NBA: James wants to team up with me

Chapter 312 Kobe and World of Warcraft almost fought

Howard missed both the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams. What's the problem? Was he playing poorly?

During the regular season, he averaged 18 points, 12 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. Logically speaking, this performance is not bad. However, after joining the Lakers, the outside world's expectations for Howard have been too high, hoping that he can become like O'Neal or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Super center.

But people who understand Howard's technical characteristics know very well that Howard is essentially a super blue-collar man with explosive physical fitness. His super physical fitness makes him like a superman on the court, especially on the defensive end. He can protect the basket at the same time. Together with the help of defense, he single-handedly supports the entire team's defensive system.

But on the offensive end, which is a must for superstars, Howard seriously lacks the ability to independently attack. He mainly relies on catching balls under the basket and scoring on second offense. He has no inside footwork, no mid-to-long-range shooting ability, and no free throws. This makes him There are many limitations on the responsibilities that can be assumed on the court.

In the Lakers, he became Kobe's right-hand man. Without the team's first core position, Howard's blue-collar attributes became more and more prominent.

This is thanks to the fact that after joining the Lakers a year in advance, Howard did not suffer the serious injuries he should have suffered with the Magic in the 11-12 season, and his physical condition and explosive power did not decline significantly.

On the other hand, whether it is the best team or the best defensive team, the selection requires horizontal comparison.

Howard's performance on the court is indeed pretty good, but the problem is that compared with Duncan and Gasol, he has almost no advantage. Even if he is slightly ahead in rebounding, there is a huge gap between the previous team records.

Howard belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers, which has the super Big Three. They are the defending champions. He plays for such a super team. As a result, they only achieved the fourth record in the Western Conference in the regular season. Why should they compete with the Bulls who have the first place in the league such as Gasol and Gasol? Are Tim Duncan competing for the No. 1 Spurs in the Western Conference?
Being able to continue to be selected to the All-NBA team for Kobe and Paul is already a great honor to the Lakers. Howard's failure to be selected is the position among the Lakers' Big Three that needs to take the blame, which is basically equivalent to Bosh of the Heat next door.

Since forming the Heat's Big Three, Bosh has gained nothing in terms of personal honors. Not only that, whenever the team loses, he is often the one who is blamed and blamed, commonly known as the scapegoat.

Defensive second team: Rajon Rondo, Dwyane Wade, Paul George, Gisele Ibaka and Tim Duncan.

The Bulls, who had just played against the 76ers, were not used to the intensity of the Pacers' confrontation. Curry made consecutive mistakes on the outside and the opponent took the initiative on the field.

But at this time, no one knew what happened.
-
The Bulls also gained a lot in the selection of defensive lineups. The five-man All-Defensive First Team roster is: Chris Paul, Tony Allen, LeBron James, Wang Chong and Gasol.

The Pacers were naturally unwilling to sit back and wait for death. They made a lot of preparations before the game and tried to fight to the death.

He really regrets coming to the Lakers now. It's just that he is PUAed by Kobe every day. Now he can't even get personal honors. Even if he wins the championship, he still has a hammer? That was Kobe's championship.

However, Wang Chong's experience is too rich. After all, he has never missed the playoffs since the beginning of his career, and he has never even been eliminated in the first round. He knows very well what to do to make his teammates Calm down from the panic of a bad start.

After the opening game started, the Pacers showed great fighting power, fought very fiercely, and made some big moves in the game.

Both Curry and Gasol have completely grown up and can basically stand alone. Even without Wang Chong, they can still have strong players who perform well.

Before this set of duels officially started, the outside world was basically optimistic about the Bulls.

After Wang Chong and Curry were both selected to the best first team, Gasol was selected to the best first defense together with Wang Chong. It perfectly demonstrated the dominance of the Bulls this season and also proved that the Bulls' Big Three are indeed the real team. Well deserved.

The Lakers have been shot while lying down. The management has worked hard to coax them all season long, but they didn't expect to fall apart in advance because of the result of a best selection. It's really no one.

I never thought that the Bulls would change their main lineup at the speed of light. Curry and Gasol connected seamlessly. How can others play with this? How many championships do the Bulls plan to win during Wang Chong's peak?
On May 2013, 5, the second round of the playoffs began.

The Indiana Pacers came to Chicago to challenge the league's No. 1 Bulls away from home.

This conclusion really makes people feel a little desperate. After finally surviving the aging of Garnett and Billups, the old three of the Bulls, I thought that the Bulls would sink for a while.

There is no way, who among the Big Three has the worst performance and the worst statistics? You deserve to take the blame. Who asked you to join forces to form the Big Three, but you still can't compete for the boss?
But Howard is different from Bosh after all. Before forming the Heat's Big Three, Bosh only had one All-NBA Second Team and several All-Star honors, and the overall honors were lackluster.

Howard was different. For several years in a row, he was the leader in rebounds, blocks, and Defensive Player of the Year. He was said to be able to replace James alone, and his reputation was not even a little bit bigger than Bosh.

How could Howard endure such a situation in just two seasons with the Lakers?

What Wang Chong said before has come true. Looking at the Bulls with current eyes, everyone will be surprised to find that the Bulls are really a team with a fairly complete lineup structure, and this lineup can basically guarantee the next five years. It will be capable of competing for championships within eight years, provided of course that there are no injuries.

No way, the gap between the two teams in terms of the number of stars and team strength is too huge. The Pacers played really well before and eliminated the Knicks with Rose and Anthony, but they can only be considered unlucky when they encounter the Bulls.

Although the playoffs are still in progress, once the best lineup was announced, Howard immediately contacted his agent and made it clear that he would never renew his contract with the Lakers next season.

In fact, it's very simple, attack strongly and use scoring to stabilize the morale of the army.

The Pacers are responsible for guarding Wang Chong, David West. Although the 2-meter-tall West is a power forward, there is a huge height gap between him and Wang Chong.

His technical characteristics are somewhat similar to those of the Bulls' old player Paul Millsap. Although he is shorter among inside players, he has a stronger body, agile feet and a pretty good mid-range shooting ability.

The peak period of David West's career was undoubtedly the years when he partnered with Paul in the New Orleans Hornets from 08 to 10. As Paul's pick-and-roll insider, West relied on his excellent mobility to play with Paul. Paul plays a very good pick-and-roll effect, and his personal data can stably reach around 20+8.

After joining the Pacers, West's personal data has declined significantly, but even so, for the Pacers, he is still the main scorer in the interior, at least in terms of tactical status, he is much higher than center Roy Hee. Bert.

The greatest honor of West's career is the two championships he won after joining the Warriors in the future. However, at that time, he was no longer qualified for the team's main position and could only serve as a substitute player and contribute at certain times. of residual heat.

The Pacers arranged for West to defend Wang Chong, which was a helpless move.

It stands to reason that the Pacers' strongest defensive player should be Paul George, who was selected to the defensive second team.

But on the one hand, George is shorter than West, and defensive Wang Chong is seriously short of height. On the other hand, as the Pacers' current perimeter core, George not only defends, but also shoulders the team's offensive responsibility.

If George were to face Wang Chong directly, once he couldn't guard Wang Chong and had problems with his mentality, the Pacers would really have no chance at all. David West's strategy of defending Wang Chong is consistent with the Pacers' overall strategy of defending the Bulls. He also wants to use his physical and strength advantages to put pressure on Wang Chong and force Wang Chong to misalign his offense or make mistakes.

But this defensive strategy obviously doesn't work.

Wang Chong's current confrontation ability is not weak. Although his strength of 70 does not give him a strong strength advantage in the interior, at least he will not be easily squeezed and staggered.

In addition, although David West has good mobility, he is completely incomparable to Wang Chong.

When Wang Chong launches an attack from the outside, West's defense will appear very weak.

Wang Chong made a fierce attack with the ball and scored consecutively, helping the Bulls stabilize the situation after a bad start and tied the score before the end of the first quarter.

In the following quarters, the Bulls played steadily and did not rush for success. They only wanted a sufficient success rate and did not give the Pacers any opportunities to take advantage of.

Once the Bulls stabilize the situation, the gap in strength between the two teams will inevitably become apparent.

Although the Pacers resisted desperately, they only lasted 2 quarters. Not long after the start of the fourth quarter, as Wang Chong took over the ball and launched another fierce attack, the Pacers finally couldn't hold on and began to widen the point difference. Eventually lost the game.

94: 89.

The Bulls had a near miss and won the game at home.

In this game, the Bulls obviously entered the Pacers' rhythm. If Wang Chong hadn't stepped forward to control the rhythm at the first time, it would be difficult to say the outcome, but this is the meaning and value of the existence of superstars.

The Bulls won G1, but it was obviously much easier to win the G2 game two days later.

After a poor performance in the first game, Curry, who made 14 of 5 shots, bottomed out in the second game. He made 7 three-pointers in the game and scored 31 points in a single game. He combined with Wang Chong, who scored 34 points, to score 65 points to help The Bulls defeated the Pacers again 107:95.

The Bulls' two home games ended with a smooth 2:0 lead.

On May 5th, G10 of the series came to Indianapolis, home of the Pacers. Just like in the opening game, the Pacers showed great strength and once led by more than double digits for two quarters. Contest.

But in the third quarter, when the Bulls started to counterattack, the Pacers still couldn't withstand the Bulls' ferocious counterattack, and were outscored 36:22 in a single quarter to achieve a lead.

At 99:92, the Bulls won another victory at the Pacers' home court, leading 3:0 and taking the lead in winning the match point.

Although it is the same as the 76ers in the first round, after three games, the score is still 3:3, but any fan who has watched the game can tell the difference.

Although the Pacers also lost 3:0, they fought back and forth with the Bulls in every game, at least to the extent that they could fight back. On the other hand, the Bulls' opponents in the first round, the Philadelphia 76ers, were really able to fight back. He had no strength and was beaten unilaterally by the bull.

On May 5, in the fourth game of the series, the Bulls still failed to win 13 straight games and ended the game 4:4.

Perhaps knowing that there is no hope of a comeback and without any baggage or psychological pressure, the Pacers played exceptionally well in this game. The starting five players all performed impeccably. Even in the first three games, they were constantly beaten by small additions in direct confrontations. Sol suppressed Roy Hibbert, who averaged only 9 points and 7 rebounds per game, and also scored a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds in this game.

114:110, the Pacers finally regained a victory at their home court, and the score reached 3:1.

Not being swept by the Bulls is already a good result for the Pacers.

Two days later, in Game 5 of the series, the venue returned to Chicago, but the miracle did not happen.

The Bulls maintained their lead throughout the game, defeating the Pacers cleanly and with a score of 4:1, and successfully advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

What is a bit surprising is that the Bulls were not the first team to decide the winner in the second round.

In the West, the Spurs were upset, sweeping the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers 4-0 and becoming the first team to advance to the conference finals.

The Lakers were actually swept out of the game, which was really shocking. Even Wang Chong didn't expect it at all.

He also feels that the Lakers are at least the Big Three of Kobe + Paul + Howard. Even without cooperation, their individual abilities alone are enough to win one or two victories.

But failing to be selected for the All-NBA Team and the Defensive Team hurt Howard far more than Wang Chong imagined.

In the first two games, the Spurs won two straight games at home, leading 2:0.

After the Lakers returned to their home court, they planned to catch up, but the G3 game started unfavorably again, and the Spurs once had the upper hand.

Then during halftime, Kobe and Howard had a huge conflict directly on the bench. Kobe ignored the opinions of his teammates and fans and stood up directly and pointed his finger at Howard's nose with a sinister expression.

At this time, Howard is not the adult who will be beaten by society in the future and can endure being sprayed in the nose by Davis, a junior with thick eyebrows. At this time, the young and energetic Howard does not accept Kobe's tricks at all. Without showing any signs of weakness, he stepped forward to retaliate, and the two almost came to blows.

There are different opinions as to what caused the direct conflict between the two on the field, but it is actually not important anymore.

When the contradiction is completely intensified and it is in such an important occasion as the playoffs, there is basically no room for maneuver.

(End of this chapter)