I just play ball

Chapter 73 Popovich Crazy Toxic Milk
At noon on the [-]rd, the Lakers arrived in San Antonio.

The whole team checked into the hotel, took a short rest after lunch, and then got on the bus and went straight to the ATT center.

After the staff finished setting up, the whole team walked into the stadium talking and laughing, and began to warm up with activities one after another.

Kobe grabbed the basketball, walked quickly to the middle circle and stood still, facing the crowd and spreading his hands.

"I propose to hold a super long-range shooting competition to see who can conquer the Spurs' basket first, one hundred dollars for the first time, two hundred dollars for the second time, and three hundred and four hundred and five hundred. Take all the money, who wants to come?"

"Count me in!" Li Yue raised his hand in response, thinking that the Spurs would need unreasonable goals, so he just tried ahead of time.

"Anyone else?" Kobe asked.

Howard shrugged, "I am willing to spend money to invite everyone to dinner, but I don't want to lose!"

Thackeray and others nodded in agreement, and shooting in the middle circle is indeed not suitable for big players, unless they are as awesome as Bosh.

Nash waved his hand, Blake and others also shook their heads to express their disinterest, and no one followed.

"Okay, then I'll go first."

Kobe pushed the ball forward with his hands together, but he stood still and did not move forward. His explosive power was quite powerful.

when!The basketball hit the rim and bounced back down, bouncing up three times repeatedly, but it just barely missed.

"Wow!" Everyone sighed in unison.

"The height of the basket is low!" Kobe pouted, took out a hundred dollars from the pocket of the sweater and handed it to the staff.

"That's what you dropped!" Thackeray shouted.

Everyone clapped their hands and laughed. Kobe covered his face with one hand, showing an embarrassed yet graceful smile.

Li Yue walked to the middle circle, took the basketball and raised his hands high, "It's time to show your real skills!"

Kobe showed 'disdain', and the rest of the teammates clapped and booed, and the photographers with the team set up their cameras.

Li Yue continuously adjusted his posture and angle, took two steps forward and jumped up suddenly, aiming at the ring and shooting a super long three-pointer.

The basketball whizzes and flies, everyone's eyes follow it, and the camera lens tracks it at high speed.

boom!The basketball hit the backboard and bounced off the edge, but it was still a little bit off the angle.

Li Yue immediately spread his hands, "This ball is too inflated, and the force on the surface of the ball is not uniform enough! According to Newton's second law F=MA, it can be deduced that the rebounding angle of the basketball is affected, which eventually leads to a miss!"

"Are you serious?" Kobe's eyes widened, and the other teammates froze on the spot.

"I made it up..." Li Yue smirked, and handed a hundred dollars to the staff.

Kobe took the ball again, still shooting from the same spot, but deliberately raised the arc of the shot, and the basketball flew straight up and down.

Boom!The basketball hit the floor, three non-stick.

"This..." Kobe turned around and took out two hundred dollars and handed it to the staff, unwilling to look directly at the crazy smiles of the crowd.

"If they both miss [-] shots in a row, how much money does that add up to?" Howard said.

Thackeray opened his fingers, "One hundred plus two hundred, three hundred plus four hundred... I can't figure it out."

"A total of 5500!" Goodlock said excitedly.

"Wrong! A total of 11000!" Nash said.

"Why?" Thackeray asked ignorantly, and Nash gave a look of "self-awareness".

"Because there are two people to count, pay attention to reviewing the questions!" Li Yue helped explain, and stood in the middle circle with the ball again.

He also adjusts his posture and angle, but instead puts the ball on the spot, imitating Bosh's shooting star contest posture.

boom!The basketball hits the top of the backboard, rebounds and falls and hits the front of the rim, the angle is still a little off.

"It's a pity!" Li Yue took out two hundred dollars and handed it to the staff, but there was no expression of heartache on his face.

"Why do I feel that you did it on purpose?" Thackeray said to Li Yue, with an excited look on his face when he discovered a little secret, "Otherwise, why would you be in the same position twice in a row only by a little bit?"

Goodlock pretended to cover his mouth, "Actually, I feel that Kobe also intentionally missed.

"Could it be that you two are waiting for the other to place more chips?" Thackeray asked with a frown.

Li Yue and Kobe looked at each other, and at the same time raised their heads and smiled, causing everyone to look at each other.

It was Kobe who took the ball again, still standing still, but the preparation time was longer than before, and it took a full five seconds to make a shot.

when!Basketball hits the basket and hits the iron.

Kobe took out [-] dollars and handed it to the staff, and the previous indifferent expression disappeared.

Seeing this situation, Li Yue put away his thoughts of raising pigs scientifically, and followed the shooting process honestly. First, he put his feet together, then bent his knees and bent down, then raised his hands to aim at the hoop, and took off steadily to push the ball.

boom!The basketball hits the middle of the backboard and bounces into the net.

"Yeah!" The crowd raised their hands and cheered.

Li Yue took the $900 and thanked Kobe, and everyone laughed together.

D'Antoni walked into the field and clapped his hands repeatedly to attract attention, "I hope everyone will be like Li Yue in the future against the Spurs. You must shoot decisively when you make a mobile phone call. Don't have any psychological burden."

It made sense, but when an entertainment project was put on the line, everyone's interest dropped sharply, and they dispersed to warm up.

Li Yue continued to team up with Artest to practice attacking with the ball, Nash continued to guide Howard to practice free throws, Gasol re-coached Clark to practice being hit from the back, and Blake shared shooting skills with Goodlock again.

Thackeray found new joy in practicing backhand dunks from the short corner by himself.

...

The time soon came to 6 pm, and the Lakers team returned to the hotel after training.

After dinner, the whole team prepared red wine and snacks and got together to watch the sixth game between the Spurs and the Warriors.

The pace of the game between the two teams was very slow in the first quarter. Duncan made 4 of 3 shots and the Spurs led 21 to 19 in a single quarter.

In the second quarter, the Warriors intended to speed up the offensive rhythm, but Curry, Thompson, and Barnes, under the strong defense of the Spurs' backcourt, only made 18 of 7 shots and fell behind 21-26 in a single quarter.

During the halftime break, the whole team unanimously judged that the Warriors could no longer play their own style and must lose the game.

Back in the third quarter, the game really developed as expected. The Spurs tried their best to compress the offensive and defensive rhythm, but the Warriors did not make any single point indiscriminately. They only made one of five three-pointers.

The Warriors entered the fourth quarter with a 7-point deficit, and finally narrowed to 2 points. With Curry and Thompson hitting the iron four times in a row, they were pulled apart again, and even expanded to 30 points in the last 11 seconds.

The Spurs finally won 94 to 82, successfully advanced to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs, and joined the Lakers.

The result was confirmed. After the discussion, the Lakers prepared to disperse the rooms, but the reporter mentioned Li Yue when interviewing Popovich.

"He scored an average of 25 points and 11 assists in four games in the first round, with a total of only 6 turnovers and an average playing time of only 35.4 minutes. How do you evaluate his performance? How will he respond in the second round? "

"How do you evaluate? He is now the number one small forward in the league. From tonight, I will pray that he makes fewer shots so that we can deal with it decently. If it still doesn't work, then I can only resign myself to fate!"

"You commented on Curry after the first game of the series that reminded you of Jordan, so which celebrity do you think Li Yue is more like?"

"Honestly speaking, he has no template. He is a unique basketball player. If you have to describe it, then he has the strongest characteristics of all players in NBA history. Even if he has less muscles now, he can develop them in the future."

Listening to Popovich's crazy praise, Howard and others were beyond surprised, and Li Yue was embarrassed.

But Kobe said calmly: "Don't look at him saying so many compliments, but he never said he would lose!"

(End of this chapter)