NBA: At the beginning, the Polish star was so angry that he was reborn

After a series of tight and difficult road trips, the Lakers finally returned to Los Angeles.

At Staples, they will face the challenges of the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder one after another.

The current top three in the West are the Lakers, Spurs, and Thunder.

These two games are bound to be a tough fight.

Good news finally came from Kupchak's side. The Lakers traded last season's Sixth Man of the Year, Lamar Odom, for Philadelphia point guard Jrue Holiday.

Jrue Holiday was the No. 09 pick in 17.

In the first two seasons of the 76ers, Holiday played steadily and grew into a qualified point guard.

However, this season, Holiday's state has declined to a certain extent. His scoring average has dropped to 13 points per game, and his average assists per game has also dropped to 4.5.

But his defense and ball-handling ability are still online, which is what Kupchak values ​​most.

The Lakers' point guard exists more as Kobe's support, so Holiday's fit with the Lakers is quite high.

If the deal is completed at the beginning of the season, it should be relatively smooth.

But this season Odom's performance is really eye-catching, and many teams believe that he will never be able to return to normal levels, which greatly reduces his market conditions.

Kupchak eventually sent two first-round picks in 12 and 13 to impress Philadelphia.

The final result of the transaction is: the Lakers sent Lamar Odom + 12-year first-round pick + 13-year first-round pick from Philadelphia in exchange for Jrue Holiday and a special case of 500 million transactions.

Of course, based on the current state of the Lakers, the picks of these two picks will not be too high, which can make Kupchak feel a little better.

After all, Kobe's peak period is only a few years away, and it is very necessary to seize this championship window.

However, the players have not yet completed the physical examination, so Holiday will not be able to keep up with the Spurs game.

The home game against the Thunder is his debut time.

Odom's departure did not cause much disturbance in the Lakers.

In the early stage, Odom had conflicts with the coaching staff and team management on the issue of playing time.

After that, Odom has not played for a long time because of the players' psychological problems.

So the team has long been used to the days without Odom.

……

The Spurs are one of the most successful teams in the 21st century. Under the leadership of Popovich, they have entered the playoffs for 14 consecutive seasons, which is the longest record in the history of the NBA.

Popovich has been the head coach of the Spurs since 1996.

After selecting Tim Duncan, Popovich started the team building process around this "big fundamental skill".

Before 03, Popovich established an inside twin-tower combination with "Admiral" Robinson and "Stone Buddha" Tim Duncan as the core;

After Robinson retired, Popovich created the "GDP" combination of "Stone Buddha" Duncan, "Demon Sword" Ginobili and "French Sports Car" Tony Parker.

在波波维奇的调教下，马刺队爆发出强大的战斗力，在99、03、05、07赢得了4次总冠军奖杯。

This caused fans to call odd-numbered years "Spurs years."

However, in recent years, with the increase of injuries, Duncan's dominance has declined.

Coupled with the continuous emergence of super teams such as the "Celtics", "Lakers", and "Heat" in the league, the Spurs' performance has fallen into a bottleneck.

Especially last season, they won the first place in the regular season, but they were eliminated by the eighth-ranked Grizzlies with a score of 4-2 to the "Black Eight" in the first round of the playoffs.

Its shock is no less than the defending champion Lakers being swept out 4-0 by the Mavericks.

So the Spurs, who learned from the pain, began to reinvent themselves.

The Spurs shifted their offense from the inside to the outside.

"Stone Buddha" Duncan reduced his shots and put more energy on defense.

On the outside, Tony Parker and Ginobili's shots have increased to a certain extent.

Of course, as a defensive team, the Spurs' defense this season is still suffocating.

So far this season, the Spurs have conceded 96.5 points per game, the second-lowest team in the league.

This year's No. 15 pick, Kawhi Leonard, has been outstanding.

After being drafted by the Indiana Pacers, he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs.

Leonard is 201cm tall, but his wingspan has reached an astonishing 223cm (Griffin burst into tears), and he has a pair of historically large hands (hands are as long as O'Neal, Kobe expressed envy).

He reacts quickly, has a good positional sense and is strong.Can even defend from the 1st to the 5th.

If Yi Tian is the rookie with the most offensive firepower this season, then Leonard is the one with the best defense.

In addition, Popovich is the coach who can use rotation most.

The Spurs have rotated as many as 10 players this season, and no one on the team has played more than 32 minutes.

In contrast to this, the Lakers side.

Kobe's average playing time is 34.7 minutes; Gasol's average playing time is 34.1 minutes; Yi Tian's average playing time is as high as 38.1 minutes.

If the Lakers rely on the personal ability of the stars to solve the battle.

Then the Spurs are a model of team basketball.

The Spurs are like a delicate Swiss clock, relying on excellent tactics and tactical execution to create open and dislocation offensive opportunities.

And the high hit rate ensures the finishing ability of each attack.

But the more delicate it is, the more fragile it is. If one of the parts fails, the whole system will be in big trouble.

The Lakers just have the ability to penetrate the Spurs' defense.

They have the most powerful offensive firepower in the league. Kobe Bryant and Yi Tian ranked second and third in scoring.

Kobe's incomprehensible personal ability and Yi Tian's unreasonable three-pointers have always been sharp weapons for breaking dense defenses.

So in theory, the Lakers are not afraid of the Spurs.

This battle of focus has been dubbed a "war of contradictions" by the media.

They compared the Lakers to the sharpest spear and the Spurs to the strongest shield.

Whether the spear pierces the shield, or the shield breaks the spear, will be decided through a contest.

It is worth mentioning that the head coach of the Lakers, Mike Brown, is Popovich's favorite student.

Brown was the assistant coach of Mr. Popo in the 2000-2003 season, and won the championship with the team in the 03 season.

In addition, in 2007, Mike Brown once led James' 1.0 Cavaliers to challenge the Spurs in the Finals.

At that time, the seasoned Spurs swept the young Cavaliers 4-0.

Duncan also said the well-known words to James: The future is yours.

So this game is still a "master-apprentice" battle.

Although the Spurs have always kept a low profile, the attention of this game remains high.