NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 34

(Yesterday's starting list was made wrong. There is a duplicate, which is actually Luke Wharton. The previous chapter has been revised. Let me talk about it here.)
Luke Walton, whether he was a player or a future coach, perfectly highlighted one word-mediocre.

As a player, Walton's evaluation is generally a fairly good role player, has a high basketball IQ, and knows how to cooperate with the team.

There is neither excellent breakthrough ability nor stable shooting accuracy, that is, the passing ability can make people shine, but in fact that is the case.

In terms of defense, Walton is not a defensive champion, at most he can only be said to be not a defensive black hole.

Walton's 10-year NBA player career averaged only 4.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.

This guy's matchup with Wang Chao is definitely an easy difficulty for Wang Chao, who is making his first start in the playoffs.

How could such a rare opportunity be missed?

……

At the beginning of the game, Kwame Brown easily beat Marion by virtue of his height and excellent jumping advantage.

No matter how bad the basketball skills of Bennett's former No. [-] pick in the league, his physical fitness is really nothing to say, otherwise he would not be selected as the No. [-] pick by the leader of Joe's gang.

The Lakers had possession of the ball, and Smush Parker passed the ball to Kobe immediately after he dribbled the ball in half court, without any thought of attacking with the ball.

Kobe held the ball in the top arc and stood still, facing the Suns perimeter defensive leader Raja Bell.

The reason why Bell will be dubbed the "Kobe Terminator" in the future is that the entanglement between him and Kobe in this series played a vital role.

Not surprisingly, although the Suns played very hard in this round of the series, they will eventually eliminate the Lakers with a score of 4:3 and advance to the second round of the Western Conference.

And Kobe averaged 27.9 points per game in seven games and shot 49.7% from the field. It can't be said that he was successfully restricted by Bell.

But after this round of the series, Bell was still regarded as one of the best defenders in the league to defend Kobe.

The main reason is that in the game, because he was always unable to guard against Kobe, Bell became angry and directly choked Kobe who was breaking through, and put him directly to the ground.

There is one thing to say, Wang Chao is quite disdainful of this kind of behavior that can't be prevented and engages in dirty methods, but the NBA of this era still has some so-called "iron and blood" thinking of the 90s, so Bell became the hero of the Suns .

In any case, there is no doubt that Bell, known as the "Kobe Terminator", cannot guard Kobe at all.

The two met a total of 44 times in their careers. Kobe averaged 28.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game and shot 44.6% from the field, both of which remained above the career average.

This is clearly evident on the field at this moment.

Facing Bell's defense with the ball, Kobe directly chose to break through with the ball. At his peak, Kobe's breakthrough with the ball was also at the top level in the league. His speed was as fast as thunder, and Bell had no time to react. The latter had passed half of his body. Take the lead and go to the basket.

Diaw immediately stepped forward to help defend, but Kobe chose to pass the ball while on the move. Odom, who received Kobe's pass, immediately scored a layup.

2:0, the Lakers scored the first point of the opening.

The ball was exchanged, and Marion served from the bottom line to Nash, who quickly held the ball and advanced across the half.

The Suns' fast-paced run-and-gun tactics continued unabated even in the playoffs.

The Lakers can only quickly follow the Suns players back to defense, not daring to neglect in the slightest.

The team's small forward Luke Walton was following Wang Chao non-stop.

In this game, when he learned that the starting small forward of the Suns was Wang Chao, Lakers head coach Phil Jackson gave Luke Walton a task.

"Luke, you don't need to do anything in this game. The offensive scoring is handed over to Kobe and Lamar (Odom). Chao, don't give him the chance to catch the ball!"

Today's Wang Chao has successfully become a thorn in the eyes of every team in the league. An outside shooter who can average 5 three-pointers per game is quite a threat to any team.

In view of Wang Chao's height advantage among small forwards and his unresponsive shooting speed, it is no longer enough to prevent him from opening three-pointers. The current league team's method of targeting Wang Chao is simpler and more direct, which is to arrange a player Follow the defense all the way, intercept on the passing route, and don't give him a chance to catch the ball.

This arrangement is actually a bit of the way other teams will target the Warriors Splash Brothers in the future.

But is this defense effective?Obviously the effect is not very good.

Wang Chao’s position in the Suns is a role player. It’s good to be able to score, but if he can’t score, even if he just stands outside the three-point line, it will draw the attention of a defensive player and prevent the opponent from participating in the overall defense. , That is also a blood profit.

The Suns' lineup at this time, from the first position to the fifth position, all have the ability to shoot three-pointers. At this moment, all five players have pulled beyond the three-point line.

Faced with such a situation, even Kwame Brown had to run out to the outside.

The defense line of the Lakers was completely emptied, and then Nash directly singled Smush Parker, just like Kobe broke through Bell, it should not be too easy for Nash to pass Parker.

After passing Parker, Nash didn't have to face other players' complementary defenses like Kobe, and easily scored layups.

2: 2.

Such a result is completely acceptable for the Suns.

The only one who was a little upset was Wang Chao himself.

Even if this is a contribution to the team, in comparison, Wang Chao is still more willing to score by himself, because the most critical factor in judging a player's ability and value is personal data.

Having said that, some people may be arguing. There are many extremely powerful players in the league who sacrifice their data for the team.

So here comes the question, have these so-called extremely strong players got a maximum salary contract after sacrificing their own data for the team's victory?

Obviously no, in this league, most of the players who can get high salaries and be selected as All-Stars are those players with very good personal data.

As a veteran fan from 2022, Wang Chao knows the essence of the NBA league too well.

Most of the so-called sacrifices for the team and team honor will not end well.

Wade chose to take the initiative to cut his salary for the team, but the Heat would rather choose to sign Dragic with a high salary than give Wade a decent contract at the end of his career.

It is as strong as Wade, not to mention those lesser-known role players?
Therefore, Wang Chao is very clear that he can be used as a three-point deterrent point to attract the opponent's defense and create space for the team. However, in the process, he himself must score, which is why he suffers. The reason for practicing off-ball running.

(End of this chapter)