NBA: James wants to team up with me

The first full month of the 2010-11 season is over, and the league's situation is clear.

The Bulls are unbeatable, far ahead of all other teams in terms of record, and while ranking first in the league, they continue to sit firmly on the team's strength list and are the favorites to win the championship in the new season.

The Big Three of the Heat are only ranked fifth in the Eastern Conference due to insufficient cooperation and immature tactics, which is surprising.

The rest of the teams generally performed relatively normally, and the one worth mentioning is the San Antonio Spurs.

Since the 06-07 season, when the Spurs defeated the Bulls led by Wang Chong in the Finals and won the fourth championship in team history, the Spurs' performance has been somewhat unsatisfactory for the following three consecutive years, despite achieving a 50-win record in each season. , was also a strong team in the playoffs, but whether it was against the Los Angeles Lakers or the fierce battle with the old rival Dallas Mavericks, the Spurs were slightly inferior and lost to their opponents.

Many Spurs fans can't help but lament that the era of GDP seems to be passing.

This is not surprising. Unknowingly, Tim Duncan, nicknamed "Stone Buddha", is now 34 years old. Even last season, he still averaged a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds per game, but in terms of data performance In terms of strength, the gap between him and the league's first-line power forwards has obviously widened.

At the beginning of the new season, Duncan and Garnett followed almost the same trajectory. In November, they averaged only 11 points, 13 rebounds and 9.1 blocks per game. Their personal statistics were as high as diving from a high platform.

Usually, the team's first core only has this kind of data, and it is almost impossible to win.

But this is the Spurs, and the Spurs under Popovich have never relied on the individual abilities of their stars to win.

While Duncan averaged only 13+9 per game and the other two players in GDP only averaged 17+ points each, the Spurs had a super high record of 14 wins and 2 losses, ranking first in the Western Conference, with 13 wins and 4 losses. The Lakers' winning percentage is even higher.

This was beyond everyone's expectation, but Wang Chong was not surprised.

The 10-11 season was already a very dramatic season, with many unexpected things happening. For example, the Heat's Big Three unexpectedly lost to the single-core Dallas Mavericks in the finals, and another example was the two consecutive defending champion Lakers. In the second round of the playoffs, they were ruthlessly swept out by the Mavericks 4:0. Another example is that the Spurs, who had the best record in the Western Conference, were eliminated by the Grizzlies 4:2 in the first round of the playoffs. All of them came from the 10-11 season.

Although it was embarrassing to lose in the playoffs and become one of the few teams in the league to be eliminated by a black eight, the Spurs' regular season dominance is indeed not bad.

Their ability is superior to that of the Lakers and Mavericks, with a regular season record of 61 wins and 21 losses. The Spurs have taken team basketball to the extreme. Even though no one in the team averages more than 20 points per game, the Spurs have five players in the team scoring in double figures. , there are also Gary Neal who averages 9.8 points per game and DeJuan Blair who averages 8.3 points per game. In addition, there are three players on the team who average more than 5 points per game.

The ultimate team allows the Spurs to average 103.7 points per game. In this season where the offensive pace is generally not fast, they can rank sixth in the league. At the same time, the average of 98 points conceded per game is also at the upper-middle level of the league's defense. The team's defensive ability It has not been greatly affected by the increased offensive firepower.

Except for Wang Chong, I am afraid no one dares to believe that in the next few years, the Spurs will always be the favorite to win the championship, reaching the finals in the 12-13 and 13-14 seasons respectively, and crushing them in the 13-14 season. defeated the Heat and won the fifth championship in team history.

Some people may say that the Spurs won the championship in the 13-14 season, wasn't it because of Leonard's rise?

But it must be clear that Leonard was not the core player of the Spurs in the 13-14 season. The Spurs' main tactics at that time still revolved around the three GDP players. Leonard only performed well during the Finals, and He also had an eye-catching performance when defending James.

The topic is a bit far off topic.

All in all, here in the East, the Bulls, who have 14 wins and 1 loss, are far ahead.

In the East, there are three teams: the Spurs, Lakers, and Mavericks competing fiercely. After them, there are teams such as the Nuggets, Hornets, Trail Blazers, Thunder, Rockets, and Suns.

The records of these teams are extremely close, and the situation is quite stalemate.

What’s interesting is that Dayao has not suffered any major injuries that could affect his career. Although he has suffered a lot of minor injuries and ailments in the past two seasons, he only played about 50 to 60 games in each season, averaging 17 to 8 games per game. The scoring has also begun to decline. Last season, he averaged only 30 points and 15 rebounds per game. So far in the new season, Yao, who is just 8 years old, has dropped to 30 points and rebounds, and his playing time has been limited to just over minutes.

Obviously, the Rockets are also worried about Dayao's health. They certainly hope that Dayao's career can be as long as possible. Even if his ability cannot help the Rockets achieve good results in the playoffs, they can at any rate The Rockets can still make a lot of money in China with Dayao as their cash cow.

Therefore, the Rockets are particularly careful about the use of Dayao. Generally, they will not let Dayao fight in close games. Even if they give up the victory for this, they are not willing to let Dayao get injured.

This has led to the Rockets losing many games that were stalemate until the last moment in the new season. The current record is only ranked ninth in the Western Conference, and is still behind the loss of Stoudemire. At the same time, Nash has also ushered in the 36-year-old Phoenix. sun.

Dayao himself is not grateful for the Rockets' over-protection. On the contrary, he is a little dissatisfied. After all, Dayao is also a player with pride and a lot of persistence in winning. Otherwise, he would not be in the playoffs in another time and space. In the game against the Lakers, he chose to play injured at the last minute.

It's just that no matter whether Yao is dissatisfied or not, it can't change the fact that the Rockets' strength is no longer what it used to be.

The once-famous Yao-Mai combination, Yao was troubled by age and injuries, and his dominance in the penalty area is not as good as before, while McGrady has been completely reduced to a bench role player, playing soy sauce in the Bulls.

The Bulls' bench gangsters are well-known in the league, but this mainly refers to O'Neal, Marcus Thornton and Danny Green. McGrady did not get much playing time in the Bulls and had few opportunities to perform. At the beginning, he could still get some attention and exposure based on his former popularity, but as the game progressed, people gradually lost interest in McGrady, and fewer and fewer media paid attention to him.

The Yao-Mai combination has completely become a thing of the past. The current Rockets' main players are Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and Aaron Brooks. The upper limit of strength is there. With Yao as the backbone, There is still a chance to compete for a spot in the playoffs, but if you want to go further and achieve any results in the playoffs, it is a bit difficult.
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As the schedule enters December, the Bulls continue to maintain their super dominance.

On December 12, the Bulls faced the Orlando Magic at home and defeated the Magic 1:107.

Last season, the Bulls and Magic were evenly matched in the regular season. In the absence of Garnett to restrain him, Howard almost got everything he wanted in the penalty area, consuming Gasol's hair and beating him violently. Only half a year later, the two teams met again, and Howard discovered that he could no longer bully Gasol like before.

Gasol, who signed a big contract, is very high-spirited and is obviously much more confident on the court. He is full of energy. Even if his athletic ability is not as good as Howard's, he will use all means to entangle the opponent and try his best to block the position to prevent Howard from easily grabbing the offense. rebound.

And I have to admit that with or without Garnett, the Bulls' interior defense is completely at two levels. Although Wang Chong would shoulder Garnett's responsibilities in the interior during key games at that time, and did a very good job, but compared to the real There is still a gap compared to Garnett.

Whether it is interior defense or judgment of blocking position and rebound placement, the experienced Garnett is not comparable to Wang Chong.

At least in this game, with Gasol and Garnett teaming up, Howard never had a chance to perform. He only had 13 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks in the game. His performance was far from his title of the league's number one center. Very far.

Everyone knows that Howard is not the core of the Magic's tactics. If this team wants to win, it mainly depends on the performance of the outside shooters. However, the reason why the Magic's shooters can fire unscrupulously from the outside depends precisely on Howard's inside. The ability to turn things upside down.

Once Howard is unable to gain an absolute advantage in the paint, the Magic's outside shooters will have little room to play.

After defeating the Magic, the Bulls immediately defeated the Boston Celtics 119:106 on the road two days later.

In the second meeting this season, the Green Army led by Durant lost the game again, and this time Durant failed to score points with Wang Chong like before. Wang Chong scored 42 points, while Durant Only 24 points were accounted for.

On December 12, the Bulls challenged the Houston Rockets in back-to-back away games, the China Derby between Wang Chong and Dayao.

The Rockets are also well aware of the attention paid to Dayao vs. Wang Chong, so even though Dayao suffered some minor injuries and felt slightly unwell in the previous games, they still arranged for Dayao to start in this game.

What I have to admit is that no matter what time, a center of Yao's height will always be a killer on the court.

A few days ago, Gasol, who was trying to beat Howard head-on, was beaten by Dayao in all kinds of ways. Whether it was the dreamy footwork inside to connect the hook, or the mid-range catch-and-shoot jump shot, Dayao beat him with all kinds of tricks. Yao always has a variety of ways to score in front of Gasol.

Of course, Yao Yao's ability to defeat Gasol does not mean that the Rockets can compete with the Bulls. In fact, after the first quarter of the game, the Bulls already had a double-digit lead. The gap between the lineups of the two sides is really huge. Too disparate.

Not to mention that Dayao is limited by physical problems and lacks continuous output ability. Even if he has sufficient physical strength and scores 30+ points, at most he can only form a one-for-one situation with Wang Chong. The Bulls' other position problems still cannot be solved. .

Fortunately, the fans at the Rockets' home court didn't have much hope for victory in the game at first. On the contrary, this game made many die-hard Rockets fans realize their dreams. For example, after the Bulls substitute forward Tracy McGrady came on the court, he high-fived Dayao on the court. The picture vaguely reminded Bulls fans of the period when the Yao-Mai combination was extremely prosperous.

After O'Neal came off the bench, the inside confrontation with Yao was easily reminiscent of one of the highlights of the league that year - the Yao-Shark showdown.

After the end of this season, O'Neal and McGrady will officially retire as expected. In the future, they may have few opportunities to appear on the court at the same time as Yao.

116:112, the Bulls defeated the Rockets by 4 points in an away game and continued their winning streak.

On December 12, the Bulls defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 6:102 at home.

The Thunder have performed quite well this season. Although it is impossible for the Thunder's three young players to reappear, the Thunder, which also has Westbrook and Blake Griffin, has a basic lower limit guaranteed. In addition, after the free market starts in the summer, , they successfully acquired Ray Allen and still showed good combat effectiveness in the new season.

Westbrook averaged 21 points and 8 assists per game, and Griffin averaged a double-double of 22 points and 12 rebounds per game. Coupled with Ray Allen's 18 points, the Thunder's record is very stable and they have been hovering in the fourth or fifth place in the Western Conference. With the name left and right, there was a fierce competition with the Nuggets led by Anthony.

The game against the Thunder unexpectedly caused some trouble for the Bulls.

When he was young, Westbrook had a really strong impact. The most intuitive reflection is that in the 10-11 season, although Rose won the regular season MVP and became the youngest MVP in history, in fact, both in terms of regular data and high-level data , Westbrook is no worse than Rose, and is even slightly better in terms of efficiency.

This is no nonsense. Rose and Westbrook are both point guards who focus on holding the ball and breaking through. However, Rose is limited by his height and weight. His impact is not as strong as Westbrook's, and his body is far inferior to that of Westbrook. Brooke is so tough and resistant.

When breaking through with the ball, Rose will often use disguised forms to get past his opponents during the breakthrough, which puts a lot of load on his knees. On the contrary, Westbrook's breakthrough is more direct and pure, and he looks like a reckless man. Very dangerous, but the possibility of injury is actually lower than Rose.

One thing to say, if Wang Chong really had to choose one of the two to build the core of the team, he would definitely be more inclined to Westbrook. Whether it is technical characteristics, future growth ceiling, or ability to resist injuries, Westbrook is the best choice. Significantly better than Rose.

Although Westbrook was disliked by everyone later, he was probably the only one who could achieve the miracle of averaging a triple-double for three consecutive seasons.

Don't worry about whether Westbrook averages a triple-double per game. Even if he does, not everyone can achieve it. From this point of view alone, Westbrook ranks among all point guards in NBA history. They can definitely be ranked.

The Bulls' current weakness is their poor ability to defend against breakthroughs on the outside. Not to mention Curry's defensive black hole, Billups is also having a hard time defending these extremely fast point guards.

There is no way, even a master of perimeter single defense who once entered the All-Defensive Team, cannot withstand the invasion of time. Billups, who is 34 years old in the new season, has greatly reduced his athletic ability, and his speed and explosive power are not as good as before. He simply can't keep up with the sharp breakthrough of the speedy defender. (End of chapter)