After the confession failed, I went to the NBA to play and lose weight

Chapter 53 The Coach's Chicken Soup

On November 11, the Magic will play against the Sonics at home. This is also the first time Li Chengming has the opportunity to face the No. 13 pick in this year's draft, Kevin Durant, although he may not be able to match.

After all, the Supersonic's goal this year is obviously also to train and perform poorly. Since the start of the game, the record has been poor, and there is no doubt that the Eastern Conference has a lot of belly.

Facing such a team, the Magic will be considered a failure if they don't take it lightly. Maybe it will be another three-quarter check-in. Durant may not stay on the court during garbage time.

According to Van Gundy's habit, even if he performed well in the last game, he might be put on the bench in this game.

However, I didn't expect that Van Gundy would have a rare thought of training, and he mentioned Li Chengming on the field in the 4 minutes of the second quarter.

In the Supersonic lineup, there are players sent by the Celtics in order to form their Big Three. At first glance, they don’t seem to be weak. There are also many veterans who look good, such as Li Chengming Back-up power forward Kurt Thomas on the matchup.

He entered the league in 95, and his peak was in those years with the Knicks. Joining the Sonics this year is definitely just a transition.

In fact, he still has some strength now, but unfortunately Thomas, who is 35 years old, 206 in height and 104 kg in weight, has difficulty keeping up on the defensive end.

And what Thomas relies on for survival is his defense, but people can't resist the years after all. His lateral movement is now even slower than Li Chengming, and his athletic ability is almost gone. Li Chengming only needs to simply press him to the basket. He couldn't jump at all, so he could only be beaten by Li Chengming.

Fortunately, Thomas is not a complete blue-collar insider. He still has a good shot, and the older he gets, the better he is than Li Chengming in judging rebounds and placements.

Relying on his height and shape, Li Chengming didn't suffer much in rebounding before, but that was against domestic college players. After coming to the NBA, he knew that in the professional arena, many of them looked ordinary. Things also require skill.

A well-known neon center once said that the rebounder wins the world. In NBA games, the more high-end rounds are played, the more important rebounds are.

After Li Chengming was caught by Thomas and grabbed two offensive rebounds in a row, Van Gundy replaced him during a timeout.

First, it's time, and the rotation is normal, and second, I need to talk to him.

He knows that Li Chengming is a very open-minded player, so he doesn't mind telling him: "Your position is too bad. I thought you were only slow in defense alone. I didn't expect that you can't protect rebounds well. "

The game is not only about scoring goals, but also other details. Many players who can only score are not as long as those functional players in the NBA.

Li Cheng's list defense is a weakness. This has been known for a long time, but at least he can keep up consciously, but there is a big problem in the protection of rebounds.

Defensive rebounding is also a part of defending the penalty area. Otherwise, you can defend once, and you can’t say how successful your defense is if you let someone attack the second time. Therefore, players like Camby who don’t pay attention to controlling the protection of the penalty area in order to brush up the block data take Only when it comes to the best defensive player will so many people question it.

Li Chengming always had an absolute physical advantage in the past, and this kind of weakness in consciousness could not be shown.

So it’s not unreasonable to say that the more rookies play, the easier it is to expose their shortcomings, and Li Chengming didn’t realize these things in so many trainings before. After all, who would think of grabbing rebounds during training?
"I see..." Li Chengming sighed, feeling a little depressed.

In fact, his main problem is experience. He also met a veteran like Thomas. He didn't have any tricks to stay in the league for so long. Then he didn't have enough awareness of the position in the first place and lost the opportunity.

In this case, it is not easy to use power, because if you use a little force and the opponent cleverly takes advantage of the trend, you will be fouled, and you, a rookie, have nothing to say.

Although the old fritters didn't do that much, Van Gundy still told Li Chengming about the hidden danger.

Li Chengming was a little apprehensive immediately, and looked at Thomas with some resentment in his eyes, which made even veterans baffled.

Seeing Li Chengming as a child can be taught - at least he seems obedient enough, Van Gundy actually has a sense of accomplishment.

After all, after he came to this team, whether it is Howard, Turkoglu or Lewis are actually finished products, and Redick has potential, but the advantages and disadvantages are too prominent, so there are not many opportunities.

Li Chengming, on the other hand, is completely a piece of jade in the rough, and can be carved into talent slowly.

This is actually why he didn't give Li Chengming too many opportunities at the beginning. In fact, it was because he didn't want to encourage the seedlings to grow, but planned to watch the opportunity, such as today's opportunities, to let him grow slowly.

I still have great expectations for Li Chengming and Van Gundy. What will his future develop into? At least with his current progress, there must be more than one substitute seat.

"Also, you seem to want to be a hero too much?" Van Gundy seems to talk a lot today, which is obviously also because of the result of yesterday's game.

Li Chengming is the only first-year rookie in the team, and he is also the youngest. It seems that he is also the person with the greatest potential at present-Howard and the others have already become stars, and they are basically fulfilling their talents.

Li Chengming was not blind, of course he could feel the change in the coach's attitude, so he immediately asked for advice humbly.

In fact, Van Gundy didn't say anything new, just let him watch more, learn more, and accumulate a little bit.

Then in the rotation stage of the third quarter, Van Gundy gave Lee another chance to become famous. The Supersonics did not pose any threat to them. They also have some players who can play well. For example, Jeff Green is very efficient today. Experience bullied Li Chengming a bit, but it didn't affect the overall situation.

The core of the team's cultivation did not feel good today, and the instability of rookies after joining the NBA was fully exposed.

Durant was very depressed after being replaced, because the Magic's defense made him uncomfortable, and he was still unable to receive and shoot comfortably.

And although the team has established his status from the beginning, there are too many veterans exchanged from the Celtics, and it is difficult for rookies to convince them before they have convincingly brilliant results.

On the contrary, here is Li Chengming. After clarifying his position, his performance is much more stable.

Anyway, if he feels good, he will take more shots. Although he lost the game yesterday, it is still very important to him personally. Even if Van Gundy still maintains his previous ideas, the management will start to put pressure. It's a treasure.

And with an opportunity like today, Li Chengming felt that it didn't matter if he was a little sloppy, because the point difference had already reached [-] points, and the coach would allow him to practice a little bit, as long as it wasn't a random fight.

And because there was still a game the next day, Van Gundy consciously began to shorten the playing time of Howard and others in view of the previous problems. He happened to practice Li Chengming by the way, and he also got more opportunities.

At 9 minutes and 47 seconds of the third quarter, Li Chengming first received a pass from Nelson in the paint, yelled at Thomas, who was two steps away, and shot a jumper, making a steady hit.

More than 30 seconds later, it was still in the same position. This time, Thomas followed him. As a result, Li Chengming turned around and passed him completely. Thomas' weakness of slow movement was revealed. After being passed, he couldn't keep up at all. , At this time experience is useless.

After Li Chengming got to the basket and faced Szczerbiak's help defense next to him, he quickly hit the ground and passed the ball to Redick in the bottom corner. Redick returned a three-pointer.

In the next offensive round, Li Chengming caught the ball in a low position and attracted a double-teamer. He pointed out a fairy to guide the way, and the attention of the two was attracted at the same time. It turned out that it was a fake fax shot. Li Chengming turned around and jumped up leaning on Thomas. After attracting him to reach out, he changed hands in the air and made a layup.

If it weren't for the fact that rookies are not popular, it is estimated that they can mix 2+1.

Li Chengming also knows that his experience and some technical details are shortcomings, and it is impossible to understand everything in a short period of time, so he should simply play well on offense.

He now has a shooting accelerator, an iron-blooded jumper, and standing on the ground. In addition, he has been training professionally in the NBA for the past few months. In fact, he is capable enough to gain a foothold in the rotation. Given the opportunity, he was able to show his performance.

Opportunities are always given to those who are prepared, which also made Van Gundy on the sidelines see a good mood.

He actually knew that Li Chengming was available, but he still wanted to suppress him, not because of his arrogance. Li Chengming didn't have that kind of stuff either, he just wanted him to start off low-key and not become a target of the media.

It would be fine if he was just an ordinary player, but behind Li Chengming, fans from another country were watching.

Van Gundy obviously knew some of Dayao's situation from his younger brother, so he was more cautious when dealing with this kind of problem, although it would make outsiders, including Li Chengming himself, somewhat incomprehensible.

But he is like the kind of parent with a cold face and a warm heart, who always feels that "sooner or later, you will understand my painstaking efforts".

I don't know if Li Chengming will understand in the future, but he knows that he is playing very well now, even better than when he was on the court. After all, there was still pressure to chase points at that time.

"LI! LI! LI!"

This game is still at the home court of the Magic. The fans saw Li Chengming and got to know him more and more through the last game, so they naturally shouted at his performance at this time. After all, to a certain extent, rookies Represents the future of a team.

Including Howard, as the No. [-] pick of the Magic, has always been highly anticipated, just like O'Neal at the beginning.

But how much the fans love you now, how much they hate you when you leave, they don't care about the management or not.

Li Chengming doesn't need to think about this issue now. During the timeout, he enjoyed the cheers of the home fans. Although he was not as good as Howard, he was more enthusiastic than other role players.

Howard, an annoying guy, even guessed what he was thinking, came up and patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "Just this little shouting, it's not even one percent of mine, you still have to work hard, rookie!" !"

Li Chengming immediately glared at him. He hates this kind of guy who pours cold water on others when they are happy. Will he die if he keeps his mouth shut?

Happy Beast: But not happy!

(End of this chapter)