Champions Creed

Chapter 425 424: Just be quiet for a while (ask for monthly ticket!)
Game 1 of the Finals was extremely subversive. In the history of the NBA Finals, no team has ever taken three-pointers so crazily.

This is extremely unorthodox. Just a few years ago, when the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs faced off in the finals, the Detroit Pistons averaged only 11 three-pointers per game, while the Spurs averaged 14.8 three-pointers per game.

Just three seasons later, the Warriors took more than twice that many three-pointers in their last game.

In fact, the Orlando Magic thought about using three-pointers to solve the problem when playing against the New York Knicks.

The problem is that when the space is opened up, T-Mac still can't kill the game.

The Magic had used the ultimate space to help McGrady pry apart the Knicks' legs, but in the fourth quarter you became weak and it was no use for others to do the splits.

Roger does not have this problem. His offensive ability is enough to completely destroy the Knicks after the space is opened up.

Dwyane Wade did his best in the fourth quarter, and he gave his all. But compared to Shane Battier, he only improved his defense from 50 points to 60 points.

And a 60-point defense was just barely passing in front of Roger, far from enough to limit him.

In fact, the pressure a single player puts on Roger on the defensive end may be at most 70 points.

In Roger's career, there are probably only three people who have reached this level in terms of individual defense.

One is Michael Jordan when he was fully defensive, one is Kobe during his OK period, and the other is Ron Artest at his peak under the rules that allowed him to take the ball.

Putting defensive pressure on Roger to score over 70 points is not something that a single individual player can do.

After the Knicks lost Game 1, many New York media outlets believed that it was just because the Warriors had a good touch.

There are always some games in the regular season and playoffs where the Warriors can easily destroy their opponents with their excellent three-point shooting.

But this kind of touch is often impossible to continue, and it is even more impossible in the fiercely competitive finals.

As the fighting intensifies and their touch declines, the Warriors' long-range shooting will sooner or later fail.

It is a fact that the Warriors cannot have a great touch in every game.

Any thought of simply copying the small-ball strategy in the early 21st century was foolish.

Because the role players of this era do not have such strong three-point shooting ability, and the scale of confrontation in this era is not conducive to maintaining touch.

It is hard for today's fans to imagine that in 20 years' basketball, players as tall as Yao Ming will be able to perform between-the-legs dribbling and three-point shots with their skinny bodies.

The changing trend of players' weight also represents the changing trend of confrontation intensity. Basketball 20 years later will not require such strong confrontation, but will require more comprehensive skills and excellent shooting ability.

In today's basketball environment, the competition is more intense, the pace is slower, and it is less conducive to three-point shooting.

But this does not mean that three-pointers cannot be powerful.

The idea of ​​copying the small-ball strategy in the early 21st century was foolish, but the idea of ​​still disdaining three-pointers and spacing after the Dark Ages of Defense was also foolish.

The Warriors won the game thanks to three-pointers, which is a real advantage.

In Game 2 of the series, the New York Knicks immediately pulled one back at home.

Just as people predicted, the Knicks stifled the Warriors' touch with fierce confrontation. Dwyane Wade and KG frequently hit mid-range and long-range shots. When the two of them opened up in the mid-range, Yao Ming could dominate the basket effortlessly.

How effortless was it? Yao Ming shot 9 of 9 in this game. After Roger, it was the second consecutive game that a Chinese player set an NBA Finals record.

This is the record for the most shots taken and hits in a single game with 100% shooting percentage in the history of the NBA Finals.

It was a classic Knicks win, the best Lenny Wilkens could have imagined for the Knicks.

Wade, KG and Yao Ming, everyone played to their strengths.

But Lenny Wilkens did not make any big statements after the win. Instead, he spoke very cautiously.

"I think we found a way to win. We will not let the series end in Mission Bay. We will not let this become the last home game of the Knicks this season. I love fishing, but I don't like ocean fishing, and I don't like ocean fishing on the West Coast."

Lenny Wilkens' words were both confident and unconfident.

He said the team found a way to win, but his ultimate goal was just to avoid dying in Mission Bay.

Dwyane Wade is obviously much more confident than him.

"You know, it's like heavyweight boxing. Roger's jab hits us first, but our counterattack is more terrible. After the back punch hits, we will take advantage of Roger's daze to throw a combination punch that will directly end the game."

Wade is so confident because he is still young and has an almost naive fantasy about "revenge".

In his view, losing first and then winning like in sports inspirational movies seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

The reason Lenny Wilkens was so cautious was that he had won three championships with Roger and he knew how hard it was to beat that guy.

There is another detail that people talked about a lot in today's game, that is, the seat that has belonged to Spike Lee for years is actually empty.

For many years, Spike Lee would stay at Madison Square Garden at least 50 nights a year, and he almost never missed the playoffs, let alone the Finals.

But tonight, Spike Lee really didn't appear on the sidelines.

Previously, people generally thought that Spike Lee's statement that he would not go to Madison Square Garden again until Roger retired was just an angry remark, and believed that he would continue to appear on the sidelines in Game 2 to cheer for the Knicks.

But when he missed the Finals, people realized how deeply he was hurt.

Will Spike Lee regret it? After all, the Knicks won tonight.

Or did he get a chance to avoid disappointment because he no longer misplaced his expectations?

In G3, when the game returned to Mission Bay, Spike Lee's decision not to watch the game seemed extremely wise.

It turned out that he didn't waste his time on something that was doomed to disappointment.

In the first three quarters of G3, the Knicks had a slight advantage.

But in the fourth quarter, Matt Barnes completely overturned the Knicks with three three-pointers.

It's impossible for the entire Warriors team to have a great touch in every game, but it's possible that one player will occasionally have an outstanding touch.

Of course, this is also related to the Knicks' defensive strategy.

In the fourth quarter, Kevin Garnett focused all his attention on Roger, betting that the Warriors' power forward position would not be able to hit a three-pointer, which gave Matt Barnes plenty of opportunities.

Matt Barnes had already made 3 of 2 three-pointers in the previous three quarters. He had a good touch, but the sample size was too small so the Knicks didn't take it seriously at all.

After getting a lot of opportunities in the fourth quarter, Matt Barnes immediately punished the Wolf King severely.

This guy, who was once scolded by the head coach on the training ground, "Your shooting practice is useless", now made 5 three-pointers in a single game on the stage of the finals.

Although Dwyane Wade performed a folding lever dunk in the fourth quarter that was later replicated by Ja Morant and was enough to make Warriors fans cheer, such a wonderful scene was not enough to save the game.

After the game, Kevin Garnett threw the basketball away.

This game completely overturned his understanding of basketball. He couldn't believe that a player like Matt Barnes could snatch the victory away from his head.

In the past, it would have been impossible for Matt Barnes to do anything against a star of Kevin Garnett's level.

You could say the three-point shot narrows the gap between average players and stars.

Once a role player has a good three-point shooting touch, he can also embarrass the star player.

This game also allowed all non-star wing players in the league to find their evolutionary goals.

When a wing can shoot three-pointers, defend and not occupy the ball, he is simply a role that every team in the league desires to have.

Such a wing may not be able to become a star, but he definitely doesn't have to worry about not being able to find a job.

2-1, the New York Knicks encountered difficulties in their first game in Mission Bay.

In Game 4, New York's road nightmare continued. Dwyane Wade played an extremely ugly game that night.

He scored 23 points in the game, but 11 of them came from free throws.

Throughout the game, Wade's shooting percentage in running games was only 31%.

His impact is strong, but the collective contraction of the Golden State Warriors greatly limits his lethality, and the Knicks do not have many means to respond outside the three-point line, which makes the Warriors' contraction more determined.

In the original timeline of 2006, Wade could win by continuous impact. As we all know, the free throw ratio between the Heat and the Mavericks in the finals that year was 207 to 155, of which Wade alone accounted for 97 free throws. When Wade started to accelerate, Bennett Salvatore would always hold the whistle behind the backboard to protect the Heat No. 3.

It is true that the Mavericks' actions against Wade were indeed fouls, but the real unfairness is that the same actions happened to Mavericks players, but the referee might not necessarily call the foul. There was a big problem with the referee's balance in that round of games.

This kind of imbalance problem would never happen to Roger, the number one player in the league.

Wade's offensive efficiency dropped significantly as he was unable to get the whistle easily and had to get into the crowd for every shot.

Of course, because the Warriors' offense was relatively average, the New York Knicks never fell behind too much.

But the score difference of a few points could not be made up, which made New York fans anxious.

The Warriors played to their true fundamentals tonight, and their defense was extremely aggressive on every possession.

What a team that likes to shoot jump shots can do when its touch is not good enough determines how high the team can ultimately reach.

When the Knicks were unable to hurt the Warriors from beyond the three-point line, the Warriors' front-line double-teaming strategy was enough to put Yao Ming and KG into the nightmare that Olajuwon once had.

To be exact, it was a more terrible nightmare.

When Olajuwon faced the Seattle SuperSonics' front line double-team, the league did not allow double-teaming, which meant that Dream could at least receive the ball first comfortably.

In the era of double-team defense, both KG and Yao Ming had difficulty connecting the ball in the low post.

Marcus Camby or Dikembe Mutombo will always be clinging to Yao Ming, while Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes will always stand between KG and Yao Ming.

The evolution of NBA rules has been committed to moving the spotlight from the inside to the outside, from big men to guards. David Stern spurns dull defense and slow-paced low-post singles, hoping that there will be more attacks and impacts in the game.

David Stern's reforms were successful, so the Knicks are struggling.

The Knicks also have their own star guard, but unfortunately, he couldn't save the team today.

In the end, the Golden State Warriors won the match point at home with a score of 93 to 88, with a total score of 3 to 1.

At the end of the game, Dwyane Wade stood with his hands on his hips, looking dull.

He thought that the Knicks' counterattack had knocked Roger unconscious, and victory would be waiting for him.

But Roger's ability to withstand blows obviously exceeded expectations.

Roger took the punch head-on but didn't move at all, then started to fight back even harder.

After the game, Mike Breen expressed his interpretation of the situation.

"The New York Knicks are like a gorgeous, classic, 90s Formula 1 championship car. But compared to a modern F1 car, they are obviously outdated. They need more three-pointers, but they don't have them. They need more people who can attack from the outside, but they don't have them. They are like the black swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He may be really powerful, but Dr. Indiana Jones only needs one revolver to deal with him with a big knife."

This is probably the first time that people have the feeling that "two teams from different eras are playing against each other."

Because this is the most special period in the NBA, most of the time, a version will take many years to evolve slowly.

But it’s been less than five years since the league allowed zone defenses and ushered the game into the Dark Ages of Defense.

In a short period of time, the league has experienced a version change that only appeared every ten years. As a result, some teams have begun to embrace and accept the new rules, while some teams are still stubbornly playing according to the old ideas.

The Warriors and the Knicks are precisely the highest level representatives of the new and old factions.

Relying on the hard power of Wade, KG and Yao Ming, the Knicks can still dominate the Eastern Conference and easily reach the finals.

But want to beat the Warriors? They have no idea where to start.

The New York Knicks' championship season has come to the final stage.

There was a chance they wouldn't make it out of Mission Bay alive.

And Roger certainly would not miss the opportunity to win the championship at home.

In the crucial Game 5, both the Warriors and the Knicks showed their fighting spirit, bloodiness and desire to win.

Kevin Garnett was extremely active on the defensive end today. He simply ran back and forth between the three-point line and the restricted area, neither giving the Warriors' power forward a chance to shoot three-pointers nor allowing Roger to do whatever he wanted.

He tried to lead the team by example and bounce back, and he did.

Wade was inspired by him and made many mid-range jump shots. Yao Ming would try his best to block every Warriors player who dared to rush into the three-second zone.

But the Warriors also performed very well. Every role player was full of confidence. As long as they got a chance, they dared to shoot, which made the Warriors' three-point threat tireless.

Both teams played at their best. In the words of Mike Breen, "Although we have played five games in the Finals, tonight was the first time that the best Knicks met the best Warriors."

In the fourth quarter, the Knicks took advantage of Sean Battier.

As the Warriors continued to use a tight defense against the Knicks, Shane Battier stood out.

In the first half of his career, Battier's three-point shooting percentage was already very good, but he was actually not a person who trusted three-pointers. When he received the ball outside the three-point line, he would not easily shoot if he had any options other than direct shooting.

In his opinion, he would only take a three-pointer when he was completely open or had no other choice, and any rash three-pointer was a gamble on the offensive end.

Therefore, he is just like Steve Blake, with a high hit rate but too low output and a weak desire to shoot, unable to pose a true three-point threat.

But tonight, Shane Battier knew he had to help the Knicks' Big Three shoulder more responsibilities, and he had to fill the gap left by the team's sitting back.

The team's current problem is obvious, that is, there is not enough three-point firepower.

If he had to solve the problem, he would do it.

Sean Battier's excellent touch saved the Knicks. He hit three-pointers in three consecutive rounds, helping the Knicks to overtake by 5 points in one breath!
The "President" has not been impeached yet. After all, this is not South Korea.

Battier forced Roger to defend along the three-point line, which also gave Wade and KG more room to move, allowing them to continue to threaten the Warriors' defense at critical moments.

With 1 minute and 12 seconds left in the game, Roger's mid-range drifting shot helped the Warriors narrow the gap to just 1 point. Lenny Wilkens immediately paused the game after Roger scored.

The whole world knows that Lenny Wilkens will definitely pass the ball to Wade, who is in great form today.

Wade clenched his fists and thought of Game 6 last season.

This moment is just like that moment!
Once again, the New York Knicks led by one point in the final moments. Once again, the team handed this crucial round to him.

He personally holds the final outcome of this brutal competition in his hands.

Dwyane Wade has earned the right to rewrite everything with his own hands, and this time he will never allow himself to miss it!
On the other hand, Eric Spoelstra decided to consolidate the defense base at the critical moment.

So he called Gary Payton.

Gary Payton has never been so close to a championship in his career, and his ultimate dream of his career is likely to come true in a minute.

So Gary Payton was nervous and even at a loss.

He didn't expect that he would play at the last minute, and his excitement and nervousness made him completely unable to hear what Eric Spoelstra said.

"Gary, damn it, Gary, are you listening!?"

Spoelstra yelled to bring Gary Payton back to reality, and his confused expression showed how little he understood about the arrangement just now.

Roger glanced at Gary Payton and told him calmly, "Hey, don't be nervous. I told you this is your only chance to win a championship in my era, and it's about to happen. Calm down, Gary."

Gary Payton nodded and listened to Eric Spoelstra's arrangements again.

After the timeout, Dwyane Wade looked at the Warriors players on the court.

In the last minute, the Warriors sent out a lineup of Gary Payton, Roger, Tayshaun Prince, Stephen Jackson and Marcus Camby.

Then he focused his attention on Roger.

That man ruined the Knicks' championship dream with a steal last season. What about this time?

"At the start of the game, the Knicks gave the ball to Dwyane Wade. Will he lead the Knicks to victory at this fateful moment? Is this burden too heavy for him as a third-year student?" Mike Breen stared at Wade. He had a hunch that this round would determine the final outcome of the game.

Wade received the ball and the person defending him was Tayshaun Prince.

Sean Battier, who made three three-pointers in the fourth quarter, moved to the 45-degree position on the right, which is his most reliable three-point shooting point this season.

Steve Blake moved to the right corner, and the Knicks cleared one side for Wade.

The 24-second countdown began, and Dwyane Wade seemed to be able to feel every second passing by his skin.

That's it now.

Now is your chance to end the nightmare once and for all!
Wade held the ball and with a simple change of direction and acceleration, he passed Tayshaun Prince as easily as cutting a piece of paper with a paper cutter.

Will Roger move? Come back and attack?
Will Shane Battier's three-point threat pin him down tonight?
The moment Wade broke through, Roger moved!
He simply left Sean Battier behind and rushed towards Wade without hesitation.

Dwyane Wade was trapped in a scene exactly like his nightmare.

Faced with a double team, he chose to pass the ball to Sean Battier last season, but ended up making a pass error.

What choice should I make this time?

Just as Roger approached, Dwyane Wade saw Gary Payton also move in the direction of Sean Battier at the right time.

Maybe he is slower and older, but his control of the timing of his defense is still extremely accurate.

This is also the reason why Eric Spoelstra replaced him at the last moment. At this time, experience is priceless.

Seeing Payton running towards Sean Battier, Wade gave up the idea of ​​passing the ball.

Because at the same time, Stephen Jackson also leaned towards Steve Blake's side, and the route to pass to Blake was not safe.

Finally, Wade stopped suddenly one step before the free throw line and made a direct jump shot!
What will be the fate of this choice?
"Dwyane's quick stop and jump shot from mid-range will be a killer. Block!!! Roger made up for the defense in time and blocked Dwyane Wade's jump shot!" Mike Breen's hair stood on end. Roger always controls everything at the moment of rewriting destiny!
For Wade, the nightmare of the past year finally turned into a bullet of reality and hit him right between the eyebrows.

Whether he chooses to pass the ball or shoot, he can't escape the shadow of No. 14.

After Roger completed the block, Tayshaun Prince, who was originally chasing Wade, snatched the ball and made a long pass to Roger who had already run across half court.

The latter held the basketball high up, like a judge raising his gavel.

"boom!"

Roger pronounced the death sentence on the New York Knicks.

This dunk shattered the Knicks' confidence and made them completely lost in the last 50 seconds of the game.

After that, Wade was confused between shooting and passing, and he had no confidence in handling any ball.

Seeing that Wade was hesitant, KG took the initiative to go out and raise his hand to ask for the ball, and tried to solve the problem with a long jump shot, but the ball missed.

Yao Ming was too tired to jump and could only watch Marcus Camby, who was still full of energy, protect the rebounds.

Camby immediately passed the ball to Payton, and then Steve Blake committed a tactical foul.

What an ironic scene.

After last season's finals, the New York Knicks gave up on Gary Payton.

And now, Gary Payton will personally take the free throw that kills the Knicks.

Gary Payton stood on the free throw line, and he was no longer nervous.

He once wasted the opportunity given to him by God, but fortunately, the savior of the basketball world gave him another chance.

He could fail God, but he could not fail the Savior.

Because he failed to live up to his savior, he might really be punished by being a lifetime champion.

Yes, even if he won the championship, Gary Payton would be just a small footnote in Roger's great career.

But so what?

At least he had his own ring in Roger's time.

Gary Payton crushed the New Yorkers' chances of escape with two solid free throws.

The score difference is still 3 points, and the Knicks have the ball.

But what they are worst at is three-pointers. You can't expect them to suddenly become good at three-pointers at critical moments.

As Wade, who was tightly guarded and had no confidence, missed all three shots from outside the three-point line, the red light on the backboard that decided his fate came on.

韦德21分5次助攻，加内特16分11个篮板4次助攻2次抢断2次封盖，姚明20分8个篮板2助攻3盖帽。

The New York Knicks are indeed full of talent, but so what?

They could only surrender.

4 to 1, the story of We Believe has come to an end.

This is the end of the 05-06 season.

It is a miracle that the world is eagerly awaiting.

It is the continuation of Dwyane Wade's nightmare.

It was the third dynasty established by Roger on the third piece of land.

It is another fulfillment of the championship creed.

The moment the game ended, Gary Payton almost couldn't help crying and hugged Roger.

"Gary, let go," Roger smiled, "You don't want to use such stupid excuses as 'you picked up the wrong person' to fool the reporters anymore."

Gary Payton didn't let go.

"Fuck it, don't I know whether I hugged the wrong person or not!? Shut up, Roger, just be fucking quiet for a while, don't ruin the atmosphere of this moment."

(End of this chapter)