From sparring to superstar

Chapter 125 123. Retired Jersey!
James Posey was dunked dumbfounded!
He thought he could prevent Li Ao's ordinary attack at the basket, but the opponent didn't take the usual way, and directly smashed the basket.

At that moment, he felt unrivaled power, and his oppressive defense seemed to be adding to the fun of the opponent.

Not to mention opponents, teammates didn't expect their Spider-Man to be so fierce.

Odom, who easily got the assist, excitedly bumped into Li Ao who rushed out to celebrate.

Li Ao was also very excited, the skill 'Shark' was finally used in actual combat.

If he relies on this to play a higher threat inside, it will be of great help to his main scoring method and the offense of the whole team.

Offensive and defensive transitions, the Clippers' defensive enthusiasm is overwhelming!
This kind of dunk is much stronger than the morale-boosting effect of 'Pumper Level 1', and it's a 'goal', the effects of the two are superimposed!
McDyess attacked Jermaine O'Neal face-to-face at close range, but was interfered by Jermaine O'Neal's one-on-one defense!

McDyess was very surprised. Only one month later, this high school student has made great defensive progress!

It has been a month since the two played against each other last time. With more than a dozen games of actual combat training, O'Neal has made great progress on the defensive end, mainly in terms of actual combat experience.

Not many people paid attention to this point in the first 6 games, because in the first 6 games, the opponents were either undefendable like Malone or O’Neal, or Mutombo, who was not responsible for the offense. He played against the Grizzlies and Rockets. The defensive performance was excellent, but the two opponents, Olajuwon and Bryant-Levis, are now old and useless, and no one thinks how good they are.

Now McDyess still wants to pass Jermaine O'Neal and dunk directly with a fake move like in the first game of the preseason.

Odom received the defensive rebound and switched offense and defense. Li Ao repeated his old tricks and wanted to have a better time, but he was flanked by James Posey and LaFrentz after he borrowed a cover from the flank.

Li Ao gave the ball to O'Neal who moved one step inside the free throw line, and LaFrentz moved quickly... Back to the basket, O'Neal made a close-range jumper from the front of the basket!

Li Ao was a little dumbfounded. He didn't notice it in the last match, but now he realizes that LaFrentz is worthy of being the third most efficient player in shot blocking.

The Clippers got off to a smooth start tonight, and Li Ao accidentally opened up the situation with a dunk that was beyond everyone's expectations.

Although LaFrentz doesn't care if the team can defend, he doesn't want the basket he protects to be dunked like that, and he is determined not to let Li Ao go to the basket and one-on-one with the outside line, and he doesn't interfere with short-range shots, for fear that Jermaine O'Neal and Li Ao will play inside passes.

This makes the Nuggets' defensive coordination around McDyess, James Posey, and Voshan Leonard completely unplayable.

On the offensive end, the Nuggets also encountered difficulties. O'Neal's one-on-one defense in the low area exceeded the Nuggets' expectations, and the regular offense launched by McDyess was frustrated.

If it weren't for Van Exel's mid-range and long-range shot, the Nuggets would have almost collapsed at the beginning!

Although Van Exel's shooting percentage is not good, he dares to throw.

And the breakthrough has both speed and skill. Li Ao couldn't defend against the breakthrough. McGinnis and the big Q who came off the bench restricted Van Exel's breakthrough, but Van Exel's outside step-back jumper, lateral jumper, and emergency stop jumper were all excellent.

As long as Van Exel feels good, Payton will be autistic.

The key is that he is not stingy with passing the ball, and when he is pinched, he will play the ball. His ball possession rate is not as excessive as his style of play seems. Although 28% is not low, it is already considered low compared to players who are really sticky to the ball.

Random shot selection and poor defense are his fatal flaws. The Lakers would rather use veteran Ron Harper and Fisher, who has no independent scoring ability, than him, but he is really good when he soars.

At the end of the first quarter, the Clippers scored 29 points. Li Ao and Jermaine O'Neal opened up the situation at close range. Jermaine O'Neal scored the second-highest 8 points in the game. The Clippers rotated 8 players in the first quarter, and everyone scored.

The Nuggets relied on Van Exel to score 11 points in a single quarter with 3 points and 23 assists, biting the score.

In the second quarter, the Clippers scored 30-24 and led the Nuggets 59-47 by 12 points into the second half.

Just when the Clippers felt they had the chance to win, the Nuggets showed the quality of their playoff-level team.

In the third quarter, the head coach of the Nuggets boldly abandoned LaFrentz, who got 5 blocks in the halftime but turned into the opponent's back garden at close range, and used Zeon Clark to protect the frame.

McDyess did not go to defend Odom, but stayed in the short range. The defense against Odom became James Posey, and the 33-year-old veteran and former three-point leader George McLeod went to defend Li Ao.

The Nuggets' defense, which is similar to zone defense, caught the Clippers by surprise.

The Clippers' three-pointers are not good at all. Piakowski's performance collapsed after his defensive strength.

In the third quarter, the Clippers were defended to only score 20 points!
Fortunately, the Nuggets made such a big adjustment to their play style, and the offense was also slowed down. They only scored 21 points. The Clippers still entered the final quarter with an 11-point lead.

In the final quarter, the Nuggets took the lead in finding the offensive rhythm. They scored 15 to 9 in the first half, narrowing the point difference to 5 points in one fell swoop!
In the second half of the last quarter, the Nuggets continued to show off on the offensive end, but the Clippers' Li Ao scored two consecutive mid-range shots to open up the situation. Under Li Ao's restraint, Odom continued to enter the inside to cause damage.

During this period, the two teams played inextricably. The Nuggets scored 12 points and the Clippers scored 10 points.

打到11分11秒，快船队以98比95领先掘金队3分。

At the critical moment, Jermaine O'Neal first gave a big cap to Van Exel who rushed in, and McDyess, who grabbed an offensive rebound, made a second attack and was shrunk by Li Ao.

This time the big Q protected the defensive rebound.

Offensive and defensive transition, Greg Anthony and Odom pick-and-roll break through to launch an attack, Odom splits and cuts to receive the ball, and passes the ball to Li Ao on the right side of the three-second zone.
The point difference was opened to 5 points, with 17 seconds left, the Clippers sealed the victory!

In the last attack of the Nuggets, Li Ao went to the top arc to prevent Exel.

Crazy Fan made a breakthrough, and Li Ao couldn't defend against it, but he was sure that Van Exel would catch the ball and throw it directly. He seized the opportunity and sent a big cap to end the game.

小奥尼尔拿到24分10板2助攻3盖帽、李敖18分3板7助攻2抢断4盖帽、奥多姆16分13板6助攻，力压19分13板的麦克戴斯、12分8板5盖帽的拉弗伦茨、36分7助攻的范埃克塞尔。

100 to 95, the Clippers defeated the Nuggets and improved their record to 5 wins and 2 losses!
...

O'Neal scored a career-high 24 points against the Nuggets Twin Towers, which is very surprising.

The last time he scored 20+ in a single game was in the 97-98 season.

That game was very interesting. That year the Trail Blazers were not a 'center grave', but an 'outside hell'. In that game, the Trail Blazers were injured in three positions on the outside and only 3 players were left. Only 8 players in the team could play.

Tianzun made 6 of 4 three-pointers that night, and Sabonis responded at the free throw line, leaving a big basket for O'Neal, eating cakes like crazy, and scoring 12 points on 9 of 21 shots.

But good luck doesn't happen often. In the next two years, Jermaine O'Neal had no chance to perform at all. The shrinking season was the worst. In that season, his highest score in a single game was 9 points.

The media's reporting style is as usual.

When Malone, O'Neal, and Mutombo were blasted in front, O'Neal was taunted.

Now I have 24+10, and I also praised O'Neal for his talent. Although it took a few years, he still played it.

Li Ao read the newspaper purely for fun.

But thinking of O'Neal's submissiveness against Malone, and his heavy punches against opponents who are thinner and shorter than him... it seems a bit bullying.

In terms of technology, it can be corrected by finding a way, and the mentality can also be adjusted.

But Jermaine O'Neal's technical development is no problem. Although he is not strong enough, he can play hard inside, can shoot in the middle and short distances, is active in offensive rebounds and rushes, and is tough enough in defense.

There is nothing wrong with his mentality. It can be seen that O'Neal is very energetic. He wants to compete for the core status of the team's inside line. He plays actively and trains hard.

But there is really no solution to O'Neill's character problem.

But Li Ao didn't worry about this matter. Teammates always have both advantages and disadvantages. Even players like O'Neal and Kobe have many disadvantages.

He just had very high expectations for O'Neal, a talented high school student, so he paid extra attention.

After playing the Nuggets, the Clippers flew back to Los Angeles early the next morning and rested for an afternoon. At 9:[-] p.m., they ushered in the challenge of the Mavericks alternately at home and back.

Li Ao finally realized the feeling that a weak team has no human rights.

The away and home games alternate back-to-back, first a marginal playoff opponent, followed by a 50-win opponent.

Moreover, this is a back-to-back series of 5 battles in 4 days!
Although most of their players are young, there were no problems yesterday, but last night the Clippers and the Nuggets fought to the last moment, exhausted a lot, and they were exhausted. In addition, the gap in strength is huge...

李敖今晚24投9中拿到23分5板3助攻2抢断2盖帽。

奥多姆也只有12投4中拿到10分8板2助攻。

On the contrary, Jermaine O'Neal got up again. Facing Sean Bradley and Nowitzki, he made frequent tip-ups and scored 18 points and 14 rebounds.

But apart from the three of them, no one else on the Clippers scored more than five points.

Gentry tried every player, and in the last game of 5 days and 4 games, no one was good.

In the end, the Clippers defeated the Mavericks 79 to 100.

Nowitzki scored a game-high 26 points and Nash scored 13 points and 9 assists.

This season, Nowitzki and Nash both evolved.

Nowitzki has jumped from averaging 17+ per game last season to becoming a first-line scorer averaging 20+ per game.

After Nash seized the opportunity to average 12+6 per game in the second half of last season, he has also been reused this season, securing his starting position and averaging 14+7 per game.

These two gave Li Ao a reminder - if you want to be strong, you have to be able to endure it first!
However, his idea of ​​getting acquainted with the future superstar who looks exactly like Taishang Laojun's boy fell through again.

Losing, and losing so badly, it's a bit embarrassing to get to know the opponent's star at this time.

But on Gentry's side, he is quite satisfied with Li Ao's performance.

Dare to throw it!

And he can see that Li Ao has been looking for better shooting opportunities and has been improving.

As for the record of 5 wins and 2 losses becoming 5 wins and 3 losses, he didn't think he could stay in the top eight in the Western Conference for a long time.

They won 15 last season, and if they can get 30 wins this season, it will be considered a success.

...

After 5 days and 4 games, the Clippers got two days of precious rest time.

The Clippers have not arranged training for the past two days, allowing the players to take a good rest.

Li Ao was not idle. Early the next morning, he came to the Memorial Gymnasium to train with his old teammates.

He also participated in the Trojans' morning preparations the next day.

In the evening, at 2000 o'clock in the evening on November 11, 15, Li Ao, Vivienne, Liam, Dean Teng and others came to the main arena of the Memorial Stadium and participated in the flag-raising ceremony of the championship flag.

But he came here tonight, not just to watch the flag-raising ceremony.

After the flag-raising ceremony, Dean Teng raised the No. 0 jersey for Li Ao on behalf of the USC Board of Trustees!
The No. 0 jersey worn by Li Ao in his college basketball career will fly over the home court of the Trojans together with the championship flag!

(End of this chapter)