Chapter 1 The Mentality of an Upset

How should I put it?

For Su Feng, who had an extremely strong desire to win, it was certainly a good thing that he made such a miraculous shot.

After all, hadn't he been working hard to improve himself so that he could do whatever he wanted on the court?

However, because of the habits he had developed in his early years, Su Feng now had a hint of melancholy when facing opponents like Kobe, regardless of whether he made the shot or not.

Hey, you know, the melancholy prince and the Lakers' aura actually seemed to match a little.

Ahem, let's get down to business.

On the court, watching Su Feng shoot right in front of him, Kobe clenched his small hands and trembled, immediately returning the favor with an Answer on the Lakers' next possession...

...which clanked off the rim.

"Kobe's shot was obviously rushed. Under Su Feng's defense, even Michael Jordan wouldn't dare to mess around like this," commented Director Sun on CCTV after Kobe's pull-up jumper missed.

"Well, Kobe's shot was indeed a bit unreasonable," Zhang, who was next to him and didn't quite know how to smooth things over, chuckled.

At the Great Western Forum, it was the Raptors' turn to attack, and the Lakers' transition defense was good, not giving the Raptors a chance for a direct fast break.

However, after settling into their half-court offense, McGrady, who was in charge of controlling the lightning this time, directly pierced old Harper's defense on the outside.

As an aging perimeter warrior, although he was experienced, just like every warrior gets beaten up in the early years of their career, they will also get beaten up in their later years...

Looking at the young and green McGrady, at this moment, what else could old Harper do besides say "Young man, don't be too fast"?

Boom, boom!

After a crossover that attacked the left side of his body, McGrady, on the right side of old Harper's defensive zone, was like a human-shaped lightning bolt at that moment!

Now, please call him Toronto's "Flash"!

In Su Feng's previous life, at his peak, relying on his powerful first step, McGrady was always able to make his defenders eat his dust after his breakthrough.

And in this life, besides the fact that McGrady's pull-up jumper was taught by him, if McGrady reaches his peak in the future, Su Feng will also have a video of himself personally teaching McGrady how to break through...

Clang!

On the court, McGrady drove straight to the basket and slammed it in with one hand.

8 to 6.

This season, despite McGrady often sitting on the bench, his ability is still far from his peak, but thanks to the boost from the Raptors' excellent offensive spacing, McGrady's stats this season are much better than Su Feng remembered in the same period.

"Wow, McGrady's breakthrough was really decisive," Zhang commented on CCTV.

"This season, the Raptors will run a lot of isolations in their half-court offense, and even if they only rely on individual ability, they can crush the vast majority of their opponents," Smith analyzed on TNT.

The Lakers attacked, still using the 1-2-2 formation to run the triangle offense.

This time, Su Feng's double-team was very quick, and he and Big Ben worked together to force O'Neal into a corner.

O'Neal, who originally wanted to pass to his teammates, noticed the Raptors' high-speed rotation defense, and simply steeled his heart, took on both defenders, and charged forward.

It was just a pity that even a god couldn't always display his divine power when facing two men.

Because in basketball, no matter how invincible a player is, they can't guarantee a 100% success rate.

Otherwise, O'Neal's career field goal percentage wouldn't be 58.2%.

Under Su Feng's interference, the fathead fish, unable to quickly break through Big Ben, hooked the basketball onto the rim.

On the other side, Jordan, who had already moved into the sewers, quickly launched a counterattack after grabbing the rebound.

While retreating, O'Neal, cursing in his heart, hated teams like the Raptors from the bottom of his heart.

Because at least when running on a treadmill, you can adjust the speed.

But against a team like the Raptors, full of fast guys, he, O'Neal, wasn't a Super Girl, so how could he retreat whenever he wanted?

I don't know if the Jiangdi River in Los Angeles is cold in March, but tonight, the sky above Los Angeles was officially taken over by the Raptors Aerospace Administration from this moment on.

As Carter's senior, in Su Feng's previous life, before Carter's EQ-challenged words were uttered, Carter's popularity was actually related to Jordan saying a lot of good things about him.

It's just that...

Perhaps players from North Carolina trade their EQ for talent.

Sometimes, facing underclassmen like Stackhouse and Carter, Jordan also feels quite helpless...

The Raptors' fast break saw Jordan feeding Carter a high-quality alley-oop pass this time.

After leaping high, the latter pressed against the Lakers' center Campbell and completed a UFO-style dunk over him.

Slam!

At the Great Western Forum, the Lakers fans let out a cry of surprise the moment Carter finished the dunk.

As the saying goes, seeing is believing. In this era without social media, some Lakers fans who were still stubborn before the game had joined the "true fragrance" army.

Is this the charm of the City of Skies?

Love it, love it.

10 to 6.

No way.

Faced with the Raptors' aggressive opening attack, even Jackson, who didn't like to call timeouts, called one after Carter landed from his dunk.

And for the "Zen Master," who had extensive experience playing against Davis, he was very clear that when facing a team led by Davis, you must never be stubborn or too hardheaded...

So, after the timeout, Jackson decisively made a substitution, sending in Horry, who had outside shooting range, to further create space for O'Neal.

Now that the four players on the court besides O'Neal all had outside shooting range, the Raptors' rotation defense, no matter how fast, wouldn't dare to double-team O'Neal mindlessly.

But...

I don't know why.

O'Neal always felt that Su Feng was poisonous.

Because whether it was the regular season or the All-Star Game, as long as he played against a team with Su Feng, even if O'Neal scored more points, he wouldn't be happy.

It was a feeling that was difficult to express in words.

In short, O'Neal just felt uncomfortable playing when Su Feng was on the other side.

…

At the Great Western Forum, both teams played high-quality offense and defense in the first quarter tonight.

In Su Feng's view, this was definitely a contest that far exceeded the understanding of the current version of the game.

Because Jackson's team, although they wouldn't shoot too many three-pointers, he wasn't the kind of ultra-conservative fanatic who hated three-pointers.

In fact, when the OK duo dominated the NBA, besides the dribbling facilitators, Jackson also equipped the Lakers with a lot of three-point facilitators.

Therefore, even if their three-point shooting wasn't as exaggerated as the future Warriors, this Lakers team still had a certain three-point threat.

After the two teams finished the first quarter with a back-and-forth offensive battle, the Raptors led 28 to 25.

For the Raptors, Su, Jordan, Carter, and McGrady all scored, while for the Lakers, O'Neal scored 12 points in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the "Zen Master" showed his cunning side.

In addition to leaving Kobe to continue leading the team, he also sent in the two rookies, Wang Zhizhi and Lewis.

Because he knew that Big Ben's offensive ability was negative, Jackson wasn't worried that Wang Zhizhi, whose defensive ability was also negative, wouldn't be able to defend Big Ben.

As for rebounds, with O'Neal not on the court, who wouldn't be bullied by Big Ben on this Lakers team?

So, Jackson, who knew that you sometimes need to make concessions in strategic planning, chose a similar strategy to Riley.

That is, to fight offense with offense.

For the Raptors, the second quarter saw the back-scratching duo leading Curry Sr., Smith, and Nash.

It is worth mentioning that Fisher, who came off the bench to replace Harper in the second quarter, was extremely happy when he stepped onto the center stage.

For Fisher, who was well-versed in Machiavellian tactics, he knew very well that Nash's defense was no different from giving up.

Therefore, in Fisher's view, his stage today was as big as it could be.

However...

Not long after the start of the second quarter, the clever Fisher was elbowed by Su Feng.

Unlike when McGrady was on the court, when Nash was on the court, Su Feng completely regarded himself as the future Stoudemire.

After all, with Nash, wouldn't it be a waste of Nash's passing talent not to run pick-and-rolls?

And as soon as he said it, in the second quarter, the Raptors, who attacked first, saw Su Feng and Nash perform a textbook pick-and-pop play after Su Feng set a screen for Nash.

Outside the three-point line, after Nash passed the ball to Su Feng's hand with a juggling behind-the-back pass, Su Feng, looking at Fisher, who had just been knocked dizzy by him, shot the ball without hesitation.

Swish!

31 to 25.

Back on the other end, the Lakers attacked.

Fisher wanted to use his body to force his way past Nash to avenge the elbow.

But...

Fisher never expected that Nash wouldn't defend at all against his hard drive.

(Nash: You're talking nonsense! You're slandering me! I was clearly defending very seriously!)

In Su Feng's previous life, in order to discredit me, some unscrupulous people even went so far as to hype Fisher as the greatest point guard in history.

But to be fair, if the Lakers' point guard tonight was Paul, the Raptors would never have let him attack Nash like that.

Help defense?

Sorry...

Just at Fisher's level.

Does he deserve help defense?

On the court, Kobe became anxious when Fisher held the ball for too long and didn't launch an attack.

So, under Kobe's "death stare" warning, Fisher hurriedly passed the ball to Kobe.

And now, there wasn't much time left for the Lakers to attack.

With no other choice, in order to avoid being called for a 24-second violation, Kobe had to force a shot in front of Su Feng.

Clang!

It was a pity that Kobe's shot was too strong, and the basketball bounced off the rim, easily grabbed by Big Ben.

On the other end, the Raptors attacked.

Smith received the ball in the low post after using a screen.

This season, Smith, who averaged 10.8 points for the Raptors, has attracted the attention of many teams.

Because although his average score is not too high, in the NBA, there is always the saying that the statistics of players from strong teams are more valuable.

Therefore, Smith, who chose to come to the Raptors on a minimum salary for a year before the season, now feels that he is the smartest boy.

On the wing, Lewis messed up this time.

Only 19 years old, he is obviously still in his infancy, and he was feinted away by Smith with a slight touch.

And in the paint, although Wang Zhizhi, who came to help defend, didn't fall for Smith's fake, at the moment Smith stood up, Da Zhi cleverly dodged to the side, refusing to become a background.

In Su Feng's previous life, Da Zhi's personality and style meant that he was destined not to reach Yao Ming's height.

The Spanish shameless alley-oop tactic in the 2008 Beijing Olympics was the most vivid example.

When Yao Ming was on the court, even if you gave the Spanish guards ten thousand guts, they could only cower and hold back.

But after Yao Ming left the court and Da Zhi came on, the Men's Basketball Team's interior couldn't hold on anymore.

Often, in the NBA, becoming a background is not a shameful thing.

33 to 25.

On the court, after Smith dunked with both hands, on the Lakers' bench, although the "Zen Master" was still pretending to be calm, he had already cursed Davis at least ten thousand times in his heart.

And just as the Raptors were gaining momentum, don't tell me, Kobe, the "Magic Johnson template," really annoyed Su Feng, who was guarding him.

In the one-on-one battle in Toronto in the summer, Su Feng beat Kobe like he was beating his younger brother.

However, after becoming five-on-five, Kobe, equipped with the threat of passing, made it impossible for Su Feng to completely shut him down.

This time, while trying to shake off Su Feng with a crossover on the perimeter, Kobe's eyes inadvertently looked towards Wang Zhizhi, who was standing in the corner.

And it was this subtle feint that made Su Feng reckless in his defense.

Taking advantage of Su Feng's small slide step to block his passing lane, Kobe quickly passed through Su Feng's defensive zone and elegantly scored with a finger roll.

33 to 27.

"Wow, Kobe's play is a bit interesting, look at the way he twists his waist, in the NBA, there are really not many players who can do this kind of offense now," Zhang, who has always been fair, said impartially.

"Well, so to speak, the master will always starve to death after teaching his apprentice, Kobe's play completely understands Su Feng's psychology," Sun echoed.

"This is the defense of the All-Defensive First Team?" It is worth mentioning that Kobe, who finally scored a goal in front of Su Feng, finally said the taunt that Su Feng had been waiting for for more than a quarter while retreating...

Because of his good relationship with Su Feng, Kobe had been holding back even though Su Feng had trash-talked him a lot in the first quarter.

To be honest.

This may be the most unreasonable system setting Su Feng has ever felt.

Because of the activation condition of the "God Slayer" badge, isn't this clearly trying to cultivate himself in the direction of Su Dui Dui?

But...

He is clearly a kind and friendly person, okay?

But it's okay, anyway, now that Su Feng has gained weight, it's not realistic for him to keep running like he did in his rookie season.

On the court, the Raptors attacked.

After Smith hit a mid-range shot to score two more points for the Raptors, Kobe found that Su Feng's defensive level seemed to have risen another notch.

"Very good! This is the game I want!"

And as Director Zhang said before.

Maybe Kobe's path has gone astray in this life.

But his personality...

Is as stubborn as ever.

…