Chapter 489

Chapter 489: No need to expect anything from him.

As Hu Dong was talking about basketball, far away in the US, changes were happening in the NBA.

The strongest teams in the past few years were obviously the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Of course, there were good teams such as the Raptors, Thunders, Pacers, Spurs etc… that maintained good performance.

Only the former kings such as the Celtics, Bulls and Lakers were in decline.

Especially the Lakers and the Bulls, it was like a tragedy.

Since Rose got crippled, the Bulls couldn’t get to the playoffs.

The Lakers were even worse as their playoffs were also hopeless without Kobe.

But it was different this year.

The king had returned after being injured for two seasons.

In 52 games so far, Kobe had averaged 35 minutes per game, shot 52FG%, averaged 28 points, 5 rebound, 6 assists and 5 blocks per game.

(TLN: 5 blocks!? O.o This is Wilt Chamberlain or what!?)

Those stats were only second to King Lebron James and better than his good old partner Uncle Drew Kyrie Irving.

It wasn’t unusual to see those stats when Kobe was healthy.

But what people were surprised was Kobe played in every one of those 52 games and would be on the court unless it was garbage time.

The few injuries didn’t affect his state nor have he rested, he was simply an iron man!

Judging from his past two injured seasons, this season was like Kobe was putting his life on the line to play.

Kobe aside,

The shocking one was the former superstars who retired for two years and turned 40 Allen Iverson.

During the Lakers’ trial and after Kobe pushed it strongly, Allen received a contract of one year 5 million dollars.

Everyone thought that the salary would be worth it by just having Allen play at least 40 games a season and playing 20 minutes on average.

Unexpectedly, Allen played 45 games so far and averaged more than 30 minutes per game.

Iverson, a born scorer, averaged 22 points with 47FG%, 3 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 blocks per game.

Those stats wouldn’t be surprising for a superstar in the NBA.

But it was different when it was applied to a 40 years like Iverson.

Even Jordan couldn’t play as well when he came back from his second retirement!

Iverson and Kobe averaging 50 points per game shocked their opposition greatly.

The two were in a better state at the start of the season actually but the two of them were almost 80 years old added together so they slowed down after playing through the long season.

So far, they were second in the West and third overall in the league, only behind the Warriors and Cavaliers.

With results like that and 30 games left to play, they pretty much already guaranteed a place in the playoffs.

The people were very shocked by the reemergence of the Lakers.

But no one could tell why Kobe and Iverson became that vitalized.

All kinds of inspection had been done to them but no prohibited substances had been found on them so it could only be attributed to them taking good care of their bodies and natural talent.

Fortunately, Kobe and Iverson started to slow down during the cruising stage and conserve their energy to perform well in the playoffs.

Everyone knew that the pressure and intensity of a 7 playoff game series was far beyond the regular season.

In the face of younger and more aggressive players, how much Kobe and Iverson could show their prowess was still a question mark.

Experts on ESPN made their evaluation of the Lakers team.

For now, the Spurs seemed to have better stamina as they would be more tenacious the more they played, they were only 2 wins behind the Lakers.

This chapter is scrapped from readlightnovel.org

From the people’s perspective, the Spurs would most likely surpass the Lakers in the next 30 games in the ranking to become the second seed in the West.

The Lakers would most likely encounter the Dallas Mavericks led by the German tank Nowitzky, Deron Williams and Chandler.

This would be very detrimental to the Lakers.

The Mavericks had the veterans and the young players so they were very tough, far more complete than the Lakers who had only two veterans Kobe and Iverson only to carry the team.

Even if they beat the Mavericks, they were likely to face the Spurs in the next round.

The Spurs always had the Lakers’ numbers.

Duncan, Parker and Ginobili were enough to bring down Kobe and Iverson.

(TLN: LMAO, bringing up the aging and past their prime trio but not Kawhi, the final MVP)

In their head to head match up, the Lakers won the first game against the Spurs before losing the next three.

So everyone thought that the Lakers would reach the Western Conference semi-final at best and stop at the second round.

This season for them was already very good for them compared to their last two years.

They even thought that with this year’s performance, it would be worth it for the Lakers to sign Iverson for another year and for 10 million.

It wasn’t only the expert that thought so as the fans had the same mind.

The Lakers were very happy with the team’s performance this season and felt it was acceptable.

Among those discussions, very few people would bring up that the Lakers had another play in China and that he would only come for the playoffs.

As the season progressed, the people only thought of the immediate game.

For many people, the two pre-season games were just for show so Chen Huan was gradually forgotten.

Even among the Lakers fans, most of them had forgotten about the existence of Chen Huan.

Or it wouldn’t change much even if he came to play.

After all, a rookie’s first season wasn’t that good even if they were the God Jordan or King James.

Chen Huan didn’t even play in the regular season, didn’t build up his form or adapt into the intensity of the game so how could people put trust in him?

Especially when he would come in the playoff, which was akin to nightmare difficulty for a rookie?

For the NBA, Chen Huan was just a gimmick used by the Lakers to get into the Chinese market.

There was no expectation for a player like that.