I really can't handle the ball

Chapter 138 Injuries Strike (Two in One)
After the game between the Mavericks and the Cavaliers, James was slightly at a disadvantage in the competition for the best rookie.

Although rookies Zhan and Li Xuan got the same statistics, from a professional point of view, James was suppressed by Li Xuan throughout the whole process. Facing Li Xuan's defense, he had no other means to score.

And Li Xuan is better than James in both offense and defense.

However, the league still attaches great importance to personal data when selecting the best rookie award.

After all, they are all rookies, and they are basically unable to lead the team to achieve good results, so personal data occupies a large proportion.

In the following schedule, if the Cavaliers' record is not satisfactory and they cannot enter the playoffs, then the team may help James win the best rookie and give him a lot of shooting rights to collect statistics.

But Li Xuan can't do it. The goal of the Mavericks this season is to go towards the championship. The team can't help Li Xuan improve his statistics because of Li Xuan's personal interests. It can only rely on Li Xuan's own efforts.

Therefore, the battle for the best rookie has officially begun.

Not long after this eye-catching duel between the strongest rookie kings in the 03 session ended, there were a lot of news reports about Li Xuan and James on the Internet.

"It's evenly matched. It's confusing who will win the best rookie in 03!"

"The No. [-] pick was restrained by the lottery show, and James' strength has been questioned!"

"It's a pity for each other, Li and James said that each other will be their strongest opponent!"

Eye-catching news headlines quickly appeared on the sports section, with a high number of clicks and a very high popularity.

Just when the outside news media was reporting the grievances between Li Xuan and James, all the members of the Dallas Mavericks had already boarded the flight to Chicago.

As one of the protagonists, Li Xuan is recuperating on the seat. Now he only cares about helping the team win the next game. As for the outside news reports, he doesn't pay special attention at all.

……

……

On November 11, the Mavericks came to Chicago non-stop to play back-to-back against the Bulls.

The Bulls' current record is 5 wins and 10 losses, ranking second to last in the Eastern Conference.

After Jordan retired for the second time, the Bulls became a poor team, failed to make the playoffs for five consecutive years, and rushed to the lottery every year.

It can be said that although the Mavericks are playing back-to-back games, the probability of winning is extremely high.

The bus drove to the gate of the United Center Arena, and the Mavericks players got off one after another and followed the staff into the arena.

After getting off the car, Li Xuan felt a little excited when he saw the Jordan statue built in front of the arena gate.

In the past, I could only see it on TV, but now I can witness it with my own eyes.

Just when Li Xuan was fascinated, Nash came forward and said, "Aren't you very envious!"

Li Xuan nodded subconsciously, he was indeed a little envious.

There are very few NBA players who can build statues in front of the arena gate. This is a supreme honor.

"Lee, don't look at it, we are still too far away from getting Michael's honor, but we can teach the Bulls a lesson tonight."

After Nash finished speaking, he took Li Xuan into the arena.

Coming to the locker room of the visiting team, Li Xuan came to his locker, put away his personal belongings, and then quickly changed his uniform.

Not long after, head coach Nelson Sr. pushed open the door of the locker room, clapped his hands, and said, "I don't have any requirements for tonight's game. After all, this is not the Bulls team with Michael. As long as you play normally, you should no problem."

After Li Xuan finished listening, he was a little speechless, and silently complained in his heart: "Coach, can you be a little more serious, this is a bit drifting!"

Too disrespectful to the Bulls, have you ever thought about the feelings of the Bulls players?

Anyway, they are also the team that won 5 games!
Don't you worry that they will defeat the strong with the weak?
When the time comes when the boat capsizes in the gutter, you won't even have time to cry!

After the perfunctory pre-match mobilization, Old Nelson waved his hand and led the players out of the locker room to the court.

When Li Xuan came to the stadium with his teammates, he looked around and found that the attendance of the Bulls at home was not high, and there were only a few Bulls fans in the auditorium.

Perhaps affected by the team's record, Chicago fans are not as enthusiastic as expected.

After the simple entrance ceremony, players from both sides came to their respective halfs for pre-match warm-up activities.

In the away game, Li Xuan didn't want to be too high-profile, and was afraid of being remembered by others. After all, being too good-looking is also a kind of trouble.

So, he was doing regular warm-up activities, not wanting to draw attention from others.

Not long after, after the warm-up activities, players from both sides returned to the bench one after another.

At the same time, the starting player list of the two teams was displayed on the big screen at the scene.

The Mavericks' starting lineup remains the same: Nash, Finley, Li Xuan, Nowitzki, Nesterovic.

Bulls starting lineup: Kirk Hinrich, Jamal Crawford, Jalen Rose, Antonio Davis, Eddie Curry.

Li Xuan looked up at the list of Bulls starting players displayed on the big screen, and he was very familiar with these people.

The Bulls' starting point guard Hinrich, Li Xuan's underdog in college, did not expect that after being selected by the Bulls, he quickly grew into a qualified starter.

This season, Hinrich averaged 12.8 points, 6.2 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game, which is very good in his rookie season.

The Bulls' starting shooting guard Crawford has not yet become the best sixth man at this stage. A typical player with a sharp knife, his offensive ability is very good, and his defensive ability is relatively weak.

This season, Crawford can average 17.3 points, 5.1 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game, and his shooting percentage is 38.6%, which is very inefficient.

Bulls starting center Eddie Curry, the current star player of the Bulls, has solid inside skills and flexibility that does not match his weight, and has the potential to become an All-Star player.

This season, Eddie Curry averaged 15.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

As for the biggest star in the Bulls lineup, it should belong to Scott Pippen sitting on the bench, but he came to the Bulls to retire, and he will retire after this season. He has no combat power at all. Word.

Not long after, the referee blew his whistle to signal players from both sides to come to the middle circle to prepare for a jump ball.

The starting players of the two teams left the bench one after another, came to the center circle to stand up, and waited for the start of the game.

The referee looked at the timer, then threw the basketball into the air.

Nesterovic took off hard, overwhelmed Curry, grabbed the basketball first, and gave the Mavericks a first-down opportunity.

At the beginning of the game, the rest of the Mavericks opened up, allowing Nowitzki to single Davis in the low post.

Bulls power forward Antonio Davis is only 206 cm tall, and the "driver" has an absolute height advantage.

Nowitzki used his skilled inside footsteps to shake Davis' defensive center of gravity. Seeing that the Bulls had no players to double-team, he turned over and shot a fadeaway jumper.

Swish!Hollow into the net!

0: 2!

"Driver" took the lead for the Mavericks.

Afterwards, Crawford broke through with the ball, used fancy breakthrough skills to pass Finley, and then came to the middle distance position on the right to make an emergency stop and take off to shoot, but was seriously interfered by Li Xuan who came to help defend.

Bang bang!Fight with anger!
After Nowitzki grabbed the rebound, he passed it to Nash immediately, and then quickly ran forward.

After receiving the ball, Nash quickly launched a defensive counterattack and assisted Finley to hit a mid-range jumper.

Immediately afterwards, the Bulls attacked, Eddie Curry played a low single, was quickly double-teamed by the Mavericks, and made a mistake in a panic.

The Mavericks quickly counterattacked, Li Xuan rushed to the basket, received a pass and easily dunked.

Looking back, Crawford faced Finley's defense and hit a difficult fadeaway jumper, breaking the scoring drought.

In the following game, Nowitzki took over the game. He was in exceptionally good condition and felt very hot. He scored 6 points in a row and quickly opened up the score and established a leading advantage.

In the second half of the first quarter, the "driver" showed even more confidence and shot directly against Davis. The shooting rate was surprisingly high, which made it useless for the Bulls to change the defense with three players. They could only adopt double-team defense. measure.

"Nowitzki's hands are hot tonight. It seems that the Bulls can't stop the Mavericks' winning streak." Steve Kerr, who served as the commentator, explained in the commentary booth.

He didn't expect that when he returned to the familiar United Center arena for the first time as a commentator, he would see the Bulls being beaten miserably, which was really embarrassing.

At the end of the first quarter, with Nowitzki making 9 of 7 shots and scoring 16 points in two free throws, the Mavericks entered the second quarter with a 9-point lead.

After the start of the second quarter, Nowitzki was still hot, and the Bulls could only double-team the defense, giving other players of the Mavericks a chance to get an open shot.

Li Xuan, Nash and others did not waste their chances and hit shots one after another to further expand the score.

In contrast, the Bulls have nothing to do on both ends of the offense and defense.

When Crawford breaks into the basket, he will be interfered by Li Xuan's help defense, and his shot selection on the outside is very poor, basically he shoots against the defender, and the shot selection is very unreasonable.

Eddie Curry can't open the inside line either. He will be double-teamed by the Mavericks if he plays hard at the basket. His coping ability is very weak, and being double-teamed is basically a mistake.

Hinrich is a rookie, and he can't play any role in this kind of game. He can do his job well.

In this way, the first half of the game ended, the score on the big screen was 41:57, and the Mavericks led by 16 points and entered the second half of the game.

After a short 15-minute break, the second half officially began.

After the start of the third quarter, Nowitzki's touch was not as hot as the first half, which made the Bulls players breathe a sigh of relief. It seems that the game still has to be played.

But what they didn't expect was that Li Xuan turned the tide inside the Bulls, grabbed offensive rebounds one after another, and assisted his teammates to score.

Eddie Curry's ability to protect the penalty area is inherently weak, and he can't stand Li Xuan rushing to grab rebounds.

Bulls head coach Bill Cartwright shook his head resignedly and replaced Curry with Tyson Chandler to protect the paint.

But "Boxing Champion" Chandler has only played for three seasons, and the technique of defending the gate in the penalty area has not yet been developed, and he still cannot prevent Li Xuan from rushing to grab rebounds.

In this way, relying on Li Xuan's strong offensive rebounds under the basket in the third quarter, the Mavericks expanded their score beyond 20 points.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Bulls still did not give up, and all the main players played the game. The Mavericks could not take it lightly, and also dispatched all the main players.

When about 4 minutes into the fourth quarter, there was basically no suspense about the outcome of the game.

But at this moment, a small accident happened.

When Nowitzki played Davis with a low back on the right, he turned forward and accidentally sprained his ankle and fell to the ground.

Li Xuan and other Mavericks players rushed over to check the situation.

Davis watched Li Xuan and the others approach aggressively, raised his arms high, and said tremblingly, "He fell by himself, and I didn't do any harm."

He quickly defended himself, and was very worried that Li Xuan, the murderous god, would beat him all over the place.

When Li Xuan passed Davis, he took a look at the little fat man and noticed that he was trembling slightly, so he was speechless.

Am I that scary?

How can I say that I am also a reasonable three-good player, and I will not fight casually.

"Dirk, how do you feel?" Li Xuan came to Nowitzki and asked.

"It seems that the ankle was sprained. The problem should not be very serious, but this game may not be able to last. It can only depend on you." Nowitzki responded with a smile.

Li Xuan patted his chest and assured: "Don't worry, there is only one final winner in this game, and that is the Mavericks."

After confirming that he could not continue the game, Nowitzki, supported by Li Xuan and Nesterovic, walked to the player tunnel, where the team doctor of the Mavericks had been waiting for a long time.

"This is a heavy blow to the Mavericks. I hope Dirk is fine. He performed very well in this game. He has scored 38 points and is in a very hot state. I didn't expect such an unexpected situation to happen.

If he misses the next game due to injury, the Mavericks' combat effectiveness will definitely drop significantly.

The Mavericks, who have already entered the regular stage, may fall into a trough again, and they don't know where they will go. "

In the on-site commentary booth, Steve Kerr explained regretfully.

Although there is basically no suspense in this game between the Mavericks and the Bulls, it will definitely be extremely difficult for the Mavericks to win after losing their core players in the subsequent games.

After a small episode, the game continued.

After Nowitzki was off the field, Jamison was replaced as the third position, and Li Xuan was changed to the fourth position.

The Mavericks did not take it lightly because of the big lead, and the defensive strength has not changed at all, and has even improved.

Being strictly guarded by the Mavericks, the Bulls' offense was paralyzed and unable to catch up with the score.

As the game time passed, the Bulls still couldn't catch up with the score. Head coach Bill Cartwright replaced the main players and announced that he would give up the game.

In order to protect the players, the old Nelson immediately replaced the main players, injured one, and did not want to have another injury.

In the end, the Mavericks defeated the Bulls 105:84 and achieved four consecutive victories.

数据方面，李轩这场比赛上场38分钟，投篮13投7中，其中三分球5投2中，罚球2罚全中，得到18分15篮板4助攻2抢断3盖帽的全面数据。

诺维斯基投篮23投15中，其中三分球3投2中，罚球6罚6中，砍下38分6篮板2助攻的全面数据。

Nash had a double-double of 10 points and 12 assists; Finley had 15 points and 3 rebounds.

公牛队方面，克劳福德投篮23投8中，其中三分球7投2中，罚球4罚3中，拿到21分2篮板3助攻的全面数据。

埃迪-库里投篮13投5中，罚球4罚2中，得到12分5篮板的数据。

If it weren't for these two buddies to give benefits, the Mavericks would not have won the game so easily.

Although they won another victory, the Mavericks players were not happy.

Nowitzki's injury dealt a heavy blow to the team.

After the game, Li Xuan wanted to rush back to the locker room to learn about Nowitzki's injury, but was surrounded by media reporters, which made him very helpless and could only accept post-match interviews.

"Li, congratulations on your double-double again. Now your style of play and statistics are more inclined to inside players. In the absence of Nowitzki, will you play the fourth position?" The reporter asked.

"I don't know about this, everything is subject to the arrangement of the coach." Li Xuan replied.

"Nowitzki's unexpected injury will definitely have some impact on the team. What do you think about this?"

"Dirk's injury does have a certain impact on the team. After all, winning is inseparable from each of our players, but I believe the team will overcome difficulties and rise to the challenge."

After Li Xuan finished the interview, he quickly squeezed out of the crowd, walked to the player tunnel, and returned to the locker room to join the team.

(End of this chapter)