696: 241: Not the ending they wanted (thanks to the landlord patron for the 5000 reward, I am deeply grateful!)_3 696: 241: Not the ending they wanted (thanks to the landlord patron for the 5000 reward, I am deeply grateful!)_3 Vince Carter, being the nice guy he is, had naturally never offended Pierce.
It was a one-sided animosity on Pierce’s part.
He was still unsatisfied with his draft position to this day and harbored resentment against all those who were picked before him.
The ones he resented the most were undoubtedly Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter.
Because those two guys also played forward and could score as well, the media loved to compare the three of them.
Carter jokingly responded to Pierce, “Hey, I don’t want to mess with anyone from the Hawks.
Everybody saw what happened to Kobe Bryant.
You know, Kobe is my brother, so I really feel for him.”
Carter said the softest words but started the game with the most explosive dunk.
When Carter asked for the ball in the low post in the first play, Doug Christie immediately passed it to him.
Pippen was still wondering why Carter wanted to play in the low post when, at the moment of receiving the ball, Carter turned around and shook off Pippen, then jumped from a standstill and dunked over the Hawks’ Shawn Marion!
That’s why Toronto fans love the UFO; everyone is used to seeing Shaq Daddy dunk from a standstill and crush his opponents, but what if you replace him with Carter?
The visual impact of a forward-guard sized player dunking from standstill is incomparable.
Paul Pierce took this as Carter’s challenge to him.
So, in the next possession, as soon as Pierce got the ball, he charged towards the basket.
But the Raptors’ tough inside man, Charles Oakley, caused Pierce to miss.
Oakley, though past his prime, was still an outstanding defender.
He would not let anyone attack the basket easily.
A possession later, Doug Christie easily curved out to the three-point line and shot a basket.
Pierce’s performance on the defensive end had a bit of beauty reminiscent of the Lakers’ LeBron James.
No one knew what he was thinking as he seemed completely indifferent to Doug Christie.
In fact, Pierce wasn’t zoning out, he just focused his attention in the wrong place.
Just now, as Carter broke past Pippen, Pierce’s attention was all on helping defend against Carter.
But after Carter broke through and passed the ball, Pierce was dumbfounded, not even realizing when Doug Christie ran out.
Pippen, dissatisfied, spread his hands, “Guy, I’ll cover him!
Even if you need to switch, there’s Shawn and Big Ben!”
“OK Scott,” Pierce nodded agreeably.
But he seemed to have reverted to last season’s Paul Pierce who would verbally agree to anything but wouldn’t necessarily follow through.
In the subsequent game, Pierce’s excessive focus on Carter allowed him to miss Christie time and time again.
Already one of the few sharpshooters of the era, Christie’s high three-point shooting percentage was aided by Pierce’s poor defensive focus.
During halftime, Roger reminded Pierce, “If you can’t tell the difference between Vince Carter and Doug Christie, you should get yourself some glasses!”
“Damn it, why can’t they just let me face Vince Carter directly?
You all know I can handle that guy!
Shit, if this were my team…” Pierce shouted angrily, although he stopped himself before finishing the last sentence, it still silenced the entire locker room instantly.
The atmosphere was colder than a freezer.
During this time, the Hawks had been living among various rumors.
And Paul Pierce’s shout seemed to turn all those rumors into reality.
Lenny Wilkens wanted to say something, but Roger raised his hand to stop him and stared at Pierce, “Continue.”
Pierce said nothing more, just hung his head.
The matter was dropped, and Pierce’s defensive performance finally normalized in the second half.
But the Raptors’ shooting had already heated up.
Doug Christie was still scoring, and it seemed as if his touch had spread to his teammates.
Vince Carter also put on a perfect display from beyond the three-point line, hitting 5 out of 7 attempts.
Dell Curry also stood out, seizing many opportunities.
As for Pierce, although his defense improved a lot in the second half, his offense was still headstrong, either senselessly shooting from distance or rushing to the rim in a frenzy.
The better Carter performed, the more irrational Pierce acted.
This led to him making only 4 out of 16 shots that day.
Under these circumstances, with 27 seconds left in the game, the Raptors were still leading by 1 point.
Hawks ball, Lenny Wilkens called for a timeout to set up the last offense.
At this point, Carter had already racked up 34 points, while Pierce had only 14.
As he went off-court, Charles Oakley deliberately patted Carter on the shoulder, “Vince, someone still hasn’t figured out why they fell out of the top three.”
Pierce heard this comment, clenched his fist, and walked off the court to sit on the bench.
Lenny Wilkens unsurprisingly gave the final shot to Roger, with Pierce as the second option.
So Paul Pierce let out his second roar of the day, “The Raptors will definitely guard Roger tightly, they should give the ball to me!”
Scottie Pippen tugged at Pierce’s jersey, knowing better than anyone what the consequences of contesting Roger for the game-winning shot were.