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.

This job was originally done by Garnett for the Bulls. Why does Wang Chong have to do this job now? Do you have what Garnett has? Even if there is, what should you do if you defend the team's offense?
The Magic team, which did not believe in evil, continuously tried to attack from the outside. However, every time Wang Chong provided timely defense, the Magic's offense failed.

The Magic were shocked to find that Wang Chong's assist defense ability was not only as good as Garnett's, but because Wang Chong's speed and explosive power were stronger than the 33-year-old Garnett, his assist defense speed was even faster. Faster than Garnett!

Therefore, even if his defensive experience and skills are somewhat inferior, Wang Chong's defensive effect on the court is not much worse than Garnett's.

The Magic's opening offense was restricted by Wang Chong. At the same time, on the offensive end, the Bulls, led by Curry and Billups, launched an extremely sharp attack from the outside.

After the first quarter, the Bulls actually led the Magic by 28 points on the road, 17:11!
The Magic home fans were stunned. What is going on?
In the second quarter of the game, after some adjustments, the Magic team began to play steadily, trying to avoid Wang Chong's defensive area and attack.

The Magic, which has a one-star and four-shooter system, has an easy time mobilizing a defensive player's defensive position.

The Magic's offensive rhythm finally began to pick up, but this did not allow them to change the situation, because Wang Chong immediately began to exert force on the offensive end.

In the first quarter of the game, Wang Chong focused entirely on the defensive end and basically did not attack with the ball on the offensive end. He only scored one fast break counterattack and an open catch and shoot, scoring only 6 points in a single quarter.

However, in the second quarter, Wang Chong began to take over the ball and conducted a large number of single attacks with the ball.

Turkoglu, who was responsible for guarding Wang Chong, couldn't guard Wang Chong at all, and Wang Chong used various methods to score points.

Wang Chong made 8 of 6 shots in a single quarter, 3 of 2 three-pointers, and 4 of 4 free throws. He scored 18 points and led the Bulls to score 35 points in a single quarter. Therefore, although the Magic's offensive efficiency in the second quarter was not low, Scored 33 points, but instead of narrowing the point difference between the two teams, it further expanded to 13 points.

The Magic, which fell behind in the first half, were still unable to narrow the score in the second half. Howard continued to bully Gasol in the penalty area, but the Magic's outside offense was restricted by Wang Chong. At the same time, the Bulls' offense was still as efficient as ever under the leadership of Wang Chong.

The result was that the Bulls beat the Magic 116:99 with a 17-point advantage and won the game.

This game allowed everyone in the league to see how strong Wang Chong can be when he defends seriously.

"It's unbelievable. I thought Garnett had returned early for this game. Is Wang Chong's defense so strong? The blocking of Howard's shot at the beginning of the game scared me!"

"It's so terrifying. The most frightening thing about Wang Chong is not his super personal ability and static talent, but his ability to grow that never knows the limit. Without everyone noticing, Wang Chong actually He has become one of the top defenders in the league. You must know that two seasons ago, Wang Chong was recognized as a model of strong offense and weak defense!"

"In just a few seasons, Wang Chong has overcome physical problems and deficiencies in defensive experience and skills. Now, with Garnett's season-ending opportunity, he has finally shown everyone how strong his defense is now! "

"As a result, it is still unclear who will win the championship this season. If Wang Chong can support the Bulls' defensive system, even if it reduces the offensive performance a little, it will still be a huge improvement for the Bulls' overall strength. They have the capital to compete in the Eastern Conference and even compete with the Lakers."

Unfortunately, the two games between the Bulls and Lakers this season have been played in the past few months. The two sides have no chance to play against each other in the regular season this season. If they really meet, it will only be possible on the stage of the finals.

The Bulls who defeated the Magic were full of momentum all the way, defeating many strong opponents one after another. They posted a record of 3 wins and 13 losses in March, and the team's total record reached 2 wins and 60 losses. Although there are still 14 regular season games to be played in April, But the Bulls have already reached 4+ wins, and this was even when Garnett was reimbursed for the season and missed most of the season.

In the last eight games of April, the Bulls started a bad journey.

Wang Chong is very optimistic. The team has secured the first place in the regular season in advance, and even if they win all the April schedule, the record will only be 4 wins and 68 losses. Although this record is already quite strong and can be ranked among the top in history. But for the Bulls, who scored 14 wins and 73 losses last season, it actually doesn't matter at all. Besides, there are several high-level opponents in these 9 games, including the Cavaliers and Celtics, who want to win. The very possibility of total victory is low.

Therefore, the Bulls simply arranged for the players to start taking turns in April. The main players, including Wang Chong, Billups, Curry and Gasol, all had one or two games of rest, with the purpose of playing in the playoffs. Take as much rest as possible before the game, recover from the fatigue accumulated during the long regular season, and ensure that the team will not have another tragedy like Garnett.

结果就是公牛队4月份8场比赛，取得4胜4负，最终战绩定格在64胜18负，胜率78%，依旧是09-10赛季全联盟唯一一支常规赛斩获60+胜场的球队。

When Garnett was just injured and confirmed to be out for the season, who could have imagined that the Bulls could end the regular season with the first record in the season?

At this time, even Wang Chong's followers were completely speechless. The excuse they used to criticize Wang Chong before was, "Without Garnett, Wang Chong is nothing!" Now it seems like It's a naked slap in the face.

Is it true that without Garnett and Wang Chong, there is nothing? How come after one season, the Bulls have won the first place in the regular season?

Who dares to question Wang Chong's ability to lead the team now? Who else? (End of chapter)