Champions Creed

Chapter 359 Chapter 358: This fire will burn from America all the way to Athens (ask for monthly tickets!)

Larry Brown only found out when he was watching the news in his office the next day that Roger was fined by the league for swearing at him.

When this powerful coach found out the specific content of Roger's insults to him, his face instantly turned red like the indescribable parts of an animal.

The Dream Team's office was instantly filled with Larry Brown's roar.

"Does this damn bastard have no idea about the word 'respect'?!"

It is not difficult to imagine how angry Larry Brown was at this time. As we all know, he is a tough guy who cannot tolerate any sand in his eyes and always controls everything from a high position.

He has long been accustomed to the players obeying his orders. He believes that players should obey the coach's will and that such obedience is natural and part of the players' job.

Therefore, he also felt that it was normal for him to comment on the players. He believed that he was fully qualified to comment on Roger and his team. This was the privilege of a famous coach.

In his opinion, if a player does not respect him, it is tantamount to black slaves rebelling against the farmers, or like Bronny blaming James. It is an unacceptable act of going against the will of heaven.

This mentality has a lot to do with his coaching experience. Larry Brown is mediocre as a professional player, but as a coach, his experience is comparable to a cool basketball novel.

At the age of 33, he won the ABA Coach of the Year award, and won it three times in four years. At the age of 36, when he was still called a young coach, he had already won the ABA Coach of the Year award three times.

In the 79-80 season, Larry Brown decided to enter the college basketball world, and in his first year at UCLA, he led the team to the March Madness finals. In the following five years as coach at the University of Kansas, he finally got his wish and won the NCAA championship.

In his seven NCAA seasons, he accumulated 177 wins and 61 losses, one championship, three round of , and three semi-finals. It can be said that his record was quite outstanding every year.

When he returned to the NBA, he led the Spurs, who had just acquired the Admiral, back on track, helped the frustrated Clippers enter the playoffs, and turned the Indiana Pacers into a strong team in the Eastern Conference.

He was finally inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.

Larry Brown is a rare coach in the history of American basketball who has achieved success in the ABA, NCAA and NBA.

The blessing of honors and qualifications, coupled with his experience in college basketball, made him accustomed to the power of "coach supremacy".

Even when he was coaching the rebellious Allen Iverson, he would send any AI who contradicted him directly to the bench, even if it would lead to the team losing.

He just wants to let the players know that my power is above yours!
So in Larry Brown's opinion, Roger's words and deeds are even more rebellious than those of the rebellious boy AI.

AI would secretly express his dissatisfaction with Larry Brown in front of the media, but he would never go so far as to speak directly to him in abusive terms like Roger did, calling him "old guy", "trash" and all kinds of dirty words.

Larry Brown knew that Roger was a naughty boy, but he didn't expect him to be so arrogant.

What's more, Larry Brown now presents himself as the "savior of American basketball". He puts on airs wherever he goes, and everyone respects him.

Roger's speech shattered his self-satisfied high-end personality like a falling vase, and also made him realize a fact he didn't want to accept - he was not as respected as he imagined.

In the office, North Carolina coach Roy Williams, who is an assistant coach for the Dream Team, shrugged: "You know what? It's a blessing for all NCAA coaches that Roger never played college basketball."

In the Dream Team coaching office, Roger's insult to Larry Brown was big news enough to keep everyone talking all day.

However, people from all walks of life in the NBA were not surprised by Roger's remarks, because Roger has been this kind of person since he beat Pippen in the first week of entering the league. He has never changed and has never forgotten his original intention.

The whole world knows that he will never swallow his anger or give up.

If you provoke him, he will definitely respond to you.

This is true not only for players but also for coaches.

If you remember how Roger slaughtered Pat Riley's Heat with 95 points in a single game in the famous "Hypocrisy War" in the 96-54 season and slapped him hard on the spot so that he never dared to talk nonsense in front of Roger again, you will find that Roger has been kind enough to Larry Brown.

Larry Brown was not used to it because this was the first time he was attacked so directly by Roger. Or, it was the first time he became Roger's opponent.

There happened to be a weekly interview with the Dream Team coaching staff tonight, and Larry Brown also responded to questions about Roger at the press conference.

"I don't have much to say. People who don't respect others will eventually lose their dignity. Maybe in the finals, maybe in the Olympics, maybe once in each."

Larry Brown implied that he hoped Roger would lose both in the finals and the Olympics!
Between him and Roger, only one can become a god this summer!
At this point in time, Reebok's publicity machine was frantically hyping up the fateful third game of the finals. But even so, the issue between Roger and Larry Brown still received a lot of discussion.

On the way to the Palace of Auburn Hills, Roger saw the interview video of Larry Brown on the TV on the bus.

Then he asked loudly on the bus: "Besides me, is anyone from our team going to the Olympics this summer?"

No one in the car raised their hand until Marcus Camby slowly raised his arm high.

Roger looked at him: "You made the Dream Team?"

"No."

"So what project are you participating in?"

"What a good event! I'll go watch rhythmic gymnastics."

There was laughter inside the bus. Since Camby was fully integrated into the team, he has become the one who loves to joke the most.

Roger smiled as well, but quickly added, "Well, you lucky bastards, not joining Larry Brown's team was the best decision you ever made. It looks like no one on this bus will have to experience the pain of failure this summer."

Dikembe Mutombo, who was sitting next to Roger, could feel the heat radiating from Roger.

And this fire will burn from America all the way to Athens.

Of course, Detroit was the first to burn down.

Roger didn't say anything more after that and didn't care about Larry Brown anymore.

Now, his primary target is the Detroit Pistons.

Game 3 of the series is a life-or-death game for the Warriors.

Even Roger couldn't let the series fall behind 0-3.

Roger always believed that a 0-3 reversal was unrealistic when both sides were not injured.

Any idea of ​​a 0-3 comeback is bullshit.

If you let the series score become 0-3, it only means that you have failed.

Therefore, we must not lose this game today.

The crazy promotion by the league and Reebok has made this game the focus of national attention.

Tonight, hotel room rates in Detroit have increased fivefold as countless out-of-town tourists have flocked to this declining old industrial city just to witness this game that could very well be a turning point in history.

In the Bay Area, almost every household has already turned on the TV to watch the game. If someone goes out, it must be on the way to the bar to watch the game.

John Cage was one of them. He didn't have the money to fly to Detroit to book a hotel and a ticket, so he could only stay in Oakland to watch the game live.

He walked into a bar filled with people he knew.

Here, he even felt more relaxed than at home. There was wine, fans like him, and most importantly, no wife forcing him to do homework.

After finding a seat and sitting down, John ordered a bottle of beer.

He quickly drank half the bottle to relieve his nervousness.

At this point, someone raised a bottle and yelled, "Fuck Detroit!"

Others in the bar also raised their bottles: "Fuck Detroit!"

John Cage naturally joined in the shouting. He liked this atmosphere and believed that this would not be a disappointing night.

On the other side, the atmosphere in Detroit was equally enthusiastic. The Warriors arrived near the Palace of Auburn Hills, and the Detroit fans outside the stadium booed the Warriors bus, the decibels almost shattered the windows.

Apart from New York and Los Angeles, Detroit may be the city least welcoming to Roger.

Since last season, the Pistons have hardly encountered any real opponents. Although the Pistons' record in the regular season has been mediocre, in the playoffs, no team can last more than six games against the Pistons.

Their only nightmare was Roger.

The shadow left by the 2002 defeat still lingers over Detroit and hangs in the hearts of every Pistons fan.

This hatred will continue if the Pistons can't win against the Warriors.

When the two teams took the court, the boos in Roger's ears never stopped.

The starting lineups of both teams took their positions. Rick Carlisle nervously looked at the Warriors' starting lineup and found that the Warriors had not changed their lineup. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Generally speaking, if a team trailing 0-2 does not change, it will die. Rick Carlisle thought Spoelstra would adjust the starting lineup.

But it turned out that he was worrying too much.

The players from both teams were unusually silent after they came on the court, even Roger and Big Ben didn't talk to each other.

In the warm atmosphere, both teams want to take another step forward under the attention of the whole world.

And this step is bound to result in bloodshed.

At this step, any communication and goodwill seem redundant.

On the sidelines, Spoelstra frowned before the game started.

Yes, he did not adjust the starting lineup, but that does not mean he did nothing.

As a high school student, Amar'e Stoudemire couldn't come up with fancy words when he spoke in the locker room before, but he got one thing right: "We just need to find a way to score four or five more goals a game to get them."

In fact, it doesn't take that much. The Warriors lost to the Pistons by only 5 points in the first game and only 6 points in the second game. The Warriors only need to score three more goals in each game to beat the Pistons.

And this is the direction of Spoelstra's adjustment, he wants to ensure that the Warriors can score those extra goals. His adjustment will gradually show up in the game.

The game started, and in the first few minutes, the tempo of the game was similar to the previous one. The Pistons played a terrifying defense, and except for Roger, the offense of the others was basically unpredictable. But the Warriors had some different details on the defensive end. From this game on, the Warriors sent Tayshaun Prince to defend Hamilton and used Alan Houston to defend Billups.

This put more pressure on Hamilton. After all, with the interference of Prince's long arms and legs, it became very difficult for Hamilton to catch the ball.

But Alan Houston gave Billups many opportunities to break through. Although Billups' athletic ability is not top-notch, it was still easy for him to break through Alan Houston.

However, the Warriors' Marcus Camby resolutely squatted below the free throw line to defend to curb Billups' breakthrough and interfere with him in the mid-range.

The Spurs used this "want both" approach to deal with Roger before, but unfortunately, after 11 seasons of baptism, Roger's mid-range shot is still extremely sharp, and slight interference is of no use to him.

As a moneyball guard, Billups had a hard time playing in the mid-range.

His mid-range pull-up shots would be disrupted by Camby in time, resulting in a poor shooting percentage.

When he chooses to attack the basket, Camby, who is squatting behind the free throw line, can immediately retreat to protect the rim.

For several consecutive rounds, Billups' offense was curbed.

After Tayshaun Prince and Alan Houston swapped positions, the defensive effect was immediate.

Although it is still impossible to completely prevent Hamilton and Billups, at least they will not explode together again.

Before, the 33-year-old Alan Houston was beaten to a crawl and gasping for breath by Hamilton, and the 206-centimeter Tayshaun Prince was also stretched to his limits in the face of Billups' ghostly breakthroughs.

After some adjustments and exchanges, they finally found the person who was most comfortable with them. It turns out that you have to change a lot to find the feeling.

The Pistons' offense was also curbed, so the scores of both sides were very low.

In the last two minutes of the first quarter, Stoudemire left the court.

According to the regular rotation, Dikembe Mutombo should replace him at this time.

However, today, the one who took the court was Stephen Jackson!
This season, because the Warriors have sufficient inside players, Stephen Jackson plays more as a substitute for Tayshaun Prince and rarely plays the power forward position.

But today, he returned to the power forward position, which is also part of Spoelstra's fine-tuning.

As a result, as soon as Steve Jackson came on the court, the Pistons treated him as a defensive gap. In this round, the Pistons gave the ball to Darko Milicic, letting him challenge Stephen Jackson in the low post!
In this timeline, Darko Milicic is a qualified backup center. He can play as a five or four, has both skills and defense. Whether he is partnering with Ben or Tianzun in the transition period, he can find his position and perform well.

In the Pistons, who value egalitarianism, Milicic's averages of 10.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game are already quite outstanding.

Facts have proved that with Darko Milicic's talent, he would not be completely without contribution if he was given some playing time.

In the original timeline, many people always use the argument that "Dakko Milicic doesn't love basketball" to prove that people like him will not succeed even if given playing time.

This is ridiculous.

Nikola Jokic doesn't like basketball either, but that doesn't stop him from achieving greatness.

Anthony Edwards publicly stated before the draft that if an NFL team selected him, he would withdraw from the NBA draft without hesitation. Even after becoming an NBA All-Star, he still missed the NFL: "If I win a championship in three or four years, I will retire and play football."

Compared to basketball, Roger believes that Dwight Howard loves saving souls more, but this does not affect him becoming the most terrifying defensive monster in the league during his peak period.

In the NBA league, many people don’t love basketball as much as they do, but this will not be an obstacle for them.

In this timeline, Rick Carlisle's Darko Milicic is a qualified championship rotation center. His talent may not be as good as the previous ones, but he is not so bad that he can't play.

So when they saw Stephen Jackson playing the power forward position, the Pistons trusted him greatly and gave him the ball for low-post one-on-one play.

Milicic took a step back, turned around and made a hook shot before Roger could double-team him, and the basketball went in steadily.

After all, Stephen Jackson is only a small forward, and not all power forwards are like Dirk Nowitzki, who is afraid of tall power forwards.

Both Rasheed Wallace and Dako Milicic have the ability to eat up Stephen Jackson in a mismatch.

But Stephen Jackson's appearance also has a purpose.

One round later, the Warriors attacked, and Roger's breakthrough attracted the Pistons' iron bucket formation to shrink as usual. Milicic and Big Ben both returned to the basket to intercept.

After Roger jumped up, he passed the ball to Jackson, who had followed him since the Atlanta days, in the air. Milicic and Big Ben had no time to make up for it, so Stephen Jackson made a steady three-pointer!
Why did Roger's offense not go smoothly in the first two games? Because the space was too poor, the Pistons' two inside players could double-team Roger without restraint. Big Ben relied on his mobility to swing back and forth between double-teaming Roger and defending Stoudemire's mid-range shots, and his defense was impeccable. So if you want to really open up space for Roger, it's not enough to just pull it to the mid-range, you have to pull it to the three-point line.

However, because of the low-post threats of Darko Milicic and Rasheed Wallace, Spoelstra cannot simply put Stephen Jackson in the starting lineup.

Therefore, in some crucial rounds where goals are needed, Eric Spoelstra will replace Stephen Jackson to ensure that the team can score three or four more key goals in a game!
Obviously, this round of tactics was successful.

Although Milicic scored 2 points, the Warriors returned 3 points.

After a few attempts, the Warriors extended their lead to 5 points!
One round later, Milicic still wanted to play a single in the low post, but Roger predicted the Pistons' actions and crossed the passing route in advance to intercept the ball.

Stephen Jackson is indeed easy to target, but Spoelstra is also gambling that the Pistons cannot succeed in posting up Stephen Jackson in every round.

The Pistons' defense was of course also a gamble. They kept throwing defensive resources at Roger when he broke through, completely ignoring the three-point line, just wanting to gamble on the Warriors' outside shooting percentage.

Betting and entanglement, targeting and fighting for life, this is the essence of the playoffs.

In this round, after Stephen Jackson received the pass from Roger in the corner, Richard Hamilton immediately rotated over.

But Stephen Jackson has excellent passing ability. Seeing the masked man defending in front of him, he immediately passed the ball to Jason Richardson who was left open. The low-profile Carter once again hit a three-pointer and widened the score difference to 8 points!
Spoelstra's adjustment worked, and the Warriors had the means to punish the Pistons' tight defense at the critical moment when they needed to break the game!

In the following shot, Milicic scored a low-post single against Stephen Jackson, narrowing the gap to 6 points.

In the end, the Warriors entered the second quarter with a 6-point advantage.

Although the gap is not big, Roger and Spoelstra have gained confidence.

The adjustments worked, we can win tonight!

In the next three quarters, the intensity of the game never changed, and the score difference between the two sides never exceeded double digits. It was another fierce game with both sides staggered.

With 44 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Warriors were still leading by 3 points.

The Pistons had the ball at this time, and both teams used their starting lineups at the decisive moment.

The Pistons tried a tactical plan but failed, and finally passed the ball to Chauncey Billups.

Unfortunately, he was forced to make a mid-range pull-up shot but missed. Today, Billups only made 14 of 5 shots under Spoelstra's strategy, and after this shot, he made 15 of 5 shots.

In the mid-range, even a big-hearted player like Billups lost his edge as a killer.

After successfully defending this ball, the Warriors immediately called a timeout and replaced Stephen Jackson, determined to make this attack a success!

This time, Roger singled out Artest in the low post, and the Pistons immediately had three people double-team him. But Roaring Heavenly Master did not participate in the double-team. He stayed beside Stephen Jackson, who was in great form today, and Richard Hamilton, who was outside the three-point line, came in to double-team Roger.

However, Roger is not the kind of person who only knows how to mechanically follow tactics. Sensing the changes in the Pistons' defense, Roger immediately jumped up and passed the ball to Tayshaun Prince outside the 45-degree three-point line. The latter made an open three-pointer and the Warriors led by 6 points!
"Nice goal. Eric's one big and four small lineup was very useful at the critical moment! Roger scored 34 points and 12 assists. He once again found his teammates who were left open in the first time. He made the league's top defense stretched!" Mike Breen couldn't help but applaud Roger. Although he didn't score this key goal himself, he completely crushed the Pistons' defense, destroyed the Pistons' defensive formation, and created three-point opportunities for his teammates.

What is the ultimate offensive threat? This is it!

One of the best defensive teams in NBA history began to be stretched because of Roger.

At this point, Carlisle had to pause to arrange a crucial attack. After returning, Spoelstra replaced Stephen Jackson and brought back Marcus Camby to defend.

The game between the two sides has begun in rounds!
After replacing Marcus Camby, the Pistons still had no chance of attacking.

Hamilton was bitten to death by Prince, and Rasheed Wallace was entangled with Amar'e Stoudemire.

Billups could only call for a pick-and-roll with the ball, but this time he did not pull up for the shot himself. Instead, he passed the ball to Artest who cut in along the baseline!
Artest caught the basketball steadily, and his counter-run left Roger half a body length away. He had a chance to save the game by attacking the basket.

But at the moment when Artest was dribbling the ball, Roger attacked from behind him and knocked the ball away!

Most of the forwards who were trained as core players failed in the stage of combining man with ball.

Most of them can't pass the test of being a tall forward, especially the smooth connection between the combination and the jump shot, which is quite difficult for a forward. Even a talented player like Andrew Wiggins eventually failed in this aspect.

Even the big and small kings did not do this matter best.

Durant’s shooting is more refined, but his ball handling is always a little bit lacking. LeBron’s ball handling is actually quite good, excluding the ugly factor, but his ability to connect with jump shots has been mainly a lottery for many years.

Artest also has this problem as a forward. His combination of man and ball is not top-notch, and his dribbling is not good enough, so Roger can easily steal the ball from him!
This steal was almost the final sword that pierced the Pistons' heart. In the fierce fight for the floor ball, Marcus Camby had the last laugh and the Pistons had to commit a tactical foul on Camby.

Although Camby only made one of two free throws, it was enough to kill the game.

In the end, the Golden State Warriors defeated the Pistons 98-91, making the series score 1-2 and refusing to let the Pistons get the match point!

At the end of the game, Artest, who lost the ball in a crucial round, kicked the ball away angrily.

Roger, who was not far from him, opened his arms, caught the ball that was shot out like a cannonball, then put it on the ground and stepped on it.

"Ron, do you regret provoking the best defensive player?"

Roger responded to what Artest said after the last loss, "The best defensive player was tortured to death by the real best defense." He really never forgets a grudge.

Mutombo looked at Roger who was yelling at Artest and asked Camby next to him: "Are all men with big minds so small?"

Artest turned away angrily, but at this moment, Larry Brown in front of the TV was even angrier than Artest.

why?
Why didn't the Pistons take advantage of their chance to embarrass this bastard?

Larry Brown had no idea that his own dignity was already in jeopardy.

1 to 2, the dawn of hope has come.

Mutombo didn't know if men with big ambitions all have small hearts. He only knew that Roger's passion had begun to spread and Detroit was about to become a burning hell.

(End of this chapter)