On December 10, the Thunder set off for Memphis, where they traveled to take on the Memphis Grizzlies, who are currently in ninth place in the West.

Speaking of the Grizzlies, Li Ze has to sigh that the other party's draft vision is indeed too bad, and Hashim Thabit, who was selected with the second pick this year, is almost certain of the water, and it is a huge flood!

The Grizzlies' uniform team is now repentant, you must know that Li Ze went to Memphis for a tryout, but at that time, everyone was blinded by lard, and they all imagined that Tabit could form an invincible twin tower with Marc Gasol.

As a result, after Thabit entered the team, Coach Lionel Hollins found that the opponent couldn't even understand the tactics, the cover was poor, and the defensive positioning was also very poor, so he could only eat cake under the basket...

was so angry that Hollins secretly scolded, if Li Ze had been selected in the first place, maybe the Grizzlies would have taken off now!

The crowd of Texas Hold'em on the plane was also talking about Tabit, and the opponent was so hot before the draft that he could only play in garbage time now.

"I've always been a fan of the big guy, he's so bulky, but teams in the league just like big guys!"

Among the rookies in the class of '09, Turtle's favorite player is, of course, his good brother Li Ze, who always thinks that Li Ze should get the first pick.

"I completely agree with you, the class of '07 is like that, everyone is optimistic about Oden, and the result? He was plagued by injuries and had problems with attendance. ”

Durant thinks he should get the first pick that year, and he doesn't like to be crushed, especially if the opponent doesn't have much strength.

"I had a friend tell me that the Grizzlies would trade Tabit after the guaranteed contract expired!"

Jeff Green is back playing with his own gossip.

"The Grizzlies' uniform team has definitely been talked about a lot in recent years, and they've picked a big parallel bargain, but I always thought I was going to Memphis."

Li Ze didn't raise his head and interjected a sentence, Recently, his cards have been shipped back, and the law of conservation of character seems to have attacked.

"Luckily, you're here, and on the day of the tryout, I knew you were a good fit for the Thunder! Wow, it looks like I've won this again! ”

Durant said with a smile on his eyebrows, he has scored efficiently on the court recently, tweeted frequently, and his luck is getting better and better.

"Shet! Change the game! Change the game! ”

......

On the night of Dec. 11, FedEx Arena was packed, and while the team has a mediocre record so far, Grizzlies fans believe their team is on the right path.

Rudy Gay with the 8th pick in the first round in '06, Michael Conley with the 4th pick in the first round in '07, and OJ Mayo with the 3rd pick in the first round in '08.

Plus Marc Gasol, who was also drafted by the Lakers in '07 and then traded to the Grizzlies.

Storm of Youth! It was supposed to be another Hashim Thabit with the 2nd pick in '09 as planned, but it turned out to be heart-wrenching, and the Super Twin Towers were gone, so Zach Randolph could only come up.

Don't look at the Thunder's current 17-3 record, with a win advantage, ranked first in the West, but Coach Hollins thinks they still have a good chance of winning this game, we have an inside advantage!

Therefore, in the pre-game locker room, Coach Hollins specifically advised:

"Guys, we need to destroy the opponent in the low post, hit the ball inside, aggressively fight for rebounds, Conley, take care of the team's offensive tempo!"

OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay were a little unhappy at this time, playing in the penalty area, they had less ball, and most importantly, Zach Randolph was reused as soon as he arrived at the team, which is the contradiction between the veteran and the rookie.

"I understand, Coach!"

Michael Conley is a big-picture defender who is loved by the coaching staff.

'Alright, lads, this is our home stadium and we need to win this game for the fans! Come on, victory is ours! ”

Coach Hollins sent another bowl of thick chicken soup.

The Thunder coaching staff was a little apprehensive before the game, the opponent looked very fierce inside, Mark Gasol is 216cm, plus Zach Randolph, who is a cross-fleshed body, I feel that the inside line is going to be exploded again...

But Coach Brooks was still full of confidence, and in the locker room before the game, he simply drew on the tactical board and said to his players:

"Protect the rebounding ball, the big man on the other side will definitely rush to grab the rebound, pay attention to the card position in advance, on the offensive end, play more blocking and dismantling at the No. 4 and 5 positions, and play steadily and steadily according to the pre-game plan."

"Green, there is an opportunity to vacate the position, make a decisive shot, and you must respond!"

As soon as the game began, the atmosphere at the FedEx Arena began to heat up, and the DJ began to scream and introduce the home team's players, and more than 18,000 spectators let out a huge cheer.

"The Grizzlies' home atmosphere is a fight with that of Russia!"

Li Ze also felt the love of the local fans for the team from the cheers.

Especially when the star of the team, OJ Mayo, came out, the crowd cheered him the most.

Memphis local fans like Mayo, handsome, good skills, and is called Jordan's successor by many media, averaging 18.5 points per game in his rookie season, who can not love this?

Li Ze noticed that his good brother Turtle Turtle was on the side, and comforted him:

"It's just a season, just because you played well last year doesn't mean you can always be good in the future, you will definitely surpass him!"

Turtle just nodded, he did play average last year, and his shooting percentage barely reached 40%, and he should be compared.

The referee motioned for the players from both sides to come to the middle of the field, and after a brief greeting from the players on both sides, Makgar Saul and Kostic jumped the ball in the middle circle.

"The game started, Marc Gasol easily jumped to the ball for us, and trust me, we're going to destroy the Thunder in the low post!"

The Grizzlies' home commentator also began to fire on all cylinders, neutral commentary, non-existent!

Li Ze's main defensive player in this game is OJ Mayo, and he stuck to the opponent at the beginning and did not give OJ Mayo a chance to receive the ball easily.

Seeing this situation, Michael Conley was not in a hurry to attack, and motioned for Mark Gasol to step up to block the pick-and-roll.

The bear-like body made Namarc Gasol's blocking quality very high, accelerated with the ball in his left hand, shook off the turtle's defense, and hit the ground to pass to Zach Randolph in the low post.

After the latter received the ball, in the face of Jeff Green's defense, he broke through with his right hand after three threats, and after carrying the defense in a small jump, he shot lightly, and Jeff Green suffered too much weight in the low post defense to really stand up to the opponent.

Zach Randolph looks like a rough guy, stupid and dark, but in fact, this guy is a floor streamer, and all kinds of techniques in the low post are very good.

"Wow!!"

The FedEx Arena immediately sent a huge cheer to Zach Randolph, who played very well in the previous game and gradually won the love of Memphis fans.

The Thunder quickly sent the baseline ball, the turtle quickly dribbled across the halfcourt, Li Ze covered out, received the ball at 45 degrees outside the three-point line, and OJ-Mayo's defense was very tight.

In the face of such a close defense, Li Zesan quickly released the ball after threatening, held the ball in his right hand, quickly pulled back the cross-step dribble, and changed direction with his left hand to dribble under the crotch and accelerate the start.

Easily jammed OJ Mayo half of the body, broke through, noticed that Marc Gasol had helped to defend, and with a flick of his right wrist, the ball passed through Marc Gasol's crotch and sent it to Kostic under the basket.

The latter catches the ball and clasps it with both hands!

"Bang..."Piercing the crotch assists, and the cake is successful.

During this attack, Li Ze used a passing technique commonly used by Doncic in the future, adjusted the offensive footsteps, accelerated directly backwards under the crotch, and blocked the opponent with his body, so that the breakthrough was easy and labor-saving.

This is also the bonus effect of the Silver Badge [Master of Ball Control] + [Master of Emergency Stop] + [Master of the First Step].

In the past, Li Ze wanted to complete such a technical move, and it was always almost interesting to start explosiveness, but now there is no such trouble, and it is very practical to meet the defender defense.

"Doncic's template won't be me in the future, right?" Li Ze, who was returning to defense, couldn't help but think crankily in his heart.

The Grizzlies attacked, and after OJ Mayo received the ball, he decided to play a single one himself and responded, but after he changed direction from the dribble several times in a row, he found that Li Ze rarely shook and the defense was not out of position at all.

was ruthless in his heart, and against Li Ze's defense, he retreated and threw a mid-range backward jumper.

"Bang...", a Yang turned iron.

The defensive basketball was successfully protected by Kostic and passed to the turtles, who received the ball and accelerated wildly across the halfcourt, and the Grizzlies' retreat was half a beat slower.

There was a sudden pause outside the three-point line, and the change in rhythm accelerated straight again, and the turtle successfully broke through Michael Conley's defense, rushed up in three steps, and scored a left-handed pick-up.

"Oh!!"

The audience at the scene also let out an exclamation, the speed of this conversion offense was too fast, the Grizzlies' defense was not completely in place, and the turtle had already scored.

Coach Hollins gave the players on the court an offensive gesture to slow down the tempo, and the Grizzlies came with a high-low combination, and Marc Gasol found Zach Randolph in the low post with a high hanging pass from the free-throw line.

After receiving the three threats from the ball, the latter leaned back slightly and made a dry pull-out jumper.

"Whew...", 2 points in the middle distance.

The Grizzlies did find the Thunder's weakness, which is to slow down, play the full 24 seconds, rush for rebounds, don't switch offense, try to get the ball to the low post, and grind you to death with the position.

With 6:33 left in the first quarter, the score was 12-12, and Coach Brooks called a timeout.

"Green, after there is an opening, keep shooting, Kevin, Kayce, add some individual offense appropriately, we have to speed up the pace of the game!"

After the Thunder opened, Jeff Green had a bad hand, and two open three-point opportunities were iron.

However, Kostic played very well, Turtle Turtle, Li Ze, and Durant continued to feed the cake, and currently scored 8 points on 4 shots, and Marc Gasol's defense was in a dilemma, and the outside line could not be prevented, and the inside line suffered.

After the timeout, the Thunder attacked, Li Ze went around the cover on the baseline, and after receiving the ball in the low post, Durant cut without the ball with Kostic's back cover, and passed the ball to Durant easily without looking at the person's back.

The latter took three steps immediately after receiving the ball, and after facing Marc Gasol in the air, he lightly pulled the lever with his left hand and put the ball in the basket.

"Oh!!"

There was a huge exclamation from the FedEx Arena, and Durant's hand-changing lever was indeed very exciting, showing his waist strength and soft touch.

For the rest of the first quarter, Durant and Li Ze began to play continuously, misplaced singles, cut in without the ball, blocked and shot, and the shooting rate was very high, playing a wave of 12-6 small climax.

OJ-Mayo's mentality exploded at this time, and he couldn't prevent it at all, every time he was crushed and broke through, his body couldn't match, and after noticing Li Ze's calm face, his heart was even more angry.

Li Ze also knew that OJ-Mayo's emotions were on the verge of exploding, and he didn't say any trash talk at all, so he kept provoking the other party with a relaxed expression and simple body movements.

After breaking through, he shook his head with a smile after scoring a goal, and shrugged his shoulders and taunted after a successful back-to-back single, a series of actions made OJ-Mayo's face full of anger.

When the game reached the end of the second quarter, Li Ze faced OJ Mayo's defense, held the ball in his left hand, dribbled back with a cross step, and made a big turn with his right hand.

After getting rid of the defense, dribble the ball on the spot, change the rhythm, suddenly change direction in front of the body, and step back to shoot a three-point shot.

"Huh..."The three-point shot hit the hollow.

"Oh!! Hush!! "Wow!!"

OJ-Mayo was shaken so much that he lost his center of gravity, and in order to save Li Ze's retreat three-point shot, he mixed garlic under his feet and knelt directly...

This ball made OJ Mayo break the big defense, and at his home court, he was kneeled by the rookie, his face was embarrassed, and he got up to give Li Ze a look, but was stopped by Michael Conley.

Li Ze saw that the other party was so impulsive, and spread his hands with a smile:

"Come on, Bro, you're 100 million points away from stopping me!"

"Fack, don't stop me, I have to give this guy some color, don't stop me!"

OJ Mayo, who was completely broken by Li Ze's defense, wanted to rush up, and seeing that Michael Conley was a little unstoppable, Zach Randolph went up and hugged him and dragged him back to the bench.

Li Ze, Durant, and Turtle Turtle watched from the sidelines, occasionally smiling and whispering, which made everyone in the Grizzlies angry, but at this time, it was Zach Randolph who was the calmest.

Coach Hollins called a timeout, but O.J. Mayo's temper has come up, he is already a little inflated after last year's performance, and in the locker room, his teammates don't have a good relationship with him.

"Man, calm down, there's still a lot of time in the game, throwing a fist won't do anything!"

Zach Randolph whispered as he put his arm around OJ Mayo's shoulder.

"You shouldn't stop me, Fack, goddamn rookie! I'm going to beat him. ”

OJ Mayo was still immersed in his anger and couldn't listen to anyone's persuasion, so Coach Hollins could only replace OJ Mayo and let him calm down for a while.

At halftime, 60-48, the Thunder entered the second half with a 12-point advantage.

The best halftime performance was Kostic, who scored 14 points and 10 rebounds on 7-of-7 shooting, Li Ze and Durant each scored 12 points, especially Li Ze's breakthrough, the Grizzlies had no choice, and OJ Mayo had tried his best.

"Kayce, I'm betting 100 dollars, Mayo will definitely make a lot of singles in the second half, this guy definitely wants to get back face!"

Durant immediately took out a small notebook and started the game in the locker room.

"I'm betting that Mayo won't score 15 points in this game! He has no chance against Kayce! ”

The turtle turtle directly pressed 500 knives with an excited face, and was very happy to see the other party deflated.

Li Ze watched everyone on the Thunder team actively participate, and fancy bets emerged one after another, and when he saw Jeff Green's bet, he couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth slightly.

"Will Mayo fight Randolph? You're too big..."

At the beginning of the second half, Durant guessed correctly, and OJ Mayo on the top began to play singles frequently, but for Li Ze, who was barely shaken, such an attack was no threat.

OJ Mayo was defended by Li Ze in a single quarter of 10 in the third quarter, and the more he went to the back, the more he played indiscriminately, completely losing his offensive rhythm.

By the end of the third quarter, 88-68, the Thunder once again extended their lead, and OJ Mayo alone led the Grizzlies' offense, and when the team's core performed so stretched, the game was naturally gone.

During the garbage time of the whole quarter, the water cooler players of the two teams cheered in unison in their hearts, and they could brush the data again!

The clock ran out quickly, and the game was over, and the Thunder defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 112-94 on the road to continue to lead the West.

After the game, OJ Mayo returned directly to the locker room angrily, this superficial brother, it is not appropriate!

The others naturally greeted with a friendly hug, after all, they were all tired of logging, and Li Ze also harvested two surface brothers, Michael Conley and Marc Gasol.

"Why is there another back-to-back game where the home game is played first and then the away game, and the league's schedule can't allocate the time a little more reasonably?"

While Durant was packing up his things, he complained about the unscientific schedule.

"Fortunately, after playing the Denver Nuggets, we can play two home games in a row, first bitter and then sweet."

Li Ze is already very satisfied, there is no consecutive away games to win, his own state does not have to worry, after all, there are B+ level functional drinks to help the body recover physical fitness, but other teammates will definitely be affected.

When the time comes, Li Ze tried his best, teammate CBA, it would be embarrassing, he still likes the winning rhythm of this game, 16 points, 5 rebounds and 10 assists, driving everyone to blossom more.

Durant scored 20 points, Turtle 16 points, Jeff Green 14 points, Kostic 16 points, all starters made double-doubles, and the game was easy and enjoyable.

"Kayce is right, we can spend more time with our family in consecutive home games, Nina has been complaining to me that she can't reach me when I play away."

Good man turtle turtle always thinks about his girlfriend...

"Wow!"

Everyone immediately sent boos, don't show affection in the locker room!

......

When I got off the plane and drove back to the mansion in Russia, it was the second half of the night, Li Ze washed up briefly, and immediately lay on the bed and prepared to sleep, 21 games, there should be several badges to be upgraded!

Entering the dream training space, Li Ze immediately called out the control panel, and saw that there were 4 upgrade prompts on the achievement room, and immediately laughed:

"Finally, most of the badges have been upgraded to silver, and the overall strength can be slightly improved!"

couldn't wait to enter the achievement room, looking at the 4 silver badges after the upgrade, Li Ze hurriedly touched it to check the upgraded attributes.

Achievement Badge [Misalignment Specialist]: 4/500

Reduces the negative impact of shots against higher defenders and improves the consistency of shots.

Achievement Badge [Killer Without the Ball]: 6/500

Improve players' ability to play against and interfere with off-ball attackers.

Achievement Badge [Ankle Pad]: 9/500

Reduces the chance of being shaken down by a cross dribble and the chance of being shaken down by a crotch dribble.

Achievement Badge [Dribble]: 3/500

Strengthen the ability to make continuous dribbling movements quickly, and strengthen the ability to make continuous dribbling movements vigorously.

Li Ze looked at the upgraded achievement badge in front of him, and a sense of satisfaction arose spontaneously, both offensive and defensive ends were improved, and these 20 games were not played in vain!

"Training! Training! Let's play a few games of one-on-one today, and give the simulated Durant a confrontation! ”

Li Ze once again devoted himself to the daily basic training with high morale, and his hard work will be rewarded.

In the training session the afternoon of the next day, Coach Brooks found that Li Ze was in very good shape, especially Li Ze's ability to combine the ball, which seemed to be improving again.

The opposing Durant felt the most obviously, he felt that Li Ze's start, dribble speed, and dribbling power had improved a lot, and the defensive aggression had also come up, and he panicked in his heart:

"Okay, they're all here to help me? I've only improved significantly this year after playing for two seasons, and as a result, you've evolved after 20 games? ”

The coaching staff saw that the confrontation between the two was getting more and more intense, and quickly called a stop, if the training intensity was too great and the injury was injured, the Thunder team would have to cry to death.

"Kayce, you're getting better and better, there's no rookie wall at all!"

During the break, Durant said to Li Ze with a smile on his face, and at the same time he was crazy in his heart.

"Okay, I feel like I'm completely adjusted to the rhythm of the NBA, and sure enough, the NCAA is no different from the NBA!"

Li Zefeng replied lightly, and naturally pretended to be an X.

“......”

Everyone in the Thunder team was directly speechless, good guy, how to answer this!

"Shet! Guys, I can't stand it anymore! Come with me, this guy is going to blow himself to the sky! ”

Durant jumped up and swooped straight at Li Ze, two fists were invincible to four hands, and it was another day full of big men...

On the evening of December 13th, the Ford Center arena was crowded, although the Thunder people did not like the league's schedule, but the fans of the Russian City were ecstatic, and the game against the Cavaliers, you can see LeBron James!

Yes, there are also many James fans on the side of the city, and this is the influence of the Chosen One.

The most important thing is that this game is still a national live broadcast, and Li Ze seriously suspects that the staff who set the national live broadcast schedule for the Thunder team is also a Jammy!

ESPN also sent Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson as live commentators, and the big and small media also came.

Before the game, only scattered media reporters followed the Thunder trio, and the rest of the swarm piled up next to LeBron James and Shaqui O'Neal.

"Farke, the Cavaliers have a 16-7 record, fourth in the East, and we're first in the West! As a result, I have paid attention to LeBron James! ”

Durant was a little angry, and he felt that he was not respected.

"Actually, there is still a part of it that pays attention to O'Neal, this is our national live broadcast, and we all went to interview the Cavaliers! Shet! ”

The turtle is also scolding in a low voice, the first in the west is not hot, a shit media reporter.

"It doesn't matter, as long as we win the game, the Lakers have been chasing us from behind, and I don't want to give up the first place in the West easily!"

Li Ze's face was calm, but he was secretly ruthless in his heart:

"It's the protagonist who wins, so let's be happy for a while! The elderly sharks can't stop the impact of the Thunder! ”