NBA: James wants to team up with me

No matter what the Bulls players think after this season, at least the season is not over yet, and everyone's main focus will still be on the game in front of them.

In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bulls vs. the Heat, both sides are old rivals. They also know each other thoroughly. There are fewer trials and twists and turns in the fight. From the beginning, it is a hard-fought fight with real swords and guns.

On May 5th, the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals, the game just started, and both teams were on the offensive.

On the Heat's side, James and Wade frequently attacked the basket with the ball, putting great pressure on the Bulls' interior. Gasol quickly received two fouls, and even Wang Chong also received a foul.

It was disrespectful to come back, and the Bulls immediately fought back. Wang Chong, Curry and Danny Green each hit a three-pointer from the outside. Their super long-range shooting ability made it difficult for the Heat to parry.

The scores of both sides continued to rise alternately, and the situation was indistinguishable for a while. The fans at the Bulls' home court couldn't help but sweat.

Indeed, the Heat, with full offensive firepower, are fully capable of competing with the Bulls, but this is only when the offensive firepower is full.

The biggest gap between the Heat and the Bulls is that the Bulls have superior outside three-point capabilities, while the Heat's offense mostly relies on breaking through with the ball and attacking the basket.

At the beginning, the two sides were still in a difficult battle, but as the game progressed, the fact that three-pointers were greater than two-pointers gradually widened the point difference between the two teams.

The Heat discovered this problem in time and began to consciously strengthen their defensive strength on the outside. However, the problem is that the Bulls' outside offense largely copied the future Golden State Warriors, focusing on a large number of off-ball movements and pick-and-roll screens. It may help Wang Chong and Curry find open shots from outside.

Judging from the conclusion, it is basically impossible to prevent the Bulls from shooting three-pointers. The only thing that can be expected is that when players take shots after moving quickly, the hit rate cannot be guaranteed.

But it is a pity that the Bulls players have very good outside touch today. Needless to say, Wang Chong has never had a cold touch in his impression. Even Curry and Danny Green's three-point shooting percentage from outside is not low.

This resulted in the Bulls holding a 5-point lead at the end of the first quarter, and by the end of the second quarter, the Bulls' lead in the first half had reached 8 points.

In the second half of the game, the situation became even more unfavorable for the Heat, because the main players of the two teams were exhausted and had to send in substitute players to replace them.

The Heat's bench can be described as a desert, bare of nothing. On the other hand, on the Bulls' side, Thomas Jr. took over the ball immediately after replacing Curry, using his mobility to continuously break through and hit the basket with the ball.

Facing Thomas, who is only 1 meters tall, even Howard has a headache.

Thomas was too short. When the two faced each other, Howard had to bend down to defend, and he had to be careful, fearing that the referee would call a foul if he accidentally made any physical contact.

Too much body size difference can indeed easily give the referee an illusion, thus affecting the tendency of whistleblowing.

For the Heat, the most fatal moment was the short few minutes when the coach took James off the court to rest.

Without James to control the court, the Heat's offense instantly came to a standstill. Wade, whose explosive power has dropped sharply, is fully defended by the second defense player Butler. It is very difficult to break through the defense with his own ability. He is often unable to break through. Going in, you can only choose a mid-range pull-up jump shot.

This move was one of Wade's main offensive methods at the end of his career, but there is a saying that the hit rate can only be considered average. It can be scored, but it cannot be used as the main offensive weapon to charge into battle.

In today's game, Butler defended very hard, which resulted in Wade's mid-range shots being frequently hit, with a very low hit rate.

As for Howard, it is undeniable that in terms of defensive end and rebounding, Howard is definitely at the top level in the league. Even if you look at NBA history, he can be ranked among the top players.

But when it comes to attacking...

Without James' passing assist, it would be completely ridiculous for Howard to attack with the ball behind his back in the paint.

After holding the ball behind his back and squeezing twice, Gasol behind Howard didn't move at all.

Lack of strength in the lower limbs and an unstable chassis have always been Howard's weaknesses, but there is nothing he can do about it. In order to ensure jumping, explosive power and mobility, Howard must control his weight. This is a matter of trade-offs.

How did Dayao manage to eat, sleep and play World of Warcraft back then? Relying on the extremely solid bottom plate strength, even in the two years when Howard was the strongest defensively, he had no way to deal with Dayao's post-up singles.

Now asking Howard to post up Gasol is equivalent to asking him to give up his advantage and use his own shortcomings to counter the enemy's strong points.

Gasol's foot plate is very stable. Although he is completely outmaneuvered by Howard in terms of mobility and even has difficulty protecting rebounds, he is not afraid of Howard's back.

After several back-up attacks to no avail, Howard had no choice but to switch back to his original playing mode, mainly using the second offense to grab offensive rebounds to score points. But how could this kind of offense compare with the Bulls' frenzied offense?

From the time James left the game to when he came on again in an emergency, in less than 2 minutes, the score difference between the two teams had been widened to more than 15 points.

Fans who are familiar with the two teams can already determine the outcome of this game by looking at the score, because basically the Bulls have established at least a double-digit score advantage in the third quarter of the game, and have almost never lost so far. Because Wang Chong's final game was so stable, there was no possibility of his opponent reversing the game.

In fact it is.

The game continued. After James returned to the court, the Heat's offensive rhythm finally stabilized. However, the Heat were already at an absolute disadvantage and could only fight to the death in the fourth quarter.

But whenever the Heat tried to launch a counterattack, Wang Chong could always respond immediately by scoring, crushing the Heat's counterattack.

The result was that when the whistle sounded at the end of the game, the point difference between the two teams was still more than double digits.

110:97, the Bulls defeated the Heat by 13 points at home and won a good start in the Eastern Conference Finals. The trend and result of the game were as expected by most people. Originally, most fans were more optimistic about the outcome of the Eastern Conference finals between the Bulls and the Heat. What's more, the Bulls were playing at home in this game, so it was not surprising at all to win the game. .

The Bulls, who easily won the first game, continued their efforts, and then won the second game of the Eastern Conference Finals two days later 98:91, taking a 2:0 lead.

When the Heat play against the Bulls, the biggest problem is always the inability to limit Wang Chong's scoring.

In the two lost games, Wang Chong scored 28 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists in one game, and 35 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists in the other game. His scoring was the highest for both teams, and his shooting rate was maintained at an exaggerated level of nearly 60%. .

5月24日，东部决赛第三场，回到主场的热火终于扳回一城，靠着詹姆斯34分6篮板11助攻以及霍华德24分21篮板的大号两双数据，热火在主场以117：112战胜公牛扳回一城。

However, the reason why the Heat won this game was not because of their own performance, but because of the Bulls' own problems. In this game, the Heat finally waited for the opportunity when the Bulls' outside players felt sluggish.

Curry made 15 of 6 shots, 7 of 2 three-pointers, and Danny Green made 5 of 1. Only Wang Chong of the Bulls' perimeter continued to maintain an efficient state. As a result, the game became a battle between the Heat's Big Three and Wang Chong.

In the whole game, Wang Chong made 27 of 15 shots, 8 of 3 three-pointers, 10 of 9 free throws, and scored 42 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 assists. However, Curry and others did not feel good, so they could only sit back and watch the game lose. .

After winning a game, the enthusiasm of the Heat fans immediately increased, and they shouted slogans to equalize the score and avenge the previous shame.

As long as the Heat can rely on their home court advantage to tie the score to 2:2 and then play the Battle of Tianwangshan with the Bulls, then they really have a chance to defeat the Bulls and reach the finals.

However, the ideal is full, but the reality is often very skinny.

In G4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bulls defeated the Heat 115:99, rewriting the score to 3:1, which also made the excited Heat fans feel as if they had a bucket of cold water poured on their heads and fell into silence.

In this game, the Bulls completely released three-pointers. They made 17 three-pointers in the game and scored 51 points from just three-pointers. Even though it was obvious that the referee was biased during the game, the number of free throws made by the Bulls was almost less than that of the Heat. 20 times, winning is still very easy.

At this time, Heat fans realized that the Bulls' inaccurate perimeter in the last game was not because the Heat's defense was in place and successfully restricted the Bulls' shooters. It was just because the Bulls were a little uncomfortable after coming to the away game.

After returning to form in this game, the Bulls' exaggerated offensive firepower from the outside has not been reduced at all.

With a big score of 1:3, the Heat had no way to make a comeback, and many Heat players, including James, were desperate.

How many years has it been?
It has been four years since the Big Three were formed in the summer of 2010, and during these four years, they have always fallen in front of the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Four years in a row! No matter how confident he is, James can't help but have an idea in his heart.

"Do you think I'm really not as good as him? If this continues, I might never be able to win a championship and become a player like Karl Malone or Charles Barkley..."

How could James accept this? He is the proud son of heaven, the king who attracts everyone’s attention!
On May 5, in the fifth game of the Eastern Conference Finals, facing the Bulls who already had match point and could win the Eastern Conference Finals if they won this game, the Heat played like a sleepwalker throughout the game. James, who played well, was also a little absent-minded, with only 28 points, 24 rebounds and 7 assists in the game.

In sharp contrast, it was the Bulls who played extremely resolutely in the game.

Even in terms of energy and spirit, there is a huge gap between the two teams, so there is no suspense about the outcome of the game.

97:88, the Bulls defeated the Heat at home, eliminating the Heat with a big score of 4:1. They defeated the Heat's Big Three in the Eastern Conference Finals for the fourth consecutive year and officially advanced to the finals.

In the five games of the Eastern Conference Finals, Wang Chong's personal data experienced a real explosive improvement. Throughout the regular season and even the first two rounds of the playoffs, Wang Chong obviously did not use his full strength, and his average points per game remained at 28. It looks like seven or eight points. In fact, as long as he averages about points per game, the Bulls will easily win most games.

After encountering the Heat's Big Three, it would be a bit inappropriate to continue paddling. After all, although the Heat's overall strength is weaker than the Bulls, it is still a strong championship-level team, and the configuration of the Big Three cannot be underestimated.

Therefore, Wang Chong went all out in this series. Not only did he keep an eye on James on the defensive end and restrict his performance, he also used full firepower on the offensive end to fully demonstrate his offensive capabilities.

In 5 games, Wang Chong averaged 35.8 points, 10.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, shooting 57% from the field and 41% from the three-point range. He couldn't find any faults.

On the defensive end, James, who faced Wang Chong, averaged 27.8 points, 7 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game, and shot 48% from the field. Although it cannot be considered a poor performance, everyone can see that James was being defended by Wang Chong. It was obviously more difficult to play in this round, at least in terms of data, it was much worse than the first two rounds.

"It seems that it will be difficult for James to climb the mountain of Wang Chong in his life. Let alone anything else, he has suffered a failure for the fourth consecutive year. Does the Heat management still have enough patience to wait? Or does James still have the patience? Continue?"

"Both James and Wade's contracts have player options this summer, and they can choose to leave the contract at any time. But even if James breaks out of the contract, where can he go? Looking at the NBA, which other team can give James the ability to challenge the king? Chong’s ability?”

The Bulls defeated the Heat and reached the finals. Although the attention in the league was not low, the popularity and response were actually not great, because before the start of the Eastern Conference Finals, the win-loss ratio between the Bulls and the Heat was almost close to 7:3. There was no surprise for the Bulls to win. It was completely natural and there was nothing to discuss.

As for the Western Conference, the winning team also had no surprises.

The San Antonio Spurs defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 4:2, advancing to the Finals for the second consecutive year and rematching with the Bulls.

The Spurs are visibly stronger this season, even stronger than last season. They are completely dominant in the Western Conference. Except for a little trouble when they encountered the Dallas Mavericks in the second round, they basically had a smooth journey and competed with the Eastern Conference. The bull is totally worth it.

But even so, when the Spurs entered the finals and faced the Bulls, they were also not optimistic. The win-loss ratio generally given by the outside world was similar to that of the Heat, which was close to 7:3. This means that in the eyes of most people, the Spurs can The probability of beating the Bulls to win the championship is only %. (End of chapter)