After entering Los Angeles at night, Li Ke was lying in the hotel room and tossed and turned and couldn't sleep.
It has little to do with this finals. Before the finals started, he knew that this year is not the Year of the Bobcats.
Although he has been losing, Li Ke has not been criticized by public opinion.
Some media have even compared Li Ke in this final to Allen Iverson in the 200-01 season finals.
It is also a nearly single-core battle. Since the four games, Li Ke has averaged 35.75 points per game. Compared with AI back then, it is not bad at all, and the efficiency is even higher.
Logically speaking, with Li Ke's performance like this, the Bobcats should not be beaten like this by the Lakers.
The problem is that, except for Li Ke, the Bobcats have no second player to make stable output in these four games.
Curry can only be a magical game after two or three games. Old Martin, who was exchanged for the old shark, has long been a blue-collar worker. He can pick up a few vacancy and dunk a few baskets in each game, which means he can do the limit.
Hua Lao Er is stable, and he scored eighteen or nineteen points in each game.
But his eighteen or nineteen points were all dry.
Specifically, Hua Lao Er didn't have three points, and the CET was not stable. The scoring was all about drilling into the penalty area and the penalty area. It was not as lethal as Lebang, Sparks.
He scored eighteen or nineteen points in each game, sometimes a little more, and sometimes a little less. Hua Lao Er contributed more, but he still defended.
But the problem is that what Bobcats need now is more scores than Li Ke.
Thinking of this, Li Ke knew what he was sad about.
Outside the window, there are no stars, some are neon lights.
Li Ke's mind is full of Bobcats' current lineup, including Curry Gang, Jordan Jr. in the penalty area, Tagibson of the power forward, and Wesley Matthews, Hua Lao Er and Tucker on the wing.
If all members reach the peak of this lineup, it is at the dynasty level.
But, it still needs to grow...
It's mainly Jordan and Curry, specifically-
Jordan Jr. averaged 8.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game this season, which is already the level after ripening.
And he is probably going to have to be one or two seasons away from his peak.
Curry averaged 17.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.5 steals per game this season, which is considered a rookie in the first-tier of this season.
But this performance will take at least two or three seasons before Curry is at its peak.
So, in general, it will take five or six years for the bobcat to go to the dynasty.
But in the past five or six years, the Bobcats' rookie bonus has been eaten up.
He has a maximum salary, Curry has a maximum salary, plus Jordan Jr. Hua's second largest contract with a scale of tens of millions, Matthews and Tucker also need a contract with a middle class or above...
There is also Lao Du who is lying next to him. At this time next year, his contract with Li Ke will expire together. How much is Lao Qiao willing to give Lao Du?
Speaking of which, although Lao Du averaged only a little over 5 points per game, his role was more important than Matthews, Tucker, etc., because he was the core of the locker room.
After all, the dynasty-level bobcats should have to pay a huge luxury tax.
Can Charlotte in the Small Football Market afford it?
Or considering the income in the Chinese market, can the Bobcat afford it, and is Lao Qiao willing to pay it?
Li Ke didn't know, maybe even Lao Qiao didn't know, after all, the big boss of the Bobcat was not Lao Qiao...
While thinking about this, Li Ke turned over and got up, greeted Lao Du on the bed next door, and left the hotel door.
The training hall rented by the Bobcat in Luocheng is not far from the hotel. Li Ke trotted for a while and arrived.
The door of the training hall was not closed, so he easily pushed the door in, but at this moment, a clanging sound of basketball irons slamming sounded in his ears.
Looking in the direction of the sound, Li Ke saw a vigorous voice.
"Gerard?"
That's right, it's Hua Lao Er. This guy is picking up the ball by himself and practicing three-pointers by himself.
"Sheldon?"
Li Ke's voice reminded Hua Lao Er. As soon as he looked up, he saw Li Ke.
"Are you here to practice more?"
As he asked, he grabbed the basketball in his hand and threw a three-pointer from the three-point line.
Bang-!
Li Ke shook his head: "I can't sleep, come and take a look."
On the side of the training ground, he found a seat to sit down, and then continued the topic: "But you, it's the big night, why did you come here to practice three points?"
"It's not this damn trend..."
Hua Lao Er shook his head and suddenly felt a little dejected. He stopped the extra exercise in his hand and turned around and sat next to Li Ke.
"Damn trend?"
"Yes, Sheldon, haven't you noticed that the league is now demanding more and more on wing players like us."
"First of all, you have to be good at defense, and then offense. Second-rate breakthrough players like me are no longer mainstream. But those three-point shooters, umm... like the Magic's jj Redick, are becoming more and more popular now."
"If I don't train three points, I'm afraid I'll be eliminated by this league."
“…”
Li Ke smiled and shook his head: "It's not that exaggerated, Gerald."
"No, the reality is very exaggerated. Forwards like me who play in a low-level style and are not strong enough to compete with those real power forwards. If I don't train three-pointers, how can I become a member of the championship team?"
Hearing this, Li Ke was silent.
He finally knew the reason why Hua Lao Er practiced hard.
As mentioned earlier, in this final, Hua Lao Er performed very stably, with eighteen or nineteen points per game, and also cooperated with his teammates to assist in various defenses and supplementary defenses.
However, Hua Lao Er couldn't kill the game, and all his contributions were dry.
Sometimes, his role is not even as good as Wesley Matthews who came on the bench.
The reason is that Matthews can shoot three-pointers, and if he can shoot three-pointers, he can open up the space.
But more importantly, it is the defense against Mrs. Ga.
If the Bobcats are against the Lakers, Li Ke can defeat Kobe, but the Lakers can still win. The reason is that they are Jia Jie.
In the whole Bobcats, no player can match Gama's wife.
Hua Laoer took the initiative to take over this pot.
In his opinion, if he can't kill the game on the offensive end, he should make equal contributions on the offensive end.
As a result, he was not as good as Jia Sao in one-on-one defense, and he was far inferior to Li Ke in single defense against Kobe.
As a result, he felt that he was redundant in the Bobcats, a team that was destined to make achievements in the future.
Of course, if he practiced three points, he would not be extra.
Not only is it not unnecessary, he can also take away the third maximum salary contract of Bobcat from Lao Qiao's pocket.
"Come on, Gerald..."
Thinking of this, Li Ke patted Hua Lao Er's shoulder, got up and left.
...
On June 13, Staples Center, the finals G5 match.
In this game, the Bobcats made another change—
Old Martin, who was only energetic but had very little contribution to the defensive end, was taken down, and Tagibson started, but the other positions remained unchanged.
In terms of play, the defensive end has changed its joint defense. Jordan Jr. guards the basket, Tagibson and Hua Lao Er are all in one area, and Li Ke goes out alone to stare at Kobe.
On the offensive end, Rivers no longer asked Li Ke to cooperate with Curry in the pick-and-roll, but instead took the two apart and fought each other.
To put it bluntly, it's just a gamble.
Take apart Li Ku and give Curry the power of the opening offense, betting that Curry can open his own touch.
As for Li Ke, what Rivers has to do is to make Li Ke focus on defense.
That's right, Rivers wants to focus on the defensive end, hoping to use defense to win back the game.
For the Bobcats, as long as they can win this game, the series will regain their vitality.
After all, this game is a 2-3 score.
When you return to home in the next game, you can't say you can get a little home whistle, and you won another game, it's not a dream at all.
When it comes to tiebreak, it is really hard to say who loses and who wins.
At the beginning of the game, everything went much smoother than the previous few games.
Li Ke stared at Kobe to death, and the sound of ironclads at the beginning was endless.
Mrs. Jia is still exporting, but the Bobcat side-
Curry continued to be super ghost, but Li Ke started to take the offense and defense shoulders, and with the pressure, he took on the burden of scoring in this game.
At the end of the first quarter, the two teams almost tied with a score of 22 to 23. The Bobcats, who played away, were still 1 point ahead.
In the second quarter, the Lakers also began to strengthen their defense, especially against Li Ke.
After the pressure came, Li Ke also started to make a fuss.
The competition became more and more intense and more intense.
"No one expected that when g5, the style of the game changed again, from the previous few games to the defensive battle of this game."
At the end of the half, Li Ke only made 7 of 16 shots and scored 17 points.
Kobe was even worse, with only 4 of 14 shots and only scored 11 points.
In the first half, the scores of the two teams were also very low 46 to 45. The Bobcats, who led by 1 point in the first quarter, became the backward side again at the end of the half.
However, this is only 1 point behind, which means that the Bobcats still have a chance.
That's right, the Bobcats just have a chance, and the Lakers still have the upper hand in this game.
The reason is that until now, Li Ke is still the only one who has played in the game.
On the Lakers, Mrs. Ga is already unstoppable. Although Kobe is scrambling to make a fuss, she is like a dormant Mamba snake, waiting for the chance to kill with one blow.
"The score is a bit dead. I'm afraid I'll play the key goal in this game. Sheldon, if you can rest, we have to save our energy until the last moment of the game..."
Rivers has judged the future trend of the game. Not only did he give some advice during the halftime break, but he even gave other Bobcats players the chance to hold the ball after the start of the second half.
Curry was still very unsatisfied and shot one by one from afar and smashed the frame out.
However, Hua Lao Er couldn't kill the game and sent the ball into the basket one by one, helping the Bobcats bit the score.
Seeing this, Rivers chose to replace Li Ke at the end of the third quarter.
"Sheldon was replaced. It seems that he needs to rest for a few minutes and then devote all his energy to the final battle in the final quarter."
"Sheldon has been playing for 48 minutes since the Eastern Conference Finals. He finally got a rest in this game."
On the Lakers, Zen master also replaced Kobe.
As we all know, this G5 battle will be a final battle in the final quarter.
Li Ke sat on the bench on the sidelines and covered his head with a towel.
Listen to Staples' constant switching of cheers and boos, and the unanimous "defense".
After listening for a while, he decided to pull off the towel.
He still has to pay attention to the trend of this game. If the balance of the game suddenly tilts, he has to appear urgently.
So he stared at the basketball on the court and watched for a while.
After Li Ke left the field, the one who supported the Bobcats to attack was Hua Lao Er. His breakthrough that could not kill the game was very determined at this moment.
The impacts are repeated, and Staples can always make exclamation.
This ball looked like a very ordinary ball. Curry ran on the outside for a while and suddenly received the ball and raised his hand and scored a three-pointer.
But the moment the ball was shot, it was obviously biased.
So someone shouted on the Bobcats' bench: "Backboard!"
This can also be regarded as reminding the players on the court from the perspective of bystanders.
Li Ke watched the basketball ball pop up, and also watched Hua Lao Er rush to the basket with all his might, and jumped up with a wide glare.
But at the same time, he also saw Andrew Bynum, who looked at the little shark who was not very smart, and rushed up regardless of it.
Staples exclaimed, but Li Ke frowned and found something wrong.
"Wait... this guy is elbowing!"
An Zhu held his thick elbow horizontally and did not use his body to touch Hua Lao Er.
Bang!
Staples exclaimed even more fearful, and Li Ke suddenly stood up from the bench.
boom!
Two huge bodies fell to Staples' floor, but there was a clear difference between the two on the floor.
Hua Lao Er covered his chest, feeling extremely painful.
An Zhu was safe and sound and quickly sat on the floor.
Beep beep beep —!
The referee blew rushing his whistle quickly and stopped the game.
However, Li Ke rushed to the court at the moment the whistle sounded.
"In order to compete for rebounds, there was a fierce confrontation at the basket. Andrew Bynum should be fine, but Gerald Wallace...he seemed to be injured."
Just when everyone was still a melon-eating crowd, just when the Bobcats' team doctor team was about to enter the field...
A thick yellow fist suddenly appeared in front of An Zhu and kept magnifying.
The next second, bang!
"Oh my God!"
Although the eyes of the melon-eating crowd were focused on Hua Lao Er, An Zhu, who suddenly took a punch, was discovered not far away.
In the commentary seat, McBrien exclaimed, her face full of disbelief.
What was even more incredible was that immediately afterwards, the second yellow and thick fist also slammed heavily on An Zhu's head.
An Zhu's scream sounded on the field, and there was still a piece of—
"No, no!"
"Stop him!"
"No, Sheldon!"
That's right, both of these punches come from Li Ke.
When Hua Lao Er hugged his chest and was wailing in pain, he realized something.
He cursed the damn historical inertia and could not cover up his anger. He, Li Ke, rushed to the court.
Because he knew what this elbow meant to the second child in China.
"Without the second brother, I can't win this finals anymore. The evil will be beaten by the evil ones. Those who hurt others must be punished the same punishment!"
Bang!
After two punches, Li Ke, who had already pulled the distance closer, finally swung one elbow.
The skin exploded and blood flowed. An Zhu was already lying on the floor without any sense.
Li Ke was already dragged by Kobe and Tagibson. He still stepped on An Zhu's calves under his feet.
Chapter completed!