unfinished glory

Chapter 36
After playing the Celtics, Li Chongxiao got a "big melon" from the news. The Pacers and Pistons fought at the Palace of Auburn Hills, the latter's home court. It was the largest gang fight in NBA history.

After watching the video playback three times with relish, Li Chongxiao reluctantly put down the mouse, expressing that he will continue to pay attention to the follow-up development of the matter. .

He doesn't support the idea of ​​fighting on the court.Li Chongxiao has always believed that basketball is used to talk about things on the court, and if he can't compete with the ball, he will hit someone. This is losing and losing.

He was so targeted by Redick at Duke, and he didn't think about using any tricks, but has been honing his skills silently.If it wasn't for what the other party said that violated his bottom line, Li Chongxiao would probably have listened to it and kept it in his heart, and then beat the other party in a match one day.

But he is not afraid of fighting. If the opponent provokes first, he will accompany him at any time.

On November 11, the Spurs' third consecutive away game was against the Toronto Raptors.

The continuous away games still have an impact on the team's physical strength. The Spurs are not excited enough to play on the court today.Although the offensive end can still output continuously, the defensive end is no longer so rigorous.

Li Chongxiao finally met the long-known "half-human, half-god" Vince Carter.But at this time, the big cousin is having conflicts with the Raptors and has been asking the team to trade him away.

The Raptors' main attack on the court is second-year rookie Chris Bosh, and Carter has been paddling.

After Li Chongxiao came on stage, he still followed Carter closely, wishing not to leave every step.

Carter said kindly to the newcomer, "I won't attack anymore, why have you been following me?"

Li Chongxiao asked strangely, "You are Vince Carter!"

In this way, after the first half, the Spurs scored 52 points, leading the Raptors by 8 points.

At the beginning of the second half, Carter still had no performance in the offense. He made only one of the five shots in the third quarter.

In this game, Li Chongxiao didn't see any superstar appearance in Carter at all.The two faced off for only one round in the third quarter, and then Carter was hastily replaced.

The ball was Carter using a screen to shoot a three-pointer at a 45-degree angle.Li Chongxiao was delayed for a while, but he still rushed forward with all his strength.After he landed, due to inertia, his footsteps landed on Carter's landing spot.Before the opponent landed, he quickly took a step back, leaving room for Carter to land.

Carter had suffered from the Spurs, of course he knew what happened just now, he just patted Li Chongxiao's ass.

Looking back, Li Chongxiao moved, Carter didn't follow at all, Ginobili passed the ball in time, Li Chongxiao calmly hit a three-pointer.

The big cousin's performance made Bosh alone, and the Spurs scored 30 points in a single quarter, extending their lead to 19 points.

In the fourth quarter, Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell simply reduced Carter's playing time, and the Raptors set off a wave of offensive climax.

In more than eight minutes, they played a wave of 24:5 offensive climax, tying the score to 87:87.

Popovich was forced to call two timeouts and made tactical adjustments.He decided to switch to a shooter.Barry didn't feel good today. He took three three-pointers nine times and only hit two.

So Li Chongxiao replaced Bowen, and Horry replaced Nesterovic.In this way, there is GDP on the court who can attack independently, plus two three-point shooters to open up space.At the same time, a certain amount of pressure is guaranteed on the defensive end.

The first round of the substitution really worked. The Raptors still followed the strategy of shrinking to the inside to flank Duncan and let the Spurs get three points.

Li Chongxiao's open three-pointer was very stable, and he scored easily after receiving a pass from Duncan.

But it's not enough just to make achievements on offense. When it's the Raptors' turn to attack, the Spurs have to defend.

Maurice Peterson scored 6 points in the previous attack wave, which is the player Li Chongxiao has to deal with.Without saying a word, he directly resorted to the defensive style of play, heel-to-foot, hand-to-hand, strangling the opponent's shooting space.

Although the Spurs have already defended in place, the Raptors still scored the goal.

"Jump your soul" Ralph Alston, showing his demeanor as a street ball king in New York, singled out Parker and scored two points.

In the next round of the Spurs' offense, at the bottom corner on the other side, Li Chongxiao received another pass from Duncan and hit his third three-pointer of the game, stopping the Raptors at once.

Back from the timeout, Bosh singles Duncan was interfered, Horry got a rebound.

When it was the Spurs' turn to attack, the Raptors really changed their defensive strategy. They were no longer obsessed with shrinking the inside.

Li Chongxiao was taken care of by Morris Peterson, a strong defensive player. No matter where he ran, the opponent would follow closely.

He simply widened the side, leaving space for Duncan to attack, causing Bosh's foul.

Duncan made the first free throw, and then hit the second free throw in front of the basket. Li Chongxiao jumped high and took the rebound.

He faked a layup, attracted the Raptors' defense, and then passed the ball to Ginobili from beyond the three-point line.

Ginobili went up and down and hit the game-killing goal.

With a gap of 8 points and less than a minute and a half left, the Raptors called a timeout again.

The Raptors who returned to the game played tenaciously, and Ramond Murray hit a three-pointer, retaining the hope of winning.

On the Spurs side, Ginobili led the offense. He wasted time slowly and took 18 seconds to start. He went inside and caused a foul by Bosh. He made two free throws and opened the score to 7 points again.

With more than 40 seconds left in the time, the Raptors failed to get a good chance after passing the ball many times, so Alstom had to force a shot and failed to hit.

Popovich replaced Horry with Barry, making the Raptors' foul tactics fail.With Barry's two free throws, the Raptors surrendered.

In the end, the Spurs won a victory 101:92, and the winning streak came to seven games.

In this game, Li Chongxiao's two three-pointers and an offensive rebound at the critical moment helped the team get through the danger.In the postgame press conference, reporters asked Popovich what he thought of the rookie.

Popovich replied: "This kid is very smart. He knows what we need and what I did when I finally replaced him. He completed the task very well and hit those two three-pointers."

"There was also that offensive rebound, although it was not in our plan, but it was very good. Relying on this and Manu's goal, it directly killed the game. If you want to ask me how much to give him, I will still Tell you, it's 9 points." Popovich made three three-point gestures.

In the last game of their four-game streak, the Spurs played against the Grizzlies in Memphis.

Although Paul Gasol missed today's game due to injury, Bunch Wells performed well. He made 17 of 10 shots and scored 26 points.

Duncan and Parker scored 44 points together, but Manu Ginobili was clearly out of shape. He made only 8 of 1 shots and only got 6 points.

The Spurs and the Grizzlies have been entangled until the end of the game. With 10 seconds left in the game, they were only behind by 3 points, but they had the last shot.

But Popovich lost to the Grizzlies coach Hubie Brown in the tactical competition. Ginobili failed to receive the pass. In desperation, Parker had to send the ball to Duncan.

After Duncan received the ball, he stopped the ball and waited on the spot, but until there were more than 2 seconds left in the game, the teammates had no chance to run out, and Ginobili, Barry and Horry were all entangled to death.

In desperation, Duncan chose to shoot a three-pointer himself, but failed to hit.Manu Ginobili got an offensive rebound, but failed to make a tip-up. The Spurs' seven-game winning streak was ended by the Grizzlies.

However, the Spurs lost, and Popovich was rarely angry.Because this is the team's fourth consecutive away game.

The players had just finished playing the Raptors in the East, and dragged their tired bodies back to the West to play back-to-back away games.

Moreover, Ginobili's physical strength has always been a problem, which is the biggest shortcoming that restricts him from becoming a superstar.

(End of this chapter)