Before the start of the game between the Thunder and Lakers, the Stamp Center held an award ceremony for the MVP.

On MVP night, Bryant took the Maurice Podorov Cup from David Stern to the cheers of the fans.

The trophy was named in honor of the first president in NBA history.

Bryant held the trophy aloft, then took the microphone and gave a brief speech.

This is Kobe Bryant's second time winning the MVP, and his mood is undoubtedly excited, but he is also much calmer than in the past.

"It's my personal honor, it's the honor of the Lakers and Los Angeles, and I'm going to bring you even more glory."

After Kobe Bryant finished speaking, the Staples Center applauded thunderously, this year's Lakers have only one goal, that is, the championship!

The whole audience was applauding, and the only ones who didn't applaud were the Thunder players who were sitting on the sidelines watching.

Durant sat on the bench, watching Kobe Bryant win the player's highest personal honor, not knowing what was going on in his mind.

Fresh off a fierce battle with the Spurs, Durant's performance in the last series was definitely MVP-calib.

In the summer, the Thunder lost Harden, a 12-year Spurs player, and the pressure on Durant on the offensive end became even greater.

In the crucial fifth game, Durant repeatedly hit key shots from mid-range and scored 35 points in the game.

In the sixth game, he scored 40 points and sent the Spurs home again.

Spurs are afraid of players with strong shooting ability, and there is no way to solve this problem.

Their defensive strategy and line-up characteristics are destined to suffer when they encounter unsolvable mid-range shooters.

After a brief medal ceremony, players from both sides took off their coats and took to the pitch to start the game.

The divisional finals for admission to the Grand Finals have begun.

Li Liang still started the game, he didn't feel nervous at all, and even felt a little bored.

Although intellectually speaking, I am more accustomed to playing Thunder, and the odds of winning are a little better.

But if you can play spurs, it will definitely be more interesting.

He can touch each other's heads with Duncan, laugh with Leonard, and battle wits with Popovich.

And playing the Thunder is a little more boring, Mike Brown arranged it before the game, and Li Liang's main task is to defend Durant with Ci Shiping.

At the beginning, Ci Shiping stared at it for a while, and then changed to Li Liang.

Anyway, his mission is clear, defend the arrow, hit threes.

The Thunder team doesn't have many tactics, they rely on talent and toughness.

How can you not be bored playing with a team like this.

But it doesn't matter, it's about winning.

If he plays the Spurs, I don't know what Popovich will come up with to deal with him.

Now they have been killed by the talented Wang Bang combination, which undoubtedly helped Li Liang remove an obstacle.

Of course, Kobe Bryant certainly didn't think so, and playing Spurs was simply his repertoire.

It's hard to say about playing the Thunder, the Thunder are young on the outside, outstanding on the outside, and strong athletic ability on the inside.

The two teams met in the playoffs last year, and Kobe Bryant shot past 40 percent in none of his first three games.

It took the last two games to find form, but it was too late.

This year's Western Conference will meet the Thunder again, which is Kobe's revenge battle.

The game was about to start, and Mike Brown gave his final words before the game.

To talk about nervousness, Mike Brown is actually much more nervous than Li Liang.

died at the hands of the Thunder last year, and it was really powerless.

Although the Lakers won easily in the first two rounds of this year, the Thunder knocked down the Spurs in the semifinals, and Durant's god-like performance was undoubtedly more impressive.

In Mike Brown's experience, playing too easily in the previous game isn't necessarily a good thing.

The Thunder played hard in both rounds, but the players were honed and sublimated, and in Stamps they were challengers.

This will allow the Thunder to focus more on the game.

Needless to say, the Lakers rested for five days, and it is likely that they will rest again.

The only player who hasn't rested on the Lakers may be Li Liang.

Li Liang trained with the team during the day and trained with Rupu in the system at night, and maintained a very good state both physically and mentally.

And today's game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m., because it is necessary to take care of the TV audience in the east.

This is not the time that the players are used to, and at this point in the day, the players are resting and preparing for the evening game.

So, it makes sense that Mike Brown is nervous, and the first game is very important.

The game started on time with Howard and Ibaka jumping the ball.

Ibaka touched the ball first, but his fingers were pulled too hard, and the ball flew directly out of bounds, and the Lakers had the ball.

Li Liang sent a throw-in to Nash, and as soon as Nash got the ball, Westbrook rushed up and pressed Nash to defend.

Li Liang hurriedly came over to take cover, but Westbrook followed very fiercely, wrapping his hands around Nash, almost surrounding Nash.

Obviously, the Thunder's style is not the same as the Clippers.

The Clippers started with an offensive rush, while the Thunder were defensive intensity.

In addition to relying on the talent of Durant and Westbrook, the rise of the Thunder in recent years also relies on their tough defense.

The Thunder players have strong single defense ability and great intensity, once the opponent can't resist it, the Thunder will use a thunderstorm-like counterattack to destroy the opponent.

Nash is so experienced that he faced Westbrook's high-intensity defense from the beginning, and continued to change direction and stabilize the situation with the help of Li Liang's cover.

Then he went in from the middle, the Thunder defense contracted, and Nash hit the ball and passed to Li Liang.

The Thunder contracted again, and Li Liang gave the ball to Ci Shiping on the wing.

Ci Shiping missed a three-point shot from the bottom corner.

In the first attack of the opening game, Li Liang noticed the Thunder's defensive strategy.

Intensity, wrapping, shrinkage, draining the physical energy of Lakers players, making Lakers players end up shooting from the outside.

Because of the consumption of physical energy, it will inevitably lead to inaccurate outside lines, and then it will fall into a vicious circle.

The Thunder counterattacked with the ball, but they did not rush, but controlled the ball and played positional battles.

It seems that Brooks should have learned the lesson of the last round of the Clippers, and blindly rushed, not only could not rush down, but would also be played to death by the Lakers.

Durant organized the offense from the perimeter with the ball, and he found Westbrook, who had an open shot at 45 degrees.

It's a pity that the three-point shot missed.

The Lakers' defensive strategy at the beginning was to keep Durant at home, always ensuring that there were two players near Durant.

If the other players can shoot, let them shoot, which is why Westbrook will be given a chance to shoot three-pointers.

Westbrook lived up to expectations and hit it angrily.

The Lakers counterattacked, Ci Shiping single-handedly held the ball and rushed to the basket, squeezing away the defender and switching to a layup.

It's a pity that it was almost missed.

But Li Liang came out from the bottom line, and with a slight touch, he hit the basket.

The first point of the Western Finals, Li Liang won.

The Thunder immediately fired back, and Durant held the ball in the low post and turned his back to Ci Shiping.

He turned his back and cut in, then stepped back and made a close-range step-back jumper from the baseline.

This distance is too close, Durant's first step is very deep, plus the backwards, Ci Shiping has no way at all.

Hit.

Li Liang wanted to hit the ball in the middle, but after Durant observed it, he chose to go to the bottom line.

So Li Liang had no choice, and he couldn't clamp the attack.

Both sides started with tentative attacks.

Li Liang made a spurious pass to Howard in the middle and dunked.

Perkins then grabbed the rebound, causing Howard to foul and make both free throws.

Nash broke through the pile in succession and hit a light toss with his left hand.

Westbrook hit Li Liang in a one-on-one misplaced single, and the zombie jumper hit a dry pull.

The attack on both sides was very smooth, and both sides were scoring non-stop.

Bryant hit a step-back jumper in the first quarter eight minutes into the first quarter.

The regular season MVP scored the first point of the game, and the audience cheered.

The first official timeout was played, and the two sides fought to a 12-12 draw.

After some temptation, no one took advantage.

And this first timeout will be when both sides start to change their moves.

Neither Brown nor Brooks are known for their abundance of variations, but when it comes to the Western Conference finals, each coach must have several sets of tactics and rotations at their disposal.

Mike Brown's thoughts are still unchanged, after all, the Lakers are playing at home, and the front is playing smoothly, and there is no need to change.

And Brooks and the Thunder, on the other hand, are starting to make moves.

After returning from a timeout, the Thunder's first change was on the defensive end.

The Lakers replaced Gasol with Ci Shiping, and Meeks replaced Nash.

Bryant is still on the court.

The Thunder's lineup has not changed, but their alignment has changed.

Brooks chose to use Durant to play against Kobe Bryant and let Sefrosha defend Li Liang.

This one looks simple, but it captures the strong point of the Lakers' second lineup.

Playing the Rockets and Clippers before, the Lakers' second team surpassed the starters in efficiency and winning points, which was the key to pulling points.

Gasol hit the big front, Li Liang returned to the small front, and the opponent was often very uncomfortable.

Originally, the defense of the starters felt good, and the rotation of the lineup wanted to relax, but the Lakers had a stronger offensive firepower configuration, who can stand this?

After Gasol switched to the bench, he played less playing time, less pressure on defense, and his offensive form was getting better and better.

This second team's rotation has become a killer feature for Brown.

As a result, Brooks saw this and switched defenses.

At the end of the timeout, after the Lakers continued to pass the ball from the outside, Kobe Bryant broke through from the baseline and distributed the ball to Gasol in the middle.

Gasol was about to get the ball to the basket when he was stealed by Durant.

Durant dribbled to the basket himself, and the free throw line started, causing Meeks to foul.

In the end, he made a mid-range throw, and the ball bounced on the basket a few times, and it went in!

Hit three points to win!

Durant hit a free throw.

Then, Li Liang was closely guarded by Severosa on the offensive end.

Saifurosa's strategy to defend Li Liang is very simple, that is, he does not listen to the ball.

You have to hold it high and play whatever you want, I know you don't dribble well, I'll mess with your rhythm.

When Li Liang was in the regular season, he was very afraid of close defense, and later practiced a stop-and-go jump shot with one step on the dribble.

But the playoffs are different, the intensity of the playoffs has risen to a new level, Li Liang made an emergency stop after trying a breakthrough, and Ibaka immediately made up for it.

His shot missed, and the Thunder got the backcourt rebound and fought back.

This time it's Westbrook, who holds the ball and kills the basket, and the Lakers guard line can't stop it at all.

He was like a blue lightning bolt, smashing into the basket and dunking!

The Lakers still Kobe Bryant stepped up, broke through with the ball, caused Perkins to foul, and went to the free throw line.

But that's not the way the Lakers like to attack.

There's no doubt that the Lakers are in a bit of trouble.