NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 356 Wang Chao's Clippers debut against his old club Nuggets

2018 10 Month 17 Day.

The opening game of the NBA regular season begins, and the Los Angeles Clippers usher in the first game of the new season at their home court. Coincidentally, the first opponent of the new lineup of the Clippers in the new season is Wang Chao's old club, the Denver Nuggets .

This summer, the Nuggets who lost Wang Chao did not give up on themselves, but actively traded and signed in the free market.

The basic Nuggets built by Wang Chao is not bad. Gobert and Tucker ensured the team's defense, while Mitchell and Murray can be in charge of the team's offense. The only problem is that after Wang Chao left the team, the team has no A superstar who can make a final decision at a critical moment.

The Nuggets have been actively working on this throughout the summer, hoping to get a top ten superstar in the league.

It's a pity that things backfired. There are many big names in the free market this summer, but few consider the Nuggets.

The reason is also very simple. Any star who wants to join the Nuggets will inevitably be compared with Wang Chao last season. The voices will also follow, after all, with Wang Chao, Yuzhu, in front, the pressure is really too great.

And who can be confident that after taking over the Nuggets, he will be able to lead this team to win the championship immediately?
The result is that the Nuggets got nothing in the free market, and even had to sign some high-paid and low-powered players to avoid poor people's tax penalties due to the team's low salary.

Because of this, Rose, one of the heroes who won the championship, received a good contract of 3400 million in three years. For a veteran who has entered the end of his career, a contract with an annual salary of over [-] million is already quite generous.

Because of the failure of signings, the Nuggets have withdrawn from the ranks of the league's strong teams in the eyes of many people. In ESPN's strength rankings, the Nuggets are only ranked No. 19 in the league, and they are in the middle and lower reaches of the league.

This is not surprising. Even if the Nuggets successfully won the championship last season, it is an indisputable fact that there is only Wang Chao in the team. Even though Gobert won the best defensive player later, it is not enough for the Nuggets to enter Strong ranks.

Of course, this is just the perspective of ordinary people who have not opened their eyes.

In Wang Chao's opinion, even without him, the Nuggets are still very strong.

It can be seen from the lineup.

After Wang Chao left the team, the Nuggets' lineup became the starting point guard Mitchell, the starting shooting guard Murray, the starting small forward Kuzma, the power forward PJ. In the new season, Rose can still average 18+5 per game.

Compared with the Utah Jazz in the 18-19 season, the quality and strength of this lineup can be said to be only strong but not weak. It is definitely a strong team in the West.

There is one thing to say, the Clippers, who are going to play magic ball tactics in the new season, will encounter the top Nuggets in the defensive ability league as soon as they come up. It is better to play against weaker teams to build confidence.

It's a pity that the opponent in the regular season is not what Wang Chao said. The league has arranged such a schedule, so they can only go all out seriously.

Since Wang Chao's rise, all his teams have never lost in the opening game of the regular season, and he does not hope this time will be an exception.
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On the night of the game, the Staples Center in Los Angeles was packed, most of them were fans of the Clippers, and there were also a small number of fans of the Lakers. They came to watch the game with the idea of ​​inquiring about their opponents.

I have to admit that the home atmosphere of Staples is really good, and it is worthy of being the City of Angels, the capital of culture and entertainment.

Before the game started, the arena was full of cheers and applause.

The director also understood very well, and the camera stopped many times on a well-dressed blonde in the front row of the stadium.

Fans who know a little bit about Wang Chao can recognize this blonde beauty as one of Wang Chao's confidante, the former Victoria's Secret supermodel, Candice Swanepoel.

Today, Candice no longer engages in supermodel activities, and runs a fashion brand of her own. With the support of billionaire Wang Chao, she has a high status in many circles such as Los Angeles fashion and entertainment.

Seeing the camera focus on her body, Candice did not have the slightest stage fright. As a former Victoria's Secret supermodel, she has a full sense of stage. She smiled and waved at the camera. Her frowns and smiles were full of coquettishness, which made countless men unable to resist Envy and hate Wang Chao.

Wang Chao is really a winner in life. Not only is he handsome and rich, but even the women around him are top-notch in the world, and there are only two of them at once, which is too beastly!

Then, amidst the envious eyes and applause of all men, Wang Chao, as the strongest star of the Clippers, made his finale appearance, which drew thunderous applause from the audience.

After Paul and Griffin left the team successively, the fans of the Clippers finally waited with anticipation for the unrivaled hero in their hearts!
After a brief warm-up, the game is about to begin.

The Clippers' starting five: Wang Chao, Brogdon, Harris, Gallinari, Lopez.

The Nuggets' starting five: Mitchell, Murray, Kuzma, Tucker, Gobert.

Lopez and Gobert jump the ball in midfield.

Gobert, who has the advantages of height, wingspan, jumping and explosiveness, won the jump ball without any suspense, and the Nuggets attacked.

Mitchell dribbled the ball across the half court, looked at Wang Chao who was standing in front of him with a calm expression, his heart tensed for no reason, and he was a little flustered.

In the past season, he has been playing next to Wang Chao, so he is very aware of Wang Chao's terror. Even if he has absolute confidence in his speed and explosive power, Mitchell dare not attack in front of Wang Chao at all. .

This is almost suppressed at the bloodline level.

Without even thinking about it, Mitchell directly passed the ball to Murray not far away.

Compared to Wang Chao in front of him, Murray's opponent seemed much easier to deal with.

Brogdon, a substitute player for the Clippers last season, averaged only about 8+3 per game before, and his height and weight are not much different from Murray.

The tactics of the Nuggets for the new season have been formulated. Because of the failure to recruit strong players, Mitchell and Murray are the two main attackers of the team in the new season. He has performed well in the playoffs of the season and can be entrusted with important tasks.

Speaking of which, both Murray and Brogdon were rookies in 2016, but one of them was the seventh pick in the lottery in the first round, and the other was in the second round, and the treatment was very different.

Murray became the team's main starting player early on, but Brogdon has played as a substitute for many years. He was just mentioned in the starting position this season, and even his best rookie was snatched away by Murray.

In fact, looking at it this way, Brogdon actually feels a little cheated by Wang Chao.

Originally, after being selected by the Bucks with the sixth overall pick in the second round, he was quickly promoted to the starting position in his rookie season. With his average of 10.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, he won the best rookie of the 16-17 season.

In the second season of his career, which is the 17-18 season, Brogdon has become one of the important main players in the Bucks.

But after being intercepted by Wang Chao, Brogdon, who was supposed to be the starting shooting guard for the Bucks, became a substitute player for the Nets, and was transferred to the Clippers as a trading chip, with Powell beside him. Such competitors get very little playing time.

Originally, Brogdon was almost desperate. He felt that after his rookie contract expired, it would be very difficult to get a high-quality offer contract in the league. How could he think of it? If it wasn’t for Wang Chao, he could get one next year. 4 million for 8500 years, a super big contract with an average annual salary of more than 2100 million?
The reason why Wang Chao arranged for Brogdon to serve as the team's starting shooting guard, on the one hand, is because he is about to shoot 42.6% of the three-pointers this season, which is very good. He is paired with Harris and Gallina, who also have a shooting rate of more than 42% or even 43%. Li, playing magic ball tactics is simply unsolvable.

On the other hand, it might not be without the idea of ​​giving Brogdon some compensation.

As long as Brogdon can show good strength and potential at the starting shooting guard position this season, even if he can't get a 4-year 8500 million contract like the original one, at least there will be a starting contract of [-] million waiting for him.

Such a rare opportunity is really important to Brogdon, so not only on the offensive end, facing Murray at this moment, Brogdon is also going all out defensively, striving to show his best performance on the field .

Murray immediately felt the pressure. Although he was not as stressed as Mitchell facing Wang Chao, Brogdon's defense was definitely not bad. As a pitcher, Brogdon played 3D during his time with the Bucks. The identity of the player, although he has never been selected to the All-Defensive Team, he is often on the list when the media ranks the league's 3D players.

Murray used the pick-and-roll cover of his teammates to bypass the defensive mid-range jump shot. Brogdon's pursuit was very timely and successfully caused defensive interference, causing Murray's mid-range shot to miss the basket.

Looking at where the rebound landed, Gobert's eyes lit up.

Although the height and tonnage of Lopez who is facing him is not bad, but the judgment of the rebound's landing point and the ability to block the position are far worse.

Gobert got stuck in front of Lopez first, grabbed the offensive rebound as soon as he took off, and then took off continuously without any pause to throw the basketball towards the basket.

In theory, there is not much difference between Gobert and Capela, and they basically have no offensive ability, but this kind of offense at the basket after the second rebound can still be slightly successful.

However, this time he missed.

Although Lopez failed to win the rebound, his recovery after losing the rebound was very timely. He slapped the basketball in Gobert's hand accurately, and blocked the attack with a clean shot.

Lopez, who is 2 meters tall and has a wingspan of 13 meters, does have a slight gap with Gobert in terms of static talent, but his ability to protect the basket after some training is not bad. The gap is relatively small among league centers, and in terms of weight, Lopez, who is 2 kilograms, is even stronger than Gobert.

With sharp eyes and quick hands, Wang Chao bent down and picked up the blown basketball.

Seeing this action, all members of the Nuggets couldn't help but jump in their hearts.

The Nuggets players couldn't be more aware of Wang Chao's fast break and counterattack speed.

In the past season, the sharpest offensive method of the Nuggets was to use oppressive defense to cause mistakes or disadvantages to the opponent's offense, and then Wang Chao formed the most threatening fast break attack.

Almost at the same time, many Nuggets players immediately turned around and ran to the backcourt. Otherwise, they would have been unable to guard Wang Chao.

Especially PJ Tucker, he is the backbone responsible for defending Wang Chao in this game. Naturally, he has to run desperately at this time to ensure that he will not be thrown away by Wang Chao's speed.

Sure enough, Wang Chao, who got the ball, began to accelerate the sprint immediately, and the speed was as fast as before.

This speed and explosive power, is it sure that the 35-year-old veteran who has not trained throughout the offseason and traveled around can maintain it?
The Nuggets players were powerless to complain.

Fortunately, they were mentally prepared to return to the defense very quickly. At this time, three people had already returned to the half and started to build a defense line.

Wang Chao, who was fully sprinting, could not be defended by one person, so while PJ Tucker was blocking Wang Chao, Mitchell on one side also quickly approached, trying to steal from the flank when Wang Chao forced a breakthrough .

It was too late to say it, and then it was too late, and Wang Chao had rushed into the Nuggets' three-point line in a flash, and Tucker and Mitchell also formed a tendency to encircle Wang Chao.

But at this moment, Wang Chao suddenly raised his hand and threw the basketball in his hand to the right.

Everyone's eyes moved with the basketball, and they saw Brogdon who was already standing at a 45-degree angle on the right side outside the three-point line.

Brogdon, who received Wang Chao's pass, didn't react for a while. He held the ball and froze for a moment outside the three-point line. It wasn't until Mitchell ran towards his position again that he reacted, bent his knees and jumped up.

Because Mitchell was too far apart, even though there was enough room for shots, he still couldn't catch up.

The basketball crossed a perfect parabola in the air, and then crashed into the net.

Brogdon was originally in the Bucks in the 18-19 season, and he could achieve a 42.6% three-point shooting rate. Moreover, in the past month, the Clippers have conducted a lot of three-point shooting training. The training effect of Wang Chao's training potion is increased. If he still can't make a shot when he is completely empty, Wang Chao will have to consider replacing him in the starting lineup.

3: 0!
The Clippers gave the Nuggets a bad start at the beginning of the game. While the offense is sharp, the previous defensive strength is absolutely not bad. The only problem may be that they need to pay attention to rebounding.

Wang Chao thought silently in his heart. "The next defensive position will be a little closer to the inside to share some of the rebounding pressure for Lopez."

Although Mitchell has the ability to shoot three-pointers, he is not that strong. Wang Chao doesn't need to worry too much, and his position can also be placed a little more inside. With Mitchell's height of 1 meters, Wang Chao is sure to be able to score two points. Under the distance of the body, arrive before the opponent's shot and form effective interference.

(End of this chapter)