When pride still matters

Chapter 171 They Must Die

When the final whistle sounded, Yu Fei slowly stood up and high-fived his teammates one by one.

109 is better than 84
The Bucks easily won the first game of the semifinals.

Although this is only the first game of this series, in some series, only one game can test the strength of both sides.

The Bucks showed significantly better strength than the 76ers in the game.

The 76ers could neither use tactics to target nor have the corresponding lineup to limit the Bucks' offense.

Once the game was over, Larry Brown walked over to George Karl.

Even though it was only the first game, Brown knew their odds were slim.

Coming to Karl, Brown said congratulations: "You are better this year than the year before."

Although the Bucks lost to the 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals the year before last, if you insist on saying so, it was actually just one move away.

Brown said that this year's Bucks were better than the year before, which contained some profound meaning that Karl did not react to on the spot.

Karl just felt that this senior, who had always been serious, seemed a little more emotional tonight.

"I think it's still far away." Karl didn't take Brown's words seriously and glanced at the key players in the game with his peripheral vision. "In fact, in the final analysis, whether the playoffs go well or not always depends on those few people."

When it comes to basketball, Brown possesses absolute rationality and ruthlessness.

He just needs a team at his disposal, but his experience working with Iverson makes him feel that Phil Jackson will never just pick up a ready-made super team like Reed Auerbach said.

Restraining superstars is a tough job.

Larry Brown has had enough of superstardom in Philadelphia.

He followed Karl's gaze to Yu Fei, who was sharing his "post-game remarks" with Iverson, and said softly: "George, you have an obligation to let that kid go on the right path."

Karl smiled and said nothing, he had already worked very hard.

But the reality is that he is willing to give everything he has to teach, but Yu Fei may not be willing to accept the teachings obediently.

He is an arrogant Generation Y, probably the most promising Generation Y Carl has ever seen. Such a genius cannot be as docile and obedient as a sheep.

"I'm trying my best," Carl said mockingly, "although I don't know if it will work in the end."

"It must be useful." Brown has a good impression of flying. This may be because distance brings beauty. "My intuition tells me that he is not the type of AI who is insufferable."

Hearing this, Mr. Qiao Karl squinted his eyes and looked at Brown for a while.

"what happened?"

"It's nothing, I just suddenly thought that speaking of stubbornness..." Karl smiled, "You are about the same."

Suddenly, Carr discovered everything Brown and Iverson had in common.

They were both raised by single mothers.They were both the shortest guys on the court when they played, and they relied on big hearts and desire to gain a foothold - Brown fell to the ground so often on the court that he now has replacement joints in his waist, and Iverson had collision and Running and jumping, they were basically running toward the same fate.They are both very sensitive, and an ugly word or expression can cause deep pain to each other.

This is the reason why they torture each other, and the reason why they have been noisy for six years even though they know they cannot coexist.

The relationship between Yu Fei and Iverson does not seem to be as close as the brothers Karl and Brown.

Since the Reebok Derby gimmick was hyped, Yu Fei and Iverson both played with the idea of ​​overpowering each other.

As a result, Yu Fei won in terms of comprehensiveness, but Iverson still scored a game-high 35 points on 44 shots in a single game.

"You take so many shots, does Coach Brown have any objection?"

Yu Fei asked gloatingly.

Iverson said: "No, he knows I want to win."

With Iverson's shooting percentage tonight, he dared to take 35 shots in the name of "I want to win" and didn't think Brown would blame him for it.

Yu Fei had nothing to say, because Iverson definitely knew Brown better than he did.

"Well, see you the day after tomorrow." Yu Fei said.

Iverson said stubbornly: "We will win then."

This is trash talk without any power.

Yu Fei really doesn't see any chance of the 76ers winning in the semifinals. In terms of offense, they can't beat the Bucks.

Compared with defense, the 76ers who lost Mutombo were left with nothing but the empty frame of the championship season. Unless a team lacking top rim protectors has two DPOY-level swingmen like the Bulls dynasty, it is impossible to defend well.

The 76ers don't have anything they want. This is why Yu Fei is not optimistic about them.

At the press conference that night, a reporter asked Yu Fei if he was impressed by anyone on the 76ers.

Yu Fei said: "The number of AI shots is impressive."

"Yes, AI scored a game-high 44 points tonight. How will you limit him in the next game?"

"We don't need to limit him. AI that takes crazy shots cannot lead Philadelphia to win. If he continues to play like this, I think we can study the next round's opponents in advance."

Now that the matter is over, the reporter is not too worried about the excitement: "Who do you hope your opponent will be in the next round?"

"Definitely the team that knocked me out in the first round last year."

Yu Fei's remarks offended the 76ers to a certain extent.

However, winning the second semi-final was easier than the first.

In the first game, the Bucks still had to take Iverson's offense into account. In the second game, the AI ​​was no longer magical.Ironically, Iverson's scoring was limited to 28 points, and the 76ers' offense became much more active.

Van Horn and Aaron McGee both scored in double figures.

But the problem for the 76ers is that it's hard to win if Iverson doesn't open up, and if Iverson does open up, it's easy to fall into the cycle of infinite singles.

Because the second game was so easy to win, even Karl was talking about potential opponents in the Eastern Conference finals after the game.

"If I were to choose a team as my opponent in the Eastern Conference Finals, I would choose the New Jersey Nets," Carr said, "because we had a complete victory record against them in the regular season."

Carr, who got carried away, was quickly sanctioned by the league.

One day later, the Bucks came to the road.

When Karl got the referee list for the third game of the semifinals, his face suddenly turned dark.

"what happened?"

At that time, the players were training, and someone noticed that Karl's face looked ugly.

Carr handed the information with the referee list to head assistant Ron Adams.

When Adams saw it, his face was also heavy.

"Even if they let zombies be the referee tonight, you don't have to be so nervous, right?"

Yu Fei made a little joke.

Karl was unhappy that he was still in the mood to joke: "This joke is not funny. You'd better prepare for this game tonight with the same attitude as preparing for Game [-] of the Finals."

Yu Fei said: "I'm sorry, I can't do it."

Carl:?
Yu Fei said rationally: "I have never played in the finals, let alone the tiebreaker in the playoffs, so I can't prepare."

Mason, who finally waited for the opportunity to severely suppress Yu Fei, beamed with joy: "Oh, there were also times when you were inexperienced. In your eyes, you were the boss and god's second child. But you haven't even played in the finals?"

"Have you ever been beaten?" Yu Fei asked knowingly.

"I played," Mason said proudly. "Not only did I play, but I played until Game [-] of the Finals."

"What's the result? You lost, right?"

Yu Fei didn't expect that someone would actually take the bait while fishing casually.

"Why don't you say anything?" Yu Fei saw Mason's blushing face and felt more confident, "I said you, old guy, are really promising. After playing in the NBA for so many years, you finally made it to the finals once." The seventh game, let’s not talk about the seventh game, you haven’t won the championship yet? Isn’t this the ultimate waste of work?”

"You don't know anything about riding a horse!" Mason stamped his feet angrily, and then began to retort feebly, saying "Winning and losing are just part of the game", "It's Ewing's fault that I tried my best", "That year in the Olympics" Rajuwang has no solution, what can I do?" The air was full of joy.

However, George Karl's expression was still heavy.

Yu Fei had no choice but to ask: "George, who is the referee tonight?"

Hearing this, a scowl appeared on Karl's face, and the name sounded like it was popping out from between his teeth, extremely coldly: "Dick Bavetta."

Yu Fei, who has played for two seasons, is basically familiar with all the referees' faces.

Bavetta is the most special one among them. He has always been known for favoring the Lakers. However, this kind of referee who likes to favor the Lakers can serve as the referee in last year's Western Conference Finals.

The terrible G6 game between the Lakers and Kings was played under the auspices of this man.

Some serious observers believe that starting from that game, the NBA officially entered the WWE era.

Bavetta can be said to have become famous in one battle.

Yu Fei also deepened his impression of Bavetta through that game, but looking at Karl's expression, it seemed that things were not that simple.

"George, do you have a story between you?" Yu Fei asked.

Karl asked: "Do you think last year's Western Conference Finals was scary?"

If Karl was referring to Game 2017 of last year's Western Conference Finals, it was indeed scary, but that's about it, similar to Game [-] of the [-] Finals.

The difference is that one tells you "Don't even think about winning" in the fourth quarter, and the other tells you "You can't win tonight" at the beginning.

"Terrible." Yu Fei responded following Karl's words.

Carl said: "What if I told you that something scarier happened ten years ago?"

Then, George Karl tells the story of the 1993 Western Conference Finals.

In that year's Western Conference Finals, Karl's SuperSonics and Barkley's Suns met at the top of the Western Conference. As the series progressed to Game [-], there seemed to be a force in the universe that wanted to make Barkley, the MVP of the season, and Jordan, the league's ruler, compete in the championship. With [-] rounds in the finals, the SuperSonics will lose a lot of gimmicks if they advance.

As a result, the Suns took 64 free throws in the tiebreaker of the Western Conference Finals that year, and all the major players in the Sonics, including Kemp, were fouled.

In this kind of game where there was a foul at the first touch, Barkley played 46 minutes and refused to come off, leaving behind the famous saying "When I die, I will have time to rest."

Naturally, the Sonics fell short and lost the series.

The referee of this game was Dick Bavetta.

Karl looked at Yu Fei, "The ratings for our game with Philadelphia were good. Believe me, the league will hope to play one or two more games in this series. Dick Bavetta will come with bad intentions, so we must be prepared."

Yu Fei didn't have as strong of PTSD against Bavetta as Karl did, because the relationship between Iverson and the referees has never been good. Even if Bavetta came with a mission, at most he would just give the 76ers some bias calls, like last year. Extreme situations like Game 1993 of the Western Conference Finals and Game [-] of the [-] Western Conference Finals should not happen.

Even if it happens, so what?Yu Fei's goal is to sweep the 76ers, which will not only give the team more time to prepare for the Eastern Conference Finals, but also allow him to gain some advantages in the MVP competition with Duncan and Kidd.

Therefore, no matter whether the whistle favors the 76ers or not, they must die.

(End of this chapter)