Superstar Athletes’ Black Tech Systems

1994, Seattle Key Arena.

This is one of the worst arenas in the NBA.

Because this arena is too broken, and the Seattle city government has been reluctant to build a new arena, many years later, the Sonics moved out of Seattle and went to Oklahoma.

Of course, in 1994, the Sonics were Seattle's darling.

This year they achieved an excellent record of 63 wins and 19 losses in the regular season, ranking first in the league.

This is the first year of Michael Jordan's retirement, and there is no leader. It is a good opportunity for many powerful players to compete for the championship.

The Sonics are definitely the favorites to win the championship, at least they feel that they have no rivals in the West.

Olajuwon has won a great harvest of personal honors this year. Nine out of ten regular season MVPs will be in the bag. There is also the best defensive player, the first team, and the Rockets are also 58 wins and 24 losses. Second in the West.

However, the Supersonics are not afraid of the Rockets and Olajuwon. On the contrary, they have always been the hard work of the Rockets and Dameng. If they meet in the Western Conference Finals, the Supersonics are confident to kill the Rockets.

As for the first two rounds? The league's No. 1 team like the Sonics should consider the conference finals.

But no one would have thought that they would encounter big trouble in the first round.

Facing the eighth-ranked Denver Nuggets in the West, they easily won the first two games and thought that the third game would sweep them into the next round. The Nuggets launched a Jedi counterattack.

After they returned to the plateau home in Game 3, they dashed their hopes of sweeping the Sonics into the next round with a big win.

Then in the fourth game, they completely suppressed the Supersonics with a tough defense, tenaciously equalizing the big score.

In the first round of the 1994 playoffs, the Sonics ushered in their life-and-death battle at home.

The key arena was packed tonight. Perhaps for the fans in Seattle, the great significance of playing a life-and-death battle is to watch the Supersonics advance to the next round at their door.

So they all came to cheer for the Sonics. In their view, there is not much suspense for the Sonics to win this game.

The Sonics have won 34 of their past 39 home games.

And before 1994, there had never been a first-round elimination in the division.

For the first place, the first round is just a passing scene.

However, history is made.

Just a year ago, the Phoenix Suns nearly overturned in the first round.

In the end, they gritted their teeth and survived the life-and-death battle, and then broke into the finals and created brilliance.

Fans of the Sonics believe that they can create the same brilliance. You must know that it was the Sonics that were eliminated in the Western Conference Finals last year. They lost 3:4 with regret, and they vowed to make a comeback this year.

The fans are full of confidence, but the players are not necessarily.

Before the game, the team coach George Karl himself said, "I can't deny that I did feel uneasy. It felt like swallowing an ice cube..."

Swallowing ice cubes not only cools you, but also chokes you.

The feeling of getting stuck in the esophagus and having difficulty breathing is really vivid.

Li Liang felt that in the supersonic locker room, a tense atmosphere was spreading and passing.

The team's Gary Payton sat in the locker dealing with his foot injury.

His foot injury aggravated over the course of the game.

He thought he would be able to eliminate his opponent in three rounds and enter the next round, but he didn't expect it to be the last round.

He carefully stuffed his bandage-covered foot into the goal shoe, and walked back and forth to make sure that he was not particularly uncomfortable.

In fact, there are still, but even if there is, he must appear on the stage.

No other Supersonic players stood up and said something. The head coach Karl was discussing something with the assistant coach. I don't know why he didn't communicate with the players.

In this atmosphere, Li Liang didn't know what to say when he wanted to say a few words.

No need to say anything, just go straight to the game.

Although the key arena is dilapidated, the fan atmosphere here is one-on-one.

So when the Supersonics moved from Seattle to Oklahoma City in the future, the people of Seattle have been brooding, hoping to have a new NBA team in the city.

Compared with the tension of the Sonics players, the Nuggets are completely relaxed.

Their current situation is that if they lose, they will not lose money, if they win, they will earn blood, and those with bare feet are not afraid of wearing shoes.

In fact, the playoffs are like this. The rankings are all floating clouds. Whether they can advance depends on whether they can use their strength to defeat their opponents.

A high ranking can only bring one more home advantage.

In the early years when there were not many NBA teams, the number one in the division still had a bye in the first round. Later, the bye was cancelled, and every round had to be played.

So some coaches pointed out that the benefits of getting the first place in the regular season record are too low.

As far as players are concerned, in the playoffs, everything in the regular season is over.

Whether it is the first in the league or the best record, MVP is useless. You have to be able to win in 5 or 7 series.

However, for the Sonics players, the No. 1 ranking has changed from an honor to a burden.

Afraid of losing, really afraid of losing.

No one in history has ever been eliminated in the first round.

The players underestimated the enemy, and their eyes were too long-term, so that they forgot to pay attention to the thorns under their feet.

Now the only person who doesn't feel this way is Li Liang.

He replaced the German Schramff, the Nowitzki predecessor who was Germany's trailblazer in the NBA.

Although he didn't achieve as high as Nowitzki, he can be called a successful team.

Li Liang and him are similar in position and height, so it is a good fit to replace him in the game.

George Karl arranged tactics before the game, requiring the use of full-court pressing tactics at the beginning of the game, trying to defeat the Nuggets in a short time.

George Karl was obviously in a hurry.

At the beginning of the game, the audience pressed hard. If it is the first confrontation, it would be good to catch the opponent by surprise.

But the Nuggets and the Sonics have played four games, and they don't have too many secrets before each other, and the effect of the full-court pressing may not be good.

On the contrary, if the Nuggets are allowed to stabilize their position, the full-court press will put the Sonics into a physical crisis.

Sure enough, as soon as the game started, the Sonics put out all their energy and used high-intensity pressing defense to oppress the Nuggets.

As a result, the Nuggets players took it easy, slowed down, played steadily, and struggled against the Supersonics a little bit.

Li Liang ran for several rounds on the field, and his first feeling was: the confrontation is really strong.

The atmosphere on the field is suffocating, the defensive players are moving a lot, and the referee's scale is also very large, so it is easy not to blow the whistle.

This is Li Liang's first time participating in an NBA game in the 1990s, which is really different from the 70s and 80s.

The team's defense began to be systematic, the players' physical fitness became stronger, and the whistle on the field was looser.

Li Liang touched the ball several times, but failed to get a good shot, and made a mistake under the pressure of the Nuggets.

In the systematic competition, Li Liang has no rune bonuses, no skills, no props.

He is a blank slate and must play harder.

In the first quarter of the game, the two sides reached 19:20, and the Sonics only led by 1 point.

It is harder than eating shit for both sides to score.

Li Liang tried a three-pointer but failed to hit it.

The Nuggets' defense is very tight, and more importantly, because Mutombo is guarding the three-second zone, the Supersonics cannot open inside, and they cannot get good space and opportunities outside.

In 1994, the league did not have a three-second defense, and there was no zone defense at the same time. Early flanking was not allowed, and it was all about one-on-one defense.

So it is not so easy to hit a three-pointer without an inside pivot point.

But Li Liang knew that to win this game, he had to rely on three points.

Since it is a task of forcing three-point shots, it can only be forced.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Li Liang sat off the court to rest.

At this point, the Nuggets have begun to take the initiative on the scene.

The Nuggets played very methodically, relying on the inside, relying on Mutombo, Ellis and Williams, frantically attacking the Sonics' three-second zone and rushing to grab offensive rebounds.

The Sonics are also not good at shooting. Although they averaged 105 points per game in the regular season and ranked fifth in the league, they only shot 8 three-pointers per game-fewer than Li Liang shot alone this season.

The number of such three-point shots ranks lower in the league.

The main scoring method of the Sonics still comes from quick counterattacks, second offenses, especially fast breaks after pressing the defense.

The Sonics averaged 12.8 steals per game, ranking first in the league and far ahead.

But tonight's solid play by the Nuggets made it impossible for the Sonics to take advantage of them, especially when Payton was affected by a foot injury.

Li Liang sat next to George Karl, thinking about how to play the role of his three-pointer.

The intensity of competition will only get higher and higher, and the space will only get smaller and smaller.

Li Liang clenched his fists tightly, he knew that there was no need for any tricks, this time he had to meet the men!