Bryant is now in a state of pain and happiness.

The pain is because he can't play because of an injury, and it's a pain for a basketball maniac like him to not be able to play.

He didn't even dare to imagine what kind of life he would live after retiring, and he wouldn't leave basketball anyway.

Happy because the Lakers did not have him, and their record did not decline significantly.

Although in the absence of Kobe, the tone of the Lakers' game seems much more monotonous.

The Suns were led by a large score, and finally reversed; Playing the Wizards, on the other hand, was almost reversed.

Fortunately, the Lakers survived both games, relying on Li Liang's excellent performance.

An unreasonable three-pointer, a calm judgment in the last moments.

After these two games, the Lakers had to reassess the value of Li Liang.

Now, the Los Angeles media is getting louder and louder about keeping Bruce Lee early.

But Li Liang is not that you want to stay, you can stay if you want to, he won a contract player option for himself when he signed the contract, so the initiative is completely in his hands.

Once he chooses to jump out in the summer, the Lakers have little chance of keeping him.

So now the management is actively mobilizing, mobilizing the people, friends, and teammates around Li Liang to persuade him to make a promise to stay in the summer.

But the Lakers did it all in vain.

First of all, Zhu Shu needless to say, he doesn't have oil and salt, and he doesn't have much contact with the Lakers management at all.

Wei Dazhi has recently changed his sex, rarely attending social events in Los Angeles, and says he wants to focus on journalism.

Ryan West came over to communicate with Li Liang, but while chatting, Ryan West was told by Li Liang that he wanted to leave the Lakers to prove himself.

And in the end, the person who has the energy to move Li Liang is Kobe.

Unexpectedly, Kobe Bryant rejected the management's request to be a lobbyist, and bluntly said, "Bruce will make his own choice, and I don't want to interfere with him." Besides, our focus now should be on the present, on the playoffs, not next season. The season isn't over yet, is it? ”

Kobe Bryant's words certainly have a point, but the management must take a long-term view, and it will be too late to hold on to it.

But there was no way, Li Liang didn't let go, so he could only continue like this.

After playing the game against the Wizards, the Lakers had two days off.

Li Liang continued to pay close attention to the training in the system, and this time he restarted the task of [Basic Defense on the Outside].

At present, his [basic outside defense] ability is 71, and it should be said that it is enough to play the regular season.

But when it comes to playing against Michael Jordan in the system, that's not enough at all.

On the 23rd, Li Liang entered the system at night and re-entered the task of [Outside Basic Defense]:

[Mission, Lock T-MAC, Date: March 20, 2003, Location: Auburn Hills Palace Arena, Detroit, USA, Matchup: Orlando Magic VS Detroit Pistons, Mission Requirements: Lock Tracy McGrady in the game, suppress his score by no more than 30 points, and help the Pistons win, Mission Reward: Outside Basic Defense Ability +10, Follow Defense/Stick Defense Ability +5, Mission Difficulty: Star]

Seeing this task, Li Liang pinched his sweat, because this was the first time he had come into contact with the playoffs in a mission.

And the task is really difficult, you have to lock up Maddie!

What is the concept of Maddie in 2003? As a Chinese fan, you will definitely know.

Although the series against the Pistons in 2003 became an eternal pain for Maddy, his personal ability is really nothing to say, purely because the magic strength is too poor.

With a 3-1 lead, they were overturned by the Pistons.

Maddie was ridiculed by many for saying "I'm thinking about the next round of opponents".

But in fact, his complete words in the interview were: "If it had been last year, we would have thought about the next round of opponents." ”

That's right, the NBA format was reformed in the 2003 season, and the previous first round was a best-of-five system.

03 years later, in order to sell more tickets, it was changed to a best-of-7 system, which led to the Magic being overturned, leaving eternal regrets.

Regret to regret, Maddie gave a wonderful offensive performance in this round of the series.

Especially in the first two games, in the away environment of Auburn Hills Palace, he scored 40 points in two consecutive games.

One 43, one 46, made the Pistons tremble outside.

Li Liang has watched these two games, so the task requires him to guard Maddie to 30 points?

I had no choice but to try.

……

On the 25th, the Lakers traveled to Oakland for their last long-distance road trip before the playoffs.

Li Liang appeared on the plane with dark circles under his eyes and sat next to Nash.

Nash glanced at Li Liang and said, "Boy, did you go to be a thief at night?" ”

Li Liang shook his head and said, "I'd rather be a thief, I need to rest......"

With that, Li Liang lay down on the chair and fell asleep.

Nash thought it was strange, it didn't make sense, he had a two-day break, he should be full of energy.

Why does Li Liang feel hollowed out?

It is said that he lived with two girls...... Don't......

Nash didn't think about it, he was still very decent.

Li Liang is more upright, what kind of woman do you need to play systematically?

In the past two days, I fought with T-MAC in the system, and I almost didn't exhaust him to death!

The result?

One mission kept Maddie at 38 points and a 35 points.

One was lost, one was won, but none of them completed their mission.

Actually, it's not particularly difficult to win, the problem is, Maddie is really too hard to guard!

And it's not the regular season, it's the playoffs, and the intensity goes up a notch.

Li Liang is still a little uncomfortable in the task, the Pistons' defensive strategy is completely different from the Lakers, and there are also communication problems.

In short, Li Liang was very annoyed by the two games, and felt that it was difficult to easily pass this task in a short time.

Sure enough, the difficulty has reached a certain level, and it is impossible to pass the level easily by being opportunistic and like that.

You have to improve your hard power.

After arriving in Oakland, the Lakers went directly to the Oracle Arena to participate in the game on the evening of the 25th.

Los Angeles and Oakland are very close to each other, so they don't bother to stay in a hotel and leave after the game.

In this game, the Lakers did not continue the good luck of the first two games, and they were bombarded with three-point shots by the Golden State Warriors from the beginning.

The Warriors are now 39-32 and in seventh place in the West, followed by the Houston Rockets in eighth place, and the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks are also eyeing them.

So the Warriors must go all out to win to secure a playoff spot.

Klay Thompson shot 6-of-11 from three-point range and Stephen Curry made 4-of-9 from three-point range, making 10 three-pointers alone.

On the Lakers' side, Howard took a break from the Warriors as usual in this game, scoring only 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting and 2-of-6 on free throws.

Pau Gasol is still recovering from form, coming off the bench to score eight points on 3-of-8 shooting.

Of course, this is not the point, the point is that Li Liang's performance is not good.

No way, he was squeezed dry by Maddie in the system in the past two days.

And not only was the defense of Maddie squeezed dry, because he played two mission games in a row, he was still on the Pistons, which caused his offense to be deflected by the Pistons!

is a garbage Pistons team, just fighting to defend and drag the rhythm, so that Li Liang is not used to playing the Warriors.

Even so, the Lakers fought the Warriors until the last minute.

Nash missed a crucial three-pointer and was countered by the Warriors, and Thompson hit a lethal three-pointer to stretch the margin to 8 points before the game lost its suspense.

The Lakers lost to the Warriors by a 9-point deficit of 100-109, giving the road trip a bad start.