NBA: Top 3D talents to start

Chapter 236 Encountering a Strong Enemy
The conversation between Wang Feng and Johnson was just an episode. The Lakers executives seem to be considering this matter carefully. After all, it is a very risky thing to trade potential rookies in their team as bargaining chips. It is a chicken-and-egg fight, neither the future nor the present.

The Lakers' regular season games are still going on in an orderly manner.

The schedule has entered December, and the Lakers' situation has become a little bit more difficult. Compared with their opponents in November, the difficulty of opponents in the Lakers' schedule in December has suddenly increased.

On December 12, the Lakers played away against the Nuggets, and it was another difficult battle.

In the 17-18 season, the ace of the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic, has already shown his talents. Currently, he can contribute 18.5 points, 10.7 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game. It is very difficult to deal with the inside.

The two teams fought hard until overtime, relying on Wang Feng hitting the basket at the last moment and scoring 4 points in a row to finally seal the victory, winning the game 118:115.

In this game, Wang Feng scored 45 points, 11 rebounds and 4 steals, including consecutive scoring at the last minute, and once again acted as the key hero to decide the outcome.

But heroes are not always available on stage.

On December 12, the Lakers ushered in the Houston Rockets at home.

The overall strength of the Rockets who got Paul this season has instantly risen to a new level, and the current record is even stronger than the Warriors!

This is a strong team that was able to fight the Warriors in seven bloody games in the Western Conference Finals of the playoffs, and even took a 3:2 lead. The Lakers were defeated and lost 118:95.

In this game, Wang Feng and Harden staged a soaring point battle. Wang Feng scored 36 points, and Harden also scored 36 points. Although the scores were the same, the difference was quite large.

Wang Feng made 22 of 13 shots and 9 of 6 three-pointers, an astonishingly high shooting percentage.

Harden only made 19 of 7 shots, and his shooting percentage was less than 40%. However, he made 18 free throws and scored 16 points from free throws alone!
Even Wang Feng, who basically only uses defensive deterrence on the defensive end and relies on his eyes to defend to save energy, has committed two fouls.

The Rockets are just the beginning.

In the next schedule in December, the Lakers will meet the Rockets twice, the Warriors twice, the Cavaliers once, as well as the Trail Blazers, 12ers and other league strong teams.

"There are too many strong opponents. I am afraid that it will be difficult for the Lakers to maintain a winning percentage of more than 12% this month. I only hope that the Lakers will not fall directly from the top eight in the Western Conference. As long as they can survive December , the schedule and opponents in January will be relatively easier."

……

12月7日，湖人客场对阵费城76人队，王峰砍下28分，但76人队恩比德砍下33分，外加状元本.西蒙斯的12分12篮板15助攻，76人以107：104战胜湖人。

The Lakers, who swallowed two consecutive losses, won two consecutive victories against the Hornets and the Knicks, and stopped the bleeding a little, but then, on December 12, the Lakers went to Cleveland to challenge the Cavaliers away.

The strength of the defending champion Cavaliers in the new season is greatly reduced compared with last season. Wang Feng and Irving have left the team one after another.

The Cavaliers management worked hard in the summer to strengthen the team. They successively signed Wade, Rose, Korver, Calderon and other players to strengthen the team. All-star guard Isaiah Thomas, the Cavaliers in the new season at least look quite luxurious on paper.

However, in the end, the players signed in the summer proved to be failures in the dozens of games at the beginning of the regular season.

Isaiah Thomas' injury didn't heal at all. He was injured again after playing only a dozen games. Before the injury, he averaged only 14.7 points and 4.5 assists per game, and his shooting percentage was only 36%.

Wade's competitive level has also declined significantly, averaging only 11.2 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, but this is also the best performance of the Cavaliers' signings in the summer.

The Cavaliers can only rely on James and Love.

But even so, the Cavaliers' dominance in the Eastern Conference remains unabated, or in other words, as long as James is not completely old, it is impossible for his team to lose its dominance.

The game between the Lakers and the Cavaliers fully verified this point.

In this game, Wang Feng directly faced James.

Wang Feng was full of confidence, and even thought that he might still have the upper hand in a direct matchup with James.

Wang Feng's strength is as high as 88, and he is completely unafraid of James in this field. His speed, agility, and jumping abilities are even more comparable to James!

In this case, with multiple top defensive badges, Wang Feng can completely limit James' scoring efficiency on the defensive end.

When it comes to the offensive end, Wang Feng doesn't even think James can defend him.

Whether it is a quick break through the frame under the bonus of the first step master badge, or a step-back three-point shot after connecting with the first step master, facing James is a very efficient scoring weapon.

In fact, the situation at the beginning of the game was indeed as Wang Feng thought.

The Lakers won the scrimmage, and then Wang Feng singled out James with the ball. The speed bonus brought by the master in the first step allowed Wang Feng to easily use the speed advantage to pass James and rush to the basket, and immediately took off and dunked.

After the transfer of the ball, James attacked. He also started to break through with the ball from the outside, but was strictly guarded by Wang Feng. James, who wanted to use his strength to force a breakthrough, was surprised to find that Wang Feng was not much weaker than him after gaining weight.

James, who was unable to break into the basket smoothly, could only barely make a shot, and the shot missed under the interference of Wang Feng's defensive shock badge.

In the next few rounds, Wang Feng's scoring efficiency was obviously higher than that of James. Later, James had to use his post-up technique to score, because although Wang Feng's outside defense is strong, his inside defense is weak. His strength has not lost to James, but the confrontation between inside players is not just about who is stronger.

However, this situation only lasted in the first quarter.

When the game entered the second quarter, James began to gradually adapt to Wang Feng after the new changes, and began to change his playing style and tactics.

The ball began to be handed over to Love more, and the latter continued to attack the Lakers' relatively weak penalty area and scored frequently.

The deadlock began to be broken, and the Cavaliers regained the initiative in the game.

121:112, the Lakers still lost the game.

王峰全场比赛22投14中，砍下42分12篮板2助攻3抢断，却没能帮助球队赢下比赛胜利。

For the Cavaliers, James had a triple-double of 25 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists, and made 18 of 8 shots. Although his 44% shooting rate was lower than average, the triple-double data made up for the lack in another aspect.

在他的串联下，乐福本场比赛15投9中砍下28分11篮板，命中率高达60%。

Facts have proved that it is impossible to completely lock James with defense, and this is because James has no intention of confronting Wang Feng head-on and changed his playing style and tactics.

If James focused on fighting Wang Feng on the inside, and simply used his inside footsteps to attack Wang Feng, and used this to consume Wang Feng's physical energy, his score would not necessarily be lower than Wang Feng.

"Sure enough, if you want to compete head-on with James with your current strength... it's still a bit close."

(End of this chapter)