I just play ball

Chapter 327
After completing the post-match interview, Li Yue returned to the locker room, waiting for his teammates to take questions from reporters.

When he was bored, he took out his mobile phone to browse Twitter, and saw the game between the Lakers and the Rockets, which became the second most popular topic on the list, but the most discussed related tweets were not how good he or other Lakers players were. It was an overwhelming accusation that McHale seriously lacked detailed tactics. A total of eight players played in the game, and the only dominant center, Howard, only took 12 shots until the end of the game. He used the All-Star center as an ordinary blue-collar.

In addition, when Rockets fans and even neutral fans slammed Jeremy Lin as a substitute, it didn't help the Rockets' second team much. They urged Morey to trade in the summer, even if he paid for the draft pick.

In short, according to the views of the major commentators, the Lakers' victory is expected. The biggest point of this round of the series is whether the Rockets can cause a certain degree of damage, otherwise the Lakers' road to defending the title is too flat and lacks suspense.

After reading several consecutive news articles, the locker room was opened. Reporters swarmed in, surrounded Li Yue and Kobe, and arrested Iguodala and Gasol in twos and threes. Beasley was also questioned.

The whole team answered in an official way, and after the end, they drove to Malibu Beach and had dinner to celebrate Li Yue's winning the MVP.

When the car was on the road, Li Yue received a call from Taylor, informing him that Nike had called. According to the contract, the incentive fund triggered by the MVP would arrive in the account within two working days at the earliest, and the same amount of money would be deposited into the joint fund. .

After hanging up the phone, Li Yue updated his personal Twitter to announce the matter. He expressed his great gratitude to Nike for its generous donation. At the same time, he announced that the funding plan has officially started. The first batch of recipients will be announced within five working days at the earliest. The total amount is million dollars.

After Twitter was updated to the public status, 1+ comments and retweets were generated in just one minute. Famous sports media such as ESPN and TNT followed closely. Li Yue and Nike’s charity work soon became a hot topic on Twitter. .

The car drove to Marbury Beach, the whole team got off the car and entered the restaurant that had already been booked out, and began to celebrate with carnival.

By the time the whole team was finished, it was already one o'clock in the morning, so we hurried back to our respective homes.

The next day, Li Yue got up early, drove to Irvine, and picked up Chenxi to spend the two-person world.

The two had been tired all day, and returned to the apartment in the evening, each holding a jar of nuts, leaning against the sofa and watching the classic movie "Life is Beautiful" in the 90s, and then turned on the TV to watch the game between the Heat and the Nets.

In the first round, they overthrew the Raptors' Nets and met the Big Three Heat, which attracted many spectators.

After the game started, the situation was not as hot as the commentator expected. The rhythm of the two teams was extremely slow. The referee also jumped out to grab the show and gave the Heat and the Nets the same five fouls. The game became fragmented and the game was tied 20-20 .

In the second quarter of the game, the two teams seemed to have negotiated in private, or maybe they couldn’t stand the referee looking for trouble, so they focused their offense on the outside line very tacitly. Joe Johnson and Deron Williams of the Nets made a total of 5 three-pointers. 4, while Chalmers and LeBron of the Heat miraculously hit two long points many times, and it was even 46 at the end of the half.

During the intermission, the commentator discussed whether the game between the two teams would continue until the last moment, but just after the third quarter, the Heat liked to use the common high-intensity flanking routine, which caused the Nets to make 2 turnovers in 4 minutes, and the situation was one-sided. state.

By the end of the third quarter, the Heat led by 18 points, while the Nets were confused, sleepwalking throughout the fourth quarter, falling behind more and more, and finally lost the game 86-117 without temper.

After watching the matchup between the two teams, Li Yue became more and more determined. The Heat did not make any dramatic changes this season. In addition, there is one less outside shooter, Mike Miller, and Wade's state has declined visibly. If he reaches the finals, the Lakers will defend their title. The probability is greatly increased.

Of course, the Lakers have to be the champions of the Western Conference first, and with that in mind, he continued to watch the Thunder's game against the Spurs.

Chenxi asked him which team he was optimistic about. Li Yue said that the normal strength of the two teams is [-]-[-], but the Thunder currently lacks the starting power forward and the defensive pillar Ibaka. field.

As he expected, the Spurs showed naked dominance after being stuck in the field. Duncan faced Collison on both ends of the offense and defense, like a general with a heavy machine gun against an ordinary soldier with a machete, simply doing whatever he wanted.

Fortunately, Durant played bravely and teamed up with Reggie Jackson and veteran Fisher to cling to the score. However, the strength of the three was limited. Westbrook failed to recover until the middle of the fourth quarter, and the Spurs took the lead. When the three were weak, they quietly played a wave of 11 to 0, and finally won the first game with an advantage of 17 points.

For the strong performance of the Spurs, Li Yue paid more attention to it, especially Leonard, who seemed to have suddenly completed a leap forward after the first round of the tiebreaker, faintly revealing a super giant momentum, and Gino Billy also seemed to be able to go directly from the top of the arc to the basket and split dunks without using cover in the Pampas Eagle era.

Li Yue put his emphasis into words and sent it to the team chat group, and he received many replies in a blink of an eye. Kobe even sent out a thousand words in sections, analyzing how the Spurs have changed compared to last year.

After the whole team read it in detail, they put forward their own ideas. The discussion lasted for about half an hour. The team's video editor Bo Daen said that he had made a record.

Li Yue put down his phone contentedly, just in time to hear ESPN broke the news that Harden went to a nightclub to play, and the guests participating in the discussion felt that it should not be. The mainstream view is that the Rockets lost in the first game, and Harden should take the lead as a leader.

Some guests also broke the news that when playing against the Clippers before, Harden took the break to go to nightclubs, so for Harden himself, there is no difference between playing against the Clippers and against the Lakers, at least there is no panic in his mentality.

...

At noon on the [-]th, Li Yue drove Chen Xi to the airport to take the plane back to China, and then went directly to the Staples Center.

It's a pity that it was too early, and the workers hadn't laid the floor yet. He chose to come to the square outside the arena to participate in the social activities spontaneously held by the fans, which caused the fans to scream wildly, but the security personnel were shocked.

Li Yue asked the fans what they wanted. Some fans said that the ticket price of the Lakers this season has increased too much, and even then it is difficult to buy tickets for the farthest location. They hope that the official can build a huge LCD on the periphery like other arenas. The display screen is for spectators who cannot buy tickets to gather and watch, so that they can feel the atmosphere of the live game the closest.

After a little thought, Li Yue felt that it was feasible, and immediately took out his mobile phone and called Kupchak in public.

But Mr. Ku said that Jim Buss should be found for this kind of thing, and a meeting needs to be held to discuss other impacts of this approach, such as safety issues, sanitation issues, and venue protection issues. In short, it is troublesome.

Li Yue also thought about this, but believed that Lakers fans could have the same high quality as fans of other teams, but the procedure was so stipulated that he had to call Jim first, and it was also done in public.

At that time, Jim agreed to arrange it immediately, and the fans cheered and applauded wildly.

After bidding farewell to the fans, Li Yue returned to the arena and started shooting practice alone. At three o'clock in the afternoon, Kobe also arrived early. The two played the mid-circle shooting game they used to play last year, but both of them felt bad. Only the second hit.

The TNT TV staff who were in charge of the live broadcast entered the arena at four o'clock. O'Neill took Li Yue to the bench, and in a joking tone, loudly encouraged to continue to stick to the G1 style of play that helped the team score, otherwise Kobe would be angry.

Everyone laughed when they heard the words, Kobe pretended to be angry, and threw a ball from a long distance as if to hit him.

O'Neal took it firmly in his hand, got up and took off his coat, walked to the court and announced that he would fight Kobe one-on-one.

Bryant readily accepted the challenge, and the crowd applauded and booed.

It's a pity that O'Neal retired for three years. He no longer has the physical fitness of the All-Star Game in the 90s, nor did he show off Jordan's footsteps and rhythm at that time. Kobe steals.

The two played around for a while, and the crowd laughed, and the entire team did not see the tense atmosphere of the second round of the playoffs.

After the training, Li Yue accepted the pre-match interview with reporters on the sidelines according to the team's public relations arrangement.
When talking about the feeling of being an MVP player, he promised to help his teammates become better, and he will work more on organization in the future, but if the team faces a difficult situation, he will also stand up and carry.

When talking about the summer free market, he said that there is not much to talk about yet, as long as it can help the team become better, he is willing to renew his contract with a salary below the market price like Iguodala, but it is too early.

When talking about which team the Spurs and Thunder would prefer to be their opponents in the Western Conference Finals, he emphasized that the current game with the Rockets is not over yet, and he will not consider this issue for the time being, but will devote all his energy to dealing with the Rockets.

After completing the interview and returning to the locker room, Li Yue took the earphones to receive the muscle massage from the trainer. He was surprised to find that the reporter had already tweeted the news that he was willing to cut his salary and renew his contract. The fans of other teams couldn’t accept it for a while. If the Lakers can successfully re-sign Meeks and Livingston as midfielders while retaining the existing main force, they will basically guarantee three consecutive championships.

However, the idea of ​​LeBron leaving the Heat to join the Warriors in the summer has once again entered the public eye.Many fans think that is the only way to prevent the Lakers from three consecutive championships, and various trading ideas, signing first and then changing ideas have emerged.

Li Yue was watching happily, but a text message from Nick Yang popped up on the screen of his mobile phone. He subconsciously turned his head to check, only to find that Nick Yang was lying beside him, smiling, and blinking to hint at the text message, making it very mysterious, like a spy.

Curious, he clicked to browse, and instantly understood why Nick Young chose to text.

The content is very simple. Nick Young hopes that he can help him gain more playing time. The reason is that since the playoffs, his playing time has been greatly reduced, and his statistics are very ordinary. He is worried about signing a satisfactory contract in the summer free market. Nick Young's original contract is a two-year minimum salary, of which the second year is a player option, and he will inevitably choose to jump out.

After a little thought, Li Yue replied agreeing, and Nick Yang sent a 'brother' emoji, emphasizing that he would remember him to help.

Nick Young was willing to vote with a basic salary in the offseason last year. He was interested in the Los Angeles stage and the good atmosphere of the Lakers. He helped the team solve many lineup problems. He also made great contributions in the regular season, but his defense was poor. Winton competes for playing time, and his pure shooting is better than Meeks. He is currently in an extremely embarrassing situation and must change.

The way to help is also long and simple, either to play with a partner, or to establish a big score advantage early.Although the Lakers often experiment with various lineups, temporary changes in the playoffs are more troublesome. Li Yue thought about it and decided to implement the second plan.

Such a strategy can not only help Nick Young, but also Marshall, Hawes, Beasley and other players.

The time came to seven o'clock in the evening in a blink of an eye, and the second game between the Lakers and the Rockets officially started.

Li Yue directly turned on the full power mode, attacking the inside of the Rockets as if he had a personal hatred, ranging from being hung up for layups, and seriously pulling the bar with a [-]v[-] limit. , The Rockets got fouls one after another, and Kobe also joined in. Howard committed three fouls in the first quarter and took a break.

Losing Howard, the Rockets' defense completely collapsed, and Harden was like sleepwalking on the offensive end. The Lakers established a lead of as many as 26 points in just one and a half quarters.

Back at halftime, Harden continued to stretch, and the Lakers' lead was getting bigger and bigger.

McHale lost control of his anger and directly pushed Harden to the bench. Unfortunately, the Rockets were short of major generals. Francisco Garcia barely played, and both offensive and defensive ends were crushed by Meeks. The Lakers entered the final quarter with a 41-point advantage Contest.

Harden was still pressed on the bench, but Daniels and Parsons set off a climax of offensive three-pointers, once narrowing the point difference to 20 points, but D'Antoni was as stable as the Andes, calmly commanding the second team to play, and quickly stabilized situation.

Li Yue sat on the bench and watched the fourth quarter. The Lakers beat the Rockets 127-101, leading the series 2-0.

When the final whistle sounded, Nick Young rushed to the sidelines and hugged Li Yue tightly with open arms. In this battle, he made 9 of 8 shots and took two free throws. He scored 21 points efficiently and set a new personal score in the playoffs record.

On the way back to the locker room, Nick Young told Li Yue in a low voice that he had changed his mind about the free market in the summer. As long as the Lakers were willing to give a mini-middle-class contract, they were willing to stay and work together to fight for more championships.

Li Yue was quite moved and happy in his heart, but he didn't say yes or no. After all, money was involved, so he just said that he had to think clearly.

The two stepped into the locker room side by side. The general manager Kupchak told Li Yue that the league announced the best team of the 13-14 season earlier, and his name was among them. He was selected at the same time as Kobe, just like the dynasty at the beginning of the century In time, Kobe and O'Neal were selected at the same time.

(End of this chapter)