the rest, only noise

Chapter 1326 The arrow is on the string
Arrow on the string
"Support Patrick? I'd rather be eaten by a dinosaur!"

Half an hour before the start of Game [-] of the Western Conference Finals, Portland's Rose Garden was already packed with fans.

On the big screen directly above the stadium, the trailer for "Jurassic Park" is playing.

Since the film has been in theaters for a while, most viewers already know what the trailer is about, which is that Wilson's cameo in a supporting role is completely opposed to a character named "Patrick" in the film.

All viewers who saw this scene will recall certain things in reality.

It's an easter egg that would make anyone who knows professional basketball laugh.

A loss tonight would be the Blazers' last home game of the season and the end of the Pat Riley era.

For a long time, Blazers fans have always held a special affection for Riley.

It is undeniable that the Jordan era of the Blazers reached its peak during Riley's tenure, reaching the finals for six consecutive years and playing four tie-breaks, almost all of which lost the championship by a hair margin.

When Riley made a strategic mistake in the 1993 Finals and was consecutively overturned by the Knicks, the demand for Riley's dismissal reached its peak.

But within the Trail Blazers, Jordan has always been a supporter of Riley, and Paul Allen also felt that after contacting a number of outside team experts for evaluation, it was easy to replace Riley, but finding a better successor than Riley was harder than reaching the sky.

First of all, Riley is one of the few champion coaches who are still active since the 80s.

Moreover, he is familiar with the current rules and has brought the most advanced basketball system to the Blazers. In addition, he has the support of players-if you can completely ignore Barkley-and a very high minimum lead.

Substitution has become a problem for the Blazers. It wasn't until Riley decided to let go that this matter had a result.

Right now, the Blazers fanbase isn't upset with anyone, they just want to see this team win a championship.

For this, they have waited too many years.

New York is like a ship hitting an iceberg, Miami is like a boulder sinking to the bottom of the sea, the two biggest stumbling blocks in the way of Portland's championship dream have been removed, and this year, this is the best opportunity.

The Rose Garden was rife with hostility toward the Lakers.

Even if they fall behind 2 to 3, Trail Blazers fans still believe that they will beat the Lakers.

Because since 1991, the Lakers have been dominated by the Blazers, even with the addition of Benjamin Wilson.

Both NBC and TNT fielded their best lineups.

Mainly NBC, they have fans favorite Bob Costas, Bill Lambiel this pair of golden partners.

When the two sides were warming up before the game, a strange phenomenon of the Lakers caught Lambir's attention.

Generally speaking, NBA teams will warm up their hands and warm up before the start of the game by shooting shots, lining up layups, and various dunks.

Regardless of the team, this process will not change.

Today, Wilson's pre-match warm-up turned out to be singled out with Kobe.

Then, NBC got the Lakers' starting roster for tonight.

"The 18-year-old rookie Kobe Bryant will replace Jiang Duo as the starting player for the Lakers tonight." Costas asked Lambiel, "Bill, what signal do you think this change sends?"

Lambiel smiled dryly.

"If someone else made this adjustment, I would say he was playing with fire, but... Coach Road, it's a different story." Lambiel said, "No matter how you look at it, it is extremely risky to let an 18-year-old rookie play at this time. However, since Coach Road made this decision, there must be a reason for him."

When Riley heard that the Lakers had decided to start Bryant, he was baffled.

What do you mean?
Look down on us?

Riley remembers Kobe starting against them as early as the regular season.

Kobe didn't impress Riley that night.

Even if Bryant develops later in the game, Riley doesn't believe he's grown enough to make a positive contribution to tonight's level of play.

Riley sees the Lakers' adjustment as an opportunity to motivate his players.

Before the game started, he looked at Jordan with a livid face: "Just got the news that the Lakers decided to start Kobe."

"Kobe?" Jordan frowned, "That little kid?"

"Yes."

Jordan was very impressed with Kobe because the other party asked him some technical questions that no one had asked when they first met.

But Jordan also knows that Kobe is still very young, and it is even more difficult to withstand the confrontation in the Western Conference Finals.

The Lakers let him start, what does it mean?
"Obviously, the Lakers don't respect this game." Riley stared straight at Jordan, "Michael, you have to teach them a hard lesson!"

Jordan doesn't believe that the Lakers did this just to show their disrespect, and there must be some details that were overlooked.

But now, as Riley said, no matter what purpose the Lakers have, letting Kobe start is disrespectful to them, and they must be taught a lesson.

Before making this decision, Louis was not sure about it.

But after making the decision, Kobe's reaction made him feel that this is what they need to do.

In Louie's previous life, Del Harris even dared to ask Kobe to resist the pressure and shoot key shots when all the veterans in the Lakers team dared not take responsibility. He just let this kid start to try.

If he doesn't play well, that's normal. Who can expect an 18-year-old kid to shine in the Western Conference Finals?

However, as the most unpredictable nerve knife in NBA history, if he happens to lose his nerve tonight, then the impact he can bring to this game will be unpredictable.

At the end of the warm-up, Louie observed the demeanor of the starters.

Among them, Wilson and Garnett are the most natural.

The Tragedy Master hasn't played the first game for a long time, and I guess I still need to get used to it.

Barros returned to the starting lineup and will play "beautiful basketball" with the members of the Cavaliers. As the only non-staff member in the starting lineup, if he does not perform well, many people will blame him.

Barros's eyes flicked to his teammates, only to see Kobe fiddling with his shoelaces.

"You are not nervous, are you?" Baros asked.

Kobe said stiffly: "Who is nervous? You are nervous! Even if people all over the world are in anxiety, I will not feel nervous!"

Louie also noticed Kobe's anomaly.

This kind of reaction seems very un-Kobe, but when you think about it carefully, the future Iron King is only 18 years old at this time, and he is not the half-human, half-demon Black Mamba, just like he once sent four consecutive balls in the playoffs in his previous life.

Those non-sticks are proof that even Kobe had his moments of nervousness, but momentary setbacks only make great players stronger.

Kobe is still playing with innocent shoelaces.

He tried all kinds of shoelaces he knew, thinking that this would calm himself down, but the more he focused on tying his shoes, the more restless he became.

Bryant imagined the performance he might bring countless times.

He can become a hero with this game, or because of his poor performance, he will completely lose the trust of the coaching staff, or he will make a fool of himself in the game and be ridiculed by those bastard veterans for a whole year.

Just as Kobe was torturing his shoelaces for the 20th time, a pair of hands behind him landed on his shoulders and pressed gently.

"take it easy."

Kobe looked back and saw that it was his coach.

"I'm not nervous."

No matter what he thinks in his heart, Kobe must kill him verbally.

"It's best not to be nervous, what I want is you who is not nervous!" Louis encouraged with a smile, "If you perform well, I will keep you on the court tonight."

Kobe's eyes lit up, isn't this the treatment of starters?

"I will never let you down!"

This is the Nth time Kobe has said so this season.

Louis snorted: "If you keep playing with shoelaces, I might lose confidence in you."

"Who's playing with shoelaces... I'm just using it to keep my hand feeling..."

Do you rely on tying your shoelaces to keep your hand feeling?Kobe talking nonsense made Louie suspect that he had made a stupid decision.

But the arrow is on the string, and it must be fired if it is not fired.

(End of this chapter)