Champions Creed

Chapter 416 Chapter 415: A priceless treasure worth nothing (asking for a monthly ticket!)
As soon as the game started, Roger felt the Spurs' defensive intensity.

Raja Bell's biting and Bruce Bowen's double attack made it difficult for Roger to move.

From the regular season to the playoffs, Roger was double-teamed most of the time during the game.

But the double-teaming from different teams brought Roger different troubles.

Raja Bell and Bruce Bowen are both defensive-level perimeter locks, and their styles complement each other very well.

Raja Bell is a fierce one-on-one defender, but his influence in assisting defense is limited.

Bruce Bowen's defense is not aggressive enough without dirty moves, but he is a smart and cunning defensive master.

Even Roger had a hard time facing such defense.

In the first quarter, the Warriors' three-point shooting was very average, while the Spurs, led by Tony Parker, took the lead in launching an offensive.

The Warriors' pressure defense was not very effective in limiting Tony Parker because he was too fast.

The Warriors' all-forward lineup is not all advantages. One of its flaws is that it is difficult to contain the opponent's breakthrough when facing high-speed guards.

But the league doesn't have many strong, fast guards, so this problem rarely comes to light. Unfortunately, Tony Parker is one of those few.

Unlike guards like Devin Harris and T.J. Ford who are just fast, Tony Parker has an incredible finishing rate at the rim.

He also knows his strengths. This season, Tony Parker's shots at the basket account for 47%, while Tim Duncan, an inside player, only takes 32% of his shots at the basket.

In the entire league, no, in the entire history, there has never been a guard as tall as Tony Parker who has such a terrifying percentage of attacking the basket.

What's even more terrifying is that Tony Parker's field goal percentage at the basket is as high as 70% this season.

This is absolutely the level of an inside player.

Therefore, what many people say, "If there is no Duncan, Ginobili will still be Ginobili, but Parker will no longer be Parker," is complete nonsense.

Tony Parker's strength allows him to easily become an All-Star player in any team.

In the first quarter, Tony Parker scored 8 points and made 5 of 4 shots.

In the Spurs, a team with a slow pace and emphasis on teamwork, scoring 8 points in a single quarter is absolutely efficient and productive.

Roger only scored 6 points in the first quarter, making 7 of 3 shots.

This made Raja Bell extremely excited. The efforts of him and Bruce Bowen have paid off.

Amid the roar of French sports cars, the San Antonio Spurs entered the second quarter with a 7-point advantage.

In the second quarter, Eric Spoelstra increased Boris Diaw's role.

If you want to break through double-teaming, playing without the ball is the simplest and most brutal way.

Although it is now the era of zone defense, most teams will not use two players to chase and defend a player without the ball.

At most, it can only interfere with the offensive players' off-ball running.

Boris Diaw is the player with the most passing and controlling value in the Warriors.

But in the second quarter, the Warriors' offense did not improve much.

The reason? Boris Diaw's own shooting threat is too small.

Many times, when Roger passed the ball to him and was about to run without the ball, Bruce Bowen would just slowly move over, or just stay next to Roger and let the Frenchman shoot.

Dio also failed to punish Bruce Bowen's contempt on the defensive end. Yes, his shooting has improved a lot this season, but it is still not stable enough.

Bruce Bowen often thought that maybe the French had put all their talents in their feet, so they had so many football stars, but even those few basketball stars were basically not good at shooting, and the same was true for his teammate Tony Parker.

Compared with their shooting, Tony Parker's attack on the basket and Boris Diaw's talent are like a stunning beauty with a sexy figure wearing a loose T-shirt that doesn't show her figure.

Bowen's clever defensive strategy left Dio with no room to display his passing and controlling talents. He became nothing more than a spot shooter, and a very inefficient one at that.

The sporadic three-pointers prevented the Warriors' offense from forming a wave, and their proud defense was unable to limit Parker.

This resulted in the Warriors trailing the Spurs by 13 points at halftime!
Parker scored 9 points in this quarter, while Roger still only scored 6 points. He tried to share the ball more in the second quarter, but his efforts in this regard did not work.

"Is there any quarter where you can score 10 points?" Raja Bell laughed contentedly. "It's over, Roger. Your era of scoring at will is over."

Looking at the halftime score, San Antonio fans waved their signs even more crazily.

They also held signs that said "We believe", but there was a big red cross on the two words.

At this time, the Warriors players were walking back to the player tunnel. On the stands on both sides of the entrance to the player tunnel, Spurs fans were cheering at the Warriors players.

Among them, they cared the most about Gary Payton.

"Gary, you are a great title blocker."

"I'm glad your old dog isn't in the lineup."

"The moment you join the Warriors, it means that the Warriors' three consecutive championships are no longer possible."

Spurs fans don't like Gary Payton because his performance in the Spurs was far below expectations, which was considered the key to the Spurs' revenge at the hands of the Warriors in 2004.

In the 2004 playoff battle between the Spurs and the Warriors, Gary Payton played almost only a negative role on the court.

Gloves is not the kind of person who will swallow his anger. He pointed at the fan's nose and fired back: "Shut your stinky mouth! Or I will make you shut it!"

After Gary Payton said this, a Spurs fan threw a Coke cup from the stands.

This behavior is like a zero-yuan shopping activity. As long as one person takes the lead, others will follow.

All of a sudden, several plastic cups were thrown at Payton.

Stephen Jackson and Jason Richardson helped protect Payton's head, and then pulled him into the locker room while he was still standing there in a daze.

Fortunately, no Warriors players were hit by the cups.

But looking at the cups scattered on the floor at the player's tunnel, Gary Payton felt more pain than if he had been hit on the head.

He has played here before, and he doesn't expect to win the respect of the fans here, but he certainly didn't expect to be disliked.

And this is the picture of his career now.

San Antonio fans don't like him, New York fans don't like him, and Seattle fans are gradually forgetting him.

San Francisco is his last chance to realize his worth.

He clenched his fists and walked back to the locker room.

At this time, ESPN gave a close-up shot to Gregg Popovich, and Mike Breen also spoke following the language of the camera.

"From the perspective of the first half, the best player was not Tony, Tim or Roger, but Greg! Look at his transformation of the Spurs. Without his boldness and determination, the Spurs would not have been able to improve their strength even when Tim Duncan was suffering from plantar fasciitis.

Maybe Greg is right, and the Warriors' problems will come to a head in the playoffs. He knows basketball so well, he knows everything about it."

"Shit," Stephen Jackson cursed in the locker room as he watched Mike Breen's comments on Popovich on TV. "It's all bullshit. He doesn't understand anything."

"That's right guys," Jason Richardson echoed, "Come on, we're just going to beat a bunch of losers!"

Being 13 points behind at halftime did not make the Warriors depressed. There is basically no time for the Warriors to be depressed this season.

Eric Spoelstra knew that someone had to step up now.

If no one can be a threat on offense, if no one can keep Roger off the ball, the situation will not change.

Spoelstra's eyes quickly swept over everyone, whether it was Jason Richardson, Matt Barnes or Tayshaun Prince, they were all too weak in one-on-one skills with the ball, so they were unable to attack Tony Parker's defensive weakness.

Tony Parker's one-on-one defense ability is very poor, but Gregg Popovich's defensive system perfectly covers up his shortcomings.

In the Spurs' defensive system, Parker only needs to use his speed to keep up with the ball handler, leaving room for breakthrough routes on both sides, and then use the strong side wing to apply pressure, while Duncan protects the rim under the basket, which can perfectly solve the problem of Parker's weak one-on-one defense.

However, because the above-mentioned players have poor mid-range one-on-one abilities, they are unable to pull up against Parker in the mid-range.

Parker's weakness was protected too perfectly.

If Parker's point was blown up, causing people in other positions to have to go to help, Roger might be freed.

So, Eric Spoelstra called out to Gary Payton, who was sulking in the corner, "Gary, you start in the second half, replace Tayshawn."

Tayshaun Prince won't have any objections, the Warriors this season have already been divided into you and me.

Gary Payton was a little surprised, and what Spoelstra said next surprised him even more: "I'll give you half a game to be Gary Payton again and punish Tony with your back to the basket. If the Spurs double-team you, find Roger!"

Post-up play.

Since leaving the Seattle SuperSonics, Gary Payton has never received similar instructions.

He hadn't responded yet, but Roger had already spoken: "Want to shut up those bastards in San Antonio? Kill them, kill them!"

"Kill them!" the entire Warriors team echoed.

“I believe we can win!”

"We believe!"

With great passion, the Golden State Gang walked out of the locker room again.

Jeff Hornacek glanced at Spoelstra: "Is there any gas in the tank, Gary?"

"Of course, compared to the high-performance French sports cars, he is indeed outdated. But believe me, the atmosphere of this team and their determination to win will squeeze out the last horsepower of Gary."

In the third quarter, Gary Payton was Gary Payton.

In the first attack, Glove used his strong body to hold Parker, and then easily turned over and made a jump shot from the mid-range. Glove's post-up attack style is actually very similar to Roger's. They don't have complicated footwork, and the fake moves of the upper body are relatively simple. Basically, they just push to the desired position and then turn over directly.

In the past few seasons, as Gary Payton has been gradually marginalized, no coach will arrange such one-on-one tactics for him.

But in the Warriors, where he completely accepted his role as a role player, he got this opportunity.

Maybe Gary Payton's personal ability has seriously deteriorated, but he is still quite confident in back-to-back against the weak defensive Tony Parker without help or double-teaming.

But the Spurs didn't care about this goal. In Craig Popovich's view, as long as Roger didn't score, the Spurs' defense was successful.

So Payton quickly made the second one.

"Gary scored again with his back to the basket! What happened? Did we travel back to 1996 during the halftime break?" Mike Breen thought it was just a coincidence, but using the same trick for two consecutive rounds was definitely intentional by the Warriors.

After Payton scored, his offensive naturally did not stop: "Tony, your defense is not as tight as Eva Longoria last night! If I had known her earlier, I would have let her go. When I was your teammate, I knew that any woman who followed you would only suffer. Fortunately, I am willing to help you."

This is definitely a more trashy, inferior, and less cultured line than "Your wife tastes like donuts."

If Kevin Garnett's donut was just a hint, then Gary Payton was almost telling Parker: "I fucked your woman, and she was very happy."

The most unbearable thing for a man is another man insulting his woman in public. Although Tony Parker did not beat Payton on the spot, it does not mean that he was not angry.

One round later, an angry Parker impatiently stole the ball when the glove was against him. He wanted to wait until Payton made a mistake and shut the bastard up.

But Gary Payton used his instinct to avoid Parker's gambling steal and then turned around to break through.

Bruce Bowen had to come over to help Parker clean up the mess, which also meant that he left Raja Bell alone with Roger!
Roger ran away quickly, and the moment he started, he hit Raja Bell's chest with his elbow, preventing him from getting close in time.

Gary Payton passed the ball to Roger at the right time, and the latter hit a three-pointer through a slight gap left by Raja Bell, and the score was narrowed to only 6 points!
"Despicable bastard!" Raja Bell cursed, covering his chest.

Roger shrugged nonchalantly: "Useless bastards always love to make excuses for themselves."

As soon as Roger finished speaking, Gary Payton's voice also rang out: "Tony, what are you trying to grab from me in such a hurry? Your wife's panties? Sorry, I used them to clean Dick and then threw them away."

The San Antonio Spurs are going through something no other team has ever gone through. No team in NBA history has ever been subjected to such a mental attack.

Even the referee couldn't stand it anymore: "Roger, Gary, shut up, I don't want to give you a technical foul!"

Roger and Peyton just smiled and nodded. Shut up? Unless you sew my mouth shut with a needle and thread!
The situation of the Spurs took a sharp turn for the worse in the third quarter. Gary Payton verbally stripped Tony Parker of his womanly clothes and physically stripped Tony Parker of his fig leaf on the defensive end.

When he is no longer protected by the system, his defense is no different from those sexy fast food girls under the Eiffel Tower.

Bruce Bowen and Raja Bell had to clean up Parker's mess time and time again, but once Roger got a one-on-one opportunity, he could score easily.

Raja Bell and Bruce Bowen are strong defenders, but either of them has no chance of winning against Roger alone.

In the eighth minute of the third quarter, when Gary Payton scored his 10th point of the quarter with a back-to-the-basket single, Gregg Popovich smashed the tactical board: "Damn it, why can that bastard play so efficiently!?"

This is also the question most people have.

In people's minds, Gary Payton, one of the best point guards of the 90s, is long dead.

When Shawn Kemp left Seattle, he died.

In the next few years, he had statistics but no wins. After leaving Seattle, he didn't even have statistics.

He was like a useless vagrant, begging for food in a different place every year, but always ended up being ruthlessly driven away.

This is the Gary Payton that people think of.

So, it is unbelievable that Gary Payton helped the Warriors turn the situation around in the third quarter.

But that's what's so special about the Golden State Gang. You never know who will stand out and play a key role in the game, just like the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995.

During that period, the Rockets players other than Hakeem Olajuwon were not in a stable state.

But because the Rockets had an unparalleled team atmosphere, a common goal and strong beliefs, they had someone who could stand up and assist Dream in every game.

This is what happened to the Warriors.

Tony Parker's frustration on the defensive end and the anger caused by trash talk also affected his offense. He was too impatient and his efficiency was not as high as in the first half. Some stupid shooting choices even gave Marcus Camby several blocks.

Gregg Popovich scolded Tony Parker during a timeout in the ninth minute of the third quarter and replaced him early.

This also means that the Spurs' lead can no longer be maintained.

At the end of the third quarter, the Spurs and Warriors were tied. Roger scored 14 points in a single quarter, more than the first half combined.

The Warriors played with full momentum in the third quarter. Before the start of the fourth quarter, Roger walked to the Spurs bench and looked at Craig Popovich: "When did you become as fond of farting as LBJ?"

This is the king's warning to the rebels.

In the fourth quarter, Gary Payton's efficiency declined. Passion, awakening and atmosphere can inspire a player's state, but the scars brought by time cannot be erased.

After holding the ball and attacking for a quarter, Gary Payton's physical condition declined seriously.

But the Spurs' nightmare was not over, because Boris Dio finally found his touch in the fourth quarter.

After he made two consecutive three-pointers at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Bruce Bowen had to pay more attention to him, and Gregg Popovich did not dare to continue to use double-teaming.

This means that Roger has more opportunities to face Raja Bell alone.

Gregg Popovich realized that although there was no one else by Roger's side, there were troubles everywhere!
In the fourth quarter, Roger could no longer be restrained. At least when Payton or Dio had the ball, the Spurs did not dare to double-team Roger without the ball.

And that was enough for Roger.

Raja Bell made desperate interference again and again, and watched the basketball go into the net in despair again and again.

Tim Duncan couldn't do anything about it because Roger's shots were mostly outside the restricted area.

With 51 seconds left in the game, the Warriors were leading by 7 points.

Gary Payton held the ball and faced Parker, whose veins were already bulging. After failing to break through, he passed the ball to Boris Diaw.

Bruce Bowen didn't dare to relax. He knew that Dio would most likely pass the ball, but he still had to press hard.

Under pressure, Dio could only hold the ball with his back to the basket, and his vision was limited.

At the same time, Raja Bell, who was defending without the ball, was frantically pulling Roger's jersey. If he didn't do that, he would have no chance of biting Roger.

But Roger still got a chance by means of screen and counter-run, and Boris Dio also sent the ball over with his keen sense of smell.

On the right side outside the three-point line, Roger received the ball and raised it above his head.

Raja Bell raised his center of gravity, but the next second Roger passed the ball and broke through, taking a step and making a quick stop jump in the middle distance.

Raja Bell, who had lost his position, had to grab Roger again, but this time, the referee blew the whistle.

He can accept some moderate pulling movements from Raja Bell when defending without the ball, but any pulling is absolutely not allowed when the offensive team is shooting.

The referee blew the whistle, the basketball went into the net, and Roger fell to the ground.

The Warriors got a chance to shoot a three-pointer!
Raja Bell covered his head with his hands. Roger stood up and flicked the dust off his shoulders. He maintained his disdain for Raja Bell for 48 minutes.

Standing on the free throw line, Roger made the free throw and the score difference came to 10 points.

He also scored his 20th point in a single quarter and his 40th point in a single game.

The Golden State Warriors secured the victory 13 seconds in advance despite trailing by 50 points at halftime.

Gary Payton pointed to the stands with a proud look when Roger made the free throw: "Envy my victory, you bastards!"

Then he turned and unexpectedly hugged Roger.

You know, before this, although they had been teammates for a season, Payton and Roger had never even shaken hands.

Payton did this because Roger helped him find the worthless and priceless treasure - his dignity!
Popovich impatiently paused the game, his confidence destroyed at this moment.

Today, it's hard to tell who the Warriors' second player is.

Gary Payton was only strong for one quarter, and Boris Diaw's performance was only commendable in the fourth quarter.

But the Warriors have someone who can stand up.

The most terrifying thing about Roger is that if he gets even a little bit of support, he will reach out and grab your throat!

On the court, Roger patted Payton on the shoulder and said, "Let go, Gary."

"You bastard, if I were a model, you'd want me to hug you longer!"

"No, it's just that if you hold me again, I won't have time to scold Raja Bell."

Gary Payton was stunned for a moment, then let go of his hand.

Yes, this is Roger.

A bastard who is worse than an animal.

Roger quickly walked to Raja Bell who was walking to the sidelines and said, "Congratulations, you didn't let me get 20 points in the first three quarters."

This sentence completely insulted Raja Bell's defense, and also allowed Roger to completely trample Raja Bell under his feet.

In the end, the Spurs lost the game 96-102 at home, with the series score 1-0.

Mike Breen, who was still praising Popovich crazily during the halftime break, shook his head and sighed.

"Yes, Greg knew everything about basketball, but he didn't understand the depths of the Golden State gang.

I think no one can possibly fathom their bottom. Anyone who tries to do so risks drowning.”

(End of this chapter)