After improving the dribble, Li Tian didn't have much time to let his teammates know in team training, because they needed to fly to the away stadium again, and this time, the city they needed to travel to was Houston.

Rockets, because of Yao Ming, this used to be a team that Chinese basketball fans paid the most attention to, and even after Yao Ming retired, there are still many Chinese fans who have a rocket complex.

After Jeremy Lin joined the Rockets last season, the attention of the Rockets has increased to a certain extent, and this season, with the addition of Howard and the improvement of the team's record, the popularity of the Rockets has also begun to climb again, although it cannot be compared with the Yao Ming period, but it is already one of the more concerned teams in China.

Of course, compared to the king, the popularity of the rocket is still inferior. After all, Li Tian is pure Chinese, and Lin Jeremy is nothing more than a Chinese-American.

Moreover, Jeremy Lin has been put on the bench this season, and his performance has also declined, coupled with Li Tian's better performance and the king's record has improved, more and more Chinese fans have turned to the king.

The two teams have similar records, with the Rockets at 17-9 and the Kings at 16-9, placing them fifth and sixth in the West, respectively.

For fans of both sides, there are a lot of topics to watch in this game, starting with the battle for the rankings, if the Kings win this game, they will replace the Rockets in fifth place in the West, and the other focus of everyone's attention is the alignment of Li Tian and Harden.

Harden has continued his excellent performance this season and has not seen a significant decline in statistics due to the addition of Howard, which has led many industry insiders and fans to believe that he will be the first quarterback of the future.

As Li Tian, who is also a scoring guard, he naturally competes with Harden, not to mention that the results of the All-Star first-round voting just announced have put the two in a competitive position.

Harden was selected as an All-Star in the West last season, but this season, in the first round of All-Star voting, he only finished sixth in the West with 198667 votes, except for Kobe Bryant and Li Tian, who are taller than him, Chris Paul of the Clippers and Stephen Curry of the Warriors are third and fourth in the Western backcourt respectively.

The fifth-ranked backcourt player in the Western Conference poll is Harden's teammate...... Lin.

This makes people have to sigh again about the strength of Chinese fans, in terms of the status of the Rockets, Jeremy Lin is far inferior to Harden, and he has been out for half a month since he was injured at the end of November, but his votes are still higher than Harden in the All-Star vote.

Among them, of course, there is the reason for Jeremy Lin's crazy performance in New York at that time, but after all, it has been a season since then, and his current popularity is more dependent on the support of Chinese fans.

In such a situation, it is obviously impossible for Harden to say that he has no idea, he has performed well this season, and he is the absolute core of the Rockets, and the Rockets' record is also very good, but Li Tian and Jeremy Lin, two players who are not as good as him, have more votes than him, which makes Harden's heart very unhappy.

A day ago, a reporter interviewed Harden and asked what he thought of the results of the All-Star first-round vote, and also specifically pointed out that the opponent in the next game, Li Tian, received more votes than him.

"The results of the vote are not everything, the performance in the competition is the most convincing!"

Harden said this in his reply, and his words were naturally placed in the most prominent position of the report by reporters.

Obviously, Harden is not convinced that Li Tian got such a high number of votes!

At this time, the coming of the game between the Kings and the Rockets naturally attracted a lot of attention from the outside world, and many people thought that Harden would use his performance in this game to suppress Li Tian and respond.

However, people have also seen that Li Tian's recent performance has been excellent and his hand is very good, even if Harden wants to completely suppress Li Tian, it must not be easy, so this also makes this game have a higher degree of attention.

In the away locker room of the Toyota Center Arena in Houston, Li Tian and others had just arrived, ready to go to the stadium to warm up after changing their clothes.

Of course, Li Tian is also very clear about the focus of attention from the outside world, but he has been feeling hot recently, and his dribbling ability has been improved, and he is also very much looking forward to such a matchup.

is also a scoring guard, and he is also on the rise, Li Tian knows that Harden may not regard himself as a real competitor, but as his ability continues to improve, the competition between the two is inevitable, and this time will not be too far away.

"I'm afraid that guy hasn't really faced himself yet, but it doesn't matter, after a few more fights, he will definitely change his opinion."

While changing clothes, Li Tian's thoughts had already flown to the arena.

"Excuse me, may I come in?" At this moment, a voice suddenly came from the door.

The appearance of this sound attracted the attention of everyone in the locker room, after all, under normal circumstances, no one would appear in the locker room rashly before the game.

Li Tianye, like the other teammates, immediately looked over after the voice appeared, and when he saw the comer, he was slightly stunned, and then shouted in surprise: "Yao Ming? ”

Why did Yao Ming come? Li Tian was surprised at first, but then relieved, Yao Ming still has a lot of industries in Houston, so it is not surprising that he appeared in Houston, but he didn't seem to have seen many games at the home court of the Rockets, but he didn't expect to come today.

"Yao, please come in!" Just as Li Tian was thinking like this, Adelman had already taken the lead in talking to Yao Ming.

Adelman and Yao Ming are old acquaintances, and in 09 Yao Ming advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the only time in his career, and the head coach was Adelman.

The two laughed and talked for a while, and Yao Ming chatted with his former teammate Hayes again.

In this process, Li Tian did not come forward to talk to Yao Ming, although Yao Ming was not the first to communicate with him, but as soon as Yao Ming entered the locker room, he handed him a smile with a smile, which made Li Tian vaguely feel that Yao Ming's appearance today was related to him.

Yao Ming said hello to Terry and Iguodala, the players he knew, and then walked towards Li Tian with a smile on his face.

"Li Tian, hello, I'm Yao Ming." Walking up to Li Tian, Yao Ming stretched out his hand towards Li Tian with a smile and said in Chinese.

Yao Ming's seemingly superfluous introduction made Li Tian also laugh, stretched out his hand and shook Yao Ming's big hand, Li Tiandao: "Hello, Yao Ming, I know you if you don't introduce me, as long as Chinese young people know you, besides, I'm your fan." ”

When he said this, Li Tian looked at Yao Ming, who was slightly blessed before he retired, and it was the first time that Li Tian was so close to Yao Ming.

"You're exaggerating." Yao Ming smiled and let go of Li Tian's hand, "Call me Da Yao, haha, now it's the other way around, I'm your fan." ”

"Okay, then I'll call you Da Yao." Li Tian nodded, seeing that Yao Ming was telling the truth, and he was not polite to Yao Ming.

"How's the preparation for tonight's game?"

"It's okay, there's not much preparation, just play normally." After answering Yao Ming, Li Tian asked again: "Da Yao, will you watch the game here tonight?" ”

"Of course, I know you're here for today, come on." Yao Ming nodded and said.

"Yes." Li Tian nodded, his eyes turned slightly, and half-jokingly threw a question at Yao Ming: "Then Da Yao, who do you think will win tonight." ”

Yao Ming said that he was here to support him, but the Rockets on the other side were the teams he had stayed in, and Li Tian was curious about how Yao Ming would answer.

Yao Ming is a person who has gone through a big battle in the NBA, and he didn't let Li Tian get around such a small problem, he laughed and said: "I'm here to watch the game today, don't ask me about this kind of thing." ”

"Okay, let's let the game tell you." Seeing that Yao Ming avoided the topic, Li Tian naturally wouldn't chase after him, so he just asked.

"Well, let's do it first, I'm here to get to know you, this is my number, if you have time to call me after the game, let's sit together."

As he spoke, Yao Ming handed over a card to Li Tian, 45 minutes before the game, the NBA locker room was not allowed to use mobile phones, which Yao Ming naturally knew, so he did not let Li Tian directly use his mobile phone to remember his number.

"Good!" Li Tian stretched out his hand to take the card in his hand, and answered with a full mouth, if he had such an opportunity to sit with Yao Ming, he would naturally not refuse.

Knowing that the team still had a lot of preparation to do before the game, Yao Ming didn't stay in the locker room for long, and after saying goodbye to Li Tian and Adelman and others, he left the locker room.

"Li, Yao looks pretty good." After Yao Ming left, Robinson leaned over and said.

Li Tian nodded and replied: "Yes, his personality is very easy-going and he has a high popularity in our country. ”

"Then he should be the target of your national basketball players." Robinson said as he tightened his shoelaces.

"Yes." Li Tian nodded, then stopped again and said: "It's not just that, Yao is the banner figure of our Chinese basketball, but, Thomas, do you think it will be more interesting to surpass him?" ”

Robinson raised his head, looked at Li Tian, who was full of confidence, and opened his mouth without speaking. Even if he was a good friend of Li Tian, it was not easy to be on Li Tian's side at this time, because even he knew Yao Ming's influence in China.

"Alright, man, let's not talk about it, let's get ready for the game." Seeing Robinson's thoughts, Li Tian didn't explain much and shifted the topic.

Yao Ming's attitude towards basketball and the game can be his own example, but the goal is ......

"The sky is the limit! I guess this phrase can be used to describe myself. Li Tian thought to himself.