noveldrama
Chapter 773 773 509 God is Not Kind to Me
Chapter 773 773 509 God is Not Kind to Me
?Chapter 773: Chapter 509: God is Not Kind to Me Chapter 773: Chapter 509: God is Not Kind to Me After the timeout, the SuperSonics noticed a peculiar phenomenon.
As the second dominant ball-handler in the league to Fei, James had become a transporter, taking the ball across the court and then passing it to Pau Gasol.
Having Pau Gasol take the high post and direct the inverted triangle offense led to the collapse of the system dominated by James.
The Lakers returned to the “correct path” in the eyes of the Zen Master, and Pau Gasol did not disappoint; in his first possession, he found an opportunity for Antawn Jamison, a lob pass that helped him score.
Jackson hoped James could be like Frye, but that was only what the coaching staff thought. For someone like the Emperor who carried the hopes of Nike, the scorn of his hometown, and the obsession to surpass Fei, there was much more to consider.
With Marc Gasol as the pivot, James could still make a contribution.
His current three-point percentage was close to that of Fei during the regular season, at 39%. However, like Pau Gasol, his efficiency needed to be controlled to a certain output to be maintained, so he couldn’t shoot in large volume. Even so, as long as he was willing to move, he could still create many opportunities within the Lakers’ system.
But James was unwilling to settle. Now that Kobe was not there, he should have controlled the game; he hadn’t even exerted much effort and Jackson was already urging him to think of the greater good, to sacrifice the individual for the collective.
So, he could only stand aside and watch.
A bizarre scene suddenly unfolded on the court.
The player the SuperSonics cared most about was the least active player for the Lakers.
Whenever he was without the ball, James would stand at one end of the court, neither directing nor moving, the Zen Master wanted him to be like Frye, but to be realistic, he was indeed just like Frye now.
Fei was resting off the court, he was resting on the court, you could say it was the same.
Knight fans were familiar with this scene.
In last year’s Eastern Conference semifinals, James had bid farewell to the Knights in the same manner.
Fei was even more familiar with this scene.
Because James becoming a spectator on the court when he was unhappy was not strange to him.
If the coaching staff was to blame him, then he also had something to say.
He had played the entire first quarter, and now not having the ball gave him a good reason to catch his breath; wasn’t Pau Gasol more suitable for handling the ball? Then let him handle it.
The decrease in James’ offensive impact was not fatal for the Lakers, because the Lakers were a team with an overflow of offensive firepower; even if both Kobe and James were silent, they wouldn’t be troubled with scoring.
Hamilton, Miller, and Jamison all stepped up to score at this time.
However, the lack of defense was unavoidable.
Especially since James was delegating on the offensive end and not exerting much effort on defense, Durant was free to roam on the perimeter.
Against Hamilton, he could just pull up and shoot.
When facing Jamison, a big step with the ball was enough to break through.
Pau Gasol’s help defense was only effective in the paint, while Durant and Chris Bosh’s pick-and-roll offense often forced Pau Gasol to leave the basket area.
The Lakers needed to limit Durant, and the only one who could do that was James.
But James was now like Gao Yuliang in the opening scene of “Ren Yi”, unhurried, as if everything was under control.
Jackson’s face darkened.
Having coached for so many years, he had seen all kinds of teams, from dominators like Jordan to sensitive and self-doubting country bumpkins like Pippen, game-lovers but quick-witted ones like Shaquille O’Neal, and even paranoid obsessives like Kobe whom he could manage. However, with James, he never felt like he was truly coaching him.
Because among these people, only James considered victories and losses as mere tokens.
Probably because of the deep-seated Fei virus, James had a pathological desire to “share the cake” on the court.
In the Lakers’ balance of power, he and Kobe should each have half, with others partaking of what’s left after them.
Once you touched his share of the cake, he wouldn’t explode in anger like Jordan; he would just adopt an “I have transcended the mundane” attitude and compete fiercely with a non-competitive demeanor.
The opponent was the SuperSonics, and the Lakers couldn’t afford his tanking.
It was just that Jackson hadn’t expected that merely instructing him to temporarily hand over control of the ball to Pau Gasol would elicit such a rebound.
But Jackson was not one of those tool coaches dominated by James.
During the regular season, he could allow James to manipulate, but now, since he wanted to delegate, it was time to let Kobe take over.
A few minutes later
Before Kobe took to the court, Jackson told him: “LeBron lacks energy tonight, you need to take on more.”
This was never a problem for Kobe.
“Consider it done.”
Midway through the next quarter, the SuperSonics subbed out Durant and Bosh, the Lakers subbed out James.
However, even with Durant in good form, the SuperSonics, not only didn’t trail behind the James-led secondary lineup but instead pulled ahead by 6 points.
“Well played,” Fei joked, “you’re more likely to become ’01 Kobe than Kobe himself.”
Suddenly Durant said out of nowhere, “Can becoming ’01 Kobe get me Scarlett’s contact info?”
“Did you forget something?” Fei said, “She’s married.”
With a smug smile, Durant replied, “Is that so? No worries.”
As soon as Fei took to the court, he greeted his friends from Marvel: “Sitting on the bench got a bit boring; want to see something? I’ll give you a live performance.”
Robert Downey Jr. wanted to see an alley-oop, Scarlett didn’t understand basketball, but she pretended to, so she requested something Fei couldn’t deliver: “Hit a home run!”