NBA opening draw to twilight Shaquille O'Neal

Chapter 1128 Ambitious Combination of Lanterns

On the night of the 11th, there was another game worthy of attention, that is, the Houston Mosaics challenged the Sacramento Kings away.

The spectacle of this game is actually mainly the Mosaic team.

Currently, the Mosaic team has a regular season record of 57 wins and 23 losses, ranking third in the Western Conference. Tonight is their penultimate game of the regular season.

It is worth mentioning that the previous record of the Houston Mosaic team in the regular season was 1993 wins and 94 losses in a single season led by Olajuwon in the 58-24 season.

As long as he wins this game tonight, Harden will be able to match the No. 1 Hakeem Olajuwon in the history of the Mosaic team... At least in terms of leading the team, it can be tied.

Therefore, this game is of great significance to Harden's mosaic career.

It doesn't take a second to know that he's going to give it his all tonight.

In fact, as early as 2015, Harden led the Mosaic team to create the second best record in team history of 56 wins and 25 losses. At that time, many fans said that Harden would one day be able to break the best record in team history created by Olajuwon.

But what everyone didn't expect was that this day came so quickly.

Tonight's opponent, the Kings, just encountered the team's core point guard shot Los Angeles during the All-Star Weekend, and now there is only one Andrew Wiggins left in the team who can handle it.

Since Rondo left, the usage rate of Wiggins in the second half of the season has skyrocketed, not only the playing time has increased, but the number of shots has also greatly increased.Before the All-Star break, he averaged 26.8 points per game. After the All-Star break, on the premise of adding 5 shots, his average score rose to 28.5 points per game.

As the No. 2014 pick in 30, Wiggins has grown into a super scorer with an average of [-]+ per game in his third year in the league. The growth trajectory of Wiggins in this time and space seems to have passed, which is completely beyond Wang Zelin's inherent impression of him.

要是没记错的话，显示威金斯2016~17赛季在明尼苏达森林狼交出来的成绩单是场均23.6分4篮板2.3助攻1抢断0.4盖帽，相比于同期新秀绝对是最拔尖的一个，但绝对没有达到现在的高度。

A third-year NBA player averaged 28.5 points per game, which is close to 30 points. Even looking at the entire league, he can be called a super scorer, not to mention that he is still so young.

It can only be said that the environment really changes a person.

Because Zui Ge is so competitive, he is now supported by the league. He looks like the first small forward of the new generation outside, and the absolute leader of the new generation of supernovas.

Even though the Kings' record plummeted after the All-Star Game and fell out of the Western Conference playoff contenders early on, the Kings' games still attracted a lot of traffic and fans' attention.

Their opponent tonight is the Mosaic team, one of the top teams in the Western Conference. The league is also very generous and arranged a full-meter live broadcast.

What do you mean?
It is that Wiggins is about to use his own strength to compete against the super scorer combination of Harden and Melon.

What exactly is the young supernova defending the home court?

Or is the combination of lanterns teaching the king to be a young man?

Everything is unknown.

At 6:40 p.m. that night, the Arco Arena, the home court of the Kings, was full of stars tonight.

On this memorable day, the Houston management specially invited Hakeem Olajuwon, No. 1 in team history, to watch the game, including some famous players in the series.

Dayao, who is the first brother of Tianchao Blue Shoes, couldn't hold back the warm invitation from his home team, so he took time out of his busy schedule to fly to Sacramento overnight.

The arrival of Dayao made this game widely circulated among the Tianchao fans.

Although it is said that Wang Zelin's achievements in the NBA and international arenas have surpassed Dayao, and also surpassed any previous Chinese men's basketball legend, but this still cannot change the unshakable special significance of Dayao among Chinese basketball fans.

Dayao was here, and many domestic entertainment stars also came to join in the fun.

On the side of the Kings, Ajiali, the daughter of Kings owner with an angel face and a devil figure, undoubtedly became a bright pearl shining in the Arco Arena tonight.

In addition to Ajiali, many Hollywood stars also appeared on the scene, some were invited by the alliance, and some spontaneously came to join in.

It can also be seen from this that the league really pays more attention to this game, and is also very optimistic about Wiggins' prospects, which is why it praises him and the Kings so much.

All in all, the stage has been set, just waiting for the players from both sides to take their positions.

At 7 o'clock that night, the war broke out as scheduled.

In this battle, the three generals of Mosaic, Eric Gordon, Nene and Ariza, entered the rotation list, so theoretically speaking, the Kings encountered an incomplete Mosaic team, and they have certain hopes for success.

But after the game started, the obvious gap in the overall strength of the two teams was reflected.

The Mosaic team felt hot from the outside line at the beginning of the game. Anderson hit all of the first 4 three-pointers. The Mosaic team quickly established a double-digit advantage, including before the end of the first quarter, Harden hit a three-pointer at the buzzer.

After the first quarter, the Mosaic team led the Kings 42:27.

Among them, the Mosaic team made 15 of 9 three-pointers in a single quarter, and 9 three-pointers tied the team's season record in a single quarter.

In the second quarter, the offenses of the two teams were open and close, and the offensive and defensive transitions were extremely fast. Wiggins showed the demeanor of a quasi-super scorer in active service. First, he completed a explosive dunk, causing the opponent to score 2+1 fouls, and then helped the team reduce the score by continuously breaking points.

Perhaps because of partnering with Rondo for a period of time, Wiggins' organizational skills ushered in a rapid improvement. After Rondo left the team to join the Clippers, he took on all the heavy responsibilities of the team's offensive end, not only scoring himself, but also Helping teammates score together.

In addition, it is also necessary to take into account individual defense and outside defense on the defensive end.

Playing in the Kings, Wiggins now really has the sense of sight of James in the 1.0 Cavaliers... he is both a father and a mother on the court.

Compared with ridicules such as wolfberry mamba and health mamba in his previous life, Wiggins now is completely worthy of the James template that the media predicted for him during the draft, and he can be called the proud son of heaven.

Wiggins's talent is beyond doubt, absolutely historical level, maybe his organizational talent is not as good as James, but his other talents are not inferior to James, coupled with the teaching of the famous teacher Rondo, his organizational ability has now reached the level of active players in the same position, er, the middle and upper reaches. It may be insufficient to lead a strong team in the playoffs, but he is in the Kings after all, and the teammates who lead the Kings are barely enough.

At the end of the first half, with Wiggins' excellent performance of 24 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, the score on the field came to 65.:78. The Kings trailed the Mosaic team by 13 points, barely, and it was considered to be biting the point difference.

You know, the Mosaic team this season is an out-and-out offensive team. They scored at least 10 points in the halftime 70 times in the regular season, and only once did they score 70+ points in the halftime last season.

Facing such an ultimate magic ball team, it is not easy for Wiggins to lead a single-core team to this level.

The only fly in the ointment is probably the hot-eyed 5 turnovers in the half, the assists and turnovers are almost the same.

But young people always have to pay some tuition for growth, which is understandable.

In front of the 24+8+6 quasi-two sides in the half, Cricket made 5 turnovers, which is not worth mentioning at all.

Back in the second half, after the start of the third quarter, the Kings scored 6 points in a row, bringing the score closer to single digits.

Just as the Kings fans in Arco Arena were cheering, "Melon" Anthony suddenly stood up and scored two three-pointers to stop the Kings.

In his previous life, the 2016-17 season was the last year of Anthony's New York Knicks period. At that time, he was able to hand over the All-Star level data of 22.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.

This is why when he joined the Thunder in his first season, the outside world called him, Paul George, and Russell Westbrook the Thunder's Big Three.

During this period, Melon's scoring ability does not need to be questioned by the outside world at all. Even after joining Mosaic, he is still an offensive kaleidoscope.

Perhaps considering that he is getting older and farther away from the dream of a championship, joining Mosaic and joining forces with Harden may be the last window of his career to win the championship. The once proud Melon not only settled his suspicions with the former coach D'Antoni, but in order to actively integrate into the magic ball system that D'Antoni has carefully built for the Mosaic team, he actually... chose to lose weight.

Yes, you heard it right, just turned 33 years old, after Anthony joined Mosaic, after careful consideration, he decided to lose weight and make a transition.

For Anthony, this actually serves multiple purposes.

First of all, Anthony's weight is already an absolute heavyweight among players in the third position, and it is more than enough to play in the fourth position. After losing weight, it can enhance his mobility and defense ability on the court, and can also extend his career age.

Then there's the transition to a [-]-point shooter.

The magic ball system, in simple terms, is to greatly reduce the mid-range in addition to efficiency, shooting, three-pointers and the end of the basket as a team, the main offensive choice, and then pursue the ultimate offense.

On the premise of Harden as the core, if you want to cooperate with him to play a good magic ball outside player, you must have a skill and three-point ability.

The three-point ability is just in line with the current NBA offensive trend. Anthony can complete the transformation a few seasons earlier than in his previous life, and it can also make this traditional offensive kaleidoscope better transition quickly in the new version.

The reason why Anthony went downhill quickly after leaving the Knicks in his previous life, to the point of not playing with the ball, is mainly because his technical characteristics have been decoupled from the small-ball era where he rushed to the three-pointer.

Almost all of Anthony's offensive characteristics were born for one-on-one, and in the small ball era, except for a very few players who can have specific one-on-one challenges, all other players must serve three-pointers and defense.

After Anthony left the Knicks, he didn't have a stable three-pointer, and the defensive end was a famous [-]-barrel bucket. He didn't touch both sides. No wonder he almost couldn't even hit the ball.

If he can complete the transformation ahead of time and practice a stable three-pointer, his career life will be greatly extended.

There is no doubt that a historical super scorer like Anthony will not be able to practice three-pointers?
In the future, some people will say that Jordan has reached the small ball era, and his style of play is at most an enhanced version of DeRozan?

Regardless of the NBA's background play in different eras, simply making cross-era comparisons is an extremely absurd hooliganism in itself.

If Gangzhu Qiao really grew up in the small ball era, with his talent and touch, it is impossible not to practice three-pointers.

Even the theoretically more difficult mid-range shooting can be practiced to an unprecedented level, and the shooting percentage has reached more than 50% of the only one among outside players in history. There is no reason why they can't practice three-pointers.

Therefore, it is not unacceptable for Anthony to practice three-pointers after joining Mosaic.

People already have outstanding shooting talent, but in the past it was just because of the needs of the version, and the more important thing was the mid-range.

As we all know, if a player wants to see whether he has shooting talent, he often looks at free throws.

Carmelo Anthony, a player with a career free throw percentage of more than [-]%, there is no doubt about how strong his shooting talent is.

What's more, Anthony's shooting percentage in his previous career is not so bad that it can't be seen. Except for three years in the first four years of his rookie contract, his shooting percentage fell below 4%, and the three-point shooting percentage in the rest of the years basically remained above 30%.

After the 07-08 season, the lowest shooting percentage was 31.6%, and the highest was 42.4%. That was the 10-11 season. He averaged 4.6 three-pointers per game and hit 2 goals.

Judging from the large sample of comprehensive career data, he is able to practice three-pointers.

The point is, while Melo is shooting 39.6 percent of his [-]-pointers this season, he hasn't lost the mid-range shot he once prided himself on.

CIC, once a weapon of gods, is also a magic skill after being tempered to steel in the playoffs. It is also the best cost-effective choice for superstars to save face after they get old.

In the third quarter of the game against the Kings, Anthony's touch exploded, showing textbook shooting skills.

No, to be precise, it should be the art of shooting.

After scoring two three-pointers in a row, the timeout came back. The Kings just hit an 8:2 attack wave and wanted to tie the score in one fell swoop.

At the critical moment, after realizing that his teammates were constantly hitting the iron with a three-pointer, it was Anthony who stood up again.

But unlike before, this time he chose to fire from the mid-range, and hit two consecutive mid-range jumpers on both sides of the free throw line, pouring cold water on the young boys of the Kings.

Pay special attention, counting the first two three-pointers, Anthony has already scored 10 points in the third quarter, and all of them were scored by Kings star Wiggins.

Facing the seasoned Anthony, all the defensive skills Wiggins learned from his big brother Rondo were all useless at this moment, and he was inevitably a little frustrated.

But Wiggins can't be blamed for this. Basketball is essentially a scoring game. Now that Anthony is obviously shooting, let alone Wiggins, even if Leonard comes, it may not work.

Relying on Anthony's miraculous performance of scoring 18 points in the third quarter, this high-profile battle eventually turned into a unilateral abuse of the Mosaic team.

After three quarters, the point difference between the two sides has been expanded to 24 points. Anthony clocked out of get off work three quarters ahead of schedule, and his personal score was fixed at 33 points.

Harden also clocked out of get off work in three quarters, but he still sent a game-high 11 assists, scoring a double-double of 28 points and 11 assists.

Relying on the outstanding performance of the lighting combination, the Mosaic team finally beat the Kings 138:121 in Mosaic, and achieved the 58th victory in the regular season.

So far, under the leadership of the two, the Mosaic team successfully tied the best regular season record in team history created by Olajuwon in the 1993-94 season.

At the press conference after the game, the ambitious lighting combination stated that the next game is the last stop of the regular season, and the Mosaic team will aim at Portland!
(End of this chapter)