Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 84 84. I Want His Left Foot!
On May 5, G21 of the Western Conference Finals between the Timberwolves and the Spurs still started at the Target Center.

Before the game started, the outside world was generally not optimistic about the Spurs. The problems facing the Spurs are a bit bad. The team mainly rotates Robert Horry due to injury.

The main point guard Tony Parker was in trouble on both ends of the offense and defense, unable to bring substantial help to the team.

In this situation, the pressure on the Spurs was basically transferred to Duncan and Ginobili, which put them under tremendous pressure before the game, and became the hope of the Spurs in this round of the series to reverse and advance.

Before the start of the game, Spurs coach Popovich sat on the sidelines with a gloomy face. Popovich naturally saw the result of the league's punishment, but even if Eddie Griffin was suspended for five games, the Spurs still have a higher chance of advancing. Much smaller than the Timberwolves.

After all, Robert Horry's contribution to the Spurs is far greater than Eddie Griffin's contribution to the Timberwolves.

Sitting on the sidelines, when Bruce Bowen looked back at coach Popovich, Popovich nodded indistinctly, as if to convey some kind of signal.

Facing this Timberwolves team, Bowen actually felt a little apprehensive, especially that guy "Madman" Sprewell beat Bowen to death twice.

The first time Bowen punched Bowen until his face was covered in blood, and the second threat made Bowen feel even more dangerous, a real danger!

If possible, Bruce Bowen really doesn't want to provoke this Timberwolves and be an enemy of this Timberwolves.

However, all these years Bruce Bowen has been able to secure his starting position in the Spurs by fighting for Popovich on the court. To be precise, he should use some dirty methods!
It is by relying on this dirty method similar to a thug that "Uncle Bao" can become Popovich's confidant and become the core player of this Spurs.

So even if this Timberwolves made Bowen fearful in his heart, Bowen could only bite the bullet and carry out the tasks assigned to him by Popovich. At most, he would not provoke the crazy guy on the court!

Because the danger level of the "madman" has been marked with a red label in Bowen's heart, even if Popovich has thoughts about the madman, Bowen will definitely refuse!
As the game is about to start, the two sides announced the starting lineup for the game, the Spurs: Manu Ginobili, Brent Barry, Bowen, Duncan, and Muhammad.

Timberwolves: Nehbar, Madman, Szczerbiak, Garnett, and Karl Malone.

In this game, Popovich chose to start Parker, and simply let Manu Ginobili play the No. [-] position on the court, and took Brent Barry to increase the overall height of the Spurs, so as to avoid being targeted by the Timberwolves transition.

Popovich's lineup adjustment to Luke is not too much of a surprise. Tony Parker has become a hidden danger in this round of the series. Both offensive and defensive ends are far below his season average.

In this case, leaving Parker on the field will become a burden instead. It is better to let Parker lead the second team to play as much as possible.

At the beginning of the game, the Spurs mainly rely on Ginobili and Tim Duncan on the offensive end. After all, the other three have a single role. On the offensive end, Ginobili and Duncan can only drive the rhythm as much as possible.

Bruce Bowen and Brent Barry are typical outside shooters. They shoot three-pointers when they receive a pass from the outside. They usually only need to participate in defense.

As for center Muhammad, he is a standard blue-collar player. He mainly helps Duncan to share the pressure of basketball in the interior.

The Spurs' offensive honor in this game is too obvious. Duncan and Ginobili are completely exposed to the Timberwolves' vision, which makes it easy for the Timberwolves to find the center of gravity on the defensive end. They only need to focus on Duncan and Ginobili. It can get the Spurs into trouble on the offensive end.

As Nehbar succeeded in jumping against Brent Barry twice in a row, the Timberwolves firmly suppressed the Spurs and firmly controlled the situation on the field.

Brent Barry is 1.9 meters eight, but weighs only 84 kilograms. Although the defensive end is not a defensive black hole, it is not much better.

Facing the 34-year-old Brent Barry, Nehbar played very smartly on the offensive end, and he felt hot with consecutive personal cuts in the first quarter.

The Spurs, who had difficulty attacking in the entire first quarter, felt as uncomfortable as constipation, which also prevented the Spurs from narrowing the point difference. They could only watch the Timberwolves take advantage.

Until more than three minutes before the end of the first quarter, Popovich stood up from the sidelines and winked at Bowen.

Seeing the signal given by Popovich, Bowen turned his head indistinctly and observed the Timberwolves players on the field at the moment.

In the next defensive round, Bowen deliberately showed his flaws when going around the pick-and-roll, pretending to be caught by the center player Divac while going around the pick-and-roll.

Seeing the opportunity to shoot, Nehbar pulled up from the middle distance without any hesitation to complete the shot.

But Nehbar, who made the shooting action, didn't notice that Bowen had bypassed the pick-and-roll at this time and made an unintentional look and put his foot in the position where Nehbar landed in advance.

This trick is Bowen's famous stunt, and Bowen has used this trick throughout his career to know how many players he has spent.

Even if everyone knows it well, it is difficult to identify it as a deliberate stepping through the slow motion replay of the league.

After all, Bowen's series of movements are very coherent, and it seems like an uncontrolled natural reaction of the body.

As Nehbar's shot landed, Nehbar stepped directly on Bowen's left instep, and his left ankle sprained in a slanted shape.

This made Nehbar very painful. He lay on the ground holding his left ankle and kept rolling back and forth. It seemed that Nehbar was in great pain at this time.

The referee stopped the game as soon as Nehbar fell to the ground. Even though the sideline referee didn't see what happened just now, Bowen had violated Nehbar's shooting cylinder just now, and the defensive foul was absolutely undisputed.

This scene on the court made Luke, who had been sitting off the court, stand up suddenly.

Although it was too far away, Luke didn't see Bowen's feet clearly, but Luke knew that Nehbar was not a person who liked to over-act.

At this time, Nehbar was lying on the ground hugging his left ankle and rolling back and forth non-stop. Obviously, Nehbar was really in pain.

"Lu, calm down! Calm down! Don't go there yet, let's see the situation first!" Seeing Luke stand up and walk towards the field immediately, the assistant coach Raymond hugged Luke from behind and let Luke K tried to calm down.

At this time, as the head coach, Luke is not convenient to enter the field, otherwise he may be called a technical foul by the referee.

Raymond's words made Luke stop in his tracks, but Luke's face was a bit ruthless at this time, and when he looked at Bowen in the arena, his eyes were already full of rage!
At the same time, the video replay of the ball just now was replayed on the big screen at the scene.

It can be clearly seen through the video playback that when Nehbar shot, Bowen stretched his feet to Nehbar's feet.

After landing, Nehbar stepped on Bowen's left instep, which caused his ankle to sprain at an angle visible to the naked eye. This scene made fans seem to feel pain!

"Damn it! This guy dared to play tricks!" After watching the replay of the video, the "madman" who was replaced looked at Luke angrily.

"Coach! Put me on, I'll make this damn guy pay!" Behind him, Trenton Hassell stepped forward, gritted his teeth.

When Luke saw through the video playback that Nehbar was deliberately stepped on by Bowen, the violent emotion on Luke's face disappeared and turned into calm.

It's just that Luke's appearance at this time is even more frightening to assistant coach Raymond than just now.

"Coach! The other side dares to play dirty, leave this matter to me, and I will give you a satisfactory answer!" Sprewell looked at Luke who said nothing.

The Timberwolves are very clear that Nehbar is Luke's disciple brought out from Europe, and he takes good care of this disciple Luke on weekdays.

Bowen dared to openly step Nehbar on the court, even if the gods came, they would not be able to save Bowen's career!

As for letting Bowen take care of him and suffer this loss, the "madman" has never thought of this kind of idea, let alone Luke will definitely not agree!
Ignoring the "madman", Luke turned his head angrily and looked at Trenton Hassel who was standing beside the madman: "I want his left foot!"

Luke's tone was very cold, and there was a little madness in the coldness, but after hearing Luke's words, Trenton Hassel showed a hideous smile: "Don't worry, coach, I will let him remember this for the rest of his life." game!"

(End of this chapter)