pinnacle of basketball

Chapter 451 Finished?

Thompson's eyes are not what they should be in the All-Star Game, they are full of desire to win, and they can even accurately define this desire to win as "anger".

He put all his anger on Mu Chenfeng for not being selected for the All-Star Game.

"Follow me?" Mu Chenfeng was even more sure after meeting Thompson's eyes. After all, Thompson's statistics are better than his own. In terms of statistics alone, he should have a place in the All-Star Game.

However, Mu Chenfeng didn't take Thompson completely seriously. After all, the All-Star Game is still an entertainment game in the final analysis. Everyone is playing with an entertainment mentality, and there are rarely serious situations. Mu Chenfeng also thinks that Thompson is just out of breath, and he will relax as the game progresses.

The first-year rookies still follow the original game plan, just show off their talents on the field to their heart's content, and many moves that cannot be tried in regular games have been moved to the All-Star Game.

Oscar's three-point shooting has been developed very rapidly after entering the NBA. He has maintained a shooting rate of nearly [-]% this season. He is a reliable shooter for the Lakers on the outside. He also moved his three-point fort to the All-Star game.

Felix also practiced his passing by the side of James and Oscar. He and Oscar's breakthrough and scoring cooperation was a match made in heaven. Felix scored all 4 assists in the first grade at the beginning.

Jackson is still comprehensive, and his body is even stronger. He has no disadvantages in the confrontation with the second-year rookie. He has to eat and drink in the penalty area and has successfully hit the inside many times.

Seeing that his teammates in the same grade were all performing well, Mu Chenfeng was completely stared down by Thompson. All three shots in the opening missed, becoming the worst performance of both players.

"He is playing seriously!" Mu Chenfeng judged his attitude towards the game from Thompson's defensive aggression, which should have changed Mu Chenfeng's original thoughts. He is completely serious about this game.

As soon as Mu Chenfeng holds the ball, Thompson's defense immediately catches up.

On the offensive end, Thompson was aggressive enough, and had a fierce physical confrontation with Mu Chenfeng. While Mu Chenfeng made 3 of 0 shots, he also lost 2 defensive fouls.

Only 4 minutes into the game, Mu Chenfeng's performance was a disaster, which was completely inconsistent with his game plan before the game. His poor performance also affected the entire team. The first grade fell behind the opponent by 22:26.

The audience doesn't care about the grievances and grievances of the players on the field. What they want to see is the picture. The performance of the two teams in the first 4 minutes of this Rookie Challenge can completely get full marks.

It's good to score each other, but high-quality defense can also make the audience excited. Thompson did it. He "strangled" Mu Chenfeng with his strong defense, which attracted applause from the audience.

Originally, Mu Chenfeng was not a popular player in the United States, so when he was "tortured" on the field, the audience naturally enjoyed it.

Once upon a time, Mu Chenfeng's poor performance became a hot topic among American fans.

"Substitution! Substitution! Substitution!"

Before the end of the first quarter, there were voices calling for substitutions. At this time, Oscar and the others had already led the first-year players to overtake the score. However, the overtake had nothing to do with Mu Chenfeng. He also tried to make a shot in the last few minutes, but they didn't score any goals.

Made 7 of 0 shots, Mu Chenfeng handed in a "blank paper" in the first quarter of the All-Star Weekend.

Mu Chenfeng showed frustration when he was off the field, and his teammates comforted him one after another, but he only responded perfunctorily.

For Mu Chenfeng's poor performance in the first quarter, head coach Phil Jackson did not criticize him, but gave him encouragement.

"Do you know that a player once said such a sentence." Phil Jackson said slowly, "I can miss 10 shots, or I can miss 20 shots, but I will continue to shoot until I make it, because as long as I stop shooting, it means I have surrendered."

Of course, Mu Chenfeng has heard this sentence. This is exactly what the NBA legend Kobe Bryant said. Now his head coach Yuhiro is using this sentence to motivate himself.

"What do you mean?" Mu Chenfeng asked back.

"You know what I mean." Phil Jackson looked up at the opponent's basket. "The basket is there. Whether you can make a shot or not depends entirely on yourself!"

After all, it is a legendary coach who can always hit the hearts of players directly with just one sentence.

In the second quarter, Jackson did not replace Mu Chenfeng, who performed extremely poorly in the first quarter. Instead, he put Oscar and Jackson, who performed extremely well, off the court to rest, and let Mu Chenfeng and Felix be the core of the team.

Such a change of formation has almost exceeded everyone's expectations, except Popovich.

"The coach really has the foresight." The second-year player boasted as he returned to the field.

During the break, Popovich also made adjustments to the lineup, but he did not replace Thompson. Instead, he reminded him that he would likely continue to play against Mu Chenfeng in the second quarter. No professional player would remain in a downturn. With Mu Chenfeng's adaptability, his state was bound to rebound in the second quarter, so Thompson raised his vigilance.

At first, the players thought Popovich's words were ridiculous. He would spend so much thought on a player who made 7 of 0 shots, and even joked in his heart: Zhuge Weiqi, his brain is not working well after all.

On the court, when they saw Mu Chenfeng again, the team members were all surprised by Popovich's clever calculation. As he said, Mu Chenfeng really stayed on the court.

As expected of rivals for many years, Popovich and Phil Jackson know each other too well.

Seeing the opponent's lineup in the second quarter, the two legendary coaches smiled at each other, just like when they were young when they led the team to fight wits and courage.

Every game between the Spurs and the Lakers was a classic. The "OK combination", "GDP", and "K+" contributed countless classic games to the fans. The reversal and lore games were full of twists and turns.

Whenever two teams meet, whether in the regular season or the playoffs, it is never known who is the winner until the last minute.

The Lakers and Spurs have dominated the league for more than ten years.

"Why are you still on the court?" Thompson was very disdainful of Mu Chenfeng's words, "I really don't understand why they would choose a 7-for-0 player to be an All-Star. Could it be that they just want to watch the iron fight?"

Thompson's trash talk is always direct, and he sprays Mu Chenfeng head-on.

"Have you finished talking?" Mu Chenfeng said coldly, "Let's continue the game after talking."

Faced with Thompson's trash talk, Mu Chenfeng didn't choose to spray it back. Although he was not unable to spray it, he felt that it was unnecessary, because no matter how strong the trash talk was, it was not worth paying attention to in the face of victory.

(End of this chapter)