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May 16, 2010, Chicago United Center.The first game of the Eastern Conference Finals officially begins.
This is also the umpteenth time that Wang Chong and James face each other on the court, and it is also the moment when James has the best opportunity to defeat Wang Chong. The reason for this is already a well-known fact, with Garnett retired. By the end of the season, the Bulls are the weakest team. If the Cavaliers still can't beat the Bulls under such circumstances, when Garnett returns from injury, even if his condition worsens after a serious injury and he cannot return to his peak form, the Cavaliers still won't have any chance.
As for the planned meeting between the brothers Jamie to share the pot, no one would take it seriously.
No matter how bad O'Neal is, he can still play. He's better than Garnett on the Bulls, who can't even play.
The game is about to begin.
The Bulls' starting lineup is the same as in the first two rounds of the playoffs: Curry, Billups, Danny Green, Wang Chong, and Gasol.
The Cavaliers' starting lineup consists of Mo Williams, Ray Allen, James, JJ Hickson, and O'Neal.
There is no suspense in the jump ball. The old and fragile O'Neal hasn't been able to jump for a long time. The height difference between the 2.06-meter forward-center Hickson and Gasol's jump is huge.
Possession of the Bulls.
After Curry quickly controlled the ball and advanced past half court, as soon as the players from both sides took their respective positions, Wang Chong took the initiative to step forward and protect Curry for the pick-and-roll.
With Wang Chong's pick-and-roll assistance, Curry went straight to the basket and easily scored with a layup, giving the Bulls the lead.
The most difficult part of the pick-and-roll cooperation between Wang Chong and Curry is whether the defensive focus should be on Wang Chong or Curry.
Logically, it would be safer to target Wang Chong. As a five-time scoring champion and recognized as the player with the strongest offensive ability in the league, the consequences of allowing Wang Chong to attack would be severe.
But Curry's threat is not low either. Whether it's a three-pointer from the outside or a layup after entering the paint, Curry's offensive efficiency is very high, and he must be defended.
During the regular season, countless teams have frequently suffered losses from this move but have never been able to find a good countermeasure.
In fact, this is a headache for all teams in the future era of the five-star Warriors.
No matter how strong the defensive team is, you can limit the offense of a super scorer, but you cannot limit the offense of two super scorers at the same time.
Although Curry is not yet a super scorer, he can still give the Cavaliers a headache on the offensive side.
On the offensive side, the Bulls relied on Wang Chong and Curry's pick-and-roll style from the beginning, which provided a full offensive firepower.
On the defensive side, the Bulls' strategy was to let James go and protect against other Cavaliers players.
As the strongest individual defender on the team, Wang Chong didn't specifically defend James. The person responsible for guarding James was forward Danny Green.
Letting the rookie guard Green face James was almost like asking for trouble, but it didn't matter. This was the effect Wang Chong wanted. This way, Wang Chong could remain free to use his mobility to help defend against other Cavaliers players.
James' strongest skills on the court are his ball-handling and playmaking abilities. Wang Chong's movement directly cut off James' passing support, leaving him to struggle alone.
Although James made 5 of 7 shots in the first quarter and scored 12 points, the Cavaliers' offense was severely hindered. The outside shooters collectively missed, and even Ray Allen struggled to find good shooting opportunities.
Billups, who was responsible for guarding Ray Allen, followed one belief throughout the process: do not give Ray Allen any chance to take an open shot from the outside. If Ray Allen wants to drive into the paint, let him go. After all, with Wang Chong and Gasol protecting the interior, anyone who is not James and drives into the paint won't fare much better.
This was true for Ray Allen, and even more so for Mo Williams.
The Cavaliers' offense struggled in the first quarter, and they only scored 22 points in the first quarter. The Bulls relied on Wang Chong and Curry's pick-and-roll cooperation to generate all the offensive firepower and scored 34 points in a single quarter. They took a strong 12-point lead by the end of the first quarter.
The Bulls, who took the initiative on the court, played consistently over the next three quarters and maintained the lead on the scoreboard. Although James led the Cavaliers on a fierce counterattack during this period, whenever the point difference came within 3 points, Wang Chong would always stand up and use his stable and unshakable mid-range shot to help the Bulls score, crushing the Cavaliers' opportunity to take the lead.
99:95.
The Bulls successfully won the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals. Although the final point difference was only 4 points, the Bulls maintained the lead throughout the game. It seemed like the point difference was close, but in reality, the Cavaliers never had a chance.
James recorded nearly a triple-double with 33 points, 12 rebounds, and 9 assists. His performance was even better than Wang Chong's 28 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. But no matter how good the stats, what good is it if they don't win?
The second contributor to the Bulls' victory was undoubtedly Stephen Curry. In this game, he was in full swing, scoring 27 points and 6 assists, and his performance was almost as good as Wang Chong's.
Of course, fans who watched the entire game knew that most of Curry's offensive points were completely different from Wang Chong's. Curry often cooperated with Wang Chong in the pick-and-roll, creating a relatively comfortable offensive environment.
On the other hand, Wang Chong scored most of his points when the Bulls' offense stalled or when the Cavaliers launched a fierce counterattack to close the gap.
There is no doubt that Wang Chong's offensive options and the difficulty of his shots were significantly greater than Curry's. This is also normal. As the Bulls' primary core, a three-time MVP and FMVP, recognized as the player with the strongest scoring ability in the league, Wang Chong should play like this on the court.
The victory in the first game delighted the Bulls' fans.
This win fully demonstrated that, without Garnett, the overall strength of the Bulls was still greater than that of the Cavaliers. The strength of the two teams was not on the same level.
On May 18, in the second game of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bulls won again at home.
112:109, rewriting the score to 2:0.
The offensive pace of both teams in this game was very fast. Wang Chong scored 41 points, the highest in the game, and James also recorded nearly a triple-double with 38 points.
Unlike the previous game, Ray Allen's condition improved in this one and he frequently hit three-pointers from the outside. He scored 24 points in the game and became the most powerful support around James.
As a result, Curry's performance in this game was slightly underwhelming.
After the first game, Curry was obviously a bit distracted. In other words, after the first game, the Cavaliers' coaching staff also carefully studied Curry's playing style and developed a set of tactics to handle Curry.
There was no problem with Curry's offense. It was just too difficult to break the pick-and-roll cooperation with Wang Chong.
But Curry's weaknesses were very obvious, namely his physical confrontation weakness and his defensive holes.
The tactic used by the Cavaliers in the second game was unlimited pick-and-roll mismatches to target Curry.
Whether it was James or Ray Allen after the pick-and-roll, they had an absolute advantage against Curry when the pick-and-roll broke down. There was no need for Mo Williams to make frequent drives. The ball on the offensive side also caused serious problems for Curry.
Fortunately, Wang Chong saw that the situation wasn't good and immediately strengthened his offensive production. He scored 18 points in the last quarter and 41 points in the game. This helped stabilize the game and secure the win.
With a score of 2-0, the Bulls will head to Cleveland, home of the Cavaliers, for the next series.
Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals also made both sides realize that the strength gap between the two teams was not that large. As long as they exploited the Bulls' weaknesses, the Cavaliers would definitely have a chance to win.
Indeed.
On May 22, the Cavaliers returned to their home court and immediately won their first game at home, 102:97, bringing the score to 2:1.
In this game, the Cavaliers continued with the tactics from the previous game, frequently using pick-and-rolls and simple mismatches to overpower Curry, making Curry miserable.
After all, Curry wasn't the best point guard who would win two consecutive MVPs in the future. Under enormous pressure, he not only couldn't stop his opponents on the defensive side, but he also had problems on the offensive side due to mental shifts.
Although Wang Chong scored over 40 points again in this game, he couldn't reverse the downfall.
The Cavaliers continued their efforts and defeated the Bulls 96:93 two days later, on May 24, tying the score at 2:2.
Cavaliers fans were stunned.
What's going on? Do they have a chance to win the series?
It's no wonder the Cavaliers' fans had such strange thoughts. After all, in recent years, when the Cavaliers faced the Bulls in the playoffs, they were swept 4:0 almost without exception.
Such a miserable experience made the team's fans not dare to have any hope for the Cavaliers.
In the first two games, the Bulls had scored a clean 2:0, which seemed to confirm their thoughts. Unexpectedly, the Cavaliers, who returned to their home court, finally showed strength and won two consecutive games, giving all Cavaliers fans hope of winning!
As long as the Cavaliers can defeat the Bulls once and win the Eastern Conference Finals, the championship will be just a step away!
But… how could Wang Chong tolerate this happening?
While the Cavaliers frequently targeted Curry in several consecutive games, Wang Chong and Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau had also been thinking about ways to deal with this.
On May 26, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Tianwangshan Battle began at the United Center in Chicago, home of the Bulls.
In this game, the Bulls presented a starting lineup that the Cavaliers did not expect at all.
Curry, who had been criticized for his poor performance in the first two games, was replaced from the starting position. The Bulls' starting lineup was changed to Billups, Danny Green, Wang Chong, Tim Thomas, and Gasol.
Thomas, who stands at 2.08 meters and plays as a forward-center, is a backup interior player for the Bulls.
After the Bulls used Millsap as a trade piece to acquire Curry, the team had already lacked interior backups. Among the various interior players selected by management in free agency, Wang Chong valued Tim Thomas and signed him.
Thomas, born in 1977, was quite a good player in his youth. At his peak, he averaged about 16 points and 5 rebounds per game. He was a standard brutal forward-center.
Now that he is older, Thomas has lost the athleticism he relied on to survive, and his level has dropped significantly.
But even so, he still stands at 2.08 meters and weighs 104 kilograms, and simply being there has a certain intimidating effect.
Moreover, the Cavaliers' forward-center position isn't particularly high level either.
JJ Hickson's playing style is similar to Thomas's. He's a beast with outstanding athleticism, lacks independent offensive ability, and completely depends on receiving passes from teammates in the paint.
The Bulls' tactical adjustment is obviously to deal with the Cavaliers' unlimited pick-and-roll mismatches by training against Curry's tactics.
Don't like the military training library? I'll take Curry off the court now. Can you train another one?
Both Billups and Danny Green are much better defensively than Curry on the outside, and they have very little to do on the offensive side, so they don't have to worry about their physical strength being exhausted prematurely.
As for Curry, Wang Chong has no intention of keeping him on the bench.
Let him play as a backup in this game just to avoid the advantage temporarily. If the Bulls want to defeat the Cavaliers, Curry's firepower is also indispensable.
Fortunately, Curry has a gentle personality and is a standard team player, so he didn't complain about being benched. Instead, he blamed himself, thinking if his defense weren't so poor and the opponent didn't take advantage, they wouldn't be as passive as they are now.
The effect of the lineup change was quite good. Although the Bulls' starting lineup lacked a primary scorer, the Bulls didn't lack offensive points.
Wang Chong alone supported half of the Bulls' offensive tasks, while the other half was shared by Billups and Gasol.
After spending three years in obscurity with the Bulls, Gasol has always positioned himself as a worker center. Although his offensive ability isn't bad, compared to other teammates, he is the most willing to sacrifice.
But now, when the team needs him to step up, Gasol doesn't hold back.
Of course, this is directly related to the fact that O'Neal, who is facing him, is old and slow and can no longer keep up with his pace.
During the game, Gasol took the initiative to come out many times to block Wang Chong. After the screen, he did not return to the penalty area, but stayed outside. When Wang Chong released the ball, Gasol received the ball. Ball. A shot in a wide open position.
At this point, Gasol has yet to develop a three-point shot, but his mid-range and long-range shots are still very steady.
In particular, Wang Chong often asked his assistant coach to practice mid- and long-range shots for Gasol in daily training. Wang Chong, who has experienced the era of small ball in the future, is very clear about the value of space experts. the future league.
Especially a center like Gasol, who is a heavy center inside, can resist the opposing center's attack in the penalty area and can also take outside shots, which is not easy to use.
"Shua--!"
Gasol's shots are usually holes in the net. Although the difficulty of the shot when it is wide open is relatively small, regardless of whether it is difficult or not, if it can be made, it is a good shot!
End of this chapter
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