unfinished glory

Chapter 35 Against Boston

After playing the 76ers, the Spurs ushered in back-to-back games. On November 11, rushed to Boston to challenge the Celtics.

Among all the teams in the NBA, only the New York Knicks can compare with the Celtics in terms of history.Other teams that have been in the NBA for a little longer have either changed their cities or changed their names.

Unlike the Knicks who only have history and a little bit of glory, the Celtics' ancestors are really too rich.They have won a total of 16 championships, only the Los Angeles Lakers' 14 can come close.

The NBA has been established for 60 years, and these two teams have shared half of the championships.

However, after Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and other people retired, the Celtics sank for a while, and only made the playoffs once in eight years.

However, with the growth of Boston twin stars Anthony Walker and Paul Pierce, they have reached the Eastern Conference playoffs for four consecutive years.

Now that Walker is away from home, only Paul Pierce is left to support Boston independently.

Regarding this "truth", Li Chongxiao has read some interesting reports before.

Speaking of the 1998 draft, Pierce's predicted ranking was the top three picks, and he himself was sure that he would not fall out of the top five.

As a result, in the draft, his name was not read until the tenth overall pick.

Pierce said he was shocked that before draft night he didn't even know who Jason Williams and Dirk Nowitzki were, and that those two were drafted ahead of him.

And Pierce has always been a Lakers fan, but it was the Celtics who chose him, which made him very uncomfortable.

Speaking of the Celtics, their goal was originally Dirk Nowitzki, thinking that this white man who can shoot will be the next "Big Bird" Bird.

They have also secretly inquired about the options of other teams. Except for the general contact between the Dallas Mavericks and players, they have not heard that other teams are interested in Nowitzki.

The Mavericks, on the other hand, had long shown a determined look towards "Tractor" Robert Traylor, which made the Celtics relax their vigilance and did not seek a pick.

Then the Mavericks played a "dark secret" in the draft, and they really selected "Tractor" Robert Traylor with the sixth overall pick.

It didn't take long for the Celtics to be happy, and the Bucks intercepted Nowitzki at the ninth pick, and then traded Robert Traylor for Nowitzki and Pat Garrity with the nineteenth pick .

Pat Garrity was then sent to the Suns as part of the Steve Nash trade.

Now the Celtics panicked and quickly contacted the general manager of the Mavericks, Old Nelson.But old Nelson had already taken a fancy to the German, so how could he make a deal.

At this time, the Celtics woke up like a dream, and they were fooled by the Mavericks.When they inspected the remaining players, they were surprised to find that Paul Pierce had not been selected, so they were relieved and did not lose money.

At that time, Li Chongxiao saw the stories in these talent shows in magazines and thought they were very interesting. He even ate several slices of watermelon.I didn't know what happened until after I went through the draft, which was very cruel for the players in it.

Later, he also read the stories of NBA stars off the court on the Internet, including Pierce's famous "28 dollars in 11 seconds" experience.

After reading these short stories, Li Chongxiao had some three-dimensional feelings about the basketball stars appearing on the posters and TVs.

Students in high school don't like players like Pierce very much, they can't fly into the sky, and they don't have gorgeous breakthroughs.He looks like an old man when he plays, wobbling around, either tiptoeing to shoot, or leaning his body to arch inwards, slowly laying up.

Li Chongxiao didn't know what it was like to face the "truth" until he was on the field.His shortcomings of inexperience and poor confrontation were fully exposed in front of Pierce.

The opponent leaned on him, pressed in, stuck Li Chongxiao so that he couldn't jump up, and then suddenly took a step back, and the ball hit the ball without jumping too high.

Immediately after a goal, Pierce directly carried Li Chongxiao into the inside line, succeeded in a layup, and scored 2+1.

From the end of the first quarter to the beginning of the second quarter, Li Chongxiao and Pierce faced each other for four rounds, and it can be said that they did not defend even once.It was only because the opponent felt average that he missed two shots.

Li Chongxiao asked his teammates for advice during the intermission, and they said that this style of play is called rhythm.Pierce's offensive rhythm is this kind of floor flow, which seems to be slow, but very efficient.

If the stars get into their offensive rhythm, it will be difficult to defend.Speaking of which, Bowen pointed to Ginobili and said, "For example, Manu in the game against the Heat."

If you want to defend these players, you must first have a relatively high level of defensive ability, and you must not let the opponent's actions be too easy.Then find a way to disrupt their rhythm and make them play intermittently.

"For example, they scored two goals in a row. When making the third shot, if you feel that you can't defend, you will foul severely, pull down or hit hard." Bruce Bowen said.

Li Chongxiao saw on the bench that even though Bowen didn't want to be in such a mess with Pierce, it was still very difficult, so he started his job of serving tea, handing water and toweling with peace of mind.

In the second half of the game, Li Chongxiao still played as a substitute during the quarter. Pierce was not there at the moment, and the Celtics were controlled by "Glove" Gary Payton on the court.

Known for his tough defense, the veteran has been selected to the defensive first team for nine consecutive years in his career and is the only point guard who has won the best defensive player so far.

As famous as his defense is his "trash talk" on the court.Now on the court, he has been chattering, spewing trash at Parker wantonly.

After a breakthrough caused Parker to foul, Payton began to babble before the free throw: "I heard someone called you a French sports car? Are there any sports cars in France, Peugeot?"

Li Chongxiao really wanted to come forward and say that you are illiterate, Bugatti is in France.

"Are they talking about Renault? Then I'm Ferrari." Peyton continued.Both Renault and Ferrari have teams in F1.The former is a newcomer to F1, while Ferrari has won the F1 championship for several consecutive years.

This time Li Chongxiao couldn't bear it anymore, and interjected: "Oh, Ferrari? Is that the Ferrari you told Michael Jordan to buy?"

Hearing this, Payton glared at Li Chongxiao, then walked to the free throw line and missed the first free throw.

Parker smiled openly, and came over to pat his ass.Duncan also heard this conversation, and he patted his head as usual.

Back in the Spurs' offensive half, Duncan blocked the open, Parker passed the ball in time, and Li Chongxiao hit a corner three-pointer.

After two rounds, the Celtics attacked.After the defensive rotation, Li Chongxiao faced Payton who was dribbling.

Payton saw that it was the annoying rookie just now, and decided to teach him a lesson.He repeated his classic trash talk loudly: "Boy, just wait and see, I pass you like crossing the road in the morning."

"The road in Los Angeles at four o'clock in the morning? It's a pity that you couldn't pass, and you were hit by a car." Li Chongxiao was not easy to provoke, and satirized the other party's failure to hug his thigh in Los Angeles last season.

Several players next to him heard it, and Parker almost laughed out loud.

Payton was furious, this little rookie was too arrogant.He speeds up the dribble, looking for opportunities to drive.

But Li Chongxiao made up his mind to let go of the shot but not the breakthrough.Payton swayed left and right, and made a lot of fake moves. Li Chongxiao just got stuck in his path, didn't try to steal the ball, and didn't seem to care about letting him shoot.

Payton was a little bit stuck for a while. If there was no previous dialogue, he could end the battle with a jump shot.But the cruel words have already been released, so I can't slap myself in the face.

After dribbling the ball for nearly ten seconds, Payton really had no choice but to bite the bullet and rush inside.He relied on Li Chongxiao to squeeze into a reasonable collision zone, but he still couldn't get rid of the defense, and he couldn't find room to shoot.

He simply turned his back to the basket and threw it towards the basket by feeling. He had scored this kind of goal before.

But Li Chongxiao was already prepared, with a big cap, he slapped the ball out of the baseline.

"Drip", the Celtics took the lead in calling a timeout, and the two sides began to make substitutions.

Li Chongxiao watched the rest of the game off the court. In the end, the Spurs won 92:84, extending the winning streak to six games.

(End of this chapter)