Liu Xiu had seen a news before, saying that Magloire wanted to return to his hometown of Toronto to play. During the offseason, when the contract year was about to expire, Magloire applied for a trade to the Raptors.

But the Raptors already have the twin towers of Milicic and Bosh, and they are unwilling to ask for Magloire's more than 8 million US dollars and contract. Even if it is just for one year, 8 million as a substitute is too expensive, which makes Magloire

Leyl once had the idea of ​​​​retiring, which scared the Bucks and sent him to the Lakers. Otherwise, it would not be that simple for the Lakers to get such a center who averaged 9+9 per game last season. The Bucks would definitely take it.

The Lakers are unwilling to renew Caron Butler's contract with an annual salary of tens of millions of dollars, and they don't want to give him more leverage.

However, even if he had not retired, Magloire had already begun to slack off, his self-esteem was hit, he lost his enthusiasm for basketball, and his performance in the preseason was extremely poor... But as the starter tonight, Magloire played very actively.

Liu Xiu's visual inspection revealed that this guy felt that he was being taken seriously and was playing in a big city, so he wanted to work hard, while Wang Zhizhi wanted to regain the starting position... Zen Master was so lucky!

After squatting on the toilet for a few minutes, Liu Xiu came out of the bathroom and communicated with the coaching staff to reach an agreement...

The offense went from 34 points in the first quarter to only 25 points in the second quarter, a serious decline in performance, and the opponent's offense got better and better.

Then play defense! Fight to death!

Just leave the offensive end to a few stars!

…

After the halftime break, the super back line of Liu Xiu and Ray Allen was replaced. In the frontcourt, Maurice Cheeks replaced the trio of Stevenson, Millsap, and Kwame Brown.

Millsap was very excited. He only played 6 minutes in the first half and the core lineup of the defending champion team was intact. He did not feel that it was missing. After all, he was only a rookie at the bottom of the first round, even when he participated in the draft.

I was prepared to lose the draft, but I didn't expect to make it to the first round.

He is a very mature and smart player. He has understood the treatment of ordinary rookies on championship-level teams. I think back then, Jermaine O'Neal only averaged more than 12 minutes per game in the fourth year of his career. Rookie Randolph

Last year, he only averaged 5.8 minutes of playing time per game, which is the case even for strong teams.

He estimated that during his rookie season, he was lucky to be able to play more than 10 minutes in a game during the rotation. He didn't expect to be entrusted with such an important task!

Although he was fighting a war of attrition as a 'death squad', for him, this was a rare opportunity!

On the other side, the Lakers sent a combination of Juan Dixon, Kobe Bryant, Maurice Evans, Radmanovic, and Wang Zhizhi.

Maurice Evans, who played for the Pistons last season, played a very important role in the Finals. Although he failed to help the Pistons win the championship in the end, he averaged 10.5 points per game in the Finals and shot 41.7%.

He made 2.5 three-pointers from three-point range. The Pistons wanted to renew his contract, but he wanted to play in a big city. He turned down the Pistons' three-year offer of $10 million and turned around to join him for three years and $7.5 million.

Lakers.

The Lakers' lineup is terrible at defense, but they are geared towards attacking.

But after the start of the third quarter, the Blazers' stubborn defense made Jackson stunned.

The Trail Blazers, a team that has ranked among the top three in the league in points per game for two consecutive years, actually started a hand-to-hand battle!

In the first half of the third quarter, the two teams scored 8-8, and the score reached 67-66.

Not to mention regaining the offensive efficiency of the first quarter and the first half of the second quarter, the Lakers' performance was even worse than the second half of the second quarter.

After the official timeout came back, Liu Xiu took Kobe to rest and beat up Deron. He scored 3 goals and scored 7 points in a row. He went on a 7-2 run by himself. The Trail Blazers opened the point difference to 6 points, and the score was 74 to 68.

!

Liu Xiu was beaten violently, forcing Zen Master to replace Kobe who had just rested for less than two minutes. Then the two started a duel. Kobe scored 5 points, Liu Xiu also scored 5 points, plus 1 assist.

Mourning, who came off the bench, scored two points, and the Trail Blazers opened up another two-point gap, leading the Lakers by 8 points 81-73!

Kobe Bryant scored two consecutive three-pointers at the last minute, scoring six points in a row, and Liu Xiu was flanked to score the ball. The Trail Blazers' wing players did not perform well in shooting, and only scored two points. The Lakers struggled.

At the end of the third quarter, the point difference was reduced to 4 points.

After three quarters, the Trail Blazers led the Lakers 83 to 79.

Liu Xiu scored 14 points in this quarter, raising his personal score to 32 points, helping the Trail Blazers score 24 to 21 in a single quarter, successfully suppressing the Lakers' offense!

…

Zen Master knew that the opponent would change their style of play in the second half, but based on his experience, if the core lineup of the two consecutive championship teams did not change, they should focus on offense. After all, defense is more tiring.

But now he discovered that he had made an empiricist error!

He mistakenly equated the situation after the Trail Blazers won two consecutive championships with the situation after he led the team to two consecutive championships three times. Now he finds that the situation is completely different.

Randolph is not O'Neal. Although Randolph is also a rare super genius, the gap with O'Neal is very obvious. O'Neal can gain weight and average 20+ per game. After gaining weight, he becomes lazy on defense and is still invincible on offense. But Randolph cannot.

.

The other players on the Trail Blazers who have declined due to age, fatigue and other factors are mostly scorers, not young and strong defensive high school players like Kwame Brown, Stevenson and Outlaws.

In the first half of the third quarter, due to his misjudgment, the offensive lineup he sent was restrained by the Trail Blazers. However, during that time, Kobe was watching Liu Xiu, and combined with flanking and cover defense, the Trail Blazers attacked

They didn't play well either. Stevenson, Millsap, and Kwame Brown all played together. The preseason was fine, but when it came to the intensity of the regular season and working together for the first time, the offensive end was really lagging behind.

But when Kobe went to rest, the Lakers' offense was still unable to attack, but Liu Xiu, without the outside constraints, quickly got into shape, and the Trail Blazers took the opportunity to widen the point difference...

However, even so, the Zen Master did not panic.

The current situation is not that the Trail Blazers have the upper hand, but an open state!

If the Trail Blazers had taken the lead, the Lakers wouldn't have been able to make that 6-2 deficit in the last two minutes, so he felt they still had a chance!

After the break, he replaced the combination of Deron, Kobe, Radmanovic, Odom, and Wang Zhizhi.

He did not choose to stick to defense. Compared with the opponent, his configuration was too different.

What left a deep impression on the Zen Master tonight was the rookie opposite named Paul Millsap. His fearless and fearless appearance made the Zen Master quite envious.

He really needs a defensive hero who can rush to the front line, so that he doesn't need Kobe to be the defensive arrow.

He was also convinced. The Trail Blazers had made no achievements in the free market and were "targeted" by the entire league. However, a 70-win draft pick could select such a rookie with excellent immediate combat ability!

…

…
Chapter completed!