

Facing the Thunder's unguarded basket, Kobe immediately took three steps, leaped high, and succeeded in dunking with the tomahawk.

There are no insiders and no insiders. This is Zen Master. He never sends useless people on the field.

And when the Thunder were attacking and Anjie was holding the ball. Odom, together with Powell, double-teamed Anjie.

These two nimble guys are very difficult to deal with. An Jie can easily catch them alone, but he is caught in a double-team. Facing those two pairs of constantly waving arms, An Jie has no choice but to pass the ball just to be on the safe side.

The ball was naturally passed to Morris, who was missed. Just when the big bull was about to retaliate with a dunk, Odom, who moved quickly, made up for it.

Since Odom can play five positions, his speed is naturally much faster than traditional insiders. Zen master knows that shooting is Morris' weakness. If he wants to attack, he must be close to the basket. And the time when Morris rushed to the basket was enough for Odom to defend in place.

Morris decided to force a layup, ignoring Odom, who was much thinner than him, as he had done in the first half. However, as soon as he jumped up, the basketball in his hand was cut off by Odom.

Odom pushed forward with the ball himself, and suddenly made a pass forward. Kobe still scored the ball under Westbrook's efforts to catch up. 4 to 0, as soon as the third quarter came up, the Lakers gave the Thunder a strong response.

Under the excellent performance of his teammates, Artest was also greatly affected. His defense against Durant was tighter, and the thin Durant was completely crushed by Artest's body.

On the next attack, the ball hit Westbrook's hands. Once again he tosses himself into the air before thinking about what to do with the ball.

But this time he found that Odom blocked his offensive angle very tightly, and Powell stuck to Anjie every step of the way, making him unable to catch the ball.

Feeling like he was about to start falling, Westbrook had to hand the ball over to Morris.

Morris was afraid of losing the opportunity, so he bit the bullet and shot. His shot was still as stiff as in college, and the ball that was thrown hit the front of the rim and missed.

Only then did Van Gundy discover that the two new insiders brought in by the Zen master actually restrained Anjie and Morris!

A rookie coach like Adrian Dantley may be able to be applauded by Van Gundy, but now his opponent is Phil Jackson.

Seeing that the score was slowly increasing, Van Gundy also began to think about a solution. It really wasn't that easy to defeat the Purple and Gold Army at Staples!

The Lakers not only have strong players, but also the coaches cannot be ignored!

The situation in the second half will only become more complicated and difficult. (To be continued.)