Champion Creed
Chapter 645 - 645 227 Shaq's blood has become the fuel for Roger's raging fire Seeking monthly passes!

645: 227: Shaq’s blood has become the fuel for Roger’s raging fire (Seeking monthly passes!) 645: 227: Shaq’s blood has become the fuel for Roger’s raging fire (Seeking monthly passes!) Today might be the first time Lakers fans truly felt Kobe had the potential to become the team’s leading star.

He delivered a superstar-level performance on the offensive end,

and on the defensive end, he made Paul Pierce, the highly anticipated rookie, lose face.

A true powerhouse on both ends of the court.

Although many of Kobe’s shots were unreasonable, and he scored many of his points facing Pierce’s defense, his style of play wouldn’t get him into the CBA.

After all, the CBA doesn’t need players like Curry or Kobe who take unreasonable shots.

But in the lower-level NBA, Jerry West was relieved by Kobe’s performance today.

He felt glad that he hadn’t misjudged him after all.

Kobe became the darling of the Staples Center tonight, but O’Neal’s performance on offense was actually not bad, although his basket was invaded by Roger time after time, diminishing his image in the eyes of the fans.

The more beautiful Roger executed a play, the more incompetent Shaq seemed.

But it really wasn’t Shaq to blame.

Shaq had defended quite earnestly.

The reason Roger was able to repeatedly attack the basket successfully was his improvement.

The fans, however, didn’t care about these nuances; all they knew was that O’Neal was being dunked on furiously by Roger.

Shaq was indeed helpless, having already disrupted Roger’s center of gravity on many plays and given the most intense interference and contention.

Still, Roger managed to steady himself and score in the most unimaginable ways.

Roger’s finishing ability was already strong before, but now?

The best of the best.

The game turned into a show between Roger and Kobe, both dazzling the fans with beautiful scores, ensuring their tickets were worth much more than their price and adding color to a season without a Christmas showdown, without All-Star games, without highlights.

Amidst their grand performances, the score remained tight until the end of the third quarter.

Lakers went into the last break trailing by six points.

During the interval, as expected, Lenny Wilkens lashed out at Pierce for his defense:

“Paul, it’s been two months, and your defense hasn’t improved a damn bit!

I’m not asking you to become a master of defense overnight, I’m just asking you not to foul easily, but what happened?

Oh God, is that too much to ask!?”

Roger didn’t criticize Pierce, because he knew well that expecting to change the guy in a short period was impossible.

Failure is the price of growth.

Pierce could fail, but Roger didn’t want to!

Losing to Shaq simply because of Kobe or Pierce was the kind of defeat Roger found most unacceptable.

“I’ll take Kobe in the fourth quarter,” Roger said calmly as he wiped his sweat.

“No, Roger, I can handle him,” Pierce didn’t want to back down, he still wanted to turn the situation around.

“You can’t handle a damn thing!” Roger raised his voice, asserting his authority, “You can’t handle any slightly skilled offensive player, so shut the hell up.

I’m not discussing with you; I’m telling you, I’ll take Kobe in the fourth quarter, and you go guard Glenn Rice.

That’s it!”

Pierce fell completely silent; he had nothing to dispute.

In the first three quarters today, he had been utterly dominated by Kobe.

Moreover, he had been playing defense seriously, but to no avail.

He always thought that as long as he was willing, as long as he took it seriously, he could be a defensive stalwart.

That’s why he was dismissive of the advice from Roger and Lenny Wilkens.

He believed he didn’t need guidance, assuming that with seriousness, he would be a fearsome defender.

This is the difference between most lottery picks and regular rookies.

If it were someone like Big Ben, an undrafted player, okay, he would do whatever you said.

But for a high draft pick like Pierce, their pride often gets them into trouble.

Today, however, Pierce saw himself for what he really was.

He wasn’t any genius, let alone a chosen one like Roger.

He couldn’t even guard a damn scrub!

Sure, Kobe thought Pierce was a scrub player, but Pierce also thought of Kobe as a scrub player.

Roger, as someone who had been through it all, also knew Kobe’s transformation began in 1999; he was formidable.

But in Pierce’s eyes?

Kobe was just a greenhorn next to Shaq.

And he got thrashed by such a person.

The impact on Pierce was so strong, it hit him at his very core.

Pierce didn’t speak again, and Lenny Wilkens realized the only one who could contain Kobe now was Roger.

This year, Roger had made significant progress on the defensive end; the previous Roger was already a secondary defender, but this season, Roger excelled even higher in man-to-man defense.

Like Kobe, Roger’s footwork on defense had improved tremendously.

When he locked onto an opponent seriously, it was like a door swinging 180 degrees in front of you, no matter how you moved or schemed, he could always shut you out.

Since Pippen’s season-ending injury in March, Roger had delivered multiple games where he shut down the opposing team’s leading scorer in the last quarter.

Of course, defense is physically demanding, so Roger only took over the opponent’s scoring ace in the fourth quarter.

But there was still a problem, which was that Roger’s own offensive game might be affected in the fourth.

No player could go full throttle on both offense and defense at the same time.

If he invested too much on defense, it would certainly reduce his energy on offense.

Lenny Wilkens cast a glance at the suited-up Pippen, missing him yet another day.