Kirilenko was in mid-air and lost control of his body, crashing into Wei Guo.
Wei Guo took two steps back...
"Bang!!!"
The rebound caused Kirilenko to fall flat on his backside.
Judging from the scene, Kirilenko was in a worse situation, but a foul is a foul, and the referee blew the whistle without mercy, giving Wei Guo three free throw opportunities.
"How foolish..."
Sloan slapped his thigh, "Fouling Wei Guo is just giving away points!"
Wei Guo saw Sloan's conflicted expression and couldn't let his old rival suffer too much, so he made the free throws very quickly, throwing the ball toward the basket as soon as he got it, repeating the same action three times in a row.
"Whoosh!!!"
"Whoosh!!!"
"Whoosh!!!"
All three free throws made!
60:40!!
The Lakers lead by 20 points.
......
In the second half, 20 points became a watershed moment. If the Jazz couldn't catch up in one go, the game would quickly become garbage time.
Many teams try to close the gap in the third quarter...
Because the first two quarters are spent testing each other, probing each other's shooting touch and the referees' standards, star players will hold back in the first half. Once they've tested each other enough, they'll unleash their full potential in the third quarter.
The head coach will also adjust tactics during halftime!
The Jazz played around Deron Williams in the second half. If Wei Guo can save the team by himself, why can't Deron Williams?
Kobe guarded the entire court!
Deron Williams finally managed to get the ball to the frontcourt, and Boozer set a screen for him outside the three-point line. After the screen, he immediately switched onto the defense, and the player in front of Deron Williams became Wei Guo.
"What are they trying to do?!"
Sloan's eyes widened in anger. "You really won't give me even the slightest chance?"
When has Deron Williams ever received such treatment? Two of them, Wei Guo and Kobe, were guarding him, and he almost lost control of the ball. He hastily passed the ball to Okur, who backed down Gasol and attempted a fadeaway jumper, but missed!
Bynum grabs the defensive rebound...
This was no coincidence. For the next few minutes, Kobe was on full-court defense. Whenever the Jazz set a pick and roll, Wei Guo would switch with Kobe to guard him, not giving Deron Williams any chance to shoot.
......
"Utah Jazz request a timeout!"
......
Deron Williams, hands on his knees, bent over and panting heavily, said, "Coach, our tactics have been figured out."
"Um..."
Sloan nodded silently. "The Lakers are guarding you one-on-one, not giving you any scoring opportunities."
Deron Williams was never the legendary hero who would arrive on a rainbow-colored cloud to save the Jazz.
For the Lakers...
The bench players were high-fiving the starters; they knew very well that the game was over and the Jazz had no chance of turning things around.
......
After the timeout, the Jazz gritted their teeth and persevered.
They still couldn't hold on until the fourth quarter...
Near the end of the third quarter, Sloan substituted his starters, and then... the Lakers also substituted their starters.
The final quarter passed quickly.
"Beep!!!"
The whistle blew, and the game ended.
122:83!!
The Lakers defeated the Jazz by 39 points at home.
......
Match statistics:
Wei Guo: 27 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks
Kobe: 31 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block
Paul: 16 points, 5 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 steals, 0 blocks
......
For the Jazz, no player scored more than 20 points. Every offensive option was shut down by the Lakers. The worst off was Deron Williams. The whole team was counting on him to be their savior, but he was outmaneuvered by Wei Guo and suffered a double torment from Kobe and Wei Guo. In the entire third quarter, Sloan only had one highlight-reel shot, the one against Paul.
The gap in strength is huge...
The Jazz aren't in despair. They managed to come back from a 0-2 deficit in the first round, so even if they don't beat the Lakers, they still have a chance to win one or two games.
Many people are comparing this season to the 1992 Olympics, when the US men's basketball team formed its first Dream Team and dominated the Olympics. From the group stage to winning the championship, the head coach didn't call a single timeout. This year's Lakers team has a bit of that Dream Team feeling to be playing in the Olympics.
Sloan couldn't fall asleep for a long time after returning to the hotel.
It wasn't that he couldn't accept defeat, but the crushing 39-point loss was unacceptable to him. Furthermore, Wei Guo's tactics were figured out, and he increased the intensity on Deron in the third quarter, causing Deron, who could have been the savior, to only score 2 points in that quarter.
I just can't sleep...
He simply got up, took out a tactical board and a lot of small cards from his bag. The characters on the cards were so lifelike that anyone who had watched the NBA would recognize them... Wei Guo, Kobe, Gasol, Paul, Ariza, Odom... even Cummings was on the card, all of them Lakers players.
Sloan didn't have a penchant for collecting player cards; these cards were primarily used to think about and design tactics to counter the Lakers.
I just can't sleep...
Let's just arrange these cards in a different way. Let's take Wei Guo out first and randomly form a lineup: Paul, Kobe, Vujacic, Odom, and Gasol.
"hiss..."
I gasped. This lineup is incredibly strong; their chances of winning are over 70%.
Let's combine the remaining players:
Farmar, Walton, Ariza, Bynum, and Weiguo
Referring to the Knicks of the 2005-06 season, whose roster was not as good as this one, they still won the championship... which means that this roster also has a greater than 70% chance of winning the championship.
So...
Gentry has two championship-winning lineups at his disposal.
"What's the point of fighting!"
Sloan swept the cards to the ground, leaving only one on the edge of the table. Cummings grinned at Sloan.
......
There were no matches the next day, but a major announcement was made!
The honors and rankings for the 2007-08 regular season have been released. These honors are very important to players. The rankings of players such as the top 50 all-time and top 10 all-time are important data references for career honors.
Let's start with five statistics for this season:
Wei Guo: 37.1 points, 12.7 rebounds, 8.6 assists, 2.3 steals, and 5.7 blocks.
Compared to the previous two seasons, Wei Guo was the top performer in all five statistical categories. However, his performance has declined significantly this season, which is related to the roster and not necessarily a decline in form.
The top scorer is Wei Guo.
The top rebounder is Dwight Howard.
The top assist provider is Nash.
Paul is the leader in steals.
The player with the most blocks is Wei Guo.
In other words...
Wei Guo only managed to get two No. 1 rankings.
These are just a few small lists; there are many more, such as turnovers, fouls, field goals made, field goal percentage, three-pointers, three-point percentage, free throws, free throw percentage, games played, missed shots, efficiency rating... Wei Guo's name can be seen on quite a few of these lists.
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