Chapter 302 Breakup
As Chris Paul sat on the ground, a thought flashed through his mind:
The sky is falling!
He really didn’t expect that one day he would be knocked to the ground by the little brat Stephen Curry.

After all, in his impression, Stephen Curry learned dribbling from him, so how could he now knock him down with the dribbling he taught him?

What’s the difference between this and teaching Jordan how to dunk or teaching Stockton how to pass the ball?
Go against Tiangang!

It’s really the opposite of Tiangang!

Chris Paul, with an embarrassed look on his face, took the ball to the frontcourt and immediately asked for a chance to play one-on-one.

He wants to take this place back.

The huge noise at the scene was earth-shaking.

Waves of boos after boos poured into Chris Paul’s ears, making him look irritated.

Stephen Curry immediately entangled with him and confronted him.

Chris Paul did not avoid or give way, and forced his way to the basket against Stephen Curry.

Are you kidding? If anyone should hide, it should be Stephen Curry who should hide from him. There is no reason for him to hide from Stephen Curry.

But when he was rushing towards the basket, a “human wall” suddenly appeared in front of him and held him back.

Because I rushed too hard and didn’t release the force in time.

“Bah!”

“beep!”

Amidst the dull noise, the referee’s whistle also sounded:
“Lakers No. 3, offensive foul!”

Only then did Chris Paul see clearly the person lying on the ground in front of him:
Suwan!

Chris Paul looked at him with a smirk on his face, as if to say:
Brother, where are you heading?

The boos at the scene turned into huge cheers at this moment.

And this cheering sounded as harsh as it could be to Chris Paul’s ears.

It is no exaggeration to say that you can even see him blushing!

I just don’t know if it’s because of embarrassment or impatience.

But giving away an “offensive foul” for nothing is a sure thing…

The game continued in the next period, and Stephen Curry took the ball to the frontcourt.

Faced with Chris Paul’s active physical contact, he did not fall for it and passed the ball to Suwan.

The Lakers have carried out a series of targeted positioning against Stephen Curry. As long as he holds the ball and plays one-on-one against Chris Paul like in the previous game, once he enters the three-point line, the Lakers will immediately shrink the entire formation, just like the New York Knicks just did, double-teaming Stephen Curry and causing him to make mistakes.

The Lakers are the defending champions. Although they last won the championship in 07, the core of the team, Kobe Bryant, is still there. Phil Jackson, the “legendary coach” who won 10 championship rings as head coach, is also there. In addition, after a season of running-in, their tactical qualities are excellent in terms of tactical execution.

Unfortunately, this pass made their original plan come to nothing.

However, facing Suwan, the overly targeted positioning made it easy for other New York Knicks players to leave open spaces.

Suwan will also demonstrate his ability to contain the opponent as a wing.

Therefore, in this series, Phil Jackson had only one idea for Suwan’s defense, which was single defense and help defense, and try not to arrange too many double teams to prevent the New York Knicks from having other easier shooting opportunities…

The advantage of single defense is that even if Su Wan keeps scoring goals in the early stages, the physical energy consumption is real.

But if the double-team is too concentrated, which has the effect of restraining him, then his physical strength will always be in a sufficient state.

That becomes really difficult to deal with at the critical moment.

Of course……

The result of the one-on-one defense restriction was that Ariza showed a helpless expression.

He felt that he had kept up with Su Wan’s rhythm with every step, but when Su Wan made his move, he found that he had been unknowingly pulled away by at least two small steps.

Ariza’s wingspan is very good for the power forward position.

But under such circumstances, the interference he could cause to Su Wan was minimal.

The ball fell smoothly into the basket.

Phil Jackson shook his head slightly.

Is this what it feels like facing Jordan?
Although many people say that he has achieved such success mainly because of Michael Jordan, he sneers at these words. He thinks they are all “sour” and Pat Riley is the worst of them, he is a “big sour”.

Then he met Shaquille O’Neal and then Kobe Bryant.

Throughout his coaching career, he has always been coaching one of the best players in the league.

Kobe is still on the Lakers now.

only……

Compared to his peak period, Kobe’s current shoes can only be described as “7% new” or even “6% new”.

There is no other way. Kobe, who entered the league in 96, has played in this league for 17 years. Even if we calculate it by his lunar age, he is already 34 years old. If we calculate it by his actual age, he is 35 years old!
It will be difficult for a “super star” of this age group to “lead the team” to win the championship if they don’t have “top-level teammates” in their prime.

The only exception is Michael Jordan.

The 35-year-old Jordan is still the best player in the league, bar none.

Many people say that Kobe is the person closest to Jordan.

But the facts prove that as they get older, the gap between Kobe and Michael Jordan becomes larger and larger…

And without him and Su Wan competing against each other, Su Wan’s influence on the wing is simply exaggerated!
Phil Jackson has felt this more than once.

Next, the New York Knicks gradually took the initiative.

The Los Angeles Lakers are becoming more and more passive…

The most fundamental reasons are:
As the core of the core, Chris Paul is anxious again!

Being knocked down by Stephen Curry has become Paul’s nightmare. In his opinion, if he can’t get back on track, he won’t be happy even if he loses the game.

He wouldn’t be so crazy about beating other people.

Only against Stephen Curry…

This has a lot to do with Curry’s proud “shoulder dance” after he shook him off and hit the three-pointer.

He’s going to shake it back!
But the more he wanted to get back on track, the easier it was for him to fall into the opponent’s trap. In the remaining time of the second quarter, as long as Chris Paul had a strong desire to hold the ball and play one-on-one, the New York Knicks would always set up a “pocket formation” and “wait and see”.

Chris Paul’s stubborn side was revealed. He kept trying to play one-on-one, allowing the Los Angeles Lakers to find opportunities and complete wave of counterattacks.

At the end of the first half, thanks to Chris Paul’s “assist”, the New York Knicks opened up a 6-point lead with “4 vs. 10”.

Chris Paul was extremely upset. When he came off the court, he wiped his sweat with a white towel and fell directly on the bench. Everyone could see that he was in a bad mood.

But Kobe doesn’t care whether you are in a bad mood or not.

The core of the game was given to you, and the pick-and-roll was even given to you, but you ended up getting carried away and dragging the entire team down with you. This was something he couldn’t accept.

Especially in his heart, he has already regarded this round of the finals as his last chance to hit the championship in his career, even more…

He looked at Chris Paul and said unhappily: “Man, the whole team is moving around around you, so you have to be responsible for the whole team!”

In other words, he had a good impression of Chris Paul and worked very hard in his training. If it weren’t for this moment, he would have just said, “Have you had enough of the trouble?”
But even though Kobe saved his face, Chris Paul still retorted indignantly: “Then you should stop the opponent’s wing from playing, this is the premise of everything!”

Chris Paul chose to regain the lost face from his teammates.

The entire locker room froze to the extreme as Chris Paul said this, and everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Although Chris Paul is now the core of the tactics, Kobe’s position in the Lakers is unshakable.

Chris Paul’s remarks are tantamount to challenging Kobe’s authority.

Kobe’s eyes narrowed immediately, as if he was a real “Black Mamba” staring at his prey. He didn’t say anything, he just looked at him like that, but everyone saw what was contained in his eyes, which was:
If you have the guts, say it again!
Chris Paul did not continue to “fire”, but he puffed out his chest in defiance and did not avoid Kobe’s gaze.

Kobe didn’t have time to pay attention to him. He looked directly at Phil Jackson and said, “In the second half, I will play by myself!”

Regarding this passage, Phil Jackson looked helpless but didn’t say anything.

Not speaking means acquiescence…

Chris Paul glanced at Phil Jackson and also got this point very sensitively.

But he did not directly “escalate the conflict”, but silently said in his heart:
You said we will attack you, so does that mean we will attack you?
joke!

As long as I don’t want to, you can’t grab the ball!
Chris Paul thought so, and he did so in the second half.

On the first possession, Chris Paul dribbled the ball to the frontcourt and Kobe walked out from the wing, ready to receive the ball.

But a scene that made Kobe’s pupils shrink appeared at this time. Chris Paul looked at him and actually pointed to the wing and asked him to stand back.

This scene once again shocked all the Lakers players.

Especially the “cannon fodder” on the bench.

The city gate caught fire and affected the pond fish.

For this group of people, Chris Paul declaring war on Kobe was no less than World War III.

They are in trouble!

The New York Knicks didn’t notice the gap between Kobe and Chris Paul at first.

Barkley, on the other hand, noticed something unusual in this round: “Kobe got out of the open space, but Chris Paul didn’t pass the ball to him. Didn’t he see it? Such a good opportunity, this shouldn’t happen!”

Barkley felt that even a point guard who was not good at passing the ball could notice the open space for this shot!

Chris Paul chose to pass the ball to the basket.

But he was already inside the three-point line when he passed the ball, and by the time Al Jefferson got the ball, he was surrounded.

“Snapped!”

Before Jefferson could hold the ball firmly, he slapped the ball.

In the Lakers’ first attack, Al Jefferson, who was the finisher, didn’t even take a shot before the New York Knicks launched a counterattack.

“Shh!”

From completing the “steal”, to bringing the ball to the frontcourt, and then passing the ball to Paul George to complete the attack, the New York Knicks’ “5-second offense” directly made the “Little Mustache” on the sidelines excited.

After this round, the New York Knicks successfully opened up the situation.

After four or five minutes, they gradually felt the unusual atmosphere between Chris Paul and Kobe.

It was Barkley who said something very strangely: “Why can’t we see the pick-and-roll cooperation between Chris Paul and Kobe in this game? I remember that in the last game, the pick-and-roll between them was very effective!”

He was weird, and then…

Totally exploded!

In the next round, the New York Knicks were “running wildly” outside the three-point line, with all kinds of cross-position runs. Kobe and Paul didn’t communicate clearly during one of the defense switches, which resulted in Stephen Curry getting an easy three-pointer opportunity.

The moment the ball hit the frame.

Kobe and Chris Paul started arguing with each other.

The referee subconsciously wanted to step up to stop it, then he realized, oh, these two people are from the same team.

The two people’s “war of words” was not just a casual one, this wave of “war of words” was quite fierce.

Phil Jackson had no choice but to call a timeout.

It was also at this time that Barkley showed an expression of sudden enlightenment.

No wonder we didn’t see these two people working together in the second half.

Dare to…

This is such a huge explosion!
Barkley was very curious about what had happened to intensify the conflict between the two men, who had been working together for almost three years.

But in the live footage, the argument between the two was limited to the defense in this round and did not extend further.

However, after this goal, the atmosphere on the Lakers side became extremely awkward, and the New York Knicks took the opportunity to have another “scoring spree”. At the end of the game, the score was 120 to 95, and the New York Knicks won by 25 points!
The score was 2-0.
Now there are only two wins left for New York’s “dynasty”.

After winning the game, most of the headlines in New York media the next morning were similar headlines, which can be described in four words:

New York luck!

It’s no wonder the New York media described this victory this way.

It was really that the “mid-jungle split” on the opposing team was too sudden. This was not the first season that the two of them had been working together. They had been working together well before and had made it all the way to the finals this season, but then they collapsed.

If this isn’t “New York Luck”, what is this?
Su Wan wasn’t surprised at all to see Kobe and Chris Paul explode.

First of all, Chris Paul has been proven to be a person with a strong desire to win and self-esteem. He is also very self-centered. He is already at the end of his career, but he still wants to win the Finals MVP and save his career.

From this we can see how vain he is…

Now his pre-game beef with Stephen Curry is destined to be a battle of his self-esteem.

In this situation, how selfish he will be.

Let’s put it this way…

If Su Wan remembered correctly, James Harden was so anxious that he slapped away his “fist bump” in a similar situation.

(End of this chapter)