Chapter 275: The Second Christmas War
"Thankfully, I still have a game to play." This year's Christmas is going to be spent alone, at this time, Wu Huang feels that it is good to have a game on Christmas, at least he still has something to do, otherwise he is really bored to go to his own website to broadcast live, it will be really miserable!
But there is no need to pity him at all, this is all his own doing, if he is not so half-hearted, there will be no place to go at this time.
The Knicks will face the Orlando Magic on Christmas, a schedule that was scheduled early in the league at the time, and the league at the time felt that it would be a gimmick to let teams from last season's Eastern Conference semifinals play each other on this day. Of course, it seems that it will be more gimmicky to make the Heat and the Knicks play each other at Christmas, and many people want to see the Knicks and the Heat collide again, and they all want to see if Wu Huang will have such good luck when he faces the Big Three again.
On December 25th, the league will host five heavyweight matches, which is the usual practice of the Christmas game every year, and the teams that can qualify for the Christmas game are the teams that everyone pays the most attention to last season or after the trade in the summer, and not everyone can participate.
The Knicks and Magic game is scheduled for Game 3, and the two teams will play a connecting role in the five games, with the goal of keeping fans from watching the first two games and then turning to other shows, and the Knicks will play a very important role today.
But it can also be seen that the Knicks are not the most popular team in the league for the time being, at least when this schedule is ordered, they are not really favored and praised by the league. But that's also normal, who knew they were going to create a magical 26-game winning streak in the new season, so it was normal that they didn't have the first game or the last game.
The first game is Mavericks vs Spurs, and the Bulls and Horses have always been a group of matchups that fans are more interested in, and the two teams will collide with sparks of passion every time they meet.
The second game is the Chicago Bulls vs Oklahoma City Thunder, which is a group of youth team battles, the highlight is Ross + Boozer VS Durant + Wei Shao, and it is also a group of games with a lot of highlights.
The third game is the New York Knicks vs Orlando Magic, which is a continuation of a group of playoffs last season, and the bad relationship between Wu Huang and Howard is a major attraction of the game.
The fourth game is the Boston Celtics vs Denver Nuggets, originally this group of battles also had a lot of highlights, but as the Nuggets' record declined step by step, the team continued to trade rumors, and Anthony was even boycotted by Denver fans, this group of battles now seems to be uninteresting.
The last game is naturally the heaviest matchup in the Christmas War, and according to the information before the start of the regular season, the qualification to assume the finale role is naturally the Los Angeles Lakers VS Miami Heat, and the league is also arranged, at that time, most people thought that this year's finals would be Lakers VS Heat, so the Christmas war is a warm-up and rehearsal for the finals.
But there are many doubts about this idea now, first of all, the Heat's performance is not as strong as everyone thought before, and there are already many fans who think that they will become another team after the Lakers F4 to die too many superstars; The Lakers' momentum this year is not as good as the previous two seasons, and their current record is being overwhelmed by the Spurs, who were not favored beforehand, and the odds of winning the championship are also declining all the way; At present, it seems that the biggest variable is the New York Knicks, and now the betting groups have opened the handicap that they can break the Bulls' record of 72 wins that year, because if this momentum continues, the Knicks are likely to create 65+ wins, and even 70+ wins are not impossible.
Eastern Division Rankings -
1. New York Knicks (26-3).
2. Chicago Bulls (22-7).
3. Boston Celtics (21-8)
4. Orlando Magic (20-9).
5. Miami Heat (20-9).
6. Atlanta Hawks (16-14).
7. Milwaukee Bucks (15-15).
8. Philadelphia 76ers (14-16).
Such a ranking is already very telling, the Heat can't even squeeze into the top four in the Eastern Conference, and now to say that they can make it to the Finals, I believe that there should not be many people who will vote for it except themselves.
On December 24, the NBA suspended for one day today in preparation for the upcoming Christmas War.
Emperor Wu originally had nothing to do at home, preparing to train as usual during the day, and then broadcast directly at night, and the day was almost over. Unexpectedly, in the afternoon, he welcomed an unexpected guest, the Indian girl Agari, who actually came to New York the day before Christmas, supposedly to prepare for the study of Columbia University in January next year.
Columbia University is one of the 5 oldest universities in the United States, is a world-famous private research university located in Manhattan, New York, USA, three American presidents, including President ******, graduated from the school, and has a world-class law school, business school, journalism school, etc., so it is not strange that India Shih Tzu came here to study.
But Wu Huang always felt that something was not right, and with the Indian girl's wealthy local tyrant father as a reference, she didn't need to let herself help find an apartment, which was obviously an unscrupulous excuse.
Agali's intention is very simple, she said on the phone that she wanted Wu Huang to help find an apartment, which was purely a little help between friends, but she didn't know where to get the news, and asked if the apartment that Wu Huang rented in Manhattan before was still there?
This is a bit ambiguous, Wu Huang's original apartment did have a few months of lease to expire, and he originally subleased the apartment to Xiao Si after he moved, but the latter had bought a villa in New Jersey not long ago, so the apartment was vacant and uninhabited for the time being.
Emperor Wu originally wanted to wait until the lease expired and not renew it, but now that Ajiali obviously wanted to take over, he naturally would not have any objections.
Columbia University is in Manhattan, and this apartment is also in Manhattan, so it makes sense for Agali to rent an apartment here, and Emperor Wu met and had a meal with the Indian girl the day before Christmas, and perhaps when Agali officially attends school in New York next year, the two of them will have a lot more opportunities to meet.
On Christmas Day, Agari was going to Madison Gardens to watch him play, and Emperor Wu also learned from the Indian girl that the vast majority of Indians are Buddhists or ******, and like Chinese, they don't regard Christmas as an important holiday of the year, and it depends entirely on the mood.
The Indian girl also made a joke with Emperor Wu, she said that there are countless festivals in India, how many are they? Basically, there are 365 days in a year, and Indians have 366 days to celebrate the holidays.
Ajiali replied like this, and Wu Huang seemed a little illogical at first glance, but when he woke up, he couldn't help but smile.
In India, except for some political festivals, most of the other important festivals are religious festivals, and there are more than 120 officially recognized holidays in India every year, most of which are not only related to religion, have a mythical origin, but also have unique traditional celebrations.
However, there are too many festivals, which leads to no festival that is particularly important, and some Indians abroad are not willing to go to these cumbersome festivals, just like Ajiali does not have much in addition to Indian festivals, she does not pay much attention to European and American festivals, so she will run to New York by herself in Christmas when everyone else has to go home for reunion.
Emperor Wu took the opportunity to ask Ajiali to invite her to dinner again after the Christmas war, so suddenly, he was no longer alone. But the fly in the ointment is that he and Ajiali have met so many times, and they have never taken any advantage, but Wu Huang can still feel that the Indian girl should be interesting to him.
On December 25th, Christmas, the largest traditional festival in the West, came, and Wu Huang's panda video announced a few days earlier that from the 25th to the end of the month, all the reward income on the website will go to the anchors themselves, which is an activity that stimulates the anchors to continue to work hard to broadcast live during the Christmas period.
Moreover, Panda Video has also added a function similar to a monthly pass in the summer, and the top ten anchors in each live broadcast area who have won the monthly pass will receive a certain amount of cash rewards, and the monthly pass rewards will be doubled during the Christmas period, and the cash rewards of the anchors will also be doubled.
There are many similar activities on the website, in short, on some large-scale holidays, Panda Video will hold such activities to stimulate traffic and website popularity.
Wu Huang himself has been following the team since the day to prepare for the big battle at night.
ABC Radio's Van Gundy Jr. predicted that the Knicks would win 73 games in the regular season, and they are currently 26-3, and 73 wins this season is not just a theoretical possibility, and Van Gundy Jr. believes that the Knicks' talent is outstanding. "A month ago I said they could win 73 games and I was a, but their talent is really incredible and I think I'm going to be stupid."
In today's game, the media is naturally optimistic that the Knicks can defeat the Magic, not only O'Neal finally returned to the team after missing nearly ten games, but the Knicks' combat power and recent momentum are indeed much stronger than the Magic.
The big shark chose to make a comeback in the Christmas war, and he didn't want to miss the annual big scene. He has played 12 previous Christmas games, and this will be O'Neal's 13th appearance on Christmas Night, and he will also tie the all-time record for appearances in the Christmas game, which was held by Shays and Earl Monroe, and Kobe Bryant will reach that milestone later in the game.
However, there are many media outlets who are not optimistic that O'Neal's comeback will cause problems for Howard, and his ability is undoubted, and this fat man may be the most dominant center in the history of the league. But every player can't afford the years, even if they're as strong as O'Neal. O'Neal has completely lost his former prestige this season, and he couldn't take advantage of Howard at the start of the season.
Yahoo Sports reported that O'Neal is indeed old, and at the age of 38, he has lost the speed, power and bounce of his past, and he has lost the dominance of the basket of the past, and the domineering shark is gone. And the Christmas War is a small movie that witnesses O'Neill's journey from immaturity to maturity, to the top, and then to gradual decline.
O'Neal made his Christmas debut in 1993 and was the star of Jordan's retirement, scoring 20 points and 11 rebounds to a two-point deficit. In 1995, O'Neal called the ruler Olajuwon, who scored 22 points, 18 rebounds and 5 assists to lead the Magic to a narrow victory, which marked the change of a generation of interior kings. O'Neal then joined Los Angeles for the 1996 Christmas game, where he easily finished with 26 points, 16 rebounds and five assists.
From 1999 to 2009, O'Neal's team made 11 consecutive appearances in the Christmas game, with O'Neill missing two of them due to injury. In the first nine games, O'Neal had two double-doubles in seven games, including Duncan, Webb, Wallace and other heroes, and also defeated his old enemy Kobe Bryant twice. It is worth mentioning that in the 2003 Christmas War, O'Neal and Yao Ming met in a narrow way, although he scored 22 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks, the Lakers lost to the Rockets, which marked the gradual aging of a generation of interior kings.
But "Yahoo Sports" did not report that Wu Huang is also moving from immaturity to maturity, and is also experiencing the aging of the older generation and becoming the king of the new generation!
At 8 o'clock on Christmas Eve, the third game of the "Christmas War" will officially begin, when the game between the Bulls and the Thunder has just finished the third quarter. Similarly, when the Knicks-Magic game reaches the third quarter, the Celtics and Nuggets game will begin.
This is the schedule of the Christmas game, not the previous game is played and then the next game is started, otherwise the five games will probably have to be played all day.
"We don't need to make a statement to anyone." Wu Huang said before the match, "For me, it's just a match with a lot of attention than usual, and we're going to show our highest level and win this big fight." I think these games mean more to our opponents than we do. He is alluding to the fact that the Magic are catching up, and all the teams want to beat them to end the Knicks' winning streak, which means that the Knicks are at the forefront of the league at the moment, and everyone else is a challenger and a chaser.
Howard teased Emperor Wu before the game; "Some people have a big mouth, but he'd better touch the floor of the division finals before he talks big, and he can't be a superstar until then, that's how I think it."
Emperor Wu's enemies were no longer one or two, and he didn't know why he had made so many rivals. But it doesn't matter, Howard is no longer in his eyes, and this year's Magic will hardly pose a threat to the Knicks. Yes, it's hard to say exactly what happened in the playoffs, but Wu Huang has full confidence in the strength of his team, and the Knicks are now on the rise, and once any team is overtaken by them, it will be difficult to bring back the disadvantage. The Magic are the opposite, the first few seasons were their upswing, but from this season onwards, they will start to continue to decline, so the gap between the two teams will be farther and farther, so what is there to fear from such an opponent?
ABC TV Van Gundy Jr. and Mark Jackson were in charge of commentating the game, and when the Knicks players appeared before the game, Van Bald explained: "With Howard, the Magic has the capital of the league." Now it can be said that no matter who other teams trade, the Magic will shake their heads like rattles. Howard's containment on the inside is the starting point of all Magic tactics, and his winning of the rebounding title for three consecutive seasons and the block title for two consecutive seasons is the best proof of this. But because of this, Howard was contained, and the whole Magic team was almost paralyzed. But if they meet a team that has already been configured to the teeth, the Magic have little chance of winning, because Howard is not at the point of being unstoppable at the moment, and he is not a 'big shark' yet. ”
Mark Jackson also said: "Maybe the experience of today's opponent Stoudemire can teach Howard some inspiration. As Howard's previous 'Warcraft' spokesperson, Xiao Si was able to make a name for himself at the beginning of his career with his body alone. But when the contract was renewed and seriously injured, Xiao Si's playing style has changed a lot, the most important thing is to practice a hand shot. It's not that Howard has to pull up the high post to shoot, but his under-the-basket play has to be refined and perfected. Howard's progress has been limited under Patrick Ewing and then Hakeem Olajuwon, and while the foul troubles that have plagued him for years have not really been overcome, a core that can't control fouls in key battles is incompetent. (To be continued.) )