Looking back, Hornacek kept running, not just on the right wing, but throughout the entire frontcourt, constantly setting up pick-and-rolls with his teammates. Through his running and continuous pick-and-rolls, he tore apart the Suns' defense.
pulpy.
Kobe tried hard to catch up, but was inexperienced. After a few moves, he was a bit like a headless fly. It didn't matter that he lost his own man, and he also blocked the way of his teammates.
Hornacek ran to the left wing and was open, and Stockton passed the ball.
Horry wanted to defend, but the Postman made a good offensive screen and held him back.
Hornacek caught the ball, jumped up the next moment, and shot two points.
But at this moment, Wang Tiejun, who was under the basket, had already pounced on his left waist. Seeing this, he rushed forward, took a step forward, and soared into the air. With one hand, he lifted the basketball into the air.
"yeah!"
The timely big hat made the fans cheer quickly.
"Big hat! Old K sends out the big hat..." A commentator's roar immediately sounded.
"Crack!"
After landing on the ground and taking off for the second time, Lao Wang grabbed the ball above his head and swung his elbows. After scaring away the postman and Hornacek, he glanced around the entire field and saw Kobe, who was just like a headless fly.
Get off quickly.
"Old K has grabbed the ball, Kobe is coming down quickly, pass quickly!" the commentator's roar continued.
"here!"
Kobe shouted loudly as he rushed forward.
He lost track of Hornacek, and now there was no defender around him. After a few steps, he surpassed Stockton and Kidd and rushed to the front.
"Whoosh!"
Lao Wang's ball flew toward Kobe.
"Kobe passed the frontcourt, he was as fast as a sports car and took off!"
With a loud shout from the on-site commentator, Kobe flew up from the free throw line and hit another one-handed dunk, which detonated the entire audience.
"It's great. The Suns played strong defense and quick defensive counterattacks. Now 53:61, they are already 8 points ahead." Su Qun shouted excitedly.
"Jazz served and called a timeout." Zhang Lili said at this time.
Kobe returned to the bench excitedly and scored six points in a row on three of three shots. He shouted to Lao Wang very proudly: "How about it, Lao K, just give me a chance and I will repay you. Only I can
Help you."
"Who lost him just now?" Lao Wang asked.
"he."
Everyone pointed at Kobe. Just now Kobe said that only I can help you. This sentence offended everyone.
Kobe was dumbfounded, spread his hands, and said innocently: "I tried my best to chase him, but someone blocked my way. I couldn't even see where he was going. There were people in front of me, and they were all running. It was all chaos.
.”
"Ha ha……"
Lao Wang took the lead, and the bench burst into laughter.
"He's just a rookie. He's not to blame for the embarrassment." Lightning said something pertinent.
The timeout ends and the game continues.
Zhang Liyi looked at it and said: "Oh, Wilkins went down and went up to Chapman. This is a three-back tactic, which increases the ability to open up to prevent the opponent from putting too much pressure on the low post. Personnel
I think the adjustment is right, but Chapman can't guard Russell, Horry should come up as soon as possible."
"Huo Li's physical fitness is average." Su Qun said.
At this time, the Jazz attacked, playing the third position, using Russell's height and tonnage to hit Chapman in a misplaced position.
It's a pity that Russell's ability is indeed average. Due to Chapman's weak defense, he failed to hit a three-pointer. Lao Wang won the rebound and the Suns attacked.
Wang Tiejun was positioned low on the left wing, and everyone else was pulling away, all to the three-point line.
Hornacek didn't dare to let Kobe go too far. After all, he also knew that Kobe, a rookie, still had three-pointers. If the space was too wide, he would give away points to others.
Kidd made a tactical gesture, and Kobe suddenly started to move to the wing and cut inside, attracting the Jazz's defensive attention.
At this time, Kidd at the top of the arc suddenly moved to the right and made a pass to Kobe.
This shifted the Jazz's defensive attention further to the right wing. After all, Kobe had just scored six points in a row and was very fast. No one dared to ignore him.
At this moment, Wang Tiejun suddenly started, turned around, slipped away, got rid of Campbell, and quickly cut to the basket.
In the low post on the right wing, the postman saw Wang Tiejun's action and immediately rushed back to the basket. Rasheed Wallace was completely thrown away by him. He chose the lesser of two evils, a long shot and a basket. He chose to return to defense. Basket.
Almost at the same time, Kidd, who was moving to the right, suddenly pulled away, threw away Stockton, and passed the ball to the empty space on the right side of the basket.
Wang Tiejun stepped into the paint area, saw the ball coming, quickly jumped up, caught the ball in the air with both hands, and threw it at the postman who had just returned to the basket.
"Bang!"
Amidst the violent sound of the basket exploding, the postman groaned and was knocked directly under the basket. Under the huge impact of Lao Wang, he even slid back more than a meter.
"boom!"
The whole stadium burst into cheers, thousands of people stood up, and the waving fists were like undulating waves, pushing the atmosphere of the Suns' home court to the extreme.
"Hey, the postman sat on the floor without getting up, covering the back of his head, as if there was something wrong with his head?" Buckley shouted at this time.
Bill Walton was staring at the screen, then nodded and said: "It must have hit the back of his head when he was knocked down."
"Look, there's blood on the floor," Busfieldton shouted, pointing at the screen.
At this time, the camera zoomed in, and sure enough, there was a pool of blood where the postman had just fallen to the ground.
"Damn it! Damn it!"
On the field, the postman was extremely depressed. While cursing, he stood up with the help of his teammates and walked off the field.
Jerry Sloan calmly made a substitution and walked over to the postman where the team doctor was examining him.
"Dizzied?"
"A little bit."
"The wound is not big, so there should be no major problems, but I don't recommend continuing the fight. It's safer to go to the hospital for a checkup. After all, this is the back of the head." The team doctor said immediately after a simple examination.
The postman and Jerry Sloan were about to say something, when suddenly there was a burst of cheers from the audience. They saw that the reason was that Old K blocked another shot to Campbell.
Chapman picked up the ball from behind Campbell and ran it down quickly. Kobe rushed to the front on the other wing. The young man's speed advantage was very powerful.
"Bang!"
Kobe dropped Hornacek, received a pass from Chapman, and dunked another ball.
"53:65, the Suns lead by 12 points." Zhang Li said with a smile.
"The main thing is that he is very defensive, and then Kobe makes a quick counterattack. His counterattack awareness is very strong." Su Qun said excitedly.
"Now I don't know if the postman can come back. If he doesn't come back, this game will be like this." Zhang Liangli said easily.
On the sidelines, the postman said to the team doctor: "Hurry up and wrap it up for me. I want to play."
"No, Carl, safety first, this is the back of your head, don't be careless." Jerry Sloan stopped the postman's impulse and firmly refused the postman's request to play.
The Postman could not play, and the Jazz's resistance was meaningless. In order to preserve their strength, Jerry Sloan subsequently replaced the main players and announced that he would give up the game.
In this way, due to Karl Malone's unexpected injury, the Suns won the G2 game and achieved two consecutive victories at home.
Although the reason for winning was related to the opponent's injury, no one thought the Suns' victory was a fluke, because from beginning to end, the Jazz never had the upper hand over the Suns. The best result was to limit Lao Wang
The offense can maintain a balanced trend with the Suns.
However, in the first half of this game, the Jazz did limit Wang Tiejun's offense. Whether it was the combination of Campbell and Postman or the foul tactics of the substitute inside, they all played a good role.
This allows other teams to see the hope of limiting a behemoth. Two insiders with enough tonnage, good defense, courage to confront, and not bad mobility can have a chance to limit the behemoth.
But it is not easy, very difficult, to assemble such an insider combination.
After the game, in the CCTV live broadcast, Zhang Lijia said: "The first half of this game was still very difficult. They limited the performance of the Tiejun through two big insiders, and at the same time, their foul tactics were also effective, which shows that the Jazz's
The strength is really good.
In addition, according to my observation, Tiejun failed to exert his full strength in the first half due to foul tactics and did not forcefully attack the basket. This must have some reservations. He should hope to explode in the second half.
So the Suns played well in the third quarter, and the Tiejun also played well under full exertion. Before the postman was injured and went off the field, he performed well on the defensive end one after another and sent out assists one after another on the offensive end. Even if the postman was not injured,
I think the Suns can also win this game."
Su Qun took the statistics table and read: "Old K played 23 minutes in the first half. After the Jazz gave up the game in the second half, he only played 5 minutes and then left the game. He played a total of 32 minutes, 7 of 13 shots, and a shooting percentage of 53.8.
%, 13 of 23 free throws, shooting rate of 56.5%. Today’s shooting rate has declined. I got a total of 27 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 6 blocks, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls.”
After reading the data, he asked: "Coach Zhang, would you like to give your final evaluation of Lao K's performance today?"
Zhang Liyi nodded and said: "In general, Tie Jun's performance determines the performance of the Suns. Today, under the double-teaming of Campbell and the postman, as well as the interference of foul tactics, his performance in the first half was somewhat disappointing.
Struggled, so the Suns struggled.
But this is normal. Players cannot perform the same in all games. They are not humans, they are robots. Moreover, the Jazz did play well in the first half today and restricted the Iron Army.
Generally speaking, the Iron Army performed better in the second half than in the first half, but the postman was injured, so he didn't have much playing time, and his performance was indeed not as good as before."
At this time, the Suns returned to the locker room, and a group of reporters followed outside the locker room.
"Coach D'Antoni, what do you think of the performance of the team and Old K today? Can you talk about it?"
D'Antoni walked at the back, and everyone else went in. He was about to go in, but he was stopped by a reporter who asked him some interesting questions.
He had no scruples. The boss didn't want to renew the contract anyway. He thought about it and said, "Frankly speaking, I think the team has a problem that needs to be solved. If we don't solve this problem, there will be big problems sooner or later."
When he said this, he cheered, and all the reporters in the corridor gathered around him.
After coughing dryly, he continued: "The tactical status given to Old K by the team is too high. Almost every ball has to pass through his hands first. This ties the entire offense of the team to him. Once he becomes this
If something goes wrong, the team's offense will have big problems.
So, as you just saw, when the Jazz restricted Old K, the team had a very difficult time. If the postman hadn't been injured accidentally, victory would not have been so easy, and problems were inevitable."
"Coach D'Antoni, are you saying that the Suns should lower K's tactical status?" a reporter asked excitedly.
"Yes, everyone knows that the ball will definitely pass to Old K first, so why not double-team him? This is why Old K was restricted today. The Jazz's double-teaming was too decisive. They knew that the ball would definitely pass to him.
It was given to Old K, so they double-teamed him and they succeeded," D'Antoni said.
At this moment, Danny Ainge appeared at the door of the locker room and shouted with a serious look: "Mike, come in, we are going to summarize the game."
"Oh, sorry."
D'Antoni knew Danny Ainge was unhappy, but he didn't care much. He nodded to the reporters and entered the locker room.
"Mike, don't say things you shouldn't say in front of reporters. You are a coach and you should be more cautious when accepting interviews." Danny Ainge closed the door and whispered.
"I didn't say anything," D'Antoni said with a shrug.
Danny Ainge snorted coldly. He heard something just now. D'Antoni has gone too far. No wonder Colangelo Jr. has not renewed his contract in advance.
In the locker room, a group of players ignored the coaches' business and were very happy to win the game.
Especially Kobe, who performed well in the third quarter. Danny Ainge never replaced him. He played the entire second half, making 7 of 11 shots, 0 of 1 three-pointers, and 3 of 3 free throws. He scored 17 points.
Among the 11 offenses, there were 6 fast breaks, 5 of which were scored, 5 of which were positional battles, one pull-up jump shot after breaking through with the ball, which was missed, and three layups after ball-free cuts, which were scored twice.
, missed an outside shot.
Seeing that Kobe was very happy, Lao Wang poured cold water on him and said, "Little blacksmith, what are you happy about? I only played a few fast breaks, and my performance in positional battles was not very good."
"It's the same if you can score on a fast break." Kobe said unconvinced.
"That's because your opponent is Hornacek, and he can't keep up with you. If you play against Jordan, how many points can you score with your fast break? How many times can you score?" Lao Wang asked.
Kobe was at a loss for words, and Lao Wang continued: "But you still played well without the ball just now, and you cut in very timely."
At this point, when he saw a smile on Kobe's face, he immediately poured out another bucket of cold water and said: "But the shooting is very bad. I missed both shots. The stability is too poor. Don't you want to compare with Jordan?"
, how to compare?”
Kobe's face tightened, his neck stiffened, and he said: "Don't worry, as long as I improve my strength training and confrontation, my shooting stability will definitely improve, and sooner or later I will be able to compete with him."
Lightning smiled at this time and said: "Okay, old K, don't hit the rookie. His performance today was pretty good. It would be bad if we hit him and turn him into a soft-footed shrimp."
"Old K, if it weren't for me today, you would definitely lose. If you suppress me again, be careful of me rebelling against you." Kobe said.
"Look at him, is he a soft-footed shrimp?" Lao Wang pointed at Kobe and asked.
Lightning took a look and found that it was indeed not like a soft-legged shrimp, but rather like a bullfighting animal with red eyes.
…
At 8:30 a.m. the next day, the Jazz announced that the postman had three stitches on the back of his head, but there was no major problem and it was just a skin injury.
"This is a real iron knot."
The Suns were having breakfast. After Lao Wang learned the news, he had to be convinced. Karl Malone is really an invincible little strongman. His physique is too strong and he is too iron.
"Old K?"
At this time, Lightning handed over a newspaper.
He took it and looked at it, and couldn't help but be startled. He couldn't help but look at D'Antoni in another picture in the restaurant.
"Have I ever offended him?" He turned to ask Lightning.
"I think it has to do with basketball philosophy, not personal reasons."
Lightning analyzed calmly, then brought over a few newspapers and said: "Some media are hyping this matter, especially the media in Salt Lake City, saying that the Suns are having internal strife. Old K, you have to be careful and don't be affected."
"rest assured."
Lao Wang thought for a moment, threw away the newspaper, and let it go. D'Antoni had no status in the team and could not influence the coaching staff, nor could he control a coach's mouth.
But he couldn't control it, and someone could. When Colangelo found out later, he was very unhappy. After breakfast, he and D'Antoni talked in the room for more than ten minutes. After coming out, D'Antoni looked very bad. Obviously