Chapter 248: Tianwang Mountain! Tennoyama!
The Spurs have won four championships in the past seven years, but none of them have won consecutive championships, so there is now a law that Spurs win championships in odd-numbered years. The Spurs and Spurs fans are not superstitious about this, they do not succumb to the shackles of fate, and to break this so-called law, they must win a consecutive championship, even if they can't win three consecutive championships, but they only need to win one consecutive championship.
Before the playoffs, Spurs fans were ready for a tough battle this season, but they were preparing for the Lakers with MVP Kobe Bryant and Spanish ace Gasol, the Green Shirts with the Big Three, and other teams including Paul's Hornets, not to mention the fifth-ranked Warriors.
But just as no one could have imagined that the young and immature Hawks in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs would force the Spurs into a tiebreaker, Spurs fans were shocked when the Western Conference semifinals were about to start the battle of Tianwang Mountain.
Only then did they begin to examine this little brother in the west, they knew that Chamberlain was powerful, but they didn't expect this giant's dominance to be so strong!
The NBA has always been the world of giants, with one exception, and that is the Bulls dynasty under the command of the Flyers. But since Jordan retired, it has been a total of nine years, these nine years are the era of giants, nine championships in these nine years, O'Neal took three with the Purple Shirts, the Spurs relied on Duncan to take four, and the remaining two, the Heat relied on O'Neal and Wade's dual core to snatch one, and the Pistons relied on team basketball to take one, but even if they relied on team basketball, no one denied that the core of the Pistons that year was Ben Wallace, a miniature giant.
When the Warriors forced the mighty Spurs into the seven-game game, when the Spurs fans saw the Warriors fierce and murderous, and when Chamberlain came to San Antonio in high spirits and high morale, the Spurs fans panicked, and they finally remembered the so-called fate again:
The Spurs won't win a championship in even-numbered years, and this year is 2008.
The Battle of Kings has always been the most hormonal-stimulating game in the NBA, and the impact of this kind of game is not limited to the teams on both sides of the game, but also the fans of other teams will not miss this opportunity.
In this way, when Warriors fans walked into the ATT Center Court, the home of the Spurs, they no longer saw the neat and uniform Spurs black and white jerseys, and they were no longer greeted by the uniform sound of 'Spurs promoted, the Warriors get out', the stadium was full of 23,000 seats, and there was no shortage of Warriors jerseys, especially Chamberlain fans:
“SUPER-Z! SUPER-Z! SUPER-Z! SUPER-Z! SUPER-Z! SUPER-Z! ”
"Warriors, attack! Kill the Spurs to get back the honor we deserve, we want a championship, the Warriors want a championship! ”
"Autobots, shapeshift!"
"SUPER-Z, LOOK HERE, I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU A BABY......"
The jerseys of various teams in the stadium were mixed, and Billups even saw the Washington Bullets jerseys that only existed in the fifties and sixties of the last century, but what shocked him even more was more than a dozen old fans, these people were about sixty or seventy years old, and the jerseys they wore were dark in color and complex with complex logos, although the words "Warriors" were written on the jerseys, but the reverse side was written "Philadelphia", and these jerseys were retro tights.
Billups was taken aback by the sight of those old fans, and he pulled Chamberlain and pointed at the fans and said, "Man, look there, look there, look there!" ”
Chamberlain simply waved his hand to the fans and warmed up with the help of Winnie, he is likely to play the whole game today, he is mentally ready for this, and what is needed now is to prepare his body for this.
Teared by Billups, Chamberlain looked back and saw those old fans, and also saw a familiar face, it was none other than the owner of the Warriors Arena, Mopti, the old black and thin African man.
Chamberlain smiled and waved at Mupti, and Billups asked him, "Aren't you shocked?" ”
Chamberlain secretly said that there was something shocking about this, and said: "I am an acquaintance of Mopti, although I am surprised that he can still drag his old arms and legs to San Antonio to watch the game at such an age, but this is nothing, right?" ”
"Mopty? Who is he? Billups asked in surprise, then he waved his hand and said, "I'm not showing you any one, but their jerseys, their jerseys!" ”
"What happened to the jersey?" Chamberlain was inexplicable, he looked at it and muttered, "That kind of tights is so ugly, I don't understand how those guys used to wear this kind of clothes, if they were excited during the game, it would be terrible." ”
Winnie looked up at those old fans and said lightly: "They are wearing the first generation of Warriors jerseys, and when my father led the team to win the championship, they wore that jersey." ”
Billups nodded, and he sighed, "So we have to win today, how long has it been since the Warriors made it to the Western Conference Finals?" We're going to lead the Warriors all the way to the Finals and win the championship! ”
Chamberlain was also silent, he carefully observed the arena, and then noticed that although there were many Warriors fans at the scene, these people were not uniformly dressed, they were all wearing jerseys, but if you look closely, the styles of these jerseys are similar, and the logos representing the Warriors are different, I am afraid that every set of jersey styles produced in the history of the Warriors has been gathered!
Chamberlain stopped talking, and he practiced lateral movement under the command of Winnie to familiarize his leg muscles with the intensity of the next match, and quietly waited for the game to start.
Nelson Sr. fielded a new starting lineup today, with Evans center, Chamberlain power forward, Jackson small forward, West scoring guard, and Billups playmaking guard.
The Spurs' starting lineup remains the same as before, with Oberto at center, Duncan at the front, Bowen at small forward, and Parker and Finley at the helm of the Spurs' perimeter.
Chamberlain and Duncan jumped on the ball, the two stood together expressionlessly, they looked at each other, one eye was burning with two flames and murderous aura, and the other was frozen for thousands of miles.
The referee threw the ball up, Chamberlain's center of gravity did not change, he directly rose to the ground, and at the moment when the ball began to fall, he slapped the ball with his palm. However, Duncan did not show weakness, and followed closely, except that he bounced much worse than Chamberlain, so he only had time to pluck the basketball with his fingertips, so that the trajectory of the ball was a little blurry and fell into the fingertips of the Warriors and Spurs players.
Jackson's hob meat character played a role at this moment, he grabbed the ball into his arms and raised his elbow directly, Bowen wanted to steal the ball but hit Jackson's elbow just right, from the first second of the game, the two sides were ready to fight with bayonets.
Billups took the ball, he was cruising on the outside, Chamberlain pushed Evans to stand in the penalty area, and ran out of the box to cover Billups, who shook his head and shouted with a solemn face: "Z, let me come, I want to get back what I lost in the 05 finals today!" ”
Billups brought the ball to the frontcourt, Parker stood in the three-point line and looked at each other, he opened his arms to stop Billups' breakthrough, but at this time the two were still three or four steps apart, and Billups had a huge space in front of him.
Parker's contempt made Billups smile coldly, he put away the ball and was about to jump, Parker didn't really despise Billups, the two played each other in 2005, that series, he was actually blown up by Billups, the reason why the Spurs were able to win the championship was because Duncan played steadily and Ginobili broke out into a sieve.
As soon as Billups put away the ball, Parker immediately rushed up like lightning, this is his plan, he was actually afraid that Billups would use his physical fitness to squeeze him to break through, and deliberately let Billups shoot from a distance, he was fast, even if the opponent put away the ball, there was enough time to rush up and interfere.
Parker's plan was perfect, Billups was just about to make a shot, Parker was already in front of him, he didn't go to fight Parker, which would be foolish for a mature playmaker, and he just handed the ball to West.
After West got the ball, he looked at Chamberlain, who was fighting with Duncan on the inside, and Finley was eyeing him behind, while Bowen appeared quietly on the wing, daring to jam him as long as he dared to break through.
West didn't break through directly, he learned to analyze the field like Billups, and at this time Evans was already pressed down by Oberto, which was equivalent to a waste. Billups was at the bottom corner of the three-point line after handing over the ball, and Parker chased him very closely, which was not a good position.
Seeing that West did not break through at the first time, Finley rushed up and directly pressed West.
West sneered and the center of gravity of his body fell like a sharp arrow, seeing this, Popovich smiled slightly, Finley did a good job, West's rhythm was actually out of order, he originally wanted to organize an attack, but Finley is now forcing him to choose a picture.
In the face of Westley's arrow-like breakthrough, Finley followed closely behind, and constantly reached out to interfere with his dribbling, and Bowen also began to block on the flank, once the two met, it was equivalent to blocking West's way.
West now has only one choice, to take advantage of Bowen's lack of a bag to come up and distribute the ball to Jackson, so that everything is back to just now, except that Billups who passes the ball is replaced by West, and West who receives the ball is replaced by Jackson.
Obviously, the Spurs are going to play a defensive battle!
But soon West had a new option, as Billups, who had run to the bottom corner, came back on a reverse run, appeared on West's flank, and reached out for the ball.
West didn't stick to the ball, and he immediately threw his hand and passed the ball to Billups.
The moment he caught the ball, Parker chased after him, Billups noticed Parker's pursuit with the corner of his eye, and the corner of his mouth turned to sneer contemptuously, and after saying 'Delonti', he turned and ran forward.
West passed the ball and took Finley laterally to block the road after Billups passed, and Billups used West's body to block Parker's pursuit with an acceleration and rushed straight inside.
Seeing this, Duncan's eyes shrank, and he did not hesitate to go to Billupska, this time it was not to interfere or block, he was to directly block Billups's way, so that he couldn't pass the ball!
Billups twisted his knee and began to slow down in the face of Duncan's oppressive defense, slowing down his pace before suddenly holding the ball in his right hand to the left and dribbling to Duncan's flank.
Duncan's goal was achieved, although Billups's change of direction was very fast, but Oberto had enough time to come up and wrap up, and the two of them completed the block against Billups, even if Billups passed the ball to Chamberlain at this time, it was too late, because Duncan could rest assured that he could return to the defense!