After arriving in Phoenix on the 25th, the brand new Kings received a lot of attention from the media.

In the afternoon of the same day, the team conducted public training and allowed reporters to conduct interviews and filming.

For Cousins ​​and other former kings, they deeply felt what the gap in attention this month.

Before this season, the coverage and analysis of the Kings are more like routine.

The major media focused more on Cousins' technical fouls and his hot temper on the field.

As for the rest of the team, fans are not particularly concerned.

This season, you can see the NBA-related websites, magazines and newspapers, and the predictions related to the Kings, pre-match analysis, and player inventory are almost everywhere.

This is still in the United States, and it would be even more amazing if it was in China, the base camp of Li Liang’s fans.

Because Li Liang was sure to stay in the King for a long time, the domestic influence of some Kings players soared rapidly.

For example, Cousins ​​has begun to receive advertisement endorsements from domestic companies, which is said to be a refreshing product from a health care product company.

For example, Gordon began to have domestic sneaker companies asking him to endorse sneaker products, including Guy.

Just like Yao Ming brought a group of unknown people in the Rockets, Li Liang's championship halo is more than one or two people with a hot championship.

Gradually, Kings players began to get used to this basketball daily life that was watched by more eyes.

After the public training ended on the 25th, the Kings finally ushered in the opening game of the new season on the 26th.

This game was qualified for live broadcasts across the United States.

The Suns continue to be unpopular this season, and they have set a goal before the start of the season to make a bad move.

It would be better to use such an opponent as a hot starter at the beginning of the season.

Before the game started, espn conducted an exclusive interview with Li Liang - as a coach.

In an exclusive interview, Li Liang talked about some of his feelings and changes in his thoughts after becoming a coach.

"I think the best thing about being a coach is that I can finally control my playing time."

Li Liang joked that now he really wants to go up and rest whenever he wants to go down. If he wants to play the point guard, he arranges a point guard for himself. If he wants to play the center, he lets Cousins ​​sit down.

As a football boss, being able to completely defeat the coach's position should be the peak of the football boss.

If you want to go further, you have to buy the team and decide on the introduction and layoffs of players by yourself like Cuban.

That will be the ultimate form of the ball dominant.

"If there is anything wrong with it, I think my training time has become shorter and I have to spend a lot of time dealing with the team's affairs. So, my personal ability has been improved this summer, and I actually have a lot of potential to explore. Let's talk about it later."

When talking about the bad side, Li Liang said that he still has room for improvement.

Indeed, this summer, Li Liang has no time to do other tasks except for the dribbling tasks.

Gan Guoyangka's first battle in his high school career has not had time to advance.

Li Liang didn't have time to polish some technical details.

But he remembered all of this in his heart. Once the Kings' running was on track, he could spend more time on himself.

Now the first match of the new season is the first exam for Li Liang in his coaching career.

The previous preseason games were just small tests and were not counted. The regular season was the right examination room.

The Suns coach Earl Watson gave him the test questions.

Watson became the interim head coach of the Suns in February 2016 in the middle of last season.

Watson is only 36 years old this year. Before Li Liang became the head coach, he was the youngest head coach in the NBA.

Of course, Li Liang pushed down the youngest record by 10 years old at once, and it is expected that no one will break this record in the future.

As interim head coach, Watson faces the mess of the Suns.

After Nash left, the Sun fell into a vicious circle of bad performances, winning high-level shows, and then continuing to play badly.

The last one who wandered in the vicious circle was either someone else or the king.

Fortunately, the king was favored and rebuilt after getting a superstar.

And the sun is still unknown when it will rise.

Facing the Kings, whose overall strength is stronger than himself, Watson really has no good idea.

In a young team, it is not a good thing that the head coach is too young.

This will make young players lack awe of coach authority - of course, except for ball dominance like Li Liang.

Watson was a conscientious point guard during his time as a player and had 13 years of career, which shows that he has good work ability.

But he has never played for a strong team, won a championship, and played a tough game in the playoffs.

Overall, it is stronger than most ordinary NBA players, but it is far from the real strength.

And in terms of appearance, Watson is really a bit stingy and lacks the aura that an excellent coach should have.

Like Phil Jackson, he didn't play well when he was a player, but he was tall and handsome.

There are also Riley, Carlisle and others, who are not very good at playing players, but have a good face.

Although NBA does not rely on face to make a living, for coaches, having a majestic appearance will make your work much easier.

Think about it, if someone like Kassel is the head coach, when he is explaining tactics to you, would you stare at his face and laugh or vomit?

Then how can you command?

Appearance is a disadvantage to Watson.

To be honest, Watson really has no good idea about how to deal with the Kings.

Change to a more comfortable position and lie down flat. This way, you can look better if you die.

Of course, you can also hope that the Kings have just taken shape and cannot play.

In that case, the Suns have a chance to win with their home power.

At 7:30 pm, the opening game of the regular season between the two sides began at the Tokins Dick Resort Stadium in Phoenix.

Before this, this stadium was always called the American Airlines Center.

There are three American Airlines stadiums in the league, Phoenix, Dallas and Miami.

All three are famous tourist cities.

This year, Phoenix's stadium naming merchant has been replaced and turned into a resort hotel.

This name is really not good enough because the Suns are too weak, and other teams come to play like on vacation.

Before the game started, the TV station's footage was given to the coaching seats on both sides.

Watson stood on the sidelines in the Suns coach's seat, looking quite nervous.

On the Kings' coaching seat, Brown, Tyron Lou and D'Antoni were crowded together and sat there, and then a seat was freed next to Mike Brown, which was for Li Liang.

At this time, their head coach was on the court and was about to start the game.

Li Liang is a little nervous because he is a head coach and he has added a lot of pressure.

But when the game really started, the pressure disappeared without a trace.

Because the strength of the opponent Suns is indeed too poor.

Moreover, the Kings' "swarm defense" effect is surprisingly good.

After half a quarter, the Suns' ball holder found that there were almost always two people in front of him.

This makes young Suns players hesitate when dealing with the ball.

Once hesitate, the number of mistakes begins to increase.

In the first quarter, the Suns made up 9 mistakes.

The Kings kept using the Suns' mistakes to counterattack.

In the first quarter, the King established a lead of 35:20 and 15 points.

The Suns were a little confused by the beating.

The outstanding performance in the first quarter undoubtedly boosted the morale of the Kings team.

On the offensive end, the Kings played simply and quickly, constantly using the Suns' mistakes and backcourt rebounds to counterattack, while using 1-4 placements to pass and penetrate the ball in position.

The king's position attack was not smooth and tacit enough.

But Rondo and Li Liang's support passes greatly compensated for these problems.

Cousins ​​was fed by Li Liang and Rondo in the first half and made 7 of 9 shots at the basket, scoring 25 points in the first half!

Cousins ​​had very few strong shots at low posts, almost all kinds of cakes were eaten, and he went straight to the basket after pick-and-roll.

It was so comfortable to beat.

If the Kings hadn't made a bad three-point shot in the first half, the lead would have been greater.

At the end of the half, the Kings led the Suns by 17 points.
To be continued...