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No one will think that Wang Chong's low score is due to his own decline, simply because the current Bulls are scoring too many points. The whole team has five double-doubles, the starting lineup consists of Wang Chong, Curry, Gasol Jr., and Butler, with Thomas coming off the bench. It can be said that Wang Chong is providing more opportunities for others to play, which is why he deliberately reduced his own shot attempts.
After all, this is Wang Chong, who was the league's leading scorer for eight consecutive seasons in the past, surpassing Jordan, who was the top scorer for seven consecutive years. Wang Chong is not far from Jordan's career record of ten scoring titles!
However, if Wang Chong does not have a strong desire to compete for the scoring title, his streak of consecutive scoring titles will likely remain at eight.
This season's leading scorer is Kevin Durant, who is averaging 33.6 points per game.
Thanks to Wang Chong, Durant's previous six-year career can be described as unsuccessful, with Durant never having won a scoring title.
And this season, Wang Chong didn't have a particularly strong desire to score from the start, which allowed Durant to finally see hope in competing for the scoring title.
In addition to the Celtics, this season, with Paul Pierce aging and his competitive level declining, the Green Army only has Durant as a strong offensive weapon on the outside.
With the support of the entire team, Durant is averaging 22 shots per game, a career-high, and scoring 33.6 points per game, well ahead of Wang Chong's current average.
It is clear that Durant is determined to win the scoring title this time, although the margin between him and second place, Kobe Bryant, who is averaging 28.4 points per game, is 5.2 points, and Durant has no intention of reducing his shot attempts.
With Durant's stellar scoring performance, the Celtics' record in the East is also impressive, closely trailing the Heat, and the two teams have maintained a win-difference of about one or two games.
This has caught the attention of the league's referees.
In fact, they are still worried; James' consecutive MVP awards have caused much controversy. Who will compete with Wang Chong for the MVP this season? Is it still James? No one believes James deserves a third MVP honor, and James has struggled to find another championship so far.
However, they were not willing to give the MVP to Wang Chong just like that, and at this moment, Durant appeared, giving them hope.
With Durant's scoring ability and current statistics, there will be no controversy in awarding him the regular season MVP, as long as the Celtics' regular season record exceeds 55 wins.
The Bulls are indeed strong this season, but based on their current record, they are likely to achieve 60+ wins. However, due to injuries, it is difficult for the Bulls to replicate the miracle of 73 wins in that one season. As long as they don't exceed 70+ wins, with Wang Chong's current average of 27 points per game, he is not competitive enough.
As the schedule progresses, anyone can see that the situation is gradually becoming clearer, and Wang Chong is naturally aware of this.
If it were the past, he would indeed be interested in competing with Durant to see who is stronger and who is weaker.
But now, he has absolutely no interest.
He doesn't know when it started, but Wang Chong's mentality has gradually begun to change.
Maybe it's because of the birth of his daughter—becoming a father for the first time gave Wang Chong many new ideas.
Or maybe it's the accumulation of various honor records that Wang Chong has started to get used to.
But there's no denying it; anyone who has dominated the league for years, monopolizing all the championships and victories, can't help but feel this way.
In simple terms, it's like playing a role-playing game. When you start from scratch, you have a variety of goals and directions, and the perspective is full of excitement.
But as the game progresses, your original zero-level character has become an invincible max-level character. It's easy to sweep through several maps, and the once-passionate raids are reduced to just grinding, and it's hard to say you're not getting bored.
The only goal Wang Chong needs to surpass now is Jordan, but whether in his own view or in the eyes of the world, it's only a matter of time before he surpasses Jordan.
The most important honor gap between them is an MVP, an FMVP, and two scoring titles. Once Wang Chong wins these honors, he will be tied with Jordan in all the major honors, and as soon as Wang Chong wins another FMVP, it means his championship count will reach 7, surpassing Jordan's six titles, making it indisputable that he will be the greatest player in history.
Even if Wang Chong won another championship with the Lakers as a third leader, the three leaders still form the core of the team, and the merit of winning the championship is shared.
Moreover, Wang Chong's other championships are all as the undeniable No. 1 core, leading the Bulls to four consecutive championships and 73 regular season wins, surpassing Jordan.
So, in reality, it's not difficult for Wang Chong to set Jordan as his professional goal, and when he officially surpasses Jordan and becomes the greatest player in NBA history, what significance does it have for him to continue playing in the NBA? Keep breaking records and making his position as the greatest player unbreakable? Even with Wang Chong's current achievements, it is unlikely that anyone will replicate them in the coming decades or even hundreds of years.
As soon as he thinks about this, Wang Chong feels much less motivated to play. That is, when he plays against several strong teams, including the Heat, he might get a little excited.
In this state of mind, Wang Chong really has no interest in competing with Durant for the scoring title this season.
Of course, this is just part of the reason. The most important reason is that Wang Chong selectively reduced his shots to better help grow the other players on his team.
Saying a thousand things, Wang Chong feels that the most important thing is that Durant does not interest him too much.
Although Durant was originally part of his growth plan and is also recognized as one of the greatest scorers in NBA history, there is one thing to say: due to physical limitations, Durant's scoring explosiveness is insufficient. With such a strong scoring ability, Durant has only averaged over 30 points per game twice in his career.
In comparison to Durant, Wang Chong feels that Harden could be more capable of awakening his desire to win in the coming years. After all, Harden managed to average 36.1 points per game in the regular season at his peak—a feat Wang Chong has never achieved. The highest single-season scoring average for Wang Chong was 35.6 points per game in the 05-06 season, when he competed with Kobe Bryant for the scoring title.
This change in mentality has also confused Wang Chong a bit.
But no matter what his mentality is, the Bulls remain unstoppable, marching toward the end, continuously collecting victory after victory.
There's no way around it—the current depth of the Bulls' roster is simply overwhelming.
In January 2014, the Bulls had a record of 13-2 in 15 games in January, with an overall record of 38-7, maintaining an 84% win rate, leading the league.
And the results of the remaining All-Star voting rounds were also announced in January.
It wasn't much different from the first round of voting. In the East, the forward position is dominated by Wang Chong, James, and Durant from top to bottom, while the shooting guard positions are filled by Curry and Wade.
Thus, the starting lineup for the Eastern Conference All-Star is Curry, Wade, James, Durant, and Wang Chong.
Howard, who ranked fourth in frontcourt votes, and Irving, who ranked second in the guard position, could only feel regret and become bench players for the All-Star Game.
Compared to the Eastern All-Stars, the starting lineup of the Western All-Star looks a bit worn down.
Kobe Bryant, who remained uninjured, became the king of votes in the West, but he only ranked fourth in the East, significantly lower than Wang Chong, James, and Durant.
This was inevitable. Although Kobe Bryant did not suffer a major injury, such as the Achilles tendon rupture that was initially expected to sideline him for the season, Kobe Bryant, at 35 years old, has seen his performance decline despite averaging 27+5+5 per game. The Lakers' overall decline was uncontrollable.
The Lakers are currently in eighth place in the West, and it seems they will make the playoffs, but with a little more than half the schedule remaining, the second half will be more intense. It is hard to say whether the Lakers can maintain that eighth position in the West.
And although Kobe Bryant averaged 27+5+5 per game and was among the top five in league scoring, it didn't seem much different from the past. But his shooting percentage exposed the reality.
Kobe Bryant is shooting just 40.8% from the field this season, the lowest of his career, and his offensive efficiency has decreased significantly.
It is worth mentioning that Bosh, who joined the Lakers, changed from being a "disgruntled daughter-in-law" in the Heat to averaging 21 points and 7 rebounds per game, becoming a key pillar of the Lakers' interior.
Based on Kobe's 27 points, Bosh's 21 points, and Jamal's 16 points per game off the bench, the Lakers have been able to stay among the top eight in the West.
Let's return to the topic of the Western Conference All-Star starters.
The change in the quality of stars in the East and West can be seen in the players selected to start in the Western Conference All-Star Game.
The other four players selected to start alongside Kobe Bryant were Chris Paul of the Clippers, Blake Griffin of the Thunder, Kevin Love of the Timberwolves, and LaMarcus Aldridge of the Trail Blazers.
The five starters, Kobe Bryant and Paul, can compete with the Eastern All-Star starters in terms of "café" positions. However, the other three, whether Greenfinn, Love, or Aldridge, are only considered average stars by many fans. How can they compete with the Eastern starters?
In the past, it was said that the West was strong and the East was weak, but now with Wang Chong, James, Durant, Howard, and other superstars in the East, this trend has long been broken.
This year's All-Star Weekend is scheduled for mid-February, from the 15th to the 17th.
During the All-Star weekend, Durant became the biggest winner.
In the All-Star Game, Durant hit 14 of 27 field goal attempts, scoring 38 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and dishing out 6 assists, leading the Eastern All-Stars to defeat the Western All-Stars 160-155. He was also successfully named the All-Star Game MVP for this performance.
The next day, the news was filled with reports that Durant had won the All-Star MVP.
It can be seen that the league has begun to generate momentum for Durant, clearly hoping that Durant will win the All-Star MVP, regular season MVP, and scoring title this season. If possible, winning a championship in the playoffs and reclaiming the FMVP would be even better.
Unfortunately, the championship ownership is not as simple as the media suggests, and the operation behind the scenes is quite complex. At most, the referees may subtly favor the team they want to win, but if the power gap is too large, it is hard to change the outcome.
After all, the league has not yet reached a point where they can completely ignore public opinion to control games, and referees have shown bias to the point of being unscrupulous.
So, that's all they can do to help Durant.
In February, the Bulls' record fluctuated, mainly due to Gasol Jr.'s injury, which caused him to miss many games, resulting in a 9-4 record in 13 games and a new dip in the Bulls' overall record.
During the sprint stage in the second half of the season in March, Wang Chong, feeling the pressure from the team's injuries, chose to rest players properly, as in previous years. Even when Gasol Jr. returned from injury, the Bulls' record did not improve and continued to hover close to February's results.
This brought the Bulls' record to 57-17 by late March, dropping their win rate below 80% to 77%.
But still, the Bulls held the best record in the league, while the San Antonio Spurs, who led the West, had only a 75% win rate.
By April, the Bulls had just eight games left, and the opponents were generally not of high intensity: Hawks, Bucks, Wizards, Timberwolves, Pistons, Knicks, Magic, and Bobcats.
Among these teams, the Hawks, Bobcats, and Knicks were a bit more complicated, with the Hawks, Bobcats, and Knicks battling at the edge of the playoffs, needing three teams to compete for two playoff spots.
The Bulls had a clear goal this season: they only needed to secure the best record in the league and ensure they always had home-court advantage in the playoffs. Therefore, after defeating the weaker teams in the first few games, the Bulls were half-hearted and half-relaxed when facing the three teams that had to fight hard.
In the final eight games, the Bulls recorded 6-2, finishing the season with a 63-19 record, higher than the Spurs' 60-22, and entered the playoffs with the best record in the league.
Although this was almost the worst record for the Bulls in recent years, no one dared to underestimate them, as they remained the favorites to win the league championship.
The external media's evaluation of the Bulls was very objective and to the point.
"Although the Bulls suffered some injuries during the regular season, it's clear that they have fully recovered from the injuries now. While the Bulls' 63-win record this season is slightly less satisfying than in previous years, their deliberate abandonment of certain games at the end of the season clearly indicates that they want to focus more energy on the playoffs."
"Now that the Bulls have a full roster, the injured players have returned, and they are heading into the playoffs in full championship form, it's hard to imagine any team in the league capable of competing with them. The odds of the Bulls defending the title this season are as high as more than 70%, at least that's what we think."
End of this chapter
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