Almighty Coach

At the NBA headquarters in New York, President Adams opened the NBA column of a certain media and glanced at the headlines of the news.

In the most obvious position of Wang Ye, there appeared such a headline: "10 overtimes in three games, Los Angeles Clippers set NBA record".

"The Clippers grabbed a headline position. But having said that, there has been a lot of news about the Clippers recently," Adams said to himself.

There are many games in the NBA every day. Except for some focus teams, it is really difficult to win a headline position in other games. Today's Clippers team has no top superstars, and the team's strength is also at the bottom. It is not easy to grab a headline.

"It is very rare to play overtime in three consecutive games. It is even more incredible to play 10 overtime in three games. I really didn't expect the Clippers to show such resilience after changing a boss. It is really impressive. Surprised." Adams couldn't help but check the Clippers' recent schedule.

"In the past three games, the results were two wins and one loss. The next game the Clippers will face is the Orlando Magic. A victory." Adams touched his chin and said to himself.

...

In Orlando, the Clippers are a guest at Amway Stadium to challenge the Orlando Magic.

In the players' locker room, assistant coach Cassell looked at the Clippers players. At this time, he was sensitively aware that the players' state was completely different from the previous games.

The previous Clippers had a very bad record. They lost too many games. Coupled with the turmoil of the team, the players had long been unwilling to fight, and they were not so concerned about winning or losing the game. Just like going to work every day, clock out after 48 hours. Even if the team loses, no one will be depressed and still pick up girls and go to nightclubs.

And after the previous three games, with a total of 10 overtimes, the spirit of the Clippers players is obviously different from before. They have a kind of resilience, and Kassel can even feel it. Desire gradually returned to the players.

In the three away games, the opponents are all playoff-level teams. The record of two wins and one loss can indeed cultivate the self-confidence of the players, making the Clippers players feel that they can compete with strong teams Yes, this also inspired their deep desire to win.

After all, those who can enter the NBA to play, even the last substitute players, are all very good basketball players. Some people with a great desire to win. It's just that the Clippers were too bad before. Even if someone has the hope of survival, if he keeps losing, his desire to win will be slowly wiped out.

Today's victory has allowed the Clippers players to regain confidence. This kind of victory after overtime will make people feel hard-won. At the same time, consecutive overtime games have also made the Clippers more resilient. This is also the biggest gain for the Clippers.

As a relatively weak team, toughness is a very important attribute, and it is also an attribute that is difficult to cultivate. For a professional player, it is possible to lose, but it is absolutely impossible to admit defeat.

The current Clippers have gradually developed resilience through several overtime games.

Cassel even remembered that in the last game, he lost to the Indiana Pacers after four overtimes. The anger and unwillingness on the faces of the players, Kassel could feel that deep in the hearts of the players Incomparably eager to win, this is not at all the momentum that a bad team that has always been at the bottom should have.

"I didn't expect that the team has changed so much in just three games since the boss was changed." Cassel thought of this and looked at Dai Li who was not far away. At this moment, Cassel realized that all these changes happened after Dai Li came.

"Coach Li, does he really not understand basketball?" Kassel just felt that Dai Li in front of him was becoming more and more confusing for him.

...

The Clippers' opponent in this game is the Orlando Magic.

The Magic are currently ranked second to last in the East, and there is only half a game between them and the last.

The team in this position is naturally determined to perform poorly and strive for a No. 1 lottery. And there is a last-to-last behind the Magic, so the Magic really want to lose in order to "catch up" to the bottom as soon as possible.

The record of the Clippers is also not good. Although the Clippers' own picks have been traded out, for the Magic, they don't want to have another team with the same poor record to compete with them for the No. 1 pick. , So the Magic are eager to lose to the Clippers.

The Clippers definitely want to win. The players' desire to win has been stimulated, and the opponent is a team that is one point weaker than the Clippers. Naturally, the Clippers are going all out Want to win this game.

One wants to lose, the other wants to win, the result can be imagined.

The Clippers vented their resentment and unwillingness to lose to the Trail Blazers in four overtimes in the previous game, all of which were vented on the Magic, and launched a fierce attack from the beginning of the game. The Magic were also happy to lose to the Clippers, and after a few symbolic resistances, they surrendered.

In this game, Dai Li didn't use the title "evenly matched" because he also knew that if the Magic lost this game, they would be tied for the last place in the East, so they are now "kneeling to lose" and will not follow The Clippers slammed.

Without the role of "evenly matched" and no overtime in the game, the Clippers successfully defeated the Magic and ended their four consecutive road trips.

In the four away games, three of the opponents are playoff-level teams, and the Clippers have achieved a record of 3 wins and 1 loss. If you don’t know the record, you may think that this is the strongest team in the playoffs. The team's results.

Next, the Clippers returned to their home court in Los Angeles, and their opponent was the Lakers in the same city.

Whether in Los Angeles or in the entire NBA, the influence of the Lakers is far greater than that of the Clippers. And the Clippers and the Lakers share a home court, the Staples Center. Therefore, the home court of the Clippers will also be flooded with a large number of Lakers fans, even more Lakers fans than Clippers fans. In the Staples Center, it often happens that the Clippers are at home and the fans overwhelmingly cheer for the Lakers.

So for the Clippers, playing the Lakers is more like playing away.

The record of the Lakers this year is not enough to enter the playoffs, but the Lakers did not deliberately play poorly. First, they won three consecutive second places in the draft in the past few years. The team is considered to be talented. Second, As a wealthy team, fans also have expectations for the Lakers.

In fact, as the top giants in the NBA, the Lakers don't need to be bad to rebuild the team. With the attraction of Los Angeles and the magnetic effect of the giants, the Lakers can always attract superstars to join. Although the Lakers this season are not very outstanding, maybe next season, the Lakers will be able to form a "Big Three" or "Big Four".

Facing the Lakers, Dai Li used the title of "evenly matched" again, and then it was overtime.

...

The face of the head coach of the Lakers is full of helplessness. This is the first time he has played three overtimes since he became the head coach of the NBA.

As for the lads of the Lakers, although they are very talented, they have not experienced this kind of situation. Facing the third overtime, they also began to lose their composure.

On the other hand, for the Clippers, the players are not in a hurry. After all, in the past four games, they have played three overtime games in three games. For the Clippers players, it is normal to play overtime games.

"This game went to three overtimes again. There was no overtime when the Clippers beat the Magic in the last game. I thought the Clippers had broken the curse of overtime, but now it seems , the curse is still there." The commentator at the scene said jokingly.

Another commentator went on to say: "Since the Clippers changed hands and then changed a new coach, their games often have overtime. It seems that if I want to explain the Clippers games in the future, I have to advance Apply for overtime pay."

...

The Clippers finally defeated the Lakers in the third overtime, and achieved a record of 4 wins and 1 loss in the last five games. In the new week's NBA strength rankings, the Clippers also rose eight places.

But then, the Clippers encountered a more devilish schedule.

At home against the Houston Rockets, No. 1 in the Western Conference, the Clippers lost after an overtime game; they played away against the defending champion Warriors, and the Clippers also lost to their opponents in overtime. Immediately afterwards, the Grizzlies played against the Grizzlies at home. The Grizzlies were also a poor team. Li Dai didn't use evenly matched teams. In the end, the Clippers narrowly won. Then came the Thunder at home. This time the Thunder didn't give the Clippers a chance for overtime. The Thunder's superstar made a three-pointer at the last second to kill the Clippers. .

The record of 1 win and 3 losses in four games can be regarded as an interpretation of the performance that a weak team should have.

However, the momentum of the Clippers players has improved, because the Rockets, Warriors and Thunder are all teams competing for the championship, especially the first two, which rank the top two in the NBA power list. Under the situation of the strong east and weak alliance, whoever can make it out of the west will almost lock the championship in advance. As an underdog, being able to fight the championship team to overtime is a big boost to morale.

In the next game, the Clippers faced the Trail Blazers again, but this time it was the Clippers' home court, and the game went to three overtimes again.

The Trail Blazers seemed to have a shadow over the overtime game against the Clippers. As a result, they made two consecutive key ball mistakes in the third overtime game, ruining the game.

Then the Clippers went to an away game to challenge the Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Knicks. Both games also went to overtime, and the result was one win and one loss.

After Li Dai became the head coach of the Clippers, the Clippers played 12 games, and nine of them went to overtime. Open the market and predict how many overtimes the Clippers will play in the next game.

Fans also joked online that the Los Angeles Clippers simply changed their name to "Los Angeles Overtime".