Author: Aiying Shutan

The Suns eliminated the Mavericks and advanced to the Finals from the Western Conference. This was the first time in the team's history since Barkley's team reached the Finals in the 1992-93 season.

In total, it has been nearly thirteen years.

That time, after the Suns led by Barkley entered the Finals, they encountered the Bulls led by Jordan. In the end, they lost to their opponents 4:2 and achieved the Bulls' first three consecutive championships.

Thirteen years later, the Suns returned to the Finals after a long absence, and their opponent became the Miami Heat.

The Heat's road to breakout in the Eastern Conference was not difficult. They eliminated the Bulls 4:2 in the first round, defeated the Nets led by Kid Carter and Richard Jefferson 4:1 in the second round, and defeated the Pistons 4:2 in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Five Tigers.

After working together last season, the Heat's two core players, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade, have become more and more cooperative, vaguely feeling like they were in the OK era.

Although the Sharks are getting old now, averaging 20 points and 9 rebounds per game in the regular season, the 18.4 points and 10 rebounds in the playoffs so far are far from what they were back then, and the Heat are also far behind the three-peat dynasty.

The Lakers are strong.

But it is a mistake to use the Lakers in the OK era as a criterion. The Heat at this stage are one of the strongest teams in the league.

When the Heat met the Suns, most people believed that the Heat would win the final and win the championship trophy.

Including Wang Chao is no exception.

Wang Chao knows very well that it is already rare for the Suns to defeat the Mavericks 4:3 and reach the finals. It is simply wishful thinking to want to go further and defeat the Heat.

The Mavericks only have Nowitzki, and even if they can't defend him, they can still think of a way. The Heat have both Wade at the peak and O'Neal in his twilight years!

Needless to say how ruthless Wade was in the 2005-06 season. In the original time and space, the Mavericks would have been beaten 2:4 in four consecutive games after leading 2:0 in the first two games. Mainly because they were against

Wade had nothing to do.

In the 6 games of the Finals, Wade averaged 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game. He seemed to be an unstoppable killer, tearing the Mavericks' defense to pieces again and again with his lightning-fast breakthroughs.

The Mavericks can't guard Wade, and the Suns can't guard them either. Even though they have Laga Bell, who has top-notch perimeter defense capabilities, Bell's defense is useless in front of Wade.

Not only that, O'Neal in his later years cannot be underestimated either.

In the finals against the Mavericks, O'Neal did not perform well, averaging only 13.7 points and 10 rebounds in 6 games, but that was because he faced the Mavericks.

The Mavericks' inside combination is Nowitzki + Dampier. This player who claims to be the second center in the Western Conference is not very good, but he is also a standard heavy center. He needs tonnage and strength.

If it were O'Neal's peak period, Dampier might just be a loose ball, but now O'Neal's strength is not as good as before. Facing Dampier, a young and powerful center in the interior, it will be a bit difficult to play.

The problem is that the Suns don't have a heavy-duty center like Dampier, and many times they don't even have a truly qualified center on the court, and they mostly use forwards as guest centers.

This makes it impossible for them to face O'Neal, a killer at the basket!

…

On June 8, the first game of the finals started at the home court of the Suns, which had a better record.

Then the Heat used practical actions to tell the Suns what a super center is.

O'Neal seemed to have the second spring of his career. He made 12 of 14 shots in the game, 7 of 13 free throws, and scored 31 points and 16 rebounds with a terrifying shooting rate of 85.7%.

The Suns' inside line was defeated by O'Neal alone, and the game was lost to the opponent without any suspense.

At 99:94, the Suns lost their first home game.

The Heat, who won the first game, pursued the victory in the second game and wanted to win two consecutive away games.

O'Neal continued to be the main point of attack for the Heat, making 13 of 20 shots from the field. Unfortunately, he missed the free throw. He made 3 of 10 shots and scored 29 points and 10 rebounds. At the same time, Wade also performed well, making 8 of 15 shots and 7 of 8 free throws.

23 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

However, the Heat were not selected to win 2 consecutive games and instead lost in this game.

After all, the Suns are not in trouble. In this game, they gave full play to the advantages of run-and-gun tactics. The frequent and fast-paced offense and defense made the Heat tired to cope with it. At the same time, the inside players also frequently pulled out the outside to provide pick-and-roll screens for their teammates. This made Wang

Chao got a lot of shooting opportunities, making 9 of 16 three-pointers and scoring 27 points.

O'Neal's shortcomings were undoubtedly exposed in this game. Although the Suns did not have a heavy center inside and could score at will, whenever the Suns made a fast break or pulled out a pick-and-roll inside, O'Neal was not effective. At this time, he was on the court.

It can only hold back.

And because O'Neal's free throw touch was not good in today's game, the Suns also frequently used shark-cutting tactics to limit the opponent's performance, and finally defended their home court and evened the score to 1:1.

However, this situation was only temporary. As the game venue moved to Miami, the home of the Heat, the Suns began to be unable to contain the decline.

On June 13, the Suns lost to the Heat 96:98, losing by 2 points.

On June 15, the Suns lost the game again 104:112, with the big score reaching 3:1, and the Heat gained the match point first.

In these two games, the Suns lost not because of O'Neal, but because of Wade's performance.

During this period, Wade was really terrifyingly strong, as Wang Chao expected.

G3 made 14 of 26 shots from the field, 14 of 17 free throws, scored 44 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists. Especially in the fourth quarter, he scored 15 points, turning around the game that was originally behind and winning.

Immediately following Game 4, Wade made 13 of 23 shots, 9 of 10 free throws, and scored 37 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Facing O'Neal, the Suns, who couldn't defend themselves, could still use a shark-cutting tactic, but facing the rampaging Wade, the Suns, like the Mavericks, had no other options.

Even Wang Chao couldn't deal with this disparity in strength.

In fact, Wang Chao played more relaxedly in the game against the Heat than against the Mavericks. The Heat's small forward Antoine Walker was an All-Star player and averaged 23 points and 10 rebounds per game in his peak period.

However, the 2005-06 season was already at the end of Walker's career, and his average data per game had dropped to only 8.5 points and 4.3 rebounds, and his age also made his physical fitness and explosive power far inferior to before.

Wang Chao can get out of the open position more easily by running without the ball than when facing Josh Howard, and because of O'Neal, the success rate of his teammates pulling him from the inside to screen him is also very high.

But even so, Wang Chao's existence still couldn't offset the huge strength gap between the two teams.
Chapter completed!