When Li Kaiming walked out of Sheppard's office, the rest of the Wizards had already arrived at the training ground and started training in full swing. However, this time, there was one less unruly player on the court than before. man, gilbert arenas.
Head coach Phillip Sanders saw Li Kaiming arriving and waved to the latter. When Li Kaiming walked in front of him, Sanders looked at the latter from head to toe and then nodded with satisfaction, "Li, Gil Bert's departure is a consensus reached by the management and I, and we all believe that you are the most suitable to lead this team in the future!"
Li Kaiming took a deep breath and nodded, "I will go all out!"
Sanders laughed a few times, then patted Li Kaiming's shoulder twice with his hand, "After the transaction, I have already contacted Rashard Lewis. If nothing else, he should be there soon." I’ll contact you, you know what to do, right?”
Lewis came to Li Kaiming, of course, to express his loyalty. How could Li Kaiming understand such a simple thing?
Of course, he became the boss of an NbA team at the age of 19. He still has to ask the coach and veteran players for advice on some things he needs to learn. But unfortunately, Sanders is not good at handling internal affairs within the team. relationship, so the burden falls on team vice president Tommy Shepard.
The latter has already given Li Kaiming one-on-one instruction in words and deeds in the office, so Li Kaiming has already made various preparations in his mind for the upcoming veteran Rashard Lewis.
Seeing that Li Kaiming's mentality was relatively calm, Sanders nodded secretly, "Lewis still needs a physical examination. He will definitely not be able to play in today's game. He will not be able to play until the next game at the earliest. Now Gil Bert's gone again, so tonight's game..."
A confident smile appeared on Li Kaiming's face, "Just leave it to me!"
After the two people talked on the sidelines for a while, the next half day was spent following the pre-match training process, including video lessons, tactical drills and group confrontations.
The Wizards' opponent tonight is the Boston Celtics, currently ranked second in the Eastern Conference with a record of 8 wins and 2 losses. After losing in the finals last season, the Celtics deepened the team's lineup in the offseason. , signed the historically famous Shark Shaquille O'Neal as the team's starting center. With the growth of the team's own point guard Rajon Rondo, the current starting lineup of the Celtics can be described as luxurious. Extremely.
The previous Boston Big Three plus Rondo and O'Neal were a space battleship-level team no matter how you looked at it.
Therefore, the Celtics also ranked third in the league in winning odds before the start of the season, second only to the Heat and the Lakers, who won the championship last season, and tied with the Orlando Magic.
Facing such a strong enemy, Sanders himself felt very weak. After all, the opponent was a championship-level team, and it was also one of the two most glorious teams in history. Although the Wizards' current record was overwhelming Celtics, but in Sanders' mind, the Wizards are like an upstart, while Boston is like a noble with a deep foundation...
Not surprisingly, this game was also broadcast live in America. The Wizards overwhelmed various strong teams at the beginning of the season, which surprised many people.
But this time facing the championship-level Celtics, various ball commentators and fans also began to make rational analyses.
In the ESpN pre-match live broadcast room, several commentators discussed the lineups of both sides for this game.
"I admit that the Wizards have been creating miracles this season. It is incredible that they have gotten here, but I still want to say that the victory in this game will be Boston!" said the famous NbA basketball commentator, Big Mouth A Smith. .
Lawrence Harper, the white host next to him, nodded and said, "I agree with you. Just looking at the lineup, Boston's advantage is too great, and the Wizards also lost Gilbert Arenas in this game. I can't imagine it." How do they win?”
A. Smith spoke very quickly, and his tongue opened and closed like a machine gun, "Look at the lineup, God, look at the current Celtics. They have the Big Three of Boston before, and now they have For Rajon Rondo, I have to praise this kid. He is playing really well this season. Look at the assist list. He is now averaging 16 assists per game! My dear! And Shaq, I can’t I don’t admit it, Shaq’s dominance is indeed not as good as before, but even so, the Wizards’ interior defense is not enough in front of him. Shaq will directly destroy the interior defense composed of Andre Blatche and Li Kaiming...”
Lawrence Harper interjected at the right time, "And on the defensive end, the Wizards can't take advantage. Rajon Rondo averaged 2.3 steals per game last season and was selected to the All-Defensive First Team for the first time in his career. , the defense of Ray Allen and Pierce is also above the standard. As for interior defense, Garnett's characteristics seem to fully match Li Kaiming's strengths. He may be the most defensive interior line in history, and there are sharks guarding the basket. This kind of defense would give even Li Kaiming a headache, let alone the other Wizards players!"
…
As one of the largest sports media in America, ESPN's programs have a very wide audience among fans. Therefore, as soon as this program was broadcast before the game, it gained a lot of recognition in the fan circle.
This is not the difference between pink or black. Even fans who support the Wizards were a little pessimistic before the game.
Judging from ESpN's pre-match analysis, the Celtics seem to have defeated the Wizards...
After a day of training, there was a pre-game appetizer, press conference, and questions from reporters. The Wizards kept a relatively low profile. After all, the average age of the Celtics would make Li Kaiming call him uncle. , so you still have to have the respect you deserve. Besides, Shark and others are also famous superstars in history.
"They are all legends. I have only played less than 10 games in this league. I grew up watching their games. Now I feel very honored to be able to compete with my idols on the same stage!" Li Kaiming So said.
Sanders's answer was very cautious, "Doug Rivers is a championship coach, we must take our hats off to him!"
It can be said that before the game, the Wizards gave the Celtics so much respect from top to bottom that they just had to pour a bottle of milk into the opponent's mouth!
At 7:30 in the evening, the referee of today's game, Kane Fitzgerald, stood in the center circle with the ball. On both sides of him stood the starting centers of both sides, preparing to jump the ball.
On the huge LED screen directly above the stadium, the names of the starting players of both sides are also displayed on it.
Washington Wizards, point guard Kirk Hinrich, shooting guard Nick Young, small forward Al Thornton, power forward Kaiming Li, center Andre Blache.
Boston Celtics, point guard Rajon Rondo, shooting guard Ray Allen, small forward Paul Pierce, power forward Kevin Garnett, center Shaquille O'Neal.
The players on the field were ready, and the technical desk on the side of the field had also completed pre-match debugging. The referee Fitzgerald put the whistle in his mouth, held the ball with one hand, and after the whistle sounded, he lifted the ball upright. Throw it up!
Blatche and O'Neal took off almost at the same time, but O'Neal is the No. 1 pick after all. In addition, he is taller than Blatche. Although he is older, his explosive power is still not weak. The latter helped the Celtics win with a slight advantage. Got the ball for the first offense!
Counting this season, O'Neal has changed teams every year in the past seven years, from Miami to Toronto, from Phoenix to Cleveland, and finally to the Celtics, so many people are joking about whether O'Neal is preparing to gather strength before retiring. Collect jerseys of all colors to form a rainbow jersey. At present, this project is almost completed.
The ball set aside by O'Neal was grabbed by Garnett. After the latter grabbed the ball, he gave the ball to Rondo and then ran to the frontcourt.
The Wizards players are already in place, and the audience's eyes are fixed on the court or the screen above. Everyone wants to see if the Wizards will be vulnerable to the Celtics as ESpN analyzed before the game. one strike?
Rondo quickly dribbled the ball to the frontcourt. Facing Hinrich's defense, Rondo almost didn't feel the pressure. O'Neal inside had already secured his position under the basket, although Hinrich desperately moved left and right, trying to interfere. Rondo's pass, but the latter still found a gap and directly hit the ball to O'Neal under the basket!
Although O'Neal has reached the end of his career, his height of 2.16 and weight of 316 pounds still make him unmatched at the basket. Even if it is not O'Neal, just a center of the same size will not be good at the basket. defensive.
After O'Neal caught the ball, he only took a shot, and then easily pushed away Brac, and then before Li Kaiming came over to defend, he scored with a small hook!
2 to 0!
There was silence in the mcI center. Although many people knew that the Wizards were not good at defending the Celtics, the first offense at the beginning of the game was too easy for the opponent. The Big Three did not even exert their strength. In a career It seems that the Wizards can no longer bear the aging Shark at the end of his life!
After scoring, O'Neal ran back and glanced sideways at Li Kaiming and Blatche.
While standing on the baseline to serve, Brac showed a helpless smile towards Li Kaiming.
Li Kaiming knew that it was fanciful to ask Blatche to defend against the Sharks' attack. Although O'Neal has reached the end of his career, his threat in the penalty area is still the best in the league among insiders. His biggest problem now is injuries. And defense, O'Neal has only played more than 60 games in two of the last eight seasons. His huge weight makes him invincible in the interior, and it also makes his lower limbs suffer from pressure and pain.
In addition to injuries, O'Neal's speed was still good at his peak, but now, his huge weight and injury risks force him to have to paddle on the defensive end. As for those fast opponents, he is even more powerless.
Therefore, facing O'Neal like this, the only way is to move forward when defending to prevent O'Neal from catching the ball, misplace the ball on the offensive end, and let O'Neal switch to defend against faster players.
