The Pope of Basketball Community

Chapter 243 [It is gold that will shine sooner or later! 】

The Trail Blazers attacked, Sabonis picked and rolled in the middle, and Stoudemire broke through with the ball. He relied on his speed to move away from Detrev and made a jump shot. 2 to 2.

Without O'Neal, the Raptors will be worse at defending pick-and-rolls. Yang Rui arranged this to allow Billups to get more ball rights. O'Neal and McGrady will be substitutes in the second quarter, and their offensive power will be stronger.

To deal with strong teams, "Tian Ji Horse Racing" is a good strategy. The substitutes are led by two stars, and they are dual-core inside and outside. The opponent's substitutes will face a great test.

Billups dribbled the ball to the frontcourt, waited for his teammates to pull away, started a pick-and-roll with Miller, took a big step laterally, and made a 70-degree emergency stop jumper from the right side.

Sabonis is too slow, so guards usually chase him. Stoudemire can catch up with his speed, but he is only 178cm tall and does a very poor job of interfering with shots.

Billups knew this very well, jumped very high, hit the opponent resolutely, found the right rhythm, and the ball drew a perfect arc and hit the net hollowly. 5 to 2.

Yang Rui took the lead in applauding, and Billups took on the offensive task. It seemed that he had a poor choice of shots, but in fact he only had to face the defense of the "Little Flying Squirrel" and received little interference.

The Trail Blazers attacked, Rasheed singled out Detrev, turned around and made a jumper. 5 to 4.

Billups took the ball to the frontcourt and started a pick-and-roll. The person switching defense became Rasheed, who was much faster. Billups dribbled the ball horizontally to find his teammates and distributed it to Detrev on the right.

Detrev has always played as a small forward when he was young, and he was a guest player in the post. He is good at running, catching and shooting.

Sabonis had the same difficulty after switching to guard Detrev. He only stretched out his hand and could not jump. Detrev has 206cm, his shooting point is very high, he ignores interference and scores the ball! 8 to 4.

Breen shouted: "Three points! BANG! The second one today, an assist from Billups."

Fraser said: "It seems that the Raptors are still focusing on Sabonis like the last time the two teams met. The veteran moves too slowly."

Sabonis was effective on the offensive end. After the pick-and-roll, he received a pass from Pippen and scored a layup three steps behind Billups. After Miller defended him, the Raptors were very poor at protecting the frame. 8 to 6.

In the Raptors' position battle, Billups passed the ball to Detrev, who singled out Sabonis, broke through and missed a pull-up jumper, and Rasheed got the rebound.

The Trail Blazers have many offensive tricks. Pippen organizes the forwards in the middle and distributes the ball to Smith who is running on the side of the screen. The latter attracts Detrev to switch defense and pass the ball.

Rasheed hit Christie in a misplaced shot from the left and scored. 8 to 8.

After a few more rounds, the Blazers' defensive weaknesses could not be compensated. In positional battles and counterattacks, Sabonis was unable to misplace defenders.

This season is the Trail Blazers' last chance to win the championship. Both of Sabonis' knees are half-dead. He is playing with perseverance and experience, and his condition is getting worse and worse.

Dunleavy made a substitution, and Sabonis only played 4 minutes before resting. Brian Grant came on as a substitute to increase mobility.

After the substitution, the Trail Blazers only had Stoudemire as a weak point on the defensive end. Billups began to play singles with the ball instead of looking for screens. He hit a pull-up three-pointer, a mid-range shot, forced a breakthrough with his body and drew a foul, and made two free throws.

When the Trail Blazers players came to help defend, Billups distributed the ball and played very reasonably.

Billups played the entire first quarter, making 5 of 8 shots, 2 of 4 three-pointers, and 2 of 2 free throws. He scored 14 points and 3 assists. The Raptors led 28-24.

In the second quarter, Sabonis returned to the court to lead the bench. Yang Rui sent Cato to deal with Sabonis's attack on the basket. Although the veteran has poor physical fitness and cannot jump, after all, he is 221cm tall and weighs 127 kilograms.

The other four members of the Raptors are Curry, Hornacek, Tracy McGrady, and O'Neal Jr.

The other four Blazers are Grant, Pippen, Wells, and Greg Anthony.

The Trail Blazers' defense is very solid, with Sabonis acting as a human shield and rapid rotation on the outside. Pippen focuses on taking care of Tracy McGrady.

Cato also defended the Raptors' penalty area when he came out. He has outstanding strength and good jumping. He not only withstood Sabonis, but also gave Wells a big block.

The rest of the Raptors shrank near the penalty area, strictly guarded against breakthroughs, and forced their opponents to shoot mid- and long-range shots, which achieved good results.

The shooting percentages of both sides dropped, and the point difference did not widen. In the second half, the main force was replaced, and the scoring efficiency was not high.

Breen smiled and said: "Both sides have a balanced offense and defense. If the Raptors defend seriously, they will be no worse than any other team."

Fraser said: "Camby is injured, the Trail Blazers' lineup is slightly less deep than the Raptors, and it will not be easy to win at home."

Breen nodded: "The cheers of the Trail Blazers fans have been non-stop, which has boosted the morale of the home team. The Trail Blazers are a championship contending team, and they definitely don't want to be swept by the Raptors in the regular season. With their hard work, they should win this game. "

Billups played 5 minutes in this quarter and only scored 2 points and 1 assist. He did not compete with McGrady and Carter for the ball.

In the second half, the Trail Blazers had Sabonis and Stoudemire on the court at the same time, and Billups began to show his strength again, scoring 16 points in a single quarter, hitting 4 three-pointers, and had 4 assists.

Carter, McGrady, and O'Neal Jr. opened up to attract defense. The Trail Blazers were unable to double-team Billups. He got a good one-on-one opportunity and led the team to a 34-18 single quarter, and the point difference widened to 17 points.

In the final quarter, Billups rested for a few minutes and continued to play. During the counterattack, he broke through twice and drew fouls, and made all 4 free throws. He also assisted Carter to hit a three-pointer and O'Neal for an alley-oop dunk.

In the last two minutes, the Raptors led by 18 points and the overall situation was decided.

When Billups was substituted, he and Yang Rui clapped their hands hard. He played 35 minutes, making 11 of 19 shots, 6 of 11 three-pointers, 8 of 8 free throws, scoring 36 points, 3 rebounds and 10 assists. He made only one turnover in the game and set a career high in scoring.

The Trail Blazers' three point guards are all small. Although they can score, they can't guard Billups.

Stoudemire was hurt ten thousand times today. When he was in the Raptors, McGrady was just a mediocre younger brother. Now, let alone compared to McGrady and Carter, he can't even deal with the Raptors' role players.

McGrady had 26 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. He performed well, but was still robbed of the limelight by Billups.

Both sides substituted fringe players. Trail Blazers' Bunch Wells showed off his strength and scored 9 points in a row. However, he fell behind too much and the loyal home fans shouted to no avail. The Raptors won 107-96.

Breen lamented: "As long as we have the ball, Billups is also very strong. He played very steadily in this game. The Raptors lineup is too perfect."

Many fans think Billups is very tough after looking at his shooting percentage. In fact, he averaged less than ten shots per game for two consecutive seasons with the Raptors. This season's 8.8 shots are fewer than his rookie season.

Such a number of shots, even if the hit rate is not high, will not damage the team's system. He uses three-pointers as his main scoring method and is very efficient. In Yang Rui's previous life, Billups' highest number of shots per game in a single season was 13.2 per game. In the 2009-10 season with the Nuggets, he averaged 19.5 points and 5.6 assists per game.

If you want to find someone with a similar style, it would be the Grizzlies' Mike Conley, a low-key star who signed a super contract in 2016. Billups was better than Conley at his peak.

Among outside stars, he is one of the best team players, and gold will shine sooner or later.

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