On October 31, the Clippers ushered in their home opener at Staples Center.
The shadow of the defeat in the first game did not hang over the Clippers players. Their mentality towards winning and losing may be the best in the league.
As a balance, they have a general manager who may have the worst win-lose mentality in the league - it's just that no one can see it.
In the past, Staples Center has always been the venue of the Lakers, and the Clippers are more like a tenant, just coming to use it temporarily.
During the 2009-2010 season, whenever there was a Lakers game, the tickets were always sold out, every game was sold out, and the courtside was packed with stars.
For many fans, when watching a Lakers game, they can not only see stars such as Kobe Bryant and Gasol, but also get close contact with movie stars who could only be seen on the big screen. It seems like it is just a game. The game is actually a big show.
At that time, the Clippers game was more like an appetizer or a small dessert after the meal. Sometimes if you couldn't buy a Lakers ticket, you would settle for the next best thing and buy a Clippers ticket.
Four seasons have passed, and the situation has reversed. Nowadays, the courtside of Clippers games is still full of stars, and they are not Jack Nicholson, an old antique who has been sitting on the sidelines for 30 or 40 years. To be honest, Nick Wilson appears on the sidelines of the Lakers almost more frequently than he appears on the big screen.
Nowadays, those who support the Clippers are some emerging stars, singers, new stars in the rap circle, football, and baseball circles, and they all love to come to Clippers games to join in the fun.
In Los Angeles today, watching Clippers games is the trend and an interesting new thing.
Watching the Lakers? The Lakers don't have Kobe anymore, so what else is there to watch? Watch 183 men stealing the floor.
Paul's performance in the opening game was amazing enough, but he still has a long, long way to go before he can replace Kobe Bryant in the hearts of fans.
And it is very likely that this is an endless road of no return.
Tonight the Clippers' opponent is another rising star in the Bay Area, the Golden State Warriors.
The two teams had a battle in China during the preseason. In the end, the Clippers failed to use their full strength and lost to the Warriors.
Of course, the Clippers won't be polite anymore during the regular season. Tonight is their championship ring night. How can they let the Warriors steal the spotlight?
As a rising challenger, the Warriors also want to take advantage of the Clippers' defeat in the first game and take another step. Nothing can show the team's strength better than defeating the defending champion.
In the preseason, Mark Jackson and the Warriors showed no mercy. The Clippers were just playing around. They were fighting to the death to win.
The starting lineups of both sides, the Clippers are still the top five, and the Warriors' lineup of Bogut, David Lee, Barnes, and Thompson Galilard is simply a replica of the Clippers' starting lineup.
On the bench, the Warriors spent heavily in the summer to acquire Sixth Man of the Year J.R. Smith. Smith only received $2.8 million a year from the Knicks. The Knicks made a lot of money, but they couldn't retain him - after all, New York fans When you come to watch a game, you don’t just come to watch it, people just want to watch it.
With JR Smith, the Warriors' strength has been greatly enhanced. In the new season, it can be said that they are qualified to compete with the Western Conference heroes. More importantly, their core lineup is still very young and there is a lot of room for improvement in the future.
In short, this is a highly anticipated home opener. Fans, commentators, and TV hosts have a lot of topics to comment on and pay attention to before the game.
There is only one point that few people have noticed. Only TV commentators in China have noticed this. The famous football commentator Yang Yi said in the broadcast room:
"Well, we noticed that a relatively unfamiliar name and face appeared on the Clippers' 12-man roster today, called Bruce Lee. Ha, it's the same English name as Bruce Lee, and this guy is also Chinese... You can’t call him Chinese, his nationality should be Chinese, but we won’t say his Chinese name because it is more inappropriate to broadcast on the TV station. The Clippers just announced the signing of this player yesterday afternoon, becoming the team’s fifteenth player. people, and then he made the 12-man roster today.”
"Where does this Bruce Lee come from? He has been playing at the University of Kentucky. In 2012, his senior year, he won the NCAA championship with the University of Kentucky. The current top pick of the Clippers, Anthony David Si, is his junior! Then John Wall of the Wizards and Cousins of the Kings are also his juniors! There are also others such as Brandon Wright, who are either juniors or seniors. Always, this is a player with a very strong background, but!"
When Yang Yi, a commentator, makes basketball comments, it is more like storytelling or cross talk than commenting on basketball.
When he talks alone, he is telling stories, and the words he adds next to him are cross talk, and it is a cross talk saying of "one head is heavy".
In his words, the people in the NBA are just like the civil servants and generals in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Skills and tactics are secondary, and grudges and resentments are primary.
And when he talks, he likes to breathe heavily, leave his buttons open, and lay out a lot of things in front of him to whet your appetite, and then give you a twist and shake off the baggage for you.
"But what?" His partner caught the words at the right time and asked.
"But this Bruce Lee has played in the NCAA for four years and has basically no chance to play except garbage time. He also has statistics and scores, but where do they come from? He comes on the court during garbage time to execute free throws. And there are fouls. Don't tell me, he was pretty accurate in free throws. If I remember correctly, he seemed to have missed only one in four years. Of course, he didn't shoot many. For such a capable player, he signed up for the draft in 2012. My junior, Anthony Davis got the No. 1 pick, others like McGee and Terrence Jones were all selected, and then he was ignored and became an undrafted player."
"Then how did the Clippers select and sign him?"
"This, you have to ask Mr. Min. Hahaha, no one can predict Mr. Min's operations, but once he makes a move, it will definitely shock the world, and it will take a long time for you to see the intention of this move. . We know that when Curry was drafted in 2009, everyone was scolding him for his betrayal, for blindly choosing such a kindergarten student, and for thinking that the top pick in point guard was Iverson... It turned out that, ah, this Call it God’s hand!”
"Then signing Bruce Lee was also a move of God?"
"We don't know this, so let's just wait and see what the Clippers' intentions are. The Clippers signed Jeremy Lin before, but Jeremy Lin came with Lin Crazy, which attracted a lot of traffic and attention to the Clippers. After the madness, a Jeremy Lin is not retained. Of course, Jeremy Lin has now gone to the Rockets and is playing pretty well, but it is really difficult to reproduce crazy. It can only be said that the Clippers system is indeed very suitable for point guards. As for Bruce -Whether Li will be crazy about Li, we will have to wait and see."
As he spoke, the game was about to begin.
Li Liang (Bruce Lee) was sitting on the Clippers bench, watching the starting lineups of both teams prepare for the game, but he felt as if he was dreaming.
He was already prepared to go home and inherit the family business and sell tractors. Unexpectedly, he actually played in the NBA!
It's just that he doesn't know, is this a good thing or a bad thing?
(End of chapter)
