After the Pacers had a four-game winning streak for the new season, they rushed back to Indianapolis overnight. By the time the Pacers' charter plane landed in Indianapolis, it was already early in the morning of Nov. 9.

On November 9th, the Pacers will welcome the New Jersey Nets on their home court, and this game is another exciting Chinese derby for Chinese fans.

Although Yi Jianlian's strength is not at the same level as Li Cheng, there are two Chinese players who collide on the court of the highest basketball hall, which is also a rare grand occasion for Chinese fans. Even if the Chinese men's basketball team won the gold medal coveted by the people of the whole country in this Olympic Games, the overall level of Chinese basketball is still much worse than that of the United States.

This gold medal does not represent the rise of the Chinese men's basketball team, this gold medal only represents the emergence of a big hero in the Chinese men's basketball team, not the success of Chinese basketball.

Regarding the arrival of the Chinese derby, Li Cheng will not be as excited and expectant as the majority of Chinese fans, the only difference between this game and other matches for him is that there is a compatriot in the opponent.

……

The Pacers players got off the plane, their bags on their way to the team's bus, each of them with a hint of exhaustion on their faces.

Lopez walked at the back of the team with his head down and his bag, and no one noticed Lopez's abnormality.

On the bus, Li Cheng talked and laughed with Granger, he had already slept on the plane just now, and now he was still in good spirits.

The next day, when the team was in shooting practice, Lopez made mistakes several times because of his distraction, and Li Cheng said a little dissatisfied: "Robin, you pay attention, don't you sleep at night?" ”

Lopez was glared at by Li Cheng and seemed to be taken aback, and he hurriedly said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" ”

Li Cheng didn't speak again. He just looked at Lopez and frowned, Lopez's mental condition was obviously not very good in the past two days. However, Li Cheng didn't think much about it, he felt that as long as he could continue his fiery form on the court and maintain a positive training attitude off the field, his teammates should be able to see it.

After the training, Li Cheng didn't stay to practice, because there was a game in the evening, and he wouldn't train too hard before the game. After returning to the locker room, Li Cheng took a shower and went to the masseur to catch up on sleep.

Lopez looked at Li Cheng's back. I wanted to call him, but I swallowed the words that reached my throat.

……

During the evening warm-up before the game, Li Cheng changed his clothes and prepared to go out with Granger. Originally, both of them were the first to go out to warm up as a team, but today Granger was watching a movie for a few minutes.

"Can't you wait until the game is over?"

"You know what? It will be very uncomfortable if you don't finish watching the ending, okay? If I don't play well at night, are you responsible? ”

"You won, I have nothing to say." Li Cheng shrugged. At this time, Li Cheng found out that there was another person in the locker room besides him and Granger.

Lopez's laces were clearly tied, but he was still there.

Granger stood up and jumped, saying, "Alright, let's go!" ”

Li Cheng patted Granger on the back. Said: "You go first!" I went to the toilet. ”

"You've got a lot to do." Granger rolled his eyes.

Li Cheng watched Granger walk out of the locker room, he walked up to Lopez and said, "Robin, do you have something on your mind?" ”

"Captain! I ...... "Lopez is not a good talker. So far, he has only been a barely friend of Hibbert on the team.

Li Cheng smiled and said, "It's okay, you can speak slowly!" You don't seem to be in good shape these days. ”

"Captain, do you think I'm a parallel import?" Lopez said.

"How did you come up with this idea?" Li Cheng discovered. Lopez seems to be hiding a lot in his heart.

Lopez took a deep breath and said, "The team has five rookies this year, and I'm the highest draft pick of them all. But I'm the one with the least playing time right now, do you think I'm a parallel import? ”

Li Cheng smiled, he shook his head and said, "I didn't even have a chance to play when I first entered the league, what do you think of me?" ”

Lopez hurriedly waved his hand and said, "Captain, how can I compare with you?" All the media say that you are a super genius and that your potential is the most amazing genius in the last decade. ”

Li Cheng continued: "You have to believe that you are the best, and you are in a very bad state right now, you know? ”

Lopez lowered his head, and then said, "Captain, we are facing New Jersey today, what do you think?" ”

"It's just an ordinary regular season game, and the Nets are not a strong team, even if this game is called 'Chinese media' by the media, but it's just one of the 82 regular season games for us. If I had to say, it would be - I must win! ”

After listening to Li Cheng's words, Lopez lowered his head, he didn't speak.

Li Cheng frowned and said, "Lopez, if you have any difficulties, just tell me!" We'll figure it out for you. ”

Lopez said: "Captain, I wanted to talk to you for a long time, but I was afraid that it would be too abrupt. ”

"I haven't been the captain for long! But if you have something, just tell me, it's fine. Don't keep it in your heart. ”

Lopez nodded and said, "I got a lot of appearances in the first game, but then I played less and less, and I also felt that my performance was getting worse and worse. ”

Li Cheng thought about it for a while, and it seems that this is indeed the case, 3 of the Pacers' 5 rookies this season are interior players. Ibaka has become an important rotation player for the team with his efforts, and Hibbert is also stronger than Lopez, which also leads to Lopez's playing time being compressed.

"And today against the Nets, I'm going to face my brother, who is already a very important rotation player in New Jersey. I wanted to play against my brother in the NBA, but I was afraid I wouldn't get a chance to play. In addition, I am afraid that I will be beaten by my brother, which will be very embarrassing. Lopez said with his head down, his voice narrow.

When Lopez said this, Li Cheng reacted that this game was not just a "Chinese derby", but also a "brother derby" between the two Lopez brothers.

"I grew up playing with my brother, and I was in charge of defending and my brother was in charge of attacking. All that everyone saw was his number jù, and I ...... It seemed like his shadow would always be in his shadow. I was playing with him at the time, and almost all of the compliments were given to my brother, and I seemed to have a negative image of him in passing, or in contrast to him. ”

"But don't you see what I'm doing?" After saying this, Lopez bowed his head deeply, "I also want to be praised by everyone, and I also want to be praised by everyone." I still did these things in college, I defended desperately for the team to win, I tried to grab rebounds, I thought it would get better, but when I got into the NBA, I thought my chance had come. But Ibaka and Hibbert are better than me, and they are more appreciated by the coach. ”

"I also want to be a star, and I want to be surrounded by reporters when I'm interviewed in the dressing room. But every time a reporter comes to you and Danny, even Ibaka and Hibbert have some reporters around them, and I'm always empty. Every time I took a shower and changed my clothes, I waited for them to interview me, but they didn't even look at me. ”

"At first, I wanted to talk to Danny, but Danny didn't listen to me so much, he just comforted me and told me not to think about it. Before I could finish speaking, he dragged me to training. And now that you're the captain of the team, I'm afraid you won't listen to me. But thank you for listening to me so much, Captain! ”

Li Cheng looked at Lopez, but scolded in his heart: "Granger, this guy with big nerves. Li Cheng is really helpless to Granger sometimes, but Granger this kid has been beaten by his father since he was at home, I heard that he used to play basketball until he came home late, basically going home is a beating, Granger who was beaten all the way, if it weren't for the big nerves, Li Chengzhen doubted how this kid could still insist on playing basketball, and finally played in the NBA.

"Danny's guy just isn't very careful, it's not that he doesn't want to listen to you."

Lopez nodded and said, "I think it's much more comfortable for me to say these things." ”

Li Cheng patted Lopez on the shoulder and said, "Don't think too much, as long as you stay in good shape in training, everything will be solved." If you want to play against your brother today, I'm going to talk to the coach and ask him to give you more playing time. ”

Li Cheng thought about it and felt that even if Lopez didn't do anything on the court, they still had a big chance of winning. And Lopez's defensive fundamentals on the inside are very solid, and his ability is no worse than Hibbert and Foster, but his game mentality is a bit problematic, and he can't always show his best self on the court.

"Thank you, Captain!" Lopez laughed. When he heard Li Cheng say that he wanted the coach to give him more playing time, he was very nervous for a moment, he was afraid that he would be beaten, but then he firmly told himself in his heart, "Don't live up to the captain's trust, you must show yourself well." ”

Li Cheng smiled: "You don't have to thank me, I am the captain, this is what I should do." In addition, Li Cheng secretly said in his heart: "I also want to thank you, you have made me understand another meaning of 'captain'." ”

Li Cheng now knows that the captain is not only about scoring goals on the field and training off the field, he also needs to contact his teammates more and help his teammates solve things off the field.

"Let's go! Let's go out and warm up! ”

A smile finally appeared on Lopez's face, and he nodded heavily and said, "Good! (To be continued......)