Chapter 353 The regular season begins, the first battle with the Clippers
There is no doubt that this year's preseason was boring because of a certain rat. Not many people paid attention to the game process and results, and not many people cared about the performance of the stars.
The impact of this incident will continue and spread.
But no matter what, the league schedule must continue.
Time soon came to October 22, when the NBA regular season officially started.
As the championship team last season and one of the most popular teams in the league, the Lakers naturally arranged a strong and interesting team for the opening game.
Of course, it is also the most popular city derby for Los Angeles fans - Lakers VS Clippers.
This season, the Clippers have finally turned around and completely stood up.
The combination of James + Leonard is, without a doubt, the strongest striker combination in the league! In addition, the Clippers also have Lou Williams, DeAndre Jordan, Harrell and other good players to help, and it will naturally become
Favorite to win.
And as a dual-core driven team, both James and Leonard have some grievances with Wang Feng.
In the playoffs last season, the Lakers eliminated James' Clippers in the first round, and then eliminated Leonard's Toronto Raptors in the finals.
Now, the two players who lost to Wang Feng have joined forces to avenge their previous defeat in the new season!
In fact, Wang Feng was quite surprised that Leonard was willing to join forces with James. After all, in another time and space, Leonard played a good game against the Lakers and James.
After the Mongolian Dragons won the championship, Leonard clearly showed interest in joining the Lakers, but he never entered the contract negotiation period and even asked the Lakers not to make transactions without authorization before negotiating a contract with him.
and reinforcement.
The Lakers waited for several days, but finally sensed something was wrong, especially when Leonard flirted with the Clippers. The Lakers finally knew they couldn't wait any longer, so they traded for Davis, the thick-eyebrow guy.
After Leonard delayed the Lakers for a long time, he finally chose to sign with the Clippers and form a partnership with Paul George.
In fact, he had no intention of going to the Lakers from the beginning. The purpose of that set of tricks was also to interfere with the Lakers' reinforcement work. If the Lakers really foolishly followed it, maybe even Davis, the thick-browed brother, would be gone.
There is no chance to get it. By then, the Clippers will not only become a strong team in the Western Conference, but also easily eliminate a possible strong enemy.
It's a pity that cleverness leads to mistakes. The Clippers' management probably couldn't have imagined that the Lakers immediately won the championship after adding Davis, the thick-browed brother. However, they formed a luxurious lineup and became the biggest favorite to win the championship.
, but failed to achieve anything in the next three seasons.
Of course, those are all things for later.
In Wang Feng's opinion, the reason why Leonard is unwilling to join the Lakers has a lot to do with James.
At the forward position, LeBron James is undoubtedly the target of all players' pursuit and comparison.
The vast majority of strikers will never have the opportunity to see James' taillights in their lifetime, so it is meaningless to compare them naturally.
But Leonard is different. After winning the Menglong championship, Leonard, who has two championships and two FMVPs in his hands, is only one championship behind James in terms of team honors.
In this case, should we team up with other stars and win a third championship to tie James, or should we partner with James and win his third championship while allowing James to win the fourth or even fourth championship in his career?
FMVP, how to choose this kind of thing actually doesn’t have much to worry about.
But the situation is different now.
Leonard failed to win the second championship trophy in his career, and faced with strong opponents such as the Nets, Lakers, and Warriors, it was difficult for him alone to have a chance to win.
In this way, teaming up with James is not so difficult to accept. At least if he wants to defeat Wang Feng, who was unable to defeat him in a head-on confrontation in the finals, Leonard must have helpers.
…
Due to the dog incident, CCTV Sports has stopped all NBA live broadcasts, and major domestic sports media have also suspended related live broadcasts. Therefore, Chinese audiences cannot watch this focus battle. In fact, at this time,
Chinese fans who are in the stage of excitement are not willing to watch the NBA to generate revenue for the United States at this stage.
In the United States, this game has received unprecedented attention, with many media broadcasting the game live.
Since it is the home court of the Clippers, the Lakers are wearing away uniforms on the court, but in the audience, it is obvious that the Lakers have more supporters than the Clippers.
"Come on! Wang Feng, beat LeBron and Kawhi! We support you!"
"Los Angeles belongs to the Lakers! The Clippers will always be just the little brother following the Lakers!"
Just through the shouts and curses on the field before the game, you can see how much everyone attaches importance to the outcome of this game.
If the fans are like this, let alone the team.
Both teams attach enough importance to this opening of the regular season.
The Lakers directly fielded their strongest starting lineup, Wang Feng, Butler, Ingram, Kuzma, and Lopez.
The Clippers' starting five are the famous defensive player Patrick Beverley at point guard, 2018 rookie Landry Shamet at shooting guard, and Paul at small forward.
George, power forward Kawhi Leonard, center DeAndre Jordan.
In this lineup of the Clippers, the two guards are obviously shortcomings. Although Beverley has good defensive ability, he is completely a liability on the offensive end. Shamet, as the 26th pick in the first round of 2018, has great strength.
In terms of performance, it is just a matter of rotating role players.
It's just that in the Clippers' lineup, these two are just pseudo-starters.
The Clippers' real main force at point guard is sixth man Lou Williams. Beverley's playing time as a starter is obviously only slightly less than that of Lou Williams.
And Shamet basically only plays for a few minutes and will be replaced soon. The Clippers can send Harrell as the power forward and let George and Leonard appear at the shooting guard and small forward respectively.
position to further enhance the team's overall height, attack power and mobility.
All in all, although the Clippers' starting lineup looks slightly worse than that of the Lakers, the explosive combination of James + Leonard is enough to make up for all the gaps in the lineup in terms of strength.