You should cross the mountains like a brave man

Chapter 218 The game can be lost, but Kobe must die

At the press conference that night, the media confirmed several things.

Wei Xia is willing to play the sixth man, so don't worry about the media.

Kobe himself didn't want to score 62 points, so don't blame Zen Master alone.

The Lakers are in harmony from top to bottom, and there is no open and secret fighting at all. Don't want to make big news all day long.

For the media, Kobe's 62 points are really exasperating.There was so much time in the fourth quarter. With Kobe's state at the time, he could play half a quarter on the court, and 70 points could be expected.Kobe doesn't want to play, doesn't Jackson know the significance and value of setting records?How can it be repaired!
For Kobe and Zen Master, this is normal, but for the media, these two seem to be deliberately against them, making them lose the opportunity to report a greater miracle-it has not been 70 points for more than ten years, as for Chamberlain's 33 points in a single game, it is as unshakable as a totem.However, when Kobe scored 62 points in [-] minutes, everything suddenly became possible. People suddenly felt that those times that had been sleeping in history seemed to wake up before their eyes. This is a throbbing that human beings can never refuse.

If so, Zen master's behavior was severely criticized by the media.By the way, Kobe also suffered.
Bill Simmons criticized Kobe: "Great players should be responsible for their own honor. Kobe, you will never perform like today again. You will regret today's rest."

The New York Times was more direct: "Kobe Bryant, you are a coward!"

Because Kobe was unwilling to set a more brilliant record in garbage time, he went from a one-on-one superhero to a coward.

This is really strange, and it has become a mistake not to want to brush points.

To Bryant, criticism from the outside world is just like a tide. Sooner or later, they will recede, and his world will not be affected in any way.

Since the summer of 2003, he has seen through the essence of the world.

The only way to make others shut up is to do a good job every minute of the moment.

But in any case, Kobe's behavior in that winter gradually began to attract the attention of the whole world. He casually presented the 40 points that most players dreamed of, making the audience dizzy.When browsing the sports news every day, people will tremble with anticipation, as if they are afraid that Kobe will suddenly get a score beyond his imagination.

The Lakers have four games left to wrap up their December campaign.

Ending the legendary battle against the Mavericks, they waited for three consecutive away games.

One of those road games was against the Miami Heat on Christmas Eve.

For the first time in his life, Wei Xia was not with his family at Christmas.

The league loves gimmicks, and it takes gimmicks to get fans excited.

The Heat and the Lakers have a huge gimmick.

Goodbye.

Not to mention what kind of sparks the Heat's young core Dwyane Wade will have with Kobe, just talk about the history and grievances between OK, the league will not let go of this good opportunity.

When the Lakers missed the playoffs last year, the Sharks said in front of the media: "Is this a surprise? I tell you it's not a surprise. This is the curse of Shaq's fate. I don't care if they leave. Los Angeles is the most hypocritical city in the world. They can no longer succeed!"

Shark's words naturally attracted a wave of attacks for him, but it is a fact that the Lakers missed the playoffs.

No matter how many reasons and excuses there are, they can't compare to the result in front of me.

April 12

The Lakers head to Orlando.

Although the Magic has not been established for a long time, in less than 20 years of history, there have been two eras worth recalling.

The era of Sharks and Pennies, and the era of Maddie Hill.

The biggest feature of the Magic is to create hopes and dreams. Last year, you saw that they had a great future and full of potential. It seemed that the future of the league fell on them.

Watch it another day, and you'll find that they suddenly turned into big ships that crashed into an iceberg.

It took less than a day for the team to sink after four or five years.

Fall out with Sharks, use up Penny, usher in Vitrified Hill, use up McGrady, and fall out with McGrady.

Hill is still around, but Devil Hill has a good temper, so he probably won't fall out with the Magic.The injuries that hit Devil Mountain gave the Magic a good reason to be bad, so they put Dwight Howard, who made the Sharks willing to give up the title of "Superman", plus Steve Francis, Deshaun and James [-]-[-] Stevens, and the watery No. [-] pick Tony Batty.

At first glance, the Magic's lineup is okay, not that bad.

After the two teams started playing, the Magic were too worried about becoming the second Mavericks team, and they were harsh and harsh on Kobe's defense.

Versia has never seen a team require everyone to guard Kobe from the backcourt like he did.

Stevens bears the lion's share of that task.

He needs to linger with Kobe forever, and strive to have the necessary physical contact with Kobe every moment. Their wish and dream is to wait until the end of the game. Kobe will temporarily forget the feeling of having skin-to-skin contact with Vanessa, and always remember the physical contact from Orlando.

Whether the preparation work is sufficient depends on the execution ability.

Stevens' confrontation and off-ball defense have given enough intensity, which is completely different from the Mavericks in the previous few days.

Think about how civilized and polite the Mavericks are?Kobe still remembers the first shot he made. After grabbing the offensive rebound, the opponent watched him shoot from a distance of one meter.

Nowitzki's Kazilan's big eyes seem to expect him to miss the ball, but how can everything go as expected?
The Mavericks' painful lessons made the Magic understand that although the laws of most things are uncontrollable, they can be avoided. As long as the execution and intention are in place, it will never happen repeatedly.

Their defense against Kobe was aimed at preventing the tragedy from happening.

The rest of the Lakers got their chance thanks to the horrific magic-realism defense the Magic played against Bryant.

Kobe was hovering around 35% shooting, while Versia and Odom happily started a high-position pick-and-roll and cooperation.

You make the ball, I layup.

You pick and roll, I hang the pass.

Everyone was having a good time except Kobe.

Even Stevens, who almost spit out his lungs to prevent Kobe from dying, looked at Kobe's shooting percentage and sighed from the bottom of his heart: "Not a loss! Not a loss!"

Devil Hills also showed his incomplete talent at a certain moment, taking the amazing first step to take Kobe's defensive position, reaching the inside of the Lakers and scoring a dunk on the top of Chris Mihm's head.

The Magic, which put too much effort into Bryant, is doomed to lose certain aspects of the defense.

The vacancies in those places were the root cause of their defeat.

Although the strength of the Lakers is due to Kobe, it does not depend solely on Kobe to win.

Normal Odom, Weixia who continued his high-level performance in the first two games, Brian Cook who made a three-pointer and 5 assists from the "smartest Lakers".

The Magic's defense is like a ritual of sacrificing Kobe.

At the cost of sacrificing Kobe, the Lakers played better offense and defense, while the Magic spent too much effort on Kobe and neglected other aspects of prevention. It seems that it is not enough to win.

Hill's performance and Francis' vague suppression of Weixia are the only two things that Magic fans can feel comforted.

109 is better than 88
Following the 48-point victory over the Mavericks, the Lakers played another 21-point victory over the Magic.

Unlike the game against the Mavericks, Kobe was no longer miraculous against the Magic. Not only did he not replicate the miraculousness of the previous game, but he was also defended horribly.

The swing people of the Magic are mainly Stevens, Hill, Hedo Turkoglu, and Bo Olot. Kobe was tortured every second.

The 21-point defeat proved that the Magic's approach was not successful, unless they played the game just to make Kobe uncomfortable and disgusting, not to win.Otherwise, even if they defended Kobe, who was as mighty as a god in the last game, to 21 points, 2 rebounds and 9 assists, it would be difficult to call it a success.

Kobe was indeed disgusted, but not without gain.

He sent 9 assists, allowing five Lakers to score in double figures.

米姆的20分，奥多姆的14+8+8，韦夏的16+5+4和布莱恩·库克的12分。

Locking Kobe should be aimed at winning. If it is just to lock Kobe, the price is really a bit high.

After the game, Kobe, who was disgusted, had a relaxed and happy face: "How should I put it, the Magic's defense is very challenging. It would be great if they defended my teammates the way they defended me."

Magic’s firefighting coach, Brian Hill (Brian Hill), who led the Sharks and Penny to the Finals, heard Kobe’s comments and responded with a wry smile: “I underestimated Kobe’s rigor. Unfortunately, we couldn’t meet his requirements. In my opinion, except for the Bulls in 1996, no NBA team in history can perfectly block every player on the team like we did to Kobe tonight.”

Phil Jackson, who has always been bitter and bitter, made fun of Kobe: "If Kobe can help us win by scoring 40 points with less than 21% shooting per game, why should I not encourage him to continue to 'play like this'?"

Wei Xia did not accept the interview because his "mere" performance of 16 points did not even qualify him for a press conference.

He doesn't care much about attending press conferences or not.

Back in the locker room, he took a shower, changed clothes, and waited for Jackson and Kobe to come back to give a lecture.

As usual, Jackson didn't say much, just a few short sentences. After that, the Lakers had to rush back to the local hotel to rest and leave for Miami early tomorrow morning.

The Christmas battle between them and the Heat has attracted worldwide attention, the past grievances between Kobe and Sharks, the head-to-head confrontation between Kobe and Wade, and the one thousand and one nights between Jackson and Pat Riley.

Personally speaking, this is just the first Christmas he has spent without his family.

(End of this chapter)