None of these 7 games were broadcast live in the United States. Except for the Lakers game, which was broadcast live on local TV stations, the only other games known were the scores.
Beat the Raptors 85 to 104, the worst loss.
Beat the Celtics 89-96.
In the next four games, the opponent was not allowed to score 95 points.
Defeated the Knicks 106-88, defeated the Wizards 95-86, lost to the Hornets 80-91, and lost to the Timberwolves 79-85.
It wasn't until the game against the Lakers that the opponent scored more than 95 points.
He took out a pen and paper and a calculator and calculated that in the past 6 games, they only lost 90.3 points per game!
Just averaging 88.6 points per game...even the Bulls, who are last in the league, are a little better than them.
Facing the Lakers game where OK was gathered, Li Ao patiently watched the game. Their offense was so bad that they did not care about anything for defense. 55 to 80 in the third quarter. If the Lakers hadn't played casually in the last quarter, they would have faced The Lakers' defense has allowed more than 70 points at most.
While watching Li Ao write and draw, Vivian put her head on Li Ao's shoulder and rubbed Li Ao's face first. It felt so good to rub it as much as she wanted. In the past, she had to waste time trying to find reasons, but now she doesn't have to.
She asked: "Leo, what are you counting? Our team's average points per game? 90.3 points, is it so low?"
"No, 88.6 points is our average score in the past six games."
Vivian: "..."
After being speechless for a few seconds, she asked: "I heard that Gentry is an offensive coach, right? Before he came to Los Angeles, he went to Dallas as an assistant coach for a year. It seems that he became famous by being an offensive assistant coach for Don Nelson. Baylor just signed him back while his price was still cheap, and he actually plays defense?"
"I'm also surprised, but since Pat Riley started the Iron-blooded Era, the best way for a weak team to become a strong team is to play defense. Even the Mavericks coached by Don Nelson are not bad at defense. I I remember that the Mavericks' defensive performance in the first month seemed to be ranked 15th, which was in the middle of the pack. Although I don't know why he changed his gender, he didn't put much emphasis on defense before. Could it be that he was stimulated by the Knicks..."
The two chatted for a while about the team potentially playing defense, then took a shower together and went to bed holding hands.
Tonight, apart from eating each other's tofu in the shower, we did nothing else. It's not that we're tired of it, it's just not as indulgent as the previous few days.
Li Ao's body can bear it, and he can regain his energy after training every day and using the body's physical therapy function.
But Vivian was different. She kept asking for it at first because she hadn't had a boyfriend for many years... And before she pushed Li Ao down, she didn't know that this was so happy. It wasn't that she didn't get applause, but that she was in high school. The boyfriend she had when she was young left a very bad impression on her for the first time. It ended as soon as it started, making her feel no fun at all.
The same thing happened to the boyfriend I had in college a few years later. Just seeing her take off her clothes was enough to make her die, and the main scene ended in just a few seconds.
These two love affairs left a shadow on her, which made her have no interest in this matter for the next ten years. She was obsessed with studying, and finally got a master's degree. Now she finally tasted real happiness, and she didn't want to stop at first. Come down.
After two days of walking, her legs were shaking, and she began to think of restraint.
There was another thing she didn't expect - she thought that her Leo would at most want to play with her body. If Leo wanted it, she would just give it to her, and she could also take the opportunity to have a baby.
Unexpectedly, as soon as she took the initiative, the other party became obsessed with her, which made her unable to bear it. Fortunately, she knew the phone number of Jessica, who occasionally dated Li Ao.
That time, it really dampened her Leo's enthusiasm, and he was able to gradually restrain himself later.
The main reason is that she really underestimated her attraction to men and overestimated Li Ao's philandering attributes. Li Ao's disbelieving look when she stuffed the saliva bag into Li Ao that day made her feel guilty and guilty.
Fortunately, Jessica has good looks and figure, and is also very proactive.
As for holding hands and sleeping...
At first, Li Ao didn't want to sleep with his arms around him, but Vivian bit him a few times and demanded that he must sleep with her arms around him.
Then the next morning when she woke up, her shoulders were sore and her neck hurt as if she had a stiff neck. Vivian could only admit that what experienced people said was right.
Now that desire is slowly taking control, Vivian plans to wait for a few days to enjoy the pleasant feeling of sleeping together, then drive her Leo back to his small apartment to live together while creating life.
She enjoyed the way they got along before. They had spent more time together than many couples she had seen. Besides creating life, it was better to leave some private space for each other.
…
The next day, a new month arrived.
In the past nearly half a month, Li Ao has made great progress!
He feels more improved than he did in the month before training camp started.
The mid-range shot has been increased from 86 to 87, the lateral movement has been increased from 88 to 89, and the retreat has been increased from 87 to 88.
In addition to the basic skill of bypassing which had previously reached 89, his three main basic defensive skills, except for retreat, have already reached the limit of first-class performance.
Other aspects that are not so strong, emergency stop has been improved to 77, stride has been improved to 71...
There is also a new basic skill that has been initially developed, and the basic back-up skill has been improved to 61!
The combination of hard training and experience is perfect!
But unfortunately, from his basic back-up skills to those born in the 60s, the insights he gained from blowing the head were only +1, and he didn’t get the back-up insights every time. One time, he didn’t even get any insights after two hours of sparring. What an accomplishment, otherwise he would feel like he was at a loss.
Even if he improved his lateral movement and stepback by using his afro as a defensive partner, he would still feel at a disadvantage.
His comprehensive evaluation has also been successfully improved to 78. He is getting closer and closer to his goal of his rookie season-an excellent comprehensive evaluation of 80+, and it may not even need to be until the end of the regular season.
At 9 o'clock in the morning, Li Ao came to the Memorial Stadium to start training.
He can participate in the competition the day after tomorrow, and he is a little excited.
Gentry was also very excited, Li Ao was finally lifted!
He came earlier than Li Ao. The latter trained for two hours and he watched the whole process.
Gentry knew that Li Ao had not slacked off during his suspension. He came to train every day, at least half a day, and basically practiced all day every other day.
Recently, the Lakers are on a schedule of consecutive home games, and most of their opponents are weak...including the Clippers.
Therefore, almost every afternoon, Li Ao would take Kobe to practice single defense.
This level of effort left Gentry in awe.
But he won't use this to urge other team members.
In his 20-year assistant coaching career, he has seen too much.
Once, when Larry Brown was coaching the Spurs, he often used Sean Elliott, who always ranked first in the team's training time, to motivate his players. No matter who he was supervising to train, Elliott was always used as an example. .
As a result, Elliott not only failed to become a role model for his teammates, but instead annoyed them, treating him as "someone else's child." David Robinson even alienated Elliott for a time.
But when he was an assistant coach with the Mavericks for one year, he saw firsthand that Nash became a role model for his teammates through hard training during the shortened season, and Nelson never mentioned how hard Nash worked in front of the players.
We are in the same team, and the others are not blind, so I can see.
Those who become infected and work harder will naturally change.
Those who don’t want to work hard won’t change after seeing it, but at least they won’t feel bored by those who work hard, and they may even naturally develop respect for them.
…
At noon, on the noon news program of the American cable TV sports channel, the NBA officially announced the best of the month awards for the first game month of the 2000-01 season.
Coach of the Month, Rick Adelman of the Kings won the award, with a record of 13 wins and 2 losses in a single month.
Player of the Month, Karl Malone of the Jazz won the award, with 10 wins and 5 losses, averaging 25.2 points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game.
Rookie of the Month, Li Ao of the Clippers won the award, with 6 wins and 3 losses, averaging 23.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 1.6 steals and 4.1 blocks per game.
A few days ago, the media was predicting who would be the Rookie of the Year in the first month of this season.
Most people feel that even if he only played 9 games, he should still get the Rookie of the Month award.
Apart from Li Ao, the best performer among this year's rookies in the first month was Mike Miller, who was easy to catch next to Duncan and McGrady, averaging 11.6 points in 15 games.
Mike Miller's improvement in three-pointers is gratifying. When he first entered the NBA, his three-point performance was very poor, far less accurate than his two-pointers. However, he had many opportunities when he couldn't stand next to Duncan and McGrady, and they were willing to let him shoot. After shooting only 31% from three-point range in the first two weeks, by the end of the first month, his average three-point shooting percentage for the entire month had increased to 34%, averaging 1.8 three-pointers per game.
However, no matter how good the performance is, it is only compared with the players in the same class except Li Ao.
Kenyon Martin's first month statistics are better than Mike Miller's, averaging 13 points, 8 rebounds, 1 steal and 2 blocks per game. However, as a power forward, his shooting percentage is 41.6%, which is not as good as "spending shooting" for a month. Mike Miller's 42.3% shooting percentage is high.
The advantage of Mike Miller and Kenyon Martin is that they were fully present in the first month, while Li Ao was suspended for 7 games, less than half a month.
Li Ao was still a little worried that he wouldn't win the award. He didn't feel relieved until the award was announced.
After lunch, other Clippers players arrived at Memorial Stadium.
After playing the Lakers, they have two days off.
Normally, they will not arrange training on the first rest day.
However, Li Ao has just been lifted from the ban and can participate in the game against the Nets on the 3rd. Gentry wanted to add two defensive training sessions this afternoon and received the support of the players.
In the past half month, the whole team has been working hard to improve defense, waiting for Li Ao, the defensive core, to return.
The teammates were very excited to see Li Ao and chatted together for a long time.
They came back the day before yesterday, but after returning from consecutive away games, they only had one day's rest. The day before yesterday, when they returned to Los Angeles, they went back to their respective homes. Li Ao didn't see them when he came to train.
During yesterday's preparation training, Li Ao also stayed in the 'blacksmith room' and did not disturb his teammates' preparations.
Li Ao actively participated in the two defensive training sessions and wanted to integrate quickly.
But when the training ended at 4 p.m. and his teammates left one after another, he found Gentry and raised his questions.
"Yes, we are going to take a defensive route, but you don't have to worry, the offense will be based on your shooting ability and support ability. This will not change. We will not abandon offense for defense.
You must have watched our game against the Lakers. In yesterday's game, we didn't care about offense and only played defense. It was because you were not here. We couldn't attack well against the Lakers. Instead of focusing on both ends, we couldn't do well at both ends. , it is better to play defense well.
After you come back, we may not be able to play the same defensive efficiency as in the past few games. Of course, it's not that your return will make the team's defensive performance worse, but that you are back and we can implement offensive tactics well. I will put all my energy into defense.
We will find a balance point, focusing on offense or defense. "
After listening to Gentry's explanation, Li Ao understood that this top assistant coach who was unsuccessful as a head coach in the future did not make a decision with a slap on the forehead.
But he still had a doubt and asked: "Alvin, I remember you hated Larry Brown's approach. What made you decide to play defense? The Knicks? Or the Raptors?"
Gentry thought about this question for the first time. He thought for a while and responded: "I don't think so. Those two opponents may be opportunities. The Knicks are the best in the league in defense, and the Raptors introduced Lenny Weir." Kens, a famous coach who focused on defense and became a top-notch team, really inspired me, but the reason for my decision, I think, was the scene of our team uniting together and working hard to defend on the day we played the Knicks.
When we used to focus on offense, although everyone worked hard on the court, not everyone felt involved, and some people felt frustrated because of this.
But playing defense, everyone can participate, and I like that feeling.
Of course, as you said, I have always hated this, but in the past few games I have seen everyone being more actively involved in the game, I have to fall in love with this. "
After listening to Gentry's words, Li Ao's confusion was finally solved.
Choosing the right style of play at the right time, Li Ao does not resist this, defense is his strength.
Just a little bit of sympathy for Gentry…
On the second day, Li Ao continued to participate in the team's defensive training.
As for the adjustments on the offensive end, there are not yet. The team is not in a hurry, and Li Ao is not in a hurry. Anyway, they have plenty of time, so they can just do it step by step.
At noon, the Nets arrived in Los Angeles, and the media had already started building momentum for tomorrow's game this morning - the showdown between Spider-Man and the parallel import No. 1 pick!
Clippers fans are looking forward to this game. Li Ao can finally participate in the game. In addition, there is another reason-in the past two seasons, the Clippers have been linked to the parallel import No. 1 pick, and this time they are tied to the parallel import No. 1 pick. The relationship, however, is not their parallel import champion after all!
(End of chapter)
