From sparring to superstar

Chapter 161 159. It's hard to say luck
At 6 o'clock in the evening, the Clippers' home game against the Bulls began.

Jermaine O'Neal beat Brad Miller to win the jump ball and the Clippers went first.

Blevin Knight catches the ball and pushes it fast, out...

Odom made a quick move, Li Ao circled to the right and followed behind Odom, after entering the three-point line, Odom turned around to block Artest, Li Ao used the screen to cut in, and Brand slowly completed the switch , Li Ao has entered the inside line.

Li Ao caught the ball on the right side of the three-second zone and took off with one step, smashing and dunking with one hand.

After looking at the task, Li Ao pursed his lips and ran back, not counting singles points.

The Clippers attacked and Bruce Drew received the serve and advanced.

Another starter for the Bulls was Ron Mercer.

Ron Mercer, Artest, Brand, Brad Miller, these four seem to be okay.

Among them, Brand and Ron Mercer are still mature and ready to fight. The former has a comprehensive evaluation of 88 and the latter has an overall rating of 83.

Artest, already a very good defensive player in the second grade, was only dragged down by the team's defense.

Although Brad Miller is undrafted, he can see his talent. With a comprehensive evaluation of 78, he averaged 8.9 points, 7 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game.

But coupled with Bruce Drew, who has a comprehensive rating of 62, as the master... Brad Miller averaged 3.9 assists per game in the World Championships, and his coping ability could not be fully utilized.

Judging from the selection of such a point guard as the main point guard, the Bulls' poor lineup accumulated over the past two years is probably not in the eyes of their management. This group of people is not in the Bulls' future plans.

It doesn't even matter if Artest and Brad Miller have room to grow.

Bruce Drew came out of the three-point line and hoisted the ball to Brand, who was in the low position on the left side of the basket and leaned against O'Neal. Odom is the main defense center tonight.

Li Ao asked Ron Mercer in confusion, "Don't you run two steps?"

Ron Mercer: (.ヘ°)?

Li Ao didn't wait for the other party's answer, and seized the opportunity to shrink.

Brand knocked O'Neal back a step with his powerful strength, and was about to hook his hand. Seeing Li Ao coming in, he wanted to split the ball, but he couldn't see where the free teammates were, so he could only use a drawbar throw to avoid it. Li Ao's cover... is solid!
Brand wanted to rush for the second attack, but was blocked by O'Neal. He could only watch Li Ao stretch out his long arms and take the rebound.

Brand is jealous!

He had read a piece of news that said that Spider-Man's wingspan should be about the same as his, far more than the 215 centimeters in the official information.

When Li Ao put his hands on his hips, he couldn't see it clearly, but when Li Ao came in to defend just now, and now he was grabbing the rebound, he could see that he did have a wingspan similar to his.

But the height is about the same, and the wingspan is about the same. Why does this rookie look like a male model?
But he has a short neck, narrow shoulders, and a cylindrical upper body... like a pier with two long thick sticks stuck in it?
When Li Ao stretched out his hand to interfere with Brand's hook and Brandra's shot, the players and fans on the side also saw that the two covered almost the same area with their arms open.

But looking at the two of them individually, they are completely different in size. Aside from the weight of 100 kg and 120 kg, the wider shoulders alone allow Li Ao to crush Brand in terms of figure.

When the Clippers were attacking, Li Ao didn't notice Brand's jealous eyes. He focused on Artest who was close to him.

This second-year senior, the confrontation is really fierce!

Although there is a big gap between the muscle mass and the peak period of 113 kg in the future, it already has a strength of 91, and the confrontation is as fierce as an explosive head.

At this time, the difficult operation of practicing back hitting with an explosive head played a role. Li Ao was at a disadvantage in weight and strength, but he still got a position on the right side of the free throw line and reached out for the ball.

He could easily run around and use the cover to catch the ball and shoot instead of playing, and ran to fight hand-to-hand with the brutal second-year forward of the opponent. Blevin Knight resisted the urge to rush in to get assists, and lobbed the ball to Li Ao.

It's hard to play the starting lineup, and it's still such a weak team, but it can't pass the ball suddenly, so it's better to play as a substitute!
Li Ao hit Artest with his back and turned over for a jumper. The movement was picturesque, but he was determined.

Li Ao retreated quickly, judging the timing of the attack, the footsteps of the press, the intensity of the interference... Artest defended very well.

After the Bulls completed their offense, Li Ao once again came to the frontcourt to hit Artest with a high back.

This time, when Li Ao received the ball, he took half a step forward. When he received the ball, he took advantage of the space to turn around. Facing the pressing Artest, he raised his hand. Artest immediately stretched out his hand to interfere, and his lower limbs were ready. Be ready to take off and interfere at any time.

After Li Ao raised his hand and shot a feint, he patted the ball, retreated, took off, and made a two-point shot...

Artest is very active to press up again, but although he didn't jump up when he was about to take off to interfere with the shot just now, his legs still stretched out, and this time he pressed up a bit slower!
Li Aochang's two-pointer was slightly weaker, but the direction was accurate. The ball hit the inside of the front edge of the basket, bounced a bit, and slid into the basket on the other side.

hit!

The adjustment works!

Li Ao watched the 500 achievement points credited to the account, and his enthusiasm for practicing back playing with world peace became even higher.

Confrontation, movement, defensive enthusiasm, awareness, the future best defensive player in front of him is not weaker than the explosive head.

But the defensive ability and experience are still far behind.

Although it is difficult to deal with one-on-one, it is much easier to play than facing Kobe's defense.

Li Ao started playing back for two rounds, slowing down for a few rounds and then playing back.

This kind of confrontation, of course, has been unbearable.

He is very devoted to every singles, and he learns from experience whether he advances or not, and makes adjustments in the next singles.

Defensive Artest, he is also very devoted on the defensive end, and he is also adjusting his defensive methods after each defense. As for the offense...he can't help it. He is actually very suitable for playing on the wing and cutting air, but no one feeds him. , the head coach has fixedly given him seven or eight singles opportunities per game, but tonight facing Matt Harprin's single defense and Li Ao's assisted defense...he is very devoted on the defensive end.

Li Ao and Artest had a great fight. Brand looked at Li Ao viciously for a long time, and found that the other party ignored him at all. He focused on O'Neal in singles.

Little O'Neill noticed Brand's inexplicable hostility towards Li Ao from the very beginning, but he didn't know why this hostility fell on him under the guise of name.

This feeling is really familiar...

But he didn't hesitate!
Brand is the most difficult power forward to play in the low post. He is so thick that he can be used to carry O'Neal in the low post. With his exaggerated arm length and soft touch, he is almost undefendable one-on-one. O'Neal is just the opponent to hone the low post Single defense ability!

...

In this game between the Clippers and the Bulls, the fans at the scene thought it was not a good look.

The only two things to watch are Li Ao's defense against Artest and O'Neal's inability to guard Brand.

These two matchups gave the Bulls an advantage, but in terms of scores, the Bulls trailed the Clippers by 13 points at halftime.

In the middle of the fourth quarter, the point difference widened to 21 points.

Li Ao and Brand didn't play singles all the time.

Brand played 41 minutes in the whole game, singles shooting + singles scoring, and the total number of times was only 22.

15投7中，加上9中7的罚球，拿到21分11板2助攻2盖帽。

His singles environment is very poor, and it is difficult to have a good opportunity to score the ball when he encounters a pincer. For example, Li Ao shrinks, Ron Mercer stands like that, and even moves to avoid the interference of Li Ao's passing and receiving lines. nothing.

When Li Ao was replaced in the middle of the fourth quarter, he played 33 minutes in three and a half quarters, and only had 15 singles, of which 13 were successful shots, 13 of 5 shots, two fouls, and 4 free throws. Got 14 points.

Scoring 93 points in singles every [-] rounds is too much.

But the opponent is the Bulls, which is enough.

而且他今晚出手不全是单打，还有跑位接球投篮、反击，33分钟出场时间23投11中，其中三分球1中0，加上7中7的罚球，拿到29分7板2助攻1抢断4盖帽。

As long as the Clippers play tonight, they can basically have open shots.

When abused, the teammates passed the ball from Blevin Knight, and the teammates felt more comfortable to catch and shoot than the ball passed from Zuomo and Spiderman.

After the fight, Li Ao realized that this opponent was worse than he imagined.

The Bulls are second to last in the league in scoring per game, but it doesn’t mean that they have better scoring ability than the Heat, which is the last. It’s just that they hit the back. The Clippers don’t want to defend the Bulls anymore. They can’t go down. hand all.

Other teams must be similar.

If every opponent really defended the Bulls normally, it might be difficult for the Bulls to average 80 points per game.

In the end, the Clippers easily defeated the Bulls 104-82.

Li Ao is determined tonight, too many singles and tired, but easy to win + actual combat practice back hit... plus the 600 achievement point reward for the game and the 3500 achievement point reward for the mission, he played very happily .

There's only one thing he's not very good at - the world peace trash talk is real trash.

This guy is not the kind of Duncan who doesn't talk back, but when he talks back, he can't speak clearly.

In the end, the trash talk between Li Ao and Artest became "shut up", "I won't", "shut up", "I won't"...

...

The game between the Clippers and the Bulls, except for the Clippers fans, no one paid attention, and the Bulls fans didn't pay attention.

The Clippers just regarded this game as a two-and-a-half-hour 'training', practicing running positions and attacking the defense inside. By the way, they easily won 4 consecutive victories and improved their record to 26 wins and 22 losses. The Rockets with 27 wins and 22 losses in the ninth place maintain the hope of hitting the playoffs, and they are very happy.

At noon the next day, on February 2th, the league announced the full list of participants for the All-Star Weekend.

The Clippers have 4 players participating.

In the rookie challenge, Li Ao and Big Q were selected for the first-year team, and Odom was selected for the second-year team.

In the dunk contest, Maggette was selected.

Three-point contest, big Q selected.

The All-Star bench has no part for them.

Li Ao is very happy to have teammates to participate in the All-Star Weekend, but it is a pity that there is no skill challenge yet, otherwise Blevin Knight will participate, as long as he does not make too many mistakes in shooting and layups, he is very likely to win the championship.

After chatting for a while with the three teammates who participated in the All-Star Weekend, Li Ao continued to watch the video and prepare for tomorrow's game.

Tomorrow's opponent - the Trail Blazers!

Not only him, but the whole team attached great importance to this game. Gentry was well prepared for the afternoon training, and the players also actively participated in it.

After Olowokandi went to the Trail Blazers, he really played out!

So far, Olowokandi has been in full attendance in 50 games, averaging 32 minutes per game, scoring 12.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.6 blocks. His performance is quite good.

And the Trail Blazers currently rank second in the West, with a record of 37 wins and 13 losses!
Due to the serious decline of Sabonis this year, the joining of Olowokandi is like pulling the building down.

The Trail Blazers exchanged O'Neal + a first-round pick for a No. [-] pick, which was highly praised.

When the Clippers made this deal, they were ridiculed and used for charity. They traded a No. [-] pick who had only played for two years for a high school student who hadn't played in four years.

If O'Neal hadn't played out, averaging 10.8 points, 11 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.4 blocks per game, and he was younger and showed better offensive talent, they would be ridiculed even worse now. If you want to improve and work harder to win, the more you will be ridiculed.

After Olowokandi played under the urging of a group of ruffians from the Trail Blazers, he sprayed the Clippers many times, mocking the Clippers for their poor strength and not being able to use him.

This, the Clippers players can understand, let alone Olowokandi, they all feel that Olowokandi has been delayed by them for two years.

But understanding doesn't mean that they won't be upset, they are trying their best to fight now!
Tomorrow's game, they have an advantage-the Trail Blazers are back to back, they will play the Suns away tonight, and they will come to Los Angeles to play back to back tomorrow.

Today, Li Ao is a Suns fan!
Kidd's best point guard in the league!Marion All-Star Power Forward!
...

Luck is really hard to say.

The Clippers players have been actively preparing for the game all afternoon, and seeing each other work so hard, they have slightly improved their confidence in the Trail Blazers, who will play second in the Western Conference and third in the league tomorrow.

At night, they lie down with confidence boosted!

After watching the live broadcast of the game between the Trail Blazers and the Suns, Li Ao shouted—Kidd is the best point guard in history!Clifford Robinson is the number one power forward in the league!
In the first half of the game, the Suns were beaten.

The Trail Blazers led by 28 points 22-6 in the first quarter, and expanded their lead to 23 points 19-10 in the second quarter. It seemed like a slam, but veteran Clifford Robinson broke out in the third quarter and shot in a single quarter. Scored 5 three-pointers and led the team to beat the Trail Blazers 32 to 22 in a single quarter, tying the score!
At the beginning of the final quarter, Clifford Robinson continued to take shots against Pippen, and Pippen, who was thrown into the hair, went up and knocked the opponent down. Clifford Robinson was not easy to mess with, he got up and faced Pippen's face Just a punch... Many people participated in the conflict and were sent off, and Tianzun, who was resting on the sidelines, stepped into the field and yelled and was sent off...

In the end, the Suns reversed the Trail Blazers 100 to 92.

At 7:40 p.m. the next day, Olowokandi looked at his ex-teammates whose faces were full of ill intentions. He was so kind!
Brother Sa!Brother Pi!Brother Hua!What about you people?

The bad guy on the opposite side wants to bully me!

(End of this chapter)