Mike D'Antoni set up three sets of offensive tactics, but in the end they all came to nothing, because the Heat's defense was almost impeccable. So in the end, he relied on Kobe to force a pull-up from the outside, against the two strong players James and Wade, and then fell back.
Jump shot. Duang~, the lights come on, and the game is over.
110-111, the Lakers lost to the Miami Heat by 1 point, halting their winning streak.
In the evening, Kobe, Nash, and Tang Qian all appeared at the post-game press conference, because the performance of the three of them was the best in the entire Lakers team. Kobe scored 26 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists.
Although the shooting rate in the first three quarters was extremely poor, his performance in the fourth quarter was called redemption. If James hadn't made the buzzer-beating shot in 5.3 seconds, he would have been the terminator of the game. Steve Nash's game
His score was not high, only 13 points, but he got 14 assists. This data is quite good for him now. Tang Qian's statistics in this game are outstanding: 23 points, 7 rebounds, 12 blocks and 1 assist.
, especially his shooting percentage, which actually exceeded 75%! This is an extremely good shooting percentage among NBA insiders.
However, tonight the three of them all looked gloomy and their expressions did not look good.
What's the reason? It's simple. The Lakers lost, so no matter how good the personal data is, it's of no use.
But when an ESPN male reporter deliberately asked Tang Qian how he felt about being beaten by James, the latter said:
"In my opinion, the hero of the Heat tonight is Dwyane Wade, because if he hadn't desperately hit that offensive rebound, we would have won." Tang Qian knows that ESPN is James' "Queen Media"
", so he continued: "As for LeBron James, he just did what he should do."
"After all, even Shaquille O'Neal can make that open shot, right?"
The next day, Tang Qian's remarks appeared on ESPN's home page.
"China's nickname of King is nothing, he likes Dwyane Wade even more!" - ESPN.
"Confident? Or arrogant? The Lakers bluntly said on the 29th that James is not very good!" - ESPN.
"He is a madman! Luck is the only thing he relies on to survive in the league!" - ESPN expert Henry Abbott.
But except for ESPN, the rest of the sports media still gave this game relatively unbiased reports and opinions.
"The Lakers unfortunately lost! The Heat narrowly won! This was a very exciting game!" - T.N.T official website.
"Although they lost, the Lakers also showed their strength! They are not weaklings!" - Los Angeles Times.
"Just waiting for the run-in! The Lakers will become stronger and stronger!" - Laker Nation.
"The Emperor! This is the new nickname given to China by former Heat player Alonzo Mourning!" - Bleachers.
"Eastern Warrior! The Lakers' strongest defensive barrier inside!" - FOX Sports reporter Abby Hornacek. At the same time, he also included a photo of the stadium with this title. Tang Qian took a step forward and faced him head-on.
LeBron James is about to fly. The former's face and expression are captured very vividly, as if you can feel the strength and perseverance through the photo.
Facts have proved that the photo captured by Abby Hornacek during this game will appear frequently in the future until it is finally included in the official NBA photo collection.
On the Internet, today's most popular basketball video is Tang Qian's shot block collection. He made 6 big blocks and completely blocked James.
Of course, LeBron James also saw these news and reports. His eyelids shrank tightly, and then he called the NBA league office and said: "Hey, is this Mr. Stu Jackson? I want to report something to you.
Is such that……"
Three days later, on January 20th, US time, the Lakers played their 40th game of the regular season. Their opponent was the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference. Just when everyone thought the Lakers could destroy their opponent, the Purple and Gold Army once again made a mistake.
I don’t know why, but Tang Qian, who performed well in the last game, was restricted a lot of playing time. His 10 minutes of playing time also hit the lowest point during this period. In this game, Howard’s playing time was
It lasted 44 minutes, 18 shots were taken, and the hit rate was astonishing. He only made 4 goals, made 14 shots, and shot 22.2%. This also tied Dwight Howard's career shooting record. And this is still true.
With the above number of shots, coupled with 30 free throws, Howard accounted for most of the Lakers' shots in this game.
How many free throws did you make in 30 attempts? You hit 15, but you still made 15, almost tying the embarrassing record of 17 missed free throws in a single game set by Chris Dudley in 1990. In
With this kind of **** shooting rate, even if he scored 23 points, it would be of no avail. The Lakers lost to the Toronto Raptors by a huge score.
By doing this, he stepped into Kobe's minefield. As I said before, Kobe doesn't care about the ball, only the right to take shots. You, Dwight Howard, have taken so many shots in one game, how can I still play? So,
At the post-game press conference that night, Kobe directly mentioned Howard's name, claiming that he needed to practice his shooting skills, otherwise it would be fine if he missed the free throws. His shooting percentage in the low post and at the basket was just over 20%. That was really bad.
That's a bit ridiculous.
After hearing this, Howard retorted in the post-game interview: "Some people only allow themselves to shoot, but do not allow their teammates to shoot. This is purely the behavior of a ball tyrant!"
Then it was said that the two men had another violent argument in the locker room.
The content is unknown, but it cannot be anything good.
What Tang Qian cares about is himself. Why was his playing time suddenly reduced?
He first asked Mike D'Antoni, but the latter hesitated and talked about him. Then he asked Steve Nash. Here he finally got a clue: It turned out to be Dwight.
Howard and the management put pressure on him, claiming that he and himself could not coexist peacefully, and that the management should either choose him or the latter. Of course the Lakers management would not hesitate. One has an annual salary of nearly 20 million, and the other only earns 400.
Wan, one is a 6-time NBA All-Star, 4-time NBA rebounding champion and the Defensive Player of the Year for three consecutive years, while the other one has never been selected to the All-Star team, and his offensive ability is extremely low, although he also has a block champion and a best defender.
The second lineup, but compared with the former, is still a world of difference. It would be an understatement to say that the crows are better than the phoenixes.
Therefore, the Lakers management, represented by Mitch Kupchak, quickly made a statement, suggesting that Mike D'Antoni would increase Howard's shots and roles while reducing Tang Qian's playing time and performance opportunities. In this way,
, only to have a situation where he only had 10 minutes of playing time against the Raptors.
Hearing this, Tang Qian was a little annoyed. He was not annoyed with the team management. After all, the purpose of the management was to optimize the strength of the team's lineup. The honor gap between him and Howard is now too big, no matter which team's management he is.
Come here, I'm afraid they will all make this choice. Is he angry that Dwight Howard, as an NBA superstar player, actually plays such an insidious trick?
But before he went to Mitch Kupchak, Kobe came to the door first, and then asked loudly: "Tell me, what do you think? Do you want me or him?" Facing the furious Heiman
Mitch Kupchak immediately adopted a tolerant policy and said: "Of course it's you. Needless to say, Bryant, you are now the face and symbol of the Lakers. How can Howard compare with you?"
"Hearing this, Kobe's face softened a little, but it was still very ugly and he said: "Then why did he tell me that this was what you agreed to? Was this what you ordered?"
"e.on~Bryant, this is the United States, everything must be based on evidence." Mitch Kupchak said: "If Howard can provide evidence, then I will nod and admit it, otherwise this is pure blindness."
Just making things up and talking nonsense!" "Really?" Kobe obviously didn't believe everything, but he knew that what the other party said was correct. In the United States, everything depends on evidence, and he knew that 99% of the time, Dwight Howard didn't.
of this kind of evidence.
After all, Mitch Kupchak is also an old man, and such low-level tricks will never be left behind.
"Okay, let me believe you can do it, but the hot playing time must return to normal! He is the best sixth man of the Lakers now. If you put him on the bench, both publicly and privately, it is not good for the Lakers.
Unfavorable!" Kobe is no longer a dazed young man who just entered the league. His more than ten years of NBA career has made him aware of these things and he knows them well. And the other party's answer is almost as he expected.
, said: "Perm? What's wrong with it? Bryant, you should know, right? It's the head coach's job to allocate players' playing time. This is not a 2K game. Our management will not interfere too much in this aspect."
Not very good at interfering? Only those who are not very good at interfering are weird! However, Kobe will not explain these things clearly, because the head coach is originally one of the props used by the management to shirk responsibility. This is completely different from pure college basketball.
Different. "Okay~ I'm glad to hear you say that. I hope everything you said is true." After hearing Kobe's somewhat profound words, Mitch Kupchak also laughed loudly and said: "Don't worry, don't worry.
, the purpose of our management's existence is to strengthen the team, and we will never do anything that harms the team. Bryant, just play with all your heart."
"You don't need to remind me about my affairs." Kobe said: "But if anyone dares to disregard the interests of the team, then I will definitely not be done with him."
After saying that, Kobe turned around and left without a soft closing sound.
This scene made Mitch Kupchak furious. He resented Kobe's attitude and resented Dwight Howard for his inability to do anything. He had just secretly supported him, and he started to fight like shit.
This kind of reward in the game really made him angry. If you could work harder in this game, would the labor and management still have to suffer from such cowardice? Why do you have to fight like this?
?Thanks for me helping you and supporting you like this, you useless fool!!!
Mitch Kupchak had always had trouble getting along with Kobe. The superficial harmony was just a show for outsiders. So he always wanted to train a new leader to succeed Kobe and replace Kobe. Originally,
Andrew Bynum is his favorite, and now that he has robbed Dwight Howard, the latter has naturally become his first choice. Moreover, Howard is famous enough and has enough honors to succeed Kobe.
The attack he will receive will be far less than if Bynum replaces Kobe.
He has always been very optimistic about Dwight Howard. After all, in terms of career resume, he and Andrew Bynum are not on the same level. But tonight, Dwight Howard slapped him again and asked him to be at the top or bottom.
, both lost face. And after such a bad game, it is impossible for him to support the former so much for the time being.
Otherwise, if things get too big, Old Bass might be at the last moment...
Outsiders may not know this, but Mitch Kupchak knows it very well. According to Jim Buss, Jerry Buss’s physical condition has been getting worse and worse recently. As of yesterday, the latter even
All of them showed symptoms of moderate breathing disorder. All this seemed to indicate that the top controller of the Lakers was going to die soon. And at the last moment of life, a person would often do some amazing things. Mickey.
Kupchak didn't want anything about himself to be involved in this "amazing move."
Moreover, he spent a lot of money to get some information that was still unknown to the outside world.
Why did he start to join Jim Bass so early? In addition to wanting to be a "Yuan Cong system", there was another point. He found out that Jerry Bass was suffering from cancer and it had reached the advanced stage.
It is impossible to cure. As the old helmsman's time is running out, the shrewd Mitch Kupchak naturally made plans for the future early.
So at this critical moment, he didn't allow himself to make any mistakes.
After all, he is only 59 years old now, and he still has a lot of time to enjoy life. He is absolutely unwilling to lose the high-paying position of general manager of the Lakers. It is not just a matter of salary, but also the spotlight, connections, and
...In short, everything he has is in Los Angeles, so he is not willing to let his status suffer at the last moment.
But what is the butterfly effect? It won’t take long for the answer to appear.
On the plane to Chicago, Tang Qian whispered to Kobe: "Thank you."
Kobe glanced at him, his expression remained the same, and just said: "Play well, don't worry about it, I am the boss of the team, I will take care of things outside the game." "Well, thanks~" Tang Qian nodded.
, he is no longer a rookie who just came to the Lakers, so he can receive some rumors and gossip in advance. However, Tang Qian is slightly flattered that Kobe can speak for him.
After all, this kind of thing is extremely rare in the Lakers. It is estimated that only veterans who have won championships can get this kind of help from Kobe.
On January 21st, U.S. time, the Lakers played back-to-back games at the United Center in Chicago. In this game, it was obvious that there was some cold war between Kobe and Howard. Not only did the two not pass the ball to each other, they didn't even make eye contact. In this kind of game
Under the circumstances, no matter how much Nash acted as a glue, it was of no use. It was another defeat, and the Lakers suffered a miserable three-game losing streak.
Tang Qian's playing time in this game has rebounded. He scored 9 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks in 19 minutes. However, it was a drop in the bucket for the overall game tonight. Although the Bulls' star Derrick Rose was injured and missed,
Someone stood up tonight, and he was Kirk Hinrich. He made 9 of 11 shots from the field and extinguished the Lakers' hope of winning with an 80% shooting rate.
You have to know that in this game, both teams are in trouble, shooting around 40%. Suddenly a guy who shoots 80% comes out. Who can withstand it? 17 wins and 24 losses, ranking 13th in the Western Conference
This is the current record of the Lakers.
The outside world is like crazy, predicting wildly whether the Lakers can still enter the playoffs this season.
A group of ESPN experts headed by Henry Abbott naturally tried their best to look down on the Lakers, even claiming that only Jesus and God can save this Lakers team!!! Regardless of whether they like it or not, admit it or not, they
This group of people represents the current mainstream opinions of the NBA.
Under the huge external pressure, the Lakers' mentality was somewhat unbalanced. In the away game against the Grizzlies on January 23, they actually shot a miserable 0-for-14 three-pointer. In this game, Howard performed poorly.
He fell into a quagmire of fouls and couldn't extricate himself. He made 0 of 8 shots from the field and only scored 2 points and 2 rebounds. He was completely defeated by the opposite Spaniard Marc Gasol.
After the failure of this game, conflicts broke out in the Lakers locker room. Kobe pointed out that some people were not active in playing, did not play pick-and-rolls, and were unwilling to pass the ball, which was the biggest problem for the Lakers. Because the Lakers lost in rebounds tonight
He defeated nearly 20 opponents. In this case, it would be strange to win. And Tang Qian knows that Marc Gasol is the winner of DPOY this season. He suppresses the opponent's shooting percentage inside and ranks first in the league. Howard
He was originally suffering from injuries, and Marc Gasol was the kind of European big white bear he was most afraid of. Although his physical fitness was mediocre, his chassis was terrifyingly stable, which happened to be one of his nemesis attributes for low post plays.
Therefore, Howard cannot escape the blame for this game.
However, Howard did not admit defeat. He sarcastically said that some people only think about shooting and do not pay attention to the team's connection and organization. This is a real "big cancer"! Seeing that the Lakers finally broke out in public
As a result of the internal strife, the people at ESPN immediately became excited and quickly issued a statement to support Howard: Kobe Bryant was a cancer, and he took too many shots, which completely hurt the team and the players!!! In fact, this is a nonsense article.
, not to mention that Howard still has close to 11+ shots this season, the combination of the "Four Kings" would have taken some of each other's shots. Look at Kobe Bryant's shot count dropped by nearly 3 compared to last season.
Average shots per game? If we really want to be honest, Kobe dropped by 2.6 and Howard dropped by 2.7. There is only a difference of 0.1. So why Kobe takes crazy shots and Howard takes too few and sacrifices too much is completely nonsense. Just open your mouth.
Come.
However, because of the authority of ESPN, many fans still believed them and savaged Kobe on the Internet and sympathized with Dwight Howard. This made Kobe furious. He directly stood up and said: "I guarantee that the Lakers will win this season."
Can some people make it to the playoffs? Do some people dare?"
As soon as this statement came out, it did not win the understanding and respect of the outside world. Instead, it was filled with overwhelming ridicule, sarcasm, and taunts that became more and more intense. Some ESPN experts even directly claimed that Kobe Bryant was making "brainless remarks" and was
A "pathetic vent" after becoming angry. Because according to their predictions, the Lakers' probability of entering the playoffs this season is only 6.8%, and the Western Conference is not the Eastern Conference. If they win more than 30 games, they will definitely not be able to enter the playoffs. I think
To firmly enter the top eight in the Western Conference, at least 45 wins are required. The Lakers are now halfway through the schedule, with only a pitiful 17 wins and 25 losses. How difficult is it to get 28 wins in the remaining 42 games? Winning rate
At least it needs to be more than 60%. And in the current state of the Lakers, it is difficult to get a 40% winning rate, let alone 60%?
Therefore, ESPN experts are clamoring even louder because they all agree that this matter is almost impossible to complete.
Dwight Howard of the Lakers also responded positively: "I never tell meaningless lies!"
Suddenly, Los Angeles, the City of Angels, was in chaos.
PS: A new wave of plot is coming soon, everyone is looking forward to it~~~