On the evening of Nov. 4th, the American Airlines Center in Phoenix was packed at 7 p.m., and the Phoenix Suns will host their home opener today, where the Phoenix people's passion for basketball and championships will be rekindled after an unfortunate season.

In the morning, the Suns conducted tactical training, and Leon participated in the training, but did not give tactical guidance, but only had a brief exchange with the players, chatting a lot about the experience and ideas of playing, especially with Nash. In addition, the whole team still listened to D'Antoni's arrangement and practiced in an orderly manner.

In the afternoon, Leon gave the players a holiday, and when everyone arrived at the stadium at 6 o'clock in the evening, after the warm-up, Leon gathered everyone in the locker room, and there was still more than half an hour before the start of the game, Leon made a simple pre-game speech.

"Tonight, it's our second game of the season and our first home game, American Airlines Center, passionate Phoenix fans, no one has the deserve to let them down. I've given you plenty of rest and relaxation in the past two days, but I want to tell you not to forget our goal for this season, the championship. We are already on the road, and rest is to move more quickly, not to eat and die. ”

Compared with the relaxation of the previous days, Leon became completely serious in the game, he was meticulously dressed, each button was tightly buttoned, the hairspray fixed the hair meticulously, and the scar on his face was revealed. The atmosphere in the entire Suns locker room was much more tense, and the players had solemn expressions and listened carefully to Leon's words.

"OK, I'm sure Mike has laid out the tactical points for you, the opponent is our loser, but don't take it lightly, come on my friends, and create a good start."

Leon concluded, and the team left the locker room and headed to the players' tunnel, where the opening ceremony was about to begin. At present, the team's tactical details, pre-match tactical arrangements and other work are all in charge of D'Antoni, and Leon is only the gatekeeper. Two years after the Celtics won the championship, Leon began to hand over more details to the assistant coach, who was only responsible for the general direction and on-the-spot command.

The Suns are a mature team, with a mature structure and a mature tactics, and a mature coaching staff, and he didn't need to spend too much effort on the details, and he followed the players into the arena, and tonight's American Airlines Center was bustling with activity, and it has become a sea of orange.

Away from the crisp green of Boston, Arizona's orange was warm and welcoming, and at the opening ceremony, the U.S. Air Force stationed in Arizona sent a military band to unveil and sing the U.S. national anthem. Then the players' appearance ceremony, Kobe Bryant was booed by the crowd when he introduced the players as the visiting players. This is also normal, the two teams have met twice in the playoffs in the past two seasons, and even if the Suns beat the Lakers twice, the Suns fans still have to politely boo the Lakers' number one star.

And there is another reason, because Kobe's life has been really bad in the past two years, he blocked and killed God and Buddha on the court, but there are constant problems off the court, from the Eagle County incident in 2004, to the discord with O'Neal in 05, and then to the 06-07 two years The team stopped in the first round in a row, and the farce of asking for a trade in the summer, Kobe Bryant can be said to have been questioned round after round, and public opinion has changed from the beloved Peter Pan in the past to a lonely and arrogant black mamba, and the only place where he can justify his name is the basketball court.

The Lakers have not made much move in the free market this year, and the key signing on the free market is Derrick Fisher's return to Los Angeles and the inclusion of Phil Jackson, which is also Jackson's consistent style.

In the draft, the Lakers exchanged draft picks and Turiaf for the Suns' sixth man Barbossa, and Barbossa also returned to his hometown in this game, but with only one Barbossa and one Fisher, it is still difficult to feel the hope of the Lakers' revival.

Even so, Kobe Bryant broke free from the trade rumors and stayed with the Lakers temporarily, although he lost to the Rockets in the first game, but under the tuning of the Zen master and the commitment of the management, the Lakers' military spirit is still relatively stable, Kobe Bryant only smiled slightly in the face of the full boos, and he wanted to respond to them with his performance on the court.

When the Suns entered, the lights went out, and in the passionate sound of the DJ, the Suns starters appeared one by one, Stoudemire, Marion, Dior, Bale, Nash, this lineup that accompanied the Phoenix people through three good seasons was still active on the court, and with Nash's final appearance, the cheers reached a climax, and the lights were turned on together.

At the end, the DJ added a bland "Coach, Fox Leon from Boston", and the cheers had died down, and even one or two boos could be heard. This is also normal, so far, the Suns have only played one game, and although they have won, many Suns fans believe that Leon has turned the Suns into a "nondescript" freak.

"They didn't have a whirlwind attack, they didn't form a steel defense, they didn't go up, they didn't go down, they didn't go low, and I'd rather watch the 7-second bombardment than watch such a freak."

This is a statement that has been supported by many fans on the local basketball forum in Phoenix, and a small number of local fans have even formed an "anti-Fox-Leon league" to collect comments from netizens, asking the Suns to replace Leon as a coach, and predicting that Leon will definitely leave the class in the middle of this season, just like Larry Brown, who left the Detroit Pistons for the Knicks before.

Leon has heard all of this, he certainly doesn't give it a damn, the season has just started and he has plenty of time to shut everyone up.

The players on both sides stood on the court, and the game was about to start, the Lakers' starting lineup was Kobe Bryant, Fisher, Luke Wharton, Kwame Brown and Morris Evans, because Odom was injured and missed the game, Jackson had to put Luke Wharton in the starting position to play power forward, fortunately, the Suns also went to a small lineup, and Jackson was not worried about the height.

Before the start of the game, Leon and Jackson shook hands near the halfline, nodded to each other, and returned to the bench almost without eye contact. This year, Jackson vowed to do something again with the Lakers, but Leon came back to the West, or went to the Suns, which is really a narrow road.

Jackson, who sat back on the bench, straightened his suit, folded his hands again, and watched closely on the court, he was going to give Leon a dismount tonight.

The two sides jumped the ball, Stoudemire won the ball, the Suns possessed the ball, and the game began in the hustle and bustle of the scene, Nash got the ball over the half court, but he immediately distributed the ball to Dio, who stepped forward to receive the ball, and Dior controlled the ball, and he himself curled in from the left side. This is the Suns' new tactical idea this season, Dio is going to the way of a point forward, and Nash is playing more without the ball, but this is also the place that has caused controversy among experts and fans, in short, everything is still experimenting.

It's not Nash who controls the offense, the Suns' players are obviously a little unaccustomed, they are a little stiff when they run, and they always have to stiffen, Nash made a big circle from the bottom line to the bottom corner, Fisher followed very hard, Dio chose to play a half-block and dismantle cover with Marion, and then distributed the ball to Marion who cut inside, Marion received an ugly small throw, and the ball flew out in a circle in the hoop and missed.

The Suns did not compete for frontcourt rebounds, and directly and quickly retreated, without giving the Lakers a chance to launch a counterattack. Laker Fisher controlled the ball, faced Nash Fisher first handed the ball to Brown in the horn position, and then went down to the left waist position to ask for the ball, received Brown's pass, and actually pouted with his back and hit Nash hard. It seemed that as soon as the opening stanza began, Jackson had his sights set on the weakness of playing Nash on the defensive end.

Fisher is physically strong, Nash can't stand it at all, Dio on the line can only come over to help defend, as soon as the defense is leaked, Fisher turned around and passed to Luke Wharton, who cut inside, the Suns defense line shrank again, Wharton hit the ground beautifully, Kobe Bryant on the right side received the ball and made a layup directly, and won the first point of the game! After the goal, Bryant and Wharton high-fived, and the first goal Lakers played very reasonably as a team.

Offense and defense switched, this time Nash no longer handed over the ball, and controlled the offense by himself, but after half the court, Fisher suddenly grabbed it close to him, and then Kobe Bryant came to wrap it, and the two sandwiched Nash's meat slice in the middle like a hamburger, Nash had to jump up and pass, Bell stepped forward to answer, and after getting the ball, he held the ball into the interior line, and then distributed the ball to Stoudemire, but the ball was not passed well and was broken, and the Lakers immediately launched a counterattack.

Bryant received the pass and dribbled quickly and steadily past the half, he looked back, and a turnaround hit the ground to the other side, and Evans, who followed up, received the ball and shook off the defender to score a layup, and the Lakers used the fast break to add two more points. In both offenses, Kobe Bryant played very reasonably, which seemed to make people see a Kobe who was different from last year. The Suns' offense doesn't look like they've found their groove yet, but Leon isn't in a hurry, he knows it's not time yet.