NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 141 Artest: This guy is really tough!
On May 5th, at the North Shore Garden Arena in Boston, there was a deathly silence in the stands.

All the fans sat blankly in the stands, watching the game that had already lost suspense on the field, and their eyes lost their luster.

More fans chose to get up and leave early in disappointment, instead of continuing to watch this doomed game.

"Wang Chao used Howard's pick-and-roll to break into the inside with the ball, and scored against Perkins' defensive throw! This is his 40th point of the game. Without Garnett, no one in the Celtics can limit Wang Chao Score!"

"With this shot, the point difference between the two teams has reached 30 points! The Celtics have begun to replace the main players one after another, and they gave up."

"No one thought that such a fierce battle would end in such a result. The Celtics who formed the Big Three fell to the Eastern Conference finals for the second consecutive season. The Big Three is not going to be a shortcut to a championship."

The process of Game [-] of the Eastern Conference Finals exceeded everyone's expectations. No one expected that the development of the game would be so dramatic.

At the beginning of the game, the Celtics at home had the advantage. They successfully suppressed the Magic in the first quarter and established a double-digit score advantage.

But the game entered the second quarter, but the situation changed suddenly. The core player of the Celtics, Garnett, accidentally stepped on the instep of teammate Perkins when he was fighting for a rebound, sprained his ankle and fell to the ground in pain. He limped back to the locker room with the help of the team doctor, and got a definite answer a few minutes later. Garnett could not continue to play in this game.

The specifics of Garnett's injury can only be known after an MRI after the game, but in this crucial game, how can the Celtics without Garnett be the opponent of the Magic?
The entire Celtics team was panicked because of Garnett's injury, and the concentration of the game was also affected. The Magic took this opportunity to go all out, not only catching up with the double-digit point difference, but also completing the lead.

Without Garnett's presence on the defensive end, Wang Chao fired more recklessly from the outside, Perkins on the inside couldn't keep up with Howard's frequent pick-and-roll cuts, and the entire Celtics defensive system collapsed.

At 113:90, the Celtics' trip to the Eastern Conference Finals came to an end, and the Magic defeated the Celtics 4:2, reaching the finals for the second consecutive year.

The opponent of the Magic in the finals is the Los Angeles Lakers who also eliminated the Denver Nuggets 4:2, which is the opponent of last season's finals.

The finals of last season have always made Magic fans feel uncomfortable.

At that time, the overall strength of the Lakers was indeed stronger, including the core scoring points of the two teams, and Kobe's scoring ability was stronger than Wang Chao's.

But the main reason for the Magic's loss to the Lakers at the time was that the elevator door tactics that survived the playoffs were blocked by the referee.

This tactic is still very unsolvable. As long as it is used on the stage of the finals, it will immediately be a covering foul, which almost caused the Magic to lose an arm.

Although Wang Chao can still get a stable average of 26+ points per game without the elevator door tactics, his performance is not particularly bad. On the contrary, Howard played poorly under the attack of the Lakers' twin towers, seriously lacking independent offensive means inside weaknesses are fully exposed.

This season is completely different from last season!
Wang Chao's strength has undergone a significant evolution this year, and he has become a super scorer with an average of 30+ per game. Although Howard still has no inside offensive means, his inside defense ability is even stronger. At the same time, his pick-and-roll cooperation with Wang Chao is also very tacit, and has become the league's recognized combination of the best pick-and-roll tactics.

Many basketball commentators are full of praise for the pick-and-roll cooperation of the super magic combination, and also admit that compared with inside singles with the ball, Howard and Wang Chao's pick-and-roll cooperation is more efficient in scoring. Perhaps this is the so-called talent, and Howard is naturally more suitable. A pick-and-roll-based offensive scoring method like Karl Malone.

Of course, these experts and commentators don't know that the reason for the super-high pick-and-roll efficiency of the super magic combination is not that Howard is suitable for pick-and-roll tactics. The real reason is actually Wang Chao, or one of his talents and skills, the best partner.

Best partner talent: After a teammate picks and rolls, the shooting efficiency will be increased within 3 seconds. After 3 seconds, when the pick-and-roll teammate is selected to pass the ball, the passing ability value will be temporarily increased, and the efficiency of the teammate's successful catch and attack will be improved.

Whether it is the pick-and-roll player or the pick-and-roll player, they will get the buff effect under this talent, but the prerequisite for the activation of the talent skill is that the relationship between the two players is greater than 60.

Until now, Wang Chao has no idea what the relationship value of 60 is, but he has been with the Magic for two seasons. So far, there are only four players who have reached 60 relationship with him, except for Howard. Besides, there are only Turkoglu, Dragic and Efflalo.

Dragic and Afflalo were both included in the Magic's lineup at the suggestion of Wang Chao, and because of Wang Chao's support, they got a chance to play during the regular season. Wang Chao is full of gratitude, and the relationship value naturally meets the conditions.

Turkoglu has to play with Wang Chao on the court, and occasionally cooperates in pick-and-rolls. In addition, Howard often takes everyone out to find flowers and ask for advice. The relationship is gradually getting better.

What surprised Wang Chao was that the relationship between the team's starting point guard Nelson and him has not reached over 60 for a long time, and the two communicated very little outside the arena. Wang Chao estimated that it might be because of his own existence. He took away a lot of ball rights that should belong to Nelson, which caused Nelson to feel dissatisfied in his heart, but because of his detached status in the Magic, the opponent did not dare to show it on the bright side.

It is not surprising to have such an idea. As the only main player in the guard position of the Magic, the young Nelson should have shown his talents, especially this season. In Wang Chao’s impression, Nelson should have played an average of 17+6 per game. , and was selected as a substitute for the All-Star, for a while the scenery was unparalleled.

But because of Wang Chao's appearance and Dragic's so-so performance on the bench, Nelson can only be considered mediocre in terms of playing time and performance this season. During the regular season, he averaged 28 minutes per game. The data is 10.2 points and 4.4 assists.

Of course, Wang Chao doesn't care what Nelson thinks. He is not irreplaceable in the first place, or the entire Magic team, except for Wang Chao and Howard, no one is irreplaceable, including Turkoglu in this way.

In fact, the management of the Magic is already starting to have a headache about Turkoglu.

After the end of this season, Turkoglu's contract will expire, and the Magic will face the problem of renewing Turkoglu.

With the outstanding performance in these two seasons and the bonus of the Magic team record, Turkoglu's worth has also risen. Previously, the management of the Magic team tentatively contacted the opponent's agent. Test your worth on the free market.

Obviously, Turkoglu is more inclined to sign a higher-value contract than staying with the Magic.

Judging from his ability, I am afraid that an annual salary of tens of millions is not a big problem, but for the Magic, it is not a small problem.

After all, they already have Wang Chao and Howard in their lineup, two stars with an annual salary of more than 1500 million. If they sign another player with an annual salary of tens of millions, the salary of the Magic will exceed the salary cap. It's not at the stage of paying the luxury tax, but since you have to pay an annual salary of tens of millions, why not introduce a stronger star?
Although Turkoglu is excellent, his strength is definitely not top level.

In fact, in the original historical process, the Magic, which had two big contracts for Lewis and Howard, made the same choice. They gave up Turkoglu after the opening of the free market in the summer, and the latter signed with the Raptors. A contract of 5 million for the next 5300 years.

The Magic, which let Turkoglu go, sent Alston, Tony Batty and Courtney Lee with a stud, and got All-Star player Vince Carter from the Nets.

In the 09-10 season, the salary of the Big Three of the Magic was 1888 million for Lewis, 1630 million for Carter, and 1520 million for Howard.

It's a pity that Vince Carter, who was able to consistently contribute 20+ points in the Nets last season, came to the Magic in the 09-10 season, but his overall decline has shrunk to 16.6 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists per game. Instead, he was avenged by the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals and failed to return to the Finals.

These are all things for later. The free market during the offseason will be discussed later. The first thing the Magic have to face now is how to defeat the Lakers in the finals to complete their revenge.

From the perspective of the lineup, the Magic are obviously slightly worse than the Lakers.

Although there is a super magic combination, the Lakers have the Big Three combination of Kobe + Gasol + Artest. At the same time, Odom and Bynum are also extremely powerful players, especially Andrew. Bynum, as the tenth player selected in the first round of 05, Bynum has always been trained by the Lakers as a core player in the future, unknowingly four years have passed, although Bynum is not growing fast, In the process of training, the legendary star Tiangou Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whom the Lakers specially invited to teach him, scolded him angrily, but he finally made some achievements.

This season, Bynum can contribute 14.3 points and 8 rebounds per game. He has the potential of an excellent center forward. At the same time, with a height of 2 meters and a weight of 13 kilograms, Bynum can at least face Howard, who weighs 129 kilograms in the interior. will not be at a disadvantage.

Of course, having said so much, the Magic are not completely without advantages.

Although Howard's offensive ability at the basket is not strong, his defense is undisputedly the strongest. Whether it is Bynum or Gasol, if you want to score inside, you must weigh it, including Kobe, in the game. Consider whether to rely on long shots to score or break through with the ball.

The most difficult point for the Magic now is undoubtedly Wang Chao.

Wang Chao, who possesses extreme firepower on the offensive end, has become recognized as the most difficult scorer in the league to defend.

Even if the defense is as strong as the Celtics, they failed to restrain Wang Chao in the Eastern Conference Finals. In the 6 games of the Eastern Conference Finals, Wang Chao averaged 34 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists per game. Kobe in Jinshi was almost the same, especially when Wang Chao and Howard played pick-and-roll cooperation, surrounding Wang Chao's long-range deterrence and Howard's ultra-high mobility inside the basket, how to defend was enough for the Lakers.

All in all, the final matchup between the two teams can be regarded as the most powerful matchup in the playoffs.

……

On June 6th, the first round of the finals begins!
With 67 wins in the regular season, one more than the Lakers' 66 wins, the Magic have home court advantage, and the first game will be played at Amway Arena in Orlando.

Only the Magic suffered a dull loss in the first game.

89:100 lost the first game at home.

In this game, the Lakers used their defensive tactics to the extreme. Only 4 players from the Magic team scored in double figures.

Wang Chao scored 24 points, Howard had 12 points and 15 rebounds, Turkoglu had 13 points, Pierrus had 14 points...

The super magic combination was targeted by the Lakers, and their performance was lower than usual.

On Howard's side, Bynum is marking the inside all the way. Once he catches the ball inside, Kobe or Fisher will immediately form a double-team. With Howard's passing ability, it is difficult to double-team the ball. The first pass to the teammate who is open on the outside.

And when Howard and Wang Chao perform pick-and-roll cooperation, the Lakers will also choose to double-team Howard. One player blocks Howard in front of him to prevent him from rushing to the basket easily, and the other blocks the pass between Howard and Wang Chao. route.

Although this kind of defense will lead to other vacant players on the field, under the reasonable and timely rotation defense of the Lakers, there is no particularly large defensive gap.

As for Wang Chao, he faced Artest's defense during the game.

Ron Artest, recognized as the top perimeter defensive player in the league, one of the few perimeter defenders who have won the honor of the best defensive player, is also the only small forward in the league who surpasses Wang Chao in terms of strength.

None of the above is the most critical. As a top perimeter defender, Artest's real headache is the rough defensive action.

Wang Chao once had a conflict with Pierce in the Eastern Conference finals, but Pierce can be described as nothing compared to Artest.

This is the one who dared to elbow and break two of Jordan's ribs during his rookie period, and he was also the initiator of the most vicious gang fight in the Palace of Auburn Hills in NBA history.

Even in the next few years, Artest still continued his tough life, bringing down Harden with an elbow in the game against the Thunder.

Compared with Artest, Green, the famous villain in the future league, is not worth mentioning at all.

In this game, Wang Chao also truly experienced how strong Artest's fierce defense is.

Not long after the game started, Wang Chao was overturned by Artest in another breakthrough with the ball. This round also made Wang Chao clearly aware of the gap in strength between the two sides.

But Wang Chao is not the one to admit defeat. With his talent of steel and iron, he may be afraid of rough defensive moves on the field?

In the next game, Wang Chao and Artest seemed to be wrestling.

When the game was about 6 minutes into the third quarter, Artest received his sixth foul of the game and left the field with full fouls, but his defense really caused trouble for Wang Chao. The main reason why Wang Chao only scored 24 points in the entire game.

For the Lakers, Kobe Bryant continued to show the super scoring ability of a top scorer. He made 34 of 16 shots, 8 of 8 free throws, scored 40 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. He almost got a 40+ big Three pairs.

The Lakers are actually in the same situation as the Magic, and they were also affected by Howard's defense. Only 3 of the team scored in double figures, one less than the Magic. Gasol had 16 points and 8 rebounds, and Odom had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. .

To put it bluntly, if Kobe hadn't scored 40 points, it would be hard to say who would win.

……

All the generals of the Lakers who won the game were very happy. Being able to win the first game of the finals, or at the home court of the Magic, had already taken a great advantage in the entire series, but when they returned to the locker room and saw Artest After Ster took off his jersey, almost everyone gasped.

Artest's body was covered in bruises, which made his scalp tingle.

"Ron, you are..."

"Hiss!" Artest grinned and cursed: "Mad, that guy looks thin and weak, he is really tough, he doesn't even hide when he fights with me physically, look down on him , I thought he was just a jerk who could shoot three-pointers from the outside!"

Everyone was silent.

This scene really overturned their cognition. Wang Chao looked weak, but he was so ruthless?

This is of course the benefit brought by the talent of steel and iron, and it is an upgraded version, the effect is further strengthened, so that Wang Chao is not afraid of this kind of rough physical confrontation at all.

Wang Chao only scored 24 points in this game. It is not so much that he was entangled by Artest and his scoring efficiency decreased, but it was because the overall offensive rhythm of the Magic was restricted, which made Wang Chao’s chances less than in previous games. many.

But this is only the first game of the finals, which is understandable.

The Magic's tactical system revolves around Howard's one-star four-shot magic ball tactic. It doesn't really matter how Howard's one-star inside plays. The key is to fully exert the power of four-shot.

In the first game of the finals, the players were nervous, and the Lakers' extremely oppressive defense affected the sights of the outside players and failed to take advantage of the three-pointer. The loss was justified.

But as the players of the Magic team adjusted their status and regained their previous accuracy outside the three-point line, the Lakers did not dare to double-team unscrupulously like the first game, and the defense broke down.

In other words, if you want to crack the Lakers' defensive tactics, you still have to rely on the Magic's own offensive firepower.

After the first game, the Magic team practiced three-pointers in the following day, and then in the second game of the finals on June 6, the results of the additional training were shown.

(End of this chapter)