The result of the absence of Durant and Westbrook is the lack of continuity in the Thunder's offense.

The Lakers have become more comfortable in rotation, Scott can deploy as many troops as possible, and the team's defensive layout has become much simpler, focusing on and taking care of Li Liang.

That's what a single-core team always has to face.

Of course, Li Liang is a player who has proven himself and can win the championship with a single core.

It's just that the Thunder's bench configuration can't be compared to the Pacers back then.

The Pacers originally focused on Li Liang's characteristics in terms of personnel and tactics.

After the Thunder did not have a double minor, one of the most critical problems was the lack of shooters.

Li Liang is a master of space, and his ability to pull space is the number one in the alliance.

However, the three-point shots of Robertson, Vitesse, Augustine, Morrow and others were not stable enough.

In the first half, Li Liang created a lot of chances for his teammates, but he didn't grasp much.

Especially the Thunder's three-point shooting was not opened, wasting a lot of opportunities and choking Li Liangqi.

At the end of the second quarter, the Thunder trailed the Lakers by six points at 55:61 and ended the first half.

Li Liang scored 18 points in the half, which is a lot, but it is a bit less for the Thunder who want to win the game.

On the other side, Kobe Bryant scored 11 points and handed out seven assists.

Kobe Bryant is becoming more and more comfortable at the No. 1 point guard position.

And the better he played, the more reluctant his fans were to retire.

Obviously, he can fight for many more years, his body and technique are not old, but his heart is already old.

After announcing his retirement, many fans launched a petition hoping that Kobe Bryant would not retire and continue to play for two years.

But Bryant was determined to leave, and because of this, he is now enjoying and relaxing on the court.

Compared with the past, he plays with a little more elegant and free style, no longer like a vicious black mamba.

At halftime, the Thunder held a retirement ceremony for Kobe Bryant at home.

Instead of returning to the locker room, the players from both sides stayed on the court to say goodbye to Kobe Bryant and give him a precious commemorative gift — an album full of photos.

These photos are all contributed by the Thunder players, and Kobe-related photos and posters, among which Li Liang contributed the most.

He printed out some of the precious photos he and Wei Dazhi took when he was in the Lakers and pasted them in this album.

Each of the Thunder players left a message for Kobe Bryant on the photo album.

The Russian City Hall also presented Kobe Bryant with a commemorative medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the NBA over the past 20 years.

Kobe Bryant had a smile on his face, the result of two decades of farming the basketball ground.

Whether you love him, hate him, or ignore him, when he is leaving, there will always be a feeling that something is missing from this land.

For many young fans, when they started paying attention to the NBA, the league had this mamba snake wearing the Lakers' jersey, maverick and amazing power.

He's been with a lot of people for 5, 10, 15 years, he's not the best in history, but he's inspired a lot of people.

Because he always wants to be the best.

At the end of the memorial ceremony, Bryant put the gifts and blessings he received back into the locker room and in his heart.

The second half of the game began.

In the third season, the Thunder began to change their style of play.

Li Liang began to increase the proportion of independent attacks.

He started directly in the second half and appeared in the team's number three position.

Donovan knew that only by letting Li Liang appear in the third position would his firepower be the most powerful.

Li Liang rarely opened the singles mode.

In fact, one-on-one singles has never been Li Liang's strong point.

If you talk about singles skills alone, Li Liang is still inferior to Durant.

But Li Liang has an advantage, that is, his three-point shot is indeed too accurate.

Facing Leonard on the outside, Li Liang hit a three-point shot directly at 45 degrees on the right side after getting rid of the rhythm of finding the rhythm of continuous dribbling.

The first shot of the Thunder's counterattack was fired.

Then, Clarkson's mid-range shot with a slight flinch in the air drifting in the air after successive covers missed.

Adams grabbed the rebound and handed the ball to Augustin.

Augustine gave Adams after half time, and the high post responded.

Li Liang was originally squatting in the bottom corner of the right side, he lifted it up again to the right side at 45 degrees, received a pass from Adams, pulled up three points and then shot!

The shot was made very suddenly, and the Lakers defense was obviously not focused enough.

Li Liang hit three points again!

The Lakers are a bit sloppy on offense and defense.

A pass in the attack was almost tackled by Robertson.

The ball is out of bounds, or the Lakers' possession.

Scott was a little anxious on the sidelines, shouting a loud reminder for his players to focus.

But concentration is not so simple, mainly because of the lack of motivation of the Lakers players in this game.

Because regardless of winning or losing, the Lakers have already confirmed that they are in fourth place in the West, and they can't catch up with the Spurs in front of them, and they won't be caught up by the Rockets in the back.

Although the full team doesn't want the Thunder to create the best record in history on their heads, even if it is created, it doesn't matter.

Everyone's minds are still on the playoffs.

Serving the sideline, under the Thunder's tight defense, the Lakers made a mistake.

Bryant ran to the bottom corner, but didn't catch a pass from his teammate.

The ball is back on the Thunder's side.

At this time, the two sides have been tied, and the Thunder even have a chance to overtake.

After 10 seconds, Li Liang gave the Thunder the lead.

He took advantage of a cover from Adams at the top of the arc to shoot a three-point shot from a long distance again, and hit again!

Three three-pointers in a row!

The Thunder outscored the Lakers by three points at 64-61.

Scott called a timeout.

This back-to-back three-pointer really caught us off guard.

Leonard was criticized by Scott after returning to the bench.

Leonard didn't say a word, he had actually tried his best to defend, but it really didn't work.

Li Liang's shooting speed is extremely fast, almost undisturbed, and once his form comes, it is difficult to suppress his shooting percentage unless he is pre-interfered before he makes a shooting move.

As for how to defend Li Liang, Leonard, his personal trainer, and the entire team have also carefully studied it.

Leonard thinks that it doesn't make much sense to consume Li Liang without the ball.

Li Liang is different from Curry, his physical condition is not comparable to Curry, and Li Liang will never run around the world to find a shooting opportunity.

You stick it, you squeeze it, it doesn't work, you can't even squeeze him.

He'll shoot in places you don't expect.

And when Li Liang shot in a more comfortable position, it was difficult to interfere with him.

Don't think about blocking, he shoots extremely fast and has very little preparation.

The opportunity to defend is in the preparation stage of the shot, in the early years, Li Liang could be close, but now the closeness is not very effective, he will break through.

Li Liang is the kind of player who doesn't care how you defend when shooting.

Some players, such as Kobe, will set their next step based on the actions of the defenders, how to shoot, lean back, float, pull dry, or break through after feints.

Li Liang has his own set of procedures, and when he feels that the distance and rhythm are appropriate, he will fire a cannon.

Once the cannon is fired, the high hit rate is terrible.

Leonard believes that the key to defending is to find the rhythm of Bruce Lee.

The problem is that you can't find TM at all, and there is a limit to the speed of human nerve reactions.

He made a move too fast, and unless he made an accurate prediction, he could preemptively prevent Li Liang.

It's quite difficult, perhaps the highest level in defense, and the ultimate pursuit of Leonard.

Bruce Lee formed a mountain in front of Leonard, a mountain worth climbing.

At this time, Li Liang sat on the bench, drinking water, and thought to himself: "I wonder if my built-in three-point shooting rate improvement post has been triggered?" Is it because it's triggered? The third ball was thrown blindly, it was thrown a little fast, but it was still scored, it is estimated that it was triggered, and I will hurry up and throw a few more later. ”