basketball boulder

Chapter 144 Defensive Battle
The day before the game, the entire Pistons team came to Miami.

Milicic took the initiative to call Li Lei out for dinner.

It is quite rare for the introverted Milicic to take the initiative to invite guests to dinner, and of course Li Lei will not miss it.

It's just that during the meal, Li Lei gobbled it up, but Milicic was chewing on it.

He obviously has something on his mind, but he doesn't know how to speak.

While Milicic was hesitating, Li Lei had finished eating, wiped his mouth, and said seriously: "You have done a good job!"

Milicic raised his head and looked at Li Lei for no reason.

Li Lei smiled.

Milicic didn't say anything, he understood.

What else could it be?

季后赛打到现在，米利西奇出场8次，场均1.8分钟，砍下0.1分0.4篮板0.1助攻0.1抢断。

If it is a second-round pick, this data is fine.

But Milicic is the second pick in the draft year!

Not to mention James, Anthony, or Li Lei's outliers, even Perkins, the second-round pick of the Celtics, got more opportunities than him.

How could Milicic feel better in his heart.

Li Lei seemed to be feasting just now, but he was actually thinking about how to comfort Milicic.

The first time he saw Milicic, Li Lei knew that Milicic was a sensitive guy.

For such a child, be more careful when speaking, otherwise you may poke his sensitive points accidentally.

"Really, what you've done with the Pistons has been really, really good."

Li Lei affirmed again.

Milicic: "..."

Your consolation is too fake.

I'm doing well?

What a joke.

Li Lei continued: "You have no problem, and the Pistons have no problem. The only problem is that you are not suitable for the Pistons."

Hearing this sentence, Milicic became serious and listened carefully.

Li Lei smiled: "The Pistons were the champions of the Eastern Conference in the regular season last year. They have a complete tactical system, and it is difficult for rookies to integrate. On the contrary, only those weak teams are the paradise for rookies. For example, James' Cavaliers, Anthony's Diggers The Kings, me and Wade's Heat, Chris Bosh's Raptors . . . will give rookies unlimited opportunities."

Milicic nodded, and he agreed.

Li Lei: "Actually, if it were me, if I went to the Pistons, I would not be able to do better than you. So, you have done a good job."

Li Lei's sentence was a fool.

He is confident that he can enter the normal rotation even if he goes to the Pistons.

But now it is to comfort Milicic, so I have to think carefully about what to say.

Milicic nodded as expected: "Then what should I do?"

Li Lei thought for a while, and then said: "If I were in your current situation, the first thing I would do would be to have a good relationship with my teammates."

"Second, cherish every minute of playing and go all out to do what the coach arranges."

"Third, if you sit on the bench, be a good towel man and cheer your teammates on."

"The fourth and most important point. Study hard! Larry Brown is an old-school coach. Although he is stubborn, he is not bad. The Pistons still have so many good players, Billups' big heart, Hamilton's off-the-ball running Movement, Prince's defense, Ben's tenacity, Rasheed's offensive and defensive balance... There are too many things to learn."

Milicic nodded seriously this time: "I see!"

After eating, Li Lei paid the bill before Milicic.

After all, this is Miami, his territory, and he can still make guests pay?
The two were about to separate, Li Lei suddenly asked, "I heard that Old Brown likes to swear?"

Milicic's complexion suddenly turned ugly, obviously he had many unfriendly memories.

But Li Lei smiled: "Fortunately, he is still willing to scold you, which means he thinks you can still be saved. If he doesn't like you at all, I'm afraid he won't bother to scold you."

Milicic's complexion still didn't improve.

Li Lei continued to comfort him: "Well, if you really can't stand it, just treat it as a collection game."

Milicic: "???"

Li Lei said: "When you have collected 1000 curses, you will be able to get the final game reward...a strong heart that is extremely tenacious and unstoppable!"

Milicic: "..."

He thought Li Lei was joking.

But Li Lei suddenly became serious: "Do you know why I am so mature? Because the insults and ridicule I received before are a thousand times that of yours!"

Milicic suddenly froze. He looked at Li Lei and said after a long time, "Thank you!"

He is not stupid, he knows that Li Lei is teaching him: how to be an optimistic person!
This is a lifelong benefit!
What seemed like a few jokes may be a method of self-comfort that Li Lei found in countless failures.

……

This is a small episode before the game.

After eating, Li Lei went back to the arena and watched the Pistons game video with the help of Spoelstra.

Looking at it, Li Lei had an idea: this Pistons team has no obvious weaknesses.

The two teams played against each other four times in the regular season, and the result was 1:3.

The only time he won was when Li Lei beat the Pistons, and that was before Rasheed came to the Pistons.

After Rasheed came to Detroit, the Pistons allowed an average of 12 points in the first 78.9 games.

What concept?
A team, 48 minutes, can't score 80 points in front of the Pistons, and every night.

Suffocating defense!
In the playoffs, the Pistons were even more perverted.

再看看活塞队和步行者队的对决，步行者6场的得分分别是78、67、78、83、65、65。

The Pacers averaged only 72.67 points per game!
72.67!

This is the Pacers.

First in the regular season record, one of the favorites to win the championship!
There are top big men O'Neal on the inside, Artest, the best defensive player of the year, on the wings, old Reggie Miller on the outside, and Al Harrington on the bench.

The Heat were swept by the Pacers in the regular season.

Thinking of these, Li Lei's mood suddenly became heavy.

……

5 month 22 day.

8 pm.

American Airlines Center.

Appearance ceremony.

The visiting team goes first.

Pistons:
Center: "Big Ben" Ben Wallace.

Power Forward: Rasheed Wallace "The Roaring God".

Small Forward: "Little Prince" Tayshaun Prince.

Shooting guard: "The Mask" Richard Hamilton.

Point guard: "Big Heart" Chauncey Billups.

After the Heat played:

Cato, Odom, Li Lei, Jones, Wade.

When the Heat five generals played, the American Airlines Center arena erupted with thunderous applause and cheers.

Who would have thought that last season's 25 wins and 57 losses will finally reach the stage of the conference finals.

What makes Miami especially gratifying is that the Heat have the twin stars of Wade and Li Lei, who led the team to the Eastern Conference finals in their rookie season.

This is even better than the Celtics twin stars Pierce and Walker who were smash hits back then.

In the next ten years, or even the next 15 years, as long as Gemini is there, the Heat will have an unlimited future.

Before the game started, players from both sides greeted each other.

Prince and Daben were expressionless.

Speaking of which, Prince and Li Lei are old rivals, having faced off in the summer league.

But Prince was very taciturn and hardly spoke to Li Lei.

Da Ben is not a talkative person either, if you don't take the initiative to flirt with him, he won't open his mouth at all.

Billups, Hamilton, and Rasheed smiled.

Billups and Li Lei warmly embraced: "Rookie, you did a good job! But we are still a bit worse than us, we don't need a tie-break!"

Alright, let's talk about it as soon as we come up.

This is also a characteristic of the times.

No matter who you are in this day and age, spray first before talking, create hostility, and then you can kill.

Li Lei smiled back: "Then you have to be careful, don't be dragged into the tiebreaker by us, we have never lost in the tiebreaker."

Afterwards, Rasheed also quarreled with Wade: "Rookie, Detroit doesn't produce planes, so our baskets are forbidden to fly."

Wade shook his head: "Sorry, this is Miami, not Detroit."

The game has not yet started, and the two sides are already at war.

Drip!

Game start.

Big Ben defeated Cato by virtue of his excellent bounce and bounce speed, and turned the ball back to his home half.

Billups dribbles forward.

In the frontcourt, Wade guarded against Billups and forced him to pass the ball.

Hamilton catches the ball.

It was Li Lei, No. 15 player of the Heat, who defended him.

Hamilton feinted and started the breakthrough.

With all his attention, Li Lei easily cut off Hamilton's breakthrough line with a sliding step.

Bang!
The two collided together, and the sound of muscle collision was clearly audible.

Hamilton was knocked a little staggered, the rookie's toughness exceeded his expectations, and he hurriedly passed the ball in storage.

Li Lei stretched out his long arm, robbed halfway, and directly stole it.

The scene cheered.

Li Lei made a contribution at the beginning.

Subsequently, Li Lei passed to Wade.

But as soon as Wade received the ball, Billups entangled him.

On the other side, Prince also entangled Odom.

The Pistons effectively froze both of the Heat's engines, directly disrupting the fast break.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the rest of the Pistons retreated quickly and quickly set up a defensive formation in the backcourt.

The Heat were forced to drop their positions.

Li Lei set up a pick-and-roll for Wade at the top of the arc, and Wade took advantage of the opportunity to get rid of Billups and enter the paint.

But just as Wade entered the paint, the low-post double Wallace (Ben and Rasheed) rushed up together, blocking all shooting space and passing lines in front of Wade.

Wade turned his head and was about to pass back to Li Lei at the top of the arc, but found that Prince and Hamilton on both sides of the free throw line also shrank.

The four Pistons dumped Wade directly.

Prince stretched out his long arm and directly destroyed Wade's pass.

Hamilton took the ball and made a fast break.

Li Lei pursued closely.

Snapped!
In the frontcourt, Li Lei soared into the air and slapped Hamilton's shot on the backboard with his long arm.

Li Lei's chasing nail plate hat.

Subsequently, Li Lei pressed Hamilton to accept the rebound and passed a long pass to Odom.

Odom under the fast break.

Rashid lunges to defend.

Odom dodged in the air, relying on his excellent waist strength to avoid Rasheed's block.

However, at this moment, another big hand slapped him.

Big Ben's volleyball cap!
He was in place in time to help defend.

Snapped!
Odom's shot was fanned out of the baseline.

Out of bounds!

In the first round, the two teams played very lively, but looking at the scoreboard, it was still 0:0.

Li Lei took a breath.

Running back and forth at such a fast pace is really unbearable.

The Heat serve.

Odom's high-ranking organization.

Li Lei suddenly started and ran without the ball.

Prince followed closely.

As soon as Li Lei stepped into the three-point line, his two long arms wrapped around him, maintaining physical contact.

Death Coil.

This guy's wingspan is longer than Li Lei's.

The point is, Li Lei runs without the ball, and Prince is fighting on top.

Enough!

With one effort, Li Lei threw Prince's arms away.

Then with the help of Wade's cover, he successfully got rid of Prince.

Odom passed the ball in a timely manner, and the ball arrived.

As soon as Li Lei received the ball, Billups had switched defenses and rushed forward.

Li Lei jumped up and voted.

Bang!

Did not enter.

Li Lei felt bad when he made the shot.

The continuous running back and forth in the last round, the physical confrontation with Prince just now, and the pressure of Billups pounced on him... all affected Li Lei's hand feeling.

Big Ben resisted Cato and struggled to receive the rebound.

Leave it to Billups for a fast break.

Wade stalks Billups.

Billups didn't stick to the ball and gave it directly to Hamilton.

Relying on Prince's cover, Hamilton accelerated to get rid of Jones, hit the basket and made a layup.

Bang!

The basketball hits the hoop.

It's not just the Heat players who feel the impact, the Pistons are not much better.

Odom has already returned to the backcourt, protected the rebound, and made a fast break by himself.

As soon as he reached the free throw line, Rasheed blocked Odom, and Odom gave the ball to Jones on one side.

Jones made a mid-range shot.

Bang!

nor.

The two teams still played lively in the second round, but still did not score.

Still 0:0.

Big Ben accepted the rebound and handed it to Billups.

Billups took the ball and found that the Heat had retreated.

Instead of organizing a fast break, he controlled the rhythm, signaled his teammates to slow down, and played one ball at a time.

In the frontcourt, Billups commanded calmly.

Prince sprang into action, crossed the field, and got away from Jones with Rasheed's screen.

Billups had already seen it and quickly gave the ball.

Prince catches the ball, pulls up and shoots.

Jones squeezed through the crowd, came up to interfere, but missed a step.

Swish!
Prince's long two-pointer opened the scoring for the Pistons.

2: 0.

The Heat attack.

Wade did not dare to cut in from the top of the arc this time, but went in from the side.

But Big Ben's defense is still very fast.

Wade had no chance and could only stuff it to Cato under the basket.

But Rasheed has retreated to the basket, plugging Ben's loopholes and guarding Cato.

The Pistons have a complete defensive system. Whenever a teammate has a problem, someone will make up for it immediately.

Like a machine, precise without mistakes.

It is difficult for opponents to find opportunities.

Cato forced Rashid to make a shot, but was disturbed by Ben's turn-around attack, and the shot missed.

Big Ben withstood Cato and Rasheed got the rebound.

The Pistons attack again.

The Heat's retreat this time was still very fast.

Billups didn't care at all, he stabilized the rhythm, and while advancing slowly, he communicated with his teammates and directed them to move.

It was still Prince who crossed the half, but Jones was prepared this time and followed Prince closely.

But at this moment, Hamilton suddenly started.

Li Lei stepped forward to catch up.

Hamilton used Prince's screen to receive a pass from Billups.

Li Lei was prepared, squeezed past Prince, and continued to keep up with Hamilton, leaving no room for the masked man.

Hamilton didn't stop the ball and passed the ball straight to the low post.

Rasheed catches the ball, without a moment's hesitation, turns his back with great spirituality, and throws the ball into the hoop.

Swish!
4: 0.

Before you know it, the Heat are falling behind.

Drip!

Coach Da Fan decisively called a timeout.

(End of this chapter)