pinnacle of basketball

Chapter 655 G2-King's Landing
In ESPN's latest player strength rankings, Los Angeles Lakers star James Bryant ranks first.

Every year, ESPN publishes a real-time list of players’ strength. At the same time, some doubts and discussions will arise along with the birth of this list. Some players or fans will make some complaints on social media or interviews with reporters due to some “unreasonable” rankings, but no one has ever questioned the position of the “top of the list”.

This is the fifth consecutive year that James has occupied the first place on the list. Since his third year in the league, he has become the master of this list.

In the first year, there were still some voices of doubt, but as he continued to show extraordinary dominance in the game and led the team to two championships, those voices disappeared.

Especially after he won the second championship for the Lakers, the fans fully recognized his "League No.1" status.

James is the perfect combination of talent and hard work, and his success has come naturally.

James and Michael Jordan maintain the record of 100% winning percentage in the finals, and they have won the "FMVP" in the championships they have won in their careers. This is something that even the proud LeBron James has never done.

James encountered a big score lag in his third trip to the Finals, which was the first time in his career. In the previous two finals, the Lakers won the first game and then won the championship.

"Barrett must regret what he just provoked James." It is rare to see James who is fully fired, and it is Barrett who pressed his switch.

After James' unstoppable "1 on 5", some voices that were not friendly to Barrett gradually emerged. Some people thought that angering James would do no good to the Heat. They had a chance to win the game, but now they have no chance at all.

"You seem to have provoked an incredible guy." At this time, the atmosphere in the Heat team was very subtle. The moment James scored, the atmosphere had changed and became very quiet.

"Well, it seems so." Barrett responded to Mu Chenfeng's words with a low voice.

"James who goes all out is really rare, you are really capable." Wade also echoed.

"Yeah, why provoke him." Claude's face was very helpless, he thought that Barrett was "exploding himself" by doing so.

But the reaction of other Heat players surprised Claude. Their faces were not helpless but excited, "If we can beat James like this, will the championship be stable?"

"Although I can't say that, I agree very much." These people didn't receive any blows, but were extremely excited.

"Crazy, you are really a bunch of crazy." Claude shook his head and said.

The Heat immediately organized a very efficient overall defense to deal with James' impact, which did bring some trouble to his offense, but the more difficult the situation, the more powerful James is.

James is like a huge magnetic field. The moment he catches the ball, he encounters three people's double-team defense. The Heat want to use more intensive defense to restrict James in the offensive initiation stage, but James' ball protection is very stable. The three-person double-teaming failed to make him make a mistake. Instead, he found a flaw in the defense, captured the instant shot opportunity, and made a neat long-range shot from the outside, making a precise hit!

The three defensive players made a defensive move after James completed the shot. Obviously, they were completely unable to synchronize with James in rhythm, unable to guess the offensive player's offensive choice, and the defense was doomed to fail.

James' comprehensive offensive skills caused the Heat's defense to fail again, and none of the three defenses could do anything to him.

James' touch is maintained at a very high level. In the face of such a strong defense, he still efficiently shot 5 of 4 shots with a super high shooting percentage. He also scored more than 40 points. Is it possible that he will score 50+ in two consecutive games?

As strong as Michael Jordan, he has never completed the feat of scoring 50+ in two consecutive games in the finals, but if James maintains his current offensive touch and aggressiveness, it is only a matter of time before he gets 50 points.

Time, of course, is enough. The Lakers' lead has expanded to 6 points. This is a temporarily safe score, because the Heat's touch is also quite good. Although it is not as efficient as James, it is also maintained at a good point.

Mu Chenfeng made 3 of 2 shots, and Barrett and Wade also scored goals. The performance of the "three minors" made the Lakers temporarily unable to seal the victory.

"You still don't give up." James said fiercely, "Then let me crush your vulnerable confidence with my own hands."

Still improving, James continued to improve his strength on both ends of the offense and defense. The previous one-on-five and one-on-three were just warm-ups. James once again became an unsolvable offensive extreme. From the three-point line to the penalty area at the basket, the Heat's defense was crushed again. His final choice was a two-handed dunk.

The Heat's on-the-spot contingency effect is not ideal. They have given James enough restrictions on the defensive end, but they still cannot prevent him from scoring.

"Don't you understand? The gap between you and me." James said to the Heat team alone.

"Gap?" Mu Chenfeng whispered, "That kind of thing is just your self-deception."

Mu Chenfeng chose to attack by himself, and suddenly made a quick stop jump shot past Oscar's defense, but he was blocked by James who came up to defend him.

"It's so fast." Mu Chenfeng showed an unbelievable expression. Before making the shot, Mu Chenfeng observed James' position on purpose, and made the shot after confirming that he was far away from him. However, he never thought that in just a short moment, James would actually make up the defense. His speed far exceeded Mu Chenfeng's imagination.

"It's not over yet." The blocked basketball was snatched by Wade who was following up. Wade immediately made a straight pass, which penetrated the direction of the Lakers and fell into Gaia's hands.

A black shadow jumped up from Gaia's body, and before Gaia completed the dunk, he was under the basket with one arm. Gaia's dunk with both hands was unable to break through James' one-arm block.

James has prevented the opponent's must-goal twice in a row by himself, and his reaction and sense of judgment are extremely quick.

"Can you still catch up this time?" Behind Gaia, Barrett caught the blocked basketball, jumped for life, and dunked the ball into the basket through Gaia.

(End of this chapter)