Chapter 135: Kobe plus Fan Xi, invincible

"I think Jack is the best point guard of the new generation."

Brandon Roy told reporters after the third game ended.

He was a sincere person who could calmly face failure and give a thumbs up to his opponent.

Returning to Portland's home court, the Rose Garden, the Trail Blazers made active preparations. They adjusted the starting lineup and increased the pace again.

However, they still lost.

And Fan Xi got 19 assists in this game.

Because the Lakers moved Andrew Bynum from the starting lineup to the bench in this game, Fan Xi formed a powerful interaction with Kobe Bryant on the weak side.

Kobe posted up on the strong side, and Fan Xi roamed on the weak side.

Whenever Kobe fell into a double-team, Fan Xi could always appear in the correct position, and when the opponent moved to Fan Xi's side, Fan Xi could quickly pass the basketball out or kill directly into the paint.

This was a very simple tactic in the triangle offense, but Fan Xi and Kobe played it to the extreme.

Thanks to Fan Xi's secondary organization, Mike Dunleavy hit 6 three-pointers outside the three-point line, Lamar Odom completed 2 alley-oops, and Pau Gasol's offense also became relaxed and comfortable.

The Portland Trail Blazers were a tenacious team, but they were indeed not as skilled as others.

The fans at the Rose Garden Arena gave them great encouragement, but they didn't have the advantage in talent, experience, or technology.

The Lakers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

After the third game, those experts on ESPN were already discussing the sweep.

When Brandon Roy talked about this, he just gritted his teeth and said stubbornly: "I will definitely stop all of this from happening."

He was a bit lacking in confidence.

Fan Xi also highly praised Brandon Roy in an interview, claiming that Roy was one of the best shooting guards he had ever seen in terms of skills and fundamentals.

He actually wanted to say that among active players, he was second only to Kobe Bryant, but on second thought, this was more or less pulling hatred, at least Joe Johnson, Dwyane Wade, and these people would feel offended.

Roy's public praise made Fan Xi's name recognized in the basketball world again. People had already started to treat him as a core player of the Lakers, even though he was a rookie, even though he was in the defending champion lineup.

Even another brand-new fact was being established. Thanks to Fan Xi's powerful off-court influence, some media, and even the Lakers' official publicity, had started to place him and Kobe Bryant in the most prominent positions, creating the "established fact" that he was the number two figure of the Lakers.

The reputation of the Miracle Child was too loud, and he indeed had stats that could be taken out.

He scored a super triple-double in the second game of the playoffs and 19 assists in the third game. Even Magic Johnson back then didn't have such magic.

Although there were some voices saying that Fan Xi was so great because he stood on the shoulders of Kobe, Gasol, and others.

If it were other rookies, they would never have enjoyed such a great platform.

However, could other rookies really catch it?

The fourth game arrived quickly.

Although the Trail Blazers showed the momentum of a mourning army winning, the fans in the arena cheered for the players desperately from the first minute.

However.

The gap in strength was visible to the naked eye, and the Lakers didn't give them a chance to win against the strong.

Although Nate McMillan used a strange move, he used Andre Miller to defend Kobe and Brandon Roy to watch Fan Xi.

This change limited the performance of the two to a certain extent, and both became very struggling in the first quarter.

However, as Fan Xi suddenly moved without the ball in the second quarter, he shook off Roy through running and hit 2 consecutive three-pointers.

The Trail Blazers' moves were disintegrated.

The offense and defense changed, and after the Lakers overtook the score, they kept expanding the score.

The game lost suspense after entering the fourth quarter.

The Trail Blazers were like ice cubes thrown into warm water, failing so silently.

4:0.

Sweep.

Fan Xi scored 32 points in this game, breaking his personal playoff single-game scoring record.

He hit a total of 7 three-pointers, also breaking the number of three-pointers hit by a rookie in a single playoff game.

His light in the last three games of this series even overshadowed Kobe Bryant.

People couldn't help but treat him as a superstar.

Brandon Roy suddenly walked towards Fan Xi after the game ended. He greeted Fan Xi and then said to Fan Xi: Can we swap jerseys?

This is the greatest respect for an opponent.

Brandon Roy was a long-established superstar... he was only one step away from a superstar. He became the leader of the Trail Blazers in the second season of his career, and until now, he relied on his own strength to make the former Portland Jail Blazers reborn and enter the playoffs consecutively.

He was willing to take the initiative to come over and propose to swap jerseys with Fan Xi, which showed that he really, really respected Fan Xi's attainments in this series.

Fan Xi didn't hesitate, and he swapped jerseys with Brandon Roy.

Then the two also left each other's phone numbers.

This was another superstar friend Fan Xi made outside the Lakers.

The last one was Kevin Durant.

Kevin Durant and the Denver Nuggets were having a fierce competition, but they were already leading 3:1. As long as Westbrook's brain didn't have problems, advancing to the second round would not be a problem.

In addition, the other matchup was the Dallas Mavericks versus the New Orleans Hornets.

A group of veterans from the Mavericks faced the Hornets led by Chris Paul, and they also played relatively easily. Now they were leading 3:1. Jason Kidd, the former league's number one point guard, faced the current league's number one point guard. Although he was no longer the core, he was also relatively comfortable.

And what people didn't expect was that the matchup that was thought to be the easiest, Spurs versus Grizzlies, actually played to 2:2.

The Spurs were restrained by the Grizzlies' lineup.

Tim Duncan was originally the greatest power forward in league history, and his dominance was amazing.

But before the start of this season, he lost weight to maintain his physical flexibility. This made him fall into a disadvantage when facing Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol, two strong inside players. He was very unaccustomed.

Just like when the Spurs played against the Kings back then, when the short and strong small forward Bonzi Wells switched defense to match up with Duncan, Duncan performed very strugglingly.

On the plane back to Los Angeles, Fan Xi asked Kobe Bryant: "Which team do you think will win this series?"

Kobe Bryant supported Tim Duncan.

He and Duncan were historical superstars of the same era. Their status was equivalent, and their ages were similar. He had great confidence in Duncan.

However, Fan Xi believed that the Grizzlies would win because the Grizzlies' lineup was stronger.

Kobe heard this and fell into deep thought. He said: If it is really the Grizzlies' black eight success, then the playoff situation will become bright. We only need to defeat the Dallas Mavericks, and then no matter whether the Thunder or the Grizzlies enter the Western Conference Finals, we have the advantage.

Fan Xi said: The Mavericks are not easy to play, they are more tenacious than imagined.

Kobe smiled and said to Fan Xi: Do you think there is anyone in the league today who is more tenacious, more stubborn, and more paranoid than the two of us?

The Black Mamba was very confident.

He believed that adding Fan Xi to himself was already invincible.

Fan Xi smiled.

Kobe was right.

However, do other Lakers players have our backbone?

Fan Xi didn't know.

After all, the game is a game of five people.

The plane landed in Los Angeles quickly. Just as Fan Xi turned on his phone, he received an unexpected call.

... ===== CHAPTER 136 =====