Auxiliary Black Mamba

Chapter 584 The Best Duo in Duncan's Heart
Lakers starters: Kobe, Danny Green, Wei Lai, Gasol, Hassan, still the same starter as last game.As for the San Antonio Spurs, things have changed.

Spurs starters: Tony Parker, Gary Neal, Leonard, Tim Duncan, Boris Diaw.Popovich still decided to put Manu Ginobili back on the bench.

Or the jump ball for Hassan and Tim Duncan.

Snapped!
This time, Hassan won. Hassan touched the ball first, the Los Angeles Lakers got the first attack, and Kobe dribbled the ball for half court. It was not Tony Parker but Gary Neal who defended Kobe.

Kobe looked at Gary Neal in front of him, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, it was the same for whoever defended me.

Kobe singled Gary Neal, passed Gary Neal with a fake move, rushed in, and just took a step forward, a man wearing black No. 9 blocked Kobe's way.

It's Tony Parker!
This is also Popovich's strategy. When Kobe and Wei Lai play singles, the flanks must always pay attention to supplementary defense.

When Kobe saw this, he flicked his wrist and passed it to Danny Green who was 45 degrees to the left.In Kobe's memory, Danny Green was in that position, but Tony Parker appeared here, so Danny Green must be empty.

Snapped!
Danny Green was ready to catch the ball, and the ball was about to come to Danny Green, but Gary Neal stabbed the ball out of bounds.

Nani?The Spurs' defense surprised the Los Angeles Lakers a bit.

It was completely different from the previous game.

Spurs bench:
Popovich stood up and couldn't help applauding. The ball was defended beautifully, which is a good start.

Lakers bench:
The Zen master couldn't help but frown, what exactly is Popovich playing?In just one round, the Zen master hasn't seen anything yet.

Even Wei Lai on the court didn't see anything, but thought that the Spurs' defense against Kobe was normal.

The Lakers kicked off again, the ball was given to Kobe again, and Gary Neal was still defending.

Kobe's continuous feints tricked Gary Neal into rushing in, and after entering, he faced another person-Leonard!

Because Danny Green pulled Tony Parker to the bottom corner, he was far away from Kobe all of a sudden.But I didn't expect that the Spurs still had a backup player. Tony Parker couldn't make up the defense and replaced it with Leonard.

And Gary Neal hurried to fill Leonard's position.

"Beautiful! That's it." Popovich clenched his fists and smiled.

But in the next second, he couldn't help but see Wei Lai suddenly cut in from the outside line, the speed was astonishingly fast, and Gary Neal was unstoppable.

Facing Leonard at the free throw line, Kobe Bryant, who was shooting a fallback jumper, spotted Wei Lai at the end of his eyes, pulled back the ball that was about to be shot, and changed it into a pass.

what!This operation made Leonard confused, pass the ball?to whom.

"Leave it to me!" Tim Duncan yelled.

Seeing Wei Lai who was catching the ball, Tim Duncan came over in time to make up for it.

As soon as Wei Lai received the ball, he took off, and Tim Duncan also took off. The two met again in the air. This scene instantly made the Staples Center fans' kidneys rise. The two played very well in the last game.

But Wei Lai in the air didn't intend to make a move?
Tim Duncan's eyes were full of doubts, what was Wei Lai thinking?
Kobe, who landed at this time, went inside.

coming?

Wei Lai flicked his wrist and passed it to the middle.

Nani?pass?
"Help in defense, help in defense." Tim Duncan shouted in the air, but it was too late, and no one thought that Wei Lai would make a pass.

The ball was given to Kobe who was unattended and cut into the middle. Kobe who caught the ball jumped with both feet and completed dunks with both hands, taking the lead in scoring the first point for the Los Angeles Lakers.

2-0.

"Kobe." "Kobe." "Kobe." Staples Center fans shouted loudly.

After landing, Kobe turned around and gave Wei Lai a thumbs up: "Good pass, Wei Lai."

"The boss should move in time." Wei Lai didn't expect Kobe to cut in suddenly, and it happened to pass directly.

Looking at the backs of Wei Lai and Kobe, Tim Duncan couldn't help sighing, "The tacit understanding between these two is awesome." Although they are opponents, Tim Duncan has to say that the tacit understanding between the two is like same as a person.

Kobe finally waited for his best partner. Wei Lai did not lose to Kobe in both offense and defense. If it was a little worse last year, it is almost impossible to see it this year.

Seeing this scene, Tim Duncan couldn't help but think of himself as the San Antonio Spurs, wouldn't it be more interesting to have one more himself?

But this is impossible.

There are usually only a few superstars, and they can complement each other and have a perfect understanding. Tim Duncan believes that the duo of Wei Lai and Kobe is definitely among the best, even stronger than Jordan and Pippen in Chicago.

Because Pippen is only a superstar, but not a superstar. Throughout Pippen's career, he has grown from a rookie with 7.6 points to an all-around player.He was selected to the first defense 8 times in a row, won 3 championships 6 times, and was selected into the Naismith Hall of Fame.Looking at the honor alone, it is almost impossible to rule out that he is a superstar.But if you look at it year by year, Pippen lacks the basic conditions of a superstar.

From 1991, this rookie was selected as an All-Star for the first time by 7.6 + 4 + 3.It can be concluded that Pippen was not a superstar during this period.As the data of the team's 91 championships in 93-2, Pippen's ability has gradually been recognized.He was named to the Dream Team and played consecutive All-Star defenses.Has entered the ranks of superstars.However, compared with Zhuyou's four superstars, there is still a big gap.After the Bulls sent Grant away, Paxson retired 94-95.The Bulls were once unable to enter the playoffs, but fortunately, the Flyers came back and played a wave of 13 wins and 4 losses.Pippen couldn't squeeze into the ranks of superstars at the time. 95-98 Pippen's performance was not stable enough, and he was still far from a superstar. After 1998, basically out of the superstar standard.As a spiritual leader, he played 2000 games with the Lakers in 7, but failed to stabilize the team's performance.The data is even worse than Wallace Smith.

The standards for NBA superstars are very strict, at least one of the two honors of championship or mvp must be obtained.That's the basics.It also depends on the player's influence, strength, and mainly character.

On this basis, Pippen can only be regarded as a superstar!Because this has to be traced to Pippen leading the team alone after Jordan retired.

After the Bulls completed their first wave of three consecutive championships, Michael Jordan announced his retirement due to his father's death and other reasons. The 28-year-old Pippen, who was at his peak, naturally became the leader of the team.

In the 1993-94 season, the Bulls who lost Jordan introduced Tony Kukoc, Steve Kerr, Luke Langley and other strong support.Pippen, who has become the number one star, has not made rapid progress in terms of personal data as expected. He averaged 22 points, 8.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game, and his shooting percentage was 49.1%. Performance is about the same.The Bulls ranked third in the Eastern Conference and advanced to the playoffs with a record of 1991 wins and 92 losses. It seems to be not bad, but this record created the team's worst regular season record in the past five years.

In the playoffs, the Bulls easily eliminated the Cleveland Cavaliers with a total score of 3-0 in the first round. In the subsequent Eastern Conference semifinals, although the defending champion tenaciously tied the total score to 3-3 after losing two games first In the tiebreaker, they still lost to the Knicks led by Ewing in the tiebreaker and stopped in the Eastern Conference semifinals.In the last battle, Pippen tried his best to get 16 rebounds in the game, but he still couldn't save the team.

In the seven-game series, Pippen averaged 21.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. His performance was not outstanding, and even declined slightly compared to the regular season.The biggest "black spot" of Pippen's career also appeared in this round of the series. In the last 1.8 seconds of the third game, the Bulls trailed by one point, but the last shot arranged by coach Phil Jackson was not Pippen. Pippen, but Kukoc, such a decision also made Pippen, who is the head of the team, very dissatisfied and refused to play.Everyone knows the final result. Kukoc completed the classic lore, and the news that Pippen refused to play also made the headlines of major media.

Of course, objectively speaking, Pippen's performance is not bad, and he even ranked third in the MVP selection that season.As a star who can be described as "selfless", Pippen never occupies a lot of possessions and shots, which also explains why even though Jordan is no longer on the team, his average number of shots per game is only more than before. 1 time or so.But as the absolute core of a championship team, an average performance of 22+8 per game is indeed far from enough.

What's more, in the eyes of Tim Duncan, what is more interesting is that Kobe was Jordan at the beginning, and Wei Lai was Pippen, but now the positions of the two have begun to change.The person who assisted at the beginning became the main output, and the person who originally output became the auxiliary.

But even so, I won't admit defeat.

(End of this chapter)