NBA's King of Talking

In the end, Lamb still did not live with Jia Fei.

Jia Fei really didn't want to live with Lamb anymore. Living with another man all the time, especially since he never had a girlfriend, meant that if he became a star player, people might start saying he had sexual orientation issues—so handsome, yet he didn't have a girlfriend, always hanging out with his former teammate…

A tree needs bark, and a person needs face; this kind of thing should definitely be avoided if possible. Besides, he's only temporarily not looking for a girlfriend, not forever. If he does get a girlfriend eventually, he can't expect Lamb to avoid him every time!

Also, Lamb loves watching those kinds of adult films, so cleaning up after him is always a hassle. So, it's better for him to live alone!

February has arrived...

The 2012-13 regular season will officially begin, with the Thunder's season opener taking place on the 2nd of this month against the Spurs, last season's Western Conference Finals opponent.

The NBA is indeed a very successful business league. Even the scheduling of games reveals a lot of "design". By having the two teams from last season's Western Conference Finals play the opening game, the game already generates a lot of buzz without much publicity.

The Thunder arrived in San Antonio on the 1st to prepare for their season opener on the 2nd. After finishing their practice on the 1st, head coach Brooks announced the rotation lineup for tomorrow's game against the Spurs.

The result stunned Jia Fei and his group; not only was his name missing, but Reggie and Lamb's names were also absent...

The team plans to use a nine-man rotation tomorrow, with the starting five remaining from last season, and the other four rotation players being Collison, Thabeet, Kevin Martin, and Mayno.

This result was clearly unacceptable to Jia Fei and Reggie. Good heavens, Harden and Cook are both gone, and they still haven't made the rotation. What the hell is going on?

Thabeet and Collison came off the bench to form a twin-tower lineup; are we no longer going to attack?

But that's how the coaching staff made the arrangement, and Jia Fei and his team had no choice but to accept it.

As fate would have it, the Spurs ultimately defeated the Thunder at home, handing them a losing start to the season.

After this game, the Thunder returned to their home court immediately, where they will face the Trail Blazers in a back-to-back game on the night of the 3rd.

As a result, the Thunder lost to the Trail Blazers at home, suffering their second consecutive loss since the start of the season!

The team's bench struggled offensively, and their slow pace allowed the opponent to launch numerous counter-attacks. This led to media criticism of head coach Brooks's lineup, with many believing that Jia Fei, who performed well last season, deserved a rotation spot.

Two days later, the Thunder continued their home game against the Hawks. The home team was dominated throughout the game and ultimately lost, suffering an embarrassing three-game losing streak to start the season!

After three consecutive losses, the Thunder's coaching staff also felt obvious pressure. It should be noted that their goal this season is the championship. After the management completed the Harden trade, Kevin Martin's performance in these three games has been commendable. However, the most reliable player on the team's bench besides him is actually veteran Collison, which is much worse than last season.

With the bench failing to perform, Coach Brooks' solution was to increase the playing time of Durant and Westbrook. In these three games, the two have averaged over 40 minutes per game, yet they still haven't managed a single victory. The extended playing time has caused both players' efficiency to decline to varying degrees, creating a vicious cycle.

Thunder fans are already starting to miss Harden. After all, the team let go of this best sixth man, and in his first game with the Rockets, he scored 40+ points, playing like an All-Star.

In interviews, both Durant and Westbrook expressed their dissatisfaction with the team's recent offensive and defensive struggles, and they hoped the team could get back on track.

After training ended on the 6th, the Thunder coaching staff held an internal meeting.

Jia Fei, Lamb, and Reggie had dinner together.

Reggie looked listless, and Lamb was also lacking energy; the two of them had been like this since the start of the season.

Jia Fei can understand them. Reggie played quite well in the rotation last season, while Lamb, a lottery pick, could only stay on the bench. Who could calmly look at all this?

"Jia, you said the coaching staff is having an internal meeting. Will they discuss changing the formation?" Reggie asked.

"I don't know!" Jia Fei shook his head. "I don't know either, but the possibility is quite high. We've already lost three in a row, and we're a team that's aiming for the championship."

Lamb looked up at the sky, looking helpless: "Sigh—I never expected that our senior would not be valued in other teams, but in our championship-contending team, he would be trusted so much by our lovely head coach."

Lamb's words also reflected Jia Fei's frustration. Logically speaking, Thabeet's performance on the court was really poor; he was just tall but lacked the necessary skills. Moreover, the team's second unit didn't have anyone to set up him.

After dinner, the three disheartened men went home.

Not long after Jia Fei returned home, he received a text message from assistant coach Cheeks. The message contained only one sentence, informing him that he would be included in the rotation for tomorrow night's game!

Upon seeing the text message, Jia Fei's fighting spirit surged. This opportunity was hard-won, and he knew he needed to cherish it. He had previously thought making the rotation was a sure thing, but the coaching staff had unexpectedly employed a two-man bench strategy, thwarting his plans. Fortunately, the losing streak put pressure on the coaching staff, leading to a quick adjustment.

When it came time to enter rotation, Jia Fei immediately thought of missions, and he immediately logged into the system to check the mission status.

He had previously taken on several regular season tasks, including starting in an NBA regular season game, achieving a double-double, scoring 30 points in a regular season game, dishing out 10 assists in a regular season game, recording 5 steals in a regular season game, and recording 5 blocks in a regular season game.

These tasks are quite difficult to complete at the moment, but fortunately there is no limit to the number of tasks he can accept, so he went back to the task list to check what tasks he could accept. After looking around, he accepted a few more tasks, one of which was "to achieve a triple-double" and another was "to make 5 three-pointers in a single regular season game".

Jia Fei had eight tasks on his task list, but he knew that completing them would not be an easy task.

Fortunately, as long as there's hope of playing, there's hope of completing the task. He felt he still needed to take initiative; if he couldn't complete the task, he'd resort to verbal sparring and start criticizing on time. There was no other way; he had to go all out for the points.