Da Yao's injury and exit made the Rockets completely lose the mind to play, including Wang Chao, who was worried about Da Yao's injury.

Although Perkins was whistled for a second-level malicious foul and left the court, the Rockets did not have the inside line to set the sea god needle-like Da Yao, and the offense could only rely on Wang Chao alone.

As a result, in the fourth quarter of the game, the Rockets failed to withstand the Thunder's offense, losing to the Thunder 103-109 and losing the game, and the overall score was chased to 2:1.

As soon as the game was over, Wang Chao and others hurriedly returned to the locker room to check on Da Yao's injury.

The team doctor's preliminary judgment is that there is no fracture, but the specific extent of the injury can only be known when the hospital examines it with an instrument.

After half a day of anxious waiting, Da Yao's inspection report came out, and it turned out to be bad news.

"A second-degree ankle sprain is preliminarily determined to take about three to four weeks to recover according to the injury."

When the team doctor gave the answer, the whole team fell silent.

Three to four weeks, which means that Da Yao will miss the subsequent Western Finals, and even the Rockets will not be able to play in the Finals.

So far in the playoffs, Da Yao has averaged 24.6 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, the second leading point in the team and the core of the interior offense.

Everyone knows how much of an impact the absence of Da Yao has on the Rockets.

"Doctor, if I recover for a week or so, can I play with a closed injection?"

While everyone was silent, Da Yao suddenly asked.

The team doctor was stunned for a moment, nodded after thinking about it and was about to speak, but before he could say anything, he was interrupted by Wang Chao first.

"No, Brother Yao, since you are already injured, then take good care of your injuries, and you can't play with injuries anymore."

Wang Chao looked at Da Yao with firm eyes, and said in an unquestionable tone: "There will be a chance to compete for the championship in the future, but for the sake of a championship, I will definitely not allow it to gamble with the rest of your career." ”

Just one overall winner......

Everyone present looked at Wang Chao a little speechless for a while.

Is an NBA championship so easy to get? How many good basketball superstars have never had the chance to touch a championship in their lifetime, and it is as simple as eating and drinking to you.

It's okay if you don't have anything to eat today, you can eat more tomorrow, right?

But if you think about it, Wang Chao now has four championship rings, and for him, winning the championship seems to be really commonplace.

"But such a rare opportunity, I'm afraid there is only this one time in my entire career......" Da Yao was obviously not willing to end like this.

"I can assure you that there will be many more opportunities like this in the future." Wang Chao immediately said: "But if you don't listen to me now and insist on playing with an injury, I will just stop playing, and you can't win the game with the team alone, right?" ”

Da Yao: "......"

If Wang Chao is bad, he really doesn't have the confidence to lead the team to win.

Da Yao knows that Wang Chao is for his good, and playing with a closed belt injury is a great risk to the athlete's career, and the slightest carelessness will affect the follow-up treatment, and it is even more risky for a player like him who is in his thirties and has entered the end of his career.

But...... There are many ways to persuade people, do you have to use such extreme behavior?

Wang Chao was not in a good mood at this time, and throughout the regular season, in order to avoid Da Yao's injury, he was cautious and paved the way for Da Yao, but he didn't expect that in the end, it fell short because of Perkins' malicious cushion.

It can only be said that time is also fate, and sometimes injuries are also a part of the game.

In the '15 playoffs, the Cavaliers' Love was forced by his opponent to dislocate his arm, resulting in the loss of the season, and the lonely James lost to the Warriors in the finals.

The five-star Warriors were invincible in 19, but Durant and Thompson were injured one after another, resulting in only Curry in the Finals, and was picked by Leonard and the Raptors, and the dream of a three-consecutive championship dynasty was shattered.

In the semifinals of the Eastern Conference in '21, Brother Alphabet stepped on Irving and changed the trend of the entire series, and finally the Bucks successfully eliminated the Nets and won the championship all the way.

It is indeed a pity that Da Yao was injured, but in Wang Chao's view, it does not mean that the Rockets have lost the biggest chance to compete for the championship.

On the contrary, this season for the Rockets is theoretically the hardest season to win a championship compared to the next few years.

Da Yao's state is very well protected, but even so, there are only two instant combat forces in the team, Wang Chao and Da Yao, and the other players are not strictly considered qualified players required by championship-level teams.

Leonard, Butler, Parsons and others are still first-year rookies, lack of game experience, and have not grown up at all, even with the assistance of Wang Chao's sparring potion, it is impossible to grow from a rookie to an All-Star level player all at once.

But if the rookie season is not good, it does not mean that the following season will not be good.

With the tempering and experience of this season, coupled with the training effect bonus of the sparring potion, Wang Chao is sure that several people will have good combat effectiveness next season, especially Leonard and Butler, who will definitely become the main combat force, and then Da Yao's importance on the inside line will not be as great as it is now, and it can be like Duncan of the Spurs, who only need to play a role at critical moments.

Therefore, the more time passes, the strength of the Rockets will only become stronger because of the growth of the rookies, and the more they have the strength to win the championship.

It's just that even so, Wang Chao doesn't want to see the Thunder team reverse the game and reach the finals because of Da Yao's injury.

Even if they enter the finals and lose to the Heat, they can't cheapen these guys, otherwise wouldn't it prove that as long as they can't beat each other, they will find ways to stumble and stumble?

——

As soon as the news was announced, Da Yao's ankle sprain would take three weeks or even a month, it immediately caused a violent shock in the world.

Huaguo had a quarrel over this matter, Kendrick. Perkins went from being an obscure player overnight to becoming a household name, or rather, notorious.

Everyone knows that Da Yao's injury was caused by his malicious footrest, Da Yao is a representative figure of Chinese basketball, who has fought for the country for many years, won the Olympic Games and the World Championships, and if his career ends because of such an insignificant and despicable villain, it will be difficult for anyone to accept.

Even in the United States, there are many people who comment on and criticize Perkins's behavior.

After retiring from the game, he signed with TNT to become a basketball commentator. O'Neill stood up in solidarity with Da Yao for the first time.

"As the last great center I played against at the end of my career, Da Yao is very good, he is an incredible person, and anyone who has defended him should be able to experience the same feeling as when he was in his prime, he was too tall to defend under the basket!"

"But not being able to defend doesn't mean you can stop him with some despicable off-court means, such behavior is unsportsmanlike, unprofessional, and this kind of thing should not happen in the NBA, and Perkins does not deserve to be an athlete!"

But while people are indignant, they are more regretful.

The Rockets' loss of Da Yao in the playoffs is tantamount to the loss of O'Neal during the Lakers' OK combination.

Even if Wang Chao is far stronger than Kobe Bryant during the OK combination, but without an All-Star starter and a star at the best three-team level, can the Rockets still win in the Western Conference finals?

During the regular season, although the Rockets had the league's No. 1 record, the dozen games they lost were basically games in which Da Yao was suspended and Wang Chao led alone.

It is undeniable that Wang Chao's personal strength is definitely the strongest player in the league today, not even one of them, but it is difficult to support alone, the Rockets do not have any players who can support the beams except for him and Da Yao, and Thomas Jr., who played well against the Lakers, is only for the specific situation of the Lakers' overall clumsiness and slowness, and the effect is not good when playing against the Thunder, Westbrook is taller than Thomas Jr., but the speed is not much better, and they also have a top Ibaka with the ability to protect the frame and block on the inside.

In the previous games, Wang Chao and Da Yao teamed up to defeat the Thunder Sanshao, and now it has become a three-English battle against Lu Bu, facing a group of talented and energetic young players, Wang Chao can also lead the Rockets to break through to the West Finals?

With this question, the time quickly came to May 27, the fourth game of the Western Conference Finals.

On this day, the Thunder team was at home, and the fans were unusually active, because the team had a great chance of winning the game and tying the score to 2:2.

Kendrick. Perkins was suspended for one game due to a second-degree malicious foul and will not play in this game.

But even so, compared with the absence of Da Yao on the Rockets' side, it is definitely a great benefit.

The Rocket Team, which has only Wang Chao alone, is no longer as invincible as before.

Thunder fans were thrilled to see their team's chances of winning the Western Conference finals, and some extreme fans even chanted Perkins' name on the sidelines in solidarity, as if they were the heroes who saved the team.

This scene annoyed the Rockets fans very much.

Also annoyed was Wang Chao.

"Happy? Hmph, I'll make you unhappy soon! ”

Rockets starters: Courtney. Li, Korver, Leonard, Chao Wang, Jordan. Hill.

Thunder starters: Westbrook, Sefrosa, Durant, Ibaka, Collisson.

Jumping ball link Jordan. Hill wins the scrum and the game begins.

As Wang Chao said, not long after the game started, the Thunder home fans were a little unhappy.

Because from the beginning, the Rockets frequently used Jordan. Hill's mobility, pulling out the outside line for Wang over-blocking and dismantling cover.

Wang Chao is not polite at all, but whenever there is a little chance to shoot, he does not hesitate to pull out a three-point shot, his shooting rate is amazing, the first 5 shots hit 4 balls, the game started less than 5 minutes to score 12 points, the Thunder team had to call a timeout, for Wang Chao's blocking and covering three points to develop defensive tactics.

But even if he could block Wang Chao's fire outside the three-point line, when Wang Chao changed his style of play and turned to block and dismantle and pull away from the distance and dislocated heads-up, the result was still the same.

The Rockets are like Curry in the future when Harden plays against the Warriors, constantly helping Wang Chao to block and cover, because of the fear that Wang Chao will use the cover to immediately shoot three points, the supplementary defenders must follow Wang Chao closely, and as the distance between the covering players is widened, a misplaced heads-up will be formed.

Wang Chao's most selected opponent is naturally Westbrook, the point guard of the Thunder.

1.91 meters against 2.06 meters, a huge difference in height and weight, so that Westbrook can't prevent Wang Chao at all, and the Thunder team can't wrap Wang Chao, otherwise his excellent passing ability can find an empty teammate and pass the ball at the first time.

In the first quarter of the game, Wang Chao shot 8 of 11, 4 of 6 three-pointers, 2 of 2 free throws, and scored 20 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists in a single quarter.

With Wang Chao's play, the Rockets led by 4 points at 31:27 in the first quarter.

The game entered the second quarter, and the Thunder team, which originally expected Wang Chao's physical fitness to decline and his scoring ability to decline, was not able to do so, Wang Chao continued to show extremely high offensive efficiency in the second quarter of the game, scoring 17 points in a single quarter, and his personal score at halftime had come to 37 points.

On the Thunder's side, Durant also scored 21 points in the half, but it was obviously completely incomparable to Wang Chao.

thought that Da Yao's absence would make the Rockets completely unrival to the Thunder, but who would have thought that at the end of the half, the Rockets led by 7 points at 58:51.

The lack of firepower caused by Da Yao's absence was completely made up by Wang Chao, and at the same time, without Da Yao's Rockets, the defensive end was not affected in any way, or after Da Yao left the court, the overall defensive ability of the Rockets was stronger, because Jordan. Hill's mobility is good, and he is the best candidate for the Thunder team, whose main defensive players are all perimeter players and play at a brisk pace with a small-ball style.

Many times when the Thunder team plays fast offense, Da Yao's slow pace can't keep up with the situation that he can't return to the defense at the first time. Hill can do it, even if his ability to protect the rim under the basket is far less than Jordan's, but after all, he is also a 2.08-meter-tall interior player.

And in this game, Westbrook's old mistake was made again, thinking that there was no threat without Da Yao's basket, he frequently attacked the basket with the ball, but the efficiency was not high, resulting in the offensive efficiency of the Thunder team was not as good as the Rockets led by Wang Chao.

In the third quarter of the second half, Wang Chao began to reduce the number of shots to accumulate physical strength, but even so he still scored 9 points, and the personal score increased to 46 points in the third quarter.

The Thunder recovered a little bit in the third quarter, and the two sides entered the final fourth quarter with a score of 86-84.

In the fourth quarter of the game, the Thunder team couldn't hear much cheering at home, and it was quiet and even a little scary.

Because at the beginning of the game, Wang Chao scored consecutive points under the double package of the Thunder team, and even scored two 2+1s, leading the Rockets to play a wave of 12:2 attacks, directly widening the difference to more than 10 points.

On the Thunder's side, Durant was unwilling to fail like this, and made consecutive hits to try to catch up with the score.

But every time he scored, Wang Chao on the Rockets' side could immediately fight back, not giving him a chance to chase back the score difference at all.

In the final fourth quarter of the game, Wang Chao scored another 20 points in a single quarter, scored 66 points in the whole game, broke the single-game scoring record in the playoffs, and led the team to defeat the Thunder 113:108 to win the game, with a total score of 3:1 to take the lead in getting the match point!

(End of chapter)