It's Halloween in the United States, so before the game starts, many fans are dressed in strange shapes.

They imitate horror characters from various film and television dramas, such as Frankenstein, werewolves, and vampires.

They also wore the jerseys of both teams, with the Lakers and the Trailblazers evenly matched.

This is the home of the Trail Blazers, which is enough to see how influential the Lakers are in the league.

The game started on time, and it was the same set of processes, the opening ceremony, and finding someone to sing the national anthem.

I have to say that the patriotic education of the United States has never been left behind.

No matter what kind of sports competition, singing the national anthem is a must-go process.

And a national anthem is sung in a variety of ways, over and over again.

What bel canto, pop, country, children's voices, blues, as long as you can think of, there is nothing that Yankees can't sing.

Think about it, there are more than 1,000 games in the NBA a year, and each game has a national anthem ceremony, and the games are not the same.

Li Liang stood on the field, listening to "The Star-Spangled Banner Never Falls", buttoned his nose, and thought to himself, when will Mike Brown replace himself today?

Once a player sets foot on the pitch, his desire must be inflated.

If you score 15 points, you want to get 20 points, if you score 20 points, you want to score 30 points, and after 30, you want to get 40 points, 50 points.

If you enter the playoffs, you want to enter the Western Finals, and if you enter the Western Finals, you want to make the finals, and then you will be the champion.

It's not enough to win one championship, I still want a second championship, a third championship, in short, there is no end.

That's the special charm of competitive sports.

In real life, restraint and contentment with desires are preached.

Only on the sports field can people justifiably release their endless desires.

If you don't have a desire, people will say that you don't want to win, you don't have a competitive spirit, but you will be scolded.

A player carries not only his own desires, but also the expectations of countless fans.

What Li Liang wants now is to be able to enter the rotation stably and become a starter one day.

He also wanted to taste it, attend the entrance ceremony, and receive the feeling of cheering from the audience.

At the end of the opening ceremony, Li Liang sat back on the bench.

The Lakers' starting lineup remains unchanged as it did on the court.

As soon as Li Liang sat down, he poked Mike Brown and said, "Coach, when will I play?" ”

Mike Brown's face has a black line, of course, because his face is too dark to see.

This kid is so annoying!

Before he could jump the ball, he was thinking about playing.

"Be patient with Bruce, the game hasn't started yet." Brown still has to coax him, it's really a dog.

Li Liang nodded and didn't speak again.

It's one of his tactics, and when Mike Brown gets annoyed by him, grits his teeth and stamps his foot, and simply lets him start, won't everything be fine?

However, in the short term, it should be unlikely.

After all, the qualifications of the starting five are there, even if it is a fake starter, let them appear first.

At this point, the game was already underway, with Howard and Trail Blazers center Aldridge jumping the ball.

In fact, Aldridge doesn't want to be a center, can anyone be a center for the Trail Blazers?

As an interior player, you know how hard it is to play for the Trail Blazers?

In order to protect himself, Ade, a big man with a height of 6-foot-11, has always claimed to be a power forward.

He relied on the talisman of "PF" to fight in good health to this day.

So he started with a jump ball mission, and then the name "center" was better left to JJ Hickson.

The Lakers took the lead in gaining possession, and Nash controlled the ball over half court and began to organize the offense.

The Lakers' opening strategy has changed slightly from the previous game.

Mike Brown still has a brain, and he knows that the Princeton effect may not really work, so he didn't mention it in the pre-game preparation meeting.

He asked for the opening to start from the inside and try to open up the Howard point.

First, this is the usual practice of teams with super interior lines, using the inside line to destroy the opponent's defensive integrity from the inside out.

Then create better offensive opportunities for the outside, combine inside and outside, and revitalize the offense.

When the Lakers had O'Neal, they relied on this style of play to run rampant.

Howard certainly wasn't O'Neal, but O'Neal didn't have Nash to pass him back then.

The 38-year-old Nash was one of the best point guards in the league in his first quarter.

In the first few attacks of the Lakers, Nash did not pass the ball again and ran into the open position, but drilled into the Trail Blazers' three-second zone with the ball.

He started with a clever ground-hitting pass that set up Howard's hook shot.

He then mounted an archery from the 8-foot position and scored two points on mid-range shooting.

Sure enough, Nash still has to have the ball, and he is the magician of that court.

When he doesn't have the ball......

Nash was overrun by Lillard on the opposite side, and Lillard hit a jumper from mid-range.

His defense is hard to put into words.

The defense was not good, and he was old enough to keep up with people at all.

Although Lillard on the other side is a rookie, he doesn't play like a rookie at all.

Like Li Liang, he is a senior and is 22 years old this year.

At such an age, he is always not favored in the NBA.

But Lillard played well in Summer League and won the MVP of the Summer League.

This game was his NBA debut, and he calmly hit a jumper on the first offense of the opening game.

It can be seen that his shooting skills are quite good, his hand is very soft, and his shooting speed is also very fast.

After the Trail Blazers lost Brandon Roy, Portland fans were extremely sorry, where is their next backcourt scorer?

For Lillard, many fans are not very optimistic.

He's a little too short, and he's so old, and he's not physically strong enough.

He is not handsome, with thin eyebrows and small eyes, like a bandit, not as domineering as Roy.

However, judging from the summer league and a series of games in the preseason, his performance is very good.

In the first five minutes of the first quarter, the Lakers and Trail Blazers revolved around Nash and Lillard on the offensive end.

The two of them also represent the current style of both teams.

One used to be gorgeous, but a little old.

An obscure, but resolute and resolute.

Nash wanted to use his passing to lead the team's offense, and the Lakers couldn't find a way to deal with Lillard and Aldridge's blocking.

The opening game between the two sides was 10:12, with the Trail Blazers leading by two points and going into an official timeout.

Apart from a mid-range shot in the opening game, Nash missed the next two attacks.

His attack power has dropped significantly.

And once a point guard lacks offensive power, his involvement and organizational ability will also be affected.

On the Trail Blazers' side, Lillard played well.

You can attack and pass the ball to your teammates.

The Trail Blazers started Hickson, Aldridge, Matthews, Batum and Lillard, all five of whom have outside shooting ability.

This year the Trail Blazers brought in a new coach, Terry Stotts.

The offensive assistant coach of the Dallas Mavericks' championship season that year was Stotts.

In 11 years, the Mavericks, the shooting team, won the championship when everyone was not optimistic.

It was also from that year that people stopped the superstition that "you can't win a championship just by shooting." ”

Stotts' "Flow" offensive tactics for the Mavericks were undoubtedly an important boost to their championship.

After coming to the Trail Blazers, Stotts brought this set of tactics with him, which obviously suited the Trail Blazers well.

The so-called Flow offense is actually the constant use of blocking and covering to provide shooting opportunities for the team's shooters.

This tactic requires the team's perimeter to have a strong shooting ability, while the big man who provides cover also has a mid-to-long-range range.

Aldridge undoubtedly fits the strings of Stotts' system.

And Lillard, Matthews, and Batum are all capable of shooting from the outside.

For this kind of team that keeps blocking, dismantling, covering, running, and shooting, the Lakers' old arms and legs are obviously a little difficult.

Fortunately, the Trail Blazers' three-point shooting percentage was not too high in the opening game, and the Lakers still had a chance to breathe.

Officially, Mike Brown set up the defense and asked Howard to expand his defensive area appropriately.

Brown replaces Nash and brings Meeks on.

He didn't dare to use Blake, and Blake was afraid that he would not be chased by Lillard to continue to fight.

This No. 0 rookie is really aggressive when he plays.

At the end of the timeout, Li Liang did not get a chance to play.

Mike Brown coughed, did not forget to comfort Li Liang, and said, "Don't worry, you will have a chance to play later." ”

Li Liang didn't speak, wondering when Brown would be able to come up with a stable rotation lineup.

The game restarted on the field, and it was clear that Brown's set-up didn't have much effect.

Meeks coming on the court doesn't change the fact that the Lakers can't put pressure on the outside ball-carriers.

Even if Howard defends it, he's not the kind of ball-handler who is pressing.

What he needs is to stay defensive on the outside, not give shots, and let the opponent rush to the basket.

When you get to the basket, it's Howard's own land, and the big hat is so fanned that you can't find the north.

But the Lakers' outside defense has no viscosity, and the Trail Blazers are shot-oriented, which makes Howard very stiff.

Fortunately, the offensive firepower of the Lakers' side continued.

Kobe Bryant still adhered to the offensive attitude of the last game.

Focus on moving the ball, playmaking, and constantly feed Howard.

As for the shot?

It doesn't exist, I'm not very good at attacking.

I'm a very reasonable and scientific person who plays ball.

Tonight's Warcraft is quite at its peak, and it feels good under the basket.

As long as you get to the position on the inside, you can score the ball.

The scores on both sides alternated, and the Trail Blazers maintained a 2-4 point lead.

Finally, at the end of the first quarter, Mike Brown patted Li Liang and said, "Ready to play!" ”

Li Liang took off his coat and replaced Ci Shiping on the court, and it was time to show my personal ability again!

Look at you old men, what are you fighting? What? What?

Will it be defensive? Is there a passion? Do you want to play basketball?

Li Liang appeared with full energy and enthusiasm.

As soon as he came on the court, the rest of the Lakers players felt as if their spirits were a little better.

This kid is really weird and amazing.

But when he thought about starting the fight later, he was going to yell at the defensive end again, and he felt a little headache.

At this point, Howard hit a free throw and hit one of two to score nine points in the first quarter.

The score came to 23-26, and the Lakers trailed by three points.