Christmas War, Another Battle with the Heat’s Big Three

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After nearly two months, the Bulls and the Heat met again. The starting lineups of both teams had not changed at all since the last encounter. The Bulls were still featuring Curry, Billups, Wang Chong, Garnett, and Gasol. The Heat's starting lineup consisted of Chalmers, Wade, James, Bosh, and Big Z.

The main difference was that this time the game would be played at the United Center in Chicago, home of the Bulls, instead of the American Airlines Arena in Miami.

Before the game, LeBron James was not as confident as he had been at the start of the season, and his words were more cautious.

"The Bulls are a team that created three consecutive championship dynasties. They're really strong. We have to give everything we've got and go out there with everything we have. As for the result, as long as the team can show everything it's got now, the outcome will be decided. It doesn't really matter anymore."

James' comments naturally led to mockery from the media.

"Does it no longer matter if they win or lose? Is he afraid of losing and making excuses beforehand?"

However, it was indeed difficult to say who was stronger or weaker between the Bulls and the Heat.

There was no doubt that Wang Chong was stronger than James, but after all, James had a superstar like Wade on his side, who was no less powerful than the two of them. Curry on the Bulls was still too young, and Garnett was aging and could no longer find anyone who could compare to Wade.

In short, the Heat had a more advanced fighting ability than the Bulls. The Bulls' advantage lay in the fact that their overall lineup was superior to that of the Heat. At the same time, Wang Chong, the number one player in the league, possessed the best skills in the league, and no one could match him.

The game was about to begin.

Bosh approached the center line to prepare for the jump ball. When he saw the Bulls player in front of him, he was a bit stunned.

The Bulls had actually let Wang Chong take the jump.

With Wang Chong's height and wingspan rivaling that of a center, there was no problem with him taking the jump ball. As an outside player, his explosiveness and jumping ability were superior to most of the league's big men, including Bosh, who stood in front of him.

However, Wang Chong rarely took the jump ball, and today he took the initiative to do so for the first time. One could imagine how important he considered this game.

When the referee blew the whistle, the basketball was tossed into the air. Wang Chong suddenly jumped and swatted the ball backward in front of Bosh.

The Bulls had possession, and the game officially began!

Curry dribbled the ball past half-court and passed it directly to Wang Chong without any hesitation.

Wang Chong, upon receiving the pass, didn't stop but accelerated toward the paint.

James immediately stepped up to block Wang Chong. He knew Wang Chong well. He knew that if Wang Chong was blocked in his drive, he would likely choose to take a jumper. Before Wang Chong could make a move, James raised his hands in anticipation, ready to block the shot.

However, Wang Chong didn't immediately take the shot. Instead, he maneuvered around James' defense, moving toward the weak side. After reaching the left baseline, he turned his back to James, spun, and took the shot from behind. The shot went in on the first attempt. The arc was obvious, and James leaped with all his might but couldn't even get a glimpse of Wang Chong's shot.

"Ha!"

The basketball swished through the net.

Wang Chong had many ways to defeat James one-on-one, but there was no doubt that the fadeaway jumper was the most beautiful and magnificent move among all his skills.

Kobe Bryant, his neighbor, had won countless fans with this move and was known as one of the most skilled scorers. Wang Chong couldn't quite understand why the fadeaway jumper had become synonymous with skill, while other offensive skills were often overlooked. The key was that no matter how good your post-up technique was, you still had to score the ball first, and the technique of the fadeaway was quite solid.

Wang Chong's post-up ability was currently rated 86, which was neither high nor low. However, when he exchanged his badges in the summer, he chose two shooting badges: Backdown Master and Difficult Shot King.

These two badges could be used together because, in the context of the Difficult Shot King badge, the Backdown Master was obviously considered a difficult shooting skill.

Although these badges were still at the lowest bronze level, they didn't prevent Wang Chong from frequently using them in competitions. He had to use them, as the badge upgrades were conditional. For the Backdown Master badge, it required hitting 200 fadeaway shots in the regular season.

Don't underestimate the requirement of 200 fadeaways. This was just the requirement for upgrading from Bronze to Silver.

In other words, in 82 regular season games, Wang Chong needed to average 2.4 fadeaways per game to upgrade his badge to Silver in one season.

This was no simple task; it was quite challenging.

To give a trivial example, Kobe, synonymous with the fadeaway, made a total of 1,314 fadeaway shots in his career and scored 770 of them.

In his 19-year career, Kobe Bryant made just 770 shots from fadeaway distance. Just to upgrade a badge to Silver, it required 200 fadeaway shots. You can imagine how difficult it was.

In recent times, Wang Chong's use of fadeaways had increased significantly, but honestly, this move was not very efficient in his arsenal. With his height and wingspan, he could easily take shots. If he simply took off and shot in place, few players could interfere with him.

Wang Chong practiced this move solely to add more options to his arsenal, and it was treated as an achievement unlocked through gameplay.

2-0.

The Heat maintained possession of the ball.

Wade accelerated with the ball and easily passed Billups. He drove toward the paint and faced the defense of Garnett, missing a layup. However, he successfully drew a defensive foul on Garnett and went to the free-throw line, hitting 2 out of 2 free throws.

After two months of adjustments, the Heat had now determined the timing for Wade and James to hold the ball and attack. At the start of the game, the Heat obviously focused on Wade as their primary offensive weapon. The current defense of the Bulls was oriented toward stopping him at the baseline.

Although Wade, who had been injured, may have had a slight speed disadvantage compared to guards like Rose and Westbrook, the nickname "The Flash" was not for nothing. Even with his old knee issues, Wade could still be considered one of the fastest players in the league, at least in the first step. Billups couldn't keep up with the veteran. Even if Danny Green replaced him, it would still be tough.

Green was very effective at defending shooting-oriented players like Kobe, but he wasn't as effective at stopping ball-handlers on drives. He could only rely on the help defense from the interior, like Garnett and Gasol, to cover.

Relying on the consistent and stable output of Wade, the Heat kept pace with the Bulls early in the game.

In the first quarter, Wade, who made 4 out of 7 shots and 2 out of 2 free throws, scored 10 points. Wang Chong, also scoring 10 points in the first quarter, hit 4 out of 8 shots and 2 out of 4 three-pointers. The Bulls and the Heat were tied 24-24 at the end of the first quarter, which was neck and neck.

In the second quarter, the Heat began to shift to James as the primary attacker. In terms of playing style, James and Wade were actually very similar. Both focused on driving with the ball and attacking the basket. The difference was that Wade's drive emphasized speed, while James' drive maximized both his strength and speed, making him one of the most explosive players in the league.

Of course, since the referee had restricted James's unique crab dribble, his effectiveness driving to the basket had diminished significantly compared to his days with the Cavaliers. Over the past two months, James had gradually adapted to how to attack in the half-court offense.

With James and Wade performing well, the Heat

had an excellent showing in the first half, trailing by only one point, 47-48, at halftime. This was a far cry from the one-sided thrashing they received in the opening game of the season.

Even Wang Chong had to admit that the combination of James and Wade was indeed the most powerful offensive partnership in the league right now, even stronger than the combination of Wang Chong + Curry, although the main reason was that Curry had not yet reached his peak.

The Bulls' defensive setup in this game was solid. Garnett and Gasol worked hard to defend, but James and Wade were genuinely tough to stop. Their defensive level was no less than that of Wang Chong, and the team still had to rely on offense and overall strength.

The Heat's advantages were obvious. The Big Three had superb individual skills, but their weaknesses were equally apparent. Aside from the Big Three, the team didn't have a single solid player.

At least this was definitely the case in the first year of the Big Three. Despite having players like Haslem, Chalmers, Big Z, and Mike Miller, these individuals simply didn't have the ability or hadn't yet gone through their development period to be able to stand alone.

When facing the Heat, a team with superior overall strength would gradually gain the upper hand. This advantage would be reflected in the second half of the game.

Although the Heat's Big Three could still maintain a high offensive output, other players on the team had clearly started to falter.

The first issue was that Big Z was limited by his physical condition and old injuries, so he didn't play much. His replacement was the hard-working center Joel Anthony, who stood only 6'9" (2.06 meters). In reality, he wasn't qualified to play significant minutes since he couldn't even do the dirty work properly.

Throughout his 10-year career, Joel Anthony played 490 games, including 110 as a starter, but his career averages were only 2.2 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. Even most point guards averaged more rebounds than he did. Imagine how low his level was.

The Heat really had no other options. Since the Big Three took up so much salary cap space, they could barely afford to make changes, so they had no choice but to keep using Anthony.

Over the four years of the Big Three era, the Heat signed players like Big Z, Turiaf, Birdman Anderson, and even Greg Oden, the number one overall pick from 2007, in an attempt to address the team's interior deficiencies. Unfortunately, this strategy backfired, and none of these players could adequately fill the void.

Interestingly, the most suitable center for the Heat during the four years of the Big Three was actually Chris Bosh, who was more known for his ability to space the floor as the "Taoist Master."

It's said that the Heat were pioneers of the small-ball era, similar to the Suns but with a more intense focus on defense, making the most of their mobility. This style proved to be very effective against most teams in the league.

However, the Heat themselves didn't want to play this way, but they had no choice due to their lack of viable options inside. They just kept pushing the tempo to mask their deficiencies.

Unexpectedly, this high-pressure, fast-break style turned out to be quite effective. Most teams in the league were defenseless against it.

Not only did the Heat force turnovers, but even when they missed shots and grabbed defensive rebounds, they often completed long passes and fast breaks like a quarterback in football, which were incredibly accurate.

The classic James-Wade connection was born out of this circumstance.

But this style was both a strength and a weakness for the Heat. The reason they struggled so much against the Spurs was directly related to Tim Duncan's presence in the paint.

Even though Duncan had lost some of his peak dominance by the end of his career, he could still be a formidable presence in the paint and a major intimidation factor.

In the 2012-13 season, when the Heat lost in the finals, Duncan still averaged 18.9 points, 12 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game, dominating the paint. He even outperformed Bosh, who only averaged 11.9 points and 8.9 rebounds.

Unfortunately for the Spurs, they lost that series thanks to Ray Allen's game-changing three-pointer.

In the next season, 2013-14, the Spurs returned and defeated the Heat in a resounding victory, with Duncan still averaging a double-double in the finals, leading his team to a 4-1 victory and capturing the championship with absolute authority.

It's safe to say that if Duncan had been replaced by another interior player, the Spurs might not have been able to defeat the Heat.

The current Heat still hadn't fully found a tactical style that worked for them, but their weaknesses were the same as during their previous championship years. When Gasol and Garnett started asserting themselves in the paint, the Heat struggled to keep up.

Especially with Gasol, who was energized after signing a big contract and had the best season of his career, averaging 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists per game. Naturally, he took advantage of his matchup against Joel Anthony, who was no match for him. The Heat's struggles in the paint became more apparent as the game wore on.

End of this chapter

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