One Thousand Seven Hundred and Twenty-One. The Most Terrifying Talent
"Without the Lord's All-Stars, you will just watch the excitement. With the Lord's All-Stars, you will see the most gorgeous basketball feast in the world!"
During the last intermission, Hubie Brown, the first Sun Ce fan of Time Warner, shouted wildly.
If it weren't for his advanced age and inability to support flying around the United States for seven or eight consecutive months, Hubie Brown really wanted to return to the Grizzlies as an assistant coach to win a championship.
Everyone knows that Sun Ce will never leave the Grizzlies unless he wins the next championship.
And Sun Ce will never win a championship in the future? No one would be so naive.
In fact, many people are ready to steal a championship during the Grizzlies' defending season. Since the formation of 23+24, the Grizzlies' trading barriers have been broken. With such a good player operation of the Grizzlies, people believe that as long as the Grizzlies do not win a championship in one year, they will definitely be the favorite to win the championship in the second year.
Hubie Brown praised Sun Ce wildly when he disagreed with him, and even the black fans could not refute the aspects of his praise.
Indeed, if it weren't for Sun Ce, how could we see 24 All-Star players going all out for victory in the All-Star Game?
This situation has already shown signs since Sun Ce played in the Rookie Game in his rookie year. At that time, some fans expected that Sun Ce would "lead the All-Star Game" as well. Now he has indeed led the All-Star Game astray!
If the All-Star Game is played like this, the value of the All-Star MVP will be greatly improved!
After the intermission, the West team's Sun Ce, Klay Thompson, Paul George, James, and Love played.
On the East team's side, Paul, Korver, Hayward, Griffin, and Horford played.
Paul, who already had 27 points, 4 rebounds, 11 assists, and 2 steals, and Griffin, who already had 31 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 assists, if the East won, they are the two players in the East who have the best chance of winning the All-Star MVP.
They performed the best, and the East team naturally had to play around the two of them.
The East team wanted to rely on the Spurs system to catch up, and it did greatly strengthen the offense, which was much better than the offense in the third quarter.
The defense is also very good. Paul, Hayward, and Horford are all good at defense. Korver assists well. Griffin does a good job in switching defense and defending James' fast break.
However, the reason why Coach Hollins let James play one star and four stars is for his reason, and it has been proved that it is indeed reasonable.
The opponent's offense is definitely difficult to defend, but the opponent's Spurs system lacks the most critical link-Duncan!
Even if there is a Chandler or Noah in the East, the West team will be difficult to play, but the key is that the opponent does not have it!
With Sun Ce who made 15 of 24 shots tonight, including 6 three-pointers, Klay Thompson who made 4 three-pointers, Paul George who can shoot and cut, and Love who can break through the shooting after the pick-and-roll, James broke through the pick-and-roll like a man in the land!
Korver can confront James, and Griffin can also confront James, but after these two obstacles, Horford under the basket can defend well and has a good way to prevent breakthroughs. Sun Ce, Paul George, and Westbrook are all difficult to break through him, but compared with Duncan... Even Duncan, who is about to turn 39, is much better than Horford.
Let alone Horford, Duncan can lock a defensive position with an average playing time of less than 30 minutes per game. You can imagine how good this defensive efficiency and actual defensive effect are.
James's pick-and-roll breakthrough effect may only be barely comparable to Rose. James is not greedy for assists and scores whenever he has the chance to break through.
In such a game, he plays too comfortably, with less playing time, and he can go all out every second.
No matter how well the Eastern team plays offensively, James can withstand it. With four shooters, he is the most handsome guy.
The Eastern team had no choice but to double-team James after the pick-and-roll, hoping to use the fast rotation defense to wait for James to pass the ball and then defend the Western team.
Love can pass the ball. He has averaged 4+ assists per game for two consecutive seasons. He can pass the ball to any of the three shooters. When James breaks through the pick-and-roll and attracts double-teaming, whoever is closer to Love, Sun Ce or Paul George, will move towards Love. When Love receives the ball from James, the defender has to defend Love. When he receives the ball from Love, he will throw it if there is an open space. When someone comes to defend, he will break through.
This simple and rough style of play, relying on James's strong strength, plays very smoothly!
The Eastern team really has no choice. The best lineup they played tonight was almost all Horford playing center. Gasol and Pau Gasol played hard tonight. Evans's cooperation with Pau Gasol is also counted in the league's double teams, but it is not so suitable in such a game. Both of them are pure core players.
When the official timeout came in the fourth quarter, the Western team was 162 to 151, still maintaining a lead of more than 10 points!
When Paul, Evans, Hayward, Griffin, and Horford, who were about to play on the Eastern team, looked at the combination of Sun Ce, Curry, James, Duncan, and Aldridge on the opposite side, they felt that the game was over.
After the timeout, Sun Ce, who only scored 5 points in the first half of the quarter, began to attack. In the first half of the quarter, he did not do a good job in the tandem defense, but there was nothing he could do. The center was Love, and the defense could not be good.
But now the ultimate frontcourt combination of Duncan + Aldridge + James can play a defensive role!
Although he was not able to defend the opponent suddenly like in the second half of the second quarter and limit the opponent's time for a small half quarter, it was enough to interfere. James rushed to attack for half a quarter, and now it was Sun Ce's turn!
Kobe and Durant made it clear that they didn't want to fight at the critical moment, and Coach Hollins didn't force them. The remaining players of the Western team, who had the strongest ability to attack at the critical moment, was Sun Ce.
The defense in the first half of the quarter was indeed unstoppable, so Sun Ce just maintained the threat of switching defense and shrinking the block to prevent the opponent from shooting so easily. On the offensive end, he made a counterattack hook shot and a three-pointer from James's sudden pass on the sideline, which was considered to be a half-quarter of health-preserving basketball.
Originally, Sun Ce took a physical potion during the halftime break, and several main players on the opponent's side fought for a long time. At this time, Sun Ce gave the Eastern team players a familiar feeling - how come this guy is getting faster and faster?
In the last half of the quarter, the Western team relied on the defense of Duncan, Aldridge and James to limit the opponent to only 19 points, while Sun Ce, with the help of James' pick-and-roll and Curry's containment, helped the team get 21 points. Among them, Sun Ce made 5 of 7 shots, including 1 three-pointer, and 3 of 3 free throws, soaring 14 points!
With Sun Ce's 62 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists, James' 26 points and 20 assists, Curry's 27 points, Durant's 15 points and Kobe's 24 points, the West beat the East 183 to 170!
Before the final whistle sounded, when Sun Ce scored the second three-pointer in the fourth quarter, which was the last goal, and the score exceeded 60 points, the fans at the scene were already crazy.
Sun Ce won the fourth All-Star Game triple-double in his career, and it was a 60+ triple-double!
Although it was not a regular season or a playoff, this was the third 60+ triple-double in NBA history, and the two regular season 60+ triple-doubles were all done by Sun Ce!
The East lost without temper, while on the West side, Kobe, Durant, Curry, James, Harden... and others could only say in their hearts that Sun Ce's ability to use his teammates was amazing!
They clearly felt that Sun Ce was "using" them. When the players who were the most threatening in singles had the ball, Sun Ce always brought the defenders to pass by them, but he grasped the timing very well and would not hinder their actions. For example, when they wanted to break through, Sun Ce would not bring the defenders to them to block the breakthrough route.
When Sun Ce brought the defenders to their side, there were several situations. One was that when they broke through, Sun Ce would slip to the bottom line to give his defenders a chance to defend them. Another was that when they broke through to the depth and had a bad chance to shoot and wanted to withdraw or seek support, Sun Ce brought the defenders over to let the opponent form a double team, and he was selective. Only those with sufficient vision advantages like Durant and James would do that. When Curry, Harden, and Kobe had the ball, Sun Ce would choose to respond more.
In other words, they did not feel disgusted when Sun Ce "used" them, because it gave them a good chance to pass the ball when their personal offense was not favorable.
The more powerful the star was, the more surprised they were when they partnered with him.
That kind of ability cannot be learned, just like Nash, Curry, Iverson and others' ball sense, this is definitely a talent!
This kind of talent is terrible in the eyes of these superstars, because the stronger the strength, the more obvious this talent is.
And Sun Ce, who has this kind of talent... not to mention, even Kobe, a superstar of the era who has two teammates, O'Neal and James, is thinking-when I am at my strongest and partner with him, will I play better?
Watching Sun Ce, who was interviewed, thanking his teammates surrounded by his wife, sister, and parents, the temporary teammates felt very comfortable this time. First of all, this may be the first time in NBA history that the two teams have done their best to prepare and go all out to win the game. In addition, from Sun Ce's tone, you can hear that Sun Ce is really thanking them for their help, which makes them feel that this guy is still like a human being sometimes.
The 15-minute post-match interview time ended, and NBA Commissioner David Stern came to the scene after the All-Star MVP voting.
This vote... just like last year, it was just a formality.
He scored 62 points in more than 42 minutes. Just based on this score, even James, who scored 20 points in both games, felt that he had already secured the All-Star MVP this year.
Not to mention that Sun Ce also got a triple-double!
David Stern, who saw the final average ratings and audience share at the end of the game, was so happy that his face almost broke. After finishing his opening remarks, he announced directly: "Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 2015 New York All-Star Weekend Most Valuable Player Award is - Lord, SunCe!"