When pride still matters

Chapter 556 Seize the Time
The Lakers were defeated at home and fell behind 0-3.

This result sentenced the series to death.

What's even more sad is that this was the result obtained when the Lakers made no reservations.

Both Kobe and James played the entire game, but still lost in the end.

This pushed the series into garbage time early.

The hype of Empire Battle 2.0 has come to an end.

"I'm disappointed." Kobe said when accepting on-site purchases, "I'm disappointed in myself, disappointed in the team, and disappointed in the result. We got screwed at home and there is no excuse."

James scored 34 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. He could walk out of the Staples Center with his head held high.

No one will say he is invisible anymore.

That was the lesson he learned from his 2010 fiasco.

Everyone can lose, but if the data looks good enough, you can get rid of the guilt of failure.

Just like now, everyone knows that his mind has drifted to the offseason, and everyone knows that he will be like a parasite, looking for the next host after the season ends.

But now, no one can blame him.

Because he looked like he was doing his best.

Strangely, even if he played the whole game, James gave people the feeling that he had more energy than he could handle.

He was not like Kobe who refused to go to the media room for more interviews after the game because of cramps.

James walked to the media interview room with dignity. Although he was a loser, he did not talk about failure like a normal loser.

"We didn't do well on perimeter defense, we need to watch more film." James said something that would never be criticized. "Find the problem, correct it, and the situation will improve."

The question is, how can we improve the situation when we are trailing 0-3?

The evil empire's death came on time two days later.

Some die-hard fans still hold out hope, believing that the Lakers can come back from a 3-0 deficit to a 4-0 deficit.

However, such a miracle has never happened in NBA history.

Having unrealistic wishes is like asking God for an impossible dream.

The game started and the Lakers played aggressively.

Moreover, the feel is also online.

For a time, they had a double-digit lead.

Did the prayer work?
Lakers fans were only happy for one quarter.

The characteristic of the space basketball era is explosive scoring.

This strength is reflected in all aspects. As the average number of three-point shots per game for teams in the league has exceeded 30, and the hit rate is also rising, many teams have the ability to defeat their opponents in a wave when they are in good shape.

Likewise, if the lagging team finds their form, they can quickly narrow the gap with outside shots.

The Lakers got off to a hot start and established a double-digit lead.

However, this situation is not sustainable.

Because they had lost the strong lineup depth they had in the past, the Supersonics slowed down in the second quarter. Yu Fei took the lead in counterattacking with three-pointers. Before the end of the first half, the score had been reversed.

By the end of the first half, the Supersonics had overtaken by 5 points.

In the second half, no matter how Kobe and James attacked, the situation was never on the Lakers' side.

Because the supersonics can easily resolve the offensive they launched.

Yu Fei was unstoppable in the low post, Durant initiated singles from the weak side, Roy and Yu Fei's cooperation became more and more tacit, and even Bosh, who was wearing a mask and had been in poor form since the playoffs, regained his form tonight.

Although Marc Gasol has many good qualities, his speed problem has plagued the Lakers since 2010.

Tonight, when the Supersonics played a five-out lineup, after a pick-and-roll, the four three-pointers on the outside made the Spanish defense lose its fulcrum. If he left the inside, he would be passed by in one step; if he stayed in the inside, he would have to watch the three-pointer.

This is not just his problem.

This is a problem that all traditional centers who have worked hard to practice three-pointers in order to adapt to this era and finally found a foothold in the present have to face.

What is a traditional center? First of all, they all have strong lower body strength without exception. Like Yao Ming, it is extreme.

Yao Ming's calves are as thick as tree trunks, which gives him an innate advantage in enhancing lower limb strength, but also weakens his lateral speed.

The lateral movement problem is a long-standing problem for traditional inside players in the era of space basketball.

This era that requires players on the field to be able to switch defenses on opponents indefinitely can be said to be killing them.

Gasol Jr. relived the nightmare of 2010 tonight.

The Lakers entered the fourth quarter with a double-digit deficit.

Their hopes gradually faded.

Even Kobe couldn't help but think of the curse Yu Fei had hurled at him two years ago: "Retire with the curse that you won't be able to win a championship without O'Neal!"

Now it seems that this curse is very likely to come true.

He is not a man who gives up easily, but even he cannot see any hope in this series.

Once such an idea arises, it means that the Lakers' failure is inevitable.

What about the future?

Is there anything to look forward to in the future?
That's the problem. If James leaves in the summer, the Lakers may not be able to recover for the next three years.

Because Kobe is getting older, the Lakers don't have any young players to show for themselves except for Gasol, and they don't have any draft picks. If they want to introduce stars, they can only rely on the free market, but how many people are willing to fill the gap left by James?

How many people are willing to be second in command to Kobe, who has a bad temper?
It can be said that James' departure almost puts the final nail in the coffin of Kobe's career.

However, Kobe is not so afraid of such a future.

Facing a fly ball, he threw the last ball before leaving the game.

That was a three-pointer.

"Shh!"

This goal has nothing to do with winning or losing, it is at most a struggle before death.

After that, Kobe had cramps.

With three minutes left, the Lakers were trailing by 18 points.

After asking Kobe and James for advice, Mike Brown called a timeout and replaced both of them, sending the game into garbage time.

The Staples Center was filled with boos.

They think the Lakers can still play.

They didn't know that Kobe had cramps and thought the Lakers gave up the game earlier than them.

Afterwards, the Supersonics also replaced Yu Fei and others. In the last few minutes, the substitutes of both sides tacitly brushed against each other and kept the score difference unchanged.

The final game of the evil empire has come to an end.

4 is better than 0
Two years later, the Supersonics eliminated the Lakers again.

It ended the history of the Imperial Battles.

After tonight, the Lakers' history will open a new chapter.

"As a player, I just want to win," James said. "That's the only reason I'm on the court."

How many people heard the king's hidden meaning?
He just wants to win, but the Lakers can't let him win, so isn't it normal for him to choose to leave?

No one has thought of this yet. Fans and the media just think he is hypocritical. He was obviously swept out, but he acted as if he had no responsibility at all. How dare he?
If Yu Fei were here, he would probably say the same thing.

However, Yu Fei had no time to care about how James would save his face after the game.

At the end of the game, Kobe came to greet him with a cramped leg.

"Are you ok?"

Yu Fei asked.

Kobe said calmly: "The only way for me to feel better is to win that damn championship."

Yu Fei asked with a smile: "Is this your blessing? How strange! Did I misunderstand you? Are you actually a good person?"

"You misunderstood." Kobe said arrogantly, "Only if you win the championship can I let it go, after all, I lost to the champion of that season."

This logic is a bit like Jermaine O'Neal, who, after his downfall, advertised all day long that he was the last star player in the world to defeat GOAT in the playoffs.

Yu Fei was about to bring this up, but when he saw Kobe's difficulty walking, he stopped talking.

"Have a good rest. You should thank me. Thanks to me, you have an early holiday."

"Fuck you, I won't give you a fucking thank you!"

"Okay." Yu Fei hit back bluntly, "I hope you are ready to fight alone."

Kobe stopped and looked back at Yu Fei.

"LeBron will definitely run away." Yu Fei taunted mercilessly, "Once LeBron runs away, you and the Lakers will no longer be a threat. I wish you all the best in the future. However, the only thing you can do is to rack up stats in a team that has no hope of winning the championship, and pray that you can break Kareem's total scoring record before you retire."

"Good luck to you, Kobe."

Kobe never refuted Yu Fei.

He was not a person who liked to make assumptions about the future, but his intuition told him that Yu Fei might have predicted his future in advance, but was this the future he wanted?

He didn't know. Afterwards, he returned to the locker room to change and attend a press conference. He explained why the Lakers gave up the game in the final minutes, then remained optimistic about the future and promised to come back next season.

He has said this every year since the summer of 2004.

Afterwards, the media asked Kobe if he was confident that James would stay with the Lakers.

For a split second, Kobe automatically responded, "I don't know."

He immediately realized that he had made a slip of the tongue and quickly added: "I believe LeBron will make the best decision for him and his family."

Kobe didn't even seem optimistic that LeBron might stay.

Every Lakers fan is dead set on this one.

The Lakers' elimination indicates that the pattern of confrontation between the Only Empire and the Evil Empire since 2009 has been broken.

The Evil Empire is about to disintegrate, but the One Empire looks to be reunited as a collective in the playoffs, and they have the potential to achieve the greatest achievement in modern basketball.

Before that, they still need to wait for the winner between the Spurs and the Mavericks.

Then, there are the major regular season awards for the 2011-12 season.

Wade, Kobe, James, Yu Fei and Howard were selected to the first team of the best lineup.

In addition, Durant was selected to the second team and Roy was selected to the third team.

However, Yu Fei, who was selected for the first defense for several consecutive seasons, is not on the roster this season.

Because experts believe that Yu Fei's defense at the power forward position is not as good as those of traditional power forwards.

Because the traditional power forward position only needs to do the dirty work, but the GOAT has to consider all aspects.

According to the voting for the best lineup, Yu Fei was selected as a power forward.

This is his first year playing power forward, and this achievement is astonishing enough.

Yu Fei didn't think much about honor.

Being selected into the first team is a common occurrence for him, and he doesn't care about being out of the defensive team, because the defensive team is not important to him. He has always been a typical example of someone with good defensive data but not so good defensive results.

Because of his physical condition, his awareness can help him get simple steals and blocks, but it is also a fact that he cannot concentrate on defense because of the role he plays on the offensive end.

Nowadays, it is normal to fall out of the defense when playing the fourth position.

The most important award in the regular season was finally out of the competition between Yu Fei and Kobe.

Due to aesthetic fatigue, those with voting rights decided to vote for a new MVP.

Wade, who led his team to the league's best record this season, became the big winner.

Before this, he had been selected to the first team and first defense, and became the steals leader in the regular season. Now he has won the MVP and has led his team to the Eastern Conference Finals. It can be said that he is the number one player so far this season.

Because of Yu Fei, James' "decision" happened ahead of time, and the Heat Big Three did not appear in this world. But Wade got a better opportunity because of this.

He no longer needs to take a back seat for anyone, nor does he need to gain weight to match up against the opponent's key players. He just needs to continue to play the core of the Heat, and then he will have star teammates like Love, Curry, and Yao Ming.

The Heat still had one season left before the summer of 2013, and they vowed to succeed before their salary cap exploded.

Yu Fei is looking forward to facing Yao Ming in the finals, but before that, both he and Yao Ming have strong enemies to deal with.

After six tough games, the Spurs eliminated the Mavericks and advanced to the Western Conference Finals.

Yu Fei and Duncan are very familiar with each other.

Yu Fei won his first championship by defeating the Spurs.

That was also Duncan's peak year.

At the same time, Duncan was lucky enough to seize the window period when the Bucks were severely damaged by the brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills and failed to break out of the Eastern Conference, becoming the only winner on Yu Fei's road to the GOAT title.

Over the years, Yu Fei has won more games than he has lost against Duncan, and this has been even more so since he moved to Seattle.

This year is the first time that Duncan's team has the strength to compete with Yu Fei since he came to the West.

This is thanks to the addition of Gasol and the super rookie Paul George. On the surface, the Spurs are a perfect match of old and young. They are competitive at the moment and have a future.

But the SuperSonics are realistic; they are a team that wins in the present.

No one knows what this team will look like after the season ends.

Their belief is to give their all for the current victory.

Is this the end of a long feud?
"It won't be over," Duncan said before the series began. "We're going to keep playing no matter who goes down. So this won't be the last time we meet at this level."

He is right.

However, the Supersonics cherish every minute and second more than the Spurs.

Among them, there are two consensuses.

Chris Bosh will leave the team after the season ends, and Kevin Durant, who has not apologized for the trumpet incident so far, is likely to request a trade.

The rift was so great, but now they share a common desire, which is to go to the end as part of a modern four-peat dynasty team.

This may be the brightest moment of their careers.

This period of time will be measured in seconds, and every second is worth remembering.

The Spurs lost Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, and then Game 2. Their problems were finally exposed in front of their biggest rival in the division - Paul George and Kemba Walker are too young and immature. They may bring some surprises, but if they are overly relied upon, they will be found to be rookies with many flaws.

The rookie's magic is gone, and the Spurs' core competitiveness lies in Duncan, Ginobili and Gasol.

In the end, these three old guys who are on the decline are not as good as Yu Fei, Roy and Durant who are at the peak of their careers.

The Supersonics won two consecutive games at home.

The battle shifted to San Antonio.

The Spurs finally showed their best skills at home.

Popovich is a great coach. Whether it was the twin towers designed for Duncan and Robinson in the early years, or the active transformation after Duncan got old, which transformed the Spurs from a positional team that relied heavily on inside offense into a dynamic offensive team that came and went like the wind and focused on high-post passing and cutting when in position, he did it to the extreme.

The Spurs' passing and cutting is beautiful. Once it is successful, the opponent will be unable to take care of both ends.

The Spurs used wonderful passing and cutting to inflict the Supersonics' first defeat in the playoffs.

However, compared to space basketball, passing and cutting is still a "slightly backward" tactical system.

This is determined by the times and the simplification of small ball tactics.

Today's space basketball is either a core player holding the ball and shooting everywhere, or a five-man team using unlimited pick-and-rolls to attack the opponent's weaknesses. The Spurs' unlimited passing and cutting that tests their own and their opponents' basketball IQ is certainly attractive, but will ultimately appear redundant and tedious.

Therefore, when the Supersonics used unlimited switching to break up the pass and cut in Game 4, forcing the Spurs to win the game with one-on-one games, the San Antonio team was forced into a desperate situation.

Duncan had 18 points in the first half, Ginobili looked like Jordan for 15 minutes, and then that was it.

Gasol's singles looked weak, and rookies such as George failed to step up, but on the Sonics side, starting with Yu Fei, Durant and Roy, they stepped up one after another and used their personal abilities to make the Spurs fall into despair.

No one knows better than the people of the Holy City who are there what it feels like to have hope shattered.

Seattle lit a fire in their home stadium, burning San Antonio's dream of revival to ashes.

1:3.

"We won't give up." On this desperate night, Duncan quoted Yu Fei's famous words, "Because we don't know if there is enough time."

However, the SuperSonics really didn't give them any chances.

Because Yu Fei and Durant know very well that this season will be the final peak of their only empire.

If you want to do something, do it now.

Therefore, Yu Fei and Durant reminded the Spurs of the horror of being dominated by the OK combination.

In terms of offense alone, Yu Fei and Durant may be more powerful than the OK combination tonight.

On the night of topping the Western Conference, Yu Fei scored 46 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. Durant was no less impressive, scoring 44 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists with mid-range and long-range shots alone. The two of them combined for 90 points, 16 rebounds and 12 assists, using the most original method, the most explosive performance, and the dominance that most impacted people's hearts and souls, ending the Spurs' most promising year since 2005.

Duncan said he didn't know if there was enough time, and that was the truth.

When Nowitzki lost to Yu Fei's Bucks in the finals, he thought he was still young and had enough time. However, after Yu Fei won the FMVP award, he got close to him and taunted him, "Do you still have enough time?"

That is a thought-provoking rhetorical question.

The older he gets, the deeper Duncan feels.

He is still competitive this year, but what about next year?

Sooner or later, he will become a useless old man.

If 30 is the beginning of the end for an athlete, then Duncan is already more than halfway down the road.

He could even see his own end.

Not far away.

There is no connection between victory and defeat, sadness and joy.

After winning the division championship for the eighth time in his career, Yu Fei no longer considers this an honor.

When an ESPN reporter asked him "How did you recover from the brink of collapse?"

Yu Fei, wearing the division champion's hat, looked at his teammates with a smile.

It's like a veteran who is about to retire, full of infinite longing and emotion for this time that is both fast and slow, both long and short, the most ordinary and the most special.

“We’re just trying to seize the moment.”

(End of this chapter)