Bishop of the Devil

In Howard's view, O'Neal is already old. If O'Neal was in his prime, maybe he would fight back against O'Neal's trash talk just now.

"Uh-huh!"

"Uh-huh!"

There were two crisp sounds of the basketball hitting the net, and O'Neal made two free throws.

The Magic generals didn't pay much attention to these two free throws. Even with O'Neal's free throw percentage of more than 40%, if he is lucky in a game, he may make two free throws.

…

"Chris, lob the ball to Shaq and let him hit the basket." Richard stood on the sidelines and shouted at Paul.

Paul was a little surprised. They were playing well on the outside, but Richard suddenly thought of playing inside.

But since Richard laid out the tactics, the only thing Paul can do is execute them.

Richard is going to pose a problem to the Magic, or to be precise, to pose a problem to the entire league.

With O'Neal at the basket, if his free throw percentage can remain within a good range, how should the opponent defend him?

Prior to this, the players facing O'Neal were not afraid of fouling O'Neal. Even if they fouled, they would treat it as a shark attack.

Therefore, when defending O'Neal, any player can spare no effort and use any defensive moves they want, without having to worry about fouls at all.

But after O'Neal's free throw shooting percentage improves, if they still think about defending O'Neal so unscrupulously, they will definitely suffer.

…

Van Gundy was not frightened by O'Neal's three-of-four free throws, and continued to implement the shark-cutting tactics on the court.

In just three minutes, O'Neal went to the free throw line one after another and got 10 free throw opportunities.

Of these ten free throw opportunities, O'Neal hit seven!

In the TNT commentary room, Barkley was dumbfounded. He liked to chat with O'Neal the most. He originally thought that tonight was O'Neal's first show with the Buccaneers, and he could take this opportunity to disgust O'Neal.

As a result, he was disgusted by O'Neal's free throw shooting percentage.

What black spots can there be on O'Neal? That's just free throws. No one expects O'Neal to be able to beat Howard, who is entering his prime, on the court.

"Charles, it seems that the joke you prepared today is not used?" Kenny Smith said with a smirk.

He knew that Barkley had prepared a joke specifically for O'Neal's free throws. He had prepared it during the offseason and was just waiting to use it tonight.

As a result, O'Neal hadn't even finished the first quarter, and he made 7 of 10 free throws!

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"I know Shaq too well, this is definitely not Shaq!"

…

With two minutes left in the first quarter, Richard replaced O'Neal and replaced Oden.

Van Gundy has no choice but to keep Warcraft on the court. He attaches great importance to tonight's game. Even if the main players are tired, he will definitely seize every opportunity to win.

…

Oden's appearance triggered another burst of cheers from the audience.

Although fans expected that Oden would appear as a substitute in the new season, fans still have high expectations for him.

How many more years can O'Neal play? He won't be able to play for a few more years. When O'Neal retires to the second line, Oden will immediately take over the Pirates' center position.

…

Oden is already facing off against Howard on the court. The young Oden is not as good as Howard in terms of strength and tonnage.

However, Oden also has his own advantages. He is better than Howard in terms of speed and is more flexible on the court. In addition, Howard was consumed a lot of energy by O'Neal, a monster under the basket. The two of them also played back and forth. Oden has no obvious disadvantages.

This is a bit scary. Currently, Howard is slightly weaker than Yao Ming in the league. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is the second center in the league.

But Oden was able to face off against Howard without any obvious disadvantage, which is enough to show Oden's strength.

It wasn't until halfway through the second quarter that Richard replaced Oden and replaced O'Neal.

Van Gundy may still not believe in evil. O'Neal has just appeared, and he used the shark-cutting tactic again.

As a result, O'Neal made four of six free throws for him, which directly gave up his plan to continue slashing sharks.

O'Neal's expression on the court was weird. He was in complete pain and happiness...

Happily, the big problem of free throws was easily solved by Richard. He didn't even see Richard do anything special. He just asked him to come to the training ground and practice free throws for two hours.

Then, his free throw shooting percentage began to soar, which once made O'Neal wonder whether Richard was an alien.

Van Gundy's expression also made O'Neal very happy.

When O'Neal traveled east from the Lakers to the Heat, the head coach was Van Gundy. However, Van Gundy did not last long. He only coached O'Neal for less than half a season before being driven away by Pat Riley...

Pat Riley took action personally, took up the position of head coach of the team, and then led the team to win the championship.

Why Van Gundy was fired was due to his poor record, but the discord with O'Neal was also a very important reason.

Later, after O'Neal retired, he often scolded Van Gundy, calling him a coward and a coward.

Now Van Gundy's expression makes O'Neal extremely happy, and he wants to shout at Van Gundy.

Although he felt relieved, O'Neill also felt quite regretful.

He was regretting why he didn't join Richard's team earlier and left the Lakers. In fact, if he insisted on choosing his own team, the Heat would definitely not dare to take the risk of trading O'Neal.

O'Neal's temper is well known to the world. He is not willing to join your team. As a result, you dismantle half the team to trade him, which is destined to be a tragedy in the end.

I think if O'Neal had played for Richard earlier, O'Neal felt that he might not be able to wear a championship ring with just one slap.

If it had been earlier, he had played for Richard since he first entered the league. O'Neal felt that with his own strength and Richard's ability to create miracles, he might be able to win five consecutive championships now. Or six consecutive championships.

Deeply regretful, O'Neal looked troubled, feeling that he had missed countless championship rings.

But then I thought about it, it seems like it's not too late to play for Richard now. I currently have two championship rings in hand. If I continue with this momentum, I might be able to get two more rings with the Pirates.

…

With three minutes left before the end of the game, Van Gundy sighed and replaced Howard, who had played 43 minutes on the field.

The Magic were completely out of luck in this game. Trying to recover a 22-point deficit in three minutes was tantamount to wishful thinking.

O'Neal made 15 of 22 free throws tonight. For top guards, this free throw shooting rate is nothing, but among centers, this free throw shooting rate is already quite astonishing.

In the end, O'Neal played 28 minutes and scored a double-double of 27 points and 10 rebounds.

Oden, who came off the bench, only played 20 minutes, but his statistics were quite good, with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block.

These two centers scored a total of 43 points and 18 rebounds tonight!

Richard knows very well that if Howard is not in the opponent's lineup, the statistics of these two people may be improved a lot.

The Magic's big men are relatively strong in the league, but tonight they were beaten alive by the Buccaneers' big men. Howard's 22 points, 18 rebounds and 3 blocks looked good, but considering his 43 minutes of playing time. , this data is somewhat unreasonable.

…

"God, Richard is really a lunatic. Unknowingly, he created another super center combination." Barkley sighed deeply after watching the game.

O'Neal's strength is still there. Even though he is not as good as Howard now, the gap is not big. Coupled with Oden, a newcomer with a lot of bugs, the Pirates' center is really speechless.

"The only thing we can do now is to start a moment of silence for other teams. They may have to spend a bleak season with no hope."

"Last season, the Pirates' center position was relatively weak. Even so, they won the championship. This season, their center position has been greatly enhanced. I really can't think of anyone who will be the Pirates' opponent this season." Kenny Smith made a sad face and began to observe a moment of silence for other teams.

In his opinion, other teams are indeed sad enough. The Pirates are getting stronger every year, which means that other teams' hopes of winning are getting slimmer.

To say that in tonight's game, the Pirates won the game through a strong outside lineup, that is actually quite acceptable.

But the key is that tonight Richard made it clear that he should focus on the inside, which is the strongest point of the Magic. As a result, under such circumstances, he could beat the Magic by 20 points. It would be strange if other teams did not panic.

Maybe it was because his victory in the finals last season wasn't fair enough, so this season Richard's mentality has become a little distorted. He just hits the opponent's strengths. Even if he knows that the opponent has shortcomings, he doesn't take advantage of them.

…

The next three games were all at home for the Pirates, all of which were big wins without exception, all by more than 20 points.

O'Neal is completely popular. Last season, O'Neal was in poor condition. Many fans thought that the most dominant center in history was about to retire from the NBA stage.

As a result, after the Pirates' first four games, O'Neal averaged 22 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, still at the level of a super center.

If O'Neal was a surprise, then Roy was a shock to the fans.

Roy mainly played as a substitute last season, averaging about 11 points per game, but after being promoted to the starting lineup by Richard this season, his scoring exploded.

In the first four games, Roy scored 24 points, 32 points, 35 points, and 29 points respectively, averaging a terrifying 30 points per game!

You must know that Roy is only a second-year rookie. If nothing else, this year's Most Improved Player Award must have been booked by Roy.

Because there are too few games, other players have not performed too well yet, but the season has just begun. Pirates fans firmly believe that the Pirates will be able to create countless miracles this season.