Bishop of the Devil

Rose Garden Arena.

Tonight the Trail Blazers are at home against the Eastern Conference powerhouse Miami Heat.

What surprised Richard was that the Heat's big muscleman Mourning did not appear on their active list. It seemed that he was injured.

This is normal. Mourning's attendance rate has not been high in the past two seasons, with the number of appearances in forty or fifty games...

The most glorious season in the future, that is, the 99-00 season, he averaged 21.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game. After that, due to kidney disease and some injuries, his career was completely far away from the peak...

What's even more embarrassing for the Heat is that not only Mourning is on the injured list, but even their third-leading player Jamal Mashburn is also on the injured list in this game...

The luck can be said to be very bad.

The player Mashburn is similar to Mourning. He is also a super player who has been delayed by injuries, nicknamed Monster Marsh!

Throughout the entire history of the NBA, as of this time in 2018, Durant is said to be the most offensive small forward in the entire history of the NBA. No one should doubt this...

But before Durant, from 1995 to the beginning of the 21st century, there was only one answer for the third position with the strongest offensive firepower in the league, and that was Mashburn.

Even with top small forwards such as Grant Hill, Pierce, and Pippen at the same time, Mashburn's offensive firepower is enough to dominate.

You can basically think of Mashburn as the Melo Anthony of the 1990s, the offensive kaleidoscope of the 1990s...

In fact, Marshburn was born in the wrong era. When he entered the league, the defensive confrontation was too strong, and the chance of injury was naturally greater. By the time the league's defensive intensity dropped due to the elimination of hand-checks, he had already He is retired...

In the last season of his career, he only played 19 games and averaged 21 points and 6 rebounds per game.

The reason why the Heat are strong is because they have these top players in the league, but these two players are not very healthy, which is why the Heat have been unable to go further in the playoffs.

In this game, the Heat only have one second player left, Tim Hardaway. He is naturally very strong and has been selected to the All-Stars many times. However, counting on Tim Hardaway is enough to defeat the iron-barrel pioneers. Otherwise, that is undoubtedly a foolish dream.

Tim Hardaway is a player that a small group of fans will confuse and think is Penny Hardaway, but it is not.

Tim's nickname is "Little Bug", which is the same as Tiny Boggs' nickname in China.

The one nicknamed Penny is Anfernee Hardaway...

Of these two, Penny is a swingman, and Tim is a pure point guard...

However, the Knicks core guard Tim Hardaway Jr., who is more familiar to later generations of fans, is the son of Tim Hardaway.

…

The Heat were missing their leader Mourning and their third leader Mashburn, and were easily defeated by the Trail Blazers.

…

In the blink of an eye, the Trail Blazers have won nine consecutive games. The team's record is 11 wins and 5 losses, directly squeezing out the Suns and Spurs. They are currently ranked fourth in the Western Conference, only one game away from the third-place Lakers. .

The next two games are still the Blazers' home court, and their opponents are the Bulls and the Knicks respectively.

Originally, Richard was thinking about this wave of devil's home court to test the current strength of the Blazers...

As a result, in the first two games, no hair was detected at all. The Suns were defeated by Tianjin and the Heat were short of major generals. The Blazers won without any pressure at all.

In the next two games, what left Richard speechless was that his opponents were also short of major generals...

The Bulls' LeBron James was injured and missed the game, and the Knicks' boss Ewing suffered a serious injury not long after the season started. It's unclear whether he can return this season.

…

Pi Erye also suffered from injuries this season and only played more than 40 games in total. Affected by this, the Bulls' record was also affected to some extent, and they only won 62 games in total...

Compared with Jordan's 72 wins the year he came back and his 69 wins last season, it has dropped a lot.

It can be seen that Pi Erye's absence has a considerable impact on the Bulls. In this game against the Trail Blazers, although Jordan already performed very well, in the end they still lost to the Trail Blazers by five points.

Throughout the game, the fight between Ben and Rodman almost reached a fever pitch.

Rodman's rebounding strength is definitely better than Ben's. He scored a crazy 22 rebounds in this game, while Ben's only scored 14 rebounds.

But this does not mean that Ben's performance was inferior to Rodman's, because Ben still had four blocked shots.

Taken together, the two men's on-court performances are almost equal. Rodman's rebounding is better than Ben's, but Ben's defense is better than Rodman's.

This makes Trail Blazers fans extremely happy. Ben has grown up now. With Rodman as a reference, Ben's current strength can really rank among the top in the league...

Last season, the Blazers were embarrassed that no one was selected as an All-Star.

And this season, with the growth of several new stars, fans are looking forward to it. With such a good record, it is expected that one or two players will get the opportunity to be selected as All-Stars, right?

…

Next, they faced the New York Knicks, who were without Ewing. Originally, all parties thought that these two well-known gangster teams would have a big fight on the court.

The result was unexpected. During the game, the two teams were quite harmonious, and no one even talked trash.

Maybe it's two gangster teams, sympathetic to each other?

It may also be that the good relationship between Ben and Oakley has caused both parties to restrain themselves a lot...

…

What is even more unexpected is that the Trail Blazers, who had won ten consecutive games, lost to the New York Knicks at their home court.

Do you know that the Trail Blazers even defeated the Bulls and actually lost to the Knicks with Ewing absent?

Richard also felt that he couldn't accept it. Originally, he was thinking about winning a twenty-game winning streak, because after this wave of devils at home, their next schedule is relatively easy. If they are lucky, it is really possible to win a twenty-game winning streak. .

But it happened to fall into the hands of the Knicks...

In this game, the Knicks' outside accuracy was a bit scary, and their three-point shooting percentage reached an astonishing level, close to 60%!

The Knicks are not the kind of team that likes to shoot three-pointers, but after the shooting leader Alan Houston scored two three-pointers in the first quarter, he may have felt that his hand was exploding, and then he shot various three-pointers...

I really dare to shoot, I really dare to score!

Under the guidance of Alan Houston, Starks, who originally loved shooting three-pointers, shot even more happily...

Under the three-point rain, Richard could only do nothing, and his ten-game winning streak came to an abrupt end.

However, Richard was quite satisfied with the Devils' home record this time. 3 wins and 1 loss was already beyond Richard's expectations.

Originally, Richard estimated that it would be good to win two games...