unfinished glory

Chapter 207 Eliminating the Spurs
The Spurs back at home are still full of confidence, ready to give the Grizzlies a good look.

They made careful preparations before the game, especially for Li Chongxiao, and deployed many defensive plans.

For example, in the first round of the game, when Li Chongxiao got the ball for the first time, two Spurs came to double-team him.

When he was dribbling in the backcourt, Parker came over and took the ball.Duncan may be defending in front when shooting, and Bowen and Ginobili may be hanging by his side when breaking through.

It can be said that during the entire game, when Li Chongxiao was attacking, there were no less than two people around him.

Even so, Li Chongxiao easily scored 45 points.In this game, he played his personal mid-range shooting ability to the extreme.All kinds of catch and shoot, emergency stop jump shot, strong dribble shot, back turn and lean back.

With the ball in hand this season, Li Chongxiao has been enlightened by the consecutive high scores.No matter how good the scoring skills are, it depends on physical fitness to support them.

Skill alone without physical support is useless.The same technique is used on different people, and the effect will be different.

Taking Jordan and Kobe as an example, this situation is very obvious. The offensive skills of the two are similar, but the scoring efficiency is somewhat different.One is "God" and the other is "Blacksmith".

Jordan turned around and leaned back, at least able to open up a space of one or two meters, directly higher than the defender by a head, and his shooting percentage was naturally high.

But Kobe's backlash effect is much worse. Sometimes the shaking is not in place, and other people's hands can interfere with the shooting line.Unable to avoid the defender, the hit rate of forced shots is naturally mediocre.

Li Chongxiao's physical fitness is not inferior to that of Jordan, and his offensive skills are also excellent, and he is naturally very efficient in scoring goals.He seldom sways left and right now as before, and only after getting rid of the defense can he make a shot.It depends on the timing, feeling the touch is coming, and it is not uncommon to make shots against the defense.

With his extraordinary ricochet height and wingspan, he is rarely disturbed by opponents.In the case of being double-teamed most of the time in the offense, his shooting percentage can still be maintained above the fifth floor.

In the playoffs, his field goal percentage has risen instead of falling, and now it is 55%, and the playoffs with the Spurs have reached more than 60%.

This hit rate is higher than that of many centers, and many commentators call it a monster.

With such a performance, the team's win is a matter of course.

The Grizzlies choked the lifeblood of the Spurs on the defensive end, and Li Chongxiao led and attracted the defense in the offense. Facing the sluggish Spurs, winning became a matter of course.

……

The loss of the third game made Popovich ashamed.

Losing is not terrible for the Spurs, what is terrible is that the team has no power to fight back.The situation of the whole game was firmly controlled by the Grizzlies, and the Spurs were not given any chance from beginning to end.

This game made Popovich deeply feel that the team he built has inevitably declined.

After Li Chongxiao left the team, the Spurs went from the top two teams in the Western Conference to the bottom half without much change in the lineup. Even in the playoffs, they had to consider which team to play to have an advantage.

It's only been one season since being feared by people to being afraid of others, and Popovich didn't realize it at first.

He also stubbornly thought that the Spurs in the regular season were just recharging their energy, and they would come back in the playoffs.But the Grizzlies made a clean 3:0, bringing him back to reality.

The Spurs are no longer the favorites for the championship, but have become a mediocre second-rate team.

What makes Popovich more uncomfortable than the team falling behind is that he used to think that he is the real God of this team, the real core above all players.

But the reality gave him a slap in the face, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that Li Chongxiao's departure from the team and Duncan's "very old age" are the biggest factors for the team's weakness.

Even if he claims to have a wealth of clever tactics, there is no way to prevent the decline of the team.

Who is the real core of the team is now clear at a glance.

Only after the tide has passed do you know who is swimming naked!

For the Spurs, the only thing to worry about is this situation of not getting enough to eat and starving to death. It is not known how long it will last, but for Popovich, what is lost is a dream!
……

There was no suspense in the fourth game. The Spurs tried their best to save some face, but the cruel reality was in front of them. Li Chongxiao killed their hopes again and again.

In the first quarter, the Grizzlies took a lead of more than 10 points. Whenever the Spurs were about to catch up, Li Chongxiao stepped forward to suppress the momentum of the Spurs.

This situation happened five or six times throughout the game. At the last moment, Li Chongxiao simply made a big move and made three consecutive ultra-long three-pointers, opening the point difference to 22 points in one fell swoop, completely ruining the Spurs' hope of chasing points. .

At the end of the fight, except for some unwilling people, most of the fans, whether they were veterans or new lovers, couldn't bear to watch and left early.

In a bleak atmosphere at home, the Spurs' playoff run came to an end, defeated by an emerging force.

Over the past four years, they have killed the emerging Suns, and now it is finally time to end.

In the ten years since Jordan retired, the Lakers and Spurs have always been the two mountains on top of the league teams. They made nine finals and won eight championships.

Different from the short-term downfall of the Lakers, the Spurs have always been at the top of the league, and they are the favorites for the championship every year.

Take Carlisle, the head coach of the Grizzlies, as an example. The teams he led before, whether it was the Pistons or the Pacers, were regarded as the strong players in the Eastern Conference, but they had no chance to enter the finals, and they were not even qualified to compete with the Spurs. nothing.

When he came to the west for only one season, he found that the old king was getting old and was no longer able to continue his rule.

The most likely to replace it may be the current Grizzlies.

Similarly, the former superstars also withered one by one.Although the current new generation has become the backbone, but now it seems that only Li Chongxiao wants to reach the level of O'Neal, Kobe and Duncan.

……

The game officially ended, the Spurs and several old players familiar with Li Chongxiao came to the sidelines, said goodbye to him and sent some blessings.

Bo Wen was very sad, he just said his treasure to Li Chongxiao, but he couldn't speak anymore.If there is no accident, he will be kicked out by the Spurs this summer, and he may retire within two years.

Duncan embraced Li Chongxiao affectionately, and fought side by side for four years, celebrating victory and facing defeat together every time, but today it was the enemy and us, one stayed and the other left.

This season, he gradually felt powerless. Facing players who broke through to the inside, he had no way to defend his territory as before.

He doesn't know how many years he can play, and whether the Spurs will have a chance to stand on the podium of the championship again.

Many managers of the Spurs felt that it was time to play badly and select another player to develop into the second Li Chongxiao.

But for Duncan, he is already old, and he no longer has the energy and ability to wait for the second Li Chongxiao to grow up.

(End of this chapter)