I am the Killer of Kobe's Killer! (Part 2)

At [30:27], the Lakers entered the second quarter with a three-point lead. Zhou Ze and Kobe were not in the starting lineup at this point.

There was no helping it.

Zhou Ze was on the bench "recharging his mana."

His stamina was a significant issue. Of course, most NBA rookies faced problems with insufficient stamina early in their careers.

But for a stamina freak like Kobe, that was practically negligible.

Even under Raja Bell's relentless pestering and physical pressure, Kobe responded forcefully.

At [35:31], facing Raja Bell's tight defense, Kobe used a simple crossover and exploded forward. Raja Bell gritted his teeth and chased after him with all his strength. Seeing Bell still glued to him by half a step, Kobe suddenly stopped in the middle of his drive. Raja Bell seemed nailed to the hardwood. Kobe accelerated again, completely leaving Bell behind before finishing with a low scoop layup.

This was an advanced driving move—the hesitation-step drive.

When you only had half a step on your defender, you used a sudden stop and burst to bait their judgment.

Of course, masters of the hesitation step shared one trait: reliable mid-range shooting. If you lacked shooting ability during that sudden pause, the defender would simply collapse into the paint.

At [35:33], after Kobe scored, the Suns' backcourt engine, Steve Nash, quickly responded. Using a middle pick-and-roll with Kurt Thomas, he drew the defense before firing a no-look pass to "the Matrix," Shawn Marion, who cut into the left wing. Marion stretched out his long arms and hammered home a one-handed dunk.

During the first half of the second quarter, with Zhou Ze off the court and Raja Bell constantly harassing him, Kobe kept responding with force—but he gradually got heated.

Once Kobe got heated, he was the kind of guy who would create difficulty even when there was none.

He even forced shots through triple teams.

His shot selection was atrocious.

The Suns were also an extremely adept transition team. Every missed shot was a solid fast-break opportunity.

The Lakers' big man on the court, Kwame Brown—the so-called bust first overall pick—was terrible at securing rebounds. He even had butterfingers at times.

There was even a sequence where he grabbed a rebound, only for an opposing guard to strip it away.

Lamar Odom's form tonight was merely average, and he struggled to give Kobe much additional help.

The Suns seized on Kobe's hot-headedness and went on a 12:5 run in less than three minutes, bringing the score to [40:45].

The Lakers' head coach, Zen Master Phil Jackson, called a timeout.

The team's biggest problem right now was Kobe's stubbornness. They needed to cool him down.

In the past, persuading Kobe to calm down had been an extremely troublesome task.

But now, it was much easier...

Zhou Ze had recovered most of his stamina and was about to check in. When it came to reckless shot-chucking, he was even worse than Kobe.

Yet Zhou Ze's reckless shooting could calm Kobe down. Besides, Zhou Ze's three-point percentage offered a decent guarantee.

In Phil Jackson's words, it was "fighting poison with poison, using recklessness to suppress recklessness."

When the timeout ended and Zhou Ze checked in, boos and insults immediately erupted from the crowd.

"Boo!"

"Boo!"

"Boo!"

"Softie!"

"Softie!"

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As a thickly built interior player, Zhou Ze had made three three-pointers in the first quarter and had not taken a single shot in the paint.

The Suns fans used that to mock Zhou Ze.

"Zhou, the more these guys fear you, the louder they'll boo... Don't let it—" Kobe worried that Zhou Ze's mentality would be affected. After all, it was rare for a rookie to be booed so heavily by opposing fans on the road.

However...

Kobe quickly realized that he had apparently overthought it.

Not only was Zhou Ze unaffected in the slightest, he even cupped a hand to his ear toward the fans, provoking them into booing even louder.

"Fuck! You damn rookie, who do you think you are?!"

"Rookie, your luck has run out."

"Rookie, you won't make another three-pointer for the rest of the game."

The Suns' home crowd was fired up by Zhou Ze, and quite a few of them even started chanting, "Fuck Zhou!"

"As expected of Zhou. He's exactly what I dream of becoming." Andrew Bynum, a fellow Lakers rookie who had been subbed in alongside Zhou Ze, stood beside him with a look of utter admiration on his face.

Though Zhou Ze was seven centimeters shorter than him, he seemed like a giant at that moment.

Not only did he dare to elbow the team leader and league superstar Kobe, he even dared to talk back to the opposing team's fans.

Shortly after checking in, Zhou Ze got a chance to shoot. Taking advantage of Kobe's offensive threat and his teammates' quick ball movement, Zhou Ze caught the pass at the top of the arc and immediately launched a three, knocking down his fourth three-pointer of the game to make it [46:50].

Seeing Zhou Ze knock down a three right after coming in, Kobe, having calmed down, also saw through the opponent's defensive intentions.

How high was Kobe's basketball IQ?

It was definitely three or four stories high.

After all, he was one of the two NBA players who understood the triangle offense best.

Kobe began using his off-ball threat to create good shooting opportunities for Zhou Ze.

[51:52]. The Lakers made another beautiful sequence of ball movement. Zhou Ze caught and fired, knocking down another three over Marion, who was scrambling back after overhelping on defense.

That three-pointer forced the Suns to call a timeout.

"The Suns still aren't paying enough attention to Little Zhou's three-point shooting."

"Yeah, Shawn Marion overhelped, leaving him unable to recover to Little Zhou in time."

"Exactly. Although Marion rotates quickly and has an excellent wingspan, Little Zhou is a high-arching cannon."

"In Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni's eyes, Little Zhou probably doesn't have such a reliable three-point shot. He also didn't believe that after sitting on the bench for so long, he could come in and immediately hit a three."

"Of course, after this timeout, the Suns have no choice but to take Little Zhou's three-point shooting seriously."

"Marion probably won't dare leave Little Zhou so easily anymore."

The two commentators at the Heavenly Dynasty Sports Studio analyzed.

After the timeout, the Suns did indeed tighten their defense on Zhou Ze. Marion stayed glued to him, making it extremely difficult for Zhou Ze even to catch the ball.

In a game, that kind of defensive distance could be called "lockdown."

Physical off-ball defense was the treatment reserved for elite shooters.

Once a defender played that tight, it meant more opportunities for backdoor cuts. But Zhou Ze's low-post scoring and finishing were fairly average, and he couldn't take Marion one-on-one.

However, with Marion, who excelled at help defense, tied up on him, Kobe faced much less defensive pressure when driving to the basket.

Kobe used his off-ball threat to create good shooting opportunities for teammates like Zhou Ze, putting on a strong performance.

Likewise, Zhou Ze's hot form helped ease the defensive pressure on Kobe.