Today's game is the opening game of the 2003-04 season for the Raptors, and it is still at the Raptors' home court.
Looking around, the entire arena is packed, and the atmosphere at the Air Canada Center even makes people think it's the start of the playoffs.
"Son of Toronto, hero of this city, shooting guard, No. 7 - Li Ming!"
Under the introduction of the on-site DJ, Li Ming made his final appearance. All the fans in the stadium were chanting Li Ming's name. Li Ming raised his right hand high and waved to the fans in the entire stadium while walking.
As the cheers of the fans throughout the stadium gradually subsided, the players from both sides entered the stadium and took their seats.
"Beep!"
The referee blew the whistle, held the ball in his right hand, came to the center circle, shook his head left and right to indicate that both sides were in position, and then threw the ball high.
As soon as the ball was about to fall from the highest point, Dayao jumped up hard and turned the ball over.
After all, Yao is now in a skinny state, and his jumping ability is still much stronger than in the later stage.
And this is his first game with the Raptors, and he must be motivated to win the game, even though he is facing last season's Eastern Conference champion.
After Williams dribbled the ball across half court, he glanced at Li Ming and then looked at Marshall inside.
I saw Marshall outside the three-second zone on the right side, leaning against Kenyon Martin, repeatedly reaching for the ball. After Williams hesitated, he lobbed the ball to Marshall.
When Li Ming saw the first ball, he did not follow the coach's tactical instructions. He also sneered slightly and started running outside. No matter what they did, at least he had to have a positive attitude to win the game.
Speaking of Marshall, if placed in the small ball era, he would definitely be a rare spatial insider.
The 30-year-old Marshall has a height of 2.06 meters, a body of 105 kilograms, and a wingspan of 2.19 meters, which makes him have good frame protection ability in the interior.
In addition, he averaged 1.8 three-pointers per game with a 40% shooting rate last season. If placed in the small ball era, he must be a space-based power forward that various teams are vying for.
Last season, Marshall averaged more than 30 minutes per game for the Bulls, averaging 13 points and 9 rebounds per game. He is a well-deserved core inside player.
However, this season it has been determined that Yao Ming will be the core on the inside and Li Ming will be the core on the outside, which has led to Marshall's tactical status plummeting.
He is already 30 years old. In this era of NBA, he can be regarded as a veteran. If the decline in tactical status leads to a decline in statistics, then he will not even get a middle-class pension contract.
As the saying goes, killing someone's money is like killing their parents. Marshall's hostility towards Yao is understandable. After all, with the current tactical system, the team can score more than 100 points in each game, which is a super high-scoring game. .
Dayao's slow movement speed led to a slow pace of the game. The data in the several preseason games played by Marshall and Dayao were not good, so Marshall felt very uncomfortable and was holding back his energy to prove himself.
In fact, Li Ming had already seen through Marshall's thoughts based on his performance.
Let him fight on his own first, and you will know when he hits a wall. This is actually not difficult at all.
According to Li Ming's idea, Marshall directly stretched out the three-point line, looked for opportunities in the bottom corner and 45-degree angle, and left it to Dayao to play inside. After attracting double teams, he passed the ball out for Marshall to shoot. , wouldn’t it be easy to score?
Who is Kenyon Martin, the inside representative of the Brutalists? With Marshall's small arms and legs, he managed to squeeze outside the three-point line after a few hard blows on his back.
Marshall was a little embarrassed and tried to break in again.
But Kenyon Martin is not good offensively, but his defense is indeed not bad. As the No. 1 pick in 2000, it is when he is strong.
When Marshall saw that he was unable to break through, he stopped the ball, raised it over his head, and threw it towards his teammate Jaylen Rose.
Jalen Rose and Marshall are about the same age, and both entered the league in the 1994 draft. They also entered the All-Rookie Second Team in the 1994-95 season. They were also traded from the Bulls in the offseason. It's fate.
Jalen Rose currently has three years left on his contract. As the Raptors' top earner this season, his annual salary is 13.28 million, which is nearly 9 million more than Marshall.
But in fact, Jalen Rose's role in Li Ming's heart is not as big as Marshall's.
In Li Mingben's era, Jaylen Rose retired in three or four years. After retirement, he became a very good basketball commentator, at least much better than his performance on the court.
When Jaylen Rose first came to the Raptors, he thought he wanted him to be the boss. It seems that he is also a man with high aspirations. He doesn't know how much he weighs.
Jaylen Rose looked up and saw that the attack time was already within 10 seconds. He picked up the ball, changed direction and rushed inside.
Jefferson, who was opposite him, was an All-Star player who integrated offense and defense. He deliberately left the ball on the left side to allow Jaylen Rose to break through.
The moment Jalen Rose joined the ball, he slashed with his right hand and cut the ball directly from Jalen Rose's hand. Without grabbing the ball, he threw it directly from the ground to Kidd not far away.
This made Dayao stunned. Dayao pulled out and prepared to set up a pick-and-roll for Jaylen Rose. Who knew that before he could get out of the ball, Jefferson intercepted it.
There is no other way, just run to the backcourt.
I have to say that Kidd, who was at his peak, was really powerful:
After receiving the ball, he took three shots in total and stepped into the free throw line in the backcourt. When he saw no one around him out of the corner of his eye, he happily made a standard three-step layup.
As soon as Kidd jumped up, he felt an unknown purple object flying over from behind and holding the ball above his head.
As soon as Kidd landed, he heard the Raptors home fans cheering loudly and yelling. When he looked closely, it was Li Ming who directly grabbed his layup from the backboard and nailed the block!
Li Ming grabbed the basketball with one hand and stared at Kidd.
Kidd felt a little embarrassed and came up to fight for it twice, but he didn't even touch the ball and returned to the frontcourt cursing. Li Ming smiled and looked up at the fans on the left and right, then slowly dribbled the ball toward the frontcourt.
After all, Li Ming is a rookie. He only plays about ten minutes per game in the preseason and doesn't do much offense. His technical characteristics cannot be seen.
The images from high school had no reference value at all, so Kidders didn't dare to be careless and defended Li Ming personally when he came near the three-point line.
When Li Ming looked at the close defense, wasn't this a bonus point?
There was no need to change direction. He just took advantage of Kidders' unsteady footing and accelerated in a straight line toward the basket.
Li Ming's straight-line acceleration was rated as a red skill by the system. Kidders couldn't keep up!
When Kenyon Martin saw this situation, he immediately came over from the side.
When Kenyon Martin hurriedly entered the three-second area behind the free throw line, he saw Li Ming make an unpredictable European step. Kenyon Martin's left foot failed to follow his right foot, and he directly hit the spot. do the splits!
"Bang!"
After Li Ming's European cloth passed Kenyon Martin, he went directly into the reasonable collision zone and hit Jason Collins with a dunk!
Jason Collins also didn't expect that there would be animals that could Euro-step and dunk. Without warning, he was directly knocked down on the basketball hoop. Not only did he lose face, but he also had to be said to have no dignity.
