Shaq's grinning appearance and a gloomy look on Kobe Bryant were screenshots of the headlines the next day.

The war between two people has officially begun!

The first battle was undoubtedly Shaq's victory......

The only thing that upset Shaq was that Dwyane Wade praised Kobe Bryant after the game.

To be reasonable, Wade's praise is not too much, but Shaq really can't listen to anyone say that Kobe is great.

He's a hammer!

"When you're his age, you'll be so good!"

This is more of a complaint.

Originally, Shaq wanted to complain more harshly, but when the words came to his mouth, only this sentence remained.

It can only be said that the "OK" combination treats each other's feelings, and only they know it.

Wade listened to this, but nodded very hard.

He's serious!

The frustration was swept away.

As Christmas passes, the annual All-Star Starter voting channel is open again.

Shaq, who has been in the haze for two years above his head, can finally greet this matter with a smiling face this time.

Traveling east to Miami, he finally no longer has to confront the "Chinese Power", and is even likely to become a beneficiary of the "Chinese Power".

He believes that a return to the All-Star starting position is today!

"It's going to be a very interesting thing......

He was referring to the "Yao Shark Showdown" at All-Star Weekend......

From rejecting "Yao Shark", understanding "Yao Shark", and enjoying "Yao Shark", this road Shaq O'Neill has only walked for two years.

It can only be said that he is a big smart guy and knows what this can bring him.

When many media interviewed Woody, they also mentioned the All-Star starting vote, and wanted Woody to say a few words.

They aren't questioning Woody's inability to be an All-Star starter.

In fact, when the Heat continued to be in the first place in the East, and Woody's average per game stats were so exaggerated. He's actually booked an All-Star starter.

As for O'Neill Jr., Rashid Wallace, Artest, Paul Pearce......

These people are just one track, fiercely competing for another starting spot.

However, it can't be helped, who made Woody, a rising star, so violent?

After playing the "Christmas War", the Heat then ushered in a more difficult schedule.

Even though it's less than a week, the Heat need to play back-to-backs before playing the Spurs for their final game of the season on Dec. 31, the last day of 2004.

In the middle of the "back-to-back" games against the Spurs, they also need to go to Philadelphia to challenge the 76ers.

And these four games, they are all away.

It's almost six days, and they need to play like this.

Stan Van Gundy is tolerant of the end result:

Stay healthy and try to get your win rate to 50%!

This goal is not high, so when the first game of "back-to-back" was won, and the second game was full of sluggishness, he immediately chose to give up resistance and took the initiative to punch in the third quarter.

This appearance stunned the Mavericks on the other side.

No......

After the third quarter, you only fell behind by 8 points, why did you suddenly change to a "full bench"?

Stan Van Gundy felt the need.

From Dallas to Philadelphia, it takes almost four or five hours, after going through "back-to-back", and then continuing to fly for such a long time, and after landing at the airport, it will take a long time for the bus to reach the hotel.

He has to give his main players a better rest.

So this game, he gave up.

The purpose of this tactic is to succeed.

Even though Allen Iverson got his first 50 of the season, the Heat got their revenge and beat the Philadelphia 76ers by 118-104, 14 points! — That's another reason why Stan Van Gundy gave up playing against the Mavericks.

He doesn't want to see his team lose to Philadelphia again, having already lost to Philadelphia.

On December 31, the tired Heat team will not enjoy the joy of successful revenge, and rush to San Antonio to challenge the Spurs, who are the No. 1 team in the West.

At this time, the Spurs had three days of rest to rest and wait for work, so they took the initiative from the start of this game, starting the game 11-3.

In this league, there are so many teams whose games are difficult to overturn, unless they can explode into a classic plot such as "35 seconds and 13 minutes", or once they have enough advantages, they can win in the end.

The Spurs are a prime example of this.

100 to 88.

The team that succeeded in revenge this time became the Spurs.

This is the end of the last meeting between the two teams this season.

However, the Heat, who lost the game, did not have much to lose.

This schedule is not intended for them to have a real game with the Spurs.

Of course, this is the opinion of the Miami media, and the team atmosphere on the Heat's side has not changed much, but it is not enough to make excuses with the schedule, just like they never think that their stats are very good and good enough, and they take it for granted that "the team lost, I didn't lose".

Their attitude towards losing is simple:

I didn't play at my best, so I lost, but next time, we'll definitely win back!

And just like that, the Heat ended all of their December journey with a loss.

With the arrival of January of the new year, there is still a sweeter schedule, and they will usher in the "three consecutive home games" in the next week.

For the tired Heat, this can go a long way in relieving their bodies and minds.

And on January 2, Woody got good news.

December's "Eastern Conference Player of the Month" was won by him.

Averaging 23.4 points, 13.4 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 2.4 blocks and 1.6 steals per game, he led the Heat to an 11-4 record in December.

When it comes to record, the Heat aren't the best in the East.

The Pistons picked up form in December, losing just two games.

But who made them lose in a head-to-head battle with the Heat?

Moreover, this team that is too average really can't pick a player who can play PK with Woody in terms of data.

Woody rightfully completed the first two-game "Month of the Year" of his career.

The taste of greatness is getting more and more authentic!

The "best of the month" in the West still belongs to Steve Nash.

Averaging 15.5 points and 12.5 assists per game, the Suns continued to maintain a strong momentum in December, and this "fast whirlwind" from Phoenix blew more and more fiercely, losing two games throughout December......

This also makes the first game of the new year full of things to watch for the Heat.

Some media even called this game as follows:

Regular Season MVP Battle!

The opponent is none other than Steve Nash and the Suns.

He and Woody are also the biggest contenders on the regular season MVP list.

All right......

It should be said that Woody made this award still have some suspense, but it is only a theoretical suspense.

It's destined to be a season for Steve Nash!

As long as he continues to keep that momentum going for the rest of the season.

Suns management probably didn't expect that Steve Nash, who they insisted on choosing, could bring such a drastic change to this team.

Of course, when it comes to changes to the Suns, then there is one more person who has to be on the list of discussions.

That's D'Antoni!

There is nothing special about this "mustache" at first glance.

Even the resume is much thinner than the average manager.

For the NBA, he's an outsider.

But it was the concept brought by this outsider that made the Suns blow a fast-paced storm!

The importance that Stan Van Gundy took for this game can be seen in the heavy face and hoarse roar he wears on the sidelines during his daily training sessions.

This is the first game of the new year and the first game of the season against the Suns, a powerhouse in the West.

What's more, it's about Woody's regular season MVP battle.

He definitely hopes that he can take it.

Judging by the spirit of the Suns before the game, they were clearly very confident.

Before the start of the season, no one was optimistic about them, and after holding back their energy, they were eager to play better, and by the end of December, they were still a strong wind in the west, and their self-confidence had reached unprecedented heights.

When a team thinks that anyone can win, not to mention anything else, the team's fighting power is undoubtedly strong.

It's going to be a tough battle.

The Miami people at the scene felt the state of the Suns and immediately sent crazy boos.

But these boos did not shake them by half a point.

In the warm-up session before the game, there was not much interaction between the two sides.

Because neither side is very familiar.

Not only is he unfamiliar, but Xiao Si still has an account to settle with Woody.

So the pre-game with zero interaction made this game smell of gunpowder.

The big screen on the scene gave the starting lineups on both sides:

The Heat's starting lineup remains unchanged.

On the Suns' side, Steve Nash is the No. 1, Quentin Richardson is the No. 2, Joe Johnson is the No. 3, Sean Marion is the No. 4, and Amare Stoudemire is the No. 5.

In his final season with the Clippers, Richardson played the best form of his career, averaging 17.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, and was the "Player of the Week" award in the first week of last year.

His style of play is more like receiving the ball, which successfully attracted the Suns and offered him a six-year, 45 million contract.

Joe Johnson was selected by the Boston Celtics with the 10th pick in the first round in '01, was traded to the team by the Suns in '02, slowly grew, and ushered in a big explosion in this year's contract year.

He averaged 16.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game.

Marion and Smalls are the two humeral ministers left over from the "Marbury" era, and they have also proved that with a better accelerator, they can fly higher and farther!

Especially Stoudemire, who averaged 26 points per game in the new season!

It has become the NBA's new generation of "beast inside".

And from the exaggerated data of these people, it can actually be seen that the firepower of the Suns in the new season is really fierce.

In fact, they are also the only team in the NBA to average more than 110 points per game this season.

Other teams, including the Heat, who have the "3Cs," are also averaging a lot less points per game than them.

At the same time, however, they are conceding an average of 103.5 points per game.

It's a team that plays offense to the extreme......

If you want to win, limiting their offense becomes very crucial!

Stan Van Gundy's initial idea was to get Steve Nash into more singles.

But in the first round, Nash used his superb passing skills to assist Xiao Si to complete the inside dunk, telling Van Gundy:

You can't stop me from passing!

Even if you give me space and let me play singles, it depends on whether I want to or not!

But this exposes something else:

Steve Nash enjoys the thrill of passing the ball more than scoring.

So Stan Van Gundy didn't change his strategy and still let Steve Nash get into more 1v1s.

Steve Nash responded with a personal seven-point score in the first quarter.

Stan Van Gundy: ......

Alston couldn't defend himself against Nash's offense at all.

There is reason to suspect that Steve Nash didn't attack at the beginning because he didn't realize that he could actually break through Alston well and complete the score.

In addition, in terms of rhythm, the Heat side is also much worse than the Suns.

The tandem ability of the No. 1 position, Alston and Steve Nash are really a huge difference.

This problem allows the Suns to constantly complete easy scoring on the counterattack.

Almost as long as the Heat don't score and let the Suns protect the rebounds, they can quickly complete the counterattack.

Here's another problem exposed by the Heat:

Shaq O'Neal's pace can't keep up with the Suns' offensive and defensive transitions, and they can easily form a "play more, play less" situation.

By the end of the first half, the Suns' lead had reached 11 points.

No one expected that the Heat team met the Suns, and the entire first half was in a state of crushing.

"We'll have to change our tactics a bit!"

Stan Van Gundy is starting to think about changing formations.

At this time, you can see that his attitude is completely different from when he played the Mavericks before.

When playing the Mavericks, because of back-to-back, poor condition, and a big battle behind him, he chose to give up directly.

It's different now, they're resting well, they're still on their home court, which is especially important, and it's still a "strong conversation" with the Suns, in a game like this, where people play the first half with pressure, and then in the second half, you tell him to just give up?

Is it just a regular season game anyway?

Impossible, absolutely impossible!

This game must be turned over for him!

It's just that there were too many problems in the first half and they need to be solved one by one.

However, after thinking about it at half-time, he found that the solution to this problem was simple:

Putting Shaq O'Neal off the court, with the mobility of this team, can fully keep up with the Suns' offensive and defensive transitions!

Although there are other problems, once the speed can keep up, the other problems can be solved slowly.

After discussing with Shaq, "Big Shark" did not hesitate at all and agreed directly.

In the first half, he just ran back and forth on the court, and this kind of meaningless physical energy was consumed a lot, and he was really unhappy in his heart. He misses the "Magic Shark" a little bit and understands that he has no role on the court now, so he is naturally willing to sit on the sidelines.

This is another psychological change for Shaq after coming to the Heat and entering the next stage!

(End of chapter)