Basketball trainer, I created a super giant

Chapter 479 Death Comes
On December 2nd, the Heat began their four-game road trip in the Western Conference.

First game against the Grizzlies.

Inside the brand-new FedExCare, Milicic sets a pick and roll.

Standing at 2.13 meters tall with a broad build, Milicic provides excellent screens.

Last season, Haslem's defense was solid, but his offense was lacking.

Therefore, Milicic took on a lot of scoring duties in the paint.

However, this season, the Heat acquired O'Neal, and Milicic's current task is defense, screens, and shooting when the opportunity arises.

Durant dribbled out, pulled up for a jump shot, and made it cleanly.

40 points.

The Grizzlies have surrendered, but Durant's killing spree is far from over.

As the clock struck zero, Durant's score stopped at 45 points.

Many players may not achieve such a high score throughout their entire career.

Scoring around 40 points is as easy as eating and drinking for Durant these days.

I arrived in Los Angeles on the 5th to play against the Clippers.

Durant scored 41 points again.

In the game against the Kings on the 7th, although they narrowly lost, Durant still scored 38 points.

Playing back-to-back against the Nuggets, and at high altitude, Durant's power remained undiminished, still managing to score a high of 33 points.

His performance was absolutely phenomenal.

And being linked to Jordan's successor, Durant is never short of attention.

Now, he's even starting a scoring title race with Kobe.

Durant can easily score 40 points, and Kobe Bryant is just as good when he's on fire.

He scored 57 points against the Bobcats.

On the 15th, he scored 53 points against the Rockets.

These days, newspapers and television media are full of news about these two people, constantly reporting on who scored the highest marks.

The scorers are neck and neck, with neither side able to gain an advantage.

This competition is about to reach its peak with the Christmas battles approaching.

On December 25th, the Heat will host the Lakers in a Christmas Day game.

The same East-West showdown, only this time it's the Heat instead of the Lakers and Knicks.

The Heat deserve this reputation.

The Heat are currently second in the Eastern Conference, only two games behind the Knicks.

With Durant's explosive performance averaging 35.6 points per game, the Heat have become one of the most watched teams in the league.

After being traded, O'Neal faced his former team.

The fateful battle between Durant and Kobe, the two successors to Jordan, and two super scorers.

In the Los Angeles Times' portrayal, this was a battle of destiny.

In their words, Durant is arguably the league's endorsed, designated, and heavily promoted successor to Jordan.

The era of Hardaway and Hill's duel and the fierce competition among the four great shooting guards is over.

This is the era of Kevin Durant, the supernova.

As for that chosen one from 03, he has long been forgotten.

If Kobe wanted to go further and prove that he was the most qualified person to chase Jordan, there was only one option.

He defeated Durant and used his strength to tell the world that he was stronger than Durant.

After the locker rooms of both teams opened, reporters swarmed in and surrounded Kobe.

Before he could even pull out his recording pen, Kobe coldly waved his hand, indicating that he would not accept any interviews, got up, walked through the crowd, and headed towards the team doctor.

This situation is extremely rare.

The reporters looked at each other in bewilderment.

One of the reporters remarked quietly, "Is he nervous or scared?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a reporter next to him retorted, "Bullshit! He's an MVP-caliber superstar, why would he film a rookie?"

The reporters present looked around.

Without a doubt, one is definitely a reporter from Miami, and the other is definitely a reporter from Los Angeles.

Before the match even started, media and fans from both sides began exchanging barbs.

A comprehensive analysis of who is stronger, Kobe or Durant.

For the Heat, the biggest piece of evidence is that, according to rumors, Durant dominated Kobe during the $1 million training camp.

The Lakers immediately retorted, saying that you yourself said it was just a rumor, so who knows if it's true or false.

Seeing that Kobe refused to be interviewed, reporters swarmed into the home team's locker room.

Durant did not refuse the interview.

Wearing a vest, he revealed his well-built muscles. When interviewed by reporters, he rattled off bland, platitudes.

Having been in the NBA for two months, the media has already noticed that Durant is not a talkative person.

He didn't say much, and what he did say was all nonsense.

He immediately started by saying that the opponents performed very well, his teammates were great, and that he did alright today and would continue to work hard.

Then he went on the field and went on a rampage, leaving his opponents questioning their existence.

Based on this alone, many reporters were certain that this was definitely something agent Connors taught them.

It's a continuation of the same lineage.

Kwame Brown was the same way back then, saying he was grateful to Jordan for the trade, but then he went on the court and played like a pro.

Many reporters were surprised that Durant would be "talking nonsense" during such an important game.

Or perhaps that's what he really thought; from beginning to end, he never took Kobe seriously.

After all, there were rumors that he had already dominated Kobe during the training camp.

At this moment, a reporter suddenly asked a question: "Kevin, have you noticed that you hardly ever smile when you're on the court?"

This question, however, seemed to rouse Durant.

"Have it?"

Durant stared wide-eyed, trying to recall if he hadn't laughed.
The reporter who asked the question nodded and said, "You don't smile much, and you don't talk much either."

Trash talk aside, there are quite a few talkative players who chat with their opponents all the time.

Durant, on the other hand, doesn't trash talk much and doesn't say much either.

"Then once you're on the court, you just keep scoring, ruthlessly defeating your opponents, and it feels like..."

The reporter pursed his lips and said, "Like the Grim Reaper."

Indifference descends upon the world, wielding a sickle to reap lives.

When asked about the reporter's assessment, Durant neither confirmed nor denied it. After thinking about it seriously for a moment, he shook his head and said, "No, I'm not like that. I'm just enjoying the game."

After more than a year of closed training, if he developed any habit, Durant felt it was enjoying solitude.

Durant can endure training alone and even enjoys it.

So once on the court, he didn't bother arguing with his opponents; he just focused on playing his own game and crushing his opponents.

And he thoroughly enjoyed the process.

So it's definitely not what the reporter said, that he doesn't like to talk.

"Also, I'm not familiar with any of them," Durant added.

I was thinking to myself, "I'm just a rookie, I don't know anyone, who am I supposed to talk to, and who am I supposed to smile at? Why don't you ask the Heat players?"

I'm doing well with my teammates.

At 7 p.m., the Christmas battle begins.

Both teams tacitly relinquished the center position.

The Heat take the lead.

As Durant himself said, he simply enjoyed the process of defeating his opponent, so he directly stood in front of Kobe with the ball.

Kobe crouched down, as if facing a formidable enemy.

The entire audience held their breath in anticipation.

After receiving the ball, Durant immediately turned his back to the basket and dribbled towards the rim.

During training camp, Durant faced off against Kobe many times.

I also summarized two key takeaways.

One is to leverage the advantages of height and wingspan.

The second point is to take advantage of your weight.

Kobe weighed 96 kilograms, while Durant weighed almost 10 kilograms more.

It would be a waste not to use such an advantage.

Therefore, even though Kobe gritted his teeth and provided a lot of physical contact, he still couldn't stop Durant's post-up game.

Once, twice, and on the second time, after a post-up, Durant turned towards the baseline and launched a fadeaway jumper.

God's weapon.

Many in the Alliance already possess this weapon.

But the only truly unsolvable problem, according to Tang Sen, is Durant.

With his height and wingspan, he's invincible when he plays like that; no one can stop him.

Even Kobe couldn't do it.

Not to mention when backing down a player, the physical confrontation has already lost the initiative.

With a swish, the basketball swished cleanly into the net.

Riley waved his arm excitedly from the sidelines.

Jackson on the other side couldn't help but sigh, feeling that Durant could really surpass Jordan in terms of offense.

His skills were already highly developed, and his physical talent was also exceptional.

In addition, compared to the 1980s and 90s, the league's playing environment has improved, and it's no longer the case that if you drive into the paint, you're bound to get elbowed twice.

In this situation, Durant's offense is unstoppable.

Even Kobe isn't enough.

Jackson looked at Kobe and felt that the outcome of this contest was probably already predetermined.

Kobe immediately opted for a one-on-one attack.

In roughly the same position, with the same turnaround fadeaway jump shot, the rhythm was just right, and the jump height was impeccable.

The ball went in.

But Kobe couldn't be happy because Durant wasn't out of position, and his outstretched arm almost touched the basketball.

This kid is too tall, and his arms are too long; his blocking range is terrifying.

Durant didn't care at all, and his heart was completely unmoved.

The practical training he had undergone at the training camp had already dispelled his mystique surrounding these superstars.

Tang Sen spent more than a year instilling in him the idea that he had only one goal: to become Jordan.

Everyone else was just an insignificant stumbling block on his path to chasing Jordan.

Kobe, at best, was just a relatively large piece of the pie.

So Durant plays at his own pace, regardless of who he plays against, and he doesn't care about one-on-one situations at all.

As long as you can score points, everything else is secondary.

In the first quarter, Durant scored 16 points with a combination of drives and shots.

Kobe scored 13 points, a close match.

In the second quarter, Durant had an explosive shooting night, hitting two three-pointers and scoring 14 points again.

The first half lasted a full 30 minutes.

In contrast, Kobe only scored 12 points in the second quarter and 25 points in the first half.

They don't look that different, but anyone with a discerning eye can see that Durant will score much more easily.

In the third quarter, Kobe Bryant exploded, taking over the game in a single quarter and scoring 18 points.

He scored 43 points in three quarters.

Durant only scored 10 points, falling behind Kobe in scoring.

This result immediately made Riley on the sidelines tense.

However, Jackson's expression on the other side was much more serious.

He coached Jordan himself, so he can be said to be the head coach who knows Jordan the most.

He knew perfectly well what level of achievement the God of Basketball had to reach.

Now, after watching three quarters of the game, Jackson has noticed it.

Kobe was playing with all his might.

After all, both of them are good defenders.

But in Durant, Jackson saw a kind of nonchalance.

Or rather, indifference.

Just like the invincible Jordan back then, not many people could completely provoke his anger.

He treats the game like clocking in for work, scoring over thirty points, winning the game, and dominating an opponent.

That's it.

Durant now gives Jackson that same feeling.

In other words, Durant treated this as just another game, unlike Kobe who saw it as a fateful battle.

So based on this point alone, Jackson felt that Kobe had already lost.

Section 4.

Perhaps it was Riley's spittle that spurred Durant to unleash his full potential.

Durant and Harris exchanged a few words, and during the transition offense, before Kobe was fully in position, Durant started shooting three-pointers like the Suns.

He's so tall and looks so thin, but he's incredibly strong, and shooting three-pointers is effortless for him.

Throughout the fourth quarter, Durant coldly sank three-pointers three times in a row, facing Kobe's defense.

He even pulled off a fake shot followed by a drive, shaking off Kobe before finishing with a spectacular dunk.

In this quarter, Durant, who played for 10 minutes, made 5 of 6 three-pointers, like a god descending to earth, and scored 21 points with a barrage of three-pointers.

He scored 21 points in a single quarter, breaking his personal record.

He scored 61 points, setting a new personal best.

He also became the youngest player in the league to score 60 points.

In his professional debut, Durant set three records in one night.

Today, in what was supposed to be a fateful battle, he faced Kobe throughout the game and set three records in one night, declaring that only he was qualified to follow in Jordan's footsteps.

(End of this chapter)