Chapter 160 Trouble

In the first game of the Western Conference semifinals, the Suns won, and the second game was still played at the American Airlines Center in Phoenix.

"The Lakers caught up with the score. It's a pity for the Suns not to maintain their advantage until the end of the third quarter."

When they heard the voice of the commentator on TV, the Suns fans also felt slightly sorry. The game between the Suns and the Lakers is still going on. For most of the previous time, the Suns had an advantage. After establishing a 5-point advantage in the first quarter, the Suns expanded their advantage to 7 points after the second quarter. Even when they played 8 minutes in the third quarter, the Suns still had a 7-point advantage. But in the last period of the third quarter, the Suns' attack suddenly shorted. Facing the Lakers' defense, they did not score a point in the last four minutes, and the Lakers took the opportunity to catch up with the score.

64:64, after the third quarter, the two teams tied. Compared with the previous game, the two teams scored significantly lower after the three quarters. After all, the two teams are strong western teams, especially in the playoff stage, the defense of both sides will not be too weak. In the last game, the players of the two teams felt hot and could not stop even the defense, but after all, such a feeling could not last. In the face of high-intensity defense, the offensive efficiency of both sides is declining in this game.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter of the game, Erwin Gentry put Zhao Yue off the court after thinking about it carefully. Zhao Yue played a whole quarter in the third quarter, and only rested for 3 minutes in the first half.

Zhao Yue rested, and Gentry naturally could not put Nash and Anthony off the court. In addition to Nash and Anthony, the two starting players Channing Fry and Carter also stayed on the court. At the same time, Iverson, who was trusted by Gentry this season, came on as a substitute player. Gentry adopted a large and four small Lineup.

This season, due to the strong return of Iverson and the joining of players such as Yi Jianlian and Gotat, the playing time of several important substitutes of the Suns last season has been compressed. Jared Dudley also picked up the gap, and the rest of them have almost been cleared out of the team or their playing time has been further squeezed. .

Because the three points of several starting outside players are more stable, and Yi Jianlian has emerged in this season, Gotat's defense is tough. After all, Dudley's defense is a huge defect in Gentry's eyes, so the playing time is even more serious. As for the defender line, there are two excellent point guards, Nash and Iverson, and Carter's stable performance, Iverson can also play as a shooting guard. Basically, Shannon Brown has nothing to do.

The possession of the ball is still handed over to Nash, and Iverson and Carter stay on the court to play double-backs. Although Carter has scored less than 20 points per game because of some offensive power this season, Carter's attack power is there after all. Coupled with Iverson's assistance, the Suns attack is not a big problem.

69:71, the game lasted nearly four minutes, and the Suns got a two-point lead while holding the ball. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the referee blowing a defensive foul on the Lakers, Gentry began to adjust the lineup. Nash and Anthony continued to stay on the field, while Channing Fry and Carter were replaced by Zhao Yue and Grant Hill.

I have to say that Nash's role change was very fast. In the previous round, he still attacked the top soldiers, but after Zhao Yue came on the court, he immediately became the organizer. After seeing that Zhao Yue did not encounter much defensive pressure at the middle distance, the ball in his hand immediately passed over.

After receiving the pass from the middle distance, Zhao Yue turned to hit the back and began to squeeze Bynum to approach the basket. Just as Gasol was about to go forward to attack, Zhao Yue suddenly turned to the right and flashed into the three-second area, and the left catch was high and hooked to the basket.

"Wo!" With a steady hit by the ball, Zhao Yue rewrited the score to 69:73, and the Suns gained a 4-point advantage.

The Suns completed the attack, and the Lakers were not willing to show weakness. Kobe broke through and sent the ball to Gasol. When the Suns made up for the defense, Gasol turned the ball to Bynum, who shot 2 points from the bottom line.

Nash dribbled the ball to the half again. At this time, Zhao Yue could no longer catch the ball as easily as the previous round. Bynum adopted a half-hugging method, half of his body was behind Zhao Yue, and the small half of his body leaned forward, and the long arm leaned in front of Zhao Yue. If Nash passed the ball at will. To Zhao Yue, Bynum only needs to take a step forward to cut off the ball directly.

Nash obviously understood this. He looked up and found that Zhao Yue's right hand, which was not attached, had been raised high before he hung the ball under the basket.

The force was stuck in Bynum. After Zhao Yue received the ball with his right hand, he turned around and wanted to put Bynum behind him, but Bynum's defensive experience was also very rich. When he realized that he could not stop Zhao Yue from receiving the ball, Bynum quickly retreated half a step and gave up entanglement with Zhao Yue's direct body. At this time, Zhao Yue turned around. Instead, he stopped just in front of Zhao Yue.

With his left foot, he strode forward. Zhao Yue tried to rush directly from Bynum's body, while Bynum was already prepared and quickly pushed up without giving Zhao Yue room to rush forward. The Lakers' attack had also come, and Gasol arrived to stop it with Bynum.

The forward left foot was taken back, Zhao Yue's body quickly jumped up, and his upper body leaned back. He began to open space with the two defenders to find a mobile phone meeting.

The two Lakers inside players next to Zhao Yue did not want to give Zhao Yue a chance to take action so easily. The two jumped up and waved to Zhao Yue's head at the same time to interfere with Zhao Yue's action.

Facing the defense of the two, Zhao Yue shook his wrist and threw the ball. While the ball was shot, Zhao Yue's eyebrows frowned slightly. He felt that there was something wrong with the ball.

"Rebound!" Feeling that something was wrong, Zhao Yue immediately shouted to remind his teammates, and at the same time, he also rushed to the basket.

The Lakers had been prepared for Zhao Yue's rush. Gasol directly blocked Zhao Yue with his body. As long as he rushed forward, Zhao Yue would get a foul. Bynum quickly took a step under the basket and took off the board. Hill, another Sun player who rushed under the basket, was blocked by Luke Wharton.

Bynum took off the rebound and threw the ball into Fisher's hand. At this time, the Lakers also fought back. Of course, the Suns would not watch and rushed to the other half.

Fisher was stopped by the Suns when he rushed to the free throw line. As soon as he pushed it, Fisher sent the ball to Kobe Bryant on the three-point line. Seeing Kobe catch the ball outside the three-point line, Anthony rushed back as soon as possible.

shaking Anthony's center of gravity with a fake shot, Kobe immediately dribbled the ball under the basket, leaned on Iverson's layup and hit 2 points.

After Nash dribbling to the half, Zhao Yue took the initiative to mention the high block. With the help of Zhao Yue's block, Nash quickly rushed into the three-point line. The Lakers' defense began to contract, but they were afraid that several players who could shoot, including Zhao Yue, were opened, and the Lakers' defense did not dare to contract too fiercely.

Realizing that there was a loophole in the Lakers' defense, Nash accelerated and rushed to the basket. The Lakers' defense contracted sharply. Three defenders appeared in an instant near the three-second zone. Nash also realized that he wanted to pass the ball, but it was a step slower. He had just picked up the ball and didn't know where it came out. He slapped the ball and cut the ball directly off the ball in Nash's hand.

Fisher took the lead in reacting and grabbed the ball, and the Lakers, who completed the steal, launched a counterattack immediately.

Zhao Yue, who fell in a high position, retreated to the half early. When Fisher dribbled the ball outside the three-point line, he had already retreated into the free throw line. Seeing that Nash seemed unable to stop Fisher directly, Zhao Yue immediately moved his steps to block him.

Nash did not stop Fisher's impact and was forced to retreat directly to the three-second zone. Zhao Yue took a step to the right basket to assist in defense.

The body plunged directly into Zhao Yue's arms, and Fisher grabbed the ball with his right hand and wrapped it around the back. He passed the ball from behind and sent it to Gasol in front of him.

When he saw Fisher plunge into his arms but did not jump, Zhao Yue felt bad. He quickly turned around to prepare to defend, but he was still half a beat slow. Gasol jumped up and quickly put the ball into the basket.

73:73, the two teams tied. After seeing such a score, Gentry's eyebrows inadvertently twisted together, but soon it relaxed and did not rush to call for a timeout.

The Suns' attack still started from Zhao Yue, and the bottom line received Nash's pass. Before Zhao Yue had time to do too much offensive action, there were already Lakers players coming forward to attack. At this time, Zhao Yue was not greedy and threw the ball into Anthony's hand in the outer line.

The Lakers' rotation defense was also very fast. Anthony received the ball and immediately someone jumped on it, and Anthony threw the ball into Hill's hand.

Hill had a chance to shoot, but his shot was also affected by the Lakers' defense, and the ball hit the basket and bounced out.

The Lakers protected the backcourt rebound, and the ball came to Kobe again after coming to the half. Kobe, who received the ball, scored 2 points again with his signature back-to-back jump shot.

75:73, the Lakers scored 2 points. At this time, Gentry was not indifferent and decisively called for a timeout.

The Sun failed to attack for three consecutive rounds. Gentry deliberately arranged an offensive tactic when calling for a pause, but this tactic did not work. The tactic was played, but Nash's last-minute layup was influenced by the Lakers and failed to layup.

Although the Lakers' next attack was also prevented, the Suns fans at the scene did not find a reason to be happy. Two minutes later, the score became 78:73, and the Suns were 5 points behind. For four minutes, the sun did not score a single point, just like the end of the third quarter, and the sun once again suffered a scoring shortage.