Chapter 194: Revisiting San Antonio
As soon as the lights came on, the dressing room, which was supposed to be empty, was full of people. There are a lot of players in the Thunder roster www.biquge.info Pen Fun Pavilion, all of them here.
On the top of the locker room, a banner hangs. It was written in colored letters, "Happy Birthday, Ann." ”
Before An Jie could react, Morris took the lead in playing a bunch of streamers, followed by others, and the entire locker room suddenly became colorful.
After that, An Jie's teammates sang the birthday song, and An Jie stood in place the whole time, just smiling blankly.
As soon as the song was finished, Morris rushed up with a piece of cake and smashed it on An Jie's face. was smashed by this, and An Jie finally sobered up.
"Morris, you stop me!" An Jie immediately grabbed a piece of cake to fight back, but Westbrook sneaked up from the side, and An Jie was "headshot" by the cake again.
The young people smashed most of the cake before they finally stopped. Westbrook and Anjie and others have long been unrecognizable, and even the more introverted Durant has not been spared.
"How do you know it's my birthday, I've never told anyone. An Jie licked the cream from his mouth as he spoke.
"You told me in college, I remember!" Morris remembered that when they were still in the whirlwind, Anjie had inadvertently mentioned his birth date to him.
This birthday surprise was also initiated by Morris. But what he didn't expect was that all members of the Thunder team actively participated.
"You've been training long enough, we've been waiting in this unlit locker room for over an hour. Westbrook came out of the shower with a towel draped over his bath towel and washed off the cream off his body.
"Thank you, guys, thank you......" In a foreign country, An Jie never thought that he would have such treatment. Even new teammates like Ibaka and Edon Thomas, who he had known for less than a month, were present at the party.
An Jie is a friendly and humble person off the field and has not been forgotten by his teammates. His strong and excellent performance on the field made him even more convincing.
"Alright, less sour there, party, we've got to have some of this!" Morris brought out a stereo out of nowhere and played hip-hop rap music.
He jumped up in the middle of the locker room first, and more and more people joined the party.
Everyone had a great time, and everyone was really part of the group.
Without Catherine and without her parents, Anjie spent a birthday party night that he would never forget today, in another country. The status of the Thunder team in An Jie's heart is far more than a team, but a family.
The next day, Van Gundy, who had rarely slept well, pushed open the locker room door in good spirits, only to be startled by the chaotic scene inside.
Cream, juice, cakes, and even bath towels are all available on the floor of the changing room. He immediately called the cleaner to clean up the locker room.
These damn guys are acting so arbitrarily!
You don't have to think about it to know that no one but the Thunder players is going to make the locker room look like that.
"Damn! it's getting more and more unpleasant!" Van Gundy was furious, and he decided to take the opportunity to teach the group a lesson after watching the poor quality of the training.
But until the end of today's regular training, Van Gundy did not get the opportunity or reason to reprimand the players. Far from being out of shape, the Thunder's players were training at a high quality today.
Although they were not energetic, everyone was very serious and had a smile on their faces from time to time.
The team is in good shape, and if Van Gundy gets angry with them at this time, it will cause demoralization of the players.
Van Gundy shook his head helplessly, no matter what they did in the locker room last night, as long as it didn't affect the competitive state, then he wouldn't have any opinion.
"Hey, you haven't forgotten who our opponent tomorrow is. Van Gundy clapped his hands in the dressing room, and the changing players stopped their movements and looked at their manager.
"San Antonio Spurs, boss, but we're going to win. Morris replied with a serious answer, then smiled lightly.
"That's right, big bull. ”
"Yay, victory will be ours. ”
"It's not like we haven't won against Spurs. ”
In an instant, everyone echoed and kept high-five each other.
"Hmph, it's good to know. When I went into the dressing room this morning, it wasn't like this. Van Gundy pretended to be serious and looked at his subordinates, in fact, he was not angry for a long time, and just wanted to use this opportunity to do pre-war mobilization. In front of young people, this is often very effective.
Everyone couldn't help but laugh, although Van Gundy and his men had a good relationship and were very close, but the secret only belonged to the players.
"I don't care what you do, if you can't win the Spurs tomorrow, I'll settle accounts with you one by one!" Van Gundy has no delusions, the San Antonio Spurs are the opponents who must strive for victory for the Thunder this season.
"Don't worry, we won't let you down. "Anjie knows that even if they do lose tomorrow, Van Gundy will not do anything to them. But since the coach has high expectations and trust in them, they have to give a good performance in return.
"Good, that's it for today's training. Let's go and get ready, tonight's eight o'clock plane, two days of rest, I think you can handle it. With two back-to-back games ahead of the Spurs and Clippers, Van Gundy has to worry about the health and fitness of his players again.
Unlike the Thunder's relatively relaxed atmosphere, Popovich's side of the Spurs had a slightly depressing atmosphere. Previously, the Spurs' record was 4-3, which is not a bad result, but it is definitely not good for a team like the Spurs that aims for a championship.
Popovich certainly won't be happy with that result, as the Spurs have just won their first straight game of the season against the Raptors and Mavericks, and the team's form is steadily improving. The Oklahoma City Thunder can't be the one to stop the Spurs' momentum.
Previously, Popovich had only lined up the Thunder as their potential threat in the West, and just a year later, Popovich was able to remove the word "potential."
Beat the Trail Blazers, beat the Lakers, and bloodbathed the Magic. In the Thunder's previous six wins, at least three of them have been very strong. However, in the face of a strong opponent's winning record, Popovich clearly saw how many pounds and taels the Thunder team had.
Even Popovich has to admit that it will be very difficult for them to win tomorrow's game.
Among those who think the same is Jeff Van Gundy, and while he encourages his players in the locker room, the Spurs are no match that he can beat with a few nice words.
In the west, every few days, there is a tough battle.
On November 14th, T.NT will broadcast live in the United States, and the commentary trio will come to the ATT Center to explain the game live.
ESPN also sent Mike Brin to the scene, and the commentary booth was next to T.NT, which shows how big the gimmick was in this game.
The Thunder took on the Spurs on the road, and last season, it was nothing more than a contest of disparity, a boring matchup between the top teams in the West and the bottom teams in the West.
But this season, it's one of the biggest matchups in the West early in the season.
Anjie is undoubtedly the most popular player on the Thunder roster with Spurs fans, and a foul on Anjie caused Tony Parker to sprain last season. Although it turned out to be unintentional for Anjie, in the eyes of Spurs fans, it was a malicious foul that should be punished.
From the warm-up, as long as Anjie shoots, the ATT center will burst into endless boos.
"You're pretty popular here, man. Morris looked around, and except for Angel, the rest of the Thunder team was not so concerned.
"No way, who asked me to stop Shi Fo's lore?" A year ago, it was in this arena that An Jie played against the Spurs for the first time. At the last moment, Anjie's successful defense made Duncan's final defeat and allowed the Thunder team at that time to beat the Spurs on the road. It can be said that the name of the three young thunderers began to resound in the alliance from that time.
In just one year, the Thunder are already a team that is as strong as the Spurs. The Thunder and Spurs, the game that has left countless fans asleep and changed the channel, will be staged again.
The Thunder Three Young and the Troika, whether the veteran is immortal or the blue, the matchup between the two trios has become one of the highlights of the NBA League.
Tim Duncan's eyes were focused, and his "paralyzed" expression made it imperceptible to everyone's emotions. But Tony Parker can see that this guy seems to be full of energy today!
Today, Duncan will go to the No. 5 position to face Anjie directly. What will the duel between the two basic skills gentlemen look like?
Youth and experience, passion and calmness. The battle between the Spurs and the Thunder is on the verge of breaking out! )