The Suns have the lowest record in the league this season, which is not worth mentioning at all, and in the original time and space, they have Devin . In Booker's case, the Suns still ranked first in the league with a 21-61 record, and successfully won the top pick, selecting the 18-year champion Xiu DeAndre. Ayton, and thus missed out on 18 doubles, Luca. Doncic and Trey. Poplar.

Of course, that's another story.

For Wang Chao, the 41 points in the first three quarters of early January were just a warm-up.

It's true that playing these weak teams can't get him excited enough, but the next opponent will be different.

On January 5, the Nuggets hosted the San Antonio Spurs, and then on January 6, they will travel to the Golden State Warriors to challenge the Golden State Warriors.

The Nuggets have played the Warriors once before, but this is the first time they have played the Spurs this season.

The two current cores of the Spurs, Butler and Howard, were once teammates of Wang Chao, and won three consecutive championships with Wang Chao.

I have to say that Popovich did save Howard's career, he should have suffered Waterloo with the Lakers, and then turned to the Rockets, Hornets, and Hawks, and gradually reduced Howard from the league's No. 1 center to an insignificant blue-collar player, and now he is still recognized as one of the top centers in the league by the Spurs, although he is no longer the super dominant defensive end during the Magic team, but under the Spurs' system, it can play a weakened version of Duncan's effect, especially the defensive ability of the restricted area, It can still be at the first line of defense in the league.

It's just that compared with a tall center like Gobert, who is tall and has long arms and excellent frame protection efficiency, Howard, who lacks his mobility and explosiveness in the past, is slightly inferior.

In fact, even without the tactical system of Popovich and the Spurs, after Howard joined the Hornets in the 17-18 season, he played in 81 regular season games, averaging 16.6 points, 12.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, which is the second scoring point in the Hornets after Kemba Walker, and the rebounding list is also ranked third in the league, behind Drummond and Jordan Jr., the two rising rebounding monsters.

It can be seen that Howard is by no means really so unbearable, but whether it is in the Lakers or the Rockets, he has not played in a tactical system that suits him, and the advent of the small-ball era has also doomed Howard, a traditional center, to be eliminated.

Even with Popovich's help, Howard's ceiling is limited to that.

So far this season, Howard has averaged 17.4 points, 13.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game, which is barely in the third to fifth place at the center position.

Not to mention, Embiid of the Cavaliers has become the second scoring point of the Cavaliers this season with the departure of Irving, and currently averages 23.8 points, 11 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.1 blocks per game, and has become one of the most luxurious players in the league's center.

In addition, there are players such as Cousins of the Warriors and Jokic of the Nets.

However, the tactical status of these two people on the team is not as high as Embiid, but they can be compared to Howard.

First of all, Cousins, who has been the team's second offensive core for many years with the Warriors and a mainstay of the Warriors' interior attack, but the Warriors' failures in the playoffs in the past few years have made head coach Kerr start to think about whether this kind of inside and outside play is the right one?

In the new season, the Warriors' tactical proportion began to be slightly adjusted, giving Cousins a significant reduction in the number of interior offenses, replaced by an increase in the playing time of the Death Five, although Cousins has now developed a three-point shooting ability, this season's three-point shooting rate can be maintained at about 36%, and he can hit 2.2 shots on 6 three-point shots per game, which is already quite good as a center player.

But even so, Cousins' stats still slipped to about 20.1 points and 10.4 rebounds, just barely scoring more than 20+, and the score was lower than Klay. Thompson's 22.7 points.

And Jokic of the Nets, after two seasons of tuning by Wang Chao, should also soar this season and become the top center in the league, in fact, his strength is completely enough, but the Nets team limits his play.

No way, the peak Jokic's style of play definitely requires a certain amount of ball possession.

But obviously on the Nets, there aren't many opportunities to give Jokic the ball, because the Nets' outside lineup is just too luxurious right now.

Point guard Chris. Paul is a ball-handling core in his own right and needs to be on the ball for a long time to be effective, and both Durant and Booker need a lot of shots, although they can both play off-ball offense.

Coming full circle, Jokic was just the Nets' fourth offensive option.

But even so, Jokic still showed his ability in the game, and his average of 18.1 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game so far in the regular season is also one of the best centers in the league.

The Nets currently score from high to low, with Durant averaging 28.4 points per game, Booker with 20.8 points, Paul with 18.8 points, and Jokic with 18.1 points.

The four main players alone can contribute an average of 86.1 points per game, which shows the Nets' strong firepower on the offensive end.

Halfway through the regular season, the Nets are averaging 115.2 points per game, ranking first in the league and nearly 2 points higher than the league's second-place Warriors!

Incidentally, the Nuggets currently rank ninth in the league in points per game, averaging 108.2 points per game.

Ranked ninth out of 30 teams in the league, it can only be considered above average, not particularly high.

But the entire league knows that the Nuggets are not strong offensively, but both offensively and defensively.

Although the Nuggets are not among the top in the league in points per game, their defense is strong enough!

Among the 30 teams in the league, the Nuggets have conceded just 99.8 points per game, ranking second in the league, behind the San Antonio Spurs, who have conceded 99.2 points per game, and are the only two teams in the league to have conceded fewer than 100 points per game so far.

While the Spurs concede 99.2 points per game, they only average 102.7 points per game, which is the bottom of the league, while the Nuggets can rank ninth in the league in points per game, and the difference is obvious.

Both teams are the best defensive teams in the league right now, but the Nuggets are good both offensively and defensively, while the Spurs are mainly built around defense.

The two strongest shields in the league are finally going to collide in the regular season.

In terms of defensive system, the Spurs and the Nuggets are really similar this season, both have a mainstay center on the inside, and at the same time, there are also forward players with good mobility on the outside and excellent single defense and defense ability.

The difference between the two teams lies in the offensive tactics, the Nuggets rely on Wang Chao's super personal ability, which is completely to drive the offense of the whole team by themselves, in addition, there are only simple tactics such as Mitchell, Rose and others with the ball and blocking and pick-and-roll, which are simple and rough.

On the Spurs' side, there are relatively little more offensive tactics, in addition to Butler's singles, there are Howard, Parker, Ginobili and even Danny. The tactics of Green and others.

It's just that Duncan, the GDP combination that once dominated the alliance, has retired, and Parker and Ginobili are also dying, and they are no longer in the past.

Ginobili's average of 9.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game this season has been the best season in recent years, and combined with the 40-year-old Demon Knife, it is rare to have such a performance on the bench.

Parker, who is just 36 years old, has performed like a high platform this season, averaging only 7 points and 3 assists per game, and has even fallen out of the team's starting list and began to appear more on the bench.

This is actually not surprising, although Parker is much younger than Ginobili, but his style of play relies heavily on speed to break through the frame, and the increase in age makes his speed and explosiveness no longer good, and he lacks long-range shooting ability, which is definitely not good.

In addition to Butler and Howard, the Spurs' main scoring point this season is the free agent Rudy, who signed in the free agency for 2 years and 17 million in the summer. Guy.

Rudy. Guy is 2.03 meters tall, plays as a small forward, has a strong physical fitness, and has averaged 20+ points per game for many seasons at his peak, while relying on his explosive physical fitness, he also has a good performance on the defensive end.

Despite never being named to the All-Star or All-Star team throughout his career, Guy is often considered an All-Star by the league.

Born in 1986, Guy is only 32 years old now, and he still maintains a good competitive state, averaging 19 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists per game for the Kings last season, shooting 45% from the field and 37% from three-point range.

The Spurs signed Gay in order to form a Spurs outside combination with Butler and help the team on both offensive and defensive ends.

Gay didn't disappoint the Spurs, averaging 15.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game so far in the regular season, making him the third leading scorer on the team under Butler and Howard.

Butler, Howard and Gay also formed the basic plate of the Spurs in the new season, so that the Spurs can still maintain enough dominance in the strong West, and the record is firmly in third place in the West, second only to the Nuggets and Warriors, and the difference in wins is not particularly large, making this matchup more interesting.

——

The game started with the starters of both teams coming on.

The Nuggets started five, Mitchell, Murray, Tucker, Wang Chao and Gobert.

The Spurs started with five Tigers, Patrick. Mills, Danny. Green, Jimmy. Butler, Rudy. Guy and Howard.

Gobert and Howard jumped the ball, facing Howard, who no longer had much jumping ability, Gobert easily won the jump ball by virtue of his height and reach.

Nuggets possession.

After Mitchell quickly dribbled past half court, he immediately passed the ball to Wang Chao.

Wang Chao held the ball at the top of the arc, and it was not Butler standing in front of him, but Rudy. Guy.

He glanced lightly at the situation on the field, and it was immediately clear to him.

Although the main defense is not the strongest point of the Spurs' defense, Gay's defense is not given for nothing, and Wang Chao can clearly perceive that Butler's defensive position is very close to his side, and at the same time, Howard on the inside line has always been staring at himself, and it is estimated that as long as he makes a slight move, the Spurs will immediately form a circle around him.

This defensive strategy against Wang Chao is already standard in the league, but the Spurs obviously did it more naturally, thanks to the team's overall defensive tactics and coaches.

Popovich certainly deserves the title of the top coach in league history.

In the past, even last month, in the face of such a defense, Wang Chao will choose to attract the opponent to pass the ball to his teammates to score, in the case of multiple organizational assist talents, Wang Chao's direct assist efficiency is extremely high, not inferior to Paul's top guard, several seasons per game average double-double assists and crowned league assist king is the best example.

However, it is not very good recently, because Wang Chao has just prepared to have a battle with Harden, and he has just "declared war" in the last game, even if the defensive pressure he faces in this game is greater, he does not plan to back down.

In the face of Guy's defense, Wang Chao did not call his teammates to block and cover, but made a gesture to pull away from the singles.

As his teammates all pulled away, Wang Chao held the ball and lowered his center of gravity and dribbled under his hips continuously.

Guy was engrossed in staring at the basketball in Wang Chao's hand, for him, if he could limit Wang Chao, the first person in the history of the league, in the game, his status would inevitably rise, which was still very important to him.

In this era of skyrocketing salary space and everyone can sign a big contract, Guy signed a contract with the Spurs for only 2 years and 17 million, an average of less than 9 million per year, which is definitely a cheap contract for a forward who can contribute 20+5 per game during the regular season.

It only takes a little comparison to know.

Tucker, who is one year older than Gay, averaged only 6.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last season, but the average annual salary of the four-year contract signed with the Nuggets was 8 million.

Guy is a 20+5 level player and Tucker is a price point, which is somewhat unreasonable, and of course he will feel resentful.

Therefore, Guy and the Spurs only signed a two-year contract, and there is also this layer of consideration, he hopes to play well in the two years with the Spurs, so that his value can rise, so that in the contract year, he can earn himself a big contract at the end of his career.

In that regard, Guy is very motivated to defend Wang Chao, and what better thing in the league to increase his value than to perform well against Wang Chao?

Just like the so-called Kobe Bryant Terminator back then, and then all the players who have a good performance in defending James, these defensive players who can make the league's current first player deflated through defense can get a relatively decent contract with their own efforts.

Wang Chao's status in the league now far exceeds that of Kobe Bryant and James, and he can naturally win more eyeballs with him.

It's just that the idea is beautiful, but it's not realistic.

Because Wang Chao is not a player who can be limited by single defense, let alone single defense, even if it is a double bag, the two top defensive players who are not particularly experienced join forces cannot stop Wang Chao's ferocious offensive.

In the face of Guy's defense, Wang Chao, who continued to dribble under his crotch, made a slight move, and the next moment he accelerated violently to break through, and passed Guy in just one step.

"So fast!"

Guy was shocked!

Although he is a forward player, he really doesn't have many opportunities to directly match Wang Chao, because Wang Chao's position swings too often, small forward, big forward, and point guard change back and forth.

Although he watched a lot of videos of Wang Chao's games and went through a lot of research and analysis, he really realized the horror of Wang Chao's strength after facing him head-on! (End of chapter)