Jim Bass Ambition

Chapter 305 The So-Called Teammate

Since the implementation of the new contract system in the NBA in the 90s, players' wages have been soaring. The current league is far from the era of 40 years ago, when teammates passed the time by cards, jokes, comic books, and roadside magazines. Today's players There are millions of dollars in property in the account, and playing basketball is nothing more than a kind of labor under a commercial contract for many players.

The mentality of players is very subtle. Teammates who get along day and night may become good friends and brothers for life, such as Francis and Mobley, wearing the same coat, shuttling between the feasting and feasting of major cities together, running Lose all your money in a Las Vegas casino, then find a Houston nightclub to prove to others that the two of them are straight and straight.

But it is very rare to have a brotherhood that wears the same trousers like this. Teammates can only be a kind of colleague relationship. Under the same general environment, they have their own little calculations.

For some players, what they pursue is honor and the comfort of playing in a harmonious team, but for more players, the dollar is what they value more. There are only 24 All-Stars per year, and the bottom of the pyramid Players are working hard every day for their next contract.

For example, Sprewell, who has been in the league for a while, was selected as an All-Star, led the team to perform a black eight miracle, entered the finals, and choked the coach, was suspended for a whole season. It can be said that both the red list and the black list are on the list However, he left his name in people's memory in various ways.

This year is the last year of Sprewell's five-year, 5 million contract. When he signed this contract with the Knicks, the number was quite impressive, but the Knicks gave it to his partner in the second year. Alan Houston's six-year, $6200 million contract made Sprewell feel insulted.

Although the madman is 34 years old, he can still score 15 points per game, and at the same time provide an above-level defense, but watching his teammate Jermaine O'Neal and Gilbert Arenas hold the top Salary, including Szczerbiak, has a 6-year contract of 6400 million US dollars. The madman is a little uneasy again. The kid who has never made it to the best team, let alone touched the floor of the finals.

Coupled with the joining of Eddie Griffin, this person is in the locker room every day, living in his own world, and has little communication with his teammates on and off the field.

So this season, the Timberwolves have not changed much in the core lineup, but their record has remained stable, and they have not had the momentum of last season.

The Lakers played against the Timberwolves with 6 win and 1 losses in the last 5 games. The acting head coach Stevens inherited the slowness of the previous games. The Timberwolves played a 27-14 start in the first quarter. Prewell performed particularly well. The madman had a strong desire to attack, plus he felt hot. He made 7 of 5 shots in a single quarter and scored 10 points; Jermaine O'Neal scored 6 points and 5 rebounds.

For the Lakers, Garnett and David West didn't seem to be in the right shape. The two made 7 of 0 shots combined and lost the support of the inside line. The Lakers' offense was maintained by Kobe alone. In the first quarter, the Flash He made 5 of 4 shots and scored 9 points.

When the game went well, the team seemed to be in harmony. The Timberwolves still maintained a good state in the second quarter. Jermaine O'Neal, Arenas, Sprewell and Szczerbiak took turns firing. Nezha Hudson also had a good performance. The Lakers relied on the hot Kobe Bryant and Wade, who came off the bench, to keep scoring points. The point difference between the two sides was always around 10 points. , but after Garnett grabbed the backcourt rebound, the backcourt buzzer thrown with one hand unexpectedly fell into the basket of his old club, which caused the audience to exclaim.

With this three-pointer at the buzzer, Garnett broke his sports scoring drought and narrowed the difference between the two sides to 9 points.

The biggest hero of the Lakers in the first half is undoubtedly Kobe Bryant. Fei Xia made 10 of 8 shots and scored 19 points alone. He almost dragged the poor team forward with his own strength.

But in the third quarter, the situation changed suddenly, and Kobe's touch seemed to stay at the basket before. Especially after the Timberwolves replaced the defensive expert Hassell, Kobe continued to hit the iron, making 8 of 1 shots in a single quarter, and only scored 2 points.

However, the Timberwolves did not take advantage of this opportunity to open the score. Sprewell also launched a personal blackout performance, a large number of unreasonable singles, 5 of 1 shots in a single quarter, and 3 turnovers. Good teammates, forcibly attacking, and after falling into a defensive trap, barely missed a shot or had no choice but to throw the pot and made a pass error, which made Arenas feel helpless several times. Agent 0 only took 2 shots in a single quarter and hit 1 goal.

In the case of Kobe's miss, Billups stood up, made 7 of 4 shots in the third quarter, and scored 10 points in a single quarter. Garnett also recovered, scoring 6 points and 8 rebounds. With the help of Kobe, Grabbed 5 offensive rebounds.

In the third quarter, the two sides tied at 23. The Lakers fell behind 67 to 76 and entered the fourth quarter.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, both sides played in rotation. The game became a confrontation between Wade and Trenton Hassell. Wade first made a layup, then hit a positive three-pointer, and then broke through It caused Eddie Griffin to foul and scored 2 plus 1. In the end, after grabbing the rebounds from the backcourt, he rode through the checkpoint and dunked and scored. Hitting 4 mid-range shots in a row helped the Timberwolves maintain their lead.

As the two sides gradually switched back to the main force, the final decisive battle was carried out. After a full quarter of ironing, Kobe no longer continued to compete with the feel, but frequently hit the inside to create damage; Helping the team on defense, organization and rebounding, the starting 4 Gawade is the fourth-quarter lineup that Stevens often used during this period, Artest was moved to the power forward position, regardless of Whether it was Jermaine O'Neal or Nesterovic, neither could defend the outside line. In the case of being half-emptied, Artest hit two fatal three-pointers to help the Lakers fall behind for almost an entire game. In the case of overtaking the score.

Win first and then lose, impatience enveloped the entire Timberwolves team. Philip Sanders called two timeouts in a row to no avail. Riffin was like a rookie on the court, chasing the ball and running around. The Lakers continued to use off-ball screens, went through the back door and let Wade cut to the basket to score points, but led by 2 points.

最终，湖人在第四节打出了44比20的恐怖攻击波，逆转森林狼，以111比96取胜。科比31分，加内特12分19篮板7助攻4盖帽，韦德和比卢普斯各自得到20分。

森林狼方面，斯普雷维尔23投9中，得到20分；阿里纳斯14投8中，同样是20分；杰梅因·奥尼尔10投6中，17分13篮板。

(End of this chapter)