Chapter 483 The Strongest Spear VS The Strongest Shield

Confidence?

Confidence doesn't come out of thin air.

Sudden confidence means only two things, either your strength has improved significantly, or you have found a way to win.

For Kobe Bryant...

The special training plan started two years ago when he watched the video of the Sonics winning the championship, and the goal of the training is to specialize!

According to the scout report when Kobe Bryant first entered the NBA, and the evaluations from all sides in the years since he entered the league, Kobe Bryant has only one shortcoming on the court, that is, his position is unclear.

In the words of professional basketball commentators, he can do everything, he knows everything, and he can even say that everything is first-class, but he has not practiced anything to the real "excellence", and no aspect of his ability has reached the extreme like Jordan. In some ways, he is not as good as Kidd, Yao Ming, O'Neal and other players with distinct characteristics.

Of course, some people say that his advantage is to "learn from the strengths of many people". Although he does not have an absolutely invincible trick, he has enough tricks to make defenders at a loss, which is enough to make him one of the most difficult players to defend in the league, and even the king of singles.

Either you have one or two invincible tricks that can be called faith, and once you use them, your opponent can give up defense.

Or you are like Kobe, with enough tricks to make your defender face a situation where he has to defend everything, and you can also reach the peak.

These two used to belong to the same level.

Kobe once agreed with this and was always proud of this characteristic of his own, thinking that this was a kind of limit for players.

People's energy and talents are limited. How can they know a lot and be good enough? The relationship between the two is inherently contradictory. Choosing one of them will inevitably give up the other.

I chose the latter, and I will definitely become the strongest player on the planet by relying on this.

But until Lin Dong appeared.

This guy not only broke all the conventions of the league, but also broke Kobe Bryant's definition of the limit.

He is versatile enough, from inside to outside, from No. 1 to No. 5, from offense to defense to passing, there is almost no technique he doesn't know.

But this guy is actually good enough!

His defense, his change of direction without slowing down, and his three-pointer, these three means stand out among the "all-rounders" and become means that almost no one can limit.

His short board is the long board of others, but his long board makes others far behind, this is the limit of a real player.

If I want to defeat Lin Dong and become a player of the same level as him, I must do this!

For two full offseasons, two full years, not only did he spend these two years in the gym, but even Vanessa followed him to the gym.

Kobe is very fortunate that he can meet a lover like Vanessa under the sadness of his parents who only see fame, fortune and money.

Love money? Which woman doesn't love money? Men love it too! As long as she loves you more than money, it's fine.

With the support of his lover, Kobe felt that he had spent the most fulfilling two years.

He thought that he did not have the talent like Lin Dong, and it was unlikely that he could master two or three things at the same time and reach the peak limit in several aspects at the same time. He could only choose one to specialize in.

Is it the jump shot technique that he was proud of?

Is it the super low-body breakthrough and back-to-back that he learned from Jordan?

Or the change of direction without slowing down that he learned from Lin Dong?

None of them!

Learning these things would not be able to defeat Lin Dong, especially when the Lakers had already introduced Yao Ming. If the Lakers wanted to deal with the Supersonics, what they lacked was not a stable scoring point, but a super defensive expert who could limit Lin Dong.

For a guy who had been eager to shoot since he first touched the ball at the age of 3, it was undoubtedly a painful thing to spend two years specializing in defense.

And for a guy like Kobe Bryant who was once called a "lone wolf" by countless commentators and media and was crowned with the title of "king of singles", giving up the offense was almost like taking his life.

Kobe felt that if there was no Lin Dong in this world, he would not make such a change until the day he died.

But there is Lin Dong in this world.

And to defeat him, the Lakers must have a defender!

So he spent almost all of the training in the past two years on defense, which made his average points per game last season drop from 31.6 to 25.4. Although he is still one of the strongest scorers in the league, he no longer has the strong offensive desire he once had, but chooses to give more finishing opportunities to Yao Ming.

His defensive skills are growing with each passing day. He even defended Wade, who was averaging 31 points at the time, to only 9 points in the game against the Cavaliers last season!

But even so, when he faced the Supersonics last season, he still couldn't defend Lin Dong alone. Let alone single defense, it was difficult to limit him. He could only rely on Yao Ming to cooperate with double-teaming, and the effect was still not good.

But after the Olympics, everything became different.

LeBron wasn't the only one who listened to K's words...

During the entire offseason, Kobe spent all his time watching Lin Dong's various videos, starting from all the videos recorded in his high school days, all the way to last year's finals, except for training, eating and sleeping.

Over and over, Kobe Bryant watched it at least 20 times in just a few months. He now even knows the scores of all the games played by Lin Dong in high school by heart.

Understand Lin Dong, analyze Lin Dong, and become Lin Dong, then you have the possibility of defeating him.

This is what Lao K said when he was in the national team. After Kobe watched those tapes 20 times, a sudden inspiration came to him, making him feel that he suddenly understood every choice made by Lin Dong on the court.

Kobe was afraid that it was just because he watched too many videos of Lin Dong and was too familiar with them, and he had memorized all the details of these games, instead of really understanding Lin Dong.

So after the start of this season, he did not miss any game of the Supersonics, and never watched it in advance, but waited for the tapes to come out, took them home and pressed the "pause button" to watch.

As long as Lin Dong held the ball, Kobe would press the pause button, and then analyze what Lin Dong wanted to do through Lin Dong's eyes, action details, and even the distribution of opponents on the court, the strength of opponents, and the state of opponents, etc.

After thinking it through, I played it again. A magical thing happened. Lin Dong's choices were almost always consistent with his predictions.

Confidence began to build from that moment, and when the confidence to defend Lin Dong alone appeared, Kobe Bryant knew that he had broken through the most critical step.

Rukawa Kaede was his old friend in Japan and his teammate in the NSAA and Nike Summit. Such a player who was abandoned by a weak team like the Bobcats was able to get a chance to play again in the Supersonics, obviously because of Lin Dong's support.

And the few balls just now hit Rukawa Kaede hard. For Lin Dong at the moment, what he wanted most was to help Rukawa Kaede rebuild his confidence, so he chose to hold the ball and play the No. 1 position. He wanted to use himself to attract the Lakers' double-teaming, and then create opportunities for Rukawa Kaede on the outside.

Of course, this is just the most superficial analysis.

Looking at Lin Dong standing in front of him with the ball, Kobe Bryant's mouth curled up slightly.

If it was the old self, perhaps the cognition would only be here, but now...

He will choose to play alone!

This guy likes to play the trick of "I predicted your prediction", but this is only one of the reasons.

Second, singles are to create conditions for better passing routes and attract double teams, which can create better space for Rukawa.

There is also a third point, that is, Rukawa is just in a state of collapse. If you pass the ball to him immediately, even if the opportunity comes, it may not be able to go in. That is a more fatal blow to Rukawa. He must first control the rhythm on the court and let Rukawa slow down...

Lin Dong looked in the direction of Rukawa, and the rhythm of controlling the ball suddenly changed slightly. The strength of the ball suddenly became a little lighter, as if he wanted to pass the ball together. All the subtle surface information was full of details of "I'm going to pass the ball to Rukawa".

If it were another defensive expert, he would have been fooled long ago, but this was Kobe, a Kobe Bryant who spent half a year recording Lin Dong and studying his habits!

Left!

Whoosh!

Kobe's eyes flashed slightly, and he suddenly moved sideways to the left to block.

At the same time, Lin Dong's super low-body breakthrough also came along, and the two figures that started almost at the same time touched each other instantly. Kobe Bryant's defense was very accurate.

The defense was not out of position at all, and directly intercepted the route of Lin Dong's super low-body breakthrough, and the center of gravity was kept quite stable, and the body in contact made Lin Dong feel no shaking.

Caught up? So perfect?

Lin Dong was a little surprised. This was the first defender who could do perfect defense when he broke through seriously after his strength was fully developed.

All the details of the actions he did before the breakthrough were specially designed for defensive masters like Kobe, deliberately with some "hiddenness" to deceive the intuition of masters. This is also a key to Lin Dong's breakthrough being difficult to defend. Even if Kobe could keep up last year, his center of gravity would definitely have shaken, but this time he was able to stabilize it?

Before Lin Dong finished thinking about this, a big hand had already reached directly towards his left ball-control route.

Lin Dong was quick-witted and quick-handed. With the help of Kobe's blocking, he stabilized his forward momentum. At the same time, he dribbled the ball behind his back and the basketball had already come to the right side. When the ball passed, Lin Dong suddenly took over and turned his back.

No deceleration and change of direction!

Right side!

Kobe's stable center of gravity at this time allowed him to pull his center of gravity to the right the moment Lin Dong started to turn around.

After all, one is the lateral center of gravity and the other is the back center of gravity. After pre-reading Lin Dong's movements, Kobe was actually one step ahead of Lin Dong.

At this time, Lin Dong was still turning his back. Although the basketball was under his control, he "missed" the hand that was responsible for protecting the ball when he was controlling the ball normally.

There was a flaw, and this was an opportunity to steal the ball!

But Kobe had no intention of doing it at all.

After watching the video for half a year, he knew Lin Dong too well.

With the opponent's ball control ability, even if he didn't protect the ball, he had enough ways to make the basketball obedient.

Since entering the NBA, he has been robbed a few times, but those were almost all when he was facing double-teaming and the defense was forced to break through without any flaws.

A flaw? If this happened to Lin Dong, it must be a trap!

The opponent wanted to lure him to reach out to the right, so his next move was...

Kobe's eyes flashed with brilliance at this moment.

Huh!

Almost at a completely synchronized frequency, Lin Dong suddenly turned to the left, and Kobe moved sideways again on the left to block him.

The two bodies squeezed together again.

Perfect block, perfect defense!

The fans in the stadium were all stunned. In fact, it was not only these fans who were stunned, but even McMillan on the sidelines and the Sonics' substitutes, as well as various professional commentators in front of TVs across the United States, and the coaches and players who were watching this game in the entire league, all stared with wide eyes.

Lin Dong... was blocked? Was he blocked by a single? !

Oh my God...

Since that guy entered the league, especially when his non-slowing change of direction appeared, this league has never seen anyone who can defend Lin Dong alone, and even the number of people who can keep up with his second step of non-slowing change of direction is very small.

But Kobe Bryant not only followed his second step, but also followed it perfectly. Through this perfect defensive blocking, Lin Dong's inertia was completely stopped, and there was no third step without slowing down and changing direction.

Broken!

The new basketball god who has been rampant in the NBA for three years, the one who claimed that no one could ever catch up with the three-step change of direction without slowing down, was actually cracked by Kobe Bryant!

"Fuck! How did he do it?!" Dwyane Wade, who was watching TV, widened his eyes and stood up directly from the sofa, as if he had seen the most incredible thing in the world.

LeBron, who was sitting on the sofa next to him, did not respond.

His eyes and brain were completely integrated into the single-player match on the live TV.

It was exactly the same as his own judgment. It seemed that Kobe Bryant also listened to what Lao K said and worked hard to study Lin Dong.

This guy is more flexible, faster, and more agile than himself, so when both of them can judge Lin Dong's movements, Kobe can perfectly defend and keep up with Lin Dong's movements, but he can't do it for the time being.

However...

"It's not over yet!" LeBron saw through it and uttered three words to himself.

And the next second, Lin Dong on TV had already suddenly gathered the ball and stepped back.

The inertia of the forward rush has been completely blocked. There is no way to move forward or change direction. There are only two options left.

Either pass the ball or step back.

But facing a guy who has just shown enough strength to challenge him, escaping is the least likely choice for Lin Dong.

The rapid step back is both sudden and swift, and because the inertia of the forward rush has been blocked, his step back seems to be much smoother and faster than the step back against LeBron.

But at the same time, Lin Dong can also see the will flashing in Kobe Bryant's eyes.

Seen through?

Lin Dong retreated, Kobe rushed forward, but it was Lin Dong who took the initiative, and the distance between the two of them was about three palms wide.

Kobe's raised hand was firmly sealed in front of Lin Dong's eyes, and he never gave Lin Dong a chance to see the basket from beginning to end.

But this is Lin Dong after all. Although the zone is no longer needed, the state of the zone has long become a normal state for him.

Although the eyes can't see the basket, it is enough for the "heart" to see the basket through observation of their own position!

Whoosh! Whoosh!

In a flash, the two jumped up almost at the same time, one forward and the other backward. The inconsistency of the center of gravity also made Kobe jump higher than Lin Dong.

Block him!

Kobe Bryant's eyes flashed with blazing flames, but what he saw in his sight was a figure that was "gradually moving away".

Lean back?

No, this can no longer be called leaning back, but "lying back"!

An extremely large angle of nearly 45 degrees, there is nothing to cover!