So I am the god of basketball?

The Bulls took the lead, but Chuck Daly was still as steady as an old dog, just watching.

He has studied the Bulls thoroughly, so he knows that even if the Bulls have a slight lead at the start, if they continue to play, the Lakers will soon be the leading team.

Because under the same system, he doesn't believe that there is any team that can compare with the backcourt duo of Meng Lang and Kobe.

Even if the backcourt of the opposing Bulls team is Michael Jordan and McGrady!
He also firmly believes that Meng Lang and Kobe can gain a matchup advantage.

He doesn't have confidence in Kobe, he has confidence in Meng Lang.

Look, in the next ball, facing Michael Jordan, Meng Lang gained the advantage in continuous confrontations after the start.

Michael Jordan experienced the pain that all middle-aged men experience.

It has speed, strength and impact in the early stage, but tends to become weak in the middle and late stages.

"Bah!"

Meng Lang gained the advantage in the confrontation, pushed Jordan away and scored a goal with one hand slam dunk.

When the Bulls counterattacked, Meng Lang became the one defending McGrady.

McGrady simply passed the ball to Jordan.

Jordan faced Bryant and exchanged hands with him in the "post-up" position. The whole action was very smooth. Bryant gradually couldn't keep himself in front of Jordan. When he noticed this, Jordan turned over and shot the ball into the basket.

Jordan has now mastered the "floor flow" technique to perfection.

But Meng Lang noticed that Jordan adjusted his breathing while returning to defense.

In the next round, Meng Lang carried the ball to the frontcourt, and the person who switched defense in front of him turned out to be McGrady.

Seeing this, Meng Lang crossed positions with Kobe and put himself in front of Jordan again.

Jordan could see that he was looking for this point to attack. He gritted his teeth and faced it. Meng Lang also used the skillful "back-to-the-basket" technique, and then turned around and jumped, and threw the ball steadily into the basket. With the blessing of "Dream Footsteps", Meng Lang's "turnaround jump shot" was pleasing to the eye, and it was even better than Jordan.

In the TNT studio, Barkley watched Meng Lang complete the attack and said with emotion: "Times have really changed!"

At that time, which player would dare to play against Jordan at such a famous spot?

Michael Jordan was always talking trash while making his opponent cry. At that time, who could have thought that one day, Jordan would be taught this way.

Fundamentally speaking, Jordan did not lose his position, but he was also unable to provide enough interference to Meng Lang without losing his position like he did when he was young.

For a player of Meng Lang's level, it would be a pipe dream to limit him if we just defend without losing our position.

Jordan knew this, too.

During the game, he could feel that his reaction and rhythm could not keep up with Meng Lang at all. The reason was very simple:
He is old!

But Jordan found himself accepting this fact calmly.

It doesn't matter if you can't defend against Meng Lang, the important thing is...

Let the opponent be unable to defend against them!
The ball was given to McGrady, but the person standing in front of McGrady was still Meng Lang.

His size makes it easier to match up against McGrady.

Kobe can use his backup defense to replace Bryant and Meng Lang to carry out subsequent close defense, thereby reducing the impact of Jordan or McGrady on the basket.

Although McGrady has many dunks, he actually prefers shooting.

Meng Lang also paid great attention to this and tried not to give him the opportunity to shoot.

A "touch-type player" like McGrady is still very terrifying when he is in good shape.

With Kobe's backup defense, his breakthrough doesn't need to be a big concern.

"Dangdang!"

The shot in the double-team missed, and the rebound was grabbed by Antonio Davis.

Kobe just stood in front of Jordan.

The ball was passed from Davis to Jordan, who immediately made a fadeaway jump shot, ignoring Kobe in front of him as if he didn't exist, and the ball fell steadily into the basket.

But from the Lakers' perspective, Jordan's goal was acceptable.

Meng Lang continued to look for Jordan to attack. After constant confrontation, he made a "juggling pass" under the basket after circling around the waist to deceive Rodman and gave the ball to Divac behind him.

Divac took a step forward and made a hook shot to score.

The ball continued to flow into Jordan's hands. When facing Kobe in this round, Michael Jordan did not choose to attack himself, but instead threw the ball to McGrady.

Facing Meng Lang, McGrady forced a shot and the ball hit the front of the basket. This time Ben Wallace protected the rebound well.

He quickly threw the ball to the frontcourt, and Meng Lang connected with Kobe, and finally Meng Lang dunked with one arm to complete the goal.

After this goal, Phil Jackson called a timeout.

Chuck Daly nodded slightly. Although the score difference was only 5 points at this time, in his opinion, there would be no problem in winning the game.

Jordan expended too much energy on the offensive end, and Meng Lang deliberately looked for him at this point to play one-on-one, which continued to consume his physical energy. In the following period of time, Jordan was bound to have physical problems.

This will put McGrady under greater pressure.

McGrady is already under a lot of pressure on both offense and defense. If he continues to bear greater pressure, he may easily run out of physical strength.

According to the scouting report, Chuck Daly can clearly see:

McGrady's biggest problem at this stage is that he lacks physical strength.

If he had the same physical fitness as Jordan, this Bulls team would probably be first in the Eastern Conference.

Because that is definitely a super enhanced version of Pippen teamed up with an aging version of Jordan.

Of course, even if McGrady is not physically fit now, together with Jordan, other teams cannot challenge him. First, McGrady's defense is enough to deal with most perimeter players, and his offense can only be limited by perimeter players at the level of "Best Defensive First Team".

If you can't break through him, there's no way to consume Jordan's physical energy.

So they can still rank second in the East.

But when they met the Lakers, they met their nemesis. The overall strength of the Lakers' perimeter defense has been enhanced again this season.

More importantly, on the offensive end, Meng Lang can shoot at Jordan or McGrady indiscriminately.

The Bulls welcomed Armstrong back this season, which gave them a natural shortcoming. Meng Lang could easily switch defense and play one-on-one against Jordan because there was no other defender to replace him after McGrady.

These two people were restricted, not to mention the rest of the Bulls.

The Bulls have won many games in the past thanks to Rodman grabbing rebounds.

but now……

Today is different from the past. Rodman is old, but he can still grab more than 10 rebounds per game. But in some key rebounds, Ben Wallace and Divac can easily team up to limit him.

There was nothing wrong with what Chuck Daly was thinking.

After the timeout, the development of the "Christmas Game" was pretty much what he expected. The Bulls couldn't find a player to replace Jordan in his fatigue period, and McGrady himself consumed a lot of energy on both offense and defense after the fourth quarter, so in the end the Lakers easily won the game with a score of 109 to 96, by 13 points.

麦迪在这场比赛拿到了25分6篮板6助攻，还有2个抢断跟1次盖帽。

He has really exploded this season, and he really squeezed it out in this game.

Jordan scored 28 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in this game, but he took 25 shots and made 11 of them, with a shooting percentage of 44%. Compared with his own efficiency, it is not high, and compared with his peak period, it can be described as low.

Jordan also made 5 turnovers in this game.

Jordan is old...

This was the relatively unified description of Jordan by major media after the game.

The New York Times said: "There has never been a night like this night that made everyone see this so clearly. Michael Jordan is really old. He is no longer the Bulls' best player every night. He needs better teammates than ever, but the one standing next to him is already a top wing. The reason for all this is, as I said, Jordan is really old!"

Barkley also said after watching the game: "If you told me 10 years ago that there was a guy who would constantly score again and again with turnaround jump shots in front of Jordan, I would suspect that you were still asleep or drunk, but now that all this has really happened, what can I say? Michael, prepare to retire, the big ship of the new era is coming, but there is no place for you on it!"

"The Bleacher Report": "Let's put aside our expectations. The Bulls can be ruled out as Dream and the Lakers' biggest rivals this season. In this king-to-king showdown, Dream had the last laugh!"

For the Lakers, Meng Lang scored 38 points, 8 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, 2 of which were against Jordan. At least half of these 38 minutes were spent against Jordan in singles.

In this game, there were so many scenes of him playing one-on-one against Jordan and scoring, and the scenes were repeated. If you didn’t know, you would think they were being “replayed”.

Of course, this kind of scene is the most shocking.

Who would have thought that Jordan would be "killed" by the same move so many times in a row.

The media couldn't help but think of what Meng Lang said three years ago after he defeated Jordan and won the championship:

Dream ended the era of Jordan!

From still having some strength left at that time to being unilaterally beaten now, the value of this sentence is constantly increasing.

Kobe's performance in this game was not as good as McGrady's.

He only got 20 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

Kobe was not used to McGrady's defense or Jordan's defense. Also...his condition tonight was not very good.

So even though he won the game, he wasn't very happy.

It is worth mentioning that the next morning, he went to the gym for extra practice. Meng Lang didn’t know when he came, but when he arrived at the training ground, Kobe was already exhausted.

When he saw Meng Lang, a hint of hesitation flashed in his eyes, but Meng Lang didn't notice it.

When Meng Lang started training, he suddenly came up to him and said, "Dream... I want to learn the dream footwork!"

This is what he had wanted to learn for a long time, but because Meng Lang's teaching conditions were too harsh, he had been hesitant. But in last night's game, when Meng Lang faced Jordan's "dream footwork" and various turnaround jump shots and made the ball, his heart trembled violently.

After not sleeping for a whole night, he felt that this was the most suitable "weapon" for him. If he could learn this move, it would definitely be a bonus to him.

Whether it is to defeat Jordan or to defeat Meng Lang in the future...

For these goals!

"Master!"

He shouted!
Meng Lang looked at his shameful expression and pretended not to hear: "What?"

"I...Master!" Kobe shouted again.

"Hmm..." Meng Lang was very happy. "Since you are so sincere, don't worry, I will definitely let you learn the Dream Steps!"

Kobe's shameful face showed a bit of fascination.

After a day of rest, the Lakers went to Cleveland, and their next game was to challenge the Cavaliers away. After arriving in Cleveland, Meng Lang took Tyron and the bodyguards alone and drove to Akron, which was an hour away.

The destination is naturally St. Mary's High School.

This summer, LeBron James ended his junior high school career and ushered in his high school career. Just like before, he chose Akron.

Among them, high school students only need to follow a very simple path:

Absolute possession of the ball!
Therefore, choosing St. Mary's High School is a very good choice for him.

LeBron had asked Meng Lang before if he would come to watch his game?

Meng Lang agreed when he saw that LeBron had a game the day before the game against the Cavaliers.

He had not paid much attention to LeBron's high school games before, but when he arrived at the scene this time, the game was immediately full of gimmicks, and the venue with thousands of people was filled up in an instant.

When Meng Lang saw that LeBron's teammates were still Romeo and his friends, he laughed helplessly in his heart.

Some things really come from the bones.

However, one advantage of a "game with familiar faces" is that LeBron can play freely, which is exactly the most comfortable style of play for him. As for his physical fitness, playing in the high school league, even now, as long as he does not meet those top high school students, he can basically be described as having a good grasp of it.

LeBron finally played well in this game, scoring 23 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.

Watching his games, you can't tell at all that this is a freshman in high school. Judging from his athletic ability, there would be no problem saying that he is an NCAA player coming here to attack from a lower level.

"The Godfather coming to watch me play the game is an extra motivation for me. For me, winning the game under the watchful eyes of Dream is of great significance!" Facing the interview with reporters after the game, Meng Lang found that LeBron is now very mature.

Anyway, he is definitely more mature than his peers.

This is all thanks to Meng Lang, who allowed him to adapt to the spotlight in advance.

However, compared to how LeBron treats his son, Meng Lang, the godfather, is much less worried about him.

Because LeBron is indeed talented, and a top talent. Such a player does not need him to worry about whether he can be selected in the second round, he is definitely the "No. 1 pick"!
But Meng Lang suddenly found that he had a "disciple" on his left hand and a "godson" on his right hand. Will No. 23 and No. 24 fight each other in the future? (End of this chapter)