NBA: James wants to team up with me

The Cavaliers' morale soared after successfully defeating the defending champion Chicago Bulls in the first game.

At the post-match press conference, Irving excitedly expressed that this was the easiest and least stressful game he had played since entering the league. With Wang Chong backing him up, he didn't need to worry about anything and just had to attack and score.

"This feeling is really amazing. I have never experienced it before. It also makes me more confident that the team will make a difference in the new season. Wang Chong is really worthy of being the strongest player in the league. He is really amazing!"

As for the Bulls, head coach Tom Thibodeau shook his head helplessly in front of reporters and said, "It's frustrating to lose the game, especially when the opponent is our absolute leader and pillar in the past few years, but life must go on after all. The Bulls' goal in the new season is to defend the championship. We will learn from the experience and lessons of this game. The season is still long and it's too early to do anything."

Indeed, this is just the first game of the new season, which is insignificant compared to the long 82 games. Besides, which NBA team doesn't lose? Even the 73-win Bulls led by Wang Chong and the 72-win Bulls led by Jordan also lost games in the regular season, didn't they?

But there is no doubt that the new Cavaliers are very strong.

After defeating the Bulls in the first game, the Cavaliers continued to pursue the victory and then defeated the New York Knicks 2:105 on the road two days later.

Although the Knicks successfully retained Anthony with a maximum salary contract this season, in the past few seasons, the combination of Rose + Anthony alone obviously could not allow the Knicks to make further breakthroughs in their record. Most of the time, they even had difficulty entering the second round in the Eastern Conference.

But this cannot be entirely blamed on the Knicks. The current Eastern Conference is different from the original Eastern Conference where the West was strong and the East was weak. Normally, the teams in the upper half of the playoffs are the Bulls, Heat, Celtics and Pacers. The Knicks are at a disadvantage against any of these teams. Now with the addition of the Cavaliers, they are even worse off.

As a result, the mentality of Knicks fans has become more indifferent. Anyway, the team has no chance to win the championship, so it is enough to watch the more entertaining and exciting games of Rose and Anthony. Moreover, under the leadership of the two, the Knicks have been able to enter the playoffs in recent years and have won more games than lost. For the New York fans who have seen the Knicks as a bottom-ranked team for the past decade, they are now happier.

While enjoying their current team's victories, they sometimes can't help but wonder: if Wang Chong leaves the Cavaliers after the end of this season, will the Knicks have a chance to get Wang Chong?

Wang Chong will definitely not return to the Bulls, and judging from his previous tone and attitude, he prefers big cities.

As the largest city in the United States, New York is even more prosperous than Los Angeles, and is definitely attractive enough in this regard.

As for the players, Rose and Anthony are both top-notch stars in the league today with outstanding strength, and they are definitely a good pair.

Even the issue of salary is the same. The Knicks' team owner has never been stingy with money. He has spent huge sums of money on many occasions to build a super lineup in an attempt to win the championship. It's just a pity that his vision is a little poor, and he has failed several times despite paying a lot of money.

But these are just the imaginations of New York fans, because even Wang Chong hasn't figured out where he will go next at this time, and the city he prefers is still Los Angeles.

After finishing the game with the Knicks, the Cavaliers flew to Portland to challenge the Trail Blazers away.

The Cavaliers are on a four-game road trip this time. Portland is the second of a back-to-back game, and they will face the Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans next.

These teams are generally not very strong and do not have much resistance against the Cavaliers, who are in high spirits.

101:92 defeated the Trail Blazers.

Beat the Jazz 113:105.

118:110 beat the Pelicans.

The Cavaliers won five consecutive games at the start, which made the team's fans very excited.

The last time the Cavaliers started with a winning streak was several years ago, when James was on the team.

Before we knew it, it is already the fifth season since James made the decision to leave.

Originally this summer, the Cavaliers fans missed James very much and hoped that he could return to the team and save the team from the dire situation.

But now they don't miss James at all.

What? The Chosen One? Is he as good as our Wang Chong? If not, what the hell do you need?

As the regular season continues, the record gap in the Eastern Conference has gradually widened.

As of November 11, the Cavaliers have won all eight games, achieving eight consecutive victories and firmly ranking first in the Eastern Conference and even the entire league.

More and more people in the league have begun to call Wang Chong, Irving and Gasol the Big Three of the Cavaliers.

This name is very appropriate.

Although Wang Chong clearly showed a tendency to play conservatively at the beginning of the season, he was still able to contribute 31 points, 8.6 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game.

Someone keenly discovered that Wang Chong has fewer rebounds, but this is not because his rebounding ability has deteriorated. It is because the Cavaliers really don't need him to grab rebounds at the moment.

Gasol should have averaged 14 rebounds per game in the 15-11.8 season, ranking fourth in the rebounding list throughout the season.

Whiteside is a strong player who can grab 24 rebounds in just 10 minutes of playing time per game.

In addition to these two players, don't forget that the Cavaliers also have a Tristan Thompson on the bench. He is also a rebounding-obsessed player, and his main job on the court is to grab rebounds.

With such a group of people protecting the rebounds, Wang Chong was also happy and relaxed. He was not like some people who had to make all the data look good and claim to be omnipotent in order to show their strength.

Moreover, even if he averages 8.6 rebounds per game, his average rebounds per game is already quite high among small forwards.

And because of this, the Cavaliers have three players averaging more than 8 rebounds per game, Wang Chong 8.6 rebounds, Pau Gasol 8.5 rebounds, Whiteside 9.2 rebounds, plus Tristan Thompson averaging 7.7 rebounds per game. The Cavaliers average 49 rebounds per game and 14.2 offensive rebounds, both of which are the highest in the league. Only defensive rebounds rank second with 34.8 defensive rebounds, slightly lower than the Portland Trail Blazers' 35.1.

The famous Japanese high school student Takenori Akagi once said that whoever can control the rebounds can control the game.

There is nothing wrong with this statement. This is also the reason why the league has attached so much importance to inside players in the past few decades.

Even in this league that is moving more and more towards a small-ball style of play, interior defense and rebounding are still very important.

The reason why the Cavaliers have been able to win all of the past 8 games is more due to the team's defense and rebounding advantages. On the offensive end, the Cavaliers' tactics are actually very simple, which is just Wang Chong, Irving and Gasol taking turns to play singles.

It's not that the Cavaliers are completely without offensive tactics. Under the planning of head coach David Blatt, the team has also tried the Princeton system tactics in daily training, but the effect is not particularly good.

It’s not that the Cavaliers players have problems with their tactical execution ability, but that Princeton itself is a team that is mostly composed of team players and has no top superstars. It is precisely because everyone can attack and score, and everyone is the main attacking point, that there are such rich and varied offensive routines.

But this tactic doesn't work well on the Cavaliers. It's a simple reason. Even if players like Wiggins use the Princeton tactics to run into open space and shoot in open space, their hit rate and efficiency are still not as efficient as Wang Chong's own one-on-one shooting with the ball.

In fact, the essence of NBA tactics is to create opportunities for superstars to hold the ball and play one-on-one. Even when Jordan played the triangle tactics on the Bulls, it was actually the same.

When the Cavaliers have players with excellent one-on-one abilities such as Wang Chong, Irving and even Gasol, the effect of using the Princeton tactics is not that good, and it is even worse than simply arranging a pick-and-roll tactic.

Therefore, the Cavaliers abandoned the Princeton tactics shortly after the start of the season and instead switched to having stars rely on their personal abilities to play one-on-one.

From this point of view, David Blatt is actually a relatively open-minded head coach. He is not like those old and eighty-year-old coaches in the past who were stubborn and unyielding. He was later dismissed by the Cavaliers because he was the unlucky guy who was pushed out as a scapegoat by James and the Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers are ranked first in the Eastern Conference with 8 wins and 0 losses, while the second place in the Eastern Conference is the Bulls with 7 wins and 1 loss.

In fact, before the start of the new season, many people believed that without Wang Chong, the Bulls would still be one of the strong teams in the East, but would definitely be eliminated from the list of favorites to win the championship.

But the facts are shocking.

After the start of the new season, Curry quickly replaced Wang Chong as the leader of the Bulls, averaging 28 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists per game, with a shooting percentage of 47% and a three-point shooting percentage of 42%, with extremely high efficiency.

Although it is a bit surprising that Curry can perform at such a high level, it is also acceptable. After all, Curry has been selected to the All-NBA First Team for two consecutive seasons and is recognized as one of the league's top point guards. Without Wang Chong, it is reasonable for his personal data to increase significantly.

The most surprising player on the Bulls is Jimmy Butler. This player who has been ignored in the past has shown an All-Star performance since the start of the new season, averaging 21 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists per game with a shooting percentage of 46%. He has become the Bulls' second scoring point and has a higher offensive efficiency than Gasol Jr.

The reason why the Bulls were able to quickly adjust their status and win seven consecutive games after losing to the Cavaliers in the first game was due to the outstanding performances of Curry and Butler.

The Miami Heat are third in the Eastern Conference.

The Heat successfully retained James and Wade and kept the Big Three lineup, but still failed to bring in strong enough players in the summer. The only thing they gained was signing power forward Carlos Boozer for 1 million for one year.

In his prime, Boozer was indeed a good forward with quite impressive strength.

But Boozer is not young now. 33 years old is already old for a player like him who requires great strength, footwork flexibility and mobility.

In Wang Chong's impression, Boozer should have joined the Los Angeles Lakers in the 14-15 season, and during the regular season he averaged 11.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game for the team, with a shooting percentage of 50%. His performance was actually quite good, but it was only quite good. Compared with the weakened strength of Wade and Howard of the Heat, it was really a drop in the bucket.

This resulted in the Heat's record being mediocre at the start of the new season, with 6 wins and 2 losses, the same record as the Boston Celtics led by Durant.

It is worth mentioning that the Atlanta Hawks, who should have risen in the 2014-15 season and had a regular season record of 60 wins and 22 losses, second only to the Warriors in the Western Conference with 67 wins, have shown no signs of rising at all thanks to Wang Chong, and their current record is hovering on the edge of the playoffs.

You really can't blame the Eagles for not trying hard.

In the 14-15 season, the Hawks led by head coach Mike Budenholzer had main players including Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague, Al Horford, Kyle Korver and Dennis Schroder.

The most important player among them, Millsap, who is very important on both offense and defense, is now playing for the Boston Celtics because of Wang Chong.

As the team's leading scorer and rebounder, if the Hawks can continue to demonstrate their dominance like they did in the 14-15 season and win 60 games in the regular season, then it will be Wang Chong's turn to be jaw-dropping.

The first natural month of the new season is just halfway through, but based on the performance trends of each team, we can basically judge the subsequent situation with a high degree of accuracy.

At least the four teams in the upper half of the Eastern Conference are definitely the Cavaliers, Bulls, Heat and Celtics. As for the four teams in the lower half, they will have to fight fiercely. Even if they can break through the siege and enter the playoffs, they will have little chance of winning in the first round against any team in the upper half.

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The Cavaliers' first loss came in the tenth game of the regular season, when the Cavaliers challenged the San Antonio Spurs away.

Facing this Western Conference champion that has made it to the finals for two consecutive years, the Cavaliers were defeated.

Even Wang Chong did not expect this result.

The Spurs, who have both Leonard and Gobert, have such a terrifying defense.

Irving was defended and had a cold touch throughout the game, scoring only 16 points with 4 of 15 shots.

The Cavaliers' inside line was also suppressed.

The Spurs chose to switch defense in the interior, with power forward Duncan defending Whiteside, while center Gobert was responsible for defending Gasol.

Whiteside is full of energy and can run and jump, but when he meets the experienced and shrewd Duncan, he has a very difficult time playing against him, just like a hard punch hitting cotton.

On the other side, Gasol was also annoyed by Gobert's defense.

Pau Gasol's static talent is top-notch in the league, but he was completely at a disadvantage when facing Gobert. It was obvious that Duncan must have helped Gobert with Gasol's technical characteristics before this game, so his defense was very targeted and Gasol was caught off guard.

As a result, Wang Chong was the only player on the Cavaliers who had a good touch throughout the game. Even though Wang Chong had a long-awaited double-double of 46 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists in this game, he still couldn't prevent the team's first defeat.