Chapter 643

After an unexpected upset loss to the 76ers, the Pacers got another upset on January 13.

They lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves 109:113 at home?

The Timberwolves' record this season is appallingly bad, with a record of 5 wins and 31 losses before playing the Pacers.

If it can be reversed, it will be the number one in the league, but now it can only be the bottom one in the league.

Just such a team overturned the Pacers at the Conseco Arena.

Because Timberwolves point guard Mo Williams ushered in a super explosion.

He felt overwhelming tonight, scoring 52 points!

Because George Hill was absent tonight due to injury, no one was in charge of Williams.

The outbreak of Williams led to the outstanding performance of the Timberwolves team.

The Pacers failed to hold down the Timberwolves and lost at home.

It really won the first place in the league, and also lost the last place. The Pacers are so unstable that it is impossible to save them.

Li Liang's performance in this game is still stable, but he doesn't seem to be in a good state, and he doesn't play with much passion.

After the game, Bird saw that Li Liang was not energetic, and asked him if he didn't sleep well after returning home.

Li Liang replied: "I'm in a bad state because I slept well."

Just finished speaking, Li Liang yawned again...

After Li Liang returned from Philadelphia, he began to do tasks in the system.

He first did the task of [Basic Defense Ability Inside], increasing his ability value from 50 points to 60 points.

As a result, on the mission, participated in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's NBA debut in 1969, preventing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from breaking 20 points.

Li Liang came to the Detroit Pistons in the 1969 season to replace Walter Bellamy. On the first day of the mission, his scalp was numb after being hooked by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and he wanted to rush up and give him an elbow.

On the second day, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar still failed to stop him from scoring 20 points. In that game in history, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar easily scored 29 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists.

Li Liangyi gritted his teeth. On the day of the game, when he was taking a nap at noon, he took the risk of adopting the "self-destruct" method and quietly dug a hole for the Detroit Pistons in the game, allowing the Bucks to lead by more than 20 points early in the first half and hit the first half. In the fourth quarter, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored exactly 20 points, and he stopped playing in garbage time!

Relying on this "dirty" method, Li Liang successfully raised his [Basic Internal Defense Ability] to 60 points.

Difficult, too difficult.

For Li Liang, he has inherent disadvantages in completing the insider tasks.

After all, he is not a center forward, and then he has to go to a historical game to fight against those excellent super insiders. How can he not use some tricks?

In this way, although Li Liang took a nap, he actually exhausted a lot of energy. He participated in the night game against the Timberwolves with dark circles under his eyes, but his opponent broke out and lost another game.

But Li Liang didn't care if he lost to the weak point.

Think back to the season when the Chicago Bulls won 72 games and lost 10 games, and several of them were lost to that kind of weak team.

Think of it as sending warmth, saving character, and winning people's hearts.

After losing to the Timberwolves, the Pacers got another two days of rest.

Li Liang continued to upgrade his inside defensive ability.

First of all, what he needs to improve the most is [weak side defense]. Now that McGee is not there, the Pacers need a lot of interior defense.

Li Liang's current supplementary defensive ability on the weak side is only 20 points, and his supplementary defenses in normal games are all outside.

Fast speed and strong enveloping ability, but without basket protection, blocking shots and so on is purely dependent on the sky, without much skill.

The inside defense requires good anticipation and aerial interception. While assisting in defense, it does not leave too much room for the opponent to pass the ball.

In two days, Li Liang represented the Celtics in 1962 and the Celtics in 1966, replacing Bill Russell in the NBA regular season at that time. In the two games, he was required to block 5 shots and suppress The opponent's three-second zone scored.

While Russell is the greatest defensive center in history, the game in the 1960s was fairly simple for Li Liang.

The key is to represent the Celtics. Damn, if you fight a few more times, the NPCs in the mission will become good friends.

In this way, playing games all the way, and using value-added agents, he raised his [weak side defense] ability to 40 points in two days.

On January 16, he played against the Detroit Pistons. This time Li Liang had enough rest and showed his prowess at home.

He made 7 of 11 three-pointers, scored 45 points in a single game, and contributed 2 blocks and 17 rebounds on the defensive end.

In the three quarters, Li Liang single-handedly blew up the Pistons. Even though Jennings scored 37 points, he couldn't stop the Pacers from beating the Pistons 112:97 at home.

Of course, George Hill was still absent due to injury in this game, which caused problems for the Pacers' No. 1 defense.

Li Liang's improvement in interior defense was not obvious in the two games.

Originally, defense is not like offense. There is scoring, the most important and most conspicuous data display.

Sometimes a player has more blocks and rebounds, but it doesn't mean his defense is good.

Few blocks and few rebounds doesn't mean his defense is bad.

After winning the Pistons, the Pacers will start another road trip.

From January 17th to January 25th, five away games.

The opponents are the Hornets, Rockets, Eagles, Heat and Magic.

The schedule is not too difficult, these cities are located in the southern part of the United States, which is equivalent to a week trip to the south.

Li Liang made a plan for himself. In a week, there are games to be played and tasks to be done.

He wants to strive to build himself into a good socialist center forward who is both offensive and defensive, capable inside and outside...

No, Li Liang thought, I'm not a center forward, I'm not a center forward, I just want to help McGee with a tank.

After the game against the Pistons on the 16th, the Pacers flew to Charlotte overnight.

Because on the 17th they will play the Hornets back to back.

At this time of each season, it will be a huge test for the physical strength, energy and morale of the players.

Many strong teams can rely on inertia to survive this difficult period. Even if the players are not in good condition, they can still win consecutive victories.

The Pacers are obviously not so strong because they are a single-core team.

A single-core team has only one core, just like a plane with only one engine, the failure rate will always be a little higher than that of a twin-engine plane.

Flying to Charlotte in the early morning, the players didn't get up until noon, and they had to participate in the game at night.

Facing Boss Joe's team, the entire Pacers team was not in a good state—except for Li Liang.

This guy is really full of energy, as expected of a man who packs up his physical strength, has both runes full of energy, and occasionally gets a bottle of Gatorade.

When the team's offense was extremely sluggish, everyone except Li Liang made only 1 of 11 three-pointers.

Li Liang still scored 30 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, and sent 4 assists-the lack of assists was because his teammates really couldn't make shots.

Both sides contributed to a rather ugly game.

The Pacers scored 80 points, while the Hornets scored only 73 points.

At 80:73, the Pacers took a difficult away victory.

The 80-point score also created the Pacers' lowest single-game score this season.

JR-Smith and Stephenson are two guys with all kinds of iron on the outside. Li Liang, who is iron, feels like he is going deaf at the basket.

I hope they can finish the iron in the regular season, and they can't do it in the playoffs.

After beating the Hornets, the Pacers moved to the Space City, and challenged the Rockets away.

The Rockets' performance this season is still very eye-catching. In the West, apart from the Warriors, it can be said that they are competing for hegemony.

The Rockets, Clippers, Trail Blazers, Grizzlies, Lakers and other teams all performed well.

Among them, the Thunder fell behind due to Durant's injury and basically withdrew from the championship.

The Clippers have the championship background of last season, even without Li Liang, they still have a strong strength.

After the Lakers experienced ups and downs at the end of 2014, starting from 2015, with Kobe's recovery and Howard's gradual stabilization, the Lakers' record began to rise all the way, and slowly climbed to the sixth position.

The Trail Blazers and Grizzlies occupy the top spots in the Northwest and Southwest respectively.

After the Rockets experienced the failure of last season, they regrouped. Harden has become more mature, and his one-point explosive power has become stronger. He seems to be a strong team in the West.

Every time Li Liang confronts Harden, there will be flashes everywhere, it depends on their acting skills.