Chapter 69: Barkley: Another Bet? This Time I Bet on Wang Chong!
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"This Wang Chong is not easy to deal with!"
In just one quarter, Wang Chong successfully gave old Nelson a headache.
In his opinion, Wang Chong is even more troublesome than O'Neal.
After all, although O'Neal was unstoppable on offense, he could do nothing with Nowitzki on defense. They also had a tried-and-true method to curb O'Neal—the "Hack-a-Shaq" tactic he created.
Therefore, although O'Neal is very fierce, when it comes to the critical moment, he is just a tiger with its teeth pulled out.
But Wang Chong is different.
The brief confrontation in the first quarter made old Nelson realize that Wang Chong is very similar to Nowitzki and even more difficult to deal with on the offensive end. Although Nowitzki has a good shot, his position is still on the inside. His footwork and movement speed are only above average among inside players, and most attacks still have to be initiated from the inside or mid-range back.
Wang Chong is completely different. He is a real outside player with superb dribbling skills and good ball-handling ability. He can dribble past Walker's defense and perform large-scale dribbling and direction changes while moving quickly.
In this situation, Wang Chong's height advantage is fully utilized, and the environment for mid-range shooting is much better than that of Nowitzki, making him difficult to defend.
If Wang Chong's shooting accuracy was a little worse, it would actually be acceptable, but his shooting was quite accurate. The Mavericks were not good at defense and could not find a way to solve Wang Chong's offense for a while.
At the beginning of the second quarter, Wang Chong did not come on the court, but was replaced by Phil Jackson.
In the first quarter, Wang Chong was almost the Lakers' main attacking point. He played for nearly 10 minutes, which was longer than O'Neal's time on the court.
At this time, the Lakers already had a double-digit lead, so they naturally wouldn't take advantage of one player too much. After all, before the start of the season, the F4 giants that the Lakers boasted of did not include a young player like Wang Chong.
The Lakers' lineup was adjusted to Fisher, Devin George, Brian Russell, Malone, and O'Neal.
The main attacking point of this lineup is naturally O'Neal and Malone in the interior.
The Mavericks replaced Antawn Jamison.
Although Jamison is a substitute player for the Mavericks, his threat is much stronger than Walker. After all, he is known as the Little Nowitzki.
At the beginning of the second quarter, Jamison made consecutive mid-range shots to help the team keep the score close.
Instead, O'Neal recovered some of his strength and was determined to teach the Mavericks a lesson in the second quarter, but he did not achieve the expected effect.
Because O'Neal was troubled by fouls. Once he was called for an offensive foul for unconsciously raising his elbow during the offense, and another time he was called for a defensive foul when Nash dribbled the ball under the basket.
O'Neal had already committed a foul in the first quarter, which meant he had accumulated three fouls. Although he was not substituted off the court, he began to be timid on the offensive end.
As for Malone, he is as bad as ever. He averaged 20.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game when he was with the Jazz last season, but his form has declined significantly in just one summer.
In Wang Chong's impression, Malone's average points per game during his time with the Lakers dropped to 13.2 points, and his average shots per game were only 9.5, which was not as high as Gary Payton.
In the first quarter, Malone made 0 of 4 shots and scored no points. In the second quarter, he made 1 of 3 shots and 2 of 2 free throws to barely score 4 points.
On the bench, Phil Jackson remained silent.
This is the case when facing the Mavericks, who have weak defensive capabilities. One can imagine what will happen if the opponent is a team like the Spurs or the Pistons, which are mainly defensive and have strong inside defensive players?
I have to admit that even though he doesn't like Kobe, he is indeed very important to the Lakers...
"Um?"
Jackson was stunned when he thought of this and felt like he had forgotten something.
Turning his head to the side, he saw Wang Chong sitting on the bench watching the game attentively.
Wang Chong's performance on the offensive end in the first quarter is still vivid in his mind, and that is exactly what he wanted Kobe to achieve.
He is decisive and efficient, doesn't stick to the ball, and doesn't take wild shots. He can step up and help open up the situation when the team's offense is in a stalemate.
Phil Jackson thought for a moment, then said to Wang Chong: "Wang, how was your rest? Can you play?"
Wang Chong was watching with great interest, and he stood up immediately after hearing what the head coach said. "Of course, coach!"
He wished he could play 48 minutes in this game and score 30+40+ or even 50+ points.
Although the system's task requires him to score no less than 20 points in this game, combined with another task goal—the average score per game within a week must not be lower than that of James and Anthony, the higher the better.
Because if the score in this game is high, there will be some room for error even if the score in the next game is slightly lower.
So when the second quarter was 5 minutes and 21 seconds in, Wang Chong took advantage of a dead ball opportunity and returned to the court.
In the TNT studio.
"See, I told you this guy is not simple. His offense is really tough."
When Wang Chong scored 8 points in the first quarter, Barkley was already showing off to Kenny Smith. "With that height and wingspan, ordinary outside players simply can't defend him. Given time, his mid-range shot will definitely become the most terrifying offensive weapon in the league."
"And what about the defense he had against Walker just now? That had nothing to do with defensive awareness. It was all about the defensive ability given to him by his physical talent. I really love this damn rookie!"
Listening to Barkley chattering, Smith rolled his eyes impatiently.
Somehow, an idea suddenly occurred to him and he spoke immediately.
"Charles, since you think so highly of him, how about we make a bet? Let's bet on who will have the best overall performance among the 2003 rookies in the first week of the regular season. I bet LeBron James will be the best among all the rookies. Do you dare to bet on Wang Chong?"
"You are so cunning!" Barkley shouted angrily upon hearing this. "Wang Chong and LeBron are different players. LeBron is the absolute core of the Cavaliers. He has plenty of ball rights. As long as he has enough ability, he can play beautiful data."
"Wang Chong is different. The Lakers have O'Neal and Kobe. He is not even the third offensive point. Even if he is better than James, it is difficult for him to beat him in terms of statistics."
"What? Are you scared?" Smith twitched the corner of his mouth, revealing a disdainful expression.
Barkley, who was a gambler and impulsive by nature, slammed the table immediately.
"Let's bet, who's afraid of who?"
If Wang Chong heard what these two people said at this time, he would probably seriously doubt whether this system has predictive ability. Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence that they would bet on the performance in the first week of the new season?
But this is just a coincidence.
Smith originally wanted to talk about the first game, but Wang Chong had already scored 8 points in the first quarter with high efficiency and a hot touch. He was worried that James might not be able to outperform Wang Chong in his debut.
If in a month, as Barkley said, James, who has a core position as a main player, will definitely have better data than Wang Chong, and the other party will definitely not agree to such a losing bet.
In contrast, the first week of the season only involves three games, so it is not surprising that Barkley would take the bait with a little provocation.
End of this chapter
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