Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

July 7, Phoenix, US Airways Center.

After 28 years, this arena finally hosted the finals again.

It is worth mentioning that 28 years ago, the team that visited this stadium was also the Chicago Bulls.

It was in this stadium that the last basketball god, Michael Jordan, lifted the "first" championship trophy of his career, symbolizing the achievement of a three-peat dynasty!
This time, Duane and others came to the stadium not for the three consecutive championships.

However, if the Bulls win the championship this year, their championship window will not close yet, and they will have another chance next year.

You know, the Bulls won the park championship last year. If they win it this year and next year, it will be another three-peat that symbolizes legend and greatness!
The atmosphere has been built to this point. The Bulls are bound to try whether the first dynasty in the early 20s can be defined by Curry and Jokic's dynasty.

Just like the OK Dynasty in the early 21st century.

“Rally the Valley!”

“Rally the Valley!”

“Rally the Valley!”

The American Airlines Center is not very large among many NBA stadiums and can only accommodate about 18,000 people at most.

But tonight, the entire stadium was not just noisy, it could even be said that the entire stadium was roaring.

However, this did not scare the battle-hardened Bulls players at all.

After the game started, the Suns players worked together and basically fed the first few balls to Ayton to let Ayton find his confidence first.

Ayton played very hard and the effect was pretty good.

However, this state did not last long.

Playing hard in the paint is the most energy-consuming form of offense.

As strong as O'Neal was at his peak, scoring 30+ in a whole game was already amazing. If he could score 40+, it would definitely mean that Kobe had reached a new level.

Although Ayton is also a No. 1 pick in the center draft, his physical fitness is several levels lower than O'Neal!
As for low-post offensive skills, he is also far inferior.

Therefore, Ayton only played four rounds at the beginning and needed to rest and slow down.

But soon, Jokic began to fight back, scoring points on Ayton one after another, making Ayton extremely embarrassed.

Jokic didn't play very hard, but he had the perfect combination of technique and physical strength, such as high shots, hook shots, layups, rebounds, and mid-range shots, which seemed to be another "basic skill".

Logically speaking, Ayton has played two consecutive games with Jokic in the past week. Ayton should be well aware of Jokic's offensive methods and how he will attack when facing him.

But tonight, Ayton was beaten dizzy and at a loss by Jokic.

When the Suns saw that Jokic had already shown his strength and Ayton couldn't defend him at all, they could only shrink the inside line in advance and increase the number of double-teams on Jokic.

However, Curry was happy about this.

The Suns' defensive strategy tonight clearly bets that the Bulls' outside shooting is not good, or that their outside shooting is not sustainable.

To be honest, playing at the Suns' home court tonight, the Suns players' defensive movements were indeed a lot bigger, which increased a lot of physical confrontation.

However, for a super shooter like Curry, simply adding a little physical confrontation will have little impact.

When Curry took over from Durant a few years ago and became the No. 1 player in the league, what kind of defense did he face? What kind of challenges? What kind of criticism?
In the NBA, where birds and beasts are everywhere and black people are proud of it.

A "white shooter" like Curry, who seems to have mediocre physical condition and even has difficulty dunking, has been able to sit firmly on the throne of the league's top player for several years.

The unfair treatment he encountered during this period was unimaginable for other stars of the same period.

What's more, Curry's biggest weapon is shooting!
It is precisely because Curry's shooting has been tested by all outside players of the same period and the entire era, so in the finals, Curry's weapon is still deadly.

brush brush --

Before the first quarter was over, Curry had already scored 6 points with 4 of 12 three-pointers.

Scoring double digits in a single quarter is not an easy task, whether in the regular season or in the playoffs.

What's more, this scoring shot was taken very few times and there were no turnovers, which was very efficient!

As Jokic dominated the basket, Curry stepped up to take over the game after Jokic was surrounded. The two core players of the Bulls made consecutive shots and scored 20 points in just over half a quarter. At the same time, the Suns were far inferior to the Bulls in terms of offensive efficiency and defense.

This also made the sun, which was so high in morale at the beginning, become as if covered by dark clouds, and gradually became gloomy and depressed.

"We just have to do our own thing and carry it through to the end of the game."

After the first quarter, during the intermission, Duane sat on the bench and said, "But we can't relax too much.

This is a battle about honor, fame and fortune!
We have only one goal, and that is to win!"

After the first quarter, the Bulls took an 32-point lead with a score of 24 to 8.

This kind of single-quarter score and point difference is relatively rare in the finals in recent years.

Obviously, the Suns' defense against the Bulls was not good enough.

The Bulls, on the other hand, are more experienced and easier to deal with than the Suns, a young opponent.

The content of the next three quarters was basically what Duan expected.

The Bulls players were very relaxed when they had the advantage, so their overall condition was pretty good, and their outside shooting did not decline significantly due to being too nervous or the greatly increased intensity of the defense.

However, the relaxed mentality also made the Bulls players less focused on defense, allowing the Suns to score some simpler tactical goals.

Fortunately, it's not a big problem.

The Bulls players only showed these minor problems when they had a big advantage.

Once the score gets close to 10 points, people will basically get serious.

In a normal game, the Suns only narrowed the score to 10 points twice.

The quality of the Suns' stars and the team's overall offensive power are still far behind the Bulls.

Booker could score, but he lacked a breath at the critical moment. At most, he could score two goals in a row, but he couldn't make three or four goals in a row to continue the team's lack of offensive firepower.

This is not Booker's problem. If he has better teammates, perhaps they can help him share the pressure.

But the Suns don't have the capital or the configuration, so they can only use the short guy Booker to take over.

Then the sky fell...

The sun fell to the ground and was crushed by the bull.

116 to 101, the Suns scored just over 15 points, and the Bulls won by 3 points and won the Game of the Finals again.

The series reached an extremely embarrassing and critical stage with a score of 3-0.

Next, whether it is the fans who watched the first three games of this round of finals, or the cloud fans who only looked at the data, they all know that the Suns can no longer continue and this round of finals is about to end.

However, this did not lead to a decline in the ratings of Game 4 of the Finals. On the contrary, the number of viewers during the period when the live broadcast of the game started before Game 4 began had already exceeded that of Game 3 of the Finals, reaching 1700 million.

It's a pity, perhaps because the content of the finals was rather boring.

Even though the Bulls swept the Suns 4-0 and won the championship again in the American Airlines Center, which means a lot to the Bulls, they failed to attract more nostalgic old fans to watch the subsequent championship awards ceremony.

1861 million, the number of viewers for Game 4 of this year's finals was fixed at this number, failing to break through 2000 million as expected.

However, even if the number of viewers is less than 2000 million, or even less than 1900 million, it is already a new high in recent years, comparable to that of ten years ago.

With the lack of new stars in recent years, young fans can’t find stars to replace them, and various problems in the NBA have made older fans lose interest in watching the game.

Perhaps this finals will be the last rays of light before Duane’s death.

Of course, with Jokic winning the Finals MVP trophy, the NBA has entered a new phase.

If the Bulls can win the championship again next year, perhaps after Durant retires, the NBA can still rely on Curry to provide residual heat and remain lively for a few more years.

Then Jokic is the only one left... (End of this chapter)