286: 123: Roger only plays high-end games (ask for monthly tickets!)_2 286: 123: Roger only plays high-end games (ask for monthly tickets!)_2 Roger nodded, “I’m adjusting, Saru.”
Roger wasn’t lying; he had been adjusting since the warm-up, but no one had noticed.
Before the game started, when the starting players gathered, Jerry Stackhouse was very excited, “You’ve got nowhere to run tonight, Roger.”
“Oh, ha~” Roger yawned.
“Heh, remember that look on your face, it’s going to become the most embarrassing moment in NBA history!”
Michael Cage couldn’t help but laugh, “Come on, kid, The Truth doesn’t even have the desire to trash-talk with you, stop humiliating yourself.”
It was a cruel truth: Roger indeed had no desire to trash-talk with Stackhouse.
There was really no need.
The Magic Team had lost five games till now, while the Philadelphia 76ers had only won five.
The Magic’s roster was the championship-winning lineup from last season, and though some were injured, the core was still there.
The 76ers’ roster was cobbled together; they’d picked up Maxwell, who had been decisively let go by the Rockets last season, and started Derek Alston, who averaged 4.7 points per game last season, as a second-round show.
Add in Stackhouse, the chocolate-ball-shaped Clarence Weatherspoon, and the undrafted Trevor Ruffin from last season, and that’s how they formed their starting lineup.
The 76ers did have a few decent players on the roster; they got Derrick Coleman, the No.
1 overall pick from ’90, but after 11 games he was out for the season, and the Enormous Mormon, Bradley, was also out for the season.
So, it couldn’t even be said that the 76ers believed in the process anymore.
It should be called a future without brightness directly.
With that, how could Roger take it seriously?
The game started, and the Magic had the ball.
Roger, outside the three-point line with the ball, and Jerry Stackhouse really came up to defend him one-on-one.
In this regard, he at least had the guts, not standing by with his arms crossed watching the show.
“Come on, Roger, bring it!” Stackhouse exaggeratedly lowered his center of gravity, spread out his arms with fists clenched, and glared as if every tooth was gritted with effort.
Just looking at that face, you’d know…
Stackhouse was about to drop a big one.
Roger glanced at Stackhouse’s positioning, easily attacked his front foot, got past him, and then…
scored a jump shot without any defensive help.
Roger was surprised himself; this was the first time this season that he had broken past his defender only to find no help defense.
76ers’ head coach John Lucas was expressionless; he had certainly demanded help defense against Roger, but no one was capable!
These idiots acted as if they didn’t know what help defense meant!
In truth, they all knew what help defense meant.
But this Philadelphia 76ers team, every player was thinking of padding their stats, so there was no sense of discipline at all.
A possession later, Stackhouse went one-on-one with Roger.
He dribbled between his legs repeatedly, then drove left-hand and pulled up for a jumper.
The fans were dumbfounded; they knew Stackhouse could mess up, but they never imagined he would do so right in front of so many people.
Airball already, what kind of play is this!?
Roger didn’t trash-talk, he didn’t even glance at Stackhouse.
Because it was too unchallenging, Roger hadn’t even fully committed to defending him and still made him shoot an airball.
In Spoelstra’s video, he specifically noted that Stackhouse was not very good with his left hand.
So, forcing him to go left would make him extremely uncomfortable.
Roger had just done exactly that; he knew it would make Stackhouse uncomfortable, but he didn’t expect him to shoot an airball directly.
So Roger couldn’t be bothered with trash-talking Stackhouse, he only had one thought: to hurry up and get the game into garbage time, Roger didn’t want to waste energy on this sort of game.
A possession later, it was still Stackhouse one-on-one defending Roger.
No help defense, no double-team, no system.
Roger posted up, easily pushed to an appropriate distance, then made a turnaround bank shot.
Still no trash talk, no communication, Roger made his shot and ran back to his own half.
It was like facing a wife of over a decade, no passion, just fulfilling a duty.
Stackhouse couldn’t spark the slightest interest in Roger, and knowing what Stackhouse’s limit would be in the future, he was even less interested.
The guy’s greatest career achievement was being “the only teammate with a higher season average than Jordan.”
In the 02-03 season with the Wizards, Stackhouse’s average score was 1 point higher than 40-year-old Jordan.
You could say he’s the man who made the basketball god second, but that was his greatest accomplishment.
Stackhouse challenged Roger one-on-one again, and Roger continued to block his right hand, forcing him to use his left.
What followed was a smooth dribble, a sudden stop, a steal, a turnover.
Roger completed it all with an expressionless face, and Laetitia on the sidelines admired Roger’s recovery ability.
She turned excitedly to ask Abunassar beside her, “Has Roger always recovered his fitness so quickly?
We had class until late yesterday, but his performance today is still unbelievably good!”
Abunassar smiled without saying a word; it wasn’t that Roger was in good condition.
How could he explain to this lady that the ’95 draft pick really had no challenge to Roger’s strength and was just unilaterally going nuts banging away.
After the first quarter, Roger completely destroyed Stackhouse.
Against Stackhouse’s one-on-one defense, Roger scored 12 points in just 6 minutes.
And under Roger’s relentless right-hand defense, Stackhouse only scored 2 points from free throws.
12 to 2, in just 6 minutes, the duel was already decided.
Stackhouse had always wanted to redeem himself for the 4-on-5 at the McDonald’s All-American Game, but he ended up getting beaten even worse than before.
Yeah, a guy who lost to a high schooler in the draft and then again in a one-on-one, how could he possibly stand against Roger?
NBC commentator Bob Costas watched with heavy eyelids: “I thought Roger would use some special means to humiliate Jerry, like a dunk over him or making him stumble.
But he didn’t; he just used some conventional methods to beat Jerry.
I know Roger wants to show the huge gap between him and Jerry, but it makes the game incredibly boring.”
“Not Bob,” Bill Walton chuckled beside him, “Roger is not using conventional methods on Jerry.”
What’s different about his offense from before?”
“Haven’t you noticed?
From warm-ups to now, Roger has been using only his left hand!
And with his non-dominant hand, he still wiped the floor with Jerry!”
“Ah?” Bob Costas said how Roger’s movements looked different than usual, okay, he admitted, he was fooled by the silent Roger who covertly switched hands.
This was the gap between Roger and his peers.
Roger always compared himself to the Dream, to Jordan, to the championship.
This made many people forget that he was only 20 years old.
Today, people saw what a normal 20-year-old player should look like.
And just how big the gap was between a normal 20-year-old player and a freakish 20-year-old player like Roger.
For Roger, such battles against peers had even lost all meaning.
Bill Walton stretched lazily: “Roger now, only takes high-end games seriously.”
Larry Miller at the scene was also filled with confidence for Roger’s independent brand.
Roger was still so young, yet he had such terrifying dominance.
So, genius knows how long his reign will last!
In the end, Roger scored 42 points in three quarters, leading the team by 33 points by the end of the third, and limited Stackhouse to just 13 points.
After the game, the reporters were curious.
“Why were you using your left hand all game?
Was it to show off your ability with your left hand?”
“Not really, actually my left hand still isn’t good enough, otherwise I should have got 50 points tonight.
Using my left hand was just because for dealing with second-rate high school level players like Jerry, my left hand is more than enough.
As for my right hand, well, I need to save it to slap Pat Riley.
Can’t get my hands dirty before that.”
At this moment, people suddenly remembered the preseason game against the Heat, when O’Neal was injured and Roger’s only comment in the interview was:
He remembered, he remembered everything.
After hearing Roger’s post-game interview, Bill Walton shrugged:
“Believe me, Pat Riley won’t be happy about getting his attention.
In fact, he’s probably having nightmares already.”