I’m Really Playing Basketball

As the protagonist of this game, this game with the Cavaliers was O'Neal's first battle with the Suns.

It was also the game that announced his return from the shadow of last season's black eight.

As the self-proclaimed number one player in the league, O'Neal is trying to regain his former glory this season.

But as soon as the game started, he was slapped in the face by Chen Xiao. How could O'Neal bear it?

If it weren't for the fact that the O'Neal now is no longer the O'Neal last season, I'm afraid he would have become furious by now.

But now, O'Neal calmed down instantly after being furious for a moment.

I, Shaquille O'Neal, after encountering Phil's betrayal, am no longer the simple big boy. Now I have grown up, completely grown up!

To be honest, it is indeed disgusting for a 32-year-old player to say that he is no longer a big boy.

However, if this happened to O'Neal, it would actually not be that disgusting, and it might even be somewhat appropriate.

Because the 32-year-old O'Neill was indeed a big boy before.

Even in history, when O'Neill was 40 years old, he was a big boy character.

Now that he has finally grown up, it is really a good thing for O'Neill.

Maybe, after retiring this time, can he finally gain the respect of young players?

It is too miserable for such a great player to be hated by young people for every word he says.

Do you think other young people at the same level as you would get angry when they say such things? Don't you think you have no dignity, don't you think you are unreliable and not worthy of giving us advice?

That's too far.

O'Neal now feels that he was ruthlessly betrayed by Phil Jackson. He no longer believes in innocence and has finally grown up. Let's not talk about the impact this will have on O'Neal's life after retirement.

Now O'Neal's changes have a great impact on the Suns, the league, and the Cavaliers.

The Suns attack, and after Fisher dribbles the ball past half court, Fisher no longer needs to hesitate. Now for the Suns, O'Neal is the first core, or even the only core. No one else can compete with O'Neal. What.

Fisher doesn't need to worry about anything.

After receiving a pass from Fisher, O'Neal directly attacked Tyson Chandler behind him.

Tyson Chandler's defensive skills are very good, and his defensive movement speed is also very strong, but all of this, under O'Neal's Shark-style offense, has a very bad effect.

If you want strength, you can't compare to O'Neal.

If you want height, you can't compare to O'Neal in height.

Even in small moves, Tyson Chandler can't compare to O'Neal.

Even in O'Neal's singles at the basket, which was faster and more efficient than last season, Chen Xiao, who wanted to come over to help, had not even arrived at the scene where O'Neal was playing Chandler in singles. O'Neal had already hugged Chandler away and was under the basket. Completed the one-handed chop.

To be honest, after losing weight this season, O'Neal is indeed much more flexible than last season.

O'Neal, who has successfully lost weight, may not be as powerful anymore, but his attacks may be more frequent and his attacks may be stronger.

How to understand this passage?

To put it simply, the fatter Shaq is not as flexible and can't catch the ball as easily. He may not take as many shots in a game, but because he is bigger, he has greater offensive power and an extremely high shooting percentage. High and efficient.

As for the less fat and more flexible O'Neal, his offensive efficiency may not be that terrifying, but his playing time and number of shots in a game will increase a lot, and his offensive contribution to the team may also be greater in quantity.

To be honest, O'Neal could only take 14 shots per game with the Nets last season. This can't be entirely blamed on the fact that the Nets have too many stars, because last season the Nets formed an F7 that seemed to be a top dog, so O'Neal, who has always had little self-control, let himself go.

No matter what I do, I can win the championship. If I don’t let myself go, I will let myself go.

Finally, O'Neal's weight increased almost suddenly last season.

O'Neal's shooting percentage was indeed very high last season, and in the playoffs it was even 5 percentage points higher than in previous seasons, but his average field goal percentage was a career low.

This is very illustrative.

Looking at O'Neal now, O'Neal is even smaller than O'Neal in the 2002-03 season.

That's right, in fact, O'Neal was already floating in the 0203 season.

After winning the Triple Crown, O'Neal was already drifting.

It’s just that it reached the extreme last season.

Now, O'Neill has regained the competitive heart he once lost.

2 to 2!

Chen Xiao, who was one step late in assisting the defense, saw O'Neal's return to defense after giving him a haughty glance, Chen Xiao blinked thoughtfully.

He was not shocked by O'Neal's strength.

As a fan of Kobe and the Lakers, he has seen what the strongest O'Neal looks like.

Now O'Neal is still far from the peak O'Neal.

What shocked Chen Xiao was mainly O'Neal's character.

"Isn't this fat guy really going to change his gender?"

Logically speaking, he played such a beautiful attack, he should have yelled twice in front of me.

Could it be that this fat man has really changed from a big boy to an old bastard?

Isn’t this a big change?

Well, Chen Xiao is actually very curious about O'Neill's mental journey in the past six months.

However, now is not the time to discuss O'Neal's mental journey in the past six months.

On the court, the Cavaliers attacked. After the Cavaliers' dribbling guard Xiao Mo dribbled the ball past half court, this time he hit the ball into James' hands.

Why wasn’t Xiao Mo’s biography about Chen Xiao?

Of course, it was because Chen Xiao couldn't get rid of Rashid this time.

Rasheed's defense is really not that easy to get rid of.

The Cavaliers are dual-core this season, and the requirement for offense is to be fast, and hit the ball to Chen Xiao or James with the fastest speed.

In this game, James played small forward against Stoudemire.

Stoudemire's defensive entanglement ability is far worse than Rashid's.

It should be said that when Stoudemire was defending, he had no intention of fighting James at all.

Well, in Stoudemire's mind, when James holds the ball, in addition to guarding his breakthroughs, he doesn't even need to guard his shots. Let him shoot. If he makes the shot, you will be unlucky.

Seeing Stoudemire's defense against Xiao Zhan, Chen Xiao blocked Rashid's position and waved directly to Xiao Zhan, so that Xiao Zhan did not need to think about passing the ball to him, but directly attacked by himself.

To be honest, in the preseason, Xiao Zhan mainly focused on breakthroughs in the face of this one-step defense.

Stoudemire's defense was not easy to break out in this game.

Stoudemire is tall enough, heavy enough, and is a sudden shot. Xiao Zhan is not a real tank after all.

Therefore, in the face of Stoudemire's crazy shooting, Xiao Zhan needs to shoot some hits.

Seeing Chen Xiao waving to Xiao Zhan on the court, Teacher Zhang on the sidelines also smiled and said: "Chen Xiao is gesturing for James to take action himself. It seems that James' shooting this season has made Chen Xiao very confident."

"Xiao Zhan said in an interview with Frontline that he is now very confident in his shooting."

James often accepts interviews on CCTV basketball programs. CCTV can get a lot of first-hand information from James, and even this information is newer than the media here in the United States.

This is really not a joke. There are many things James would not say to the media here in the United States.

Because now James has discovered that his pursuit is on the opposite side of the people in the United States.

People here in the United States, whether it is the media, business partners, or his own agent and family, are not consistent with his pursuit.

But the Chinese media and Chinese partners are consistent with his current pursuit.

They all want Cleveland to succeed.

Therefore, he is willing to share a lot of news about his progress with the Chinese media.

But if he shared it with people in the United States, Mom and the others would definitely ask him to take back Cleveland's power.

This is very annoying.

Oh, and by the way, James has historically shot a higher percentage of his long-range twos than his mid-range ones.

Because historically, when James shoots long-range two-pointers, there is almost no defense. It is purely shooting practice. The opponent does not defend at all, but when he shoots mid-range shots, the opponent has to block it anyway.

And now, Xiao Zhan is in the long-distance two-point position.

Facing Stoudemire's defense without defense at all, Xiao Zhan threw the basketball out of his hand after two dribbles in his crotch.

A swipe!

James' long-range two-pointer!

4 to 2!

This is James' first point of the season, not with a breakthrough, but with a shot.

Therefore, Xiao Zhan looked extra excited after scoring.

After the hit, he still didn't forget to roar loudly at Stoudemire not far away.

"If you keep letting me go, the next ball, I can hit it here!"

Good guy, Xiao Zhan, you are completely lost!

However, I have to say that when James used such a shot to score his first two points of the game, it was indeed able to change many things in the game.

James could hit such a shot, and he actually hit it in the same place for the second time.

This makes it impossible for the Suns to continue to let James' shots go.

And when you are defending James and need to prevent him from shooting, sorry, plus Chen Xiao, then it is impossible for you to defend the Cavaliers.

Of course, in other situations, the Cavaliers can't guard the Suns. This is also a fact.

The Suns have O'Neal as the core, with a bunch of shooting players like Fisher, Quentin Richardson, Stoudemire and Rasheed in the middle, and the offense is also very strong.

Therefore, at the end of the first quarter, the score between the two teams was 30 to 25.

They can't guard their opponents. Why do the Cavaliers lead by 5 points?

The reason is simple. The Suns don't have a super strong ball-holding point on the outside.

Any idea what this means?

This means that the Cavaliers can expand their defense and force the Suns' perimeter players to hold the ball.

When the Suns get the ball to O'Neal and Stoudemire, the Cavaliers really don't have many options, but first, you need to get it to them.

The current Suns have some pain from Yao Ming's mosaic in history.

O'Neal obviously has a huge advantage over Chandler, but you can't get the ball into O'Neal's hands.

But the Cavaliers players can hit the ball into the hands of Chen Xiao and James.

The Cavaliers' offense is in the hands of key players every time, which gives the Cavaliers greater control over their offense.

As for the Suns' offense, it is not necessarily in the hands of key players every time. Naturally, the control is not that high, and the efficiency is not that high.

In this way, in this much-anticipated game, the weak Cavaliers took the lead right from the start.

One thing to say, although the Cavaliers are ahead, the Suns are still very strong.

If the Suns are allowed to grind in place and find a way to get the ball to key players O'Neal and Stoudemire, they will still be very strong.

In the first quarter, O'Neal's attacks proved that his strength is still there and he is still at the tail end of his peak.

And Stoudemire's performance in the first quarter of this game was definitely as surprising as James.

His shooting was very unstable last season, but he actually showed such stable and confident shooting ability.

Therefore, after the first quarter of the game between the Cavaliers and the Suns, the audience and experts in front of the TV were still very shocked.

"The Suns' hard power is stronger than we thought. If the Suns get along well, when they use the three-inside tactic used by the Timberwolves in the Finals last season, they will be much better than the Timberwolves!"

"However, the premise is that the Suns need to find their own Cassel and Sprewell!"

When playing a three-inside tactic, the most fearful thing is that the opponent forces your outside line. There is no doubt that neither Big Q nor Fisher can reach the level of Sprewell and Cassel's offensive ability with the ball that is not afraid of pressing.

Big Q's difference to Sprewell may not be that much, but Fisher's difference to Cassell is a lot.

"If the Suns can find their Cassel, maybe their rating can be raised by half a star!"

The Suns' first quarter of this game was surprising, but the Cavaliers' first quarter was absolutely shocking.

"James has improved a bit quickly, and the Cavaliers' young players Mo Williams and Korver are more mature than we thought."

"If James can stabilize his shooting ability and confidence in the first quarter of this game this season, and if the maturity of these role players in the Cavaliers is not an accident, then the Cavaliers will definitely be a five-star team!"

Good guys, five-star team!

This rating is for a championship-level team.

I have to say that the first quarter of the game between the Cavaliers and Suns was really quite informative.

In the second quarter of the game, the two teams continued to rotate players.

The Cavaliers have always led the rotation of players with James.

But this game was Chen Xiao. Chen Xiao left the game after playing nine minutes in the first quarter.

Xiao Zhan felt good in the first quarter, so let him score more points.

In the second quarter, Chen Xiao led the team from the power forward position to the point guard position.

This makes Suns coach Gentry quite uncomfortable.

Because no one can match Chen Xiao who plays point guard!

If Chen Xiao plays power forward, he can still play Rashid, but if Chen Xiao plays point guard, who can he play?

Smush Parker or Jim Jackson coming to hug you?

Or rookie Japanese defender Yuta Tabashi?

Of course it can’t be used!

The only thing Gentry can use now is the young Brazilian Wade and Barbosa.

However, at the beginning of the second quarter, Chen Xiao faced the defense of Brazilian Wade Barbosa, scored two and three points, and directly hit Barbosa's head.

To be honest, Barbosa is really not short.

How can a point guard who is 1.91 meters tall be called short?

But Chen Xiao is too tall!

He is 2.03 meters tall in shoes, which is a full 12 centimeters taller than Barbosa. This is still height, but his wingspan is much higher.

Chen Xiao shot in front of Barbosa, and the Suns really had nothing to do.

And Chen Xiao’s hand feels so good tonight, how can you guard against it?

There is no way to defend at all!

It doesn't add up at all.

Brazilian Wade is not the real Wade after all.

In terms of strength and defensive skills, there is indeed a huge difference.

However, there is one thing that is surprising.

That is, the speed and explosive power of this Brazilian Wade really gave Chen Xiao a feeling of Wade.

Really, Chen Xiao feels that Barbosa's speed and explosiveness are really not much worse than Wade's, and they even feel almost the same!

And compared to Wade who likes to use his speed and explosion sparingly, Barbosa likes to use his speed and explosion to tear apart the opponent's defense.

There is no intention to maintain health at all.

Wade is actually very healthy now.

Wade now regards his speed and burst as a deterrent like nuclear weapons, which is usually not used.

It has to be said that although Chen Xiao was chopping up melons and vegetables when attacking Barbosa, his shooting made Barbosa desperate.

On the other hand, Chen Xiao actually doesn't have many options for Barbosa's lightning attack.

And what makes this kid better than Wade is that his three-point shooting is also very good.

"This guy is really good!"

To be honest, Chen Xiaozhen didn't expect that the Suns would come out with a backup point guard who could compete with him 50-50.

Why didn't this kid show his name at all before?

In fact, Barbosa played very well in his rookie season last season, but the Suns' performance was average and no one noticed him.

Even if they noticed the sun, they only noticed Marion and Stoudemire and the sudden rise of Joe Johnson. As for Barbosa, to be honest, no one paid attention.

However, last season in the Suns, the rookie Barbosa averaged 8 points per game in very limited playing time, and his three-point shooting percentage was close to 40%, and his shooting percentage at the basket exceeded 63%. It's great for a point guard.

He took almost 6.7 shots last season, 3 of which were outside the three-point line and 3 of which were at the basket. It can be said that most of his offense was either at the three-point line or at the basket. This kind of offense , in history, known as the magic ball.

That's right, Barbosa may be one of the earliest magic ball players in NBA history, and one of the strongest magic ball players.

At his peak, his shooting percentage from beyond the three-point line was close to 45%, and his shooting percentage at the basket was over 67%. This efficiency is better than that of James Harden, but Barbosa's style is too straight and he is not very good at it. Call a foul.

Brazilian Wade did not learn Wade's technique of throwing his body into the air to create confrontation.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that Barbosa's body is not as strong as Wade and Harden. To be honest, if the average defender really wants to learn how to draw fouls like James Harden, he will be very easily injured.

Don’t think this is easy to learn, it’s actually not easy either.

In short, due to the departure of Joe Johnson, Marion and Marbury, Barbosa will have a lot of performance opportunities in the Suns this season.

And this time when he came on as a substitute, the Brazilian Wade immediately made Chen Xiao and the whole world remember him.

"I didn't expect that the Suns found their Cassel so quickly!"

Barkley just said that if the Suns want to show their five-star strength, or to play five-and-a-half-star strength, they must find their own Cassell, a man who is not afraid of opponents pressing and can hand the ball over steadily. Players on Stoudemire and O'Neal.

As soon as he said this, the Suns found him.

Of course, don't blame Barkley, Kenny Smith and the national reporters on the sidelines for being surprised. To be honest, as the head coach of the Suns, Gentry was also very surprised.

"I haven't discovered him before!"

Gentry felt that this was his fault. Before, all his eyes were on O'Neal and the others. Although he also used Barbossa more heavily, he never thought that he had such potential.

In the second half of the second quarter, all starting players from both teams took the field.

For the Cavaliers, Mo Mo, Korver, James, Chen Xiao, and Chandler returned to the court.

As for the Suns, it has become O'Neal, Rasheed, Stoudemire, Big Q and Barbosa.

Fisher was miserable and once again sat on the bench.

To be honest, Fisher felt uncomfortable watching Barbosa replace him in the starting lineup.

Since leaving the Lakers, he has never had a stable starting position.

In the Nets, he was Payton's substitute. Now in the Suns, he finally has a starting position, right?

Damn it, a Barbossa appeared out of nowhere, who could he ask to reason with?

And, more importantly, he himself could see that Barbosa was more suitable for O'Neal and the others than him.

In other words, in the Suns, he will probably never start again.

"Why did I end up in the wrong team for a lifetime of misery?"

Fisher was miserable.

At this time, the game between the Cavaliers and the Suns continued on the court.

The Suns are indeed stronger after adding Barbosa.

Facing Barbosa, who is lightning fast and excellent at dribbling, it is difficult for the Cavaliers to have any players force him to get the ball.

Perhaps the only consolation is that his passing ability is average.

Therefore, it is difficult for him to fully utilize the offensive capabilities of O'Neal and Stoudemire.

But Barbosa and O'Neal's Suns are still much better than the starting Suns.

"Even if there is no running-in, the sun now has the strength of a five-star!"

This is scary.

What's even more terrifying is that the Suns, who replaced Fisher with Barbosa, still couldn't defeat the Cavaliers when they faced off against the Cavaliers!

Even at the end of the second quarter, the score between the two sides was 62 to 52!

The Cavaliers already lead by 10 points!

Even if they put aside the five points in the first quarter and the three-point deficit in rotation time, the Suns still lost to the Cavaliers by two points when they replaced Fisher with Barbosa for half the quarter!

"The Sun, which is already so powerful in attack, is still barely able to attack the Knights?!"

The Cavaliers this season are a bit scary!

Kobe, who was holding his son, looked amazed.