NBA: James wants to team up with me

Chapter 201 Hey, isn’t this Kobe? Haven't seen you like this for a few days?

James participated in the All-Star voting as a guard in the 04-05 season. At that time, he was selected as the All-Star starter as the player with the highest number of votes among the Eastern Conference guards.

However, in the following years, because James' popularity has become the top in the Eastern Conference, his position was fixed as a forward. No one on the Eastern front line could compete with him. Even after Wang Chong came to the Eastern Conference from the Western Conference, his popularity increased. He has been steadily suppressing James, but because the top two forward positions will be the All-Star starters, James has been the All-Star starter in the Eastern Conference for the past two years.

But this time Garnett's arrival is really a bit dangerous.

This forced the league to come up with this funny way to force James into the defender.

This is enough to prove the importance the league attaches to James, the future pillar, and also proves their foresight.

After the first week, the results of the second round of voting were announced.

Wang Chong and Garnett continue to lead the voting rankings in the Eastern Conference and even the entire league. James can only lag behind the two. Although the number of votes is very close to Garnett, it is not even one vote away.

The All-Star voting here in the East is a life-and-death battle, but there is a lot of confusion in the West, because Kobe, who has the highest number of votes in the entire West, can only rank fifth in the East, not only lower than Wang Chong, Garnett and James Three of them, even Howard, who has suddenly emerged as a center, are slightly inferior.

As for Dayao, the most popular vote king in the Western Conference in the past few years, his vote increase this year is very average. He only ranks fourth among Western Conference stars, lower than Kobe, Anthony and Duncan.

This is not because the enthusiasm of Huaguo fans has waned, but the league also feels that it is unfair for Huaguo, which has a population advantage, to vote in the All-Star voting for other players, so it reduced Huaguo when counting the votes. Proportion of regional votes.

But even so, Dayao's vote count is still among the top four in the Western Conference, and the gap between him and fifth place is nearly doubled. He is more than enough to serve as an All-Star starter.

The NBA's All-Star voting is divided into three rounds. Each round lasts for a week. Taking into account statistics and other work, the time span is close to a month.

During this period, NBA games have continued.

December 12th, Christmas Day War.

The Bulls head to the road to challenge the Eastern Conference rivals the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The league has tried its best to ensure that the two teams can have a close battle on Christmas Day. The game venue is arranged at the Cavaliers' home court, trying to smooth out the gap in strength between the two teams as much as possible.

But the difference in strength between the two teams is really not the slightest bit.

Although without the restraint of Luol Deng, James was full of firepower in the game and scored directly against Wang Chong. Wang Chong scored 41 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, while James had a triple-double of 36+10+10.

As usual, Wang Chong won the score, while James was better in all-around, so it can only be regarded as a tie.

But when he looked at his teammates, he was doomed.

Facing the Cavaliers' weak inside line, Garnett struck hard, scoring 21 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists, penetrating the Cavaliers' inside line.

Billups also scored 18 points and 8 assists.

The interior defensive system built around Ben by the Cavaliers is simply ineffective. In other words, Ben, whose jumping and explosive power have been sharply reduced due to age, no longer has the dominance of the four-time best defensive player in the Detroit era.

Ray Allen felt good in this game, making 7 of 4 three-pointers and scoring 24 points, but he was also the only player around James who could provide help.

The other Cavaliers players had low offensive efficiency under the Bulls' defensive system built around Garnett, and it was very difficult to score.

The result was that the Bulls defeated the Cavaliers 104:88 in the Christmas Day game, and Wang Chong continued to maintain his undefeated streak against James.

In the January schedule, the Bulls continued to maintain an ultra-high winning rate of over 1%, with 80 wins and 16 losses in 13 games. Their record has distanced themselves from other teams in the league, and they can be said to be unparalleled.

From the Eastern side, at a glance, even if the regular season is over, it is difficult to have a team with more than 55 wins. In the Western side, only the Los Angeles Lakers led by Kobe Bryant have a slight chance of hitting a 60-win regular season record.

In the past few years, several powerful teams in the Western Conference regular season, such as the Spurs, Mavericks and Suns, have experienced varying degrees of competitiveness decline this season, with their records only maintaining around 68%.

On the contrary, the New Orleans Hornets led by Chris Paul have shown strong combat effectiveness in the new season. Although this Hornets team is missing Tyson Chandler, the interior defensive general, the team's record has still been soaring. , currently ranked second in the Western Conference, second only to the Lakers in record.

The Bulls and Lakers, the teams with the best records in the East and West, first met on January 1th.

The Bulls sit at home and face the challenge of the Lakers.
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2008 1 Month 16 Day.

United Center in Chicago.

Bulls vs Lakers.

The battle for the top spot in the Eastern and Western Conferences is definitely the focus of the league.

The Lakers' outstanding record proves that their decision to acquire Pau Gasol through a wave of stud trades in the summer was very correct.

As a star, Gasol may not be ranked high in the league, but his playing style is the player that best suits Phil Jackson's triangle tactics. In addition, the Lakers also have Odom and Bynum. Big players, this has greatly increased the strength of the Lakers inside.

So far in the regular season, the Lakers rank first in the league in rebounds per game, and their 109 points per game are also among the best among the 30 teams in the league.

The Lakers' reputation as one of the top three big men in the league shocked the league, but when they met the Bulls, people were shocked to find out, who is the top three big man?

Wang Chong, Garnett and Marc Gasol are all 2 meters tall. For the Lakers, Pau Gasol and Bynum are 11 meters tall, only slightly taller, and Odom He is 2 meters tall and is the only player who has fallen out of the 13 meter echelon.

As a result, in terms of average height, the Bulls are almost the same as the three tallest Lakers insiders, and there is no obvious advantage.

In this game, in order to deal with the Bulls, the Lakers directly let Odom, who mainly plays the sixth man, start the game, replacing starting small forward Luke Walton.

Speaking of which, although the league has changed beyond recognition under the influence of Wang Chong, it seems that it has some ability to correct itself, or it can be said that it is the style, habits and instincts of the management and coaches.

Luke Walton originally missed out on the Lakers because of Wang Chong. Unexpectedly, after the rookie contract period ended, he actually returned to the Lakers as a free agent and became the Lakers' starting small forward in the new season.

Of course, because of Odom, his starting position is only a pseudo-starter, averaging just over 20 minutes per game, far less than Odom, who averages 35 minutes per game.

The Bulls home fans looked at the players on both sides and felt a strong sense of oppression. There are three players on both sides who are around 2 meters tall. At the same time, Bulls starting shooting guard James Jones is 11 meters tall, and Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant is 2 meters tall.

The only short players on the field are the two point guards Billups at 1 meters and Derek Fisher at 91 meters.

Obviously, this is a high-level duel.

But that's just on the surface. Wang Chong knows very well that although the three high players inside played a huge role during the Lakers' two consecutive championships, the real core of the team is Kobe. The Lakers' inside players really let down rebounds and other teams' inside defense. The pressure is increasing, but if there is no strong scoring point from the outside to score points, only the inside line will not work.

In order to discredit Kobe, many people will attribute all the credit for the Lakers' two consecutive championships to the Lakers' inside advantage. However, whether it is Gasol, who has a very high tactical status, or Odom and his main team during the two consecutive championships. Bynum, who is mainly a meat shield center, is not an inside man with strong offensive ability. He is more like a functional inside man and cannot win games with a strong carry like O'Neal.

Kobe Bryant is the final word in this Lakers team, and is undoubtedly the most important and critical.

If a team wants to win the game, the overall score of the team must be higher than that of the opponent.

Therefore, facing the Lakers, competing with the opponent's inside line is not the focus. The core issue is how to limit Kobe's scoring through defense.

Because in order to trade Garnett, the Bulls have traded top perimeter player Laga Bell away from the team. It is almost impossible to limit Kobe in one-on-one defense.

Moreover, even Bell, who is known as Kobe's terminator, actually cannot completely restrict Kobe.

The Suns played against the Lakers three times in the playoffs. Except for the last time in the 09-10 Western Conference Finals, when Bell had left the team, Kobe's main opponent was Bell the other two times.

Although the Lakers lost to the Suns both times, Kobe averaged 27.9 points and 32.8 points in the series, with a shooting percentage of over 46%, much higher than the usual average. What kind of Kobe terminator is this?

Of course Wang Chong doesn't expect to be able to defend Kobe in one-on-one defense. He has a better way to face Kobe. He knows Kobe's character very well. He is indeed strong, but he really doesn't care when he is reckless, facing five players at the same time. Kobe is the only one in the league who dares to take action even when being double-teamed.

Some people still brag about this, thinking that this is the Mamba mentality and never admit defeat.

Players like this should be matched with teammates with Mamba mentality every day when they play games. They don’t play in teams and don’t support. They often develop and force one-on-five to kill them. After losing the game, they still complain about their teammates. Dish, CBA, let’s see if he can stand it.
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The game was about to start, Garnett and Odom jumped the ball in midfield, and Garnett won.

The Bulls attacked, Billups held the ball through half court, and passed the ball to Wang Chong immediately.

Odom had just taken a position in front of Wang Chong. The next moment Wang Chong accelerated and broke through from Odom's right side and rushed into the penalty area.

Garnett and Gasol have pulled all the Lakers' inside players outside, and the penalty area is empty. Even though Gasol, who has more flexible feet, wanted to help defend at the first time, he was still a step too slow. Wang Chong strode to kill. Entering the penalty area, he glided with one arm and scored a dunk.

Originally this was just an offensive score, nothing much.

But in the process of returning to defense, Wang Chong passed by Kobe and smiled meaningfully at him.

Kobe was stunned and didn't take it to heart.

But in the next few rounds, Wang Chong scored offensively for the Bulls. In just half a quarter, Wang Chong had already scored 11 points, and the Bulls also unilaterally suppressed the Lakers.

Kobe Bryant's side was not in a hurry to attack at first, but let Gasoldo use his ability to hold the ball to assist his teammates in attacking and scoring.

But watching Wang Chong continue to score, Kobe gradually began to lose his patience and began to increase the number of shots.

Originally this season, Kobe was a little worried. Although the team's record ranked first in the Western Conference and the Lakers finally had a championship appearance after having Gasol, in terms of personal competition, Kobe has fallen behind.

In the nearly 40 regular season games that have been played, Kobe's averages per game have remained stable at 28 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 5.6 assists, with a shooting percentage of 46%. These are absolute top superstar statistics.

However, compared with the 30+ points in the previous two seasons, 28 points is still slightly inferior. This has led to the fiercest competition on the scoring list this season between Wang Chong, who averages 31 points per game, and James, who averages 30 points.

Although due to the Lakers' excellent record performance, no one would say that Kobe's performance was poor.

But Kobe himself is still a little uncomfortable, especially since he lost to Wang Chong in the competition for the scoring title in the past two seasons, and he still has no personal honors.

On the other hand, Wang Chong, not only won two scoring titles by stepping on him, but also became the youngest regular season MVP in NBA history last season. Even so far this season, Wang Chong still tops the MVP rankings.

If this continues, Kobe will have nothing to gain at the end of this season.

It would be okay if such sacrifices could lead to the final championship, but what if the Lakers fail to win the championship in the playoffs?

Kobe couldn't even imagine the consequences.

And Wang Chong's slightly mocking eyes and smile just now deeply hurt Kobe.

That expression seemed to be saying something.

"Hey, isn't this Kobe Bryant? Have you been acting like this for a few days?"

Kobe was a man with a strong sense of self-esteem and was so competitive that he was almost paranoid. He couldn't bear even Wang Chong's silent ridicule.

In the next few rounds, the game turned into a scoring show between Wang Chong and Kobe.

Wang Chong hit a mid-range jumper, and Kobe immediately responded with a behind-the-back fadeaway jumper.

Wang Chong made a pull-up three-pointer from the outside, and Kobe made a strong layup under the basket to score 2+1.

At this time, Kobe was at the peak of his abilities and skills. His personal ability was beyond comparison, and his ability to attack tough situations was stronger than that of James, who had played against Wang Chong not long ago.

But what Wang Chong wanted was this effect.

As the game progressed, Lakers head coach Phil Jackson became a little restless because the Bulls began to gradually shrink their defense. Whenever Kobe attacked with the ball, at least two players were flanking him at the same time, sometimes even There is a three-person attack.

Kobe's offensive efficiency plummeted when he was double-teamed, but at this time Kobe was already on top, so it doesn't matter whether you double-team me or not? Even if there were five guys on the other side, I could still put the damn ball in the basket. Long live the Mamba Mentality!

As a result, at the end of half-time, the score between the two teams was 58:45, with the Bulls leading by 13 points at home.

(End of this chapter)