As everyone expected, the Eastern Conference Finals is indeed a Nets vs Cavaliers matchup.

In terms of record, the Nets, who won 67 in the regular season, won 12 more games than the Cavaliers, who won 55, and had an advantage.

However, the Cavaliers have the absolute upper hand in terms of the team's lineup, and the three-star combination is currently the most luxurious team in the league, and the only one that can compete is the Golden State Warriors, who have four best team players in the West.

The regular season was tied 2-2, with the Cavaliers winning the first two games while the Nets seized the last two games.

As for the support of the two teams, the Cavaliers obviously have the upper hand, after all, Wang Chao has become almost a big demon in the league in the past few years, at least in the United States, most fans don't want Wang Chao to continue to win, or that sentence, the NBA is American professional basketball after all, not Chinese professional basketball, and it is enough for a Chinese player to dominate the past ten years.

Since Wang Chao took the initiative to leave the Rockets and gave up the opportunity to continue to compete for the championship, don't give him another chance to touch the O'Brien Cup.

At present, although the honor of Wang Chao's seven crowns, six FMVP and five MVPs has surpassed Jordan, the first person in basketball, the distance beyond is not particularly long, and there are still players in the league who have the opportunity to catch up and regain the position of the first person in basketball.

But if Wang Chao's personal honors continue to accumulate and win eight, nine or even eleven championships like Bill Russell, Wang Chao will really become the Chinese player who will always be remembered in NBA history and ranked first in history.

There are always people who like to say that sports have no borders, and the Olympic spirit symbolizes that it is stronger, higher and faster to break through the limits of the human body, but that is pure nonsense.

Athletes essentially represent their own country, and the medals they compete for in the Olympics are also honors won for the country.

Wang Chao will not think about this matter so simply, and in the same way, the vast majority of local fans in the NBA will not think so simple.

Of course, this is all outside the arena, in view of Wang Chao's personal situation, from the perspective of most neutral local fans in the United States.

Fans like the Nets don't think that way.

Players are players, clubs are clubs, they like the Nets, and even with the players in the Nets team, the arrival of Wang Chao makes them the strongest team in the East, and they have the opportunity to compete for the championship, they are naturally too late to be happy, as for the so-called mess that has risen to the national level, is it important to bring a championship trophy to the Nets?

Not to mention anything else, the current owner of their Nets is still a Russian rich man! According to the competitive relationship between the United States and Russia, haven't the fans who support the Nets become traitors? ——

On May 17, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn was packed, and a large number of Nets fans poured into the stadium to cheer on their teams, including many New York fans, who mainly supported the Knicks, but also supported the Nets, because both teams are now NBA teams in New York anyway.

When the Knicks missed the playoffs this season, they naturally turned to support the Nets, which is very different from many arrogant Knicks fans, and it is also the normal reaction of most rational fans.

In the noisy home court of the Nets, the players of the two teams warmed up on both sides of the court, and both sides looked solemn, which can be seen to be persistent in winning the Eastern Conference finals.

In a group of people, Wang Chao is the one who performs the most calmly.

"Hey, take it easy, Brooke, your shots are stiff from the tension."

Pat Brooke on a three-point shot from outside the three-point line to warm up. López, Wang Chao said lightly: "The pressure brought to you by the East Final is too great, don't take the game so seriously, take it easy, just do your job on the field." ”

What is the biggest problem the Nets have right now? Of course, the squad is too young and at the same time seriously inexperienced.

Don't talk about Deron and Joe on the bench. Johnson, the only one in the Nets' current starting lineup other than Wang Chao who has experience in the division finals is Nikola, who he brought from the Rockets. Jokic.

But Jokic's situation is still more special, he was the fourth center when he was with the Rockets, behind Da Yao, Whiteside and Gobert, and the regular season was slightly better, and he almost completely missed the opportunity to play in the playoffs.

In last season's Western Conference Finals and Finals, Jokic never played at all, so the so-called division finals experience did not exist at all.

In other words, Wang Chao led a team with no experience in the division finals against the Cavaliers.

Although the Cavaliers also have younger players on the lineup, such as the two champions, Irving and Embiid, but last year, under the leadership of James, they played in the Eastern Conference finals and also played in the Finals.

Although the Cavaliers were unilaterally blown up by the Rockets in the Finals last year, they have participated in it in person and have valuable experience, so it is naturally completely different.

Moreover, in addition to James, who is experienced in the playoffs and even the Finals, the Cavaliers' starting lineup also has a Paul. Gasol's presence.

The 36-year-old Gasol, who has gradually begun to take a back seat in the Cavaliers, although he is still a starter, his average playing time per game has gradually decreased to less than 30 minutes, but the reason for the characteristics of his playing style allows him to still maintain an efficient performance on the court, even if he partners with Embiid to combine the inside, he can still contribute an average of 14+8 data per game this season, and can become the mainstay of the Cavaliers in many key games.

It's also the Cavaliers' toughest problem.

In this kind of pivotal battle, the Cavaliers have a much higher margin for error than the Nets.

Wang Chao knows this very well, and also understands that the current shortcomings of the Nets need time and experience to make up, so he will say that he will lead the team to win the championship in two to three years, this is his first season to the Nets, and he can reach the Eastern Conference Finals or even the Finals, even if the task is completed.

The first game begins.

The starting line-ups for both teams are exactly the same as they were during the regular season, and even the course of the game is very similar.

The Nets followed the defensive strategy against the Cavaliers in the last two games, with Wang Chao going to defend Irving to limit his play and strategically putting James offensively.

On the Cavaliers' side, it focused on Wang Chao, and less than 3 minutes into the game, Pau Gasol was replaced and replaced by Tristan, the king of the eight sages. Thompson.

Even the 36-year-old Gasol is not comparable to Thompson at his peak, who does not have the ability to attack independently, but Thompson has an advantage, that is, he has excellent mobility on the defensive end, which allows him to form a linkage with James and carry out a two-man package tactic against Wang Chao.

Even if he has the talent of being outnumbered, Wang Chao will still struggle in the face of the front and back attacks of two big men weighing more than 110 kilograms.

With both sides in a targeted setting, both teams were limited to a low score in the first quarter, with only 25:24 points in a single quarter.

However, in this quarter of the game, James and Thompson also paid a certain price for the inclusion of Wang Chao.

The effect of outnumbering talent is to improve the ability to break through the trap alone when encountering two or more opponents, and there is a certain chance of causing the defender to foul.

In the face of two big men and strongmen locking men, even if the ability to break through the bag is improved, it is difficult for Wang Chao to break through the encirclement, but correspondingly, in order to prevent Wang Chao from forcibly breaking through the bag, James and Thompson, especially the latter, have to use some relatively large actions, which triggers the buff that causes the probability of defensive fouls on the packer.

As a result, Thompson was fouled three times in the first quarter, and even James was whistled for a foul.

In the second quarter of the game, with the increase in the number of fouls, the Cavaliers broke Wang Chao's bag, and the Nets began to gradually grasp the initiative on the court, Wang Chao also seized the opportunity, hit two three-pointers outside the three-point line, and broke through the offensive frame with the ball to cause the opponent's defensive foul to score 8 points in a row, leading the team to play a wave of 12:2 attack wave, directly pulling the difference apart.

Relying on the score advantage established in the second quarter, the Nets defeated the Cavaliers in one fell swoop to win the first victory in the Eastern Conference finals.

This game is a victory in the game of strategy and strategy between the two teams.

The Nets continued to use the defensive strategy against the Cavaliers in the last two games of the regular season, limiting Irving's offensive efficiency, and even if James could score high points, there was still no way to help the team win, after all, the Cavaliers' interior Embiid and Gasol's scoring explosiveness was limited.

The first win boosted the morale of the Nets, and just as the team was ready to crush the Cavaliers in one go, the opponent gave the Nets a heavy blow in the G2 game on May 19.

At 108:102, the Nets lost to the Cavaliers at home.

If the last game was a tactical and strategic victory for the Nets, then this game is obviously the Cavaliers' superior chess game.

After the G1 first game of Wang Chao with little effect, the Cavaliers chose to change their defensive strategy in the second game, no longer limited to restricting Wang Chao, but following the Nets' defensive strategy against the Cavaliers, strictly guarding other players, and then arranging Thompson to defend Wang Chao alone throughout the whole process, and the main defense shot did not break through, forcing Wang Chao to hold the ball and attack the frame like James to consume physical energy.

The move was so effective that the rest of the Nets shot from the field from the field to the nosedest under the surging defensive intensity.

Originally, in the Eastern Conference finals, players such as Booker and Bogdanovic often made some irrational offensive choices because of their lack of experience, and it was even more difficult to deal with under the Cavaliers' targeted pressing defense.

Not to mention them, it's the Nets' second-leading scorer, Brooke. Lopez also had a pretty poor performance in G2, scoring just 11 points on 5-of-14 shooting.

The Nets' shortcomings in game experience and the lack of ability to deal with other players in the face of high-pressure defense were laid bare in this game.

On the other hand, on the Cavaliers' side, after Owen was comprehensively suppressed by Wang Chao in the first game, he quickly adjusted in the second game, and even Wang Chao had to admit that a well-known nerve knife in the league like Owen could not prevent it once the wind was pumped, including Wang Chao.

Before the East-West finals began, the league had already announced the league's ultimate prize.

There is no surprise that Wang Chao won the Best Defensive Player Award for the third consecutive year, becoming recognized as the strongest defender in the NBA in recent years.

But in this game, he failed to defend against Irving, who was like a god in the case of bursting hands, except for the shot that was directly blocked by Wang Chao, basically how to shoot.

In the final analysis, Wang Chao's defense is mainly strong in the speed of assisting defense with the combination of the league's top static talent and dynamic talent, and in terms of single defense, Wang Chao's defensive awareness, internal and external defensive ability value is 95 on average, which is quite high, but after all, it has not reached the full value of 99, and even if these players have all 99 full value of defensive ability, there is no way to completely limit a top scorer in the league.

The prime example is Gary, a top defender on the perimeter, who has been named to the All-Defensive Team nine times and also has the Defensive Player of the Year award. Payton, his outside defensive ability value of 98, defensive awareness of 99, and steal ability value of 99, belong to the ceiling level of outside defensive players, but in the 95-96 season finals, Payton's SuperSonics met Jordan Bulls, Payton defended Jordan throughout the 6 games, and Jordan averaged 27.3 points per game, leading the Bulls to defeat the SuperSonics 4:2 to win the championship.

Payton certainly disrupted Jordan, and his 27.3 points and 41.5 percent shooting percentage in the Finals were Jordan's worst of six Finals performances, but they weren't enough.

Wang Chao's strength in outside defense is theoretically better than Gary. Payton is slightly stronger, although he is inferior to Payton in terms of ability values, defensive experience, and energy investment, but Wang Chao is open after all.

Among the defensive talents, Wang Chao has the talent of shadowing that is not easy to lose his position in defense, a fighting maniac who has the ability to enhance the confrontation when defending, and the move that every defensive player dreams of - the lion roar skill that defense relies on.

The existence of these talents allows Wang Chao to show the oppression and aggression of top defenders even though his defensive ability value does not reach the full value of 99.

As for Irving, even when he has a burst of hands, his offensive ability will not be stronger than Jordan's.

But Irving doesn't need to compare with Jordan at all, he is not the first core of the Cavaliers itself, under Wang Chao's defense, Irving only needs to contribute more than 15+ points to make a loss, after all, in order to defend him, Wang Chao also needs to consume a lot of energy, and even has to give up some opportunities to help teammates help defend and improve the overall defensive ability of the whole team.

In fact, in the G2 game, the explosive Irving shot 7 of 16 from the field under Wang Chao's defense, and scored 18 points with a 43.7% shooting rate.

Don't underestimate these 18 points, looking at the Nets and Cavaliers, in addition to Wang Chao and James, Irving's 18 points is the highest score of the two teams!

In the face of the failure of this game, Wang Chao was also quite helpless, there was no way, who let his own team Devin. Isn't Booker the super scorer who will score like chopping melons and vegetables in the future?

Losing a home game, the score came to 1:1, and the situation was already a little bad for the Nets, because the next two games will go to the home court of the Cavaliers, and with the home bonus, the Cavaliers' hand may be even more terrifying.

The result really made Wang Chao guess right.

On May 21, the Nets lost to the Cavaliers in the away G3 game, losing another game 99:105 and falling behind 1:2.

In this game, the Nets did not lose to Irving, and in the G2 game, if Irving, who can throw all kinds of fairy balls into the gods, this game was revealed, and Wang Chao was once again pressed to death, and only 9 points were scored in the whole game.

But in this game, the Cavaliers' inside twin towers were powerful, to be exact, the referees began to exert their strength.

At the beginning of the game, James frequently attacked the frame with the ball to create damage, and the Nets' interior Lopez and Jokic both received 2 fouls in the first quarter, and the interior line was in a hurry.

When Lopez received his third foul in the second quarter, Wang Chao had to replace him to support him inside, but this also did not cure the symptoms.

As a result, Embiid scored 25 points and 11 rebounds throughout the game, and Gasol also scored 21 points and 8 rebounds, and the Cavaliers' interior twin towers blew up the Nets' interior and won the game.

The worst thing about this game is not the referee's biased whistle, which is not the same as last year's finals, when the referees were biased towards the Cavaliers' blowing penalties, the referee's overall blowing penalty in this game is not large, but it is only slightly beneficial to the Cavaliers in some of the more critical blowing penalties, which can be explained by the home whistle.

But here's the problem, when the Cavaliers have the home whistle, the Nets just can't compete with the other side, and the interior Lopez and Jokic's twin-tower combination experience is still too little, and it is easy to be driven by the opponent in the game, and make irrational defensive moves that lead to being seized to blow fouls.

To put it bluntly, it is still the Nets' lack of strength that leads to a low margin for error, and any off-court factor will lead to the loss of the game.

The loss of this game is not the most deadly, because two days later, in the G4 game of the Eastern Conference finals, the Nets lost to the Cavaliers again, losing the game 117:112, and the total score became 1:3.

Such a result finally made Cavaliers fans breathe a sigh of relief.

Nets ...... No, to be exact, Wang Chao's sense of oppression to them is too strong, even when they were leading 2:1 before, from the team to the fans did not dare to relax in the slightest, after all, Wang Chao has never missed the finals in the past ten years, and has won the championship 7 times The first person in the history of the league, even if they have James, have the most luxurious three-champion combination in the league, and are still in the lead to sit on the home advantage, they can't slack off.

This is indeed the case.

In the first two games, Wang Chao focused more on the defensive end to contribute, but failed to lead the team to win the game, in the G4 game, he changed his strategy, since the defense can't win the game, then simply give up the defense and let go of the game!

In the fourth game, Wang Chao was full of firepower, scoring 16 points in the first quarter of the game, 15 points in the second quarter, and 31 points in the half, and then in the third quarter of the game, when the Nets were behind, Wang Chao scored an explosion, scored 5 three-pointers in a single quarter, slashed 22 points, and forced the score difference to within single digits.

By this time in the game, the Cavaliers' home fans were sweating down.

Wang Chao was also too fierce, scoring 53 points in the third quarter of the game, which can be called the strongest performance in the divisional finals in history.

Wang Chao, who played the first three quarters of the game, continued to play full-time in the fourth quarter of the game, but at this time, the Cavaliers were really scared by Wang Chao, not only directly sent a full-court double bag against Wang Chao, but also continued to arrange other players to make up for the defense after Wang Chao broke through the bag, even if many players from the air defense Nets team did not hesitate.

In the fourth quarter of the game, under a large number of packs and encirclements, the number of shots decreased sharply, although the number of free throws has also increased, but it is still a little worse to chase points only by free throws.

As for the rest of the Nets' players who have been given open spots as a result, few have been able to take advantage of their chances.

In the fourth quarter of the game, Wang Chao scored 14 points with free throws and scored 67 points in the game, but the Nets still lost the game by 5 points, turning the situation into a desperate situation of 1:3.

This is a typical game where the Nets lost, Wang Chao did not lose, played 48 minutes in the whole game, and scored 67 points, 15 rebounds and 6 assists.

You must know that so far, there are only three players who can score 60+ points in a single game in the playoffs, namely Jordan's 63 points, Elgin. Baylor's 61 points, and then Wang Chao, and Wang Chao is not the first time to score 60+ points in a single game in the playoffs, as early as a few seasons ago, he scored 60+ points in the playoffs, the situation at that time was the same as the current Nets, the team's core player Da Yao was injured, Leonard, Butler and other players are still first-year rookies too immature, Wang Chao, who has no helper, single-handedly fought against the Heat Big Three.

Time has passed, but I didn't expect that Wang Chao, who has now moved to the Nets, is facing the same situation again, and the opponent is still James, but the original Big Three combination has become the current Cavaliers with three champions plus a number of high-quality role players, and the lineup has been further upgraded and optimized compared to when the Heat had no other combat power except for the Big Three.

With a score of 3:1, the Nets were basically able to pronounce the death penalty in advance.

It's not like the league hasn't had teams that have come back from 3-1 down, but it's too difficult for the Nets.

"It's a pity that even if Wang Chao has a teammate who can help him, the result of this series may be different, the gap between the lineups of the two teams is too big, and it has reached the point where Wang Chao has no way to turn things around with his personal ability."

"It turns out that Wang Chao is still overconfident and arrogant, he thinks that after leaving the Rockets and leaving that excellent team, he can still dominate the league, but obviously this is not the case, in this era of stars, it is difficult for individual heroism to make a difference, even if Wang Chao can survive and defeat the Cavaliers in a reversal game, they will still face the Golden State Warriors with four best teams in the finals, and I don't know if his original promise to win the championship for the Nets in two to three years can be realized."

In the eyes of the vast majority of people, the current Nets team has not been so good in the next two years.

After all, Devon. Booker and Jokic have performed well this season, but from the performance and progress of one season, it is absolutely impossible to see that one of these two will become two-time regular season MVPs and has a high probability of winning the 23-year NBA championship and FMVP, and the other is a super scorer who can contribute 33.7 points per game and shoot 58% in the playoffs.

After all, a time-traveler like Wang Chao who has traveled from the future and has the ability to foresee is still unique.

The same is true of the Bucks' death-long alphabet brother, and no one knows at most two seasons before the little-known guy will become one of the league's top players, winning two consecutive regular season MVPs with exaggerated static talent and physicality.

Although no one in the league is optimistic that the Nets can win the series, the Nets, under the leadership of Wang Chao, still show an extremely tenacious will to fight.

In the fifth game of the series on May 25, with a score of 1:3 behind, the Nets broke out with strong offensive ability in a desperate situation, and the team's outside firepower fully recovered, throwing 21 three-pointers in the whole game, tearing the Cavaliers' defense to pieces, 116:98, 18 points defeated the opponent, chasing the score to 2:3.

Two days later, in Game 6 of the series on May 27, in Cleveland, the Cavaliers' home fans were on the verge of three quarters of the game, and the Nets kept the Cavaliers in check, leading for three quarters and even leading at the start of the fourth quarter.

But in the fourth quarter of the game, a small accident occurred.

While defending James with the ball, Brooke. López jumped unsteadily and accidentally sprained his ankle and went straight back to the locker room.

Although it seems that the extent of his sprain is not serious, and he also has a strong intention to play with an injury, he was vetoed by Wang Chao.

No one knows better than Wang Chao the hidden dangers of playing with injuries for players.

During the 18-19 season, Durant and Thompson were deeply affected, and the injury was not particularly serious, but in order to win, he chose to play with an injury, which led to a more serious injury and even a huge injury that would affect his career.

The Nets have been able to fight so far, and the physical load of the team players is actually quite large, after all, not everyone has a pair of steel and iron bones like Wang Chao.

This season, the Nets have 67 wins in the regular season, and players are fighting for it in almost every game, and no one has been resting in the regular season, especially in the playoffs.

Players like Booker and Lopez don't have iron man attributes on their own, and they will miss games due to various minor injuries and illnesses every season in their careers.

Especially Brooke. Lopes himself is a player with a history of serious injuries, having played just five games in '11-12 due to injury problems, before playing 17 games in '13-14 and then missing out for a broken right toe for the season.

Even if Wang Chao knows that in the next few years until the 21-22 season, Lopes should not have serious injuries and his attendance is still guaranteed, but the premise is that he plays less than 30 minutes per game and is not the main offensive core of the team.

With this in mind, Wang Chao is still cautious about the use of Lopez, after all, even if Booker and Jokic grow further next season, Lopez will still be a vital part of the Nets' championship plan.

Besides, if you take 10,000 steps back, even if Lopez is forced to win the game with an injury in this game, the Nets will need to have a tie-break with the Cavaliers in the future, and there will be a finals to play after defeating the Cavaliers.

Wang Chao himself is not a person who will not admit defeat, and he has already set a plan to win the championship for the Nets in two to three years, and the first year itself is a construction period, so this result is completely acceptable.

——

Brooke. Lopes was substituted, which made the Nets lose a big reinforcement in an instant, and the mentality of the young players also changed, even if Wang Chao always controlled the ball and controlled the rhythm of the court in the subsequent games, the team still had some problems, mainly on the defensive end.

After a long regular season season, Lopez's defensive ability has improved greatly under hard work, and his defensive ability in the box has improved significantly, even if it is not enough to qualify for the All-Defensive Team, but his defensive ability alone is enough to cause a lot of interference to opponents' frame-attacking players.

The Nets' defense line without Lopez on the inside line was suddenly in a hurry, and Wang Chao's defensive ability was lacking even if he was strong, and he couldn't take care of all positions.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Cavaliers set off a wave of counterattacks under the leadership of James and successfully overtook the score.

Although Wang Chao took over the game at the last moment and scored consecutive points to tie the difference, due to the collapse of the Nets' defensive system, there was no way to defend the Cavaliers' offense, and finally lost to the loss.

103:99。

When the whistle blew at the end of the game, the Cavaliers' home fans finally breathed a sigh of relief and cheered wildly.

Although the turning point of this game was the Nets' interior core player Brooke. Lopez sprained and left the court, somewhat defeated, but they finally defeated Wang Chao and successfully advanced to the finals, even if they will face a more terrifying opponent in the finals, the Golden State Warriors, but at least Wang Chao, a terrifying guy, will not appear again on the finals stage.

In the past decade, Wang Chao's presence in the finals has almost become a nightmare for most teams.

Now that this nightmare is finally gone, even if it is only a brief departure, it is enough to make many people breathe a sigh of relief.

The news that the Cavaliers beat the Nets 4-2 to enter the Finals made headlines on the front page of the day and was heavily reported, after all, Wang Chao has never missed the Finals in the past decade.

It's just that even if he stops in the Eastern Conference Finals, no one can say a NO word about Wang Chao's performance this season.

This is the Nets, not the Rockets.

When Wang Chao joined the Rockets, the Rockets at least had a top interior big Yao, Brooke. Lopez is far from being able to compare with Da Yao in terms of strength and popularity, and the other Nets players are a group of unknown people.

DeLong on the bench. Williams and Joe. Johnson was a former star player, but the two have been in such a rapid decline that last season, one averaging 14 points per game and the other 13 points per game, both of which were considered worthless garbage contracts.

In fact, this season, the two are more often on the bench, even if there are occasional highlights, but the overall strength performance is completely in line with the veterans.

Wang Chao leads a team that doesn't have any All-Star team other than him, with 67 wins in the regular season and all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals in the playoffs. Did the single-core lead the team to win the championship?

There has never been a team in the history of the NBA that has won a championship in the true sense of the word, even the Dallas Mavericks in the original 10-11 season, which was the third-highest salary team in the league at that time, in addition to Nowitzki and Jason. Terry, Tyson. Chandler, Sean. Marion, Jason. Kidd and other players.

Therefore, Wang Chao's achievements in leading the Nets this season have been successful enough, and in the eyes of many people, this summer, as long as the Nets can retain the existing lineup and try to bring in an All-Star player with a certain strength, they will definitely become the biggest favorite in the league to win the championship!

(End of chapter)