After arriving in Phoenix on the 25th, the brand new Kings received a lot of media attention.

In the afternoon of the same day, the team had an open training session, allowing reporters to conduct interviews and filming.

For Cousins and other former Kings and veterans, this month they have deeply felt the gap in attention.

Before this season, the coverage and analysis of the Kings was more like a routine.

The media attention was more focused on Cousins' technical fouls and his hot temper on the court.

As for the rest of the team, the fans don't particularly care.

This season, open NBA-related websites, magazines and newspapers, and you can see predictions, pre-game analysis, and player inventory related to the Kings, almost everywhere.

This is still in the United States, and if it is in China, the stronghold of Li Liang's fans, it will be even more incredible.

Because Li Liang was sure to stay with the Kings for a long time, the domestic influence of some of the Kings' players soared.

For example, Cousins has begun to receive advertising endorsement invitations from domestic companies, which is said to be a refreshing product of a health care product company.

For example, Gordon began to have domestic sneaker companies ask him to endorse sneaker products, including Guy.

Just as Yao Ming brought a group of people who were originally unknown in the NBA to the Rockets, Li Liang's championship halo brought more than one or two people.

Slowly, the Kings players are also getting used to this kind of basketball routine that is watched by more eyes.

After ending the open training on the 25th, on the 26th, the Kings finally ushered in the opening game of the new season.

The match qualified for national broadcast.

The Suns continue to be underdogs this season, and they have set a goal before the start of the season to be a bad one.

With such an opponent as a hot player at the start of the season, it should be said that it could not be better.

Before the start of the game, ESPN conducted an exclusive interview with Li Liang - as a coach.

In an exclusive interview, Li Liang talked about some of his feelings and changes in thinking after becoming a coach.

"I think the best thing about being a coach is that I can finally control my playing time."

Li Liang joked that now he really wants to go up and down, rest when he wants to play, arrange a point guard for himself if he wants to play point guard, and let Cousins sit off the court if he wants to play center.

As a ball bully, he can completely top the position of the coach, which should be the pinnacle of the ball bully.

If you want to go further, you have to buy the team and decide on the introduction and layoffs of players like Cuban.

That would be the ultimate form of the ball lord.

'If anything, I feel like I've been training for a shorter period of time and I have to spend a lot of time dealing with the team. So, my personal progress this summer is limited, in fact, I still have a lot of potential to explore, let's talk about it later. ”

When talking about the bad side, Li Liang said that he still has room for improvement.

Indeed, this summer, except for the dribbling task, Li Liang has no time to do other tasks.

Gan Guoyangka's first battle in his high school career has not had time to advance until now.

Li Liang didn't have time to continue polishing some technical details.

But he's keeping it all in mind, and once the Kings are on track, he'll be able to spend more time on himself.

Now the first game of the new season is the first test of his coaching career for Li Liang.

The preseason ahead is just a quiz, and the regular season is the right place to go.

The one who gave him the test was Suns coach, Earl Watson.

Watson became the Suns' interim head coach in February '16 in the middle of last season.

Watson is only 36 years old, making him the youngest head coach in the NBA before Li Liang became head coach.

Of course, Li Liang pushed the youngest record down by 10 years at once, and it is expected that no one will break this record in the future.

As interim head coach, Watson is up against the Suns.

After Nash's departure, the Suns fell into a cycle of swinging, winning the high show, and then swinging.

The last one to wander in the cycle was none other than the king.

Thankfully, the king was favored and rebuilt with a superstar.

And the sun doesn't know when it will rise.

Facing the Kings, whose overall strength is too strong over him, Watson really doesn't have a good way.

In a young team, it's not a good thing for a manager to be too young.

This can leave young players with little respect for the authority of their coaches – except, of course, for a ball bully like Li Liang.

Watson was a dedicated point guard as a player, with a 13-year career, which shows that he is capable of doing a good job.

But he has never played for a strong team, has not won a championship, and has not played a tough battle in the playoffs.

Overall, it's better than most ordinary NBA players, but it's not as good as the real power.

And in terms of appearance, Watson is really a bit of a thief, lacking the aura that a good coach should have.

Like Phil Jackson, he didn't play well as a player, but he was tall and handsome.

There are also Riley, Carlisle and others, all of whom were not very good as players, but they have a good face.

Although the NBA doesn't eat on your face, for coaches, having a dignified appearance will make your job a lot easier.

Think about it, if someone like Cassel is the manager, and when he talks you about tactics, you stare at his face and want to laugh or vomit?

So how can you command?

Appearance is a disadvantage for Watson.

As for how to deal with the Kings in this game, to be honest, Watson really doesn't have a good way.

Change to a more comfortable position and lie flat, so that the dead can look better.

Of course, it is also possible to hope that the Kings have just taken shape and cannot play.

In that case, the Suns have a chance to win with the power of their home court.

At half past seven in the evening, at the Toggins Dick Resort in Phoenix, the opening game of the regular season between the two sides began.

Until then, the arena had been called the American Airlines Center.

There are three American-named arenas across the league, Phoenix, Dallas and Miami.

All three are famous tourist cities.

And this year, the title sponsor of the arena in Phoenix has changed and turned into a resort hotel.

The name is really not good enough, because the Suns are so weak that other teams come to play as if they are on vacation.

Before the start of the game, the TV cameras showed the coaches of both sides.

In the Suns' dugout, Watson stood on the sidelines, looking nervous.

And in the King's coaching box, Brown, Tyronn Lue and D'Antoni huddled together and sat there, and then a seat was vacated next to Mike Brown, which was for Lean.

At this point, their head coach was on the field, ready to start the game.

Li Liang was rarely a little nervous, and his identity as the head coach gave him more pressure.

But when the game actually started, that pressure disappeared without a trace.

Because the strength of the opponent Sun is indeed too poor.

Moreover, the Kings' "swarm defense" worked surprisingly well.

The Suns' ball-handler realized halfway through the quarter that he almost always had two men in front of him.

This made the young Suns players hesitate when it came to handling the ball.

Once you hesitate, mistakes start to increase.

In the first quarter, the Suns made a whopping nine turnovers.

The Kings constantly took advantage of the Suns' mistakes to play counter-attacks.

In the first quarter, the Kings built a 35-20, 15-point lead.

The Suns were beaten a little confused.

The excellent performance in the first quarter undoubtedly boosted the morale of the entire Kings team.

On the offensive end, the Kings played concisely and quickly, constantly using the Suns' turnovers and backcourt rebounds to counterattack, and on the other hand, using 1-4 drops to penetrate the ball in positional battles.

The king's positional attack was not smooth and tacit enough.

But Rondo and Li Liang's playful passing made up for those problems to a great extent.

Cousins was fed 7 of 9 shots from the basket by Li Liang and Rondo in the first half, and scored 25 points in the half!

Cousins' low-post strong hits are quite rare, almost all of them are all kinds of pies, and they go straight to the basket after blocking and dismantling.

Hit that is called a comfortable.

If it weren't for the Kings' poor three-point shooting from the outside in the first half, the lead would have been even greater.

At halftime, the Kings led the Suns by as many as 17 points at 67:50.

With 15 turnovers in the Suns' half, the Kings' bees were a bit of a sting.

Playing such a performance, Li Liang was quite happy.

It's just not the same feeling as a player and a coach.

Being a coach is like an old father, and it's really nice to see your teammates doing well.

Especially to see a mentally handicapped child like Cousins play so well, Li Liang is still very happy.

After all, Suns center Tyson Chandler isn't exactly a rookie either, so easy to bully.

In the second half, the completely relaxed Kings faced the Suns, who had no fighting spirit, and the game lost suspense.

The Kings easily beat the Suns with a huge advantage of 120-91 and 29 points on the road to get off to a good start to the season.

At the moment when the game ended, subtitles appeared in front of Li Liang's eyes:

[Congratulations on completing the first victory of your coaching career and obtaining a "Hand Rune", please enter the system to view.] 】

Li Liang felt that it was not strange that there was a reward, from the moment he signed the head coach contract, there was an additional "coach achievement system" in the system, and I don't know what the difference was from the previous achievement system.

However, why is the reward the same as before, which is still a "touch rune"?

Is there still room for improvement in your own hand?