Because it is a Rookie Challenge, both participating teams gain points very quickly.
After Wade added a free throw, the sophomore team relied on Stoudemire to make a fast break and quickly scored two points.
Immediately afterwards, Du En also responded with a fast break.
On the sophomore team's side, Yao Ming had just passed half-court when Ginobili took the ball and rushed to the front basket and made a layup to recover two points.
Wade dribbled the ball across half court again. After taking the ball, Duan broke into the penalty area to attract the defense, and then passed the ball to Anthony in the low post.
However, Anthony was a little sloppy after getting the ball. Although there was no one in front of him, he didn't shoot directly. Instead, he dribbled to find a feeling before shooting the jumper.
The ball went in, but these days, that kind of goal doesn't count as an assist.
This also made Du En realize that playing brother basketball with Anthony would seem to waste some easily obtainable assist data.
In terms of grasping some of the ball's shooting opportunities, Anthony is not as good as Kobe, who is good at catching and shooting.
By the way, because the coaches of both teams did not call a timeout, the game time quickly came to 7 minutes, and the Rookie Challenge entered the first official timeout time.
The rules of the Rookie Challenge are closer to those of the NCAA. It is divided into two halves, with each half only lasting 20 minutes.
(There was an error in the previous chapter. It quoted the current four-quarter, 10-minute format of the Rookie Challenge. In fact, it was still a half-half format in 2004. This has been corrected.)
If the coaches of both teams do not call a timeout, the game will enter the official timeout time at 7 minutes and 14 minutes, and corresponding advertisements will be introduced.
"Duen, can you please continue to play?"
Mike Brown discussed with Duane.
In the Rookie Challenge, both teams have only 9 players. Even if there are two lineups of starters and substitutes, there will definitely be one person who can serve as both starter and substitute.
Duan is undoubtedly the strongest player on the first-year rookie team!
Judging from the performance in the first 7 minutes, Duan made 2 of 2 shots and scored 4 points, 1 rebound and 5 assists. He played very well as a team.
Compared with the second-year team, which played independently, the first-year team played in a more organized manner under Duan's teamwork.
It is precisely because of this that in the first 7 minutes, the first grade team was 27 to 22, temporarily leading the second grade team by 5 points.
"No, I will participate in the slam dunk contest and the All-Star Game tomorrow and the next two days.
I won’t take up too much of your time during tonight’s game.
As long as everyone can have fun playing and playing to the fullest, don't worry about me. "
Dune used this as an excuse to reject Mike Brown's offer.
When the first grade team heard what Du En said, they naturally had a better impression of Du En.
Although there were not many people watching the Rookie Challenge live, if it were on TV, at least millions of viewers across the United States would be watching tonight's game.
The first-year rookies who are eager to become famous naturally hope to get more playing time tonight and produce more gorgeous statistics.
In fact, Du En said this just because he didn't want to travel at the wrong time with James.
Happiness comes from comparison. Then let James play for 7 minutes, and the other players on the first-year team will know who to play around.
The 7 minutes of playing time is not too much, not too much. If you always play fast breaks, it stands to reason that everyone will have at least three shots if the ball is distributed equally.
However, James obviously also had thoughts about the Rookie Challenge MVP, and was unwilling to accept only three shots in the first half.
Because the first-year team's substitute lineup is point guard James, shooting guard Hinrich, small forward Josh Howard, power forward Haslem, and center Kaman.
Therefore, it is normal for James to get the ball in the bench lineup at the beginning.
The other substitutes didn't have any objections when they saw James break through with the ball from the beginning.
After all, everyone thinks that James and Duen are the same type of players. In the first 7 minutes, Duen relied on breakthrough points to connect the team. Bosh, who was guarding Yao Ming, also shot 3 of 4 and scored 6 points in 7 minutes. efficient scoring data.
However, when James scored three goals in a row, everyone realized that something didn't seem right.
James called his teammates over to set a screen for him. As a result, he rushed to the basket but failed to pass the ball to his teammates.
This directly pissed Haslem off!
"LeBron, what are you doing? Pass the ball to me and get out of the way!"
Haslem was undrafted in 2002, and finally got a chance to play in the NBA by participating in the Heat training camp last summer.
Now it is only because the Heat management trusts him and fully gives him the ball rights that he can be successfully selected for this Rookie Challenge.
Haslem, who has no independent offensive ability, especially eats passes from teammates, and Haslem's scoring area is exactly the same as James, both at the basket.
Watching James continue to eat alone while asking him to do hard work, Haslem was naturally not happy.
When James heard Haslem's objection, he just glanced contemptuously, and then passed the ball to Hinrich.
He looked like "Who the hell are you, I just don't care about you", and didn't take an undrafted pick like Haslem seriously at all.
Haslem reached out and failed to get the ball, so he was naturally even more angry!
Just as he was about to fight with James, Hinrich rushed to the basket with the ball and passed the ball to Haslem.
Haslem was a little hasty when he got the ball, but he still controlled his temper and prepared to attack the basket first and then score, but was accidentally blocked by the basket.
When James saw this, he couldn't help but laugh: "That's it?"
Hearing James's ridicule, Haslem became even more angry and wanted to argue with James.
However, Kaman on the side suddenly grabbed the rebound, and then scored the ball into the basket in the second attack.
When Kaman turned around and returned to defense, he saw James and Haslem spraying each other nose to nose and mouth to mouth.
"Stop fighting!"
Hinrich and Josh Howard also noticed something was wrong on the court and immediately came over to separate Haslem and James.
Haslem put on an unreasonable and aggressive posture, as if he was trying to break free from Hinrich's entanglement and continued to rush towards James.
James sprayed even more fiercely when he saw this, but he had no intention of breaking away from Josh Howard.
Haslem continued to rush forward. Even though Mike Brown also rushed to the court, Haslem still looked like he was not stingy.
Haslem actually doesn't really care, in fact he does it intentionally.
He knew he had made a mistake, so he chose to make the mistake. Anyway, it was already causing a scene, so why not draw the audience's attention to him?
Just like what I learned in the rookie training camp yesterday, a blue-collar guy like him who is not well-known and has only been able to do dirty work has to get ahead, and he can only continue to compete with stars who are stronger and more famous than them.
Haslem cannot meet strong opponents, and they will not choose to ignore him, so they can only attack teammates like James who only get along with him for a day.
Anyway, after the incident, he would be suspended for a few games at most, so there wouldn't be much loss.
However, after this battle, many fans will know him, want to know him, and become his fans.
By the way, the game was temporarily suspended because of the conflict.
And because the fight didn't really start, James and Haslem also started to spray.
So Mike Brown, the coach of the first-year team, had no choice but to play 50 rebounds each and push James and Haslem to the bench together.
After learning about Mike Brown's decision, James was very unhappy and turned around and returned to the locker room.
Haslem was like a victorious general, laughing on the bench.
As the game resumed, Haslem also waved towels for his teammates on the sidelines.
When the first half was over, the first-year rookies returned to the locker room with Mike Brown, only to find that James had already taken away his belongings and the building was empty.
In this regard, Mike Brown has nothing to say. He can only warn everyone that after the game is over, when accepting interviews with the media, it is best not to mention the previous on-court conflicts and James' early departure.
Mike Brown said that without James, everyone can get more playing time. As long as they can win the second-year team, everyone can gain a lot of fame.
Du En and others did not express disagreement with this, but rather seemed to be celebrating it.
At the end of the first half, 73 to 70, the first grade team still had a 3-point lead.
Among them, Wade has scored 16 points and Anthony has also scored 12 points.
Duan scored less than 9 points, but his assist data was in double figures.
In the first half, he had 9 points, 3 rebounds and 11 assists. After working hard in the second half, there was no problem with a 20+20 double-double.
As long as the first-year team can win, the MVP of this year's Rookie Challenge will basically be Du En's bag.
Having said that, it was also because James simply disappeared and did not play in the second half. The first-year team lacked someone who could connect the team.
Duane, who was "not prepared" to play more, was forced to start the second half.
It is also considered that the defensive intensity will be greatly increased in the next 10 minutes of the second half, which is not conducive to Duen's assists.
As a result, Du En continued to stabilize his character and played team basketball. He never took a shot, but simply fed the ball to other teammates.
The other players on the first-year team were naturally very moved after seeing Du En's actions.
After the first official timeout occurred in the second half, Duane had just come off the court to rest. Josh Howard, Haslem and others strongly hoped that Duane could play with them.
Unable to resist the warm welcome, Du En could only insist on playing for a few more minutes.
However, the second-year team was somewhat ungrateful. After returning from the timeout, it seemed that it began to focus on defense. The first-year team's fast break encountered tight defense.
Considering that the second-year team was trailing by 7 points and did not want to lose face by losing to the first-year rookies, it was understandable to do so.
In short, the rookies on the first-year team watched the second-year veterans defend seriously, which seriously affected their scoring data, so they were forced to follow suit.
The defensive intensity of both sides quickly increased, and the rhythm of the game naturally began to decline, with positional warfare becoming the main focus.
Seeing the point difference narrowed to 3 points, Mike Brown took the initiative to call a timeout and replaced the players in the starting lineup who could really play and defend.
At this time, Du En retreated instead of advancing, saying that he needed to take a rest.
Du En observed that Yao Ming did not play again after the first half. It can be seen that Yao Ming should have taken the initiative not to play again in the second half.
Without Yao Ming, a low-post killer, the second-year team's interior offensive and defensive capabilities are relatively average.
Neither Stoudemire nor Boozer will cause much interference to Duane and Wade's breakthrough.
Therefore, Duen is confident that he will lead the team to win after returning to the field.
Mike Brown heard that Duen wanted to rest, and did not force Duen to continue playing. He just reluctantly agreed and let Duen go off to rest.
With 4 minutes left before the end of the game, the first-grade team went from leading by 3 points to falling behind by 4 points. Mike Brown couldn't sit still and could only continue to call a timeout and replace Duan on the court.
Duane had no problem with that, and neither did the other first-year players.
The next first-year team is a pure starting lineup, with Anthony and Bosh on the inside. Although the defensive level is limited, the first-year team's outside defense is still very strong.
The second-year team does not have a serious point guard. It is difficult for Stoudemire and Boozer to get the ball and then launch an offense to score at the basket.
Just relying on Ginobili to break through and score with the ball, under the chain linkage of Wade, Hinrich, and Duan, Ginobili's magic knife is no longer sharp.
Besides, Ginobili wasn't planning on playing much.
Seeing the score being overtaken, Ginobili also handed the ball to Ronald Murray and others, allowing others to hold the ball.
139 to 134. After Duan reappeared, the first-grade team came back to win, and finally defeated the second-grade team with a 5-point advantage.
Ten minutes later, the MVP candidate for this year's Rookie Challenge was immediately announced.
[Congratulations to you for being selected as the MVP of the Rookie Challenge at the 2004 Los Angeles All-Star Weekend Rookie Challenge. You scored 22 points, 7 rebounds, 21 assists and 1 steal in the first appearance! 】
[You have achieved the Rookie Challenge MVP achievement and received a Rookie Challenge MVP player template lottery opportunity. Do you want to draw a lottery? 】
