NBA: Back to 97, to be the Jagged Bishop

Chapter 148 The Battle of Spear and Shield

After the Raptors got the tickets to the Eastern Conference finals, they waited for work, waiting for the Bulls and Knicks to decide the winner.

The two teams have played four games, and now they have reached a 2:2 draw.

In this round of the series, Big Zhi almost played the God role of Jordan in the Bulls. He is currently averaging 31 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks per game, which is completely a bug.

The main purpose of the Bulls' trade during the regular season was to target the Raptors.

Against the Knicks, the Bulls' change of formation did not actually improve their combat power, and even because of the lack of a top three defender, their overall combat power has become weaker.

Whether the Bulls can advance to the Eastern Conference Finals now depends entirely on Jordan's personal performance.

The Spurs played against the Lakers in the west, and the Spurs have swept the Lakers 4:0 and won the tickets to the Western Conference Finals.

Duncan went crazy directly. In the face of O'Pang, he averaged 29 points and 11 rebounds per game, while O'Pang's average was only 24 points and 13 rebounds per game.

In normal games, Ao Pang is not very interested in rebounding, and it is rare to see him desperately stuck for a rebound.

The situation in the Western Conference semifinals is completely different this time. O'Pang averaged 6.5 offensive rebounds per game. You must know that the entire Lakers offensive rebounds are only 8.3.

It could be seen that he really wanted to win.

It's a pity that the teammates are really not good enough, which seriously hinders Ao Pang.

In other words, the Spurs played too well.

Kobe played really well. He averaged 44.7% shooting and scored 21.3 points per game. He is the only player in the series after Duncan and O'Pang in scoring.

Glenn Rice faced Bowen and averaged only 37% shooting per game, but he averaged 14.8 points per game in exchange for 18 shots, and his efficiency was acceptable.

The real war criminals are role players like Fisher, Horry and Fox.

Compared with them, the Spurs' group of role players are like superstars.

The Nuggets' opponent in the Western Conference semifinals is the Kings.

The king's lineup this year is also quite gorgeous. The inside combination is Divac and Webber. Unfortunately, the strength of the outside line is far inferior to that of the Nuggets, and they were eventually eliminated by the Nuggets 4:1.

A few days later, the Bulls and Knicks finally decided the winner.

The two teams played the tiebreaker. Jordan scored 22 points in a single quarter in the fourth quarter and scored 58 points in the game, keeping his hope of winning the championship.

Comb led the Raptors to watch this game together. After watching it, even their opponents had sincere admiration for Jordan.

A 36-year-old man can still score 58 points in the tiebreaker. The word great is no longer enough to describe his greatness.

On May 5, the Eastern Conference Finals officially kicked off.

The first two games are home games for the Raptors.

When Combe saw Jordan on the sidelines, he could clearly see the tiredness on Jordan's face.

The schedule of the shortened season is extremely dense, young people don't care, but veteran players can't stand it.

What's more, Jordan has just finished a round of tiebreakers, averaging up to 38 minutes per game, and Iron Man can't stand it.

"Kong, did our bulls really put you under so much pressure?"

"It actually made you trade Payton over."

The Zen master stood beside Kong Bu and said in a strange tone.

There was a bit of helplessness in the tone, and a bit of yin and yang.

"The pressure is not that great. It's just that there is an old saying in the sky, that is, when a lion fights a rabbit, you must use all your strength."

"Phil, you are a smart person, you should know the meaning of this sentence."

"We are not lions, and you are not rabbits, so we cannot relax in the slightest."

It was rare for Kong Bu to be serious, and he said something that sounded very Zen to the Zen master.

They are very clear in their hearts that this round of the Eastern Conference Finals is the same as last season. As long as they can win, they will basically win the championship.

After a while, the referee blew his whistle, and the game officially started.

The Raptors' starting lineup tonight is a bit weird, with Big Ben, Bus, Jermaine O'Neill plus Tracy McGrady and Payton.

It's not that Kong Bu is a maverick and wants to make a gimmick to attract attention, but that the Bulls can only play with this lineup.

The Bulls did not find a suitable blue-collar third position in the free market, so they simply let Kukoc take the third position.

Mashburn's height gap is too big compared to Kukoc's. Even if Kukoc shoots three-pointers in front of him, Mashburn has nothing to do with him.

But if Xiao Ao plays, the situation will be different.

Ao's running and jumping ability is relatively top-notch in the fourth position, and he has no problem defending against Kukoc.

And with Jerome on the court, it can further enhance the Raptors' inside offensive suppression.

Kumbu is ready to focus on the inside in this round of the series.

In the jump ball session, Ao won the jump ball, and the Raptors won the first offensive ball.

Against Harper's defense, Payton advanced to the frontcourt and rushed directly towards the penalty area.

Near the free throw line, Rashid stepped forward to defend, and Payton jumped up to score the ball, and the ball passed to the bus.

Big Ben has already stuck the old Sabonis's position, the bus made a step forward, and the basket was dunked successfully.

Zen master was in a panic. He still remembered last season's Eastern Conference Finals, when he and Kong Bu dispatched troops in various ways, and the fight was in full swing.

Even if the Bulls lost in the end, Zen master didn't feel that he had lost the positive dialogue with Kong Bu.

Meeting again in the Eastern Conference Finals this season, Zen Master also wanted to continue to dispatch troops, but unfortunately he had nothing in hand.

If you have a first-class 3D small forward in your hands, Zen Master may wake up from his dreams with a smile.

When it comes to the Bulls' offensive round, the job of the team's master Harper is to control the ball to the frontcourt and pass the ball to Jordan.

Payton took the initiative to find Jordan, and the strongest spear and shield in the league's central defenders officially matched up.

Jordan is the strongest offensive guard, there is no doubt about it, and Payton is the only point guard to get DPOY so far, and he has nine defenses. If he is not the best defensive guard, he is at least a point guard The best defense.

At the beginning of the matchup, as soon as Jordan received the pass, Payton immediately defended himself.

As the old saying goes, there are only wrong names, but no wrong nicknames. The nickname Gloves quintessentially summarizes Payton's defensive characteristics.

Jordan is like a baseball, and Payton is the baseball glove, holding Jordan tightly in his hand.

Because hand-check can be used, Payton's hands are always on Jordan, and his body is always within ten centimeters of Jordan.

No matter how Jordan moved around, Payton just kept sticking to Jordan, not giving him a chance to play.

The two fought for nearly 20 seconds. Jordan kept trying to get rid of Payton's defense, but Payton kept sticking to Jordan, and he didn't rush to steal it, just sticking.

In the end, Jordan chose a large mid-range shot with a step back, and the ball was scored.

Kumbu didn't take it seriously, even if the goal was scored, he knew that Payton's defensive goal had been achieved.

Payton's defensive purpose has never been to limit Jordan's goals, but to consume Jordan's physical energy.

You can score goals, but you have to expend twice or even twice as much energy as usual.

With such a defensive method, Payton naturally consumes a lot of physical energy, but don't forget that Payton is a super iron man, and his physical energy does not seem to be exhausted at all.

That's Payton's knack for guarding Jordan, exhausting Jordan as much as possible.

In the previous finals, he relied on this trick to make Jordan's shooting rate drop greatly.

Times have changed, a few years later, Jordan is older, and Payton is still at the top, and the effect of this defensive method will become better.

It's the Raptors' offensive round again.

This time, Payton didn't have a chance to break through to the basket and score the ball. He could only pass the ball to Xiao Ao who was waiting near the free throw line.

With the departure of Billups and Big Zhi, the Raptors have no way to support the previous pick-and-roll tactics.

Now they are back to the state of reckless, as soon as they get the ball, they just do it.

Jermaine Ao pushed Kukoc half a step away from the free throw line, turned around and made a mid-range shot.

It's a pity that I couldn't hit it.

Big Ben and Bus under the basket are definitely humanoid meat grinders, standing in a reasonable collision zone under the basket, just crowding around.

Relying on his height advantage, Lao Sa had already touched the basket with his fingertips, but failed to grab a rebound in the end.

Of course, Big Ben and Bus didn't grab the rebound. Instead, Xiao Ao, who rushed in, took the rebound.

After receiving the rebound, Xiao Ao didn't make a shot himself, but handed it to the bus beside him.

In terms of low-post offensive ability at the basket, Daba is two grades better than Xiao Ao, and Xiao Ao is also very clear about this.

The bus squeezed away Rashid behind him again with his butt pouted, and dunked directly under the basket.

Even if the Duncan template is used, the style of the bus is not at all like Duncan, but more and more like Barkley and O'Neal.

Turning around, it's the Bulls' offensive turn.

The focus is on the matchup between Jordan and Payton.

Jordan spent a lot of effort, and finally found Kukoc's pick-and-roll, but failed to score a mid-range shot.

The basket was in chaos again, and in the end, Xiao Ao took the rebound again.

The Zen Master's expression was extremely solemn, and he realized that something was wrong.

He put Kukoc on the court, and those teams before him played very well. Kukoc averaged 20 points per game and is the Bulls' current No. [-] offensive point.

But when facing the Raptors, this lineup configuration seems not only ineffective, but also has side effects.

So that Kumbu can safely and boldly put three inside players.

Big Ben, Big Bus and Jermaine O'Neill are all the kind of rebounders who can easily average 10 rebounds per game.

Rashid and Kukoc, on the other hand, are not very good at rebounding.

When there were rebounds under the basket and the six insiders were chaotic under the basket, the Bulls' rebounds suffered a big loss.

When playing against other teams, the Bulls can use this lineup to a huge advantage, that's because other teams can't find three inside players of this level.

"Dudududu!"

The Zen master quickly called a timeout, quickly took Rashid off the field, and let Kukoc play the fourth position.

Then he replaced the team's backup shooting guard Brent Barry on the bench.

Barry Jr. should be the only harvest for the Bulls during the offseason. After his rookie contract ended, he joined the Bulls as a free agent.

There is no problem with the offensive ability, the mid-range shot and three-pointers are very accurate, but the defense is not good, a bit similar to the role played by the old Kerr in the Bulls before.

They are all point grabbers on the bench.

Seeing the obvious disadvantages on the court, Zen master didn't care so much, and could only treat a dead horse as a living horse doctor.

Kumbu didn't stay idle when he saw this, he immediately changed the bus and put it on Mashburn.

The reason why the bus was replaced instead of Xiao Ao was entirely because Xiao Ao was more suitable to match Kukoc. Kukoc is more like an outside line than Rashid. The bus is too bulky and it is very difficult to defend.

And the effect of Xiao Ao on Rashid is not good. Comb wants to wait until Rashid plays, and then replace the bus to replace Xiao Ao.

With food in hand and no panic in mind, the strong lineup background of the Raptors gave Kong Bu a lot of room to play. No matter what lineup adjustment Zen Master made, Kong Bu could immediately take restraint measures.

But for a team like the Bulls, don't even think about killing them with a single hammer until they can't get up.

At the end of the first half, the Raptors took a slight lead, 51:47, leading by four points.

The effect of Barry Jr.'s appearance is indeed good. He hit two three-pointers from the outside and helped the team stabilize the situation.

And Jordan has already scored 23 points in the first half, and he still has a [-]% shooting percentage.

Looks like Jordan's going to kill again tonight.

But after the second half, the situation of the Bulls took a turn for the worse, and Jordan immediately misfired at this point.

In the first half of the third quarter, Jordan was able to stabilize his offensive efficiency.

In the second half of the quarter, he only hit 5 of 1 shots.

It has to be said that Payton's defensive strategy has played a miraculous effect. Jordan spent countless physical energy in the first half. In the case of insufficient physical energy, even if the gods come, the touch will definitely decline severely.

With Jordan's misfire, the Bulls were naturally defeated.

In the fourth quarter, on the one hand, Jordan was exhausted physically, and on the other hand, he was anxious. How could his offensive efficiency be high.

When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the Bulls sat at home and beat the Bulls by 106 points 87:19.

The Raptors surrounded Payton one after another. They were old rivals with the Bulls, and this was the first time they defeated the Bulls so easily.

"Nice job, old chap."

"It is indeed the most powerful defensive shield among the defenders in the league."

Kumbu was full of praise.

The Bulls won so easily tonight, and Payton is definitely the chief contributor.

Peyton waved his hand, glanced complicatedly at the lonely Jordan in the distance, and said with a wry smile, "He's really old."

There was no sarcasm in these words, only sympathy and admiration.

"Even a god will grow old eventually. He is great enough. Even in another 100 years, someone will still remember his name."

Combe sighed.

The first game was a big victory, and the next second game, even though Zen Master has made a lot of arrangements, such as letting Jordan minimize the time of holding the ball as much as possible to preserve his physical fitness, such as asking his teammates to do more pick-and-rolls for Jordan to reduce the frequency of Jordan's running.

It's a pity that these arrangements only made the Bulls lose a little less, and they still lost by 9 points in the second game.

Just when everyone thought the Bulls would be swept by the Bulls like the Eagles and Pistons, the Bulls won G3 in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Winning is a bit of a shame.

The referee of this game really explained what a body whistle is.

Payton was blown five whistles in the first half, which made him unable to try his best to defend in the second half.

Jordan took 19 free throws in this game and made 16 of them. Coupled with sports battle points, he scored 51 points in the game.

The Bulls made 32 free throws and made 24 of them.

The Raptors only scored 11 free throws in total, almost half of Jordan's.

Only 11 of 6 free throws were made, and the free throws alone were 18 points less than the Bulls.

Even so, the Raptors only lost by 8 points in the end.

At the press conference after the game, the reporters tried to provoke Kumbu to say something extreme. After all, this kind of penalty is indeed too outrageous.

It's a pity that Kumbu is not stunned, how could he fall into the trap of these Chicago reporters.

He doesn't dislike this kind of home whistle, because it's not that the Raptors haven't gotten the bonus of the home whistle, but it's just a little too outrageous tonight.

What's more, the more outrageous whistleblowing in later generations is that Kumbu is no stranger to it.

Comb guessed that Stern probably wanted to make more money and didn't want this round of the series to end too soon.

Whether it is emotionally or in terms of interests, Stern definitely wants Jordan to win the championship.

A 36-year-old man who successfully avenged his opponent last season and finally won the championship will become a classic that will be sung forever.

Even if Jordan failed to get revenge in the end, it wouldn't hurt to play a few more games in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The ratings of the Eastern Conference finals were so high that it was frightening, and one more game could net them tens of millions of dollars.

This was the case last season, the ratings of the Finals were far lower than the Eastern Conference Finals.

So Stern asked the referee to blow the whistle like this, which was not beyond Kumbu's expectations.

What can Combe do about this kind of thing?He couldn't do anything, he could only enjoy it with his eyes closed, as if he wanted to watch a few more Jordan's live games.

(End of this chapter)