Li Ao felt the 'benefits' of playing in a traditional bad team, as long as he played better, he would 'break the team history record' and 'soon break the team history record' at every turn.

In fact, I was happy, but it became a hot topic among the media and fans, which was a bit embarrassing.

It is only 5 wins away from surpassing the best record in team history, but the current situation will not make it into the playoffs if it exceeds the best record in team history.

Looking at the task of 'sprint, overtake', he felt that the reward for Goal 2 was too low.

Luckily, if you are in the East, you are locked in the playoffs now, and maybe you can compete with the Heat for third place.

On the second day, the Clippers faced the Rockets back-to-back at home.

Olajuwon came to Los Angeles with the team in a suit and seemed ready to 'get hurt' until the end of the season and put pressure on the Rockets.

But what he didn't expect was that the local fans in Houston didn't care about whether he could renew his contract, and even the media were ridiculing him, the boss was Alexander, and he still wanted so much, wouldn't it be good to retire with 13 million US dollars.

But he's already there, and now he's receiving $13 million? Don't lose face!

Sitting on the bench, he looked at Steve Ballmer across the technical table, and he was sour.

He saw the news that after Li Ao won the All-Star MVP, the Clippers decided to pay the salaries of private nutritionists and private physical therapists for Little Spider.

The little spider's physiotherapist has changed from the original 'clock' to being on call around the clock, and the travel expenses of where to go on a business trip are also fully reimbursed, and the annual salary is not cheap.

And he won MVP+FMVP+DPOY in a single season, and when he sprained himself in the second year, he still went through the first aid kit to find an ice pack to put on it.

At 8 p.m., the game began.

The Clippers, for their part, thought it would be another easy victory, averaging nearly 20 points per game in their first three meetings with the Rockets.

But tonight the opposite side gave them a great start.

The Rockets scored 31 points in the first quarter, 7 points ahead of the Clippers, who scored 24 points!

Francis shot 2-of-4 from the field in the first quarter, but continued to make kills inside, scoring 11 points from 7 free throws in the quarter, plus 4 assists after attracting a pinch shot.

Francis's style of play is the standard when he plays well, the whole team is good, he plays poorly, and the whole team is whitewashed.

He managed to fly the whole team tonight!

In the second quarter, Tomjanovic strengthened his defense, and Francis continued to soar on the offensive end, supporting the offense by himself, and the Rockets played a 22-18 score, leading the Clippers by 11 points at halftime, 53-42!

After returning from halftime, Li Ao stood up.

When encountering problems, he still sacrifices his best style of play - running, catching and shooting!

The Clippers launched an offense around Li Ao's run-and-shoot + strategy, and he performed well, shooting 4-of-7 in the third quarter, plus 1-of-2 free throws to score 9 points and 2 assists.

His style of play, with 2 assists, brought no worse than Francis's 4 assists in each of the first two quarters!

The Clippers' offense became smooth, with 9 assists in a single quarter and 28 points!

And Francis's performance began to decline, although he scored 8 points in the third quarter, his shooting rate dropped rapidly, he relied on free throws, and his passing was not done well, only 1 assist, and 3 turnovers, and the Clippers did an excellent job of interfering with passing and receiving the ball, limiting the Rockets to only 21 points in a single quarter.

At the end of the third quarter, the Clippers narrowed the gap to 4 points!

In the final quarter, the Clippers went one step further, and this time it was their turn to defend the Rockets to just 18 points in a single quarter.

At the critical moment, the Rockets shot 3 times in a row, and Francis was capped twice, once by Li Ao and once by O'Neal Jr.

Francis was very fierce, and the iron was also real iron, 5 of 7 in the first half, 3 of 11 in the second half, plus 16 of 18 free throws in the game, and got 32 points, 11 boards, 11 assists and 1 block.

On Li Ao's side, at the critical moment, he still relied on running, catching and shooting, and scored two goals three times against the defense.

Li Ao had 8 points, 1 board, 2 assists and 2 blocks in the final quarter, leading the Clippers to a score of 27-18!

With 25 points, 6 boards, 6 assists, 1 steal and 4 blocks, Li Ao led the Clippers to reverse the Rockets 97-92 and won a thrilling victory!

…

The record improved to 42-28!

Li Ao is feeling a little less pressure now, and finally, the 16th back-to-back of the season is over, and their remaining 12 games are not back-to-back!

However, it is only less stressful.

In the final stage of the season, he once again felt the sorrow of the fish belly.

They have now played exactly 35 home games, 35 away games, with 6 home and 6 away games left, and the next 12 games, once without a home or away, played 12 consecutive away and home games.

This is quite a test of their team's physical reserves.

But the schedule is such that they can only play hard one game at a time.

A day later, on March 26, the Clippers arrived at Portland's Rose Garden Arena and started an offensive and defensive battle with the Trail Blazers.

The Clippers worked hard, with six players scoring in double figures.

Although Li Ao only scored 14 points, he still had 7 boards, 6 assists and 3 blocks, Odom scored 14 points, 11 boards and 3 assists, Big Q scored 19 points, Matt Harprin scored 13 points, O'Neal Jr. had 12 points and 9 boards, and Margety had 12 points.

But the overall strength of the Trail Blazers team is strong, and the performance is even better, with 6 Clippers scoring double-doubles and 7 Trail Blazers!

104-98, the Trail Blazers handed the Clippers their 29th loss of the season, and the two teams tied the regular season.

On the 28th, the Clippers returned to their home court, facing the visiting Pistons, the Clippers led the whole way, slowly widened the difference, and finally defeated the Pistons 104-89 and won the victory.

Li Ao played 30 minutes tonight, 13 of 22 shots, including 1 of 2 three-pointers, the Pistons didn't defend him as tightly as last time, he shot well, but the free throws also became fewer, only 2 free throws, all hit.

With 29 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 blocks, he put on a mid-range show in front of the home fans.

However, the best performance of the Clippers tonight was Odom, who scored another triple-double after a month, with 15 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists, and scored a triple-double for the sixth time this season! Surpassed Kidd and took the first place in the number of triple-doubles this season!

In the post-game news, the media analyzed Odom's 6 triple-doubles this season and found that there was one common point - Spider-Man had more shooting opportunities and shot accurately.

Li Ao scored high, and Odom did not necessarily have more assists.

But when the opponent's ability to pick up the ball and shoot in the run-up position is not good, and the change defense is not good, Odom will always have more assists than usual.

This is the embodiment of tacit understanding.

On the 30th, the last game of March, the Clippers came to Seattle Key Arena to take on the SuperSonics away.

The contenders for the playoff spots met head-on, with the Clippers and SuperSonics both playing to their heart's content, and the scene of the game was described in one word - rough.

This time, Peyton personally came to defend Li Ao.

Li Ao felt Durant's sad urging, and he almost couldn't make a move!

Fortunately, he can use his height advantage to hit Payton with his back, and his strength advantage can't be shown in the face frame, but his back can.

And his back play also disrupted the opponent's defensive preparations.

Although there was news before that Li Ao had opened his high back in just a few months, the SuperSonics were not prepared to defend against this.

They think according to normal logic, rookies, occasionally back-hitting and throwing two, they may be blown as 'developing' back-hitting.

But they didn't expect Li Ao to really hit his back!

The main thing is that they didn't expect Gentry to build tactics around a rookie's newly developed ability.

Li Ao played 37 minutes, although the statistics were only 15 points and 4 assists, but he launched an attack with his back, giving Odom and Greg Anthony more opportunities to pass, Odom had 17 points and 7 assists in 40 minutes, and veteran Greg Anthony had 6 points and 4 assists in 23 minutes.

The three of them led the team hand in hand, and when there were 6 seconds left in the clock, they tied 94 with the SuperSonics!

In the last 6 seconds, the SuperSonics attacked.

Matt Halprin chases Lewis, Li Ao chases Brent Barry, Margetty sticks to the new dunk king Desmond Mason does not give the opponent a chance to cut, and O'Neal Jr. defends Ewing from eating cakes.

O'Neal Jr. did a good job of interior defense tonight, and Ewing taught him a lesson in vain, and he only scored 4 points and 6 rebounds on 1-of-6 shooting for 26 minutes tonight.

The SuperSonics ball was sent out and given to Payton.

Payton shot 9-of-20 tonight, including 1-of-4 three-pointers and 9-of-10 free throws, to finish with 28 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Li Ao, Matt Harprin, and Margety have all tried, but they are not well guarded.

The best defense against Payton tonight was Big Q, which allowed Payton to hit a few more irons, but also gave Payton several free throws.

With the anticipation of his teammates, Big Q bravely posted towards Peyton.

The rest of the Clippers followed their defenders, Payton received the ball one-on-one, turned abruptly, backed up to Big Q, turned around again, pulled a step sideways, jumped, and shot at the whistle...... Miss!

The long whistle sounded, and the referee gestured to the technical table after confirming the score, and entered overtime!

Everyone on the Clippers team surrounded Da Q and slapped his bald head, and Li Ao, who was watching from the sidelines, felt that his little brother's skull had brightened.

Payton is a superstar, and by the end of the season, he was much better than he was in the middle of the season.

Big Q can limit Payton so much, which is indeed a surprise.

Big Q's defense doesn't care about anything else, he goes all out to fight and interfere with his shots, his feet are faster than Matt Harplin's, his defensive foundation is better than Margety's, and he doesn't have to worry about fouls and help defense shrink to make up for defense like he did with Spider-Man...... Just do it.

Li Ao recalled a few rounds of anti-Payton and felt that he had learned a little game experience.

When playing an opponent with strong ability to assist in defense, you can take advantage of the opponent's mentality of wanting to take into account both supplemental defense and auxiliary defense.

Although it is difficult for him to make good use of this current style of play, offensive players with the ball are more active in attacking and more passive in playing without the ball.

But it is always right to sum up the experience of previous people.

Soon, overtime began.

At this time, that sentence seems particularly reasonable - youth is the biggest capital.

Wen Baker, who had a good performance in regular time and scored 14 points and 7 boards on 5-of-10 shooting, pulled in overtime, Ewing, who was okay in regular time, also pulled in overtime, and the SuperSonics team had to attack but not attack, and had to defend without defense.

Li Ao took a gamble, tonight he defended Brent Barry with 2 of 8 shots, the last attack in regular time, he didn't dare to let go of the top shooter who shot 47% from three-point range this season, but he tried it in overtime, closed in, and defended the inside.

O'Neal Jr. relieved himself to hand over the basket to Li Ao and actively prevented Payton from rushing forward.

Big Q focuses on fighting against rushing, and prevents throwing but not rushing.

Li Ao bet right!

Brent Barry hit the iron, Ewing received the ball and ate cakes, Li Ao contracted the defensive hat in time, both situations appeared, and the SuperSonics team's overtime offense collapsed!

In 5 minutes, the SuperSonics scored only 3 points.

On the Clippers' side, Margeti scored 7 points alone.

Coupled with a catch-and-shoot three-point hit by Big Q, the Clippers won 10-3 in overtime!

Li Ao had 15 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and 6 blocks, Odom 17 points, 8 boards, 7 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, O'Neal Jr. 15 points, 14 boards, 2 steals and 1 block, 13 points in the big Q, and 15 points in Margety......

The Clippers narrowly defeated the SuperSonics 104-97 to improve their record to 44-29!

It is only 1 win away from the best record in team history!

Defeating the SuperSonics head-on, the Clippers directly erased the disadvantage of that one victory!

Both teams are currently 44-29, and the two teams have met 4 times in the regular season, 2-2, and are also tied for eighth place in the West!

…

Back at the hotel in the evening, Li Ao looked back at the past month's competition.

Another competition month is over, and this month, he clearly feels that compared to the previous three competition months, their strength is now much improved!

Now they play the top five teams in the league, they can't beat them, but they can resist a little, and if the opponent has a star absent or something, they have the ability to overturn the opponent.

Like the second time they played the Trail Blazers, they got off to a bad start, but they were able to take advantage of their chances to win.

It's hard for them to do that in the middle of the season.

When facing a second-tier powerhouse, such as the Mavericks, they rely on tactical changes and have the ability to win, albeit a surprise move.

And against a normal playoff team like the SuperSonics in the West, they have the ability to win hard!

At the beginning of the season, they met the SuperSonics and were beaten twice.

Tonight, with Payton's performance so good, they still won the game in overtime, and Li Ao felt the progress of him and his team most intuitively!

After imagining the future for a while, Li Ao took his mind back and turned on the system.

After the game with the SuperSonics, he received two missions.

"Best Rookie:

Goal 1: The host needs to win the Rookie of the Month of the Month of the season.

Reward: 12,000 achievement points.

Goal 2: The host needs to win the Rookie of the Season.

Reward: 20,000 achievement points. ”

This task is not a big problem, and he is very confident.

But another task, it's even harder!

"Genius:

Goal 1: The host needs to win the regular season block title this season.

Goal 2: The host needs to average 25 points per game in his rookie season and rank first in scoring for rookies in the modern basketball era.

Reward: Hatchaser (Level 5). ”

The first scoring gear of modern basketball rookies is actually the only one, since the merger of the NBA and the ABA in 1976, there is only one rookie season with an average of 25+ per game - Michael Jordan!

(End of chapter)