After speaking, John Cage took off his shirt once again.
Underneath, his body had long been painted with the words: "Roger is the eternal king."
Then, he shook his whole body of fat and began his final dance.
This was a die-hard fan’s way of expressing his love.
The scene imdiately turned lively, and at the most tense mont of the ga, the caras gave John Cage precious seconds of close-up.
Because John Cage’s seat was right behind the Lakers’ backboard, Roger also saw the guy.
The security personnel wanted to rush in and take him away, but the leading captain stopped them: "At least wait until he sees Roger score."
Roger was still holding the ti, which ant he had absolute confidence.
Of course, the Lakers also had to thank David Stern for abolishing the hack-a-shaq tactic, otherwise the Warriors would only need to foul Theo Ratliff crazily when the Lakers gained ball possession.
Roger followed the tactic, continuing to use screens to draw the defense.
But the Lakers didn’t double-team, still having Kobe single-defend Roger throughout. Therefore, the Lakers’ defensive formation did not change because of Roger.
Seeing no chance, Roger retreated beyond the three-point line once more and simply waved to signal everyone to clear out.
He was silently counting down in his heart, then looked up at the basket and John behind the backboard.
He wouldn’t leave Oakland empty-handed, no way!
Roger broke through, changed direction, and quickly spun around.
So far, Kobe was defending well, not out of position, nor giving space, knowing Roger’s offensive thods inside and out.
Seeing this, Roger could only continue to drive inside, raising the basketball at the zero-degree angle next to the basket, intending to make Kobe jump.
But Kobe wasn’t hasty and jumpy; he rely raised his arms high to block between Roger and the basket. He knew very well that as long as he stood there, Roger had no angle to shoot!
Finally, Roger could only jump up in place before the ga ti expired, then lifted the ball with one hand and tossed it towards the basket.
The basketball flew from the back side of the backboard, over the top edge.
Kobe turned around to eye the ball but saw it drop into the net at this extrely poor angle! Once again, Roger used his miraculous touch to beat the unbeatable defense!
In the stands, John Cage leapt up like a madman. And around him, all the fans rushed towards him.
"I told you long ago, when you dance, we win!"
"Hahahaha! Roger took down that bastard Kobe, I knew he could, I just knew it!"
"You should go to the championship parade, John, you absolutely deserve it!"
What excited John Cage most was that, after scoring, Roger pointed to him in the stands.
He felt his passion; he hadn’t let down his passion.
After interacting with John Cage, Roger stared at the dumbfounded Kobe: "The court may not judge you, but the Savior can!"
At this ti, there were only 0.4 seconds left in the ga, and the Golden State Warriors were almost holding the victory. On the bench, the Warriors players were also jumping. Clearly, everyone thought the win was in the bag.
But Phil Jackson calmly paused the ga and gathered the team to set up the final play.
He had a tactic that a rookie like Spoelstra could never predict in the final monts!
Spoelstra shouted nervously: "Cover Kobe Bryant, stick on him! 0.4 seconds is enough for him to make a shot, we can’t let him get the ball! Apart from the inside players, everyone’s target is to prevent Kobe from getting the ball!"
0.4 seconds, Lakers, Phil Jackson.
These three keywords reverberated wildly in Roger’s mind.
He kept thinking, and after getting on the court, Roger shouted to Prince: "Don’t chase Kobe, later you guard the outside of the three-point line on the side close to the inbound point!"
"Uh?" Tayshaun Prince was a bit surprised, "There’s no one there, do you want to guard the air?"
"Don’t talk shit, just listen to !"
Prince didn’t argue further. He was just a second-year rookie, and he respected Roger.
So, although it seed unreasonable, Prince decided to do as Roger said.
The ga restarted, and all the Lakers players lined up, which was the starting move of a typical star-burst play.
Either Kobe would loop out for a shot, or Karl Malone would cut inside to attack the hoop, this was a tactic the Lakers used countless tis in crucial monts this season.
So, Tayshaun Prince didn’t know why Roger wanted him to guard the side near the inbound point beyond the three-point line, instead of teaming up to trap Kobe.
Erik Spoelstra also didn’t understand why Roger wanted to change his tactic, why he had Prince guard the air.
But there was no ti to adjust, and before he could shout, the Lakers inbounded the ball.
Kobe looped out, Malone cut inside. Everything seed no different from before, and the Lakers seed still to be executing their most classic, reliable tactic.
But they were only bait, because the Lakers’ inbound finally went to Derek Fisher, who looped out unexpectedly!
Phil Jackson liked to make unexpected decisions at key monts, a habit he maintained since the 90s!
Fisher caught the ball, ready to shoot in the final 0.4 seconds.
But what caught Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher off guard was that Tayshaun Prince had already guarded that area early and jumped up with his long arms straight at the mont Fisher shot.
Phil Jackson’s eyes widened; he didn’t expect his strategy to be seen through.
Before the ga ti ended, the basketball didn’t make it past Tayshaun Prince’s hand.
The ga ended with an extre block.
"It’s over, it’s over! Roger made the greatest on-spot directing in NBA history at the final mont! We can see that, before the Lakers could run the inbound play, he already directed Tayshaun to the area that was originally empty to defend, perfectly predicting Phil’s strategy, completely controlling the ga!"
Trailing score? He personally overtook it!
Lost coach? He personally directed!
to 105, the Golden State Warriors laugh last, Savior Roger laughs last!"
Phil Jackson slumped on the bench, his eyes vacant.
Beating Roger is really tough.
This is probably the hardest thing in the world.
Roger broke free from his teammates’ embrace and specially walked up to Kobe.
"Go back to hell, Satan!"
In the stands, the event security personnel also approached John Cage: "Sorry, we have to ask you to leave, sir."
John Cage’s eyes were red.
"Alright," he wiped his eyes, "alright."
He felt no regrets in life.
(One update today because it’s directly ten thousand words. There’s so finishing work for moving, so I need to combine them to free up so ti for the afternoon.)
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