naaapseattle Chapter 327 The Completely Ended Finals
Chapter 327 The Completely Ended Finals
Chapter 327 The Completely Ended Finals
It was night in Los Angeles, lying in a hotel room, Li Ke tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
It has little to do with the finals. Before the finals started, he knew that this year was not the year of the Bobcats.
Although he has been losing, Li Ke has not been criticized by public opinion.
Some media have even compared Li Ke in this finals to Allen Iverson in the 00-01 season finals.
It is also almost a single-core battle. Since the fourth battle, Li Ke has averaged 35.75 points per game. Compared with the AI of the year, it is not bad at all, and the efficiency is even higher.
It stands to reason that with Li Ke's performance, the Bobcats should not be beaten like this by the Lakers.
The problem is that in these four games, apart from Li Ke, the Bobcats did not have a second player with stable output.
Curry will only be brilliant once in two or three games. The old Martin who was replaced by the old shark has long been a blue-collar. He can make a few misses and dunk a few baskets in each game, which is the limit of what he can do.
Hua's second child is stable, scoring [-] or [-] points in every game.
But his [-] or [-] points are all dry.
Specifically, Hua No. [-] has no three-pointers, and CIC is not stable. The scoring depends on drilling into the restricted area.
He scored [-] or [-] points per game, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, Hua's second contributed more, or defense.
But the problem is, what the Bobcats need now is more points besides Li Ke.
Thinking of this, Li Ke knew what he was melancholy about.
Outside the window, there are no stars, but some neon lights.
Li Ke's mind is full of the Bobcats' current lineup, Curry plus him, plus Jordan in the penalty area, Tajibson at power forward, and Wesley Matthews, Hua Er and Tucker on the wings.
This lineup, if all members are at their peak, it will be at the dynasty level.
However, it still needs to grow...
Mainly Jordan and Curry, specifically——
Jordan averaged 8.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game this season, which is already at the level after ripening.
And he is still one or two seasons away from the peak.
Curry averaged 17.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.5 steals per game this season. He can be regarded as a rookie in the first echelon of the season.
But this kind of performance is at least two or three seasons away from the peak Curry.
Therefore, in general, the Bobcats are still five or six years away from the dynasty.
But in the past five or six years, the Bobcats' rookie bonus has all been eaten up.
He has a maximum salary, Curry has a maximum salary, plus the tens of millions of contracts of Jordan Jr. and Hua's second son, Matthews and Tucker also need contracts above the middle class...
There is also Lao Du who is lying on the bed next to him. At this time next year, his contract with Li Ke will expire together. How much is Lao Qiao willing to give Lao Du?
Speaking of it, although Lao Du averaged only a little over 5 points per game, his role is more important than Matthews and Tucker, because he is the core of the locker room.
Calculated in one stroke, the dynastic Bobcats should have to pay a huge luxury tax.
Can Charlotte in the small ball market afford it?
Or counting the income from the Chinese market, if Bobcats can afford it, would Old Joe be willing to pay?
Li Ke didn't know, maybe even Lao Qiao didn't know, after all, Bobcat's big boss wasn't Lao Qiao...
While thinking about this, Li Ke turned over and got out of bed, greeted Lao Du who was in the next bed, and walked out of the hotel.
The training hall rented by Bobcats in Los Angeles is not far from the hotel. Li Ke arrived after a short jog.
The door of the training hall was not closed, so he pushed the door easily and entered, but at this moment, there was a sound of basketball hitting irons in his ears.
Looking in the direction of the voice, Li Ke saw a vigorous voice.
"Gerald?"
That's right, it's Hua's second child. This guy is picking up the ball and practicing three-pointers by himself.
"Sheldon?"
Li Ke's voice reminded Hua Er Er that when he looked up, he saw Li Ke.
"Are you coming to practice too?"
While asking, while holding the basketball in his hand, he threw a three-pointer from beyond the three-point line.
Bang-dang-!
Li Ke shook his head: "I can't sleep, come and have a look."
On the sidelines of the training field, he found a place to sit down, and then continued the topic: "It's you, it's late at night, why did you come here to practice three-pointers?"
"It's not the damn trend..."
Hua Lao Er shook his head, suddenly a little downcast, he stopped the extra practice in his hand, turned around and sat beside Li Ke.
"Damn trend?"
"Yeah, Sheldon, haven't you noticed that in this league, the requirements for wing players like us are getting higher and higher."
"First of all, you have to be good at defense, and then you have to attack. A second-rate breakthrough player like me is no longer considered mainstream, but those three-point shooters, umm... such as JJ Redick of the Magic, are becoming more and more popular now."
"If I don't practice three-pointers again, I'm afraid, I will be eliminated by this league."
"..."
Li Ke smiled and shook his head: "It's not that exaggerated, Gerald."
"No, the reality is exaggerated. A forward like me who plays inside is not big enough to compete with those real power forwards. If I don't practice three-pointers, how can I become a member of the championship team?"
Hearing this, Li Ke fell silent.
He finally knew the reason why Hua Er Er practiced so hard.
As mentioned earlier, in this finals, the second Hua played very steadily, scoring [-] or [-] points per game, and also cooperated with his teammates on the defensive end to assist in various defenses.
However, Hua No. [-] can't kill the game, and all his contributions are dry.
Sometimes, his role is not even as good as Wesley Matthews who came off the bench.
The reason is that Matthews can shoot three-pointers, and being able to shoot three-pointers can open up space.
But more importantly, it is the defense against Mrs. Jia.
As for the Bobcats against the Lakers, Li Ke was able to beat Kobe, but the Lakers were still able to win. The reason is the addition of his wife.
In the entire Bobcats, there is no player who can match Jiasao.
Hua Lao Er took the initiative to take this pot.
In his opinion, he, who can't kill the game on the offensive end, should make a contribution equal to the offensive end on the defensive end.
As a result, in one-on-one defense, he was not as good as Jiasao, and he was far inferior to Li Ke in one-on-one defense against Kobe.
As a result, he felt that he was redundant in the Bobcats, a team destined to make contributions in the future.
Of course, after practicing three-pointers, he is not redundant.
Not only is it not redundant, but he can also take out the Bobcats' third maximum salary contract in the future from the old Joe's pocket.
"Come on, Gerald..."
Thinking of this, Li Ke patted Hua's second child on the shoulder, got up, and left.
……
On June 6, the Staples Center, the G13 game of the finals.
In this game, the Bobcats made another change——
The old Martin, who was full of energy and made little contribution on the defensive end, was taken down, Tajibson was on the starting lineup, and other positions remained unchanged.
In terms of play style, the defensive end changed to zone defense, Jordan Jr. guarded the basket, Tajibson and Hua Laoer were in the same area, and Li Ke left alone to stare at Kobe.
On the offensive end, Rivers no longer asked Li Ke to cooperate with Curry in the pick-and-roll, but separated the two and fought on their own.
To put it bluntly, it was a gamble.
Take apart Li Ku, hand over the power of the opening offense to Curry, and bet that Curry's touch can be opened by himself.
As for Li Ke, what Rivers has to do is to let Li Ke focus on defense.
That's right, Rivers wants to put a lot of money on the defensive end, hoping to use defense to win back the city.
For the Bobcats, as long as they can win this game, this series will be revived.
After all, winning this game is a score of 2 to 3.
Going back to the home court in the next game, maybe you can get some home whistle, and another game is not a dream at all.
When it comes to the tiebreaker, it's hard to say who will win.
At the beginning of the game, everything went much smoother than the previous games.
Li Ke stared at Kobe to death, and the sound of banging irons was endless at the beginning.
Sister-in-law Jia is still exporting, but Bobcats——
Curry continued to be super ghost, but Li Ke began to shoulder the burden of offense and defense again, under pressure, and took up the burden of scoring in this game.
At the end of the first quarter, with a score of 22 to 23, the two teams were almost tied, and the Bobcats, who played away, led by 1 point.
In the second quarter, the Lakers also began to strengthen their defense, especially against Li Ke.
After the pressure came down, Li Ke also started to strike iron.
This match is getting more and more anxious and intense.
"No one expected that in G5, the style of the game would actually change again. From the confrontation in the previous games, it would become a defensive battle in this game."
At halftime, Li Ke made only 16 of 7 shots and scored 17 points.
Kobe was even worse, making only 14 of 4 shots and scoring only 11 points.
At halftime, the score of the two teams was also an ultra-low 46 to 45. The Bobcats led by 1 point in the first quarter, but at the end of the halftime, they became the lagging side again.
But this is only 1 point behind, which means that the Bobcats still have a chance.
That's right, the Bobcats just have a chance, and the Lakers still have the upper hand in this game.
The reason is that until now, the Bobcats still rely on Li Ke alone.
On the Lakers side, Mrs. Jia was already unstoppable. Although Kobe was crazy, he was like a dormant mamba, waiting for a chance to kill.
"The score is very tight. I'm afraid we're going to play a key goal in this game. Sheldon, rest as long as you can. We need to save our energy until the last moment of the game..."
Rivers has already judged the future trend of the game. Not only did he give instructions during the intermission, but even after the start of the second half, he gave other Bobcats players enough opportunities to hold the ball.
Curry was still very disappointed, and the long shots hit the frame one after another.
On the contrary, Hua's second son, who couldn't kill the game, sent the balls into the basket one after another, helping the Bobcats to bite the score.
Seeing this, Rivers chose to replace Li Ke at the end of the third quarter.
"Sheldon was replaced. It seemed that he was going to rest for a few minutes, and then put all his energy into the decisive battle at the end of the quarter."
"Since the Eastern Conference finals, Sheldon has been playing 48 minutes. In this game, he finally rested."
On the Lakers side, Zen Master also followed suit and replaced Kobe.
Everyone knows that this G5 battle is about to end in the final quarter.
Li Ke sat on the bench beside the court, and he covered his head with a towel.
Hear Staples alternate between cheers and boos, and the unison "Defense" whoops.
After listening for a while, he still decided to pull off the towel.
He still has to keep an eye on the trend of the game, and if the balance of the game suddenly tilts, he has to make an emergency appearance.
So, he stared at the basketball on the court for a while.
After Li Ke left the field, it was Hua No. [-] who supported the Bobcats' attack. His breakthrough that could not kill the game was extremely resolute at this moment.
The impact again and again always makes Staples exclaim.
The ball seemed to be a very ordinary ball. Curry ran outside for a while, then suddenly caught the ball and raised his hand to score a three-pointer.
But the moment the ball was shot, it was obviously missed.
So, someone from the Bobcats' bench shouted: "Rebound!"
This can also be regarded as reminding the players on the field from the perspective of bystanders.
Li Ke watched the basketball hit the hoop and pop out, and also watched Hua Er Er rush to the basket desperately, and jumped up with angry eyes.
But at the same time, he also saw the basket, Andrew Bynum, looked at the not very smart little shark, and went up regardless.
Staples exclaimed, but Li Ke frowned, realizing something was wrong.
"Wait... this guy has bent his elbow!"
An Zhu put his thick elbows sideways, and didn't use his body to touch Hua's second child.
Bang!
Staples exclaimed even more fearfully, and Li Ke suddenly stood up from the bench.
boom!
Two huge bodies fell to the floor of Staples, but there was a clear difference between the two on the floor.
Second Hua clutched his chest, in excruciating pain.
Anzhu was unharmed, and soon sat on the floor.
Beep beep——!
The referee blew his whistle quickly and stopped the game.
But Li Ke rushed onto the court at the moment the whistle sounded.
"In order to fight for rebounds, there was a fierce confrontation at the basket. Andrew Bynum should be fine, but Gerald Wallace...he seems to be injured."
Just when everyone was still eating melons, just when the Bobcats' team medical team was just preparing to enter the field...
A thick yellow fist suddenly appeared in front of An Zhu, and it kept getting bigger and bigger.
The next second, bang!
"Oh my God!"
Although the eyes of the melon-eaters were all focused on Hua Laoer, An Zhu, who was suddenly punched not far away, was still spotted.
In the commentary seat, McBrin exclaimed, already full of disbelief.
What was even more unbelievable was that immediately after, the second thick yellow fist hit An Zhu's head heavily.
An Zhu's cry of pain resounded on the field, and there was a piece of——
"No no no!"
"Stop him now!"
"No, Sheldon!"
That's right, these two punches came from Li Ke.
When Hua Er Er hugged his chest and howled in pain, he realized something.
Cursing this damn historical inertia in his mouth, his anger couldn't be suppressed at all, and he, Li Ke, rushed onto the court.
Because he knew what this elbow meant to Hua Er Er.
"Without the second child, we can't win the finals. The wicked will be punished by the wicked, and those who hurt others must receive the same punishment!"
boom!
After two punches, Li Ke, who had already narrowed the distance, finally threw an elbow.
The epidermis burst and blood flowed horizontally. An Zhu was already lying on the floor, unconscious.
Li Ke had been dragged down by Kobe and Tajibson, but he stomped on An Zhu's calf.
"It's over, the finals are over..."
(End of this chapter)