NBA: James wants to team up with me

Thibodeau couldn't figure out Wang Chong's intention, and Wang Chong had already achieved his goal in the past two months, which greatly improved the Bulls players' ability to withstand pressure. The goal has been achieved, and there is no need for additional explanations.

The Bulls' combat effectiveness has improved significantly as Wang Chong stepped up on the defensive end.

On March 3, the Bulls challenged the Orlando Magic away from home.

Since Garnett was retired for the season, the Bulls have not won against the Magic. Howard can always make waves in the penalty area and beat Gasol without any ability to parry. When the Bulls' defense has problems, It is also difficult to deal with the Magic's one-star, four-shot tactics that tend to become a magic ball in the future.

But this time, the situation is different.

Bulls starting lineup, Curry, Billups, Danny Green, Wang Chong, Gasol.

Magic starting lineup, Jameer Nelson, Vince Carter, Hedo Turkoglu, Sharad Lewis, Howard.

At the beginning of the game, Howard easily won the jump ball.

After Nelson dribbled the ball across half court, he immediately handed the ball to Carter.

The butterfly effect brought by Wang Chong also had a huge impact on the Magic. Last season's failure in the Eastern Conference Finals made the entire Magic team, including the management, quite unwilling. For this reason, they spent a lot of money through trades this season. All-star player Vince Carter.

Carter is one of the four shooting guards. Although his personal career resume is not brilliant, his popularity is definitely not to mention. With his experience and performance in the slam dunk contest, Carter has the title of "demigod" and was once considered the closest to basketball. God Jordan exists.

Originally, Carter joined the Magic, which was followed by Turkoglu's departure. After becoming a free agent last season, Turkoglu wanted a big contract to match his ability, but the Magic management believed that Turkoglu was not worthy of a big contract with an annual salary of tens of millions, so he chose not to renew the contract with the Turkish magician. This led to the introduction of Carter to make up for the vacancy left by Turkoglu's departure.

However, a disastrous defeat to Wang Chong and the Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals forced the Magic to grit their teeth and keep Turkoglu, and they also traded for Carter, which caused the Magic's salary space to skyrocket this season.

The team already has a billionaire, Sharad Lewis. His contract in the 09-10 season has reached 1888 million U.S. dollars. Howard's is 1500 million U.S. dollars, plus Turkoglu with a starting salary of 900 million and a salary of 1640 million U.S. dollars. Scat, the cumulative salary of just four people reached 5928 million US dollars!

Don't forget, although Nelson, the Magic's starting point guard, is little-known, his annual salary is about 600 million.

This resulted in the Magic's salary for the 09-10 season approaching US$9000 million, ranking second in the league, second only to the Los Angeles Lakers with US$9500 million.

The heavy investment has indeed brought the Magic to a higher level. This season's record has been inextricable from the Cavaliers. The winning difference between the two sides has always remained within 1 game. No one will know what the two teams are until the end of the regular season. Which side is second in the East.

Against the remnant Bulls, the Magic's apparent strength naturally had an advantage.

Carter faced Billups' defense. After a little probing, he used his teammates' pick-and-roll to get open and shot a three-pointer from the outside.

When Howard was at his peak, the Magic's main offensive tactic was to shoot from one star to the other. Based on Howard's superior rebounding dominance, the Magic's four outside shooters could shoot three-pointers to their heart's content without fear of losing the game if their shooting percentage was low.

This time is no exception.

"哐——!"

At the beginning of the game, Carter's hand obviously hadn't warmed up yet, and his shot missed the basket.

Gasol desperately stuck Howard under the basket, but his ability was limited. Howard pulled a green onion from a dry place and pressed Gasol's head to grab the offensive rebound.

After receiving the rebound, Howard immediately took off again after landing, raising his hand to slam the basketball into the basket with one arm.

But at this moment, a palm shot out from the side and hit the basketball in Howard's hand. The sudden force caused the basketball to deviate from its path before slamming into the basket. It hit the edge of the basket and bounced back into the air.

"what?"

Howard was startled and subconsciously turned his head to look, only to see Wang Chong falling to the ground!

When did this guy come out? He can actually interfere with my dunk?

Although he took off twice in a row and dunked with one arm, Howard has absolute confidence in his arm strength. Wang Chong is not a player known for his strength. Not to mention among the inside players, even at the small forward position, his strength is stronger than that of Wang Chong. There are also big players everywhere, such as James, Artest, Anthony, etc.

That's why Howard was surprised.

Wang Chong staggered to the ground without any pause, and immediately adjusted his steps and ran towards the frontcourt. After Gasol picked off the rebound, he immediately passed it to Billups, who then pushed the basketball towards the frontcourt. With a flick, it landed accurately in the hands of Curry, who had already crossed the half court.

Quick attack counterattack!

Because they didn't expect Howard's dunk to be blocked, the Magic were obviously half a beat slower in returning to defense. When Curry reached the basket with the ball, only Nelson had time to return to defense in front of him. Nelson, who was also a point guard, I don't look down on players like Curry who focus on shooting.

Although mid- and long-range shooting is also one of his main ways of scoring, in addition to shooting, Nelson is also good at other aspects. He is 1 meters tall and weighs 83 kilograms, which is stronger than Curry, who is more than 91 kilograms. More than a little bit.

Seeing Curry approaching the basket, Nelson stepped forward without hesitation and used his body to resist and press Curry to exert pressure.

But Curry, who rushed into the penalty area, had no intention of attacking at all. After getting close to Nelson, Curry directly threw the basketball into the sky to Nelson's right.

The next moment, Wang Chong rushed over, jumped into the air, received Curry's pass in the air, and dunked the basketball into the basket.

"boom--!"

Alley-oop, from the connection between Wang Chong and Curry!

The game had just begun, and Wang Chong gave the Magic a shot in the arm with a block and an alley-oop.

Wang Chong's ability to block Howard has a lot to do with him reaching the gold-level rim protection elite badge.

What this badge strengthens is the ability to protect the basket and block shots from the front. In addition, Wang Chong practiced hard all summer to strengthen his shot-blocking ability value to 86. As long as he is willing to invest enough time and energy in this aspect, he will average 2 blocks per game. There is a chance to achieve more than 3 or even covers.

But even so, Wang Chong was able to block Howard because Howard himself was careless. His attention was mainly on Gasol. He didn't expect that the Bulls would still have someone who could come up without Garnett. The help defense gave him a hat.

"You only have one chance like this, don't ever think about having this chance again!"

Howard was quite upset, but things had happened, and it was useless for him to be upset. He could only focus on the next game.

But as the game progressed, Howard, or more specifically the Magic players, began to feel something was wrong.

Wang Chong's defensive position changed from the original man-to-man defense method. Instead, like Garnett, he stood closer to the corner. From this position, he had a panoramic view of the entire court and could immediately target most positions at any time. Carry out complementary defense.