pinnacle of basketball

Chapter 503 You are still young

This battle of the century can be regarded as making up for the regret of the "Christmas War".

This season's Christmas game failed to have a "Lakers vs. Heat" matchup, which caused the league to be criticized by the outside world. The league also suffered a serious loss for this. Although it is not a serious injury, it also has a certain impact on the league's income. This season's Christmas game has set the worst ratings for the Christmas game in recent years.

Although the league admitted that it was the negligence of the league that it did not include the Heat in the Christmas game, this could not calm the anger of the audience. It was not until the All-Star Game that the discussion about the Christmas game was temporarily put on hold.

Let the Heat meet the "old enemy" Los Angeles Lakers in the record-setting final game, as if destined, the two teams are destined to have an extraordinary encounter.

All this fits so well that people can't help but wonder if the league is operating in the dark. However, the schedules of the respective teams were determined before the start of the season. At that time, no one knew that the Heat would achieve such an amazing winning streak, let alone James.

This duel has attracted the attention of the whole world, and the ratings far surpassed the All-Star and Christmas games, and even reached the level of last year's finals.

Everyone is looking forward to the two teams being able to dedicate a wonderful game to the audience. It is difficult to have so many All-Star players in one game, and the lineup is extremely luxurious.

The Heat arrived at Staples on game day morning, just as the Lakers had just finished practice and left the arena to meet the Heat.

The game has not yet started, and the smell of gunpowder is already very strong. As far as James is concerned, the significance of this game is no less than the finals. If this game is lost, it will be an indelible "black spot" in James' career.

James, who has always used others as his background, how can he let himself be someone else's background?

"Here we come!" James' tone was low, and even the tone of greeting was cold and without enthusiasm.

"Well, here we come." Wade replied.

Staples, for Rondo, is simply too familiar. He has played here for many years and brought Los Angeles the 17th championship trophy in team history, tied with the "mortal enemy" Boston Celtics for the first place in history, and he became the only player who won both the Lakers and Celtics championships, and won the 17th championship for the team.

Rondo played a vital role in the Lakers' 17th championship trophy. His outstanding performance in Game [-] of the Finals became a key factor for the team to win the championship.

At the beginning of Rondo's career, he also served as an assistant coach in Los Angeles, which made the relationship between him and Los Angeles deeper. Now returning to Los Angeles, Rondo brought a super strong team to face his old owner.

The Heat's training time is arranged in the afternoon closer to the game. Rondo believes that the pre-match training can help the team better maintain their competitive state.

The main content of the training is to respond to the venue. Although the height of the basket and various lines are uniform in the home courts of the 30 teams in the NBA, due to the different venues, players feel different about the ball frame. The Lakers’ home court ranks third among all 30 most popular teams, followed by the home courts of the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls, and the American Airlines Arena in Miami ranks fifth.

Returning to Staples, Rondo couldn't help but show his hand. Although he has been away from the game for many years, the feeling of dribbling has not weakened at all, but his shooting is still "as always" bad. After a dribble operation, the final long shot missed.

Seeing that the head coach was so excited, the Heat simply organized an intra-team shooting contest. In addition to the players participating, the team's coaching staff also participated together, and they were divided into groups according to the identity of coaches vs. players.

After the grouping, the average age of the coaching staff has reached 47 years old, while the average age of the players is only 27 years old. There is a difference of 20 years. Such a duel is very unfair to the outside world.

"Coach, is it okay to group like this?" Wade asked.

"We are old, and we can't compare with you in terms of physical confrontation. We don't need physical confrontation when shooting. Let's wait and see." Rondo did not show any weakness, so he decided on such a group match.

Both sides sent 5 players to shoot the game.

Although the Heat's coaching staff is getting old, the shooting feel is very soft. Except for Rondo's touch deviation, the baskets of other members of the coaching staff are terribly accurate, not losing to these active players at all.

The performance of the coaching staff caused a certain threat to the players, so the team sent out the five strongest pitchers except Wade and Barrett, and Mu Chenfeng was on the list.

After discussion, the game was played in the form of a relay shot. Five players stood at five points, the free throw line, the top arc, the bottom corners on both sides, and the middle circle.

Each position is shot in turn, the number of shots is not limited, after the hit, the next person will take the shot, and so on, from the free throw line to the middle circle, and the side with the fewer shots used to complete the five shots wins.

The team members immediately arranged their positions according to the characteristics of the players. Mu Chenfeng was placed in the middle circle. Among the five players, he was the only one who had the ability to shoot in the middle circle.

The first shot from the free throw line is a steady hit. The free throw is the most basic operation for a pitcher, and it is reasonable to be able to hit it. On the contrary, if the ball is not hit, I am afraid that it will be punished by additional training. Fortunately, the ball is hit and the throwing player escapes.

The players at the top arc also hit their souls with one shot, but at the more difficult bottom corners on both sides, the players wasted two chances and only hit the third shot. When it was the most difficult middle circle, Mu Chenfeng's first shot was slightly off and failed to hit.

Mu Chenfeng's goal was undoubtedly the most amazing goal of the team, and even their opponents applauded this goal.

It was the turn of the coaching staff to shoot. At the request of the players, they arranged Rondo in the middle circle, which was the most difficult to shoot.

The coaching staff is worthy of dealing with basketball all day long. The shots from the first four points were hit once, and even the bottom corner, which wasted a lot of opportunities for the team just now, was hit once. Finally, it was Rondo’s turn to shoot in the middle circle.

"I'm going!" The players exclaimed.

"Boys, you are still young." Rondo smiled.

(End of this chapter)