The Cavaliers' loss had little impact on their playoff qualifying, as they were all but certain to finish second in the East, with the third-placed Pistons and fourth-placed Magic both several wins away from him.

But it's not the same for the West.

Compared to the east, which is stable, the west can be much more confusing.

From the beginning of this season's preseason, all fans know the ranking of the Eastern team's record, the Celtics, who bring together the Big Three, must be the leader, the Cavaliers with the little emperor are ranked second, and the Magic team led by Howard is in the Tanhua position.

From today's point of view, the experts only guessed one thing wrong, and that is that they overestimated the growth rate of Warcraft and underestimated the cohesion of the Pistons, and despite losing the tactical core, the Pistons have still been bright this season.

However, on the whole, this ranking is still very reliable, from the beginning of the season to the present, the eastern record has basically not changed much, and the western record is different.

The cruelty of competition in the West was exclaimed by various media experts as 'the first melee in history', first the Spurs, Suns, and Mavericks three traditional strong teams took turns to occupy the first place in the West, and then the Warriors appeared sideways under the leadership of Chamberlain and intervened, and then, the Lakers were unwilling to be out, they traded to get Gasol, and also joined the battle for the first place in the West.

This is not the end, Chris Paul's Hornets have been on the rise, and after six losses in 10 games at the beginning of the season, they have started a magnificent winning streak, and there are countless strong teams in front of them, and at one point they also rushed to the first place in the West.

The teams in the West are like playing cards, and there are still playing cards that someone is constantly shuffling, the first in the West to the ninth in the West, these teams go back and forth, and they are happy, the Warriors rushed to the first place in the West when they were the strongest, and they were also thrown to the eighth place in the West when they were the worst, but now relying on the undefeated record after the All-Star Game, the Warriors are ranked fourth in the West, and behind him are the Nuggets, who are ranked fifth.

After leaving Cleveland, the Warriors players immediately flew to the Denver Plateau, where they were going to play the Nuggets.

It's a bit of nonsense to say, this season has been going on until now, and the war is more than half over, and the Warriors and Nuggets haven't even started playing, which means that in the remaining two months, they will play each other a total of three times, and this is the first time.

Chamberlain is looking forward to this game for the simple reason that he will be surrounded by countless masters in the NBA, and there is one that has not yet played against him, and that is Allen Iverson.

For the post-80s children in the United States, the 96 golden generation is their impression of the NBA, and in this impression, AI is the most beautiful part of it.

Allen Iverson, his fans are all over the world, especially in the slums, for those basketball fans in the slums, AI is their spiritual leader, once, the young Chamberlain also regarded Iverson as his savior, but later as he got taller and taller, he found that his dream of becoming a second AI was shattered.

No one could understand how frustrated Chamberlain was when he found out that he could not be Iverson's successor.

During the All-Star Game, Chamberlain asked Iverson for an autograph, and the latter was also interested in him, asking him if he was interested in coming to Denver to develop together, but he refused, after all, he was no longer the young slum kid, he was already a man who needed to be alone.

The Warriors and Nuggets, no matter which team, now have a strong appeal, the former because of the crazy offense and defense and the rising Comet Chamberlain, and the latter has Iverson and Anthony, the two box office selling points, so the tickets for this game were sold out long before the All-Star Game.

The only regret for fans across the United States is that neither TNT nor ESPN expected the Warriors to be so brilliant this season, and neither TV station has purchased the rights to broadcast the game in the United States, which means that many fans can only watch the game online or watch the game after the game.

This is something that the fans can't stand anymore.

How can the Warriors and Nuggets, a head coach with the league's favorite offense, and a player with the league's favourite offense, be missed?

At the airport in Denver, Chamberlain did not get on the bus directly to the Pepsi Center, but first watched the plane carrying Ellis depart for San Francisco, the plane flew directly from Cleveland to Denver, then refueled here, turned around and flew back to San Francisco.

According to the team doctor's initial diagnosis, Ellis's waist will not be able to withstand any writhing movements for the time being, and they will probably have to endure the pain of the first heavy gun on the outside until the playoffs. This made the Warriors players feel very distressed, because they were not very good at offense in the first place, and now they are even less good at offense.

Before leaving, Ellis was pleased with the sentiment from his teammates, and he smiled and said: "I'm happy, guys, it shows that I'm useful in the team, and the only thing I'm worried about now is that I don't want to go into the back of Davis's hapless alley, and by the time I get back on the field, there will be no place for me." The only hope is that you will play ninth in the West and wait for me to come back and lead you to the playoffs. ”

Hearing this, Chamberlain and others scolded one after another:

"You'd better sit in your iron coffin and get back to San Francisco......"

"Why do you still want to play the trick of the return of the king in the team? Pull it down, you better wash and sleep......"

"Without you, fans don't have to worry about our defense anymore......"

The only regret is Chamberlain, he sighed and said: "Man, without you I think my block stats will go down, they will no longer be able to enter and exit the restricted area so unscrupulously in the future, this is really a tragedy......"

In the midst of talking and laughing, the plane finally set sail, Chamberlain and others watched the huge Boeing 777 take off, Harrington said sadly: "Do you feel that this scene often appears in Hollywood blockbusters? ”

"Is it that kind of war movie? Is it the footage of the federal government using planes to transport the corpses of soldiers killed in a foreign land back to China after a major war? Petrus asked.

Chamberlain and the others frowned, and then nodded along with them, and they also thought of this.

The impact of Ellis' injury on the Warriors was quickly felt, with a rare dip in morale, no eight straight wins, and no one talking to the locker room at Pepsi Center, home of the Nuggets, save Nelson Sr. for tactical analysis.

Nelson Sr. had already studied the Nuggets, an opponent they were likely to meet in the playoffs, and as soon as he arrived in the locker room at Pepsi Center, he began to pour his analysis into the ears of the players: "Listen to the boys, today you will have the privilege of opening your eyes to the best teams in the league at heads-up. Yes, you heard it right, the strongest weapon your opponent has today is to score heads-up! ”

This is what the Warriors players know that the Nuggets like to use two methods in the process of offense, the first is the fast-break score, which is also their preferred way, once they seize the opportunity to play a defensive counterattack, few people in the league can defend it. In addition, the Nuggets' half-court offense is also effective, as they excel at creating misalignments in three positions:

The most destructive is Anthony, of course, whose size allows him to single-handedly play small forwards in the low post, while his agility and ability to pull on the outside jumper make it difficult for big men to guard. Anthony's best way to score is to storm the basket, whether it's a direct attack or a back-to-back shot, he's proficient in any scoring method.

Then there's Iverson, who, despite being 32 years old, is still second to none in his speed on the basketball court. Opposition teams often had to defend him with their own speedy little man, but most of them weren't used to defending the scoring maestro, running off the ball and singles from both sides.

What's worse is that Iverson has been passing more and more since coming to Denver, and the Nuggets had an 11-0 record last season when Iverson had more than 10 assists, and after a summer change, this season they are moving in that direction.

The Brazilian has provided a consistent low-post offense for this team, and his dribbling in the box is as pleasing to the eye as Looney's dribbling on the green court, especially after his knee injury in the first half of the season, with a 6-foot-11 and 268-pound body, which is difficult to guard against unless he is double-packed.

However, the Nuggets' disadvantage is also obvious, and one of their biggest weaknesses is that they don't have a fifth starter who can match the first four starters

Atkins is an improvement on the Nuggets' No. 1 position relative to Blake, and although he was eye-catching last season, he is 33 years old after all, and his small backcourt with Iverson will be a weakness on the defensive end.

The other benches are not reassuring: Smith is talented, but he can't use his brains, and last season's playoffs, when the Nuggets faced the Spurs in such a difficult moment, Coach George Karl kept him on the bench, and for this reason, this guy launched a madness and West can match him.

However, JR Smith's talent is undoubted, his physical fitness is super good, and when he comes to the touch, his shooting is a good medicine to solve many problems in Denver, but if he is arranged to play the No. 2 position, Iverson will have to play the role of playmaking offense, but is Iverson suitable for organizing the team?

And, if Smith is going to partner Iverson in the backcourt, then he will have to be responsible for marking all the opponent's perimeter players, and no one can expect the 32-year-old Iverson to be strong defensively.

At the end of the day, the Nuggets are a good team — of course, with players like Anthony, Iverson, Nene and Camby, the team is not much worse than that, and if they are in the East, they can even call the Cavaliers with this configuration.

But in the West, this is not enough at all, because it is a terrifying era when you have to win at least 60 games in the West to have a chance of reaching the semi-finals.