"Brother, welcome to my territory."
On February 9, Duane came to Miami with the Lakers and soon met Wade.
Compared with two months ago, Wade seems to have become much more confident at this time.
Dunn thought that Wade would at most treat him to a big meal like he did in Los Angeles.
Unexpectedly, Wade changed his gender and actually spent a lot of money to buy a yacht, and invited a group of Latin dancers and models to accompany Du En on the trip.
Half a week ago, Duan was admiring the snow scene in Philadelphia. Now he came to Miami, where the sun was shining and the temperature was over 20 degrees, and he suddenly suffered from heat stroke.
In short, I felt dizzy and seemed to only remember that the waves in Miami were very big, white, salty, and moist...
Fortunately, Du En was young and strong, with good physical fitness and strong recovery ability. By the next morning, the symptoms of heatstroke seemed to have disappeared.
Speaking of which, during the recent period, although Du En has been playing away games continuously, his physical bottleneck seems to have been broken unconsciously due to fatigue.
In a game with 37 to 40 minutes of playing time, Duan rarely appeared to be unable to do his best and showed his hips stretched.
Presumably, tonight will be the same. Duan will repay his good brother Wade with an all-out game.
In the blink of an eye, the time came to 5 p.m., and the Lakers arrived at the American Airlines Arena and began to warm up and prepare for the evening game.
"Dunn, I never had a chance to say thank you.
If you hadn't asked Dwyane to take care of me, I might have continued to be ostracized by my teammates like I was with the Clippers.
I'm afraid it's because of you that I can appear tonight, right? "
When Dunn arrived at the American Airlines Arena, Wang Zhizhi was already practicing in the arena.
After seeing Du En, he took the initiative to greet him and said thank you.
“These are small things to me.
You are the senior. Without pioneers like you, Yao Ming and I would not be where we are today.
I just hope you don't get discouraged. The limelight has passed. I believe the men's basketball team and domestic fans will accept you again.
I also hope that one day I can fight side by side with you and win glory for the motherland together.
I only hope that you can overcome the current difficulties, practice well, play hard, and try your best to improve yourself in the NBA! "
Du En only gave a few words of encouragement, but it seemed that these words touched Wang Zhizhi's tears, making him unable to control himself and bursting into tears.
Seeing this, Du En told Wang Zhizhi that he was going back to warm up, and then left.
The time soon came to 7:30 in the evening, and the starting players of both teams had already appeared.
It is worth mentioning that Wade was the last to appear among the ten starting players.
It's no wonder that Wade's personality and aura changed, he suddenly became confident, and he even knew that young yacht models entertained good brothers.
After half a season, the Heat have only a record of 21 wins and 31 losses under the leadership of Odom and Eddie Jones.
After struggling for so long, Riley finally figured it out and established Wade's status as the boss of the team.
However, Wade is not strong enough now, and the Heat are not building a team around Wade. Wade has become the boss of the Heat, and he just gets more ball rights.
Duan knew that with Wade's current ability, he still couldn't kill the Lakers.
So he didn't defend Wade, but chose to lock Eddie Jones.
This season, Duane and Kobe have privately competed in more than 30 one-on-one games, and now they have digested the Pippen template and guarded Eddie Jones.
It was also because Duane locked up Eddie Jones, causing him to make 4 of 13 shots, 1 of 3 three-pointers, and 2 of 3 free throws. He only scored 11 points. The Heat's mini Big Three lost one scoring point.
Coupled with O'Neal's destruction of the basket, he once again scored a huge double-double of 29 points and 15 rebounds.
The Lakers easily defeated the Heat 95 to 86.
Let’s talk about the China Derby. Duan made 9 of 16 shots, 2 of 6 three-pointers, and 4 of 5 free throws. He scored 24 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists, a near-triple-double.
Wang Zhizhi only played 13 minutes, and he couldn't compare with Duan in terms of team status and ball rights.
However, with his own efforts, he made 2 of 4 shots and scored 4 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist.
"Duane, see you in Los Angeles!"
"Don't worry, Dwyane, I will definitely not treat you badly when the time comes."
"That's a good relationship. I look forward to the program you arrange."
After the game, Duane and Wade walked towards each other and hugged each other goodbye.
Wade lost the game, but he still had a smile on his face and was obviously looking forward to the upcoming All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles.
After saying goodbye to Wade, Dunn, like other teammates, quickly returned to the locker room, took a shower and took the bus to the airport.
The Lakers' seven-game streak with the Devils is about to come to an end, but the last game was played in Houston, and it was back-to-back games.
For Doon, this is back-to-back Chinese derbies.
So far this season, the Rockets have accumulated 29 wins and 22 losses.
Even with such an excellent record, they can only rank seventh in the Western Conference.
This shows how fierce competition is in the Wild West!
In fact, the strength gap between the teams in the Western Conference is not very big. In many cases, the top four teams in the Western Conference will lose to the bottom four teams in the playoffs.
The next back-to-back games between the East and the West will be a great test for the Lakers, the No. 1 team in the West.
It is worth mentioning that Kobe will return to the team in the next game.
This means that no matter how difficult the schedule is, it is not impossible for the Lakers to win.
At 7 pm on February 11, the Lakers starting players took the stage at the Toyota Center.
Except for Malone, who was absent due to injury, all four of the Lakers' five-star lineup were present.
This actually puts a lot of pressure on the Rockets.
After the game started, as before, it was Duane who guarded Francis, Payton guarded Mobley, and Kobe locked down Jim Jackson.
Although I had experience in defending Francis once, it was still a bit difficult to face Francis' weird breakthrough rhythm.
As early as the first quarter, Francis scored 8 points in the face of Duan's defense.
However, Duan also used the pick-and-roll to switch in front of Francis and use offense to consume Francis's energy.
In terms of scoring, Duan made 3 of 5 shots in the first quarter, 1 of 2 three-pointers, and also scored 7 points.
At the same time, Kobe, who had just returned, was very physical. Not only did he hold Jim Jackson to death on the defensive end, but he also made 3 of 7 shots on the offensive end, 4 of 4 free throws, and scored 10 points in a single quarter.
As for O'Neal, because Kobe wanted to get the ball, Duan passed the ball to O'Neal less often. Therefore, O'Neal only scored 4 points in the first quarter.
Therefore, it is obvious and natural that O'Neal and Kobe will have conflicts.
28 to 23, the Lakers led the Rockets by 5 points after the first quarter.
However, in the second quarter, Kobe, who had just returned, had not yet found his touch, but he was too energetic, causing the Lakers to waste a lot of the ball.
In addition, O'Neal plays back-to-back, and the defensive end is inevitably a little inadequate.
And Yao Ming can not only attack at the basket, but also pull out and shoot from mid-range. O'Neal is not easy to guard against Yao Ming.
The Rockets relied on Yao Ming to score 12 points in the second quarter, reversing the score in one fell swoop, 49 to 51, and entered the second half with a 2-point advantage.
In the third quarter, the atmosphere of the game was anxious from the beginning.
The two teams were racing ahead of each other, refusing to give in. Until the end of the third quarter, Cobra Grant suddenly kicked off the coffin board and helped the Lakers score two consecutive three-pointers.
An old house where a treasure! This season, the Lakers not only rely on the Big Five to lead the team, but also some veterans with rich game experience.
Usually, these veterans look lifeless, either fishing or playing basketball. But when the critical moment comes, your uncle is still your uncle!
81 to 77, the Lakers had a 4-point lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
With Duan and Payton leading the team, the Rockets did not have very good defensive resources on the outside, and the point difference was once widened to 11 points.
Tonight, Van Gundy finally remembered that there was Yao Ming on the bench, but in the fourth quarter, Yao Ming often did not perform as well as he did in the first three quarters.
He made 2 of 5 shots and 5 of 6 free throws. Yao Ming came on as a substitute in the fourth quarter and scored 9 points in more than 7 minutes. Compared with before, he was very brave, but he still couldn't help the Rockets win.
The Lakers relied on the flawless perimeter defense of Payton, Kobe, and Duane, making it impossible for the Rockets to score efficiently from the outside.
Kobe, who realized that his offense seemed to be dragging down the team, also took fewer shots in the fourth quarter.
In addition, Rockets head coach Van Gundy didn't think of cutting off the Sharks to chase the ball until the last minute, but this was obviously still a step too late.
98 to 93, the Lakers defeated the Rockets by 5 points, ending the Devils' seven consecutive away games with a record of 6 wins and 1 loss.
And then we return to Los Angeles for the All-Star Weekend!
