NBA: James wants to team up with me

Chapter 161: 40 swept the Cavaliers, LeBron’s first time.

"Wang Chong reversed the Cavaliers with 44 points. The Bulls took the lead at 3:0 to get the match point. James may be swept in his first playoff trip in his career."

"With 41 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, it's hard to find a savior. His grand words have turned into a laughing stock. LeBron is confused. How far must he go to win a victory for the Cavaliers?"

After this battle, overnight, the headlines of major media outlets were all comments about the result of the third game of the series between the Bulls and the Cavaliers.

This matchup was the one that received the most attention and popularity among the eight playoff matchups in the first round, and the result was also the most unexpected.

Who would have thought that the fourth and fifth teams in the Eastern Conference, which should have been a matchup with the smallest gap in record strength, would actually be such a one-sided situation.

You must know that the Pistons, number one in the East, faced the Bucks, number eight in the East. They accidentally capsized in the gutter and lost in the third game, with a big score of 2:1, while the Spurs, number one in the West, faced the Bucks, number eight. The Kings also have a score of 2:1.

The two teams with 60+ wins in the regular season and ranked first in their respective divisions failed to achieve 3:0, but the Bulls did it.

Wang Chong worked hard in the second half and scored 44 points in a single game, which also reversed the situation where his personal data in the first two games were slightly inferior to James's. Even though everyone knows that the reason why Wang Chong's data is skewed is because The Cavaliers simply failed to force Wang Chong to go all out in the first two games.

In this third game, the Cavaliers finally gained some intensity, allowing Wang Chong to really exert his full strength on the court.

But the result was by no means good news for the Cavaliers. The turnaround in the third quarter and the key winning three-pointer at the end of the quarter greatly magnified Wang Chong's role in scoring and played a vital role.

On the contrary, it was James's mysterious choice in the final quarter.

He let the three-pointer go without shooting, and scored two points at the most critical moment, which directly caused the Cavaliers to ruin the game.

And going back further, James made 2 of 1 free throws at the free throw line, which was also one of the key factors that put the Cavaliers into desperation after Wang Chong hit a three-pointer.

Although without James' 41 points, the Cavaliers may not be able to compete with the Bulls at all, but the problem is that this kind of thing is afraid of comparison.

He is also the absolute core player of the team, so how can Wang Chong on the opposite side step forward and score the winning shot for the team at the critical moment?

This is the difference.

After entering the NBA for three years, James won the Rookie of the Year award once in his rookie season. At all other times, he was completely at a disadvantage compared with Wang Chong. He was the NBA champion, All-Star MVP, and even the Olympic MVP in the international arena. Wang Chong When winning these honors, James could only look on sourly.

Now that Wang Chong has joined the Bulls, the two finally have the opportunity to face off directly in the playoffs, but in the end, James was beaten miserably.

Perhaps he did not lose in terms of statistics, but the current 0:3 series score is an ironclad fact that cannot be excused no matter what excuses are made.

The next most critical thing is the final fourth game.

This will be directly related to whether James and the Cavaliers will be swept out. If they are swept out, then there will be one more thing on James' career resume. He was swept and defeated by Wang Chong in his first playoff trip.

This is not a good reputation. Even because Wang Chong was drafted in the same year as him, whenever the two are compared together, they will be brought up from time to time and beaten.

The scheming James certainly understands this truth, so he wants to avoid being swept out as much as possible.

But this kind of thing is not something he can do just because he wants to.

-

On April 4, in Game 30 of the first-round series, the Quicken Loans Center in Cleveland was filled with deathly silence.

The game is still going on, but the suspense of victory or defeat has long been lost.

At this time, the game has entered the fourth quarter, and the score is 97:85. The Cavaliers are 12 points behind at home, and there are less than five minutes left before the end of the game.

Logically speaking, in five minutes, there is definitely the possibility of turning things around.

But Cavaliers fans obviously don't believe that the team has the possibility of winning.

Unable to guard against Wang Chong's attack, no matter how hard the Cavaliers try to catch up, there is no point. It's just that the scores of the two teams are rising simultaneously.

The game is not over yet, and a large number of Cavaliers fans have already stood up and left early. Instead of sitting here and suffering and watching their team die, it is better to leave early and not have to wait in traffic jams when there are many people.

In just a moment, the Cavaliers stands were completely empty.

And the game on the court was just as Cavaliers fans expected.

The Cavaliers, who were unwilling to be reconciled, launched a final wave of ferocious counterattacks under the leadership of James. With their desperate full-court press, they continuously caused the Bulls' passing errors, and James scored 6 points in a fast break counterattack.

But after being chased for 6 points in a row and the situation was unfavorable, the Bulls did not call a timeout to adjust, but tried every means to pass the ball to Wang Chong.

The moment they saw Wang Chong catch the ball, the hearts of all members of the Cavaliers trembled.

In the past three games, Wang Chong has almost become a nightmare for the Cavaliers players.

This nightmare really started to get mad again after getting the ball.

There are no fancy skills, and there are no extremely fast thunder breaks.

Wang Chong's offense is very ordinary, very ordinary, which is to move to the mid-range position, face James' defense with his back, dribble to adjust his position, then turn around and shoot a fadeaway jumper.

The movements are mediocre, and he doesn't have Kobe's picturesque shooting posture, but the basketball just hits the ball directly.

The score that the Cavaliers worked so hard to catch up was pulled away in the blink of an eye.

As said before, if there is no way to stop Wang Chong from scoring, the Cavaliers are destined to be unable to reverse the game.

The game time passed minute by minute, and seeing that the situation was over, the Cavaliers had no choice but to throw in the towel and admit defeat.

106:96, this was the final score of the two teams after the whistle sounded at the end of the game.

The Bulls won by 10 points at the home court of the Cavaliers, with a total score of 4:0 to achieve a sweep of the Cavaliers.

This game was the same as before. James scored a huge triple-double with 38 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. His shooting percentage was also quite high, reaching 56.5%, but he still could not prevent the Cavaliers from defeat.

<divclass="contentadv">Wang Chong scored 34 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists in this game. The win was considered easy and satisfactory.

It's not that James didn't have a whistle to take care of in this game. In fact, James still made 14 free throws in the game, which is definitely not a small number of free throws.

But the Bulls, who had already suffered a loss in the last game, will certainly not repeat the same mistake. Tyson Chandler controls the number of fouls he commits very well. Many times, he would rather let James go for an empty layup than foul easily.

Indeed, James who rushed to the basket was almost unstoppable without Chandler's cover, but this was not the case for other Cavaliers players.

When Chandler is on the court, the Bulls' defensive system is complete. Except for James, it is difficult for other players to make a difference in the penalty area. This is one of the main reasons why the Cavaliers lost this game.

In short, although James can offset Wang Chong one-on-one, the other players on the Cavaliers are no match for the Bulls. The gap in overall strength resulted in the Cavaliers being easily swept 4:0. Out.

Moreover, James and Wang Chong are evenly matched, and this is only reflected in the data level. If you look at the game carefully, you will find that although James' data is not inferior to Wang Chong at all, and can even beat Wang Chong, there is still a slight deviation. of.

When the two teams are in a stalemate or at the critical moment at the end of the game, Wang Chong's scoring efficiency is significantly higher than that of James. This was particularly prominent in G3 of the series.

Although they are both scoring data, the scores at the most critical moment are obviously not comparable to the insignificant scores before. The defensive pressure between the two is completely different.

All in all, James was defeated in this battle, and the defeat was very complete. Coupled with the rhetoric before the game, he simply lost both the opponent and the team.

-

While the Bulls swept the Cavaliers 4:0, the situation in other rounds of the league was basically clear.

A few days later, the results of the competition were announced one after another.

In the East, the Pistons eliminated the Bucks 4:1, the Heat 4:2 the Pacers, the Nets 4:2 the Wizards, and the Bulls swept the Cavaliers 4:0. All four teams in the East broke out, and the next two teams The matchup list for the round of matches was also born.

The Pistons, number one in the East, vs. the Bulls, number four in the East, and the Heat, number two in the East, vs. the Nets, number three in the East.

One thing to say, the Heat still made a mistake. The Nets are not strong at all this season. They have not even won 50 games in the regular season. Their record is lower than the fourth-place Bulls and fifth-place Cavaliers. They can rank Being third in the Eastern Conference is just because the other teams in the Atlantic Division where the Nets are located have worse records. The Celtics, Knicks, Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers all failed to enter the playoffs. As the only team in the Atlantic Division, , the Nets can enter the playoffs with the third record in the Eastern Conference.

However, against the Heat, which is second in the Eastern Conference, the Nets are destined to be in trouble.

In another matchup between the Pistons and the Bulls, people are obviously more optimistic about the Detroit Pistons, the only team in the Eastern Conference to have won 60+ games in the regular season.

In fact, due to Wang Chong, the Pistons have not had much momentum in the past two years, because the battle that made the Pistons' five tigers truly famous, that is, the championship that overturned the Lakers Super F04 combination in 4, disappeared because of Wang Chong. .

After the Pistons lost a championship, their best achievement in recent years was to reach the Finals for two consecutive years.

No one in this world will remember second place, and this principle also applies in the NBA.

Just like the New Jersey Nets, which reached the finals in two consecutive seasons in 01-02 and 02-03, they will also be gradually forgotten over time.

The only difference between the Pistons and the Nets is that the former has reached the Finals in the last two seasons, while the latter has reached the Finals two years ago. Therefore, the Pistons' remaining power is still there, although compared to the defending champion Spurs, the Pistons' odds of winning are higher. It's much lower, but a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, and the Pistons look stronger than the new Bulls.

Basically no one thinks that the Bulls can win the Pistons. The disparity in strength between the two sides is no less than the gap between the Bulls and the Cavaliers.

Many media have already begun to write articles in advance lamenting that Wang Chong's performance has been impeccable and he has been able to advance to the second round by leading his team in the playoffs for the first time in his career. Given time, the Bulls will definitely replace the Pistons and become the dominant team in the Eastern Conference.

But Wang Chong didn't think so.

It is true that the Pistons are indeed strong, but they are not without weaknesses.

The Pistons are a strong defensive team. All tactical systems are based on strong defense. The offense is very ordinary. Basically, it can only rely on the personal abilities of the two outside defenders Billups and Hamilton, supplemented by Rasheed Wallace and Prince scored some of the points at the forward position.

Ben Wallace at the center position is a center with even fewer offensive methods than Chandler of the Bulls. Although his defensive ability is extremely strong, he can only catch the ball at the basket and eat the cake on the offensive end.

More importantly, Ben Wallace, as the team's inside center, has a registered height of 2 meters, but if you remove his afro, his real height is less than 06 meters. When facing most teams in the league, Wallace can rely on his strong physique, explosive jumping and agility as fast as a defender to assist in defense and ensure the stability of the Pistons' defense to the greatest extent.

But the situation of the Bulls is a bit special, because Wang Chong is the core player of this team.

So the question is, can Ben Wallace guard Wang Chong? The answer is obviously no.

Ben Wallace is not afraid of a big center like O'Neal. He was even the only inside center who could compete with O'Neal in the penalty area during his peak period.

He is not afraid of those extremely fast little defenders, because even though he is actually 2 meters tall, he is not slow either.

But when facing those tall inside players who like to float and shoot from the outside, this is when Ben Wallace has the biggest headache, because he is really out of reach, and he can't easily jump to block shots when defending. Bouncing and explosive power are also of no use.

The most typical example is Dirk Nowitzki.

Ben Wallace has played against Nowitzki 22 times in his career. Nowitzki averaged 22.6 points and 9 rebounds per game when facing Ben Wallace, and his shooting percentage was 47.4%, both above his career average.

On the contrary, O'Neal and Ben Wallace played against each other a total of 45 times in their career. O'Neal averaged 23.2 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, and his shooting percentage was 59.8%. Except for the shooting percentage which was slightly higher than the career average, everything else was lower than the career average.

Moreover, most of O'Neal's fights with Wallace were before 06, and most of them were when O'Neal was still at the peak of his career. After 08, the two only played against each other three times.

This is enough to fully prove Ben Wallace's defensive characteristics.

So the question is, who has better scoring ability compared to Wang Chong and Nowitzki at this stage?

I'm afraid there is no controversy at all about this question. It is the same as asking Nowitzki or Durant who has better scoring ability.

Wang Chong himself doesn't think he is worse than Nowitzki, so when facing the Pistons, he will become the biggest unknown in the game, leaving the Bulls with a chance to defeat the Pistons.

Of course, this is just a chance.

Wang Chong can tear through the Pistons' iron wall by himself, but whether the Bulls can compete with the Pistons depends on the performance of other players.