【Guide】January 23, In the NBA regular season, the Bulls beat the Spurs 104-81 at home, ending their losing streak.
Gasol performed well, scoring 12 points and 17 rebounds on 5 of 6 shots. Among them, he completed a 12 16 double-double in the first three quarters, against Duncan who only scored 6 points and 7 rebounds.
Gasol and Duncan
The Bulls’ defensive quality has declined recently, and they have conceded over 100 points in 5 consecutive games.
But in this game, the Bulls played a tough defense again, limiting the scoring of the defending champion Spurs to 81 points.
The most critical of these is that Gasol completely suppressed Duncan in the matchup, allowing the opponent’s inside core to score only 6 points on 2 of 7 shots.
Throughout the game, Gasol basically didn’t give Duncan a good chance to attack while defending. Instead, he rewarded Shi Buddha with two blocked shots.
At 8 minutes and 07 seconds before the end of the first quarter, Duncan stormed the inside. Gasol responded forcefully, stretched out his long arms, and slapped the opponent’s short-range shot with a slap.
With 6 minutes and 41 seconds left in the third quarter, the Spurs’ offense was blocked, and they hoped that Duncan could open the situation inside.
But when Duncan attacked in the low post, his shot was blocked by Gasol again.
In addition, in terms of rebounding, Gasol demonstrated his strong coverage ability. He leaned against Duncan, raised his arms, and took off defensive rebounds time and time again.
In the first half alone, Gasol grabbed 7 rebounds, all of which were defensive rebounds, which provided a good guarantee for the Bulls’ counterattack.
And in the third quarter, Gasol was even more brave, grabbing 9 rebounds in a single quarter, and basically did not give the opponent a second chance to attack.
On the offensive end, due to Rose’s excellent state, Gasol did not take all the shots as he did in the past, but his efficiency was very high, hitting 5 goals in 6 shots.
In the first half, Gasol made 4 shots, hit 3 jumpers, and added free throws to score 8 points.
In the third quarter, Gasol scored twice in front of Duncan.
First, with 10 minutes and 49 seconds left in the third quarter, Gasol faced Duncan. He came to a position above the free throw line, received a pass from his teammate, and shot the first time. Duncan had no time to interfere and could only watch the ball cleanly.
fell into the net.
After 3 minutes, Gasol singled Duncan with the ball in the low post. He used his excellent technique and footwork, turned around after dribbling, and then made a fallback jumper, and the ball hit again.
Gasol was excellent both offensively and defensively. He also showed his coping ability in the third quarter, sending out two assists to help Gibson and Rose make offensive hits.
This kind of Gasol is like the tower that helped the Lakers win two championships back then.
In the just-announced All-Star voting, Gasol was eligible to start for the first time in his career.
Many people think that this is because Gasol came to the east and avoided the fierce competition in the frontcourt of the west.
This is certainly part of the reason, but more importantly, Gasol is in excellent form this season, averaging 18.7 points and a career-high 11.4 rebounds per game, and 2.1 blocks also tied his career record.
His performance is completely worthy of a starting spot.