NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 273 The Rockets are still the same Rockets, no injuries are the favorites to win the championship

"Wang Chao scored 54+8+9, leading the Rockets to beat the Rockets with 21 points!"

"Green, who was slapped in the face and clamored to lock Wang Chao before the game, refused to accept interviews and returned directly to the player channel. The rise of the new season obviously made him a little ignorant. After Wang Chao's beating in reality, he should have understood. The truth is lofty and profound."

"The Rockets who defeated the Warriors continued their winning streak. Their current record has reached 19 wins and 1 loss! The Warriors have lost to the Rockets, and the Cavaliers are still struggling in the quagmire. Is there still no team in the new season? Houston The opponent? Wang Chao’s second three consecutive championships in his career are already within reach!”

Before the start of the regular season, there were very few people in the league who were optimistic about the Rockets' ability to defend their championship for three consecutive times. On the one hand, it was due to the fact that many Rockets players left the team, Yao was getting older, and his competitive status was declining.

On the other hand, they are unwilling to admit that a player from China has completed the domination of the NBA league and even surpassed their god of basketball, Michael Jordan.

But after 20 games in the regular season, the Rockets have a record of 19 wins and 1 loss. The naked reality proves to everyone that the Rockets are still the super strong team that was stronger than other teams in the past.

Dayao is old, Thomas Jr. and Chandler Parsons and others have also left the team, but the rise of Leonard and Butler has made the Rockets' scoring ability on the offensive end worse than in the previous two seasons. The slightest decline, and the defensive end has not weakened as a result.

Not only that, the Rockets originally sat firmly on the bench and only had the opportunity to play when the super five-forward lineup appeared, and even Middleton, who could only act as a fixed-point three-point shooter in most cases on the court, did not perform well this season. Pretty good.

Facts have once again proved that none of the players selected by Wang Chao in the draft is bad.

The only thing the league can look forward to now is that after a long run-in period, the Cavaliers can show the true strength of the championship favorites, suppress the Rockets and win the championship with a luxurious and deep lineup, and prevent Wang Chao from winning the second three consecutive championships .

If the Cavaliers and James can't do it, then they can only use the last resort...

Next summer, after the opening of the free market, all teams with salary space in the league will poach Rockets players at all costs.

After the end of this season, the contracts of many Rockets players expired, Leonard, Butler, Whiteside, Middleton... Dayao also announced not long ago that he would choose to retire after the end of this season. The state has no way to support him to continue to play in the NBA.

More importantly, Wang Chao also has player options next summer, and he can choose whether to jump out of the contract and re-sign.

If Wang Chao chooses to jump out of the contract, then the Rockets will have to provide Wang Chao with a bigger super contract in order to keep the league's active and possibly the No.1 superstar in history.

No one thinks that the Rockets can achieve this level. Even if Alexander, the owner who has always been known for being stingy, is willing to bleed heavily and pay a high luxury tax, the Rockets can only keep half of these players at most.

At that time, the strength of the Rockets will naturally be high-platform diving, and it is not certain whether they can maintain their current dominance on the court.

It's just that that's for next season. So far this season, the Rockets' dominance has been unmatched without serious injuries!
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As the schedule enters December, NBA All-Star voting begins.

Unlike last season, when the results of the league's first round of voting were announced, apart from Wang Chao's high number of votes as always, leading all players in the league, Butler and Leonard were also on the list.

Like the previous seasons, during the All-Star weekend of the 2014-15 season, the votes were only divided into two positions: forwards and guards in the east and west.

As a result of the first round of voting, Wang Chao ranked first without any suspense, suppressing everyone. Since he returned to the point guard position this season, the league still assigned him to the Western Conference guards to fill the position of guards in the league in recent years. The dilemma of scarcity of stars.

The player with the second most votes is LeBron James in the East.

Originally this season, Curry of the Warriors should be the champion of the league votes, but unlike the original history, Curry's phenomenal three-point shooting ability did not bring amazing results to the league in this era. Chao Yuzhu is in the front, and the record of the Warriors also came in second because of the loss in the direct duel with the Rockets.

This caused Curry's popularity to be slightly affected. He failed to compete with James and could only rank third.

In the west, Wang Chao and Curry occupy the first or second positions at the guard position, while Durant's world belongs to the striker position.

History has changed again because of the existence of Wang Chao. Durant, who was originally reimbursed for the season due to serious injuries in the 14-15 season, has not been injured so far and has maintained a very good state. He currently averages 29.3 points per game Ranked first in the league, temporarily scoring higher than Wang Chao.

Therefore, in addition to his votes being lower than Wang Chao and Curry in the West, he still has a great advantage in facing other players.

The real surprise is that the No. [-] player at the forward position is Rockets forward Kawhi Leonard.

In the first round of voting, Leonard narrowly defeated teammate Dayao and Grizzlies center Marc Gasol, ranking No. 2 in the Western Conference forward position.

It can be seen that Leonard has gained a lot of fan support with the improvement of his personal data and because of his partner Wang Chao in the Rockets.

Butler also has the same treatment, but it is different from Leonard, who has a static talent and looks pleasing to the eye, both offensively and defensively. Although Butler is very hardworking and hardworking, he is far behind Leonard in terms of talent. But it is clear at a glance, and this is also clear at a glance in the tactical position of the two.

Even Wang Chao, who is a time traveler, has to admit that from the perspective of current immediate combat power, Leonard is definitely a player who is better than Leonard and has a longer-term development prospect in the future.

In fact, we can’t blame others. The star Butler really belongs to that kind of very strange special case. If he is not a time traveler and knows the future, Wang Chao would not believe that Butler, who is over [-] years old, would be so tough and fight tough battles. He will never be soft-hearted, and he can almost be regarded as one of the most reliable stars at the critical moment of the league in the future. It is not without reason why Butler has been underestimated many times during his career. As long as he does not open his eyes, no one can guess his career. career track.

On the contrary, he is extremely talented. For a long time, Leonard, who was considered to be the new king of the league who was expected to replace James and Durant, was completely flat in the Clippers. Sexual honor harvest.

Regardless of the situation a few years later, judging from the current competitive state of the two in 2014, no matter how hard Butler tried, he was still overwhelmed by Leonard.

From the number of votes cast by the All-Stars, it can be seen that the two have ushered in a small data explosion period this season, and the number of fans has increased rapidly, but Butler's vote rate in the first round is lower than Leonard's. Quite a lot.

The difference is that Butler's position in the All-Star voting is a guard. In the West, the main competitors for this position are Curry, Kobe, Harden and Paul. Of course, Wang Chao cannot be counted. Far more than these four people.

Butler is still a little behind the above four in terms of votes, so he can only be ranked No.6 among Western defenders. It seems that the ranking is very low, but just look at the ranking behind him, and he has more votes than him Players who want to be low will know the gold content of this position.

Damian Lillard averaged 21 points and 6 assists per game, Klay Thompson averaged 22 points per game, Russell Westbrook averaged 27.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game. , but Jeremy Lin has a Chinese-American identity and has a certain number of supporters in China.

Butler can suppress these players in the first round of votes, and his popularity can already be seen. Although this is only the result of the first round of votes, as long as the next few rounds of votes can continue to maintain such votes Even if Butler can't play as an All-Star starter, he can at least be an All-Star substitute.

Assuming that Leonard and Butler can both be selected as All-Stars, plus Wang Chao and Dayao, the Rockets will also have four All-Star players for the current season.

Even in the season when the Rockets had 72 wins in the regular season and won the playoffs two years ago, they only had three All-Star players, Wang Chao, Dayao, and Garnett.

Even though the Rockets this season are not as strong as the previous 72-win Rockets, they are at least brighter in terms of stars!
After the schedule entered December, the Rockets' super high winning percentage declined slightly. The main reason for the decline in record was not the strength of the team, but the fact that the Rockets began to experience waves of injuries.

First, Dayao. Under Wang Chao's careful arrangements in the new season, Dayao, whose average playing time was strictly controlled below 20 minutes, still accidentally sprained his ankle. Fortunately, Wang Chao's carefulness played a role. As a result, Dayao was only slightly sprained, and he could return after about two to three weeks of recuperation.

Only Dayao had just injured his front foot, followed by Leonard. Although it was not a sprain, the recuperation time was close to that of Dayao, and it would also take more than half a month.

Leonard's injury is actually not surprising. In fact, looking carefully at Kaka's entire career, he has certain attributes of a glass man.

This is not to blame for the Warriors' Zaza Pachulia's stepping, because before Pachulia's stepping, Leonard's attendance rate was not high.

From the beginning of his career, Leonard has never played a complete regular season, and the seasons with an attendance rate higher than 80% are only two seasons with the Spurs in 15-16 and 16-17. In the two seasons, he only played 72 and 74 regular season games respectively.

Leonard in the Rockets actually experienced various minor injuries and illnesses, but at that time he was not the second offensive core and perimeter defensive core of the Rockets, even if he missed a few games, it would not hurt.

But it’s different now. Dayao and Leonard have been absent successively, which still leaves a relatively large vacancy in the Rockets’ lineup. Even though Wang Chao immediately increased his personal shots and scored 40+ points in several consecutive games, Leonard’s absence What it brings is not only the loss on the offensive end, but more seriously on the defensive end.

Since Wang Chao needs to be responsible for a large part of the defense of the team's interior, the Rockets' exterior without Leonard leaves only Butler alone.

Compared with Leonard and Butler, Middleton's defense can only be regarded as not holding back, and the tacit understanding with Butler is not enough, and there is no way to form a linked perimeter defense system.

As a result, the Rockets lost consecutively to the Spurs, Grizzlies and other teams with an absolute advantage in the interior in December, and lost the game in the rematch with the Warriors in mid-December.

Although the Warriors won the game to avenge their previous revenge, Green still failed to escape the fate of being hanged by Wang Chao. Wang Chao made 34 of 20 shots in this game, 17 of 9 three-pointers, and 13 free throws. 11 hits, 60 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists.

The Warriors also tried all means to limit Wang Chao, Green, Iguodala and Thompson in this game, but they still failed to contain Wang Chao's scoring, and finally relied on locking Butler and Middleton Two main scoring points took the game victory.

Even in the eyes of the Warriors fans at home, this game is not a victory worth bragging about. Without the two important core players of Leonard and Dayao, the Warriors still played against the remnant Rockets. It was inextricably tied, and they almost lost the game. This is still their home game. If the game is played in an away game in Houston, it is still hard to say the outcome!
"Just from these two games, it can be seen that the Warriors are unable to deal with the complete Rockets. If the two teams meet in the Western Conference Finals, unless the Rockets have injury problems like they are now, the Warriors will It’s very difficult to win.”

On December 12th, the well-loved Christmas game, the Rockets' opponent league in the Christmas game has already been arranged, and that is the long-awaited game of fire riding that all fans of the entire league have been looking forward to.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs Houston Rockets.

As the schedule entered December, the Cavaliers' record began to pick up gradually. The stars gradually adapted to their identities and styles of play, allowing the Cavaliers to return to the top teams in the Eastern Conference. By the end of the Christmas game, the record had reached 12 wins and 17 losses. Second only to the Eagles in the Eastern Conference, it ranks second.

In this way, the Cavaliers finally have the qualifications to challenge the Rockets. It just so happens that the first encounter between the two teams in the new season will be the focus of the Christmas game on December 12.

This game was played in Cleveland, the home court of the Cavaliers. The Rockets played away. Yao and Leonard were still absent due to injuries. The starting lineup that the team can send is Mo Williams, Middleton, Butler , Wang Chao and Whiteside.

This lineup is really helpless.

In the past, when Leonard was around, Wang Chaoda could place Leonard at the power forward position. Although the height of 2 meters is a bit short for the power forward position, Leonard can rely on his talented arms The development advantage makes up for the lack of height, and can play a good defensive effect against most inside power forward players in the league.

Butler is different. With the same height of 2 meters as Leonard, Butler has a wingspan of only 01 meters. Not to mention compared with Leonard, even in the league, his height and wingspan are close Players can also be regarded as a type with relatively poor static talent.

Wang Chao had seen a picture on the Internet before, which was a comparison picture of Leonard and Butler standing together. When the two were close in height, the arms were normally lowered vertically, and Butler's fingertips could only reach the height of Leonard. Near Nader's wrist, the palm is only two-thirds the length of Butler.

The huge gap in wingspan makes Butler obviously stronger than Leonard, but in most cases he can only swing the position of small forward and shooting guard, unlike Leonard who can not only play power forward, but also play as a power forward at his peak. Average rebounds can also reach more than 7.

Static talent is a fact that can never be changed by relying on hard work. Butler's wingspan is doomed that he has no way to defend against most power forwards. As long as the opponent raises the basketball above his head and hits him high, there is nothing he can do.

Against the Cavaliers in the Christmas game, they have a combination of twin towers inside, Joel Embiid + Paul Gasol, these two 7-foot (2) tall men, none of them can be defended by Butler liveable.

In this regard, Wang Chao is also a striker. Although his static talent is not as exaggerated as Leonard, his height of 2 meters and a wingspan of 06 meters are definitely enough.

Facing the disabled Rockets, Cavaliers fans are full of confidence, thinking that their team will definitely beat their opponents at home.

But things didn't go as smoothly as they had imagined.

The Cavaliers stared at the inside attack from the beginning, and James frequently handed the ball to Paul Gasol and Embiid inside to attack.

I thought that when the inside line has an absolute height advantage, it can easily penetrate the Rockets' defense line.

But the result was that in the first 5 minutes of the game, Gasol made 4 of 1 shots and Embiid made 3 of 1 shots. The offensive efficiency was not high.

Without Dayao, the Rockets' inside defense will be weak?What are you kidding?
Although it is the 14-15 season, Whiteside's level has already reached the peak state of the 15-16 season under the training blessing of Wang Chao's training potion. The Rockets themselves are not very dependent on blue-collar centers. Whiteside's average playing time is close to that of Yao, only about 20 minutes per game, so the statistics are not particularly eye-catching, but his personal ability is indisputable. fact.

Embiid, who is just a first-year rookie, can't deal with Whiteside at all inside. Although Embiid is slightly heavier than Whiteside, the gap is not that big. On the contrary, Whiteside is better in terms of athletic ability. More importantly, Embiid played dozens of games when he first entered the league. Embiid's skills are still immature, his long-range shooting ability has not yet been fully developed, and he does not have flexible footwork and the ability to make fouls. Deka is in a good defensive position, so he can only choose to pass the ball.

As for Pau Gasol, the situation is worse than Embiid.

Of course Gasol is not a rookie like Embiid and has rich playing experience, but this does not mean that he can score smoothly under Wang Chao's marking.

The weaker Gasol is not even as strong as Wang Chao, let alone Wang Chao has the talent of a fighting madman to further strengthen his confrontation ability. The gap in strength between the two is even greater than that of Embiid and Whiteside.

The result is that facing Wang Chao Gasol can only hit the frame, relying on the advantages of height and wingspan to shoot.

However, although Wang Chao is at a disadvantage in height and wingspan, his jumping and explosive power are far stronger than Gasol's. With the inside defense that has been strengthened to 91 and the defensive awareness of 92 through training, he can predict Gasol's actions in advance. Judge defense, interfere with his shooting, and last season, one of the two talent skills rewarded by the season assessment, one of the extremely versatile moves can also be used here.

Standing at the right elbow and receiving a pass from James, Gasol pulled up and shot without hesitation.

Wang Chao in front of him tried his best to take off and try to block the shot, but the gap in height and wingspan still made it impossible for his palms to completely block Gasol's sight.

Aiming at the basket, Gasol was about to make a shot, but at this moment, Wang Chao yelled loudly.

"what--!"

A loud roar sounded like thunder, and Gasol, who was facing Wang Chao, was so frightened that his hands shook, and he directly threw a three-point basketball.

Lion's Roar Skill: Disturb the opponent's mind by roaring to achieve the purpose of reducing the opponent's shooting percentage.

Wang Chao has commented on this talent before, the strongest defensive move on the field - defense depends on roaring.

But it is obvious that the effect of the lion's roar with the blessing of the system is quite good, especially this kind of sudden face-to-face at close range, it can really scare people a lot.

This season Wang Chao has used it many times, and gradually figured out the advantages and disadvantages of this tactic.

First of all, the closer the distance, the better the effect of the Lion's Roar Kung Fu. This is for sure. After all, the closer the distance, the louder the shout will be heard by the other party.

Secondly, in a match, the effect of using this trick for the first time is the best, and every time you use it afterwards, the effect will become weaker and weaker. After all, if you are called out a lot, your opponent will get used to it, and naturally there will be no effect. .

Therefore, it is best to use this trick in a more critical defense. It can often turn the situation around when used as a trump card.

Of course, if you are facing a player like Gasol, it doesn't matter if you use it early, because the Cavaliers must concentrate on James at the most critical moment of the game. Even if it is not James, it can only be Irving, no It will be handed over to Gasol, who is old and has been inseparable from the word soft throughout his career. Even if Gasol's competitive state this season is not bad, beside the Big Three of the Cavaliers, Both can still play 14+8 data.

The Cavaliers wanted to rely on the inside twin towers to gain an advantage, but things backfired.

Both Gasol and Embiid stretched their hips, and the Rockets took this opportunity to play a wave of 8:0 under the leadership of Wang Chao, widening the point difference at the beginning of the game.

It's just that as the Cavaliers called out a timeout to adjust, after the timeout came back, they put the focus of offense back on the outside, especially Irving and James.

At this time, the Rockets began to lose their support outside.

The lack of Leonard still has a great impact on the Rockets' perimeter defense. James can still allow Butler to barely resist. Irving is currently no one in the Rockets to defend.

Don't look at Irving later getting the nickname Ou Shenxian and letting go of his whole neurotic child, but this guy is still very strong in playing, especially when he feels very good, and his scoring explosiveness can even be compared with Curry.

With Irving's efforts on the outside, the Rockets' lead began to be eroded, and Wang Chao was once forced to come out from the inside to defend Irving.

Wang Chao took the shot himself, and naturally immediately pinned Owen to death, but when he came to the outside line, it was his turn to play the role of the inside line again.

At this time, in order to strengthen the team's inside defense, the Rockets sent a double center combination of Whiteside and Gobert. There is one thing to say, these two players on the field at the same time are enough ghosts, and the two inside offensive capabilities Players who are zero can only serve as mascots on the offensive end, and at most they can be pulled out to give Wang Chao a little pick-and-roll.

This is also the reason why there will be fewer and fewer blue-collar centers in the small ball league in the future, and it will become more and more difficult to make ends meet.

The fast pace of the game in the small ball era requires players to have a certain shooting ability, including those top insiders in the future league, such as Jokic, Embiid, Davis and others, who all have certain three-pointers capable.

A center who has absolutely no independent offensive ability and no long-range shooting ability, like the three-time best defensive player Rudy Gobert, is very embarrassing, especially after signing a big contract, it is like a chicken rib, tasteless It's a pity to abandon it.

When the two blue-collars are on the field at the same time, the Rockets can only rely on Wang Chao's personal offensive ability on the offensive end, and arrange for Whiteside and Gobert to pull out from the inside in turn to provide pick-and-roll screens for Wang Chao and create for Wang Chao. Space for three-point shooting.

The Rockets changed their offensive tactics, and the Cavaliers also made adjustments to their defensive tactics. James and Pierce were on the court at the same time and double-teamed Wang Chao.

They have already seen that after the Rockets lost Dayao and Leonard, there are very few players in the team with the ability to attack independently. Apart from Wang Chao, at most there is only one Jimmy Butler who can barely hold the ball.

And Butler's long-range shooting ability is not good enough. In addition to the fixed-point open three-pointer, the main offensive method is still based on mid-range shooting and breaking through the basket with the ball.

Whenever Butler rushes into the penalty area with the ball, he will face either Gasol or Embiid who is helping to defend, and the offensive efficiency will naturally be greatly reduced.

Relying on the defensive strategy of double-teaming Wang Chao, guarding against Butler, and selectively letting go of other Rockets players, the Cavaliers slowly eroded the Rockets' score advantage and overtook the score. The situation is extremely unfavorable for the Rockets.

(End of this chapter)