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

Chapter 169 Small Ball Tactics in the Finals

On June 6th, the sixth game of the finals series, the game venue is the Staples Center in Los Angeles, home of the Lakers.

This is directly related to the life-and-death battle of the Lakers, and the attention it has received is unprecedented.

Before the game started, the director of the Staples Center began to habitually look for the big stars who came to watch the game on the sidelines.

This national entertainment center has never let people down. Rihanna in the music circle, Taylor Swift, JAY-Z and other top singers from the United States are all present. There are also performers such as Will Smith, Governor Arnold, Jr. Plum Leonardo and other stars.

The number of celebrities who came to the scene was really too many, and many of them were unknown to many Huaguo fans in front of the TV.

However, sitting on the sidelines, dressed in fancy clothes, the beauty of Miranda Kerr and Candice Swanepoel, two top Victoria's Secret supermodels who can even surpass a Hollywood star, Huaguo fans are no longer Stranger, these two Victoria's Secret Angels who have the most scandals with Wang Chao are top-notch in terms of appearance and figure, and the time has come to 2010, and their careers have ushered in a period of rapid growth, even because of Wang Chao Because of this, it has developed faster than in the original history, and its coffee status has not lost to many Hollywood stars.

Most of the stars present are supporters of the Lakers, but it is not a secret that the two Victoria's Secret Angels support the team. Just because they have an unclear relationship with Wang Chao, they support the Orlando Magic. Nothing wrong with it.

What's interesting is that the two women are the same as they were in the finals of last season. The two sat on opposite sides of each other, as if they were competing for beauty, compared to other Hollywood female stars around them.

In fact, with the rise of their careers, the work of the two women has become busy, and various announcements need to be flown all over the country and even the world. It is really rare that they can appear in Los Angeles at the same time to watch the same game.

On the other side, near the Lakers' bench, Khloe Kardashian stroked her hair by her ear. Kardashian's well-dressed makeup is exquisite, and she is not far behind other Hollywood actresses, perhaps as a Chinese I think Kardashian is not beautiful due to Asian aesthetics, but this kind of plump and unrestrained style is still very popular in Europe and America.

But watching the director's camera constantly focus on Miranda and Candice, who complement each other, the smile on Kohler Kardashian's face is still a little unnatural.

She couldn't help but glanced at Wang Chao, who was warming up for the Magic team at halftime in the distance, and then looked at her husband Odom here.

One is the rising star Wang Chao who has just won the MVP of the regular season, and the other is Odom who has no self-motivated and can only serve as a substitute player in the Lakers...

What is really most afraid of is comparison, and an unbalanced psychology is constantly brewing in Kohler's heart.

……

The game started under the attention of all the people. In the first few rounds, Wang Chao was keenly aware that there was something wrong with the referee calling the penalty in this game.

Kobe's two breakthroughs with the ball had to reach the whistle. In less than a minute, Howard and Channing Frye were fouled once.

"Hehe, it's an old routine."

Wang Chao understood in an instant that it was President Stern who started to exert force behind his back.

In the previous game, the two teams fought to 3:2, which seemed evenly matched, but the magic team played better than the Lakers in stability, and the possibility of winning the game was significantly higher, especially in the sixth game , There is a great possibility to directly defeat the Lakers and win the championship with a total score of 4:2.

In the past two years, the ratings of the Finals between the Magic and the Lakers have been quite high, especially the seven games last year, which brought extremely high benefits to the league. Therefore, according to businessmen’s thinking, if this finals can continue to fight to the No. Seven games will also gain more benefits.

The league will usher in a new labor negotiation after the next year. Before that, Stern hopes to create the maximum benefit as possible, so as to help the league go through the labor negotiation more smoothly.

In fact, last year he hoped that the Lakers could win the championship, so that Kobe would win the fifth championship in his career, one step closer to Jordan, and it would also bring attention to this year's finals.

Can Kobe win two three-peat dynasties like Jordan did?Just thinking about this suspense makes people look forward to it.

It's a pity that Wang Chao and the Magic ruined Stern's fantasy. Of course, this is also due to Stern's face. Even if the referee deliberately manipulates it, it will not be as blatant as the Silver Business Alliance in the future. Therefore, under Wang Chao's strong explosion and buzzer-beating lore, the Magic defeated the Lakers in seven games, and also shattered Kobe's dream of three consecutive championships.

Although it is a bit imperfect, the current script is not bad. At least according to Stern's ratings report after the game started, the ratings of this game are infinitely close to the tiebreaker of last year's finals.

"Sure enough, if the Lakers can win this game and have another tiebreaker, maybe the ratings can reach more than 30!"

Looking at the history of the league, there are only six games with a rating of more than 30 in a single game, five of which came from the Jordan period, and one was the tiebreaker between the Lakers and the Pistons in the 88 Finals.

In the next 16 years, the ratings of the tiebreaker of the Qiyong Finals will reach 31.02, ranking third in history, but now, in the past ten years, there has not been an NBA Finals with a ratings close to 30.

But now that he finally has such an opportunity, how could it not make Stern happy.

"The Lakers must win this game! Save the suspense of the championship until Orlando two days later!"

With Stern's will and the referee's secret assistance, the Lakers played quite smoothly in the first quarter, leading the Magic by 30 points at 24:6.

Kobe made 6 of 4 shots in the first quarter, 8 of 8 free throws, and scored 16 points. He scored half of the team's first quarter and one more point.

On the side of the Magic, Howard was troubled by fouls in G2 of the finals. After playing about 6 minutes in the first quarter, he received a second foul and had to leave the field early to avoid the edge.

Van Gundy had already jumped up from the bench and kept yelling at the referee to put pressure on him, but was ignored by the referee.

Wang Chao was already mentally prepared. In addition to the Lakers, their opponents in this game may also have several referees on the field.

He believes that if this game is lost according to Stern's intention, and the tiebreaker between the two sides returns to the home court of the Orlando Magic, there should be no more biased whistles. After all, Kobe is hopeless for the second three consecutive championships. It doesn't matter to the league whoever wins the championship.

It is a good script for Kobe to win the championship and complete the return of the king with revenge. It is not bad for Wang Chao Howard to defeat the new king of the Lakers for the second consecutive year.

But Wang Chao has always disliked ink marks, and he can win 6 games, so why should there be extra problems?

Just like last year's Game [-] of the finals, even with the assistance of referees, it does not mean that the game can be won for sure. After all, the current league referees have not yet reached the level of selective blindness, right and wrong.

At the beginning of the second quarter, the Magic made a change.

The head coach of the Lakers, Phil Jackson, looked at the Magic lineup, and his expression suddenly became dignified.

"This is……"

All the commentators who commented on the finals also exclaimed.

"In the second quarter, the Magic team deployed a special lineup. Power forward Channing Frye played the center position. Wang Chao served as the team's power forward. The shooting guard and small forward came off the bench respectively. Jamal Crawford and Raywater Ariza!"

"The Magic actually let Howard, who only played 6 minutes in the first quarter, continue to sit on the bench. It seems that the 6 points behind in the first quarter did not make them impetuous. It's just that this lineup faced the Lakers. Tower combination, is the defense at the basket too weak? Can Wang Chao and Frye withstand the offense of the Lakers Gasol and Bynum?"

"The Lakers replaced Odom and still served as the team's small forward position. In this case, the average height of the Lakers is much higher than that of the Magic. Basketball games are often a height competition. The Magic gave up Howard. It's not wise to play with such a small lineup."

Those who commented on the Magic's lineup never imagined that in the future, small ball tactics will become a big wave of the times, forcing most teams in the league to make changes, and making the role of traditional centers weaker and weaker.

The lineup that the Magic are currently sending out is a classic small ball tactical lineup. From the first position to the fifth position, they all have the ability to shoot three-pointers and have a full sense of space.

As for the so-called inside twin towers of the Lakers... Wang Chao didn't pay attention to it at all. If the small-ball tactics are successful and smooth, just rely on Gasol and Bynum to let them throw their arms, and they can do it. How much do you throw in?

In the future, some people will always say that if the league was still in the era when it was rich in centers, small ball tactics would have no way out.

But we must respect the objective facts. For outside players, when the handcheck, three-point foul and three free throws rules appeared, and the pick-and-roll tactics were gradually improved, the living environment was completely different from the 80s and 90s.

Similarly, the emergence of rules such as three seconds of defense, five seconds of backing up, and the cylinder principle have also continuously reduced the lethality of the center at the basket.

The performance and performance of players are directly related to the rules of the game and the development of basketball. It is unreasonable to praise the past and demote the present in this way.

And even in the 90s, the four major centers airborne this league, can they really end the small ball era without modifying the rules of the basketball game?

O'Neal is so awesome at his peak, especially after the other four major centers have retired one after another. He is known as unrivaled on the offensive end. He has never seen him average 30+ points per game in the regular season. The highest score in his career in the playoffs is only 46 points. Kobe's assistance may not be able to win three consecutive championships.

Of course, no one can convince anyone of this kind of conjecture of Guan Gong fighting Qin Qiong.

Some people think that O'Neal's offensive rhythm is extremely fast in the small ball era, and the number of rounds in each game has increased sharply. In games that require constant round-trip running, he can still drag his 160 kg body at his peak and run for 48 minutes. Can catch up to the defense outside the three-point line, average 50+ or ​​even 60+ points per game, and the default shark-killing tactic does not exist, so what can you do?It can only be said that the peak shark is indeed invincible.

Wang Chao feels that the current rules of the league are applicable to small ball tactics, but there has not yet been an outside partner of the Splash Brothers like Curry Thompson to break the current situation.

Wang Chao himself can definitely act as Curry, and although there is no Thompson in the Magic, the shooters with a three-point shooting rate of more than 40% are still very useful.

The most important thing is that there may be a distance of seventeen or eight Howards between the "Little Sharks" and the "Big Sharks" of the Lakers, so there is nothing to be afraid of.

Wang Chao made the right bet. When the Magic deployed this rudimentary lineup of small-ball tactics, the Lakers were a little confused at first, but quickly reacted, and immediately chose to throw the ball to the inside twin towers to attack without thinking.

Since the Magic are so generous, how can we be polite?

Gasol was the first to receive the ball, holding the ball with his back against Wang Chao, Gasol tentatively pushed his back against him, and then found that he didn't move.

Wang Chao's 86 strength is not superior to most inside players, but this definitely does not include Gasol.

Gasol, who found that his strength was not dominant, observed Wang Chao's position again, and was surprised to find that Wang Chao's defensive footwork inside was very solid, not at all like the mediocre defense that the outside world said.

This is natural. After more than half a season of training, Wang Chao's defensive ability has been greatly improved. For example, the internal defensive ability has increased from the initial 65 to 70. Although it is not particularly high, it is temporary and pretending. Still quite intimidating.

Gasol did not take the risk of attacking Wang Chao with inside footsteps. His current position is not good. He is alone.

With a wave of his hand, Gasol passed the ball to Bynum on the other side.

Bynum was facing Channing Frye. With a small shark of 2 meters 13 and a weight of 129 kilograms, there was basically no problem eating Channing Frye alone.

The fact is also the same, Bynum dribbled the ball twice with his back, successfully squeezed to the basket with his strong lower body strength, then raised his hand, and skillfully made a small hook shot.

After learning from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for a few years, Bynum's hook movement is already in shape, and it looks very standard. Moreover, at this distance from the basket, Channing Frye was squeezed to and fro and didn't make it in time. In the case of jumping up to defend, the hit is simply...

"Bang-!"

The basketball hit the back frame and then bounced out of the basket.

Gasol: "..."

Kobe: "..."

Lakers head coach Phil Jackson, who was sitting on the sidelines, couldn't help turning his head to look aside. Among the Lakers assistant coaches, the legendary "Skyhook" Kareem lowered his head and kept chanting in his heart.

"I don't know this guy, I don't know this guy, I haven't taught him, why the fuck are you looking at me?"

(End of this chapter)