The University of Kentucky was not able to win this year's championship, which of course made Li Liang a little disappointed and sad.

A player's affection for a college basketball team is still not comparable to that of a professional team.

The professional team is more of a job, with naked interests in front of you and the possibility of leaving at any time.

Except for a handful of transfers, college is an indelible memory of most players, regardless of their grades.

Especially for some players who are not too talented, maybe the NCAA is the most glorious moment of their lives.

For example, Shabazz Napier, who won the MOP this time, is a skinny point guard who gave a wonderful performance in the finals.

But his NBA draft prospects are not optimistic, because his talent is really limited, and the predicted ranking is only like the second round.

Even so, his basketball career will be without regrets.

Li Liang left Texas overnight and returned to Los Angeles to concentrate on preparing for the final games of the regular season.

On April 9, the Clippers faced the Thunder at home.

The Thunder are back-to-back games on the road, and today is the second game of the back-to-back, which is not good for the Thunder in terms of physical strength.

But the Thunder dominated the game from the start.

As soon as Durant came up to face Li Liang, he played 2+1, and then Westbrook misplaced and attacked Li Liang, breaking through and hitting Li Liang, causing Li Liang's foul.

Thunder head coach Brooks knows that if he wants to beat the Clippers, he must start at Li Liang.

There were two fouls in the opening three minutes, and Li Liang had to go to rest.

This disrupted the Clippers' rotation rhythm and offensive feel.

The Clippers suddenly reverted to their old game routine, relying on the duo of Paul and Griffin to open up the situation.

For Li Liang, being troubled by fouls is not only a lack of playing time, but the key is that the offense feels difficult to find.

As a player who eats by shooting, the feeling and continuity of the offense throughout the game is very important.

Once it is interrupted at a certain point, it is very difficult to feel the back to warm up.

Brooks has been seriously studying how to deal with Li Liang since the Western Conference finals last season.

This coach has a lot of heart, and he thinks that in the next few years, Li Liang will be an important opponent for Kevin Durant in the West.

So in terms of how to deal with Li Liang's strategy, the Thunder and Spurs are the two teams that are at the forefront of the league.

The Spurs are still taking a relatively "positive" route, using the same strategies used to deal with Kobe, Durant, James and others to deal with Li Liang.

And Thunder's strategy is relatively more "cunning", thinking of all kinds of small ways and tricks to deal with Li Liang.

The two fouls in the opening game were undoubtedly successful, and the referee was also very face-saving and let Li Liang go down to rest.

Then Westbrook and Durant scored frequently, and the Clippers suddenly lost fire in the second half of the first quarter, unable to shoot anything.

After Li Liang got off the court, the Thunder shrunk the defense very little, and the Clippers were released on the outside to shoot, but the Clippers just couldn't shoot.

The Thunder beat the Clippers 10-0 and led the Clippers by 12 points at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Rivers was a little hesitant about when to replace Li Liang on the court.

According to the normal rotation, Li Liang will go off the court for the last two minutes of the first quarter, and then continue to rest for the first three to five minutes of the second quarter, let Griffin play with the bench, and then Li Liang will come back on the court.

Now Li Liang rested for most of the first quarter, and if he continued to rest, the rest time would be too long, and it would be cold.

At this time, Li Liang had already stood up from the bench and was ready to go.

I haven't played for most of the quarter, and the feeling is going to cool.

Rivers waved his hand at Li Liang and motioned for him to go back and rest.

"Lao Li, I'll be cold if I don't go up again!" Li Liang muttered.

"Follow the process, I don't want to have accidents." Rivers Road.

It's a regular season game, and Rivers believes players playing at times they are not familiar with will not only affect their form, but they may also be at risk of injury.

What kind of bullshit theory is this, Li Liang will get hurt?

But Rivers was cautious, he felt that he could win this game, and if he couldn't, forget it, and didn't want to take any risks.

Li Liang let him rest when he rests.

Rivers is not Mike Brown after all, he is not so obedient, and he has more ideas.

Li Liang had no choice but to sit back on the bench, put on his coat again, and don't freeze.

As a result, after the start of the second quarter, the Thunder continued to maintain the pressure on the Clippers.

But Durant didn't play well tonight, his shooting hand was not good, and he didn't take advantage of several good opportunities on the outside.

I don't know if it's because Durant doesn't find it challenging to see Li Liang sitting off the court?

Li Liang still appeared in a normal time period, and after he got on the court, he missed two three-point shots, and he lost all his feelings.

But the defensive feeling is not to be lost, and the Clippers immediately began to chase points after Li Liang came on the court.

They were originally 14 points behind, but they hurried all the way and narrowed the gap to 3 points before the end of halftime, 56:59, and the first half of the game ended.

The Thunder's offensive state tonight was average, with big ups and downs.

They all rushed up very fiercely, and they rushed in several times, and then they became iron.

After all, the Thunder rely on the individual state of Durant and Westbrook on offense, and once a certain person's state is average, the offense will slip a notch.

For a team like this, the more stars you have to hoard, the better, and the more you have, the safer you are.

But the detonator sent Harden away...... Hey, my brain was hijacked by the Timberwolves management.

In the second half, Durant's form recovered, and he hit the middle distance in the opening game, and then a big loop caused Li Liang's foul.

Li Liang was speechless, referee, are you there?

Li Liang felt that since the last time Xiao Hua held a press conference to reveal that the NBA discriminated against Chinese, the referee's whistle on Li Liang has become more and more strict.

I used to reason with him, but now I still talk about it, but it has become not very advantageous to blow the punishment.

Being whistled for a foul at the beginning like this is still very hurtful for a player like Li Liang who is based on defense.

In fact, Brooks caught a weakness in the configuration of the Clippers' lineup, and with the help of the referee, it naturally caused trouble for Li Liang and the Clippers.

Brooks found that Li Liang was both the offensive core of the Clippers and the spearhead on the defensive end.

This kind of task assignment is actually very unreasonable - of course, it is to blame Mike Brown, who wants to highlight the core position of Li Liang!

Generally speaking, the team's offensive organizational core will definitely have less defensive pressure on the defensive end.

Even players who are both offensive and defensive will assign defensive tasks for others to share in order to ensure that they have spare energy on the offensive end and do not get troubled by fouls.

For example, Duncan of the Spurs team before 08, there was Robinson earlier, and the Spurs will definitely match Duncan with a coolie center as a meat shield in the later period.

Another example is Kobe, when he was on the same team as O'Neal, he was the second-in-command on the offensive end, so he could do his best to be a mad dog on the defensive end, and after 08, the Lakers hoarded Vujasic, Shannon Brown, Jordan Farmar and other biting small guards on the guard line to share the defensive responsibility of replacing Kobe.

After all, offense is still the most important thing, and if the defense is consumed too much energy, or gets into foul trouble, it will have a very bad impact on the team as a whole.

So, Mike Brown had that in mind when he started Barnes.

But the problem is that Barnes can indeed share some of it, but Li Liang's burden in defense is still too heavy.

Every time he plays a team with a strong striker, Li Liang is tough in front.

He can defend small forwards, and he can also top big forwards.

Durant, Randolph, James, Kobe, Harden, these offensive arrowheads of other teams, Li Liang has to play against them one-on-one.

Judging from Li Liang's age and qualifications, there is no problem, young people in the second grade, it is the time when they are energetic, if you don't block the eye-catching, who will block it?

Like Spurs Leonard, Pacers George, they all came up like this.

But the problem is that Li Liang has developed too quickly, and he has succeeded in grabbing power in the offense.

Now it's okay, he will pick up the heavy burden at both ends, even if you are capable, you can be directly exposed to the opponent's calculations, and it will be easy to go wrong.

Brooks has carefully studied the Clippers and Li Liang, and he believes that if the Thunder are going to break out of the West this year, they will inevitably pass the Clippers (not taking the Spurs seriously), and the Clippers' imbalance in the roster structure and responsibility distribution is a weakness that can be exploited.

After Li Liang was whistled for a foul at the beginning of the third quarter, he was really much more honest defensively.

didn't dare to start easily, didn't dare to make offensive fouls casually, the Thunder took the opportunity to attack wildly, played a wave of offensive climax, and stretched the difference between the two sides to 15 points.

The Clippers played tough, Li Liang began to shoot frequently from the outside, and at the end of the third quarter he finally found a three-point feeling, hitting three three-pointers in a row!

The third goal was when the attacking time was approaching, and he jumped directly near the halfway line and hit the board!

The ball helped the Clippers narrow the gap to just two points heading into the fourth quarter.

Entering the fourth quarter, Paul hit a mid-range jumper as soon as he started, pulling the two sides back to the same running line.

The two sides began a back-and-forth offensive and defensive battle.

Li Liang played very cautiously in the fourth quarter, he did not use props, and he did not throw three-pointers from the outside because his strong three-point shooting ability exceeded 60 points.

He didn't want to expose himself as soon as he had just been promoted to the ability.

Mike Brown is right, there are countless eyes on him all the time, trying to figure out his offensive skills and tactics to find ways to limit him in the game.

From inside and outside the field, from technology to psychology, the more difficulties and obstacles you face the higher you go, so Li Liang must keep a hand.

Even if he can't get 70 wins, judging from the current public opinion guidance, 67 wins is enough for Li Liang to win the regular season MVP.

That's when Paul stepped up and hit two three-pointers in a row from the outside.

Durant responded immediately by hitting the first three-pointer of the game — and if he played a little better, the Thunder would beat the Clippers by a big margin with Li Liang's fragmented playing time today.

The scores were alternating between the two sides, and in the crucial final moments, Westbrook came out in full swing.

First, the mid-range zombie jumper scored, and then hit a dunk in the offense to help the Thunder lead by 4 points.

After the Clippers took a timeout, they originally wanted Li Liang to shoot three points, but the Thunder chose to foul Paul and send Paul to the free throw line!

Brooks, you can, when I was against the Clippers before, I played Jordan Jr. (I learned it from Popovich, I cut Perkins), and now I learn to play penalty tactics from the old man, you don't learn it, you learn this bad trick very quickly.

As a result, Paul also hit one of two free throws, and Westbrook grabbed the rebound under the basket.

There are 40 seconds left in the clock, and the Clippers have defended the Thunder one, and there is still a chance to play again.

As a result, Durant hit Li Liang one-on-one and missed a mid-range jumper, but Westbrook picked up another rebound!

This little guard is really good at grabbing rebounds.

As soon as this crucial frontcourt rebound was taken, the Clippers fell into complete passivity.

Had to foul and send Westbrook to the free throw line.

As a result, Westbrook hit both free throws, bringing the margin to five points.

It was difficult now, Rivers called a timeout and arranged a three-point tactic for Li Liang.

As a result, as soon as Li Liang received the ball, the Thunder fouled again and sent Li Liang to the free throw line.

Brooks was simply extremely cautious and didn't give Li Liang a chance to change his life.

Li Liang made two free throws steadily, but it was useless, the difference was still three points, and the ball was in the hands of the Thunder again, and time was gone.

Rivers was blinded by the geese pecked all day long and died in the "penalty shootout".

In the end, the Thunder took a 109-106, three-point advantage at Stamps and squeezed the Clippers' hopes of a 70-win win into the final three.

On April 13, the Clippers host the Kings.

Before the start of the game, Li Liang found his junior brother Cousins and said that he would win this game and that he would never hack him in the game in the future.

Then the Clippers beat the Kings 120-101 at home, and Cousins asked Li Liang after the game if he really didn't hack him.

Li Liangdao, "This one should have been won by us, it's not your credit, you scored too much, it doesn't count." ”

Cousins scored 32 points and 12 rebounds in this game, and his performance was really good.

Thinking that what Li Liang said was very reasonable, he didn't pursue anything more.

With this win, the Clippers have won 68 games.

This is a remarkable achievement, as the Clippers set the 21st century team's regular season best record, leaving both the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers behind!

On the Los Angeles Clippers' team homepage, the number 68 is unusually dazzling.

But the Clippers weren't prepared to rest on their laurels.

Within the team, including owner Ballmer and others, there is a consensus that the team should hit 70 wins.

While the playoffs are more important, regular season honors are also invaluable for a team like the Clippers with a weak history.

At the Staples Center, when the Lakers were at home, they looked up with more than a dozen championship rings.

It's the Clippers' turn to be the home court, and when you look up, there's nothing left!

In fact, many teams that did not win the championship can also hang their flags in the sky above their home stadium.

For example, if you win the divisional championship, there will be a flag.

This division winner is not the East and West playoff champions, or even the regular season East and West champions, but the regular season champions of the six major divisions!

Just this kind of flag, the Lakers don't know how many there are, and they don't hesitate to hang them.

And the Clippers can't hang if they want to, so any bit of honor is important to the Clippers.

The final two games will be against the Nuggets and Trail Blazers in the Northwest.

The Nuggets have nothing to fear for the Clippers, and they've made a beeline for the lottery this season.

On April 15, the Clippers hosted the Nuggets.

The Clippers started the game with ferocious firepower, with Paul hitting a three-pointer in the opening game, and then Barnes hitting another three-pointer from a pass from Li Liang.

The Nuggets had a poor start, and the Clippers scored one after another, beating the Nuggets 15-0 at the beginning.

Then the game went smoothly, the Nuggets' will to resist was not strong, and besides, it was an away game, who would resist it?

After two hours of settling the battle, the Clippers easily defeated the Nuggets 119-107 and won their 69th game.

At the end of the game, the audience erupted in enthusiastic cheers.

Ballmer sat on the sidelines, excitedly hugging each other with his friends.

With 69 wins, it tied with the Chicago Bulls in 1997 and the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972 for the second-best results in history.

But the Clippers have a chance to occupy the second place in history, and it depends on the last game against the Trail Blazers.

After the game, Rivers tried to contain his excitement in an interview, because he knew that they still had a chance to produce better results, and there were some things to hold until the last game.

The game against the Trail Blazers was back-to-back, with the Clippers rushing to the Rose Garden.

For both sides, it's a game they want to win.

The Clippers want to make history, and the Trail Blazers want to finish better in the playoffs – and a win will give them the upper hand against the Rockets and home-court advantage.

Of course, even if they lose, as long as the Rockets don't win the last game, the Trail Blazers will also get the fourth place by virtue of the win-loss relationship.

And just before the start of the game between the two sides, the news came that the Rockets had lost.

That way, regardless of whether the Trail Blazers win the last game or not, the Trail Blazers will face the Rockets in the first round and have home-court advantage.

But the pioneers feel that they still have to resist!

How can you just make the Clippers' wedding dress and let them get 70 wins?

No team is willing to be the backdrop for other teams to set records, but that's where any record on the pitch is valuable.

The game between the two sides was very intense.

Until the start of the fourth quarter, the Trail Blazers still had a one-point lead.

After the start of the fourth quarter, the Trail Blazers, led by Lillard, played a wave of 9:2 climax and established the advantage in one fell swoop.

With three minutes left in the game, the Trail Blazers led the Clippers by 10 points.

Just when everyone thought that the Clippers' regular season record would stay at 69 wins, and the next 70 wins still didn't come, Li Liang made a move.

The shot here is a real shot.

After a timeout, Li Liang received the ball at the top of the arc and hit a three-point shot in the face of Batum.

Then, Lillard was stealed by Paul, Li Liang received a pass from Paul, and hit a 45-degree three-point shot from the right wing again.

Two three-pointers in a row made the Trail Blazers call a timeout.

The Trailblazers learned from the Spurs and the Mavericks, and began to double trap Li Liang.

After the timeout came back, Lopez first took a big hat from Jordan Jr. under the basket, and then Li Liang held the ball outside, and when he was surrounded by two people, he dribbled and moved horizontally, and then stopped outside the three-point line and shot three points again, and hit it!

It's only 1 point away!

With 1 minute left before the end of the game, Li Liang used his familiar three points to chase the difference to only 1 point.

It's said to be familiar, but it's actually unfamiliar.

As long as careful fans will notice, Li Liang's choice of shots these times is obviously more casual than in the past.

In the past, in order to gain fleeting space, he would shoot from a greater distance, using more runs and cover to get opportunities.

This time he didn't, he got the ball and felt like he was about to shoot it.

Batum, who defended him, and Matthews, who was in the bag, were a little caught off guard.

And Li Liang's three shots were not the smooth shooting that he usually used to shoot with his entire torso after exerting force from his legs, but relying on the strength of his arms and wrists to pull the ball out after jumping.

This is the so-called "dry pulling", which is actually a relatively non-standard and more difficult way to shoot.

The advantage is that the ability to carry interference is strong, and the disadvantage is that even if there is no interference, you are likely to not be able to throw.

This kind of shooting requires very high strength of the waist, abdomen and upper limbs.

The one who used this kind of shooting the most was Ray Allen.

So some people say that Ray Allen's shooting is textbook and skillful fart.

Which shooting textbook teaches students to shoot like this, and none of them can learn well.

After improving his three-point shooting ability, Li Liang has recently improved his waist and abdomen strength, leg strength and wrist strength in the task to adapt to this shooting style.

Li Liang showed his hand slightly, and it did not attract too many people's attention.

Subsequently, Li Liang made a successful steal and assisted Crawford to make a layup, successfully overtaking the score.

In the end, the Clippers won their 70th victory of the regular season with a 3-point advantage on the road!

With 70 wins and 12 losses, the Clippers created the second regular season 70 wins in NBA history!

The moment the buzzer sounded, the Trail Blazers' home fans applauded and cheered for the Clippers.

This is the victory and the record they deserve.

Facing an interview with reporters after the game, Li Liang said: "This is not an end, but a beginning, waiting for me." ”