Christmas Eve in Western countries, like Chinese's Chinese New Year's Eve, needs to be spent together as a family. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

On Christmas Eve, people will place a Christmas tree in their homes, stuff their socks with gifts, eat a turkey-based Christmas dish, and on the night of the family dance, the whole family will gather in the living room to sing Christmas songs around the Christmas tree, exchange gifts with each other, share the joys, sorrows and sorrows of life in the past year, and express their inner blessings and love.

Of course, they don't go out of their way to eat apples on Christmas Eve......

After spending Christmas Eve with family and friends, the NBA players who played a role in the big Christmas game of the league will take a break from their family and friends to present a wonderful basketball game for the fans.

Since moving to Los Angeles in 1984, the Clippers have become neighbors with the Lakers and are the only two teams in the NBA to have a local derby. However, when the Nets moved to Brooklyn, New York, the only two Clippers became the "only four", and this status did not seem to be a big deal.

But the Clippers are still special because they are able to share a home arena with the Lakers! It's something that none of the rest of the league's 28 teams can do.

Sharing a home court may not seem like a big deal, but every time the Clippers play the Lakers away, they are actually still in their own Staples Center arena, although the icon on the basketball court has changed, but the location of this arena will not change, and the Clippers do not need to be as tired as playing on the road elsewhere.

That's the equivalent of four more home courts for the Clippers every year, and of course, the same goes for the Lakers. That's a huge advantage over the rest of the league's 28 teams. However, with the presence of two NBA teams in New York, the number of teams enjoying that advantage is now four.

Since founding and joining the NBA in 1970, the Clippers have had very little time to be strong, mostly playing the role of a belly team. However, in recent years, with the addition of the league's top point guard Chris Paul, the Clippers have finally gotten rid of their status as a weak team and become strong again.

In the five years since 2011, under Paul's leadership, the Clippers have reached the playoffs for five consecutive seasons. But I don't know if it's bad feng shui, the Clippers have stopped in the Western Conference semifinals for two consecutive years. Especially last season, the Clippers' experience was simply sad and tearful, and after leading the Rockets with a score of 3:1 in the Western Conference semifinals, they were actually reversed and eliminated!

Such a situation can no longer be said to be a simple reason for strength, it is definitely a problem with the feng shui of the Clippers. But it's a pity that the people of the United States don't believe in feng shui metaphysics, and they don't ask the master to do it, but continue to strengthen it, and strive to stand out in the new season and become the champion.

So in the new season, the Clippers have poured in a lot of new faces, Josh Smith, Paul Pearce, Lance Stephenson, Wesley Johnson, D'Angelo Russell. These are great reinforcements and they will be very helpful for the team.

Josh Smith, who played for the Rockets last season, was involved by Howard and "cut" many times, but as an important role on the bench, he is still useful.

Paul Pearce, synonymous with old and strong. In the regular season last season, his performance was not impressive, but in the playoffs, the role of the veteran began to play, in the Eastern Conference semifinals series against the Hawks, in the third game of the series, Pierce scored a whistle-winning shot, which directly brought the Wizards to victory. In Game 5, Pierce hit a three-pointer 8.3 seconds before the end of the game to help the Wizards overtake, although Horford then staged a counter-kill, but Pierce's credit cannot be erased. In the sixth game of the series, Pierce hit a three-pointer before the end, but the goal was invalidated by 0.1 seconds of timeout, and the Wizards unfortunately lost to the Hawks. But through this series, the spirit of the elder Pierce and the killer nature of the key moments made the Clippers coveted. So they took Pierce under their command.

Lance Stephenson and Wesley Johnson are also very good role players. Stephenson is defensively organized and the kind of player the Clippers need; Wesley Johnson, on the other hand, can swing up front, and his athleticism is a great way to give the Clippers a wide range of tactical options.

As for rookie D'Angelo Russell, the scoring and playmaking are acceptable, mainly because he can handle and distribute the ball properly when Paul is not on the floor, and his role is also something that the Clippers desperately need.

The Clippers have received so many reinforcements, and all they have lost is defensive stalwart Barnes at the No. 3 position. Such an excellent operation by the management can undoubtedly solve the Clippers' original roster depth problem completely.

But I don't know if there is really a problem with the Clippers' feng shui, these originally powerful role players, after coming to the Clippers, none of them have lost their original prestige.

After these reinforcements came to the Clippers, they couldn't have chemistry with the original lineup of the Clippers, and they didn't call each other. The strength on paper makes them receive more attention, greater expectations, and at the same time, more pressure. Under such pressure, it is difficult for the new recruits who have just arrived in the new environment to give full play to their strengths. Judging by the Clippers' last 30 games, these new signings have really fallen short of expectations.

This season, Josh Smith played in 30 games for the Clippers as a backup center, starting just one game, averaging 5.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 14.3 minutes per game while shooting 38.3 percent from the field, all of which are career lows. This summer, he gave up a higher offer from the Rockets and opted for a base salary to join the Clippers for a win and a championship. Although the Clippers have won more than the Rockets and have a better chance of winning a championship than the Rockets, it is clear that Smith's role with the Clippers will not help the team much.

After Stephenson came to the Clippers, he rarely reproduced his funny nature, but if he didn't tease, he couldn't find his true self, and he got lost on the Clippers court.

Wesley Johnson's performance with the Clippers was similarly unsatisfactory. More often than not, he was put in the No. 4 position by the coach, but he couldn't stand up to people in this position, and when he attacked, the shooting bag seemed to disappear, and he couldn't shoot three-pointers.

The most surprising thing is the old Pierce. He completely lost the appearance of last season's playoffs, his defense couldn't withstand people, his pace couldn't keep up, he couldn't shoot the basketball, and he completely became a burden as soon as he got on the court! While there are still those who believe that he will transform in the playoffs, there are fewer and fewer people who think that way.

The only thing that works a little is D'Angelo Russell. As a rookie, although he can't be compared with Yi Feng and Downs, he also performs remarkably. In an average of 21.4 minutes per game, he was able to score 10.4 points, 3.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds, which is enough to rank among the top five in such a high-quality rookie group this year.

And with Paul by his side, his future is a smooth one.

Darren Collison and Eric Bledsoe were both players who came off Paul's bench and are now considered successful. Russell is also Paul's backup now, and as long as he studies hard with Paul, he may not be able to reach the heights of Collison and Bledsoe in the future.

But even so, Russell kept a gloomy face all day long, as if the whole world owed him money.

If it weren't for Yi Feng's appearance, maybe he Russell would be the top star above 10,000 people under one person, and he could succeed Kobe Bryant and become the new leader of the Lakers. Even if his style is not similar to Kobe, even if it is more beneficial for his future growth with the Paul team, but a giant like the Lakers can actually be compared to a small broken boat?

But all of this was ruined by Yi Feng!

The dream of inheriting the giants was shattered, and he could only grovel and work diligently in front of the Clippers to please the team boss and curry favor with the head coach to gain playing time.

In a championship-aspiring team like the Clippers, the competitive atmosphere within the team is undoubtedly extremely fierce. To be able to survive in such an environment and achieve consistent playing time is not a small effort. Seeing Russell make such progress, his agent team was not generally excited, thinking that it was a very correct move to let Russell sign directly with the Clippers in the first place.

Knowing that Russell was often gloomy and depressed, his agent often comforted him—

Strength is everything!

The weak are good for nothing but to win sympathy!

No one wants to accept the sympathy of others, and no one but beggars wants to accept handouts!

Without the grinding of the pain in front of us, there will be no glory of future success!

Russell's agent comforted Russell like a child, perhaps reading a lot of chicken soup for the soul articles in order to say such things. But it worked, Russell was training harder and harder, and Paul was praising him more and more every day.

Even on Christmas Eve, Russell didn't stop training!

He's not a natural training freak and does nothing but train. The reason why he insisted on training on Christmas Eve, when the whole United States was immersed in the beautiful atmosphere of family reunion, was because he wanted revenge!

He hates!

He was unwilling!

He's furious!

So he's going for revenge!

On the stage of the Christmas war that the whole world is watching, he wants to defeat Yi Feng, he wants to prove himself!

Is it to prove that he is more qualified to be a show than Yi Feng? Or prove yourself to be more genius than Yi Feng? Or is it to prove that you are the most qualified to inherit a wealthy family?

What exactly is going to be proven, it doesn't matter now, the draft has passed, Russell wants to peel off this page of failure and open a new chapter in his life!

And the opportunity for this new chapter appeared after defeating Yi Feng!

――――――

December 25, 2015, Christmas Day. The Christmas dinner prepared by the NBA for fans is also delicious.

Five Christmas games, starting with the New Orleans Pelicans and Miami Heat.

The Pelicans are currently in the second-to-last place in the West, while the Heat are in fourth place in the East, and the Heat are clearly superior in terms of strength between the two teams. And the Heat also have home-court advantage!

Wade and Bosh got into the groove quickly at home, scoring six and seven points respectively to open the game with a 15-9 run. After that, the Pelicans chased four points in a row, and Whiteside was no longer polite, scoring six points on the inside, and Lore Deng also hit a three-pointer. Even Anthony Davis' 11-point score in the first quarter would not change the Pelicans' 12-point deficit at 15:27 at the end of the first quarter.

Shortly after the start of the second quarter, Holiday hit a three-pointer and Davis scored on a breakaway jumper as the Pelicans closed the gap to single digits. After that, the two teams went back and forth, and the score alternated on the court, and Wade hit a step-back jumper to give the Heat an eight-point lead with 37.4 seconds left before halftime. Davis scored four straight points again as the Pelicans trailed by four points at halftime, 38-42.

Wade scored 11 points in the first half, Bosh scored nine, and the two combined for 20 points; On the Pelicans' side, Davis scored 20 points alone! Against the top four teams in the division, Davis can cut such a high score, which is really good, but his score is more than half of the team's score, which is not a good thing for the team.

The Heat came back shortly after the start of the third quarter, with Bosh and Whiteside combining for five points to help the team lead by eight points again. Holiday hit a jumper and the Heat fired from the outside, with Deng and Winslow each hitting a three-pointer to give the Heat an 11-point lead with one and a half minutes left in the third quarter. At the end of the third quarter, the Heat still led by 11 points.

Bosh scored five straight points at the start of the final quarter, but the Pelicans' Davis and Anderson were no slouch as they combined for nine points as the Pelicans cut the gap to just seven points. Udri hit two free throws and Anderson kept his touch on it and scored five straight points to lead a 9-0 spurt that tied the Pelicans at 70 with five minutes left in the fourth quarter.

After Wade missed two free throws, Green hit a jumper to put the Heat back in the lead. Evans stepped up his offense, scoring four points on consecutive free throws to put the Pelicans up 76-74 with 1:15 left in the fourth quarter. After the Heat took a timeout, Wade scored on a breakaway and Green hit a jumper to regain a two-point lead. Gordon scored on a breakaway to tie it at 78, Bosh missed a turnaround jumper, Anderson grabbed the rebound, and the Pelicans called a timeout with 13.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Davis missed a left-wing jumper and Wade got the rebound, and the game went into overtime.

The Heat got off to a good start in overtime, with Bosh scoring four points and Deng hitting a three-pointer to put the Heat on a 9-4 spurt and a five-point lead at 82-87 with 1:35 left in overtime. After the Pelicans called a timeout, Davis missed a layup, Evans missed a good chance to chase points, and Bosh hit a 3-pointer to give the Heat an 82-90 lead with 40.7 seconds left in overtime. Davis broke through a dunk to stop the bleeding and Wade hit both free throws to give the Heat an eight-point lead. Gordon played 3+1 on Green, but the Heat didn't give the opponent any chance, and Wade hit two more free throws to give them an 88-94 victory.

Although Davis had 29 points and 15 rebounds, Bosh was the more eye-catching, with 30 points and 10 rebounds, Wade 19 points, Bosh scored seven points in overtime, and Wade also contributed 6 points. (To be continued.) )