I fell in love with Toutiao and became the GOAT.

Chapter 91 Do you two have a grudge?

Kyrie Irving was actually just the beginnings of a star player. His ball-handling skills were already top-notch during his rookie season, and he also had a shot.

Currently, Irving's shortcomings are superficially twofold: firstly, his performance is inconsistent, and secondly, his defense is poor.

But in fact, Irving's weaknesses are far more numerous than these two.

First of all, Irving's playmaking ability is quite mediocre; he does not have the ability to connect an entire team.

In terms of organizing the offense alone, Lin Bei, with his white chocolate pass and height advantage and wide field of vision, is probably better than Irving.

Secondly, on the surface, Irving's ball-handling ability combined with his shooting makes him look like a fairly good offensive point guard.

However, in reality, like Jeremy Lin, Irving has fatal flaws in his technique.

The reason he was able to outperform Lin Bei in the Rookie of the Year race was because he had the backing of Nike and the aura of a potential star player.

What Lin Bei wanted to prove in this match was that the potential of a star player does not necessarily mean that he can actually become a star player.

On the court, after a dismal start with 1 of 3 shots made and 1 turnover, Irving finally realized that he still had teammates.

He began to emulate Wall, making continuous passes and orchestrating attacks.

Of course, it is more likely that Lin Bei's position at waist level made Owen feel a sense of fear.

In terms of playing style, Kyrie Irving is different from LeBron James; he still retains some of the Mamba spirit.

But after suffering repeated defeats at Lin Bei's feet, it's perfectly reasonable for Owen to want to catch his breath.

Facing Wall's matchup defense, Irving began to try to orchestrate the team's offense.

He asked Monroe for a screen, which was the first screen of the rookie game.

After the screen, Irving accelerated and drove into the three-point line, only to run into Lin Bei's switch defense again.

Owen tried to match Lin Bei's speed again, but after two steps, Lin Bei was still closely following him.

Irving rushed into the penalty area, and after confirming there was no chance, he passed the ball to Cousins ​​on the side.

The latter was being closely guarded by Griffin. After receiving the ball, he raised his hand to make a layup, but Griffin stretched out his short arms to block it.

Cousins ​​hesitated for a moment, then pulled the ball back and turned his back to the basket, adopting a low-post isolation play.

Kyrie Irving: "————"

He originally intended to rack up two assists, but Cousins ​​slowed down the pace, and his assist numbers just disappeared.

Although Cousins ​​eventually scored, Irving didn't contribute any statistics; his performance remained a dismal 3.

1 made shot, 2 points, 1 turnover.

Turn around, it's Shaq's offensive turn.

After Monroe provided cover, Lin Bei was completely freed from all restrictions.

He also set a screen for Wall at the top of the arc, and as soon as he cleared the screen, Irving couldn't wait to chase after Wall who had broken through the screen.

DeMarcus Cousins, who has been defended well, also wants to team up with his good friend John Wall for a one-on-one offensive and one-on-defense "cooperation".

As a result, Lin Bei was completely left empty-handed.

Wall keenly sensed the opening behind him, made a back pass, Lin Bei received the ball, and swiftly struck!

With a whoosh—

"A three-pointer! Best Lin made his first shot of the game, and his personal score even surpassed Kyrie Irving's!"

Skip Bayless's commentary style was so fast-paced that it seemed like he was afraid the pace wasn't fast enough. A. Smith was used to his partner's style and was not surprised at all.

The magician standing to the side stared wide-eyed, finding it hard to believe that these were the very words spoken by an official TNT commentator.

With a three-pointer, Lin Bei successfully opened his scoring account on the offensive end.

After two rounds —

Irving finally got his first assist of the game thanks to Monroe's run down the wing.

On Shaq's side, Wall repeatedly set screens for Lin Bei.

Faced with this pick-and-roll offense that had already helped Lin Bei score 3 points, Irving compromised and chose to personally guard Lin Bei.

However, in both of these rounds, Cousins ​​was "cooperating" with Wall.

Wall drove to the basket twice after a pick-and-roll, scoring a layup followed by a dunk.

With Shaq leading 13-8, they took a five-point lead early in the game.

Wall scored 8 points and dished out 2 assists, putting him at the forefront of the MVP race in this Rising Stars Challenge.

Lin Bei didn't have much interest in the MVP trophy. He just needed to ensure that Irving's performance was extremely poor at any stage of the game, and that would be enough.

Next————

After a defensive play, Irving asked for another screen to shake off Wall and go straight for Lin Bei.

This time, he didn't seem to be planning to pass the ball anymore. Instead, he set up his formation and tried to get past Lin Bei one-on-one with a change of direction.

His sudden change of direction was indeed quite deceptive, but Lin Bei was not fooled at all.

This brings us to Irving's biggest technical weakness—

Although he has decent shooting ability, he is unable to create enough space for himself to complete mid-to-long-range shots by controlling the ball.

Specifically, he was too short to pull up for a jump shot against the defense, and as a rookie, he had not yet mastered skills such as the step-back jumper.

In this way, Lin Bei, who is tall and has a long reach, doesn't actually need to be particularly wary of Irving's shots.

When defending Irving one-on-one, he only needs to create one step of space, primarily defending Irving's drives and secondarily defending his shots.

Irving changed direction, but was stopped by Lin Bei halfway through his breakthrough.

After catching his breath, Irving originally intended to personally retaliate after this attack, feeling that the time was right.

As a result, Lin Bei's flawless defense completely pushed Irving back down.

Irving was pinned down in the waist area, struggling to protect the ball, and could only pass it back after turning his back to the basket.

Jeremy Lin received the ball, and once it was in his hands, Irving had no chance of getting it back.

However, Jeremy Lin was also closely marked by Rubio, who said, "Defend the right flank, leave the left flank open, I know all that!"

With a thud, Jeremy Lin's shot after breaking through on the left side hit the rim and bounced out, and Griffin jumped up to grab the rebound.

This wasn't Lin Bei's rebound, so Wall couldn't get a fast break.

Griffin then passed the ball to Rubio, leaving Wall to watch from the sidelines.

Just as Rubio was leisurely dribbling the ball up half-court, Skip Bayless made another bold statement: "Kyrie Irving can't get past Best Lin's defense at all. Is this what they call a number one draft pick? Is this what they call a star point guard?"

Rubio attacked the frontcourt, and Lin Bei stepped up to provide another screen. As soon as the screen was broken, Rubio accelerated down the court.

Jeremy Lin knew the power of Lin Bei's downward momentum, so he turned around and chased after Lin Bei. But after taking a couple of steps, he realized that he couldn't catch up at all!

"Something's not right, how come this guy has gotten even faster?"

Lin Bei, having obtained McGrady's body template, became even faster.

He accelerated sharply, heading straight for the basket.

Seeing that he couldn't catch up with Lin Bei, Jeremy Lin simply turned around and went to block Rubio.

Unable to get past the encirclement of Cousins ​​and Jeremy Lin, Rubio saw Lin rushing to the basket and lobbed a high ball over him.

Lin Bei leaped high into the air, stretched his body in mid-air, and easily caught the high ball, then smashed it down with a powerful and heavy slam!

"A pick-and-roll alley-oop dunk, what did I tell you? Shaq's team is way better than Chuck's team!"

"Best Lin scored his 5th point of the game, widening the gap between the blue-collar center and star point guards —"

Then, after a "failed" defense.

Lin Bei then set a pick-and-roll with Wall at the top of the key.

Irving knew that Cousins ​​wouldn't play hard on defense, so he had to personally guard Lin Bei himself.

This time, however, Wall made two quick steps and then passed the ball back.

Lin Bei received the ball and, despite Irving's interference, decisively launched a three-pointer.

Swish!

This three-pointer, which was forced into the basket by Irving, seemed to announce that the individual duel between Lin Bei and Irving was about to end the game.

Skip Bayless's commentary followed: "Another three-pointer hits! The blue-collar center has scored 8 points, giving him an 8-2 lead over the star point guard—"

,

The magician finally couldn't hold back any longer: "Wait, Skip, do you and Kelly Irving have some kind of grudge?"

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