Seattle Key Arena, 1994.

It's one of the most dilapidated arenas on an NBA team.

Because the arena was so dilapidated and the city of Seattle was reluctant to build a new arena, the SuperSonics moved out of Seattle and to Oklahoma many years later.

Of course, in 1994, supersonic was still the darling of Seattle.

This year, they finished the regular season with an excellent 63-19 record, which is high in the league.

This is the first year of Michael Jordan's retirement, and the group is leaderless, which is a good opportunity for many giants to compete for the championship.

The SuperSonics are definitely the favourites to win the title, at least in the West, where they feel like they have no rivals.

Olajuwon has a bumper harvest of personal accolades this year, with the regular season MVP going to be in the bag nine times out of ten, as well as the best defensive player, the first team, and the Rockets are also 58-24, second in the West after the SuperSonics.

However, the supersonic are not afraid of the Rockets and Olajuwon, on the contrary, they have always been the bitter hands of the Rockets and the big dream, and if they meet in the West, the SuperSonics are confident that they will take out the Rockets.

As for the first two rounds? For a league leader like the SuperSonics, it's time to think about the divisional finals.

But no one would have imagined that they would be in big trouble in the first round.

Facing the Denver Nuggets, who are eighth in the West, they won the first two games comfortably, thinking that the third game would sweep into the next round, and the Nuggets launched a Jedi counterattack.

After returning to their home stadium in the third game, they dashed hopes of a big win to sweep the SuperSonics into the next round.

Then in the fourth game, they completely suppressed the supersonic with a hard defense and stubbornly equalized the big score.

In the first round of the 1994 playoffs, the SuperSonics faced their best-of-five match, and the SuperSonics faced their life-and-death battle at home.

The Key Arena was packed on this night, and perhaps one of the great meanings of a life-and-death battle for Seattle fans was to be able to watch the SuperSonics advance to the next round on their own doorstep.

So they all ran to refuel the supersonics, and in their opinion, there was not much suspense that the supersonics would win the game.

The SuperSonics have won 34 of their last 39 home matches.

And before 1994, there had never been a first-round elimination in the division.

For the first place, the first round is just a cutscene.

History, however, is made for creation.

Just one year ago, the Phoenix Suns almost overturned in the first round.

In the end, they gritted their teeth in the battle of life and death, and then broke into the finals to create brilliance.

SuperSonics fans believe they can do the same, knowing that it was the SuperSonics who were eliminated in the Western Conference Finals last year, losing 3-4 and vowing to make a comeback this year.

The fans are full of confidence, but not necessarily the players.

Before the game, head coach George Carr himself said, "I can't deny that I did feel uneasy, it felt like I swallowed ice cubes......

Swallowing ice cubes is not only cool, but also choking.

The feeling of not getting stuck in the esophagus and not breathing well is really vivid.

Li Liangdu felt that in the supersonic locker room, a tense atmosphere was spreading and transmitting.

The team's Gary Payton sits in front of the locker and deals with his foot injury.

His foot injury worsened over the course of the match.

I thought that I could eliminate the opponent in three games and enter the next round, but I didn't expect it to be dragged to the last game.

He carefully tucked his bandaged foot into his shoe and walked back and forth to make sure he wasn't particularly unwell.

Actually, there are still them, but even if they do, he has to appear.

None of the other supersonic players stood up to say something, and head coach Karl was discussing something with the assistant coach, and I don't know why he didn't communicate with the players, even if he shouted twice and poured chicken soup.

In this atmosphere, Li Liang didn't know what to say if he wanted to say two words.

Don't say anything, just go straight to the game.

Although the key arena is dilapidated, the fan atmosphere here is one and the same.

So when the SuperSonics moved out of Seattle for Russia, the people of Seattle were always thinking about having a new NBA team in the city.

Compared to the nervousness of the supersonic players, the Nuggets players are completely relaxed.

Their current situation is that they don't lose if they lose, they win and earn blood, and those who are barefoot are not afraid to wear shoes.

In fact, the playoffs are like this, the rankings are all floating clouds, and whether you can advance depends on whether you can play your strength to defeat your opponents.

A high ranking only gives one more home advantage.

In the early years, when there were not many NBA teams, the first division could still have a bye in the first round, and later the bye was canceled, and every round had to be played.

So some coaches pointed out that the benefits of winning the first place in the regular season were too low.

And for the players, when it comes to the playoffs, everything in the regular season is over.

It doesn't matter if it's the best record in the league, it doesn't matter if you have the MVP, you have to win five or seven series.

However, for the supersonic players, the number one ranking has turned from an honor to a burden.

I'm afraid of losing, I'm so afraid of losing.

No No. 1 in history has ever been eliminated in the first round.

The players underestimated their opponents and looked too far ahead to forget to pay attention to the thorns under their feet.

Now the only person who doesn't feel this way is Li Liang.

He came in for German Schramf, Nowitzki's predecessor who was Germany's NBA trailblazer.

Although he did not achieve as much as Nowitzki, he was a successful team.

Li Liang and him are similar in position and height, so it is a good fit to replace him.

George Karl laid out his tactics before the game, requiring him to use full-court pressing tactics as soon as he opened the game, and tried to crush the Nuggets in a short period of time.

George Carr was clearly in a hurry.

The opening game was full of pressure, and if it was the first meeting, it would be good to catch the opponent off guard.

But the Nuggets and the SuperSonics have played four games, and there are not too many secrets from each other before, and the effect of the full-court pressing may not be good.

On the contrary, if the Nuggets are allowed to stabilize their position, the full-court pressing will instead put the SuperSonics in a physical crisis.

Sure enough, as soon as the game began, the SuperSonics used all their energy to press the Nuggets with high-intensity pressing defense.

As a result, the Nuggets players did not panic, slowed down the tempo, played steadily, and fought against supersonic speed little by little.

Li Liang ran on the field for a few rounds, and his first feeling was: the confrontation is really strong.

The atmosphere on the field is suffocating, the defenders move very much, and the referee has a large scale, so it is easy not to blow the whistle.

This is the first time Li Liang has participated in an NBA game in the 90s, and it is really different from the 70s and 80s.

The team's defense began to be systematic, the players were more physical, and the whistle on the field was looser.

Li Liang touched the ball several times, but did not get a good shot, and made a mistake under the pressure of the Nuggets.

In the game of the system, Li Liang has no rune bonuses, no skills, and no props.

He is a tabula rasa, and he is bound to play harder.

In the first quarter of the game, the two sides reached 19:20, and the SuperSonics only led by 1 point.

It's harder for both sides to score than to eat.

Li Liang tried a three-pointer but couldn't hit it.

The Nuggets' defense is tight, and more importantly, because Mutombo is guarding the three-second zone, the supersonic interior line cannot be opened, and the outside line cannot get good space and opportunities.

In 1994, the league did not defend for three seconds, and at the same time, there was no joint defense, and it was not allowed to pinch in advance, and it was mainly one-on-one defense.

So in the absence of an inside pivot point, it's not so easy to shoot a three-pointer.

But Li Liang knows that to win this game, he must rely on three points.

Since it is a task to force a three-point shot, it can only be forced.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Li Liang sat on the sidelines to rest.

At this time, the Nuggets have begun to grasp the initiative on the court.

The Nuggets played very methodically, relying on the interior, relying on Mutombo, Ellis and Williams, frantically attacking the supersonic three-second zone and rushing to grab rebounds in the frontcourt.

The SuperSonics are also not known for their projection, and although they rank fifth in the league in scoring 105 points per game in the regular season, they only shoot eight three-pointers per game — fewer than Li Liang has shot alone this season.

Such three-point shots are in the bottom of the league.

The main means of scoring for the supersonic still comes from quick counterattacks, secondary attacks, and especially fast attacks after pressing defense.

The SuperSonics are averaging 12.8 steals per game, the highest in the league, by a wide margin.

However, tonight's solid style of play of the Nuggets prevented the SuperSonics from playing to their advantage, especially Payton's foot injury, which made matters worse.

Li Liang sat next to George Karl, thinking about how to play his three-point shot.

The intensity of the game is only going to get higher and the space is only going to get smaller.

Li Liang clenched his fists, he knew that there was no need for any conspiracy, this time he had to meet the man!