Chapter 41: Li Zhi's showtime
Li Zhi sat on the bench and drank Gatorade, and the quick offensive and defensive transitions were extremely costly.
"Lee, you're going to score 30!" Monta Ellis looked at the big screen overhead, screaming.
The fans in the audience celebrated loudly, and apparently everyone saw Li Zhi's stats on the big screen: 30 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.
"George, do you want to break the record?" The serious old coach suddenly said such a sentence, which surprised all the Warriors players.
Who is the old Nelson, this is a well-known veteran in the league, and it is the consensus of the whole league that there is no need for rookies at critical moments. Even Nowitzki was not treated like this under Nelson Sr.
Li Zhi was also shocked, although he knew that Old Nelson was more optimistic about himself, but he didn't expect it to be so much.
They didn't know that Nelson Sr. had a different idea in his heart, and now that the Warriors are short of soldiers and major generals, they will definitely be physically exhausted in the fourth quarter.
On the other hand, who stays between El Harrington and Lee Chi may depend on this match. The old Nelson didn't want Li Zhi to go, and if Li Zhi broke the record, it would definitely add points for him in front of the management.
"Yes!" Gritting his teeth, Li Zhi said categorically.
"Okay, then make the ball for Lee in the last quarter, provided that you can win the game!" Nelson Sr. said as he looked at the players.
"Yes." All the Warriors players said in unison.
Byron Davis looked at Li Zhi enviously, was amazed, hammered Li Zhi's shoulder and said, "I really don't know why the coach likes you so much." ”
"Maybe it's because I don't like to have a beard?" Li Zhi teased, and everyone laughed.
……
The fourth quarter of the game began, and the Warriors possessed the ball.
Byron Davis dribbled past half court, and Montaelis came to cover and took away Jason Terry, who was defending Byron Davis. Richie crossed runs with Montaelis on the left side, catches the ball and shakes off Brandonbass and smashes into the Mavericks' interior line.
Nowitzki came to make up for Li Zhi, and in the face of King Nuo, who was a head taller than him, Li Zhi directly launched his skills.
Melon breakout.
Purple lightning flashed through Li Zhi's body, and Nowitzki was horrified, and Li Zhi once again stuck to Nowitzki's layup.
Nowitzki was a little depressed, wondering how this kid was like a loach.
"32 points, Li Zhi's score came to 32 points!" Live narration screams.
Needless to say, the shouts of the fans filled the Oracle Arena.
"George Lee is going to break the record, I bet 100 dollars George scored 50!" Kenneth Smith said to the other three.
"I'll bet 100 yuan and Li Zhi will break 35 points." Barkley answered.
The other three people in the studio were disdainful.
"Li is definitely going to break the record this time, and it's hard to draw conclusions as to whether he can reach 50." Scott Pippen jumped out to analyze.
Reggie Miller interrupted Scott Pippen and said, "That's because you don't know shooters, and I bet Li Zhi will definitely score 50 points." ”
"You think this kid can surpass Aaron? Just kidding! Barkley instantly exploded, like a lioness who protects her short.
Barkley's career began with the Philadelphia 76ers, and Allen Iverson is one of Barkley's favorite players.
"Li Zhi can get 50 points, I'll eat the microphone!" Barkley said very stiffly.
"Okay, we remember what you said!" The other three laughed.
Barkley was stunned for a moment, then said angrily: "Nima, you actually set me up!" ”
After the Kenneth Smith trio successfully attracted Barkley, they wanted to change the topic, but Barkley ignored it completely.
"It's not fair, I lost the microphone, what did you do when you lost?"
Reggie Miller looked at the noisy three and said with a smile: "Otherwise, if George can get 50 points, how about we call her a stunt each?" ”
The three Barkley looked at Reggie Miller meaningfully, and then agreed with him.
"Patronize this small talk and get back to the field. Oooh, Terry made a three-pointer and the score was closer. ”
Terry, who hit a three-pointer, slid across the court with his arms outstretched, and Monta Ellis walked over to Richmond and said.
"Shoot him for me, this guy actually *** me!"
Li Zhi nodded, only a raging fire in his eyes.
Li Zhi looked at the timer, there were still 9 minutes.
Next, it's time for me to put on a show.
Fans at Oracle Arena may never forget the Chinese kid who wore the No. 3 jersey that night.
Ridno and Monta Ellis continued to cross the run, bypassing the defensive Brandonbas, and Richie was facing Jason Terry, and received a pass from Montaelis and hit a jumper.
35 points!
Mavericks Terry also began to convuls, ignoring Montaellis' defense as invisible, catching the ball and hitting a mid-range shot, and the score remained unchanged.
At 7:47, Lee received a pass from Byron Davis and hit a three-pointer on the left side.
38 points!
After that, the Mavericks' Devin Harris made a passing error, Byron Davis stole and broke quickly, and Li Zhi received an empty catch from Byron Davis, and in the face of the empty basket, he smashed the basket with a powerful dunk.
40 points!
The Mavericks Novitzki also hit a three-pointer from the outside, bringing the margin to seven points.
At the 6th minute, Richie took advantage of Bitlins to cover and hit a three-point jumper after taking a step at 45 degrees on the right side
43 points!
The Mavericks' Nowitzki missed a mid-range turnaround jumper, and Lee grabbed the rebound himself.
Under the horrified gaze of the fans, Li Zhi only took 5 seconds to make a layup and at the same time caused a foul on Terry, who was chasing the defense, and scored a 3-point score.
46 points!
Within 6 minutes of the start of the fourth quarter, Li Zhi scored 17 points alone, stretching the difference to 14 points in one fell swoop, and the Mavericks could only hand over a timeout.
The fans in the stadium stood up and saluted their hero's return.
Golden State fans haven't seen such an explosive rookie performance in more than a year, and the last person to get the entire fan to stand up and salute at Golden State's home stadium was Wilt Chamberlain.
It was a perfect and legendary rookie season, and Chamberlain won the Rookie of the Year, All-Star MVP and Regular Season MVP awards with a brilliant stat list of 37.6 points and 27 rebounds per game, and was named to the All-NBA team. In the decades that followed, only the '68-69 season of West repeated the miracle of winning the Rookie of the Year and the MVP of the regular season.
So Golden State fans have a very high vision and have never really recognized a rookie.
Even Stephen Curry, the soul of the Golden State team in later generations, failed to gain the trust of Golden State fans in his rookie season.
After returning from the timeout, Nelson Sr. pulled down Bitlins, and Nelson's tactics made a qualitative leap in the on-the-spot command of this game.
There was a rare "three guards and two forwards" scene on the Warriors' court.
Byron Davis, Monta Ellis, and Belinelli are three three-point shooters, and the two defensive giants of Richie and Matt Barnes dominate all the offensive and defensive exchanges.