Chapter 396: The Man Closest to Jordan
"I don't believe you won't be able to get over the next goal!"
When Meng Xu stood up to Kobe Bryant on the offensive end, advanced all the way from outside the 3-point line to the edge of the paint area, and then turned his back to hit a board jumper, Kobe Bryant, who returned to the offensive end, immediately reached out like Derrick Fisher to ask for the ball and wanted to hit Meng Xu back, but to Kobe Bryant and the fans on the spot, it was still Reggie Miller who came to defend Kobe, and Meng Xu was clinging to Rick Fox while glancing at Kobe from time to time. When Kobe Bryant turned his back to Reggie Miller, he pushed back twice in a row, and directly turned his back and threw a jump shot to Reggie Miller, when Kobe Bryant fell from the air after Reggie Miller landed, Kobe Bryant, who hit the basket, waved his arms to celebrate his goal, and looked at Meng Xu not far away with an unkind face.
"Kobe's step-back jumper is really similar to Jordan's step-back jumper." When Kobe Bryant completed all the actions, Meng Xu not far away was also eye-catching, Meng Xu has always coveted Jordan's backward jumper, but Jordan's backward jumper is an S-level skill, which requires 20,000 points to redeem, so what Meng Xu has been thinking about now is how to save up 20,000 points as soon as possible to redeem Jordan's skill. And it's not just Meng Xu, for this skill that is almost exclusive to Jordan, the entire basketball world is very familiar, Meng Xu has also studied Jordan's step-back jumper countless times in the system, Kobe Bryant's actions in this offense just now are really very close to Jordan, if you only judge with the naked eye, it is really difficult to distinguish.
"It's beautiful!" At this time, the fans of the Staples Center, after watching Kobe Bryant float in the air and shoot and hit, almost subconsciously popped out of their minds, even if many fans on the scene have seen Jordan's backward jumper countless times, and watched Kobe's backward jumper, but they were still shocked by Kobe's shot just now, because Kobe's attack just now, from turning, to jumping, to backwards, to drifting and staying in the air, and even the moment of shooting is so perfect, If it weren't for Kobe Bryant still wearing the Lakers' No. 8 jersey, the fans at the scene would even think that the person in front of him was Jordan at his peak.
"That's how fun it is!" When Kobe Bryant's shot hit, Larry Bird on the sidelines was also surprised by Kobe's shot, because after seeing Kobe's back, Larry Bird's first thought was Jordan, but when Larry Bird's eyes swept over O'Neal behind Kobe, Larry Bird almost screamed excitedly, just as Kobe accepted the cheers of the fans, O'Neal, who was still under the basket, had a gloomy face, and this was not the result he wanted?
"Erwin, are you sure this person is not Michael?" When Kobe Bryant raised his arm in the cheers of the fans, like a general who had just won a battle, as the live commentator of the game, Michaels looked at his partner in shock, trying to find some answers from him.
"The similarity between Kobe Bryant and Michael's actions has reached 99%, it's really unimaginable。。。。。。" There are a lot of players in the league who practice back-to-back jumpers, but in Magic Johnson's opinion, no matter which player is not up to Jordan's standard, compared with Jordan, their actions are only formal, not god, even the previous Kobe Bryant, and even many people don't even have a basic shape, and Kobe's performance just now made Magic Johnson really see Jordan's shadow, in addition to being inferior to Jordan in physical fitness, Kobe's back-to-back jumper is now in full shape, It's only one step away from Jordan's ultimate state.
In the next game, whether it is Kobe or Meng Xu, they are not stingy with their energy on the offensive end, Meng Xu is better, he doesn't have to consume too much physical strength on the defensive end, and Kobe Bryant is really desperate, on the offensive end, he turned around and threw a back-to-back jumper again and again to face Reggie Miller, and at the same time desperately resisted Meng Xu on the defensive end, but what disappointed Kobe was that no matter how Kobe provoked, Meng Xu never played against himself, and let himself beat Reggie Miller in a fancy way.
When the whistle at the end of the first quarter of the game was remembered, looking at Kobe's dissatisfied eyes when he got off the court, Meng Xu was also very depressed, really depressed, especially on the court, every time he saw Kobe Bryant singled Reggie Miller, Meng Xu was like this, in fact, Meng Xu also wanted to defend Kobe Bryant very much, and Kobe Bryant had a vigorous battle, but for the victory of the game, for the final championship, Meng Xu could only endure it and implement the strategy formulated by Larry Bird.
When the first quarter ended, 32-36, the Pacers trailed the Lakers by 4 points, but when the players on both sides left the court, the head coach of the Pacers, Larry Bird, did not have the slightest worry, but still had a relaxed expression. Before the start of this game, Larry Bird formulated a basic strategy for this round of the series, that is, let Meng Xu strangle Rick Fox, so that the Lakers' triangle offense rotation can't turn, and then the Lakers can only play Kobe and O'Neal's superstar single tactics, or X**D tactics, and finally use Kobe's competitiveness to arouse his and Meng Xu's desire to score points with each other, so that the Pacers have a chance to beat the strong with the weak, and the trend of this game in the first quarter is basically according to Larry Bird's expectations. So now although the Pacers are behind in the score, Larry Bird is very relaxed.
"In the second quarter, our lineup has to be adjusted a little bit, James, you replace Reggie, you defend Kobe, Jermaine, and you lead the bench after the opening." In the interval between the pauses, Larry Bird still adjusted the lineup on the court, replacing Reggie Miller with James Posey, who was also very tenacious and active when defending Kobe, and at the same time relying on his own experience and excellent prediction, Reggie Miller rarely lost his position, but due to physical reasons, Reggie Miller's effect on defending Kobe was not ideal, so Larry Bird replaced James Posey and wanted to use a wheel battle to deal with Kobe.
At the same time, due to the problem of age, Reggie Miller, who consumed too much physical strength on the defensive end, had obvious problems with Reggie Miller's physical strength at the end of the first quarter, so in order to contribute his energy on the offensive end in the later games, Larry Bird had to let him rest and save some physical strength.