Chapter 579: Trailing right at the gate.
The fans gave Iverson a warm applause when they saw him starting the game with his face mask on.
Iverson’s temerity was known to NBA fans.
He never backed off a challenge even in his growing age and always tried his best.
Today was arguably the most important game for the Lakers so he ignored that he wasn’t fully recovered.
The Lakers starting line-up was the usual lineup with Center Roy Hibbert, Power Forward Kobe, Point Guard Chen Huan, Shooting Guard Iverson and Small Forward D’Angelo Russell.
D’Angelo Russell mostly played as the small forward and stuck on the defensive duty along with Roy Hibbert with rarely any work to do on offense.
They would only become more active when they were with the second unit.
Until then, the offense was handed over to the three big stars.
Roy Hibbert obviously didn’t care. He wasn’t a talented player and was plenty happy to be able to contribute to the team in defense.
Russell had simple thoughts too. It was only fucking stars in front of him, which of them was worse than him?
He just had to concentrate on improving himself and couldn’t care about other things.
Anyway, it would be his turn to become Chen Huan’s side-kick in two years. It would be embarrassing if he was still not good enough at that time so he must put in the effort now.
The Golden State Warriors also sent out their main lineup.
Their center was Andrew Bogut who came from Australia, their two forwards were none other than Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes as the two defensive specialists with their main guy in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Those five were the main guys who set the regular season record of 73 wins and 9 losses.
During semifinals, the five main players only played together for more than 20 minutes in tow of those games against the Clippers while they were rotating for the other games.
They thought they would face the Spurs but didn’t expect them to be swept away and end up facing the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Golden State Warriors were calm.
They were one of the two teams who played against Chen Huan during the pre-season in China and didn’t change their strategy much.
They weren’t looking down on Chen Huan since anyone who could score more than 30 points on Duncan and Ginobili defense was a superstar.
Chen Huan was certainly amazing but he was just a single person.
Moreover, Chen Huan also didn’t shoot a single three pointer, which showed it was clearly his weakness.
It just happened that the three pointer was the Golden State Warriors main weapon.
Curry was a sharpshooter from the three and nobody could compare to him.
Numerous teams was crushed by Curry one after another.
Apart from the superstar Curry, the Warriors also had top players for each position as well as a strong bench, which was much better than the Lakers.
So they weren’t afraid.
Everyone there believed they would be able to crush the Lakers as long as everyone played well.
This was the confidence of the new supersteam who broke the regular season record made by the legendary Bulls’ team.
This was also the confidence coming from last year’s champion!
The referee of the game started the jump ball and the 2.13 meter tall Bogut just jumped and got the ball.
Hibbert had no way to grab the ball so wanted to delay him passing to the ball but Bogut just slapped the ball back.
It was Klay Thompson who got the ball and he moved forward quickly with it but then met with Chen Huan.
Klay was 26 years old and was at his peak of his career so he smiled as he raised his head and wanted to push by Chen Huan.
However, Chen Huan blocked his path forward and even if he went in contact against Chen Huan, he couldn’t knock him away.
If this was the usual, Klay would’ve used his elbow to push Chen Huan.
But he didn’t dare to do so, he saw how godly powerful Chen Huan was and it was impossible for him to strike at him without being struck back.
He didn’t want to be beat down and go to the hospital right at the beginning.
So he passed the ball to Draymond Green who ran past by.
Green met Kobe but he did a cool spin and passed by Kobe.
Lateral speed was a sign of whether a player was young or old in the NBA.
An old player like Kobe wouldn’t quickly spin it even if he was beaten to death due to the risk on his knees.
Only young players would use flashy moves like that.
Draymond didn’t think twice when he saw Iverson coming back and defending him so passed the ball to the nearby Curry who was running up.
Curry was running up the sideline but the Lakers’ Russell already came up to defend.
However, Curry worked with Harrison Barnes as Barnes pretended to come catch a pass but was actually here to screen Russell so there was open space behind him.
“Careful!”
Byron Scott yelled.
Chen Huan hurriedly came and reached out in hope to stop Curry’s shot.
But Curry already adjusted his form and took a light step back to perform a perfect stepback shot.
The ball went through the net.
3 pointer!
“Wow..”
The Warriors fans present cheered.
Although their number was small, barely three thousand, they could still be heard loud and clear in the arena.
O’Neal was happy to see that and slammed the table as he said, “Great shot! Curry is really a three point god! Chen Huan can’t be compared to him at all!”
Barkley beside him said with a frown, “The Warriors took the lead with a three pointer! This is the first time an opponent scored first in the past 8 games played by Chen Huan!”
“Does this mean this game would be Chen Huan’s first loss?” O’Neal calmed down and started to allude to a conclusion.
“It doesn’t mean anything. There are equal opportunities for offensive possessions and a single possession doesn’t mean everything!” Barkly immediately retorted, “Kobe and Iverson are veterans, they will know how to stabilize the situation.”
“Even if Chen Huan showed he was the best defensive player in the past few games, he still wouldn’t be able to do perfect defense against such a godly shooter outside of the three point line!”
“After all, the area behind the three point line was very vast and it was impossible to cover it all and be as easy as the pain area no matter how good Chen Huan’s physical abilities were.”
Barkley’s analysis was correct compared to the hater O’Neal.
The easier it was for defensive superstars to play the less space there was.
It was harder to perform with that much space and so many people.
The same was true for the shooter, wouldn’t it be easier to get blocked or contested when they were close to the paint?
But they had much more space outside of the three point line.
They had a chance to shoot wherever it was the corners or other spots.
If someone was covered, he could pass the ball to someone else to shoot.
Like that, it was impossible for Chen Huan to defend everyone even if he was a defensive specialist.
Turning and sprinting was really exhausting!
Unless they were the legendary Piston Five.
The Piston Five may be okay against Stephen Curry alone but they would still have to bow down if another great three point shooter was added.
Now, Chen Huan’s defense was facing a problem.
Three pointer was really hard to guard against!
The Lakers didn’t encounter a three pointer specialist when they faced the Blazers or the Spurs so they played very well.
But they were immediately at a disadvantage when they encountered the three point specialist Curry.
That was why those experts favored the Warriors instead of the Lakers even after Chen Huan superstars performance!
“Ding Dong!”
“Because of Curry’s godly three pointers, the host is being looked down upon by O’Neal and others. This cannot be allowed!”
“The system issues the following mission, the host needs to suppress Curry on the three pointers category and thoroughly win the game to make those shallow experts be ashamed of their ignorance!”
“The better the way of completing the mission is done, the more generous the system will be, give your all to the host!”
Chapter 579: Trailing right at the gate.
The fans gave Iverson a warm applause when they saw him starting the game with his face mask on.
Iverson’s temerity was known to NBA fans.
He never backed off a challenge even in his growing age and always tried his best.
Today was arguably the most important game for the Lakers so he ignored that he wasn’t fully recovered.
The Lakers starting line-up was the usual lineup with Center Roy Hibbert, Power Forward Kobe, Point Guard Chen Huan, Shooting Guard Iverson and Small Forward D’Angelo Russell.
D’Angelo Russell mostly played as the small forward and stuck on the defensive duty along with Roy Hibbert with rarely any work to do on offense.
They would only become more active when they were with the second unit.
Until then, the offense was handed over to the three big stars.
Roy Hibbert obviously didn’t care. He wasn’t a talented player and was plenty happy to be able to contribute to the team in defense.
Russell had simple thoughts too. It was only fucking stars in front of him, which of them was worse than him?
He just had to concentrate on improving himself and couldn’t care about other things.
Anyway, it would be his turn to become Chen Huan’s side-kick in two years. It would be embarrassing if he was still not good enough at that time so he must put in the effort now.
The Golden State Warriors also sent out their main lineup.
Their center was Andrew Bogut who came from Australia, their two forwards were none other than Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes as the two defensive specialists with their main guy in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Those five were the main guys who set the regular season record of 73 wins and 9 losses.
During semifinals, the five main players only played together for more than 20 minutes in tow of those games against the Clippers while they were rotating for the other games.
They thought they would face the Spurs but didn’t expect them to be swept away and end up facing the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Golden State Warriors were calm.
They were one of the two teams who played against Chen Huan during the pre-season in China and didn’t change their strategy much.
They weren’t looking down on Chen Huan since anyone who could score more than 30 points on Duncan and Ginobili defense was a superstar.
Chen Huan was certainly amazing but he was just a single person.
Moreover, Chen Huan also didn’t shoot a single three pointer, which showed it was clearly his weakness.
It just happened that the three pointer was the Golden State Warriors main weapon.
Curry was a sharpshooter from the three and nobody could compare to him.
Numerous teams was crushed by Curry one after another.
Apart from the superstar Curry, the Warriors also had top players for each position as well as a strong bench, which was much better than the Lakers.
So they weren’t afraid.
Everyone there believed they would be able to crush the Lakers as long as everyone played well.
This was the confidence of the new supersteam who broke the regular season record made by the legendary Bulls’ team.
This was also the confidence coming from last year’s champion!
The referee of the game started the jump ball and the 2.13 meter tall Bogut just jumped and got the ball.
Hibbert had no way to grab the ball so wanted to delay him passing to the ball but Bogut just slapped the ball back.
It was Klay Thompson who got the ball and he moved forward quickly with it but then met with Chen Huan.
Klay was 26 years old and was at his peak of his career so he smiled as he raised his head and wanted to push by Chen Huan.
However, Chen Huan blocked his path forward and even if he went in contact against Chen Huan, he couldn’t knock him away.
If this was the usual, Klay would’ve used his elbow to push Chen Huan.
But he didn’t dare to do so, he saw how godly powerful Chen Huan was and it was impossible for him to strike at him without being struck back.
He didn’t want to be beat down and go to the hospital right at the beginning.
So he passed the ball to Draymond Green who ran past by.
Green met Kobe but he did a cool spin and passed by Kobe.
Lateral speed was a sign of whether a player was young or old in the NBA.
An old player like Kobe wouldn’t quickly spin it even if he was beaten to death due to the risk on his knees.
Only young players would use flashy moves like that.
Draymond didn’t think twice when he saw Iverson coming back and defending him so passed the ball to the nearby Curry who was running up.
Curry was running up the sideline but the Lakers’ Russell already came up to defend.
However, Curry worked with Harrison Barnes as Barnes pretended to come catch a pass but was actually here to screen Russell so there was open space behind him.
“Careful!”
Byron Scott yelled.
Chen Huan hurriedly came and reached out in hope to stop Curry’s shot.
But Curry already adjusted his form and took a light step back to perform a perfect stepback shot.
The ball went through the net.
3 pointer!
“Wow..”
The Warriors fans present cheered.
Although their number was small, barely three thousand, they could still be heard loud and clear in the arena.
O’Neal was happy to see that and slammed the table as he said, “Great shot! Curry is really a three point god! Chen Huan can’t be compared to him at all!”
Barkley beside him said with a frown, “The Warriors took the lead with a three pointer! This is the first time an opponent scored first in the past 8 games played by Chen Huan!”
“Does this mean this game would be Chen Huan’s first loss?” O’Neal calmed down and started to allude to a conclusion.
“It doesn’t mean anything. There are equal opportunities for offensive possessions and a single possession doesn’t mean everything!” Barkly immediately retorted, “Kobe and Iverson are veterans, they will know how to stabilize the situation.”
“Even if Chen Huan showed he was the best defensive player in the past few games, he still wouldn’t be able to do perfect defense against such a godly shooter outside of the three point line!”
“After all, the area behind the three point line was very vast and it was impossible to cover it all and be as easy as the pain area no matter how good Chen Huan’s physical abilities were.”
Barkley’s analysis was correct compared to the hater O’Neal.
The easier it was for defensive superstars to play the less space there was.
It was harder to perform with that much space and so many people.
The same was true for the shooter, wouldn’t it be easier to get blocked or contested when they were close to the paint?
But they had much more space outside of the three point line.
They had a chance to shoot wherever it was the corners or other spots.
If someone was covered, he could pass the ball to someone else to shoot.
Like that, it was impossible for Chen Huan to defend everyone even if he was a defensive specialist.
Turning and sprinting was really exhausting!
Unless they were the legendary Piston Five.
The Piston Five may be okay against Stephen Curry alone but they would still have to bow down if another great three point shooter was added.
Now, Chen Huan’s defense was facing a problem.
Three pointer was really hard to guard against!
The Lakers didn’t encounter a three pointer specialist when they faced the Blazers or the Spurs so they played very well.
But they were immediately at a disadvantage when they encountered the three point specialist Curry.
That was why those experts favored the Warriors instead of the Lakers even after Chen Huan superstars performance!
“Ding Dong!”
“Because of Curry’s godly three pointers, the host is being looked down upon by O’Neal and others. This cannot be allowed!”
“The system issues the following mission, the host needs to suppress Curry on the three pointers category and thoroughly win the game to make those shallow experts be ashamed of their ignorance!”
“The better the way of completing the mission is done, the more generous the system will be, give your all to the host!”
