The award for the best sixth man has been selected since the 1982-1983 season, and for more than 30 years, only a few people have been selected to be called superstars, such as McHale, Harden, Wharton, and Ginobili.

Among them, McHale and Harden both served as substitutes in the early stages of their careers, and when they grew into superstars, they rarely became sixth men anymore.

Wharton, on the other hand, made a sixth man late in his career and used his spare time.

Ginobili is quite special, saying that he is a superstar, the accumulation of data does not seem to be qualified, saying that he is not, and his performance in the playoffs is absolutely superstar-level.

And Li Liang is different, a real first-line superstar, the current honor alone is enough to wrestle with those historical superstars.

He won the best sixth man, and he can only say that this thing is really thick-skinned, and he doesn't mind at all when he says that he will be a substitute.

After flying to New York to receive the award for the best sixth man, Li Liang's task [Bench Life] was completed, and the system gave him a reward prop, called [Arnold's Victory Cigar], but what was the use, the system did not explain, which made Li Liang feel very strange.

After receiving the award for Sixth Man of the Year, the Thunder had two days off.

On the 21st, the Thunder traveled to Memphis with a 2-0 lead to start a two-game road trip.

For the Thunder, it would be nice to be able to finish the Grizzlies in four games.

And the Grizzlies, who are back at home, still have to struggle, after all, they are at home.

As a result, they only struggled for half the court.

The Grizzlies and Thunder were evenly matched in the first half, mainly because the Grizzlies' outside three-point shooting percentage was quite high.

The Grizzlies also led by one point heading into the second half.

But after the start of the third quarter, Li Liang made his debut directly - what about the best sixth man, who won the award and started to be a starter?

However, this was originally the plan of the Thunder coaching staff, Li Liang made a fake substitute, took a short break at the beginning of the first quarter, and started directly in the second half.

When it comes to the difficult games in the future, it is estimated that Donovan will let Li Liang start directly.

After all, the Sixth Man of the Year is only a regular season award, not the playoffs.

The triumvirate appeared at the same time, and the power was indeed extraordinary, and the grizzly bear quickly disarmed and surrendered.

The significance of Li Liang's start is not only a strong firepower point, but also the benefits he brings on the defensive end are also very considerable.

Randolph scored 12 points on the inside in the first half, and in the second half, Li Liang began to defend against Randolph, and the Black Bears became blind.

Consecutive missed shots.

Li Liang started to instigate the team's counterattack from the backcourt rebound, and an 11-0 offensive shockwave established the advantage.

After that, the Thunder didn't give the Grizzlies another chance, holding a double-digit lead all the way to the end of the game.

At 99:87, the Thunder led the Grizzlies 3-0 and swept in sight.

For the Grizzlies, getting into the playoffs is just a formality.

Thunder also hopes to give them a good time, otherwise they will return to Russia to continue to be beaten, it is better to let them go home fishing early on vacation, anyway, there will be no more money to take if they play one more game.

After a day of rest, it was the 23rd, the fourth battle between the two sides.

The game was even more suspenseless, with the Thunder leading by double digits from the beginning of the first quarter.

If Gasol Jr. is here, with some shortcomings in the Thunder's interior defense, the Grizzlies can still play a dozen.

But without the core Gasol Jr., and the main point guard Mike Conley is also reimbursed due to injury, the Grizzlies are really out of line.

At 119:95, the Thunder defeated the Grizzlies by a huge margin of 24 points in Game 4 and swept the opponent out.

The Thunder also became the first team in the West to advance to the semifinals.

This round of the series, to sum up, is not sweating.

The intensity, the intensity, the intensity, did not reach the playoff level at all.

On the one hand, the Thunder is too strong, and on the other hand, the Grizzlies are too badly injured.

This is not necessarily a good thing for the Thunder.

Because the opponent in the semifinals, whether it is the Lakers or the Rockets, will never be as easy as playing the Grizzlies.

If the first round is too easy, it will often be difficult to get out of shape in the semi-finals.

Of course, the Lakers and Rockets also have their troubles, that is, the series is too long and too physically draining.

After the Thunder and Grizzlies dubbed it out, the Warriors soon sent away the Portland Trail Blazers 4-0.

Stephen Curry missed two games with a sprained ankle.

But the Warriors without Curry still had a strong momentum and did not give the opponent Trail Blazers any chance, leading 3-0.

In the fourth game, Curry returned, like the Thunder, to sweep the Trail Blazers out of the game and advance to the next round.

The two super teams in the west advanced early.

And the series of Rockets vs Lakers and Clippers vs Spurs will not have results for a while and a half.

Looking at the East, the Cavaliers are still the one who is unbeatable, and the first round is also a 4:0 elimination of the opponent to enter the semifinals.

The other three sets of duels are all in a bitter battle, and the rookies pecking each other are often extremely intense.

……

Among all the matchups in the first round, the most interesting and fierce is the Rockets vs. Lakers.

The last time the two teams met in the playoffs was in 2009, in the Western Conference semifinals.

The Rockets, who have Yao Ming and Artest, and the Lakers, who are 65-17 in the regular season, met each other, and in the case of Yao Ming's early reimbursement, the Rockets and Lakers did not decide the winner until Game 7.

It was also the Lakers' most intense playoff game of the year.

The Rockets may not be the strongest, but they do cause enough trouble for the Lakers.

The two teams met again this year, Yao Ming had already retired and returned to become the owner, and Kobe Bryant also ushered in the last playoff game of his career.

The first four games ended in a 2-2 draw, with the Lakers winning two games in a row at home.

After returning to Houston, the Rockets broke out as a team, beating the Lakers in the third game, and Harden made a mid-range step-back jumper in the final minute in the fourth game to equalize the score.

In the fifth battle of Tianwang Mountain, the Lakers did not give the Rockets a chance.

And as soon as the Rockets arrived at Stamps, they were indeed not very good at playing, and the whole team made crazy mistakes and hit iron.

The Lakers defeated the Rockets by 15 points to get the match point.

In Game 6, Howard, who had been silent for several games, suddenly burst into power and scored 30 points at the Toyota Center, helping the Rockets narrowly defeat the Lakers by 5 points, and also brought the series into the seventh game of the tiebreaker, which was the same as in 2009.

As the Thunder team waiting for the results of the two teams, it can be said that they are a little impatient to wait.

In the sixth game, Li Liang invited Durant, Westbrook and other Thunder teammates to watch the game together at home.

Seeing that in the end, when Kobe missed two three-pointers and lost the opportunity to equalize, the whole team sighed.

"Shit, two more days off!" Li Liang was very dissatisfied with this result, and he couldn't wait to call Kobe Bryant immediately and ask him why he was so ineffective!

In fact, in terms of strength, the Lakers are going to surpass the Rockets in the lineup, but they can't hold back at the critical moment.

At the last moment, Kobe Bryant could pass the ball to Leonard to complete the fatal blow, but unfortunately Ko is Lao Ko, he just has to shoot himself.

If you can't shoot once, you still have to shoot when you grab a rebound from the front court inside.

Leonard has also shown his weakness in attacking with the ball.

Under the intensity of the playoffs, his ball-holding offense still can't play a decisive role, and he still needs to continue to improve.

Lefou's ability to attack is also a problem, so sometimes he still has to rely on Kobe.

There is also the problem of the Lakers' benches, and the substitutes that have lost several games have been blown up.

The Thunder generals watched the performances of the two teams, and felt in their hearts that no matter who they beat in this second round, they should be very easy to play.

Both Durant and Westbrook hope to play the Rockets in the second round, so that they can reconcile with the third brother and educate him.

Li Liang still hopes to play the semifinals with the Lakers, because he wants to go to Los Angeles to accompany his girlfriend.

……

The schedule didn't keep the Thunder players waiting long, and Game 7 was soon played in Stamps.

The plot is the same as in 2009, and the Lakers didn't give the Rockets any chance at home.

Pressing the Rockets from the first quarter, Leonard led the defense of Harden throughout the game, allowing Harden to score only 19 points in the whole game.

Without Harden, the strongest engine, the Rockets' offense will be completely suspended.

At 118:85, the Lakers won the tiebreaker with a big win and sent the Rockets back to their hometown in Texas.

Seeing this result, Li Liang felt good and could go back to Los Angeles for two days.