On Nov. 12, the Magic traveled to the former SuperSonics team, which had successfully relocated to Oklahoma City and changed their name to the Thunder.

The Thunder team looks like it has been rebuilt a little, Durant as a player who is regarded as the core of the team, performed well in his rookie season last season, averaging 20 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game and was successfully elected as the best rookie, and his age is also very young, many people don't know a trivia, that is, James, who entered the league as a high school student, was actually only about three months different from Durant in the same period when he entered the draft.

As a high school rookie, James joined the NBA when he was much older than Kobe, Maddy, Garnett and other high school rookies, and was actually similar to many players who participated in the draft in the first year of high school.

In the second season of his career, Durant is just 20 years old, and he is with Russell, another core of the team. Westbrook is similar, six months younger than Curry, who will join the league next year......

With the advantage of youth, Durant has shown excellent scoring ability, especially in the second season of his career, although the Thunder are currently at the bottom of the 1-5 ranking, but Durant's personal score is 24.3 points, both in scoring and shooting percentage compared with his rookie season.

The Thunder are excited to see how far a fully grown Durant will go in the future, and whether he can surpass his own draft template, Maddy.

And this game with the Magic team is also of great significance to the Thunder team, because now it seems that compared to Maddy, Durant's development direction is obviously better than Wang Chao.

They must admit that although Durant's talent is excellent, it is still worse than Maddie, Durant's static talents such as height and arm span are naturally far better than Maddie, but Maddie's strength lies in the fact that he has excellent static talent at the same time, dynamic talent is also the top level in the league, Maddie when he was young has the fastest first breakthrough in the league, and his own strength is not weak, and he has a good confrontation ability.

In this regard, in fact, the styles of Wang Chao and Durant are very similar at this stage, neither of them is good at physical, and the main offensive scoring methods are mainly medium and long-distance shooting, but Wang Chao's offense is more biased outside the three-point line, while Durant is more classical, focusing on mid-range shooting.

Because of Wang Chao's success in the playoffs and the Olympics, the lethality of his three-point shot on the court has made more and more teams begin to pay attention to the three-point shot, and the head coach of the Thunder team has also given Durant advice, hoping that he can develop his three-point shooting ability.

As we all know, Durant's three-point shooting is very accurate, maintaining a shooting rate of about 40% all year round, and a season in his career when his three-point shooting is not very accurate is his rookie season, only 28.8%, but in the second season, this season, Durant successfully increased the three-point shooting rate to 42%, and the average number of 3-shot shots per game is not less.

In this game, Durant formed a direct confrontation with Wang Chao.

Then Durant found out, it's all liars!

What the heck? Doesn't it mean that Wang Chao is the same as him, with average dynamic talent? Is this TM also average?

In the direct alignment, Wang Chao can easily pass him in one step, and his movements are as fast as lightning, which should not be the speed that a 2.06-meter-tall striker should have!

Not only that, when the two were engaged in a physical confrontation, the thin Durant was knocked back again and again by Wang Chao, and the brutal force hit him with pain in his chest.

What the heck? Is this Wang Chao or James?

After a few rounds of fighting, Durant can be sure that Wang Chao's dynamic talent is far superior to him, and even surpasses his template Maddie, which is definitely the top level in the league, with impeccable speed, power, bounce, and explosiveness.

What's even more terrifying is that while having such an excellent dynamic talent, Wang Chao's outside feel is really good, not only has a soft shooting touch in the middle and long distances that is comparable to him, but also is accurate outside the three-point line.

In the course of the game, Durant once relied on the advantage of height and arm span to successfully form an effective defense against Wang Chao, and his fingers almost rubbed against the basketball, which can be sure to completely block Wang Chao's vision.

However, even so, the opponent hit the shot from beyond the three-point line, completely ignoring his defense.

After the whole game, Durant had nothing to do with Wang Chao, and was easily cut by the opponent with 29 points, and the Magic team also won the game 109-92.

Of course, Durant can't prevent Wang Chao, and Wang Chao has nothing to do with Durant on the defensive end, the gap between the two in height and arm span is real, Durant's mid-range jumper is not at the top but it is enough to rank at the first-class level of speed and bounce, which can reach the level of undefensible that Novis Fund Chicken is independent, and Wang Chao's defensive ability itself is not very good, so Durant also scored 27 points in this game, and the efficiency is not much inferior to Wang Chao.

It's just that putting aside the two super scorers on the front line, the overall strength difference between the Magic team and the Thunder is not half a point.

At this time, the Thunder team, without Harden, without Ibaka, Durant has not yet reached the peak level, and Westbrook, a first-year rookie who has just joined the league, can be described as a pick-to-foot, the current version of the Thunder three less 1.0, that is, Durant, Jeff Green, Westbrook is difficult to support the beams, and there is a high probability that it will still be at the bottom of the league this season.

At the post-game press conference, Durant said frankly in an interview with reporters: "Wang Chao is a player with outstanding scoring ability, especially the accuracy outside the three-point line is incredible, he is my goal to learn and work hard, and this game has also taught me a lot......

Durant in this period is not the schoolbag Du who is careful enough to open a trumpet and connect with netizens for some trivial things in the future, as a second-grade rookie, he is still very humble many times, and he is completely a good baby image.

Wang Chao also gave Durant a great degree of affirmation in an interview, "Kevin. Durant is sure to be the league's top scorer. ”

And when a reporter asked, "Who do you think is better in terms of scoring, you or Durant", Wang Chao smiled faintly and asked: "What do you think?" ”

If Durant is compared with Wang Chao after two or three seasons, there may still be a little suspense, and this is still the comparison between Durant and Wang Chao at this stage after two or three seasons.

As for the current Durant and Wang Chao, naturally there is no way to compare.

Durant, a sophomore, has just adapted to the pace of the NBA game, increasing his shooting percentage from 43% in his rookie season to 47%, and there is still a lot to learn.

……

After Oklahoma taught Durant a lesson, the Magic traveled to Dallas to challenge the Mavericks.

Today's Mavericks already have the prototype of the Mavericks team that won the championship in 11 seasons.

Nowitzki, Kidd, Terry, and Barria are all there, and Marion and Tyson are all missing. Chandler, this lineup is already very strong on paper, but it still does not have the strength of the top championship team in the past two seasons when the run-in degree is not high or the time has not come.

The difference in strength between the two teams can be clearly felt during the encounter.

The Mavericks' offensive ability was really good, and after the whole game, Nowitzki scored 25 points. Howard scored 24 points and Terry scored 20 points.

But the Mavericks' defense has a big problem, somewhat similar to the Suns' feel, but their offensive efficiency is nowhere near as good as the Suns, who have given up defense and focused on offense.

This shows the importance of Marion and Chandler, especially Tyson. Chandler, don't look at the statistics of his career is not very impressive, but as a defensive player, Chandler is a high-quality blue-collar interior player who can be ranked even if he looks at the history of the league.

The 11-year-old Mavericks have really established a good defensive system precisely because of Chandler's joining, which has made a qualitative leap in the team's strength.

In this regard, the Mavericks' current main center, the self-proclaimed "second center in the West" Eric Brown. Dampier can't compare at all.

In this game, Howard translated the second center in the West, what TM is called a center.

In the whole game, Howard cut 27 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks, including 8 offensive rebounds, completely dominated the basket, while the second center in the West only had 4 points and 9 rebounds, which is why the Mavericks lost to the Magic when three players scored more than 20.

Wang Chao only played normally in this game, scoring 28 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists, plus Tecoglu, who scored double-doubles, Nelson and Petrus, defeated the Mavericks 109-104 to win again.

In the next three games, the Magic will face Charlotte Bobcats, Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers.

It must be admitted that in the first month of the regular season, the Magic team's schedule was really very modest, and there were basically no strong teams.

Although the above three teams are not the bottom weak teams in the league, their overall strength can only be ranked second-rate or even third-rate in the league, and there is no difficulty for the Magic team that is now in full swing to win the game.

On November 21, after the Magic defeated the Pacers 110-98, the record has unknowingly reached 11-1!

The staggering win rate has made Magic fans accustomed to it from initial surprise and euphoria.

And then on November 22, the Magic finally faced the challenge of a strong opponent again, sitting at home against the Houston Rockets.

If last season's Rockets, with the triumvirate of Da Yao, Maddie and Lewis, are one of the favorites to win the championship, then judging from the comparison of the Rockets lineup in the same period of the 08-09 season, it is difficult to define the strength of the current Rockets.

The arrival of Lewis has changed many things, although he did not become Mr. 100 million yuan, but the contract amount is not low, plus the Rockets also have two big contracts with Da Yao and Maddy, which completely locked up the salary space, so there is nothing in the free market, and because Lewis is a big forward, he has not thought about strengthening the strength of the forward, and naturally there is no plot to trade with the Kings to get Artest.

Artest and Lewis are stronger or weaker, if Wang Chao is asked, it is obvious that Artest is better.

In terms of scoring ability, Artai is not too much inferior to Lewis, who played in 57 games for the Kings last season, averaging 20.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.3 steals per game, shooting 45.3% from the field and 38.0% from three-point range.

As a shooter and the team's main scorer, Lewis's career-best season performance was only 22.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists, and his shooting percentage was basically the same as that of Artay, and even the results of leading the team at that time were not much better than Artey.

But if you look at other aspects aside from scoring ability, it's a different story entirely.

Ron. Artest is a prickly player who always likes to stir up trouble, but he is extremely passionate on the field, unlike the introverted Lewis, he is good at using his performance on the field to motivate his teammates, defend toughly, and have the highest award for defensive players such as the best defensive player.

The most important point is that Artest is cheap!

His annual salary is only a little over 7 million, which is a world of difference from Lewis's big contract.

Missing out on Artest means that unless the Rockets choose to trade one of the Big Three, it will be difficult to optimize the roster.

And Artest failed to join the Rockets, and he didn't stay comfortable with the Kings, and he has been making trouble for a long time and wants to join a strong team with championship strength.

As a high-quality 3D player, Artest has naturally attracted the attention and peeps of many teams, especially the Lakers, Cavaliers, Spurs and other teams are most interested, but the Magic team is not particularly interested in Artest.

After all, as a striker, Artest has a positional conflict with Wang Chao and Turkoglou, if he rushes to exchange for the other party, God knows if this thorn will affect the team because of playing time, number of shots and other issues?

In many cases, the recruitment of an NBA team is not only based on the ability of the players, but also on the compatibility between the opponent and its own team.

The Magic are in great shape at the moment, the team chemistry is good, and they are winning all the time, so there is no need to risk it for Artest.

The home game with the Rockets still ended in the victory of the Magic team, 100:95, although in the process of the game, Da Yao once again beat Howard, the former scored 22 points and 13 rebounds in the whole game, and the latter only had 13 points and 9 rebounds, but the competition between Wang Chao and Maddy, the two top scorers, ended in Wang Chao's complete victory.

In fact, for any old Rockets fan, the 08-09 season was an extremely uncomfortable season.

This season, Maddie's competitive state has declined sharply due to injury, and he only played 35 games in the entire regular season, with an average score per game plummeting from 21.6 points last season to 15.6 points.

The 08-09 season became Da Yao's last full season, and Da Yao spent the entire 09-10 season recovering from injuries, while Maddy was traded to the New York Knicks after only playing 6 games for the Rockets, and the era of Yao Mai's combination was completely over.

What happened later is also clear to everyone, in the 10-11 season, Da Yao made a short comeback for 5 games and was immediately reimbursed for the season due to another injury, and then Da Yao officially announced his retirement, which became the memory of the times.

Wang Chao also thought that the current Da Yao's life experience has changed, he did not suffer a major injury in 07, and the Olympic Games have maintained an excellent competitive state, and now the Rockets have Lewis to share the pressure on the offensive end, is it that the probability of his injury has also decreased, and he has a chance to extend his career?

But looking at Maddie's poor competitive state in this game, Wang Chao estimated that it was enough to choke.

In the new season, Maddie has completely lost the explosiveness of the past, there is no threat to break through with the ball, and the offense can only rely on mid- and long-distance jump shots, but in the absence of breakthrough deterrence, the shooting rate of dry pull-out jump shots cannot be guaranteed.

While Lewis was able to take a lot of the pressure off the offensive end of the pitch, his technical qualities meant that he couldn't do anything when the game reached a stalemate and someone needed to step up and score for the team.

At that time, Da Yao had to carry the explosives bag and chisel it in the inner line.

Considering that the West has also been in a state of rising together in the past two seasons, basically the top eight in the West must have about 50+ wins, and Wang Chao estimates that it is probably enough.

Defeating the Rockets, the Magic team won another wave of 6 consecutive wins, and the record has come to 12-1, and the next four opponents of the Magic team, the Bucks, 76ers, Wizards and Pacers, are also very competitive, very simply lost to the Magic, helping the Magic team win 10 consecutive wins, and at the end of the November schedule, the Magic team's record has also come to an astonishing 16-1, which is almost a heavenly rhythm.

But at the end of November, the announcement of a trade in the league made almost all teams aiming to win the championship feel cold, including the Magic.

The news of the trade came from the Los Angeles Lakers, who sent power forward Vladimir. Radmanovic, as well as a future second-round pick, traded small forward Ron from the Kings. Artest.

This deal immediately caused a lot of repercussions in the league.

(End of chapter)