Chapter 1034 No

For the Suns, Li Ba started to attack in the fourth quarter, beating O'Neal in the low post.

O'Neal played half a quarter, but he was too heavy and couldn't move as well as Li Ba.

Li Ba now has a near-basket shot, and O'Neal can no longer retreat directly to the basket. The result is that Li Ba gets the ball outside first, and then frequently uses top turns and first steps to easily get rid of O'Neal. Needless to say later , easy and efficient.

In the first half of the quarter, Li Ba took the main attack and beat O'Neal 6 times in a row, forcing O'Neal to hug someone in the end, and then he was replaced.

With Li Ba's explosion, 104:92, the Suns led by 12 points. This was the first time tonight that the score difference was two points.

Barkley said: "The Hammer's mobility is really a BUG among interior players, and the Cavaliers' trade of O'Neal in the offseason can be said to have failed. If you ask me, the Cavaliers should have traded in the first place. What they lack most is not a center. , Big Z and Ben can support the fifth position. After Drew Gooden leaves, they are in urgent need of the fourth position. "

"No, you can't say that yet."

Kenny Smith said: "It should be said that without O'Neal, the Cavaliers have made it to the Finals. Their opponent must be the Lakers or one of the Suns or the Mavericks. Now, with O'Neal, the Cavaliers will find it difficult to beat the Suns, but it will be difficult to beat the Lakers. Or the Mavericks, there is an advantage because both teams are traditional position battle teams."

Barkley said: "So you are saying that if the Mavericks or the Lakers reach the Finals in the Western Conference, then this deal will be successful?"

"Yes, that's what I mean." Kenny Smith smiled.

Buckley thought for a moment, nodded and smiled: "It makes some sense."

The Cavaliers called a timeout, the timeout came back, and the game continued.

The Cavaliers' inside line consists of Big Z and Joe Smith.

Joe Smith was the No. 1 pick in 1995. He was a star player in the national basketball world at that time. However, he was involved in the secret contract scandal with the Timberwolves. Now he is about to retire. He is going bankrupt and trying to earn some pension money.

The so-called secret contract scandal is a fake contract, using two contracts to evade the league's luxury tax. This was caused by his agent Dan Fagan.

He joined the Timberwolves, and it was Fagan who persuaded the Warriors to trade him to the Timberwolves. After the secret contract was exposed, he also became a free agent under the order of the league. He did not receive a big contract from the Timberwolves, and his career was seriously affected.

But the inside combination of Big Z and Joe Smith was still no match for Li Ba and Gasol. The Suns still focused on the inside and defeated this combination.

The Cavaliers were beaten inside, and the offense could only be launched from the outside. However, James was strongly defended by the United Arab Emirates. His efficiency was not high enough, and he was unable to break in and play, so his outside efficiency was not enough.

With both internal and external defeats, the Cavaliers lost this game 116:100.

Li Ba scored 39 points, 22 rebounds, 12 assists, 10 steals, 9 blocks, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 48 minutes. He was only one block short of his sixth quintuple-double.

Zhang Lijia sighed: "The Cavaliers had no inside attack in the fourth quarter, otherwise this five-double would have been a sure success."

Yu Jia said: "The Cavaliers have Big Z + O'Neal inside, but it's a pity that they are all old! And there is no suitable power forward yet. If the Cavaliers cannot win the championship this season, there must be something wrong with the inside."

Xu Jicheng said: "It turned out that Ben was still there, but after O'Neal was traded, he was traded back to the Pistons. I think if Ben was here, playing against the Suns would be better than it is now, right?"

Zhang Lijia shook his head and said: "O'Neal's statistics are not bad, but the status of Big Ben is really bad. He is not good at all. He is about to retire. He is in a mixed contract. The Suns wanted to sign Big Ben the year before last, but luckily they didn't sign him, otherwise they would have been cheated. ”

Yu Jia said: "In today's two games, the Hammers and Dayao both broke out, but Arab League is also good. Regardless of his poor statistics, without him, the Suns would have no one to defend James."

Xu Jicheng laughed and said: "Today, the score of the Arab League was taken away by the Hammers. He was mainly defensive and the Hammers were mainly offensive, haha!"

On the court, James was a little frustrated.

He thought he could win, but he didn't expect to lose by 16 points. Li Ba didn't play much in the next three or four minutes, otherwise the score difference would be even greater.

He also saw that when playing against the Suns, as the Hammers said, there was a problem inside, too slow, unable to keep up with the defense, and offensively. The Hammers' defense was too strong, and both offense and defense were blown away.

As for himself, when he later faced off against Yi, his efficiency was greatly reduced.

He regrets not trading before the Suns.

He knew Yi's strength and had known him for more than eight years. Why didn't he think of trading Yi?

But in fact, he knew the reason for not trading, because Yi played the third position in the Hawks, and he also played the third position in the Chinese national team before, and the Cavaliers have two top small forwards in him and Gerald Wallace. Why would the team trade a small forward?

But today Yi performed well against him at the third position, and he also played well at the fourth position. What the Cavaliers lack is a power forward, urgently!

But the real trouble is that now it's easy to get to the Suns, and the Cavaliers are likely to encounter the Suns in the finals. This trouble may be fatal.

In the TNT live broadcast booth, Barkley said: "Now the ratings of the five Christmas games are out. Only the Suns and Cavaliers have exceeded 100 million, and even reached 130 million. Congratulations to both teams!"

Kenny Smith laughed, "The Lakers and Heat game also reached 60 million, which shows that our ball market has indeed expanded too much. In addition, in the Lakers and Heat game, Yao and Garnett swapped camps and performed well. Garnett got 18+9 data, but Yao was better, playing 40+10..."

Before he finished speaking, Barkley laughed, "Kenny, don't rush to say that this deal is a failure. After all, the Lakers have to get through the Suns before they can enter the finals."

"Yes, Garnett can beat the Hammer, so he doesn't have to go to the Heat. After all, the Timberwolves' three-headed monster lineup is also super strong." Kenny Smith laughed.

"So you insist that Yao alone for Garnett is a failed deal." Barkley laughed.

"Garnett can indeed replace Yao in many tactical positions in the Lakers, but his current state has indeed declined significantly. After this season, he may decline more severely. Yao is 4 years younger than Garnett. His current performance will not be a problem for two years." Kenny Smith laughed.

"Then let's look forward to the performance of both teams, and also look forward to the performance of the Lakers and the Suns in the playoffs." Barkley said with a smile.

Li Ba was interviewed on the spot. A reporter asked him about his opinion on the strength of the Cavaliers. He said: "I told LeBron a long time ago that their inside line has problems. They are too old and too slow, and the four position is too weak. Such inside line can play against other teams, but against us..."

He shook his head and said: "No."