Champion Creed
Chapter 554 - 554 199 He still has to wait for monthly passes!_5

554: 199: He still has to wait (for monthly passes!)_5 554: 199: He still has to wait (for monthly passes!)_5 Would Popovich dare to keep gambling?

He didn’t.

“Avery, stop the plan we just initiated!” He truly didn’t dare.

Lenny Wilkens let out a sigh of relief, but the game was far from over.

Bowen’s foul was too obvious, and without a doubt, the referee called it.

Duncan stepped up to the free throw line, and the entire crowd booed, with the Hawks’ cheerleaders even performing a straddle toe touch dance on the baseline for Duncan.

They hoped Duncan would continue to miss his free throws, just like Karl Malone in the last season’s finals.

But the wishes of the Atlanta fans were not to be fulfilled.

Duncan was not the soft type like Karl Malone or Chris Webber; his free throw inaccuracy had nothing to do with his psyche.

In fact, at that moment, Duncan was calmer than anyone else.

As a master of psychology, he knew very well how to self-regulate.

The camera gave a close-up of Duncan’s face; he stared at the hoop emotionless, like he once did at the raging sea back on the Virgin Islands.

You couldn’t guess what was on his mind; he didn’t give you any chance to peek.

Then, Duncan took a deep breath, bouncing the ball twice.

The first throw, the ball swished through the net.

Now the point difference was down to two.

On the second throw, the ball rimmed twice inside the hoop before finally falling securely in.

He hadn’t shot well from the free throw line for the whole quarter, but he made those two critical shots!

That’s the difference between Duncan and Malone, as well as Webber!

The ball went in, and Duncan pounded his chest and roared.

Yes, most of the time he was emotionless.

But in certain specific moments, Duncan could become very passionate.

The turbulent sea of the Virgin Islands started his basketball season.

And now, that basketball season had only just entered spring!

The difference was now only one point!

Roger might be strong, but I could still win!

Steve Jones had goosebumps all over, “As we have seen, the Gaoler is undoubtedly the best player today; he has proved why he could kick Michael out and earn respect.

But the miraculous Tim Duncan, even with Roger playing so perfectly, still has a chance to snatch the crown of the king, and he might still hand the Hawks their third consecutive loss!”

Though the Spurs and Duncan were at a disadvantage in the fourth quarter, Duncan did not let the match lose suspense.

For a rookie, such a performance was terrifying.

Lenny Wilkens called a timeout with only 37 seconds left in the game, making the next offense critically important.

However, Wilkens didn’t have many tactical options.

At this point, no one was feeling it; giving the ball to anyone to shoot was a gamble.

So, if coming down to gambling, Wilkens preferred to gamble with his biggest card.

He subbed in Clifford Robinson for Kurt Thomas, increasing the outside shooting threat even more.

But that was just a smokescreen; Wilkens’ real strategy was, “Roger, pierce through them!”

He wanted Roger to keep attacking!

Playing until now in the second half, except for timeouts, Roger hadn’t rested a minute.

It was clear that Roger was very fatigued, but he still nodded, muttering to himself, “Watch, just watch, I’ll dig out their hearts!

Tim Duncan?

Straighten out the basketball world?

Heh.”

As he spoke, Roger suddenly turned his head to look at Stevie Smith, who had been benched for the second half of the game.

The intensity of that gaze made Stevie Smith’s skin crawl.

“Steve, you better watch this carefully!”

The game restarted, with Pippen dribbling the ball outside the three-point line, running down the clock.

With the last 8 seconds of the offense ticking down, he securely passed the ball to Roger, who was backing into position on the right mid-range.

Roger, with the ball, turned around, taunting Sean Elliott’s nerves with a triple threat movement, and then suddenly broke along the baseline!

Roger leaped into the air, and instantaneously, four Spurs players converged on him.

Stevie Smith, merely watching from the sidelines, was sweating palms; he thought if it were him, he would probably pass the ball, even if his teammate would have a hard time making the shot.

With four people impeding him in the air, what else could he do but pass?

But Roger didn’t do that; he retracted the ball mid-air, then glided through a gap in the defense to the other side of the hoop.

After completing this sequence of moves, Roger was already descending, his body tilting, and the angle for the layup was minuscule.

Yet he gently flicked the ball with his miraculous fingers, and like it was imbued with life, it delicately grazed the backboard and slipped into the net!

Four-man blockade, around-the-back layup, a gentle kill.

He had dug out the Spurs’ hearts.

“What a tremendous move, a blood-drawing strike!

Roger scores with an around-the-back layup amidst a quadruple team, expanding his lead to 3 points with the last 14 seconds!

Roger, he refuses to lose to Tim Duncan, and he’s not ready to give up his throne to a rookie yet!”

Roger, who had fallen, got up and locked eyes with Duncan.

Because of Duncan’s personality, Roger hadn’t had the usual trash-talk with the opposing team’s star player that day.

But now, Roger smiled and spoke their first words to each other, “Try hard, big guy, the future is yours.”

Duncan blankly stared at number 14; that night, for the first time, he felt the difficulty of the NBA.

Afterward, Sean Elliott’s attempted three-point shot missed, and Clifford Robinson snatched the rebound.

The Spurs tactically fouled him, sending him to the free throw line.

He calmly made both shots, ending any lingering suspense in the game.

107 to 102, the Atlanta Hawks won at home against the recently prominent Spurs, who had been stirring things up in several places, avoiding a three-game losing streak.

Roger finished the game with 52 points, 11 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks, completely overshadowing Duncan’s 36 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 assists.

Steve Jones summed it up simply, “Tim is strong, but he still needs to wait.”

O’Neal grabbed the remote and turned off the TV, lying on the sofa, utterly disconsolate.

Now, he was a solitary big shit.