Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 301 301. Paul Martin: "So the thigh is beside me!" McMillan: No!You are a good person

Although he knew that Luke was joking, McMillan was still terrified by Luke's words.

After all, Luke still has the title of "Coach Terminator" on his head. There are not ten but eight coaches who have been dismissed by Luke himself. Hearing what Luke said, how could McMillan not feel scared.

"I appreciate your kindness, but please hold your hands high. I don't want to be another coach who was dismissed by you." McMillan smiled wryly.

Seeing McMillan's terrified look, Luke stopped joking with this guy, stretched out his hand to straighten his tie and said with a smile, "Trust me, you will become an excellent basketball coach in the future."

The Grizzlies still continued their regular starters in this game: Paul, Martin, James Jones, Paul Gasol and Marc Gasol.

Only Artest, who was suspended for four games, has to wait for one more game to usher in a comeback. For the Blazers, Artest's absence is obviously a good opportunity to win the game.

Otherwise, once Artest returns to the game, the defensive pressure faced by Blazers star Brandon Roy will directly rise to a higher level.

In the regular season, Brandon Roy's shooting percentage of less than 40% in three consecutive games against the Grizzlies is a good example.

For the Trail Blazers, the starting lineup also remained unchanged: Blake, Roy, Fernandez, Aldridge and Oden.

The Blazers' starting offensive firepower is very powerful. Looking at the entire league, there are only a few teams such as the Grizzlies, Cavaliers, Warriors, and Celtics that have more offensive firepower than the Blazers.

However, the butterfly effect instigated by Luke caused Outlaw to leave the Trail Blazers early, which also made the Blazers' forward defense drop a notch from the previous life.

But Rudy Fernandez's starting position gave the Blazers more offensive firepower. In a sense, the Blazers, like the Grizzlies, are a team that is more offensive than defensive.

As soon as the game started, Greg Oden, who has excellent jumping ability, helped the Blazers get the ball first.

Because the Grizzlies' two defensive giants Artest and Trenton Hassell were suspended at the same time.

And Kevin Martin couldn't prevent Brandon Roy's offense at all due to physical reasons, so James Jones, who has very average defensive ability, can only defend Roy in this game.

Facing James Jones, whose career defensive efficiency is lower than the average striker, Roy played very strongly from the beginning.

On the offensive end, the rest of the teammates were all pulled away, and the middle distance on the left was backed up twice, and then turned over and hit a jumper.

Seeing that James Jones was powerless to defend Roy, D'Antoni showed a look of concern on the sidelines: "Brandon's offensive methods are too rich, and James is completely at a disadvantage in this set of matchups. I worry about Brandon. Will have an explosive performance in this game."

"This guy's style of play is somewhat similar to Kobe's. Once Brandon finds his touch, the team may be in trouble."

D'Antoni's worries did not spread to Luke, but made Luke smile: "Since the outside world calls this Trail Blazers the Grizzlies, let's just compete on the offensive end. I believe that scene will be very good." interesting."

The Grizzlies attacked, and Chris Paul did not stop to organize as usual after holding the ball for halftime. Instead, he borrowed Paul Gasol's pick-and-roll and suddenly accelerated into the penalty area.

The body was tightly attached to Steve Blake's defense, and then while Blake was half a body behind, he cleverly used a jump to avoid Greg Oden's blocking range, and the distance between the mid-range and the basket The position drift shot was successful.

"Shu~"

2:2
The Grizzlies and the Trail Blazers have played against each other three times in the regular season, and they know each other's weaknesses very well.

The Blazers' starting point guard Blake is an excellent offensive organizer, but his poor athletic ability makes Blake unable to guard Chris Paul at all.

Whenever he competes with the Trail Blazers, Paul will always switch from a master of field control to a scorer on the field. Using his personal ability to play Blake is miserable, and he can only watch Paul score on his head again and again.

Even though McMillan knew that Blake couldn't guard Paul at all, but because the entire Trail Blazers' defense had no players who were good at defending, McMillan could only choose to trust him.

Otherwise, Bayless, another point guard player of the Blazers, would not be Paul's opponent. Even if Bayless showed a relatively fierce defensive enthusiasm on the court, as a first-year rookie, McMillan really couldn't trust this guy.

The Blazers attacked, and Brandon Roy still wanted to continue to force Jones, but Chris Paul stood on the right side and looked like a tiger, which forced Roy to attack from the left.

When Roy used Aldridge's pick-and-roll to cut from the left to the inside, Pau Gasol immediately expanded the defensive range and stuck Roy's offensive line to break through to the inside.

Gasol's help defense is very decisive, as if he trusts Marc Gasol behind him very much, and believes that even if he walks out of the defensive area, Marc Gasol can use his personal ability to defend against the attacks of Aldridge and Greg Oden threaten.

Pau Gasol's wide-range help defense allowed Brandon Roy to find a passing opportunity and quickly pass the ball to Aldridge, who cuts to the basket.

However, Roy's intention to pass the ball was too obvious, and Chris Paul, who had been eyeing him for a long time, suddenly rushed out to complete the steal.

After the steal, Paul quickly advanced forward and saw Kevin Martin on the other side of the court actively participating in the fast break. Paul threw the ball high into the air from the free throw line and completed a wonderful alley-oop with Kevin Martin !

"Bang!"

4:2
"Beautiful! The Grizzlies used their best defensive counterattack to play a wonderful two-person cooperation."

"Even though the Blazers are retreating very fast, the Grizzlies only need a little space to play an offense that catches people off guard. This is the strongest offensive team in the league this season!" said the on-site commentator Thomson excitedly .

In the next period of time, the Grizzlies used the overall excellent defensive cooperation to greatly limit Brandon Roy's personal performance, making it impossible for Roy to continue to find trouble with James Jones on the offensive end.

Seeing that the team still couldn't take advantage of both Artest and Trenton Hassel being unable to play, McMillan was a little overwhelmed standing off the court.

Looking back at the salty fish sitting on the bench picking their feet and bragging, McMillan sighed helplessly.

With Chris Paul using the pick-and-roll to hit a mid-range jumper again in front of Blake, the Grizzlies have extended their lead to eight points, forcing McMillan to call a timeout in a hurry.

During the timeout, Luke casually threw the tactical board aside, turned his head and told "Black Bear" Zach Randolph alone: ​​"Hey, buddy, it's time for your show, that guy Channing Frye can't do it." Resist your strength, if you can't beat him, he will be sorry for the coaching staff's expectations of you."

"When you encounter double-teams, distribute the ball to open teammates. Without double-teams, you can participate in the offense in the low post to your heart's content. This is your next task."

Luke's exhortation made Zach Randolph, who had long been eager to try, a little excited: "Don't worry, coach! Today I will definitely turn the Blazers inside upside down!"

In this year's playoffs, Zach Randolph is undoubtedly the thickest thigh in the Grizzlies team. Even Chris Paul and Kevin Martin, who have two guns in the backcourt, do not have the dominance of Randolph on the court.

Randolph, who serves as a substitute, can still enjoy the right to unlimited shots while avoiding the main inside line of the opposite side, which makes Randolph a bug on the bench.

Many fans also made spooky videos about Chris Paul and Kevin Martin on the Internet, looked at Randolph in an extremely exaggerated tone and shouted: "It turns out that the thigh is by my side!"

Randolph's fierce personal performance in the first two rounds of the series made the outside world once doubt whether Randolph, who was a substitute player, would be elected as the finals MVP if the Grizzlies won the championship this year.

If this kind of thing really happens, it will definitely become something that people talk about. After all, throughout the history of the NBA, no player has won the finals MVP as a pure substitute.

To achieve this achievement, the difficulty is no less than being selected as the regular season MVP by the league without the team making the playoffs.

After the timeout, the Grizzlies began to enter the rotation, and the Blazers also began to play games interspersed with substitute players.

After Aldridge left the field, the Blazers' backup power forward was Channing Frye, the No. [-] pick in the [-] draft.

Frye is 113 meters tall and weighs [-] kilograms. He can play power forward and center forward.

However, due to poor physical confrontation, Frye played as the fourth position most of the time. As a rookie who had scored 12.3 points and 5.8 rebounds in his rookie season, Frye was originally reported by fans with very high expectations.

However, in the last few years of his career, Frye became more and more broken. It seems that his debut is the peak, and the peak cannot be retained.

In the impression of the fans, Channing Frye is an excellent space-based insider, with a career three-point shooting percentage of 38.8%.

He even shot 43.2% in the highest season, and was once one of the most reliable big pitchers around "Little Emperor" LeBron James.

However, Frye really developed his three-point shooting in the season when he joined the Suns in the fifth year of his career. Today, Frye does not have any three-point ability, and only has a poor 0.5 shots outside the three-point line this season.

In most cases, Frye's offense is completed through air cuts to the inside and mid-range shots. The offensive efficiency is extremely low, and only 42.3% of the shots are a headache for the head coach McMillan.

If it weren't for the fact that no one was available inside the Blazers, McMillan would have wanted to kick Frye back to New York.

As the game resumed, Randolph excitedly asked for the ball in the paint, using his excellent weight and soft touch that was seriously inconsistent with his weight, he easily scored on Frye's head for two consecutive rounds.

When Randolph hit Frye hard with his back with the ball, the force almost knocked the fragile Frye to the ground.

In the first two rounds, Frye gritted his teeth and was barely able to compete with Zach Randolph in the penalty area, but as Randolph's singles became more and more frequent, Frye only felt that he was facing a beast. In terms of strength, it is not a level at all.

When Randolph knocked Frye to the ground again on the offensive end, Randolph, who was not called for an offensive foul, immediately turned around and used a heavy dunk with both hands to widen the point difference to 14 points.

After landing, Randolph excitedly showed off his biceps to the fans. Thankfully, Randolph didn't roar and beat his chest like Garnett, otherwise that image would have made fans think that some zoo orangutan had entered the stadium.

As Randolph continued to maintain his offensive dominance on the court, the first quarter ended with the Grizzlies leading the Trail Blazers by 15 points.

Back in the second quarter, the Trail Blazers, who had a weak lineup, quickly fell into a disadvantage. Even though McMillan used interspersed rotations from the first quarter, try to ensure that there are two main players on the field at any time.

However, the lineup depth of the Blazers and the Grizzlies is really different. Under the indiscriminate bombardment of the pair of substitutes, Michael Reid and Louis Williams, the Blazers were quickly overwhelmed and were flooded by the Grizzlies. Attack the flower game.

At halftime, the Grizzlies had extended their lead to 27 points.

In the second half, McMillan, who was unwilling to admit defeat easily, wanted to lead the team to struggle, but after the Grizzlies made a series of three-pointers, McMillan quickly gave up this bad and stupid idea.

Seeing that the point difference was widened to more than 30 points by the Grizzlies, McMillan simply replaced all the main players and surrendered after three quarters, accepting the defeat from the bottom of his heart.

During garbage time, Luke did not continue to chase after the victory. After all, there was no deep hatred between him and McMillan, so he didn't have to go all out like playing against the Spurs.
When the outcome of the game was decided, Luke simply asked the main players to rest, sent Yi Jianlian and others to maintain the score, and waited for the game time to return to zero.

"Dududu~"

As the whistle sounded at the end of the game, the Grizzlies defeated the Trail Blazers by 33 points at home and took the lead in winning the Western Conference Finals.

The best player for the Grizzlies in the entire game was Zach Randolph, the monster. Facing Aldridge and Channing Frye's alternate defenses, Randolph scored 26 points, 11 rebounds and 2 steals. .

When Randolph began to accept the status of a substitute player in his heart, Randolph was the best rotation player in the active league, and he didn't need to add a word after that.

Whether it is the "Jets" Terry, who averaged nearly 20+ per game for the Mavericks, or Manu Ginobili, one of the "Troika" of the Spurs, his personal dominance on the court is no match for "Black Bear" Randolph .

Due to too many starting games before being traded to the Grizzlies, Randolph passed away with the best sixth man of the season. This is definitely the biggest regret in Randolph's career.

Although the best sixth man is not an honor that people talk about, for Randolph, it is definitely the evolution of a bad boy into a star.

After the game, Blazers head coach McMillan walked towards Luke again, his face still looking bad: "I am convinced that I lost this game. The fans in the regular season called the Blazers the Grizzlies. But looking at it now, it doesn't look like a compliment, but more like an irony."

"The Grizzlies roster is suffocating, and to be honest, I don't think I'll be able to find a way to restrain Zach until the day of the elimination."

"If it weren't for the position where I sit below me, I should not be timid, I should have withdrawn from the contest with you early."

Looking at the disapproving Luke in front of him, McMillan hesitated several times before saying unnaturally: "But I still have to thank you for not taking advantage of the victory to make the Blazers lose decently, otherwise it will really be like the Spurs' round of the series. The same, it is estimated that the contract from the offseason to the mouth will be lost."

Luke smiled freely and said, "The team still needs to thank me for losing by 30 points. People who don't know about this kind of thing think I'm a villain on the court."

"What? Don't I look like a nice guy?"

Luke's staring eyes made McMillan a little embarrassed, but finally bit the bullet and said, "No, you're a good man!"

　The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching these two days, and I am a bit busy. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, I will increase the number of updates.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)