I still remember the day when I first arrived at the team to sign the contract, when the two of them were chatting in the pool after training, Westbrook told him that he joined the team because of him, and now he recognizes him in public that he is the boss of the team. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Westbrook has grown up after the Durant affair, and it clearly doesn't want to go through that again.

"Well, I see, thank you, coach." After Tang Shuai finished speaking, he then walked to the locker room with a smile.

The Lakers got off to a good start to the season with a win over the Warriors, and counting the previous preseason, this is already their team's eighth consecutive win, undefeated.

Of course, the preseason games don't count, and the regular season is the real test.

A good start is naturally good, and it is more important to make a good start to the season.

The league has also taken this aspect into account, and it is impossible for the Lakers to play the Warriors in the opening game and then play strong teams one after another, and the next week, both the schedule and the opponent will be relatively easy.

On November 2, after a three-day break, the team welcomed their second opponent of the season, the Wizards, who were also miserable, having been a playoff team in previous seasons, but the team's backcourt core, Beal and Wohl. Conflicts, coupled with the aging of the other cores, are now a half-belly team.

In the face of such an opponent, the Lakers were not soft at all, Tang Shuai and Westbrook only played three quarters, and scored 26 points, 10 assists and 22 points and 5 assists respectively, and Mike Dermott on the bench ushered in an explosion in this game, and he contributed the most 20 points on the bench on 5-of-7 three-point shooting.

With the advantage of overall strength, the Lakers finally won 110-89.

On Nov. 4, after a day of rest, the Lakers had their first game on the road against the Bucks.

The Bucks' lineup has not changed much this year, I remember leading the team to the ninth place in the East last year, and the new season has been patched up, and the strength has been greatly improved, and the Lakers have also encountered a lot of trouble in this game.

Tang Shuai went berserk in this game, shooting 17 kinds of 27 from the field, contributing a game-high 42 points, Westbrook also scored 23 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists in luxury statistics, plus Yi Jianlian scored the third-highest 16 points against his former club, and the Lakers finally won the game 104-96.

This is also the smallest point difference so far in the season, and it can feel that the Bucks will be a spoiler in the East this year.

On November 5, the Lakers faced the Nuggets back-to-back at home, the latter was one of the biggest roster changes this summer, Wilson Chandler, Gallinari, Farid and other original players all left, the team broke up into a rebuild, and now the core of the team is Moodier, Jamal Murray, Will Barton, Nurkic and others.

Such a lineup obviously does not pose much of a threat to the Lakers, basically the half of the game ended early, and the Lakers basically played on the bench in the second half, and the super deep lineup depth allowed them to finally win the game steadily.

By the end of this game, the Lakers were at the top of the Western Conference with a 4-0 record, and the momentum was strong.

Such a strong performance has also made many team general managers re-examine their team building plans.

Although the season is still very long, at the beginning of the season, the Lakers proved that a reasonable lineup configuration is more effective than the so-called "huddle".

The first week passed, and the best of the week for the East and West was also released.

In the East, the Pacers' Paul George showed strong form in the new season, averaging 28,7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game, helping the Pacers achieve a 3-0 record and become the best in the East in the first week of the new season.

In the West, Tang Shuai and Westbrook shared the best of the week for the Lakers, although the two did not play much in the last game against the Nuggets last week, but because of the consecutive high scores in the previous games, they averaged 30+ points per game, which also made this award a matter of course.

In fact, in addition to the best of the week, the duo now dominate the top two of the scoring charts.

It's a rare miracle for a team to have two players score so high.

There are already quite a few experts who are starting to really see this Lakers team as the favorites to win the championship.

On November 8, US time, the Lakers still maintained a strong momentum in the new week, they successfully defeated the Raptors led by Lowry and DeRozan, won the fifth win of the season, and continued to consolidate their position as the first in the West.

At the post-match press conference at the end of the match, a reporter finally asked that question.

"Are the Lakers ready to compete for a championship this season?"

This is an expected question, but Billups sees it very thoroughly and says bluntly: "Our goal is to win the championship, and of course we are ready to work hard for that goal, but we still have a lot to improve, and we can't say that we have suddenly become good because of the good or bad results, it has a lot to do with the schedule and the opponent." ”

Billups' humility is not unfounded, and as a coach, he has a definite vision of the situation.

And in fact, he is definitely not deliberately pretending to be low-key.

After an easy start to the season, the Lakers finally welcomed their second strong opponent of the season, the Spurs.

The Spurs, the team that bears the Duncan label, have entered a new era after Duncan's retirement last season.

When Duncan retired, many speculated that Ginobili would retire with him, but in the end, the veteran decided to play for another year.

Spurs general manager RC Buford once again showed his superhuman ability, using only first-round draft picks plus Kyle Anderson to trade Farid from the Nuggets in the offseason, who also became Aldridge's new partner on the inside.

On the premise that Leonard's performance is becoming more and more consistent, this is undoubtedly a huge improvement for the lineup.

The Spurs' defense is solid, and the Lakers' players seem to be a little out of shape, and after the game starts, especially after entering the rotation lineup, the offensive and defensive performances are struggling, like a wild horse stuck in a quagmire, unable to exert any strength.

The game was deadlocked until the final moments, and Leonard scored back-to-back points at key moments to help the Spurs stretch the score to six points with two minutes to go.

Seeing that he was about to usher in the first defeat of the season, Tang Shuai showed the absolute core ability and value at the last moment.

He first shook off Leonard's defensive score with a breakthrough dry pull, and then waited until Westbrook stole Parker's pass, and hit a three-point chase in the fast break, which is not counting, and when Aldridge hit a back-to-back jumper at a critical moment, he went to the front court to hit Leonard, and after a tough confrontation, he was stunned against Leonard's defense, and turned back to hit it on the premise of being fouled by Aldridge, who assisted in the defense, and this goal also made the Spurs' home court a dead silence.

After hitting the free throw, he helped the Lakers tie the score and the two sides went into overtime.

In overtime, the Spurs' home court breath finally came out, and the Lakers took the game away with a wave of offense from the backcourt.

Tang Shuai scored a team-high 40 points, plus 4 rebounds and 8 assists, becoming the number one contributor to the team's victory.

At this time, many media reporters finally understood what Westbrook said at the beginning, Tang Shuai is indeed a person worthy of his assistance.

However, although the game was won in the end, it was the most difficult game of the season, and even narrowly lost by a little bit, which also sounded the alarm bell for the Lakers.

After winning the game, the players suddenly fell silent after being excited.

They suddenly realized how valuable the Warriors were in setting a regular-season record in the first place.

When you watch someone else win in a streak, and it's a long streak, you don't think it's good, but when you experience this kind of thing yourself, you will find that there are many unexpected difficulties in it.

Just when the locker room was a little dull, Billups came to the locker room, he did not criticize the players who did not perform well, but praised the teammates who performed well, such as Tang Shuai, who was almost praised to the sky, until the end, he reminded the players that they need to maintain a good attitude in the future games.

After Tang Shuai listened to what Billups said, he couldn't admire him.

The poor performance of the Lakers players has a lot to do with the mentality.

Five wins in a row, counting 11 consecutive wins in preseason, and not tasting defeat for too long, this kind of excellent start will inevitably make the mentality of the players become frivolous, as evidenced by the performance against the Spurs in the first half, which is also the most prone problem for consecutive winning teams.

But to say a thousand things and ten thousand, it is far less real than a game, and the Spurs played a dozen games, and it is still this situation, the players woke up all of a sudden.

At this time, there is no need to say anything, just know a little bit, and even praise will make the players less angry.

It's the same as when a child makes a mistake, if you don't teach him a hard lesson, he won't really remember it, and once the lesson is given, he will remember it for the rest of his life.

After Billups' "mental encouragement", the mentality of the players quickly adjusted.

After adjusting the mentality, the players' performance in the game is becoming more and more stable.

Over the next week or so, the Lakers showed more stability than ever before, taking down the Bulls, Pistons, Kings, and Spurs.

They ended the week with a staggering 10-game winning streak, the first time the Lakers have had such a long winning streak in the last five years.

The Lakers reached the Finals last season under the leadership of Don Shuai and Gasol, and this season they have gradually become the favorites to win the championship with the addition of Westbrook and others, and a strong start to a ten-game winning streak. (To be continued.) )