Coach, I don't want to retire yet

Chapter 609 The ultimate showdown!

James got to know these young people from South Sudan very carefully in the training hall.

These South Sudanese young men are 16 years old at the oldest and 13 years old at the youngest. The shortest among them is 1 meters tall, and there are 8 who are over 2 meters tall. The shortest player, who is 20 meters tall, is only 1 years old, but his wingspan reaches an astonishing 8 meters.

With a height of 1 meters and a wingspan of 8 meters, he is comparable to Rondo. His wingspan is 1 centimeters longer than his height. His role in offense and defense in basketball is really huge.

The key is that these little guys can really run and jump!
James felt that with such a group of promising young players, even though he was a rookie coach, he could still gain many unexpected benefits by guiding them.

After gaining a deep understanding of the specific situation of the group of young people he took over, James became more and more confident.

After finishing a day's trip and returning to the hotel, James immediately arranged for Paul to start arranging his coaching arrangements in South Sudan.

He doesn't need to worry about food, drinks, and the construction of the stadium. Luol Deng said he will take care of all these expensive things.

However, there are some things that Luol Deng cannot guarantee, and that is the teaching staff.

Luol Deng is also an NBA All-Star player and has connections in the NBA, but it is not easy to recruit outstanding coaches to South Sudan.

At the very least, when it comes to money, Luol Deng cannot be satisfied.

"Since I'm going to be the head coach here, I need a group of good assistant coaches, starting from high school and below. In the next one or two years, I need a lot of excellent coaches who can help with enlightenment. Don't be afraid to spend money, as long as they are good enough, there is no upper limit on the budget!"

If Luol Deng can risk everything for the basketball career of his motherland, can't he risk everything for his own new life?
Besides, to him, money is the least valuable thing.

He is willing to spend an extra 2019 million yuan if it would make him successful in .

For James, time is the most precious thing.

Naturally, Paul has no objection to the arrangement for James. He also hopes that James can return to the NBA as soon as possible and return to the mainstream vision of the world as soon as possible.

At this moment, James, far away in the interior of the African continent, is planning his counterattack in full swing.

On another continent, the United States, the NBA is also in full swing.

This year's NBA Finals is definitely one of the most exciting finals in NBA history.

In Game 1, the Bobcats defeated the Lakers with great difficulty at home.

In Game 2, the Bobcats tried their best at home in the absence of O'Neal, but were still inferior to the Lakers and were eventually defeated by the Lakers.

In G3, it turned out that O'Neal was absent not because he deserted or was injured, but because he came to Los Angeles two days in advance to prepare for the G3 game.

For the veterans, adapting to the venue is indeed a huge problem. Flying from Charlotte to Los Angeles, and then immediately engaging in the fierce finals, this is indeed a huge problem for the veterans.

Traveling a lot is never easy in any sporting event.

After such adjustments, O'Neal performed brilliantly in Game 3 of the Finals, playing for 15 minutes, making 12 of 9 shots, 8 of 4 free throws, scoring 22 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks.

The Bobcats' inside combination of him and Duncan, one on defense and one on offense, laid the foundation for the Bobcats' victory.

The 15 minutes that O'Neal was on the court were also the 15 minutes in which the Bobcats established their advantage. In the end, the Bobcats only won by 130 points on the road, 125 to 5.

O'Neal made a great contribution to this game.

After Game 3, in the post-match press conference, Coach D did not even name Thabeet and Beasley, who scored 30+ points in the game, as the best players of the game, but instead awarded the best player award to O'Neal.

This is really incredible.

Soon after Game 3 of the Finals, fans and reporters in Los Angeles discovered that O'Neal had left Los Angeles the day after the game.

The plane O'Neal was on was to Charlotte.

This is very clear. Coach D is planning to let O'Neal play G3, miss G4 and G5, and return to Charlotte to prepare directly for G6!
You know, Grant Hill of the Bobcats did not come to Los Angeles with the team after Game 2.

In other words, Coach D is determined to get Game 6 at all costs!
Faced with Coach D's almost obvious tactical arrangement, Popovich felt uncomfortable.

Because he has no choice.

Even if he knew that Coach D wanted to grab Game 6, he couldn't do anything.

Because the Lakers don't want to play a game 7, a game 7 would be extremely disadvantageous to them.

Therefore, the Bobcats can skip some games, but the Lakers cannot. They have to try their best in every game.

Besides, are the Bobcats letting it go?

In fact, Coach D gives his all in every game, but it is the young people of the Bobcats who give their all.

These young people can really fight.

But he cannot not play the team's three veterans like he did in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, and instead let Jokic and Antetokounmpo lead the team.

Because now his team is trailing 1-2, and if they lose one more game, it will be the end.

Even if it really went to a Game 1, the Lakers would still have a chance, but if they were really behind 3-, they would really have no chance at all.

Therefore, even though he knew that Coach D was trying to grab the spots in G6, G4, and G5, Popovich still used all his main players and played desperately in these two games.

Even so, it was not easy for the Lakers to win these two games.

Duncan is really the best player defending Yao Ming!
Can Duncan defend Yao Ming?

It is definitely undefendable, but if Yao Ming wants to get the same data, the consumption of playing against other players and playing against Duncan is incomparable.

G4和G5这两场比赛，姚明场均30.5分14.5个篮板7.5个助攻4.5次盖帽，两场比赛场均上了42分钟，G5的比赛结束之后，姚明肉眼可见的累。

It’s not that Yao Ming doesn’t want to rest, because Kobe and McGrady are also very tired!

Beasley's off-ball running is too strong, and he entangled McGrady, making McGrady very uncomfortable. Beasley's main strategy is to fight with consumption if he can't win. Indeed, McGrady was severely consumed by Beasley.

And Jordan's defense against Kobe was also a consumption flow, and the intensity of the defense was extremely high!

Therefore, the Lakers were able to successfully win the two games G4 and G5 at home, which really required Yao Ming, Kobe and McGrady to fight hard. Even if the three of them tried their best, they only won the two games by a total of 10 points.

Even if O'Neal and Grant Hill are not on the court, the Lakers are stronger than the Bobcats, but in reality they are only slightly stronger.

Of course, for many neutral fans and spectators, this game is so damn exciting!

With such a high intensity, both teams can still have such a high hit rate and efficiency. The players on both sides are simply invincible! Both teams can score at least 120 points in a game, which is incredible.

Especially after seeing the intensity of the game, looking at the scoring data, you will find it even more incredible.

Therefore, now most of the audience, fans, experts, and celebrities are willing to accept the fact that these two teams are the two strongest teams in the history of the league.

"If it was the Rockets team I played in those two years, it might be difficult to score 100 points in a game against these two teams."

In an interview, Olajuwon was full of praise for both teams.

Then, Olajuwon seemed to have turned on the switch of the celebrities' fancy D-blowing. Magic Johnson said that his former show-time Lakers, which was known as the strongest offensive Lakers in NBA history, would never score more than 110 points in any of the seven games against these two teams. He also said that the Lakers would not be able to win a single game in seven games and would definitely be swept 4-0.

Then Magic's former good friend, Pistons legend Markelle also said that the Pistons, which were once known as the toughest defense in NBA history, might not be able to defend either of these two teams. These two teams could easily score 130 points, or even 140 points, or maybe more, on the Pistons.

Because these two teams are not only strong in offense, but also extremely strong in defense, it’s just that their strong defense is overshadowed by their strong offense.

"In the history of the NBA, no team can beat them in a seven-game series. No, even beating them by one game may be a luxury!"

In this atmosphere of fancy D-blowing, the Lakers and the Bobcats started the game 6.

In the first five games, the first two were at the Bobcats' home court, with a score of 1-1.

The next three games were at the Lakers' home court, with a score of 2 to 1.

So, the Lakers are now leading 3-2 and have the match point.

So, in Game 6 of the Finals on June 15, league commissioner David Stern brought the championship trophy to Charlotte's home court.

Of course, the FMVP trophy is also included.

Before the game started, public opinion had actually gone crazy.

Many people are offering advice to the Lakers.

In particular, many Spurs head coaches have been frantically posting advice for Popovich.

Coach D is too insidious. He let O'Neal and Grant Hill rest for so long and waited for the Lakers in Game 6, intending to make trouble for the Lakers. In this case, the Lakers, who are leading 3-2, can completely let this game go for a while, let the three veterans rest, and then fight for a game .

Many Spurs coaches hold this view. Even Budenholzer, the former assistant coach of the Spurs, called Popovich directly, hoping that Popovich would do so.

Whether to compete with G6 or G7, this is actually a huge problem.

And it seems that Popovich has many options for this issue.

You can choose both, just pick one.

In fact, he had no choice.

He can only try hard in G6 and hope that the finals can be ended in six games.

As for letting the three veterans rest in this game.

This is impossible because he rested three veterans and Coach D definitely would not play O'Neal and Grant Hill in this game.

Because the Lakers without the three veterans are far inferior to the Bobcats with O'Neal and Grant Hill.

The Lakers without their three veterans are no threat to the Bobcats.

It seems that the three veterans did get some rest, but without the three veterans, they would probably be beaten badly by the Bobcats in Game 6, and their morale would collapse!
Although Coach D and the Bobcats have been reserving their strength and focusing on the key games, Coach D did not give up those games where they could reserve their strength, and they played almost every game to the end. Losing such a game will not hurt morale. Even if I have a trump card and can still play against you even worse, this can even boost morale.

These people's suggestions do have merit, but following Coach D's path and leaving Coach D with no other options only seems to be a good idea. In fact, Coach D probably wishes he would do so.

So, for the current Lakers, if the probability of the Lakers and the Bobcats winning the championship is 1:1, then in Game 6, the Lakers still have a certain chance to win the championship. After all, as long as Yao Ming is there, the Lakers are still stronger than the Bobcats. It's just that O'Neal and Grant Hill are resting and the previous few games were too intense and Yao Ming and others were too tired.

However, the Lakers can still hold on by gritting their teeth.

If we really give up G6 to compete with the Bobcats for G7, the winning rate will probably be much lower than competing for G6.

To fight for G6 or G7, this is a very big problem for Popovich and the Lakers.

On the Bobcats side, Du Kang actually had nothing to worry about.

Up to now in the finals, he actually only needs to watch the food go with the meal. With Yao Ming and other three veterans on the Lakers, he has gone all in. Game 6 is the final battle.

If the Lakers choose not to play the three elders in Game 6, then he will be happy. The Lakers without the three elders cannot beat the Bobcats without O'Neal and Hill, and the gap is still very long.

"In fact, Game 1 of this finals is the key, because we won Game 1, we have the initiative, and we can use better physical strength to control the Lakers."

"The buzzer-beater by Tim in Game 1 was so important! When we were in the Lakers, we played against the Heat in the finals, and winning Game 1 was the key. If we had lost Game 1, we would have been dragged down by the young Heat. We definitely wouldn't have swept the Heat 4-0, but would have probably lost to them 3-4."

Nash and Iverson couldn't help but sigh as they recalled the five-guard Lakers of those days.

Both can now see things from the coach's perspective.

When it comes to the playoffs, the real peak showdown, it is very important to grab G1!
Coach D is undoubtedly the coach in the entire NBA who is best at grabbing key games.

The Lakers are so passive now because Coach D is good at grabbing balls.

"However, we don't have a guaranteed chance of winning the game tonight."

Indeed, if all three Lakers veterans play at night and the Lakers fight for six, the two teams will be evenly matched at best.

Tonight's fight for Game 6 is different from the fight for Game 3. With the addition of Grant Hill, the Bobcats will definitely be stronger.

However, the Lakers will definitely be more targeted against O'Neal and Hill. The most important thing is that the Lakers have already got the match point. In this game, Yao Ming, Kobe, and McGrady can even play for 48 minutes for victory. As long as they fight for this game, the Lakers will be the champions. The Lakers in this game are definitely the strongest Lakers!
The probability of facing the strongest and most hard-working Lakers team is 50%, which is actually very high.

On the evening of June 6th, Charlotte Arena.

Once again the house was packed tonight.

"The strongest mountain cat!"

"The strongest Lakers!"

"There is no doubt that tonight is the ultimate showdown between the two strongest teams in NBA history!"

(End of this chapter)