章節 161: Continuous Early Attacks, Confusing the Pistons
Guys there is already content on patreon, if anyone wants to become a chunin jonnin, hogake or God Shinobi.
patreon.com/Chuga320 (Have than 50 additional chapters)
—————————————————————————————————————————————
Now, Wang Chong has combined Iverson's butterfly step with Durant's forward body shift, adding more realistic feints without losing speed.
Prince didn't have time to react. He only felt a "whoosh," and Wang Chong blew past him, heading straight into the paint.
"How fast!" Prince was startled and quickly turned to chase Wang Chong. At the same time, Ben Wallace, guarding the paint, took the initiative to meet Wang Chong.
Prince cannot defend Wang Chong. This was the consensus among the Pistons before the game, so they had already prepared a response.
As soon as they saw Wang Chong pass Prince, Wallace rushed to confront him.
As mentioned earlier, Ben Wallace was best known for his help defense during his prime. He was the Pistons' last line of defense and their ultimate shield.
At this moment, Ben and Prince formed a pincer attack against Wang Chong.
However, Wang Chong remained calm when facing this double-team. He slowed down a step before the free-throw line and took an emergency jump shot.
By then, Ben Wallace had already reached Wang Chong and jumped with him, raising his hands in an attempt to interfere with the shot.
But as they both leapt, the gap between them left the Pistons fans speechless.
The difference was just too large.
Ben Wallace, barely over 2 meters tall, looked too short next to Wang Chong. Even with Wallace extending his arms with all his strength, he was still far from reaching the basketball. All he could do was try to block Wang Chong's view to disrupt his shooting accuracy.
But at this distance, about 12 feet from the basket, Wang Chong was already in his comfort zone. He had a perfect mid-range shot rating of 99, boosted by his shooting badges, making Ben Wallace's small defensive interference irrelevant.
"Swish!"
The ball hit nothing but net.
Wang Chong scored for the Bulls.
2:0.
At this point, the Pistons' fans hadn't realized the severity of the situation. After all, Wang Chong was the league's top scorer in the regular season, averaging 35.6 points per game, comparable to Jordan back in the day. Scoring over Ben Wallace wasn't surprising.
But as the game progressed, Pistons fans began to sense that something was off.
When the Pistons attacked, Billups used his strong frame to bulldoze through Ellis and charge toward the paint.
But he faced a similar situation as Wang Chong.
Tyson Chandler, guarding the Bulls' interior, immediately stepped up to cover the defense.
In terms of defensive ability, Ben Wallace, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year (and likely winner again this year), was definitely better than Chandler. However, their roles on the court were quite similar. Chandler, like Wallace, was a hardworking center with good mobility and rim protection. While he lacked Wallace's strength and explosiveness, Chandler had his own advantages, such as his towering 7'1" height and 7'7" wingspan, which stood out among centers.
Chandler's career block numbers weren't high, but with his exaggerated height and wingspan, even without impressive block stats, his rim protection was formidable.
Billups rushed into the paint, but Chandler's interference forced him to miss the basket.
The Bulls went on the attack.
The ball was given to Wang Chong again, and he continued facing Prince's defense. Wang Chong called for a pick-and-roll and then hit another mid-range jumper.
4:0.
In the Pistons' next offensive possession, they tried a different approach. Billups passed the ball to Rasheed Wallace, and the Roaring Rasheed attempted to post up Wang Chong.
In his prime, Rasheed Wallace was an All-Star caliber player, averaging 19 points and 8 rebounds per game. Despite his controversial technical fouls, his offensive game was smooth and skillful.
The Pistons targeted Wang Chong for a reason. Although Wang Chong's offensive ability was elite, his defense was considered average. By the end of the regular season, teams across the league had a basic understanding of Wang Chong.
While Wang Chong's physical condition wasn't poor, and he sometimes played the full 48 minutes, he clearly lacked the endurance of players like Kobe or LeBron. He often focused on offense at the expense of defense. If a player's offense was too strong, Wang Chong would switch defensive duties with his teammates.
So, the Pistons wanted to wear him down, forcing him to exert energy on defense so he wouldn't be able to go all-out on offense.
This defensive tactic had become common and was used against players with outstanding offensive skills but weaker defense, such as Curry during his Warriors years or Harden during his Rockets era.
Naturally, Durant wasn't on this list. Although he had never been selected for an All-Defensive team, his height and wingspan made him far from a defensive liability.
This applied to Wang Chong too. In addition to his system rewards, he had two silver-level defensive badges that strengthened his ability to lock down on the perimeter and protect the rim.
If Wang Chong played seriously on defense, making an All-Defensive team wasn't out of the question.
Seeing Rasheed Wallace holding the ball, preparing to go one-on-one, Wang Chong couldn't help but smirk despite understanding their reasoning.
"Do you really think you can wear me down? You're underestimating me!"
Wang Chong decided to send a strong message.
Before Rasheed Wallace could make any more moves, Wang Chong stepped closer, applying body pressure while also disrupting Wallace's dribbling rhythm with his hands.
The sudden pressure caught Rasheed off guard. Although he had decent ball-handling skills for a power forward, his dribbling was nowhere near Wang Chong's level.
In a panic, Rasheed could only protect the ball with both hands to prevent Wang Chong from stealing it.
But Wang Chong saw his chance. Timing it perfectly, he swiped the ball cleanly from Rasheed's hands.
Ignoring the sting in his fingers, Wang Chong scooped up the ball and sprinted down the court toward the Pistons' basket.
Rasheed Wallace chased after him but couldn't keep up.
This was expected. Durant's peak speed wasn't impressive compared to guards, but for players over 7 feet tall, it was on another level. Wang Chong estimated only two big men in the league could match or surpass him in speed: Dwight Howard, about to enter his prime, and Kevin Garnett, the "Big Ticket."
However, Garnett was nearing 30, and while still in peak form, it was uncertain if his athleticism matched that of his younger years.
Wang Chong raced to the basket and finished with a one-handed dunk, scoring his third bucket since the start of the game.
The Bulls were up 6:0—a fantastic start.
At this point, the Pistons fans in the home arena started to sense that something was wrong.
What's going on with the team? Wang Chong had scored 6 straight points, and the Pistons had made multiple mistakes on offense.
This was nothing like what the experts and analysts had predicted before the game. Weren't the Bulls supposed to be completely shut down by the Pistons' suffocating defense and lose without suspense?
It seemed the Pistons' defense wasn't as strong as expected, and they couldn't stop Wang Chong.
The Pistons clearly noticed something was wrong with the rhythm! Wang Chong was playing incredibly aggressively from the start!
On the next possession, the Pistons were extremely cautious with their offense. After 24 seconds, Hamilton managed to shake off Raja Bell with a flurry of off-ball movement and hit a mid-range jumper. The Pistons finally got on the scoreboard.
6:2.
Despite Raja Bell's strong defense, guarding a player like Hamilton, who runs around the court as if running for his life, just seemed like bad luck.
Against Hamilton, it wasn't so much defending as it was racing.
The Pistons' successful basket finally calmed everyone down, but Wang Chong immediately responded with another smooth mid-range jumper.
"Swish!"
The ball hit the net again.
8:2!
Now the problem was: how would the Pistons stop Wang Chong?
The Pistons couldn't find a solution for a while. They didn't expect Wang Chong to be so aggressive with his one-on-one offense early in the game, as if he wasn't worried about exhausting himself before the end.
They had no choice but to call a timeout and adjust their defensive tactics.
Less than 3 minutes into the first quarter, the home team Pistons were forced to call a timeout due to Wang Chong's dominance, which was quite embarrassing.
Wang Chong's chest heaved slightly as he walked toward the bench, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Continuous offense was tiring, especially with the added responsibility of guarding Rasheed Wallace on defense.
However, these efforts were clearly worth it, as the Pistons were visibly disrupted by Wang Chong.
The Pistons' head coach was no longer the renowned Larry Brown. He had been replaced by Flip Saunders.
Saunders had previously been the head coach of the Timberwolves, leading them for ten seasons. His best result was taking the Timberwolves to the Western Conference Finals.
But last season, under Saunders' leadership, the Timberwolves finished with a mediocre 25-26 record, leading to his midseason dismissal.
He found a new job with the Pistons in the summer, taking over from Larry Brown.
In terms of coaching ability, while Larry Brown had his issues—stubbornness, lack of flexibility, dislike for young players, and overly strict coaching methods—he was still one of the few coaches who had both an NBA championship and an NCAA title under his belt.
The Pistons had won a championship in 2004 with Brown and reached the Finals in 2005 but lost to the Spurs in 7 games.
It was unclear whether Flip Saunders could replicate Larry Brown's success.
Saunders replaced Brown because Pistons management felt the team needed a more offensive-minded coach. Brown was too rigid with his defense-first approach.
The goal was to unleash the Pistons' offensive potential, with Rasheed Wallace and Hamilton as key pieces.
However, Saunders found himself in a tough spot early in this game. Wang Chong was aggressive from the start, and their initial defensive strategies were ineffective. Now they needed to make adjustments fast if they wanted to avoid falling behind further.
End of this chapter
Note: Hi if you really like NBA novels, you can support me either in this pg with stones, reviews etc, or in patreon since the niche of sports and specially NBA is very small is Webnovel since people prefer to read Naruto, Pokemon, comics etc.
創作者的想法 
Chugamc
Chugamc Hi guys this is Chuga. If you read this far and liked it you can leave comments, stones and reviews which is very important for a new translator / author.
Love you.
patreon.com/Chuga320
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票