Jim Bass Ambition

Chapter 218 Playoff Players

After the game, Ruben Patterson, who was blasted by Kobe, went to the Lakers locker room to block the door, looking for Kobe.

After some cordial and friendly exchanges, Patterson's trip was worthwhile, and he got a pair of original sneakers that Kobe wore in this game, with his autograph.

"Yeah, I just love playing against him. I would cancel everything the night before Kobe Bryant to recharge my batteries. But I've never seen a performance like today. He completely destroyed us and even turned the away game into a game. To be his home stadium, to be honest, my mood at the time was 'Let this end quickly!' But being able to be the background board of such a historical performance is also an achievement for me, the next time I meet him I will never back down when I am playing. I will put this pair of sneakers on my display rack and use them to motivate me to perform well." After the game, Ruben Patterson, who was completely convinced, said in the During the interview, put Kobe's sneakers on the table.

"If we're still behind in the fourth quarter, then I'm still going to score for the team, but all I do is to win, we've put the win in the refrigerator and closed the door, then I don't have to. I stayed on the court, and it doesn’t matter whether I scored 40 points, 50 points or 60 points in the end, and whether I broke any records.” Kobe looked calm.

Kobe's continuous explosive scoring performance also made Jim, who had been on tenterhooks, a little relieved.

On the last day of the regular season, several focus battles are related to the playoffs.

In the Texas Civil War, the Mavericks challenged the Rockets away. The rookie Marquis Daniels became a surprise player. When Josh Howard was absent due to injury, Daniels stepped forward to fill Howard's vacancy in terms of appearance and position. Played the whole game in the game, contributed 21 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists, completely blowing up the Rockets' Jim Jackson.

It's just that Nash and Nowitzki's performance was really sluggish. The Rockets' bench had Padgett, Nachba and Mike Wilkes signed from the Development League to score 54 points. With 1 minute left, Padgett broke out suddenly, made 2 consecutive three-pointers and hit a layup. He scored 8 points in a row to narrow the point difference to 2 points, but Clarence Witherspoon's The lore layup was blocked by Najera, and the Mavericks won a thrilling 92-89 victory.But in March and April, the lineup was turbulent. The Mavericks, who suffered a losing streak, had a final record of only 50 wins and 32 losses, which was far from the expectations of owner Mark Cuban at the beginning of the season.

The Spurs played against the Nuggets. Under the solid defense of the Spurs, the three generals of the Nuggets Anthony, Voshan Leonard and Skitishvili made a total of 31 shots and only hit 9 goals. Duncan faced the media's mouth Camby, who once blew himself up in college, scored 32 points and 23 rebounds in 16 minutes of playing, easily destroying the Nuggets inside. The Spurs slaughtered the Nuggets 85 to 62, securing his second position in the Western Conference.

The Grizzlies host the Timberwolves, and while the starting quartet of Arenas, Sprewell, Szczerbiak and Jermaine O'Neal combined for a terrifying 92 points, the Grizzlies' team was even better, Eight players scored in double figures, and finally defeated the Timberwolves 8-117 at home, locking the team's record at 112 wins and 51 losses, the best in team history, surpassing the Dallas Mavericks at the last minute, and came to No. 31 in the West.

The game between the Suns and the Jazz, for the Jazz, there is no room for loss. Once they lose, regardless of the results of the Spurs and the Nuggets, they will be eliminated from the playoffs. The Atlanta Hawks have the same number of wins, but are worse than the other two teams in terms of win-loss relationship, and occupy a favorable position in the lottery draw.

As a result, D'Antoni's team went all out. Boozer scored 35 points and 16 rebounds, and single-handedly turned the Jazz inside upside down. Although the Jazz's Spanish guard Raul Lopez made 11 of 7 shots. The Suns scored a career-high 25 points and were unable to save the savior. The Suns defeated the Jazz 89 to 84, keeping the Jazz out of the playoffs, and at the same time overtook their own record over the Clippers and Eagles. To the penultimate sixth.

This double-lose game made Suns general manager Colangelo want to cry, and most of the team's draft picks will be handed over to the Bulls.

The regular season is over, and the playoffs will follow. The Lakers face the Nuggets, the Spurs face the Rockets, the Kings and the Mavericks meet again, and the Timberwolves, who entered the upper half for the first time, will face the challenge of the newcomer Grizzlies in the playoffs .

In the East, the Pacers and Pistons are the top two. The Nets, Hornets, Bucks and Heat form the second group. They are more than 15 games away from the top two, while the Knicks and Celtics are The buzzer entered the playoffs, and the Celtics only achieved a record of 36 wins and 46 losses, ranking eighth in the Eastern Conference, which shows the overall weakness of the Eastern Conference.

The Cleveland Cavaliers sadly missed the playoffs by one game, and in the eyes of many, this will be a point of weakness for LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony for Rookie of the Year .

However, the 76ers and the Raptors, two teams that had been in the dark in the playoffs, but because of internal disharmony, their record plummeted, and they didn't even see the shadow of the playoffs.

After two days of recuperation, the Lakers ushered in the challenge of the Nuggets.

Marcus Camby, as the only seed inside the Nuggets, averaged 10.6 rebounds per game in the regular season.

But Garnett, who he was facing, averaged 14.2 rebounds per game, second only to Ben Wallace, ranking second in the league's rebounding list.

The weak inside of the Nuggets can't fight against the combination of Malone and Garnett. Even the 41-year-old Malone is not something that Skitishvili and his ilk can fight against. Garnett has 23 points and 21 rebounds, and Malone has 15 points and 7 rebounds. With 8 assists, the Nuggets' defense lost sight of the other. Voshan Leonard on the outside was even more helpless with Kobe who was hot. He was easily scored 35 points by Kobe. The Lakers had 6 double figures, and Nene and Battier each With 8 points, they easily slaughtered the Nuggets 113 to 81 and got off to a good start.

Anthony experienced the playoff-level defense, making 17 of 4 shots and pulling his score to 17 points by relying on a large number of free throws. Camby had 5 points and 8 rebounds, showing a disheartened performance.

The only Nuggets who played well was point guard Andre Miller, who relied on precise mid-range shots to score 23 points and contribute a game-high 10 assists when the team was at a disadvantage.

"I think Kiki Vandeweghe's first priority in the off-season is not to get Kenyon Martin or anyone else, but to keep Andre Miller. Obviously, Andre Miller is the The most important reason for the improvement of the Nuggets' record this season is that he got 20 plus 10 in the last game. Such a traditional point guard, a playoff player, will be worth at least 4000 million US dollars in the future." Jim said in the news after the game At the press conference, a friendly reminder was given to Vandeweghe.

(End of this chapter)