NBA2K is a basketball game that started releasing in 1999 and is the most popular PC basketball game worldwide.

Therefore, the ability ratings within it are also regarded by many fans as a direct reflection of a player's abilities.

After all, even if the real NBA has a strength ranking (MVP list), it can't have specific numbers to quantify it.

So, from a certain perspective, 2K ability ratings are a representation of a player's ability.

This is why McGee, Whiteside, and others care so much about their 2K ability ratings; almost all league players pay attention to 2K ability rating updates.

Because this is a form of indirect popularity.

In 2K's long 17-year history, the only person who had previously reached a 100 ability rating was "Shaq" O'Neal.

And that was back in 2K2, very early on.

After that, 2K had an unwritten rule that the ability rating cap for any player could only be 99.

Even if you used a modifier to change all attributes to the maximum, your overall rating would only be 99.

Because a 100 ability rating represents perfection, but even O'Neal had the weakness of free throws, so theoretically, it was impossible to reach 100.

This is why Jordan, Kobe, James, Garnett, Duncan, and others also only had a 99 rating during their peak periods.

But this time, 2K made an exception for Tang Tian!

From 71 when he first entered the league, to 77, and then to 81.

When he got to the Pelicans, his ability rating came to 87 in his first season, and then he never dropped below 90+ after that.

In the championship-winning season, his ability rating reached 96 for the first time, and then to 99 in both last season and this season.

Theoretically, this has completed the entire process of a player's growth.

So this update to 100 really exceeded everyone's expectations.

Because there was that unwritten rule, but they broke the rule, indirectly saying that Tang Tian is a stronger presence than peak Jordan, Kobe, and James!

This made many fans question the fairness of 2K's ratings.

Although such questioning has always existed in the past, this time it was the biggest.

After 2K's official Twitter account was bombarded by fans, Brendan Donohue, the president of the 2K League, issued a statement to explain.

"The reason we gave this rating is because, theoretically, Tang is already a player without any weaknesses."

This explanation was simple, but it instantly shut up all the doubters.

Because after strengthening his ball-handling skills, Tang Tian, as a swingman, truly has no weaknesses.

After all, 2K had that unwritten rule because it was theoretically impossible to have a perfect position player.

Like Jordan, his three-pointer wasn't good; like Kobe, his shot selection was a problem; like James, his three-pointer was also a weakness.

But Tang Tian is top-notch in scoring, passing, and defense, and based on this fact, it wouldn't be appropriate not to give him 100.

This 2K update was a normal update, but the buzz around it was the highest it's been in recent years.

It can be said that this time they really did a big promotion.

Moreover, besides the Pelicans and Tang Tian, there was another very interesting phenomenon in this update.

In the teams that have played against the Pelicans, the ability ratings of most players have decreased, but many of the Mavericks' players have increased.

Like Holiday, he went straight from 85 to 89, reaching the peak of his 2K career.

It seems that the 2K officials also think that the Mavericks are the team that has performed the best in games against the Pelicans so far.

After this wave of ability rating updates from 2K, a topic that had been discussed before became a hot topic again.

Which team will be able to end the Pelicans' winning streak?

Generally speaking, even the strongest teams will have uncontrolled factors such as integration and injuries.

But the Pelicans don't need to integrate, they have too many superstars, and they are not afraid of injuries, so these uncontrolled factors cannot affect them.

So it's really unrealistic to beat them in this situation.

But this topic has been brought up again and again, and the popularity is getting higher and higher.

Just like the fan attention that is being shown, the Pelicans have really absorbed almost all of the fans' attention.

But every night full of expectations ends in disappointment.

The Rockets, Mavericks, and Spurs all failed twice, and the Knicks and Raptors in the East were all vulnerable.

The Pelicans continued to win, and they were playing more and more easily.

By late December, before Christmas, they had achieved a 32-game winning streak.

They are truly invincible.

And if this momentum continues, matching or breaking the Lakers' 33-game winning streak has become an absolute probability event.

At this time, the fans' expectations shifted from the Mavericks to the Warriors.

Christmas Day will be the first clash between the Pelicans and Warriors in the new season.

The Warriors had a good start to the season, but then experienced internal conflicts between Green and Durant, and their performance fluctuated.

But as they entered December, with the conflicts being resolved internally, the Warriors began to show excellent competitive form.

They won all 12 games in December, and including November, their winning streak has reached 15 games.

ESPN's evaluation of the Warriors is accurate to some extent.

With the increase in chemistry and Kerr's addition of the Du-Ku pick-and-roll, the Warriors have basically completed their integration.

Especially in the past week, their average net score has reached 20+, an amazing state.

Moreover, after 2K updated the ability ratings, the Warriors also became the team with the second-highest ability ratings besides the Pelicans.

Durant 97, Curry 95, Thompson 91, Green 88, plus Iguodala's 83 and Livingston's 79.

This has made fans' expectations for them even greater than they were for the Mavericks.

Winning the Christmas game and setting the Pelicans' winning streak at 32 games, there is no more perfect script than this.

This Christmas game has also attracted unprecedented attention.

According to ESPN's predictions, the viewership of this game will definitely set a new historical record.

With three days to go before the Christmas game, the two teams are making their final preparations for the Christmas game.

The Warriors are conducting open training sessions.

The two teams have played against each other for several consecutive seasons, and even the four-star lineup has played for a season.

They can be said to know each other absolutely inside and out.

There are no more tactical changes, it all depends on strategy and form, and those are things that cannot be seen in training.

Because the game is being played in Oakland this time, the Warriors' training has also received a lot of attention from local reporters.

"We all know that the team had targeted defensive arrangements for Tang last season, but Tang's ball-handling and breakthrough skills have improved a lot this season. Does the team have any new countermeasures?"

The reporter asked Kerr the same question, and Kerr chose to avoid the topic, so the reporter threw the same question at Green.

Green's big mouth, like Whiteside's, is also known to reporters.

"What improvement? Isn't it just a breakthrough on the right?"

Sure enough, Green's answer was quite unexpected.