Stephen stayed safely on the court until the end of the first half, and the referee did not cause trouble for him, but Stephen did not dare to relax, and the Lakers did not continue to foul the tactics against Stephen.

Phil Jackson has a very accurate grasp of the referee's psychology. Although the referee is strictly staring at Stephen, this does not mean that the Lakers dare to attack Stephen. The referee does not like Stephen, but also does not like that the Lakers have been fouling to interrupt the attack, so they have to temporarily give up this tactic at this time.

The Los Angeles Lakers entered the break with a seven-point lead.

In the visiting team's locker room, Caresimo whispered Stephen, saying that he hoped Stephen would take a break off the court in the second half, on the one hand, to recover his physical strength, and on the other hand, considering that Stephen's foul number has three. Although for an outside player, you usually don't have to worry too much about foul number, it won't work if the referee deliberately targets it. However, no matter how strong he is, Stephen insists on not agreeing to the rest.

Stephen was very sure that the league definitely wanted to stay on the court instead of resting. The referee could also feel such pressure. On the one hand, the referee had to maintain his authority, and on the other hand, he had to respect the opinions of the league. Therefore, the referee was definitely the one who was in a dilemma.

And even if the referees finally sent themselves off in order to maintain their authority, they will definitely face the blame from the league. In this way, although the next game is still the home court of the Los Angeles Lakers, the Supersonics don’t have to worry about the referee’s problems. If one game is exchanged for another game, the result is not unacceptable, because both of them are the home court of the Lakers, and they are not exchanged with the opponent for their home court.

This is a contest between Stephen and the referee on another level. If Stephen rests, it proves that he is afraid of the referee. The referee will never be grateful or thank Stephen for this. They will only despise Stephen and the Supersonics even more, so Stephen will never end up.

If Stephen continues to stay on the court, the referee can catch Stephen's foul issue, but do they really dare to drive Stephen out? No one is sure, so Stephen will continue to stay on the court to see how brave the referee is to really send him off.

Caresimo really has nothing to say about Stephen. Stephen doesn't want to go off the court, and he has no choice but to let Stephen pay attention to his actions and try not to let the referee catch him. Stephen can only try his best and dare not have any guarantee.

After the second half, Stephen continued to appear on the field, which surprised many people, not only the players on the Lakers side, but also the players on their own side, as well as everyone in the media table, including the referee.

Seeing Stephen staying on the court, the three referees on duty felt a little angry. Isn’t this not taking us seriously? Do you think you are a big name and we dare not judge you for foul? If you go off, you will give the referee a clear signal. Seeing that I am afraid of you, I will go down and the referee feels respect, so he will naturally let you go.

But if someone like Stephen gives the referee a signal that I am not afraid of you, the referee will naturally be very angry. So less than two minutes after Stephen played, he was blown away by the referee and hit someone. However, Stephen ignored them and persuaded his teammates to stop.

The referees felt that Stephen or other players would be unable to help but fight, and they would have more reason to send them off, especially Stephen's teammates. They dare not take action against Stephen, so there is no need to worry about the other people. However, they didn't expect that Stephen seemed to be not caring at all, and he was still on the court after four fouls.

They looked at each other and found out that they didn't dare to move as Stephen expected. However, after seeing this, the Los Angeles Lakers increased their personal impact on Stephen. Anyway, they didn't have to worry about fouls.

But no matter how they attacked Stephen, Stephen responded firmly and was not worried about his own foul at all. In this way, the referee was even more afraid to make a penalty for Stephen. Taking this opportunity, Stephen led the Supersonics to catch up to only two points.

However, Phil Jackson is very experienced and takes turns to delay the pace of the game. Although the referee is a little dissatisfied with this, he dare not say anything. Finally, the Lakers resolved this wave of offensive. Slowly, as Paul Gasol returned to the court, the Los Angeles Lakers took the initiative on the court again.

Although Stephen has been on the court, he dare not act like he did not foul, so he has never tried his best. However, he did not expect that even so, the referee would not let him go. He probably felt that a lot of time had passed. Even if he gave Stephen another foul, he would have said it. Just nine minutes passed in the third quarter, Stephen's normal rebound grab was caught by the referee and gave Stephen a foul.

Stephen really felt very wronged. He would not jump up if anyone grabbed the rebound. He unconsciously pushed away the object that was slightly hindered, but the referee didn't care about this. They were determined to cause trouble for Stephen today, so no matter how Stephen explained, they smiled and shook their heads.

Stephen made a cruel decision. Even if he had five fouls, I wouldn't end up. It depends on what you dare to do. If you have the ability, give me a foul and drive me off.

The referee felt embarrassed at this time. Sure enough, if you give him five fouls, he just won't end, so what can you do? Give him another foul and drive him down. But now the third quarter is not over yet. If you drive a core player like Stephen, you won't be ready for someone to watch in the fourth quarter.

This foul was a bit too early. The three referees all felt this way. Seeing Stephen standing there more presumptuously than before, but they had no choice, Stephen seized this powerful opportunity to overtake the score in one fell swoop. By the end of the third quarter, the Supersonics led by three points, and at this time Stephen's personal score also reached twenty-seven points.

The Lakers dare not do the foul as thoroughly as they did in the last game, so they naturally cannot stop Stephen's scoring. Fortunately, they have Kobe Bryant. In the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, Stephen scored 12 points in one fell swoop, and Kobe Bryant also scored nine points. Although the Lakers are still six points behind, at least it seems that the situation is not so dangerous.

But at this time, Stephen suddenly made a four-pointer. He made a fake move outside the three-point line. Trevo Ariza, who was very active, rushed over. As a result, Stephen made a trick that changed the fake to the real trick. Not only did he make the three-pointer, but he also earned a free throw opportunity.

In this way, the score difference between the two sides reached ten, which is a very obvious gap. Whether the Lakers can hold on to the score tightly and not be left behind by the Supersonics depends on whether this offense can withstand it. Sure enough, Kobe Bryant lived up to the hope and shot a three-pointer under huge pressure, continuing to maintain the momentum of chasing points.

But just when the fans and the audience expected to see a wonderful score and score-chasing good show, the disruptor appeared. They were the third party in this game, another force on the court. They were the referee team wearing friendly jerseys. When Stephen just made another two-minute shot, it was the Lakers' turn to attack, Stephen simply jumped up and reached out to interfere with Kobe Bryant's shot. Then the referee gave Stephen a defensive foul. Six times were full, and he pointed to the field channel and signaled Stephen to leave quickly. At this time, there were eight minutes and thirty-six seconds left before the end of the game.

At this time, Stephen could no longer explain or communicate with the referee. Kevin Durant hurried over, and Calesimo hurried over, but the referee still insisted on his own decision, believing that Stephen touched Kobe Bryant's forearm when he was shooting. Although it was only a slight contact, it was definitely a foul. In the video replay, it can be seen that there is indeed overlap between the two, but if there is no contact, no one can confirm it. The referee thinks that if it is contact, it is contact.

Stephen was not angry either. He patted his hands gently while retreating outside the field. At this time, the referee no longer cared whether Stephen's actions were provocative, because they were also overwhelmed by protests from multiple aspects and sent Stephen out of the field. He was angry, but it seemed like he had stabbed a hornet's nest, and the reaction was a bit too big.

As a result, the Supersonics naturally lost the game. Although Stephen got off the court early, he still scored forty-four points. Kobe Bryant stayed on the court for eight more minutes than him, and still only scored forty-one points. He failed to surpass Stephen in scoring, but he won the game and took a 2-1 lead in the entire series.

In the post-match interview, Stephen's words caused an uproar. When the reporter asked him about his opinion on the defeat, Stephen replied lightly: "There is no way to do this, who told the other party to have more people than us."

After saying that, Stephen stopped talking, but the media completely interpreted his words. The implication was that the referee was on the side of the Lakers in this game? This was obviously criticizing the referee. The referee committee hurriedly stood up to protest. At this time, the league that was supposed to stand out was rushing to deal with the problem of the ratings of the fourth quarter of the game.
Chapter completed!