Chapter 886: Kobe and Arenas
If in the past few years in the NBA, the battle for the position of the league's scoring champion has been a contest between Carter and Iverson, then in the last two seasons, there has been an extra Arenas after Carter and Iverson.
Last season, Carter's scoring numbers dropped significantly because of Carter's position as the team's No. 4, which is also a rare situation in the league in recent years where Iverson and Carter are no longer in the top two on the scoring list.
Of course, last season was known to be the rise of Arenas, the Celtics championship hero quickly became the league's top star after leaving the Celtics, and in one fell swoop, he also established his superstar status, and this year, one of the hottest scoring guards in the last two years has also moved his scoring status up a notch again.
If it weren't for Kobe Bryant's 40+ games in three consecutive quarters, if it weren't for Kobe's 80+ games per game, if it weren't for Kobe's average of 40+ games per game, then this year's NBA's No. 1 scoring maniac is definitely the leading player of the Nuggets, because this guy is the player with the most 50+ times this season, and he is also the player with the second most points per game, and he is once again a player who has reached an average of more than 35 points per game and is almost a god-level scorer.
It's just because of Kobe's existence that the Nuggets' leading player is much dimmer than Kobe in terms of light, but Kobe Bryant is already difficult to hide the style of the Nuggets scoring maniac, after all, this year, this season, which is known as the strongest scoring of guard players in NBA history, whether it is Iverson, Arenas or Kobe. It's hard to cover up the other party like that.
In fact, this season has been described by a lot of media as a season that belongs to the shooting guard. For the first time in the league's history, there are also three guards who are averaging more than 35 points per game. And if Carter's average of 30 points per game is included, then the number of players who have averaged more than 30 points per game this season has reached four.
Therefore, in this case, this game is definitely the expectation of fans who can attract a lot of players who like to watch it, and even some bookmakers have fired the odds for the sum of Kobe Bryant and Arenas' scores in this game, and the minimum odds of 80-89 points in this game are as high as 11 to 1, and the minimum 90-99 points are 1.2 to 1.
That said, in this game, these bookmakers believe that the two will be able to score a total of 80 points at the very least. Because the bookmaker does not offer odds for a score above 80 points at all, and according to this odds, these two are most likely to get a total score between 90-99.
It is precisely because of this that before the start of this game, the regular tickets to Staples Arena have long been speculated to the playoff ticket price, which is not very common even in Los Angeles, which is extremely hot in the ball market this year, but in the face of this game, it is likely to be an extremely exciting offensive battle, and these Lakers fans do not want to miss it.
And at the Staples Arena after the game began, some fans even held up placards for the top scorer in advance, and it was obvious that this was the main player who was ready to cheer on his team at home.
Of course. In addition to the actions of these fans, Kobe Bryant and Arenas, who are the parties involved, have not been idle recently. Before the game began, Arenas shouted that he would surpass Kobe Bryant in the scoring charts after this game.
You know, now the average score gap between the two has reached 5, which means that he needs to score 100 points in this game, and Kobe Bryant has 0 points before he can surpass Kobe Bryant on the scoring list, which is obviously a provocation to Kobe Bryant's 81 points not long ago.
Since Kobe Bryant scored 81 points and is called a miracle score, he doesn't mind cutting a score like Zhang Dashuai, of course, he doesn't care much about whether Kobe can score 0 points, if he really scores 100 points in this game, who cares if he can surpass Kobe Bryant in the scoring list?
Some small relationships between Kobe and Arenas, in fact, many people know that the two are rivals who started a few years ago, and it is impossible for Kobe, who has recently been complacent in the face of Arenas's provocation, not to fight back, so before the game starts, the verbal quarrel between the two is also very lively, which is also a lot of topics added to this game.
Of course, there are a lot of suspense in this game for Kobe and Arenas, such as Arenas saying that this game will score 100 points per game, such as Kobe Bryant saying that this game wants to teach Arenas a lesson, etc., but for the Lakers, the meaning of this game is not much other than the possible 28-game winning streak.
Although the Nuggets have been playing well in recent times and are gradually touching the threshold of the playoffs, it is still difficult for them to beat the Lakers, or the gap between the two teams cannot be made up by winning the battle between Arenas and Kobe.
Unless the Nuggets star does score 100 points as he says, it is really possible to beat the Lakers, who have been almost invincible so far, on the road, but the probability of that is basically zero.
So for many people, this game is a very simple game, regardless of the outcome of the game, regardless of the league ranking, and some are just simply appreciating the competition between the two NBA top scorers this year.
Although this kind of game may be less exciting than the sense of victory and defeat, it will not lack the climax and excitement at all, at least after the start of this game, when Kobe Bryant and Arenas faced each other directly, the Lakers fans in the audience were very excited.
In fact, the players of the two teams on the court in this game are also very simple, the Lakers players are trying to create opportunities for Kobe Bryant in advance before they can win the game, and the Nuggets are even more obvious, almost all of them are looking for Arenas for the first time, and these two are ready to score points today.
"Coach, that Howard kid is really good, he has a really strong sense of rebounding, I really can't see that he is a rookie, and now he looks a little like the Raptors' Kwame Brown, but he is more agile than Kwame Brown, and his offensive awareness is better, I am afraid he will be a first-class center in terms of achievement in the future"
In this game, both the fans and the players were very relaxed, and the same was true of the Lakers coaching staff on the sidelines, and in the middle of the game, Dwight Howard, the starting center of the Nuggets who made a mess of the Lakers' interior, was extremely appreciative, and his words were also extremely appreciative.
"Yes, this kid's achievements in the future are not low" Zhuang Fei also remembered this year's rookie at this time's shy declaration at the draft, he hopes that he can become a player like Duncan and form an inside and outside duo like Wake Forest with Arenas.
But it's clear that Arenas doesn't need Duncan now, and his role is not Duncan's role, but a senior blue-collar who purely grabs frontcourt rebounds for Arenas, but even if he is doing the work of a senior blue-collar worker, the rookie's statistics this season are extremely exciting, and he can contribute an average of double-doubles per game in his rookie season, and he has scored 14 points.
And this is also the reason why Green thinks his future is stronger than Kwame Brown, Kwame Brown is not as flexible as him, the same is the frontcourt rebound, Howard can convert rebounds into points more, and Kwame Brown is just a frontcourt rebound, the lethality of the two is not the same level, but Kwame Brown's defensive hardness is much stronger than him.
Of course, even if Howard looks much better than Kwame Brown in terms of future, but Green's definition of him is only a first-class center, and it is really impossible to reach the top four centers in the past or a top center like Mourning, these guys are basically characters who can dribble directly and break fast, compared to him, he is still too rough, unless there will be a big breakthrough in the future, it is difficult to get rid of the shackles.
In fact, from the perspective of Zhuang Fei's later generations, because of his personality flaws, he was not able to break through the shackles, and in the end Howard did not reach the top height, but even a first-class center made him the first center in the league in that era when centers were scarce.
And now, the future No. 1 center in the league does not have the domineering of the No. 1 center in the future, and he is still playing Arenas as a younger brother.
In this game, Kobe and Arenas's offensive desire is indeed extremely strong, in fact, there is not much suspense in this game at the end of the third quarter, and after the start of the fourth quarter, Zhuang Fei also replaced all the starters except Kobe, which is also the reason why Kobe Bryant is reluctant to get off the court, obviously, in terms of the first three quarters, the two scored about the same, and no one could help anyone, in this case, both Arenas and Kobe Bryant also stayed on the court.
And this is also the most unique scenery of this game, if according to Phil Jackson and the New York Times before, these two are shamelessly scooping points, and at this time, no one cares whether these two people are scoring, because after the fourth quarter of the game, the two have evolved directly from the first three quarters of the score to a one-on-one bullfight heads-up, and such a game is too rare in the NBA, and Kobe Bryant Zhuang Fei did not stop the brute force suddenly came up.
And in the end, when the Lakers defeated the Nuggets 134-105 at home, Zhuang Fei was still applauding this extremely peculiar game on the sidelines, and in this game, Kobe Bryant scored 63 points again, and Arenas also scored 61 points, so Zhuang Fei still had some reluctance and regret on his face when he saw Kobe Bryant's end, and his mouth was constantly thinking about it.
"I'm going to have to stomp that kid to death next time, but he's really getting stronger now"
For Kobe Bryant, who is still entangled, Zhuang Fei and other Lakers players expressed some helplessness, and Arenas on the other side at this time was actually very angry.
Of course, the win in this game brought the Lakers' winning streak to 28 games, and at this time, there are only six games left from the Grizzlies' 34-game winning streak, which is almost close. (To be continued.) )