Chapter 163: Sure enough, it is!

Artest, who was opposite Butler, didn't take him seriously, and faced Butler's offense with a relatively lazy attitude.

After most of the game, the Warriors' offense was almost entirely driven by guards. From Curry to Azubuike, then Lowry, and now back to Curry and Azubuike, the forward players have always played a role. The role of space point and defensive vanguard, especially represented by Butler.

Naturally, these defenders would not take the initiative to find Artest's matchup. He didn't even have the opportunity to show his single-defense ability.

Now Butler is going to single him, making Artest uninterested at all.

I have never heard of this unknown junior. He has been there for the first half of the catch and shoot. Can he hold the ball?

Butler naturally doesn't know what Artest is thinking, even if he knows, he won't care. Facing DPOY, he must go all out.

Although Artest didn't take Butler seriously, he also knew that his characteristic was shooting three-pointers, stepping on the three-point line to defend him, and not giving him room to shoot.

Butler raised his hand and flicked it. Artest thought he was going to make a shot, and subconsciously jumped to block the block, but Butler took the ball back and rushed from his left.

Artest hurriedly turned around to catch up, but his lateral speed had regressed a lot compared to his peak period, and he was half a body behind Butler.

Butler rushed to the basket, paused in his footsteps, looked up at the frame, raised his hands high, and made a gesture to shoot, Artest flew from behind to block, but the ball was still a fake, Butler received the ball, Artest pounced To him, Butler threw the ball over the rim by feel and was pinned to the floor.

"Di-"

The referee's whistle sounded, and Butler's first reaction was to look at the basket.

After hitting the basketball, it hit the back edge of the basket, bounced twice, and fell into the net.

2+1!

Butler stood up with the support of his teammates, punched hard, and looked excited, and the Warriors players gave him high-fives to celebrate.

The ball was played very tough and helped the Warriors stabilize the situation.

And Artest's face was ugly. He didn't expect this rookie to be so patient. Just now Bynum was on the other side of the basket and it was too late to come over to defend. Butler had a chance to go up to the basket, but he waited patiently. Artest jumped up and caused a foul.

He played this ball not like a rookie at all, but like a veteran who has been in the league for many years, and he seems to be full of experience.

Zhang Yu applauded from the sidelines. Butler's ball already had a touch of style from his peak period. What he wanted to see was such a Butler!

In his previous life, Butler led the Heat to the finals with relatively mediocre talent, and scored a 40+ triple-double and a 35+ triple-double in the finals, relying on the ability to find physical confrontation.

In those two games, he hit 12 free throws. In the finals, Butler averaged 29 points, 8.6 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game. Lakers basket.

Butler's goals under the basket looked like he was walking in the garden, and he didn't have many dunks, but more shots from close to the frame or low-handed layups, but every goal he made was full of feints and confrontations. The disadvantage of his short wingspan prevents defenders from fully taking off, or being carried away by him with his body, unable to interfere with him.

Even if James defends him, as long as he sees the space and presses a position, he can only watch him attack the frame.

Butler is tough, but his toughness is reflected in subtle physical confrontation and steely will, not in dunks and roars.

The current Butler is still very immature and not so sophisticated, but as long as he is half of his peak level, the Warriors' ball-holding problems will be solved by more than half.

While Zhang Yu was thinking about it, Butler stood on the free throw line and made a steady hit and added a penalty.

At 82:91, the Warriors narrowed the point difference to single digits.

Affected by this ball, the Warriors worked extremely hard on the defensive end. The Lakers didn't find a good opportunity to attack, and the ball was finally given to Kobe.

Kobe faced Butler and launched a post-up singles again, but Butler defended him for most of the game, and he was on the same level as him, and gradually became familiar with Kobe. This time he blocked the left side very boldly, predicting that Kobe The choice of his shot interfered with his shot, making Kobe hit an iron in anger.

The rebound was grabbed by Biedrins, and he immediately passed it to Curry. As if they had received an order, all the Warriors rushed forward to launch a fast break.

Curry advanced quickly with the ball and observed his teammates' running positions. Fisher followed him closely and interfered with his progress, leaving him no room to shoot.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Butler had rushed inside the three-point line, and immediately threw the ball over.

Butler received the pass, and it was Kobe who blocked him. He changed direction ahead of time and wanted to break through from Kobe's left side.

Kobe stepped back sideways to defend, covering Butler's shooting space, and at the same time gave enough physical resistance to prevent Butler from accelerating.

But Butler only took two steps, came to the edge of the penalty area, suddenly stepped back with his left foot, dribbled the ball under his crotch, and pulled his body back.

After he received the ball, he leaned back slightly and made a shot from close to the frame. Kobe tried his best to take off and block the block, but it was too late and did not interfere with Butler's shot, and the basketball went into the net hollow.

84: 91.

"Hey, good shot! Butler is playing with Kobe. Although his footsteps were a little staggered when he broke through, he had a good sense of rhythm in the final retreat, which created a huge shot space, which Kobe did not expect. Butler has the ability to hold the ball, why didn't he use it before?" Ke Fan was surprised.

The live broadcast room was also full of exclamations:

"666, this ball is so beautiful, Butler is awesome!"

"5 minutes, I want all the information about this rookie!"

"Fuck, why do I look at this man who looks so much like Jordan? He can't be Jordan's illegitimate son, can he?"

Not only the commentators and the audience, but the Lakers players didn't expect Butler to break out suddenly and score 5 points in a row, which was scored in the process of facing the Lakers' two best perimeter defenders.

Phil Jackson didn't call a timeout, but he instructed the assistant coach to make a gesture towards the court, which was to let Kobe play one to stabilize the situation.

Although he likes to let the players on the field decide the game, sometimes he will make some fine-tuning in time, otherwise he will really become a mascot.

But just when Kobe was about to play Butler with his back, Zhang Yu suddenly shouted:

"Two-team, double-team him for me!"

When Curry, who was closest to Kobe, heard the news, he immediately pinched towards Kobe. The Warriors changed their strategy of defending Kobe alone and suddenly went to pinch!

Kobe was used to Butler's single defense, and he was caught off guard when facing double-teams. Instead of distributing the ball immediately, he subconsciously swung his elbows left and right, trying to force back the double-team attack from Curry and Butler.

When Butler saw this, a ruthless look flashed in his eyes, not only did not hide, but went straight to meet him!

Snapped!

With a crisp sound, Kobe swung his right elbow hard to Butler's face, and Butler immediately fell backwards on his back.

"Di-"

The referee's whistle was timely, and he waved his arm toward the Lakers' halfcourt—Kobe's offensive foul!

The fans at the Staples Center booed subconsciously, but a close-up of Butler's face appeared on the big screen in the middle of the stadium, and the noisy Staples gradually quieted down.

I saw Butler lying on his back in pain, covering his face with his hands, twisting his body slightly, blood gurgling from his left nostril, mixed with sweat, and soon left a large patch on his nose and mouth The bloodstains looked very scary.

The Warriors quickly surrounded them, and the team doctor immediately ran over from the bench with a medicine box, knelt down on one knee, and leaned over to Butler's ear:

"Jimmy, how are you feeling? Are you dizzy?"

Zhang Yu stretched his neck, looking nervously at the close-up on the big screen in mid-air, his eyes full of concern.

The league strictly stipulates that the head coach cannot enter the stadium casually. Although he is anxious, he can only watch from the sidelines and cannot go up to check on Butler's situation.

Under everyone's gaze, Butler shook his head and gradually regained consciousness.

He felt his nose burning, so he subconsciously stretched out his hand and put it in front of his eyes. It was a puddle of blood donation, but he didn't show any panic. Instead, he stretched out his hand to support the ground, stood up, and smiled nonchalantly:

"It's okay, I just had a little nosebleed, the ball is ours, right?"

Butler has been hanging out on the streets for many years, and this kind of minor injury is commonplace. He even broke a rib, which is nothing to him.

In contrast, he is more concerned about the ownership of the ball, which is related to whether the team can continue to chase points.

"Are you really okay?" The referee didn't answer his question, but asked with concern.

"I'm fine. Is this an offensive foul?" Butler asked persistently.

In the end, after repeated confirmation by the team doctor and the referee, it was finally determined that Butler had no signs of a concussion, but that the capillaries inside the nasal cavity had ruptured.

The team doctor gave Butler a simple hemostasis on the sidelines, and after knowing that the referee called Kobe's offensive foul, he opened his mouth and laughed happily.

He hadn't been hit in vain.

Seeing Butler's tough performance, the fans at the scene were naturally embarrassed to boo the referee, but applauded the tough guy instead.

In the live broadcast room, the message also swiped the screen for a while:

"Fuck, is Butler so hard? This elbow is solid!"

"Kobe killed someone!"

"Don't be fooled, Kobe didn't do it on purpose, watch the replay yourself."

"Sure enough, it's tough!"

"??? I suspect you are driving, and the evidence is solid!"

After Butler was dealt with, he returned to the court, and the game between the two sides continued.

The Warriors had the ball, Butler walked to the frontcourt, Kobe passed by him, and whispered:

"Feel sorry."

Butler was stunned for a moment, and when he reacted, Kobe had already walked away expressionlessly to defend Curry who was holding the ball.

In the next few minutes, the Warriors' morale was greatly boosted because of Butler's minor injury and the toughness of the front line, and their enthusiasm on both offense and defense soared.

After Butler unlocked the offense with the ball, his self-confidence increased greatly. Zhang Yu also arranged tactics for him at the right time, allowing him to partially play the role of Curry and initiate pick-and-rolls with the ball.

His movement and control skills are actually not proficient enough, but he has never played with the ball before, and the Lakers are not familiar with him, and did not arrange targeted defense for him. He relied on hitting the basket and shooting close to the frame. It took a few times before the Lakers pushed it down again.

But this was enough. Relying on Butler's sudden outbreak and the enthusiasm of the defensive end, the Warriors quickly recovered the point difference.

At the end of the third quarter, the score was 97:100. The Lakers broke the [-] mark and the Warriors were close to breaking the [-] mark.

Zhang Yu hugged the players who were leaving the field, and watched the score on the big screen in mid-air, feeling relieved.

His plan succeeded, relying on the layout before the game, relying on Curry's three-pointer, relying on Butler's unexpected outbreak, this game still turned into a confrontational battle.

This is Zhang Yu's purpose - the Warriors' defense is hard to return to, and there is no way to improve it in a short period of time. Then he will lower the opponent's defense to the same level as the Warriors, and the two sides rely on offense to decide the game!

Relying on this trick, the Warriors defeated the Cavaliers, defeated the Mavericks, and stalemate with the Lakers until the fourth quarter.

But unfortunately, the cards in Zhang Yu's hand have been exhausted, including the unexpected Butler. The Warriors have no more offensive resources. When Curry is double-teamed, they can still maintain the offensive firepower that matches the Lakers .

In other words, the current Warriors are already at the end of their strength, Curry is strictly guarded, and Butler's half-handed ball handling has also been figured out by the Lakers. Azubuike's chaotic rush is a joke in front of the Lakers' tight defense.

At the critical moment, the Warriors are likely to fall into a scoring drought and then be taken away by the Lakers.

Zhang Yu looked over to the other side of the technical platform, and Phil Jackson happened to cast his gaze here too.

The two looked at each other, and Phil Jackson smiled slightly and nodded to Zhang Yu, as if sending the most sincere greetings between old friends.

Zhang Yu turned his head with an ugly face. He knew that Phil Jackson also saw this. If he couldn't show more cards, the Lakers would accept the victory.

But he is really a clever woman who can't cook without rice, and after searching, he couldn't find a better way to develop and attack.

Let Big Z play singles inside?No, he's too slow, Bynum can easily hold him up...

While Zhang Yu was thinking hard, Curry came over:

"Boss, let me play later!"

"Can you not rest?" Zhang Yu asked in surprise.

"Okay!" Curry nodded heavily.

Zhang Yu didn't hesitate anymore, and the rest time between festivals was very short. He said decisively:

"Okay, after you come on the court, try to score as much as you can. Kobe will definitely have to rest. After he comes on the court... Stephen, can I trust you?"

"of course."

"The Lakers' defense is too strong. I don't know what to do. Don't look at us catching up with the score just now, but Phil Jackson will definitely make targeted arrangements. Jimmy will also be locked up at that time, and once you hit the pick-and-roll , you will be double-teamed. So if I want to win this game, I need you... to break through Kobe's defense one-on-one!" Zhang Yu said in a deep voice.

Curry's pupils shrank, but then he nodded slowly and firmly:

"Boss, I will do my best!"

He looked at Ayesha, who was waving at him, smiling like a flower, and shouting "Stephen, come on!", with boundless fighting spirit burning in his heart.

This game, he must win!