With three points at the start, Nash begged for a maximum salary to renew his contract

Chapter 111 All-Star System Tasks and the End of the Regular Season

The theme of the second day of the All-Star Weekend is the single event, the skill challenge, the three-point contest and the dunk contest.

Also as a warm-up appetizer before the All-Star Game, the solo event is obviously more popular than the Rookie Challenge. After all, there will still be some star players among the participating players.

For example, in this Skills Challenge, the four participating players are all top stars in the league, including Heat's Wade, Nets' Kidd, Hornets' Paul and Jazz's Deron.

These guys are basically the top defenders in the league, with proficient skills and outstanding personal abilities, and it is completely impossible to judge who will win the championship.

Of course, Wang Chao, as a time traveler, had an impression of this. It was Deron Williams who finally won the 08 Skills Challenge, and he defeated his old enemy head-on in the final. Chris Paul played by Deron.

After the Skills Challenge, the following three-point contest is also quite interesting. Not only is there the suspense of whether Wang Chao can achieve the three-point contest, but the quality of the contestants in this three-point contest is not bad. In addition, there are Nash of the Suns, Nowitzki of the Mavericks, Hamilton of the Pistons and Peja of the Hornets.

But Jason Kapono, who should have won the three-point contest in 08, did not participate. The above-mentioned stars are too far behind, and the league officials naturally shaved him off during the screening. This is for the protection of the ratings, but they did not expect that the opponent would miss the three-point contest champion.

In fact, Kapono should have been the champion of the three-point contest in 07, but he also failed to participate for the same reason as this time, because of Wang Chao.

Among several participating players, Wang Chao is the absolute favorite to win the championship. There is no doubt about it. The winner of the two-time three-point contest, at the same time this season, the average number of three-point shots and the number of hits per game are ranked first in the league. Also among the best, his performance in three-pointers is too strong!

This can be seen from the scoring situation in the first round of preliminaries.

Hamilton, who was the first to play, was relatively slow and had a rough start. He finally started to get better in the middle of the game, but still missed too many shots in front of him, and finally scored only 14 points.

The second debut is Nash.

When Nash stepped onto the court, there were thunderous cheers on the field. Last season, he led the team to win the championship and was crowned FMVP, which made Nash's popularity soar unprecedentedly. Two regular season MVPs and a championship have made Nash an active defender in the league. Among the players who are second only to Kobe in achievement.

But Mr. Double MVP is obviously not in a good state today. His performance in the preliminaries was worse than that of Hamilton. He only hit 1 goal at the first shooting point, and then missed all 5 shots at the second shooting point. In the end, he only got 9 points.

After the shot was over, Nash even felt a little embarrassed himself, smiling and shaking his head again and again.

After Nash, Nowitzki, Peja and others scored 17 and 15 points respectively.

It was Wang Chao's turn at the finale, and the cheers from the fans outside were even louder than when Nash came on stage.

Wang Chao's three-pointer already has the feeling that it will replace Ray Allen as the pronoun of this era. Although it is far from reaching the phenomenal influence of Curry in the future, when NBA fans now mention the three-pointer , the first thing that comes to mind is Wang Chao.

Wang Chao, who entered the arena, did not disappoint the audience.

He maintained a very high shooting percentage on all five shooting points, and finally scored 23 points. With an absolutely huge score advantage, he entered the final with the No.1 result in the preliminaries without any suspense.

In the final, Wang Chao's opponents were Nowitzki and Pei Jia.

The performance of the two in the final was not much better than in the preliminaries. One scored 14 points and the other scored 17 points. None of them scored close to 20 points or more.

When Peja finished shooting, the audience already understood that there was no suspense for the three-point contest champion.

Wang Chao, who appeared at the end, did not have any pressure or psychological burden. He shot a round with ease, as if he was doing daily shooting training, and then quietly shot a 25-pointer.

The total score of 25 points is 26 point lower than Wang Chao’s 1 points in the two previous three-point contests. However, looking at the history of the three-point contest, only Wang Chao can achieve this score. Obviously, whether it is now or in the past, Wang Chao's three-pointers are all unique, far ahead of everyone, including Reggie Miller and Ray Allen, who are famous for their three-pointers.

In the thunderous applause of the audience, Wang Chao raised the trophy for the champion of the three-point contest.

This scene was broadcast live on Huaguo CCTV Sports Channel.

"Wang Chao once again won the three-point contest championship with absolute strength. This is his third three-point contest championship. Wang Chao has achieved three consecutive three-point contests!" Director Zhang sighed, "In the history of the league, only Larry Bird has done the same thing as Wang Chao, and that was more than 20 years ago!"

"But it seems that Wang Chao is not very happy. Is it because he has no opponents and feels no pressure, so he feels a little invincible and lonely?" Director Yu couldn't help but asked with a smile.

Everyone could see that Wang Chao, who was holding up the three-point contest trophy with both hands, didn't have a very bright smile. It was barely squeezed out at first glance, and his brows were still slightly wrinkled, as if he was not very happy.

You have already won the championship, what else is there to be unhappy about?
Of course, Wang Chao had reason to be unhappy, because last year's three-point contest, the system issued a task. Although the reward was not much and only 100 points, no matter how small the mosquito meat was, it was still meat.

There are task rewards for two consecutive championships, so why not three consecutive championships?

"In this case, there is actually no need to participate in the three-point contest later."

Three consecutive championships in the three-point contest is enough. Although Wang Chao has the confidence to rule the three-point contest for many years, it has no practical significance.

After all, the All-Star Three-Point Contest is just a performance game, and it doesn't have any practicality. It's fine to get a few and gilt yourself a little. No matter how many you get, it's useless. It's better to rest on this day, Focus more on the subsequent All-Star Game.

Curry has only two three-point contest champions in total, but he is the undisputed No.1 in the field of three-pointers, and his status is unchallenged.

Wang Chao was still thinking like this in his heart, and then the sound of the system rang in his ears.

"Ding—player Wang Chao won the three-point contest for three consecutive times, triggering the talent upgrade task, the task goal, to achieve five consecutive championships in the three-point contest, and completing the task will reward the talent upgrade of the sharpshooter."

Wang Chao: "..."

coming?

Eyes suddenly lit up, talent skill upgrade task!
So far, Wang Chao has only one talent skill that has been upgraded, and that is the talent of the long-distance runner. Wang Chao has a deep understanding of the power of the upgraded version of the talent of the long-distance runner. With the talent of a long-distance runner, Wang Chao can gain a foothold in the league and become a top off-ball player no less than Klay Thompson.

The talent upgrade of the long-distance runner is so tough, what will happen after the talent upgrade of the sharpshooter?
"Five consecutive championships?"

Wang Chao grinned, the cycle of this mission is long enough, it is now 2008, that is to say, he will have to wait until 2010 to upgrade his marksman talent, and he must win the next two three-point contests There is absolutely no room for loss, because the condition given by the system mission is five consecutive championships instead of five championships. If you can't connect together, you will definitely not be able to complete the mission.

Although with Wang Chao's three-point shooting ability of 99 points, he is basically sure to win the three-point contest, but he still feels a little pressure.

Especially in 2010, in his impression, Curry also participated in this three-point contest, although the final champion should be Paul Pierce.

"Smile, laugh, Wang Chao finally smiled!"

Seeing Wang Chao's expression in the camera, he was stunned at first, and then finally showed a bright smile from the bottom of his heart. Director Zhang and Director Yu were also happy. "It seems that he just thought of something unhappy and lost his mind. He should really be happy to win the three-point contest and win the championship three times in a row."

……

"Brother, well done!" After Wang Chao left the court, Howard immediately came over to give him a high-five to celebrate, and said confidently: "Next it's my turn. Since you won the three-point contest, I have to do it anyway." Win the slam dunk contest, otherwise how can you be worthy of your good idea?"

When it comes to the popularity of All-Star single-player competitions, the slam dunk contest is definitely the highest one. Compared with the skill challenges and three-point contests that show players' skills and shooting ability, the slam dunk contest, which is simple and rude and only limited to the violent aesthetics of basketball, is the most popular among fans. their favorite part.

The four players participating in the slam dunk contest, besides Howard, include Rudy Gay of the Grizzlies, Gerald Green of the Timberwolves and Mario Moon of the Raptors.

Among them, the biggest favorite to win the championship, and a rival that Howard must pay attention to, is last year's slam dunk contest champion Gerald Green.

Director Zhang continued to explain the game: "In the slam dunk contest that will be held next, Dwight Howard, the inside core of Wang Chao's team Magic, will participate, but the performance of big players in the slam dunk contest is usually not as good as that of small players. They are tall, because their overly large bodies will restrict their movements in the air, which is very disadvantageous in the slam dunk contest that pays attention to the difficulty and creativity of slam dunks."

Howard was the third player to play, ahead of Rudy Gay and Mario Moon who scored 37 and 46 points respectively.

I saw Howard stood behind the backboard after taking the ball, threw the basketball to the back of the backboard, and then took off with a run-up. After receiving the rebounded basketball, he dunked the basketball into the basket with a reverse windmill.

This action caused bursts of exclamation from the sidelines, but Howard accidentally dunked the basketball out of the first attempt.

No way, this dunk action is quite difficult. Players not only have to dunk from behind the backboard with a reverse windmill, but also lower their heads to avoid the lower edge of the backboard. It is not at the same level of difficulty as the frontal windmill dunk.

Fortunately, Howard successfully dunked the basket in the second attempt, and got 50 points without any suspense!
"Huo! Awesome!"

Director Zhang couldn't help sighing. "Howard's physical fitness is really good! The flexibility and ability to stay in the air are not like a big man with a height of seven feet at all!"

Director Yu smiled and said, "Didn't you just say that big players can't make difficult and complicated dunks in the dunk contest?"

"Howard is different." Director Zhang shook his head and said, "His physical fitness is at the top level even in NBA history, just like Superman."

When he said this, Director Zhang hadn't realized what would happen next. A few minutes later, the second round of dunks began on the court.

Howard is still the third to appear, but this time there is another person with him.

"Huh? We saw that Wang Chao and Howard actually walked on the field together. Does this dunk of Howard need Wang Chao to cooperate?" Director Zhang laughed: "Everyone in the audience knows that Wang Chao and Howard have a very good relationship. Some fans gave the combination of the two of them a very handsome name, super magic combination, but Howard actually invited Wang Chao to help him complete the slam dunk contest, I wonder what kind of coordination moves they will use?"

Then everyone saw that a staff member trotted up and handed Wang Chao a red thing. Wang Chao took the thing and shook it open. It turned out to be a red cloak.

Just when everyone was inexplicably confused, Howard took off his jersey, and inside his jersey was a vest, a vest with the Superman logo printed on it.

In an instant, the entire arena was boiling, and everyone couldn't help standing up, laughing and applauding wildly.

"Superman! It's really Superman!" Director Yu couldn't laugh or cry, "Howard and Wang Chao are so good at playing, how did they come up with it? Director Zhang, did you already know about it after participating in the idea of ​​their dunk contest?"

"How could I have guessed this? I just expressed my feelings just now." Director Zhang also smiled. "This shows that my metaphor is very appropriate. It seems that fans in the United States also think that Howard's physical fitness is like Superman."

On the field, Wang Chao tied Howard's cape with his own hands, and then took the ball to the bottom of the backboard, while Howard retreated far to the center line.

The audience fell silent, looking forward to the next dunk action of "Superman".

Then Howard began to run up and accelerate, and suddenly rose into the air from the position inside the free throw line. Wang Chao also threw the basketball into the air in good time.

Howard leaped in the air, received the basketball and dunked towards the basket!

Fire meteor!

The All-Star scene was completely insane at this moment.

Howard's ball has no technical advantages, it's just a simple alley-oop tomahawk dunk, but his take-off height, flight distance, and the final slam dunk action completely comprehend the violent aesthetics of the dunk. The dripping and exquisite beauty is displayed.

At that moment, people seemed to really see Superman flying in the sky!

No suspense, 50 points full score!
Howard scored 50 points in both rounds of dunks, and entered the final with last year's dunk king Green with a full score of 100 points.

Howard's two dunks in the final all came from Wang Chao's suggestion.

His first dunk was to imitate McGee's three-ball dunk. McGee's three-ball dunk in the 2011 final match against Griffin can be described as one of the classic pictures of the dunk contest. The record dunk was lost to the capital, and it was defeated by Griffin's not-so-difficult Feiyue car dunk, which became a pity for that dunk contest.

With this dunk, McGee even became the Guinness World Record holder. So far no one has been able to surpass his record of three consecutive dunks.

With Howard's physical talent, after knowing this idea, it is not difficult to use it after some training.

At his peak, Howard had stronger jumping, airborne ability and core strength than McGee. He could dunk a basketball with both hands into the basket in the air and then press the third ball into the basket together.

Everyone was once again shocked by this ultra-difficult and unconstrained thought.

Can dunks still play like this?

In contrast, Green's dunk is much more ordinary.

When it came to the second dunk in the finals, everyone already knew that this year's slam dunk king was none other than Howard, and Howard's last dunk was also of high quality. It was also his original first dunk in the finals. Knocking on the backboard, and then catching the ball for a dunk, this shot is also a test of the ability to bounce and stay in the air. Although the difficulty is far less than the three-ball dunk, it is by no means something that ordinary players can easily do.

After Green's symbolic last dunk, the league almost couldn't wait to announce that Howard became the slam dunk champion in the 2008 dunk contest.

"Howard's slam dunk king is well deserved." Director Zhang praised, "His four dunks in this slam dunk contest have both creativity and skill, and can already be regarded as one of the highest-quality dunk moves in recent years. It can be compared to Vince Carter's performance in the original dunk contest, especially the dunk that transformed into Superman, which is likely to become one of the classic scenes of the dunk contest, how did he come up with it?"

Director Zhang just raised this question, and Howard gave him the answer in the live interview after winning the championship.

"Being able to win the slam dunk contest this time, I have to thank one person, that is my teammate, my good brother Wang Chao, all my slam dunk contest moves, he helped me with ideas and assisted me in completing them, including Superman's idea." Howard's words made everyone stunned.

Howard's dunk was actually designed by Wang Chao?

No wonder, Howard also participated in the slam dunk contest last year, but was eliminated in the preliminaries, but this year he staged such a wonderful slam dunk show, it turned out that someone helped to make suggestions.

The individual events in 08 were very popular, especially the three-point contest for Wang Chao's three consecutive title defenses, and the slam dunk contest for Howard's classic Superman Flying Apsaras, which will become something that fans will talk about in the next few years.

Of course, these are just appetizers before the All-Star Game.

The success of the single-player event has made fans look forward to the final day of the All-Star game.

But the All-Star Game has nothing to do with Wang Chao, or at least for the current Wang Chao, the All-Star Game is not his stage yet.

As a Huaguo player who has only participated in the All-Star twice and was selected as a substitute for the All-Star, Wang Chao's playing time in the All-Star Game is limited.

During the All-Star Weekend last year, it was Mike D'Antoni of the Suns who coached the All-Stars in the West, and he belonged to himself, so Wang Chao could get more playing time, but this time the head coach of the All-Stars in the East is the Celtics. Doug Rivers, there is absolutely no reason for people to take care of Wang Chao. Even though the league has hinted to give Wang Chao as much playing time as possible, as a long-established head coach, Rivers does not need to care about the league. idea.

Wang Chao only played about 15 minutes in the All-Star Game, and made 10 of 6 shots, including 8 of 5 three-pointers, and scored 17 points. Yao, who only played 13 minutes with only 6 points and 5 rebounds, is quite strong.

This is the advantage of outside players. From this point of view, even a top superstar like Duncan is not much better than Yao.

全明星正赛最终的结果是东部全明星以134：128击败西部全明星，詹姆斯全场出战30分钟，22投12中砍下27分8篮板9助攻的准三双数据，成功当选全明星MVP，这也是詹姆斯生涯第二次获得全明星MVP。

The All-Star Weekend is over here, and the fans still have more to say, but they all know that the truly exciting game will gradually unfold next.

After the All-Star weekend, the regular season will also enter the final sprint.

And just a few days after the end of the All-Star Weekend, that is, before the trade deadline, each team in the league began to make final reinforcements to their lineups in order to prepare for the rest of the regular season and postseason. game.

The biggest movement among them is undoubtedly the trade between the Suns and the Heat.

Like the history of another time and space, the Suns chose to trade Marion and Marcus Bank to get Shaq O'Neal from the Heat.

This transaction also caused a lot of shock in the league. The Suns acquired O'Neal for the obvious purpose of dealing with Duncan of the Spurs. However, O'Neal's appearance also meant that the Suns had to sacrifice the running and bombing tactics that survived in the league. , This is undoubtedly a big gamble.

Wang Chao, who is a time traveler, is very clear that this gamble is obviously a failure. Without the running and bombing tactics as an offensive support, the weakness of the Suns' defensive end is undoubtedly revealed. This is more than a team that is good at playing positional warfare. Therefore, the winning rate plummeted in the second half of the regular season, and the Spurs were also eliminated by a large score in the first round of the playoffs. The aging O'Neal failed to contain Duncan at all.

Wang Chao just couldn’t figure it out. The Suns bet heavily on Stud O’Neal, which would also explode the salary space. After all, O’Neal’s contract is as high as 2000 million, which is more than Marion’s 1644 million. There is still a certain luxury tax that needs to be paid for the salary space.

That being the case, it would be better to sign him with a maximum salary at the beginning, even if he finds a way to trade Marion to save salary expenses later, it is more scientific than the current practice.

Of course, these have nothing to do with Wang Chao.

In addition to O'Neal joining the Suns, there have been several larger transactions in the league. Among them, the most influential one is the transaction between the Nets and the Mavericks. This is a five-for-three transaction. Five players, plus two future first-round picks and some cash compensation, get three players headed by Kidd from the Nets.

Although Kidd is a bit old, he is still recognized as the top passing master in the league. The Mavericks' move is also to strengthen the team and prepare for the playoffs.

Not to mention some other smaller deals.

The Magic did not make any big moves before the trade deadline. The team is currently in good shape and has a good chemical reaction. From the perspective of the management, there is no need for any trade reinforcement for the time being, and there is currently no trade market that is particularly suitable for the Magic to supplement. Strong player goal.

What's more, the Magic themselves don't expect the team to do anything in the playoffs this season. They are still too far away from winning the championship. As long as the two inner and outer cores of Howard and Wang Chao can continue to grow and become stronger as the season progresses , they are satisfied enough.

On February 2, the Magic will play away against the Pistons, which is also their last regular season match with the Pistons this season.

In the previous three games, the Magic scored 1 win and 2 losses, and were at a disadvantage, but this time in the away game, the Magic easily defeated their opponents 103:85 and won.

During the game, the Magic showed a strong defensive ability, or Howard's defensive dominance at the basket was almost suffocating. Only three of the Pistons scored in double figures, namely Hamilton with 12 points and 10 points. Rasheed Wallace, Rodney Stuckey with 16 points.

The team shot only 38.6% from the field and 14.3% from the three-point range.

In the third quarter of the game, Wang Chao, Howard and other main players clocked out early, which also made Wang Chao only score 20 points and 4 rebounds in the game, and Howard only had 15 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks.

Defeating the Pistons was just the beginning, and then the Magic won all the remaining five games in February. Counting the games before the start of the All-Star Game, they won another wave of seven consecutive victories.

This allowed the Magic to continue to improve steadily in terms of record, and opened a slight gap with the hotly pursued Pistons.

Entering the regular season in March, the intensity of competition will be significantly higher than before, but the Magic's schedule in March is slightly easier than the previous months, because the games of strong teams such as the Celtics, Pistons, and Lakers have already been played. At the end, in the next game, the only opponents who can be regarded as strong enemies are the Spurs, Cavaliers, Wizards and Hornets.

Of course, there are not no more troublesome opponents. Although the overall strength of those teams that are hovering at No. 10 and No. [-] in the East and West and No. [-] and hope to enter the playoffs and fight for their lives in every game is slightly weaker, they can deal with It is not so easy to get up.

Fortunately, the Magic team, Wang Chao and Howard's cooperation has become more and more complementary, especially the acquisition of the best partner talent, and Stan Van Gundy's gradually increased Wang Chao and Howard's pick-and-roll tactics after the All-Star, let the Magic team The offensive end has become stronger, especially the improvement of the offensive ability, not just limited to the magic ball game of shooting three-pointers from the outside.

In 3 games in March, the Magic achieved a record of 14 wins and 11 losses, playing as stable as ever. As the game progressed and the Magic's tactical system gradually improved, the personal data of Wang Chao and Howard also slightly improved.

Wang Chao's average data per game has increased to 26.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists. The average assists per game has increased significantly. Correspondingly, Howard, who played pick-and-roll with Wang Chao and cooperated with the ball to eat cakes, averaged points per game. The points increased to 20.4 points and 21.7 rebounds.

The double star performance of the Magic team is extremely dazzling!With the efficient performance of Wang Chao and Howard, the schedule has entered the final April.

On April 4, the Magic lost to the Hornets at home, losing 1:101.

Immediately following April 4, at the home court of the Cavaliers, the Magic lost another game. James scored 5 points, 41 rebounds and 10 assists in a triple-double, leading the Cavaliers to a comeback win.

The two-game losing streak followed by a back-to-back upset loss to the New York Knicks on April 4. The Knicks, whose winning percentage is only 6% in the regular season, ranks second to last in the Eastern Conference, only better than the completely rotten Knicks. The heat is a little stronger.

The result of the Magic's loss to the Knicks somewhat made the local fans in Orlando a little nervous. They wondered if it was the pressure of the team's record that made the mentality of the young core players of the Magic unbalanced and led to abnormal performance?
Fortunately, the fans were relieved in the ensuing game.

The three-game losing streak of the Magic quickly adjusted their status and won all the next five games against the Bulls, Timberwolves, Eagles, Bucks and Wizards, ending the final journey of the regular season with a wave of five consecutive victories .

With the 103:83 home defeat of the Wizards in the last game, the Magic's 82 regular season games are all over!

In these 82 games, the Magic achieved a record of 62 wins and 20 losses, ranking second in the East, second only to the Celtics who achieved 66 wins and 16 losses.

What is even more commendable is that the Magic is the only team in the league that has won more than 60 games this season. Except for them and the Celtics, there is no other team in the league that has won 60 games, and the West is even one. None of the teams.

Of course, this is also directly related to the competitiveness of western terror.

None of the eight teams in the Western Conference that entered the playoffs this season has a record of less than 50 wins. The Golden State Warriors, with a record of 48 wins and 34 losses, rank ninth in the Western Conference and miss the playoffs. On the Eastern side, it can completely surpass the Eastern teams including the Cavaliers and rank fourth in the Eastern Conference, which shows how exaggerated the competitiveness of the Western Conference is.

From top to bottom, the team records in the West are the Los Angeles Lakers with 57 wins and the No. 56 in the West, the New Orleans Hornets with 56 wins and the No. 54 in the West, and the San Antonio Spurs with the same 55 wins but ranked No. The Utah Jazz, which ranked fourth with 54 wins, won 51 wins, but because of the division ranking, they can only be placed below the Jazz. The Houston Rockets ranked fifth, the Phoenix Suns ranked sixth with 50 wins, and the Phoenix Suns ranked seventh with [-] wins Dallas Mavericks, [-] wins over the eighth-ranked Denver Nuggets.

Just looking at the difference between No. [-] and No. [-] in the Western Conference, a sense of suffocation came to the face. It is completely predictable that the playoffs in the Western Conference must be a fierce and bloody storm.

In contrast, the situation in the east is much better.

The Boston Celtics with 66 wins are far ahead, and the Orlando Magic are ranked second with 62 wins. Although they are 4 games behind the Celtics and the relationship between victory and defeat is also at a disadvantage, they are still good enough.

The Detroit Pistons have a record of 57 wins and 25 losses, the same record as the Hornets, the No. [-] team in the Western Conference.

But continuing down from the third-ranked Pistons, the Cleveland Cavaliers, ranked fourth in the Eastern Conference, only have a record of 45 wins and 37 losses, which is 12 games away from the third-ranked Pistons in the Eastern Conference.

The fifth-ranked Washington Wizards have 43 wins and 39 losses, the sixth-ranked Toronto Raptors have 41 wins and 41 losses, the seventh-ranked Philadelphia 76ers have 40 wins and 42 losses, and the eighth-ranked Atlanta Hawks have a record of 37 wins and 45 losses. Just reached 45%, losing one game more than the No.11 Sacramento Kings in the West,
The reputation of being strong in the west and weak in the east is really not something that has been blown out. This season, there are still two teams in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics and the Magic. Last season, the Eastern Conference was even worse. Only two teams reached 50 wins. Moreover, all the teams in the Eastern Conference only won one game against the No. [-] Suns in the Western Conference last season, and only three victories against the No. [-] Dallas Mavericks, completely suppressed by blood!
……

The announcement of the Eastern and Western record rankings also means that the matchup situation in the first round of the playoffs is clear.

In the first round of the Eastern Conference, Celtics vs. Eagles, Magic vs. 76ers, Pistons vs. Raptors, Cavaliers vs. Wizards.

The four-group matchup in the first round of the Western Conference is Lakers vs Nuggets, Hornets vs Mavericks, Spurs vs Suns, Jazz vs Rockets.

The overall situation does not seem to have changed much from the original history. The only difference seems to be only the Magic. Their opponent who should have played against the Raptors has become a weaker 76ers.

The 76ers, whose winning percentage in the regular season is not even more than half, will certainly not be the opponent of the Magic.

It can be clearly seen from the performance of the players on both sides in the regular season.

For the 76ers, the scoring leader in the regular season is Andre Iguodala, who succeeded Allen Iverson as the core of the team. This season is the best season of his career. The average data in the regular season can reach 19.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists, but obviously, Iguodala's ability as a team leader still has a huge distance from Iverson.

In addition to Iguodala, the team's second scorer is Andre Miller, who averaged 17 points and 6.9 assists per game.

Then only Willie Green, Louis Williams and Samuel Dalembert were left in the team, three role players who averaged barely double figures per game.

Such a lineup is naturally a huge gap with the Magic.

For the Magic, after the end of the last regular season in April, the average data per game has also been completely frozen.

Wang Chao's average per game finally reached 26.9 points, 4 rebounds and 3.2 assists, shooting 48% from the field and 46.8% from the three-point range. The shooting rate has indeed declined compared with the Suns, but this is due to his own increase in the number of shots. There is a direct relationship between how hard the Magic are defended by their opponents.

This kind of performance is enough to surprise many people who were not optimistic about Wang Chao because of the super maximum salary contract he signed.

No one expected that Wang Chao, who came to the Magic, could show such a strong scoring ability, averaging 26.9 points per game, which is equivalent to just a little short of 27 points!
This scoring average can rank third in the league this season, second only to James who averaged 30 points per game and Kobe Bryant who averaged 28.3 points per game, and is 26.4 points higher than Iverson who averaged 0.5 points per game!
"Wang Chao, who has not yet passed his 25th birthday, has grown into an outstanding scorer. It is foreseeable that in the near future, he will compete with Kobe, James and other top scorers for the scoring title!"

The Magic have not only Wang Chao with 26.9 points, but also Howard with 21 points and 14 rebounds per game.

Howard, who averaged 14.2 rebounds per game, won the league's rebounding title for the first time in his career. At the same time, his defensive ability like a pinnacle in the interior is the main reliance for the Magic's tactics to be carried out calmly!

Under the double stars inside and outside the Magic team, the performances of other players are also remarkable. Turkoglu, who averaged 16 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists per game, and Nelson, who averaged 11 points per game and made 42% of his three-pointers, are all from the Magic team. He was able to achieve 62 regular season victories.

Facing such a powerful Magic team, the 76ers are no match at all.

……

On April 4, the first round of the playoffs officially started.

The Magic welcome the Philadelphia 76ers at Amway Arena in Orlando.

The result of the first battle was that the Magic easily won 114:100.

From the beginning of the first quarter, the Magic always took the initiative in the game. Howard completely dominated the weak inside of the 76ers, scoring 25 points, 22 rebounds and 5 blocks.

As the team's starting power forward, Wang Chao did not encounter any decent defense. The 76ers' starting power forward Thaddeus Young is a standard short insider with a height of 2 meters. As a spring man, he can run and jump, but he is still too disadvantaged in terms of Shang Wang Chaoshi's body shape.

More importantly, Thaddeus Young is a player with a strong offense and a weak defense. Although his offense is actually not very good, the average data per game at the peak of his career was only 17.9 points and 6 rebounds...

Because Howard was very active, Wang Chao didn't have many chances to perform in this game. He scored 22 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists symbolically, but such data was enough to help the Magic win the first game.

After all, the 76ers' problem is not only that they can't prevent the Magic's offense, but their own offensive problems are even bigger.

Iguodala, the core player that the team is committed to training, performed very well in this game. He made 15 of 4 shots and barely scored 16 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists with free throws. The team's highest scorer was actually Miller as a point guard, and Miller only scored 20 points.

The disparity in strength made the Magic seem to have no pressure to beat the 76ers.

On April 4, the second game of the series continued at the home court of the Magic. There was almost no difference between the game and the first game in terms of process or result.

At 105:88, the Magic made another victory, and the total score has reached 2:0.

Howard's performance in this game was even more brutal than the first game, scoring 29 points and 20 rebounds, scoring 20+20 in two consecutive playoff games, overwhelming the 76ers inside.

In addition to Howard, Wang Chao's performance in this game was also eye-catching. He made 14 of 9 three-pointers and scored 32 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.

After two rounds of the playoffs, the situation has become completely clear. The Magic will inevitably eliminate the 76ers by a big score and advance to the second round smoothly.

The real challenge for the Magic will be when the game enters the second round of the conference semifinals. At that time, the opponent they will face will most likely be the Detroit Pistons who fought 2:2 during the regular season.

(End of this chapter)