Chapter 229 The Harshest Penalty

On the 4th, the Knicks arrived in Los Angeles.

Yang Xue and the others stayed in He Zhongqiu's villa, while He Zhongqiu himself and the team stayed in the hotel to maintain the team's collectivism.

The Lakers kept the news of the conflict between O'Neal and Kobe secret and the media did not know about it.

But in the first two games, the OK combination had no communication, no passing, no cooperation, and Kobe criticized O'Neal in an interview the day before, so most media were quite pessimistic about the Lakers' performance in the finals.

That afternoon, a Los Angeles tabloid suddenly broke the news, exposing the conflict between O'Neal and Kobe in the training hall, and even O'Neal's words that he wanted to kill Kobe were exposed.

This immediately caused an uproar in public opinion.

"Hold a press conference immediately to deny it. It must not affect the G3 match."

Kupchak was furious, thinking that an insider must have sold the news to the media.

After the news came to light, although the Lakers took quick action, the outside world was still very disappointed with the Lakers and had a very pessimistic view of their prospects in the finals.

One manifestation of this is that major American gambling groups immediately adjusted the handicap for the finals.

The odds for the Knicks have dropped significantly, with the lowest odds being only 1:1.1 dollars. If you bet $100, you can only win $10 if you win.

The Lakers' odds have risen sharply, with the highest odds reaching 1:1.33 US dollars, and a $100 bet can win $33.

But even so, few people are willing to bet on the Lakers.

At this time, Adam Silver, who had rushed back to New York, finally saw the opportunity.

An opportunity to deal with Wolverine, make a fortune, and solve the current dilemma.

……

On the 5th, Los Angeles, the finals G3 game day.

All major media outlets have adjusted their predictions for the finals. The Knicks, who are leading 2-0, have seen their chances of winning the championship rise to more than 80%, while the Lakers' chances of winning the championship have plummeted to less than 20%.

In the evening, the huge Staples Center was star-studded with a large number of celebrities and supermodels.

Outside the home team's locker room, a large number of reporters wanted to go in to interview Kobe and O'Neal, but the Lakers arranged a team of security to ask these reporters to leave.

At eight o'clock, both sides announced their starting lineups.

Knicks: Mutombo, He Zhongqiu, Shane Battier, Bonzi Wells, Nash
Lakers: O'Neal, Karl Malone, Devin George, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton

In the player tunnel, He Zhongqiu looked at Kobe and O'Neal curiously. Did these two guys really have a complete falling out?
What great news!
At half past eight, the competition officially began.

He Zhongqiu and O'Neal jump ball and the Knicks attack.

He came to the low post on the left wing, and the Postman came to defend him, while O'Neal guarded the basket.

The Postmen's defensive actions were obviously more aggressive than when they were on the road, relying on the home advantage.

The Lakers have won three consecutive home games and have made good use of their home-court advantage. Coupled with the Lakers' strength, they are not without a chance to make a comeback.

Although the postman was very disappointed with the OK combination, he still did not give up and hoped to give it a try. What if he succeeded?

When He Zhongqiu received the ball, the postman elbowed him from behind. He turned around and elbowed him back firmly.

"Di!"

The referee blew the whistle, first pointed at the postman, then raised both hands above his head, clenched his left fist and held his left wrist with his right hand.

"Oh!"

There was a cry of surprise at the Staples Center.

Twenty thousand Lakers fans couldn't believe their eyes. The referee today was so harsh in his penalties that he gave the Postman a flagrant foul at the beginning of the game?
"Black whistle!"

"This is our home ground. Have you collected the money?"

"protest!"

A large number of fans roared excitedly.

"Shh!"

Countless Lakers booed loudly.

But the next moment, the fans were stunned again.

Because the referee pointed at He Zhongqiu again and committed the same malicious foul.

"Are you crazy? How is this possible?" Zhang Heli couldn't believe his eyes.

"What does the referee want to do?" Xu Jicheng said angrily.

"Dui, is this Duizi?"

Yang Jian was stunned and spoke incoherently.

In the TNT commentary booth nearby, Barkley exclaimed in surprise: "God, am I dazzled?"

"You're not seeing things. One rebound each and one first-degree flagrant foul each." Kenny Smith said in surprise.

"I think this is unfair to the Lakers because they didn't get the home whistle, while the Knicks did get home whistles in their two home games," Dream joked.

On the sidelines, Loshua Daley couldn't believe his eyes.

At the beginning of the game, Wolverine was called for a flagrant foul. Does this referee have any experience? Why did the referee committee arrange such a referee to referee the finals?
On the court, He Zhongqiu was stunned for a few seconds before he realized that he had been called for a first-degree flagrant foul, and it was during his first attack.

But he couldn't get angry because the postman was also blown.

He Zhongqiu was preparing for a free throw. A flagrant foul is a free throw taken by the person who was fouled. He was more accurate than the postman in free throws, so he had an advantage.

However, the referee decided not to award the free throw, and each team was given a flagrant foul, which offset the penalty.

As the game continued, everyone was frightened by the referee's whistle and their defensive movements became smaller. This showed that the referee's intention was achieved and he controlled the tone of tonight's game.

The Lakers are still the same. It’s good enough that the OK combination didn’t compete on the court. They played on their own, didn’t pass the ball to each other, and their conditions were average.

The Knicks were not in good shape either. They had missed three shots from the outside and He Zhongqiu was called for a traveling violation.

By the fourth minute of the first quarter, the Knicks were leading by only 1 point.

"Di!"

He Zhongqiu received the ball in the far two-point area on the left wing and was attacking. When he was using the Chaos Step to shake the postman, the referee's whistle sounded.

"What about me?"

Seeing the referee with a cold expression running over, he asked hurriedly.

The referee made a traveling violation gesture, then pointed toward the Lakers' frontcourt, indicating an exchange of ball possession.

"Walking again?"

He Zhongqiu felt that he did not travel, his chaotic steps were just random, his hands and feet were clearly aligned, the referee must have made a mistake.

In the sixth minute, the Lakers attacked, Kobe missed the mid-range shot, and He Zhongqiu collided with the postman in the air while grabbing the rebound and was called for a foul.

This was his second foul and he was substituted.

As soon as he came down, the Lakers immediately gained the upper hand.

In just three minutes, O'Neal, with the cooperation of the Postman, repeatedly entered the basket and succeeded in getting into position. Payton passed the ball to the basket with all his strength. The Big Shark made 5 of 5 shots, blasted Mutombo, led the Lakers to a 7-point lead, and stopped the Knicks.

He Zhongqiu came on the court after the timeout. Mutombo was resting and he partnered with Doriak in the inside.

The Postman also went down and was replaced by Medvedenko, a power forward with mid-range shooting ability.

After He Zhongqiu came on the court, the offense immediately improved.

But on the defensive end, without Mutombo's big play in the restricted area, they were unable to stop the Lakers' outside breakthroughs, and the defense did not improve.

After the first quarter, the Knicks were still 6 points behind the Lakers.

"The whistle was too harsh today. Both sides were restrained in their fighting," said Zhang Heli.

Yang Jian said: "Yes, Zhongqiu had two fouls, Mutombo had one foul, Battier had one foul, Wells had one foul, Josh Howard had one foul, and Charlie Ward had one foul. The Knicks had seven fouls in the first quarter. Among the five starters, only Nash did not foul. Six of the seven players who played were called."

Xu Jicheng said: "The Lakers were similar, the Mailman also had two fouls, O'Neal had one foul, Kobe had one foul, Payton also had one foul, and Devin George had one foul.

Six fouls in total, only one less than the Knicks. I think the referee's whistle tonight was relatively fair."

Zhang Heli said: "The referee was really harsh and merciless to the home team. He didn't give any home whistle at all."

"Loshua Daley is sitting here. He has a good relationship with Zhongqiu. The referee should not dare to do anything rash." Xu Jicheng said.

On the Lakers bench, some players were complaining and discussing the whistles tonight.

The postman cursed, "Damn it, this is our home court. They didn't even give us a home whistle. They must have been paid."

Payton also cursed: "These sons of bitches, we must win the game and slap them in the face with victory."

"Keep your voice down." An assistant quickly reminded.

There was an inexplicable light in Phil Jackson's eyes hidden behind his glasses.

He glanced thoughtfully at the white referee at the official scoring table, trying to figure out the scale of the whistle tonight.

"Karl..."

He squatted down in front of the postman, motioned for him to lean over, and whispered in his ear:
"After the second quarter begins, you should step up your defense. Wolverine has a bad temper, so you can provoke him with trash talk, but don't take the initiative."

The postman's eyes lit up, and he immediately thought of a person, Rodman, who had caused him a lot of trouble.

In the 97 and 98 finals, the Jazz were defeated by the Bulls consecutively. Rodman made a great contribution to this. His ability to provoke opponents, make them lose their minds, and affect their mentality cannot be reflected in statistics.

Unfortunately, he is not good at trash talking, but he can play tough defense.

"OK."

He nodded vigorously.

"Intensify your defense, and it doesn't matter if you get called off. Remember, if we can exchange the points, we will make a profit, a big profit." Phil Jackson reminded again.

"Yes."

The postman nodded excitedly.

At this time, the inter-quarter break is over and the second quarter begins with all the main players from both sides taking the court.

Following Phil Jackson's instructions, the Postman raised the defensive intensity to the extreme from the beginning of the game.

Soon, in the second minute and 6 seconds, he elbowed He Zhongqiu while defending, and was then called for a defensive foul by the referee.

"Shh!"

The Staples Center was filled with boos and insults directed at the referee.

"Fuck you, what is this guy doing?"

In New York, Adam Silver was furious when he saw the Mailman get whistled for the third time.

The Lakers must win tonight, otherwise they will fall behind 0:3 and have no hope of reaching the finals, and he will be in trouble.

"The Postman committed three fouls, but the referee showed mercy and didn't give him a technical foul or a flagrant foul." Zhang Heli said with a frown.

The referee's whistle was too harsh today. It would never have been blew like that in previous years' finals.

The Finals was the most defensive series, so he always felt something was wrong, but the Mailman was called, which was a good thing.

"The Wolverine didn't fight back, and the Knicks were two games ahead, which made him cautious," Yang Jian said.

"Those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes. The Lakers, who are now trailing by a large margin, are the barefoot ones, while the Knicks are the ones wearing shoes," said Xu Jicheng.

The Knicks continued to attack, Nash and He Zhongqiu set a high pick-and-roll, and then made a three-pointer to narrow the gap to 3 points.

The Lakers attacked, He Zhongqiu defended O'Neal.

At this time, the Postman set a screen for O'Neal, and the Sharks took the opportunity to cut into the penalty area.

He anticipated that Mutombo would block his entry into the paint, so this time he turned and cut in instead of sliding down the rim.

Sure enough, Mutombo blocked the wrong direction. He successfully cut into the penalty area and immediately reached for the ball.

He Zhongqiu followed and turned around, but fell behind O'Neal.

At this time, the ball was passed in. O'Neal first spread his arms, trapped He Zhongqiu behind him, then took a step forward and jumped up, grabbing the flying basketball with both hands.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, He Zhongqiu took a quick step forward, then moved sideways and inserted himself between O'Neal and the basket.

"Wolverine, let's see how you can stop me!"

At this time, O'Neal landed and stood up again, holding the ball with both hands and slamming it with all his strength.

He Zhongqiu also stood up and jumped higher, his left hand formed into an eagle claw, and he grabbed the basketball that was thrown at him.

"Take it!"

When his palms and the ball collided, the basketball in O'Neal's hands was instantly severely deformed.

"Di!"

The whistle sounded.

"boom!"

O'Neal lost control of the ball, and it flew out of his hands, slamming heavily on the rim.

"Oops!"

Zhang Heli knew he was in trouble when he heard the whistle.

Sure enough, the referee ran over and made a foul gesture towards He Zhongqiu.

He Zhongqiu was very dissatisfied. Even if he hit O'Neal's hand, it should not be a foul. He still understood the rule that the ball player is one body. He definitely did not hit O'Neal's wrist just now.

At this time, O'Neal swung his left hand and said angrily, "Damn it, Wolverine, you caught my finger, otherwise the ball would have been dunked."

At this point, he complained to the referee again: "Mr. Referee, look, my right middle finger is injured, it's red here.

I guess my finger is broken. I think the league should introduce a rule to prohibit Wolverine from using Eagle Claw to block shots.

No, it's totally unfair to forbid him to use any Kung Fu on the field."

"That's impossible." He Zhongqiu said angrily.

He knew it well. Although his claws were fierce when blocking the shot, it was just a force and his claw strength was under control.

His blocking mainly relies on the strength of his palms. The claw strength of his five fingers is not very strong. The function of his five fingers is mainly to control the basketball and to catch the shot, rather than to use the five fingers to block.

"It's red, it's all red!"

O'Neal kept pointing his right middle finger at He Zhongqiu, but in fact, how could you tell whether his black finger was red or not?

"Sir, he humiliated me with his middle finger, and he just humiliated you. I suggest giving him a foul." He Zhongqiu said to the referee.

"Uh!"

O'Neal quickly retracted his middle finger and explained to the referee: "No, sir, he is talking nonsense. You know very well that my middle finger is injured."

"Di Di!"

The referee blew the whistle twice impatiently, signaling the two to shut up, and then said to He Zhongqiu: "Wolverine, I suggest you don't use your Eagle Claw in the finals.

The block you just made has exceeded your cylinder, which is a foul. As long as there is any physical contact, it will be a foul on your part. You should understand this.

Although the NBA has not introduced any restrictive rules, this is the finals and I don’t want to see unfair games, OK? "

He Zhongqiu had some doubts. Although he used the Eagle Claw Technique, he was very careful not to let his hands leave his cylinder. He blocked it with his head. Did he go out just now?

(End of this chapter)