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

Chapter 98 Barkley: Wang Chao can't be a superstar with this style of play
Not long after the start of the game, Bowen has relatively strong physical fitness at this time, so he has been closely following Wang Chao's pace, but he knows very well in his heart that as time goes by, he will definitely be dragged down by Wang Chao.

But I know there is nothing I can do, unless I don't run with Wang Chao, but in that case the opponent will be able to shoot openly outside the three-point line.

When Bao Wen ran, it was much harder than Wang Chao. Putting aside the physical gap between the two sides, just following the opponent, Bao Wen had to pay more physical strength as a price, because Wang Chao would occasionally still There are players from the Suns helping him with off-ball pick-and-roll screens. Does Bowen have to work hard to get rid of these players while following Wang Chao? If the movement is a little slower, Wang Chao may have already run out of the outside to catch the ball. ball up.

The overall speed of the Spurs is relatively slow, and few other players on the court can help Bowen defend, and the pressure is almost all on him alone.

In the first quarter, Bo Wen could still keep up with Wang Chao, and the Spurs also relied on defense to take the initiative in the first quarter, winning by 25 points at 22:3.

But as the game entered the second quarter, the situation began to change uncontrollably.

Bao Wen gradually couldn't keep up with Wang Chao, not because he was tired from running, but because Wang Chao's speed gradually became faster.

As the race progressed, the characteristics of Wang Chao's long-distance runner talent began to activate one by one.

The first thing to activate is the first layer of characteristics, 10% physical bonus and 10% reverse running flexibility.

After activating the feature, Wang Chao began to frequently run back on the field.

The agility in the game is directly linked to the agility ability value. Wang Chao's agility is 86, which is faster than the speed. The 10% bonus effect is very obvious.

However, Bowen is worse than Wang Chao in terms of speed and agility. His defense is more reflected in his super high defensive IQ in one-on-one defense and his prediction of offensive options for offensive players with the ball.

When Wang Chao activated the first-stage characteristics of long-distance runners to enhance the sensitivity of back-running, Bo Wen, who was caught off guard, suffered continuously. Wang Chao used the back-running to widen the gap in stature.

After a few rounds, Wang Chao scored 5 points in a row on 3 of 9 shots from beyond the three-point line, directly helping the Suns to complete the overtake, forcing the Spurs to call a timeout adjustment.

After the timeout, Bowen, who was already a little tired, was replaced, and a faster player was replaced to mark Wang Chao.

However, this adjustment effect is not significant.

The player who replaced Bowen on the stage was a player named Brent Barry, who was 1 meters tall and was swinging at the No. 98 position.

His speed is much faster than Bo Wen, and even slightly faster than Wang Chao, but after all, he is a 36-year-old veteran with a weight of only 84 kg, and his ability to fight is insufficient.

Wang Chao will be unable to get rid of the opponent simply by running without the ball for a while, but when Barry faces off-ball screens from other Suns players, the gap in confrontation ability makes it difficult for him to get rid of the pick-and-roll screen and keep up with him immediately. Wang Chao.

At this time, the Spurs can only let other players help defend Wang Chao. With Nash's just-right passing timing and Wang Chao's super-fast shooting speed blessed by the fast shooter, this kind of slow and half-beat help defense is naturally not very effective. Effect.

Throughout the second quarter, Wang Chao scored 5 three-pointers and scored 15 points, helping the Suns to overtake the score and successfully establish an 8-point lead before halftime.

On the CCTV Sports Channel, Director Zhang has been full of praise for Wang Chao since the second quarter.

"Wang Chao's off-ball running on the court is simply an art. Few people in the entire NBA can run off the ball to get open shots as frequently as he does, and can maintain such a stable three-pointer. Hit rate, the Spurs have nothing to do with Wang Chao's style of play, even if they know that Wang Chao will definitely find an open shot through running positions, there is nothing he can do about it, Wang Chao's playing on the court is really reasonable!"

"Director Zhang." Director Yu, who was partnering with Director Zhang on the sidelines, took over the conversation and asked, "What kind of help do you think Wang Chao will have for the Hua Guo men's basketball team if he returns to the national team?"

"That's a great help." Director Zhang understood, and immediately said: "Hua Guo men's basketball team has always had a tradition of high-quality inside centers. Like a rock, but on the perimeter...Since Jordan Hu Weidong retired in Asia, our perimeter has always been a weak point, lacking enough stable outside shooting points, and unable to help the inside to create enough space to display our strength."

"The arrival of Wang Chao will make any national team in the world be wary. They must guard against Wang Chao. Even if Wang Chao does not make any moves on the court, but just stands outside the three-point line, it can help Dayao and the others to stretch the space. , so that they have a better space to play.”

"Besides, off-ball running and three-pointers are just the weapons Wang Chao has gained a foothold in the NBA, but they are not the only skills. I have been following Wang Chao this season. I have watched every game he plays. It can be said that Hua No one in China knows Wang Chao better than me."

"He is not only good off the ball, but also has excellent offensive skills with the ball. When he came off the bench before, Wang Chao often attacked with the ball. His dribbling ability can even face NBA defensive players. He uses it freely, connects various ball-holding breakthroughs and step-back shooting actions, and his dribbling level is better than most domestic point guards, and I am not exaggerating in saying that.”

"So, if Wang Chao returns to the national team, he can completely serve as a point forward and become the starting point and offensive end point of the Huaguo men's basketball team's tactics, which can broaden more tactics for the Huaguo men's basketball team to a large extent. plan!"

Wang Chao was in the game right now, so naturally he couldn't hear Director Zhang's evaluation of him. If he heard it, he probably couldn't help sighing. As expected of a former national player and experienced Director Zhang, his analysis was too reasonable.

Wang Chao's ball-handling ability has now reached 82. Of course, it is nothing among NBA guards, but it is completely different when compared with the guards of the Huaguo Men's Basketball Team who are in a hurry when they encounter a full-court press.

Of course, the reason why the defenders of the Huaguo men's basketball team can't pass the full-court press is not because of their low ball-handling ability. The ball-handling ability of most of them is probably better than the current Wang Chao, but the problem It is a basketball game, and it does not depend entirely on technical skills. Physical fitness is the most critical factor in determining the performance of the game.

Many people say that Durant's body is not good. When he first entered the league, Durant weighed less than 100 kilograms, and his confrontation ability was really not good, so he was not favored by many people.

But Durant began to gain weight after joining the league. At his peak, his weight was close to 110 kilograms, and his confrontation ability had already reached above the league average.

For the same reason, Antetokounmpo of the Bucks is a more vivid example.

The defenders of the Huaguo men's basketball team generally lack strength and speed. Once they encounter a full-court press under high-intensity physical confrontation, they can't even stand still, let alone dribble?
In fact, this defect also exists in Wang Chao, but with the help of more than a year of hard training and systematic training potions, he is no longer what he used to be.

The weight of 98 kg is not particularly light among outside players. More importantly, after a lot of physical training, Wang Chao's strength has been improved all the way, from only 42 at the beginning to 66 now!

The strength of 66 is of course incomparable with James's devilish muscular man with a strength of more than 90, but it is definitely above the passing level among outside players.

Wang Chao remembers that in the NBA2K series of games, Jordan and Kobe, the two representative outside players, both had strength in their early 70s, which was not much different from him.

Although these two are standard shooting guard players, it is a bit unfair to compare their strength with players at the small forward position, but as a 2-meter-high small forward, Wang Chao's current style of play is purely outside style, even with air cuts. He seldom does anything around the basket, and it's not much different from a shooting guard.

The power of 66 is enough for Wang Chao now.

In fact, after joining the Huaguo Men's Basketball Team, Wang Chao himself does not know how strong the men's basketball team will be in the 08 Capital Olympics, because there is still one year before the 08 Olympics. Can continue to get stronger.

In the past year, his overall rating of ability value has soared from the initial 52 to the current 69 through intensive training, although many of the overall ratings are through training some abilities that he can't use, such as the hook at the basket and the like Skills have been improved, but the improvement in his strength does indeed exist.

In the coming year, Wang Chao is not sure whether he can further increase the overall rating of ability to above 80, but at least he will be stronger than now.

If the Huaguo men's basketball team of the mobile Great Wall version in 08 was added with an all-star outside player, and he was not inferior in three-point shooting ability and Curry's super three-pointer, what kind of epic enhancement would it be?

Wang Chao couldn't imagine it himself.

"Maybe, there is really a chance to fight for the top three and win a medal."

……

The Olympic Games is next year's event, and now we still need to focus more on the competition.

In the third quarter, Wang Chao continued to play after only a few minutes of rest.

Facing the Spurs, which may be the strongest team in the league this season, he will not have any reservations. As long as he crosses this hurdle, the championship will be secured!

Wang Chao's biggest advantage now is the three-pointer and physical fitness. Wang Chao doesn't need to spend too much time on defense. Even if he runs the whole game on the offensive end, he can barely do it with the blessing of long-distance runner talent.

The characteristics of the second stage will be activated soon. While the physical fitness is further improved, Wang Chao's running speed will be accelerated by 5%, and the additional 3% increase in shooting percentage after receiving the ball in the upgraded version will also start to take effect!
Wang Chao, who was full of buffs, immediately got a chance through active running and hit a long two-pointer at a distance of 20 feet from the basket.

Popovich stood on the sidelines, watching this scene can only shake his head.

In the past, although the Suns showed strong offensive capabilities, they often had no choice but to lose against the Spurs' Tiezuo Hengjiang, and the gap would be extremely obvious.

In the 04-05 season, the Suns and the Spurs met in the Western Conference Finals. At that time, the Suns won 62 wins in the regular season. When they met, the Spurs ended the Western Conference Finals in just 5 games and easily eliminated the Suns 4:1.

Facing the almost suffocating defense of the Spurs, the Suns, known as the strongest spear in the league, had nothing to do. They were beaten 3-0 in the first three games, and the gap was obvious.

That is, since then, the league has raised the saying that offense can win fans, but defense can win championships.

But after two years, this time it is still on the stage of the Western Conference finals, but the situation has obviously changed.

Facts have proved that the ultimate offense is not really helpless against defense. The root of all fear comes from insufficient firepower. If you can't score to win the game, then find a way to get more points and you're done.

The appearance of Wang Chao has given the Suns such a variable. His technical characteristics are single, and he can only make three-pointers and off-ball running. , has a place in the league and has caused headaches for all teams.

The Spurs are no exception.

Even Bowen can't guard Wang Chao, who else in the Spurs can restrain Wang Chao?

In fact, if you just want to limit Wang Chao's scoring, there are many ways, whether it is to arrange special personnel to assist Wang Chao in defense at any time, or to cut off the connection between Wang Chao and the ball holder, and block the passing route of the two. It can well limit the opponent's three-point shooting ability.

But the key issue is that without Wang Chao, the Suns are still the most offensive team in the league. Nash, Stoudemire, Marion and even Barbosa on the bench all have strong scoring ability.

Popovich can't devote too much defensive power to Wang Chao, that will only liberate the other players of the Suns, and the result will not be worth the candle.

Therefore, as a calm and experienced head coach, Popovich's judgment before the game is that Bowen will limit Wang Chao's scoring as much as possible, and the team will strictly prevent the Suns from attacking others. After all, in comparison, three-pointers are stable. There are still some deficiencies in sex, and Wang Chao may not be the key to breaking the game.

However, everything that was happening at this time proved that Popovich's judgment was wrong...Three-pointers can really kill!

In fact, this cannot be blamed on Popovich. In this era that still emphasizes inside and mid-range offense, the general concept is that two-pointers are greater than three-pointers. Where can the shooting percentage be high?
Before Curry was born, the concept of three-pointers in the entire league was a scoring method that could be icing on the cake. Even the three-point king Ray Allen's average three-point shots per game only accounted for his average three-point shots per game. Only around 38%.

Wang Chao is the first player in this era to average more three-pointers per game than two-pointers. He is also the first player to average more than 10 three-pointers per game and make more than five three-pointers.

Popovich still underestimated Wang Chao's lethality beyond the three-point line, which led to the situation of being suppressed by the Suns in the first game of the Western Conference Finals.

Now that the matter has come to this point, he can only adjust his tactics during the timeout and start focusing on Wang Chao.

After the timeout, the center of gravity of the Spurs' defensive tactics has been significantly adjusted. As long as Wang Chao starts to run without the ball, no matter whether the player defending him has been thrown away, the Spurs defenders on the other side will move closer to the direction of Wang Chao's position in advance. Blocking, not giving Wang Chao any chance to catch the ball easily.

This move can indeed successfully limit Wang Chao's performance. In many cases, he has not reached the designated position, and the Spurs players have already stood in the position he originally wanted to go.

In the second half of the third quarter, except for Wang Chao getting two outside shots when the Suns quickly counterattacked, he never touched the ball again.

Just because Wang Chao couldn't score, it doesn't mean the Suns' offense stagnated.

In order to defend Wang Chao, the Spurs have to pay an extra defensive player as a price. A basketball game is a five-person game. If the Spurs have a player to help defend Wang Chao, there will inevitably be loopholes in their defense. Even relying on the excellent pseudo-joint defense tactics, the Spurs can rotate and supplement the defense at the first time, but there will still be uncontrollable open spaces and missing people.

This is another major role of Wang Chao on the field. The extreme outside involvement ability can help teammates gain more room to play.

The future Warriors, the Splash Brothers also have the same tactical status and effect.

If it weren't for the super deterrent shooting power of Curry and Thompson, Green would not be qualified to stand on the top arc and act like a sexy dealer dealing cards online, pretending to be a point forward.

Drummond Green is indeed a very good player on the defensive end, but on the offensive end, whether it is his own scoring ability or the ability to organize series passes to assist his teammates, it is not worth mentioning at all. He gestured twice, just because he was in the Warriors.

In the third quarter of the game, Wang Chao scored 3 points on 2 of 5 shots, but the Suns fully entered their offensive rhythm and scored another 31 points in a single quarter, extending their 8-point advantage at the end of halftime to 12 points!
This made the Spurs feel very uncomfortable. They aimed at Wang Chao, and the Suns had other players who could score, but if they strengthened their defense, would there be anyone in Wang Chao who could stop him.

This guy who suddenly appeared from last season has become the biggest obstacle when they play against the Suns.

In the fourth quarter of the game, the Spurs, unwilling to lose the game like this, set off wave after wave of counterattacks, trying to catch up with the point difference and reverse the game.

But the Spurs themselves are not a team that is good at offense. Most of the team's tactics are based on defense. If they want to speed up the offensive rhythm, they will inevitably loosen Tie Suo Hengjiang's defense.

Their scoring efficiency has increased, accompanied by the same accelerated offensive rhythm of the Suns. The inability to contain the Suns' scoring is the key reason why the Spurs are behind.

At 108:102, the Suns won the first game of the Western Conference Finals at home, taking the lead in this battle of dragons and tigers.

For the Spurs, Duncan scored a team-high 27 points, 15 of 9 field goals, 13 of 9 free throws, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. No one in the strong Suns can stop him.

Parker also played well against Nash, with 21 points and 6 assists, shooting 53% from the field.

Ginobili, the only substitute in the GDP combination, also took on the scoring work off the bench, scoring 14 points and 9 assists on 23 of 10 shots.

The three giants all scored 20+ points, and the whole game scored more than [-] points. For the Spurs, this is already a very beautiful game.

But it's a pity that the Suns played significantly better.

Stoudemire scored 23 points and 12 rebounds, and Nash scored 22 points and 11 assists.

More importantly, even though the opponent was strictly guarded in the second half of the game, Wang Chao still made 15 of 9 shots and scored 25 points and 4 rebounds.

There are also three players on the Suns side who have scored 20+ points, but the players who can score on the team are not limited to these three players.

With Wang Chao attracting the Spurs' defensive center of gravity, under Nash's passing series, other Suns players also performed well. One of the main reasons to win this game.

After the game, Spurs coach Popovich said frankly at the press conference.

"The main reason for our loss in this game is that we didn't do a good job of defense, especially the defense against Wang Chao from the perimeter, which allowed a three-point shooter to score 25 points in a single game and made seven three-pointers. How can the game be won?"

"In the next game, we will definitely further strengthen our defense, play steadily and win the follow-up games."

Popovich mentioned Wang Chao in the interview, and the meaning is already obvious. The reason why the Spurs lost was because of Wang Chao. The so-called further strengthening of defense in the future must also be aimed at Wang Chao's offensive firepower outside. Expanded targeted defensive arrangements.

Being able to make a strong team in the league, the head coach of the team that has won three championships in the past few years, pay so much attention to it, it can be seen how far Wang Chao's threat has reached.

This is what Wang Chao is very happy to see. He is not afraid that the Spurs will target him. Anyway, he is not the core of the team's offense. If you want to target him, just come, so that he can show his ability. The more likely it is to make a contract.

The second game of the Western Conference finals between the Suns and the Spurs, two days later, that is, on May 5, the game was still played at Phoenix's home court.

The Suns, who have the home court advantage, naturally want to take advantage of the victory and pursue it, directly rewriting the total score to 2:0, and further grasping the absolute initiative.

And they did get their wish.

In this game, the Spurs fully learned the lesson of losing in the previous game. From the beginning of the game, they strictly guarded Wang Chao and did not give Wang Chao any chance to catch the ball.

But this move was the same as in the first game. It blocked Wang Chao but failed to block other Suns players.

Under Nash's threading, the Suns blossomed and scored frequently. In the end, 7 players scored in double figures and won the game 115:104, successfully rewriting the total score to 2:0.

In this game, Wang Chao played soy sauce, making 10 of 4 shots and only scoring 12 points.

But the team's medals for winning must be half of his. After all, if he hadn't attracted a lot of Spurs' defensive power from the outside, other teammates on the team would not have been able to score so easily, especially Marion, who took advantage of many times Wang Chao attracted the Spurs' two defenses and staged an air cut to the basket. He made 15 of 10 shots and 8 of 6 free throws, scoring a team-high 26 points.

With a total score of 2:0, the Suns instantly seized the initiative in the series. As long as they can win even one of the next two away games against the Spurs, they will be close to winning the Western Conference Finals!

However... the Spurs are not those weak teams in the league after all, they can be manipulated at will.

On May 5, the third game of the Western Conference Finals, the main battlefield came from Phoenix to San Antonio.

At home, with half a foot on the edge of the cliff, the Spurs rebounded and beat the Suns 114:109 to get back a victory.

In this game, although the Spurs still failed to limit the Suns' scoring well on the defensive end, they scored more points than the Suns themselves.

邓肯这场比赛强势爆发，22投14中，罚球8中7，全场砍下35分18篮板6助攻4封盖，攻防两端完全统治比赛。

Not only that, Tony Parker also fully demonstrated the lethality of the French sports car with the ball in the game. He made 19 of 10 shots, 7 of 6 free throws, scored 26 points and 8 assists.

If it is not a big deal to lose the game in the third game and make the total score 2:1, on May 5, in the fourth game of the series, the Spurs won the game again with a score of 28:99 to tie the total score. Evening to 96:2, it really made the hearts of the Suns fans hang up.

This is the only time in the four-game series that the Suns scored less than 14 points. Throughout the game, the Spurs displayed the almost suffocating defense vividly and delicately. Even Stoudemire was defended by Duncan. They all played abnormally, only 6 of 8 shots, 6 of 18 free throws, only 7 points and [-] rebounds.

On the Suns side, the only player who performed normally was Wang Chao, who made 15 of 7 shots, 10 of 5 three-pointers, 4 of 3 free throws, and scored 22 points and 3 rebounds.

But in this game, Wang Chao's shortcomings were also exposed.

Although his scoring ability, especially the three-pointer, is very accurate and strong, the characteristic of single offense still exists. Although his mid-range shooting and dribbling ability have also been improved to a good level through long-term training, but that But it has a good effect when facing ordinary defensive players. When defending him becomes a defensive master like Bruce Bowen, and other Spurs players are also wary of him and are ready to help defend at any time. Wang Chao His offensive ability with the ball is still far from being able to help the team attack.

In short, it is not strong enough.

The problem facing the Suns in the fourth game is that the main players are fully restricted, the scoring efficiency plummets, and the Spurs, who are under less pressure on the defensive end, can also allocate more energy to target Wang Chao and prevent him from being outside the three-point line. Achievements.

Faced with this situation, Wang Chao's personal ability is not enough to break the status quo.

Wang Chao has nothing to do about it. In the final analysis, he is not a top superstar in the true sense of the league. There is no way that he can continue to score against three or four defensive players like Jordan and Kobe when his teammates are not good enough.

The total score was tied to 2:2, which means that the fifth game will be the key battle of Tianwangshan. The good news is that the Suns have home court advantage in this game. At Phoenix's home court, the players will not be affected. The influence of the Spurs fans can be normal.

In fact, as long as the performance of the Suns' starting main force can return to normal levels, with Wang Chao's deterrent power outside the three-point line, they are fully capable of fighting and winning against the Spurs. The key is how to achieve such an effect.

Wang Chao doesn't need to worry about this question. It should be something Nash and Stoudemire need to think about. He basically only has one task when he is on the court, and that is to find ways to score as much as possible. That's all. With his current ability value, this is the only thing he can do in this high-end game.

……

On May 5th, the fifth game of the Western Conference finals series, the battle of Tianwangshan, a key battle that may directly determine the outcome of the Western Conference finals.

Back at home, the Suns did a lot better. The offense was at least not as bad as in the previous two games. This also gave Wang Chao more room to use on the outside.

"It can be seen that in this extremely important and crucial game, neither side wants to lose, and they are both very active on the court, and the most active figure among them is undoubtedly the Suns forward Wang Chao!"

In the TNT studio, Kenny Smith was full of praise for Wang Chao's performance.

"In this playoffs, Wang Chao showed more than once a near-textbook off-ball running position, even running more actively and frequently than the Pistons' Hamilton in the East, and his shots from beyond the three-point line Even in the face of the Spurs' strict defense, he is still very stable, the only suspense is whether he can catch the ball."

Smith was an outside shooter when he was a player, so he has always liked Wang Chao's style of play. The way of never being muddled and always shooting the ball really pierced his heart.

But everyone has different preferences. As a well-known inside player in the 90s, Barkley didn't like Wang Chao's playing style very much, especially when he lost a bet because of Wang Chao and drank that cup soaked donkey in the national live broadcast. After the feces filtered the water, whenever there was a live broadcast of Wang Chao's game, he always subconsciously wanted to criticize.

"Isn't the first two games enough to explain the problem? Wang Chao's style of play cannot become a superstar. Maybe he can provide the best in this offensive-oriented Suns team with a passing master like Nash. Stable scoring output." Barkley pouted and said: "But once the game has a headwind, or Wang Chao is targeted for defense, his style of play cannot help the team change the situation."

"Charles, you're being too harsh on a player who's in his third season." Smith shook his head, then smiled connotatively. "Or, whenever you see Wang Chao, you can't help but think of some bad experiences, so do you deliberately raise your expectations of Wang Chao?"

(End of this chapter)