NBA: James wants to team up with me

As Michael Jordan, the strongest scorer in coaching history and the head coach who created two Bulls dynasties, in Phil Jackson's mind, Wang Chong's threat level is no less than Jordan's, almost at the same level.

Considering that Wang Chong can still maintain a 40% shooting rate from outside the three-point line, and the current situation that three-pointers account for an increasing proportion of points in the league, Wang Chong may be even stronger than Jordan in terms of pure offensive firepower!

Therefore, even if Kobe is the shooting guard closest to Jordan, he does not intend to let Kobe and Wang Chong score soaring points.

When the situation on the field fell into this situation, Phil Jackson immediately looked for an opportunity to call a timeout and adjust his tactics, trying to hinder the opponent's situation.

Although Kobe was a little unhappy, he held his nose and endured it in order for the team to win.

He really couldn't afford to lose.

Since O'Neal and Wang Chong left the Lakers, they have won championships one after another. Only he, the core of the team who was retained by the Lakers, has not gained anything yet. Even the MVP he won last season has been questioned and is considered to be due to his success. One that the power of the media stole from Wang Chong.

In addition, Kobe also lost the gold medal to Wang Chong in the finals of the Olympic Games. It can be said that he has been suppressed by Wang Chong in recent years and has been completely unable to turn around.

The strong sense of humiliation and unwillingness made him very eager to win this championship to prove himself. Therefore, even if the coach asked him to avoid a head-on confrontation with Wang Chong, the paranoid Kobe still endured it.

Of course, this is only temporary. Once he makes a concession and the team still cannot win the game, then in the subsequent series, Kobe will definitely play according to his own ideas, and it will not be easy for anyone.

After Kobe gave up the ball, the Lakers' offensive rhythm became much smoother. Jackson's triangle tactics did have something to offer. With the support of Pau Gasol as the axis organizer, the Lakers' offense became smoother.

In the first quarter of the game, the two teams were tied at 28:28, and they were evenly matched.

But following the second quarter, the Lakers began to lose some support.

In the second quarter, Wang Chong's offensive frequency became more frequent, bombarding the Lakers' defense line indiscriminately. This crazy attack without regard for physical exertion made it difficult for the Lakers to withstand. Not only that, on the defensive end, Garnett and Xiao Gasol and Gasol also began to increase the intensity of their confrontation. The Lakers' shooting percentage was affected and inevitably dropped. They only scored 19 points in a single quarter, but the Bulls scored 21 points with Wang Chong's 30 points in a single quarter.

At halftime, the score between the two teams was 58:47, and the Bulls won by 11 points in a single quarter.

There is no way, there is indeed a gap between the two teams in terms of lineup strength. Although Phil Jackson's triangle tactics are very powerful, the defensive strength of the Bulls under the guidance of Tom Thibodeau has reached the top of the league and even the top in history.

Thibodeau is famous for being strong on defense and weak on offense, but the Bulls have Wang Chong, the core of the offense in stand-up singles, and Billups, who has rich experience in the game, so there is no need to worry about the offensive end.

The Lakers, who fell behind in the first half, were unable to recover in the third quarter of the second half.

During the Lakers' two consecutive championships, there were several main advantages over other teams. The first was of course Kobe Bryant, the league's strongest scorer at the time, and the second was Gasol, Odom, and Bynum. The inside height advantage established by the three highs in the team, the third is the advanced tactical system brought by Phil Jackson, and the final fourth point is the league-leading bench lineup.

Led by the best sixth man, Lamar Odom, other bench gangsters such as Ariza, Shannon Brown, Jordan Farmar and others are quite outstanding in their ability to grab points.

Of course, no matter how powerful the substitutes are, they are still substitutes. The Lakers' benches are very strong when playing down the field, and they are all like All-Stars. However, once the team is at a disadvantage, they cannot be counted on to turn the tide and help when the ball is going against them. The main players recovered from the decline during substitute time.

Trailing by 11 points in the first half, it was already a big headwind situation. In addition, the depth of the Bulls' bench was no worse than that of the Lakers. Paul Millsap led the team, and there were excellent players such as Sessions. They did not give the Lakers' bench any gain. Chance to score.

Not only that, the Lakers lost another 6 points during the bench time. When the third quarter ended, the point difference between the two teams had reached 17 points!

In the final fourth quarter of the game, Kobe, who was unwilling to fail like this, began to imitate Wang Chong before and took crazy shots to try to save the game.

But Wang Chong knew Kobe very well. He knew the opponent's character very well, and he directly arranged a double-team for the opponent in the fourth quarter.

Kobe is the kind of player who knows that you are going to double-team me, but I will still take action resolutely. Occasionally, when he feels very good, he can really go against the wind and face two, three or even four or five defenders. Players force shots and make shots, but more often than not, what everyone hears is the familiar crisp sound of hitting the iron.

This time is no exception.

In the fourth quarter, Kobe took 9 shots and only hit 2 goals. He barely scored 6 points with 6 of 10 free throws. However, the point difference between the two teams was 17 points. These 10 points alone were of no help at all.

At 104:82, the Bulls finally won their first victory in the finals with a huge advantage of 22 points at their home court, leading the score 1:0.

It was a classic Bulls win.

As the core of the team's offense, Wang Chong shouldered the team's main offensive tasks. He scored 43 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, including 32 points in the first half alone. The Bulls scored 21 points in the second quarter. The key to being ahead.

In the second half, when the team was in an absolute lead, only 11 fewer shots were scored, resulting in a total of 43 points. Bulls fans fully believe that if the game situation is more anxious, Wang Chong is likely to score 50+ points in a single quarter. He It does have such strength.

Compared with Wang Chong, although Kobe also scored 35 points in this game, including 9 of 2 shots in the fourth quarter, his shooting percentage in the game was only 39%, less than 40%. Wang Chong, whose hit rate is stable above 50%, has a clear gap in efficiency.

In addition, during the game, Kobe also took the initiative to avoid fighting, and the gap in scoring ability between the two has become obvious.

"The Bulls won by a huge margin at home! The dominance of the 73-win team is truly extraordinary. Even the Lakers, the king of the Western Conference, are helpless."

"The Lakers must solve one problem if they want to win - guard Wang Chong. As long as Wang Chong can maintain efficient scoring efficiency, they will not be able to win the game."

Everyone knows that you can defeat the Bulls by guarding Wang Chong, but whether you understand it is one thing, and whether you can do it is another matter.

The Lakers' defense against Wang Chong is already quite good. Small forward Ron Artest, who is the best second defense player this season, is keeping an eye on him throughout the game, which can be called a candy-like entanglement. But the problem is that Wang Chong's technical characteristics are not something that a defensive player like Artest, who is good at using his body to exert pressure to limit his opponents, can easily defend against.

In terms of strength, Wang Chong's strength of 63 is definitely incomparable with Artest, who had a strength of over 80 at his peak. But basketball has never been a game about who is stronger, otherwise there will be many more forces in the league to crush O'Neal. Super heavy center.

Not to mention the current Wang Chong, even when Artest plays against Durant, he rarely succeeds in limiting the opponent.

The two have played against each other for a total of 35 games in their careers. Under Artest's defense, Durant averaged 27.7 points per game and shot 47% from the field, which is almost the same as his career average.

In fact, not only against Artest, Durant performed well against most of the league's famous forward defensive experts. Perhaps occasionally he would perform poorly in one or two games due to being targeted. , but as long as you look at the overall data, including facing top forward defensive players such as Leonard, James, and Draymond Green, he can maintain efficient performance.

There is no way. With the advantage of height and wingspan, and extremely accurate mid-range shooting, he is almost invincible on the offensive end and has no way to defend at all. This is why Durant is called the top scorer in history. reason.

The loss in the first game made the Lakers realize that it is undoubtedly impossible to defend Wang Chong one-on-one.

Many teams in the league have given other answers before - double teams.

Wang Chong's ability to break double teams is relatively poor. On the one hand, his height causes the center of gravity of dribbling to be too high. Even if his dribbling ability value is as high as 92, he still cannot avoid being easily intercepted.

On the other hand, breaking double teams also requires a large amount of physical reserves as support. After all, when one is against two on the field for a long time, the physical consumption is self-evident. Wang Chong's physical strength was previously a weakness. After being double-teamed, in order to avoid rapid physical Being consumed can only avoid its edge.

But it is different now.

Wang Chong, whose physical strength has reached 99%, is not afraid of physical exertion at all. There were actually signs of this during the previous Olympic Games, but obviously not many people in the NBA paid attention to it.

Compared with the tight schedule of the NBA, the Olympic Games only have a few games in total, and with 40 minutes of game time, it is not surprising that the players are full of energy.

This season, although Wang Chong led the team to an impressive record of 73 wins and 9 losses in the regular season, his personal data performance is not as amazing as in previous seasons, especially the season of 35.6 points, although his contribution on the defensive end is impressive. It's amazing, but not many people realize that Wang Chong's physical strength is strong enough to take care of both offense and defense at the same time, and still have some leeway.

The Lakers didn't know this, and the result was that they stepped into a trap in the second game of the Finals.

On June 6, the second game of the Finals was still held at the Chicago United Center, home of the Bulls.

In this game, the Lakers arranged a double-team to take care of Wang Chong, and the quality of the double-team was quite high. Kobe, the best first defense, and Artest, the second defense, teamed up to double-team Wang Chong.

The two players with excellent outside defensive capabilities indeed put great pressure on Wang Chong, causing his number of shots to drop sharply. But even so, Wang Chong still relied on off-ball movement and free throws under the screen, scoring 22 points in the game. points, and the shooting rate is 46%.

The cost of the Lakers double-teaming Wang Chong was that six Bulls players scored in double figures. Among them, Billups scored 6 points and 21 assists, and made 8 of 8 three-pointers due to the Lakers' lack of defensive strength on the outside.

Moreover, Wang Chong's explosive scoring power on the offensive end has indeed been limited, but the proportion of his energy investment on the defensive end has also increased as a result. The super defensive radius brought by his height and wingspan makes him become a little Garnett.

With the Bulls having two Garnetts, their defensive intensity has reached an unprecedented level.

The result was that Kobe Bryant was no better than Wang Chong. He made 24 of 8 shots from the field and only shot 33% from the field. He just relied on free throws to score 28 points. His score was 6 points higher than Wang Chongshou's, but his efficiency was still crushed. pressure.

The final score between the two teams was 108:99. The Bulls made another victory, leading 2:0 and winning both home games.

Although the score between the two teams in this game was not that disparate, and the point difference was only within single digits, it did not affect the feelings of worry and despair among Lakers fans at all.

This game made them realize that the Bulls are really not a team that can easily win by limiting Wang Chong's scoring. Garnett and Billups are both players with good strength and big hearts. At critical moments, They are completely competent, and both of them are good at offense and defense. They have no obvious technical shortcomings and are difficult to restrain in one-on-one defense. Billups, in particular, is facing off most of the time in the game. It's all Fisher from the Lakers, so don't be too happy.

I have to admit that the Bulls' lineup structure is perfect, and it is obviously better than the Lakers, especially on the outside. With Wang Chong and Billups as two ball-handling points, they will not be double-teamed at all. limit.

Now all the pressure is on the Lakers.

After two games in the finals, the Lakers, already trailing 0:2, have almost no retreat. They must not lose the next game back at their home court. Once the score becomes 0:3, then the finals will be advanced. it's over.

In the history of the NBA, there has never been a situation where a comeback was possible even when trailing 0:3. Let alone 0:3, even if it was a 1:3 reverse, it has happened twice over the years. I can count them all on one hand.

If the Lakers want to win the Finals, then the next two home wins are crucial, and they cannot lose either one.

But the question is, how can the Lakers win?

In the first two games at the Bulls' home court, double-teaming Wang Chong would give other Bulls players a chance to perform, but they would lose.

If you don't double-team Wang Chong, if people underestimate you and give you 40+ or ​​even 50+ points in a single game, your loss will only be worse.

Although both teams are the strongest in the East and West, the actual battle proved that the gap in strength between the two sides is still quite obvious. Even though the Lakers have introduced Artest this season to target Wang Chong, it still does not matter. No help.

With a pessimistic mood, the time came to June 6, G9 of the Finals, the Lakers faced the Bulls at home, this will also be an important battle of life and death for the Lakers. (End of chapter)