aircannonsinc Chapter 39 All-Star Phase 1 Voting!
Chapter 39 All-Star Phase 1 Voting!
That night, Lin Ze dominated the headlines of major media outlets across the United States once again!
A front-row audience member revealed what Lin said to Iverson in trash talk: "Shorty, I'm going to hit the game-winner right here!"
Allen Iverson says he'll kill Lin Ze in their next matchup; Lin Ze says Iverson said he'd kill him at least 58 times tonight!
Is a new generation of trash-talking masters born in the league? Will Lin take over Bird's mantle?
Magic Johnson: We have plenty of trash-talking masters in Los Angeles, why should we take over that idiot's mantle?
After defeating the 76ers, the Lakers continued their excellent form, breaking their undefeated streak. Although they lost some games, they won more often. More and more people believe that this Lakers team has a chance to break the 72-win record set by the 96 Bulls!
As they continued to win and chase their winning streak, the NBA announced the results of the first phase of All-Star voting.
Vince Carter, at the peak of his career, unsurprisingly became the first-stage vote leader, leading second-place Shaquille O'Neal by a full 10 votes! With such a large lead in the first stage, this year's vote leader competition can be considered to have come to an early end.
But compared to watching Carter play in the All-Star Game, people are actually more looking forward to his performance in the Slam Dunk Contest, because he has publicly announced that he will participate in this year's Slam Dunk Contest!
Besides Carter, the other frontcourt position in the East belongs to Hill, the backcourt duo is Iverson and Allan Houston, and the center position is currently ranked first by Alonzo Mourning.
It's worth mentioning that among these five players from the East, only Houston still has to contend with Eddie Jones behind him for the top spot; the positions of the other four are no surprise.
At center, Ewing could have been a strong contender with Mourning, but unfortunately, plagued by wrist injuries, Ewing's performance and attendance this season have been completely subpar, making him unable to compete with Mourning.
The entire Eastern Conference All-Star team has undergone a massive overhaul.
Compared to the 98 All-Star Game two years ago, Jordan has retired, Kemp has doubled in weight, Mutombo is still not performing well, and Hardaway has been completely destroyed by injuries and has prematurely ended his prime.
Apart from Hill, the rest of them are all having their first opportunity to become All-Star starters!
After the collapse of the Bulls dynasty, a pattern of the West being stronger than the East is slowly taking shape without anyone noticing.
At that time, no one could have imagined that the Western Conference would take away 9 of the championships in the next 12 years.
It wasn't until someone traveled around with their talent that the East was able to slightly reverse its decline.
Unfortunately, he encountered another genius who traveled around with his talent.
Far away.
Unlike the East, the West is much more suspenseful.
Of the five positions, only O'Neal stands out, firmly holding first place and almost certainly making the All-Star team. The other four starting positions are all highly competitive.
Kobe and Kidd are slightly ahead in the backcourt, but Payton and Kings' rising star Jason Williams are not far behind. A breakout could lead to a positional reversal at any time.
The frontcourt trio of Garnett, Duncan, and Lin Ze were completely locked in a fierce battle, with Lin Ze surprisingly taking the lead among the three! He garnered 43 votes in the first stage, and thanks to his recent phenomenal performance and a large number of overseas votes, he managed to suppress Duncan and Garnett!
The vote difference between Duncan and Garnett was only a few thousand votes, with Duncan slightly ahead with 40 votes and Garnett with more than 39 votes. Their positions could be switched at any time.
As if the league had anticipated this, they prepared several head-to-head matchups between All-Star starter contenders at the end of December!
For example, matchups such as the 76ers vs. the Raptors, the Suns vs. the Kings, and the Heat vs. the Knicks can all be seen in the last week of December.
What fans are most looking forward to are the Western Conference matchups!
On Christmas Day, December 25th, the Los Angeles Lakers will host the San Antonio Spurs!
This is a showdown between Tim Duncan, currently second in the All-Star voting for Western Conference forwards, and Lin Ze, currently first.
And three days later, the Lakers will face the Timberwolves in a rematch, where Garnett and Lin Ze, who have already exchanged harsh words, will have another showdown.
Additionally, on December 30th, the Timberwolves will host the Spurs at home.
Three matches, three teams facing off against each other!
Of these three matchups, only the Christmas Day game was originally scheduled to be broadcast nationally. However, due to the feud between Lin Ze and Garnett, NBC temporarily changed its broadcasting plan, upgrading the Lakers vs. Timberwolves and Timberwolves vs. Spurs games to be broadcast nationally.
While this tactic may have increased the competition's visibility, it may not necessarily be a good thing for the parties involved.
If it hadn't been broadcast nationwide, it would have just been a regular season game, important but not a life-or-death battle.
But now that it's broadcast live across the entire US, it's truly a winner-takes-all battle where the losers are left with nothing but their underwear.
The player who performed the worst in these three games has a high probability of falling out of contention and failing to become an All-Star starter.
Of the three, Lin Ze naturally has the lowest tolerance for error and is the least able to tolerate mistakes.
His popularity in North America skyrocketed within two months thanks to his location in Los Angeles and his own performance, which means that his foundation is not solid and he doesn't have many die-hard fans.
If he performs poorly in a game, a large number of fans will immediately leave him and turn to support Duncan and Garnett.
In these two matches, Lin Ze must go all out and deliver his best performance!
However, the Lakers, despite their recent winning streak, have also encountered serious problems.
On December 23, the Lakers played the Wizards on the road.
Logically, this should have been a one-sided, crushing victory, given that the Lakers were ranked first in the league, while the Wizards were fifth from the bottom, indicating a huge gap in strength between the two teams.
During the game, the details of the game played by both sides were indeed as everyone expected. The Lakers pulled away from the score early on, and although the Wizards had many counterattacks, they were never able to put any real pressure on the Lakers.
Two minutes into the fourth quarter, the Lakers were already leading the Wizards by 21 points. Jackson checked the time and then looked at the court.
If the Wizards don't narrow the gap to within 20 points in 2 minutes, it's about time to make a substitution.
In this era, the average score per game is only around 100 points, so it's almost impossible to turn a 20-point gap into a win.
But in those two minutes, an accident occurred!