Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 343 Who is the real big daddy?
The Bulls eliminated the Wizards 4-2 in the first round. Irving had the upper hand in the matchup with Wall. He averaged 26 points and 7 assists per game in the series, with a shooting percentage of 46.8%, and performed quite well.

It was obvious that after two and a half years with Han Sen, his personal abilities were much stronger than during the same period in "history".

Moreover, it was somewhat destined that the Cavaliers and the Bulls would meet in the divisional semifinals.

You have to know that the previous meeting between the two teams after a trade was enough to spark sparks.

The series hasn't even started yet, but the tension has already risen.

Before going to Cleveland, a reporter interviewed Irving and asked him what the difference was between playing in Chicago and Cleveland.

"Chicago is a real big city, always full of life and energy, especially at night. When I drive on the road, I feel that I am in a real sports city, which is completely absent in Cleveland."

Compared to the last time he dissed the Cavaliers, there was actually nothing wrong with what Irving said this time.

Cleveland and Chicago are not in the same league either in terms of city size or sports development.

Even though Cleveland showed signs of recovery after Hansen led the Cavaliers to the championship, it is still a long way to go.

But the key point is that this time he dissed a city like Cleveland, which is more serious than his previous diss of the Cavaliers.

Because for things like family and country, one’s own people can always diss or even curse them, but they cannot tolerate others slandering them in the slightest.

After two consecutive times, the outside world realized that Irving had such low emotional intelligence after leaving Cleveland.

However, this is obviously a chain reaction. Irving's statement this time is closely related to the conflict with Cavaliers fans during the previous regular season.

Owen’s idea is that since you are ungrateful, there is no need for me to show any mercy.

After this news was exposed by the media, Cleveland fans have denounced Irving on social media.

Malone, who had previously had a war of words with Irving, also began to express his views in front of reporters:
"Oh, I guess he's talking about Cleveland. I'm glad I'm in Cleveland."

"He can do whatever he wants. But we all know Cleveland is a great sports city. A great city, the fans support the team 100 percent, and I'm glad to be here."

Not only Malone, but Wade, who was a bargaining chip in the previous trade for Irving, also spoke out at this time:
"You never know where you're going to go, what's going to happen, what team you're going to end up on, who's going to be your teammates, even when I left Miami, I thought that way.

So I never want to leave a place and say something bad about a place because it’s great when you’re there and then you leave and it’s terrible?”

Before one crisis is over, another one arises. Just when the Bulls arrived in Cleveland for an open training session, a reporter interviewed the Bulls head coach Hoiberg.

Hoiberg took the initiative to mention Wade in the interview.

"I'm happy with how DW is doing now. I knew he could do it. We talked about it a few times when he was in Chicago, but it didn't work out. I think we could have been successful."

At first glance, this sentence seems to be praising Wade, but if you listen carefully, you can easily hear the hidden meaning in his words.

If Wade was willing to play as a substitute for the Bulls, the Bulls would not have been on the verge of rebuilding.

This statement quickly reached Wade's ears. During the open training session on game day, Wade, who had been enlightened by Hansen, quickly responded strongly to Hoiberg's statement:

"It's simple. There's no way I'm going to be a backup on a rebuilding team. I'm going to be very unhappy from a basketball perspective. If basketball isn't going well, nothing is going to go well. I don't want to put my family through that."

Wade's implication was also clear. He was willing to make sacrifices, but the premise was to compete for the championship. He did not think the previous Bulls had that ability.

You have to know that he chose to return to the Bulls not to win the championship, but because Chicago is his hometown and he just wanted to play for his hometown team.

Then in the pre-game interview, Hoiberg also responded to Wade's response:

"When you have DW, Pau Gasol and Jimmy Butler and you're still considered a bad team, there aren't many teams in this league that aren't."

He equated "rebuilding team" with "bad team", which put Wade in the spotlight.

The focus of fans' discussion on social media quickly shifted from Irving to Wade.

The twists and turns before the game brought the atmosphere to its peak.

At the Quicken Loans Arena during G1, offensive signs began to appear.

"We don't need Kyrie, we already have DW", "Chicago can never be revived", "Kyrie <<<joker"...

During the opening ceremony, when Irving came on stage, there was a thunderous booing from the audience.

This time, no one cheered or applauded him.

After the opening ceremony, the starting lineups of both sides were announced one after another.

Bulls: Irving, Sefolosha, Butler, Gibson, Howard
Cavaliers: Hansen, JR, Covington, TT, Jokic
Howard jumped to take the lead for the Bulls.

After the Bulls opened the game, Irving and Butler successively cooperated with Howard in pick-and-roll.

Hoiberg's idea is very clear. The Cavaliers' current offense is based on the Hansen-Jokic pick-and-roll. Hansen is difficult to target, but Jokic's defense against smaller players is a weakness and can be used as a breakthrough point.

When they faced each other in the regular season, Butler used the mismatch to get Jokic into foul trouble.

It's just that there is a slight deviation between reality and theory.

The quality of Howard's pick-and-roll is exactly the same as Jokic's last season. Both of them went straight to the basket if they failed to block the opponent.

This is not something he did intentionally, but whether in the Magic or the Nets, he was the end point of the pick-and-roll tactics. The faster he broke the ball, the greater his chance of catching the ball.

Over time, his pick-and-roll became just a symbolic block, and then he would quickly move to the basket.

But Hoiberg's original purpose was to kill Jokic. In this kind of pick-and-roll that failed to block the person, neither Hansen nor Covington would choose to switch defense.

So after one round, the Bulls' tactics finally turned into Irving's strong attack on Hansen.

The result is predictable. Although Irving completed the shot, it missed the basket due to strong interference.

But Howard grabbed the frontcourt rebound, pushed Jokic away and scored a layup.

Jokic is very strong, but he is still at a disadvantage in front of Howard.

Hansen and Jokic played pick-and-roll, and after the breakup, he faced Howard and made a mid-range shot.

Because of his back injury and age, Howard's physical fitness has declined significantly compared to his peak period. If the ball just now was played during his time with the Magic, it would definitely have been a slam dunk instead of a layup. This decline will definitely not only affect the offensive end.

Of course, Hansen's idea was the same as before against the Warriors. He used shooting to force Howard to jump out. Even if he missed the shot, Gibson alone could not beat TT and Jokic.

It’s just that his touch at the start of today was much better than when he played against the Warriors.

At this time, Hoiberg stood up and went to the sidelines to make tactical gestures to Irving.

After the Bulls attacked the frontcourt, they adjusted their tactics. Howard did not move to the high post to set a screen, but went directly to the low post with his back to Jokic.

This tactic is not common on this Bulls team.

Because it can be seen from the average data that Howard's tactical position after joining the Bulls is not much higher than that of the Hawks.

But what can be seen is that Hoiberg is determined to find a breakthrough in Jokic tonight.

Howard's singles were successful.

He used a close-range breakthrough after a confrontation to put the ball into the basket.

What Howard fears most is the type of inside players who have a stable lower body and are not inferior to him in confrontation, such as O'Neal and Yao Ming. These two not only have stable lower bodies, but also one has great strength and the other is tall. When facing them in the low post, Howard gives people the impression that his skills are very rough.

But at other times, his performance in the low post was quite good, otherwise the Magic would not have been able to play with all their stars. It was not uncommon for him to see the opponent shrink to the basket as soon as he got the ball in the paint.

The second-year Jokic also encountered his on-court difficulties for the first time.

The players he faced in the playoffs last season were: Hibbert, who has become "Gao Yuanyuan", Valanciunas who is also from Europe, Gasol, who has a soft style of play, and Mozgov, a Russian who had few opportunities to play in the later stages of the game.

In the first round of this season, his opponent was not Antetokounmpo as expected, but rookie Thon Maker from Australia.

Although Howard is no longer at his peak, he is still much better than those people.

Moreover, after the transition from offense to defense, Howard began to frequently confront Jokic without the ball.

Hansen continued to play pick-and-roll with Jokic, and this time the Bulls directly chose to double-team Hansen.

Hansen passed the ball to Jokic.

Jokic received the ball and made a quick layup.

But at the moment he shot, Howard turned around, jumped high and blocked his shot out of the court.

After blocking the shot, Howard deliberately bumped into Jokic, then roared excitedly towards the sidelines.

There was a commotion in the place.

Playing basketball is like fighting a war. Once your opponent realizes that you are weak and can be bullied, their attack will only become more and more fierce.

And it can be clearly felt that just as Irving's words stimulated the Cleveland fans, Wade's words also made the Bulls united against a common enemy.

Hansen didn't have time to care about Jokic at this time, because this Bulls team was able to rush from the edge of the playoffs to the upper half in the second half of the season, and their strength is not weak.

If we let them play with momentum, then tonight's game and even the entire series will become difficult.

There were 7 seconds left on the Cavaliers' shot clock, a bomb-defusing ball.

Hansen and TT played an off-ball pick-and-roll. After receiving the ball from Jokic, he made a fake breakthrough and forced Gibson to retreat, then he shot directly from the outside.

After finding that he had a good touch in his opening tentative shots, he naturally increased his mid-range and long-range shots.

"Shh!"

With a crisp sound, Han Sen's three-point shot came down!
The atmosphere at the scene, which had just been suppressed by Howard's block, was instantly ignited.

"Defend! Defend!"

That atmosphere also quickly turned into a defensive shout.

Howard continued to position himself in the low post, and this time Jokic half-circled in front to interfere.

Irving signaled Howard to come out for a screen, but Howard's screen still failed to block anyone. However, this time, Irving pushed Han Sen two steps inside and threw the ball directly into the basket.

Although Howard's pick-and-roll just now didn't block anyone, he used his speed to get rid of Jokic when he cut in.

Irving's pass was of very good quality, and Howard caught the ball in the air and then performed an alley-oop dunk.

After landing, a long-lost happy smile appeared on his face, this was a dream come true.

The scene was also very restless. Jokic was obviously no match for Howard on the court.

However, it was at this time that many people realized that Jokic was actually only in his second year.

If he could beat Howard in his sophomore year, he would not be selected into the All-Star team, but the best team.

The Cavaliers are now in real trouble, because Irving has gone to the other side, Wade is still on the bench, and if Jokic is also suppressed, Hansen will become isolated and helpless on the court.

At this time, Malone also turned his head and looked at Wade behind him, considering whether to replace Wade in advance.

Hansen advanced to the frontcourt with the ball. He did not continue with the pick-and-roll tactics, but signaled Jokic to the three-point line and then passed the ball to him.

Hansen obviously also knew that the Bulls would gradually increase their defense against him, so this change was made in advance.

The biggest advantage of having Jokic at the three-point line is that it can pull Howard from the restricted area to the free throw line.

Then, he can play without the ball.

In fact, after the ball was given, Hansen was already cutting into the basket quickly.

Jokic's pass was also given in the first place.

After Howard was pulled to the free throw line, Hansen, who wanted to assist in the open cut, could no longer do so.

On the Bulls side, only Gibson had time to retreat to the basket.

But Han Sen jumped towards him and made a low layup in the air and put the ball steadily into the basket.

The fans cheered again.

Han Sen's style of play, in which he responded to every ball, made it hard for the fans at the scene not to get excited.

The Cavaliers' morale is also improving.

When Irving and Howard played pick-and-roll again, Jokic moved the ball forward and retreated inward.

After Howard received the ball, he was interfered by Jokic and could not complete the alley-oop directly. He could only take the ball to the ground, lower his center of gravity and prepare to push Jokic away like before.

But this time, at the moment he sank the ball, he suddenly felt his hand lighten.

It turned out that Han Sen had released Owen and went straight inside!
Howard was so engrossed in bullying Jokic that he didn't notice at all.

After Han Sen completed the steal, he went straight for a one-on-one fast break.

Irving tried to steal the ball, but Hansen dribbled past him from behind.

Sefolosha came over quickly to defend, but was pushed forward by Hansen.

When it came to the free throw line in the frontcourt, Hansen took the ball and jumped over Sefolosha.

Sefolosha tried hard to block the shot in the air, but was finally knocked out of the baseline.

"Oh!"

Hansen smashed the ball into the basket through Sefolosha, and the referee's whistle sounded immediately.

This is a 2+1!

The scene exploded instantly.

When Han Sen stepped onto the free throw line, a long-lost familiar sound was heard at the scene.

"who is your daddy!"

The photographer on the scene also used the full range of camera language and directly focused on Irving.

Irving previously said that it was a misunderstanding that he helped the Cavaliers win the championship because he didn't understand who the real Big Daddy was.

(End of this chapter)