NBA: I am the god of basketball

The Suns have the lowest record in the league this season, which is not worth mentioning at all, and in the original time and space, with Devin Booker, the Suns are still ranked first in the league with a record of 21 wins and 61 losses, and Successfully won the No. 18 lottery, selected DeAndre Ayton, the No. 18 pick in [-], and missed the [-] duo, Luka Doncic and Trey Young.

Of course, that's another story.

For Wang Chao, the 1 points in the first three quarters in early January was just a warm-up.

Playing against these weak teams really couldn't make him interested enough, but the next opponents were different.

On January 1th, the Nuggets played against the San Antonio Spurs at home, and then on January 5th they went to an away game to challenge the Golden State Warriors. The regulars are the biggest competitors between Wang Chao and the Nuggets on their way to the championship this season.

The Nuggets have played against the Warriors once before, but this is the first time they have played against the Spurs this season.

The current two core members of the Spurs, Butler and Howard, were both Wang Chao's teammates, and they won three consecutive championships with Wang Chao.

It has to be said that Popovich did save Howard's career. He should have encountered Waterloo in the Lakers, and then moved to the Rockets, Hornets, and Eagles. The Spurs are still recognized as one of the top centers in the league. Although he no longer has the super defensive dominance of the Magic, but under the Spurs system, he can play the role of a weakened version of Duncan, especially The defensive ability of the penalty area can still be at the first-line level of the league's inside defense.

It's just that compared with Gobert's tall center with long arms and excellent frame protection efficiency, Howard, who has no mobility and explosive power in the past, is slightly inferior.

In fact, even without the tactical system of Popovich and the Spurs, Howard played 17 regular season games after joining the Hornets in the 18-81 season, averaging 16.6 points, 12.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. Second to Kemba Walker's second scoring point, the rebounding list is also ranked third in the league, second only to Drummond and Jordan Jr., the two newly rising rebounding monsters.

It can be seen that Howard is by no means really that unbearable, but no matter whether he is in the Lakers or the Rockets, he has not played under a tactical system that suits him, and the advent of the small ball era is also doomed Howard, a traditional center, will be eliminated. That's all.

Even with Popovich's help, Howard's ceiling is limited to that.

So far this season, Howard has averaged 17.4 points, 13.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game, which shows that he can only barely rank third to fifth among the center positions.

Among other things, Embiid of the Cavaliers has successfully become the second scoring point of the Cavaliers after Irving left the team this season. He is currently averaging 23.8 points, 11 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.1 blocks per game. one of the players.

In addition, there are Cousins ​​of the Warriors, Jokic of the Nets and other players.

However, the tactical status of these two people in the team is not as high as that of Embiid, but they can be compared with Howard.

The first is Cousins. He has been the team's second offensive core for many years in the Warriors, and he is also the mainstay of the Warriors' inside attack. Head coach Cole began to think about whether this style of play that takes both internal and external considerations is correct?

In the new season, the Warriors' tactical weight began to be slightly adjusted, and the number of interior offenses for Cousins ​​was significantly reduced, replaced by an increase in the playing time of the death five small lineup, although Cousins ​​​​has now also developed a one-handed three-point shooting ability , This season's three-point shooting rate can be maintained at about 36%, and he can hit 6 goals in 2.2 three-point shots per game, which is quite good as a center player.

But even so, Cousins' data still dropped to about 20.1 points and 10.4 rebounds, just barely scoring 20+ points, and his scoring was lower than Klay Thompson's 22.7 points.

As for Jokic of the Nets, after two seasons of coaching by Wang Chao, he should also soar this season and become a top center in the league. In fact, his strength is completely sufficient, but the Nets have limited him. play.

No way, Jokic's style of play at the peak must require a certain amount of ball possession.

But obviously in the Nets, there are not many opportunities to give Jokic the ball, because the Nets' outside lineup is too luxurious now.

The point guard, Chris Paul, is a big ball-holding core. He needs to hold the ball for a long time to show his strength. Although both Durant and Booker can play off the ball, they also need a lot of shots.

Going around in circles, Jokic is only the fourth choice for the Nets' offense.

But even so, Jokic still showed super personal ability in the game. So far in the regular season, he has averaged 18.1 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, which is also one of the outstanding centers in the league.

The current scoring order of the Nets from high to low is Durant with 28.4 points per game, Booker with 20.8 points, Paul with 18.8 points, and Jokic with 18.1 points per game.

The four main players alone can contribute 86.1 points per game, which shows how powerful the Nets are on the offensive end.

The regular season schedule is about halfway through, and the Nets averaged 115.2 points per game, ranking first in the league and nearly 2 points higher than the second-best Warriors!
Incidentally, the Nuggets are currently ranked ninth in the league in points per game, averaging 108.2 points per game.

Ranked ninth among the 30 teams in the league, it can only be regarded as an upper-middle level, not particularly high.

But the entire league knows that the Nuggets are not strong on offense, but on offense and defense.

Although the Nuggets have not entered the forefront of the league in scoring per game, their defense is strong enough!

Among the 30 teams in the league, the Nuggets averaged only 99.8 points per game, ranking second in the league, second only to the San Antonio Spurs, which averaged 99.2 points per game, and the only two in the league so far. A team that allows less than 100 points per game.

While the Spurs conceded 99.2 points per game, their scoring average was only 102.7 points per game, which is the lowest in the league, while the Nuggets' scoring average can rank ninth in the league. The difference is obvious.

Both teams are the most defensive teams in the league today, but the Nuggets are good at offense and defense, while the Spurs mainly build a basic set around defense.

These two strongest shields in the league are finally about to collide in the regular season.

As far as the defensive system is concerned, the Spurs and the Nuggets are really similar this season. Both have a big center who protects the frame like the mainstay of the inside line. .

The difference between the two teams lies in the offensive tactics. The Nuggets rely on Wang Chao's super personal ability, which is to drive the offense of the entire team by himself. In addition, only Mitchell, Simple tactics such as Rose and others' singles with the ball and pick-and-roll cooperation are simple and rude.

On the Spurs side, there are relatively more offensive tactics. In addition to Butler's singles, there are also tactics by Howard, Parker, Ginobili, and even Danny Green.

It's just that the GDP combination that once dominated the league, Duncan has retired, and Parker and Ginobili are also getting old and no longer what they used to be.

Ginobili's average of 9.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists this season is already the best season in recent years. Combined with Yaodao's 40-year-old age, it is already rare to have such a performance on the bench.

On the other hand, Parker, who is just 36 years old, has performed like a high platform dive this season. He has averaged only 7 points and 3 assists per game.

This is actually not surprising. Although Parker is much younger than Ginobili, his playing style relies heavily on his speed advantage to break through the frame. The growth of his age has made his speed and explosive power no longer, and he lacks long-range shooting ability. up.

In addition to Butler and Howard, the main scoring points of the Spurs this season, the third scoring point is Rudy Gay, a free agent signed in the free market for 2 years and 1700 million in the summer.

Rudy Gay is 2 meters tall, serves as a small forward, and has excellent physical fitness. During his peak period, he averaged 03+ points per game in many seasons. At the same time, relying on his explosive physical fitness, he also performed well on the defensive end.

Although he has never been selected to the All-Star and All-NBA team throughout his career, Gay is usually regarded by the league as an All-Star-level star.

Gay, who was born in 1986, is only 32 years old and still maintains a good competitive state. He averaged 19 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in the Kings last season, shooting 45% from the field and 37% from the three-point range. .

The Spurs signed Gay in order to form the Spurs' perimeter combination with Butler, which can help the team on both offense and defense.

Gay did not disappoint the Spurs. So far in the regular season, he has averaged 15.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game for the team, successfully becoming the third scoring point in the team under Butler and Howard.

Butler, Howard and Gay also formed the basic set of the Spurs for the new season, allowing the Spurs to maintain sufficient dominance in the West where there are many strong teams. The record ranks third in the West, second only to the Nuggets and The Warriors are two teams, and the win gap is not particularly large, which makes this matchup even more interesting.
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The game started and the starting players of the two teams appeared on the field.

The Nuggets started with five players, Mitchell, Murray, Tucker, Wang Chao and Gobert.

The Spurs started five, Patrick Mills, Danny Green, Jimmy Butler, Rudy Gay and Howard.

Gobert and Howard jumped the ball. Facing Howard, who no longer has much jumping ability, Gobert easily won the jump ball by virtue of his height and wingspan.

The Nuggets have the ball.

After Mitchell quickly dribbled the ball across the half, he immediately passed the ball to Wang Chao.

Wang Chao held the ball in the top arc, and it was not Butler standing in front of him, but Rudy Gay.

He glanced at the situation on the field lightly, and immediately understood it.

Although the main defense against himself is not the strongest point of the Spurs' defense, Gay's defense is not for nothing, and Wang Chao can clearly perceive that Butler's defensive position is very close to his side, while Howard on the inside His eyes were fixed on him all the time, and it was estimated that as long as he made a slight move, the Spurs would immediately encircle him.

This kind of defensive strategy against Wang Chao is already standard in the league, but the Spurs obviously did it more naturally, which is due to the team's overall defensive tactics and the credit of the coach.

Popovich is indeed worthy of the title of top coach in league history.

In the past or even last month, facing such a defense, Wang Chao would choose to attract opponents to double-team and then pass the ball to his teammates to score. With multiple talents in organizing assists, Wang Chao's direct assists are extremely efficient. Gao, not at all inferior to a top guard like Paul, who averaged double figures in assists per game for several consecutive seasons and was crowned the league's assist leader is the best example.

But it's not going well in the near future, because Wang Chao is just preparing for a point-blank battle with Harden, and he just "declared war" in the last game. Even if the defensive pressure in this game is high, he doesn't plan to back down.

Faced with Gay's defense, Wang Chao did not call his teammates to cover the pick and roll, but made a gesture to open the singles.

As his teammates pulled away, Wang Chao held the ball and lowered his center of gravity, dribbling the ball continuously under his crotch.

Guy was concentrating on the basketball in Wang Chao's hands. For him, if he could restrain Wang Chao, the No.1 player in the league's history, in the game, his status would definitely rise. This is still very important to him. of.

In this era of soaring salary space and everyone can sign a big contract, Gay signed a contract with the Spurs for only 2 million for two years, an average of less than 1700 million per year, which can contribute 900 per game during the regular season. For a +20 striker, it is definitely a cheap contract.

This only needs a little comparison to know.

Tucker, who is one year older than Gay, averaged only 6.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last season, but the average annual salary of the four-year contract signed with the Nuggets is 800 million.

Gay, a player with a 20+5 level, is at the same price as Tucker, which is somewhat unreasonable, and of course he will feel uncomfortable.

Therefore, Gay only signed a two-year contract with the Spurs, and this consideration is also involved. He hopes to perform well in the two years with the Spurs, so that his worth will increase. Fortunately, in the contract year, he can win a career for himself. The last big contract at the end of his career.

In this regard, Gay is very motivated to defend Wang Chao. Is there anything in the current league that can increase his worth more than performing well against Wang Chao?

Just like the so-called Kobe Terminator back then, and then all the players who defended James with good performance, these defensive players who can make the league's No. .

Wang Chao's current status in the league far surpasses that of Kobe and James, so playing against him will naturally attract more attention.

It's just that the idea is beautiful, but it's not realistic.

Because Wang Chao is no longer a player who can be restrained by a single defense, let alone a single defense, even if it is a double team, two top defensive players who are not particularly experienced can't stop Wang Chao's fierce offensive.

Facing Gay's defense, Wang Chao, who was dribbling the ball continuously under his crotch, paused for a moment, then accelerated his breakthrough in the next moment, and passed Gay in just one step.

"So fast!"

Guy was shocked!
To be fair, although they are both strikers, the chances of him and Wang Chao facing each other directly are not too many, because Wang Chao's position swings too frequently, small forward, power forward, and point guard change back and forth.

Although he watched a lot of Wang Chao's game videos and did a lot of research and analysis, he only realized the horror of Wang Chao's strength after facing it head-on! (end of this chapter)