Bishop of the Devil

At the end of G1 of the finals, Milicic had a triple-double of 22 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists.

The data cannot be said to be very luxurious, but Milicic's containment effect on the court far exceeds this data.

The Buccaneers defended their first home game and defeated the Spurs with a score of 91:86.

In G2 of the finals, relying on Milicic's outstanding performance, the Pirates won the game without any danger.

As for the next two games, he was not so lucky. In these two games, Parker broke out first in G3, scoring 35 points in the game, and Ginobili broke out again in the other game.

The outbreak of these two people brought the Spurs and Pirates back to the same starting line.

But right now the Pirates still have a slight advantage because they have one more home court than the Spurs.

…

After four finals games, Richard was under a lot of pressure. Even when he faced the top Bulls, Richard was not under as much pressure as he is now.

At that time, Richard was just starting out, and reaching the finals was already considered a success, so he was not too demanding about winning the championship.

But that is not the case now. Richard has emerged as the most dazzling star coach in the league. He is bound to win this championship trophy. During the period when the finals started, Richard could not eat well or sleep well. I keep thinking about the game in my mind.

If the team is so strong that the opponent can't match it, then Richard will definitely not have so many worries now. He can eat and sleep when he should, and he doesn't have to worry about the game at all.

…

G5 of the Finals was also the home court of the Pirates. The Spurs played quite well in this game. Even though Granger broke out from the outside, they still didn't fall behind by many points.

However, at the critical moment, a referee's penalty basically ruined the Spurs' possibility of winning.

It was another call that could be called or not, but the referee decisively called it.

Popovich angrily yelled at the referee on the court, and ended up getting a technical foul. If Duncan hadn't been sensible and stopped Popovich, it is estimated that Popovich would have been ejected from the game.

Throughout Popovich's career, being ejected is not uncommon.

This old man is still quite angry.

At the G5 post-game press conference, Popovich looked livid, "We don't know what happened. We only know that there was something wrong with the referee's decision tonight."

As a result, Popovich was directly fined $30,000 by Stern...

Richard expressed his helplessness. Is there any problem with the penalty? There is indeed a problem...

Not only in this series against the Spurs, but also in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pistons, the penalty was slightly biased in favor of the Pirates.

Richard wasn't hypocritical enough to call Stern and warn him not to favor the Pirates...

This is part of the game, and Richard knows very well that after the Pirates reach a level that Stern is satisfied with, I'm afraid the Pirates' opponents will also be the beneficiaries of the penalty.

Now Richard can only pretend to be dumbfounded and pretend that nothing like this happened.

Let Stern do whatever he likes, and pretend he doesn't know.

…

After the Pirates defeated the Spurs in G5, they took a 3:2 lead and only needed one more win to win this year's championship.

Pirates fans are eagerly awaiting the start of G6 of the finals.

But the result of G6 made them a little frightened.

The Pirates lost at the Spurs' home court, and they lost miserably. Five Spurs players scored in double figures, and all three of the GDP combination scored over 20, perfectly protecting their home court.

Richard completely fell into a sleepless state, with blisters at the corners of his mouth. This was Richard's first time playing in the finals tiebreaker after playing against the Jordan Bulls.

Richard will never forget the feeling of losing the tiebreaker in the finals. This feeling is like when you are about to have sex, but someone brings a bunch of rubber bands and ties it up...

But now Richard doesn't have a good way to improve the players' strength in a short period of time.

All the props that should be used have been used. If you still can't beat the Spurs, then the Spurs really deserve to win the championship.

The only good thing is that the Pirates will play at home next time. With the home court advantage, as long as the Spurs don't perform particularly well, they still have a greater chance of winning.

On June 21, the tiebreaker of the finals begins.

Generally speaking, there are very few finals that can reach the 21st. This year is quite special. The finals started late, and the result was a tiebreaker.

At eight o'clock in the evening, people from both sides began to enter the venue.

The entrance of the Spurs players directly triggered boos from the Charlotte fans at the scene. This is because the fans are trying to create psychological pressure on the Spurs players as much as possible.

Although it has little effect on Buddhist Spurs players, fans still want to do their best to help the team increase its chances of winning.

Durant was quite active on the sidelines, leading his two younger brothers to boo the Spurs players.

"Finley, you traitor who surrendered to the enemy!"

"Take the Mavericks' money and play for the Mavericks' enemy, the Spurs!"

Durant yelled at Michael Finley.

…

Richard was not far from Durant. He looked at Durant in shock. He didn't expect Durant to have such a consciousness.

Speaking of Finley's behavior in joining the Spurs, it is actually a bit unkind.

The Mavericks have risen in recent years, and they are competitors with the Western Conference powerhouse Spurs.

As a result, after Finley was bought out by the Mavericks, he came to join the Spurs, which is equivalent to taking the Mavericks salary but coming to work for the Spurs...

However, Finley naturally has his own purpose in joining the Spurs. His goal is the championship. If he joins the Spurs, he has a greater chance of winning.

…

When he saw the Spurs' starting lineup, Richard's heart skipped a beat. Garbajosa came on the field.

Garbajosa actually returned from injury, and he came back at this critical juncture, which directly made Richard secretly scream in his heart.

Garbajosa is much stronger than Oberto, and he is still at the level of a rookie.

This game is a bit difficult to play.

As expected, Garbajosa took a lot of pressure off the basket for Duncan from the very beginning. It was not that easy for Milicic to score easily in front of Garbajosa.

Richard called a timeout, and now he could only pin his hopes on the performance of his players.

"Alonzo, old man, we need you to carry the inside in this game."

"You must carry it. Only if you carry the inside can we have this chance to win."

Richard stared at Moning with bright eyes.

Mourning nodded solemnly, "Coach, don't worry. In the next game time, the Pirates' interior line will be left to me."

The timeout ends and both sides return to the court.

Mourning looked solemn. This was the closest he had ever been to a championship in his career. Even if he risked his life, he had to leave no regrets tonight.

Under the basket, Duncan and Mourning were stuck.

During the Pirates' offensive round, Mourning was blushing and had veins all over his body, and he was engaging in a fierce physical confrontation with Duncan.

At this moment, Mourning was really fighting for his life. He didn't know how long he could last with this kind of physical confrontation that spared no effort, but he told himself that he could only keep fighting to increase the chances of winning for the Pirates.

Iguodala missed a three-pointer. Mourning roared angrily, squeezed Duncan away, and collected the offensive rebound in his arms.

After collecting the rebound, Mourning Sr. turned around and was about to dunk on Duncan's head.

But how could Duncan let Mourning do what he wanted? He immediately blocked the shot after standing firm.

"Beep!" The referee blew the whistle and awarded Duncan a defensive foul under the basket. Mourning got a free throw opportunity.

Mourning's free throws were not particularly good. In the end, he only made one of two free throws, but it allowed Duncan to receive a foul, which was considered a great value.

…

After a few rounds, Popovich could hardly contain his anger.

In the past few games, Mourning Sr. did not act as tough as he did today, as if he had a grudge against Duncan, and he was completely desperate at the basket.

Mourning himself is a bad guy on the court. Even now that he is old, his vicious energy has not dissipated much. This desperate style of play has caused a lot of trouble for Duncan.

If that's all, it won't make Popovich angry. The key is the referee's penalty, which Popovich cannot accept.

When Duncan played against the Mavericks last season, he suffered a foul. At the critical moment of G3 of the Western Conference semifinals, Duncan was ejected six times, causing the team to lose and giving the Mavericks a 2:1 lead.

If Duncan hadn't left the game with six fouls in G3, the Spurs might have been able to kill the Mavericks, and if they had killed the Mavericks, the Spurs might not have lost to the Heat in the finals.

Maybe the Spurs can create a dynasty.

Duncan averaged 4 fouls per game in this series...

It's strange to say that in the past few years, the referees were relatively loose when it came to Duncan's defensive penalties. As a result, starting from last season, in the playoffs, the referees began to call Duncan more harshly.

It is definitely impossible to say that there is no influence of the alliance.

The same is true for tonight's game. At the end of the first half, Duncan already had four fouls.

And Mourning's number of fouls was exactly four!

But although they are both four fouls, the meaning is completely different...

If Duncan leaves the field with six fouls, the Spurs will lose one-third of their strength!

As for the Pirates, Mourning's departure will naturally affect the team's overall strength, but the impact will definitely be less than one-fifth.

This is the gap in depth between the two sides.

Five minutes into the second half, Duncan received his fifth foul. Popovich became completely anxious and roared at the referee on the field.

But this roar did not have any positive effect. Instead, the referee called him a technical foul.

Just four minutes into the fourth quarter, Duncan received his sixth foul and ended sadly.

Before Duncan left the game, Mourning was ejected not long after the start of the fourth quarter, and Varejao took his place.

Milicic has a thorough understanding of the situation on the court. After getting the ball, he doesn't pass the ball anymore and just plays Duncan in various singles.

The ball may not be scored, but Duncan must be beaten.

Duncan couldn't hold on for long and received his sixth foul.

Popovich almost stood on the sidelines and cursed, but ended up receiving another technical foul...

Richard was relieved. Duncan was unable to appear and Popovich was sent off again. This game was over for the Spurs.

…

Although the game was basically won, Richard was not so excited.

The main reason is that winning is not particularly glorious...

Richard sympathizes with the Spurs. In terms of strength, the Spurs are actually better than the Pirates, but the final winner is the Pirates.

…

"Beep!" The referee blew the whistle to end the game. The Spurs lost by more than ten points in the last quarter.

From this we can also see Duncan's role for the Spurs. If the Spurs did not have Duncan, this team would have difficulty reaching the finals even if Popovich was extremely capable.

Parker is very good and has many die-hard fans, but to put it bluntly, without Duncan, who would pay special attention to Parker.

…

With a final score of 95:87, the Pirates won the championship in the 2006-07 season.

Because they won the championship at home, the fans at the scene could no longer contain their excitement and began to scream crazily.

The Pirates have brought these fans a championship trophy in just three years since they were founded, and they did not keep these fans waiting for too long.

The players also hugged each other excitedly. The two veterans in the team, Mourning and Payton, were already in tears at this moment.

Mourning entered the league in 1992. In fifteen years, he finally tasted the taste of a championship.

Payton entered the league in 1990, which lasted 17 years!

The two veterans were speechless and choked. They finally won the championship and finally had an explanation for their careers.

The players cheered wildly and interacted with the fans to celebrate winning the championship.

Richard is not in a good mood. If he beat the Spurs head-on, he will definitely be as excited as the players.

But seeing Duncan sitting blankly on the sidelines, as if he had forgotten to leave, Richard felt a little uncomfortable.

Richard walked towards Duncan and sat next to Duncan.

"Tim, you didn't lose." Richard patted Duncan on the shoulder.

Duncan raised his head, his expression a little dull, but deep in his eyes, Richard could still see Duncan's unwillingness.

"No, Coach Li, we did lose."

"You're a great coach."

"Congratulations to your Pirates for winning the championship, and I hope we have a chance to continue playing against each other next year."

Duncan tried his best to smile and said to Richard.

Although Duncan is not very satisfied with the penalties, he can't find anything wrong with this year's penalties.

Everyone knows that Duncan has a good temper, but Duncan has also been angry publicly. Last season, when they lost in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals, Duncan had a rare public outburst.

"I didn't touch him at all!" Duncan shouted at the reporters at the post-game press conference.

What this refers to is naturally that Duncan was mistakenly called for a foul on Nowitzki. Facts have proved that when the game video was replayed, Duncan really did not touch Nowitzki.

In tonight's game, Duncan's penalties were all of the type that could be called or not called. To be precise, they were not misjudgements, so Duncan was not angry, but felt a little unwilling.

He lost to Richard again. Duncan couldn't remember how many times he had lost to Richard.

…

After saying that, Duncan pulled off the towel covering his head, stood up and returned to the visiting team's locker room.

Richard looked at Duncan's back and was not in the mood to celebrate winning the championship.