NBA: James wants to team up with me

It was clear that the inside line had taken the initiative, but the Heat still led three quarters before being reversed and losing the game in the last quarter. There were two main reasons.

First, the Heat underestimated the Bulls' three-point firepower output.

Throughout the fourth quarter, the Bulls made a total of 7 three-pointers and scored 21 points from just three-pointers. Among them, Wang Chong made 4 three-pointers and Curry hit 3 three-pointers. They just shot a 12:2 wave. The attack wave reversed the originally lagging score.

At the critical moment, the Bulls also started to make tricks and played the shark-cutting tactic.

As soon as he was hacked, Howard, who was as fierce as a tiger, was immediately stunned.

Standing on the free throw line, Howard lost all his arrogance. He shot continuously and then hit the iron with a bitter look on his face.

The entire Heat team watched with constipated expressions as Howard made 2 of 1, 4 of 1, and 6 of 2. Even James, who was not very good at free throws, was so anxious that he wished he could go up and take Howard's free throws.

No matter how bad his free throws are, they are not as exaggerated as Howard.

Taking advantage of Howard's free throw period, the Bulls handed all the balls to Wang Chong in the offensive round. The latter successfully scored two goals in three consecutive offensive rounds, including a 2+1, further extending the already leading lead. Score expansion.

Although the Heat want to replace Howard at this time, they also know that once Howard leaves the court, their inside advantage will be gone, so they can only bite the bullet and hope that Howard's free throws can be more accurate.

They don't expect Howard to make 2 free throws. As long as the shooting rate can reach more than 1% and ensure that he makes at least of free throws, the current situation will be much better.

The second reason why the Heat were overturned was James.

Howard performed superbly in this game, but James, as the core of the team, performed somewhat unsatisfactory.

After the whole game, he made 17 of 7 shots and 8 of 6 free throws. He only had 21 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. He also had 3 turnovers. It was completely different from the past when he could compete with Wang Chong in terms of statistics despite losing. .

The main reason for this situation is that the Bulls made adjustments to the personnel to defend James in this game. Instead of Jimmy Butler, who was responsible for defending James last season, Wang Chong personally defended James.

Direct confrontation between Wang Chong and James is actually very common. In the early days of their careers, Wang Chong and James often faced off directly, and then clashed with each other on the court. Normally, Wang Chong has a stronger scoring ability, while James is better at scoring. Even better in all-around.

But later, after Wang Chong became the core offensive player of the Bulls, he rarely faced off against James directly. Wang Chong's weight and tonnage made him somewhat disadvantaged when facing James. He couldn't guard him anyway, so he had to use someone else to guard James. It is obviously a better choice to let Wang Chong save energy and focus on the offensive end. There is no need to let Wang Chong fight with James.

Therefore, in subsequent duels between the two, James was often responsible for defending Wang Chong, but Wang Chong chose to avoid the battle and let other players in the team defend James.

In fact, this has always been the reason why some James can still insist that James is better than Wang Chong even when James has lost to Wang Chong countless times.

"Wang Chong will only play while hiding from James. He won't win. No matter how many games he wins, it won't prove that he is better than James. If you have the ability, just have an upright 1V1 with James. When will we defeat James head-on?" I will admit that you are strong!"

This is why Wang Chonghui works hard on defense.

Although these remarks by James are very cunning and shameless, only your idols are allowed to join forces to form the Big Three, and others are not allowed to use normal basketball tactics and strategies, which is a very standard double standard routine.

In fact, this kind of remarks can be ignored directly. They are so awesome, as if James personally defended Wang Chong very effectively, wouldn't he be beaten by Wang Chong and score easily?
But since Wang Chong has this condition, he naturally doesn't mind fulfilling the requirements of these secretaries and see what they say when the time comes.

Therefore, Wang Chong and James were directly on top from the beginning of this game.

At first, James was a little confused. He didn't expect that Wang Chong, who had not guarded him for several years, would actually come and take the initiative to confront him.

But after a few rounds of fighting, James discovered that something seemed not quite right.

Wang Chong's defense is a bit difficult to deal with!
Since it has been a while since he attacked under Wang Chong's defense, James' defensive ability against Wang Chong is still the same as it was two or three years ago.

Although Wang Chong has been selected to the All-Defensive First Team in recent years and was selected as the Defensive Player of the Year DPOY last season, this is mainly due to his ability to assist in defense rather than one-on-one defense.

But now the defensive pressure Wang Chong puts on him on the defensive end is somewhat beyond imagination, almost giving him the feeling of being unable to move even an inch.

The feeling of unfamiliarity and extreme discomfort made James very uncomfortable in this game. It felt as if nothing was going right no matter how he played, his shooting rate plummeted to 41%, and the passes and assists he had come so easily in the past were no longer very effective.

Of course, James knows very well that being completely out of shape due to Wang Chong's sudden attack in a game does not mean that Wang Chong can defend himself like he did today in the future. In fact, as long as after the game is over, he can go back and carefully review the game video, analyze and Adapting to Wang Chong's current defensive characteristics, he can still produce outstanding statistics as in the past.

But what shocked and incredible James was Wang Chong's changes in just one offseason.

As his biggest opponent and target in the first half of his career, James can be said to be one of the people who knows Wang Chong best in the NBA. He knows very well that Wang Chong did not have such excellent single defense ability before, but now Wang Chong has Really possess such defensive ability.

This means that Wang Chong is still making progress!

This guy is already so strong, is he still getting stronger?

This feeling makes James feel a little desperate. He is not afraid of the strength of his opponent, but this feeling of never being able to surpass him and always leaving him far behind is unacceptable to anyone.
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The first meeting between the Bulls and the Heat in the new season ended with the Bulls completing a comeback in the fourth quarter and winning the game.

James, who had 21 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, became the main problem in the Heat's loss, and naturally received a lot of criticism.

Especially Heat fans, they can accept the Heat losing to the Bulls. After all, Howard has just arrived and it will definitely take some time to adapt to the Heat's tactics.

What they couldn't accept was that James and Wang Chong were beaten in a direct confrontation.

两人这场比赛全程对位，结果却是王崇砍下36分11篮板4助攻，同时防的詹姆斯只有21+5+4。

There is no excuse for such a failure. "LeBron, who has won the regular season MVP for two consecutive years, seems to have forgotten that he is not the best player in the league. He always has Wang Chong above his head and is out of reach. When will he be able to defeat Wang Chong in the playoffs and win the championship? Only by winning the championship can James prove himself! And losing to Wang Chong in a direct matchup seems to indicate that this possibility no longer exists. There seems to be an essential gap in strength between the two players."

"I can't imagine that if the Heat still lose to the Bulls in the playoffs this year, I'm afraid that the new Big Three that have just been formed will fall apart in an instant. Where will James go? Should he stay with the Heat or go to other teams? Team?"

The outcome of just one game has actually put the Heat in a precarious situation, which many people did not expect before the game.

The Bulls, who defeated the Heat, continued to advance rapidly.

The December schedule ended soon, and the Bulls' record reached 12 wins and 25 losses.

At the end of December, the Bulls lost a few more games, but it was still an old problem. Injuries caused problems with the team's main rotation. Fortunately, it was the same as the original historical process. Whether it was Gasol or Jimmy Butler, they encountered The injuries are all minor and only take about a week to recover at most, so he can return to the game quickly.

At the end of December, the 12 All-Star voting event began.

There is no suspense. Wang Chong and Curry occupy the top spots in the voting for forwards and guards in the Eastern Conference respectively. Although the All-Star voting has only just conducted one round of voting, both of them have confirmed their starting positions in the Eastern Conference All-Stars.

Unfortunately, Gasol, who averaged 18+7 per game this season, participated in the voting at the forward position, and the competition was too fierce.

The strength of the eastern front is really exaggerated.

Wang Chong, James, and Durant ranked among the top three, with fourth place occupied by Howard, who returned from the Western Conference. Then came Pacers forward Paul George, who has fully emerged. This season he averaged 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game. New York Knicks superstar Carmelo Anthony ranked sixth.

其实如果按数据来衡量，安东尼这个赛季场均27分8篮板3助攻，明显要比22+7+3的乔治更豪华一些。

But the problem is that the Knicks' record this season is unsatisfactory. Derrick Rose was injured at the beginning of the season and is expected to miss most of the season. With Anthony leading the team alone, the Knicks' record is impressive and they are currently only ranked around tenth in the Eastern Conference.

Compared with leading the Pacers to fourth place in the Eastern Conference, with a record second only to the Bulls, the Heat and Celtics Pacers are not at the same level at all.

Combined with the advantages brought by the team's record, it is not surprising that George was voted above Anthony in the All-Star vote.

As a result, the Bulls' Gasol can only be ranked seventh among forwards in the Eastern Conference. This ranking is actually not low. At least there will be no problem with an All-Star substitute. In this case, the Bulls will still be able to play this season. There are three All-Stars, two All-Star starters and one All-Star substitute.

The irony is that according to the first-round voting results, the Heat will most likely have three All-Star starters. Due to Rose's injury at the guard position, Wade still ranks second despite his personal data dropped to 19 points per game.

Therefore, the Heat will most likely have two All-Star starters plus a substitute.

The configurations of the two teams are almost identical, but at this time the gap in performance has begun to gradually widen.

At the beginning of the season, the Heat could barely keep up with the Bulls. Although their record was slightly behind, at least the difference was not too big.

However, as the schedule progressed, the Heat, like the Bulls, began to suffer a wave of injuries.

Wade is injured more frequently in the Heat. There is nothing we can do about it. With his age and the accumulation of old injuries, Wade's attendance rate has declined, which is uncontrollable.

In the original 13-14 season, Wade only played 54 games in the regular season, and in subsequent seasons, his average attendance rate per season was only maintained at about 60 games.

However, Howard is really a blessing in disguise. He has not suffered any serious injuries so far. Howard, who should have been in rapid decline due to a back injury, has had the second spring of his career this season, averaging 22 points, 14 rebounds and 2 blocks per game. The data puts him firmly in the position of the league's first center.

But in the Christmas Day game on December 12, the Heat lost another game against the Bulls away from home.

In this game, Howard once again scored a double-double with 17 points and 21 rebounds. However, the luxurious data could not cover up his poor free throw shooting rate of 18 of 8 in the entire game.

The Bulls used a large number of shark-cutting tactics in the game to easily gain the initiative.

In this game, James slightly adapted to Wang Chong's surge in defensive ability. Although the shooting rate was still unable to reach more than 47%, he still scored 27 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists with a % shooting rate.

Therefore, the blame for the Heat's loss in this game can only be shouldered by Howard.

It doesn't need to be accurate. As long as Howard's free throw percentage can reach 70% or even 60%, the Heat will have a chance to win the game.

At least that's how it seems to most Heat fans.

But the vast majority of these fans are ordinary fans who don’t understand football. Heat fans who really understand tactics and can scientifically analyze the game feel only despair, because they can clearly find that the Heat looked hot in the two games. It seemed like they were almost able to win the game, but in fact, Wang Chong didn't use his full strength in the two games. At least they didn't see Wang Chong show the near-unsolvable terror that he showed when the Bulls were in danger in the past. Scoring ability.

Their judgment was correct. Wang Chong really didn't go all out. In these two games, he played half-heartedly with the idea of ​​testing the Heat.

Of course, this does not mean that Wang Chong was slacking off during the game. He also played very seriously, but at certain critical moments he would also hand over the ball to Curry. Now Curry is fully capable of handling key balls.

Today's Wade no longer has the super defensive ability of previous years and cannot guard Curry at all, not to mention the Heat's starting guard Chalmers.

Therefore, even if the Heat knew that Curry was dangerous and wanted to target him, they were powerless.

With Curry sharing the key balls, Wang Chong will naturally paddle appropriately when not necessary. In the regular season, there is no need to reveal all his true strength.

This season, Wang Chong really feels like he has washed away all his glory. With the rise of many players in the team, his scoring data has also reached the lowest value since his rookie season, averaging 27.2 points per game, ranking only in the scoring list. Being ranked fifth is really the first time in recent years. (End of chapter)