The Whip of the God of Basketball

When Karl Malone made a free throw, defended against a single from Garnett, and then received a pass from Kobe during a fast break counterattack and dunked hard, Leon knew that the game was not over yet.

Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.

"That dunk just now must have been painful." Leon thought to himself as he watched Malone's expression on his face as he pursed his lips and ran back after the dunk was successful. At this time, the Staples Center was filled with applause and cheers for Malone. He pulled the Lakers back from the edge of the cliff. The score difference reached 3 points, and the Lakers once again saw hope.

However, Leon did not call a timeout. He still believed in the players on the field, believed in their performance under pressure, and believed that their desire for the championship was no less than that of Karl Malone.

Sure enough, Garnett rarely asked for the ball in the low post. He blocked Malone with his back and opened his arms in an attacking posture. However, there is a gap between Garnett and Malone in terms of strength. He is not deep in the position and is 15 feet away from the basket. It is difficult to launch a near-basket attack after receiving the ball. However, Pierce, who was holding the ball, passed the ball to Garnett, and he saw the blazing fire in Kevin's eyes.

When Garnett got the ball, he didn't try to post up. He kept in mind what Fox Leone said to him, "Remember you are Kevin Garnett." Post up is not his strong point. So he turned to face the basket with a smooth sigma step, and then suddenly dribbled forward with his left hand and turned with his back, moving close to Malone to a position close to the bottom edge, and then jumped high, and no one in the entire NBA could block the shot. When it comes to the fadeaway jump shot.

The arc of the ball in the air was frighteningly high. Both sides raised their heads to look at the trajectory of the ball. O'Neal and Brown huddled together to grab the rebound, but the ball bounced into the net after knocking on the edge of the basket. . After scoring the goal, Garnett obviously breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly ran back to the backcourt to defend. This goal had an element of luck, but his decisive shot was also very important.

And Karl Malone's burning is not over yet, he wants to give Garnett another shot in the low post.

Completely different from Garnett's outside style, Malone had to find a position in a very deep place. His strong arms and shoulders would firmly pin Garnett behind him. Kobe's pass was just right, and Malone made a move at the moment of catching the ball. Sliding, he used his elbow to open the way, facing Brown who stepped forward to cover the defense, and succeeded in a layup!

The ball never touched the floor. Malone used his good positioning and turning skills to complete an attack and scored 3 points. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the two sides fell into a stalemate.

But then Pierce's three-pointer gave the Lakers a powerful blow. He faced George in the offense, used a fake move to shift his center of gravity, stepped back and hit a three-pointer, a golden goal. The fat little man who was once a perfect shooter on the streets of Los Angeles has now caused deep harm to the city. This was Pierce's 30th point tonight.

But Malone still persisted.

Seeing Pierce scoring, Kobe couldn't help it. Instead of passing the ball to Malone or O'Neal, he also chose to force a three-pointer from the outside - but his three-pointer missed and hit the basket. side. At this time, Malone used his experience to seize the position in advance, clicked on the ball, and then put the ball in his arms.

After observing the Celtics' defense, Malone saw that Garnett was not close to him, so he dribbled the ball and turned over for a jump shot. The ball entered the basket neatly and neatly like a preset trajectory. After the ball was scored, Staples fans could no longer restrain their excitement and stood up to applaud Malone. Jack Nicholson even shouted Malone's name from the sidelines.

Obviously, Malone is extending the lives of the Lakers.

But the Celtics didn't want to give them this opportunity, and it was Kevin Garnett again. This time he relied on the cooperation of the whole team, and finally hit an open shot from a 16-foot position, continuing to widen the point difference to 6 points. Both sides played high-efficiency offenses at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Celtics relied on their entire team, while the Lakers relied on Malone.

……………………

"We gave them too many opportunities, and then it will be defensive time. Defense is the foundation of our victory. It is very dangerous to bet everything on the touch. We have to be careful about their one-on-one offense and let them open up completely. It's very, very bad. We must increase our focus on defense and put enough pressure on them, even if we use some unconventional methods." During a long pause in the fourth quarter, Leon began to ask the players to improve their defense.

The score at this time was 81:86, and the Celtics still led by five points. Karl Malone was simply unstoppable in the fourth quarter. He made 4 of 5 shots and 3 of 3 free throws to score 11 points. Helping the Lakers to bite the score abruptly, Leon had to call a timeout. He was worried that if this continued until the last two minutes of the game, there would be too many variables.

At the same time, Leon also made a substitution adjustment, replacing PJ Brown with Chris Anderson, taking the risk of letting Kevin Garnett play center to deal with O'Neal, and leaving Karl Malone to Anderson to deal with.

"Be smart, kid, like Dennis." Leon patted Anderson on the shoulder and said, and then Anderson went into battle again. In the third quarter, Anderson used his invincible energy and defensive intimidation to help the team reverse the situation. Now he will act as an eye-catching engineer to deal with the hot Karl Malone.

Anderson still remembers when Dennis Rodman was still in Boston, he told himself about competing with Karl Malone in the Finals. He also remembers Rodman saying, "There are always some people who you can't in some ways." Beyond that, I will never be able to score like Malone, but you have to discover your own value, discover the weaknesses of your opponents, and don’t be blinded by appearances or blinded by data. If you can’t become the top, then become the best among the rest. OK."

In fact, similar words were told to Rodman by Bill Laimbeer when he was in the Pistons. Later, he passed this spirit on to Chris Anderson. Anderson is walking along this path, and now he has also met Karl. - Malone.

After the timeout, the Celtics took the lead in attacking. One of the advantages of Garnett moving to the center position is that O'Neal really couldn't guard him, so he had to let Malone go against Garnett, and Anderson's elegant movement made O'Neal quite capable. Uncomfortable. When Michael Reed missed a mid-range jumper, Anderson, who had no one to defend him, picked up the offensive rebound and passed the ball to Pierce. Pierce made a mid-range jumper from the right corner.

Phil Jackson wanted to scratch his head when he saw the Celtics' precise shooting. He didn't understand how the Bostonians trained their shooting. Obviously their shooting level was higher than that of the entire league. This was also the reason for their super strength. Basics - Ability to convert opportunities created into points.

But Jackson had no intention of thinking about this problem, and the point difference was stretched to 7 points. The next attack was crucial. There were still six minutes before the end of the game. If the point difference could be reduced to 3 points before the last two minutes, If there is even an equalizer, the Lakers will hope to win this game.

All Staples fans were standing and watching the game. They wanted to continue to see Karl Malone show his final style as a veteran. Sure enough, Kobe passed the ball to Malone, but Malone was very calm and pressed on like a gummy candy. Anderson, he very decisively lobbed the ball to O'Neal inside. O'Neal used his strong body to squeeze away from Garnett, and he caught the ball and was about to dunk, but Garnett rushed forward and knocked the ball from O'Neal's hand.

Kevin Garnett's fourth foul sent O'Neal to the free throw line.

Leon was scratching his head a little. He found that there were still loopholes in his lineup considerations. Garnett still suffered a disadvantage against O'Neal. Although he would have an advantage in offense, once the defensive end faced a foul problem, it would be a problem at the last moment of the game. very troublesome. At the same time, Malone's extremely experienced experience and fiery state, whether he can be suppressed by Anderson is also a huge variable.

Taking advantage of O'Neal's free throw, Leon made another substitution, replacing Reid with Posey to increase the height of the forward and assist Garnett in defending the interior.

O'Neal's free throws were unambiguous at critical moments, and he made both free throws. Karl Malone was equivalent to another assist. Staples's voice became louder and louder, and Karl Malone's name rang out throughout the audience.

At this time, Kevin Garnett was unwilling to watch Malone play like this. He suddenly rose up with the ball at the top of the key, faced the basket and forced a breakthrough from the middle. The moment O'Neal stepped forward to cover the defense, he threw a high throw, and Chris Anderson took off. , succeeded in a powerful alley-oop dunk from the wing.

The situation became tense again, with less than five minutes left before the end of the game, and the gap was still seven points. Kobe Bryant couldn't help it anymore. He thought that in the last five minutes, his time should be up.

During the counterattack, Kobe chose to hold the ball from the right baseline and force a breakthrough. He used a skillful back turn to shake Pierce away, and then cut inside next to Pierce. However, Garnett's defense followed closely, and Pierce followed closely with a timely goal. During the double attack, Kobe chose to hit him and get a foul. If Garnett committed another defensive foul, he would have committed five fouls.

But Garnett didn't jump. Instead, Chris Anderson jumped high from behind and slapped Kobe's throw down.

Leon almost saw a decisive defense. If the Celtics counterattacked successfully with backcourt rebounds, the Lakers' momentum would be almost the same. However, Karl Malone appeared out of nowhere. He picked up the offensive rebound and took a step directly for a layup.

At this time, Posey played his role. He worked hard to cover up and interfered with Malone's layup. The ball actually spun around the basket and fell down.

There was a scramble under the basket. Chris Anderson desperately held the ball in his arms, and Malone also fell to the ground and grabbed the ball with both hands.

Scramble. Another scrum.