Bishop of the Devil

In the East, the Pistons are still an amazing team, but now the Pistons have gradually followed the path of the previous Trail Blazers.

The Trail Blazers were brilliant for almost six years, and then the dynasty collapsed due to salary space issues.

In fact, if Richard wants to help the Blazers, he can still help the Blazers continue their glory.

But if it helps the Trail Blazers, the previous Pistons will not be able to rise.

After all, there are only so many newcomers every year. If Richard catches them all, this is a scene that Richard doesn't want to see.

After the Pistons gave Yao Ming and Clark maximum salaries, they can't even sign another maximum salary. Maybe their strength will gradually decline in the next one or two seasons.

…

In mid-December, Rondo's last of fifteen games was against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Tonight is the Lakers' home court, and Richard led the Pirates to arrive in Los Angeles one day early.

With the completion of the two-month schedule, the strength of each team can generally be seen clearly.

With the addition of Ben, the Lakers have greatly strengthened their weak inside line this season.

Under normal circumstances, Kobe would be able to lead this group of Lakers players into the playoffs. Now that he has an All-Star in his prime, his record has soared directly to the top three in the Western Conference.

Right now, the Lakers are only one game behind the Suns, who are second in the Western Conference.

It is worth mentioning that Kobe changed his jersey number this season.

When Kobe was with the Trail Blazers, he wore jersey No. 33, which was the jersey number his father wore in high school.

Later, after joining the Lakers, because Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's No. 33 jersey was retired, Kobe chose No. 8.

This number is also meaningful to Kobe. It was his jersey number in Italy when he was a child.

And this season, maybe because he failed to enter the playoffs last season, Kobe was stimulated, so he directly changed the original No. 8 to No. 24.

The number 24 is Kobe's jersey number in high school, but in the interpretation of fans, this number has other meanings.

For example, there are 24 hours in a day. This number means that Kobe is thinking about training all the time...

For example, Jordan is No. 23. Kobe's choice of this number means that he will surpass Jordan in the future.

Generally speaking, players change jersey numbers in two situations.

The first is transfer. For example, James wore No. 23 with the Cavaliers and No. 6 after arriving with the Heat.

The second type is also related to transfers. When a big-player is traded to the team, he has to use his original number. If this number is occupied by a cannon fodder player, the cannon fodder player must give it up.

It is relatively rare for a player like Kobe to change his number on the same team. Of course, Kobe is not the only one. There are still several players who have done this.

The league also has regulations on this. If a player wants to change his number on the same team, he must have played for the team for more than four years. Kobe definitely meets the conditions...

…

Richard was actually a little curious about the meaning of Kobe's number 24, but he didn't ask Kobe...

The meaning of jersey numbers actually doesn't have much value. Everyone has their own opinions, and some fans even come up with some messy interpretations.

For example, Jordan's No. 23, in the interpretation of fans, has a very simple meaning, that is, two and three consecutive championships...

For example, James' No. 23 is slightly more complicated in the interpretation of fans. 2 means being kicked bald twice, and 3 means three decisions.

As for the Heat's No. 6 jersey, it was interpreted as Liuya...

As soon as I heard it, I knew that this was definitely James's black fans causing trouble.

…

At eight o'clock in the evening, the Pirates will begin taking the field.

Richard is still quite relaxed. The Pirates are now firmly ranked first in the Eastern Conference, four games ahead of the second-placed Pistons in the Eastern Conference.

There are still two months left before the All-Star Game, and the Pistons basically have no hope of catching up.

Four wins may not seem like much, but judging from the current winning probability of the Pirates, unless the Pistons can achieve a winning rate of more than 85% in the next two months, otherwise, they will not be able to threaten the Pirates' first place in the Eastern Conference. s position.

Jackson is coaching the Lakers this season, and he is standing across the court looking at Richard.

Seeing Richard's indifferent expression, the Zen master felt an indescribable feeling of frustration.

The reason is simple, because now this Lakers team is almost becoming the home base of West Lafayette.

The top three players on the team are all West Lafayette players.

Kobe, Ben and Odom.

In fact, Zen Master was not very inclined to bring in Da Ben at the beginning. He was planning to hook up with Yao Ming...

But Kobe is obviously closer to Big Ben, so he has been putting pressure on the management, hoping that the team can win Big Ben.

For this reason, Kobe and Zen Master fought openly and secretly for a long time.

However, this open and secret struggle ended with Yao Ming renewing his contract with the Pistons. If Yao Ming does not come to the Lakers, Zen Master will naturally have no choice.

Fortunately, after Big Ben joined the team, the chemical reaction was quite good, the team's record skyrocketed, and now it has the initial strength to compete for the championship.

Richard also saw the Zen Master looking at him with a strange expression, and nodded and smiled at the Zen Master.

"Rajan, tonight is the last game of the bet. Do you know how many points you are behind Paul?" Richard looked at Rondo with a smile.

Rondo nodded sadly, "Coach, there are still 104 points left..."

Basically Rondo has failed in this bet.

But even though he was doomed to fail at the moment, Rondo still scared Paul into a cold sweat.

In the fourteen games Rondo played before, what stunned Paul was that this kid who was similar in height to himself averaged 7.6 rebounds per game.

The average assists per game and steals per game data are not as good as mine, but the gap is not big...

If Rondo's offense wasn't really bad, Paul felt like he would be restless tonight.

But now he is relieved. With a gap of 104 points, Rondo's chance of catching up is not even 1%.

Rondo was obviously aware of this, and he looked a little ugly at the moment.

You must know that 20 points, 20 rebounds and 20 assists add up to only 100 points. As for steals and blocks, if you can get four in one game, it is already a very good performance.

Even if Rondo gets five defensive statistics tonight, he is still close to 80 points behind Paul. This requires Rondo to produce super statistics of 20 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists...

It's impossible to think about it.