radicalducati Chapter 144
Chapter 144
At the moment when Chang Tiancheng just received Wembanyama's serve, the opponent's Holiday immediately rushed up and gently pushed him, and the referee decisively blew his foul.
But since the Bucks didn't have a number of fouls in the fourth quarter at this point, the Spurs just had to re-serve.
But at this time, Wembanyama had already learned to be smart, he did not give the ball directly to Chang Tiancheng, but first pretended to look in the direction of Chang Tiancheng, and then passed the ball to Keldon on the other side of the court.
After receiving the ball, Keldon did not pause, but directly continued to pass the ball forward, so as to delay the game.
It worked, and the rest of the game was dragged to just ten seconds.
Just as the ball was passed into Sochan's hands, Giannis rushed up to hug Sochan and completed the foul.
Sochan stepped to the free-throw line, took a deep breath, and then steadily hit both free throws.
At 119:111, the difference between the two teams has reached eight points, and the Bucks have little hope of making a comeback.
But the Bucks, for their part, clearly haven't given up yet, and after Lopez sent the ball out, they immediately blocked it and immediately counterattacked. It stands to reason that it is impossible for the Spurs to foul them at this time, after all, a foul at this time is equivalent to giving them two points for nothing.
But just when the Bucks brought the ball to the front court in the game, so that the game time was consumed to 8 seconds left, Chang Tiancheng suddenly walked over and took the initiative to foul Giannis.
The assistant coach next to him saw this scene and hugged his head: "Oh my God, Chang, what are you doing?"
Not only the assistant coach, but other teammates also expressed their puzzlement at Chang Tiancheng's foul.
Wembanyama came directly to Chang Tiancheng's side and asked: "Chang, we obviously have such a big lead, just let the other party kill time by themselves, why bother to give two points to the opposite side for nothing?"
But Chang Tiancheng just patted Wembanyama lightly and said, "Don't worry, Giannis can't score."
Wembanyama was incredulous, and he returned to the basket and stood nearby, waiting for Giannis' free throw.
Giannis knows that whether he can score this free throw will directly determine the victory or defeat of the Bucks, if he can score two free throws, the Bucks may still have a chance to create a miracle, but if he can't make the free throw, then the Bucks can basically throw and concede.
Thinking of this, Giannis adjusted his posture, made a long preparation, and let out a sigh of relief, and finally made the free throw.
As a result, after the basketball bounced on the basket a few times, it still rolled out of the basket and missed a free throw.
Giannis sighed heavily, he actually knew that in this situation, as long as he missed a free throw, the Bucks had no chance to win.
Under the influence of mentality, Giannis did not make the second free throw, and after the two free throws, the Bucks' defense no longer adopted the pressing tactics of pressing all over the court, but began to slowly walk back to the backcourt.
Seeing this, Chang Tiancheng no longer chose to attack, he took the ball himself, and waited for the whistle to blow at the end of the game in the half of the court belonging to the Spurs.
In the end, the Spurs also took an eight-point lead and walked away from Milwaukee with a victory.
After the game, Giannis didn't show too much of his emotions on the court, but covered his head with a towel and walked straight back to the locker room.
Regarding Giannis's behavior, the outside media have interpreted that this game may make Giannis completely lose confidence in his future with the Bucks and become the fuse for him to defect to Dallas.
But the Spurs players had nothing to do with it, and they went back to the locker room to celebrate the win.
......
Chang Tiancheng had just returned to his small apartment in San Antonio when he received a text message from Wembanyama.
Looking at what he meant, although his performance against Giannis today was much better than his previous friendly matches, at least he found a way to restrain him stably on the offensive end, but Wembanyama himself was still dissatisfied with his performance, and he promised Chang Tiancheng that he would continue to find a way to deal with Giannis, and also told Chang Tiancheng to be vigilant and think more about how to deal with Doncic.
It seems that Wembanyama is still very worried that Giannis will be taken to Dallas by Cuban, and has begun to take precautions for Chang Tiancheng to think about how his team should deal with the reinforcement of the Bucks in advance.
However, after Chang Tiancheng played against Giannis, he was not so worried about the other party and Doncic going to team up.
The first reason is that Giannis and Doncic are both players who have a hard time controlling their emotions during the game. This may be more prominent in Giannis, but Doncic himself is by no means good. If these two players are combined, if they can win all the time, they can naturally cover up all the problems, but once they lose, or even if the team enters a losing streak, then the two will inevitably have disputes, which will affect the harmony of the entire locker room.
The second reason is that Chang Tiancheng did not consider it before. Chang Tiancheng had been thinking about how to deal with this super combination before, but now after calming down, he suddenly realized that Giannis is also the star of the Bucks, but is still an MVP-level star in his year, and if the Mavericks really want to trade him, they will definitely have to pay a big price, then their other high-quality role players will definitely be dismantled, and even if Giannis goes to Dallas, their overall combat effectiveness will not become too strong. Unless one of their players who has never played to the plate suddenly explodes like Chang Tiancheng, they will have to wait at least until the offseason to complete the reinforcements before they can start attacking the championship.
In other words, it will be difficult for the Mavericks to influence the Spurs' championship plans at least this season, and by next season, the Spurs will also be strengthened, and the young players already on the team will be further developed. The most commendable thing is that the three starters in the Spurs' current roster: Chang Tiancheng, Wembanyama, and Sochan are all rookie contracts, which also gives the Spurs a lot of salary space to strengthen the team's roster, and at that time, the Giannis + Doncic combination will not look so terrible.
Thinking of these, the questions that had been bothering Chang Tiancheng for the past few days finally stopped lingering in his mind, Chang Tiancheng took a shower, and then fell asleep on the bed.