The Way of the Center

In the field of professional football, when the season reaches almost December, most leagues will arrange a winter break.

The establishment of the winter break is mainly because the temperature in winter in Europe is too low. But I have to admit that the existence of the winter break has greatly restored the physical fitness of the players, which will also reduce their chances of injury.

But in the world of professional basketball, such a thing does not exist. Even if the NBA has as many as 82 regular season games per season, players must gnaw hard at each game. All-Star Weekend? On the surface, All-Star Weekend seems to be a time for players to get enough rest. But for those star players, All-Star weekend is just like any other day.

Countless stars have said that if the league is willing to shorten the length and number of games in the regular season, NBA games will become more exciting.

Because if there are fewer games in the regular season, players will have fewer injuries, so they will put more energy into each game.

However, the NBA has always been a league that puts business first, and those people in suits don't care much about the health of the players. Even if James is reimbursed for the season, other superstars will stand up to replace him.

Look at this year's Kobe, he was reimbursed for the season, and the NBA has not seen much impact.

Under such circumstances, the schedule of NBA teams is even a bit inhumane.

And this kind of thing happened again to the Trail Blazers.

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The four who had just returned from New Orleans had to rush back to the Moda Center before they had time to catch their breath.

Tomorrow, the San Antonio Spurs will visit Portland to challenge the opponent who swept him out last year.

Although last year's playoffs, the Trail Blazers had defeated the Spurs once. But that's the way competitive sports are, you don't necessarily beat the same opponent every time, even if it's the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Trail Blazers team attaches great importance to this difficult bone. The experience accumulated from playing against strong teams will be of great use in the playoffs. It is precisely because of this that Ricard began to call the team for training non-stop after the All-Star Weekend.

I just played the all-star game yesterday, and I immediately threw myself into intense training today. Not everyone can stand such a toss.

An Jie, who has been used to it hard, is not unusual, but it is obvious that Aldridge is very tired during training.

Relax on Aldridge's training? No, of course that's not possible. Tomorrow, Aldridge will face Tim Duncan, one of the best power forwards in the world.

Even though Duncan is nine years older than Aldridge, age never seems to be a problem in front of this "No. 21 rookie".

Aldridge himself didn't want to rely on Anjie's help to get through every time he met Duncan.

Although very tired, Aldridge was still smashing himself.

It seems that the entire Trail Blazers team is in very good condition, and everyone is working very hard.

However, the Blazers, who were too smooth in the first half of the season, seem to have forgotten that after the All-Star Game, it will be the peak period of players' injuries!

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The game on the second day was as intense as ever.

It seems that Anjie has to go through a hard fight to win every time he faces the Spurs. This was the case in last year's playoffs, and today's game is no exception.

Ricard attaches great importance to this game, while Popovich and GDP pay more attention to it than Ricard.

As long as the Spurs want to go further in the playoffs, Anjie and the Portland Trail Blazers are a hurdle they cannot avoid. Only by overcoming this suddenly rising peak can the Spurs attack the championship.

Therefore, the Spurs cherish the opportunity to play against the Blazers in the regular season even more. Because of this, the two sides turned this ordinary regular season into a playoff-level battle.

Not to mention the others, even An Jie seemed to struggle on the court. The successive attacks of Splitter and Duncan made Anjie miserable.

And the anxious scores of the two sides did not leave the players with a chance to breathe.

Leading alternately, continuing to tie... These scenes became the main theme of the game.

It wasn't until the beginning of the third quarter that the balance on the field was finally broken.

After successfully defending Duncan's hook, the excited Aldridge intends to continue to put pressure on the difficult No. 21 on the offensive end.

Aldridge's running is very active, even if he feels some discomfort in his muscles, this guy has no intention of stopping.

Anjie immediately spaced out Aldridge for Aldridge, and as long as there was enough space, Aldridge could score.

Lillard didn't waste Aldridge's enthusiasm either. As soon as he dribbled the ball past half court, he pushed with both hands, and the basketball quickly came to Aldridge's hands.

Seeing that Duncan had no time to defend, Splitter volunteered and stuck behind Aldridge.

Aldridge felt a lot of pressure. He was already very tired and couldn't calmly face such a close defense.

So, Aldridge held the ball in both hands, and with his left foot as the axis, he suddenly turned to face the frame.

Aldridge's face-up offense was as good as his back-to-the-basket. Seeing that Duncan had already run to Angie's side, Splitter focused on the second leader of the Trail Blazers wholeheartedly.

Aldridge observed Splitter's position and had to admit that the Brazilian center was very smart, and Aldridge couldn't find a gap at all.

But that didn't bother Aldridge, the guy jerked off, intending to push Splitter into his shoulder.

"Are you kidding me!?" Split didn't budge, he used his chest to catch all the violent impact. I have to admit that although Aldridge is a technical insider, his impact is not inferior.

Splitter felt tightness in his chest, but Aldridge, who forced a breakthrough, was not easy.

His tired muscles were protesting against the overuse, and Aldridge's body seemed to have collapsed into a string. However, when Aldridge finally broke into the restricted area, the string... broke!

"Ah!" Aldridge yelled, falling on his back.

Split spread his hands, but the guy's innocent expression was really not fake.

Aldridge curled up on the hardwood floor of the Moda Center. It was not until this time that other people realized that he might be injured! ?

"This damn Brazilian!" Lillard rushed towards Split with dissatisfaction, but was caught by Anjie.

Anjie shook his head at Lillard: "I can see very clearly that the kid from Split did not move. Let's go, let's go and see how LaMarcus is doing."

An Jie anxiously pushed aside the crowd on both sides, and squatted beside Aldridge. Last year, Aldridge also experienced injuries during the regular season. Although the Trail Blazers created a record of 27 consecutive victories during that period, only Anjie and the others knew the hard work involved.

In any case, Aldridge's injury is by no means a good thing for the Blazers.

"How is it, LaMarcus!?" Anjie asked, waving from the sidelines. He was signaling Ricard to let the team doctor play.

Aldridge didn't answer, he just curled up on the ground in pain, unable to move at all.

After the team doctor came on the field, he asked Aldridge a few simple questions. But just like before, Aldridge couldn't respond.

The scene suddenly became chaotic, and various TV stations were replaying the scene just now over and over again.

It turned out that it was not Splitter's collision that caused Aldridge to become like this, but the impact of Aldridge after the end.

"If the injury is on the waist..." The team doctor looked at the defense and more or less guessed where the injury was.

A back injury can make it difficult for a person to straighten his back, let alone stand up and walk.

When Ricard saw this scene, he also yelled from the sidelines. This guy was complaining about the unreasonable arrangement of the league's game schedule, and all the swear words "big gift package" were deducted by him to the top leaders of the league.

For three minutes, Aldridge lay on the floor for three full minutes before finally deciding to try to stand up.

But when Anjie and Lopez brought Aldridge on vacation, Aldridge, who supported his waist, was in pain and couldn't move. It seems that the situation of this guy's waist may be really bad.

Seeing this situation, the team doctor rolled out a wheelchair. Anjie and Lopez helped Aldridge sit up, and the situation eased.

In this way, four team doctors pushed Aldridge into the player channel. Ricard's yelling finally stopped—it was replaced by continuous coughing.

"Man, are you alright!?" Divac sent Aldridge away just now, but found that Ricard, who had scolded too hard just now, seemed to be a little bit wrong.

"No...it's okay...cough cough cough!"

Ricard covered his mouth with a tissue and coughed, but when he took it off, the white tissue turned dark red.

There was no doubt that Ricard had coughed up blood again. After that, Ricard's cough became more and more serious, and the referee did not dare to start the game when it was so serious. Because of the coagulation of the blood in his throat, Ricard even had scary breathing difficulties for a while!

The team doctors of the Trail Blazers surrounded Ricard again, and the entire Moda Center fans hugged their heads in panic.

The damn chronic bronchitis finally broke out.

An Jie, who watched the chaotic scene on the coach's bench, suddenly went blank, first Aldridge, and now Ricard. What a joke! ? What does it mean for a team to lose two core players in a row? Think about it, if the Spurs did not have Popovich and Parker, it would be a nightmare!

Two "surprises" came at the same time within five minutes? An Jie is really an out-and-out "God's favorite"...