From sparring to superstar

Chapter 177. 175. Crazy Mission

Li Ao felt the "benefits" of playing on a traditional bad team. As long as he played better, he would "break the team history record" and "about to break the team history record".

In fact, I am happy, but it is somewhat embarrassing to become a hot topic among the media and fans.

There are only 5 wins away from surpassing the best record in team history, but in the current situation, even surpassing the best record in team history will not make it to the playoffs.

Looking at the task of 'sprinting and surpassing', he feels that the reward for goal 2 is too low.

Luck, this is, if it is in the Eastern Conference, it is now locked in the playoffs, and maybe it can still compete with the Heat for third place.

On the second day, the Clippers ushered in back-to-back challenges from the Rockets at home.

Olajuwon arrived in Los Angeles in a suit and appeared to be 'injured' to the end of the season, putting pressure on the Rockets.

But what he didn't expect was that the local fans in Houston didn't care about whether he could renew his contract. Even the media were mocking him.

But he's already there, and now he's accepting $1300 million?Don't lose face!
Sitting on the bench, looking at Steve Ballmer across the technical table, he was very sour.

He saw the news that after Li Ao won the All-Star MVP, the Clippers decided to pay Little Spider the salary of a private nutritionist and a private physical therapist.

Little Spider's physical therapist has changed from "on the clock" to being on call around the clock, and all travel expenses are reimbursed for business trips, and the annual salary is not cheap.

As for him, he won MVP+FMVP+DPOY in a single season, and when he sprained in the second year, he searched the first aid kit to find ice packs to apply.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the game began.

The Clippers thought it was another easy victory. In the first three games they played against the Rockets, they averaged close to 20 points per game.

But tonight the opposite side gave them a great start.

The Rockets scored 31 points in a single quarter in the first quarter, leading the Clippers with 24 points by 7 points!
Francis made 4 of 2 shots in the first quarter, but continued to cause damage in the interior. He made 7 free throws in a single quarter, scored all of them, and scored 11 points, plus 4 assists after attracting the pincer.

Francis' style of play is standard, if he plays well, the whole team is good, but if he plays poorly, the whole team is in vain.

He successfully led the team tonight!
In the second quarter, Tomjanovich strengthened his defense, Francis continued to surge offensively, and supported the offense with his own strength. The Rockets scored 22 to 18, leading the Clippers by 53 points 42 to 11 at halftime!
After returning from the intermission, Li Ao stood up.

When encountering problems, he resorted to his best style of play - running, catching and shooting!
快船队围绕李敖跑位接球投篮+策应展开进攻，他表现很好，第三节7投4中，外加2中1的罚球拿到9分2助攻。

His style of play, getting 2 assists, is no worse than Francis' 4 assists in each of the first two quarters!

The Clippers' offensive cooperation became smoother. The team had 9 assists in a single quarter and scored 28 points!
And Francis' performance began to decline. Although he scored 8 points in the third quarter, his shooting percentage dropped rapidly. The interference of receiving the ball was done extremely well, limiting the Rockets to only 1 points in a single quarter.

After three quarters, the Clippers narrowed the point difference to 4 points!
At the end of the quarter, the Clippers' defensive performance went a step further. This time it was their turn to defend the Rockets to only 18 points in a single quarter.

At the critical moment, the Rockets hit the iron three times in a row. Francis made two sudden shots and was blocked twice, once by Li Ao and once by O'Neal.

弗朗西斯猛起来很猛，铁起来也是真铁，上半场7中5，下半场11中3，加上全场18中16的罚球，拿到32分11板11助攻1盖帽。

On Li Ao's side, at the critical moment, he relied on running to catch and shoot the ball. He took three shots against the defense and scored two goals.

李敖末节8分1板2助攻2盖帽，率领快船队打出了27比18的比分！
25分6板6助攻1抢断4盖帽，李敖率领快船队以97比92逆转火箭队，惊险取胜！

...

The record has improved to 42 wins and 28 losses!
Li Ao feels less pressure now. Finally, the 16th back-to-back game of this season is over, and they have no back-to-back games in the remaining 12 games!
However, it's just less stressful.

At the end of the season, he once again felt the 'sorrow of the belly'.

They have just played 35 home games and 35 away games, and there are 6 home games and 6 away games left. In the next 12 games, there will be no home or home games, and they will play 12 home and away games.

This is not a small test for their team's physical reserves.

But the schedule is such that they can only play hard one game at a time.

A day later, on March 3, the Clippers came to the Rose Garden Arena in Portland and started an offensive and defensive battle with the Trail Blazers.

The Clippers worked very hard, and 6 players scored in double figures.

李敖虽然只拿到14分，但还有7板6助攻3盖帽的表现，奥多姆拿到14分11板3助攻、大Q拿到19分、马特-哈普林13分、小奥尼尔12分9板、马盖蒂12分。

However, the overall strength of the Trail Blazers is strong and their performance is even better. The Clippers scored in double figures with 6 players and the Trail Blazers had 7 players!
104 to 98, the Trail Blazers gave the Clippers their 29th loss of the season, and the two teams tied in the regular season.

On the 28th, the Clippers returned to the home court. Facing the visiting Pistons, the Clippers took the lead all the way, slowly opened up the point difference, and finally defeated the Pistons 104-89 steadily and won the victory.

Li Ao played 30 minutes tonight and made 22 of 13 shots, including 2 of 1 three-pointers. 2 free throws, all hit.

With 29 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 blocks, he put on a mid-range show in front of the home fans.

But tonight the best performance of the Clippers was Odom. After a lapse of a month, he scored a triple-double again, with 15 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists. This is the sixth triple-double this season!Surpassed Kidd and monopolized No.6 triple-doubles this season!
In the news after the game, the media analyzed Odom's 6 triple-doubles this season, and found that there is one thing in common--Spiderman has many mid-range shots and can shoot accurately.

Li Ao scored high, Odom may not necessarily assist more.

But when the opponent's ability to defend against the run, catch and shoot is not good, and the defense is not done well, Odom will always have more assists than usual.

This is a manifestation of tacit understanding.

On the 30th, the last game in March, the Clippers came to the Key Stadium in Seattle to challenge the SuperSonics away.

Competitors for the playoffs met head-to-head. Both the Clippers and the Sonics played hard. The scene of the game can be described in one word-rough.

This time, Payton personally came to defend Li Ao.

Li Ao felt Durant's sad reminder, and he could hardly make a move from the front frame!
Fortunately, he can use his height advantage to hit Payton with his back. He can't show his strength advantage when facing the frame, but he can do it with his back.

And his back hit also disrupted the opponent's defensive preparations.

Although there was news that Li Ao had developed a high back in just a few months, the Supersonics did not prepare for this point.

They think according to normal logic, rookies, who occasionally make two post-ups, may be called "development" post-ups.

But they didn't expect that Li Ao would really hit back!

The main thing is that they didn't expect Gentry to build tactics around a rookie's newly developed ability.

李敖打了37分钟，数据虽然只有15分4助攻，但他背打发起进攻，给了奥多姆、格雷格-安东尼更多传球的机会，奥多姆40分钟时间拿到17分7助攻、老将格雷格-安东尼23分钟时间拿到6分4助攻。

The three joined hands to lead the team, and with 6 seconds left in the clock, they tied the Sonics at 94!
In the last 6 seconds, the Sonics attacked.

Matt Harprin chased Lewis, Li Ao chased Brent Barry, Maggette stuck to the new dunk king Desmond Mason to prevent the opponent from cutting in, and O'Neal defended Ewing.

今晚小奥尼尔的内线防守做得很好，尤因前面给他上的课没白上，他今晚将尤因防得26分钟时间6投1中只拿到4分6板。

The Sonics sent the ball to Payton.

佩顿今晚20投9中，其中三分球4中1，外加10中9的罚球，拿到28分5板5助攻。

Li Ao, Matt Harprin, and Maggette have all tried, but they are not good at defending.

The best defense against Payton tonight was the big Q, which allowed Payton to hit a few more irons, but also gave Payton several free throws.

With the expectations of his teammates, Big Q bravely posted on Payton.

The rest of the Clippers followed their defenders closely. Payton caught the ball one-on-one, turned around with a sudden step, leaned on the big Q, turned around again, took a step horizontally, took off, and made a shot at the buzzer... Missed!
The long whistle sounded, and the referee gestured to the technical table after confirming the score, entering overtime!

Everyone in the Clippers surrounded Big Q and moved his bald head. Li Ao, who was watching from the sidelines, felt that his little brother's head became brighter.

Payton is worthy of being a superstar. At the end of the season, his personal performance was much better than that in the middle of the season.

It is indeed a surprise that the big Q can restrict Payton so much.

Big Q's defense doesn't care about other things. He fights with all his strength and interferes with shooting. He has faster feet than Matt Harperin and a better defensive foundation than Maggette. He doesn't have to worry about the number of fouls and assist defense shrinking supplements like his Spider-Man. To prevent... is to do it.

Li Ao recalled a few rounds against Payton, and felt that he had learned a little game experience.

When playing against an opponent with strong assist defense ability, you can make good use of the opponent's mentality of wanting to take supplement defense and assist defense into consideration.

Although it is difficult for him to make good use of these in his current style of play, offensive players with the ball are more active in offense, and play without the ball is more passive.

But summing up the experience of predecessors is always right.

Soon, overtime began.

At this time, that sentence seems very reasonable-youth is the greatest capital.

Vin Baker, who performed well in regular time and scored 10 points and 5 rebounds on 14 of 7 shots, went to overtime. Ewing, whose defense was okay in regular time, also went to overtime. The Sonics wanted to attack inside but did not attack. To defend without defense.

Li Ao took a gamble. Tonight, he defended Brent Barry with 8 of 2 shots. He made the last attack in regular time. He didn't dare to let go of this top shooter who made 47% of his three-pointers this season, but added In Shisai, he tried it, closed in, and mainly defended the inside.

O'Neal handed over the basket to Li Ao with confidence and actively prevented Payton from advancing.

Big Q focuses on fighting against rushing and grabbing, preventing shots but not rushing.

Li Ao was right!
Brent Barry strikes the iron, Ewing catches the ball and eats the cake, Li Ao shrinks his defensive cap in time, both situations occur, and the Sonics' offense collapses in overtime!
In 5 minutes, the Sonics only scored 3 points.

On the Clippers side, Maggette scored 7 points alone.

Coupled with Big Q's catch and three-pointer, the Clippers won 10-3 in overtime!

李敖拿到15分7板4助攻2抢断6盖帽、奥多姆17分8板7助攻1抢断1盖帽、小奥尼尔15分14板2抢断1盖帽、大Q13分、马盖蒂15分……

The Clippers beat the Sonics 104-97, improving their record to 44-29!
Only one win away from the best record in team history!

Defeating the Supersonics head-on, the Clippers directly wiped out the disadvantage of that win!

The two teams are currently 44 wins and 29 losses. The two teams played against each other 4 times in the regular season, with 2 wins and 2 losses. They also tied and tied for eighth in the West!

...

Back at the hotel at night, Li Ao reviewed the past month's games.

Another competition month is over. This month, he clearly felt that compared to the previous 3 competition months, their strength has improved a lot now!

Now they are playing against the top five teams in the league. If they can't beat them, they can't beat them, but they can resist for a while. If the opponent's star is absent or something, they have the ability to overwhelm the opponent.

For example, when they played against the Trail Blazers for the second time, the opponent had a poor start, and they could also seize the opportunity to win.

In the middle of the season, it is difficult for them to do this.

When facing the second-tier strong teams, such as the Mavericks, they have the ability to win by relying on tactical changes, although it is a strange move.

And when facing an ordinary playoff-level team in the West like the Supersonics, they have the ability to win head-to-head!
At the beginning of the season, they met the Sonics and were hanged twice.

Tonight, when Payton performed so well, they still won the game through overtime. Li Ao felt the progress of him and his team most intuitively!

After thinking about the future, Li Ao turned his mind back and turned on the system.

After the Sonics game, he received two assignments.

"Best Rookie:

Goal 1: The host needs to win the best rookie of the month in all seasons.

Reward: 12000 achievement points.

Goal 2: The host needs to win the best rookie of the season.

Reward: 20000 achievement points. "

This task is not a big problem, he is very confident.

But another task is difficult!
"genius:
Goal 1: The host needs to win the block leader in the regular season this season.

Goal 2: The host needs to average 25 points per game in the rookie season and rank among the top scoring rookies in the modern basketball era.

Reward: Hat Chaser (Level 5). "

The first tier of modern basketball rookies is actually the only tier. Since the merger of the NBA and the ABA in 1976, only one rookie has averaged 1+ per game in his rookie season——Michael Jordan!

(End of this chapter)