super small forward

Chapter 5 5. Battle Spurs

When Liu Ren arrived at D'Antoni's place, he was sent away after only being notified of starting the game for one night.

Even though Liu Ren knew that he would get a chance to perform in the next few games due to too many injuries in the team, he was still stunned by the big pie of starting.

"My seventh uncle and grandpa, I have become an NBA starter!" Liu Ren couldn't help but smile.

After chatting with Thackeray who was equally excited, Liu Ren suppressed the excitement in his heart and tried his best to adjust his emotions so as not to let himself get too excited.

People who have pursued the path of professional basketball in China almost all have the same characteristic, that is, they can recognize themselves very well.

That's right, after experiencing countless blows, countless rolls of eyes, countless disappointments, and countless times of feeling powerless about his own strength, Liu Ren knows that it is not easy at all to go on the road of professional basketball.

This hard-won opportunity cannot be wasted because you are too excited to get carried away.

The night game was against the Spurs. Under the leadership of Duncan, who was in his second spring, the troika team has been playing well in recent years. They were the Western Conference regular season champions in the previous two seasons, and they even reached the Western Conference finals last year. recovery.

Fast break and defensive counterattack, these two tactics that would never appear on the Spurs 10 years ago have now become the regular tactics of the Spurs. The only super genius in Duncan history exudes the last afterglow.

With 58 wins and 22 losses, the Spurs have two games left and are only one win away from the No. 59 Thunder in the Western Conference. The Thunder are now 21 wins and [-] losses.

Liu Ren is glad and somewhat regretful that Popovich does not seem to intend to compete with the Thunder for home court advantage in the playoffs, and announced that the last two troika games will be a truce for the playoffs.

There is nothing wrong with the old man's arrangement. Parker, the youngest of the troika, will soon be 31 years old, and Duncan will even be 37 years old in a few days.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Spurs seem to be intentionally releasing water for the Lakers. Now the top six in the Western Conference have basically been determined. The Thunder will lock the division championship under the premise of releasing the water from the Spurs. There is no suspense for the No. 2 Spurs. , the Clippers and the Grizzlies ranked fourth and fifth respectively. The two teams are competing for the final record. Team ranking doesn't mean much.The sixth is the Warriors who the Lakers just defeated. The Warriors who have won 46 wins have secured sixth place in the West.

The remaining two playoff spots are contested among the three teams of the Lakers, Rockets, and Jazz. All three teams are 43 wins and 37 losses. It is impossible to say which team will fall behind.

Popovich's game against the Lakers is intentional. Playing the Lakers without Kobe in the playoffs is much easier than playing the Jazz's annoying team and the Rockets with Asik, Jeremy Lin, and Harden.

Although Liu Ren knew that the Lakers would make the playoffs, he didn't dare to be sloppy. If something unexpected happened and he didn't make the playoffs, he wouldn't even have time to cry. These were rare opportunities to show himself.

From his memory, Liu Ren knew that the atmosphere in the Lakers' locker room was very bad. Although the conflict between Howard and Kobe did not break out, the communication between the players was obviously abnormal.

Liu Ren will not be as cautious as he was before, and now most of the team will not stay next season.

Soon it was night, and the Lakers ushered in a challenge from San Antonio at home.

Howard said in an interview before the game that even if Kobe is injured, the team's goal is still the championship, and he has only one goal and that is the championship.

The Lakers team is full of wounded players. Apart from Liu Ren, only Blake, Godlock, Metta World Peace, and Ebanks are left to play on the outside. Jamison, Howard, Clark, and Thackeray are left on the inside. Except for Godlock and Thackeray, who are weak in their strength, Liu Ren and Ebanks, who is active in defense, are barely counted, and there are only seven players who can play.

The Spurs are strong and strong, even without the troika, the lineup is still scary.

Gary Neal, Danny Green, Stephen Jackson, and Kawhi Leonard on the perimeter are all players scoring in double figures per game, and they scored in double figures in this Spurs that are all soldiers. In the current Spurs system Among them, their strength is no less than that of any star.

There are weirdos like Splitter, Diaw, and Bonner on the inside, which should not be underestimated.

After looking at the lineup comparison between the two sides, Liu Ren knew that if the Lakers want to win this game, the key is inside. Duncan is not in the Spurs inside. The inside is more than one level weaker. Howard's performance is the key to the team's victory!

He is very self-aware, although he wants to perform well, but he knows that it is more important to do what he can do.

At seven o'clock in the evening, the Lakers' home game against the Spurs kicked off at the Staples Center.

The starting lineup of the Lakers is: Blake, Liu Ren, Metta Shiping, Jamison, Howard.

Spurs starting lineup: Patty Mills, Neal, Leonard, Diaw, Splitter.

Stepping onto the court, Liu Ren was in a state of excitement.

Unlike the last time he played in a dazed state, this time he was ready and even more excited.

afraid?
Liu Ren doesn't understand this stuff. He used to be a college student who dared to fight against professional players. Now he is a professional player. Who is afraid of anyone? From his understanding of his body, he knows that there are not many guards with such a good body. Quality, the outside line of the Spurs is not afraid of anyone except Leonard.

In addition to his identity as a Chinese, the Lakers selected him because of his top physical fitness and soft touch as a yellow man.However, no matter how high the talent is, it also depends on the personality. It is obvious that Liu Ren did not have the ambition to become an NBA player before.

There was no calm atmosphere at the Staples scene before. The Lakers fans were spoiled, and they were also spoiled by Kobe. They always thought that Kobe would solve everything, but now that Kobe is down, they I couldn't calm down all of a sudden.

A feeling of sadness permeated the arena, which the Lakers players were not used to.

There is a good saying that the mourning soldier must win.

There is some truth to this sentence.

For example, for Howard, he was too aggressive after the opening.

The jump ball defeated Split with an absolute advantage, and then squeezed hard to the basket to resist the double-teaming of Cadio and Split, which was rare this season, and received a pass from Blake for a monster-style double-handed dunk.

Next, Howard dominated both offense and defense, playing a dominance that he did not have in dozens of games before. He scored 4 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks in the first 3 minutes, helping the Lakers to a strong start of 18 to 4. Liu Ren also relied on Howard's inside defense Picked up two defensive rebounds, played two counterattacks and played two dunks.

As expected by the Spurs, no one except Leonard could keep up with his speed, and Leonard, who gained weight in order to deal with James, was also a beat slower than him.

The two counterattacks were all dunks. The feeling of dunking with all the strength to level the basket is really great!
Relying on Howard's strong performance, the Lakers beat the Spurs to a timeout!

(End of this chapter)