Bishop of the Devil

"You three boys, don't run around after watching the game. If you are caught fooling around, I have plenty of ways to deal with you." Richard walked up to the three of them and said with a smile.

Beasley is his cousin, and Curry is his junior. He has watched Curry grow up, so Richard rudely threatened these three boys.

"Coach, when will you arrange a trial training for me?" Durant looked at Richard with longing and asked anxiously.

Richard was startled, trying out Durant? This kid doesn't think he will pick him in the draft, does he?

The Trail Blazers will select him with the No. 1 pick. Richard will definitely not tell Durant about this. It is better to leave some surprises in life.

"My team doesn't have the habit of trial training, don't you know?" Richard asked with a smile.

Durant blinked and thought about it carefully. It seemed true. Richard's team rarely heard about trial training.

…

As the referee blows the whistle, tonight's G5 game begins.

Richard is still quite confident that he can win this game. After all, with Stern's protection, it would be really unreasonable if he still can't beat the Pistons.

The game went perfectly according to Richard's vision. After half the game, the Pirates led by ten points.

In the third minute of the second half, Paul broke through with the ball. As a result, he stepped directly on Clark's feet when he fell. He fell to the ground in pain and curled up like a shrimp.

Richard frowned, Paul's injury was too fatal.

The game was only halfway through, and Paul was unable to play. The team could only rely on Rondo to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the No. 1 position.

However, Rondo and Milicic have not been together for a long time, and their cooperation is not tacit enough, so the effect will definitely be much worse than Paul's.

If the opponent is a weak team, it doesn't matter.

But now the opponent is the powerful Pistons, and any reduction in strength will affect the direction of the game.

Sure enough, in the next few minutes, the Pistons took advantage of the situation and began to pursue. The original ten-point difference was recovered to only three points.

Richard sighed. Paul's luck was actually quite bad. In games like this at critical moments, it was always easy for him to fall behind.

It has been two seasons since Paul joined the Pirates, and the first time he was injured was in a key game like the Eastern Conference Finals.

Richard shouted to the technical table for a long timeout, and he had to find a way to solve the disadvantage on the field.

Although the Pirates currently lead 3:1, even if they lose this game, they still lead 3:2, and they still have a home field advantage in the seventh game.

But Richard did not dare to take risks and pinned his hopes on the next two games.

The Pistons are not another team. As long as they are given a chance to breathe, they may let Richard go fishing early this season.

Richard planned to completely deal with the piston tonight to avoid a long night and many dreams.

…

During the long timeout, Rondo was apologetic on his face. He also knew that his performance in those few minutes was not good enough. Otherwise, he would not have allowed the Pistons to regain the seven-point gap in a row.

Richard waved his hand at Rondo, signaling Rondo not to take it seriously.

In any case, this is Rondo's rookie season. To perform like this, no one can ask for more.

Richard motioned to the generals to sit back in their seats and take a rest, then turned his attention to Old Payton.

"Old man, I have a question for you." Richard asked Payton softly.

Payton was startled, not quite understanding what Richard was going to do.

"Ask, Coach."

"This season, if we can win the championship, do you have any thoughts about retiring?"

Payton frowned, thought for a moment, and then gave his answer.

"Yes, if we can win the championship this season, I will have no regrets in my career."

In fact, Payton has thought about it before. If he can win the championship with the Buccaneers this season, he may retire directly.

Now Richard asked such a strange question at such a critical moment. After Peyton thought about it, he told Richard his true thoughts.

Richard nodded. Since Payton won the championship this season and regretted retiring, then he can safely give Payton props.

The luck of the monkey.

This year is Payton's contract year. Although his contract is only for one year, it is still a contract year...

Paul was injured, and Richard could use the Injury Scroll to heal it, but this healing took time. Even with the Injury Scroll, Paul would not be able to play in this game.

Richard planned to kill the Pistons in this game to avoid long nights and nightmares, so he naturally targeted Payton.

Payton has maintained a very good competitive state with the Buccaneers over the years. When Rondo did not join the Buccaneers last season, Payton averaged 8+5 per game as a substitute.

Now with the lucky blessing of the monkey, coupled with Payton's rich experience in competitions, his debut effect will definitely be much better than Rondo.

…

After the long timeout ended, what the home Pirates fans didn't expect was that Richard actually used Payton at this time.

The fans couldn't help but feel nervous. Although the Pirates had a huge advantage, the Pistons were not weaklings. Who could say what would happen next?

If they can't win this game, the Pistons may have two consecutive games and directly eliminate the Pirates at their home court.

Now they can only hope that Paul's injury is not serious, and that Payton can turn the tide and help the team win this game.

Payton began to appear and took a deep breath. He did not expect that Richard would send himself to appear at such a moment.

He just felt that his whole body was full of energy.

As soon as Payton came on the scene, he teamed up with Milicic to hit a mid-range shot, bringing the point difference back to five points.

Although the Pistons continued to grab points, Payton relied on his rich experience in competitions to stabilize the situation on the court, keeping the point difference between the two sides hovering around five points, and giving the Pistons no chance to catch up.

Richard breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that he made the right choice. Payton played a very important role on the court.

…

With less than thirty seconds left in the game, the Buccaneers were up three points, and the Buccaneers had the ball.

Payton controlled the ball steadily and consumed the game time, and Billups, his opponent, did not dare to reach out to steal rashly.

For a veteran like Payton, Billups knew very well that as long as he stretched out his hand, the referee's whistle would be blown immediately.

With Payton's free throw shooting rate, it is very likely that he will make two free throws. A five-point difference will directly cause the Pistons to lose hope of victory.

With three seconds left in the Buccaneers' possession, Payton made a pinpoint pass to Granger.

Granger immediately shot a three-pointer, but unfortunately the ball missed.

Yao Ming grabbed the defensive rebound and immediately went to the technical table to ask for a timeout.

There are about 6 seconds left in the game. If the Pistons hit a three-pointer in the next offensive round, there is still a chance for the game to enter overtime. Even if the score is 3+1, the Pistons have hope of winning.

…

In just six seconds, after the short pause, the Pistons immediately launched a counterattack. The only thing they could do at this moment was to shoot three-pointers. If they still thought about shooting two-pointers, they must have lost their minds.

The Pirates generals on the field were obviously aware of this and expanded their defense to guard against the Pistons' three-pointers.

As for the defense inside the three-point line, the Pistons released it directly. At this moment, the Pistons are willing to score two points, which the Pirates can only ask for.

Joe received the ball from the outside in isolation, and in a hurry, he turned over and shot a three-pointer.

To the relief of Pirates fans, Joe's single shot did not hit.

As long as it missed, the Pirates were basically guaranteed to win.

Yao Ming grabbed the offensive rebound and prepared for a second attack.

Mourning may have had a conditioned reflex. Seeing Yao Ming preparing to attack, he immediately flew to block the shot.

As a result, this block directly gave Yao Ming the opportunity to go to the free throw line.

Two free throws, even if they were all made, would only be two points, and the Pirates would still be in the lead.

All the pirates at the scene breathed a sigh of relief. This game was basically won.

But Richard did not relax. He suddenly remembered Yao Ming's self-punishment and self-stealing move.

Yao Ming deliberately missed the free throw, grabbed the offensive rebound, and then passed it to Alston who was waiting outside.

That is to say, Alston failed to hit this three-pointer. Otherwise, this goal would definitely be a super exciting goal in history.

Now Richard feels that Yao Ming must have such an idea.

Yao Ming's free throws were very stable, and he hit the first ball steadily.

"Guard against the outside line!"

"Guard against their three-pointers!"

Richard shouted toward the court because he had seen Billups and Joe singles tense up.

Yao Ming made a free throw, and the two men's muscles were all tense. It was obvious that they had some special tactics.

The Pirates players heard Richard's roar from the sidelines and didn't think about the purpose of Richard's strange arrangement. They all focused on the Pistons' outside players.

…

Yao Ming's second free throw began. Just as Richard expected, Yao Ming was able to make this penalty quite exquisite. The strength and angle were simply amazing.

The basketball bounced off the rim and bounced back. Yao Ming grabbed the rebound with one step, and then immediately threw the ball to Billups outside the three-point line.

How dare Billups waste time? The game was about to end.

He has a big heart, but no matter how big his heart is, he can't keep the Pirates on guard.

Flounder's hasty shot was immediately followed by Granger, who was cleanly slapped out of bounds.

When Yao Ming saw such a scene, he cursed angrily.

Anyone who would do this kind of thing would definitely be furious.

In fact, during the timeout just now, Yao Ming told coach Sanders that he would directly attack the second time after grabbing the rebound.

In this way, if the score is tied at two points, the team can force overtime.

But Sanders did not agree to Yao Ming's suggestion. There were too many people under the basket, and Sanders felt that it would be better to let Yao Ming pass to the outside when he shot in the chaos.

The Pirates' defensive players certainly didn't expect that the Pistons would come up with such a move. Without precautions, the Pistons' perimeter players had a higher hit rate whether they were playing two-pointers or three-pointers.

As a result, Richard's two roars completely broke the Pistons' plan.

Richard has seen the Pistons' self-punishment and self-stealing tactics and made arrangements in advance.

This is the advantage of the time traveler. If Richard didn't know Yao Ming well enough, I'm afraid he would have fallen for the Pistons just now.

No matter whether the Pistons hit a three-pointer or a two-pointer, the Pirates are in trouble.

Richard knows the reason why Billups shoots three-pointers.

Because Billups' mid-range shooting percentage is five percentage points lower than his three-point shooting percentage.

This is a weird player, his mid-range shooting percentage is not as good as his three-point shooting percentage.

This season, Billups' three-point shooting percentage has reached 41%, but only 36% of his mid-range shots.

In this case, Billups is definitely more inclined to shoot three-pointers.

And if Yao Ming had passed the ball to Joe in isolation just now, he might have shot two points.

However, under Iguodala's defense, this two-pointer is also difficult to hit.