Chapter 410 Rose Garden

"Stephen, the Hammer's assists have increased, but yours has decreased. Does that mean that your assist leader last season was full of water? You stole the Hammer's assists?"

At the season press conference, a reporter asked bluntly.

"Fak oil!"

Looking at the hostile reporter, Marbury cursed secretly, and then said with a smile: "Hammer and I are brothers, you can ask him this question."

Li Ba immediately took the microphone and said proudly: "Don't ask such questions, our locker room is the most stable and united locker room in the league."

He did not answer the reporter's question directly, but his answer won the applause of his teammates, the staff of the Suns team present, and many reporters.

After the Timberwolves, the Suns won 16 consecutive victories.

The 16-game winning streak is also the league's 6th winning streak. A total of 4 teams have played 5 times in 4 seasons, of which the Lakers have played once in the 9091 and 9900 seasons.

In 16 games, Li Ba averaged 29.5 minutes per game, scored 16.5 points, 19.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 3.1 steals, 4.7 blocks, 0.6 turnovers and 1.3 fouls.

The continuous stable and strong performance, as well as the Suns' unbeaten record, provided him with blessings in the regular season MVP rankings, and was recognized by more commentators and media reporters. In ESPN's MVP prediction rankings, he From 8th, it rose to 4th, second only to Duncan, O'Neal, and Nash.

In fact, he is still at a disadvantage in this ranking.

Duncan, who ranks first, has the data of 20+11+3+0.8+2.6. His previous record was 14 wins and 3 losses, which is actually not as good as him.

With the Suns' first record in the league and his stats per game, he ranks fourth. Many reporters then expressed their opinions.

Kristin Laidlow, a well-known basketball commentator who has always supported him and one of the MVP scorers, wrote in his ESPN column:

"The best record, the most beautiful, most balanced offensive and defensive average data, one of the most globally influential basketball superstars (global influence is 10 times greater than Duncan?), but can only get the fourth place, which shows that What? It shows that subconscious discrimination is everywhere."

The next day, December 4th, NBA Commissioner Stern was interviewed by a reporter from the New York Daily at the headquarters and was asked about Li Ba.

"The first thing I want to stress is that the NBA does not support discrimination of any kind.

Then what I want to say is that this is not an officially recognized ranking by the league, it is just a predicted ranking in ESPN's season.

Let me end by saying that I think the Hammers and the Suns played really well last season and this season.

In addition, what I want to say is that since last year, under the influence of the Hammer and Yao, China is forming a very large basketball market. And Phoenix is ​​also forming a big ball market. All these changes have not come easily, so I am optimistic about those boys, and I am also more optimistic about the Hammers. "

At this time, Li Ba came to Portland with the Suns, and they will challenge the Trail Blazers tomorrow.

As soon as he landed, Li Ba received a call from Dayao.

"Fourth, you boy, this is really possible."

"Are you envious? Are you jealous? Hehe, you have to be careful, don't get the 8th place in the playoffs, or we will be the first and definitely sweep you away." Li Ba said proudly.

"Oh!" Dayao sighed.

This season, we got McGrady, the scoring champion for two consecutive years, and Mutombo, thinking that the team's record would be prosperous, but unfortunately, it didn't. The first 17 games had 6 wins and 11 losses, and the West was almost at the bottom. , has been far away from the ranks of the playoffs, and whether he can make it later is a question.

"Come on, you have lost five games in a row."

Li Ba has always been concerned about Dayao's side, and he is very clear about Mosaic's record.

"Don't worry, we will catch up. McGrady has just arrived, and we don't have a tacit understanding yet." Dayao said.

"How's your relationship with McGrady?" Li Ba asked.

"This? It's okay, a little arrogant." Dayao said.

"Do you want me to teach him a lesson for you? When did you meet him? Give him a few big hats." Li Ba laughed.

"Don't act recklessly, he has a back injury and can't stand falling." Dayao said hastily.

"Back injury? That's very troublesome. It won't get better. By the way, I watched a few games of yours. Your point guard, who is called Sura, is not very good. It seems that he doesn't pass you many passes." , less than Francis." Li Ba said.

"He's definitely not as good as Marbury. Well, Van Gundy seems to like him a lot, and he's always starting him," Dayao said.

"What the hell, how about trading you here when we get rid of people?" Li Ba said suddenly.

"No, why did you suddenly say you were going to break up? Don't you boast about the most stable and united locker room in the league?" Dayao was at a loss.

"If we win the championship one day, everyone's value will rise sharply, and this guy will definitely not be able to keep them. Now the management has received a lot of trading applications." Li Ba said.

"Furthermore, I am satisfied with my stay here." Dayao said.

"When you don't make it to the playoffs and it's only a round trip, you will be dissatisfied." Li Ba joked.

"Bah, you crow's mouth!" Dayao scolded with a smile.

At 9 pm on December 5th, the Suns challenged the Trail Blazers away.

Last season, the Trail Blazers became a player supermarket. The boss Rasheed Wallace was traded, the team's sixth man Bunch Wells was also traded, and the backup point guard Jeff McGinnis also went to the Cavaliers, but he was also traded. With the addition of Shareef Raheem, the Eagles boss, and Nick Van Exel and others, the lineup is still good.

In the first 15 games of this season, they had 8 wins and 7 losses, ranking 9th in the Western Conference.

Before the game, the two sides announced the starting lineup.

Suns: Lee Ba, Marion, James Posey, Joe Johnson, Marbury.

Trail Blazers: Theo Ratliff, Randolph, Shareef Raheem, Derek Anderson, Damon Stoudemire.

The game was broadcast live on CCTV.

Zhang Lili got the list in the live broadcast seat and analyzed:

"Ratliff plays center, Zach Randolph plays power forward, he plays both offense and defense inside, which is good.

Ratliff is the two-time block leader. If the hammer hadn't been born last season, he would have won the block leader again. He is very strong on the defensive end.

However, his strongest defense is blocking shots, only 0.5 steals, and only 6.3 rebounds per game. Overall, he is a quasi-first-class defensive insider. The offensive end has little scoring ability and no assist ability. Taken together, it is two grades worse than the hammer. "

Yu Jia said: "His performance has declined this season, and he has gradually fallen out of the Blazers' starting lineup."

At the start of the game, Li Ba touched the ball first, and the Suns attacked.

Li Ba landed and quickly went straight into the paint area. Ratliff couldn't keep up.

Raheem didn't want to switch to Li Ba at all, and Randolph couldn't keep up either. Not to mention Flying Squirrel and Anderson, seeing Li Ba rushing up, he was afraid of being hit, so he moved away.

And Marbury also threw the ball over in time.

Li Ba jumped up with the ball on his back, grabbed the ball with both hands, and smashed it into the basket.

"boom!"

The arms were dunked heavily, and the basket was steep.

"oh!!!"

In the opening game, a super heavy dunk shocked the Rose Garden Arena.