I just play ball

Chapter 454

Overtime kills the Cavaliers, the Lakers celebrate wildly, and the fans are reluctant to leave the field for a long time.

According to the schedule, the Lakers originally planned to fly to Salt Lake City overnight, but the operation team decided to cancel it temporarily.

Li Yue and Kobe jointly invited LeBron to have a dinner and chat, but LeBron wanted to change the time. Considering the Cavaliers' losing streak, they would easily attract a lot of criticism.

The next morning, the entire Lakers team set off on a special plane and arrived in Salt Lake City at [-]:[-] noon.

After a brief rest, the whole team rushed to the energy arena to start shooting warm-up training.

During the interview before the game, no reporter asked Li Yue how to deal with the Jazz. They all discussed the game against the Cavaliers last night.

Li Yue took the trouble to answer, and took the initiative to reveal that LeBron invited the finals to fight again after the game.

Returning to the locker room after shooting practice, D'Antoni announced that Kobe and Gasol were on truce at the same time, and Li Yue only got 30 minutes of playing time. The reason was that the overtime consumption last night was too much, and tonight was back-to-back, so the risk of injury must be controlled.

The generals have no objection. After the game officially started, the Lakers' fatigue was undoubtedly revealed. The number of turnovers far exceeded the average of this season, and the shooting rate was still difficult to return to normal levels. The Jazz was full of fighting spirit and all kinds of physical confrontation.

After halftime, the Lakers trailed by 8 points.

After returning from the final break, the Jazz frantically double-teamed Li Yue and intentionally missed other long-range shots.

The coaching staff did not arrange a tactical solution, Li Yue played freely, and the others shot casually without pressure.

In the end, the Lakers lost 85 to 94.

The ten-game winning streak was interrupted. No one in the team felt sorry. After all, the current record ranked first in the league and firmly grasped the home court advantage. Even the second-ranked Golden State Warriors were still four games behind. pressure.

Early the next morning, the team set off for Arizona to prepare for an away game against the Suns.

Considering that the rest time is too long, the coaching staff chose to arrange training as usual, but only limited to running tactics and shooting.

At noon on NO.18, the league office announced the results of the final round of voting for the All-Stars. Li Yue surpassed LeBron with a slight advantage and finally reached the top of the league.

The spokesperson revealed that according to the software monitoring results, LeBron originally had an absolute advantage, but the game between the Lakers and the Cavaliers led to Li Yue's reversal. Within 24 hours after hitting the lore, the number of votes supporting Li Yue soared.

For such a result, there was a heated discussion on Twitter. LeBron retweeted to express his congratulations. Durant left a message expressing "jealousy".

When Li Yue received the news, he happened to be training in the arena, and the whole team took pictures together.

After returning to the hotel after training, Li Yue recorded a video and posted it on Twitter to thank him, and promised to publicly auction the All-Star jersey and sneakers, and the proceeds would be donated to charity, which was praised by many fans.

The league office then sent invitations to the three-point contest and the dunk contest, but Li Yue directly refused.

On the evening of NO.19, the Lakers visited the American West Arena and challenged the Suns away.

Defensive giant PJ Tucker did not fully play under Jeff Hornacek. Li Yue did not encounter too strong defense throughout the whole process. In the third quarter, he led the team to play a wave, leading by 14 points and maintaining to the end of the fourth quarter.

In the end, the Lakers beat the Suns 115 to 110.

After a day off, the Lakers visited the Smoothie King Center to challenge the Pelicans away.

Due to the absence of Holiday due to injury and the deviation of Evans' organization, the offensive lethality of the Pelicans dropped sharply. The whole game was either Anthony Davis' low singles, or Eric Gordon's outside line. The Lakers did it many times. Easily restricted.

The situation culminated in the fourth quarter, when the Pelicans scored just 12 points and the Lakers won comfortably, 96-80.

After defeating the Pelicans, the Lakers' away trip continued, and on the evening of the 23rd they visited the ATT Center to challenge the Spurs.

Three minutes into the game, Li Yue suffered two fouls and had to leave the court early to rest. As a result, the strength of the Lakers team was greatly reduced, and the rotation was disrupted. In addition, the Spurs seemed to be on stimulants, and the Lakers lost the first quarter. Lose 3 points.

Then the game went on normally, and the Lakers tried their best to catch up, but they still failed to even out the difference.

In the end, the Lakers lost 95 to 109.

At the press conference after the game, D'Antoni strongly pointed out that the referee was biased, and he received a $2 fine from the league that night, and Li Yue's two fouls were misjudged after various analyzes on Twitter. The conclusion became a hot topic of discussion.

It's a pity that the fans' support didn't help. The Lakers returned to Los Angeles for a rest day to face the Rockets.

Perhaps because they lost all the previous two games, the Rockets took the initiative to change their style of play, starting from the inside, trying to make full use of Howard and Anthony's low-post advantages, but failed four times in a row.

The Lakers took the opportunity to start 10-0, and the Rockets handed over the ball to Harden.

Since then, the Rockets' scoring efficiency has soared, but they have not been able to even out the difference.

In the end, the Lakers won 119 to 107.

After the game, there were many accusations against McHale on Twitter. A large number of fans believed that the Rockets should change their head coach. Otherwise, with such a strong lineup, even if the Rockets did not meet the Lakers before the Western Conference Finals, it would be difficult to go far in the playoffs.

On the 27th, the Lakers played against the Wizards at home.

Iguodala is in charge of marking Wall, Kobe is in charge of guarding Bill, Li Yue sticks to Porter, the Lakers trio almost locks up the three main players of the Wizards, and Wizards head coach Randy Whitman has nothing to do as a parallel coach.

From the second half of the third quarter, the game entered garbage time, and the Lakers won 118 to 92.

The day after defeating the Wizards, the Lakers flew to Chicago on a special plane to start their five-game Eastern Conference trip.

The league office called and hoped that Li Yue would be the coach of the rookie All-Star Weekend Celebrity Saixi team. There was no salary subsidy in name, and he was allowed to invite an assistant. The assistant's identity was not restricted and he could get exposure opportunities.

It sounds like there are a lot of benefits, but that's actually the case, but this time the concentration of stars participating in the celebrity competition is extremely high, and it can be used as an opportunity to expand your network. Anyway, you can make a steady profit without losing too much money, so Li Yue chose to accept the invitation.

On the evening of the 29th, the Lakers played against the Bulls, and the main player Noah was absent due to injury.

The Lakers dominated offensive rebounds, leading 28 to 19 in the first quarter, fouled 3 more times, and the foul problem continued to plague the Lakers in the second quarter, but fortunately still took advantage of the offensive rebounds to lead 31 to 29.

But in the third quarter, the Lakers fouled 5 more times than the Bulls. Although the offensive rebounds were still dominant, they could not make up for the large loss of points on the defensive end. They lost a 7-point lead in a single quarter and their shooting touch was also broken.

By the fourth quarter, the referee finally no longer favored the Bulls, but unfortunately the Lakers felt nothing.

At the last moment, Rose used the cover to tie the game, but Li Yue failed to kill and the game entered overtime.

The two teams began to compete. Li Yue and Kobe made 8 of 2 shots in total, Butler and Rose made 9 of 3 shots in total, with a score of 6 to 6, helping the game enter the second overtime, so that some spectators left early .

Unexpectedly, the referee turned to favor the Lakers for whistleblowing. The Lakers took the opportunity to play a wave of 11-4 attacks, completely ending the suspense of the game, and finally won 123-114.

On the first day of February, the Lakers rushed to New York and easily defeated the Knicks. Li Yue and Kobe scored 82 points together.

On the afternoon of the [-]rd, the league office announced via Twitter that Li Yue was elected the best player of the month in the western region. .

Leaving New York, the Lakers rushed to Milwaukee to challenge the Bucks led by Antetokounmpo in an away game.

Affected by injuries, the Bucks had only 8 people in rotation. Antetokounmpo played 42 minutes and Middleton played 45 minutes. The two played well, but they couldn't resist the offensive frenzy set off by Li Yue and Kobe. The Lakers won 115 to 103 .

After defeating the Bucks, the Lakers went south to Orlando to challenge the Magic in an away game.

Tobias Harris played bravely and forced the game into overtime, but Oladipo encountered Kobe's defense and performed very well. He made 7 of 0 shots in overtime. The Lakers were forced to win,

In the last game of the five-game streak, the Lakers went to the North Shore Garden to challenge their arch-enemy Celtics.

But the Celtics made a big deal to send Rondo away at the end of last year, and completely entered a state of reconstruction without any resistance.

The Lakers won 118 to 101 and flew back to Los Angeles that night to get three days of rest.

At noon on the [-]th, ESPN announced the top [-] most influential athletes in the past three years. This list is based on the cumulative results of Google search index, the specific amount of endorsement income and the number of followers on social networking sites. Real Madrid striker Ronaldo holds the top spot , and Li Yue followed closely, LeBron ranked third, and Barcelona striker Messi fourth.

A number of media forwarded the ESPN list, and a large number of fans congratulated Li Yue for reaching a new height.

The league office publicly sent an email, thanking Li Yue for bringing great influence to basketball.

Nike took the opportunity to announce the release of Li Yue's new generation of signature sneakers, and received [-] pairs of orders in just half an hour. Other endorsements followed suit and released commemorative edition products. Only Ferrari's commemorative edition keychain, the scheduled sales were deserted.

NO.11, the Lakers played against the Nuggets at home. Li Yue clocked out of get off work in the third quarter and won easily.

On the second day, the Lakers challenged the Trail Blazers back-to-back away games. Li Yue played mediocre, and Kobe Bryant did not perform efficiently. But on the Trail Blazers side, Aldridge and CJ McCollum combined for 31 of 8 shots and handed over the victory.

After playing the Trail Blazers, Li Yue took a private jet to New York to start the 15-year All-Star Weekend Tour.

PS: Headache and fever, today is just one chapter.

(End of this chapter)