October 17, 2018.

The NBA regular season opener, the Los Angeles Clippers ushered in the first game of the new season at their home court, and it is a coincidence that the first opponent of the new season of the new season of the Clippers with a new lineup is Wang Chao's old club, the Denver Nuggets.

This summer, the Nuggets, who lost Wang Chao, did not give up on themselves, but actively traded for reinforcements in the free market.

The Nuggets built by Wang Chao are not bad, Gobert and Tucker ensure the team's defense, Mitchell and Murray can be responsible for the team's offense, the only problem is that after Wang Chao leaves, the team does not have a superstar who can make a decisive decision at a critical moment.

The Nuggets have been working on this all summer in hopes of getting a top-10 superstar in the league.

Unfortunately, it backfired, and this summer the free market was full of big names, but few were considering the Nuggets.

The reason is also very simple, if any star wants to join the Nuggets, it will inevitably be compared with Wang Chao last season, if their performance is poor, and even the Nuggets team has a poor record in the new season, all kinds of criticism will follow, after all, with Wang Chao in front of him, the pressure is really too great.

Who can be confident that after taking over the Nuggets, they will be able to lead this team to win the championship immediately?

As a result, the Nuggets got nothing on the free market and even had to sign some high-paid and low-performing players to avoid poor people's tax penalties due to the team's low salaries.

Because of this, Rose, one of the champions, received a good contract, 34 million for three years, which is quite generous for a veteran who has entered the end of his career.

Because of the failure of recruitment, the Nuggets have withdrawn from the ranks of the league's powerhouses in the eyes of many people, and the Nuggets are only ranked 19th in the league in ESPN's power rankings, in the middle and lower reaches of the league.

It's not surprising that even though the Nuggets won the championship last season, it is an indisputable fact that there is only one star player on the team, Wang Chao, and although Gobert later won the best defensive player, it was not enough to put the Nuggets into the ranks of the strong teams.

Of course, this is just the perspective of ordinary people who have not opened their eyes.

In Wang Chao's opinion, even without him, the Nuggets are still very strong.

You can see it from the lineup.

After Wang Chao left, the Nuggets' lineup became starting point guard Mitchell, starting point guard Murray, starting small forward Kuzma, big forward PJ Tucker, center Gobert, and Rose on the bench who can still contribute an average of 18+5 per game in the new season.

The quality and strength of this lineup can be described as only strong and not weak compared to the Utah Jazz in the 18-19 season, and it is definitely a strong team in the West.

One thing to say, it is not a good thing for the Clippers, who are ready to play the main magic ball tactics in the new season, to meet the top Nuggets in the league in defensive ability as soon as they come up, and at this stage when the team's lineup and tactics still need to be run-in, it is a better choice to play against some weaker teams to build confidence.

It's a pity that the opponent in the regular season is not what Wang Chao said, and the league has arranged such a schedule, so he can only go all out seriously.

Since the rise of Wang Chao, his team has not lost in the opening game of the regular season, and he does not want this time to be an exception.

——

On the night of the game, the Staples Center in Los Angeles was packed, most of them were Clippers fans, and a small number of Lakers fans came to watch the game with the idea of finding out the opponent's reality.

I have to admit that the atmosphere at Staples' home stadium is really good, and it deserves to be the city of angels, the capital of culture and entertainment.

Before the game began, the arena was filled with all kinds of cheers and applause.

The director also understands it, and the camera stays on a blonde dressed in a flowery seat at the front of the stadium many times.

As long as you know a little bit about Wang Chao's fans, you can recognize that this blonde beauty is one of Wang Chao's confidants, the former Victoria's Secret supermodel, Candace. Swanepour.

Today, Candace is no longer a supermodel, running a fashion brand on her own, and with the support of billionaire Wang Chao, she has a high status in Los Angeles fashion and entertainment circles.

Seeing the camera focused on herself, Candace did not have the slightest stage fright, as a former Victoria's Secret supermodel, she had a full sense of stage, she smiled and waved at the camera, showing her charm with a smile, which made countless men can't help but envy and hate Wang Chao.

Wang Chao is really a winner in life, not only is he handsome and golden, but even the women around him are the top in the world, and there are two at once, which is too much livestock!

Then in the envious, jealous and hateful eyes and applause of a group of men, Wang Chao, as the strongest star of the Clippers, appeared in the finale, attracting thunderous applause from the audience.

Clippers fans are finally waiting for the hero in their hearts after Paul and Griffin left the team one after another!

After a short warm-up, the race is about to begin.

The Clippers started five Tigers: Wang Chao, Brogdon, Harris, Gallinari, Lopez.

The Nuggets started five Tigers: Mitchell, Murray, Kuzma, Tucker, Gobert.

Lopes jumps the ball with Gobert in the midfield.

Gobert, who had the advantage in height, reach, bounce and bursting, had no suspense to win the jump ball as the Nuggets attacked.

Mitchell dribbled past half the court, looking at Wang Chao who was standing in front of him with a calm expression, and his heart was a little panicked for no reason.

In the past season, he has been playing next to Wang Chao, so he knows Wang Chao's horror very well, even if he has absolute confidence in his speed and explosiveness, Mitchell does not dare to attack in front of Wang Chao at all.

This is an almost bloodline level of suppression.

Without even thinking about it, Mitchell passed the ball directly to Murray, who was not far away.

Compared to Wang Chao in front of him, Murray's opponent looks much easier to deal with.

Brogdon, a bench player for the Clippers last season, had an average of only about 8+3 per game, and his height and weight were not much different from Murray.

The Nuggets' tactics for the new season have been formulated, because they have not been able to bring in strong players, Mitchell and Murray are the team's two main attackers in the new season.

Speaking of which, Murray and Brogdon are both rookies in 2016, but one is the seventh pick in the first-round lotto and the other is the second-rounder, and the treatment is very different.

Murray became the team's starting star early, but Brogdon played as a substitute for many years, and was only promoted to the starting position this season, and even the best rookie that was originally his own was snatched away by Murray.

In fact, it seems that Brogdon is actually a little cheated by Wang Chao.

Originally, after he was selected by the Bucks with the sixth pick in the second round, he was quickly promoted to the starting position in his rookie season, and won the best rookie in the 16-17 season with an average of 10.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.

In the second season of his career, in the 17-18 season, Brogdon has become one of the important main players on the Bucks.

But after being selected by Wang Chao, Brogdon, who was supposed to be the starting point guard for the Bucks, became a backup player for the Nets, and was used as a trade chip to switch to the Clippers.

Originally, Brogdon was about to despair, he felt that after his rookie contract expired, it would be difficult to get a high-quality offer contract in the league, where could he have imagined that if it wasn't for Wang Chao, he would be able to get a super big contract with a 4-year 85 million and an average annual salary of more than 21 million next year?

The reason why Wang Chao arranged Brogdon to be the team's starting point guard is because his 42.6% three-point shooting rate this season is quite good, and with Harris and Gallinari, who also have a shooting rate of more than 42% or even 43%, the magic ball tactics are simply incomprehensible.

On the other hand, there is no idea of giving Brogdon some compensation.

As long as Brogdon can show good strength and potential in the starting quarterback position this season, even if he can't get a big contract of 4 years and 85 million as he originally did, at least there is a contract with a starting 10 million starting contract waiting for him.

Such a rare opportunity is really important for Brogdon, so not only on the offensive end, but also in the face of Murray at this moment, Brogdon defense is also going all out, trying to show his best performance on the court.

Murray immediately felt the pressure, although not as much pressure as Mitchell who faced Wang Chao, but Brogdon's defense was definitely not bad, as a shooter, Brogdon played the role of a 3-and-D player during his time with the Bucks, although he was never selected to the All-Defensive Team, but he was often ranked as a 3D player in the league by the media.

Murray used a teammate's pick-and-roll to get around the defense and shoot a mid-range jumper, and Brogdon's pursuit was very timely, successfully causing a defensive interference, causing Murray's mid-range shot to deflect off the basket.

Looking at where the rebound ball landed, Gobert's eyes lit up.

Although the height and tonnage of Lopez, who is opposite him, is not bad, the judgment of the landing point of the rebound ball and the ability to card the position are too different.

Gobert grabbed the first step in front of Lopez, grabbed the offensive rebound as soon as he lifted his hand, and then jumped continuously without pause to throw the basketball towards the basket.

In theory, Gobert is not much different from Capela, and basically has no offensive ability, but this kind of basket offense after the second rebound can still be slightly handy.

This time, however, he missed.

Although Lopez couldn't win the rebound, he was able to recover from the loss of the rebound in a timely manner, slapping the basketball in Gobert's hand with precision and a crisp block to stop the offense.

Lopez, who is 2.13 meters tall and has an arm span of 2.27 meters, does have a slight gap with Gobert in terms of static talent, but his ability to protect the basket after some exercise is not bad, and the gap between the static talents of the two is relatively small among the league's centers, and in terms of weight, the 125-kilogram Lopez is even stronger than Gobert.

Wang Chao's eyes were quick, and he bent down and picked up the basketball that was fanned.

All the Nuggets team members who watched this action couldn't help but jump violently.

Wang Chao's fast-break counterattack speed is very clear to the Nuggets players.

In the past season, the Nuggets' sharpest offensive method was to use pressing defense to cause opponents to make mistakes or offensive disadvantages, and then Wang Chao formed the most threatening fast-break offense.

Almost at the same time, many players of the Nuggets team immediately turned around and ran to the backcourt, otherwise they couldn't prevent Wang Chao at all.

Especially PJ Tucker, who is the backbone of defending Wang Chao in this game, naturally has to run desperately at this time to ensure that he is not thrown away by Wang Chao's speed.

Sure enough, Wang Chao, who got the ball, began to accelerate and sprint as soon as possible, and the speed was as fast as thunder.

Is this speed and explosiveness something that a 35-year-old veteran who hasn't trained all this offseason can maintain?

The Nuggets players complained powerlessly.

However, fortunately, they were mentally prepared to defend very quickly, and by this time three people had already returned to the half court to start building a defensive line.

It is impossible for Wang Chao, who is fully sprinting, to be defended by one person, so while PJ Tucker blocked in front of Wang Chao, Mitchell on one side also quickly leaned over, trying to steal from the wing when Wang Chao forced a breakthrough.

said that it was too late, and in a flash of lightning, Wang Chao had already rushed into the Nuggets' three-point line, and Tucker and Mitchell also formed a situation of encircling Wang Chao.

But at this moment, Wang Chao suddenly raised his hand and threw the basketball in his hand to the right.

All eyes moved with the basketball and saw Brogdon, who was already standing at a 45-degree angle on the right outside the three-point line.

Brogdon, who received Wang Chao's pass, didn't react for a while, holding the ball outside the three-point line for a moment, until Mitchell ran towards his position again, he reacted and jumped out on his knees.

Because Mitchell was so far apart, even though there was plenty of room to shoot, he still couldn't catch up.

The basketball crosses a perfect parabola in the air and then hits the net.

Brogdon was originally in the 18-19 season of the Bucks, he could achieve a 42.6% three-point shooting rate, and in the past nearly a month, the Clippers have conducted a lot of three-point training, and secretly there is also a training effect bonus of Wang Chao's sparring potion.

3:0!

The Clippers gave the Nuggets a disadvantage at the beginning, and while the offense was sharp, the previous defensive intensity was definitely not bad, and the only problem may be that they still need to pay a little attention to the rebounding aspect.

Wang Chao thought silently in his heart. "Let's lean a little bit inside in the next defensive position and take some rebounding pressure off Lopez."

Although Mitchell has the ability to shoot three-pointers, but not strong, Wang Chao does not need to bother too much, and the position can be completely inside, with Mitchell's height of 1.85 meters, Wang Chao is sure that at the distance of the two positions, he will arrive before the opponent shoots and form an effective interference.

(End of chapter)