Champion Creed
Chapter 731 - 731 250 Kobe's Dream Playing Style Requesting Monthly Tickets!_2

731: 250: Kobe’s Dream Playing Style (Requesting Monthly Tickets!)_2 731: 250: Kobe’s Dream Playing Style (Requesting Monthly Tickets!)_2 “Man, you know, Shaq is my brother.

Tonight made me feel like we’re back to the good old days when Shaq and I ruled the top two spots in the MVP rankings, and congrats to my bro Shaq for becoming MVP runner-up again.

What can I say?

We walk together forever,” Roger declared, using two of the greatest phrases in basketball in one statement, proving how much he valued Shaq.

David Stern smiled awkwardly beside him, Roger’s acceptance speech wasn’t the most inspirational, but it was definitely the most sarcastic.

O’Neal was getting closer and closer to missing out altogether, with only the championship left to contend for.

After the award ceremony, Roger tossed the MVP trophy to Andrae Patterson, “Don’t let the staff take it, just put it at your feet.

If that bastard Latrell does anything outside of basketball today, smash his head with this, I’ll pay the fine.”

“Aren’t you afraid the trophy might get damaged?”

“So what if it does, I’ve got more at home.”

The players on the bench all laughed; although Roger was joking, it was clear how much he despised the Heat and Spree.

Whether the MVP trophy would hit his head was uncertain, but Roger’s iron fist was sure to make Spree bleed.

The game started soon after, with both sides very familiar with each other’s playstyles and strategies.

The only difference with the Hawks today compared to the regular season was that they had Roger guarding Sprewell.

Thinking that either Pippen or Pierce would defend him, Roger would then be on Mashburn.

The reason?

To conserve energy for the core scorers.

But today, Roger volunteered to defend Sprewell because over the four games against the Heat in the regular season, he found that the offensive pressure wasn’t that great.

Last season, the Heat were able to limit Roger, simply because Roger had no help on his side.

Pippen was sidelined for the season, Marion hadn’t joined the team yet, and Pierce was still a rookie.

The Heat could afford to focus their entire team on Roger.

Now with others to help draw off the offense, the Heat dared not double-team Roger so much, making scoring not so difficult for him.

He was fully capable of fighting on both fronts.

Sprewell brought the ball up and, finding himself guarded by Roger in person, waved his hand, wanting to go one-on-one.

He started up, leaned into Roger with his strong body to mid-range, then switched to a post-up, turning around for a shot.

The basketball smacked the rim; Roger’s defense was tight, the Spree’s shot was forced.

But his mindset wasn’t affected: “You can’t score 30 points while guarding me, and without 30 points, your team is going to lose!”

This season, in the only game the Hawks lost to the Heat, Roger scored just 25 points, while in the other three wins he had over 30 each time.

So the Miami media had a “30-point rule.”

They believed that as long as the Heat could limit Roger to under 30 points, they had a good chance of winning.

Sprewell didn’t mind being defended by Roger; the Heat had plenty of offensive options, and it didn’t matter if he couldn’t score.

If he could affect Roger’s offense by making him defend, he’d be happy to score just 8 points in the game.

Roger had moments of supreme defense this season, as well as moments of supreme offense.

He had shut down Kobe in the fourth quarter, under the condition that Pierce took over all fourth-quarter offense.

He scored 61 points over the head of Allen Iverson, on the premise that he didn’t defend AI for the whole game, letting AI score 50 points.

To gain one thing, you must give up another; this is a basic law of basketball.

Therefore, Sprewell wasn’t scared of being defended by Roger, because that meant Roger would relinquish more ball rights on the offensive end.

As long as the game is won, as long as you drag down Roger’s offense, the stats really don’t matter.

However, after putting his all into defending Sprewell, Roger remained active on the offensive end, quickly scoring his first 2 points of the day.

He faced Sprewell with the ball, used a hesitation move followed by a crossover to create space, then jumped for a direct jump shot, the basketball swooshing in cleanly.

“Luck!” Sprewell yelled.

After scoring, Roger didn’t pause, nearly without a break starting to hassle Sprewell again.

Sprewell couldn’t even get the ball as the Heat ultimately had Mourning go low post, but his turnaround hook shot didn’t go in.

Big Ben grabbed the rebound and handed the ball to Roger.

Roger personally brought the ball over the half court and continued the attack without looking to pass.

But the rest of the Hawks team still moved actively without the ball, keeping the Heat from being able to double-team excessively.

By the time Roger broke through to the free-throw line, Sprewell could only rely on himself.

Sprewell decided to step up the pressure, intensifying Roger’s fatigue.

But Roger deftly evaded the pressure with a behind-the-back dribble and took a shot from beyond the three-point line.

“Swish!”

“Is Roger on a playground?

He’s under no pressure at all!” Steve Jones commented.

Sprewell cursed under his breath and told himself to be patient.

Roger’s energy was still abundant, so he could defend against him while efficiently attacking.

But this state wouldn’t last long, it couldn’t.

On the next play, Allan Houston couldn’t break free for a clean shot, Mourning was played in front, and the Heat needed a solo scorer to break the deadlock.

But Sprewell ran four laps around the half-court without getting a chance to receive the ball.

Roger spared no effort in guarding the Spree, to the point where he couldn’t even get his hands on the ball.

No choice then, Jamal Mashburn had to go one-on-one against Pippen.

The result was predictable; Mashburn had barely dribbled before Pippen completed the steal.

Jamal Mashburn had improved his technique greatly this season but to think about rampantly breaking through against Pippen?

Far from enough.