At 9 a.m. on December 2, SuperSonics held a press conference to announce that they would terminate Patterson's professional contract by way of a buyout.

At this time, Dan Fagan found Patterson's wife, Shannon, and talked to her for two hours.

"Shannon, Reuben already knows that he is wrong, you should know that if he goes to prison, he will lose his job, and without a job, there will be no money......"

"But he's been suspended from his contract by SuperSonic."

"It doesn't matter, as long as he doesn't go to jail, he'll get a job on another team and you'll continue to enjoy the affluent life you're living now."

"Then you have to promise not to beat me again in the future, and give me a lot of money, he broke my face, and I have to go for cosmetic surgery."

"It's all right."

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Shannon arrived at the county police station and dropped the criminal charges against Patterson.

However, Patterson's 15-day prison ban will not change, and it is a judgment order against his strong female interference.

That night, the SuperSonics defeated the Nuggets on the road to make their 18th straight win, tying the record for the longest winning streak in SuperSonics' history.

Returning to Seattle overnight, the No. 6 made it a 19-game winning streak with back-to-back games against the Warriors the next day, and the No. 6 made it 20 straight after beating the Pistons at home.

In this way, the SuperSonics' 20th winning streak is tied for second place all-time with the 20-game winning streak of Congress and Bucks in Washington, and only the Lakers' 33-game winning streak remains.

On the 6th, the Seattle SuperSonics reached a buyout agreement with Danvergen, and Patterson's rookie contract was only left for this season's contract, a total of $990,000, and the remaining hundreds of thousands of dollars, the SuperSonics paid in full.

On the 7th, supersonic arrived in Los Angeles.

O'Neal and Bryant invited to dinner, and the pair repeatedly yelled at dinner to interrupt the Supersonics' winning streak.

But alas, the Lakers still lost to the SuperSonics at home.

O'Neal still performed well, scoring 38 points and 13 rebounds on Big Ben's head, but Kobe Bryant only shot 4-of-15 from Zhou's head, shooting 33.3%.

And Phil Jackson's specially hired big forward Cobra Grant is old in the end, shooting 2 of 10.

Lewis started again and scored 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the head of Grant, 3-of-5 from three-point range and 2-of-3 from the free-throw line.

In the case that Zhou Quan did not go all out to attack and only scored 32 points, his play was the key to the SuperSonics defeating the Lakers, shooting a lot of open balls.

As a result, head coach Paul West has firm the decision and confidence to let Lewis play as a starter once he meets the Lakers in the series.

The reason is because Cobra Grant is no longer as brave as he used to be, and his offensive ability is not as good as before, although Lewis's defense is a little worse, but Grant's scoring is no longer threatening, and Lewis's stable scoring can completely exceed his conceded points.

As for O'Neal's help defense, he thinks it can be compensated for by Zhou Quan's offense on the outside.

Of course, this is just a lineup and tactical idea, and another idea is to fight like the last Western Showdown, use a few meat shields to pile up, and prepare with both hands, or you can rotate the two plans.

After beating the Lakers home and away, the SuperSonics won 21 in a row, and then No. 9 challenged Mosaic back-to-back in Houston, which was a great challenge due to lack of fitness.

Zhou Quan scored 30 points in the first three quarters, but only had six assists, and his teammates missed a lot of open shots.

Among them, Corey Magetti shot only 1 of 10 in the third quarter, Lewis also shot 4 of 12, Bowen shot 2 of 6, and Campbell shot 1 of 5.

At the end of the third quarter, 61:66, the SuperSonics lost by 5 points.

Zhang said: "The play of Mosaic is actually average, Francis was limited by Zhou Quan to score only 5 points on 2-of-10 shooting, but the supersonic play is even worse."

21 wins in a row, the supersonic are tired, if you lose this game, I think it's not bad, adjust it, and start again. ”

Xu Jicheng also said: "In addition to Zhou Quan, that is, Lewis scored 10 points, and the shooting rate was only 33.3%, which is really not in the state." ”

Zhang Reasonable said: "But I don't think Zhou Quan will give up." ”

"Director Zhang, is it because of competitiveness?" Xu Ji became a Taoist.

Zhang Li smiled and said: "From what I know about him, his competitiveness is not as strong as Jordan's, he and Jordan are two kinds of people." ”

"Oh?"

Xu Jicheng is very interested in this topic, and he and Zhou Quan have known each other for a long time, but it is still not as long as Zhang Licheng's acquaintance.

Domestic fans in front of the TV are obviously also interested in this topic, but they feel that Zhang is not right, and the competitiveness of Iron Fist King Zhou Quan must be stronger than Jordan.

"Jordan is the kind of person who wants to win everything, and according to some of his friends, it's a lot of pressure when he's with Jordan because he wants to compete with you in everything," Zhang said. Of course, Jordan will only compete with you if he is sure to win, and what he is not sure about will not be compared to you. ”

"Haha......" Xu Jicheng laughed.

Zhang Reasonable said: "But Zhou Quan has never behaved like this, when he is off the court, he will never compare anything with his friends, even when he plays golf or tennis billiards with his friends, that is, playing, everyone wins and loses."

The reason why I think he won't give up tonight is not because he is competitive, but because I think he has the quality to come back in the final quarter, and he must have that confidence himself, after all, Mosaic's strength is not strong now, and he didn't play well tonight, so he won't give up. ”

"Yes, Zhou Quan shouldn't be the kind of character who hits the south wall to the death." Xu Ji became a Taoist.

At this time, the end quarter begins, and the mosaic attacks.

"Smack!"

When Francis tried to break through, Zhou Quan made an accurate prediction, moved first, made a fourth steal of the opponent, and then played a counterattack.

"Bang!"

With a flying dunk, he narrowed the gap to 3 points.

"Steve, why don't you call it a pick-and-roll?" On the sidelines, Tomjanovic asked with some annoyance.

Francis felt that his head coach had been knocked out of his self-confidence by the Iron Fist King, as can be seen from the match between the Dream Four team and the Chinese national team, and he actually gave up the point guard and the team's organization.

But he still obeyed the head coach's orders and called Mobley's block.

Mobley is the second round in 98, this season has become Mosaic's No. 2 rotation starter, the first dozen games, seven starters, an average of 20 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal per game, the performance is very good, especially with Francis, the two are already one of the league's most offensive backcourt combinations.

Zhou Quan did not change his defense, he directly squeezed away the 86-kilogram Mobley and kept up with Francis, who broke through with the ball.

Francis quickly passed the ball to Mobley, who remained on the three-point line on the right wing, and Mobley received the ball and quickly dribbled a step sideways to shoot behind Francis's back, and Margeti was half a beat slower.

"Brush!"

The water splashed and hit the three-pointer.

"Mobley has 21 points, the team's leading scorer, shooting 48.4 percent, and Margeti has failed to defend him." Xu Ji became a Taoist.

"Zhou Quan should change his guard and guard Mobley's hand first." Zhang reasonably suggested.

Supersonic offense.

"Brush!"

Zhou Quan steadily advanced to the top of the arc, faked a real shot, and hit a three-pointer on Francis's head.

"Okay, Zhou Quan scored five points in a row, and now it's 35 points." Zhang Li said.

Then Mosaic's backcourt combination played a pick-and-roll combination again, and Francis played the ball to Mobley again.

"Smack!"

But this time, Zhou Quan made a timely prediction, stepped in, stole the pass, and took the opportunity to counterattack, scoring 7 points in a row to narrow the gap to 1 point.

Mosaic called a timeout.

Tomjanovic said to Francis: "Steve, you have to be more cautious and patient when you face the Iron Fist King.

I suggest you learn from Avery Johnson, he's done a great job, the Spurs play supersonics, and he only has three turnovers against the Iron Fist King.

It's not that he's better than you, it's that he's more cautious and patient with the ball and doesn't give Iron Fist a chance to steal him, understand?

When you're playing against the Iron Fist King, you don't always think about how to win him. Do you know why Payton and Kidd always suffer big losses under him, because they always want to win him, and Iverson Johnson doesn't think about how to win the Iron Fist King. And I hope you do the same, so it will make you calmer and more cautious. ”

It's a pity, where did the unruly Francis hear such words, and who doesn't want to put on a great performance on the head of the Iron Fist King?

Zhou Quan found that Francis was very hard-headed, he broke five goals and made 8 mistakes, but he still attacked with the ball in front of him unscrupulously.

This kind of young man is to teach a good lesson, just like the universities in China, college students have to undergo military training as soon as they enter, and young people like Francis also need military training for them.

Three minutes later, he made a sixth steal of Francis and put the lead in the lead.

In the 11th minute of the final quarter, he made a 7th steal from Francis and scored 51st points to extend the margin to six points.

In the end, SuperSonics defeated Mosaic and won 22 consecutive victories.

The head of the iron Francis shot 2-of-8 in the final quarter, including one of the three-pointers, 4-of-18 from the field, 1-of-4 from three-point range, and 1-of-2 from the free throw line, with 10 points, 4 assists, 10 turnovers and 4 fouls.

"Congratulations to Zhou Quan for his 22nd consecutive victory, and he also got his 4th 50+ this season and 17th 50+ in his career." Zhang said happily.

"Zhou Quan won 50+ games, and it seems that he has never lost." Xu Jicheng said with a smile.

"Yes. If you hit 50+ and still lose, either you will brush up the score, or the opponent will play too well. Zhang Li said busily.

Xu Jicheng said with a smile: "Jordan scored 63 points in a single game in the playoffs that year, and he lost that game. ”

"Haha......" Zhang Li couldn't help laughing.

Xu Jicheng suddenly said: "By the way, Coach Zhang, now the highest individual score in a single game in the playoffs is Zhou Quan's 65 points, breaking Jordan's 63 points, what is Jordan's single-game scoring record in the regular season?" ”

"69 points, created by playing the Cavaliers away in '90, I remember 69 points and 18 rebounds, and the game I watched on TV was very impressive. By the way, Zhou Quan was still in college at that time, and he participated in the draft the next year. Zhang Li said with a smile.

"Jordan is also really fierce, but it's a pity that he ran into Zhou Quan." Xu Ji became a Taoist.

"This is both Shengyu and He Shengliang." Zhang Li said with a smile.

……

On the 12th and 13th, the SuperSonics completed another back-to-back home and away game, defeating the Magic and Grizzlies successively, and won 24 consecutive games.

In these two games, the teammates were in slightly better shape than when they played Mosaic.

On the 15th, the SuperSonics welcomed the challenge of the Heat at home.

This is the first game between the two teams after the finals, and there is a lot of attention.

In this game, Gary Payton also learned Avery Johnson's style of play, and handled the ball with caution and calm patience when facing Zhou Quan.

He reduced his offense, increased the speed of the ball, moved farther away from Zhou Quan, and tried to avoid exposing the ball to Zhou Quan's field of vision.

This did make his performance better, with only three turnovers in the game and two cutaways by Zhou Quan.

Prior to that, in all the games with Zhou Quan, referring only to the NBA, he was averaged 3.9 steals per game by Zhou Quan, which was a huge improvement for him.

However, there was no suspense in the game, Zhou Quan scored 38 points, 22 assists, 5 assists and 3 blocks, breaking his regular season assist record, which was also his second time with 20+ assists in a single game, and won his 25th consecutive victory.

After the game, Zhou Quan was interviewed on the spot.

"Iron Fist, you've increased your scoring average to 34 points per game, are you chasing the scoring title and more winning streaks?" The journalist asked.

"Yes, I need to challenge more until I am defeated. I know they want to challenge me and beat me now, so I need to let them know that sorry, you have to work harder. Zhou Quan smiled.

"Are you confident of challenging the Lakers' 33-game winning streak?" The journalist asked.

"We're going to play one game at a time, it's very difficult, my teammates are tired, and it's hard to say if we can break the record." Zhou Quan said.

"How would you rate Payton's performance today?" The journalist asked.

"12 points and 6 assists, not many turnovers, the shooting rate should be 40%, it's not bad." Zhou Quan praised.

"What do you think of the way the young general Johnson plays when he faces you?" The journalist asked.

Zhou Quan thought for a while and said: "This style of play is to try to borrow the blocking and dismantling cover to get rid of me, or try to distance yourself from me, play the ball as soon as possible, deal with the ball as soon as possible, try not to attack with the ball in front of me, and try to minimize mistakes."

Actually, I think there are pros and cons to this style of play, it's hard to organise the attack well because I'm not slow and I'm going to catch up with him very quickly, he doesn't have a lot of opportunities to handle the ball, and the quality of the ball is not very high.

And this style of play is too conservative, not positive at all, and has no effect, at most it is just to reduce a few individual mistakes, which does not help the game or the team.

My opinion is that in my defense, the ball carrier needs a lot more self-confidence, because I can't steal your ball every time, it's absolutely impossible.

So don't be afraid of my steals, you see I don't even have four steals per game right now, and my steals have degraded. ”

"Haha......"

Looking at Zhou Quan's serious answer, the reporters around him laughed.

……

(End of chapter)