As in previous years, after All-Star Weekend, teams across the league began to work for the final sprint to the playoffs and to bolster as many teams as possible before the trade deadline.

And the biggest trade move before the trade deadline is undoubtedly the Houston Rockets.

Their patience with Maddie has reached its limit.

On February 19, the Rockets made a three-way trade with the Knicks and the Kings to send Maddy, Joey. Dorsey, Carl. Landry three players got Kings star player Kevin. Martin, Hilton. Armstrong, Jared. Jeffries, Jordan. Hill, a 2011 first-round pick swap (first-round pick protected) and a 2012 first-round pick from the Knicks.

In this wave of trades, the Rockets can be said to have made a lot of money, not only getting rid of Maddy, who is no longer in his playing year and carrying the league's highest-paid big contract, but also using it as a bargaining chip in exchange for a bunch of high-quality players plus first-round draft picks.

Kevin. Although Martin is not as famous as Maddy, he is also an outside player who can steadily contribute 20+ points per game, with him partnering with Lewis and Brooks, plus Da Yao on the inside, the Rockets can still maintain a strong fighting power in the West.

As for Maddie, the Rockets' prosperous years were the last highlight of his career.

Injuries and aging made Maddie like a tiger with teeth pulled out, and he was not competitive on the court, and after this season, Maddie could only choose to sign with the team with a low salary, and then was traded to the Pistons.

In the following years, Maddie tossed and turned the Hawks, the Spurs, and finally went to the CBA to make money, and finally quietly chose to retire and officially leave the league.

From the perspective of the future, the Rockets trade is really blood-earned, and Kevin Martin will be the Rockets trade James in the future. Harden's important bargaining chip, and the traded first-round pick also creates certain conditions for the future Rockets to start the Taobao era.

However, if you look at it from the current perspective, the Rockets have given up on Maddy, even if they get several excellent instant players and draft picks through trades, they still inevitably quit the ranks of championship contenders.

At least in the eyes of many, Da Yao + Lewis + Kevin. Martin is no longer a Big Three configuration, regardless of Martin's average of 20+ per game a few times in previous seasons, he has never been selected as an All-Star. Martin is also a well-known glass man in the league, with just over 60 percent attendance in his first two seasons.

No one thinks he can take on the Rockets' offensive responsibilities after heading into the intense playoff game.

At present, the four most popular teams in the NBA are still the Los Angeles Lakers, who are the dominant team in the West, and the three players in the East, the Magic, the Cavaliers and the Celtics.

The All-Star win AMVP made Howard feel satisfied, and he played more aggressively in the regular season that followed.

On Feb. 17, the first game since All-Star Weekend, Howard faced the Detroit Pistons. Wallace slashed 33 points, 17 rebounds and 7 blocks, completely dominated the game, and led the team to an easy 116-91 victory.

Then he followed up with a home game against the Dallas Mavericks on February 19, and then cut 29 points, 16 rebounds and 5 blocks to help the Magic defeat the Mavericks 105-95.

Just completed a trade to get Cuaron from the Wizards. Butler and Brandon. Haywood's Mavericks are actually not weak, but the Magic team's twin stars are completely unstoppable.

On Feb. 21, the Magic played the Cleveland Cavaliers at home.

Howard had 22 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks, and O'Neal had 20 points and five rebounds.

The outside core of the two teams, James scored 33 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists, and Wang Chao scored 32 points, 4 rebounds and 9 assists.

The two sides can be considered to be on par with the inside and outside cores, but the Cavaliers' third big man, Vince Brown. Carter pulled his crotch in this game.

He scored 11 points and 3 assists on 4-of-9 shooting, and although the shooting percentage was good, as one of the highly anticipated Big Three, Carter's performance was obviously a big disappointment.

On the contrary, on the Magic team's side, the sixth man Jamal. Crawford was a big hit on the court, shooting 8-of-13 from the field, including two three-pointers, and finishing with 18 points, four rebounds and five assists in 34 minutes of play, completely crushing the Cavaliers bench.

Now that the regular season has progressed, Magic fans are finally starting to figure out the taste.

It seems that Crawford is really a little better than Carter!

As the Magic's bench sixth man, Crawford has averaged nearly 18 points and 3 assists per game so far, and is the Magic's biggest firepower on the bench.

On the other hand, Carter has been unable to integrate into the team's tactical system for a long time in the Cavaliers, and his average points per game have dropped to 14.6 points per game.

You must know that Crawford's annual salary is only more than 10 million, and Carter's salary is 16.8 million! There was also a Channing between the two. Frye + Ariza!

Speaking of Channing. Frye and Ariza, two players who have also surprised the Magic in the new season.

First of all, Frye, as the starting power forward of the Magic team, although his average playing time per game is not much, only about 27 minutes, but his excellent mid-to-long-range shooting makes him a lot of achievements even if he is just a fixed-point shooter when he is on the court, and his three-point shooting rate during the regular season is as high as 44%, and he can contribute 11.4 points and 5.3 rebounds to the team per game, considering that his annual salary of only 2 million is simply a model of good quality and low price.

As for Ariza, because he mainly appeared on the court as a substitute player, he did not have the efficient performance of starting 71 games in the regular season after joining the Rockets, averaging 14.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.

But the gold will shine, Ariza can also play an average of about 25 minutes per game in the Magic, averaging 9.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.8 steals per game.

As it turned out, all three of the Magic's major signings in the summer offseason paid off, and spending the same amount of money was far more rewarding than getting a Vince Brown. Carter is too much stronger!

Previously, many professional basketball commentators criticized the management of the Magic team on this matter, and then after the general manager of the Magic team threw the pot to Wang Chao, he severely criticized Wang Chao for not interfering in the work of the team's management.

However, now that voice has completely changed, people are not stingy with all kinds of praise for Wang Chao.

"As a player, Wang Chao not only has super personal ability, but also has a more vicious vision than coaches and scouts!"

"If Wang Chao retires in the future, he can consider a team as the general manager, and with his thinking and vision, he will definitely become a top general manager."

Under all kinds of praise, the regular season of the Magic team is still going on in an orderly manner.

In a total of 17 games at the end of February and March, the Magic team won 15-2 and the overall record came to 62-12!

As the first team to reach a 60-win record in the 09-10 season, the Magic won in March, whether it was against the Lakers, Spurs, or other top teams in the West, as well as the Nuggets, Hawks and other first-line teams.

With an 83.7% win rate, the Magic have eight games remaining, and judging by the current record of the rest of the league, even if the Magic only wins half of the eight games, it will be enough to enter the playoffs with the league's first record.

And the Magic team is clearly not satisfied with this.

Last season, they just broke the Magic's all-time record, setting a new regular-season win record for the Magic with a 67-win record.

And now, the opportunity to break the record again and set a new record is just around the corner.

The next eight games are against the Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies, Washington Wizards, New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers.

Among them, there are only three teams: the Mavericks, Spurs, and Cavaliers.

With the Magic's current excellent state and a little hard work, it is not impossible to win all 8 games.

In that case, the Magic would have a 70-12 record! Second only to the 72-10 Bulls in '96, and more than the Lakers' 69 wins, it can be the second in history!

When someone made this suggestion, everyone was moved, including Wang Chao.

As a time-traveler, what is the most he's willing to do now playing in the NBA? Of course, it is to create a legend in the alliance with your own hands!

Limited by the size of the roster, it is impossible for the Magic to break the Bulls' 72 wins this season, but if they can get a 70 wins, it is also quite a good thing.

This kind of opportunity is precious, Wang Chao can't guarantee that under the butterfly effect caused by him, there will be 73 wins against the Warriors in the future, so seizing the opportunity and playing as well as possible is the king!

On April 1, the Magic challenged the Dallas Mavericks away, and all the players went all out, defeating the Mavericks 97-82 to reach 63 wins.

Immediately after the back-to-back away games against the San Antonio Spurs on April 2, the Magic team was in a lot of trouble.

In this game, the Magic's outside shooter did not feel good, and Howard was also handled by Duncan on the inside, and at the end of the third quarter, the difference between the two teams was close to 15 points, and the situation was quite bad.

Fortunately, in the fourth quarter of the game, Wang Chao stood up in time, first hit two three-pointers outside the three-point line, and then rushed into the basket with Howard's blocking and dismantling to create damage, helping the team play a wave of 12:0 and strongly chase the difference back to within 3 points.

The Spurs urgently called two timeouts but failed to save the decline, and the game entered the last 1 minute, and the difference between the two sides was still hovering around 3 points. Frye hit a crucial 3-pointer to tie the score.

Duncan's game-winning shot was missed by Howard, and the two sides went into overtime.

In overtime, the Spurs began to lose to the Magic's offense, the situation of the two teams is different after all, the Spurs GDP Duncan and Ginobili are not young, and physical fitness has always been one of the reasons for limiting Ginobili's ceiling.

In overtime, the Spurs' scoring became extremely inconsistent, while the Magic's Wang Chao and Howard continued to use blocking and pick-and-roll to score points.

In the end, the Magic team went through an overtime and finally defeated the Spurs 116-112 to win the game.

After gnawing back to back games with the Mavericks and Spurs, the only tough opponent in front of the Magic is the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But before that, the Magic have to deal with the Grizzlies, Wizards and Knicks.

These three teams, all of which are weak teams that have been out early and have no chance to participate in the playoffs, the Grizzlies are slightly better than the Wizards and Knicks, and the regular season win rate can be maintained at more than 45%, while the Knicks and Wizards are completely bad, one is already rotten to the roots, and the other is because of Arenas's gun, almost the entire team has been dismantled, and they have made up their minds to tear down and rebuild, and they are ready to lose.

Defeating these three teams, the Magic team did not have to make any effort, and even the two core players Wang Chao and Howard were able to clock out and rest in advance in the third quarter of the game, saving energy and energy to prepare for the playoffs after the regular season.

The Magic, who have won all three games, have won 67 games, tying the best team record set last season, and each win since then has added a new record to the franchise's history.

But the victory of these three games also has some minor problems.

The problem is not with the team, but with Wang Chao.

After more than 60 regular season games, the personal data of most players in the league has basically stabilized, and there will be no particularly large fluctuations, and Wang Chao is no exception.

In the Spurs game, Wang Chao, who played an overtime game, scored 41 points in a single game, but it only increased his original average of 31.6 points per game by 0.1 points to 31.7 points.

In the next three games, Wang Chao only played about 26 minutes because he clocked out in the third quarter, and scored 24 points, 21 points and 20 points respectively in the three games.

This made Wang Chao's average points per game drop slightly to 31.3 points.

Originally, such a small change was understandable and did not have a big impact.

But as the season drew to a close, the Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin . Durant began to score high points frequently, including 48 points in a game and 44 points in a game, and the original average of 30.8 points per game began to improve under several consecutive high scores, and has now reached 31.2 points, only one step away from catching up with and surpassing Wang Chao to occupy the first place in the scoring list!

The Thunder team also has no cover-up, the purpose is to help Durant compete for the scoring title, and almost the whole team is trying to make balls for Durant and help him get high scores.

There is nothing wrong with their thinking.

Because the Thunder team has been confirmed to miss the playoffs not long ago, whether they win or lose the next games, they can't change this result.

In the absence of any chance, it's also a good option to let the players on the team get some accolades during the regular season.

This is also the butterfly effect brought by Wang Chao.

Originally, this season, the Thunder should have a 50-32 record in the regular season and entered the playoffs in eighth place in the West, even though they were educated by the Lakers in the first round and were eliminated 4:2, ending the first playoff journey of the Thunder's three young careers, but they still made the playoffs after all.

But now it's a different story.

The Houston Rockets, who were supposed to be ninth in the West with 42 wins and an eight-game win gap with the Thunder, did not pull their hips this season as they did in their original history.

Da Yao was not reimbursed for the season due to injury, and although he missed more than 30 games, he was still able to contribute 18.9 points and 9.2 rebounds to the team in more than 50 games.

Plus the Rockets also have players such as Lewis, Brooks, Scola, and Kevin who traded Maddie for All-Star Weekend. Martin, which allowed them to gain a foothold in the highly competitive West, also led to the Thunder losing more games in the regular season.

After all, the Rockets and the Thunder have met four times in the regular season, and the Thunder have no way to get Da Yao inside.

failed to make the playoffs, but made the Thunder bent on helping Durant win the scoring title.

Of course, Wang Chao is unwilling to give up this scoring champion, but this season he has to go all out to hit the regular season MVP.

He is currently averaging 31.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 8.4 assists per game, while James, his biggest competitor for regular season MVP, is currently averaging 30.4 points, 8.2 rebounds and 8.9 assists per game.

When the data of the two sides are extremely close, each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

James's advantage is that as a local star of the United States, he naturally has an advantage when voting, after all, the selection rules for the MVP of the regular season are voted by 100 reporters from the United States and Canada, and Wang Chao is naturally at a disadvantage as a Chinese player.

Of course, Wang Chao also has some advantages, that is, the gap between the Magic team and the Cavaliers.

With three games left in the regular season, the Cavaliers have a 57-22 record, and the Cavaliers need to win their next three games to reach 60 wins in the regular season.

That included a game against the Magic at home.

If the Magic win this game, they will have a good chance of winning 70 in the regular season, making them the best team outside of the 72-win Bulls in '96.

And even if the Cavaliers can win and win the other two games, the record of the two sides will most likely be 69 wins and 60 wins, and the Magic team still has an absolute advantage, after all, 69 wins is also the second best regular season record in history, but the Magic and the Lakers share this honor.

The regular season MVP is supposed to reward the most valuable players during the regular season, and the criteria for the team's record are also very important.

To sum up, in the competition for MVP in the regular season, James has the advantage of nationality and popularity, and Wang Chao has the bonus of the team's record.

In this case, if Wang Chao can win the point king, it will inevitably be a plus.

Moreover, even if the scoring champion will not add points to the regular season MVP selection, Wang Chao has also thought about breaking Jordan's league record of ten scoring titles, so he will compete for the scoring title as much as possible every season.

"The competition for the scoring champion is fierce, the Magic and the Thunder each have 3 games left, Wang Chao and Durant score 31.3 points and 31.2 points respectively, the two are almost on the same running line, and the scores in the last 3 games will directly determine the final ownership of this season's scoring champion!"

The topic of interest has also attracted the attention of a large number of fans.

Wang Chao and Durant are almost the two players who are considered to be the strongest scorers in the league in the future, and the two have actually started the competition for the scoring title so early.

From the perspective of scoring ability alone, Wang Chao is obviously stronger than Durant, not only does he have the mid-range shooting ability that is not inferior to Durant, but the three-point shot is beyond Durant's reach, and even the ability to break through the frame with the ball, Durant is not as good as Wang Chao, after all, he does not have the opponent's speed and explosiveness comparable to that of a guard and outstanding strength among forwards.

But Durant now has the support of the whole team behind him, in order to help Durant win the scoring title, it doesn't matter if the Thunder loses the last 3 games, after all, even if they win, the record can't catch up with the Rockets, and they are doomed to miss the playoffs.

The Magic team is different, for the sake of 70 wins in the regular season, they can't lose any of their remaining three games!

On April 11, the Magic challenged the Cavaliers on the road, which was the last tough game of the regular season for the Magic, and both sides were unwilling to lose this game, and even used this game as a preview of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Cavaliers came up to carry out various targeted defenses against Wang Chao, and the Magic team was not to be outdone, with Ariza and Afralo, the two top defenders on the outside, taking turns pestering James, and Howard on the inside waiting under the basket at any time.

This unusually fierce confrontation ended in the victory of the Magic.

James scored a triple-double of 37 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, while on the Magic side, Wang Chao scored 40 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.

The Cavaliers' loss is still a cliché, there is no stable scoring point except for James, 81 regular season games have fully proved that O'Neal is no longer the original big shark, Carter is not the demigod of the year, if you look at them from the eyes of ordinary players, it is still reasonable, but the problem O'Neal and Carter's salary is as high as 36.8 million, such an exaggerated salary, but only two functional role players, how is it a bit unreasonable.

Wang Chao, who scored 40 points in the whole game, successfully increased his average score by 0.1 points per game to 31.4 points.

But Durant on the Thunder's side was not to be outdone, scoring 43 points in the Thunder's 89-101 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, and his average points per game also improved to 31.3 points.

In fact, the Thunder had determined that there was no hope of a comeback until about 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter, but even if they were 15 points behind, Durant was never replaced, stayed on the court and took over all the ball and shot wildly, and finally scored 19 points in the fourth quarter, which reached the 43-point score.

There is no doubt that Durant is already clearly brushing points, although the league does not explicitly prohibit this kind of behavior, and many players from the bottom weak teams of the league will also play star-level data in a similar way, but in the last-minute competition for the scoring title, it is a little ugly.

(End of chapter)