I just play ball

Chapter 384 Lakers Terminator

After arriving in the United States, with the help of his trainers, Li Yue began to take physical recuperation to recover from the fatigue accumulated in the World Cup. He still maintained a certain amount of shooting training every day and watched a lot of tactical analysis videos.

After discussion, the coaching staff decided that the Lakers will continue to focus on the dynamic offensive system in the new season. Considering that there are two rookies and two new aids, it will take a lot of time to run in. On September 20th, the training camp will start ahead of schedule.

The whole team gathered as scheduled. At the press conference, general manager Kupchak announced the signing of veteran Ronnie Price with a basic salary, announced the addition of four undrafted picks, announced that Nash has officially become a member of the coaching staff, and announced that a new training base will be opened soon.

Jokic's weight loss effect is excellent. In just two months, he weighed only 250 catties. After half an hour of tactical running, he didn't see the slightest panting phenomenon. He even clamored to play the whole game 5V5 to prove that he has the strength to become a normal rotation players.

After three days of training, the coaching staff made a plan to arrange for Marshall to be the starting point guard in the new season, because Jokic needs a lot of ball possessions to hone, which happens to match Jordan Clarkson, who is weak in organization but explosive in impact.

Just as the team was excitedly looking forward to the new season, Nick Young was injured during training. The team doctor found that the ligament of the right thumb was torn. It sounds like the impact is minimal, but he needs to rest for at least 8 weeks.

Fortunately, the new season has not yet started, and he will be absent for a month at most.

The problem has also been exposed, that is, all 15 players in the Lakers lineup have guaranteed contracts, and the total salary has exceeded the space. If you want to make up for Nick Young's absence without layoffs, you can only use 10 consecutive days of contract signing. And it is impossible to keep these players, which leads to a serious lack of attractiveness, and there is a high probability that it will take luck.

In this way, the Lakers ushered in the preseason.

In the first game against the Nuggets, Ty Lawson and a group of track and field gangsters seemed to want to prove themselves. The second team led by Bell and Jokic was difficult to deal with, and the score was quickly pulled away. The Lakers trailed by 16 points in a single quarter.

D'Antoni symbolically arranged for Li Yue and others to appear on the court for a few minutes in the second quarter, and then replaced them with the second team. Head coach Brian Shaw arranged for Lawson and other main players to fight for a long time. After halftime, the Lakers trailed by as much as 27 points.

After returning from the halftime break, Li Yue waited for the main players to come on stage for a few minutes to satisfy the audience, and then went off to rest.

The format of the game has not changed, and the two big men Jokic and Gobert made various mistakes in cooperation.

In the end, the Lakers lost 85 to 117.

This did not make the players, management, or fans feel any worries. On the contrary, the newly signed veteran Ronnie Price sprained his ankle, which cast a layer of fog on the team's new season. plan.

Kobe objected to this matter at first, but later recalled that he also had a rotation. Although there were only a few games in his entire career, it was also a serious rotation. He gave up his opposition and insisted that he would not take a rotation at will. .

After a three-day break, the Lakers sat at the Staples Center to face the Golden State Warriors who came to challenge.

The two teams chose to go through the motions in an unusually tacit understanding, but the Warriors felt explosive. The newly signed veteran-three-point contest champion Jason Kapono even hit 5 consecutive three-pointers, causing the Lakers to lose 31 points.

To make matters worse, rookie Clarkson strained his right leg in a breakthrough and needed a truce until the start of the regular season.

The rest plan was accidentally exposed to the media, and ESPN quickly reported that the Lakers lineup was not reasonable enough, the old were too old, the young were too young, it was difficult to adapt to each other, and injuries were inevitable.

There are also opinions that the Lakers started the training camp too early, and the training intensity is too high. In order to intensify their efforts for the three consecutive championships, it is very likely to repeat the tragedy of the SHOWTIME era-many main players fought with injuries, but it is a pity that they lost the championship.

Another three-day break, the Lakers came to Orlando to challenge the Warriors away.

Although the three players were troubled by injuries, D'Antoni still carried out the original plan - playing casually in the starting lineup, and trying his best to cultivate the second team. Naturally, he also lost miserably. Dangli'.

Leaving Orlando, the Lakers flew back to Los Angeles to face the Utah Jazz in Anaiheim.

Like the Nuggets, the Jazz's new head coach Schneider seems to intend to take this opportunity to try his own offensive and defensive power, and by the way, build prestige by defeating the Lakers, so that the game did not withdraw any main players until the fourth quarter.

In the end, the Lakers lost the game 88 to 112 and suffered a four-game losing streak in the preseason.

To make matters worse, Bazemore suffered a minor back strain and also needed to be sidelined until the start of the regular season.

Three days later, the injured Lakers faced the Jazz at the Staples Center.

Five minutes after Li Yue and other main players came on the field, D'Antoni decisively replaced him, and at the same time arranged for four undrafted picks to appear on the field.

The game lost its suspense, which made Schneider a little embarrassed, and the Lakers finally lost by 21 points.

After two days of recovery, the Lakers flew to San Diego to face the Phoenix Suns.

The game was inextricably played, Jokic made a back pass error at the last moment, and the Lakers regrettably lost by 1 point.

After the game, some media claimed that Jokic’s way of handling the ball was too casual and not suitable for a team like the Lakers that is striving for three consecutive championships. Li Yue and Kobe also refuted via Twitter, emphasizing that young players should boldly try themselves idea.

On the night of losing to the Suns, the Lakers flew all the way north and flew overnight to Ontario, Canada to compete overseas with the Trail Blazers.

Li Yue and other main players of the Lakers only played to show their faces, and Lillard and other main players of the Blazers also only performed a few dunks before leaving the game. But at the end of the game, the Lakers lost 96 to 114 and suffered a seven-game losing streak in the preseason.

Such a situation finally attracted a lot of attention, and Fox Sports and other media quickly followed up and reported.

[Yes, we know that the Lakers did not arrange a large number of main players to fight during their 7-game losing streak. The running-in of Bell's two big men is very bad. The Lakers are bound to encounter the situation before the Heat in the new season, and the prospect of defending the title is worrying. 】

[Losing one game is understandable, losing two games is also understandable, and even losing three games can also find a reasonable explanation, but losing seven games in a row is not just because of three insignificant players being injured, but because of the failure of the dynamic offensive system , This is like the Lakers in the 12-13 season, who originally wanted to play the Princeton system, but suffered an eight-game losing streak in the preseason. 】

[This is of course not the real strength of the Lakers, but it is obvious that the Lakers are very arrogant. They despise the opponent's main lineup and think that everything is under control, especially like the 11 playoffs against the Mavericks, who fell behind 0 to 3 but did not Nothing changes, history is repeating itself. 】

With the heated discussion in the media, the Lakers returned to the United States and went straight to Las Vegas to play against the Kings at the MGM Center.

Considering that the new season is coming, the four undrafted picks cannot continue to stay in the team according to regulations. Three minutes after Li Yue and other main players started the game, D'Antoni directly replaced them and played until the last second.

The Lakers therefore lost the game 98 to 102 and lost all preseason games.

Perhaps because there were too many heated discussions before, the completely defeated Lakers did not cause more discussions, and the major gambling websites in Las Vegas updated the odds of winning the new season in real time, and the Lakers ranked fourth, ranking first. It is a rocket.

Coincidentally, the Rockets are the opponents of the Lakers in the first game of the regular season. They won all eight preseason games and won more than 15 points in each game. Its general manager Morey retweeted the winning odds and wrote: Big data never Lie, the Rockets are the Lakers terminator.

(End of this chapter)