The strongest unicorn in basketball

Chapter 52
Just two days later, the Thunder went to San Antonio to challenge the Spurs.

Last season, the Spurs suffered from serious injuries in the regular season, but even so, they still won 50 wins at the end of the regular season and completed the "Black Seven Miracle" in the first round of the playoffs.

Unfortunately, they lost in the second round to the Phoenix Suns, who had been a playoff contender (whatever the means).

Just when people are saying that Duncan is old, in fact, he is old.

By next year's playoffs, he will be 35 years old. For an inside player, 35 years old is definitely a watershed for a precipitous decline in state.

However, at the beginning of the season, the Spurs' 8 wins and 1 loss really made the entire league feel the fear of being dominated by the Spurs.

The same is true for the Thunder.

At the beginning of the game, the Thunder and the Spurs were still playing very anxiously, but as the game entered the rotation, Harden and Ibaka faced the Spurs as if they had added a buff. They were extremely brave. Scored 15 points.

The Thunder led by 14 points at the most in the first half. Unfortunately, in the second half of the second quarter, the old-fashioned Spurs narrowed the gap to 5 points.

Entering the third quarter, the Spurs made a sudden effort. "Red Mamba" Matt Bonner made 4 of 4 three-pointers from the outside in a single quarter, helping the team score an exaggerated 35:14 in a single quarter.

In the fourth quarter, facing the Thunder's counterattack, the Spurs also responded calmly. The final score was 117:104, giving the Thunder a two-game losing streak.

Li Pu still performed poorly tonight, scoring only 6 points and 8 rebounds. The reason for this is that Tim Duncan was playing against him tonight.

To be honest, Duncan's performance this season is not good. Whether it is scoring or rebounding, it is the lowest in his career.

Since 2006, Duncan has been attacked by plantar fasciitis. This injury has made him very distressed. In order to relieve the pain, Duncan was forced to start losing weight and further adjust his style of play.

As a result, his offensive area is getting more and more outside, while the defensive position is getting more and more inside.

Blame Popovich, a bad old man, Duncan finally played center.

In the confrontation with Li Pu tonight, Li Pu did a good job defending Duncan and only allowed Duncan to score 6 points, but Duncan's help to the team was far greater than Li Pu.

He can help the team win by using experience, hand-to-hand passing, long-range threat and other methods that cannot be reflected in the data.

It can be said that the gap between Lip and Duncan is all-round. Under Duncan's defense, Lip lost himself for a while, not knowing what to do on the court.

After the game, Duncan shook hands with Li Pu and said, "You are very talented. Although you didn't perform well tonight, don't worry too much. Who told you to meet me?"

Seeing Duncan say these words with a blank face, Li Pu was shocked. Is this still the unsmiling Duncan?
In fact, the reason why Li Pu was so surprised was because he didn't know Duncan well. Anyone who knew him knew that this guy was a sullen guy!There are a bunch of bad jokes.

After losing to the Spurs, two days later, the Thunder lost to the Mavericks in an away game. Nowitzki taught him how to behave inside, and suffered a three-game losing streak.

Fortunately, on November 11, the Thunder will face the Rockets at home.

Among the top three in Texas, the only one that can be pinched is the Rockets.

After the Rockets lost Dayao, their strength was greatly reduced. The Thunder, which had lost three games in a row, finally ushered in the hope of ending the losing streak.

Finish training in the morning and enjoy lunch in the team cafeteria at noon.

The lunch of an NBA team is completely different from the cafeteria of a general company.

In order to ensure the health of the players, the chef of the team will make high-quality healthy food for the players without sea cucumbers. The food menu needs to be carefully customized by the team nutritionist according to each player's hobbies and recovery conditions of.

Today's lunch mainly consists of chicken, salad, rice, pasta, and freshly squeezed juice.

Li Pu, Lin Shuhao, Collison and Ibaka sat around the dining table.

At this time, Westbrook took the plate and sat next to Collison.

"Hey, Serge, Nick, Jeremy... well, and Prince!" Westbrook finally pinched his nose.

"Hi!" Everyone responded, except Li Pu.

At this time, Li Pu didn't show off his food as crazy as usual, instead he kept poking a broccoli on the plate with his chopsticks as if he had something on his mind.

"Nick, what's wrong with this guy?"

At first, Westbrook thought that the guy didn't want to pay attention to him, but after observing for a long time, he found that Li Pu was completely absent-minded, so he couldn't help asking Collison beside him.

"I don't know either, just ask Jeremy!" Collison shrugged.

Lin Shuhao, who was sitting opposite Collison, saw everyone looking at him, and couldn't help laughing: "Today is payday, this guy has been fidgeting since morning!"

After hearing this, everyone suddenly realized that this is the case, no wonder this guy is so abnormal.

After everyone got to know each other gradually, they all understood Li Pu's situation. He was afraid of being poor since he was a child, and his desire for money was stronger than that of ordinary people.

But it doesn't mean that Li Pu is a person who regards money as his life. For brothers or friends, he is also a real helper. You are like Lin Shuhao. You still live in his house, and you have never seen him collect rent...

"Hey, if you want to calculate it this way, then Li Pu still pays my fare and driver's fare?" Lin Shuhao disagreed with this statement.

Since today is the first time in Li Pu's life that he has received NBA salary, Li Pu has been uneasy since waking up in the morning. He sleepwalked throughout the morning training and was often scolded by the coach.

"Ding dong!" At this moment, Li Pu's cell phone text message rang suddenly, and then several people around him rang simultaneously.

Li Pu's whole spirit was lifted, he quickly threw away his chopsticks and took out his mobile phone.

"You have received USD 70431, and the account balance is USD 70431..."

Damn, the first salary was a full 7 US dollars, which is about 50 in RMB. When did he have so much money in his bank account?

"Hahahaha... I got rich, I got rich!" The first time Li Pu got his salary, he grinned so much that the corners of his mouth almost reached his ears.

Seeing Li Pu like this, the others felt ashamed, and wanted to stand aside with their plates, so as not to let people think that we knew him very well.

"Ding dong!"

Then came another text message.

"What's the situation? Is there another salary?" Li Pu suddenly became interested, and quickly checked the new text message.

"You have paid $70000 to your Citibank credit card, and your account balance is $431..."

"Bank, I'm RNM! Refund!" Seeing that there were more than 400 US dollars left in the account, Li Pu wished to spit out his old blood, and his own money was instantly cleared like this!
(End of this chapter)