After accepting the on-site interview and post-game press release, Wang Zelin returned to the hotel, packed up, and boarded the charter flight from Indiana back to Portland.
It's not easy. The crazy five-game away battle is finally over. He looked around and saw that most of his teammates were wearing eye masks and sleeping peacefully. They had no energy to do anything else.
"sleep."
Wang Zelin smiled and lay back.
The Trail Blazers players on the plane were extremely quiet, but fans on major social media could not sleep all night.
Because in the middle of the third quarter of the latest game between the Trail Blazers and Pacers, when Wang Zelin scored 30 points on the field, Wang Zelin's name was all over the news and newspapers, whether at home or abroad.
30+ points in three consecutive away games!
The most explosive scoring performance in the new season!
And back-to-back 40+ points at the end of the game!
Etc., etc.
All of this is Wang Zelin's performance when many main players were injured one after another.
To be honest, this is quite shocking.
So after the game, fans continued to discuss it on social media.
"Three consecutive games with 30+ points, including one game with 40+ points! Back-to-back. To be honest, I have only seen this kind of explosive scoring power from Kobe and LeBron."
"It's really hard to imagine that the biggest surprise to us this season, both in terms of team performance and personal data, is actually a center?"
"Don't look down on centers. In the past, the NBA was dominated by centers."
"You said it yourself, it was before..."
"I have to ask weakly, is it not possible now?"
"Well……"
"By the way, have you noticed something very scary? After 24 consecutive victories, Wang Zelin averaged 28.3 points per game. Among players who played 20+ games, he beat Harden, who averaged 27.8 points per game in 24 games. Kobe, who played 20 games and averaged 27.2 points per game, and LeBron, who played 22 games and averaged 26.5 points per game!”
“Not only that, but there are also rebounds and blocks, averaging 14.5 and 2.9 per game respectively, beating Jordan, who averaged 14.1 rebounds per game, and Davis, who averaged 2.7 blocks per game, topping the double list. !”
Fans really didn't expect that Wang Zelin, who originally only ranked first in rebounds and blocks, would now even take the top spot in the scoring list.
Currently, one person from the Trail Blazers is temporarily ranked first in the scoring list + rebounding list + blocks list!
To be honest, in fact, all three major lists look very unstable. Davis on the block list was the block leader last season. He showed great potential on the defensive end when he first entered the league. He ranked first in the block list last season. He ranked second last year. His average of 2.8 blocks per game is second only to Wang Zelin's average of 3.2 blocks per game. He is still chasing after him this season.
In addition, the gaps between the players at the top of the scoring and rebounding lists are also very close, but if they can hold on for a day, it is still a day. After all, it is the supreme honor to be number one in the three lists!
Before Wang Zelin and Lillard were selected into the team, the Trail Blazers' team history corresponded to that sentence: Insufficient compared with the superiors, but more than adequate compared with the inferiors.
Although they can't compete with those giants, they can't stop them from winning a championship, which allows them to kill a lot of teams in team history.
In addition to the championship, the Trail Blazers are the only data king who has appeared. It is the rebounding king won by the ancient god Bill Walton in the 1976-77 season. Apart from this, there is no other data king.
That's why Trail Blazers fans were so excited when Wang Zelin was crowned rebounding champion twice and blocked shots champion for the first time.
…
After one night.
On the morning of December 14, after training, Wang Zelin was shocked when he looked at the newspaper in his hand.
"Am I actually that good this season?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Nikola Jokic next to him became a little unhappy.
What does "Is it so powerful?"
Please remove the "?", you are really awesome!
“Winning all the Western Conference Player of the Week and Player of the Month so far, averaging 28.3 points per game this season, ranking first in the scoring rankings;
Currently, he has taken 432 shots, hit 262 goals, and has a field goal percentage of 60.6%. He ranks first among the top ten scorers in field goal percentage;
Accumulated 170 strikes, ranking tenth in the league; averaging 7 strikes per game, ranking seventeenth in the league..."
"Hey, wait a minute," Wang Zelin interrupted Jokic's eloquent speech, "There's no need to say more about the rest."
but……
Seeing Jokic's heartbroken look at this time, Wang Zelin felt that he should be envious of himself in his heart, so he decided to practice with Jokic for another hour.
In the next hour, groans could be heard from time to time on the training ground, causing the guard uncle to look in frequently with a black question mark face.
…
After the game between the Trail Blazers and Pacers, other games in the second week of December also ended one after another.
At 14:00 in the afternoon, the league announced the Player of the Week for the second week of December (8th to 14th).
First is the east side.
This week's Eastern Conference Player of the Week was finally won by Wizards star John Wall. In the past week, Wall led the Wizards to an impressive record of 4 wins in 4 games.
In terms of personal data, Wall played 38.3 minutes per game, made 8 of 15 shots, 1 of 2 three-pointers, and 1.3 of 2.8 free throws. He scored 18.3 points, 11.8 assists, 5 rebounds, 2.5 steals, and 1.3 blocks.
In the end, he successfully defeated James, Bosh, Deron, Lowry and others, and won the third best of the week honor in his career so far.
As for the competition in the West, it is indeed quite fierce.
There is the "bearded ball player" James Harden who led Mosaic to 3 wins in 3 games and scored 34 points, 7 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 2.7 steals and 1 block;
There is the "Turtle" Westbrook who led the Thunder to 4 wins in 4 games and scored 29 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 2.4 steals;
There are also the "white bear" Marc Gasol who led the Grizzlies to 3 wins in 4 games and scored 22.4 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. The "black bear" Zach Randolph scored 20.3 points, 9 rebounds, 1 block and 1 steal.
It can be said that there have been too many ruthless people in the West in the past week.
It is a pity that, without exception, the above-mentioned ruthless people did not have the last laugh, just because the appearance of one person overshadowed the glory of the other heroes.
He is - Wang Zelin!
In the past 4 games, Wang Zelin led the Trail Blazers to 4 wins in 4 away games, which also included playoff seeded teams like the Bulls. The gold content is not small.
At the personal data level, Wang Zelin averaged a crazy output of 35.2 points, 16.2 rebounds, 3.8 blocks, 3.5 assists and 0.8 steals per game.
It can be said that if he fails to win the Western Conference Player of the Week, the only explanation is that there is something shady in the selection process.
…
…
They won 24 consecutive victories against the Pacers, and the continuous away schedule was finally over. Returning to their home court after a long absence greatly boosted the morale of the Trail Blazers. Everyone seemed to have forgotten all the previous problems caused by fear of injuries. concern.
After returning to Portland for a day of rest, they faced the challenge of the San Antonio Spurs at home on December 15. The Spurs had a previous record of 17 wins and 7 losses and currently ranked sixth in the Western Conference.
To say that the Western Conference has been miserable this season, the Spurs, who are ranked sixth in the Western Conference and have a record of 17 wins and 7 losses, would be ranked first in the Eastern Conference if they moved to the Eastern Conference.
Currently, the Atlanta Hawks, the team with the No. 1 record in the Eastern Conference, only have a record of 16 wins and 7 losses.
If you look at the entire league, their record is also not even in the top five, and can only be ranked ninth...
Yes, if they were in the Western Conference, the Hawks wouldn't even be in the top eight.
Because the Dallas Mavericks, ranked eighth in the Western Conference, also surpassed them in record. The Mavericks' current record is 17 wins and 8 losses...
At this stage, the rankings of the top eight in the Western Conference are as follows:
No. 1 in the West ~ Portland Trail Blazers: 24 wins and 0 losses;
Second in the West ~ Golden State Warriors: 21 wins and 3 losses;
Third in the West ~ Houston Mosaic: 20 wins and 4 losses
Fourth in the West ~ Los Angeles Clippers: 19 wins, 5 losses
No. 5 in the West ~ Memphis Grizzlies: 19 wins, 5 losses
Sixth in the West ~ San Antonio Spurs: 17 wins and 6 losses
Seventh in the West ~ Los Angeles Lakers: 17 wins and 7 losses
No. 8 in the West ~ Dallas Mavericks: 17 wins and 8 losses
The top eight in the Eastern Conference are very embarrassed!
The Western Conference is more uncertain, especially the Pelicans, Suns, and Jazz, which are ranked ninth, tenth, and eleventh. Their records are ranked among the top eight in the Eastern Conference.
To be honest, when Wang Zelin heard the media report that "the number one team in the East can't even make it into the top eight in the West," he thought it was just nonsense.
Yes, everyone knows that the strong west and weak east pattern has lasted for a long time, but the gap between the two sides is not so big. It wasn't until he later checked the first-season records of the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference and the top eight Western Conference teams in the system space that he almost dropped his jaw.
This is actually true!
Before the 2014 NBA Christmas Day game, except for the Pelicans, who were supposed to be eighth in the Western Conference, the records of the first seven teams in the Western Conference exceeded that of the Hawks, who were first in the Eastern Conference.
It's just that after the Trail Blazers and Lakers became the two major variables in the Western Conference, the former soared to first place in the league, and the latter formed the Big Three, successfully occupying a spot in the top eight in the Western Conference, which directly caused the top eight records in the Western Conference to all be worse than the Eagles good.
In addition, Anthony Davis of the Pelicans was also affected.
If the Pelicans don't plan to strengthen in the future, Davis may not have any hope of experiencing the playoffs in the next few seasons.
Poor thick eyebrows...
But then again, I really don’t know why the Western Conference is so involved this year?
Who started this unhealthy trend?
etc……
Suddenly, he reacted belatedly: Could it be that the Blazers' magical start to the new season has greatly deepened the sense of crisis for other teams in the Western Conference, causing the degree of involution this year to be far greater than in previous years?
Impossible, absolutely impossible!
Even if there is such a billion-dollar relationship, is this too wild?
With his head full of complicated thoughts, Wang Zelin began to prepare for tonight's game against the Spurs.
In this matchup between No. 1 in the Western Conference and No. 6 in the Western Conference, the Trail Blazers lost!
At 83:92, the Trail Blazers, who had gone through hardships and faced five consecutive off-court challenges and returned to their home court, lost to the Spurs, ending their mighty 24-game winning streak.
Their precious blood was just taken away by those bad old guys from the Spurs.
After the game, tens of thousands of home fans left the field with regret. They did not complain, they just shook their heads and sighed.
It's not that the players are weak, it's that God doesn't want them to break the Lakers' 33-game winning streak.
If I had to use one sentence to describe tonight's Trail Blazers game, it would be:
Damn it!
Lillard scored 18 points and 7 assists, which didn't seem bad, but the premise was that he took 26 crazy shots and only hit 6 goals.
Missed a full 20 shots, including 1 of 8 three-pointers.
Wang Zelin made 11 of 24 shots, the only game in the season in which his shooting percentage did not exceed 50%. In addition, he made 8 of 11 free throws. Although he scored a game-high 30 points, he also grabbed an insane 22 rebounds. But what's the use? They lost the game.
Tonight, the bad old man of the Spurs has a very clear strategy against the Trail Blazers. He will double-team Lillard crazily on the outside and use unlimited forward defense against Wang Zelin on the inside.
Like later generations, Lillard's weakness of being unable to break through double-teams from strong teams was discovered by that bad old man Simavici.
Lillard committed a career-high 8 turnovers in this game, and many of his passes were intercepted by his opponents midway through.
Wang Zelin, who couldn't catch the ball in the paint, also changed his mind and went to the high post to catch the ball and start the offense himself. But he is an insider after all, and he can only exert his greatest value in the penalty area. What the Spurs want to see most is for him to leave the penalty area.
Finally, there are the Trail Blazers' shooters, including Carter, Connett Lee, and Morrow. Their hands were obviously average today. Wang Zelin failed to seize many open opportunities after being double-teamed.
Obviously, through the shame of being shaved in the playoffs last year and the observation and study of the Trail Blazers this season, the Spurs have found a way to deal with the Trail Blazers!
What's more, they are still a Trail Blazers team in a state of entanglement.
Tonight, they were unwilling to lose, but they also lost unjustly.
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