Chapter 120: The Christmas War

After Fresno had distributed all the gifts, Chamberlain sent a large number of autographed group photos, and then rushed back to Auckland for Christmas.

This Christmas Eve, Chamberlain accompanied Shirley, Winnie and Li Qun, three beauties, to have a sumptuous dinner, and then took the three girls to lie in front of the TV to watch the upcoming Christmas war.

There are three Christmas games this season, and the first to start and end is the war between the two brother teams in the East, because it involves the 03 Golden Generation NO. 1 battle, the little emperor and the flash are doing their best, once again bringing a wonderful battle to the fans of the American Airlines Center.

The Heat and the Cavaliers took the lead in the Christmas War, and after a hard-fought battle, the Cavaliers finally won 96-82.

For the Cavaliers, five players scored in double figures, with LeBron James scoring 35 points, six rebounds and eight assists in the game. For the Heat, Dwyane Wade contributed 22 points, six rebounds and 12 assists, while O'Neal had 13 points and nine rebounds.

After the game began, the Cavaliers took the lead, LeBron James took the lead, Gooden hit a triple and added a free throw, and the Cavaliers started the game 13-4. After that, the Heat's offense improved, gradually narrowing the gap, and after Wade hit a jumper, the Heat chased 15-23, but the Heat still trailed the Cavaliers 17-25 at the end of the first quarter.

After the start of the second quarter, the Cavaliers went on a rampage again, and Ilgoskas hit a jumper to give the Cavaliers a 10-point lead again. After that, the Heat struggled to catch up, and Ricky Davis hit a three-pointer from long range, and the Heat chased it to 27-32. After Earl Baron scored 2+1, the Heat went one step further and narrowed the gap to 30-32, after which the two sides tightened the score, and O'Neal also scored 2+1, and the Heat chased it to 38 draws. Wade hit a shot and the first half ended, and the Heat took a 47-43 lead.

In the first half of the third quarter, the Heat maintained control of the court, but from the remaining six and a half minutes of the quarter, the Cavaliers blossomed more points and played another wave of 15-0 offensive climax, overtaking the score to 67-59 in one fell swoop. At the end of the first three quarters, the Cavaliers led 67-61.

In the last quarter of the game, the Heat tried to cause trouble for the opponent again, but every time the Heat's momentum picked up, the Cavaliers always had the firepower to suppress it, and in the middle of the quarter, after the Emperor Jr. made a shot, the Cavaliers had an 83-70 lead. After that, the Heat were unable to close the gap to within 10 points until they finally lost the game 82-96.

In fact, the Heat had a better chance of winning this game, but unfortunately, they just had a bloody battle with the Warriors two days ago, and the wounds on their bodies were still bleeding, and now they met the top Cavaliers in the East.

In fact, this game does not really reveal the difference in strength between the Cavaliers and the Heat, the Heat team lost ineffectively, and the big shark O'Neal did not have an advantage against players like Il Goskas, which made Heat fans sigh in the twilight of heroes.

Or a game with Chamberlain consumed too much physical strength, O'Neal is old after all, and his physical recovery is not as fast as that of young people, and the strength he played on the court is less than half of that when he competed with Chamberlain, if he is more restrained or rests directly against the Warriors, then the inside line of the Cavaliers today has to let him explode.

It is no wonder that O'Neal has played many Christmas games in his career, and the fact that he can't go home to his loved ones but to please the fans on the pitch is not interesting, but the battle with Chamberlain for the first center is more exciting.

O'Neal doesn't pay attention to the Christmas game, it doesn't mean that the Heat uniform team is the same, and finally the team was lucky to be ranked into the Christmas game, which is a good opportunity to make money, O'Neal's inability to perform made the Heat's uniform team very dissatisfied.

The Big Shark didn't know that he had already brought too much displeasure to the Heat's uniform team, who were considering trading him.

The battle on the East Coast is fierce, and there is an even more intense game on the West Coast, which is the Phoenix Suns taking on the Los Angeles Lakers on the road. If the Heat and the Cavaliers are in a fierce battle, then this game is a bit of a battle to the death. In the past few seasons, Kobe Bryant has treated the Suns as a sworn enemy, and the rise of the Suns is the rise of stepping on the corpse of the Lakers.

In the playoffs of the past few seasons, the Lakers have all fallen under the knife of the Suns, and Kobe Bryant used to have no good helper to do it alone, but it was just the combination of Nash and Xiaosi, and now with Gasol, he finally waited for the opportunity for revenge.

Kobe Bryant is the best at seizing opportunities, and he is also the most vengeful player in the active team, this Christmas battle is the first battle with the Suns after the Lakers get Gasol, Kobe Bryant personally overseer, asking the team to win this battle, he took the lead in the charge, played a full 48 minutes, and cut down 38 points, 5 rebounds, and 9 assists after the worst, leading the Lakers to a narrow victory over the Suns 120-115.

In addition to Kobe's 38 points, the Lakers also had Gasol's 28 points and 12 rebounds, and Fisher had 19 points and six assists. Gasol deserves to be an All-Star level insider, his personality is too introverted and modest, he can't be the boss, but being a second-in-command is too handy, and after losing the pressure, he played very well with the Lakers, showing an impromptu ability that everyone in the league couldn't believe.

For the Suns, Nash had 24 points and 14 assists, Smalls had 19 points, and Bell and Marion each had 15 points. Gasol's other role is to limit Xiao Si, with him in the restricted area to help defend and supplement, Xiao Si can no longer do whatever he wants on the Lakers interior as before, in the past 15 games between the Suns and the Lakers, he can average 28 points per game, this game is close to 10 points.

The game was a-for-tat battle between two of the top teams in the West, and Bryant finally had the last laugh.

After the start of the first quarter of the game, Xiao Si and Hill each scored two points, and the Lakers Gasol took the lead in the start, hitting the first two points, and then Nash and Hill each scored two points, and the Lakers found the rhythm of the game The two sides began to attack, and with 6 minutes and 10 seconds left in the first quarter, Fisher hit a two-point shot, and the Suns 15-14 Lakers. Barbosa replaced Hill and hit a three-pointer after one game, Dio hit a two-point shot, Kobe Bryant dunked, and then hit a jumper, the Suns 21-20 Lakers. Dio hit a two-pointer and Bryant scored four straight points, and before the end of the first quarter, Bryant passed the ball to Ariza, who missed a three-pointer to make it 26-25 Lakers at the end of the first quarter.

After the start of the second quarter, Odom hit a three-point shot, Dio and Hill each scored two points, and then Ariza dunked, and the Lakers scored seven points in a row, and the Suns 30-37 Lakers. Skinner hit a two-point shot, Lakers Farmar hit a two-pointer, and then the two sides began to soar quickly, Bynum scored five points in a row, and Smalls scored four points in a row, and with 2:45 left in the second quarter, the Suns 50-51 Lakers. Fisher scored seven points in a row, Nash hit a three-pointer, and with one minute left in the second quarter, the Suns were 57-60 Lakers, Nash hit a two-point shot, Kobe Bryant assisted Odom to score a layup, and Skinner scored a layup, and at the end of the first half, the two sides were tied at 62.

After the start of the second half, Kobe Bryant scored the first 6 points of the Lakers, Nash and Bell combined to score 8 points, and with 7 minutes and 43 seconds left in the third quarter, the two sides were tied at 74, Kobe Bryant scored two more points, Xiao Si hit both free throws, Kobe assisted Gasol, who dunked successfully. The two sides went back to each other again, and the score alternated between going up, and with 2:45 left in the third quarter, Bell hit a three-pointer to make it 85-83 for the Lakers. The Lakers' comeback began at the last minute, first Vujacic hit two of three free throws, then Skinner hit one of two free throws, and after the worst Kobe Bryant scored five consecutive points, and at the end of the third quarter, the Suns trailed the Lakers 89-92.

After the start of the fourth quarter, Gasol made a single shot by Gasol Jr. with a hook shot, Kobe Bryant hit a two-point shot, and the Suns Skinner hit a two-point shot, after which the Lakers had a slight advantage, and with 7:50 left in the fourth quarter, the Suns 95-102 Lakers. Nash hit a two-pointer and Bynum hit a two-pointer to put the Suns 99-106 Lakers with 5:15 left in the fourth quarter. Jr. made one of two free throws, and Bryant scored six straight points to give the Suns 107-116 Lakers with two minutes left in the fourth quarter. In the end, the Suns 115-122 Lakers.

Compared with the passion of the Lakers and Suns, the game between the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle SuperSonics is much more boring, and if these two teams don't have the top two picks in this year's draft, they wouldn't even have the chance to touch the soles of their Christmas games.

Oden and Durant booked the top two spots before the draft, and the '07 draft had high hopes for the NBA, and it was believed that this year there will be a super interior player in the NBA that has not been seen in a decade and a super outside player who has not been seen in a decade.

In fact, the experts' expectations are not wrong, Durant is indeed a super outside line that has not been met in ten years, and a super inside line that has not been met in ten years has also appeared, but it is not Oden, but Chamberlain.

Originally, the Trail Blazers and the SuperSonics were arranged to play the Christmas War, just to see who was more fierce between Durant and Oden, but the latter was scrapped before he stepped on the NBA court, so that this Christmas War would be scrapped, if the schedule could be changed, I am afraid that Stern would have replaced the Trail Blazers with the Warriors and let the latter merge with the SuperSonics.

The Trail Blazers won 89-79 at home over the Seattle SuperSonics, a historic victory for the Trail Blazers, bringing them to 11 straight wins so far, the longest in the league this season.

As the league's youngest team with an average age, the Trail Blazers performed commendably, with Roy the "core" putting out a balanced performance of 17 points, six rebounds and seven assists, the bench as a surprise soldier and scoring 17 points, and Pulchibira grabbing 16 rebounds. For the SuperSonics, Durant scored a game-high 30 points, and Szczebiak, the "sixth man", contributed the second-highest 12 points in the SuperSonics.

In the first quarter of the game, the Trail Blazers who were fighting at home missed the first offense, and then in the second offense, the team grabbed 4 frontcourt rebounds in a row, and the last one was hit by a jumper from Brak, which showed the Trail Blazers' desire to win, and also showed how bad the SuperSonics' interior line was.

Then Durant scored on the inside in a row, and the SuperSonics stabilized the situation. Szzczebiak, the "secret weapon" of the SuperSonics, came out and hit two three-pointers to put the SuperSonics up 22-16. Not to be outdone, the Trail Blazers' second-tier lineup was not to be outdone, with Fryer, Otrau, and Jack all making achievements, and the first quarter ended 24-24.

In the second quarter, the stalemate didn't change, and the Trail Blazers' bench lineup did a good job, with James Jones hitting a three-pointer to give the Trail Blazers a 41-36 lead. Wilkins scored on a jumper, Durant hit another two-pointer, and the SuperSonics tied the score at 40-41. Brak hit a three-pointer to stabilize the situation, and Vilcox hit one of two free throws; Jack quickly responded with a jumper. In the last 50 seconds, Durant hit a three-pointer, and at halftime, the two sides were inseparable, and the SuperSonics trailed by two points at 44-46.

In the third quarter, the Trail Blazers, who were playing at home, suddenly made a move, Roy hit three consecutive yuan at the beginning, and Aldridge put the icing on the cake. The SuperSonics missed multiple shots, with Pulchibila and Braque hitting two more to make it 58-50. The supersonic team saw that it was not good, and quickly called a timeout. The timeout didn't work, and Roy and Burak each hit three-pointers as the Trail Blazers stretched the deficit to 16 points, 66-50. Durant scored eight points on his own, and the SuperSonics narrowed the gap to single digits before the start of the final quarter, and Jeff Green scored on a layup 54 seconds later, 62-70.

In the fourth quarter, the SuperSonics fought tenaciously and reached the last minute 07 seconds when Szczebiak scored on a jumper to tie the score at 68-74. The Trail Blazers then went on a decisive 9-0 scoring spurt in which Roy dished out two assists in a row, one for Flair to score and one for Jones to hit a three-pointer, giving the Trail Blazers an 83-68 lead. At 3:26, Roy drew a foul on Durant, who hit both free throws 85-73. At the last 2:11, Roy assisted Jack on a three-pointer to make it 89-75, and the Trail Blazers sealed the win early.

In this way, the annual Christmas game is over, and Chamberlain watched the video of all three games, and according to Nelson Sr.'s request, he paid special attention to the game between the SuperSonics and the Trail Blazers, because according to the old man's guess, the Trail Blazers will be the Warriors' fierce rivals in the future.

In everyone's opinion, the only person who has the potential to limit Chamberlain is Greg Oden sitting on the Trail Blazers bench, the last ace center in the United States who combines the best of O'Neal, Olajuwon and Robinson.