Chapitre 200: O'Neal Joins the Cavaliers After Falling Ill and Seeking Treatment.
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Kobe fell for Wang Chong's silent provocation. He took 30 wild shots in the game, making only 11 of them. Despite scoring 30 points from free throws, his low shooting efficiency could not keep up with the Lakers' offensive pace.
When the Lakers faced the Bulls, the interior advantage they were so proud of disappeared, just like the advantage of having Kobe Bryant, the league's all-time top scorer, on the perimeter. The only advantage the team still had was Phil Jackson's past achievements. The triangle offense, which had led to three consecutive championships, was no longer as effective.
In the second half of the game, after some adjustments, the Lakers' strategy began to function more normally, but they still couldn't gain an advantage over the Bulls.
On one hand, the Bulls' defense was truly strong. The triangle offense primarily relied on Gasol holding the ball in the high post as support, while the other two players found open shooting opportunities through off-ball movements and pick-and-roll screens.
However, Garnett's best contribution to the Bulls was defending the pick-and-rolls. His extremely fast speed, combined with his height and long arms, allowed him to stay with the players immediately after the pick-and-roll was executed.
In fact, during the original 2007-08 season, when the Lakers faced the Celtics in the Finals, the Lakers' triangle offense struggled significantly. Kobe Bryant averaged only 25.7 points per game and shot 40% from the field, which was much lower than his previous average.
The same happened with Pau Gasol, who was suppressed by Garnett throughout the game, averaging just 14.7 points, 10 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 2.2 turnovers per game.
Later in the 2008-09 season, due to Garnett's accidental injury that ended his season, the Orlando Magic entered the Finals. This gave the Lakers the opportunity to defeat the Magic in the Finals and win the championship.
In the 2009-10 season, although the Celtics made it to the Finals, Garnett was 34 years old at that point and had suffered significant injuries. His competitive form was very different from two years ago. The Lakers also added the Celtics' main enforcer, center Kendrick Perkins, who was injured by the Lakers. After some ups and downs, the Celtics lost in the tiebreaker.
Since Garnett could successfully limit the Lakers' triangle offense with the Celtics, there was no reason why he couldn't do the same with the Bulls. Moreover, the current head coach of the Bulls, Tom Thibodeau, was the original assistant coach for the Celtics in the 2007-08 season. He was mainly responsible for defensive tactics.
Winning this battle boosted Wang Chong's confidence because, in this season's Finals, there was a high probability that his Bulls would face the Lakers in the Western Conference.
Since the Lakers were no match for the Bulls, Wang Chong could complete his system upgrade task at the end of this season, open a new system, and break the shackles of his current skill value, which was limited to Durant's growth cap of 97.
It was definitely worth the wait.
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At the end of January, the final results of the three rounds of All-Star voting were announced.
Wang Chong became the NBA vote king for the third consecutive year with 2.44 million votes.
Garnett followed with 2.27 million votes.
The league's judgment was correct; after all, James still couldn't compete with Garnett. In the end, he only received 2.1 million votes, ranking third in the Eastern Conference. Thanks to Stern's quick response, he immediately moved James to the guard position. Otherwise, Old Zhan could have really been an All-Star reserve in a season at his peak.
But even if he managed to be selected as a starting All-Star as the number-one guard in the Eastern Conference, it would still be a major embarrassment and humiliation for James. Obviously, he hadn't decided yet, and some of James' fans jokingly began calling him LeBron James.
To become an All-Star starter, James changed his position from forward to guard in the All-Star voting. In a sense, James could be considered as the first player in the league.
The All-Star starters for the East, according to the final voting results, were Wang Chong, Garnett, James, Wade, and Howard.
The All-Star starters for the Western Conference were Kobe, Iverson, Anthony, Duncan, and Yao Ming.
In this year's All-Star voting, the Western All-Stars were generally suppressed by the Eastern Conference.
Kobe Bryant, who received the most votes in the Western Conference, received just over 2 million votes. Among Howard and Howard, who received the fourth highest total votes in the Eastern Conference, the other four players received even fewer votes.
With the arrival of players like O'Neal, Wang Chong, Garnett, and Ray Allen in the Eastern Conference, and the rise of players from the 2003 generation like James, Wade, and Bosh, the league's situation, with a strong West and a weak East, seemed to be starting to shift.
This time at the All-Star Weekend, the Bulls were finally proud.
Wang Chong and Garnett were not only selected as All-Star starters, but Billups was also successfully selected as an All-Star reserve for the East with an average of 16+8 per game.
This meant that the Bulls had three All-Stars selected. Compared to two years ago when the Bulls only had one All-Star, Wang Chong, it wasn't too far-fetched.
This also confirmed the strength of the Bulls' lineup from another angle. They were like the Celtics' replacement for the Big Three in the 2007-08 season… No, considering that Wang Chong's personal skill far exceeded Pierce and Ray Allen, the Bulls' Big Three should be the luxurious, enhanced version of the Celtics.
The powerful Bulls only had one goal this season: to aim for the championship!
In fact, besides Wang Chong, Garnett, and Billups being selected to the All-Star Game, second-year Paul Millsap and first-year Marc Gasol also participated in the All-Star Rookie Challenge. James Jones also represented the Bulls in the Three-Point Contest.
Originally, James Jones was set to participate in the Three-Point Contest for the first time in 2011.
Jones, who joined the Heat, won the Three-Point Contest for the first time and took home the prize.
Now, four years ahead of the original plan, this was mainly because his exposure and popularity as a starter for the Bulls had increased significantly.
Jones serves as the Bulls' starting shooting guard. Strictly speaking, he's a pseudo-starter, averaging fewer than 30 minutes per game and not truly being a starting force.
But his impact on the court was very positive. Just like in the original 2007-08 season, Jones' three-point shooting percentage was quite high this season, reaching 44%, only surpassed by Nash from the Suns and Peja Stojaković from the Hornets.
And due to his status as a starter, Jones' production was much higher than in the original 2007-08 season.
Although, as a spot-up shooter, Jones mostly takes open shots, and his scoring and shooting are relatively speculative, it is undeniable that he is one of the best perimeter shooters in the league.
This also directly contributed to the three starting guards of the Bulls this season all having three-point shooting percentages above 40%. Jones at 44%, Wang Chong at 41%, and Billups being the only other one. This was also one of the important reasons why the team was ranked first in the league in defensive efficiency and also among the top teams in offensive scoring.
The start time for the 2008 All-Star Weekend was similar to previous years, also in mid-February.
On February 14, after the Bulls' regular season games ended, the players participating in the All-Star Weekend flew to New Orleans.
The host of the 2008 All-Star Game was the New Orleans Hornets.
Although the Bulls had almost the most participants in this All-Star Game, the stars of the game were not the Bulls.
Let's ignore the previous games for now. The most important All-Star Game, although the Bulls had three players selected for the main game, two of them were starters, none of them contributed much during the game. Wang Chong only played a symbolic 25 minutes, scoring 18 points and grabbing 5 rebounds before stepping down to watch the excitement.
In the end, the Eastern Conference, led by two Cleveland stars, James with 27 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists, nearly a triple-double, and Ray Allen with 28 points, defeated the Western All-Stars by a wide margin and won the All-Star Game.
James was also successfully named the All-Star Game MVP with nearly triple-double stats. This was the second time James was named MVP of the All-Star Game.
But this year's All-Star Game was somewhat boring.
Wang Chong didn't play seriously in the All-Star Game. He obviously planned to focus on the next regular season. Garnett, who was with him, clearly had the same idea, only playing about 18 minutes in the Eastern Conference All-Star Game, with single-digit points and rebounds.
In the original 2007-08 season, although Garnett was selected as the player with the most votes, he missed the game due to injury, and Bosh took the starting position.
The situation was similar in the West. Kobe also suffered a finger injury. Although he started as an All-Star, he only played 2 minutes before resting. His final stats were 0 points, 1 rebound, and 0 assists.
Without the two main stars, Kobe and Garnett, Wang Chong was still rowing in the game, so naturally the game was not very exciting. Many fans thought that James, the regular season MVP, was not a winner.
But in fact, the essence is that no one takes the All-Star Game MVP seriously Wang Chong and Kobe have exactly the same goals, and both are championships.
After this somewhat unsatisfactory All-Star weekend, the regular season has entered its final sprint period. The end of February, the entire month of March, and the nearly two-month schedule in early April will be the final period for the NBA playoffs.
Before that, the first step is the league's final trading day before the trade deadline.
For championship teams like the Bulls, Lakers and Spurs, who have full lineups, tacit cooperation and good chemical reactions, they will try to avoid large-scale team transactions in the middle and end of the season to destroy the existing. good chemical reactions.
The original Lakers traded Gasol in February. Now, due to the butterfly effect caused by Wang Chong, Gasol joined the Lakers during the off-season. Naturally, the Lakers did not trade him.
Still, before the trade deadline, a big deal happened in the league that caused a sensation in the league, and it was also a deal that Wang Chongdu did not expect at all.
The Miami Heat sent Shaquille O'Neal to Shaquille O'Neal and acquired Ben Wallace, Drew Gooden and a first-round pick from the Cleveland Cavaliers.
O'Neal officially joined Cleveland and the Cavaliers' Big Three improved.
The Heat traded Ben and Gooden for a first-round pick and are obviously ready to rebuild the team.
But there's nothing we can do about it.
The Heat's record this season is like launching themselves off a high platform. They went straight to the bottom of the Eastern Conference, which surprised everyone.
One of the reasons for this situation is that Wade was troubled by injuries and his attendance rate was not high. At the same time, his personal performance also decreased to 24 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists.
On the other hand, it is the rapid aging of the Heat's core lineup to win the championship.
O'Neal's condition has worsened significantly this season, averaging only 14 points and 8 rebounds per game, and he has also missed dozens of games due to old injuries. This not only caused O'Neal to lose his spot as the team's starting center. Eastern Conference All-Stars in recent years, but he wasn't even selected as an All-Star reserve.
But whatever happens, after all, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. The Cavaliers now need urgent medical treatment. Given that Ben has just 5 points and 7 rebounds this season, the value of the trade has fallen to the bottom. It's already earned in exchange for O'Neal.
They can only hope that after O'Neal comes to the Cavaliers, after some recovery, he can have a strong outbreak in the playoffs, especially when he faces the Bulls, it is likely to have miraculous effects.
Everyone knows that what the Bulls fear most right now is a heavy center with great offensive ability. Like Yao, Gasol can't handle it and Garnett is a big center who can't be defended.
The Cavaliers deal again made the situation in the Eastern Conference a bit confusing, especially a few days after the deal, the Cavaliers faced the Bulls at home, O'Neal, who had just joined the Cavaliers, immediately made big contributions and returned. Gloria Scored 27 points and 10 rebounds, helping the Cavaliers defeat the Bulls 107:102, breaking the Bulls' long winning streak against the Cavaliers.
Cavaliers fans were almost in tears with emotion.
This was the Cavaliers' first win against the Bulls after Wang Chong joined the Bulls. It was a historic 0-1 lead.
This result left Wang Chong a bit dumbfounded. He didn't expect the Cavaliers' trade for O'Neal to really work out.
But still, he didn't mind, because Wang Chong knew very well that O'Neal was very old at that time.
Maybe once in a while you can perform at your best in one or two games when you are in good shape, but it is absolutely impossible to perform at the same high efficiency in two or more consecutive games.
Originally, in the 2007-08 season, the Suns were supposed to trade O'Neal for Shawn Marion.
Now, running early to the Cavaliers is also due to the Wang Chong butterfly effect.
The Suns did not hesitate to fire Marion in exchange for O'Neal. The main goal was to use O'Neal to contain the Spurs. However, the Suns' lineup, which was originally a run-and-gun team, had an old and slow lineup. O'Neal in the lineup and he couldn't play.
The Suns, who shot themselves in the foot, were eliminated by the Spurs in a gentlemanly 4:1 sweep in the first round.
O'Neal averaged just 15 points and 9 rebounds per game in those five games, shooting 44% from the field, completely lacking the sharpness of the Sharks of the past.
While the Cavaliers are not a run-and-gun team like the Suns, and are not extremely mismatched with O'Neal due to their style of play, this does not mean that O'Neal can perform better on the Cavaliers than on the Suns. .
After all, the Suns still have Nash, who is proficient at passing, and Stoudemire in the post to provide support. After the Cavaliers fired Big Z, Big Ben and Gooden in the post, there is basically no one available now. just one What can O'Neal do in his old age?
End of this chapter
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