I still remember that on the day when the team signed, when the two finished training and chatted in the swimming pool, Westbrook told him that it was because of him. Now he admitted in public that he was the boss of the team. He could not understand this approach, but after hearing what Billups said, he suddenly became enlightened.

After experiencing the Durant incident, Westbrook grew up and obviously didn't want to experience something like that again.

"Well, I understand, thank you coach." Tang Shuai said that, and then walked towards the locker room with a smile.

The Lakers won the Warriors and ushered in a good start to the season. Including the previous preseason, this is already the eight-game winning streak of their team and undefeated.

Of course, if you don’t count the preseason games, the next regular season will be the real test.

It is naturally a good start, and it is more important to play a good start to the season.

The league also considered this aspect, and it was impossible for the Lakers to play against the Warriors in the opening game, and then play against the strong teams one after another. In the next week, both the schedule and the opponent will be relatively relaxed.

On November 2, after three days of rest, the team welcomed their second opponent of the season, the Wizards. This team was also miserable. In the past few seasons, it was still a playoff team, but the team's backcourt core Bill and Woer have constant conflicts, and coupled with the aging of other cores, they are now a half-small team.

Faced with such an opponent, the Lakers were not ruthless at all. Tang Shuai and Westbrook only played for three quarters, scoring 26 points, 10 assists and 22 points and 5 assists respectively. Mike Dermott, who was on the bench, had an explosion in this game. He made 5 of 7 three-pointers and contributed the most 20 points on the bench.

With its overall strength advantage, the Lakers finally defeated their opponent 110-89.

On November 4, after a day off, the Lakers ushered in their first away game, with the opponent being the Bucks.

The Bucks' lineup has not changed much this year. I remember leading the team to the ninth place in the Eastern Conference last year. The new season has been repaired and the strength has improved a lot. The Lakers also encountered a lot of trouble in this game. The five major defensive formations have caused the Lakers' bench performance to fall a lot. However, this defensive formation composed of height is still too difficult to block the impact of the Lakers' double-few minor.

Tang Shuai was in a rampage in this game, with 17 shots in the game, contributing a game-high 42 points. Westbrook also scored a luxurious data of 8 rebounds and 11 assists. In addition, Yi Jianlian scored the third-high 16 points against his former club, and the Lakers finally won the game 104-96.

This is also the smallest score difference at this moment in the season. It can be felt that the Bucks will become a disruptor in the East this year.

On November 5, the Lakers faced the Nuggets back-to-back at home, which was one of the teams with the biggest lineup changes this summer. Wilson Chandler, Garlinari, Farid and other original players left the team. The team broke up and entered reconstruction. Now the core of the team is Mudier, Jamal Murray, Will Barton, Nurkic and others.

Such a lineup obviously poses little threat to the Lakers. Basically, the first half of the game was announced to be over. In the second half, the Lakers were basically playing as a substitute. The super deep lineup depth allowed them to finally win the game steadily.

By the end of this game, the Lakers ranked first in the Western Conference with a record of 4 wins and 0 losses, and had a strong momentum.

Such strong performance has also caused many team general managers to start reviewing their team building plans again.

Although the season is still very long, at the beginning of the season, the Lakers proved with facts that a reasonable lineup configuration can achieve better results than the so-called "grouping".

As the first week passed, the best week in the east and west were also released.

In the East, Paul George of the Pacers showed strong form in the new season, averaging 28, 7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game, helping the Pacers achieve a record of 3 wins and 0 losses, becoming the best in the Eastern Conference Week in the first week of the new season.

In the West, the Lakers' double-few Lakers shared the best of the week. Although the two didn't play much time in the last game against the Nuggets last week, because they scored high scores in previous games, their average scores were 30+, which made the award arbitrage for granted.

In fact, in addition to the best week, the two are now dominating the top two in the scoring list.

It is absolutely rare to see that two players in a team score so high.

Many experts have begun to really regard this Lakers as a favorite to win the championship.

On November 8, US time, the Lakers still maintained strong momentum in the new week. They successfully defeated the Raptors led by Lowry and DeRozan, won the fifth win of the season, and continued to consolidate their position as No. 1 in the Western Conference.

At the post-match press conference that ended the game, a reporter finally asked that question.

"Are the Lakers ready to compete for the championship this season?"

This is an expected question, but Billups looked thoroughly and said bluntly: "Our goal is the championship. Of course, we are ready to work hard for this purpose, but we still have many things to improve. We cannot say that we suddenly become very good because of the moment of good or bad record. This has a lot to do with the schedule and opponents."

Billups' modesty is not unreasonable. As a coach, his vision of the situation is absolutely ahead of the curve.

In fact, he is definitely not deliberately pretending to be low-key.

After a relaxed schedule at the beginning of the season, the Lakers finally ushered in their second strong opponent of the season, the Spurs.

The Spurs, this team with the label of Duncan, entered a new era after Duncan retired last season.

When Duncan retired, many people speculated that Ginobili would retire with him, but in the end, the veteran decided to fight for another year.

Spurs general manager R. Buford once again demonstrated his superhuman ability. Through series operations in the offseason, he only used the first round draft pick Gary Anderson to exchange Farid from the Nuggets, who also became Aldridge's new partner in the inside.

With Leonard's performance becoming increasingly stable, this is undoubtedly a huge improvement for the roster.

The Spurs' defense is imperative, while the Lakers' players seem to be a little out of shape. After the game begins, especially after entering the rotation lineup, they struggle on both offense and defense, like a Mustang trapped in the mud, and they can't exert any strength.

The game continued to be stalemate until the last moment, and Leonard scored consecutively at critical moments, helping the Spurs widen the score to 6 points two minutes before the final game.

As he was about to face his first defeat in the season, Tang Shuai showed his absolute core ability and value at the last moment.

He first used a breakthrough and pulled away Leonard's defense score, and then waited until Westbrook stole Parker's pass and hit a three-pointer in the fast break. That's not counting. When Aldridge hit a backward jump shot at the critical moment, he went to the frontcourt to play Leonard's back. After a tough confrontation, he turned around and hit backward while Aldridge was assisted in the defense. This goal also made the Spurs' home silence.

After making extra free throws, he helped the Lakers tie the score, and both sides entered overtime.

In the overtime game, the Spurs' home tone finally leaked, and the Lakers took away the game with a wave of offensive guns from the backcourt.

Tang Shuai scored the highest 40 points in the team, plus 4 rebounds and 8 assists, becoming the team's number one hero for winning.

By this time, many media reporters finally understood what Westbrook said at the beginning. Tang Shuai was indeed worthy of the person he had assisted.

However, although the game was finally won, it was the most difficult game of the season, and it was even a little short of losing, which also sounded the alarm for the Lakers.

After winning the game, the players suddenly remained silent after being excited.

They suddenly realized how valuable it was to the Warriors set the regular season record.

I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal when I see others winning streaks, but when I experience this kind of thing, I will find that there are many unexpected difficulties here.

Just when the locker room was a bit dull, Billups came to the locker room. He did not criticize the players who performed poorly, but instead kept calling out and praising teammates who performed well, such as Tang Shuai, who were almost praised to the sky. It was not until the end that he supplementedly reminded the players that they needed to maintain a good attitude in future games.

After hearing what Billups said, Tang Shuai admired him so much.

The abnormal performance of Lakers players has a lot to do with their mentality.

Five consecutive victories, including 11 consecutive victories in the preseason, and I haven't tasted the defeat for too long. This excellent start will inevitably make the players' mentality become frivolous. The performance against the Spurs in the first half is a proof, which is also the most common problem for teams who have won consecutive victories.

But talking about a thousand words is far less true than a game. When playing against the Spurs, and in this situation, the players woke up suddenly.

There is no need to say anything more at this time, you will know it with a little bit. Even praise will make the team members less worried.

This is like a child making a mistake. If you don’t teach him some harsh lessons, he won’t be true. Once this lesson is given, he will remember it for the rest of his life.

After Billups' "spiritual inspiration", the team members' mentality quickly adjusted.

After adjusting the mentality, the players' performance in the game is becoming more and more stable.

In the next week and over the next week, the Lakers showed unprecedented stability, and they successively knocked the Bulls, Pistons, Kings and Spurs down.

After the week ended, they achieved an astonishing 10-game winning streak, which was the first time the Lakers have achieved such a long streak in the past five years.

The Lakers reached the finals last season under the leadership of Shuai Tang and Gasol. This season added Westbrook and others to another strong start of ten consecutive victories. They have gradually become the favorites to win the championship. (To be continued.)

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Chapter completed!