Not long after the game started, Bowen was also physically energetic at this time, so he had been keeping up with Wang Chao's pace, but he knew very well in his heart that as time went by, he would definitely be dragged down by Wang Chao.

But I know that there is no way, unless I don't follow Wang Chaoran, but in that case, the opponent will be able to shoot in the open space outside the three-point line.

Bowen runs, but it is much more difficult than Wang Chao, the gap in physical fitness between the two sides is put aside, just following the other party, Bowen has to pay more physical strength as a price, because Wang Chao is in the process of running, from time to time there will be Suns players to help him do off-ball blocking and dismantling cover, Bowen has to work hard to get rid of these covering players while following Wang Chao, the action is a little slower, Wang Chao may have run out of the outside to catch the ball.

The overall pace of the Spurs is on the slow side, and the rest of the players on the court are few who can help Bowen defend, and the pressure is almost all on him.

In the first quarter of the game, Bowen could still keep up with Wang Chao's footsteps, and the Spurs also relied on defense to take the initiative in the first quarter of the game, 25:22, slightly better by 3 points.

But as the game entered the second quarter, things began to take a turn uncontrollably.

Bowen began to gradually fail to keep up with Wang Chao, not because he was tired of running, but because Wang Chao's speed began to gradually get faster.

As the race progressed, the characteristics of Wang's super long-distance runner's talent began to activate one by one.

The first perk to activate is the first tier of perks, a 10% stamina bonus and a 10% reverse run agility.

After activating the trait, Wang Chao began to run back frequently on the field.

The flexibility in the game is directly linked to the agility ability value, Wang Chao's agility is 86, which is faster than the speed, and the effect of getting a 10% bonus is extremely obvious.

Bowen is inferior to Wang Chao in terms of speed and agility, and his defense is more reflected in the super high defensive IQ in one-on-one defense and the prediction of offensive options for offensive players with the ball.

When Wang Chao activated the first-stage characteristics of long-distance runners to strengthen the sensitivity of the reverse run, Bowen, who was caught off guard, was continuously deflated, and Wang Chao used the reverse run to pull up the position gap, and the latter successfully received the pass and shot on the outside and hit frequently.

After a few rounds, Wang Chao scored 9 points in a row on 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the three-point line, directly helping the Suns complete the comeback, forcing the Spurs to call a timeout to adjust.

After the timeout, Bowen, who was already a little tired, was substituted and replaced with a faster player to mark Wang Chao.

However, the effect of such adjustments is not significant.

Replacing Bowen was a man named Brent. Bari's player, who is 1.98 meters tall, plays the number 23 swing.

His speed is much faster than Bowen, and even slightly faster than Wang Chao, but after all, he is a 36-year-old veteran, weighing only 84 kilograms, and his confrontation ability is insufficient.

Wang Chao really couldn't get rid of the opponent simply by running without the ball for a while and a half, but when Barry covered the other Suns players without the ball, the gap in confrontation ability made it difficult for him to get rid of the blocking and dismantling cover to keep up with Wang Chao in the first time.

At this time, the Spurs can only let other players help defend Wang Chao, and under Nash's just right passing timing and Wang's ultra-fast shooting speed blessed by the super fast gunner, this kind of slow half-beat defense naturally does not have much effect.

Throughout the second quarter, Wang Chao made five three-pointers and scored 15 points to help the Suns overtake the score and successfully establish an eight-point lead before halftime.

CCTV Sports Channel, Director Zhang was full of praise for Wang Chao from the beginning of the second quarter of the game.

"Wang Chao's running without the ball on the court is simply art, there are few people in the entire NBA who can do it as frequently as him to get the opportunity to shoot in the open position through running without the ball, and can maintain such a stable three-point shooting rate, the Spurs have no way to play Wang Chao at all, even if they know that Wang Chao will definitely find the opportunity to shoot in the open position through running, Wang Chao is too reasonable to play on the court!"

"Coach Zhang." Coach Yu, who was commenting with Coach Zhang's partner on the side, took over the conversation and asked: "What kind of help do you think Wang Chao will have for the Chinese men's basketball team if he returns to the national team?" ”

"That's a huge help." Director Zhang understood and immediately said: "The Huaguo men's basketball team has always had a tradition of high-quality interior centers, and we have a mobile Great Wall composed of Da Yao, Dazhi and UAE under the basket, which can be described as rock-solid, but the outside is ...... Since the retirement of Asian Jordan Hu Weidong, our outside line has always been a weakness, lacking enough stable outside shooting points, and there is no way to help the inside line pull out enough space to play its strength. ”

"The arrival of Wang Chao will make any national team in the world throw a mouse bogey, and Wang Chao must be strictly guarded, even if Wang Chao does not make any moves on the court, just standing outside the three-point line, he can help Da Yao and them to pull the space, so that they have better room to play."

"And running without the ball and three-point shooting are just Wang Chao's weapons in the NBA, but they are not the only skills, I have been following Wang Chao this season, I have watched every game of him, it can be said that no one in Huaguo knows Wang Chao better than me."

"He is not only very good at playing without the ball, but also has excellent offensive skills with the ball, when he came off the bench before, Wang Chao often attacked with the ball, his dribbling ability can be used freely even in the face of NBA defensive players, connecting various ball-holding breakthroughs and stepping back to shoot the ball, his dribbling level is better than most point guards in China, I am not exaggerating at all."

"Therefore, if Wang Chao returns to the national team, he can be used as a point forward, becoming the initiation point and offensive end point of the Chinese men's basketball team's tactics, and can greatly expand more tactical plans for the Chinese men's basketball team!"

Wang Chao was competing at this time, so naturally he couldn't hear Director Zhang's evaluation of him, if he heard it, he probably couldn't help but sigh, worthy of being a former national player, experienced Director Zhang, the analysis was too reasonable.

Wang Chao's ball-handling ability has now reached 82, which is certainly nothing among the NBA guards, but if you compare it with the guards of the Huaguo men's basketball team who are in a hurry when they encounter the pressure of the whole court, it is completely different.

Of course, the reason why the guards of the Huaguo men's basketball team can't pass the full-court pressing, is not that the ball control ability is low, and the vast majority of them are probably better than the current Wang Chao, but the problem is that the basketball game is not completely based on technical skills, and physical fitness is the most critical factor in determining the performance of the game.

Many people say that Durant's body is not good, when he first entered the league, Durant weighed less than 100 kilograms, and his confrontation ability is really not good, so he is not favored by many people.

But Durant began to gain weight after joining the league, and at his peak, he weighed nearly 110 kilograms, and his ability to fight has already reached the league average.

By the same token, Antetokounmpo, the Bucks' alphabet brother, is an even more stark example.

The guards of the Huaguo men's basketball team generally lack strength and speed, and once they encounter the full-court pressure under high-intensity physical confrontation, they can't even stand steadily, let alone dribble?

In fact, this problem Wang Chao also exists, but with the assistance of more than a year of hard training and systematic training potions, he is no longer what it used to be.

The weight of 98 kg is not particularly light among outside players, and more importantly, after a lot of physical training, Wang Chao's strength has improved all the way, from only 42 at the beginning to 66 now!

The power of 66 is of course incomparable to James's devil muscle man with a strength of more than 90, but it is definitely above the passing level among outside players.

Wang Chao remembers that in the NBA2K series of games, the two representative players of the Peak Jordan and the Peak Kobe, are only in their early 70s, and the difference between them and him is not much.

Although these two are standard scoring guard players, and the strength is a bit unfair compared with the players in the small forward position, Wang Chao, as a 2.06 meter big small forward, now plays in a pure outside style, and rarely even cuts the basket in the air, which is not much different from a scoring guard.

The power of 66 is enough for the current Wang Chao.

In fact, after joining the Huaguo men's basketball team, Wang Chao himself does not know how strong the men's national basketball team will be in the 08 Capital Olympics, because there is still a year before the 08 Olympic Games, and in this year, he can continue to get stronger.

In the past year, he has soared from the initial 52 ability points to the current 69, although many of these reviews have been brushed up by training some abilities that he can't use, such as basket hooks and other skills, but the improvement in his strength is indeed real.

In the coming year, Wang Chao is not sure if he can further increase his overall ability rating to more than 80, but at least it is stronger than now.

In 08, the mobile Great Wall version of the Huaguo men's basketball team, if an All-Star-level outside player was added, and it was a super three-point player with three-point shooting ability not inferior to Curry, what kind of epic enhancement would it be?

Wang Chao himself didn't dare to imagine it.

"Maybe, there's a chance to fight for the top three and win a medal."

……

The Olympics are next year, so we have to focus more on the competitions now.

In the third quarter of the game, Wang Chao only rested for a few minutes before continuing to play.

Facing the Spurs, who may be the strongest team in the league this season, he will not have any reservations, as long as he crosses this hurdle, then the championship will be secure!

Wang Chao's biggest advantage now is three-point shooting and physical fitness, Wang Chao who doesn't have to put too much effort into defense, even if he runs for a whole game on the offensive end, he can barely do it with the blessing of long-distance runner talent.

The second stage of the feature was quickly activated, and while his physical fitness was further improved, Wang Chao's running speed was increased by 5%, and the upgraded version's additional 3% shooting rate after receiving the ball also began to take effect!

As soon as Wang Chao, who was full of buffs, appeared on the court, he immediately got a chance through active running, hitting a long two-point shot from 20 feet from the basket.

Popovich stood on the sidelines, watching the scene and could only shake his head.

In the past, although the Suns showed great ability on the offensive end, they could only hate defeat against the Spurs, and the gap would be extremely obvious.

In the 04-05 season, the Suns and the Spurs met in the Western Conference finals, when the Suns, who won 62 wins in the regular season, were the team with the most wins in the regular season and the biggest favorites to win the championship, but when they met the Spurs in the Western Finals, the Spurs only took 5 games to end the Western Conference finals and easily eliminated the Suns 4:1.

In the face of the Spurs' almost suffocating defense, the Suns, known as the strongest spear in the league, were helpless, and the first three games were simply beaten 3:0, and the gap was fully revealed.

It was from that time that the league arose to say that offense can win fans, but defense can win championships.

But after two years, this time it is still on the stage of the Western Finals, but the situation has obviously changed.

It turns out that extreme offense is not really a way to defend itself, the root of all fear comes from a lack of firepower, if you can't win the game by scoring, then find a way to score more points and it's over.

The appearance of Wang Chao gave the Suns such a variable, his technical characteristics are single, and he can only get the three-point shot and running without the ball, but these two tricks have made him eat all over the world, have a place in the league, and make all teams feel a headache.

The Spurs are no exception.

Even Bowen can't stop Wang Chao, who else in the Spurs can limit Wang Chao?

In fact, if you just want to limit Wang Chao's scoring, there are many ways, whether it is to arrange special personnel to assist Wang Chao in defense at any time, or to cut off the connection between Wang Chao and the ball holder, and block the passing route of the two can well limit the opponent's three-point shooting ability.

But the key problem is that without Wang Chao, the Suns are still the most offensive team in the league, and Nash, Stoudemire, Marion and even Barbossa on the bench have extremely strong scoring ability.

Popovich can't put too much defensive power into targeting Wang Chao, which will only free up the rest of the Suns' players, and the result will be more than worth the loss.

Therefore, as a calm and experienced head coach, Popovich's pre-game judgment was that Bowen would limit Wang Chao's scoring as much as possible, and the team would strictly guard against the attack of other Suns.

However, what was happening at this time proved that Popovich had misjudged...... Three-point shots can really kill!

Popovich can't be blamed for this, in this era of interior and mid-range offense, the common concept is that two-point shots are better than three-pointers, and even if three-pointers have a higher return on the ball, how much higher can the shooting percentage be away from the basket?

Before Curry came out, the concept of three-point shooting was a scoring method that could be icing on the cake across the league. Allen also averages only about 38% of his three-point attempts per game.

Wang Chao is the first player in this era to average more three-point shots per game than two-point shots, and also the first player to average more than 10 three-point shots per game and hit more than 5 shots per game.

Popovich still underestimated Wang's lethality from beyond the three-point line, which led to the situation of being suppressed by the Suns in the first game of the Western Conference finals.

At this point, he could only take advantage of the pause to adjust his tactics and start focusing on Wang Chao.

After the pause, the focus of the Spurs' defensive tactics was obviously adjusted, as long as Wang Chao began to run without the ball, regardless of whether the players defending him were thrown away, the Spurs defenders on the other side would take a step forward to block in the direction of Wang Chao's position, and not give Wang Chao any chance to receive the ball easily.

This move can indeed successfully limit Wang Chao's play, many times he has not run to the designated position, and the Spurs player has already taken the first step to stand in the position he originally wanted to go.

In the second half of the third quarter, Wang Chao never touched the ball again, except for two opportunities to shoot from the outside line when the Suns quickly counterattacked.

It's just that Wang Chao can't score, which doesn't mean that the Suns' offense is stagnant.

In order to defend Wang Chao, the Spurs must pay an additional defensive player as a price, the basketball game is a game of five people, the Spurs have a player on the side of the team to help defend Wang Chao, then their defense line will inevitably have holes, even if they rely on excellent pseudo-joint defense tactics, the Spurs can rotate for the first time, but there will still be uncontrollable vacancy leakage.

This is another major role of Wang Chao on the field, and the ultimate outside pulling ability can help teammates get more space to play.

The future Warriors, the Splash Brothers, also have the same tactical position and effect.

If it weren't for Curry and Thompson's super shooting deterrence, how could Green be qualified to stand at the top of the arc and look like a sexy dealer dealing cards online, pretending to be a point forward.

Drummond. Green does think he is a pretty good player on the defensive end, but on the offensive end, whether it is his scoring ability or his ability to organize tandem passes to assist teammates, it is not worth mentioning at all, and the reason why he can make two decent comparisons is only because he is in the Warriors.

In the third quarter of the game, Wang Chao only scored 5 points on 2-of-3 shooting, but the Suns completely entered their own offensive rhythm, scoring 31 points in a single quarter, stretching the 8-point advantage at the end of the half to 12 points in one fell swoop!

This makes the Spurs feel very uncomfortable, they target Wang Chao, the Suns have other people who can score, but if the defense is strengthened, Wang Chao has no one to contain.

This guy who popped up from last season has become the biggest obstacle for them when playing against the Suns.

In the fourth quarter of the game, the Spurs, who were unwilling to lose the game like this, set off wave after wave of counterattacks, trying to catch up with the point difference and reverse the game.

But the Spurs themselves are not a team that is good at offense, most of the team's tactics are based on defense, and if you want to speed up the offensive tempo, it will inevitably loosen the defense of the iron rope Yokoe.

Their scoring efficiency has grown, accompanied by the same accelerated offensive tempo on the Suns' side, and the inability to contain the Suns' scoring is a key reason why the Spurs are behind.

At 108:102, the Suns won the first game of the Western Conference finals at home and took the lead in this battle of the dragon.

On the Spurs' side, Duncan scored a team-high 27 points, shooting 9-of-15 from the field, 9-of-13 from the free-throw line, as well as 10 rebounds and 5 assists.

Parker also played well against Nash, with 21 points and six assists, shooting 53% from the field.

Ginobili, the only substitute in the GDP portfolio, also took on the bench scoring work, scoring 23 points and 10 assists on 9-of-14 shooting.

The Big Three all scored 20+ points and scored more than 100 points in the game, which was already a very beautiful game for the Spurs.

But it's a pity that the Suns' side played significantly better.

Stoudemire had 23 points and 12 rebounds, and Nash had 22 points and 11 assists.

What's more, even though he was strictly defended by the opponent in the second half of the game, Wang Chao, who still shot 9 of 15 and scored 25 points and 4 rebounds in the whole game.

The Suns also have three players who score more than 20+ points, but the team is not limited to these three players.

Taking advantage of Wang Chao to attract the gap in the Spurs' defensive center of gravity, under Nash's passing tandem, other Suns players also played well, Marion, Barbossa, Bale and others scored double-doubles, which was one of the main reasons why the Suns could win this game.

Spurs head coach Popovich said frankly at a press conference after the game.

"The main reason why we lost this game was that we didn't do a good job of defense, especially the defense against Wang Chao on the outside, allowing a three-point shooter to score 25 points in a single game and make a full 7 three-pointers, how could the game be won?"

"In the next games, we will definitely further strengthen our defense, play steadily and win the following games."

Popovich focused on Wang Chao in the interview, and the meaning is already obvious that the reason why the Spurs lost the game was because of Wang Chao, and the so-called further strengthening of defense after that must be a targeted defensive arrangement for Wang Chao's offensive firepower on the outside.

Being able to make a strong team in the league, the head coach of the team that has won three championships in the past few years, pay so much attention to it, it shows how far Wang Chao's threat has reached.

This is also what Wang Chao is very happy to see, he is not afraid of the Spurs targeting him, anyway, he is not the offensive core of the team, if you want to target him, just come, so as to show his ability, and the more likely it is to get the maximum salary to renew the contract after the season.

The second game of the Western Conference matchup between the Suns and the Spurs was played two days later, on May 22, at Phoenix's home court.

The Suns, who have a home advantage, naturally want to take advantage of the victory to chase and directly rewrite the total score to 2:0 to further grasp the absolute initiative.

And they did.

In this game, the Spurs fully learned the lesson of losing the last game, and guarded Wang Chao strictly from the beginning of the game, not giving Wang Chao any chance to catch the ball.

But this move was the same as in the first game, blocking Wang Chao but failing to block the rest of the Suns.

Under Nash's threading needle, the Suns blossomed at multiple points and scored frequently, and finally seven players scored double-doubles to win the game 115-104 and successfully rewrite the overall score to 2:0.

In this game, Wang Chao played a soy sauce, shooting 4 out of 10, and only 12 points were scored.

But the medal of merit for the team to win must be half of his, after all, if it weren't for him on the outside to attract a lot of defensive strength from the Spurs, the rest of the team would not be able to score so easily, especially Marion, who repeatedly took advantage of Wang Chao to attract the Spurs to the two defenses to stage a scene under the empty cut basket, shooting 10 of 15 from the field, 6 of 8 free throws, and scoring a team-high 26 points.

With a total score of 2:0, the Suns instantly grasped the initiative in the series, and in the next two away matchups with the Spurs, as long as they can win any of them, the victory in the Western Conference is close at hand!

However...... After all, the Spurs are not those weak teams in the league, and they can be kneaded at will.

On May 26, the third game of the Western Conference finals, the main battlefield traveled from Phoenix to San Antonio.

At home and on the verge of stepping half foot into the precipice, the Spurs bottomed out and beat the Suns 114-109 to pull one back.

In this game, although the Spurs still failed to limit the Suns' scoring on the defensive end, they scored more points than the Suns.

Duncan broke out strongly in this game, shooting 14 of 22 and 7 of 8 free throws, scoring 35 points, 18 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 blocks, completely dominating the game on both offensive and defensive ends.

More than that, Tony. Parker also showed the lethality of the French sports car's ball-handling breakthrough in the game, shooting 10-of-19 from the field and 6-of-7 from the free-throw line, scoring 26 points and 8 assists.

If losing the third game and making the total score 2:1 is nothing, on May 28, the fourth game of the series, the Spurs won the game again with a score of 99:96 and tied the total score to 2:2, which really made the hearts of Suns fans can't help but hang.

It was the only time in the four-game series that the Suns didn't score more than 100 points, and throughout the game, the Spurs showed their almost suffocating defense vividly, and even Stoudemire played erratically under Duncan's defense, shooting only 6-of-14 from the field and 6-of-8 from the free-throw line to finish with 18 points and 7 rebounds.

On the Suns' side, the only one who played normally was Wang Chao, who was 7 of 15 from the field, 5 of 10 from three-point range, and 3 of 4 from the free throw line, scoring 22 points and 3 rebounds.

But in this game, Wang Chao's shortcomings were also exposed.

Although his scoring ability, especially the three-point shot, is very accurate and strong, the single offensive characteristics are still there, and although his mid-range shooting and dribbling ability have been improved to a good level through long-term training, it is a good effect against ordinary defenders, and when defending him becomes Bruce. When Bowen is a defensive master, and other players on the Spurs are also on guard against him and ready to help defend at any time, Wang Chao's offensive ability with the ball is still far from helping the team attack.

In short, it's not strong enough.

The problem that the Suns faced in Game 4 was that the main players were completely limited, the scoring efficiency plummeted, and the Spurs, who were under reduced pressure on the defensive end, could also devote more energy to target Wang Chao and prevent him from making achievements outside the three-point line.

In the face of this situation, Wang Chao's personal ability is not enough to break the status quo.

There is nothing Wang Chao can do about this, in the final analysis, he is not a top superstar in the league in the true sense, and there is no way to continue to score against three or four defenders against the opponent when his teammates are not good.

The overall score was tied to 2:2, which means that the fifth game will be a key battle of Tianwang Mountain, and the good news is that the Suns have home-court advantage in this game, and the players will not be affected by Spurs fans at Phoenix's home court, and they can play normally.

In fact, as long as the Suns' starting main force can return to a normal level, with Wang Chao's deterrent power outside the three-point line, they are fully capable of fighting and winning with the Spurs, and the key is how to play such an effect.

Wang Chao doesn't need to worry about this problem, that should be what Nash and Stoudemire need to think about, he basically has only one task when he is on the field, that is, to find a way to score as much as possible, that's all, with his current ability value, this is the only thing he can do in this kind of high-end game.

……

On May 30, the fifth game of the Western Finals series, the Battle of Tianwang Mountain, a key battle that may directly determine the direction of the Western Finals.

Back at home, the Suns' performance is really much better, and the offense is at least not as bad as in the first two games, which also makes Wang Chao more useful on the outside.

"It can be seen that in this extremely important key game, neither side wants to lose, and they are very active on the court, and the most active figure is undoubtedly the Suns forward Wang Chao!"

Inside the TNT studio, Kenny. Smith was full of praise for Wang's performance.

"In this playoffs, Wang Chao has shown almost textbook off-ball running more than once, even more active and frequent than Hamilton of the Pistons in the East, and his shooting percentage outside the three-point line is still very stable even in the face of the Spurs' strict defense, and the only suspense is whether he can receive the ball."

Smith was an outside shooter when he was a player, so he has always liked Wang Chao's style of play, and the way he never drags the mud and water, and he must shoot when receiving the ball really pokes him in the heart.

But everyone's preferences are different, as a well-known inside player in the 90s, Barkley doesn't like Wang Chao's style of play very much, especially after he failed to bet because of Wang Chao, and drank the filtered water soaked in donkey dung in the national live broadcast, whenever there is a game of Wang Chao in the live broadcast, he always subconsciously wants to pick some thorns.

"Aren't the first two games telling the story? Wang Chao's style of play can't become a superstar, maybe he can provide a stable scoring output in this offense-oriented Suns team, next to a passing master like Nash. Barkley pouted and said: "But once there is a headwind in the game, or Wang Chao is targeted to defend, his style of play will not help the team change the situation." ”

"Charles, you're being too a player who is in his third season of career." Smith shook his head, then smiled meaningfully. "Or is it that whenever you see Wang Chao, you can't help but think of some bad experiences, so you deliberately raise the requirements for Wang Chao?"

(End of chapter)