Double Death of the Heat, Desperate Miami and LeBron

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Obviously, the interior line took the initiative, but the Heat still led the game for three quarters. In the final quarter, the game was reversed and they lost. The main reasons for this are two.

First, the Heat underestimated the Bulls' three-point firepower.

In the entire fourth quarter, the Bulls made a total of 7 three-pointers, scoring 21 points from just three-pointers, with Wang Chong hitting 4 and Curry sinking 3.

At the critical moment, the Bulls also started creating a ruckus and played the "shark cut" tactic.

As soon as Howard, as fierce as a tiger, was stabbed and eliminated, he was immediately stunned.

Standing at the free-throw line, Howard was completely dominant, continuously shooting and then clanging the ball off the rim with a stiff face.

The entire Heat team stared at Howard with strained expressions—1 of 2, 1 of 4, and 2 of 6— and even James, who wasn't very good at free throws either, looked anxious and couldn't wait to replace Howard for the free throws.

No matter how bad their free throws are, they're not as exaggerated as Howard's.

Taking advantage of Howard's free throws, the Bulls passed the ball to Wang Chong during offensive rounds, and he successfully scored twice in three consecutive offensive rounds, including a 2+1, further extending their lead on the scoreboard.

Although the Heat wanted to replace Howard at this point, they also knew that once Howard left, their interior advantage would disappear, so they could only hope Howard's free throws would be a little more accurate.

They didn't expect Howard to make 100 free throws, just as long as his shooting percentage could reach over 50% and ensure that at least 1 of 2 free throws could improve the situation significantly.

The second reason the Heat lost was James.

In this game, Howard performed excellently, but James, as the team's primary core, had a somewhat disappointing performance.

Throughout the game, he shot 7 of 17, 6 of 8 free throws, for only 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists, with 3 turnovers.

The main reason for this situation is that the Bulls made changes to their defensive personnel against James in this game. It wasn't Jimmy, who was responsible for defending James last season. Butler came to defend, but Wang Chong personally guarded James.

In the early stages of their careers, Wang Chong and James often faced off directly, with both players exploding on the court. Generally, Wang Chong had a stronger scoring ability, while James was better overall.

However, later, after Wang Chong became the Bulls' primary offensive player, they rarely faced each other directly. Wang Chong's weight and size were a bit of a disadvantage against James, so they obviously opted for Wang Chong to conserve his energy and focus on the offensive side, without needing to have him fight James.

Therefore, in later encounters between the two, James was often responsible for defending Wang Chong, while Wang Chong chose to avoid the battle and let other players defend James.

In fact, this has always been the reason why some still think James is stronger than Wang Chong, despite James having lost to Wang Chong countless times.

"Wang Chong only avoids James playing against him, he won't win, even if he wins more games, he can't prove he's stronger than James. If you have the ability, have a proper 1V1 with James, when will we recognize you as strong when you beat James head-on?"

This is also the reason why Wang Chong has worked hard to practice defense.

Although these comments from Jammie are quite crafty and shameless, only your idols can run to form a big three, and no one else can use normal basketball tactics and strategies. It's a typical double standard routine.

Originally, this kind of comment was simply ignored, as if James personally defended Wang Chong well. Wasn't that the same as being easily scored on by Wang Chong's various blowouts?

But since Wang Chong has this capability, he naturally doesn't mind meeting these requirements from Zhan Mi and seeing what they have to say when the time comes.

Thus, from the start of this game, Wang Chong and James went head-to-head.

At first, James was still a bit confused, but he didn't expect Wang Chong, who hadn't defended for years, to come and take the initiative to face him.

But after a few rounds, James noticed that something seemed wrong.

Wang Chong's defense was a bit hard to handle!

Since he hadn't attacked under Wang Chong's defense for some time, James' ability to defend against Wang Chong was still stuck two or three years ago.

In recent years, although Wang Chong has been selected for the All-Defensive Team, and also won the DPOY last season, this was mainly due to his ability to help defend and cover, rather than individual one-on-one defense.

But now the defensive pressure Wang Chong put on him was a bit beyond imagination, almost making him feel like he couldn't move an inch.

The feeling of strangeness and extreme discomfort made James play very awkwardly in this game, as if nothing was right. His shooting percentage dropped to 41%, and the assists that used to come easily weren't very good either.

Of course, James knows very well that being completely off his game due to Wang Chong's sudden attack in a single game doesn't mean Wang Chong can always defend like this in the future. In fact, once the game ends, he can go back and carefully review the game video, analyze, and adapt to Wang Chong's current defensive characteristics. He can still post great stats as in the past.

But what shocked and amazed James was Wang Chong's improvement in just one offseason.

As his biggest opponent and target in the first half of his career, James is one of the people in the NBA who knows Wang Chong the best, and he knows very well that Wang Chong didn't have such excellent individual defense before, but now Wang Chong really has that defensive ability.

This means Wang Chong is still improving!

This guy is already so strong, and he's still getting stronger?

This feeling made James feel a little desperate. He's not afraid of his opponent's strength, but the feeling of never being able to catch up, always being left far behind, is something no one can accept.

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The Bulls and the Heat faced each other for the first time in the new season, and the Bulls completed the comeback in the final quarter to win the game.

James, who scored 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists in the game, became the main reason for the Heat's loss, and naturally, he received much verbal criticism.

Especially from Heat fans, they could accept the Heat losing to the Bulls, after all, Howard is new to the game and will definitely take time to adjust to the Heat's tactical play.

What they couldn't accept was the result of James and Wang Chong clashing head-on.

The two faced off the entire game, but the result was Wang Chong scoring 36 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 assists, while James only managed 21+5+4 at the same time.

There's no excuse for such a failure.

LeBron, who won the regular-season MVP two years in a row, seems to have forgotten that he's not the top player in the league anymore, and he's always had Wang Chong well above him. When can he defeat Wang Chong in the playoffs and win the championship? Only then can James prove his worth! And losing to Wang Chong in this game in a direct confrontation seems to indicate that this possibility no longer exists. It really seems that there is an essential gap between the two players in terms of strength.

"I can't imagine if the Heat still lose to the Bulls in the playoffs this year. I'm afraid the newly formed Big Three will collapse in an instant. Then, where should James go? Stay with the Heat or go to another team?"

The win or loss of a single game has put the Heat team into a storm, something many didn't expect before the game.

And the Bulls, who beat the Heat, keep rising.

The December schedule ended quickly, and the Bulls' record stood at 25-5.

By the end of December, the Bulls lost a few more games, still facing the same old issue: injuries causing problems in the team's main rotation. But fortunately, as in the original story, whether it was Gasol Jr. or Jimmy Butler, the injuries were minor and would heal in a week, so they would return to the game soon.

At the end of December, voting for the 2013 All-Star Game began.

There was no suspense; Wang Chong and Curry were first in the voting for small forward and shooting guard in the Eastern Conference, respectively. Though the All-Star voting had just been held, both had secured their starting spots in the Eastern Conference All-Star Game.

It was a shame that Gasol Jr., who averaged 18+7 per game this season, was voted into the forward position, where the competition was too fierce.

The intensity of the frontcourt in the East is truly exaggerated.

James Durant dominated the top three, with Howard returning from the West in fourth place, followed by Pacers forward Paul George, who averaged 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game this season. Meanwhile, the superstar of the New York Knicks, Carmelo Anthony, ranked sixth.

In fact, if measured by stats, Anthony averaged 27 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists per game this season, which is clearly more impressive than George's 22+7+3.

But the problem was that the Knicks had a poor record this season. Rose was expected to miss most of the season due to injury, and with Anthony leading the team alone, the Knicks had a dismal record, currently sitting in tenth place in the East.

Compared to leading the Pacers to fourth in the East, surpassed only by the Bulls, Heat, and Celtics, the Knicks were on a completely different level.

Combined with the team's record advantage, it's no surprise George was voted ahead of Anthony in the All-Star voting.

As a result, Gasol Jr. of the Bulls could only occupy seventh place in the Eastern Conference small forward voting, which wasn't bad at all. At least he had no problem making it to the All-Star bench, so the Bulls would still have three All-Star selections this season: two starters and one bench player.

Ironically, according to the first-round voting results, it's likely the Heat will have three starters in the All-Star Game, and the shooting guard position firmly remains in second place due to Rose's injury, even though his stats have dropped to 19 points per game.

Therefore, it's most likely that the Heat will have two All-Star starters and one on the bench.

The setup of the two teams is nearly identical, but at this moment, the results have gradually begun to widen the gap.

At the beginning of the season, the Heat could barely keep up with the Bulls, and although they were slightly behind, at least there wasn't a big difference.

But as the calendar progressed, the Heat, like the Bulls, began to gradually experience a wave of injuries.

The Heat suffered injuries more frequently due to Wade's age and the accumulation of past injuries, and Wade's declining availability became uncontrollable.

In the original 13-14 season, Wade only played 54 games in the regular season, and in the following seasons, his average availability was only around 60 games per season.

But Howard has truly been a blessing in disguise. He hasn't suffered any major injuries so far. Howard, who should have been in rapid decline due to a back injury, played the second spring of his career this season, averaging 22 points, 14 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game, firmly securing his place as the league's number 1 center.

But on December 25th, the Heat, challenging the Bulls, lost the game again.

In this game, Howard again recorded a great double-double with 17 points and 21 rebounds, but his poor free throw percentage of 8 of 18 couldn't hide his impressive statistics.

The heavy use of "shark cut" tactics in the game allowed the Bulls to easily seize the initiative.

In this game, James slightly adapted to Wang Chong's growing defensive abilities. Although his shooting percentage still couldn't exceed 50%, he still managed to score 27 points, 5 rebounds, and 9 assists, with a shooting percentage of 47%.

Therefore, the Heat's defeat in this game can only be blamed on Howard.

It doesn't need to be too precise, as long as Howard can shoot 70% or even more than 60% from the free-throw line, the Heat have a chance to win the game.

At least that's what most Heat fans think.

But the vast majority of these fans are casual fans who don't understand basketball. Fans who truly understand tactics and can scientifically analyze the game only feel despair because they can clearly see that in both games, it seemed almost impossible for the Heat to win, but in reality, Wang Chong didn't use all his strength in both games; at least, they didn't see Wang Chong show the terrifying scoring ability that was almost impossible to stop when the Bulls were in danger in the past.

Their judgment was correct: Wang Chong really didn't go all out. These two games were with a bit of the mindset to test the Heat, and they were halfway closed games.

Of course, this doesn't mean Wang Chong slacked off. He played very seriously, but at critical moments, he also passed the ball to Curry to take care of it. Now, Curry is fully capable of handling key moments.

Wade today is no longer the super defender of previous years and can't defend Curry at all, let alone the Heat's starting shooting guard, Chalmers.

Therefore, even if the Heat know Curry is dangerous and want to target him, they are helpless.

With Curry handling the key ball, Wang Chong naturally rowed accordingly when it wasn't necessary, and in the regular season, there was no need to expose all his true strength.

With many players on the team rising, his scoring numbers also dropped to the lowest since his rookie season, averaging 27.2 points per game, and he could only rank fifth in the scoring list, which was actually the first time in recent years.

End of this chapter

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