The Clippers finished 2013 with a 28-4 record and remain at the top of the league.

As the season progressed, the Clippers had a run-in to a good point.

Rotation, tactical coordination, tacit understanding in defense, and good tuning in all aspects.

As a chicken soup coach, Rivers' tactical adjustment is not a strong point, but the team's management and atmosphere are very good.

He has prestige, he has qualifications, he can talk to the players, and although he is quite strict off the field, it does not prevent him from being very popular among the players, often eating with the players or something.

Li Liang gradually felt that Rivers was a good coach, who cared for the players and was very obedient.

When I first came to the Clippers, I was still a little disobedient, and I had a lot of ideas, this and that.

After a period of cooperation, I feel that there has been a lot of tacit understanding.

In fact, Mike Brown is the same, he picked his nose at Li Liang at the beginning, but in the end, he was not obedient?

Mike Brown is also known for being strict among the players, don't look at the big mouth on weekdays hahaha, when it comes to training and games, Brown is quite serious.

But it's hard for Li Liang to be serious, he can't be serious!

You have neither face nor dignity in front of him, how can you be serious?

I can't say it, I don't listen to the tactics arranged, the key is to win the game in the end, and the championship is won, what else do you have to say?

So, Mike Brown has long since let go and accepted it.

Rivers is also in the process.

On January 1, 2014, the first day of the new year, the team did not have a holiday.

For the service industry, when ordinary people have holidays, you have to go to work.

On New Year's Day, the Clippers hosted the Charlotte Bobcats.

The Bobcats are the lifelong enemies of the Lakers, and it was a bit interesting for Li Liang to beat the Bobcats last season.

The Clippers are different, as a standard "pseudo-strong team" in the past, the last thing they are afraid of is to play a weak team like the Bobcats.

The so-called pseudo-strong team is to chop melons and vegetables when beating the weak team, and the abuse of vegetables is invincible.

As soon as you play a really strong team, or when you get to the playoffs, you start to wilt and you can't beat it.

In the past two years, because of the style of play and player experience problems, the Clippers have been able to rely on physical fitness and quick counterattacks to crush the opponent when they play against a weak team.

When it comes to the playoffs, a dozen strong teams, lack of experience, lack of hard power, and defects in core players, it will be all kinds of diarrhea.

Now that the Clippers have Li Liang, they are no longer a pseudo-strong team, but their attributes of a pseudo-strong team are still there!

It's like the Spurs, although they are not a pseudo-strong team, but they are a stable horse.

In the first battle of the new year, the Clippers faced Boss Joe's Bobcats and came to salute first and then soldier.

In the first half, the two sides played back and forth, tepidly.

The Clippers follow the normal process, rotate, play Griffin in the opening game, and after Griffin goes off the court, Li Liang and Paul turn around to create opportunities for teammates, or play directly with three points themselves.

On the Bobcats' side, Kemba Walker is in good shape, the others are rain and dew, and the Clippers' defensive intensity is not great, but they can bite the game.

By the third quarter of the second half, Jumian was completely reversed.

The Clippers' sudden increase in defensive intensity increased the pace of the game, and the Bobcats' offense collapsed.

Unable to keep up with the pace and defense of the Clippers, he scored 10 points in the entire third quarter.

The ball made Jordan explode.

10 points in the third quarter?

Lao Tzu went to play in person, scored two shots, scored another three-pointer, and then made two free throws, which is 9 points, and you will get 10 points?

But the Bobcats just couldn't make two mid-range shots and a three-pointer, and he didn't score a three-pointer in the third quarter.

By the end of the quarter, the Clippers had a 20-point lead over the Bobcats, outscoring the Bobcats by 15 points in a single quarter.

And the leader of all this is not Li Liang, but Paul.

Paul's strength is not to surprise and score points, so when it comes to tough battles, he has flaws.

His strengths are distribution, control of the tempo, and at the same time he has a strong attacking power and can disrupt the defense.

In the regular season when the intensity of the game was not high, Paul was a real accelerator to make his teammates play better in a tailwind state.

It's like the sail on a clipper, once the wind is downwind and the sail is pulled, can the speed be fast?

Of course, headwinds will not work, headwinds need engines like Li Liang.

However, the overall strength of the Clippers now, there are really not many headwinds.

When it came to the garbage time in the fourth quarter, Li Liang didn't want to go to it.

This thing is also starting to become lazy, and he has been getting a lot of various data and props recently, and he wants to take a break.

At the timeout in the fourth quarter, with the Clippers leading by 25 points, Rivers pointed to Li Liang and signaled that he was ready to play.

Li Liang said: "It's 25 points ahead, why do you still let me go?" Can't you just let me take a break? ”

Rivers, don't you all have to play in garbage time, and it's called a workout?

"I'm an all-star, you still let me exercise, this kind of time period, this kind of confrontation, this kind of opponent, can it be worth exercising?"

Li Liang's series of questions from the depths of his soul made Rivers feel ashamed.

A player with a salary of only 5 million earns the most points every night, suffers the most confrontations, and makes more contributions.

You also want him to play in garbage time, is that what a coach should do?

Of course, the shame only lasted a minute before Rivers came back to his senses.

Damn, it's you yourself who have to play in garbage time every time, and then brush the data, why is it on my head?

No way, that's the power of Bob Knight's hair dryer, blowing you doubt yourself and your life.

The worldview collapses, the outlook on life is reshaped, and the values are subverted.

And when you feel something isn't right, you forget about it for a while.

Rivers also forgot, he won anyway, whatever.

Although the end of 2013 was not very good, 2014 started well.

The Clippers won their first win of the new year with a 120-85, 35-point advantage over the Bobcats at home.

In addition to the lack of motivation to brush data, Li Liang didn't want to appear in garbage time, but another reason was that he felt that even if he had such a big advantage, he still couldn't do it with 58.

He didn't want to apologize to Paul anymore, so he might as well leave it alone.

After all, the relationship between Li Liang and Paul was getting better and better.

The team has a good record, the locker room is stable, and the relationship between the players in charge is of course good.

If the team's record is not good, and they keep losing, no matter how good the relationship is off the field, it is possible to fall apart.

That's how it is on the basketball court, it's about the same as the battlefield, it's brutal.

But what's more cruel to a player is not the failure, it's that you don't even have a chance to fail – it's an injury.

On January 3, the Clippers traveled to Dallas to play the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of the new year.

The strength of the Mavericks has improved compared to last season, but there has been no qualitative improvement.

Nowitzki is another year older, and his dominance has slipped further.

The Mavericks played very well in the first quarter, scoring almost 40 points in a single quarter.

In the second quarter, Li Liang still yelled at his teammates, asking everyone to cheer up on the defensive end.

The Clippers began to fight back and put the lead in the first half.

By the third quarter, the Clippers had seized the initiative on the court and gradually widened the difference.

But at the end of the third quarter, Paul collided with Mavericks player Monta Ellis during a defensive run and fell to the ground.

Paul clutched his right shoulder in pain and fell to the ground for a long time.

Li Liang and his teammates hurriedly stepped forward to check, and seeing Paul's expression, it didn't look like he was pretending to go to the toilet.

Then the team doctor did a simple inspection and found that Paul's right shoulder had been knocked out and dislocated!

The competition was so intense that Paul's shoulders were knocked off.

As a small player, in order to survive in a giant arena like the NBA, Paul doesn't know how much pain and cost he has to make a comeback.

You know, with a height of 183, when you stand on the court, you can see a group of people who are much taller than you.

He's going to have to thread the needle through the crowd, shoot and score, score on breakaways, and need to defend.

The difficulties can be imagined.

Since entering the league in 2005, except for the rookie three years, he has suffered more serious injuries every year.

Looking at this posture, if you dislocate, it is estimated that you will have to rest for at least three weeks and miss more than a dozen games.

Paul, with a bandage on his right shoulder, went back to the dressing room and never returned to the pitch.

The drama of the return of the king is not something that everyone can play and is willing to play.

As Paul left, he slammed his left fist into the chair, his eyes full of unwillingness.

Because he is worried, will this injury affect the whole season?

They have been really, really good this season.

After the game, the Clippers just stopped.

Without Paul, there is also Li Liang!

The Clippers survived to the end, 120-113, over the Mavericks.

The Clippers have scored more than 120 points in a single game in many games, and their firepower is strong enough.

But after the win, there was not much joy on the faces of the players, and Rivers was even more solemn.

After all, Paul was hurt.

Only Li Liang's face was relaxed, because he was sure that Paul would be fine.