Champion Rules

Chapter 74 070: Shaq Can't Escape Either (Please Subscribe!)

The shark's rage surged in its chest, as unquenchable as a hurricane in the Florida Gulf.

He'd had enough.

He clearly led his team to a huge advantage, but everyone was telling him to shut up, as if he had done something wrong.

Back in Los Angeles, no player dared to say they would score 40 points against him, and no one dared to shut him up.

Phil Jackson, whose hands were covered in sparkling rings, wouldn't even ask how many women he'd slept with or how many bottles of whiskey he'd drunk the night before the game, just to keep him happy.

But ever since they donned the red and black battle robes, the trembling gazes that once shrouded the "big diesel engine" in its shadow have suddenly vanished without a trace.

Stan Van Gundy was yelling at him all the time.

Pat Riley treated him like a role player.

But none of that matters. At least in the locker room, the respect he receives from Wade, Damon Jones, and others offers him some solace.

What stung him most was the cold look that brat Lin Qi had just given him.

There was not a trace of awe in his gaze toward the three-time FMVP winner; it was more like he was looking at a clown in a circus.

That feeling of being above the entire league is gone.

The distance from the throne in Los Angeles to the South Coast is farther than the distance from Orlando to Los Angeles across the United States.

This sense of identity rupture makes the shark feel depressed, struggling, and angry.

Everyone needs time to process the huge ups and downs in their lives.

Clearly, Shark hasn't processed this change in fortune yet; all he can think about right now is taking down number 20.

He wasn't someone who didn't understand the truth. When a beautiful girl rode on O'Neal for the first time, he immediately grasped the concrete meaning of the truth that "the economic base determines the superstructure."

When the economic base is solid enough, the superstructure can be both magnificent and beautiful.

For competitive sports, victory is the only economic foundation.

Tonight, Shark is determined to make that bastard Lynch look at him with utter submission!

Stephon Marbury overheard Lynch saying something to the shark: that bastard was much more dangerous than he thought.

He dares to challenge anyone.

Even before entering the NBA, he challenged himself. After entering the NBA, Shaq, Carter, Artest, and even the Assassin all faced challenges from him.

It's truly rare to see a rookie like this in the long history of the NBA. Just in his first year in the league, you get the feeling that he's here to overturn the table and disrupt the order.

Marbury recalled how he and KG were just as fearless when they were young.

But what young madmen lack is never courage, but the ability to turn all their arrogant declarations into reality.

Lynch has this ability.

Marbury can't wait to rekindle the youthful exuberance with Lynch and break all the order!
"Pass it over here!" Lin Qi shouted from beyond the three-point line, interrupting Marbury's thoughts.

Jamal Crawford passed the ball to Marbury, who then passed it to Lynch.

The moment Lynch received the ball, Rasoul Butler double-teamed him again.

Without hesitation, Lynch quickly passed the ball to Jamal Crawford, whose cut was perfectly timed. Crawford received the ball in the paint and, facing Shaq's defense, launched a floater. The ball bounced three times on the rim before finally going in for a score.

With the score at 12-5, Crawford provocatively slapped his left bicep, and the players on the bench imitated his celebration.

Shark ran forward unwillingly, slamming his shoulder into Lynch, channeling his anger and resentment into trash talk.

"Ha, you're planning to get 40 points like this? Why don't you attack yourself, you softie."

"Can't wait? Don't worry, I'll definitely fuck you good later." Lin Qi replied calmly.

"Heh, that's one of the biggest lies men can tell."

"No, no, we are different, Shaq."

But after one possession, Lynch, who had said he wanted to have his way with Shaq, simply stopped holding the ball and let Jamal Crawford go one-on-one with Rasoul Butler.

Crawford loved this opportunity. He used a series of crossovers to manipulate Butler's balance, leaning to the left but then suddenly changing direction to the right, easily getting past Butler in one step, and then stopping abruptly inside the three-point line to shoot a jump shot that went in.

This one-on-one play was so effortless and highly entertaining that even Heat fans couldn't find fault with it. As one of the most beautiful one-on-one players in the league, Jamal Crawford is sure to deliver a spectacular performance whenever he has the opportunity to isolate and attack.

The score is 12 to 7, and the gap is still narrowing.

As expected, the tense Stan Van Gundy started yelling.

"Damn it! Don't leave him open, never leave him open! What about our rotation defense? Get moving!"

An enraged Rasul Butler made a strong drive against Crawford in the next possession. Crawford's slender frame struggled even to defend a shooting guard, let alone such a strong forward.

But the Knicks are least afraid of drives. The moment Butler drove into the paint, Lynch stepped to the basket and cooled down the Heat with his first block of the night.

Anyone who breaks through tonight, unless it's Wade, is doomed.

Under Stan Van Gundy's roar, Rasul Butler no longer dared to double-team Lynch; he was already pinned down by Jamal Crawford.

The camera pans across the Knicks' bench, where Lenny Wilkens' wrinkled fingers are tapping on the whiteboard, as if knocking on the door of destiny.

Come on, Lynch, it's your turn!

Lynch also didn't hold the ball, but instead dribbled past Kurt Thomas's off-ball screen to the right sweet spot, where Stephon Marbury then passed the ball to him.

Heat starting shooting guard Eddie Jones had to be rotated in, but his height had almost no impact on Lynch's jump shot.

Seeing Lynch make his move with composure, the shark nearly crushed its steel teeth, recalling the scene from the opening match.

That night, Lin Qi scored 40 points with his disgusting 4-5 pick-and-roll strategy, whether with or without the ball!
What annoys the shark even more is that he himself is the defensive weakness under this strategy.

Lynch is too fast; no interior player can keep up with him. We should send another forward to defend him.

But that striker has now completely become a dog that follows Jamal Crawford around like a dog on a chain.

The reason Lynch let him fight one-on-one was to let him demonstrate his threat.

Once Jamal Crawford can draw the defense, everything will be much easier. "Swish!"

12 to 9, the score difference is now just 3 points away.

Lin Qi beckoned to the shark with his finger, giving him a taste of his own medicine: "Why don't you defend yourself, you coward."

O'Neal didn't respond; he wanted to pretend he didn't care about Lynch's trash talk.

But the angry, distorted expression on his face clearly showed that he cared.

This expression made Lin Qi feel satisfied; he suddenly felt that European basketball, which had once been silent, was a bit too boring.

This is what real competition looks like!
Shark was trying to stabilize the situation, and he managed to get into position despite Kurt Thomas's almost wrestling-like entanglement.

Damon Jones hesitated, unsure whether he should lob the ball in, because Lynch had been glancing at him with ill intent several times.

"Damn it! What are you waiting for?!" O'Neal roared.

Almost simultaneously, Lenny Wilkens strode up to the referee and yelled, "How the hell are you going to make him stay under the basket for several three-seconds? Are you guys wearing sunglasses while officiating the game?!"

Lenny Wilkens' words made Damon Jones a little impatient. He immediately made a lob pass, and as expected, Lynch bypassed Haslem and flew over to intercept the ball in mid-air.

Since the league allowed zone defense, power forwards like Lynch and KG, who can move quickly on the defensive end, have become everyone's nightmare and the best fulcrum for building a defensive system.

They can block shots, steal steals, and shut down all offensive routes.

They can make all five players on the opposing team suffer on the offensive end.

After stealing the ball, Lynch found Marbury by sight and instinct, and then sprinted forward.

Marbury, facing Eddie Jones's pursuit defense, knocked the ball off the backboard, and Lynch, who was following up, caught the ball in mid-air and dunked it for a score.

With the score at 12-11, Stan Van Gundy called another timeout after being hit with an 8-0 run.

"Damn it, Shaq, didn't I tell you to stay focused, stay focused! Look at the game now, look at the score! This is what happens when you let your guard down!"

O'Neal didn't realize where he had let his guard down; he wished someone would throw him a roll of duct tape. Stan Van Gundy was acting like a woman who had suffered a setback and only knew how to cry and yell, which annoyed the already troubled O'Neal.

After the timeout, the Knicks substituted the muscular Nazr Muhammad for Carter Thomas, continuing their battle against Shaq.

The Heat replaced Haslem with Kristen Laettner, who had previously knocked Shaq out of the Dream Team, to increase the team's height and contain Lynch's jump shot, while also using his own shooting threat to create space for Shaq.

If Lynch keeps hovering around the shark, that damn ball just won't go in!

Kristen Laettner's first possession shattered Stan Van Gundy's hopes. Lynch was still hanging around Shaq, and he didn't take Kristen Laettner's shooting threat seriously.

Damon Jones passed the ball to Leitner, who had rounded out to the free-throw line, and Leitner caught and shot.

Lynch quickly stepped in front of Lightner and raised his hand to interfere.

If he were facing a top scorer, Lynch's move wouldn't be enough to eliminate the threat.

However, Christine Laettner, who is already of retirement age, was clearly rushed in her shots under Lynch's interference, which shows that she herself is not very confident.

"boom!"

The basketball bounced far away, escaping the shark's control and entering Lynch's control.

The moment Lynch grabbed the rebound, it signaled the complete failure of Stan Van Gundy's offensive changes.

"Want to be a hero?" Lynch sneered at Leitner, but the former bad boy on the court didn't get angry.

Unlike sharks, Lightner has long been accustomed to the huge difference in his identity.

He was once the only college player on the Dream Team and was the third overall pick in the 1992 NBA draft.

But now he knows he's just a role player.

There's nothing shameful about it; life is a process of constantly adapting to different stages.

Sooner or later, even sharks will have to learn to accept it.

When Shaq first entered the league, he shattered the dignity of others in the same way.

Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson—who hasn't been humiliated by that shark's dunk?
But competitive sports are cyclical, and Shark should have known that those people's yesterday was his tomorrow.

How he once stepped over the dignity of Ewing and his ilk to enter the hall, is how he will now face the onslaught of the next generation.

Lynch continued his attack, this time taking possession of the ball again. Because Christine Laettner's footwork was slower than Haslem's and his center of gravity was higher, Lynch was confident he could take possession of the ball and attack him.

After the familiar 4-5 pick-and-roll, Lynch drove to the mid-range position. Shaq still didn't close the gap, getting stuck in the paint like a stranded giant ship. Lynch was able to calmly pull up and shoot.

But this time, the shark finally made the right bet, and Lynch's shot bounced off the rim.

Just as O'Neal's burly arms were about to grab the rebound, his back was suddenly slammed into him, and the basketball above his head was grabbed by another large hand and slammed back into the basket!

As someone with an abnormally strong sense of pride, Shaq wouldn't allow anyone to dunk on him. If a dunk was about to happen, he would commit a vicious foul to end it prematurely.

But this time, Lynch came from behind, giving the shark no chance to fight back.

The behemoth stumbled forward and fell out of bounds. Lynch, with one arm around the rim, pointed at the fallen Shaq and said, "Are you just going to make me cry in the playoffs?"

"Lynch dunked over Shaq! What incredible athleticism! He had just missed a shot and then put it back in for a dunk! Even the league's most dominant center seems to have lost all his luster in front of him!"

Lynch let go and landed before the referee lost his patience. O'Neal, who had been dunked on, completely lost his temper and got up to push Lynch down.

Lin Qi deftly sidestepped the impact like a matador, then gently pushed the wobbly beast to the ground once more!
Players from both sides immediately rushed over to prevent a second conflict between the two.

"Bastard! Come here, come here, I'll fucking beat you to death!" O'Neal roared furiously.

Lynch simply maintained a smile in the crowd.

"Look at you, you're already enjoying yourself so much? Save your breath, old man, I haven't even gotten 40 points yet."

Christine Lightner, who was holding the shark, shook her head. This was the shark's fate.

Shaq experienced the same pain that those veteran centers once felt.

(End of this chapter)