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

Chapter 364: Even Gallinari can’t beat him?

The contest between Wang Chao and James is actually nothing to say. It has been staged countless times in the past ten years, and most of the time it was Wang Chao who had the last laugh. Due to injuries to the team.

Moreover, Wang Chao's data in those two times also fully covered James, which perfectly explained what it means that the team lost and Wang Chao did not lose.

James may be able to make two gestures with Wang Chao at the beginning of the game, but as the game continues, he, who is not as good as Wang Chao in terms of scoring stability and explosive power, will involuntarily fall into the disadvantage gradually. There is no way things.

At this time, if James wants to beat Wang Chao, he must rely on the help of his teammates.

The Lakers have the most luxurious interior double-tower combination in the league. Wouldn't it be too wasteful not to make good use of it?

The Lakers have the ball, and they began to frequently create offensive opportunities for the inside twin towers.

But what the Lakers fans didn't expect was that the offensive efficiency of the Lakers Twin Towers when facing the Clippers was not as good as expected.

First up is Cousins.

In the case of a matchup with Brook Lopez, no matter who you are, you will think that Cousins ​​​​will have the upper hand in the matchup.

But in fact it is not the case.

Every time Cousins ​​attacks the basket, it seems quite difficult, and it is difficult to squeeze into the penalty area. Most of the offenses are mid-range or even three-point shots. How can the efficiency be so high?
This situation is both unexpected and reasonable.

Cousins ​​weighs 122 kilograms. In the current small ball era, he is already considered a large-tonnage inside player. He himself has always looked a little fat.

But in fact, Brook Lopez, who looks much thinner than him, weighs 125 kilograms, which is heavier than Cousins.

Although in terms of strength, Lopez is definitely unable to compete with Cousins, but Lopez, who has strong lower body strength, can completely withstand Cousins ​​​​in the interior and reduce the opponent's offensive efficiency.

This is also one of Lopez's roles in the Clippers, the ability to protect the inside basket established by height and weight.

Although Lopez's performance in rebounding is very bad, but with a good defense in the penalty area, coupled with a three-point shooting rate comparable to outside players, his value is quite high, even in Wang Chao's view. Rudy Gobert, the best defensive player who can only defend without offense.

Under Lopez's defense, Cousins' offense was not smooth, and another player in the Twin Towers, Downs, was even worse.

Cousins ​​​​just doesn't have much advantage in the confrontation with Lopez in the interior, while Towns is at a disadvantage overall.

He clearly had the advantage in height and weight, but Towns was always squeezed out of the outside line by Wang Chao in the game, and he had no chance to attack inside.

This really makes many Lakers fans look silly.

"What kind of plane are you doing? It's not that you want to blow up Wang Chao directly, but you can't stretch your hips like this? Can an outside player who is 2 meters 06 and weighs only 105 kilograms not be able to withstand it?"

But the fact is that Downs really can't stand Wang Chao.

If Towns' strength can also be converted into numerical values, it will be in the early 80s at most, which is the worst among inside players. Moreover, although Towns weighs more than Wang Chao, he is not much bigger, but it is 110. The difference between kilograms and 105 kilograms is just that.

Wang Chao already had an advantage in strength, and the fighting madman's confrontation bonus, so suppressing Downs would naturally not be a problem.

What's more, Towns' offense is mainly based on outside shooting. Once the inside attack is blocked, he almost subconsciously floats on the outside all the way, trying to use his range to avoid confrontation with Wang Chao.

But how could Wang Chao give Towns an easy shot from the outside?

The result is that the two-tower combination that the Lakers placed high hopes on did not gain the upper hand at all against the Clippers' not-so-strong inside line.

When the inside line can't take advantage of it, the Lakers' outside line will be out of luck.

Lu Wei vs. Rondo is basically just a casual step.

When he was young, Rondo was a frequent visitor to the best defensive team. With his top agility among defenders and his long arms, his defense and steals are quite good.

But now Rondo is no longer the tough Rondo on the defensive end.

The increase in age and injuries caused Rondo to lose his previous explosive power and speed. It happened that Lu Wei was facing an extremely fast defender. It was very difficult for Rondo to keep up with the opponent's speed.

After finally starting the game, Lu Wei is not polite. As long as Wang Chao gives him the ball, he will resolutely hit the basket with the ball without hesitation. Although his shooting percentage is average, this game is even less than 40%, but it frequently caused fouls by the inside players of the Lakers and went to the free throw line many times. The shooting percentage is really not bad.

The Lakers were at a disadvantage on both ends of the offense and defense, and the Clippers took advantage of this opportunity to play a wave of strong offenses, directly extending the score to more than double digits.

Going around in circles, James was astonished to find that he had turned into a state of attacking, organizing and defending.

James: "???"

What the hell?Why did I come to the Lakers?

The Lakers fans at the game site experienced the laughter before the game, the silence in the middle of the game, and the crazy talk when they left the game after the game, and their mentality has exploded.

127: 108.

The Clippers beat their city rivals the Lakers by 19 points at home, winning the first city derby of the new season, and it was embarrassing in an important game like the Christmas game that attracted the attention of all audiences.

Especially the inside double tower combination that the Lakers are proud of. Cousins ​​made 15 of 8 shots in the game. The player with a basic salary, Brook Lopez, did not have the slightest advantage at all. The latter also scored 19 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks in the whole game. He had an annual salary of 17 million and a job of 6 million.

Cousins' performance can be regarded as quite satisfactory, and Towns' performance is really disappointing.

He made 12 of 5 shots and shot only 41.7% from the field. He scored 12 points and 5 rebounds. As an inside player, he almost shot three-pointers from the outside all the time, and was completely crushed by Wang Chao.

James played very strong in this game. After all, he faced the defense of Tobias Harris throughout the game. Although Harris defended very hard, he was limited by his lack of ability after all, and was scored 33 by James. A triple-double of points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.

However, when the combined power of the inside twin towers is only 31 points and 15 rebounds, even if James has a 30+ triple-double data, he can't recover.

What makes Lakers fans most uncomfortable is that the Clippers in this game are not even in full shape, allowing Gallinari who averaged 15+ per game.

With one less Gallinari, the Lakers lost by 19 points. If the Clippers are all healthy, can the Lakers still be tortured to pieces?
I don't know who gave them confidence and made them mistakenly think that the Lakers will have an advantage against the Clippers?
Of course, although losing is a loss, it is impossible to admit defeat.

At the press conference after the game, the entire Lakers team believed that the main reason for losing this game was because of their poor state, and the team still needed time to adjust and did not show their true strength.

"This is just an ordinary regular season. Which team in this league never loses a game? Losing is normal. The important thing is that we will learn the lessons of failure and continue to evolve and become stronger. Until defeating the opponent and stepping onto the highest stage."

At the post-match press conference, James faced reporters and said vowedly.

On the other hand, at the Clippers' post-match press conference, Wang Chao also talked about his feelings about the game.

"How should I put it, the Lakers lineup is really great, and the two inside players are both inside and outside, very versatile and balanced, keep going, I am optimistic that they can enter the Western Conference Finals, and I also hope that the opponent in the Western Conference Finals is the Lakers not warriors."

"Why do you think so? Is it because the Warriors are more difficult to deal with than the Lakers?" A reporter added.

"No." Wang Chao shook his head. "If the opponent in the Western Conference Finals is the Lakers, there is no need to run around because of the home and away games. Even if Oakland is not too far from Los Angeles, they still have to run in two places."

reporter:"……"

Just for this reason?Look at how promising you are!

They really want to complain about Wang Chao like this, but they have to admit that, as the king of the playoffs, Wang Chao is absolutely qualified to say this, no matter what the Warriors and Lakers players and fans think when they hear this.
-
After the Christmas battle, the December schedule is also coming to an end.

At the same time, another annual event of the league continues, that is, the voting for the All-Star Weekend.

Like last year, this year's All-Star voting will select the Eastern and Western champions respectively, and then the two champions will serve as captains to select their teammates for an All-Star match.

Last year, Wang Chao and James were the top voters in the East and West. Both of them were far behind other All-Star players, but this year is a bit different, because Wang Chao and James are now playing for the teams in the West. Playing ball, there will also be a competition between the two for the status of the vote king.

Then, on December 12, just after the All-Star voting channel opened, the Lakers couldn't wait to start canvassing for James.

Not only the Lakers, but also all advertisers who have interests in James, spare no effort to cheer for James, with the momentum of winning the Western Conference.

All of this was naturally done with James' acquiescence, or even at his own request.

He has already lost to Wang Chao many times, and he is unwilling to lose to Wang Chao in the All-Star voting. Although Wang Chao has defeated him in the past many All-Star voting, this time it is obviously different. The star ticket king has no substantive difference except that it sounds good. After the restructuring, the all-star ticket king will become the commander of the east and west troops, and has the power to choose other all-star teammates!

If James can defeat Wang Chao to become the top voter in the Western Conference, and then select Wang Chao as his teammate with a superior attitude...

Just thinking about it, James feels elated, he must be the vote king!
Wang Chao didn't think too much about it at first. For Wang Chao now, the All-Star is just a meaningless entertainment event. He doesn't even bother to show off in the arena. Go down and sit down, not to mention voting, which has little direct relationship with players.

Although the Clippers officially organized a canvassing session for Wang Chao and other players on the team, it was far less fanfare than the Lakers.

Then, when the results of the first round of voting were announced in early January, James won 1 million votes in the first round, ranking first in the league and far ahead. Wang Chao got 118 million votes, 102 less than James. The gap is quite large.

No. 3 is Antetokounmpo Antetokounmpo in the East. He received 99 votes and is the player with the highest votes in the East, but he can only rank third in the entire league.

This is the first time in recent years that James has won the vote over Wang Chao, even if it is only the result of the first round of voting.

The fans of James are overjoyed, as if this is the highest honor, and continue to make persistent efforts to vote, and they are bound to continue to maintain the leading position at the end of the All-Star voting, so that James will be the top voter in the Western Conference.

The announcement of the results of the first round of voting also made the fans far away in China a little upset.

What are you kidding?Can my Great Huaguo lose in the vote?
In the absence of Wang Chao and official active tickets, Wang Chao's loyal fans in China spontaneously organized and began to vote for Wang Chao.

Today's Wang Chao's status in the sports circle of China has reached an almost transcendent position. Looking at the history of China, there has never been a basketball player, or even a sports player, whose influence can reach his level, even Dayao. no.

In terms of achievements, Wang Chao won two Olympic gold medals and one silver medal for Huaguo, which can only be regarded as quite satisfactory. After all, in Huaguo's strong sports, such as table tennis, diving, gymnastics, and weightlifting, the number of gold medals won is higher than that of Huaguo. Wang Chao has many more athletes.

But basketball, as the three major balls, has a dimensional gap in domestic influence compared with other sports, even the national table tennis.

This is like the original Dayao, who led the team with the best record in the history of the top eight in the Olympic Games. When talking about famous athletes in China, Dayao's name will still immediately come to mind.

Achievement honor and influence are two completely different concepts.

Wang Chao is so popular in the NBA, his invincible resume makes him have a strong influence both at home and abroad, especially in the domestic sports world, Wang Chao thinks he is second, absolutely no one dares to say that he is the first one.

Under the appeal of huge influence, more and more Chinese people began to log on to the NBA website to vote for Wang Chao.

At this moment, James is still complacent about winning the first round of voting, and he is starting to think about becoming the queen of the Western Conference. What kind of expression should he use to announce that his first choice is Wang Chao?
A week later, the results of the second round of voting were announced, but reality dealt him a heavy blow.

(End of this chapter)