Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

In the playoffs, the most important thing to win away games is morale and momentum.

The Bulls knew how to beat the Celtics at TD Garden, so they launched a fierce offensive at the start of the game.

Jokic did not spare his energy. He took the ball in the low post at the beginning of the first quarter and made two consecutive shots to help the Bulls open the situation.

The Celtics responded by having their two rookies each shoot a three-pointer from the outside, using the stars' personal abilities to motivate their teammates.

4 to 6, Tatum and Jaylen Brown both scored through singles, making the Celtics fans at the scene cheer.

At the same time, the Bulls players and coaching staff, as opponents, are very troubled.

After all, Wiggins is still on the bench, and Cameron Thomas and Herbert Jones in the Bulls' starting lineup obviously cannot rely on single defense to limit the scoring of the two rookies.

This means that if the Bulls want to reduce the Celtics' scoring through defense, they must mobilize more defensive resources specifically targeting the two rookies.

The Bulls are well aware that the two rookies not only have the ability to hold the ball and play one-on-one, but also have certain organizational skills.

The Celtics' role players are all championship pieces carefully selected by the Celtics' veteran players from major teams across the league, and their individual strengths are quite impressive.

With the two top picks distracting the defense, the other three Celtics players on the court will undoubtedly have better scoring opportunities.

Then, relying on their outstanding personal abilities, they will be able to score more easily and efficiently.

At that time, the Bulls will have to choose between two poisonous cups.

In the end, it is better to choose to be defeated by the two rookies in one-on-one play, or to be frustrated by the role players' open three-pointers or scoring under the basket.

Fortunately, although the personal abilities of the two top players have improved significantly in recent years and both of them have grown into superstars, their superstar quality is not outstanding.

The next few rounds just confirmed this point - the two rookies do have the ability to play singles, but they are not to the level where they can hit every shot accurately, fire unlimitedly, and suppress the entire team with their personal abilities alone.

Therefore, before the Bulls called a timeout to adjust their defense, the two rookies began to fall silent.

The Bulls themselves relied on Jokic and Curry to play steadily, scoring inside and outside, and started to catch up.

brush--

With the help of Duane's screen, Curry received the ball and shot directly into a three-pointer. The Bulls finally took the lead for the first time with 12 to 10.

So far in this game, both teams have had stars talking to each other.

The Celtics were leading before, but now they were suddenly overtaken. The two rookies must want to take some responsibility and try to respond in the next round.

Jaylen Brown asked his teammate for the ball, then quickly dribbled across half court. Without consulting other teammates, he immediately made a three-pointer, seemingly trying to catch the Bulls off guard.

It’s a pity that you can’t eat hot tofu in a hurry.

The more anxious you are with this kind of ball, the harder it is to hit.

On the contrary, if you make a random shot in a favorable situation, the hit rate will be relatively higher.

When shooting this kind of ball in a stalemate or at a critical moment, even Curry usually ends up missing the shot.

This time, all Jaylen Brown got in response was the crisp sound of hitting iron.

The rebound bounced very high and far, and where the basketball landed there were not only Bulls players but also Celtics players.

Players from both teams rushed towards the rebound together. Jokic, with his taller figure and longer arm span, was the first to hit the ball out even though he didn't jump high.

It is worth mentioning that the clever Duane had already returned to the frontcourt before this.

This is the game experience. Jaylen Brown made a three-pointer and Duane received the ball directly in the low post in the frontcourt. As long as he received it, even if there were Celtics players returning to defense, he could rely on his tonnage and strength to take it.

The current situation is that both teams are fighting for three-point shots and long rebounds.

If the Celtics players took advantage of the chaos to grab the ball, the Bulls, without Duane, would probably be able to score quickly within two or three seconds. At that time, Duane would be able to respond immediately with Jokic's long pass.

If the Bulls get the ball, like they are doing now, that would be best.

Duane turned around to grab the ball that Jokic swatted over, then quickly controlled the ball and ran straight to the basket.

A simple windmill slam dunk perfectly demonstrates the aesthetics of violence.

boom--

As Duane completed this slam dunk, the Bulls continued to expand their lead, widening the gap to 4 points.

4 points may not seem like a lot, but under normal circumstances it would take two rounds to narrow the score.

For a game like the playoffs where every second counts, a two-round lead is actually very important, especially in the crucial moment of the fourth quarter.

Of course, it's only the first quarter. If the Celtics want to win and catch up, they can basically ignore the score difference.

However, it means something different to the Bulls players.

Being ahead means having a favorable situation, and playing with the lead means playing under pressure.

Moreover, as long as they don't stand on the free throw line and the boos from the Celtics fans are not particularly loud, it will be difficult to affect the performance of the Bulls players on the court.

The Bulls relied on this inconspicuous factor to gradually consolidate the leading advantage they had previously established.

It wasn't until Wiggins was substituted in that the perimeter defense was further strengthened, especially the lead defense, that the Bulls could no longer suppress their momentum to widen the gap.

After a month of regular season and more than half a month of rest and training in the playoffs, Wiggins' physical and mental state and competitive state have improved significantly.

Although he is still a little short of his peak, he is good enough for the playoffs, especially for defending outside stars, which requires more of his physical talents.

Competitive condition and scoring efficiency require several months of hard training, but physical condition only takes a few weeks.

You have to know that Wiggins' ribs have not been broken by anyone's elbow, and his physical fitness has not declined drastically.

After being personally coached by Duane, Wiggins' defensive skills have also improved significantly. Although his defensive movements are still not big, they are not as gentle as before.

When facing difficult-to-defend stars, Wiggins still has the physical confrontation he should have.

Coincidentally, Wiggins had only been on for a few minutes when it was time for Jaylen Brown to go down and rest.

After all, he is not as durable as Tatum, and the Celtics need Jaylen Brown's offensive firepower and ability to break through more.

Tatum's offensive ability is slightly worse than Jaylen Brown's, but he has strong endurance and can lead the team with his organizational skills and doing dirty work.

However, the Celtics now only have Tatum as a star. Although other players have made it to the All-Star Game in the past, they are now old and are not in their prime.

Wouldn't this put Tatum in a difficult position?

Tatum has evolved in the past two years, and the joke of "rewarding a Wiggins" seems a bit inappropriate, but Wiggins' physical fitness is there, and it is not easy for Tatum to play one-on-one against Wiggins.

Tatum also knows that playing one-on-one against Wiggins is not a good offensive option, so he keeps looking for his teammates to set pick-and-rolls and try to switch to other players.

The Bulls noticed Tatum's offensive intention and took the initiative to strengthen the defense in the restricted area.

If Tatum takes advantage of the screen switch to complete the shot at the moment of opportunity, even if the three-pointer hits, the Bulls can accept such a result.

Tatum's shooting talent is okay, but he doesn't have the explosiveness of Curry, who can score a series of goals as long as he scores one, and can make two, three, or four consecutive goals at once.

The Bulls don't think Tatum can make unlimited pick-and-roll three-pointers, and even Harden at his peak didn't have that ability.

Since Tatum's shooting is not lethal, the Bulls just need to prevent Tatum from breaking through, let him shoot more, and then protect the rebounds.

As for Tatum, he was afraid to play after playing for a while and passed the ball to others to shoot three-pointers?

The Bulls also didn't believe that the Celtics had so many microwave ovens that they could get into a hot state and score immediately after receiving the ball.

If most role players want to perform well in the game, they need to develop their touch by having the ball.

There are not many top 3D players in the entire NBA who do not need to possess a lot of ball possession but have a very high three-point shooting percentage.

To put it bluntly, top-level 3D players are as scarce as ball-handling core players.

The so-called 3D in the entire NBA is either 3 is not good, or D is not good, or it is a pseudo 3D that can switch from dribbling the ball to not dribbling the ball, and has the ability to dribble and not dribble the ball.

As the saying goes - every NBA player is the Jordan in his own story.

Before entering the NBA, most role players mainly played with the ball. After entering the NBA, they were forced to practice playing without the ball and switch to 3D to make a living.

Most of the role players of the Celtics today are former stars, and they need more possession of the ball to develop their touch when it comes to catching the ball and shooting three-pointers.

The Celtics' main style of play in this game was the two rookies attacking with the ball.

This also results in role players having very little time to touch the ball.

When you have a good touch, you can make a shot with every shot. When you have a bad touch, every ball is a pot shot. Once you miss the first ball, you will feel very pressured when you receive the next ball. You will be flustered, hesitate and dare not shoot.

Sometimes the opportunity comes and you are in a wide open position and you have to shoot. What should you do?
You can only go ahead with it!

Some individual players have regained their touch, but the vast majority of players still have rusty hands.

As expected, the Bulls' defensive strategy did not go wrong. In the last few minutes of the first quarter, not only did Tatum's three-pointer fail to make a good shot, but the Celtics' role players also failed to stand out.

On the contrary, the Bulls, relying on protecting rebounds and focusing on defensive transitions, beat the Celtics on an 8-2 run at the end of the first quarter, widening the score to 32-23, almost a double-digit difference.

At the beginning of the second quarter, led by Jaylen Brown, the Celtics changed their style of play and focused on breaking through.

Of course, it wasn't yet time to break through and shoot a three-pointer in the corner. The score difference was narrowed to within 5 points just by breaking through.

Back to the question, if the Bulls want to win, they must overcome the difficulty of five against eight.

The referee of this game obviously wanted to win more than the Celtics players.

The Bulls want to reduce the Celtics' shooting touch through tougher defense and more physical confrontation.

However, Jaylen Brown took the lead in the charge, constantly taking the ball and rushing to the inside. Even if he couldn't get to the basket, he could easily stand on the free throw line with the help of some physical contact within a reasonable range on the defensive end.

Sometimes, the difference between a star whistle and a superstar whistle is that the former gets the treatment of the latter and can become a superstar on the court.

Players with superstar whistles can't be touched at all when attacking, isn't that just like training?
Which trainer can limit the star player's scoring? Which star player can score easily during training?

Frequent whistles not only allowed the Celtics to quickly catch up with the score, but also affected the defense and mentality of the Bulls players on the court. Under normal circumstances, in order to control the number of fouls, they can only avoid physical contact as much as possible, use frequent footsteps, try to avoid losing position to limit the opponent's breakthrough, or put away the action of the hands and only try to jump and block the opponent after he jumps to shoot to interfere with the shot.

The Bulls' approach is, if you want to be punished, then you can be punished.

The Bulls did the opposite, using not-so-important role players in their bench lineup and increasing the number of fouls on Jaylen Brown.

It is not a foul that directly disables the opponent by elbowing, tripping, poking, or crotch-grabbing, but rather it is a foul that uses hand-hitting and body collisions to disrupt the opponent's shooting feel and increase their physical energy consumption.

Anyway, if there is physical contact, it will be called, so you might as well stand at attention and accept the punishment.

But before accepting the punishment, he really did it.

Now that the whistle has blown, it does make sense.

The only problem for the Bulls is the rotation of playing time and the accumulation of fouls for the team too early.

The Celtics also seized this opportunity and caused the Bulls to commit several off-ball fouls.

The Bulls knew it was unavoidable. The standards for judging moving screens and positioning for rebounds and the right to interpret the penalties were in the hands of the referee. Once the referee blew the whistle, they had to accept it and that was it.

After all, it is impossible to call thirty free throws in one quarter.

The Celtics and the Bulls are both among the top teams in the league, and everyone has to maintain their reputation.

The referee's whistle was too harsh, even the Celtics players and fans couldn't stand it.

In the second half of the second quarter, after the Celtics led the Bulls by 7 points, there were basically no whistles on the court.

However, the Celtics still reversed the score with a 19-2 free throw score in a single quarter and entered the halftime break with a 5-point lead.

In response, the Bulls players said they could accept this and even felt that they had a great chance of winning tonight.

After the first half, the two teams had 7 to 28 free throws, with the Celtics almost having 30 free throws.

In terms of the number of shots, 46 to 43, the Bulls only had 2 more than the Celtics.

The rebounding comparison was 29 to 21, with the Bulls having 8 more rebounds.

Anyone who has played basketball knows that when one team is significantly ahead in rebounds but significantly behind in free throws, it should be significantly ahead of the opponent in terms of the number of shots taken.

This is not the case in this game, which is enough to prove the referee's intervention in this game.

However, in this case, the Celtics were only leading the Bulls by 5 points.

What does this mean? It means that the Celtics are only as strong as they are now, and it is not impossible for the Bulls to win with five against eight.

After all, the referee's influence on the game is limited. When the Celtics were leading the Bulls by 21 free throws in the first half, it was impossible for the referee to give the Celtics 21 more free throws in the second half.

Maybe the Celtics will have a few more free throws in the second half, but generally speaking it won't be too outrageous.

Sometimes, in order to minimize the impact of black whistles, the Bulls will even be given some insignificant balance whistles.

In other words, as long as the Celtics don't have a sudden outburst in the second half, or score from multiple points, the Bulls will basically be able to win the game.

With the hope of winning, the Bulls didn't care about the infuriating things that happened in the second quarter.

Even after the third quarter started, the Bulls players took the initiative to use the incident in the second quarter to influence the mentality of the Celtics players.

"Basketball doesn't lie!"

"Justice will prevail!"

"Without a nanny to feed you, you will definitely starve to death!"

Every time a Bulls player scored, he would attack the Celtics player defending him with similar trash talk.

The Celtics players either knew they were in the wrong and kept their frustration to themselves, or responded with trash talk and got angry.

For players, especially stars, the three most critical factors in the game are mentality, experience and ability.

Personal ability is certainly very important, but mentality affects whether a star can perform at 100% of his ability.

The importance of experience lies in whether you can adjust in time when your mentality is affected.

And when the team encounters trouble, can he use his experience to help the team solve the problems, lead everyone out of the difficulties and win the ultimate victory.

The two rookies originally lacked the ability to decide the game with one final decision, and now affected by the trash talk, their performance in the third quarter was no longer outstanding.

And this Celtics team still lacks the experience of winning a championship.

Perhaps there are retired Celtics legends who have given advice and shared their championship-winning experiences with the two top draft picks, but times have changed, and the experiences back then are very different from those now.

All in all, the Celtics were just a little bit away from the championship, but they could never find the key and couldn't break through.

The Bulls have already stepped into the door of the championship, coming out again and again.

After the third quarter, the score was 81 to 79. Although the Bulls only took a 2-point lead, they had the upper hand in the third quarter and reversed a 7-point difference in a single quarter.

As long as we maintain this momentum, it will obviously not be difficult to win tonight.

Seeing victory in sight, Duan no longer held back.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, without waiting for Jokic and Curry to explode, Duane kept asking for the ball in the low post on the left side and scored 4 points in a row with hard shots in the low post.

The Celtics players noticed that Duane was very efficient in the low post and had to move closer to provide help defense.

Duane took the initiative to control the rhythm of the game, patiently backing up, passing the ball, catching the ball and backing up again, and then passing the ball to Aaron Wiggins at the top of the arc.

Aaron Wiggins has the ability to shoot three-pointers. Although he is only in his third year and still needs to practice, he also made a three-pointer in this game.

The Celtics are aware of this, so they will not easily let go of Aaron Wiggins at the top of the arc, and directly choose to double-team Duane.

Duane and Aaron Wiggins have a good understanding of each other. Duane drives towards the basket little by little, while Aaron Wiggins is not in a hurry to take a three-pointer from the top of the arc.

By the time Pritchard was running back and forth and getting dizzy, and Duane had one foot in the restricted area, he reached out for the ball again, dribbled toward the basket, turned around, and jumped up for a two-handed dunk.

After scoring six points in a row, the Bulls relied on Duane's personal ability to make a 6-2 run at the start of the fourth quarter.

As a result, the score difference has widened to six points, and the Bulls are leading the Celtics by two offensive rounds.

The pressure was once again on the Celtics, and it was obvious that the fourth quarter was much greater than the first.

The two rookies were eager to catch up, although they were more steady than in the first quarter. They no longer shot three-pointers from the outside, but chose to break through and attack the inside.

But after the third quarter, the free throw counts of the two teams had reached 11 to 36. The Celtics had already gained a 25-free throw lead, and the referee really couldn't continue to favor them.

In this situation in the fourth quarter, the Celtics had at most ten free throws.

Even if the Bulls didn't have any free throws, the Celtics would still have five offensive opportunities to get those 10 points through free throws.

The Celtics' problem now is not only how to catch up on offense, but also Duane's scoring is a big problem on defense.

Not to mention, there are Jokic and Curry who haven't exerted their strength yet.

To put it bluntly, a little rain may quench the Celtics' thirst, but it cannot save their lives.

Moreover, timely rain is limited.

Once the dependency mentality sets in, the Celtics won't play.

In the middle of the fourth quarter, the Celtics were unable to narrow the score despite the referee's efforts, so they tightened the rules of the game.

The Celtics suddenly ran out of whistles and their scoring momentum came to an abrupt halt.

The game was deadlocked for three and a half quarters, but the opponent was unable to respond at the last moment.

Not only the mentality of the two rookies is affected, but the mentality of other role players will also be affected to some extent.

"Are we really not as good as the Chicago Bulls?"

"We overcame the Chicago Bulls last year, so why are they standing in our way again this year?"

"Maybe the game was over as early as the second quarter!"

Compared with the Celtics who had no one score at the crucial moment of the fourth quarter, the Bulls played better and better in the second half of the fourth quarter.

As the game was almost over, the Bulls became a little slack, and the Celtics didn't want to lose too badly, so they were able to catch up some of the points.

By the end of the game, the score was 112 to 101.

Even though the free throw ratio between the two teams was 15 to 47, and the Celtics led the Bulls by 32 free throws, the Bulls still won the game by a double-digit margin.

This one game basically shattered the Celtics fans' dream of winning the championship this season.

Leading by 30+ free throws in a single game but still losing was really a huge blow to the Celtics fans' confidence in winning.

In fact, the Bulls are not strong enough to win the game by leading their opponents by 30+ points even after falling behind by 10+ free throws.

This is mainly due to the Bulls' rich game experience, which weakened the impact of referees' intervention in the game and helped the Bulls seize any possibility of winning.

Of course, the mentality of a battle of revenge is also very important.

The Bulls were united as one, and driven by the belief in revenge, no one was slack on defense or slow on offense tonight.

When playing basketball, ability is important, but attitude is also important.

The Bulls showed their full attitude, but the Celtics just treated it as a normal playoff game.

All I can say is that the outcome of this game was actually determined long before the game started.

For the Bulls players, even if they can't win this game, they have to grit their teeth and win the next one.

If the Bulls want to win the revenge battle and win this semifinal, they must win a game at TD Garden!
Fortunately, the Bulls did it, it was just Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, and they did it!
In the first away game, they defeated the Celtics, a favorite to win the championship. This is undoubtedly good news for the third-year rookies who have grown up in the Bulls.

After all, who else but a true championship team can do this? (End of this chapter)