Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 180 I'm not targeting Kobe

Not surprisingly, Hansen received a $2 fine from the league after the game.

But the matter did not end with this ticket.

The day after the game, Carril published a fierce article on TNT: "NBA is being dragged into the abyss by referees."

"Dallas' championship in the summer of 2011 ushered in the biggest carnival in the NBA in nearly a decade. If it weren't for the lockout, the league would have been more prosperous than ever before this season. However, the referees dragged the NBA into the abyss at this time. When a commercial league loses its fairness, what reason does it have to be loved by fans?"

Khalil's news reports had only one purpose, which was to make a big deal out of this matter.

As for the issue of penalty standards, if you use your brain a little, you will know that it is closely related to the league.

At times like this, the only way to change the situation is to make a big deal out of it.

In fact, thanks to the off-court hype from Barkley and O'Neal, the attention to this series was already very high.

Speaking of O'Neal, he had already cursed at the penalty scale during the game, saying that the referee must have received money from the Lakers, and threatened to make the referee suffer after the game.

O'Neal's loss of composure is completely understandable. After all, the outcome of this series is now closely related to his reputation.

Moreover, he has played in the league for so many years, and he has benefited from refereeing fouls himself, so he can immediately tell whether it is a refereeing foul.

So when Caryl published this article, it immediately caused huge controversy.

"Didn't you Kobe fans claim to be noble before? Why do the Lakers need the league's recommendation now?"

"We accepted the loss to the Mavericks last year, after all, that was a historic Mavericks team, but LeBron led the team to the finals last year without a whistle, isn't that much better than you having to rely on a whistle to get to the conference finals?"

"When the Lakers won against the Kings and the Jazz, did you see them shouting? We are all unclean, so stop pretending to be innocent."

……

James fans need the Grizzlies to eliminate the Lakers, so they are fully demonstrating the principle of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and are also going full steam ahead on social media.

Now the matter is getting more and more heated.

Even during the Lakers' daily public training, reporters asked this question.

The Lakers originally wanted to evade the question, but they couldn't stand the reporters' constant questioning.

Finally, when this question was thrown in front of Kobe, Kobe finally expressed his attitude: "The game should be decided by the players."

After all, Kobe is not James, and he still has his pride.

Of course, we cannot ignore the fact that O'Neal is now in the commentary booth and has become a popular newcomer on TNT.

If the Lakers really have to rely on penalties to beat the Grizzlies in the end, O'Neal can use this incident to diss his entire commentary career in the commentary booth.

After returning to Memphis, Hansen began to study how to beat the Lakers.

Now that the Lakers have the match point, the Grizzlies have no way out.

Even though Kobe has expressed his opinion, he still cannot predict the scale of the penalty for the next game. After all, Stern's considerations are different from Kobe's.

Therefore, if you want to truly solve this problem, you must be mentally prepared to fight 5 against 8.

And he has to do it well.

Because compared to the older Kobe, the person Stern really wants to support now is James.

It is foreseeable that even if the Grizzlies finally make it to the finals, they will still encounter the same or even worse penalty environment when facing the Heat.

So in a sense, this is equivalent to adapting in advance.

Following the principle of "three heads are better than one", Hansen also brought in Conley and Battier, two players with high basketball IQs, to discuss the matter.

In the end, the three people came to the same consensus: the key to defending the Lakers is to contain Kobe.

Because up to this point in the series, thanks to Paul's stable performance in critical moments, the Lakers' reliance on Kobe is greater than imagined.

Allen stepped up, and with the addition of Gay and Battier, they were doing pretty well.

But now that Kobe has the whistle, the situation has become completely different.

"Let me defend Kobe." Han Sen finally said.

Conley immediately shook his head when he heard this.

Although the Grizzlies' reliance on Hansen is not as great as the Lakers' reliance on Kobe, it is not much different in the playoffs.

"I am the core of the team after all, so they will have some concerns," Han Sen added.

"It's not impossible actually. Han should focus on defense in the first three quarters and leave the offense to others." Battier agreed with Han Sen after careful consideration.

"No, I'm physically fine." Han Sen shook his head.

Okafor is in good shape after his return, and the Grizzlies' low-post tactics are not very effective, so it is more reliable to initiate tactics from him.

Battier was also surprised.

"We have no way out. I have to do more."

Thanks to the growth of his teammates, Hansen has not played a single-handed game this season like he did last season.

But now the Grizzlies are backed into a desperate situation and he has to step up.

As long as they can beat the Lakers, even if the rest of the games won't be smooth sailing for the Grizzlies, at least they can see the finish line.

Battier and Conley could only nod in the end. They knew Hansen's character and knew that if he said something, he would definitely do it.

They then discussed some defensive details. After all, Kobe is in great shape now, and if you want to really defend him, it will not be enough to rely on one person alone.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, two days later, Game 6 of the Grizzlies and Lakers series kicked off in Memphis.

The FedEx Center was packed with fans, and the fans at the scene were holding up various conspicuous signs.

"If you don't referee the game properly, I'll ask you to referee it for me", "Those who referee badly will never leave Memphis intact", "We know your names"...

Although some fans' signs were asked to leave by security personnel at the scene because they were too direct, the violent elements of Memphis were fully displayed tonight.

Many people forget how chaotic this city really is.

Moreover, during the opening ceremony, not only the referee, but even the Lakers were booed by the fans at the scene.

Although the whistle was blown by the referee, the Lakers are the vested interests.

After the opening ceremony, the starting lineups of both sides were announced one after another, which were no different from the previous games.

However, the players' expressions were very serious after they came on the court, and the atmosphere was tense.

Amid the cheers of the fans, Gasol jumped to win the ball for the Lakers and the game officially began.

When Kobe saw that the person defending him was Han Sen, his expression was slightly surprised.

However, he did not make any tactical runs at the beginning of the game, but let Paul organize the offense.

Paul was in good shape and made a breakthrough jump shot after the pick-and-roll with Gasol.

The Lakers came out on top.

Han Sen received the ball after a pick-and-roll, and faced with Metta World Peace who was rushing forward from behind, he changed direction and passed him.

He felt his jersey being pulled behind him.

That could only have come from Metta World Peace.

This is the change in the penalty scale. Those who have been in the NBA for a long time have been able to adapt to the penalty scale.

Moreover, after playing for many years, only a few can always stay clean. Even if they are not dirty, they must have learned some little tricks.

Because others are using it, and if you don't, you will definitely be the one who suffers in the end.

The referee did not blow the whistle. It seemed that Hansen and the others' previous assumptions were correct. Stern did not care about the impact.

After all, is there any essential difference between your Grizzlies and the Jazz of that year?

In the time it took to pull the ball, Okafor returned to the basket. Hansen did not stop, and faced Okafor with a flaming hand, bending his knees as he jumped.

Although he rarely uses small moves, he still sees the ball a lot. Have you ever seen a pig run even if you haven't eaten pork?

In the end, Hansen made a layup over Okafor's body.

The referee still didn't blow the whistle.

At this point, Han Sen basically understood the referee's penalty standards tonight.

There are biased calls, but they are not targeted at core players.

This was just as he expected.

Why is this happening?

The logic is simple. If you send off the opponent's core players, how can the fans watch the game?

After all, it was the only time in history that a core player was sent off like in the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals, because Stern really treated James as his own son at that time.

Paul and Gasol continued to play pick-and-roll, and this time he passed the ball to Gasol.

Pau Gasol also rushed towards the basket with great enthusiasm, but his shot was directly blocked by Pau Gasol Jr. who retreated to the basket.

The focus of this series is Hansen and Kobe, and the meeting between the Gasol brothers is not that eye-catching.

But if you look closely, you will find that Gasol Jr. can already compete with Gasol Sr. on the court.

However, the referee's late whistle changed everything, and Gasol was called for a defensive foul.

There was a lot of booing at the scene.

When Gasol went to the free throw line, the whole stadium was filled with shouts of "RefreeSucks".

Gasol finally made one of two free throws.

The referee will choose to ignore the fans' protests because he is on a mission, but it is difficult for the players not to have agitated mentality in the face of such a situation.

The Grizzlies played in the high-low post, and Gasol, who had the ball at the free throw line, suddenly turned around and flew to the basket to pass the ball.

Okafor committed a foul when he was defending, and Gasol's final shot hit the edge of the basket and bounced out.

The referee still didn't blow the whistle, but Randolph completed the tip-in with his long arms.

Gasol Jr. didn't say anything, he just kept running back.

Obviously, after experiencing the decisive battle and knowing that protesting would be useless, the Grizzlies players were mentally prepared to play a difficult game.

And even though the others didn't say it out loud like Han Sen did, they must have been feeling very angry about losing the game in that way.

After seeing that Kobe still had no intention of taking the ball, Han Sen spoke directly:

"Are you really so old that you have to rely on the referees to win games, as Shaq said?"

Hansen has played against Kobe many times and knows that Kobe is much more resistant to trash talk than Paul, but he also knows what kind of trash talk is effective against Kobe.

Sure enough, Kobe's expression changed instantly.

Shaq, old, rely on the referee, these words shot into his heart like sharp arrows.

Although he had expressed his opinion in front of reporters, the referee's biased call tonight made it ridiculous.

He started running and reached out to Paul for the ball.

Even though he knew Han Sen was setting a trap for him, he was determined to fill it with his own hands.

After Kobe received the ball, he signaled for the crowd to move away, and the fans began to boo.

The referees' arbitrariness led to indiscriminate attacks from Memphis fans.

Kobe launched an attack. He chose to break through on the left. When he broke through to the free throw line, he stopped suddenly and turned back.

This is one of his classic moves, and he has used it to get past Han Sen before.

However, Hansen was very focused tonight. He kept up with Kobe's rhythm and jumped to block the shot almost at the same time as Kobe.

Kobe increased his backward movement.

However, Han Sen's airborne time exceeded his expectations. When he was forced to shoot while falling, Han Sen's hand directly blocked the ball.

"boom!"

Han Sen blocked Kobe head-on!
The scene instantly became boiling.

Han Sen's defensive performance in this round was quite impressive.

Of course, more importantly, the referee did not blow the whistle.

This is also the main purpose of Hansen's verbal output to Kobe.

Since the referee won't make a biased call against him, just let Kobe keep hitting him!

When Hansen got to the frontcourt, he found that his defender had also become Kobe.

It can be seen that his trash talk and blocks made Kobe very angry.

If Phil Jackson was still the head coach of the Lakers, Kobe would not have started a war of attrition with Hansen at the beginning of Game 4.

But unfortunately, the current coach of the Lakers is Brown. In addition to his good defensive skills, Brown's greatest characteristic is that he is a "nanny".

Just as he coaxed James in Cleveland, he will continue to coax Kobe in Los Angeles. He will never go against the superstar in the team.

Han Sen was naturally delighted when he saw this.

Game 4 showed that if he and Kobe completed the exchange in the first three quarters, the other Grizzlies players would have a great chance of defeating the Lakers in the fourth quarter.

So in order to help Kobe to be more confident, Hansen also chose to reach out for the ball.

The fans began to cheer.

Game 4 made Memphis fans realize that Hansen now has the strength to challenge Kobe.

After passing the ball, Conley also signaled to clear the strong side.

The camera turned to Kobe, whose eyes were full of murderous intent.

Hansen started to break through, but his consecutive breakthrough attempts failed to break through Kobe's defense, and finally he dribbled the ball back to the high position.

Kobe's delicate sliding steps and his concentration at the moment make it difficult to get past him easily.

After successfully defending Han Sen, Kobe also started to trash-talk Han Sen: "Come on! Is that all you can do?!"

Han Sen exhaled lightly, pushed the ball with his right hand, raised his left knee forward and pushed the ground backward, took a scissor kick to the right, and quickly pulled the ball back with his left hand.

This instantly caused cheers to break out at the scene.

Because this is…Sam Gold!
Han Sen's explosive power is much faster than Owen's.

And he wasn't done yet. After seeing that Kobe's center of gravity was just shifting, he shortened the distance between him and Kobe, dribbled behind his back with his left hand, then controlled the ball with his right hand and quickly turned around and broke through with Kobe as the axis.

This time Kobe was completely thrown aside.

Amid the cheers of the fans, Hansen rushed into the paint and slammed the ball into the basket with his left hand before Okafor could help defend.

After landing, Hansen performed his iconic No. 77 jersey celebration, and the FedEx Center was completely boiling.

Block Kobe on the defensive end and tease Kobe on the offensive end!
Han Sen's defense and attack were full of dominance.

And more important than the performance is the emotion that Han Sen conveys.

So what if it’s 5 vs 8?

We can still win tonight!

(End of this chapter)