NBA: James wants to team up with me

Chapter 66 If Ma Long can’t do it, let Wang Chong come.

Bird is very strong. He is ranked in the top ten in history and is the only winner of three consecutive regular season MVPs. He must have a reason.

In Wang Chong's understanding, this has a very important relationship with Bird's character and playing style.

Bird has a flamboyant personality and likes to attack opponents with trash talk. At the same time, various dirty moves on both the offensive and defensive ends are endless.

In the 80s, it was difficult to survive without doing this, so there was no way. However, these must also be calculated into Bird's strength, which cannot be reflected in the system's ability value digitization.

This is also the reason why Wang Chong chose Durant. In the new era, the NBA has lower and lower requirements for confrontation. It pays more attention to off-the-ball movement, pick-and-rolls, and passes. If you make a slightly larger move, you will be called for a foul.

Apart from anything else, although Bird is a small forward, his movement speed is similar to that of ordinary inside players, and his mobility on the court is definitely not as good as that of Durant in the new era. In addition, don't worry about whether Wang Chong can learn his dirty tricks on the court. Even if you learn it, it will not be easy to use in the future league where there are more and more body hair whistles.

Of course, this is just Wang Chong's personal speculation and judgment. If Bird is really parachuted into this era, it is really uncertain what kind of performance the opponent can perform. It may directly surpass the gods, or it may only reach the upper limit of Novi. Ski level.

At that time, there was only one opportunity for Wang Chong to choose. He did not want to take that risk and chose Durant, who had already made a name for himself and was basically unsolvable in the future league on the offensive end. It was definitely a choice that could not go wrong.
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There was so much talk that the referee on the field had already thrown the ball into the sky.

Nowitzki simply lost the jump ball to O'Neal, who was 31 years old and weighed more than 150 kilograms.

Lakers possession.

Gary Payton dribbled the ball across half court, waited for all his teammates to be in position, and then chose to throw the ball directly to O'Neal inside.

O'Neal playing Nowitzki alone is no different from playing a guard in a misplaced position.

With his back against Nowitzki, he only exerted a little force, and the latter staggered back uncontrollably.

He came to the penalty area easily, O'Neal raised his elbow and turned around to put the basketball into the basket and score 2 points.

"Easy, so easy."

After completing the attack, O'Neal took his signature dominating step and happily returned to defense.

But as soon as he turned his head, O'Neal, who came to the defensive end, couldn't help laughing.

Because Nowitzki didn't go inside at all, but stood directly at a 45-degree angle on the right side of the three-point line.

No one in the league doesn't know how accurate Nowitzki's outside shooting is.

Last season, this guy averaged 46 points per game on 25.1% shooting and 38% from three-point range.

This guy must not be left easily open on the outside.

Therefore, despite his reluctance, O'Neal dragged his heavy steps and followed Nowitzki out of the perimeter.

But Nowitzki was not satisfied with this alone. He actually led O'Neal in a circle on the outside, running around the corner like a defender across the entire court, and ran to the other side for a three-point corner.

Now O'Neal is really at his wits end. When he was young, he could run all over the court, but at this stage, O'Neal is a heavy weapon. How can he run with a weight of 150 kilograms?

Nowitzki, who came to the corner, received Nash's pass and shot before the Lakers' defense.

"Shua——!" The three-pointer was hit steadily.

3: 2!

"Good boy, just wait and see!" The indignant O'Neal continued to attack the basket from the inside in the next round.

His offense was indeed completely impossible to guard against Nowitzki. This time O'Neal moved directly to the basket with a deep step and dunked with both hands to score. The huge force pulling the basket made an overwhelmed "crunching" sound.

"Shaq—O'Neal!"

The DJ at the Staples Center drew out his voice and shouted out O'Neal's name, causing the audience to cheer.

But on the Lakers bench, Phil Jackson frowned slightly.

O'Neal is no longer the O'Neal he was two or three years ago. His age and abnormal weight have made his physical fitness worse than before.

O'Neal, who was at his peak in 00 and 01, not only weighed close to 150 kilograms and was invincible in the paint, but he was also not bad at all in terms of physical fitness. Whether it was the regular season or the playoffs, he could play for more than 40 minutes in a game. He took 20 shots and was still very active.

But now O'Neal... is obviously different.

After a few rounds of the game on the field, O'Neal's breathing became obviously heavier and his steps became much heavier.

In the past, O'Neal used a lot of energy on the offensive end, so he could be a little lazy on the defensive end. After all, with his size, even if he does nothing but sticks to the basket, it is a deterrent.

But the situation in this game is still a bit special. As the center of the Mavericks, Nowitzki directly confronts O'Neal. His shooting ability causes O'Neal to defend from the outside, adding many unnecessary actions, and the physical consumption naturally becomes more big.

"It can't go on like this."

Phil Jackson stood up decisively, made a gesture on the sidelines and loudly said: "Change the offensive tactics."

O'Neal's physical fitness must be reasonably allocated to the four quarters of the game, and cannot be squandered all at once. Otherwise, how will he play in the next game?
The Lakers changed the main body of their offense and did not let O'Neal continue to attack. Instead, Gary Payton held the ball and started a pick-and-roll with Malone.

What Malone was best at during his time with the Jazz was the pick-and-roll tactics with his old partner Stockton.

Although Payton is slightly inferior to Stockton in terms of organizational support ability, he is still the league's top point guard after all, and he has naturally mastered the pick-and-roll, a necessary skill for defenders.

It's just that Malone's touch was obviously not very good in this game. After the pick-and-roll, he caught the ball twice and missed one goal. Instead, the Mavericks seized the opportunity to launch two quick counterattacks.

Another weakness of the Lakers was exposed, their mobility was ridiculously slow.

To be precise, it's the two old guys O'Neal and Malone who are too slow.

The Mavericks' lineup itself consists of Nowitzki, a 2-meter-13 big man, with four players over 2 meters tall and a Nash lineup. Once the offense misses or makes a mistake, the opponent's counterattack is as fast as thunder.

The score advantage initially established by O'Neal's attack to the basket began to be gradually eroded, and the main attacker the Mavericks relied on was Nowitzki, who O'Neal could not catch up with.

Seeing the team's poor offense, Jackson frowned and could only continue shouting: "Gary, try playing pick-and-roll with Wang Chong!"

Since Ma Long can't do it, let Wang Chong come!

Although Wang Chong, who is 2 meters tall, is not as strong as Malone, his pick-and-roll effect is not bad. More importantly, Wang Chong's shooting percentage after the pick-and-roll is quite stable, at least in previous daily training and preseason games. The stages are like this.

Phil Jackson didn't know whether Wang Chong could maintain his efficient mid-range shooting percentage in his NBA debut, but he had to give it a try.

(End of this chapter)