Chapter 300: The Devil's Southwest
After the first month of the NBA season has passed, some media have made some summary comments on the schedule and results of this month, and the final conclusion is:
Unexpected, reasonable.
Unexpectedly, it is naturally the dark horse of the Philadelphia 76ers, who won 11 consecutive games in the opening season, and even defeated the powerful new Suns on the road.
Although the 76ers only achieved a 1-3 record in the last four games in November, the record slipped and was surpassed by the soaring Celtics, but being able to get such a strong result within a month is enough to comfort the Philadelphia Jiangdong father.
Next, Philadelphia will enter the Devil's December, throughout the month of December, Philadelphia will face most of the opponents in the playoff level of more than 50% of the winning rate, and this is not the end, including in the week or so from December 7 to December 13, the 76ers will come to the terrifying Southwest Division to face the Spurs, Hornets, Mavericks, and Rockets four teams in a row, including one back-to-back.
How scary has it been in the Southwest this season? Recalling the final team ranking in the original timeline, Chen Mu himself also had beads of sweat on his forehead.
"If I'm not mistaken, it should be the Hornets second in the West, the Spurs third in the West, the Rockets fifth in the West, and the Mavericks seventh in the West, except for the Grizzlies who sent Gasol into the rebuilding period, all four teams in the Southwest Division entered the playoffs ......!"
Coming to such a terrifying region, facing four strong teams in just one week, the 76ers' road trip has not yet started, and the burden in everyone's hearts has already become a little heavier.
Based on this wave of devilish schedules, coupled with the difficulty of the remaining games in December, experts agree that December is the best time to test the strength of the 76ers. If nothing happens. It is estimated that the 76ers will be on the edge of the Eastern Conference playoff spots after December, and it is not surprising that they will fall out of the top eight if they are not careful.
As for the reasonableness, it naturally refers to the combat effectiveness shown by the teams that have completed the big deals.
The Suns have acquired Howard, a super interior player with their own defensive system, and the situation on the defensive end has improved greatly. Despite the loss of Marion, the team's configuration is more reasonable and balanced, and the offensive and defensive strength is more even.
After the transaction is completed. Some experts have worried that Howard and Xiao Si are both inside beasts, and they have no small requirements for space under the basket. Xiao Si is slightly better, has a certain mid-range offensive ability, and is quite sharp in one hand. But Howard has no mid-range attack at all, and his back-to-back skills are also very rough.
With these two guys under the basket, how to allocate the space on the court? How is the ball distributed? How is the offensive weight distributed?
However, when the season began, the answer given by the Suns was very simple.
Steve Nash.
The answer given by the sun. It's Steve Nash.
With Nash's needle threading and ball distribution, the combination of Smalls and Howard played quite well. On the defensive end, Xiao Si, who is not good at defending in the first place, simply lightens the task and does not need to make up for the defense. You don't need to help defend, just keep an eye on your own people. If the opponent's attack misses, immediately attack quickly.
Howard's weight on the defensive end has increased, and the entire defensive range is centered on him. After taking off the rebound, Xiao Si became an arrow.
And after landing the position, Nash and Xiaosi's blocking and dismantling started. If you have a chance, you can directly attack the basket, and if you don't have a chance, Xiao Si quickly falls on the weak side, and Howard on the strong side wants to play alone.
With such a distribution, both seem to have adapted very well, and the Suns played smoothly, advancing all the way, and their records were quite dazzling.
Needless to say, the Lakers' record at the beginning of the season was not too exaggerated, just because the run-in was not yet in place. After a few games, Gasol fully integrated into the team's offensive and defensive system, and the Lakers began to exert their strength, winning in the second half of November, and taking out the 76ers, who were the No. 1 in the East at home, closely following the footsteps of the Suns. As long as the Suns slacken a little and their record slips a little, they may be caught up by the Lakers at any time.
For the Eastern Celtics, the biggest concern for experts before the start of the season is their bench problem, in terms of ball possession, Garnett and Ray Allen are not players who have to have the ball in their hands to play, and both have excellent running awareness without the ball. Pierce, on the other hand, is an attacker with the ball, a one-on-one master, and theoretically, the Celtics are likely to set up an offensive setup led by Pierce. But after the start of the season, many fans found that the teenager Rondo became the master of the ball, scanning the field with those big alien-like eyes and delivering fatal assists again and again.
This strategy proved to be quite successful, and needless to say, Pierce, Garnett and Ray Allen, are also stars who join any team and deserve a change of tactical leancing to match them and get the most out of them. If the Big Three are really used as the offensive ball control point for distribution, there will inevitably be some overlap problems in space and position between everyone.
But the appearance of Rondo instantly solved this problem, since the deployment is not good, then don't deploy, since everyone can't play happily with the ball, then don't be happy, give the ball to the point guard, whoever he gives it, whoever will attack.
This strategy has brought two results, one is the offensive end of the Celtics, the role of the Big Three has indeed not been played to the extreme, and the three of them are more or less closed to play, so that those who have done "additions" before the start of the season, counting that the three can score 70 points in a game, and the fans who are looking forward to the offensive feast are a little disappointed.
Second, the physical strength of the Big Three has been well preserved.
The problem on the offensive end has been solved, the three people on the defensive end are not bad, Garnett has his own system, the No. 1 defensive team in the league, and finally got rid of the Pistons and Spurs, which have lasted for many years, and came to the Celtics.
The next question is the bench.
On the bench of the Celtics, there are either old veterans like Cassel and PJ Brown, or Tony Allen and Glen Davis, who have obvious flaws and no ability to hold the ball alone, and the only one who seems to be reliable seems to be James Posey.
What about such a team, attacking? Basketball is not a game of two or three people, it is a team event in which more than a dozen people can form a team battle, and it depends on these three people. Everyone else seems to be making up the numbers, how do you do a good job? When it comes to the bridging section, who will score? Scala Brien?
As a result, the season began, the game went on, and Celtic told experts and fans:
Articulation segments, we don't need to score.
Hold on, and then wait for the main forces to come back, and that's fine.
Since then, team basketball has been touted to an unparalleled height since the Pistons defeated the Lakers F4 to win the championship. gradually lost fans in the NBA, the highest basketball hall. The wind of giant basketball has been slowly blowing from this moment.
The wave reached the small city of Cleveland and the ears of the future emperor, triggering a classic scene for years to come, culminating in what could be one of the most formidable teams in history.
The Mavericks, as most experts expected, got the aging Kidd, and not only failed to bring immediate changes to the Mavericks. On the contrary, the simple and crude offensive and defensive strategy that the Mavericks had lasted for many years was separated, and the whole team entered an extremely difficult run-in.
This mill is four years.
The Mavericks' record is simply not comparable to the unstoppable momentum of last season, this "old bull". Is there any hope of making waves in the playoffs? At that time, no one knew the answer, but most people were not optimistic.
The competition begins in December. Time flies, and the trend of these powerful teams after the big deal basically meets the judgment of experts.
By December 15. Halfway through the December tournament, the Eastern Conference Celtics are 19-3 and in first place.
The Pistons are 16-5 and close behind.
The Cavaliers are 15-5 and in between.
Then there are the Wizards, Raptors, Hawks, 76ers, and Pacers.
The Philadelphia 76ers, as expected, suffered a heavy blow to the Devils in December, especially in the four away games in the Southwest Division, the 76ers lost all four games and did not win one.
In four games, the 76ers first lost to the Spurs neatly, and then faced the upstart Hornets, Lowry's speed, fast hand, strength and other advantages, and the queen of the bee Paul was useless, and Philadelphia's No. 1 position was completely blown up by the Hornets, even if the core of the interior Chen Mu clocked in and went to work and generally scored 20+10, it could not prevent the team from losing.
After back-to-back against the Mavericks, the 76ers had a good chance to win, relying on mobility and quick counterattacks, frequently hitting the Mavericks behind them, and playing quite a good performance.
However, Nowitzki, who has become a big success in the back singles, has become a nightmare for the 76ers, Chen Mu has always performed poorly on the defensive end in the face of Dirk, and Chen Mu has no way to do anything about the BUG of having a height of more than 210 cm and a backward jump shot when he shoots.
Golden Rooster Independence, this BT skill that will make the whole league hear about it in the future, has also entered a mature period this season, but the Mavericks' record is not very conspicuous, so it has not caused much repercussions for the time being.
Although he can't prevent Dirk, but on the other hand, Dirk can't prevent Chen Mu, the core players of the two teams explode each other, who wins and who loses, it depends on the performance of the role players.
As a result, Jason Terry hit five three-pointers in the second half, Jason Kidd sent a triple-double, and the Mavericks walked away with the victory.
After a difficult back-to-back, the 76ers continued to challenge the Rockets non-stop.
At this time, the Rockets were hovering in the ups and downs of the season, and Maddy's form declined due to injury, which greatly reduced the team's offensive firepower from the outside.
But, Yao Ming.
Daim Potter was simply wantonly manipulated by Yao Ming as a toy, Yao Ming cut 30+15, beating Chen Mu's 25+15, and led the team to win.
The 76ers' record slipped to 13-9 at the end of the Devil's Journey, and the team won just one game halfway through December.
But the losing streak seems to have a chance to end when we return to our home stadium.
On December 16, the Philadelphia 76ers hosted the Portland Trail Blazers, a youth team with Oden, Roy, Aldridge and other players.
Chen Mu, Oden, who is the most powerful inside beast in the future? The whole of America, the whole world, is looking forward to it. (To be continued......)
PS: It's coming, it's coming!!
The long-awaited Emperor is here!