550: 199: He still has to wait (for monthly passes!) 550: 199: He still has to wait (for monthly passes!) Stevie Smith was thoroughly yelled at by Roger.
He’d always been resentful and saw himself as a pitiful victim.
But Roger’s words made him realize where the real problem lay.
While everyone else was pursuing victory, he alone was despising it.
This was sothing the others couldn’t tolerate, and it was the real reason he lost the respect of his teammates.
Indeed, even Pippen, who wasn’t on great personal terms with the team, still gave it his all on the court.
And what about himself?
He had been sleepwalking through two and a half gas.
The defeats of the previous two gas were very much related to him.
When you distance yourself from the team’s goals, you naturally beco an outsider.
Many won don’t realize until they’re grown up that the thing stabbing you from behind isn’t necessarily a knife.
Now, Stevie Smith understood this truth too, that the one stabbing you in the back could also be yourself.
Stevie Smith still needed ti to digest this, but the ga waits for no one.
Seeing Stevie Smith’s dejection, Lenny Wilkens decided to bench him for the ti being.
In the second half, Bruce Bowen started in place of Stevie Smith.
At this mont, O’Neal, watching the TV, was feeling very pleased.
Because it was plainly evident, Roger was about to stumble against Duncan too.
As long as he wasn’t the only one losing to Duncan, it didn’t count as a loss~
Soon the whole world would know, losing to Duncan wasn’t his problem, it was an issue the whole league would have to contend with.
If I am a hundred-and-twenty-million-dollar piece of shit, then Roger is a hundred-and-twenty-million-dollar piece of watery shit!
Moreover, the Hawks benching Stevie Smith in the second half was a clear signal of defeat.
“Stevie, who had no field goals in the first half, was pressed onto the bench; was he DNP’d by Lenny?
Now, Bruce replaces Steve on the court,” Steve Jones was really curious about why, of all people, Stevie Smith couldn’t get along with Roger.
It was actually quite simple, Stevie Smith’s personality was too weak.
He couldn’t stand Roger’s trash talk.
He couldn’t stand even a bit of disrespect from his teammates.
From only daring to float around the periter and betting on three-pointers in the crucial monts of the playoffs, to completely losing his form when facing setbacks.
There were too many things he was afraid to confront.
Popovich watched Bruce Bowen starting in the second half and was practically drooling.
Such a player, if under his wing, would have an imasurable future!
But, one cannot be too greedy.
He now had Tim Duncan, and that was more important than anything else.
The ga continued, with the Hawks initiating the attack in the second half.
The viewership ratings were still climbing because all the fans wanted to know if Duncan was indeed the one who could break Roger’s dynasty.
After the Hawks benched Stevie Smith, the Spurs’ double-teaming of Roger beca even more unrestrained.
But Roger solved this issue with his assists.
He needed to force the Spurs to revert to man-to-man defense on the periter before he could execute his mad scoring plan.
Roger passed to Bowen, hiding in the corner, twice in succession; his three-point shot from the left corner felt great today, starting the second half with two consecutive hits.
Bowen’s scores weren’t out of luck, he had always been the hardest working on the team, spending more ti on extra practice than even Roger.
From the start of training camp this season until now, he had been doing extra shooting practice nearly every day.
People have many facets; Bowen’s dirty plays made him the target of fan curses, yet his inspiring NBA journey also earned admiration.
Regardless, Bowen’s efforts paid off.
His consecutive hits in the second half made the Spurs reconsider their double-teaming strategy.
On such a night, leaving him open was undoubtedly a dangerous move.
Popovich waved his hand, signaling the team to revert to their most practiced defensive state: primarily man-to-man on the periter, maintaining positions, denying threes, and crushing any drives with the league’s most fearso twin towers.
Denying threes, killing any chance of a scoring spree.
Denying drives, killing the most efficient scoring thod.
This was Popovich’s defensive philosophy.
He would force ball handlers to make inefficient forced plays in the mid-range.
Steve Jones, understanding the situation, took a deep breath: “Now, the mont to test Roger has arrived!”
Would Roger be disciplined by Duncan too?
His fate was fully in his own hands.
At the mont, the Hawks were still 5 points behind, with Roger in possession.
Sean Elliott’s defensive experience was extrely rich, and while he might not be able to pressure like Pippen throughout, he could maintain position, doggedly sticking to the ball handler from start to finish.
Roger didn’t have many offensive options, his space severely constricted, with the three-point line and the paint locked down, he had to look for opportunities in mid-range.
And so, he did what the Spurs wanted to see most—a stop-and-jump shot in mid-range following a drive.
Elliott, who stayed right in front of Roger, managed to hinder the shot.
This was indeed the Spurs’ preferred mode of defense, but, it was also Roger’s favorite way to attack!
He loved making these difficult mid-range shots!
The basketball hit the front of the rim, but ultimately fell through the net.
The gap returned to 3 points, with Roger scoring his 25th point of the ga early in the second half.
It wasn’t long, however, before the Spurs scored using the influence of the interior line.
When Duncan received the ball, forcing the Hawks to compact around the paint with four players, Duncan decisively passed the ball back to Avery Johnson, the Little General, who quickly moved it to Vinnie Del Negro.
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