Champions Creed

Chapter 251: Kobe's dream play (asking for monthly tickets!)

Finally, Roger got to see the Eastern Conference Finals he had been longing for.

This Eastern Conference Finals is a meeting between enemies. Since Roger defeated the Rockets in 1995, he has never experienced this so-called "revenge series".

If they can't beat the Heat to win the championship, Roger will feel that this year's championship is incomplete.

Fortunately, Pat Riley's team performed very well.

The night before the game, Spoelstra and Roger had dinner together.

Perhaps it was fate, but during the years when Pat Riley was blocking Jordan with the New York Mafia, Jordan had a good personal relationship with his two generals, Oakley and Ewing.

And when Riley was trying to build his own basketball empire in Miami, Roger had a good relationship with his assistant coaches.

This made Riley always feel like he was being bullied.

Of course, he believes in Spoelstra's professionalism.

There was no way that guy would reveal any of the Heat's strategy to Roger.

Roger didn't bother to do that either.

Riley's guess was correct, Roger and Spoelstra didn't talk about basketball at all.

They talked about the good times in Orlando and then talked about their respective lives.

"Eric, I heard that you had an affair with a Miami Heat cheerleader? Is that true? Did you learn this from being around Pat Riley?" Roger stared at the Filipino guy with a smirk on his face.

"What do you mean by having an affair? Ours is called deep love!"

"Heh, this damn league doesn't allow players to contact cheerleaders, but allows the coaching staff to do so. It's really unfair."

"Forgive David Stern, he doesn't want the 'cheerleader girl looking for the baby's father in the locker room' scenario to happen in the NBA. You can imagine if Rain Man and Patrick were on the same team and they were allowed to have contact with the cheerleaders, the cheerleaders might collectively take maternity leave."

As Roger and Spoelstra were joking around, sports news was playing on the restaurant's TV.

The news is about the Eastern Conference Finals.

Atlanta is now the focus of the entire NBA.

The Heat vs. Hawks series completely overshadowed the Lakers vs. Jazz in the Western Conference Finals next door - because Pippen was on the Atlanta Hawks and Steve Smith went to the Clippers, the classic Portland Trail Blazers did not exist in this timeline.

So the Jazz became the team that played against the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

To be honest, there is really nothing to watch in this game.

The Jazz once swept the Lakers, but no one thought they could do it again, because in this year's regular season, the Jazz couldn't even win a single game against the Lakers.

And, save Hornacek. This poor old white guy is 37 years old. He finally got rid of Roger, but now he has to be tortured by Kobe.
Wouldn’t it be better to let him go home and take care of his daughter?

Compared to the Jazz and Lakers, which are no surprises, the Hawks and Heat are obviously more attractive.

At this time, Sprewell appeared on the TV screen and Spoelstra also covered his head.

He knew what Sprewell had said in the interview today, and he had been praying that this footage would not be broadcast on TV. But obviously, his prayers were in vain.

On TV, Sprewell faced the camera and said bluntly: "Last year's victory taught me one thing: Roger is not that scary without a shark."

Spoelstra knows Roger, so he knows that tomorrow night will be difficult.

There were many other things Sprewell could have said to provoke Roger, but he chose the most suicidal one.

Roger was watching TV, his expression still calm: "Eric, how is your personal relationship with Latrell?"

"Ah? Uh, just so-so. The coaching staff all have a so-so relationship with him. No one wants to be strangled by him."

"Oh, since he's not your friend, I don't need to comfort you. Go back, it's time to rest. I wish you and your cheerleading girlfriend a good night, because this is your last good night."

Roger ended all his pre-match relaxation activities, and what followed was only bloody killing with bayonets.

The next day, the Eastern Conference Finals were held at Philips Arena.

Before the game, Steve Jones and Bob Costa were discussing this round of games.

"No one knows if the Hawks can continue their streak of winning by double digits to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat's defense is one of the best in the league. They never lost to the Hawks by double digits in the regular season, and every game was very close. Steve, do you think this will happen?"

"I think it could happen, and it's all because of Latrell. He touched a real taboo, which is mentioning Shaq. When Roger became the savior of Atlanta in 1998, the discussion of 'Can Roger leave Shaq?' was basically closed.

But Ratrell, he brought it up again. So tonight, Roger was going to do more than just straddle him.”

Half an hour later, Hawks fans witnessed Roger win the third MVP trophy of his career at home.

There is no suspense about this year's MVP. If he can't win the MVP with 72 wins and averaging 35+5+5 per game, the MVP will lose its value before Joel Embiid enters the league.

When giving his speech, Roger could not forget his best teammate Shark.

Their relationship has surpassed that of Magic and Bird, and that of Jordan and Ewing.

Jordan would not mention Ewing in any public occasion. This scumbag who was unwilling to make the relationship public could not compare to the open and honest Roger.

He just loves sharks and never hides it.

"Man, you know, Shaq is my brother. Tonight makes me feel like I'm back to the good old days when Shaq and I dominated the top two spots on the MVP list. Congratulations to my good brother Shaq for becoming the second on the MVP list again. What can I say? We'll always be together." Roger used two of the greatest phrases in basketball in one speech, which was enough to prove how much he valued Shaq.

David Stern laughed awkwardly on the side. Roger's acceptance speech was not the most inspirational, but it was definitely the most yin-yang.

O'Neal is getting closer and closer to failure, and the only thing left for him to compete for is the championship.

After the award ceremony, Roger threw the MVP trophy to Andre Patterson: "Don't let the staff take it away. Just put it at your feet. If that bastard Latrell does anything other than basketball today, you hit him on the head with this and I'll pay the fine."

"Aren't you afraid that the trophy will be smashed?"

"It's broken, so what? I still have it at home."

The players on the bench all laughed, and even though Roger was just joking, it was obvious how much he hated the Heat and the madman.

I don’t know whether the MVP trophy will hit his head, but Roger’s iron fist will definitely make his head bleed.

The game started quickly, and both sides were quite familiar with each other's playing methods and styles.

The only difference between today's Eagles and the regular season is that the Eagles used Roger to defend Sprewell.

Thinking that the people defending him were Pippen or Pierce, Roger went to defend Mashburn.

The reason? To save the energy of the core scorer.

But Roger took the initiative to apply to defend Sprewell today, because after four games against the Heat in the regular season, Roger found that the pressure on his offensive end was not that great.

To put it bluntly, the reason the Heat were able to limit Roger last season was because Roger had no help.

Pippen was out for the season, Marion hadn't joined the team yet, and Pierce was still a rookie.

The Heat can use their entire team's strength to deal with Roger.

Now that someone can help Roger pull the offense, the Heat dare not over-double-team him, so it is not so difficult for Roger to score.

He is fully capable of fighting on two fronts.

Sprewell came up with the ball and found that Roger was guarding him personally, so he waved his hands and wanted to play one-on-one.

He started, used his strong body to lean on Roger and walked to the mid-range, then changed to holding the ball with his back to the basket and turned over to shoot.

The basketball hit the basket. Roger's defense was tight and the madman's shot was difficult.

But his mentality was not affected: "You can't score 30 points while defending me, and if you don't score 30 points, your team will lose!"

In this year's regular season, Roger only scored 25 points in the only game the Hawks lost to the Heat, but he scored more than 30 points in the other three wins.

Therefore, the Miami media has a "30-point rule". They believe that as long as the Heat can limit Roger to less than 30 points, the game will have a chance of winning.

Sprewell doesn't mind Roger defending him. The Heat have plenty of offensive points, so it doesn't matter if he is suffocated. If he can make Roger's defense affect the offense, he will be happy even if he only gets 8 points in a game.

Roger has had some great defensive moments and some great offensive moments this season.

He has defended Kobe to death in the fourth quarter, provided that the offense in the fourth quarter was fully given to Pierce.

He scored 61 points on top of Allen Iverson's head, but that was without him defending AI at all, allowing AI to score 50 points.

If you want to get one thing, you have to give up something else. This is the basic law of basketball.

Therefore, Sprewell is not afraid of being defended by Roger because that means Roger will give up more ball possession on the offensive end.

As long as you win the game, as long as you wear down Roger's offense, the statistics don't matter.

However, after Roger defended Sprewell with all his strength, he was still active on the offensive end and quickly got his first 2 points of the day.

He faced Sprewell with the ball, took a hesitation step, changed direction, and created space before taking a direct jump shot, which went in steadily.

"LUCK!" Sprewell yelled.

After scoring the goal, Roger did not stop and started to harass Sprewell almost non-stop.

Sprewell couldn't get the ball at all, and the Heat finally let Mourning play in the low post, but his turnaround hook shot missed.

Big Ben grabbed the rebound and passed the ball to Roger.

Roger carried the ball across half court himself and continued to attack with no intention of passing the ball.

But the other players on the Hawks were still very active in their off-ball movements, making it impossible for the Heat to over-double-team them.

Before Roger broke through to the free throw line, the madman was on his own.

Sprewell decided to increase the pressure and speed up the consumption of Roger.

But Roger cleverly avoided the pressure with a back dribble and shot directly from outside the three-point line.

"brush!"

"Is Roger at the amusement park? He has no pressure at all!" said Steve Jones.

Sprewell cursed inwardly and told himself to be patient.

Roger still has plenty of energy, so he can defend himself and attack efficiently at the same time. But this situation won't last long, definitely not.

In the next attack, Alan Houston couldn't get out of the open space, Mourning was bypassed, and the Heat needed a single player to break the situation.

But Sprewell ran around half court four times without getting a chance to catch the ball.

Roger spared no effort in defending the madman, making it so difficult for him to even catch the ball.

There was no other way, Jamal Mashburn could only serve as the second point to single out Pippen.

The result is predictable. Pippen stole the ball as soon as Mashburn passed the ball.

Jamal Mashburn has made great progress in his skills this season, but it is still far from enough to break through Pippen.

All the players on the Eagles team worked very hard today, both in terms of running and defense.

Even if they know they may not catch any balls today, they still try hard.

Logically speaking, Roger's toxic style of play today is very detrimental to his teammates. If you don't pass the ball for a long time, your teammates will lose their enthusiasm on both offense and defense, which is why the Zen Master needs the triangle offense, which can maximize the ball passing through everyone's hands.

But tonight, Roger's toxic style of play did not affect the team's enthusiasm.

Because everyone was willing to create a slaughterhouse for Roger, allowing Roger to fight the madman alone without worrying about double-teaming, and defend the madman alone without worrying about assisting defense, until Roger used the ultimate personal heroism to vent the anger that he had been holding in for a year!

Yes, this is what Kobe Bryant dreams of his teammates doing!
Of course, the Hawks can't do this in every game.

If you fight like this for too long, it will still affect other people's emotions.

But Roger led the whole team for a season, so what's wrong with letting Roger be a cancer?
This is what he deserves.

This is a limited-time benefit brought by the good locker room atmosphere that Roger has worked so hard to create.

Sure enough, Roger, who had just been harassing the madman on the defensive end, raised his hand and immediately asked for the ball at the midfield line to continue playing one-on-one.

Sprewell didn't dare to press anymore, he didn't want to be easily passed by Roger.

The result was that Roger made a three-pointer, 8-0!

"Damn it, give me the ball!" Sprewell ran forward, raised his hand for the ball, and prepared to steal a counterattack.

Alan Houston threw the ball to the madman. There was no one in front of him when he received the ball. This was the best scoring opportunity the Heat had had today.

But when Sprewell jumped up for a layup, the basketball was caught by Roger from behind.

What is incredible is that Roger did not pursue with all his strength.

He looked like he was just strolling behind Sprewell, waiting for him to take off and then block the shot.

Sprewell's speed meant that Roger didn't even need to chase him with all his strength.

After chasing and dribbling, Roger got the ball, made a quick transition, broke into the penalty area under the loose defensive formation of the Heat, and scored a layup.

The whole audience was in a trance. It felt like the game hadn't even started for long, but Roger had already scored 10 points! ?

He scored so quickly that Pat Riley was a little slow to react.

Riley knows Roger is a ruthless lunatic, but can he hold on to Sprewell while still attacking with all his might?

Steve Jones thinks so.

The fact that Roger didn't give his full attention to the pursuit but still blocked the madman is proof of this.

Yes, Roger hardly cares about defense when fighting with the AI.

When fighting against Kobe, he will give full power of offense to Pierce.

He can't play both offense and defense in this kind of game.

But that's because Kobe and AI are also elite players.

If Roger wants to defend against AI, he will consume a lot of energy, which will affect his offense.

If Roger wants to attack the Lakers, it will consume a lot of energy, which will affect the defense.

But for a player of Sprewell's level, Roger could use half of his energy to kill him, and then use the other half to easily beat him on the offensive end!
That's all he's doing now!
For the madman, everything is just the opposite.

The more defensive pressure Roger put on him, the less energetic he became on the offensive end. Because no matter whether he was attacking or defending, the madman had to devote 100% of his energy to dealing with Roger.

As the game progresses, he will become weaker and weaker.

He has fallen into the slaughterhouse that the entire Eagles team created for Roger.

After scoring the goal, Roger ran back to his own half and stared at Sprewell coldly: "Of course I won't score 30 points while defending you. If I can, I will score 50 points while defending you to death. 10 points more than Jamal Mashburn to prove that you are a more genuine trash."

"This is the playoffs, you are so arrogant!" The madman didn't believe that Roger could do it.

But it doesn't matter.

When God wants to punish you, believe it or not, it will happen.

(End of this chapter)