Chapter 90: The Playoffs Begin

Liu Han scored 62 points in a single game in the Lakers and SuperSonics, surpassing the rookie 58 points in the regular season record of legendary star Wilt Chamberlain.

After Jordan retired for the first time in July 1993, the NBA had a hot topic of who is Jordan's successor for a period of time, the 94 draft of Tanhua Grant Hill was hailed as the closest player to Jordan with the support of the league, and the 93 Tanhua "Penny" Hardaway, a group of very good young people are called the next Jordan, but when Jordan returned to the court again, people found that no one could reach the level of Jordan.

However, Liu Han's performance in the last game convinced everyone that he would be the next player to dominate the league.

Jordan himself was also interviewed by the media after the game, and he was optimistic about Liu Han's future, but also said that Liu Han has not yet challenged his strength.

In fact, after Liu Han's outstanding performance in the last game, LaBeouf was also very excited, he was happy with his daughter's vision, this silly boy finally looked like a superstar.

Liu Han's wonderful performance also made all Chinese Americans in the United States happy, for a long time, Chinese people will be discriminated against by the mainstream group in the United States, but now the appearance of Liu Han has made many people change their views on the Chinese community.

O'Neill also called Liu Han after this game to congratulate him.

"Hey, boxer, you're awesome, haha, you stunned me, seriously, can you tell me how you did it? Did you go to Jordan and learn it himself? O'Neal didn't really care about anything else, he was just surprised that Liu Han suddenly learned to shoot backwards.

"Well, I didn't look for him, I learned it by myself by watching the tape, and then I trained every day, and finally I learned it." Liu Han said very simply.

"Haha, you can really do it, okay, do a good job, I can't help but cooperate with you, I think we have a chance to win the championship this year." O'Neill is optimistic about the future.

On the other side of the ocean, Liu Han's hometown, this time almost everyone in the country knows that there is a young man in the United States who plays basketball very well, because Liu Han was on the news broadcast, although it was only in less than 20 seconds at the last moment, but Liu Han began to be known by the people of the whole country.

Although Liu Han, who returned to Los Angeles, knew that he had broken the record this time, he did not know that he had now made everyone in the league start to pay attention. But he knew from how enthusiastic Safina had been for him since she got home, and he knew that he had done a good job this time.

Safina is becoming more and more satisfied with Liu Han, excellent ball skills, not very handsome but absolutely attractive appearance, as well as the increasingly strong body, coupled with a somewhat dull but sincere personality, all of which make Safina satisfied, both from a biological point of view and from a mental point of view, Liu Han is a very qualified spouse.

The Lakers didn't have time to rest, and the day after they returned to Los Angeles, they faced the Nuggets again.

Liu Han started again in this game, but he was still a shooting guard, and I don't know what the Lakers management and coach said to Van Exel, but the latter started to pass the ball to Liu Han in this game.

After the internal harmony of the Lakers, the overall offense has reached a level, and with the containment of Liu Han, the offensive strength, the Lakers can play a smooth coordination in the offense, so although Liu Han did not get a high score in this game against the Nuggets, he played extremely easily, and the score of 29 points and 7 assists is definitely not too low. The Lakers also beat the Nuggets by 25 points, 110-85.

The Lakers had a three-day break after the game, and they started the season with more games, and as they entered the end of the regular season, the Lakers had fewer games.

On April 6, the Lakers once again hosted the Mavericks, Liu Han started 28 minutes, scored 26 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds, and after his physical fitness improved, Liu Han's number of rebounds also began to rise. The Lakers beat the Mavericks by 30 points, and this fourth quarter was all garbage time.

One day off, the Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors by 24 points away, Liu Han scored a double-double of 25 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, if it wasn't for too little playing time, Liu Han might be able to get his first triple-double, and the Lakers successfully suppressed the Warriors at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.

The next day, the Lakers went to Salt Lake City to challenge the Jazz away, the Lakers without O'Neal were completely blown up by the Jazz on the inside, and the Jazz's strong defensive style made the Lakers' players except Liu Han feel very difficult, and finally the Lakers failed to win the game, and Liu Han's quasi-triple-double of 41 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists became useless.

After a day of rest, the Lakers who returned to their home court defeated the Phoenix Suns by 27 points, O'Neal officially returned, starting 24 minutes, scoring 24 points and 11 rebounds, with amazing efficiency, Liu Han also only played 25 minutes, scoring 21 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.

After O'Neal's return, the Lakers' inside and outside lines finally began to stabilize, and with the offensive and defensive core of the interior, the Lakers no longer have flaws on both offensive and defensive ends.

On the day of rest, the Lakers ushered in the challenge of the Jazz at home, the Lakers lost to the opponent in the last game without O'Neal, the Lakers had a full lineup in this game, Van Exel also began to increase the pass to Liu Han, and the Lakers suppressed the opponent throughout the game, and finally the Lakers defeated the Jazz by 6 points and kept their first position in the West.

O'Neal showed his dominance on the inside in this game, scoring 39 points and 13 rebounds, and Liu Han also got his first triple-double, with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. The core of the Lakers' offense and defense has exploded the core combination of the Jazz.

After two days of rest, the Lakers won at home against the Sacramento Kings, O'Neal scored 42 points and 12 rebounds, and Liu Han also scored 28 points, 6 assists and 7 rebounds, and the two combined for 70 points and dominated the game.

On the second day, the Lakers beat the Clippers with 33 points in back-to-back games, and the team scored 7 points in double figures, and the Lakers played an overall cooperation that amazed everyone, shooting 59.7% from the field.

After a day of rest, the Lakers ushered in their last game of the regular season, challenging the Trail Blazers away, this game the Lakers played a little absent-mindedly, they had established themselves in the first place in the West before the game, there was no need to play hard in this game, except for Liu Han, who was still focused on the game, most of the other players focused on the upcoming playoffs and the regular season winners.

In the end, the Lakers did not win the game, they lost to their opponents by 4 points, and Liu Han still played well, scoring a game-high 33 points.

At this point, all 82 games of the NBA regular season in the 96-97 season are over, the Lakers have a 65-17 record and rank first in the West, and the Chicago Bulls have once again played an amazing record with 69 wins and 13 losses, second only to their 72-10 record set last season and second in league history.

The teams that qualify for the playoffs in the West are: Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, Seattle SuperSonics, Phoenix Suns, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers, and Portland Trail Blazers. The Kings, Warriors, Mavericks, Nuggets, Spurs and Grizzlies are ranked 9 to 14, with the Vancouver Grizzlies once again at the bottom of the league. The top eight teams in the West will start fighting each other for the Western Conference championship from April 24, and the Lakers will have their first playoff game on the 25th, hosting the Portland Trail Blazers.

The teams that qualified for the playoffs in the East were: Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, and Washington Bullets. The Cavaliers, Pacers, Bucks, Raptors, Nets, 76ers, and Celtics are ranked 9 through 15. The Celtics have been in a sinking state this season, and after a glorious eighties, the league's legendary team is now in a phase of civil strife.

This season's scoring title was won by Michael Jordan again, this is his ninth regular season scoring title, this data can be called unprecedented, as the NBA competition becomes more and more intense, I believe that it is difficult for anyone to get such a result in the future.

The rebounding king was won by Mutombo, the "African Mountain", with an average of 11.6 rebounds per game is a new low in recent years, and Dennis Rodman's average of 14 rebounds per game last season is difficult to break.

John Stockton, who has been on the regular season assists list for eight years, finally took the top spot this year, and although Mark Jackson failed to qualify for the playoffs with the Nuggets, he still won the assist title with an average of 11.4 assists per game.

Liu Han's best rookie qualification is unshaken, averaging 21.8 points per game, ranking eleventh on the scoring list, although this data is not as good as Allen Iverson's average of 23.5 points per game of Allen Iverson, the draft champion of the Philadelphia 76ers, but Liu Han's shooting percentage ranks first in the league, and the Lakers' record ranks second in the regular season, which is incomparable to Iverson. And Liu Han can also average 5.3 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game, which are much higher than Iverson, and what is even more amazing is Liu Han's 77.6% three-point shooting rate and 224 three-pointers in a single season.

Liu Han led the team to the playoffs in his first season in the NBA, and his performance made everyone admit that this is a young man with superstar potential, and the Lakers with a strong center O'Neal and an outside sharpshooter Liu Han are expected by everyone to play well in the playoffs.