The next day, a new week arrived. At 9 o'clock in the morning, Li Ao came to the restaurant for breakfast.
Gentry had just arrived. When he saw Li Ao coming, he smiled and said: "You actually got up so late, haha. It's your first time playing in the playoffs. Are you not used to the enthusiasm of away fans? And this is the most fanatical sports atmosphere. Texas.”
Li Ao responded: "Yeah, I didn't fall asleep until 3 o'clock in the morning. I finally understand why you need to prepare earplugs, earmuffs, stereos, and Walkmans. Last night, there was a group of people on the roadside having a barbecue and singing, and there was a rock band. There were street performances, and someone actually drove a crane to transport an abandoned boat to a nearby park for disassembly. The most outrageous thing is that there were actually people performing stripteases on the street... It was really amazing!"
"ε=(ο｀*))) Alas, I called the police, but do you know what the police replied to me? He said that Texas is a multi-ethnic place where everyone has different customs, so I should respect everyone's custom."
"Complain him!"
"Haha, forget it, this is how it is in away games in the playoffs. It's because I'm not fully prepared. I'll think of a way. I'll have to stay here for at least two nights. Maybe I'll come back again, I promise. It’s impossible without sleep.”
"Ah... no, you are well prepared. Put on your earplugs and earmuffs, and put on the white noise song of heavy rain. You can't hear the noise made by those people at all."
"Huh?" Gentry was puzzled: "Then why did you fall asleep at 3 o'clock in the morning?"
"I was curious about how late those people could stay up, and wanted to see what they were doing. I borrowed Jermaine's telescope and asked the girl at the front desk to take me to the windows of each room to observe secretly...otherwise how could I Will know what they are doing.”
Gentry: (ˇˇ)
Gentry finished the food on his plate in a few moments and left directly.
[○｀Д○]
His muscles were already tense, and he was afraid that he would be beaten if he couldn't help it.
Li Ao muttered "Eating too fast is bad for your stomach" and ate breakfast slowly.
Compared with the noisy fans in away games, he is actually more worried about the emerging domestic Internet media.
During the locker room interview last night, he had a big head.
Last night, Da Zhi got a chance to play in the fourth quarter, played 5 minutes, scored a three-pointer, and scored 3 points and 3 rebounds.
The shocked departments of various domestic Internet media actually asked him a bunch of questions about this matter.
The question that impressed him most - "Dazhi had the highest shooting percentage on the team tonight and the most rebounds among the substitutes. Do you think he has gained Nelson's trust?"
If Wang Zhizhi hadn't even put down his heel in the Mavericks, Li Ao would have taken the opportunity to stir up trouble.
After resting all morning, Li Ao watched two game clips from the end of the Mavericks' regular season.
When it was almost lunch time, the Clippers came to the American Airlines Arena, and the Mavericks prepared a sumptuous meal.
The cabinets in the visiting team locker room of the Celtics are no different, even the doors. Cuban’s benefits to the visiting team are particularly good, with star-rated chefs on call around the clock and ingredients that can be purchased within a short period of time. The best.
The visiting team's rest area is huge and luxuriously decorated. It has a billiards room, a chess and card room, a cinema, and even a few small rooms with extremely soft beds but poor soundproofing. There are even pictures of local legal business streets in the small rooms. takeaway call.
On the contrary, the Mavericks' own treatment is very ordinary, even worse than that of many teams.
The Silver Horn King once asked his good friends why the visiting team was so luxurious. Cuban's answer was - let them indulge in pleasure and lose their fighting spirit, and we will have a greater chance of winning.
Although I don’t know why Cuban thought this would make the visiting team players lose their fighting spirit, the Silver Horn King believed it and firmly supported his good friend.
The Clippers didn't need to use this welfare package in vain. They didn't use the Mavericks' chef. Instead, they asked Jack to prepare lunch. They shouldn't have the intention of harming others, but they should have the intention of guarding against others.
While having lunch, Li Ao received a surprise!
On April 22, 2001, the NBA officially announced the final Best of the Week and the last Best of the Month awards for this season.
In the extended week from April 10th to 18th, Li Ao won all 4 games, averaging 31.5 points, 8.25 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.5 steals, and 4.25 blocks per game, and won his fourth Player of the Week this season!
He successfully broke the record for best games of the week in his rookie season, which was shared by him and the Admirals.
The best of the month award was won by Clippers head coach Gentry in the last month. He finished with 7 wins and 2 losses and rushed to seventh place in the Western Conference.
Rookie of the Month, Li Ao won the award for six consecutive months without any suspense, becoming the second player to win all Rookie of the Month after David Robinson.
The best player of the month...is still Li Ao!
The last award of the regular season was won by the Clippers!
In April, the Clippers had 7 wins and 2 losses. Li Ao averaged 36.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.7 steals and 3.9 blocks per game.
In the voting for the best of the month announced by the league, the second place is the OK combination. In April, the OK combination played 8 games with one rest. The Sharks averaged 33 points per game and the Black Mamba averaged 27 points per game.
In front of the Player of the Month Award, 6 Rookie of the Month, 4 Weekly Players, etc. are not important.
This time the awards were announced, Li Ao once again caused a sensation!
Since the establishment of the Player of the Month award, only Larry Bird has won the Player of the Month award in his rookie season. Now, this is not the only one!
But this time the sensation was not controversial.
At the end of the regular season, many media predicted that Li Ao was the top favorite for the Player of the Month award.
Scored 50 points twice in a single month, blocked a triple-double once, and had a good record. Li Ao's performance in the closing stages was crazy!
…
The sensation caused by Li Ao winning the best game of the month was even overshadowed by Carter's 50+ score in a single game last night.
But on his side, he has no intention of surfing the Internet to read news.
He is excited and he wants to train!
Player of the Week and Rookie of the Month each received 5,000 achievement points.
This season's Rookie of the Month award has been won, and all the rewards have been obtained. It's a pleasure.
The best player of the week also received a total of 20,000 achievement points, which is great!
He broke David Robinson's rookie season best-of-the-week record and received an achievement reward - 1 advanced bullet speed attribute point.
The 1 attribute point obtained by the 'Strongest Rookie' last night was used on his bounce, which increased the bounce to 87 and the bullet speed to 91. With this achievement reward, the bullet speed increased to 92!
Winning the Best of the Month for the first time in his career, Li Ao also learned about the reward for the Best of the Month - 20,000 achievement points.
For replicating Big Bird's achievement, the system gave an achievement reward - 1 advanced flexibility attribute point.
Flexibility is back to 93.
He feels that he can really make some efforts to gain weight this summer.
Gaining weight will affect flexibility and indirectly affect speed. This is what he learned from training last summer.
He temporarily regarded the improvement in flexibility as capital to gain weight...
The teammates were very excited when they learned that Li Ao won the Player of the Month award.
They were not surprised. The media had predicted that their Spider-Man would win this award a few days ago. They had been waiting for the awards day which ended in the third week of this month for a long time.
After enjoying a sumptuous lunch, the Clippers conducted preparation training in the afternoon.
After a big victory over the Mavericks last night, Gentry did not relax at all, but became more strict in training.
Because the Mavericks played badly last night, he didn't even know how the Mavericks would perform in the playoffs.
Moreover, there is no past data or video to study. The Mavericks have not made the playoffs in 10 years, and the main players have basically no playoff experience.
From the perspective of understanding the opponent, a fight equals no fight.
Let’s analyze it more carefully. The abilities displayed by the Mavericks players last night don’t count. The mad scientist had a brainstorm and put Juwan Howard in the starting lineup to partner with Nowitzki. The long-range shooting areas of the two overlapped. Maybe the mad scientist had an idea. A very beautiful tactic, but the Mavericks players failed to perform, and they were also constraining each other due to lineup issues...
Gentry is very satisfied with this group of young players. No one slacked off just because they gained the home court advantage. They prepared carefully and were eager to directly enter the match point 2-0.
…
This night, Gentry stood guard in front of Li Ao's door.
Spider-Man will never be allowed to interfere with his sleep by watching the excitement again!
As a result, at 1 o'clock in the morning, Spider-Man didn't come out of the room...
At 8 o'clock the next morning, Gentry met Li Ao by chance in the restaurant with dark circles under his eyes.
Seeing Spider-Man's energetic appearance, he asked unwillingly: "Leo, did you go out to watch the fun again last night?"
"How is it possible? I went to bed at 10 o'clock. After dinner yesterday, I opened a trumpet account and pretended to be a Mavericks fan to sneak into their forum. I read all the activities written in their recruiting posts last night. It's nothing. It’s something new. The only interesting thing is that a group of LSP deceived female college students into doing stripteases. I looked at the photos of the college students who signed up, and it’s not my cup of tea.”
"..."
Gentry was tired and thought that instead of being violent, handsome guy, you might as well give me a good beating.
But thinking about Sugar Man, Big Mom, Dirty Kurt... forget it, Spider-Man hits people too painfully.
The time came to 8 o'clock in the evening, and the series between the Clippers and the Mavericks started again at the American Airlines Center.
Tonight, the Mavericks' starting lineup is normal.
The five-man team of Nash, Finley, Edondo Najera, Nowitzki, and Bradley came on the court.
The Clippers still have Greg Anthony, Big Q, Li Ao, Odom, and O'Neal Jr.
Li Ao, Odom, and Matt Halprin, the three of them ensure that at least two of them are on the court at the same time to maintain the continuity of Nowitzki's defense.
After the game started, the Mavericks showed a completely different competitive state from the night before.
The first is defense. Don’t look at Edondo Najera, a Mexican rookie whose statistics are not impressive, but his desperate defense is the key to the Mavericks’ first-class defense in the regular season. It connects Finley and Bradley, and can Help Nowitzki and Nash fill in the gaps.
The most important thing is that the starting lineup tightened up the defense, and the Mavericks finally had a clear tone for the game tonight!
The Mavericks led the Clippers 23-21 in the first quarter, maintaining the dignity of playing at home.
After confirming that their side could play an advantage through normal play, the Mavericks players began to gain confidence. They scored 28-26 in the second quarter, extending the lead to 4 points, leading 51-47 at halftime!
In the third quarter, Li Ao made a chasing block at the beginning and hit a three-pointer after catching the ball, which sounded the clarion call for the Clippers to counterattack.
The Mavericks' starting lineup defended quite well, but the overall defense was only top-notch because they didn't have many players to guard and lacked continuity. They couldn't stop the Clippers from scoring in the second quarter.
Relying on the momentum brought by Li Ao's chasing block and three-pointers, the Clippers scored 31 points in the third quarter!
But at this time, Juwan Howard, who played very little time in the first half, became the new force of the Mavericks!
With anger, Juwan Howard made 5 of 8 shots in a single quarter, plus 3 of 3 free throws, scoring 13 points, helping the Mavericks score 28 points in a single quarter, holding on to a weak lead, leading the Clippers 79 to 78. The team ended the third quarter with 1 point!
At the end of the quarter, both teams who fought too hard in the previous quarter looked weak.
At this time, the overall offensive advantage of the Mavericks' 'hundred-level' team was revealed.
As long as Nelson doesn't go crazy with old age, he will still be the super coach who was the best coach three times in 10 years, with proper rotation adjustments and excellent tactical arrangements.
Although the Mavericks don’t have Li Ao who can score several goals in a row, they don’t have a convulsive player like Big Q, they don’t have an attacker like Maggette, and they don’t have a versatile player like Odom... but they won. In stability!
However, several Clippers players who have the ability to turn the situation around under certain conditions failed to explode in the final quarter.
The Mavericks led the Clippers 20-16 in the final quarter and defended the victory until the end!
99 to 94, the Mavericks narrowly defeated the Clippers and defended their second home court!
Finley, as the regular main attack point, scored a team-high 21 points.
Nash scored 16 points and 8 assists on 6-of-12 shooting, and Juwan Howard, who came off the bench, scored 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
Nowitzki's shooting was still poor, making only 7 of 20 shots, but he was praised by Nelson.
His teammates didn't have good opportunities to throw shots to him, but he shot firmly. When someone needed to step up for a single, Finley ran aside and Nowitzki stepped up for a single.
Although it is much iron, it ensures the smooth operation of tactics!
With 7 of 20 shots, including 2 of 7 three-pointers, and 4 of 4 free throws, Nowitzki scored the team's second-highest 20 points.
For the Clippers, Li Ao made 8 of 18 shots tonight, including 1 of 3 three-pointers, plus 8 of 8 free throws, scoring a game-high 25 points, plus 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 blocks.
Odom made 6 of 15 shots and had 16 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists.
O'Neal was going to have a hard time tonight, with 19 points and 21 rebounds. In terms of rebounding, he bullied the Mavericks inside. However, he made 6 of 18 shots and had 8 offensive rebounds in a single game. His scoring basically relied on second offense, catch-and-shoot and singles. The performance was terrible.
Li Ao felt that his side was already playing very well, but he just lacked enough energy to turn the situation around in the second half.
It has something to do with the employment strategy of the opponent Nelson. In the first half, Juwan Howard only played in the last 3 minutes of the first quarter and the first 4 minutes of the second quarter. When he came on the court in the third quarter, he felt like he was going crazy.
Juwan Howard's contract is ridiculously large. If he is asked to serve as the core of a strong team worth 16.88 million U.S. dollars, he can wear his pants, but!
But using Juwan Howard as a $6.88 million replacement... Ballmer! Make money! Our team is being slapped in the face with money, but you don't care?
But what Li Ao cares most about is King Silver Horn's style of play tonight. It feels inexplicably familiar, but he doesn't remember that he has ever played against a player with a similar style of play...
…
The next afternoon, the Mavericks came to Los Angeles.
When King Silverhorn was flying in the sky, he was watching Spider-Man game videos.
When we got to the hotel, we continued our research.
His defensive ability and awareness are certainly not about how to defend against Spider-Man.
Instead, learn Spider-Man’s attack style!
This is a good play!
There are enough opportunities to take shots without saying anything, and you won't be scolded if you can't make a shot!
And he made the shot, and his teammates thought he was awesome!
His skills are not comprehensive enough. When he plays with Juwan Howard, not to mention his teammates are more willing to pass the ball to Juwan Howard to attack. The Silver Horn King himself feels that this teammate is more stable than him in singles.
Ability is one thing, but the key is that in this series, there are three players on the opposite side who can restrain him...
Let’s learn from Spider-Man!
Just when King Silver Horn was happy to have found a style of play that was more suitable for his current abilities, a piece of news came, and even as modest as he was, he couldn't help but curse.
"Howard, this idiot, must be sick!"
Looking back to this morning, before the Mavericks gathered to leave Dallas, Juwan Howard was interviewed by ESPN.
When he was asked about returning to the bench, he replied in a resentful tone: "I don't understand Nelson's arrangement. I am the best player on the team, but he asked me to come on the bench, and He was going to ask me to come on the bench next. I couldn't accept it. Without me, could the Mavericks win last night's game?
Only then can I lead the team to victory. I said that I came here to be a leader, not to be looked down upon by Nelson and put on the bench. "
In this series between the Mavericks and the Clippers, after the first game, people were curious. The Mavericks seemed to be unable to do anything. How did they get this record?
After the second game, everyone discovered that the Mavericks were so defeated in the first game that the mad scientist went crazy again.
This conclusion is not surprising at all.
Nelson has been coaching for more than 20 years and can be said to be the most well-known head coach in the league today with the most tricks and fun.
As an NBA fan, you may not know who Auerbach is, but you must have heard Nelson's nickname.
After Nelson stopped going crazy, the Mavericks showed basically the same strength as the Clippers.
The attention of this series continues to increase. The Mavericks have a good style of play and the Clippers have Spider-Man's first playoff trip.
And we can also look forward to whether Nelson will go crazy again...
Just when people thought that this series of games would become more and more interesting, a 'big point' really came.
Juwan Howard, who was praised as 'Super Sixth Man' after last night's game, publicly expressed his unwillingness to play as a substitute!
…
The Clippers also flew back to Los Angeles in the afternoon.
In the evening, Li Ao, Jessica, Jordan, and a Cuban girl appeared in a high-end restaurant.
In order to thank Jordan for helping boost the morale of their team on the 21st, Li Ao invited him to dinner.
He felt the tension of his teammates that day. It happened that Boss Joe went to Dallas to watch his debut in the playoffs. He decisively shook Boss Joe to their locker room and took advantage of it.
Jordan didn't refuse. Of course he was happy to help the second most popular contracted player of his own brand. He just said a few words.
During the meal, Li Ao and Jordan didn't eat much and spent more time chatting.
Jordan's comeback plan, the design progress of Spider-Man 1, summer promotional activities...etc.
As we chatted, we came to the hottest news today - the internal strife in the Mavericks.
Li Ao felt very strange about this matter.
"McKen, what on earth is Howard thinking? If he makes such remarks, doesn't he know that it will affect their team's subsequent performance?
Even if he wants to express his unwillingness to play as a substitute, he should wait until the end of the season. If he can maintain his performance last night on the bench, he will definitely get more recognition and get rid of the boss of a bad team and a data brush. ' title. "
"Leo, you are still too young. If he is unwilling to come on the bench, he must express his attitude now. Waiting until the end of the season to express his attitude is tantamount to telling Nelson or future coaches that although he is not willing, the team If he is asked to play as a substitute, he can accept it, but then he may only be able to play as a substitute in the future.
Moreover, he is only 27 years old and has two years left on his contract. If he is considered to accept playing as a substitute, his salary will be restricted. He must know that he is not worthy of 20 million, but he does not want to get 2 million as a substitute. "
"Well... the adult world is really complicated."
"Now that the Mavericks are in internal strife, do you feel like you can relax in this series?"
“It’s not true, I’m even more stressed.
Nelson is a stubborn person, if he wants to put Howard on the bench, and Howard, in order to prove that he is worthy of starting, will play harder and perform like last night in the third quarter... In my opinion Come on, this is not good news for our team. "
Jordan groaned and said no more.
This overly cautious spider is really annoying!
Today's update will be suspended for one day. Xiaofeng will have a good sleep and recuperate. The update will resume tomorrow~
Asking for a monthly ticket!
(End of chapter)
