NBA: James wants to team up with me

Chapter 236: The knight loses to magic, who should take the blame?

This is the first time in Wang Chong's career that he has been selected for a double team, which is of great significance. After all, for Wang Chong, being selected for the best team is already commonplace, but it is not that easy to pick up the best defensive team. Fortunately, Wang Chong will be entangled with death. Both the badges and the Basket Protector Elite have been upgraded to the gold level, otherwise it would really not be possible.

Now that he has officially entered the ranks of double first team, it will not be too difficult for Wang Chong to win double first team in the future, because his defense will only become stronger as his ability value and badges increase.

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The time came on May 5, and the second round of the playoffs began.

The Bulls faced the Celtics in the second round of the playoffs without the old Big Three, but with Durant and Al Jefferson.

The Green Army, which has two outstanding strikers, is stronger overall than the Pistons, the Bulls' opponent in the first round, but its strength is very limited.

In the first game, the Bulls defeated the Celtics 112:105 and won their first victory.

On the offensive end, the Celtics' main scoring efforts are concentrated on Durant, Pierce and Al Jefferson, especially Durant. In the second season of his career, he has indeed shown excellent performance. His competitive level can even compete with Wang Chong on the field.

王崇整场比赛20投12中，砍下34分7篮板5助攻，杜兰特不甘示弱，18投10中，罚球10中9，也砍下29分4篮板3助攻。

However, the performance of Pierce and Jefferson in the game was a bit holding back Durant.

Jefferson was okay, making 10 of 6 shots, scoring 15 points and 7 rebounds, and his performance was quite satisfactory. However, Pierce missed all the shots in this game, making 20 of 7 shots and only scored 18 points.

Pierce is indeed a star who is good enough to be in the Hall of Fame, but his upper limit is very limited. He has no honors in his entire career. He has only been selected to the best second team once and three times. For the third team, the greatest honor is the FMVP after the Green Army's Big Three won the championship in the 1-3 season.

Pierce, whose playing style is more ground-level, faced Wang Chong in the game. With his height, wingspan and athletic ability not having the advantage, Pierce wanted to get rid of Wang Chong, who had reached the gold level with the Death Coil Badge. It was extremely difficult. Know.

The North Shore Garden Arena, the home of the Green Army, is a famous home stadium in the league. Unlike the Nuggets and Jazz, which take advantage of the plateau terrain, the Celtics' home stadium is better because of the excellent quality of the fans.

It is commonplace to verbally abuse opponent players and affect the players' mentality. In addition, there is no guarantee that Green Army players will not do any dangerous behavior when they are anxious to lose. Although this kind of thing is not absolute, it is still necessary to guard against it, especially For Wang Chong, who aims to defend his title, he must eliminate the possibility of any main players being injured.

But in the next game, the treatment was not so good. Also at the North Shore Garden Arena, the Bulls, with full firepower, defeated the Celtics very easily, winning 97:82 and taking the lead with a big score of 3:1. Match point.

Next, back to the Bulls' home court, the Celtics didn't have the slightest chance.

Therefore, when facing a team like the Celtics, Wang Chong is still very cautious and has no intention of sweeping his opponents 4:0 as he did in the past.

Wang Chong estimates that at this stage, Durant's overall ability score should have reached above 90, but that's at most. If he wants to reach his peak comprehensive evaluation of 97, he will have to wait until he is at least 23 to 24 years old. , that is, the stage when he won three consecutive scoring titles and led the Thunder to the finals.

In the third game between the two sides, the Bulls completely stopped playing in the game and did not rush to kill them all. It was regarded as a tacit agreement to let the game go. The Celtics successfully won the game and chased the score to 2:1.

But Pierce's FMVP, everyone knows very well that the biggest contributor to the team is actually Garnett, who is dominant on both ends of the offense and defense, not Pierce. The reason why he won the FMVP is simply because of the Celtics. It's Pierce's team, and Garnett, as an outsider, is a bit presumptuous when he grabs the FMVP when he first arrives.

After this battle, the Celtics should train Durant as the team's first core player. As for Pierce, he may transform into an experienced veteran who assists Durant, but it is more likely that he will be promoted while he still has trade value. Under the circumstances, trade him away in exchange for some players who can better assist Durant. After all, Pierce and Durant are essentially the same type of players. They are both small forwards who focus on offensive scoring. In theory, Pierce Not compatible.

4:1, the Bulls completed a gentleman sweep of the Celtics and successfully advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Without stability, Durant will easily be defended once he encounters a targeted defense.

As the team with the most championships in the NBA, the Celtics are one of the teams that have played in the most Finals, and most teams in the league have experienced Boston's tough style of play.

After all, not everyone can be like Durant and James, who can immediately seize power with peace of mind as soon as they run to someone else's team.

Moreover, after the end of the 08-09 season, Pierce will be 32 years old. Although this age is still the peak period of professional players, it is obvious that there are only a few years left in the peak period. When Durant has completely grown into a top star, if Pierce is still In the Celtics, there is no doubt that he will become a hindrance. After all, as the league's top star, Pierce's contract with the Celtics is not small.

Although the Bulls lost the game, everyone knew that it was just a tacit match. The Bulls gave the Celtics a face and were not prepared to sweep their opponents 4-0.

The score reached 2:0, and then the Bulls set off to Boston, the home of the Celtics, for the next two games.

After losing the first game, the Celtics lost even more miserably in the second game, because Durant was not very good in the second game. After all, this was only his second season in the league, and he was still young. The "Reaper" still doesn't have the same stable offensive methods and skills as in his peak period. When his hand feels good, he can compete with Wang Chong on the same stage, but when his hand feels bad, there is nothing he can do.

In the second season of his career, Durant was able to reach the second round of the playoffs, which is already a very good performance. In 5 games with the Bulls, Durant averaged 27 points per game, which is The Green Army has the best and most stable player, and it is obvious that the gap in talent and ability between Pierce and him can be seen.

Of course, this is from Wang Chong's perspective. Although Celtics general manager Danny Ainge is a cold-blooded and shrewd general manager, he directly transferred Pierce and Garnett to the championship in 2013. Pack and send away to rebuild the team, but when Pierce is still in his prime and the soul of the Green Army, it is not sure whether he has the courage to trade him for more suitable high-quality players.

The Bulls defeated the Celtics 4:1 and easily advanced to the Eastern Conference finals, while the other group of matchups in the Eastern Conference was much more intense.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Orlando Magic, this was supposed to be the Eastern Conference finals matchup of the 08-09 season, but because of Wang Chong and the Bulls, the two teams met in the second round.

<divclass="contentadv">Although the original Cavaliers had a record of 66 wins and 16 losses in the regular season, they had no advantage against the Magic in the playoffs, even though James averaged 38.5 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists per game. The luxurious statistics are no match for the Magic's Howard's overwhelming performance in the paint and the Magic's one-star, four-shooter system.

The Cavaliers, the favorite to win the championship, lost to the Magic 2:4 in the Eastern Conference Finals and were unfortunately eliminated.

But this time the situation is completely different for the Cavaliers, because James has the configuration of the Big Three in advance. Although the combination of James + Ray Allen + elderly O'Neal lost to Wang Chong's Bulls Big Three in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, after all It is recognized as one of the top teams in the league. This season O'Neal has returned to his glory and averaged 18+8 per game. With the support of Mo Williams, the team is much stronger than the Cavaliers in the original 08-09 season.

The Magic's lineup was not affected by the butterfly effect brought about by Wang Chong, and was almost exactly the same as the original one.

In this case, the Cavaliers were able to compete with the Magic. The two sides first won two home games each. Then in the battle of Tianwang Mountain, the Cavaliers once again used their home court advantage to win the game, taking the lead 2:3. Won the match point, but the Magic tenaciously tied the score in the sixth game, and the two sides held a tiebreaker at the Cavaliers' home court.

In the tiebreaker, Howard completely transformed into a monster. He scored 40 points, 19 rebounds and 5 blocks. He completely dominated the penalty area. O'Neal, who faced him, only had 14 points and 8 rebounds.

At this moment, it seems that the inheritance of the league's number one center position has been completed. O'Neal, with five championships in hand, is about to completely withdraw from the stage of history, while Howard ascends to the top, takes over the baton, and sits on the throne of the league's number one center.

What about James?

James, who carried strongly in the first few games and averaged close to 40+8+8 per game, rarely stretched his hips in the most critical tie-break.

整场比赛20投8中，命中率只是刚刚过40%，全场得到25分7篮板7助攻。

This data is actually not bad, and it is also the highest score of the Cavaliers team. However, when Howard stepped forward and scored 40+19 on the Magic team, James failed to respond strongly, which can be said to have directly led to the Cavaliers falling short. , lost to the Magic 95:107 at home, and took the lead in winning the match point 3:2, but were defeated by the Magic in two consecutive games, stopping in the second round of the playoffs.

The Cavaliers didn't even advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, which disappointed James and Cleveland fans.

From a lineup perspective, the Cavaliers, who have James on the first team, O'Neal on the third team, and All-Star guard Ray Allen, are better than the Magic with only one first-team center, Howard. How could they lose to the opponent? Who will bear the blame for losing?

James' fans jumped out almost immediately and said that it is impossible for James to take the blame.

In seven games, James averaged 38+8+8 per game, the most luxurious data of the two teams. Even Howard of the Magic only averaged 26 points and 13 rebounds per game.

I, Zhan, definitely tried my best, and the loss was entirely due to the lack of strength of my teammates.

The first problem to bear is the seriously aging O'Neal.

Although he was selected to the best third team with a highlight performance of 18+8 in the regular season, in the playoffs, the intensity of the game increased, and O'Neal was obviously unable to maintain the excellent performance during the regular season.

In the two rounds of the playoffs, O'Neal's average data dropped sharply to 14 points and 7 rebounds per game. He only ranked fourth in the Cavaliers in scoring, lower than Ray Allen and Mo Williams.

In the matchup with Howard, O'Neal was completely unable to restrain Howard, a spring man who can run and jump. Although he has an absolute advantage in tonnage and strength, he is too slow and cannot keep up with Howard's pace. On the offensive end, Howard You can use the pick-and-roll to cut into the basket to score alley-oops, and the defensive end can also determine where the rebound will land and grab the rebound.

In addition to O'Neal, the two main players Ray Allen and Mo Williams will also take the blame.

Let’s talk about Ray Allen first. As an All-Star player, Ray Allen has almost no highlight performance in the game. Like a fixed-point shooter, he only averaged 16 points per game in the playoffs and shot 38.6% from three-point range. It's remarkable, but Cavaliers fans must not have such low expectations for a star of Ray Allen's level. At least Ray Allen's performance cannot be worse than that of Lewis from the opposite Magic team. After all, the two of them were in the SuperSonics. At that time, they were equally famous.

Look at Lewis. While averaging close to 20 points per game, his shooting percentage is close to 50%. While his three-point attempts are close to that of Ray Allen, his shooting percentage is as high as 48%, which is 10% higher than Ray Allen. .

But Ray Allen is actually very aggrieved.

"If you want me to perform well, you better give me the ball!"

After coming to the Cavaliers, Ray Allen's game was completely different from what he imagined. On the court, he was like a fixed-point shooter. Most of the time, he stood in the bottom corner of the three-point line and hung up, waiting for James to hit the arc. After dribbling the ball on the spot for 23 seconds, he suddenly threw the basketball to him.

There is not much time left to attack, and the opponent's defense is still very close to him. In this case, should I force a shot before the end of 24 seconds and gamble on luck, or should I not take a shot and wait for the 24-second offensive violation?

This situation does not happen in every round. James also has rounds where he attracts a double attack and then distributes the ball to assist and score. However, as a well-known top three-point shooter in the league, the Magic will not easily leave Ray Allen open.

Many fans who are not familiar with Ray Allen may think that Ray Allen is a shooter similar to Klay Thompson, but in fact this is not the case. In the early days of his career, Ray Allen was a standard ball-holding offensive guard, and even a As a dunker, he also transformed into a fixed-point shooter later in his career.

Including the first two years after joining the Celtics, Ray Allen would also have some offensive rounds with the ball. Later, with the rise of Rondo and his increase in age, he gradually transformed into a pure fixed-point shooter.

Because of this, from Ray Allen's perspective, his performance has weakened. It is obviously a sacrifice he made for the team. How can he still be blamed for this? Is it his fault that he took a hasty shot after receiving the ball in 23 seconds?