On the night he arrived in Los Angeles, Xu Yong was called by Kobe.

"I know the best nightclub in Los Angeles. If you want to go, I'll pay for you." Kobe patted his chest and said as he saw Xu Yong for the first time.

"Isn't this bad?" Xu Yong seemed a little embarrassed.

"What's wrong with that? We are friends, and it's just a nightclub consumption." Kobe said with a smile on his face.

"Okay, I want to get to know my Lakers teammates in advance. How about you call them all over and we go to the nightclub to have fun together?" Xu Yong continued.

Kobe's face froze, he looked at Xu Yong for a while, then laughed and punched Xu Yong on the shoulder.

Xu Yong also started laughing.

He didn't know that Kobe was the kind of person who told McGrady not to train during the offseason, and then went to the weight room to practice after McGrady went to his room to rest.

"Let's go to the training ground and see how you're doing." Kobe put away his smile and said seriously.

As a student of Olajuwon's training class, he got along very well with Xu Yong and was very curious about how Xu Yong's dream dance training was going.

Xu Yong nodded. His current thoughts were about Zhang Fei from the Three Kingdoms, and so were I.

Because it was a test run, there was no winner or loser in the one-on-one matches they had in the training hall, and both of them were very conscious of using their footwork more.

Therefore, Kobe, who was much stronger than Xu Yong, did not have much advantage.

Of course, there is another reason, which is that Xu Yong's size is one size bigger than Kobe's. Although it is not at the level of Kobe's evaluation of McGrady, "He can do all the moves I can do and do it better than me", it will also make Kobe feel uncomfortable.

An hour later, the two sweaty men sat on the sidelines to drink water and rest.

"It seems that you haven't fallen behind in training at all." Kobe nodded and praised after taking a sip of water.

"Young people will be eliminated if they don't practice more." Xu Yong explained. Kobe now may not watch Los Angeles at 4 a.m., but he is already very familiar with Chicago at 4 a.m.

After listening to this, Kobe couldn't help but touch his chin and look at Xu Yong. Originally, he only paid a little attention to Xu Yong because of his student status and the good communication between them, but now he liked Xu Yong even more.

After all, birds of a feather flock together.

"Have you tried the breakthrough step we talked about before?" Kobe asked seriously after putting his hands down.

"What about you?" Xu Yong didn't expect Kobe to suddenly ask this question. He didn't answer immediately, but asked Kobe back.

"No, I haven't found the trick yet." Kobe was stunned for a moment, then said with a smile.

"Me too." Xu Yong responded upon seeing this.

…

The next day, the Bulls held their final practice at the Staples Center's training hall.

Rose's overall competitive condition looks pretty good.

There is a detail that is often overlooked, that is, psychology is actually a very critical link in injury problems.

To give a very simple example, a person who has just sprained his ankle will be very helpful in avoiding spraining his ankle again when he goes to play on the court, so he will subconsciously change his playing style based on this.

Rose's ups and downs are actually closely related to this.

After all, if he is still a long way from recovery, the Bulls will not take the risk of letting him play.

After seeing this, Xu Yong couldn't help but go up and give a reminder.

Although he had no memory of Rose suffering any serious injuries during this period, his appearance since the draft had led to a lot of changes. It was not impossible that "Rose played too aggressively and was seriously injured because he did not want to disappoint his support."

"I know." Ross answered efficiently.

Harden is just introverted, but Rose is truly introverted.

However, just like when they bumped shoulders, Xu Yong could feel that Rose should be able to control himself.

…

That night, the Staples Center in Los Angeles was packed.

Although the team's recent performance has been mediocre, the Lakers' market has reached a new peak since the team won the championship last season. Not to mention regular tickets, even season tickets for the new season have been sold out early.

This is the foundation of a wealthy family. You must know that in terms of influence in the league alone, the Lakers and Celtics, as the two giants of the East and the West, are bigger than the Bulls.

Moreover, this is Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, so there must be stars in the front row of the audience.

The most eye-catching person is naturally the leading actor in movies such as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Shining", and the actor who plays the Joker in "Batman", the number one Comey Jack Nicholson. He has an exclusive VIP seat in the Staples Center.

Of course besides him, there are many other well-known stars coming tonight.

For example, Taylor Swift, a popular country singer who has become popular in the United States with her album "Fearless";

Another example is the sexy actress Megan Fox, the heroine of "Transformers";

Another example is Michelle Rodriguez, the heroine of "Fast and Furious", who is known for her broad-mindedness and heroic spirit.

A basketball game in Los Angeles is not just a simple basketball game, but more like a "show".

So if you talk about attention, the attention brought by this game is not necessarily lower than the opening game against the Cavaliers that fans have been hyping for a long time.

After the two teams finished warming up, the opening ceremony began.

There was an adjustment in the Bulls' starting lineup, with Gibson replacing Songaila in the starting lineup.

Rose, Xu Yong, Deng, Gibson, Noah.

This starting lineup is really just Deng leading a group of young players on rookie contracts.

The Lakers used their regular lineup, with "Old Fish" Fisher and Kobe partnering on the outside, Ariza and Lamar Odom on the front line, and "Little Shark" Bynum at center.

The enthusiasm of the fans at the scene was very high.

Just looking at the starting lineup, this is a game where adults beat children.

What's more, this kid just suffered a four-game losing streak in the past week.

In other words, this is the welfare bureau of the schedule, the kind of game where you can open champagne right from the start.

The game was about to start, Bynum easily jumped up and pushed the ball back to half court, giving the Lakers the opportunity to attack first.

In the Lakers' first attack, Kobe did not appear on the strong side.

This is one of Kobe's habits as he matures. He will let his teammates find their feeling first, or check the status of his teammates first.

Bynum stretched out his hand to get into position under the basket, ready to forcefully attack Noah.

There are many top-notch inside beasts in the NBA below the neck, such as JaVale Olajuwki, a frequent participant in "Shaq's Top Five Embarrassing Situations", Thabeet who had played against Xu Yong before, and Bynum in front of him.

In terms of physical talent, Bynum is definitely one of the best in history. He is 2.13 meters tall and has a wingspan of 2.29 meters. As a big man, he can jump 80cm. Not only does he move quite fast, he also has a soft touch and solid footsteps.

Not everyone can be called "Little Shark".

He is also the youngest player in NBA history. Yes, younger than James. He entered the NBA at the age of 18 years and 6 days.

But it is also because of this that he showed everyone what it is like for an immature person to play in the NBA.

Last season, he averaged 14.3 points, 8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game, which was considered a new career high. However, he was troubled by a knee injury in the playoffs and his statistics plummeted to 6.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.9 blocks.

Logically speaking, he should have taken good care of his injury during the offseason after encountering such a thing. However, as an extreme sports enthusiast, he went bungee jumping overseas wearing protective gear shortly after the surgery.

And that’s not all. During his recovery period, he also played poker with a Playboy model, making everyone in Los Angeles know about it.

Perhaps because of these reasons, his performance so far this season has been very mediocre. He failed to support the Lakers' inside line when Gasol was absent, and was criticized by the media. You know, Los Angeles is a place that is more magnifying than a magnifying glass.

So now that he has finally met an easy target, he has to perform well.

The ball was fed in, Bynum lowered his shoulders and exerted force, choosing to directly drive the ball.

But Noah did not lose his defensive position as he expected.

Noah: I can’t handle the Big Shark, but I can’t handle you, Little Shark?

Bynum then chose to start using his footwork, but after Noah did not suffer any loss in the confrontation, he showed his ability to defend the inside line and was not fooled at all.

In the end, Bynum had no choice but to turn around, pull the ball up and shoot high.

This time he finally got a chance to shoot, but he missed.

Noah did not lose his defensive position, and his long arms were always in front of him, which was too difficult for him.

Noah turned around and grabbed the defensive rebound, and the Lakers' first wave of offense did not score any points.

And after Noah got the rebound, he used his best skills and accelerated the advance with the ball in his hands.

The entire Bulls team pressed forward. Kobe Bryant kept a close eye on Xu Yong who was running fast. But on the other side, Rose received a pass from Noah, changed direction, passed by Fisher who was lifting his trouser legs, and made a layup to score two points.

The Bulls took the lead.

Looking back, Bynum continued to ask for the ball in the low post. This time he used the hook shot learned from "Sky Hook" Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but unfortunately he still missed.

And when he grabbed the offensive rebound and was about to attack again, Noah simply slapped the ball away.

The Bulls launched a defensive counterattack. Rose was fouled on a layup and made two free throws. The Bulls started the game with a 4-0 lead over the Lakers!

The fans at the Staples Center were agitated.

Their first feeling at this moment was that the Bulls' concentration and enthusiasm did not look like a team that had lost four games in a row.

And why does Rose seem to be different from the previous games?

But soon, the restlessness disappeared, because Kobe, who realized that Bynum was really no good, finally started to hold the ball.

After stretching out his hand to signal to pull away, Kobe directly chose to challenge Xu Yong.

Seeing this, Xu Yong also got into position.

The two of them brought yesterday's bullfight directly to the arena.

Kobe chose to break through on the left after a fake shot. His start and control of rhythm were perfect. In terms of technique alone, he was even better than Jordan.

However, Xu Yong was not passed by. The fight with Kobe last night allowed him to get familiar with Kobe's offensive rhythm in advance.

Sharpen your sword before battle, even if it's not sharp it will shine.

"Bang!"

But at this moment, a scene that was familiar and surprising to Xu Yong appeared. Kobe dribbled the ball to a sudden stop during the breakthrough, then jumped to the ground and turned around to step back and shoot a jump shot at the free throw line.

This time Xu Yong couldn't rush forward and could only watch Kobe complete the shot.

“Swish!”

Kobe's shot hit the target steadily, helping the Lakers break the scoring drought.

Xu Yong saw Kobe use the "heavy hit pivot kick": Sure enough, the world is real.