Chapter 97: Unable to score? No, score however you want!
On April 10, Pepsi Center once again became the focus of the world.
The long battle for first place between the Detroit Pistons and Denver Nuggets is about to come to an end tonight.
Two months ago, the reversal in the last 1 minute and 55 seconds of the All-Star Game has always been the hatred of Nuggets fans.
In that game, it would be fine if one of the four Pistons won the Finals MVP.
But the Pistons took care of Ryan, but in the end it was Ajan who was cheaper!
Nuggets fans really can’t figure it out!
And for such a long time, some media have been ridiculing Ryan for not being able to score a point against the Pistons at critical moments. Nuggets fans are almost bored to death.
Ryan's shooting percentage was poor, and some media jumped out and said: "It's normal, after all, the Pistons once guarded him and couldn't score a point."
When Ryan lost, some media jumped out and said: "After all, Ryan is not the kind of superstar who can take down the Pistons."
I kept talking and talking for two whole months!
And today, I can finally avenge my past humiliation!
Of course, there's more to this game than just revenge.
The Detroit Pistons are, other than the Heat, the team most likely to reach the Finals in the Eastern Conference.
In the past two years, no Eastern Conference team has been able to challenge the Pistons' status.
As for the Nuggets, more and more people now believe that they will reach the finals.
Therefore, today this can be regarded as a preview of the finals that may happen!
Even Ryan can't guarantee that the Heat can overcome the Pistons in this history.
This is the case in competitive sports. If the same team plays again, the results may be very different.
Uncertainty is part of the charm of competitive sports.
Therefore, the Pistons are indeed one of the opponents they may encounter in the finals!
And the Pistons, they have always been the villains of the league, the threshold for a star to reach greatness.
In the early 1990s, Jordan passed the Pistons and began his legendary reign.
Last season, the Spurs and Duncan surpassed the Pistons to win the third championship, which can be regarded as Shi Buddha's moment of immortality.
Therefore, the Detroit Pistons have always played a role in every era - a touchstone for superstars.
Only the stars who can lead the team to overcome all difficulties and overcome the Pistons are qualified to start their own era!
Therefore, the game between the Nuggets and the Pistons means a lot.
The topicality is naturally very strong.
This is undoubtedly the last great battle of the regular season this season!
In the locker room, the atmosphere was equally tense.
Bird had a straight face since he entered the locker room today.
He wanted to put pressure on the players today and tell his players that this was not an ordinary game.
In order to ease the awkward atmosphere, Kirilenko asked Ryan:
"Ryan, how was the result of last night's match with Ms. 36E?"
Ryan raised his head with disdain: "I am a serious person! Unlike you, your wife allows you to cheat once a year."
“One time is enough for anyone.
I mean, I haven’t used it once! Why am I not serious! "
Weber also booed: "That's right, Ryan, what did you say when we broke up? I don't have a girl in my heart, I'm a natural at playing basketball. It's great now, I have a new girlfriend so soon."
Ryan spread his hands innocently: "I said that I don't have a woman in my heart, but I didn't say that I don't have a woman around me. I am actually very distressed because I am too attracted to young ladies!"
After everyone chatted for a while, the atmosphere relaxed a little.
After a season of training, the Nuggets are already a united team that knows how to adjust itself.
In the long season, occasional losses, doubts and abuses have made this team stronger.
While the players were talking and laughing, Big Bird stood up and shouted in a deep voice:
"It's time to play! Let the Detroit Pistons rest assured and be second in the league!"
After saying that, Bird walked out of the locker room first.
He knew that as long as he could conquer this group of bandits from Mount Auburn.
Then the Nuggets will surely be invincible in the world!
This is the final test for the Nuggets and Ryan!
Not long after the Nuggets players came on the court, the Pistons, who were as tough as steel and wore blue jerseys, also appeared on the court.
Ryan looked at the four of Billups, Hamilton and Double Wallace, and thought of the All-Stars two months ago.
He remembered the scene when all four of them stood in front of him, but he didn't get a single point.
These four people were simply the dark cloud hanging over Ryan's head during this period.
Although Ryan knew that with the right system, he could defeat them.
But this feeling of "I can obviously do it but the outside world thinks I can't" is killing Ryan.
Today we finally don’t have to hold it in anymore, the four of them, plus a little prince.
Get down here, everyone, I'm going to do it today so that you can't even stand up!
The starting lineup of both sides is in place. The Pistons are still the classic Pistons Five, and the Nuggets are also starting the game.
Before the game started, the Smiling Assassin who served as the commentator showed his kind smile, but said something that made Nuggets fans and Chinese fans want to punch them:
"Ryan won't score too high today."
Denver commentator Chris Marleau looked disdainful: "Isiah, why did you see him?"
“The first time the two sides met, Ryan’s scoring efficiency was not very high.
For the second time in the All-Star Game, the Pistons' four players were only serious for one minute, and Ryan couldn't do it.
So in today's battle for the top spot, they will definitely make Ryan very uncomfortable. "
The Smiling Assassin is by no means slandering Ryan because he supports the Pistons. He has a basis for saying so.
Ryan, a mid-range scorer who specializes in off-ball play, is the easiest for the Pistons to defend.
If Ryan has Wade's breakthrough and is paired with an inside line that can open up space, the Pistons will indeed be in trouble.
But it's a pity that Ryan is not Wade!
On the court, Ryan is ready for battle.
At this time, everyone in the team spontaneously gathered around Ryan and put their hands on Ryan's shoulders.
Then, Weber said on behalf of the whole team:
"We are all behind you to support you, give it a try, lion!"
Weber's mental state this season is completely different from last season. He still remembers his words "I want to win, even once" in front of Bird last summer.
At that time, Weber felt that he was almost abandoned by God.
But this season in Denver brought him rebirth.
So far this season, Webber is averaging 15.3 points, 8.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game. And because he no longer serves as the main attacker, his efficiency is much higher.
He also knows very well that this is his last chance to win the championship.
So no matter who stands in front of Ryan, Webber will do his best to help the young superstar clear the obstacles!
Ryan looked at his teammates and nodded.
Let the fun begin quickly!
The referee threw the ball into the air and the Pistons got the ball first!
Bird is not worried about the Pistons' offense.
Although after the head coach was replaced by Flip Saunders, the Pistons' offensive efficiency is indeed much better than before.
Sanders is not like the old pervert Larry Brown. He allows more three-pointers. Even the power forward Roaring Tianzun averages more than 5 three-pointers per game, which is very rare in this era!
Billups even let himself go, and his three-point attempts exceeded the 400 mark for the first time in his career.
The Pistons' offense has indeed improved a lot, but it is still far from the top.
After Billups passed halftime, he saw Ryan directly defending him.
This No. 3 pick in 1997 is the engine of the Pistons' offense and the most explosive scoring point of the Pistons.
As long as he can be held down, the Pistons' offense will only get worse!
As for Hamilton, just leave it to Kirilenko. The AK47 is very effective in defending people without the ball or with the ball.
In this way, Ryan and AK blocked Billups and Hamilton, and the Pistons' offense was unable to operate smoothly for a while.
Billups had no choice but to feed the ball to the roaring Tianzun who came out of his pocket.
Tianzun played Nene in a post-up single, but the Brazilian's defense was equally tough.
Under the interference of Nei Nei, Roaring Tianzun's straight-arm jump shot came out of the frame.
But inside, Ben grabbed an offensive rebound on top of Weber's head!
Although Ben was short, he had a stable base and was not stuck behind Weber when wrestling with him, so he also gained a good fighting position.
In addition, his athletic ability directly overwhelms Weber, so Weber couldn't even touch such a 50-50 ball!
After getting the rebound, Webber didn't hesitate and fouled Ben directly!
Flip Saunders cursed secretly. This season, more and more teams are beginning to use shark-cutting tactics on Big Ben.
Ben also lived up to expectations. This season's free throw shooting rate was an eye-catching 41.6%!
For comparison, Billups is shooting 43.3% from three-point range this season.
In the 20-21 season, Ben Simmons' free throw shooting rate in the playoffs was an astonishing 34.2%. But when people thought this was a ceiling-level blacksmithing performance, they found out after checking the data.
In the 05-06 season, Ben's free throw shooting percentage in the playoffs was only 27.3%!
For someone like Simmons, whose shooting is already outrageous, he still can't surpass Ben in this aspect.
This is evident from the strength of Big Ben in shooting!
Fouling him is a sure win!
Ben stood helplessly on the free throw line. After receiving the basketball, he pondered for a long time and demonstrated his shooting movements five or six times.
Then throw the ball with firm eyes!
"Three no-sticks! Ben Wallace's first free throw in the opening game was all three-frees!
When it comes to disappointing shots, Ben Wallace never disappoints! "
Nuggets home commentator Chris Marleau danced with joy. With such a center on the court, how could Denver lose! ?
Flip Saunders was also speechless. He had been a head coach in the NBA for so many years and he had never seen anyone shoot so outrageously!
Just say that you were tired and the free throws were erratic.
You gave me this kind of exciting show on the first goal of Wo Zhi Nyima?
Ben was also helpless. He didn't understand why basketball games were so complicated.
Is shooting a game played by humans?
Why can't basketball be played like football, where you hold the ball and rush straight in?
It's so funny that Ben didn't realize at all that he couldn't play like that. It wasn't because the rules didn't allow it, it was just because he didn't have enough status.
It's like before Ryan traveled through time, he never knew girls could be so proactive.
It is impossible for Ben to know how blind the referee can actually be.
For some players, walking with the ball is allowed.
In the second penalty, Daben learned his lesson and increased his strength.
As expected, the basketball was no longer embarrassed, but it hit the neck of the basket hard.
The Nuggets' first defense was perfect!
But the whole world knows that guarding the Pistons is not a skill. Being able to handle the Pistons' defense is the key to defeating them!
In the commentary box, the Smiling Assassin's smile revealed gloating.
Another so-called young superstar is going to be embarrassed by the Pistons' torrent of steel defense!
The Pistons are very good at dealing with Ryan's mid-range off-ball offense. They want to bite Ryan and not give him the opportunity to easily start shooting.
And that's exactly what Hamilton and Prince do.
Hamilton is ready to run a marathon with Ryan.
In order to avoid an accident today, Hamilton even only ate half full for dinner!
After all, he didn't want Ben to get a shark experience card with a gastrointestinal tract.
Come on Ryan, the showdown between our two marathon runners has officially begun!
but!
Ryan did not linger with Hamilton for the entire half as usual.
Just after halftime, the double-handed turkey handed the ball directly to Ryan outside the 45° three-point line on the right, and then moved away.
At the same time, the entire Nuggets team helped Ryan open up space.
Weber even retreated beyond the three-point line!
Flip Saunders is confused, what are the Nuggets going to do?
This posture is to let Ryan hold the ball and play in singles! ?
Bird must have eaten too much low-quality bird food last night!
How dare he! ?
What is the difference between letting Ryan hold the ball in singles and letting O'Neal serve as a three-point fortress?
In the commentary box, the smile of the Smiling Assassin disappeared.
When something goes wrong, there must be a monster, and the assassin knows very well that Bird is not the kind of coach who makes frequent mistakes. Ryan's fight must have been intentional by Bird!
Ryan took two steps back, creating a slight sprint distance from Hamilton.
Hamilton swallowed, this posture was too familiar to him.
They did the same thing when dealing with James and Wade.
Ryan, you don’t really want the special code.
Before Hamilton could finish complaining in his mind, Ryan kicked the floor and rushed towards the masked man!
With the blessing of the "instant start" talent, Hamilton felt that in just a blink of an eye, Ryan rushed in front of him!
Hamilton wanted to use his hands to stop it, but quickly rejected this stupid idea.
The rules of this season don't allow him to do that.
Hamilton must control the number of his fouls, because if he is troubled by fouls, the Pistons will be missing the most important of the three legs on the offensive end!
He is the leg that leads the charge!
There is no other way, the masked man can only use his torso to block Ryan.
But there is no time, and Ryan's confrontation ability is not comparable to Hamilton's.
Ryan dribbled the ball with his right hand, hit it with his left shoulder, squeezed past the masked man, and flew into the paint like a bullet!
Because Ryan's breakthrough was too sudden, neither Wallace could rush back to the penalty area in time.
Just like that, Ryan easily broke through Hamilton with the simplest dribble from outside the three-point line, and then got inside and scored with a one-handed dunk!
The whole audience was shocked. No one thought that Ryan would use such a simple and crude method to directly break through the Pistons' iron-blooded defense!
In the commentary box, Chris Marlowe also cheered with the fans:
"Can't score against the Pistons' defense? No, Ryan can score in the first round!
With a tomahawk chop, Ryan officially declared war on the Pistons in the most explosive way! "
On the sidelines, Daddario jumped up excitedly, and his chest naturally jumped twice.
Fans seemed to understand everything when they saw Daddario playing Q bomb.
Why has Ryan’s ball-handling skills improved so much? Because now he can practice ball control every day! It’s still the kind of training where you can control two children at once!
Seeing Ryan break through easily, Hamilton secretly cursed the league for their idiotic behavior in changing the rules.
He knows that Ryan's dribbling is actually very simple, and he would definitely not be able to break through last season. But under the No handcheck rule, as long as Ryan's impact is strong enough, he can complete the breakthrough without any technical content!
There is no way, who made the ratings of the finals between the Pistons and Spurs so low that it was appallingly low?
If the league is good enough and continues to play defensive basketball, the ratings will continue to be so low, and the advertising fees will no longer be affordable.
In fact, Stern initially wanted to gradually unlock the No Handcheck rule.
This is also the reason why this rule was proposed for the 2004-05 season, but there was no obvious change last season.
People, it takes time to adapt to the new size.
But last season's shocking ratings made Stern decide to cut the knot quickly and speed up the progress, so he strictly blew Handcheck this season.
It's just that people never expected that Ryan, a scorer without the ball, could also reap the dividends of the rule change!
In the next attack, Prince's catch-and-shoot mid-range shot helped the Pistons equalize the score.
But even the most die-hard Pistons fans know that expecting Prince and Ryan to score points is unrealistic.
Ryan's scoring average is more than twice that of Prince!
We have to find a way to hold down Ryan!
After one round, the Nuggets continued their previous strategy. Ryan held the ball at the top of the arc and beat Hamilton in a single!
With the previous experience, Hamilton allowed Ryan to be more defensive this time and took two steps directly.
Ryan slowly approached, accelerated, and then suddenly changed direction as he approached Hamilton!
This movement of changing direction in front of the body is very basic, and to be honest, the speed of changing direction is not very fast.
However, because it was still far away from Hamilton, Ryan's dribbling was not interfered with, so the change of direction was quite smooth and without mistakes.
No matter how low your dribbling ability is at 60, you won't lose the ball just by making the most basic change of direction without confrontation.
This change of direction, which was neither quick, confusing nor strong, only gave Ryan a slight chance to break through, but that was enough!
As long as Hamilton doesn't stand in front of Ryan, Ryan can pass by him with the force of the impact!
It was the same as before, Ryan dribbled the ball with one hand and protected the ball with the other, and then used his shoulder to drive away Hamilton, who was afraid to take action, and easily reached the inside!
Roaring Tianzun rushed back to the penalty area, but Ryan still took the lead and scored a one-handed dunk!
Holding the ball and changing direction, he broke through and dunked with one hand. The Pistons' defense was penetrated again!
The Nuggets fans were going crazy. They had never seen this kind of scene before!
Ryan succeeded in breaking through with the ball continuously. This is so magical!
Big Ben was angry, OK, OK, Ryan, you want to play like this, right?
I just let Weber shrink the penalty area and see how you break out!
So in the next round, Ben directly waited at the edge of the three-second zone when defending.
The entire Pistons' defense has changed back to the tighter formation it had when they played against the Lakers.
When Ryan was holding the ball at the top of the arc, Hamilton wanted to retreat directly behind the free throw line!
Ben looked at the Pistons' iron barrel array and felt confident.
I want to see how you can score this time! ?
Facing our shrinking defense, you, Ryan, are extremely capable, and this round will be in vain!
As a result, Ben had just finished thinking that Ryan started shooting directly from outside the three-point line!
Fuck you, you are so well guarded inside, don’t I know how to cum outside?
Wouldn't it be nice to shoot a three-pointer from an open position?
Hamilton was so frightened that he immediately stretched out his hand to interfere, but because he had just put Ryan too far away, he was unable to interfere with Ryan's shot.
And under the influence of the "opportunist" talent, Ryan's open three-pointer went directly through the net!
“Starting 7-2, Ryan scored 7 points in a row!
Moreover, Ryan scored in all three of his first three shots!
The Detroit Pistons' defense has nothing to do with him!
Ryan can't score against the Pistons' defense?
This is a joke!
He can score however he wants under the Pistons' defense! "
After Chris Marlowe finished yelling, he turned around and saw that the Smiling Assassin had become the Bitter Melon Assassin.
Seeing Ryan scoring so calmly, Isiah Thomas sighed, and the memory of being stepped on by Jordan suddenly began to attack him.
He knows, the Detroit Pistons.
It’s about to become a backdrop for the rise of a superstar again!
This damn curse will come true again on Ryan!
Thanks to Ye Wujin, Bao Jia Wei Guo and Me Chong for the rewards, thank you all!