radicalducati Chapter 49 The Lakers' Rage and the Lin's Rage!
Chapter 49 The Lakers' Rage and the Lin's Rage!
This victory, while not boosting Garnett's All-Star voting, actually reinforced one thing for everyone—
He's Garnett, on par with Lin Ze!
That's not so bad, but don't forget there's still one game between the Timberwolves and the Spurs!
Garnett played equally poorly in this game!
Garnett's least favorite matchup is against a duo of muscular big men, where two centers insist on starting together as a twin towers, making Garnett's game against the Spurs incredibly difficult.
这个晚上，邓肯和罗宾逊双双轰下20+10，而加内特又是一个低命中率的17分13篮板6助攻2抢断3盖帽。
He's well-rounded, but unable to lead the team to victory.
This brings to a close the three-team battle that had captivated the entire league.
All three teams had one win and one loss, but looking at the overall picture, Garnett was undoubtedly the biggest loser, or even the only loser.
After all, Duncan and Lin Ze both had their highlight moments, but Garnett had two consecutive bad games.
As for how he managed to defend against Lin Ze?
Who cares about that!
Even Garnett, wasn't he locked down by Lin Ze?
Lin Ze and Duncan traded blows, but both of them outplayed Garnett!
Many people have even made a direct prediction: the person who will fall behind in this year's All-Star voting will be Garnett!
Whether Garnett will fall behind depends on the results of the second round of voting in two weeks.
When January arrived, the Lakers had a record of 28 wins and 2 losses, still firmly holding the top spot in the league.
Then, the Lakers went on another scoring spree!
In all 14 games in January, the Lakers achieved a record of 12 wins and 2 losses! Once again, the best record in the entire league.
This also includes a record of 6 wins and 1 loss during a 7-game away trip!
The Lakers have perfectly weathered their worst stretch of the season, and their current record is a terrifying 40 wins and 4 losses!
Their ability to maintain a huge hope of breaking the Bulls' 72-win record even without Kobe Bryant has truly surprised many people.
在这波12胜2负的旅程之中，湖人队功劳最大的自然是在这期间场均拿下29分13篮板5助攻3盖帽的奥尼尔，这个大家伙也如愿捧起了1月份的月最佳球员。
Besides O'Neal, Lin Ze's performance was also crucial to the Lakers' dominance of the league in January!
林泽完美的接过了科比的枪，他在1月份场均能够拿到23.5分6.6篮板1.7助攻，同时他的三项命中率达到了51%，44%和83%！
His progress was nothing short of leaps and bounds.
When he averaged 15.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in his first month, many people thought he was a shoo-in for the Most Improved Player award.
In December, he scored 20+ points in three consecutive games, won Player of the Week, hit a game-winning shot, and scored 40+ points twice, averaging 19.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in the month.
Then in January, he made another significant improvement. After three months of continuous leaps in progress, Lin Ze's average stats for the season were temporarily set at 19.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.6 blocks, with shooting percentages of 51%, 44%, and 84% respectively!
At the same time, Lin Ze not only made great progress in his data, but his efficiency also improved to the level of the league's top shooters!
He currently boasts the league's highest three-point field goal percentage (only counting players with more than 10 attempts), and also leads the league in both three-point field goal percentage and total three-point field goal percentage!
It's no exaggeration to say that Lin Ze has surpassed Ray Allen and Reggie Miller in these three months and is the league's best shooter!
In short, if Lin Ze was just the top favorite for Most Improved Player in November, then now he has completely secured the award.
The most predictable regular season award of the season has been decided.
Oh, and there's another award that's basically a foregone conclusion as well.
Shaquille O'Neal is the MVP!
Shaquille O'Neal, who led his team to this level of success, has been reigning supreme on the MVP rankings and various prediction lists for almost three months!
Meanwhile, as January drew to a close, the NBA finally announced the final results of this year's All-Star voting.
Most of the positions were already clear when the league announced the interim results twice before. Now that the final official results have been announced, all the debates and disputes have finally come to an end.
Vince Carter ultimately became the top vote-getter. The allure of the UFO and the anticipation surrounding his upcoming Slam Dunk Contest earned him 219 million votes, making him the NBA's all-time leader in votes and the first player to surpass 200 million votes!
Of course, the most important reason why Carter received more than 200 million votes is that the league opened online voting and several new voting channels this year!
Besides Carter, Mourning, Hill, Iverson, and Eddie Jones were selected as the Eastern Conference All-Star starters. This result was almost a foregone conclusion. Apart from Jones beating Houston and Marbury, which was a little unexpected, the other four players had basically secured their positions before the All-Star voting even began.
In the Western Conference, O'Neal became the top vote-getter and starting center with 208 million votes. He was just a hair's breadth away from surpassing Carter, which was somewhat of a disappointment.
Besides O'Neal, the second-highest vote-getter in the West was his teammate Lin Ze!
Lin Ze surpassed a host of superstars such as Duncan, Garnett, Pippen, Webber, and Malone to become the starting forward for the Western Conference!
He received 201 million votes, becoming the third star to receive more than 200 million votes!
Behind him was Duncan, who received 183 million votes.
Poor Garnett, due to his poor performance and losses in several key games, only received 175 million votes. Although this was more than all the backcourt players in the West, he still had to say goodbye to the starting lineup.
Although he is still almost 100% guaranteed a spot on the bench, losing to Lin Ze and Duncan is an incredibly frustrating experience for Garnett.
In the backcourt, Kobe Bryant, despite receiving 120 million votes and still being able to start, was surpassed by Jason Kidd's 124 million votes and could only come in second.
As for those two behind them, there were Payton and Williams, who were beaten so badly they were practically brainless. Both of them received more than 110 million votes, which is a real shame.
With that, the starting lineups for the Eastern and Western Conference All-Star games are complete. The only remaining question is whether Kobe will be able to make it to All-Star Weekend and whether he will start!
After all, there are still two weeks until the All-Star Game, and according to the previously estimated time for Kobe's return, he will be able to make it in time!