One thing to say, the previous regional system really disgusted those teams that had a good record but were not the first in their respective divisions.

The only way for the Mavericks to move up the rankings is to overtake the Spurs in terms of record and become the first in the division, in which case they will directly climb to the top of the West, while the Spurs will drop to the fourth place in the West, where they are now.

For the Suns, the second place in the West is secure, but even so, the team made a small roster change after All-Star Weekend, that is, before the trade deadline, to further strengthen the team and prepare for the playoffs.

Unfortunately, Wang Chao's only friend in the team, Dieng. Thompson was one of the players who was purged from the team.

As a player drafted in the second round of '05, Dieng signed a two-year contract with the Suns.

But so far, Dieng has only played 10 games for the Suns, averaging only 2.8 points and 1 rebound per game.

Obviously, Dieng is not Wang Chao, and there is no bonus for the identity of a Chinese player, so he was given up by the Suns early, and the team chose to cut him directly.

Dieng was not the only player to be cleaned up, but also a number of players on the edge of the bench.

The Suns relied on cutting players to make room for a bit of space, signing a league veteran with a base salary on the free market and trading an interior backup player from another team with a second-round pick.

Wang Chao was actually mentally prepared for Dieng's departure, he had never heard of Dieng's name before, the other party must not have played a famous role in the NBA, and judging from his performance in the Suns, it was only a matter of time before he was cut.

But when this day came, he was still a little lost.

After all, Dieng is his only friend, the only person who can easily chat since Wang Chao crossed here.

On the contrary, Dieng himself watched it quite freely.

"Wang, it's okay, we will meet on the field next season, and we will be rivals by then."

Dion said confidently.

He couldn't get enough playing time with the Suns, there were too many forward players hoarded here, and there were many players on the bench, including Wang Chao, James. Jones and many other strikers don't have much of a chance at all.

In his opinion, leaving may also be a good thing.

……

On February 22, after the All-Star break, the Suns had their first game, at home against the Boston Celtics.

The only Celtic of this period was Paul. Pierce is struggling to support himself, and his record in the East is already ranked outside the top ten, and he does not have too strong combat effectiveness.

At 103:94, the Suns easily won the game, and the winning streak also reached 10 consecutive wins.

Wang Chao's playing time in this game was significantly improved compared to before the All-Star, and his 22 minutes of playing time was second only to Barbossa, who played 25 minutes, among the bench players.

And Wang Chao did not live up to the trust of head coach D'Antoni, shooting 4 of 7 three-pointers in 22 minutes and scoring 12 points.

The 12 points are much worse than the 25 points and 27 points scored by Wang Chao in the previous games, but this is already the highest score on the Suns' bench, and Barbossa, who has played longer than him, only has 6 points and 4 assists.

What's more, after the three-point contest, the league's teams have obviously begun to pay attention to Wang Chao's three-point shooting, after all, he is a player who has just broken the three-point contest record.

As long as Wang Chao is on the court and outside the three-point line, the Celtics players will follow Wang Chao closely, unwilling to give him a little space and opportunity to shoot three-pointers.

But the current Wang Chao is no longer the same person he was at the beginning.

The super fast shooting speed allows him to shoot directly as long as he has a little space.

And Wang Chao has also begun to take the initiative to run without the ball to find opportunities on the field, although Wang Chao, who is still groping and learning, often runs like a headless fly, just wasting his physical strength, but a large number of runs can still create some opportunities.

Wang Chao at this stage is also very single, anyway, his average playing time per game is so little, waste physical strength, run without the ball, run more on the field, there will be experience, with the growth of experience, in the future, his route and choice of running on the field will become more and more efficient and labor-saving.

Of course, it's not enough to run stupidly, Wang Chao also found a large number of Hamilton's game videos to study and learn the skills and routes of the opponent's running without the ball.

On Feb. 25, the Suns defeated the Bobcats 136-121 at home.

There was no overtime in this game, and it can be seen from the score that it was an offensive battle, with neither side having a particularly strong desire to defend, and the attacking tempo was amazing.

In this case, Wang Chao came off the bench for 26 minutes, hit 8 of 12 shots from outside the three-point line, and scored 21 points.

In this game, it can be clearly seen that Wang Chao's running has improved a lot compared to the previous time with the Celtics, there are many less useless runs, and the running position has become more concise and fast, so he has more opportunities to shoot in the open space.

On February 27, the Suns, who had won 11 in a row, finally lost and the winning streak ended.

And the game that the Suns lost was the game that was played on the home court of the Rockets.

The Rockets and Suns are two extremes, one is extremely fast, usually finishing a round in 7 seconds, and the other is the slowest offensive team in the league, averaging only 90.1 points per game this season, the second-to-last in the league.

This season, the Rockets are actually very weak, with only 12th place in the West, but they have the most offensive center in the league at the moment.

Da Yao averaged 22 points per game this season, the highest among any center in the league.

The height of 2.29 meters and the stronger lethality under the basket after gaining weight make Da Yao a completely insoluble existence in the weak interior line of the Suns.

In this game, Da Yao shot 14 of 19 and 7 of 7 free throws, scoring a game-high 35 points and 18 rebounds, including 8 offensive rebounds alone, more than the entire Suns team's offensive rebounds in the entire game.

In the case of the inside line being completely exploded, even the Suns, who had won 11 consecutive victories, were finally defeated, and the winning streak was ended.

In this game, Wang Chao still played well, making 5 of 9 three-pointers after 22 minutes off the bench, and also hit 1 shot, scoring 17 points.

Obviously, Wang Chao has gradually improved with the progress of the game, even though more and more teams in the league have begun to target Wang Chao's three-point shots, but relying on the three 99 three-point shooting ability values and the growing ability to run without the ball, his three-point shots can still stably maintain a shooting rate of more than 50%, and he has scored in every game.