Champions Creed

Chapter 211 Chapter 210: Reverse Tiangang (ask for monthly ticket!)
Indiana fans didn't see Pippen as a threat at all because he was exhausted in the series against the Hornets.

But Pacers coach Larry Bird doesn't think so. He has long reminded the team: "Pay attention to Scott. If he's guarding Reggie, all of you have to be ten times more careful when passing the ball!"

Bird and Pippen were teammates in the Dream Team, and he knew how good Scott Pippen was.

There are only two things that are tragic about Pippen.

First, during the peak period of his career, he was teammates with two players at the top of the pyramid.

In Chicago, he first met Jordan, then seamlessly met Roger, and then welcomed Jordan back.

Second, he became Roger's main antagonist in the first few seasons.

Roger defeated the Chicago Bulls for two consecutive years, directly breaking up that dynasty team and making Pippen's defense look worthless.

But in fact, who in the league can really defend Roger? It's not that Pippen's defense is not good enough, but Roger's scoring ability is too strong.

Under the brilliance of these two god-level figures, Pippen naturally looks like a waste.

It's like, LeBron James is actually a very good player when he is taken alone, but if he is compared with Michael Jordan, it seems a bit abstract.

In Bird's eyes, Pippen may not be the core of a championship team, but as the second in command, he is underestimated.

Now, Bird's biggest fear is happening on the court.

As soon as the game started, Pippen was trying his best to defend Reggie Miller.

Miller turned the basketball game into a marathon right from the start. In the Pacers, Reggie Miller's style is actually very unlike that of a core player.

Because what he does is always very simple, that is, off-ball offense.

Ray Allen didn't give up the ball and play without the ball until he joined the Celtics. In the season before joining the Celtics, Ray Allen's assisted efficiency was at the same level as Kobe.

Stephen Curry is very good when he plays without the ball, but his assisted efficiency is simply not at the level of an off-ball player.

Because they are the first core, they need to do a lot of things on the court, and they must not be just pure off-ball shooters. After all, the more limited a player can do, the less influence he has on the game. And people who have little influence on the game cannot become the first core.

But Reggie Miller is different. Since the first year of his career, his assist efficiency has been terrifyingly high.

This season, Reggie Miller's two-point assist rate is 64%, and his three-point assist rate is 86%. Ray Allen's third year with the Celtics was almost at this level.

This is a very abnormal ball possession ratio for the first core player.

Compared to being the core player, Reggie Miller's style is more suitable for being the second in command of a team.

But the problem is that Reggie Miller never played with a better player than himself during his peak period. He was forced to be the core of the team. However, he enjoyed the feeling of carrying the heavy responsibility very much. He always took the key balls and played many representative works in the playoffs. This is why Miller is so unique.

Some people have limited abilities and talents, but great courage.

Some people have a once-in-a-century talent, but they repeatedly run away from the battlefield.

The Pacers set up layer upon layer of screens for Miller to create space for him to shoot, and Mark Jackson, who ranked third in the league in assists per game, was always ready to supply him with ammunition.

Lanny Wilkens couldn't help but complain: "Damn, that bastard is just like a rat running around in a complicated sewer."

Rats running around in sewers are generally difficult to catch, which is why Reggie Miller is difficult to defend.

Roger could catch him, but at the expense of his own offense.

So when Pippen volunteered to put a lock on Reggie Miller, Wilkens agreed.

The old-school coach admired Pippen's courage.

Also, Pippen's offense really doesn't have much to sacrifice.
Pippen did a pretty good job on defense in the first round.

No matter how many off-ball screens there are, he can quickly get rid of them and stick closely behind Reggie Miller, cutting off the passing route at any time.

Mark Jackson used his big butt to lean against Roger to avoid being stolen, and waited outside the three-point line for a long time, but never got the right opportunity to pass the ball.

Pippen defended too tightly and Reggie Miller had no chance to catch the ball.

In the end, Mark Jackson had to pass the ball to Schmitz in the inside.

The Dutchman used his height advantage to score a goal, giving the Pacers the lead.

The Pacers scored, but Bird didn't smile. Rick Smits is not Hakeem Olajuwon, he is not the kind of center who can end the game by scoring.

If the Pacers are forced to pass the ball to the inside again and again, it proves that the team's offense is a mess.

Rick Carlisle, Bird's most trusted assistant coach who is in charge of offense, was a little worried: "Should we let Reggie increase the proportion of two-point offense with the ball?"

"No, absolutely not," Bird shook his head, "That would only give Scott Pippen steals!"

Fortunately, the Pacers' defense is still excellent.

The Pacers continued to use active pressure and double-teaming against Roger in this game. The difference from the regular season was that Bird specifically left someone to guard Steve Smith, and that person happened to be Reggie Miller.

Miller doesn't need to participate in assisting defense. He has only one goal on the defensive end, which is to follow Steve Smith and not give him an easy chance to shoot.

As long as they keep a close eye on him, Roger will basically be the only stable offensive point for the Hawks.

Roger had just crossed half court when he was double-teamed by Mark Jackson and Chris Mullin.

Roger passed the ball to Pippen without hesitation. Pippen had no confidence in his shot, so he accelerated towards the basket.

But he is no longer the athletic boy who could dunk on Ewing and step over him. Pippen's impact has obviously weakened a lot now, and the pain in his back has also affected his ability to finish in confrontations.

In the end, Pippen's layup missed due to Dale Davis' strong block.

The Pacers' defensive strategy was successful. As long as they limited Roger's independent offense and Steve Smith's receiving the ball, the Hawks' offensive threat would drop sharply.

Reggie Miller didn't miss the opportunity to hit Pippen: "Scott, you got a migraine again today?"

The two biggest black spots in Pippen's career were his migraine during the Game 90 against the Pistons in 94 and his refusal to play at a critical moment against the Knicks in . These were also the points where he was most vulnerable to attack.

But in the face of Reggie Miller's provocation, Pippen didn't say anything.

Because soon, he replaced words with actions.

In the second round, Pippen started pulling Miller's jersey.

Bird became anxious as he saw Reggie Miller being entangled and unable to catch the ball.

Seeing that Miller still had no hope of catching the ball and Schmitz was embarrassed by Kurt Thomas's front defense, Mark Jackson chose to look for another shooter Mullin.

But his pass was intercepted directly by Roger.

Chris Mullin, who is already 35 years old, is far behind Reggie Miller in terms of running frequency and speed. So it is still very easy for Roger to defend him, and he can easily bite him without wasting any physical effort.

After Roger completed the steal, he quickly counterattacked and scored a one-handed dunk.

2 to 2, the tone of the game was set from the beginning.

This will be a defensive battle!
The Pacers couldn't get the ball to Miller easily, and the Hawks' offense was highly dependent on Roger.

Sure enough, in the subsequent games, both sides had low hit rates.

But Roger still gave the team the lead.

The double attack from Mark Jackson and Chris Mullin was not fierce enough for Roger.

Mullin was never a good defender throughout his life, and Mark Jackson played very well in the Knicks, but was traded because Riley thought his defense was not aggressive enough.

The double-team of these two men put a lot of pressure on Roger, but not so great that he couldn't score a goal.

Roger used his brilliant scoring performance to break up the double-team of Mullin and Mark Jackson time and time again. However, it was difficult for the Hawks to widen the gap relying on Roger alone.

No matter how good Roger is, it is difficult for him to score consecutive goals when being double-teamed.

In order to achieve a climax in an attack, you need powerful and continuous output. Intermittent output will not lead to a climax.

With 17 seconds left in the second quarter, the Hawks led by seven points and had a chance to extend the lead to double digits before halftime.

But Roger was tightly trapped by Mark Jackson and Jalen Rose who came off the bench in the mid-range.

In this situation, Roger had no choice but to pass the ball to Pippen who was completely open.

Pippen shot with no one guarding him outside the three-point line, but the ball still bounced out.

After Dale Davis secured the rebound, he quickly passed the ball to Reggie Miller, who made a three-pointer in the final moments and the basketball went into the net as the whistle sounded.

At the end of the first half, the score difference was only 4 points.

If Pippen had made that shot, the Hawks would have entered the second half with a 10-point advantage.

But one missed shot completely changed the course of the game.

After scoring, Reggie Miller pointed to Pippen's head and said, "I understand. Cowards always get headaches at critical moments. It's not your fault."

In the first half, Pippen performed very well on the defensive end, but his offense was limited by injuries, and he only made 5 of 1 shots and scored only 4 points.

Reggie Miller used this to wildly disrupt Pippen's mind.

As a professional Pippen hater, Roger is really good at criticizing Pippen.

People always say that he and Pippen have been teammates since 1993, but in fact, the two have only been teammates for two seasons so far.

But Roger has been criticizing Pippen since 1993 and has a lot of experience. So he knows that the migraine is very harmful to Pippen.

Roger still doesn't know why Pippen cared so much about the migraine. Yes, Pippen's performance of only 10 points with 1 of 2 shots in that game was really shameful.

But to be fair, there were many games in which Pippen only scored single digit points in crucial matches. Is that not enough?
The Bulls took revenge on the Pistons the following season and won three consecutive championships. The loss in that game did not lead to a lifetime of championship-less consequences like Barkley's failure to block Stockton's three-pointer last season.

The loss in that game did not greatly affect Pippen's career.

So it's really puzzling that Pippen cared so much about that game.

But no matter what the reason is, criticizing Pippen for having a migraine will definitely affect his mentality.

This time, Pippen did not refute Reggie Miller, but turned around and walked towards the player tunnel, looking very disappointed.

Roger didn't want Pippen's mentality to be blown up by Reggie Miller.

Because when it comes to defense, mentality is very important.

Once their mentality breaks down, they will put their hands on their hips, make eye contact, and spread their hands on the defensive end.

So after returning to the locker room, Roger deliberately approached Pippen and said, "Scott, don't listen to Reggie's nonsense."

Pippen was calm: "You think I was affected? I just don't want to talk to him. Don't worry, I will watch him for the whole game. No, a whole series!"

"OK, I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"It's just a migraine, whatever he wants to say. Do you know why I used to be so sensitive about this topic?

The damn media only reported that I had an inexplicable migraine, who the hell cared that my father just died a few days before that incident! ?

I was in so much pain from this that I couldn't sleep for days, so unfortunately, I had a splitting headache in Game 7. But who cares? They'll just say Scott was a wimp and made excuses for his failure!

In the past, whenever someone brought up this topic, I would think of my father.

Our family was very poor, but my father never gave up on this family. He worked in a paper mill from morning till night to support the whole family until he became paralyzed in bed.

So the day I lost him, I was really sad. I made a lot of money later, but what was the use? He could only lie in bed and couldn't even speak!

Damn, the day Michael lost his father, the whole world knew he was sad, and it seemed like the whole world could empathize with him.

What about me? My father is no longer my father?
But now, I think I have let it go.

So no matter what Reggie says, it won't affect me.

You don't have to worry about me, just keep doing what you should do and lead us to victory!"

After Pippen finished speaking, Roger was stunned for a moment.

Now he knew why migraines hurt Pippen.

There is indeed no inexplicable harm in this world.

Pippen's current state is the most eager to win that Roger has ever seen him.

Even the trash talk that he used to care about the most couldn't hurt him at all.

If such a Pippen is wasted, he will be punished by God.

"Of course, I will lead you to win!" Roger patted Pippen on the shoulder.

"Go ahead, give it a try, and forget about that damn Reggie! I'll deal with him, I'll deal with him!"

In the second half, Roger scored a drifting shot over Mark Jackson and Chris Mullin right at the start.

After confirming that Pippen was fine, Roger now had no distractions and only one goal - to win!
Watching Roger score another difficult goal, Bird now finally understood why so many coaches hated him back then.

When you rack your brains to arrange a defensive tactic and the tactic is successfully executed by the players, but the opponent still scores a goal without any chance, any coach will be furious.

Bird really wanted to rush up and beat Roger up now.

However, as long as Pippen's defensive performance in the second half is loose, Roger will definitely return to Reggie Miller. At that time, Roger, who has to work on both offense and defense, will definitely not be able to maintain his current offensive state.

Bird believed that Pippen's defense would fall in the second half because he knew very well how powerful high-level trash talk was, as he himself was such a master.

Everyone laughed at Bird for being beaten up by Dr. J and Barkley, but that was precisely because Bird broke Dr. J's mentality.

Reggie Miller's trash talk just now has silenced Pippen, so Pippen will definitely start to be distracted on the defensive end next.

However, in the first defensive play of the second half, Pippen directly stole the ball from Reggie Miller!

Today, Pippen was like a bull terrier, who would not stop until he killed his target. Under Pippen's pursuit, Mark Jackson's pass to Reggie Miller was easily intercepted.

After Pippen completed the steal, he immediately pushed across half court. At the moment he stepped on the three-point line, he made a diagonal pass to the no-man's land.

The next second, Roger followed up and rushed in, comfortably received the basketball passed by Pippen, and scored a fast break layup.

"Nice pass! God, before the season started, people were even worried that they would fight in the same bed! But now, can you see any problems between Roger and Scott? They just party in the same bed!" Steve Jones praised Atlanta's savior crazily.

This commentary made Larsa blush.

It's not impossible~
At the beginning of the second half, Pippen shattered Bird's beautiful fantasy with his excellent defense.

His mentality was not affected at all, and his defense against Miller was still deadly.

He doesn't care about those things anymore.

He just wants to win in Atlanta!

The camera was on Bird on the sidelines, he pursed his lips and frowned. When he was a player, people had never seen Bird look so sad.

But more worrying things are yet to come.

Because Pippen was able to lock down Reggie Miller, so Roger didn't have to waste time on the defensive end.

So, Roger fully demonstrated his MVP-level firepower in the third quarter!
In the fifth minute of the third quarter, Roger broke through Mark Jackson and forced a layup against the 224-centimeter Rick Schmitz, scoring a free throw.

A minute later, Roger shook off Mark Jackson and hit a three-pointer despite the desperate interference of Chris Mullin!

Roger was getting more and more comfortable scoring in double-team situations, and the Pacers were finding it difficult to maintain the score by relying on sporadic hits.

Now is the time for Reggie Miller to step up.

But Miller failed to shoulder the scoring responsibility under Pippen's desperate blockade.

He didn't escape, he was still trying to find a way, but he either couldn't catch the ball, or he caught the ball but missed the shot under Pippen's strict interference.

Although Pippen was still unable to score, he used defense to form a perfect complement with Roger.

When Reggie Miller missed three shots in a row in the third quarter, Roger decided to speak up for Pippen who had been defending silently: "Reggie, even if you have the chance to participate in the US presidential election, you will quit halfway because you can't make it to the end. Stop me? If you can't even finish the series, you bastard should get out and go back to growing corn!"

The combination of Pippen and Roger has strangled the Pacers.

At this time, Steve Jones, who was commentating on the game, recalled the first season of Roger and Pippen's cooperation.

After the failure in the finals, many people talked about Jordan, believing that Roger's defeat just highlighted Jordan's greatness.

Because both of them had the same second-in-command, but one was able to win three consecutive championships while the other didn't.

Now, what if Roger and Pippen teamed up to win the championship?
In the previous few years, Jordan and Pippen worked together, but the dynasty team was directly disbanded by Roger.

If Roger and Pippen had won the championship together, would that mean Michael Jordan was a waste?
This comparison is actually very illogical, but when the media compared rookie Roger with peak Michael Jordan, was it very logical?

Steve Jones couldn't help laughing. Reebok's publicity machine would definitely not give up on this point. This was truly a top-notch counter-attack.

Michael Jordan would never have imagined that all the criticism Roger had received back then would soon be transferred to his own head.

To be honest, Steve Jones can't wait to see this fun!
Michael Jordan's status is still steadily declining!

In the fourth quarter, two Pacers players came off the bench.

Antonio Davis and Jalen Rose both had outstanding performances, one with 6 points and 3 offensive rebounds in a single quarter, and the other with 7 points and 2 assists in a single quarter.

But when Roger scored 39 points in the game, and when Reggie Miller was forced by Pippen to miss two consecutive three-point shots at the critical moment, the efforts of Antonio Davis and Jaylen Rose were meaningless.

91比79，老鹰队在系列赛首战以12分优势击溃大反派步行者，系列赛1比0领先。

Roger had 39 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds, and did not let his MVP night become a stage to set off the opponent.

皮蓬今天只拿了8分，但送出了7个篮板7个助攻4个抢断和2个盖帽的数据。最关键的是，他只让雷吉.米勒拿了16分，将米勒的的命中率控制在了35.7%。

"The Atlanta curse will end in the hands of Roger and Scott!" Steve Jones summed up tonight's game.

At the end of the game, Pippen looked at the cheering fans, saw the signs that read "Keep Scott", and waved to the stands with satisfaction.

Atlanta is really special.
-
The series is to win four games, that's all I have to say! - Reggie Miller ended the interview angrily.

We did a good job, but we didn't score enough. After all, the Pacers don't have a good scorer like Larry Bird. -- Coach of the Year Bird explained to reporters why he lost.

This is why Roger was able to win back-to-back MVPs. If he couldn't lead a teammate who scored 8 points in a single game to win the championship, how could he have the nerve to win the MVP? - Scott Pippen laughed and teased his offensive performance today.

I don't understand why Michael, with such an excellent assistant like Scott, couldn't even make it to the finals in the past few years. There is probably only one reason, Michael is too weak, he is not as good as Roger. ——Ben Wallace fired the first shot against Tiangang in an interview.

(End of this chapter)