super small forward

Chapter 617. The Christmas War Is Coming Soon

People, always have to be happy, even if there is no happy thing, you still have to be happy, otherwise you will not be pissed off for a long time.

Mike Malone has been so comforting himself.

In the Kings last season, he became the head coach for the first time, and played very well with Cousins, which made Cousins ​​play happily, and played a beautiful performance of 25+12 per game for the first time in his career. The potential of Cousins ​​​​is fully developed. Although the record is not good, the performance of Cousins ​​​​makes the fans very excited, and the data of the first center is proper.

Just when he thought his coaching career was starting to get smoother, George Karl expressed his interest in the position of head coach of the Kings, and then the general manager of the Kings fired him directly...

Fortunately, he allowed Cousins ​​to average 17+9 per game from a player who averaged 25 points and 12 rebounds last season. Fancy, reached a two-year contract and returned to the position of head coach again.

When he first arrived in the Nuggets, the Nuggets had Lawson, Will Barton, Gallinari, Faried, Jokic, Nurkic... a lot of young players with explosive talents, he was very excited, I feel like turning over again.

Who knew that Lawson was traded as soon as he signed the contract with the Nuggets, which made him feel unbelievable. This is a super point guard with double figures in assists per game!

But he still comforted himself, be a man, be happy, isn't it because Mudiay, the No. [-] high school student in the United States, was selected back then.

Moreover, Lawson made 18 of 1 shots in the Rockets' opener, and he instantly balanced. It seems that the management has long discovered that Lawson will suddenly fall off a cliff.

But when Mudiay averaged 30.00% three-pointers and 20.00% nine-pointers per game, he really couldn't be happier.

Facts have proved that the lineup of the Nuggets, only George Karl can play well, this group of people are not good at brains!He shot poorly and made strong shots. They were a group of track and field muscular men who couldn't play slightly more complicated tactics. He finally understood why Brian Shaw left sadly.

And now Mike Malone’s experience is worse than that of Brian Shaw. At that time, Lawson was still in a normal period. He couldn’t play complicated tactics, and he could let Lawson lead and run. Die...

Mike Malone happily said to the management: How about we compete for Simmons next year?

Mike Malone's most tangled point is that this group of players really can't achieve any good results, but they are not particularly bad. Now they are 10 wins and 16 losses, completely missing the No. [-] pick, but also missing the playoffs...

Mike Malone was very moved when he saw the lineup of the Lakers. To say that the team with the most similar lineup to the Lakers in the league and the team with the same level of talent happened to be the Nuggets he coached.

If D'Antoni is really going to coach the Nuggets, he will probably be able to achieve the same best coaching record as George Karl.

But he's just Mike Malone after all, not D'Antoni, not George Karl...

So he is watching Clarkson, the second-round pick of last season, blow up his lottery pick this year, and then find some happy things, at least the insider's 2014 first-round pick Nurkic and 2014 second-round pick Jokic and Jokic performed well, and they did not fall behind in the contest with Monroe. Although Monroe is just a substitute this year, he used to be a player who has been at least 15+10 since he started in the second grade. He is a proper first-class center.

Although both Jokic and Nurkic have some disadvantages to Monroe, it is a matter of experience. After all, Monroe has played for 5 years and it is already the sixth year, and both are still second-year players.

What the Nuggets should be happy about now is to wait for these two centers to play. As for Mudiay... let's look forward to Will Barton, who is facing McCollum, grow into an all-around combo guard, and Jokic Qi also has a good passing ability. Both of them have grown up. The organization is enough. Mudiay... has already been selected, what else can I do.

Mike Malone doesn’t think about Porzingis, that’s too far away, he’s almost in the second round, and he’s not necessarily better than Jokic. What Mike Malone worries about is the 13th pick in the first round. Devin Booker, who was selected by the Sun, is a rookie shooting guard who averaged 15 points per game!
But Mike Malone is still happy today, after all, the team is ahead...even though none of the five strongest Lakers are on...

……

The Lakers have a large-scale rotation today. LaVine, Clarkson, and McCollum rotate the backcourt. Mudiay defends whoever breaks out. Against Faried, Jokic, and Nurkic.

The defense of both sides is not good, but the scene is very good. Although the Nuggets have not had a particularly good organization point, their talent is really good. Except for the point guard being completely abused by Clarkson and LaVine, other aspects are no better than the Lakers. Difference.

The five superstars and future superstars of the Lakers sat on the sidelines, watching the substitute players on the field who were about to lose to the Nuggets, and D'Antoni blushed anxiously, all of them were speechless.

It doesn't matter if the agreed starter doesn't make it, how about a No. 11 player in the Western Conference?

D'Antoni was very embarrassed. He looked at a ten-win team at the time, so he didn't take it to heart at all. He went directly to persuade Antetokounmpo, Kobe, Liu Ren, Green, and Whiteside, who were supposed to start, to rest today. Let the substitutes have more opportunities to play.

The five didn't think much about it, thinking that D'Antoni had the confidence to win, and the Nuggets did not have a good record, and they were not as strong as the brutal substitutes of the Lakers in terms of reputation.

However, D'Antoni didn't expect it either!
A team that is definitely not going to make it to the playoffs, how can D'Antoni go back and pay attention to them, how would he know that the Nuggets won the ten games they won like this...

Just rely on talent, don't care about anything else, just rely on talent to win ten games, no matter what tactics or defense, it all depends on talent.

In terms of talent, the guys from the Nuggets are comparable to the Lakers. There are seven or eight talented men, but they haven't fully grown up, and they didn't let Mike Malone play Princeton's passer, but they are really talented. , the Lakers' second team was completely defeated...

The five superstars and future superstars of the Lakers were also very irritable at the beginning. They agreed to win casually and let the substitutes find their psychological balance!This is blown up!

But there was no response from the five players. What can they do? Today, none of them were on the active list. They put their hands on their knees and looked at D'Antoni with resentful eyes while wearing a suit at the Nuggets' home court. , D'Antoni's face was flushed red and he was very embarrassed by five people, and the six people formed a landscape that Lakers fans only found this game to be quite interesting...

119 to 110, the Nuggets ended the Lakers winning streak at home.

In this game, the Lakers really have no problem on the offensive end. The key is that the Nuggets are all talented and offensive. The defense of the Lakers' bench lineup is also average.

Then as expected, D'Antoni was criticized by the reporters who came with the team from Los Angeles, and the five Lakers in suits didn't help share it. Who told D'Antoni to do it himself...

……

……

After the Thunder and Nuggets' two consecutive away games, the Lakers returned to Los Angeles. On the 21st and 22nd, they defeated the Thunder and Hornets back to back at home.

The Lakers were prepared to fight the Thunder, but the Thunder just finished Game 7 of 5 games in 4 days, and it was the second back-to-back game. Westbrook is okay, Durant is really tired, Donovan The coach was afraid that Durant would feel fatigued and injured like last season, and Westbrook's knee had always worried the Thunder management, so Coach Donovan directly took the double and junior rotations for this game, and the Lakers easily won the game.

The second game against the Hornets was not much to watch. The Hornets did play well this year. They already had Kemba Walker, McGeegi, and Al Jefferson, and they introduced Jeremy Lin and Batum in the summer. Coach Steve Clifford's excellent coaching ability has become a strong team in the Eastern Conference this year.

But it can only spoil the situation. It is not a big problem to enter the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, but it is obviously impossible to go far. The top four in the Eastern Conference are still very strong.

The only thing to watch in this game is that Jeremy Lin returned to the Lakers home court to lead the championship ring. The Lakers fans are still very grateful for Jeremy Lin's contribution last season. When Antetokounmpo did not grow up and LaVine was still a rookie, Jeremy Lin It helped Clarkson withstand the pressure of so many super point guards in the league at the point guard position, and helped the Lakers win the championship again after 4 years, and it was the 17th tie with the Celtics champion.

Jeremy Lin is quite emotional to be honest. Even if he complains about the Lakers, he can only play as a substitute after being counterattacked by a rookie. He didn't play good data in the contract year. Even with the addition of a championship guard, he didn't get what he expected. Same salary as last season.

However, the love of the championship is priceless, and the relationship between Jeremy Lin and his teammates is not bad. When Kobe called the ring into Jeremy Lin's hands, he still shed tears.

After the warm scene was over, Kobe was tyrannical to Jordan's team. Today Kobe's running position is as active as playing against the Thunder. Green is also very active in picking and rolling for Kobe without the ball. Antetokounmpo and LaVine Kobe's pass is also very timely. Kobe, a guy who likes to "torture" various animals, has more than 20 open shots in the audience, plus some Hornets. In the singles at that time, Kobe scored 27 points on 15 of 44 shots today.

Liu Ren was very desperate. Kobe performed well today and led the Lakers to beat the Hornets. So D'Antoni asked him to watch Kobe's skills from the sidelines. After the first quarter, he clocked out. Fortunately, he saw Kobe in the first quarter Being so active has a very bad feeling. He made a few three-pointers decisively. His luck and touch were good. He made 4 of 3 three-pointers, plus a tip-up and a breakthrough. He scored 6 points on 5 of 13 in the first quarter. After all, he scored in double figures...

……

……

With 25 wins and 4 losses, the Lakers' record this year is indeed a bit worse than that of the same period last season. The record has been raised to 74 wins, which is a level where you don’t have the confidence to break it. Therefore, neither D’Antoni nor the Lakers players have thought about continuing to break the record this year. They will take turns when they should take turns. It is almost normal compared to last season. .

After the Lakers played back-to-back games between the Thunder and the Hornets, the Lakers got two days off, and the next game is the Christmas game.

The opponent of the Lakers in the Christmas game is the Warriors who have won 28 consecutive victories!

On the second day after the game between the Lakers and the Hornets, that is, on December 12, the Warriors defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in an away game and won 23 consecutive victories. Then they did not return to Oakland and stayed directly in Los Angeles. It is very close to Los Angeles. The Warriors management and coaching staff made an exception this time and allowed the Warriors players to bring their wives and children to Los Angeles, and then leased a large estate in Beverly Hills, so that the Warriors players can also be a family on the road. Christmas Eve.

Thanks to the fact that the Warriors are away to Los Angeles for the Christmas game, otherwise it would be another sad night where they would not be able to spend Christmas Eve with their families, and the entire team spent Christmas Eve together, which would be a different feeling.

Of course, there are also unlucky ones like the Cavaliers. They want to play away in New York. There is no way. The Christmas game is usually played in the city where the home of the two sides is bigger. The Cavaliers and the Knicks are the two most watched teams in the East. Team, it's normal for the ratings to drop due to aesthetic fatigue.

There are five Christmas games this year. The first game is the Cavaliers away game against the Knicks, then the Eagles go to Toronto and the Raptors for the Spurs system game, the third game is the Lakers vs. the Warriors at home, and the fourth game is the Spurs and the Rockets In the last Texas Civil War, the Thunder challenged the Clippers away.

The Clippers are unlucky again, and even the Thunder are unlucky, because at most an hour after the Lakers finish the game, they have to warm up on the freshly cleaned floor and then play the game.

There is usually a problem with the newly replaced floor, and only the Lakers and Clippers often encounter the problem, that is, slipping. Everyone can only play very carefully, and the game will be less attractive.

This is another thing that makes the owner of the Clippers, the rich man Ballmer, want to change the home court immediately...

……

……

On the morning of the 24th, Liu Ren took his family to the invitation of Curry and Thompson, and came to the big manor rented by the Warriors.

The place rented by the Warriors is in Beverly Hills, which is two or three minutes’ drive away from Liu Ren and Kobe’s house. Naturally, the players from the Lakers should be invited to get together and exchange feelings. No one can say which day will be Become teammates, because the Warriors and Lakers players are very talented, and the Thunder and Junior were invited together.

For the Thunder, the Warriors treated them differently. After all, the relationship is not so good. The relationship between Randall, Ibaka and Adams is also relatively bad. There was friction between the two teams in the regular season last season. Randall almost The little brother was hit by Ibaka...Durant was invited because of the friendship with the company, and Westbrook was invited because of his ability. not on.

Someone is treating guests to dinner, Liu Ren and Da Loli are very happy, no need to cook today!
So Liu Ren became famous again, and brought the chick, the big loli, two little loli, and a pregnant woman to the manor rented by the Warriors in a business car...

(End of this chapter)