Chapter 297: Injustice at home
With a 1-1 draw, the situation is still in the King's favor, and the next two games will be played in Sacramento.
The last round of the Western Conference semifinals is not over, and a new round of higher-level matchups in the Western Conference Finals is coming, which makes Sacramento fans feel very excited.
Kings jerseys were sold out of stock, especially the white commemorative T-shirts for the playoffs, which were sold out on the same day.
The fans who entered the Arco Arena wore white T-shirts, and everyone patted the long queue and walked into the stadium.
In G3, the camera locks on the pitch in all directions and can be seen from every angle.
All the staff were in place, the lights of the stadium were lit up, and suddenly the entire stadium was as bright as day.
In just over ten minutes, the empty stadium was instantly boiling, everyone was busy walking around the stadium, the front desk staff connected various wire plugs, the computer was connected to the technical desk, and the pre-game debugging began in the walkie-talkie.
Afterwards, the media walked in, took their seats in their respective locations, and faced the world for a live broadcast.
Fans sat up from the very top of the arena and gradually filled the entire arena in rows.
The Arco Arena is not large, even if there are more seats due to the playoffs, it is still only more than 19,000 seats, which is much smaller than many large arenas in the NBA that have exceeded 20,000.
It's just that the enthusiasm of the fans is very high, and everyone shouts the name of the Kings, all kinds of banners, and star avatars emerge in endlessly.
Wang Mingming, who was in a suit and leather shoes, walked in with the coaching staff and players, and was already the last person to enter, and the players began to warm up for training, focusing on shooting.
Suddenly, on the court of one and a half people, more than a dozen basketballs flew in the air, every moment the basket was smashed, every moment the net was pierced, and there were many basketballs that crashed together in the air.
Wang Mingming stood with a few assistant coaches around him and talked about some tactical matters.
At a certain point in time, the referee walked into the stadium with the ball, and at this time, the live DJ announced that the game was about to start, and began the pre-match ceremony and the introduction of the players.
The players were introduced in turn, and the crowd cheered higher and higher.
When the Lakers players were introduced, they always responded with all kinds of boos, and when Kobe Bryant was finally introduced, the boos reached its peak, and many people also shouted the slogan "raper", which made Kobe's face extremely ugly.
Kings fans, it can be said that it is very unfriendly, if before this game, the two teams still have a trace of friendly matches, then after this game, from this moment on, has been re-onto the wall of grievances, new hatred and old hatred, historical problems, all kinds of rushing faces, endless.
On the field, both sides left the start.
The referee goes to the technical table to confirm the situation.
Walking up the halfway line, Chandler and Bynum approached, and the referee looked at his watch, seized the time, and prepared to start the G3 battle.
As the whistle blew, the game officially began, and the rebounds flew straight into the air.
The two of them shouted and jumped at the same time, and Chandler was noticeably faster and was the first to touch the basketball.
........
The Eastern Conference finals between the Cavaliers and the Magic were a big surprise, in the first game, the Cavaliers defeated the Magic at home, and James threw the fairy ball to defeat the Magic with his personal MVP-level performance.
But it seemed to be just a harbinger, a harbinger that the Cavaliers would struggle to suppress magic.
In the G2 game after that, the Magic challenged the Cavaliers away, and Dwight Howard played a dominant performance on the inside, scoring 41 points and 19 rebounds, and led the Magic to defeat the Cavaliers 116-109 and tie the series 1-1.
Howard can run and jump, although the basket carrying technique is bad, but now the face frame technique is also okay, and the boxing is afraid of being less strong, the Cavaliers' interior line is not too old, or the talent is limited, so that Howard plays a feeling of turning over the river and the sea.
In the G3 battle, the Magic returned to the home court and it rained three-pointers, and once the Cavaliers focused on the interior, they would definitely give the outside a chance.
The Magic made 14 three-pointers to beat the Cavaliers 110-94 and take a 2-1 lead in the series.
So before this game, a lot of people were talking about the turbulent situation in the east.
If the Magic finally beat the Cavaliers and reach the Finals, it will definitely be a major blow for James, who has just been elected MVP.
The Magic team had a lot of trouble at the beginning of the season due to the summer sending away Turkglou as a tactical core and bringing in Vince Carter, the team was slow to develop good chemistry at the beginning of the season, and Howard "The Monster" also had an up-and-down performance. It wasn't until after the All-Star break that Carter found his groove with the Magic, and the team gradually smoothed out, slowly regaining the domineering spirit of the defending champions in the East. In the end, they achieved 56 wins and ranked second in the East, also surpassing the Atlanta Hawks, and firmly sitting in the position of the leader of the Southeast Division.
In order to win the championship, the Cavaliers traded for "Big Shark" O'Neal last summer, and then brought in All-Star forward Jamison, and the team is more balanced in terms of strength inside and outside, and the team has a deeper roster. And LeBron's crazy performance is unmatched in the whole league, and the Cavaliers are indeed the best team in the league in the regular season.
In terms of regular season performance, the Cleveland Cavaliers were the most championship-winning team in the league, and under James' leadership, they were almost unstoppable, becoming the first team to achieve 60 wins, confirming the league's top spot in the regular season early and securing home-court advantage in the playoffs. And the other teams in the division, the Bucks, Bulls, Pacers and Pistons, simply can't compete with the Cavaliers.
But if they don't win a championship this year, the Cavaliers will have the biggest regret in franchise history, because the little emperor will be a free agent this summer, and he will likely go elsewhere.
This point seems to have begun to emerge when James is answered by the media, always dealing with reporters with ambiguous answers such as "focus on the court" and "haven't started thinking about the summer yet".
The situation seems to be even more ambiguous, and who will win the Magic and Cavaliers will not only win or lose this round of the series, but will have a significant impact on this summer.
........
G3 battle in the west.
At the beginning of the game, the referee's decision was very problematic, because in the confrontation between Lakers players, in the confrontation of the same level, they always had to blow the king foul, but not the Laker foul.
The Lakers got all kinds of whistles in the first quarter, and the aggressiveness that the Kings relied on to survive could not be brought out, and they were suppressed by the Lakers in the first quarter, making 4 early fouls into the free throw circle, and at the same time, the two interior players also went off the court early, and the referee ignored the on-site boos and blew the Kings for fouls.
The Kings trailed the Lakers 17-34.
Wang Tomorrow is angry, I have never seen such a blow game, this is almost blowing the king to death, such a foul comparison, the king not only has no home field advantage, but also has an unbalanced mentality, and the rhythm of the game is chaotic.
"Collect black money, right?" Wang ran to the referee tomorrow and yelled at the referee, his eyes were red in the shouts of "black whistle" and "black whistle" in the audience.
The referee glared at Wang Mingming and gave Wang Mingming a technical foul regardless of it.
Wang Mingming laughed angrily, spread his hands, and mocked the referee's blowing penalty even more, Michael Curry and Dwayne Casey hurried over and pulled Wang Mingming left and right.
Wang Ming knew that the referee's blowing penalty may have been influenced by some people in the league who wanted to see the Kings and Lakers play a more interesting series, but he never expected that this was the third game, and such an obvious blowing penalty began.
What's even more annoying is that in the following games, even if the referee finds his balance, the foul that is really lost is a huge injury, for example, Chandler and Bosh can't play at this time, the two of them have one defense and one offense, they are the core players of the king, and they have a great impact on the king.
"I'm going to complain about you, I'm going to send the video of this game, no matter who you were instructed to do, I don't care, because you've lost the basic quality of a referee." Wang regained his composure tomorrow, ran to the referee's side, and threatened viciously, and his appearance was definitely not a joke.
The referee sneered inwardly, turned his head and walked away, but he was actually panicked in his heart.
After the Donassee incident, the league has been trying its best to avoid the black whistle scandal, the referee is even if he is a shadow, if he is really stabbed by Wang Mingming, it will also cause a commotion, and it will definitely not please him, of course, he believes that Wang Mingming will never do this.
At the end of the first quarter, the three referees got together for a meeting.
In the second quarter of the game, sure enough, the referee began to find a balance, after all, now the King has seven or eight more fouls than the Lakers, which cannot be erased, and this part of the gap must be erased first in the data.
But at this time, the Lakers are all bench players.
The main player was whistled for fouls and the substitute players were whistled for fouls, these are actually two concepts, it seems that the final number of fouls of the two teams is about the same, in fact, there is a world of difference, not to mention that the king is still at home at this time.
Wang Tomorrow shook his head, knowing that there was definitely something wrong with this game.
The Kings trailed the Lakers by 10 points at halftime, 45-55.
But if you really talk about the referee, Wang tomorrow has no evidence, the situation is very mysterious, the referee happened to blow a foul at this time, and the league allows the referee to make a mistake in a game, what else can be said?
The Kings had the toughest time in the series, and neither of those games at Staples was as sad as today's.
The king can't wait to go up and down tomorrow, so he will surrender and let you blow away.
At this time, he remembered that he seemed to have a disposable prop on his body that had not yet been used.
"That's right, the heart of the champion!"
The heart of the champion is the most precious prop that Wang Ming has drawn in the past few months, and more importantly, this prop is one-time use.
The heart of the championship - G1 in the 1995 finals, the young Magic team took advantage of the home court advantage to lead the Rockets by more than 20 points at one point. But the Rockets gradually closed the gap under the guidance of accurate three-pointers from Smith and Horry, and the two teams went into overtime at 110-110. In overtime, Drexler and Olajuwon took over the game, and in the end, the Rockets narrowly defeated the Magic 120-118 in overtime, winning the first game of the Finals, and achieving a shocking reversal of the Finals in NBA history.
It was also this game that raised the confidence of the Rockets, and finally the Rockets swept the Magic and won the first championship in team history
The heart of the championship - after use, the team's single-quarter state will increase by 10%.
The state is a very magical thing, the state of the stadium commander has a bonus before, and in the last quarter, he also has a player's ball quotient bonus, if the state of the whole team improves, the strength of the whole team will be strong to a terrifying level, and it is definitely a real super battleship.
Wang Tomorrow has not been willing to use it, but today, he is really angry.
At the end of the third quarter, the Kings trailed the Lakers by 15 points at 70-85, and trailed the Lakers by as many as 19 points at the most in the third quarter.
The players walked off the field in frustration, and the crowd cheered weakly.
He paused, and in the system space, he decided to use this prop - the heart of the champion!
Wang Mingming clapped his hands, shouted at all the players, and yelled loudly: "Guys, are you giving up?" ”
Everyone raised their heads, slightly stunned.
Wang Mingming raised his arms high and shouted loudly, "There is still one last quarter, will we just give up the first Western Conference Finals at home?" Look at the fans around you, they are all here to cheer for you, they are all eager to win, you tell me, do you still want to play, if you don't play, I surrender! ”
"No, Coach!"
"No!"
Everyone only felt a "bang" in their hearts, and a spark burst out, an indescribable power, emerging from their minds, trembling with excitement, and even the cells let out a roar.
“Beat LA!” Wang Tomorrow roared.
“Beat LA!” All the players yelled.
“Beat LA!” The king will roar again tomorrow.
Gradually, the words spread to the bench and then to the fans' seats, where the fans roared and drifted around the stadium.
“Beat LA!”
“Beat LA!”
The huge slogan resounded throughout the Arco Arena, coming with the thick pressure of the city, several referees changed color, and the faces of the Lakers players were not very good-looking.
You know, it's not in the game now, but in the intermission, the fans are so crazy that they can't even go to the toilet and want to yell at the Lakers here?
"Toot ~"
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, players from both sides came on the court.
Kobe Bryant did not appear, but when he saw the King team that was menacing and every player seemed to have a fire burning in their eyes, he suddenly felt that the momentum of the Kings had changed dramatically at this moment.
The king served, and Artest, as the main player who led the bench play, controlled the ball on the court.
The ball was handed to the young Benno Judri in the front court.
Benno Udri faced the defenders, one changed to kill inward, the speed and rhythm were amazingly fast, not at all like a player who was known for projection.
Yudri didn't go tactically, and the Lakers were caught off guard by the sudden breakthrough, and the defensive formation was torn apart.
Yudri throws the ball high from the free throw line.
Odom under the basket shouted that it was not good!
Sure enough, a vicious wind was born in the back of his head, a monster fell from the sky, Gortat took the basketball with both hands, and smashed it into the frame like a hammer!
"Bang!"
The fans cheered, and the whole audience raised their hands as if they had scored a lore.
The Lakers attacked, Odom blocked and dismantled, and after making a high-quality block, Odom was very comfortable receiving the ball, and at the same time used his footsteps to impact the inside, facing the defensive Gortat, pretending to break through to the right, turning to the left, flexibly bypassing Gortat, and raising the basketball with both hands.
The action is deceptive, and Gortat is deceived and frees up space.
Odom jumped up triumphantly, holding the basketball in the air.
But at this moment, a wall suddenly rose in front of him, and a big black hand suddenly appeared on the basketball he was holding, and the two wrestled in the air, Odom only felt a strong force coming, and he couldn't resist losing control of the basketball.
"Smack!"
The scrum-like block fell, Artest reached a little, and the wing Cosby plugged in to check the basketball.
"What the hell, Artest can jump so high?"
Odom was dumbfounded, completely unaware of how Artest suddenly appeared in his blind spot, how he jumped up and covered him all, and he was not Dwight Howard!