After learning that Li Ao went to train for two hours after lunchtime, and then slept in the lounge for another two hours, Gentry was worried about Li Ao's physical strength and health problems.

But he can't say anything, for fear of affecting the enthusiasm of a rookie.

In Gentry's view, even if Li Ao is talented and has a mature playing style, he is only 19 years old after all.

At the age of 19, full of vigor and momentum, he is always indomitable, doing whatever comes to mind, but he is easily influenced by others.

Before he could figure out how to phrase it, Gentry chose to resist the urge to persuade Li Ao first.

Also feeling the same is James Worthy.

Although he received the money, James Worthy will still worry about his employer - in case he didn't stop Li Ao from practicing on game day, Li Ao will be injured, and his famous trainer's sign will be smashed!

He's not the kind of day worker who works in Tiangou, he eats here.

Moreover, a rookie with such a good talent was really injured because he worked too hard and too hard, and as a basketball senior, he didn't know how guilty he was.

But at 8 p.m., after the game against the Wizards began, the two found that their worries seemed unwarranted.

Li Ao was as energetic as ever, actively running on the offensive end, and working the defensive end to assist in defense in a timely manner, and it was impossible to see that he had practiced for two and a half hours in the afternoon.

The two suddenly remembered that Li Ao was the same in back-to-back, and they couldn't see tiredness at all...... This talent in physical recovery is simply unparalleled!

At the age of 19, he is talented, has top physical strength, has a strong physical recovery ability, and has a higher level of effort than most people...... If such a rookie is not successful, who deserves to succeed?

In tonight's game, the Clippers played with ease.

The Wizards, one of the two teams that have been actively playing this season, are battling the Bulls for the league's bottom-to-bottom spot.

In order to make a mess, the Wizards owner made a mess - the radio station of the Eagle Sauce Imperial Capital hired a basketball news reporter Leonard Hamilton as the head coach.

He has no professional basketball-related work experience, he is only 37 years old, one of the youngest head coaches in the league, and the Wizards even have players who are older than him, so what kind of basketball-related experience does he have...... I don't know if 25 years of Wizards fan experience counts?

Under his leadership, the Wizards went from about 30 wins last season to the top pick.

In order to carry on the mess, he asked Richard Hamilton, who averaged 18 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists per game, to play the veteran Mitch Richmond off the bench, regardless of the friendship of the same surname.

Although the swing was successful, it also made Richard Hamilton hate this team very much.

The last time the two teams met, Li Ao was banned, the Clippers played purely defensively, and they all won 95-86 easily, and this time the Clippers did better on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.

Li Ao had 21 points, 4 boards, 6 assists, 1 steal and 4 blocks, Odom 12 points, 11 boards and 10 assists, O'Neal Jr. 30 points and 18 boards, 9 points in the big Q, 13 points in Margety, and 6 points and 7 assists in Greg Anthony...... The Clippers slaughtered the Wizards 106-82 to win five in a row!

5 straight wins, the longest winning streak in 8 seasons since the Clippers last made the playoffs in the 92-93 season!

Relying on this wave of 5 consecutive wins, the Clippers' record improved to 16-12, surpassing the Timberwolves, who suffered two consecutive defeats and a 15-12 record, and rushed to seventh in the West!

The Clippers players and fans enjoyed a day of playoff team playoff, and on the 28th, the Clippers came to Denver to challenge the Nuggets in back-to-back home and away games, losing 87-92 and ending a five-game winning streak.

Li Ao scored 21 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 3 blocks, and only got a consolation prize of 100 achievement points after the game.

For a long time, every game was a few hundred achievement points, and he was really a little unaccustomed to taking a 100.

After playing the Nuggets, the Clippers flew non-stop from the Great Northwest to Dallas in the Great Southwest the next day, and after a night's rest, on December 30, the Clippers came to the American Airlines Center to challenge the Mavericks away.

The last game of the four days and three games was a continuous flying away game, which was a huge test of the physical strength of the Clippers players.

Yesterday against the Nuggets, in the final moments, the Clippers' physical problems began to appear.

The house leak happened to rain overnight, and Odom, the interior offensive core of the Clippers who averaged 14.6 points, 9.3 boards, 7.9 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.3 blocks per game, had symptoms of knee soreness during the morning preparation training.

Gentry immediately took him to the hospital for examination.

For Odom, whose style of play is highly dependent on physical fitness, the knee can't hurt!

Odom was relieved to confirm that there was no problem with the bones through X-ray testing, but he still cautiously put Odom on the inactive list, and waited until he returned to Los Angeles for a more detailed examination to confirm the specific conditions of knee joint structure and muscle tissue.

After making arrangements for Odom, Gentry began to have a headache.

This season, he wants to win every game!

First, it's to prove to the new owner that he's capable of playing basketball against his dreams, and every time he wins, he enjoys the professional abilities he's learned from Larry Brown......

Also, there are a lot of young players in the team!

He has been an assistant coach in college and the NBA for 20 years, and he has seen too many geniuses disappear for various reasons.

Among them, the talented players of the teams that take the initiative to rot have the highest probability of falling.

He can often see a team swinging year after year, selecting one of the most talented players every year, and these talents have not been able to enter the NBA, and they have shown great ability and talent...... But the end result is that these teams have been rotten year after year, and the geniuses have poor playing habits and become less and less obsessed with victory and glory......

In recent years, the team that has impressed him the most in this regard has been the Warriors.

Even if the Warriors have produced Jamison in recent years, who is strong and can score 25 points per game, he doesn't think this is a good player, a team with ambitions and dreams, even if it uses a more mediocre player, he will not choose such a star.

Here, although the new boss has no record requirements for this season, he is not allowed to mess up.

Now that he has the conditions, he doesn't want his beloved players to develop bad habits, and hopes that these players can all play and stay in the NBA for a few more years.

Therefore, even when encountering the Mavericks, who have a huge disparity in strength, he is still trying to find a way to win.

Even if you can't win, you have to create problems for the Mavericks and use this top team to train yourself.

Odom was a very important part of his game plan for playing the Mavericks.

If you want to possibly beat the Mavericks, you can at least limit Nowitzki on the defensive end.

Odom is the best candidate for their Clippers team, with the speed of a small forward, the size of a center, the flexibility of a guard, and a good performance when he is serious about defense.

Injuries are also part of the sport, and as a manager, all you can do is try to avoid them, but when they come, he can't stop them.

But without Odom, they really wouldn't even have the ability to fight tonight...... Huh!

To limit Nowitzki, you don't have to be inside! They have a player with a larger shooting interference shroud than Odom......

…

At 7:58 p.m., at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, the Clippers and Mavericks started the game.

After being stared at for 58 minutes, Gentry, who was hairy, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At 7 o'clock, when the players were still warming up, he announced his starting lineup for tonight, and then he was targeted by Spider-Man.

The Clippers starting lineup tonight: McGinnis, Piakowski, Margeti, Ao Lee, O'Neal Jr.

Odom couldn't play and lacked a scoring pass, so he went on McGinnis.

Big Q and McGinnis's style of play didn't match, so he got on the wild pitcher Piakowski.

Odom lacked inside impact, so he got on Margeti.

This is the starting lineup that Gentry discussed with the assistant coaches based on Odom's injury and Li Ao's defense of Nowitzki.

58 minutes! For the full 58 minutes, Spider-Man stared at him from time to time when he was warming up.

He almost lost his attachment to the world, and even wondered whether it was appropriate to buy a wheelchair or a cemetery.

On the court, Li Ao first heard that he wanted to defend against the silver horn king, and he was not good.

But when he came to the field, he became excited and tried hard to prevent thieves...... It's also better than the previous two games against the Mavericks, and Odom defended Nowitzki!

At the end of the game, Nowitzki shot just 4-of-12, including 1-of-4 three-pointers, and 8-of-8 free throws to score 17 points.

Nowitzki saw that the opponent had no long hands and fast Odom, and thought that he could have a good time tonight, but he turned out to have a longer hand, and his defensive attitude and ability are not comparable to Odom!

And also...... This guy is so good at talking!

He once blew up his hair, pushed Li Ao by an elbow, and ate the technical prisoner.

At that time, he scared himself stupid after his elbow, and the first thing he thought about was - which hospital environment is better?

As a result, the opponent saw Bo get a technical foul and happily walked to the free throw line to score a point......

Facing Li Ao's single defense for the first time, Nowitzki suffered a big loss, and the opponent's physical condition and defensive style were very restrained from a big peripheral pitcher like him.

When they met for the first time in the preseason, he saw an overseas lotto rookie like him, and took the initiative to go up to say hello, but he was glared at and ran away in fright.

After that, he heard about the 'One Dozen Seven Incident', and was glad that he didn't provoke Li Ao.

But now, he has a new understanding of Li Ao.

It's completely different from the image that has been demonized in his mind!

Aside from his prejudices, he thought back to the 'One Dozen Seven Incident' and didn't consider the outcome of the fight at the end, as if this Spider-Man was not at fault during the game...... No, this broken mouth is really hated by his opponents, and he who has always been cautious can't stand it.

However, Spider-Man's outgoing personality, Nowitzki is quite envious.

After no longer showing color, he found that the team atmosphere of the Clippers opposite was excellent, and it didn't look like a team that had been rotten for many years!

Nowitzki thought about it after the game because they won!

O'Neal Jr. bullied the skinny bamboo pole again tonight, facing Sean Bradley with 21 points and 15 boards, but Bradley has seriously degraded in the past two years, and only averaged 7 points, 7 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game this season, and his beating is the norm for the Mavericks this season.

Cuban's future crazy contract for blue-collar centers is a shadow of this period.

Li Ao scored 25 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks on 9-of-20 shooting, which was quite difficult to do, and led the Clippers to a 32-point performance in a single quarter in the third quarter.

But the Mavericks broke out en masse in the backcourt!

Nowitzki was very limited at this point, Howard Easley who met McGinnis defended by Howard Easley, Nash who met Piakowski defended by Piakowski, and Finley who met Margeti defended by Margeti, all of them played hi, and all 3 of them got 20+!

The Mavericks scored in double figures with four players to give the Clippers a two-game losing streak 105-97.

…

The Clippers ended 2000 with a two-game losing streak.

At noon on the 31st, the Clippers returned to Los Angeles, and Gentry immediately took Odom to the hospital.

After a detailed examination, the doctor's diagnosis was that the muscles in the knee area were overtired, and the symptoms of overstretching had appeared.

Not only the knees, but also the calves and ankles are also tired.

That is, the game is too dense, the playing time is too much, and the game is too hard.

Odom has been focused for most of the season, at least not distracted.

The sleepwalking situation has improved a lot compared to last season, and the performance has naturally improved dramatically.

In the Christmas season award predictions, Odom is ranked as the most improved player, ranking higher than O'Neal Jr.

Because there is a violent spider beside him......

At the beginning, after playing a few games, Odom confirmed that Li Ao was not so difficult to get along with, but that he was the kind of person who could afford to joke, and then began to have habitual wandering of his mind.

And then the 'hit seven' came.

Odom, who was already easy to think too much, substituted himself into the players who were beaten by the Knicks.

It hurts to think about it!

So, when he saw Li Ao on the court, he didn't dare to wander, at least when he was there at the same time.

Although his performance has improved significantly, he is now also buried with injury risks, after all, he is the kind of play that is both a father and a mother, and this team still needs parents to lead the team.

The doctor advised Odom to rest for 2-3 weeks and undergo physical therapy, and Gentry accepted the advice and decided to let Odom rest, if Odom continued to play, it was possible to get through it and get through it, but there was also the possibility of a stress injury.

The probability of a stress injury is not high, but once it does, it is a matter of months, and the gains outweigh the losses.

However, Odom couldn't fight, and Gentry realized more clearly how important Odom was to them.

In addition to being the team's No. 1 offensive organization point, Odom is also the best setter and receiving point for Li Ao.

Odom has 2-3 assists per game that rely on Li Ao's strategy, and conversely, Li Ao's transfer strategy also relies heavily on Odom's setter.

Defensively, Odom's role is also higher than it seems, at least he is an all-round player who is very comprehensive and can switch to all positions.

However, even if Odom can play, Gentry also has an idea after last night's game and is ready to discuss it with the general manager.

Playing the Mavericks last night, McGinnis played well, scoring 17 points, second only to the interior twin towers, and the ability is there.

But his style of play, similar to Francis', the type of 'leading the team on his own', didn't think about the problem of cooperating with the players who responded, and attacked the ball to the end, unless his teammates had an open space and he didn't have a chance to pass it out on his own, otherwise he would do it.

But there is a huge gap between ability and Francis, and playing as a substitute may not be able to kill all sides, let alone lead a team.

Gentry said just do it, and after chatting with Wally Walker all afternoon, he confirmed the next arrangement...... Increase the performance opportunities of two players, one, is Li Ao, now the offense is not easy to organize, then shoot more.

The other is McGinnis, who is the most suitable player in the bench group to get good data!

The decision was made, but Gentry was about to start feeling sorry for the little hair he had left......

(End of chapter)