Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 294 294. Anxious Stepping Foot!Bowen in shock on the spot!Hit with all your might!Skull fracture!

As the Grizzlies swept the Suns 4:0 in the first round of the playoffs, fans collectively turned their attention to the game between the Mavericks and the Spurs.

Everyone knows that there are some grievances between the Grizzlies and the Spurs. To be precise, Eddie Jordan, who just became the head coach of the Spurs this offseason, angered the Grizzlies.

As early as the regular season, the Grizzlies were gnashing their teeth at Eddie Jordan. If it weren't for the late season to hit the best record in history, I am afraid that the two sides would have clashed in the last match of the regular season.

In the next period of time, the outside world will always focus on the competition between the Spurs and the Mavericks in this round of the series.

Even though the series between the Lakers and the Jazz is also very exciting, it is still not as good as the fans who want to witness the arrival of the "Bear and Horse War".

As time passed day by day, the tenacious Dallas native forced the series into the tiebreaker with Nowitzki scoring 30+ in six consecutive games.

However, in the tiebreaker, the Dallas Mavericks still exposed the flaws of insufficient offensive means. Except for Jason Terry and Nowitzki on the bench, the entire Mavericks could not find a third player who could play. Provides steady offensive firepower.

When the Spurs started a targeted defense on the defensive end, what the Mavericks could do was to allow Nowitzki and Terry to face the heavy defense and try to score those fairy goals that were enough to write five best goals.

Rick Carlisle, who just took over the Mavericks this season, has some tragedies due to the reimbursement of Mavericks forward Josh Howard for the season.

Mavericks owner Cuban spent a lot of money to hire Rick Carlisle in order to make the Mavericks make a breakthrough in the playoffs. As a result, the Mavericks will probably stop in the first round of the playoffs this year.

With the stable performance of the Spurs "Troika" in the tie-break, the old-fashioned Spurs finally came out on top, relying on the "Demon Sword" Ginobili's consecutive scoring at critical moments to completely kill the suspense of this round of the series, a big score 4:3 victory over the Mavericks, difficult to advance to the semifinals.

After the team was promoted, the Spurs coach Eddie Jordan was undoubtedly relieved. Fortunately, the Spurs did not fall in the first round of the playoffs, otherwise Eddie Jordan would change hands after just one season as the head coach.

After being promoted, Eddie Jordan instantly changed from that frowning and melancholy look to extremely rampant.

At the press conference after the tiebreaker, Eddie Jordan shouted to the Grizzlies like a villain: "Dirty little boys, as you wish, I will show you what is true in the semifinals." cruelty!"

The Grizzlies haven't received Eddie Jordan's outrageous remarks yet, and the reporter responsible for interviewing Eddie Jordan couldn't help but roll his eyes at him.

Holding the "troika" and a rich lineup of outstanding players in his hands, he was dragged into the tiebreaker by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs.

I really don't know who gave Eddie Jordan the courage to declare war on the Memphis Grizzlies who played 76 wins and 6 losses in the regular season.

From Eddie Jordan's point of view, his ruthless demeanor seems to have a hint of NBA blackness, but in the eyes of the reporters who are in charge of interviewing, Eddie Jordan is simply a complete idiot. The whole person almost had the word "stupid" written on his face.

After the Spurs advanced, the pattern of the west side has gradually become clear. The Lakers defeated the Jazz 4:2 in the first round of the playoffs and will compete with the Portland Trail Blazers who also defeated the Rockets 4:2.

Compared with the grievances between the Spurs and the Grizzlies in this round of the series, the strength gap between the Lakers and the Trail Blazers is undoubtedly smaller.

The biggest advantage of the Lakers is that the team is in the playoffs all year round. Many players in the team have rich experience in the playoffs. The head star Kobe even won the championship trophy three times.

Once the game enters a stalemate, the experienced Lakers will have an advantage over the Blazers with a slightly greener core lineup.

However, the young Blazers also have their own advantages. Since the average age of the entire Blazers is about the same as that of the Grizzlies, this also leads to the Blazers' physical recovery being far stronger than the Lakers.

And the head star "Yellow Mamba" Roy also has the ability to kill the game, and is one of the league's recognized big-hearted players.

When the "Yellow Mamba" meets the "Black Mamba", the competition in this round of the series is bound to attract attention.

In the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers swept the Bulls 4:0.

Throughout the series, the Bulls were unable to fight back against the Cavaliers led by LeBron James, and head coach De Nagro was helplessly suppressed by Mike Brown.

Even though the young No. [-] pick Rodrick Rose played a very dazzling personal performance in this round of the series, the young playoff experience still made the Bulls lose to the powerful Cleveland Cavaliers.

You can only use this playoff ticket to learn experience and strive to become stronger next season.

As for the Orlando Magic, which made it to the finals last season, they also defeated the 4ers 2:76 in the first round, and advanced to the semifinals without any risk.

It is worth mentioning that although the Celtics led by Sam Mitchell advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals, the whole process was once very bumpy.

Everyone in the outside world believed that the Celtics would sweep the Pistons with a big score of 4:0, but the Celtics were dragged into the tiebreaker by the Pistons in this round of the series. It was not until the last moment that the Celtics took advantage of their stars to win Winning this victory made the fans outside couldn't believe it.

The Detroit Pistons are a team that has made no progress this season. The offensive and defensive system of the entire team has not changed at all compared with previous seasons.

Head coach Michael Curry's coaching ability is even worse, but even so, the Celtics were still dragged into the tiebreaker by the Pistons.

If it weren't for Paul Pierce's apocalypse in the tiebreaker, today's Celtics may have encountered the "Black Eight Miracle", and they had to go home to fish in tears under the huge pressure of public opinion.

In addition, Pistons head coach Michael Curry, who was bound to dismiss get out of class this offseason, also got a little respite because of his outstanding coaching performance in this round of the series.

Although the Pistons fans still called for Michael Curry to dismiss get out of class, the Celtics personally gave Michael Curry a way out.

Even if he no longer serves as the head coach of the Pistons next season, he won't end up miserable like Rivers did back then.

From the perspective of outside fans, the performance of the Celtics in the playoffs is a bit disappointing, but from Michael Curry's perspective, the Celtics are a team that sends warmth in time.

In the end, the Miami Heat, which made a comeback in the new season, lost to the Eagles in the first round with a big score of 3:4. They had to accept the result of stopping the first round of the playoffs.

After the team lost, Wade, the head of the Heat, stood at the Hawks' home court and refused to leave. The loneliness in his eyes made many fans feel sympathy.

But for the Miami fans who watched this round of the series, they have no sympathy for Wade.

After all, in this round of the series, "The Flash" Wade, who was once called the league's third shooting guard by fans, was completely hanged and beaten by "Eagle King" Johnson.

Facing the explosive and top-notch "Flash" Wade, Joe Johnson used eighteen offensive skills to perfectly explain what an excellent shooting guard is.

Although the personal data of 27 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists in the series is comparable to that of Wade, Joe Johnson's shooting percentage of 54.3% made Wade appear to be struggling offensively.

Especially the ability of the two to kill the game at critical moments. Johnson taught Wade a good lesson. The performance of 16 points in a single quarter in the fourth quarter of the tie-break made Wade wait until the end of the game. unbelievable.

As the first round of the playoffs draws to a close, the time for the first game of the Grizzlies and Spurs semifinals has also been officially determined.

The two sides will officially kick off on May 5th local time in the United States, and according to local media in Memphis, the tickets for the first two games of this round of the series have been sold out as early as a week ago, and even the market has reached the point where there is no market. the point.

Someone once secretly bid five times higher than the market price, but it was difficult to get a vote. The whole process was chaotic and crazy.

It is worth mentioning that the Grizzlies head coach Luke gave Eddie Jordan the first response after Eddie Jordan said: "I wanted you to be optimistic about your dog, but then I I found out that you are completely indistinguishable from a dog!"

…………

On May 5, local time in the United States, the first game of the Western Conference semifinals between the Grizzlies and the Spurs officially kicked off.

Before the start of the game, players from both sides warmed up for shooting in their respective halfs, but the atmosphere on the court was already full of murderous spirits, far from being as relaxed as in the first round of the playoffs.

Especially Trenton Hassel didn't hide the murderous intent in his eyes at all. Looking at Eddie Jordan standing on the sidelines with a frightened expression on the other side of the field, Hassel almost ran over and was a flying man. Kick!
"Coach, I have only one goal today, which is to abolish that guy Eddie Jordan. I hope you don't stop me then!" Seeing Eddie Jordan cast a disdainful look at the Grizzlies, Tren Don Hassell gritted his teeth and said.

"Even if you beat him to death today, I won't stop it." Luke said with a smile on his face.

There was a gloomy look on Hassell's face: "It's been a long time since I've been so excited, I hope these guys don't let me down, but don't just lay unconscious on the ground without being hit twice, then I'm going to be jailed A hat for bullying the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled!"

Hearing such a heated topic discussion, Bill Lanbier on the side immediately became interested: "Trenton, let me arrange the timing of the shot for you. The guy I'm talking about will sit on the sidelines like a shrinking turtle and won't even dare to go up." forward."

Watching Trenton Hassel and Lambiel standing on the sidelines excitedly began to discuss specific plans.

Mike D'Antoni, who sat silently behind Luke the whole time, only felt that he was out of place with these two people.

"Why does it always feel like Bill is so familiar with this?" D'Antoni whispered.

Luke still had a smile on his face: "If you really want to talk about it, Bill is really familiar with attacking the coach."

"........."

In this game, the Spurs' starting lineup is: Parker, Bowen, Michael Finley, Matt Bonner, and Duncan.

Grizzlies here: Paul, Martin, Artest, Gasol and Gasol Jr.

Since Eddie Jordan is a basketball coach who pays more attention to offense than defense, during the coaching of the Spurs this season, Matt Bonner, a power forward with excellent three-point shooting ability, has been placed in the starting lineup by Eddie Jordan.

The aging Tim Duncan had no choice but to be pushed to the starting center position to compete with others.

Even from the moment it was slaughtered in the opening game, it has been proved that the Spurs lineup has very big flaws.

Whether it is inside defense or outside defense, there are irreparable loopholes, but Eddie Jordan still goes his own way, insists on his own style of play, and is always unwilling to make changes on the original basis.

In the latter part of the regular season, although Bruce Bowen, who suffered a severe injury to the bridge of his nose, ushered in a comeback, but due to his age, Bowen's movement speed has already become very slow.

Not to mention defending against a top offensive player like Kevin Martin in one-on-one, even defending a player of Michael Reid's level is very difficult.

However, Eddie Jordan still started Bruce Bowen in this game. After all, apart from Bruce Bowen in the entire Spurs' defense, there was no second person who could stand up to match Martin.

Whether it's Manu Ginobili on the bench or Roger Mason, neither of them are good perimeter blockers. They turn around and finally defend Kevin Martin. Bruce Bowen has to fall.

After the game started, Gasol Jr. helped the Grizzlies get the ball first. On the offensive end, although Bruce Bowen knew that it was difficult for him to guard Martin in his current competitive state, he still posted it immediately, wanting to give Kevin Martin has enough defensive pressure,

Looking at Bowen's fake nose re-made through plastic surgery, Martin only felt that Bowen's patched face was a little funny, "How about the nose, will it suddenly collapse when playing ball?"

The bone of the nose is the last thing Bruce Bowen wants to hear from people. After all, it represents Bruce Bowen's aggrieved and angry. Shut your stinky mouth!"

Martin's character is destined to seldom conflict with others on the field. Seeing Bruce Bowen's look of embarrassment and anger, Martin just smiled lightly, and then suddenly began to exert force with his feet, and went straight to the penalty area from the right.

Although Kevin Martin's body is thin, the explosive power hidden in his body is strong enough. When Bruce Bowen reacted, Martin had already surpassed him by half a body.

The old age took away Bruce Bowen's agile lateral speed. Although Bowen desperately wanted to follow Martin from behind, he could only watch Martin kill him in the end.

"Damn!"

After passing Bruce Bowen, Martin saw Tim Duncan who broke through the blockade to himself for the first time. This ball Martin did not force a breakthrough to try to cause Duncan to foul.

Instead, at the moment when he was about to make physical contact with Duncan, the ball was passed from the gap between Duncan and Matt Bonner to Paul Gasol.

After receiving the pass, Pau Gasol had already formed a half-open opportunity in front of him. Without any hesitation, Gasol directly made a decisive jump shot from the position one step ahead of the mid-range.

"Shu~"

2:0
When retreating to the backcourt, Kevin Martin, who was passing by Bowen, spread his hands, "You are still the same as before, you haven't changed at all, and you can only watch me score in front of you."

As a master of trash talk on the court, Bruce Bowen has long been able to ignore trash talk, but after playing for so long, Bowen knows that Martin is more like a good baby on the court.

But now he has repeatedly provocative words, which makes Bruce Bowen really annoyed, the veins on the top of his head popped up, and he said almost word for word: "You should take care of yourself first, I will definitely not Let you walk off the field intact!"

Faced with the threat of Bruce Bowen, Martin was not afraid at all. After playing under Luke for so many years, Martin had long been used to the viciousness on the court.

Coupled with the fact that the Grizzlies have two court bullies, Artest and Trenton Hassell, the threat of Bruce Bowen is really not taken seriously by Martin.

"Isn't this the first running dog under Eddie Jordan? What? The nose is healed? Do you want me to give you another plastic surgery!" Artest said angrily as he retreated to the backcourt.

Before the anger that Kevin Martin brought to him faded away, Bowen heard the voice that made him most memorable.

Turning his head, he found that Artest was looking at him with a mocking face. Bowen immediately became angry and clenched his fists uncontrollably.

But when he thought of the scene where Artest pressed himself under him and beat him wildly last time, the angry Bruce Bowen still showed a touch of timidity, "Sooner or later, I will never finish this matter with you!"

Bruce Bowen's ruthless words not only did not scare Artest, but also made Artest show a touch of disdain, and spit at Bruce Bowen's position: "tui, trash!"

The Spurs attack, and the offensive ability of the Spurs lineup is not bad. Both Bruce Bowen and Matt Bonner can stand outside the three-point line to create a larger offensive space.

Create more offensive opportunities for Tony Parker and Tim Duncan's high-position pick-and-roll. As for Michael Finley, he serves as the third offensive point after Parker and Duncan on the court, preventing the Spurs' offense from stagnating on the court.

Facing Marc Gasol's defense, Duncan first squeezed his back twice, and found that he had no advantage in strength.

There was no expression on his face. After realizing that his back could not move, Duncan immediately turned to the right and wiped the board from the middle distance.

"boom!"

As Duncan missed a mid-range shot, Chris Paul, who shrank to the penalty area, immediately received the rebound.

Then he quickly pushed forward to counterattack without even looking at it. The counterattack speed of the whole person seemed to remind people of Nash, who was called the "son of the wind" back then.

Due to the high average age of the Spurs on the court, this also caused the Spurs to return to the defense slower. When Chris Paul advanced to the half court with the ball, the Spurs only barely returned with Parker and Bonner.

The scattered defensive line of the Spurs allowed Chris Paul to spot Kevin Martin, who was in the bottom corner. During the march, Paul did not stop at all. Before the retreating Parker could react, he transferred the ball to the left bottom in a wide range horn.

When Martin stood in the left corner, Paul's pass was just in front of him. After receiving the pass, Martin aimed at the basket slightly, and then used his iconic crooked shot to make a steady three-pointer!
5:0
Although Kevin Martin's shooting action is a bit like a sniper, he is ridiculed and ridiculed by fans on weekdays, but it has to be said that Martin's shooting percentage is very accurate.

This season's 42.3% three-point shooting percentage ranks fifth in the league, and he is the player with the highest average of two or more three-pointers per game.

In later generations, Ball, who is known as "Ball Brother", was called a sniper by fans when he first entered the league, and Ball's three-point shooting percentage was so bad that he was even once under the suggestion of his trainer. Change the shooting action.

However, for professional players, once a shooting habit is developed, it cannot be changed overnight.

If you want to change your best shooting action into a standard shooting action, the painstaking efforts and time required are definitely far beyond people's imagination.

With the help of the team's trainers, Ball tried some changes for a period of time, but because he was not used to the new shooting action, Ball's three-point shooting percentage not only did not improve, but even worse than when he first entered the league. crotch.

This made Ball at the time lose confidence in shooting, and he didn't dare to shoot confidently after receiving a pass from outside the three-point line.

It was not until later that "retired star" Kevin Martin stood up and encouraged Ball not to look at the unexpected world, let alone deliberately change his shooting movements.

Not everyone can achieve standard shooting movements, but non-standard shooting movements can also shoot high-level three-pointers.

In this regard, Martin gave Ball an example of himself and Stephen Curry, whose three-point actions are also not standard.

Martin’s words were endorsed by many people. In the ensuing offseason, Ball humbly asked Kevin Martin for shooting advice. After a summer of adjustment and hard work, Ball’s three-point shooting percentage improved next season. qualitative improvement.

Although Kevin Martin is not the originator of sniper shooting, he is the most accurate sniper shooting in NBA history!

The Grizzlies scored again on the offensive end, which made Eddie Jordan off the court a little angry. He stood off the court and shouted loudly at the players: "What are you all doing?! Defense! Do your defense well! Keep up with your players, I don't want to see this happen again!"

Hearing Eddie Jordan's roar, the Spurs players had different expressions on the court. Tony Parker, who had never liked Eddie Jordan very much, showed a look of disdain on his face.

As for Tim Duncan, he still looks expressionless, which makes people seriously doubt whether this guy has facial paralysis.

For the next period of time, the Grizzlies had a firm advantage on the field, especially when the Spurs missed the offense. The Grizzlies who took the backcourt rebounds were like beasts in heat.

The tornado-like defensive counterattack made the old bones of the Spurs run panting, and the brand-name sneakers under their feet had sparks that could not keep up with Chris Paul's counterattack speed.

The Grizzlies had stretched the deficit to 11, forcing Eddie to Jordan had to call his second timeout of the game while hopping.

After the timeout, the Spurs still did not get any improvement on the offensive end, but made some adjustments on the defensive end.

Due to age, the Spurs couldn't prevent the Grizzlies' fast-break counterattack at all, so during this timeout, Eddie Jordan simply gave up fighting for offensive rebounds.

Once the offensive end completed the shot, the Spurs players immediately retreated to the backcourt, preferring to give up the chance of a second attack, but also resolutely cut off the Grizzlies' defensive counterattack like a tornado.

Although Eddie Jordan's choice reveals a taste of helplessness, it has to be said that this method has indeed played some role, making the Spurs a little easier on the defensive end.

When the two teams started an endless tug-of-war on the court, an accident suddenly happened on the court.

Kevin Martin was kicked by Bruce Bowen on a [-]-point shot off a screen.

Martin and Artest's occasional trash talk attacks made Bowen's psychological defense very vulnerable, but the Grizzlies kept playing defensive counterattacks on the court, which made Bowen never find a good opportunity to retaliate.

It wasn't until Martin made a three-pointer with the help of an off-ball cover in this attack that Bowen found a stepping opportunity in a panic and quietly stretched his feet to Kevin Martin's feet.

When Martin's shot landed, he only felt his left ankle step on a hard object, and his ankle sprained uncontrollably to the right, which made Martin subconsciously lie on the ground and cover his ankle.

Fortunately, Kevin Martin has the habit of bringing his feet closer to the center when shooting, which allows Kevin Martin to avoid the most deadly position of the ankle.

But seeing the scene of Martin being maliciously stepped on by Bruce Bowen, Chris Paul, who was watching the whole process, rushed forward angrily immediately, wanting to ask Bowen for an explanation.

If it weren't for the referee who saw that the situation was wrong and immediately stopped Paul, Bowen would have hit Chris Paul's fist now.

At this time, Bruce Bowen was raising his hands high to the referee, with an innocent expression on his face, as if he didn't know what happened just now.

As Chris Paul kept approaching aggressively, Bruce Bowen raised his hands and stepped back innocently. The whole person retreated extremely fast and looked very skilled.

But before Bowen, who was stepping maliciously, felt complacent for too long, he felt something hit his back, and it was still a very hard thing.

If it wasn't for the wrong occasion, Bruce Bowen even thought that what he hit on his back was a big mountain!
When Bowen subconsciously turned his head to see what was bumped into behind him, there was a low growl full of violence that Bowen would never forget: "You bastard! I'll go. You. Mom. of!"

"Crack!"

The last image Bowen saw before the blow was an angry Artest punching himself.

And the sound of bone cracking from an unknown part of the head made Bowen's brain dizzy for a while. He only felt that his brain was in a dead state for an instant, and he completely lost his ability to think, and then he lay on the ground straight with his eyes darkened.

　It's another day of failure, hey, I'm a waste...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)