I'm really not a brush in basketball

Chapter 248 247. Conquering Paul
In fact, when Paul officially announced that he would join the Lakers, Chen Long was surprised.

It's okay for the Lakers to get Paul. The problem is that the New Orleans Hornets, who are being managed by the league, will agree to let Kobe and Paul join forces.

Three years ago, Kobe and Paul were the top three on the MVP list, and their combination almost meant that the small ball market had no chance of winning the championship.

This state is definitely not good news for the league.

If Chen Long doesn't retire, there won't be much controversy about the two rookies leading the team to win the championship. After all, they were selected by the Bulls, and their superstar performance is also due to the Bulls' luck.

But the Lakers let the two stars join forces to directly hurt the feelings of the remaining 29 teams.

Because the Lakers formed a dual-core drive, the Miami Heat were approved by the league to form the Big Three.

The league's idea is very simple, use the Heat's Big Three to check and balance the Lakers' dual-core, only in this way can the NBA escape the reputation of the finale.

Coupled with the San Antonio Spurs, spending a lot of money to overdraft the future formation of the Nets All-Stars, Dallas Mavericks and other teams, there is still a trace of suspense about the ownership of the NBA championship.

Now that Chen Long is back, the Chicago Bulls have soared to the third place in the odds of winning the new season.

The reason why he was not number one was because no one knew about Chen Long's condition.

The result of this game will directly determine the Chicago Bulls' winning odds.

In order to deal with the twin star combination of Chen Long and Rose, the Lakers did their best to partner Chris Paul and Kobe. Facts have proved that these two people are very compatible.

Paul has the same desire to win as Kobe, and they will fight desperately for victory.

Last season, the Lakers only lost three games in the three rounds of the playoffs in the Western Conference. They swept the Warriors in the first round, defeated the Mavericks 4:1 in the second round, and eliminated the Spurs 4:2 in the Western Conference Finals.

It seems that the record is not stable enough. In fact, the performance of the Lakers is getting better and better, so the finals can easily defeat the Big Three of the Heat to win the championship.

Paul realized his dream of the Western Conference Finals, and Kobe realized his dream of two consecutive FMVPs. As long as he wins another championship and one FMVP, Kobe's personal honor will surpass Shaquille O'Neal in an all-round way. This is the result he wants most.

Without Chen Long, Kobe would have a high probability of winning this year's championship, because the Heat's Big Three are very strong, but it is not easy for them to beat the Lakers to win the championship in the past two years.

Kobe is in good condition, Chris Paul is at his peak, coupled with highly functional defensive players Metta Shiping and Tyson Chandler, there is still room for improvement in addition to power forwards, the Lakers lineup is almost satisfied Everything you need to win a championship.

The Lakers' offense is dominated by Chris Paul, the best traditional point guard in active service in the league.

Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler made an empty cut, just like the New Orleans Hornets back then, the boxing champion dunked!

Although Tyson Chandler does not have the ability to attack independently, Paul's passing allows him to play an explosive abuse of the frame.

Noah's defense was good, but he was taken out of the penalty area by Paul, and it was too late to return to the defense. The Bulls opened wide in the middle, and the boxing champion naturally would not waste such an opportunity.

The Lakers' scoring does not depend on Kobe. Kobe is like the guarantee of the Lakers. At the critical moment, both Kobe and Paul can play the key ball.

Kobe gave up the ball for Paul, and Paul guaranteed Kobe's shots and scoring average.

Such a partnership allows the Lakers to have a better offense, and opponents have no idea how the Lakers will attack under Paul's leadership.

Chen Long single-handedly defends Kobe, and others don’t need to double-team. This has relieved most of the pressure on the Bulls’ defense, but the Lakers still have Chris Paul. If Paul breaks into the basket without double-teaming and assisting defense, CP3 Attacks can also be terminated.

So Paul led the Lakers to play a more unsolvable offense after the game started.

Rose's offense is great, but it is difficult to improve his defensive ability to the top level after all. This is because technical characteristics and personal habits are difficult to change.

As for the rest of the Bulls, Tyrus Thomas at the power forward position can help defend and defend alone, but his awareness is still not good enough. When playing the fifth position and serving as a small lineup center, Tyrus performed even better.

But the Bulls need Noah as the center of defense. Noah is characterized by being tough and not afraid of confrontation. He is very smart in defense. His weakness is that he will be teased because of his lack of athletic ability when he encounters smarter opponents.

Ray Allen has a good single-defense ability, but with age and height, his role is getting smaller and smaller, especially because of physical problems, he can't play too much time per game.

The Bulls use Gibson and Sefolosha as shooting guards most of the time. One of these two men has offense but no defense, and the other has defense but no offense. The shortcomings are obvious.

Even with the addition of Chen Long, the Bulls' lineup is fine for the regular season, but when it comes to tough games in the playoffs, there will be problems of losing the chain at critical moments and being infinitely targeted by opponents.

The 4:1 elimination by the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals last year can illustrate the lack of the Bulls lineup.

Now, what the media and fans want to see is how Chen Long can make up the weakest link of the football team. This link is not offense, but defense!

Chen Long didn't attack with the ball, and Rose went to the basket and made a layup in the way he liked.

But the Bulls will not let Rose play like this all the time, Chen Long's appearance can share the pressure on Rose's shoulders.

This time, Chen Long did not defend Kobe alone but let Rose come over. Chen Long defended from the third position to the first position and faced Chris Paul.

Paul never expected that Chen Long would stand in front of him so confidently.

The entire league knows that Paul has excellent ball-handling ability and is basically the most difficult small point guard to defend. Chen Long is tall and has a pair of long arms, but it is difficult to compare with Paul in terms of flexibility.

Paul was very confident. He leaned over to dribble and used Crossover to try to pass Chen Long in one step.

But Chen Long didn't make a mistake. He pressed Rose's ball tightly, and then forced him to go out. When Paul was about to change hands and change direction again, Chen Long leaned over and reached out to complete the steal with quick eyes and hands!

As soon as the ball in his hand was lost, Paul didn't even have time to be stupefied. He immediately counterattacked on the spot, jumped up and hit Chen Long's arm.

The whistle sounded, and Paul fouled Chen Long.

Because the number of fouls has not yet arrived, Paul can also be regarded as preventing a defensive counterattack by the Bulls.

Kobe pulled Paul's jersey and said, "Don't think of Chen Long as your other opponents. His defense is historical."

Paul, who had just been robbed, teased unhappily, "Is it stronger than you?"

Kobe smiled and replied, "Of course not!"

Paul smiled and shook his head, "I know Chen Long is good, but I didn't expect his defense to be so good and clean. If he defends me again, you have to be ready to catch the ball."

Hearing Paul's words, Kobe also froze for a moment, because it was rare to hear from Paul that he was so sure about an opponent.

Especially the opponent has not played for two years, and this is Chen Long's first comeback.

(End of this chapter)