NBA: James wants to team up with me

Defeating two strong rivals, the Cavaliers and the Lakers, has given the Bulls even more momentum in the regular season. It seems that no team in the league can threaten the Bulls' title defense.

In mid-December, the All-Star voting began. In the first round of voting, Wang Chong undoubtedly led the league with the highest vote share in the league, followed closely by James, Howard and Kobe.

For the Bulls, the second highest vote-getter is still Kevin Garnett, but unlike last season, Garnett's votes this season are significantly lower. This is mainly due to the decline in his personal data this season. .

But this is not a big difference. As a striker, even Garnett at his peak would have a hard time defeating the two competitors Wang Chong and James in the All-Star vote. With his fame and strength, despite the statistics His performance is poor, but the problem of being selected as an All-Star substitute is still not big.

It's just that the situation of Billups, another one of the Bulls' Big Three, is a little embarrassing.

In terms of data alone, Billups actually declined slightly less than Garnett. But the problem is that although Garnett's personal data has declined, his defensive end has not weakened at all, and he is still the mainstay of the Bulls' defense. Absolute defensive core.

Although Billups' defense is also very good, it is not at the same level as Garnett, a top defensive player who can improve the team's defensive level.

Last year, Billups was able to be selected as an All-Star substitute based on the team's record. However, with the rise of various players this year, the competition for All-Star positions has become increasingly fierce. Billups will most likely not be able to participate. It's the All-Star Game.

In fact, if Billups was originally on the Nuggets in the 09-10 season, he would still be eligible to play in the All-Star Game.

In the Nuggets, Billups was still able to contribute 19.5 points, 3 rebounds and 5.6 assists in the regular season, helping Anthony and the Nuggets achieve 53 wins in the regular season.

But in the Bulls, even though he has such strength, he cannot fully utilize it. After all, the distribution of ball rights is limited, and he needs to make sacrifices for the team's victory.

But Billups himself didn't care. He was always a transparent person during the All-Star Game, and he was always a foil for others in the several All-Star games he participated in in his career.

As for Curry and Gasol, they are still too young and are not included in the All-Star discussion.

Therefore, in this year's All-Stars, the Bulls are currently the most popular and strongest team. I am afraid that only Wang Chong and Garnett will be selected for the All-Stars.

Just like Billups doesn't care if he can make the All-Stars, no one cares about whether it's the Bulls or the fans in Chicago. No one cares about how many Bulls players are on the All-Star stage, as long as they win every game until they win the NBA championship. That really means nothing in comparison.

However, sometimes fate is so confusing that no one can guess.

No one thought that the Bulls, who were so powerful and at the height of their power, would suddenly fall from the sky when their momentum reached its peak.

12月赛程结束，公牛队在整个12月份的15场比赛中，取得14胜1负战绩，球队总战绩也来到27胜3负，胜率达到夸张的90%！

If this kind of winning rate can continue in the next few months, the Bulls are likely to break the league's best record again and set the best record in the regular season to a higher level.

However, in the first game of 2010, when the Bulls faced the Oklahoma City Thunder at home on January 1, an accident happened.

That was when the game entered the third quarter. The Bulls already had a double-digit advantage and were already sure of victory. After the Thunder's Westbrook broke through, he missed a mid-range emergency stop jumper. Garnett got ahead of everyone. He protected the defensive rebound, but when he landed, he fell to the ground with a look of pain on his face.

Seeing this scene, Wang Chong suddenly felt something in his heart, and an unpleasant feeling surged into his heart.

"No way……"

Garnett rested on the ground for a long time before returning to the locker room with the support of his teammates, and did not return to the court for the rest of the game.

The Bulls, whose thoughts were entirely on Garnett's injury, didn't even bother to play the game. Fortunately, the Thunder were one of the weakest teams in the league. At the same time, they were missing two generals, Durant and Harden. The Thunder, led by Sbrook, is not even a little bit inferior in strength.

Blake Griffin, this year's No. 1 pick, is a good immediate player. However, just like when he joined the Clippers, Griffin was injured for the season before he officially landed in the NBA. He will have to wait until next season to return with full blood.

Therefore, the Thunder simply do not have the ability to compete with the Bulls, even if Garnett is injured and all members of the Bulls are not interested in playing.

At 98:85, the Bulls easily won the game at home, but the winning Bulls were not happy at all.

Garnett's injury was really unexpected, and it seemed that the injury was not serious. If it was a serious injury that ended the season, it would be a devastating blow to the Bulls, and it would even directly affect the Bulls' three consecutive games. The road to defending the crown.

Wang Chong thought more.

Garnett's injury was a leg injury caused by an unstable landing after taking off. It looked like his right leg. It was very similar to the torn right knee ligament Garnett suffered during the 08-09 season with the Celtics. Injury, this injury directly caused Garnett to be reimbursed for the 08-09 season. As a result, the Celtics were eliminated by the Magic in the playoffs and missed the chance to defend their title.

Wang Chong originally thought that Garnett here had escaped the fate of being seriously injured in the 08-09 season, and at this stage he was only responsible for defensive work on the court, so the burden was reduced and the probability of injury would also be greatly reduced.

Unexpectedly, a year later, injuries would come back again.

"It can't really be so unfortunate, right?"

At this time, Wang Chong still didn't believe it, but after the game, Garnett's MRI report came out, leaving him completely speechless.

Torn ligaments in right knee.

Exactly the same injury as Celtics' Garnett.

Ligament tear itself is one of the more serious injuries in basketball. The recovery time varies depending on the situation. Players with minor injuries may be able to return in less than a month, but if the injury is more severe Or the recovery speed is slower, maybe about half a year.

Garnett is no longer young, and his physical recovery ability is completely incomparable to that of when he was young.

Therefore, when the injury is detected, the conservative recovery time given by the doctor is 6 months.

This means that Garnett will miss the game for a full 6 months. If his recovery goes smoothly, he may still have a chance to make it to the finals, but there is a high probability that the season will end early and the season will be reimbursed.

Once the news of Garnett's season reimbursement was announced, it was like a bolt from the blue, directly confusing Bulls fans.

Isn't this too unlucky? A good player was suddenly injured, and the injured player was Garnett, the team's most important core player on the defensive end.

Even though Garnett only averaged 14+9 per game this season, his tactical status in the Bulls is second only to Wang Chong and much higher than Curry, the team's second scorer. After all, Curry is only for the ball. The team provides a scoring supplement for firepower output. Even if he is not available, there will be others who can take his place. But Garnett is different. As the core pillar of the Bulls' defense, the team's defensive system completely collapsed without Garnett.

The Bulls' strength this season is their balance of offense and defense. Now that the important defense is missing and only offense is left, do they still have a chance to compete for the championship?
Even if everyone recognizes Wang Chong's super personal ability, facing several top teams in the East and West, the Bulls really no longer have any advantage.

On January 1, the Bulls, who had lost Garnett, challenged the Orlando Magic, one of their strongest rivals in the Eastern Conference, away from home.

With Garnett absent, the Bulls' lineup also had to make certain adjustments.

With a serious shortage of players in the frontcourt, Wang Chong could only move from the small forward position to the power forward position. At the same time, Danny Green was temporarily assigned to the small forward position.

Green has actually not had many opportunities before this. Unlike Marcus Thornton, he is not an excellent immediate player. He still needs one or two seasons of training and training before he can reach the level of high-quality 3D.

In the more than two months since he joined the Bulls, the most important thing Wang Chong asked Danny Green to do was to defend him in training games.

Wang Chong's original plan was to wait for one or two seasons. When Billups gets older, Curry will serve as the starting point guard and Danny Green will be the starting shooting guard to improve the team's perimeter defense.

But now it seems that it has to catch up.

Danny Green's first start was not satisfactory.

Facing Turkish magician Hedo Turkoglu, Green was fooled around by the experienced Turkoglu.

Of course, this matchup is not the key to the game.

The most serious problem for the Bulls is the lack of interior defensive strength.

Without Garnett to restrain him, Howard directly defeated Gasol in the game, scoring 28 points and 19 rebounds, leading the Magic to defeat the Bulls 117:109 to win the game.

In the first game without Garnett, the Bulls suffered a disastrous defeat.

"The unlucky king, the Bulls should have had a chance to win three consecutive championships. Their strength is definitely not inferior to the Lakers during their four consecutive championships, but injuries ruined their chance to create a dynasty."

"Time is also destiny. It seems that God does not want Wang Chong's road to success to be so smooth. Both Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal went through a long dormant period in the league before achieving success. Compared with Under the circumstances, Wang Chong’s success came too quickly and too easily.”

"Garnett is out for the season. The happiest person is undoubtedly the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe finally has the opportunity to win the first championship in his career as the core boss! He has waited too long for this day. Without the Bulls, Strong rivals, whether it is the Magic or the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, it is difficult for them to become opponents of the Lakers."

On January 1th, in back-to-back games, the Bulls challenged the Boston Celtics away from home.

The Celtics, who had been able to defeat the Celtics very easily before, put the Bulls into a tough battle this time. They relied on Wang Chong's three-pointer at the last moment to reverse the situation and narrowly defeated the Celtics by 110:109, 1 point.

Although the game was won, the process was quite difficult.

Two days later, at the Bulls' home court in Chicago, the Bulls suffered their second loss in January.

Lost to the Western Conference team Phoenix Suns.

The core player of the Suns, Stoudemire, was on full fire in this game, scoring 42 points. He and Wang Chong were both in the same match throughout the game. This is still a side effect of Garnett's absence. If the Bulls have any chance of winning this game, With Garnett guarding Stoudemire, it won't be difficult to defeat the Suns.

Only a few games into January, the Bulls have already lost 1 games, and their record has dropped significantly.

Although everyone knows that in the absence of a top superstar, the decline of the Bulls' strength is inevitable, but it is obvious that the impact of Garnett's season reimbursement on the Bulls is not just as simple as the weakening of the combat effectiveness on the field, the players' His mentality has also been obviously affected, and he no longer has the same indomitable momentum on the court.

The advantage brought by the previous record will allow the Bulls to stay first in the Eastern Conference and even first in the league for a long time, but if they maintain this state, it will only be a matter of time before they fall to first in the league or even first in the Eastern Conference.

Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau was troubled by this and tried every means to restore the decline.

But Wang Chong was not in a hurry.

Garnett's season reimbursement made him very depressed, but not to the point of despair.

On the contrary, at this moment, Wang Chong is extremely lucky that he chose to strengthen his defensive ability last summer, rather than other aspects.

I really don't know if this is a coincidence.

In the first few games, he was just waiting to see the overall situation of the league.

There is really no need to worry about this matter. The regular season is not even halfway through yet, and the upcoming schedule is still very long.

After Garnett is absent, Wang Chong no longer expects the team to continue to break the best record in history. As long as it can maintain the league's first record, it is enough.

This is not difficult for the Bulls, even without Garnett.

Because in the original 09-10 season, there was only one team with 60+ wins in the league, the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference.

Compared with the previous two seasons, when there were multiple teams with 60+ wins, the competitiveness was obviously much smaller. In addition, the Bulls still have a record of 29 wins and 5 losses so far, with a winning rate as high as 85%. Wang Chong As long as the Bulls' record can be stabilized at around 80%, they will have the best record in the league.

As for the playoffs, Wang Chong in the East doesn't think any team will be the Bulls' opponent.

The Magic are indeed a bit trickier because of Howard, but they are definitely not invincible. Howard is essentially just a super blue-collar player who lacks independent offensive capabilities. As long as he can cut off the Magic's offensive firepower from the outside, no matter how powerful Howard is, A single tree cannot support itself.

However, when they faced the Los Angeles Lakers in the finals, without Garnett, the Lakers' top three inside players had an absolute advantage in the penalty area, so they had to think about a solution. (End of chapter)