Chapter 545 The Knight's Hope

Sakuragi Hanamichi and Chandler were dismissed one after another. Although Artest on the Cavaliers side was "gone forever" and Barnes was also dismissed, the loss of combat power of both sides is obviously not equal. .

The score on the electronic scoreboard has also reached 13:31, with only an 18-point difference, which undoubtedly cheered up the Cavaliers fans at the Win Arena.

It seems... I see hope of chasing points!

"Shaq, here you go!" Mike Brown on the sidelines was completely excited at this time. Seeing the Cavaliers who had entered a dead end, he did not expect to reopen in such a way. The basket was missing Chandler's foul and With Sakuragi Hanamichi's help on defense, O'Neal will no longer be restricted by anyone. What substitutes are there for the Sonics? That substitute didn't even have a use, it was just like giving it away: "Their substitute center has only played 6 games in total this season, averaging 0.25 points and 0.5 rebounds per game! Let me blow his shit out of him. !”

"Hahaha! Just pretend that he doesn't exist. If he can get any data on the court, I will lose!" O'Neal said excitedly. He is really afraid of the combination of Chandler and Sakuragi now. With that pairing together, he suddenly felt like he could dominate this arena again!

"Hughes, you play the 3 position. On the offensive end, look for the weak side to shoot 3-pointers. Dare to shoot! With Shaq under the basket, you don't have to worry about rebounds. If you lose it, it has nothing to do with you!"

Larry Hughes, the swingman who was transferred from the Wizards to the Cavaliers this season, is a supplementary transaction after O'Neal.

There was a strange light in Larry Hughes's eyes.

He was originally the main small forward for the Cavaliers this season. He averaged 13.8 points per game during the regular season and also had a 38.9% 3-point shooting rate, ranking among the league's top outside shooting percentages.

It's a pity that since the Cavaliers acquired Artest at the end of the season, Larry Hughes has automatically been reduced to a substitute.

Now that Artest is seriously injured and off the field, it is tantamount to a lost opportunity for him.

What are the previous rounds of the playoffs if they are not the main players? As long as he can become a stable starter in this finals and help the Cavaliers defeat the SuperSonics and win the championship, then he can get back everything he lost! As for Artest, the evil guy, it would be better if he was severely concussed by Sakuragi Hanamichi and would be completely unable to play in the next few games.

"Yes, coach!"

"On the offensive end, their defense is no longer in formation and cannot stop our advancement, but on the defensive end..." Mike Brown said: "They will put Rukawa Kaede up, and they must not let it go on the outside. Hughes, you and Rukawa Kaede He's the same height. You go to guard him! LeBron, you go to guard Iguodala and move a little closer to the inside."

As he said that, he looked at Wade: "Continue to consume Lin Dong! Don't let him go outside, let him burst out. Don't forget, even if Lin Dong bursts in, he will still have to face the sand under the basket. Grams, and LeBron’s help defense!”

"Lock down the rest of the Sonics, and the inside basket is our world! Every time we defend against Lin Dong's ball, we are one step closer to victory!"

"There are five minutes left in the first quarter, and it's only 18 points. We still have three and a half quarters to chase!"

In fact, there is no need for Mike Brown to analyze. Everyone in the Cavaliers is well aware of the current situation of the Sonics without Sakuragi Hanamichi and Chandler.

Frankly speaking, except for LeBron, although others do not know the specific actions of Nike, they can generally guess the purpose of Barnes coming to the Cavaliers. Although one more Artest has been removed, compared to Super For the two people who went down at the speed of sound, the Cavaliers still made a lot of money.

It does seem somewhat unseemly to win in this way, but... after recognizing the strength of this Sonics, everyone agreed that it was better than losing!

Anyway, those bad things were not done by ourselves and have nothing to do with us. If we want to blame them, we can only blame the Sonics for being impulsive. We will not be merciful because of this!

The eyes that had been a little confused began to shine with color again and gathered light.

LeBron was the first to stretch out his hand and roared: "Never give up!"

Others also joined hands and shouted with deafening anger: "The knight must win!"

"SuperSonics' interior lineup this season is actually the shallowest in their history. Apart from Chandler and Hanamichi Sakuragi, who are the main starters, there is only one Vitaly who holds a veteran's minimum salary contract. Potapenko was once a strong forward with the Celtics, but in the past few years with the SuperSonics, except for Chandler's off-season attendance rate of 36 games, he has only played in other seasons. Below 10 games, he only played 6 games this season, and before the end of the season, there were rumors of trades.”

Doris in the live broadcast room is still introducing the possible substitute lineup of the SuperSonics. There are two missing holes, and Rukawa Kaede must be one of them, but the remaining hole is really difficult to fill. After all, the SuperSonics There is only one backup center left who can fill in the paint, but...

"Vitaly once averaged close to a double-double with the Celtics, but his condition has declined in recent years and has long been no longer at the level it was back then. For him to face Shaq under the basket is simply unbelievable. It's just asking him to face a brutal and inhumane one-sided massacre."

"I'm afraid it will be difficult for the SuperSonics to hold on to their inside line, and losing the inside line will mean to the Sonics... Eh!" Before Barkley finished speaking, he suddenly stopped: "The SuperSonics' lineup..."

At this time, the director has switched the camera back to the stadium. With the referee's whistle, the Sonics' returning lineup is beyond everyone's expectations.

Lin Dong, Payton, and Iguodala are the three original main players, and everyone expected Rukawa Kaede to come off the bench.

However, they did not send the team's only substitute center Vitali Potapanko, but sent Luke Ridnour, who was previously a substitute for Payton, the only 188 cm point guard!

Double point guard lineup? Is this going to completely release Lin Dong to the No. 3 position?

Now that the Sonics have no one in the interior, it seems to be a good idea to pull all the combat power to the outside to create a breakthrough space for Lin Dong.

However, this is also equivalent to the Sonics completely giving up the interior!

Although everyone knows that Vitali is no match for O'Neal, there is still a big difference between having someone inside and having no one inside. It makes no sense to completely leave the inside empty, even if it is a run-and-gun team!

What's more terrible is that the overall height of the Sonics' current lineup seems too short.

Lin Dong's 201 cm is the only player on the Sonics who is over 2 meters tall. Iguodala is 198 cm, Payton is 193 cm, Rukawa is 197 cm, and Luke Ridnour is only 188 cm!

This... let alone the actual confrontation between the two sides, just look at the size comparison of the two sides on the court at this time.

Previously, when Sakuragi Hanamichi and Chandler were on the court, the overall height of the Sonics was still not as good as that of the Cavaliers, but it seemed that there were always tall people supporting them, but now... it really seems like an adult beating a child, there is no comparison at all.

Luke Ridnour seemed a little nervous. After all, it was the finals, and he was facing a player who was not at the same level as him.

Snap!

Lin Dong slapped him on the shoulder, and his faint smile sounded like a heavenly sound in Luke's ears: "Hey! Luke, Sakuragi believes that with a backer like you, he will choose to take action... I believe in you too!"

Luke Ridnour's body trembled slightly, and the words that Sakuragi Hanamichi said to him when he left the court just now seemed to float in his ears: "Man, everyone in the Supersonics is invincible, it's just that the tactics have changed... It's up to you!"

The guy didn't have the melancholy of being about to receive a heavy penalty on his face at the time, but smiled and blinked at him...

Luke shuddered, and suddenly calmed down, his body stopped trembling, and he used He nodded vigorously: "I will!"

…………

…………

"I seem to see a massacre going on!"

"Hahaha, are the Sonics planning to give up completely?"

"It seems that they don't plan to play inside. With this size, they probably can't even move O'Neal's legs if they go inside."

"There is no rebound for them. They will be trapped if they break into the inside. What's the point of playing this?"

The stadium was buzzing with excited discussions, not just the excited solos of the Cavaliers fans, but even many Sonics fans sitting in front of the TV in Seattle couldn't help but worry.

This looks really bad, but...

The faces of the five Sonics players on the court did not show the tension and worry that they should have, and there was not even a trace of frustration.

After all, it is a championship team. The stability of their mentality is obviously beyond the imagination of ordinary fans, which made Doris, who was in high spirits, couldn't help but praise them in the live broadcast room.

Both sides were called for technical fouls just now. The Cavaliers were called for one 2-1 free throw, while the Sonics were called for two 2-1 free throws.

After canceling each other out, the Sonics had two free throws, while the Cavaliers had four free throws plus the ball. The ball was in the hands of the Cavaliers at the time, so this penalty was understandable.

Lin Dong was responsible for tactical free throws, and he made both free throws to open the score to 13:33, and the score difference returned to 20 points.

But then, LeBron made tactical free throws on behalf of the team.

It can be seen that this guy, who had a free throw rate of less than 80% in his four-year rookie season, really practiced the basics in Japan this year. He had a textbook shooting posture and made four free throws steadily, bringing the score difference back to 17:33.

There was only a 16-point difference, and at the same time, the Cavaliers had the ball!

Kidd crossed the midline with the ball, facing the Sonics' man-to-man defense, and the Cavaliers were calm at this time.

The height difference is indeed a flaw.

Lin Dong defended Wade alone, which was an advantageous matchup, but the Cavaliers didn't attack Wade at all.

Payton defended Kidd alone, which was a state of barely equal. Kidd couldn't score easily, but if he wanted to pass the ball, Payton couldn't stop him.

But except for these two points, the other three points were in a state of loss.

Iguodala was the tallest and strongest of the remaining three, after all, and was forced to pull to the inside to go around and defend O'Neal.

Although the tactic of going around has a natural restraint for the relatively clumsy O'Neal, the height difference is too obvious.

The difference between the two is nearly 20 centimeters. Iguodala's weight of 94 kilograms is as strong as a tiger in front of ordinary people, but when put together with O'Neal's weight of 150 kilograms, it feels like a tiger encountering a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

This... even if the feeling of going around is useless.

At the same time, Luke Ridnour on the left baseline was completely in a state of loss that was visible to the naked eye when facing Larry Hughes.

196 cm vs. 188 cm, although the weight difference seems not very big, their strength is not at the same level.

Although Luke and Murray are both substitutes for Payton, one is the main attacker and the other is the main defender. Luke's defense is the worst in the Supersonics. Facing a veteran like Larry Hughes, he is far inferior in both basic strength and slickness, giving people a feeling that he can be easily gotten rid of.

But Kidd didn't even take a look at such two big loopholes. He gave the ball to another person-LeBron James!

Compared with O'Neal vs. Iguodala and Larry Hughes vs. Luke Ridnour, LeBron vs. Rukawa Kaede feels like the pair with the biggest gap in strength.

Not only is there a height difference of 10 cm between them, but there is also a weight difference of 25 kg, which makes the difference in strength and confrontation between the two unimaginable.

What's more terrible is that on the basis of such a huge gap in physical fitness, LeBron actually has detailed skills that surpass Rukawa Kaede!

At this time, receiving Kidd's pass, LeBron leaned back without hesitation.

The pressure from the defender came from his back. Although he could feel the opponent's center of gravity increased, even with his toes, the overall feeling to LeBron was still soft, completely different from the toughness and strength of Sakuragi Hanamichi.

Just leaning like this has already forcibly broken Rukawa Kaede's center of gravity.

Rukawa Kaede's breathing became rapid in an instant. Although he knew that there was a huge gap between his and Sakuragi Hanamichi's defensive strength, to be honest, he did not expect that the gap between them would be so big.

After all, when Sakuragi Hanamichi pushed LeBron just now, he felt that he could completely withstand it. Even if he couldn't withstand it, he could at least cause some trouble. But he didn't expect... When the opponent's power came, it was like a crushing, so that he couldn't even organize the power to resist.

At this time, he had to take a step back to support his body, and then he felt that LeBron turned around and broke through in the direction of the "gap" that was knocked open.

Rukawa used all his strength to move his already somewhat disordered center of gravity to the left to block, but just as his center of gravity was thrown out, LeBron dribbled the ball between his legs, retracted his body, and took a step back to the three-point line.

Step back and shoot!

Rukawa's center of gravity was unstable at this time, and his strong desire to make up for the defense could only lead to the collapse of his own balance. He fell to the ground, and then watched LeBron stand up from the three-point line and steadily cut the basketball through the sky...

Swish!

O'Neal, who had been waiting under the basket to grab the rebound, did not get a chance to use his skills. The basketball went into the net. 20:33, the score difference was only 13 points!

The fans at the win arena were immediately excited.

20 points is a hurdle, and 15 points is also a hurdle. When the score difference went from more than 20 points to 13 points, it seemed that the Cavaliers had suddenly gained momentum.

The fans were extremely glad that they did not leave the court early because of anger. They felt that they were about to witness a classic comeback in the finals from falling behind by 20+ points to catching up!

——LeBron! LeBron! LeBron!

——Cleveland Cavaliers! Cleveland Cavaliers! Long live the Cleveland Cavaliers!

The scene was full of jubilation, and Doris in the live broadcast room was also beaming with joy. Even at this time, many Cavaliers fans and Sonics professional haters sitting in front of the TV in the United States were excited and shouted.

The current remnant of the Sonics felt that it was full of loopholes on the defensive end and could not stop the Cavaliers' offense at all.

13 points, so what? In the first half... no, we can catch up with you in the first quarter!

The Cavaliers will win today!

However, no one noticed the smile that flashed across Lin Dong's mouth.

Although Sakuragi's departure made the Sonics' new lineup no longer complete, but...

The Cavaliers may feel that their chance has come, and the current remnant of the Sonics really can't stop the Cavaliers' offense.

But at the same time, the Cavaliers can't stop the Supersonics!

The new lineup, the true ultimate form of running and gunning, will let them see it in advance without Sakuragi.

The 13-point difference, this watershed, the Cavaliers can't think of taking another step forward no matter what!

Luke Ridnour quickly ran to the baseline and picked up the baseline ball.

The Supersonics have the ball!