super small forward

Chapter 390 390. Battle Spurs

All-Star Voting has begun!

At 12 noon on December 12th, the voting for the 12 All-Star Weekend officially began.

Still the same as last season, this year's All-Star voting does not restrict voting targets, fans can vote for whomever they want.

The league finally relied on the All-Star voting to once again arouse the enthusiasm of the fans.

Due to the infighting of the Lakers before, many fans continued to pay attention to the NBA at this time, and the participation in the All-Star voting this time was extremely high!

By midnight on the 13th, more than 12 million people voted in just 100 hours!Made NBA history!

Kobe, who performed better this year than last season, ranked first with 79 votes on the first day without any suspense. Curry ranked second in the East with 65 votes. It is also the second guard in the Western Conference.

What is surprising is that Liu Ren only received 49 votes in the first day of voting, ranking third in the frontcourt of the Western Conference, being left behind by Griffin and Gasol!
Whiteside and Thackeray, Leonard, and Anthony Davis, who are behind Liu Ren, are not far from his votes!
When Liu Ren saw the news, he almost didn't scold anyone. He learned the reason through secretly discussing the posts on the forums and basketball websites. A large part of the reason for the high participation of fans this time was those who hacked him. Deliberately vote for other balloon stars in the west, but don't vote for him!

This is the same as Thackeray's All-Star starter last season. At that time, the fans didn't want Howard to make the All-Star starter. This time it's Liu Ren's turn!

In the East, although the Cavaliers had a bad start, the popularity that James has accumulated over the years like Kobe has begun to give back. No matter what his team's record is, the fans support him. Now that the Cavaliers' record is starting to pick up, the fans are even more excited There is no reason not to vote for him, even the Lakers fans who have blackmailed James for many years, voted for Kobe and James at the same time.

After all, the chance for Kobe and James to play against each other on the court is to watch one less game.

James ranked first in the East with 75 votes on the first day of voting, and Anthony and Drummond ranked second and third respectively.

The frontcourt advantage of the East is obvious. This year Paul George is reimbursed for the season. There is no frontcourt player with better popularity and statistics than these three in the East. Basically no one can compete with them.

The backcourt competition in the East is much more intense. Wall temporarily ranks first with 57 votes, Rondo is second with 55 votes, Irving is third with 54 votes, Lowry is fourth with 54 votes a little less than Irving, and Wade is fourth. 52 votes fifth...

The All-Star Weekend is not only the dividing line of the league's schedule, but also its voting process is a magic weapon used by the league to attract fans in the two months of December and January, and let those balloon stars cheer up and play well in these two months. The most attractive thing about a better game.

The All-Star debut represents not only popularity, but also honor and...money!
……

……

At the ATT Center in San Antonio, Spurs fans have never looked forward to playing against a strong team this season.

This season, the Spurs have played against strong teams 5 times. The opponents are the Rockets, Thunder, Hawks, Knicks, and Lakers. They have all lost without exception!
This year, the Spurs generals are showing their old age. They have completely lost the invincible momentum of the league in the previous two seasons. The fans did not blame their players. After all, the age is there. Instead of adjusting like in 09 and 10, the last fuel tanks of the veterans really dried up this time.

Maybe after a season of rest adjustments, the Spurs are still a team that should not be underestimated in the playoffs, but fans don't expect much improvement in this regular season.

After all, the Spurs were able to win the regular season in the Western Conference in the previous four years because they have been the first since the beginning of the season, rather than coming from behind. The Spurs have never been such a team.

but!

This doesn't mean that the fans don't want the team to win in the regular season, especially when facing the Lakers, they want to win even more!
Judging from the strength shown by the two teams this season, it is too difficult for the Spurs to beat the Lakers. The coaching staff of D'Antoni and Bickerstaff is no worse than Popovich. Not worse than the Spurs, and the lineups of the two teams are even more incomparable.

But things are different now!
The Lakers are in conflict!
What will be the result of the Lakers infighting?
The final fate of the Big Four in 04 and 13 speaks for itself.

At this time, it was the time when the internal strife broke out in the Lakers team. Kobe and Liu Ren had conflicts directly in the game.

There is a time limit for contradictions, especially for strong teams that have already played records. No matter how bad the Big Four of the Lakers were in 04, didn't they eventually reach the finals?
In 13, the Big Four of the Lakers were not good because the record was not good from the beginning.

Spurs fans may be the most sensible fans in the league. Although they are very happy to see the Lakers have problems, they also know that as the season continues, the Lakers will definitely use their records to stabilize the conflict between Liu Ren and Kobe.

After all, the Lakers had too much of an advantage when playing against weak teams. Like Liu Ren and Kobe played nonsense in the previous game, they still won by more than 20 points against the Kings.

The talent and strength of the players are there!No matter how bad it is, it won't go anywhere.

The Lakers this time are very different from the Big Four in 04 and 13. At that time, the Big Four of the Lakers basically filled the salary cap, and the substitutes were all signed with a basic salary. However, most of the main players of the Lakers this time They are all rookie contracts and basic salaries. At most, they are middle class. Kobe, Gasol, and Nash have an annual salary of more than [-] million. The difference is huge!
Spurs fans believe that the Lakers will slowly return to normal after some time, so now is the best chance to beat the Lakers this season.

What kind of fans there is what kind of home team, most of the Spurs players think the same as the fans, except for extremely disbelieving and extremely believing.

From the appearance ceremony, everyone on the scene became more certain that they believed that now is the best time to beat the Lakers.

The Lakers players entered the field in two groups, inside and outside the line, without even looking at the other side, as if they were never in contact with each other.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, the game officially started.

Lakers starting: Nash, Bryant, Liu Ren, Gasol, Green.

Spurs starters: Parker, Danny Green, Leonard, Duncan, Diaw.

Nash returned to the starting lineup again. D'Antoni hinted before the game that this was to ease the problem of possession of the ball on the field. Of course, it certainly didn't mean that literally, but that's how people understood it.

Gasol won the jump ball duel with Duncan, and the Lakers went first.

Nash advanced to the frontcourt, and Liu Ren and Kobe asked for the ball at two 45-degree angles at the same time.

Nash chose to give Liu Ren the ball, and Liu Ren attacked first.

Of course Leonard was defending Liu Ren.

(End of this chapter)