one-handed ball

Chapter 341 January and All Stars
Not long after New Year's Day, the Timberwolves led by Zheng Ke were attacked by a large wave of powerful opponents.

There are old strong teams such as the Lakers, Rockets, Celtics, etc., as well as new strong teams such as the Bulls and Grizzlies. The Timberwolves have come all the way.

Finally, on January 1, the Orlando Magic encountered their third loss of the season.

Although the Timberwolves lost, it is not a bad thing, at least it relaxes the tense nerves a little.Because when they are on a winning streak, every player is very excited, mentally and physically.Such a slight relaxation will help the Timberwolves to better exert their combat effectiveness.

At the same time, the NBA's official All-Star voting ends.

Zheng Ke became this year's vote leader with more than 400 million votes, which once again set a record for the NBA All-Star Game. He surpassed No.2 Kobe Bryant's nearly 100 million votes.In addition to proving that the NBA has seen more and more audiences following the rise of Zheng Ke and others, it also proves once again that Zheng Ke now faintly exudes the "League No.1" atmosphere.

As soon as the voting channel is closed, the respective starters of the east and west are also determined.

In the East, Rose and Wade are at the guard position, James and Stoudemire are at the forward position, and Howard is still at the center position.In the West, Paul and Kobe will partner in the backcourt, Zheng Ke and Durant will partner in the frontcourt, and Yao Ming will serve as the center.

Yao Ming is 31 years old this year, and he doesn't have the super statistics that were almost comparable to the four major centers in the past two years.

This season, he averaged 22.9 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. With the combination of Martin, Brooks and other outsiders, his scoring average dropped by nearly five or six points compared with the previous two seasons, but the team's record is still half-dead, even worse than The record when he cooperated with McGrady that year.

Yao Ming is also very troubled by this. He hopes that the Rockets can make some moves in the free market. Specifically, the trading model like the Big Three of the Heat can improve the Rockets' immediate combat power.This year is the last year of his contract, and Yao Ming has also had a showdown with the team. The possibility of leaving Houston cannot be ruled out.This frightened Alexander, and the cash cow was about to run away, which was not bad, so he called an emergency meeting and informed Morey to start the "giant plan" as soon as possible.

This is also the reason why the Rockets kept moving in the free market last summer. Unfortunately, they couldn't find a suitable superstar. The teaming of James, Wade, and Bosh broke the hearts of the Rockets management.After that, there were no big fish in the market, only some small fish and shrimps, which could not meet the standard of "giant".

They have been keeping an eye on Anthony, who is in a contract year, but they don't want Anthony to have flirted with the Knicks.

This time the Rockets searched for giants all over the world, but here the Timberwolves fell into happiness troubles because there were too many people who could play.For example, at the center position, the hero of the previous year's championship "Birdman" Anderson has now become the third substitute. Although he is not the kind of person who values ​​time, he will inevitably feel unhappy after a long time.

A reasonable allocation of playing time for each player is also one of the things the head coach needs most, which is related to the improvement of the combat effectiveness of the entire team and the harmony of the relationship.It happened that Pekovic's left thigh muscle was strained, so Anderson got a lot of opportunities again at the center position, which calmed his restless mind.

After the loss to the Orlando Magic, the Timberwolves won all of January's games -- a seven-game winning streak, as usual.

The media exclaimed that the Timberwolves were "lost in January"!
From the start of the game to the present, losing to the Clippers in November, losing to the Trail Blazers in December, and losing to the Magic in January, the Timberwolves lost one game a month. This is an unheard of thing in the history of the NBA. The Timberwolves are so powerful The record blinded everyone's eyes.

And rookie head coach Tom Thibodeau is even more sought after by everyone.

"This is definitely the strongest rookie show in history!" Barkley said bluntly, "Tom Thibodeau's head coach has brought huge changes to the Timberwolves. The strength of the Timberwolves has accumulated to a high level, and his arrival has added the most Good chemical substances produced the most wonderful chemical reaction and achieved a qualitative change. The Timberwolves, from the inside out, shed the youthfulness of the previous two years and became brutal, domineering, and full of strength!"

Everyone loves to hear the words of praise, and Zheng Ke is no exception. People began to praise him as the number one star in the league, which made him overjoyed.

This year's All-Star venue is in Los Angeles, and the time is set on February 2th (main game time) in the United States.The All-Star game is an affirmation of the players. The players selected for the All-Star may not necessarily be strong, but at least the performance of the first half of the season has entered the eyes of the coaches and fans.A player who doesn't want to be an All-Star is not a good player, and any player who enters the league longs for that day.

Especially this year, the venue was placed in an international metropolis like Los Angeles, which attracted a group of players to compete to perform on the field.

And with the help of the location, the coaches will also consider the feelings of the host when voting. Like the Clippers, the record difference is outrageous, but Griffin has also successfully become one of the remaining seven.

The long-awaited Love finally got his wish this season and became an All-Star player.He is in a perverted team like the Timberwolves, who has only lost three games so far, and averaged 19.4 points and 14.5 rebounds per game. If he is not selected, Minnesota will riot.

Unfortunately, Billups lost the election.

This season, Billups' average playing time has been reduced to 30 minutes, especially when he does not occupy the ball, scoring only 14.8 points. Deron and Westbrook beat.

In the end, the Timberwolves with an incredible record were only selected to two All-Stars.

In addition to the starting five in the Western Conference All-Star lineup, Love, Griffin, Deron and Westbrook, there are Duncan, Nowitzki and Anthony.

The Timberwolves only selected two players, and the defending champion Lakers were even worse. Even Pau Gasol was not selected as an All-Star.

Kobe was immediately dissatisfied. After the roster came out, he avenged his younger brother: "Paul (Gasol) has been treated unfairly. His contribution and strength should be enough to make him an All-Star starter. But he couldn't even be selected as a substitute, and those who underestimate him should really open their eyes."

But once the roster is out, it is almost impossible to change it, unless someone is injured during this time.

It's a pity that until the day before the All-Star Weekend, all [-] teams in the league had finished their games, and there were still no injuries to any players who had already been selected for the All-Star Weekend.

In the East, four players from one team appeared on the bench.Pierce, Ray Allen, Garnett and Rondo occupy four places, and the remaining three are Bosh, Al Horford and Joe Johnson.I have to say that there is a big difference in voting between the coaches of the East and the West.

"So, the Eastern Conference's 12-member All-Star team actually comes from only 6 different teams." Zheng Ke shook his head, his face full of disbelief.He was on the flight to Los Angeles, and the Timberwolves specially chartered a plane to send Zheng Ke, Love, and Pekovic there. Several people brought their families and staff, and they actually made this small plane full.

"Hey, there is no way! It's a pity that Chauncey couldn't be with us." Le Fu was wearing a pair of huge sunglasses. Although his expression was calm, Zheng Ke's eyes read people's hearts, and he knew that Le Fu was still excited. Thinking of this, he He joked about Love: "Looks like Chauncey said the same thing last year, but it's a pity that Kevin didn't go with him."

"Really?" Le Fu raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, "It's a pity that I will keep going in the future."

"That's true." Zheng Ke laughed, nodded and acknowledged Love's strength, and said, "If you can keep up with this stat, it won't be a big problem to enter the All-Star every year, maybe you can be a starter in the future What."

"By the way, who will participate in the slam dunk contest this year?" Taylor asked enthusiastically.

"It seems like there is Griffin!" Zheng Ke asked uncertainly. He was obsessed with the game during this time, so he didn't have the time to pay attention to this, but the days before was also a day when promotional videos were flying all over the sky. He seemed to remember the one from the Clippers. The kid took part in the dunk contest.

"There's Mackie!"

Love replied, all but raising his hand.

"What, there is him!" Zheng Ke was taken aback, and he was very familiar with McGee.Not because of his 2.5-footer, arms-over-the-knee athleticism; not because of his [-] blocks per game this year.It's because McGee, this guy, made a lot of incredible moves in a game against the Timberwolves this year. Once he ran to their own half for a fast break inexplicably, which made Zheng Ke baffled.

So as soon as McGee was mentioned, Zheng Ke was happy, and asked Love with great interest: "Who else is there?"

"There are also Ibaka and DeRozan!" Love has obviously browsed such news a long time ago, and clearly remembered that every contestant was hit. He explained: "It was originally Jennings who was going to participate, but because of He got injured, and DeRozan was in the dunk contest."

"Really? I said why DeRozan ran to participate in the game again. His performance last year made my eyes shine." Zheng Ke said with a smile.

Love took off his sunglasses, then rubbed his eyes, and said: "You dunked so well last year, and Griffin's crazy dunks in the first half of the season, his reputation has soared, so this year's fans are still interested in the dunk contest." Looking forward to it."

Speaking of Griffin, Love is still depressed and said: "Griffin is really unreasonable for dunking, but I have a good heart and can't make it. Maybe one day dunking will drag him down cruelly." , let him taste the pain of being thrown."

Zheng Keshen thought the same.

(End of this chapter)