Roy, Randolph, Dixon, Otero, and LaFrentz served as the starting players for the Trail Blazers.
The Lakers' starting lineup remained unchanged, with Lin Feng at point guard, Kobe at shooting guard, Odom at small forward, Brian Cook at power forward, and Kwame Brown at center.
The golden duo in the backcourt should be more than enough to face the inside-outside combination of Roy and Randolph.
The commentators for this game were Wolf Joe and Harold Gordon.
After the game officially started, Roy didn't look for anyone else but Kobe.
He regarded Kobe as his target to catch up with and wanted to prove to Kobe in the Portland Rose Garden that this was their territory.
"Boy, you want to defend me alone?"
Kobe was so amused that he didn't even have the ball in his hands when Roy started chasing him all over the court.
"Kobe, I regarded you as my basketball idol when I was in school, and now I want to challenge you!"
"OK, I hope the young man's skills can be as good as his mouth."
Kobe responded calmly; he accepted the challenge and liked challenges even more.
He had treated his idol Jordan in the same way in the 1998 All-Star Game.
When Malone went for a pick-and-roll, Kobe was so annoyed that he told Malone to stop the damn pick-and-roll.
This is a good story in the NBA. Every young person who is just starting out likes to challenge his childhood idol.
Many years later, Irving did the same thing during a national team training match. He even made a bet with Kobe, saying that whoever lost would give the other $50,000.
Kobe did not accept Irving's challenge, not because he was afraid of Irving, nor because he felt sorry for the $50,000.
In an interview, he revealed to reporters that he admired Irving's courage, which was very similar to when he challenged Jordan.
The reason why he didn't agree with Irving was that he didn't want to destroy Irving's self-confidence.
Because it was too easy for him to beat Irving. At that time, Irving was just a kid who had just entered the league. He had speed and explosiveness, but unfortunately, he had too little experience.
In order to protect Irving's self-esteem, Kobe did not agree to the one-on-one match.
Two years later, Irving finally met Kobe in a regular-season game. He signaled his teammates to move away so that he could have a one-on-one duel with Kobe.
As a result, he was blocked by Kobe, ending the one-on-one match.
Obviously, in terms of basketball attainments, there is no denying that Irving is a genius. After all, to be the No. 1 pick, he must be very talented.
But he was still too young to compete one-on-one with Kobe, who had played in the NBA for more than ten years.
Roy defended Kobe alone tonight, which was similar to Irving's situation.
"Lin! Give me the ball. This guy is only interested in defending me alone."
Kobe shouted at Lin Feng.
Lin Feng understood what he meant and passed the ball to Kobe.
"Come on, young man, let me see how capable you are. You're so arrogant as to defend me alone."
Kobe caught the basketball passed by Lin Feng and spoke to Roy.
Roy got into a defensive stance and retorted, "Kobe, I admit you're great, but your era is about to end with me. Come on, let me show you how I can defend you alone!"
"Young man, you are interesting."
Kobe made a fake shot and directly shook Roy off.
Roy thought Kobe was going to pull up for a jump shot. After all, Kobe's strong shooting was very threatening.
He subconsciously tried to block the shot, but it turned out to be just a fake move.
Kobe dribbled the ball, focusing on his right foot, and with a graceful turn, he passed Roy.
Then he aimed at the basket, turned around, and shot a jump shot, easily resolving the battle.
"Young man, is this all you have? And you're so arrogant as to defend me alone? You're too young!"
Kobe said with a smile, "A fake move plus a turnaround jump shot took care of Roy."
Roy didn't respond. He felt ashamed.
What's going on?
I am too inexperienced. It's just because I'm nervous.
He admitted that he was somewhat nervous facing Kobe.
"Hey! Roy, you should just defend Lin Feng. I'll take care of Kobe."
LaFrentz's task in this game was to defend Kobe, which was the responsibility assigned to him by coach Terry Porter.
In the first round, Roy tried to show off his ability and chose to guard Kobe. Terry Porter had no choice but to give him the ball.
Seeing Roy being shaken off by Kobe, LaFrentz smiled bitterly and shook his head. Roy, who was just a rookie, would be beaten badly if he challenged Kobe one-on-one.
Head coach Terry Porter also signaled Roy to defend Lin Feng on the sidelines, leaving the more difficult Kobe to LaFrentz.
LaFrentz was traded from Boston and had excellent defensive skills.
After all, the Celtics were a tough team that was good at defense, and having LaFrentz defend Kobe was a tactic arranged by Terry Porter.
Roy had no choice but to defend Lin Feng, but he forgot that Lin Feng was also a tough nut to crack.
"Young man, I can tell you clearly that although you and Lin are both rookies this year, Lin can beat you just as easily as I beat you in a one-on-one."
Kobe said another sentence, deliberately provoking Roy's mentality.
"Shit, Kobe, are you serious? I admit you are strong. I have watched you play for so many years, but this Asian guy can beat me?"
Roy held his head and was speechless for a while.
Roy had seen Lin Feng's overall strength in recent games and believed that he had just unleashed his potential as a rookie.
Rookies tend to perform actively in the first few games, but at the end of the regular season, they encounter the rookie wall, which is too much for every rookie.
He didn't think that Lin Feng, who had just played five games, could be that strong.
Even if he was very strong, he couldn't be compared with Kobe.
After all, Kobe's stable performance over the years had been witnessed by fans all over the world.
Kobe smiled slightly, knowing that Roy was not convinced, so he said to Lin Feng, "Lin, show him your skills later; let him know that you are both rookies, but you can beat him!"
"Kobe, this is a bit bad, isn't it?" Lin Feng couldn't help but laugh, "Why should a rookie make things difficult for another rookie?"
"Haha..." Kobe laughed out loud when he heard that. Lin's humor had made him laugh out loud more than once.
In the next round, the Portland Trail Blazers had the ball. Roy dribbled across half court, with Lin Feng following closely.
Roy was angry after being ridiculed by Kobe just now, so he faced Lin Feng and directly shot a jump shot.
His shots were very decisive. Lin Feng didn't expect that this guy would shoot as soon as he said he would. He didn't care at all that he was a rookie. If he missed the shot and took a wasteful shot, he might be replaced by the coach.
What made Lin Feng speechless was that Roy's reckless shot actually went in.
It was just a lucky shot, and because it was quite far from the three-point line, this guy just shot it directly.
"Kobe, did you see that? I made a three-pointer, and you just made a two-pointer."
Roy was very excited tonight and shot a three-pointer to show off to Kobe.
Lin Feng chuckled and said, "You're just lucky. This round, I'm going to dunk on you!"
"What? You dunked on me?"
Roy's face was full of black question marks. Someone more arrogant than him was threatening to dunk on his head?
"Lin! Show him some color."
Kobe cheered for Lin Feng.
"Watch out, the Death Buckle is back!"
Lin Feng held the ball and broke through quickly. Only then did Roy realize that Lin Feng was indeed very strong, and he couldn't stop him at all.
When Randolph saw it, he immediately came to help, but it was too late.
Lin Feng rushed into the penalty area and jumped high, like a modern glider, and ended the round with a powerful and explosive slam dunk!