unfinished glory

Chapter 152 The Spurs' Attitude Change

Li Chongxiao scored his first 50+ points this season, averaging 45 points per game, "leading" the scoring list.He only got a high score in the fourth season, which can be regarded as a late bloomer.

In the third game after the break, Li Chongxiao ushered in the fourth "China Derby" against Yi Jianlian's Kings.

Before the match, he chatted with Yi Jianlian for a while, but unfortunately the other party is not as good at communication as Yao Ming, which is not very good for integrating into the team.Fortunately, Yi Jianlian followed Li Chongxiao's advice and practiced his English hard. At least language communication and listening to the coach's tactics were not a problem.

The game was lackluster, and the Kings have not improved much after being overthrown and rebuilt.

Artest is not there, relying on Kevin Martin's offense, it is impossible to stop the Spurs.Li Chongxiao scored 33 points in three quarters, leading the team to an easy victory.

Yi Jianlian played 6 minutes in the last quarter and scored 2 points, 3 rebounds and 1 block.During the timeout, he was called to the side by Kings head coach Reggie Seuss for advice. It can be seen that the Kings still have certain expectations for him.

After three games in the first week, Li Chongxiao averaged 41 points per game. The team also won three consecutive victories, and won the best of the week without any suspense.

It has been four seasons since entering the league, and the Spurs have always maintained a super high winning percentage, but this is actually the first time Li Chongxiao has gotten his hands on this honor.After media reports, many fans couldn't believe it.

After playing the Kings, after a day of rest, the Spurs went to Houston to challenge the Rockets.

Compared with their high-spirited neighbors, the Rockets this season seem to be in decline.They won only one of their first three games.

This summer, McGrady was first belittled by the media because he did not play in the second round of the playoffs, then he was run on by Li Chongxiao, and finally he was involved in trade rumors.

The Spurs wanted to replace him with only one Li Chongxiao, which made the proud and sensitive McGrady very angry. Ever since Li Chongxiao entered the league and dunked himself, he didn't like this person.

Under the hatred of the house, he also has a bad feeling towards Yao Ming.In the first season of the Rockets, in the playoffs against the Mavericks, because Yao Ming dragged his feet, he fell again in the first round.

Then Yao Ming took advantage of his injury, intending to seize the position of team leader.With the support of head coach Van Gundy Jr., this approach almost came true.If it weren't for the support of the boss Alexander and the general manager Morey, he might also be kicked out.

So during the summer offseason, Tracy McGrady half-awake and half-drunk said, "If Yao Ming was replaced by Duncan, I would have won the championship already", which brought the Rockets' contradictions to the surface.

Although Yao Ming is very humble, he is not a submissive person.Since McGrady looks down on him so much, he won't lick his face and beg for nothing.

The two All-Stars realized that they were strangers before the start of the season. Yao Ming still took the overall situation into consideration and played honestly according to the tactics. However, McGrady hardly passed the ball to Yao Ming on the court, and he played singles with the ball.

In the last game against the Mavericks, he took 33 crazy shots and only hit 12 goals, scoring a game-high 35 points.

And Yao Ming only got 12 shots, hit 9 balls and scored 21 points.However, his personal performance was outstanding, and he was unable to recover. The Rockets lost as much as 27 points in the away game.

In this game against the Spurs, McGrady still didn't restrain himself. He played singles with the ball alone, ignoring Yao Ming who was in a good position several times.

Li Chongxiao was very angry when he saw this scene. He took the initiative to ask for the ball and leaned on McGrady. He made a beautiful backside fadeaway jumper and scored two points.

After McGrady saw Li Chongxiao, he was so angry that he didn't fight anywhere, dribbled the ball to the frontcourt, and wanted to return one.

Li Chongxiao was not afraid, and pressed hard at every step, allowing McGrady's dry shot to hit the iron.

The two of them fought one-on-one on the court. It must be said that McGrady was not in good condition and missed more shots.

Although Li Chongxiao's style of play scored more goals than his opponents, it obviously destroyed the team's tactics, but Popovich did not stop at all, but asked Parker to hand over the ball to Li Chongxiao and let him continue this style of play. Law.

On the surface, it seems that Popovich used Li Chongxiao and McGrady's fighting spirit to keep opening the score, but the deep-seated reason was that he saw the growing conflict between McGrady and Yao Ming.

Popovich was overjoyed by this phenomenon. He originally thought that in the summer, because of Li Chongxiao's non-renewal statement, the Rockets owner Alexander backed down, and the Spurs would have no chance to get Yao Ming.

But judging from the Rockets' internal conflicts, the Spurs still have a chance to get the league's No. [-] center.

He wished that McGrady would work hard. According to Alexander's love for him, Yao Ming must be the last one to go.

Popovich fantasizes that the Rockets are willing to accept Parker + Ginobili in exchange for Yao Ming, but he also knows that this deal is not realistic, and there are many teams in the league that can offer better chips than this.

The Spurs only have Duncan and Li Chongxiao as chips. The former cannot be sent away. He can only let Li Chongxiao perform to his heart's content and get a good stat to impress the Rockets and make them willing to gamble.

The Texas Derby finally ended with a big victory for the Spurs, and Li Chongxiao scored 38 points again.

McGrady's 34 points were accompanied by 37 shots.At the end of the fight, Li Chongxiao saw the essence of McGrady's inability to pass the ball, and called his teammates to come up together, taking turns to double-team,
Yao Ming only made 10 shots and scored a double-double of 19 points and 14 rebounds, which could not shake the overall situation at all.

After the match, Li Chongxiao walked to Yao Ming's side, had a brief chat, and reminded him not to forget the promise made in Xia Tian.

……

In the November game, apart from losing a back-to-back away game, the Spurs won the other 11 games, ranking first in the league with 13 wins and 15 loss.

In this month, Li Chongxiao became the arrow of the team's offense. He scored 11+ points 30 times, averaging 32.4 points per game, and became the best player of the month in the Western Conference this month.

This is also the first time he has won the title of Player of the Month, ranking first in the league's MVP rankings.

Many media and fans are advocating that the Spurs have found their core for the next decade.

When other teams are jealous of the good luck of the Spurs, only Li Chongxiao, Popovich, and a few people in the team know that the rift between Li Chongxiao and the team has not been healed in the slightest. Maybe this summer, this "The leader of the Spurs for the next decade" is leaving.

But this situation does not affect Popovich's determination to create a high-quality trading chip.Until the All-Star Game, Li Chongxiao became the team's top card.

Among Popovich's established tactics, only he has great offensive autonomy, so that several players who vaguely know some inside stories think that the team is trying to please Li Chongxiao and want him to stay on the team this summer. Team.

(End of this chapter)