Champions Creed

Chapter 124: Roger only plays high-end games (asking for monthly tickets!)
During the days when Roger went to Reebok headquarters for a meeting and took Leticia to Orlando for a tour, the Magic played two games, winning one and losing one.

After defeating the Bulls, the Magic lost in a back-to-back game against the Jazz the next day.

But they soon won the game against the bottom-ranked Raptors.

Without Shaq, the Magic lost only five games by the end of December, two of which were lost because Roger was also suspended.

Such a record is undoubtedly quite outstanding and far exceeds people's expectations.

After all, when the Shark was injured, many Orlando fans were worried that the team's record would plummet.

If the Chicago Bulls hadn't occupied the first place, Roger would have received more praise.

However, the Magic also had bad news. In the game against the Jazz, Grant Horace was injured and left the game in the second quarter, perhaps because of the exhaustion from the back-to-back schedule.

After the game, the team doctor confirmed that it was a hamstring strain and he would be out for about 4-5 weeks, and was expected to miss about 20 games.

Roger was quite helpless. Horace Grant was the type of player that you didn't think was that great when he was around, but you would definitely miss him when he was gone.

After all, he was the second defensive forward last season. Although his role on the offensive end is average, his defensive end is indeed very important.

Fortunately, the Shark is about to return, and he is expected to make his debut of the new season in the Christmas game against his old rival Rockets in the finals.

So in the situation where the team's two starting inside players are both out, Roger only needs to last three games.

The opponents in these three games are strong and weak. The Philadelphia 76ers and the Timberwolves are both not threatening opponents.

Perhaps only the Miami Heat, led by Riley, will give Roger some trouble.

That's right, it just takes some effort on Roger's part.

No media dares to guarantee that the Heat will win.

You know, this is the Orlando Magic who lost two starting inside players, and the Heat's advantage is precisely the inside!

But even so, no media dared to underestimate the defending champion.

There's no way around it. Roger has used his outstanding performance over the past two months to tell the world how great he is now.

John Anderson put it very bluntly on SportsCenter the day before the game against the Philadelphia 76ers:

"The only suspense is how Roger will torture Jerry Stackhouse. Although the North Carolina No. 20.3 pick has averaged points per game so far this season, he undoubtedly cannot pose any threat to Roger."

The night before the game, reporters photographed Leticia walking out of the cinema arm in arm with Roger.

They had just finished watching the hit movie "GoldenEye", the first 007 movie starring Pierce Brosnan.

From their intimate actions, it is clear that they are more than just friends.

That's true, the two just made their relationship clear this morning.

At night, after taking a bath, Laetitia deliberately wore only a bathrobe to teach Roger French. Maybe she got inspiration from Golden Eye. As we all know, the 007 series has never lacked erotic and passionate scenes, and the most imaginative scene in Golden Eye is the fight between the female killer played by Famke Janssen and Bond in a bathrobe.

Roger also thought that part was very good. You can always believe in the strength and beauty of female characters in movies of this era. When he was a child, Roger watched 007 as a teaching film.

Under Laetitia's bathrobe, Roger admitted that he couldn't concentrate on today's class.

Seeing Roger's eyes wandering around, Leticia sat directly on Roger's lap: "Tell me the truth, did you really ask me to teach you French?"

"It's true."

"That's very disappointing to me. It shows that I am really unattractive."

"That's not the case. If you make it back to France safely from here, it means you're unattractive, but obviously you can't do that."

"Will I be in any danger?"

Roger did not answer, but untied the belt of her bath towel. The bath towel slid down her smooth skin, and Roger saw that she was naked.

What else could Roger say? Maybe this was a tacit understanding.

She knew Roger was going to hunt tonight, and she was willing to be hunted.

"Is there anyone who teaches like this? Oh, wait, Roger, don't you have a game tomorrow night?"

"Competition? Only when the two sides are evenly matched can it be called a competition. Tomorrow, it will just be a show."

The French course finally reached its climax with Roger's in-depth understanding.
-
On the evening of December 12th, Roger yawned while warming up.

He had no energy the whole day. He didn't sleep well last night, so he drank a lot of coffee in the morning. As a result, he was very sleepy at noon but couldn't fall asleep. When he could fall asleep, the team had to go to the stadium to prepare for the game.

Looking at Roger's bloodshot eyes, the whole team knew that Roger must have studied hard last night.

Roger's recent scandal with Letitia has caused many of the owners of Orlando's gossip magazines to mention Land Rover, causing a sensation in the city.

So everyone knows that Roger must be very tired recently.

Shark looked at Roger who was about to fall asleep and said jokingly: "With Roger's level, he can now understand a French movie without subtitles, the kind produced by Woodpecker!"

Roger smiled. He didn't expect that Little Shark also liked to study foreign language films.

However, Roger's condition also made Salu a little worried: "Man, I don't doubt your ability, but Jerry is coming for you. I think you'd better adjust yourself."

Roger nodded, "I'm adjusting, Saru."

Roger wasn't lying, he had been adjusting since warm-up, but no one noticed.

Before the game started, when the starting lineups of both teams gathered, Jerry Stackhouse was very excited: "You have nowhere to escape tonight, Roger."

"Oh, ha~" Roger yawned.

"Hehe, remember your expression right now, this will become the most embarrassing material in NBA history!"

"Oh."

Michael Cage couldn't help laughing: "Come on, kid, the truth doesn't even have the desire to talk trash to you, stop humiliating yourself."

This is a cruel truth. Roger really has no desire to talk trash to Stackhouse.

There's no need, really.

The Magic have lost 5 games so far, and the 76ers have only won 5 games so far.

The Magic's lineup is the same one that won the championship last season. Although some players are injured, the foundation is still there.

The 76ers' lineup is a patchwork one. They picked up Maxwell, who was signed by the Rockets last season, and started second-round pick Derrick Alston, who averaged 4.7 points per game last season.

Together with Stackhouse, Clarence Weatherspoon, who is as fat as a chocolate ball, and Trevor Ruffin, who was not drafted last season, the starting lineup was formed.

Originally, the 76ers had a few decent players in their roster. They brought in the 90 No. 11 pick Derrick Coleman in the summer, but he was out after playing in games. The big stick Bradley was also out for the season again.

Therefore, the 76ers' lineup can no longer be said to trust the process.

It should be called a bleak future. How could Roger take it seriously?

The game starts and the Magic has the ball.

Roger had the ball outside the three-point line, and Jerry Stackhouse actually came up to defend Roger alone.

In this respect, at least he is a man and he doesn't just stand there with his hands on his hips watching the fun.

"Come on, Roger, come on!" Stackhouse lowered his center of gravity exaggeratedly, opened his arms but clenched his fists, glared, and it looked as if every tooth was exerting force.

You can tell from his expression that Stackhouse is going to poop big.

Roger took one look at Stackhouse's position, easily attacked him with his front foot, and then made a jump shot without any help.

Roger himself was surprised. This was the first time this season that he did not encounter any help defense after breaking through his defender.

76ers coach John Lucas had a blank expression on his face. Of course he asked the players to help defend Roger, but no one could do it!
It's like these idiots don't know what help defense means!
In fact, they all know what help defense means. But in this Philadelphia 76ers team, every player wants to get better stats, so there is no discipline at all.

One round later, Stackhouse challenged Roger.

He dribbled between his legs continuously, finally broke through with his left hand, and then made a quick stop and jump shot.

Three no-sticks.

The fans were stunned. They knew that Stackhouse might pull the trigger, but they didn't expect him to do it in front of so many people.

The three-no-stick method has come out, what is this for! ?
Roger didn't talk trash, and didn't even look at Stackhouse.

Because it was too unchallenging, Roger didn't even try to defend him with all his strength, so he missed all three shots.

In Spoelstra's video, he specifically noted that Stackhouse is not very good with his left hand. Therefore, he will be very uncomfortable if he is forced to go to the left.

Roger just did what he was told. He knew it would make Stackhouse uncomfortable, but he didn't expect that he would miss all three shots.

So Roger was too lazy to talk nonsense with Stackhouse. He only had one idea now: to quickly put the game into garbage time. Roger didn't want to waste his energy in such a game.

One round later, the 76ers still had Stackhouse defending Roger alone.

No help defense, no double team attack, no system.

Roger played a back-to-the-basket singles game, easily advancing to the right distance, then turned over and hit the bank.

Still no trash talk, no communication. Roger shot the ball and ran back to his own half.

It's like facing your wife you've been married to for more than ten years. There's no passion, just completing the task.

Stackhouse didn't arouse Roger's interest at all, and Roger knew Stackhouse's future ceiling, so he was even less interested.

The greatest achievement of this guy's career is that he is "the only teammate of Jordan who averaged more points per game than him in a single season."

In the 02-03 season with the Wizards, Stackhouse averaged 40 point more than the 1-year-old Jordan. You can say that he is the man who makes the God of Basketball play second, but this is his greatest achievement.

Stackhouse held the ball again and challenged alone. Roger continued to block his right hand, forcing him to use his left hand.

What followed was smooth dribbling, sudden stops, interceptions, and turnovers.

Roger completed all this with a blank expression on his face. Leticia on the sidelines admired Roger's ability to recover. She turned around and asked Abunasa beside her excitedly, "Does Roger always recover so quickly? We had class until very late yesterday, but he was still in incredible shape for today's game!"

Abunassar smiled but said nothing. It wasn't that Roger was in good shape. How could he explain to this lady that the third pick in the 95 draft didn't have the strength to challenge Roger at all, but was just unilaterally crazy and kept trying to make trouble.

Roger completely destroyed Stackhouse in the game after the first quarter.

Facing Stackhouse's one-on-one defense, Roger scored 6 points in just 12 minutes.

Stackhouse only scored 2 points from free throws under Roger's defensive strategy of blocking his right hand.

12 to 2, the match was decided in just 6 minutes.

Stackhouse has always wanted to vindicate the 4-on-5 situation in the McDonald's All-Star Game, but he ended up getting beaten even worse than that year.

Yes, how could a guy who lost to a high school student in the draft and lost to a high school student in a one-on-one match compete with Roger?

NBC commentator Bob Costa's eyelids were heavy as he watched the game. "I thought Roger would use some special methods to humiliate Jerry, like dunking over him or knocking him down. But he didn't. He just used some conventional methods to attack Jerry. I know Roger wanted to show the huge gap between him and Jerry, but this made the game extremely boring."

"No, Bob," Bill Walton laughed, "Roger is not using conventional means to deal with Jerry."

"Huh? Is there anything different about his attack than before?"

"Didn't you notice? Roger has been using his left hand since warming up! But he still beat Jerry with his non-dominant hand!"

"Ah?" Bob Costa said that Roger's movements seemed different from usual. Well, he admitted that he was fooled by Roger who changed hands secretly without saying a word.

This is the gap between Roger and his peers.

Roger's benchmarks have always been Dream, Jordan, and the championship.

This makes many people forget that he is only 20 years old.

Today, people saw what a normal 20-year-old player should look like.

And how big is the gap between a normal 20-year-old player and a perverted 20-year-old player like Roger.

For Roger, this battle against his peers became meaningless.

Bill Walton stretched and said, "Roger is only serious when playing high-end games now."

Larry Miller, who was present at the scene, was becoming more and more confident in Roger's independent brand.

Roger is still so young, yet he already possesses such terrifying dominance.

So, only God knows how long his reign will last!
In the end, Roger scored 42 points in three quarters, led the team to a 33-point lead after three quarters, and limited Stackhouse to only 13 points.

After the game, reporters were very curious.

"Why did you use your left hand throughout the game today? Are you trying to show off the power of your left hand?"

"No, in fact, I don't use my left hand well enough, otherwise I should have scored 50 points tonight. I use my left hand only because it is enough to deal with a second-rate high school player like Jerry. As for my right hand, I have to save it to slap Pat Riley. Before that, I must not dirty my hands."

At this point, people suddenly remembered the only sentence Roger said in an interview after O'Neal was injured in the preseason game against the Heat:

"This is not over yet."

He still remembers, he remembers everything.

After listening to Roger's live interview, Bill Walton shrugged:

"Believe me, Pat Riley will never be happy about being noticed. In fact, he must be having nightmares."

(End of this chapter)