Chapter 350: Challenge Cards Run Out!
Ray Allen shot 269 three-pointers in a single season this season, breaking the NBA record, which made everyone feel very powerful, but in Sun Zhuo's view, 269 three-pointers in a single season are really not worth mentioning, he is a person who has seen Curry's 402 three-pointers in a single season!
At this time, Ray Allen is already ranked second in history as the second-largest three-point shooter in history, and he is the first scorer in the NBA today, and at the current rate, he will become the first scorer in NBA history in another four years. But in the hearts of O'Neal and everyone, he can't be compared with Reggie Miller, because Ray Allen's three-pointers are all shot in the regular season, and the three-pointers shot in the regular season, even if they are stunning, cannot be compared with the three-pointers in the playoffs.
In the fifth game of the Eastern Conference finals in 1994, the five three-pointers that reversed New York in the fourth quarter were the real three-pointers, and in the Eastern Conference finals with the Bulls in 1998, the three-pointer shot after pushing away Jordan was called a three-point shot, and Ray Allen had not yet shot a three-pointer of the same weight in the playoffs.
O'Neal's words are half joking and half serious, he still thinks that the inside line is king, Sun Zhuo likes to let his teammates shoot three-pointers, is Magic stronger with Ray Allen? Not necessarily, but for the Heat, they lost to the Magic this season, and the team does need to strengthen its strength, but the positions of Ray Allen and Wade coincide, and it is not easy for the Heat to get Ray Allen.
When the finals are over, Sun Zhuo will also find an opportunity to talk to Ray Allen to see if he can stop the union of the Celtics' big three in the future.
……
After a short break of two days, on June 11, the Magic and Lakers ushered in the second game of the Finals.
Although the Magic are currently 0:1 behind, Sun Zhuo is not worried about being taken away by the Lakers 2:0, the Magic is sitting at home, he does not think that the Lakers are strong enough to win two games in a row on the road, in addition, Sun Zhuo has two challenge cards as insurance, even if the Lakers are lucky to win, Sun Zhuo can easily change the result.
Before the game began, Phil Jackson watched Sun Zhuo's training with deep eyes, and seeing that Sun Zhuo was very relaxed, the Zen master called Kobe Bryant: "Kobe." ”
"Phil." Bryant stepped forward with the ball.
Phil Jackson said: "Kobe, I suspect that the Magic haven't shown their full strength yet, Sun should have something to rely on, this time, you try to force Sun's tricks out." ”
"Try to play 2:0? That's what I thought, I don't care about away or home. Kobe Bryant and the Zen master coincided with each other, the Zen master felt that Sun Zhuo should still have a secret weapon that he hadn't used, so he asked Kobe to scare him, let Sun Zhuo show all his tricks, and return to the Lakers' home court to play, and Kobe Bryant originally planned to win two games in a row away, this one, he will still work hard.
Although Kobe Bryant has such thoughts, on the whole, at the beginning of this game, the Magic side is more morale, after all, it is at home, and 0:1 behind, everyone's offense and defense are more focused, the Lakers are relatively loose, and the Magic leads the score, but it is not pulled away.
The Lakers are still very limited to Sun Zhuo this game, Sun Zhuo tried his best to attract the ball and shoot three points to the outside after attracting the bag, today's teammates are in good shape, after continuous throwing, the Lakers have begun to be afraid of the Magic's outside shooters, and Sun Zhuo's defense has gradually relaxed, at this time, Sun Zhuo took advantage of the situation to score again, everything seems to be under Sun Zhuo's control, however, at the beginning of the second half, when everyone was not surprised, Kobe Bryant suddenly began to wield.
Kobe Bryant first dribbled under the crotch in a row, shook Turkoglu one-on-one, and then dunked under the basket, causing Howard to foul and hit 2+1, and then, three consecutive points, directly tied the score, however, the Lakers' offensive is still not over, and another terrible player of the Lakers, Lamar Odom, is also excited, and his two passes at this time really pushed the magic into the abyss.
Odom has height, bounce and strength, and no one on the Magic team has an advantage in grabbing rebounds except for Howard, and the two are not opposed, when Odom gets the rebound, the threat is very big, because Odom is not only tall, but also fast, and good dribbling, you can't keep up, and you can't break it.
After he got the rebound, he didn't need to find a guard, but directly launched a fast break himself, because Odom himself also has an offensive threat, the Magic had to focus on him, however, Odom is worthy of being a left-handed magician, he dribbled to the three-point line twice, and suddenly distributed the ball to help his teammates score.
The Magic experienced such a drastic loss of points in a short period of time, and the young players were all a little defeated, Coach Hill specially called a timeout to encourage them, and Sun Zhuo also asked everyone not to be nervous, but it still didn't help.
"Sun doesn't look too nervous now, isn't he afraid of falling behind 0:2? What is he trusting in? Phil Jackson glanced at Sun Zhuo again, with his understanding of Sun Zhuo, he thought that Sun Zhuo was not too worried about the Magic at this time and would fall into a 0:2 situation, but the current momentum is here with the Lakers, and it is indeed difficult for the Magic to catch up.
"Kobe, be careful of Sun." Phil Jackson reminded Kobe.
"I'll defend him myself." Bryant was tired and sweaty, but still motivated.
In the decisive stage, Kobe Bryant personally stared at Sun Zhuo, and only Sun Zhuo's mentality did not collapse in the Magic team, and the offense naturally fell on Sun Zhuo, and the Lakers thought that Sun Zhuo would have any unexpected abilities, however, Sun Zhuo did not do such a magical thing, or the same routine as before, looking for opportunities to shoot at the three-point line, otherwise it would be a quick breakthrough to throw.
During this time, Sun Zhuo scored 8 points in a row, but still failed to chase the score back, and the series became 0:2.
After the Magic lost the second game, the mood of the fans at the scene became very low.
"The Los Angeles Lakers feel like a bunch of robbers, they've been stealing things since they came here, and I've never seen them so fierce when they played in the Western Conference Finals. Kobe Bryant wants to win the championship and wants to go crazy, right? He already has four championships! Michael retired once when he won all three championships. ”
"The next magic is not good, it was beaten 2:0 by the Lakers at home, according to the format of 232 in the finals, the next three consecutive Lakers home games! Judging from this situation, I'm afraid that the magic will go to Los Angeles this time, and there will be no return, alas. ”
In the previous life, the Miami Heat also lost the first two games of the Finals before winning, but today's Magic and the Heat in the previous life are very different, the Heat lost two away games, and then played three home games in a row to turn the tables, while the Magic lost two home games, and will face the challenge of three away games next, which is an absolutely very dangerous signal!
"Oops, I didn't expect to be beaten by the Lakers at home two in a row, did I play the Clippers, the Lakers can't tell the difference between home and away? The next three consecutive away games ...... No, I can't lose this game, I have to try this one again. ”
Sun Zhuo's repeat challenge card is usually used in the final games of the series, but now there are red flags, and he hopes that the team can play the next three away games in a 1-1 draw.
"I'm going to try this game again!" Sun Zhuo used a match repeat challenge card to reset the match, and after using this challenge card, Sun Zhuo only had one left this season.
……
Another magical return to the past, Sun Zhuo remembered the helpless look of the Magic fans just now for the status quo of 0:2 behind, and couldn't help but feel a little proud, one of the great pains of life is to have to face the reality, things have happened, you have to accept it, and Sun Zhuo is different, he can change these bad things.
"I just need to contain Kobe's offense in the third quarter." Sun Zhuo doesn't know how many times he has repeated the challenge, but whenever he repeats the challenge, he has never lost, and he is not worried about this one at all.
So, in the first two quarters, Sun Zhuo played a little easier, did not pursue the extreme, the point difference at the end of the half was only a few points more than the previous one, Sun Zhuo believes that the key is in the third quarter, as long as Kobe Bryant is contained in the third quarter, this game should be able to win.
In the third quarter, knowing that Kobe was going to be powerful, Sun Zhuo also defended Kobe in person, Kobe Bryant had continuously dribbled under his crotch and shook down Turkoglu, but he didn't want to shake Sun Zhuo, Kobe forced Sun Zhuo, Sun Zhuo made a good hat to cover Kobe's shot, but because the two were very close to each other, Kobe Bryant had a tendency to be unbalanced in the air, and the referee thought that Sun Zhuo had fouled and blew Sun Zhuo's defensive foul!
"What the hell!" Sun Zhuo is very angry, his current defensive ability is not strong, it is not easy to cover Kobe Bryant with such a single defense, it took a lot of effort, but I didn't expect to blow him for a foul?
Bryant hit both free throws, and Sun Zhuo was unlucky and couldn't prevent Bryant's first shot in the second half.
However, Sun Zhuo knew that Kobe Bryant would shoot three points from the outside next, and Sun Zhuo would not let him shoot two three-pointers in a row to tie the score as before.
Next, Kobe Bryant was really eager to try outside the three-point line, and in the end, he still chose to shoot three-pointers!
"I guessed it!" When Sun Zhuo was defending, although he was also guarding against Kobe Bryant's breakthrough, he always focused on his three-point shot, and as soon as Kobe Bryant shot, Sun Zhuo immediately reached out to block it.
This time the block gave Kobe a great interference, Kobe Bryant obviously raised the arc when he shot, after Kobe made a shot, Sun Zhuo was anxious, and this time he did hit Kobe's hand.
Swish!
Backbite!
With such a difficult three-point shot, Kobe Bryant was still able to hit, and once again caused Sun Zhuo's foul and played 3+1!
"I'm slot!" Sun Zhuo's face was extremely embarrassed, he knew that he was going to shoot three points, but he gave the biggest interference, but he was still thrown by him, and there was one more free throw!
Sun Zhuo has never beaten Kobe Bryant with a repeated challenge card, if he is an ordinary person, Sun Zhuo knows what the opponent does, and gives the opponent more pressure and difficulty in defense, and the opponent is generally difficult to score.
However, today Sun Zhuo repeated the challenge of Kobe, Kobe Bryant is different from ordinary people, Sun Zhuo forced Kobe Bryant's offense to increase the difficulty, but Kobe Bryant is good at these more difficult offenses!
"It's not good, it's not good......" Sun Zhuo began to worry, the point difference was still caught up by the Lakers, and next, it should be Odom's turn to perform, be careful of Odom's passing.
Sun Zhuo also tried to grab rebounds with Odom, but the position was not as good as Odom, and Odom still took the rebound to launch a fast attack.
"Be careful!" Sun Zhuo pointed to Francis, who was in the empty seat on Odom's right.
However, after Odom didn't have a pass opportunity this time, he chose to shoot a three-pointer, and hey!
"I'm Cao!"
At this time, not only the confidence of the Magic and others collapsed, but Sun Zhuo's own mentality also exploded, he never expected that he would watch the Lakers play in the third quarter twice.
Coach Hill called a timeout, the young players like the Magic couldn't stand such a blow, I thought Sun Zhuo had always been calm, but I didn't expect it to look flustered now.
At this time before, Sun Zhuo helped Coach Hill to give confidence to his teammates, but this time, Sun Zhuo sat on the bench and didn't say a word.
"Finally seeing Sun's defeated expression, he shouldn't have anything to rely on." Phil Jackson finally waited for Sun Zhuo's lonely expression, and he was not worried about Sun Zhuo's secret weapon.
Sun Zhuo tried his best to calm down, after all, even if he couldn't stop the Lakers from coming off in the third quarter, and even if the situation got worse, the game was not over yet, and he still had hope of leading the team to win back.
In the decisive stage, the Lakers' defense of Sun Zhuo became more fierce, Sun Zhuo remembered Howard's confident boasting before the series, and after being trapped, he sent the ball to him, however, Howard did not have that domineering at this time, and was originally more talented and smarter than the parallel champion Kwame Brown, but this key offense was extremely simple and obvious, and was broken by Kwame Brown in advance.
After that, Kobe Bryant wanted to attack, but also encountered the same defense as Sun Zhuo, Kobe also gave the ball to Kwame Brown, and it was Brown's turn to play Howard, but the experienced Brown easily used a hook hand that he was best at to score the ball.
Watching the game fall into the rhythm of the Lakers again, Sun Zhuo reluctantly closed his eyes: "Howard, they are only suitable for playing downwind, it is impossible to expect them to stand up, I shouldn't have played so mercifully in the first two quarters." ”
Sun Zhuo has never lost repeated challenges, he is used to winning games, and this re-challenge has given him a big warning, the game is not a new challenge, he will definitely win.
In the moment of crisis, Sun Zhuo took over the game again, which was also an opportunity for him to exercise and grow, he maintained the score again and again, until the last ten seconds, the two sides were still tied, but.
In the last attack, Kobe Bryant faced a step-back jumper from three people and hit a stunner!
The Magic are once again 0:2 behind the Lakers!
"No!" Sun Zhuo screamed in pain, and after seeing Kobe Bryant's hit, Sun Zhuo squatted on the ground, his head lowered, as if he had lost the championship.
Seeing Sun Zhuo in such pain, teammates and coaches were also surprised, although they will face three away games next, but it is not completely hopeless, why is Sun Zhuo so unacceptable?
No one knew that what Sun Zhuo couldn't accept was not 0:2, but that he had played three games and still couldn't win the next one!
"Sun, I'm sorry, blame me today......" Howard didn't leave, standing beside Sun Zhuo and stretching out his hand to comfort.
Sun Zhuo squatted on the floor for two minutes with his eyes closed, not caring about other people's eyes at all, and suddenly, Sun Zhuo stood up, his fists clenched, and his eyes were like torches: "Come again!" ”