The Clippers ended their Christmas game with the Cavaliers, and with them their eight-game streak of home games, and a wave of road games coming up in the coming months, starting with the Pistons and Wizards.

These are two teams struggling on the brink of the playoffs, and for them, any game is crucial.

Knowing that the opponent did not have a super defensive stalwart like Tony Allen, Tang Shuai was full of energy to get high points in these two games.

However, he soon found that things had turned out completely beyond his expectations.

Against the Pistons, he showed a high desire to score in the opening game, and he made three consecutive shots from the Clippers, but immediately after he scored the first four points of the Clippers, he was immediately confronted with a suffocating defense.

It's really suffocating.

Generally in NBA games, players will have some spare energy in the game in order to maintain a stable performance in the game, even if they are defensive giants, they also know how to allocate their physical strength in the game.

But that wasn't the case at all with Stanley Johnson leading the game, Pope being everywhere, and even Jackson delaying his teammates' passes, and defending more than ever before.

Tang Shuai didn't have any scoring opportunities at all, giving people the feeling that even if he gave the rest of the Clippers team a score, he wouldn't give him a chance to score.

At 113:98, the Clippers maintained a strong momentum, bloodied the Pistons under the leadership of the Big Three, and won the longest eight-game winning streak of the season, but Tang Shuai only got 5 shots in the whole game. He scored 4 points and 5 assists on 2-of-5 shooting, setting a new season low in scoring.

It's not just this one. In the next game against the Wizards, the same is true, and the Clippers are on a solid footing. defeated the Wizards in Wall's absence by a big score and won nine consecutive victories, but Tang Shuai's performance was still very limited, even if he ran wildly, he only got 7 shots in the end, and scored 8 points and 3 assists on 3-of-7 shooting.

The Wizards' players ran around him like mad dogs, as if it was more important to prevent him from scoring than to win the game.

After finishing the game with the Wizards, he was extremely depressed.

Things turned out the opposite of what he expected. Instead of being able to score highly, he scored in single digits for two consecutive games.

He is not stupid, of course he knows the reason for this, those defenses, it is obvious that it is not the player's personal will, but the coach's instructions, the big Van Gundy naturally needless to say, the Wizards' Hortman faced reporters' questions in an interview before the game. They also expressed their dissatisfaction with the first round of voting, and it is reasonable for them to use some unconventional means in the competition.

And just after the end of these two games, the media and celebrities who had great opinions about the first round of All-Star voting began to be proud and ridiculed.

Rick Barry: I admit that All-Star players underrate their games, but a player who doesn't score in two games in a row doesn't score a double-double. You told me that he beat Harden and Thompson, who averaged more than 20 points per game, and would be selected for the All-Star Game? If there was such a time, it would have been April Fool's Day.

"Big O" Oscar Robertson: It turns out. Now the players in this league are not as good as they used to be, not only are they not defending. The consistency of the players is also completely incomparable, and the good news is. I believe that after the performance of these two games, some fans finally have no reason to continue voting.

Magic Johnson: A ridiculous thing that has finally proven to be such a ridiculous, sad alliance.

……

On ESPN's show, Barkley also sang and joked with Smith.

It seems that after two games, everyone finally found evidence that Tang Shuai is not worthy of being selected for the NBA All-Star Game, and can openly express their dissatisfaction with the All-Star vote, and begin to do their best to prove that what they said is right.

Tang Shuai also experienced the pressure from the media and the outside world for the first time, obviously he didn't do anything, but the invisible force pressed him a little breathlessly.

Originally, he was still thinking of finding an opportunity to ask Su Mei to explain the events of Christmas Eve, but when things turned out like this, he didn't have the heart to do so at all.

He was now like a lone warrior, alone against almost the entire Alliance.

The Clippers' next opponent is the Magic.

Magic coach Skels was also dissatisfied with the results of the first round of voting, and although the game had not yet started, Tang Shuai was already able to anticipate what would happen in the game.

In the training session before the game, Tang Shuai was depressed, and he made repeated mistakes in the full-court confrontation, and his state was very bad.

After the training, he walked in the direction of the locker room in a bit of a depression, and at that moment, Paul suddenly called out to him.

"Don, we'll have a player meeting in the video conference room later, and you can come and join in."

"A meeting of the players?" Tang Shuai looked at Paul suspiciously, he has been with the Clippers for so long, and he has not seen the team hold a team meeting.

Paul nodded, and then went into the dressing room.

Tang Shuai had a hint of doubt, but he didn't think much about it, maybe when he was sent to the NBDL, the team should have held a similar meeting.

After taking a shower, he went straight to the video conference room.

When he arrived at the video conference room, he found that several players were already inside.

Paul, Griffin, Brewer, Jordan Jr., Stephenson, Smith, Booker and Pierce are all players in the team's rotation or above, sitting in a row around the long table in the conference room.

"Don, you're here."

Seeing Tang Shuai come in, Paul spoke directly.

Seeing the battle in front of him, Tang Shuai looked very surprised, and said suspiciously: "You are all waiting for me?" ”

"Come, Don, this spot is reserved for you." Stephens gestured to the empty spot at the front.

The doubts in Tang Shuai's eyes became even stronger, and he walked to his seat and sat down with a puzzled expression.

Paul closed the door, sat down across from the players, and said directly: "Everyone is here, I won't say anything superfluous, this is our second player meeting this season, the last time was when the team lost in a row, and everyone saw the result, the team finally went on the right track, this time, the main body of our discussion is Don." ”

When Tang Shuai heard the first half of the sentence, he was still nodding his guess correctly, and when he heard the second half of the sentence, he was immediately stunned, for him?

Paul glanced at Tang Shuai and said, "Don, don't be nervous, we are ready to help you." ”

Help?

Tang Shuai was confused.

Could it be because of his recent struggles?

ps: Thank you for the 2 rewards of Blackwater Bay, and 2 more will be offered. (To be continued.) )