Pat Riley had just finished crowing, and before the expression on his face that said, "No matter how weird you are, you can't escape the palm of my hand" completely faded away, his cell phone rang.
Pat Riley frowned, glanced at the phone in disgust, and then reluctantly answered the phone.
Before he could harshly lecture the person on the other end of the phone, he heard a sad cry from the other side, "Master, the old lady has just gone."
Pat Riley was shocked for a moment, and then his whole body suddenly became exhausted. Michael Douglas's grace was no longer there.
Still chattering on the phone, Pat Riley suddenly woke up, asked about the specific situation, explained the matter to his subordinates, and then turned around and left the office.[
This is called "Don't pretend to be B, pretending to be B will be struck by lightning", I would like to encourage you all. (ps: Pat Riley's mother did die during the playoffs that year. It is not my fabrication. I am not that evil.
.)
Let's turn around and talk about our game between the Magic and the Bulls.
Under Edison's instructions, the Magic deliberately lowered the speed and slowed down the tempo of the game. As for the Bulls, although head coach Scott Scales hoped to increase the tempo of the game, none of Nye's men could withstand the situation and could mobilize.
The one who sets the pace. Originally, Ben Gordon could count for half of the game, but he was fouled and couldn't play.
As mentioned before, the Bulls this season are all about defending the interior, and their offense relies entirely on the movement of several players on the outside, passing and cutting, and shooting after getting opportunities.
However, this style of play requires a lot of space, and players need to get open opportunities to ensure the hit rate and then complete the offensive task.
However, the Magic's terrazzo-like offensive and defensive rhythm makes it difficult for them to gain offensive space. And if they have a player with particularly strong breakthrough ability on the outside, they cannot take advantage of the defensive loopholes created by the Magic's Martin and Nash playing at the same time. They can only play outside.
A dry shot, and then all hope was placed on the player's touch and Chandler's enthusiasm for rebounding.
Facts have proven that Lady Luck, this bitch, more often plays the role of icing on the cake. She almost requires you to show certain abilities, and she is helping you appropriately. If you put all your hope in
She is counting on her to help him in times of need, and the result will definitely be death.
The Bulls missed consecutive outside shots. Seeing that his scoring momentum had been curbed, Stetus Scales quickly called a timeout.
Skiles is a very pragmatic coach. He knows that his team and his players have already scored at their maximum strength. The inability to score now is really a reflection of the gap in strength. No matter how he arranges his tactics deliberately, there is no point. So.
He thought about the problem from a different angle - it is indeed a problem that I don't score, but if the opponent doesn't score either, then this problem can be resolved to the greatest extent.
So during this timeout, he emphasized running as though there was no point in running the game. He focused on defense and used terrazzo tactics to limit the Magic.
Not to mention, the current Bulls can really play defensive basketball. They have Chandler on the inside and Duhong on the outside. The two of them are two gates, one inside and one outside. And regardless of the defensive skills of others, Xinli
There is no problem with Nocioni's defensive enthusiasm. It is said that the key to defense depends on attitude. If you are determined, even if there are flaws in talent, there may still be problems with the quality of defense, but the defensive intensity has definitely improved.
Not to mention, the Bulls' focus on defense really caused problems for the Magic from the beginning, but this problem will not be eliminated immediately with one person's performance.
The inside line, or near the three-second zone, is a very magical place.
When you are confused and don't know how to defend, the easiest way is to stick to the three-second zone and let your opponent shoot to prevent the opponent from breaking through. And when your offense stalls and you don't stick to all kinds of things, the easiest way to save it is
Pass the ball to the three-second zone and let the inside players attack the basket directly. Even the fuse of violence on the court is mostly in this area.
It can be said that on the basketball court, as long as you are confused, using the three-second zone is a reasonable choice that has the ability to read the game.
And the Magic happen to have a player who is a huge threat in the three-second zone-Elton Brand.
Brand has now fully adapted to the rhythm of the playoffs. In his opinion, there is nothing special about the playoffs except for the name being different and the opponent's fighting being more fierce. For an insider, fighting is the most important thing.
Being cruel is normal.
Again, strength determines everything. If you have the strength to despise the world, even if you find that the world is much bigger than expected, it will actually only delay your time. Just like an exam, if you have the strength to score 90 points
, then with an invigilator by your side, you can still get more than 80 points in the exam. On the contrary, if you are not strong enough, you will be easily affected by the external environment.
Once the decision was made to focus on Brand, the other Magic players quickly pulled away. Even Howard stood on the baseline on the other side of the backboard, trying his best to keep Chandler away from Brand and not give him a chance to make up defense.[
As a white player, Sangela's physical talent is not good, he cannot jump high and cannot carry. The reason why he can survive in the league mainly relies on his soft mid-range shooting feel on the offensive end. As for defense, he can withstand
The problem is the 120 kilograms smaller weight. At 120 kilograms, even if there is a pile of compost piled there, ordinary people can't hit it.
But the Brand he met today is obviously not an ordinary person. Brand is just over 2 meters tall, but he can reach the All-Star level. Strength and solid inside steps are the key factors.
Brand has succeeded twice in a row by beating Sangela. Counting the previous ones, he has scored almost 10 points with his explosion in the second half of the first quarter.
"He doesn't do behind-the-back passes, nor does he do tomahawk dunks or any very flashy moves. He is just a very inconspicuous guy who works silently. Then you will see that he has 23 points and 20 goals.
Rebounds." Looking at Brand's performance, Steve Kerr gave a very high level of confidence.
"That's right. Brand is like this. He works silently, scores silently, tries hard to grab rebounds, kills opponents with dull eyes, and then inspires his teammates with stable performance. When you get used to all this, you will
I found that although it has only been one season, Brand has already left his mark on the Magic's games, and you can't even imagine the Magic without Brand." Marv Albert also agreed.
Steve Kerr's words, and then his words praised this powerful player who usually doesn't show off, "If you want to find a fearless warrior who plays a stable game every night, then in any era, Bu
Rand is an excellent choice."
Bulls coach Skiles saw that this play was not going to work, so he temporarily directed on the sidelines. Chandler and Sangella changed defensive positions, letting Chandler guard Brand.
It goes without saying that Chandler's defensive ability needs no further elaboration. Since he entered the league, he has been among the top 10 or even the top 5 in interior defense.
And he is much taller than Brand. With his arms spread out, Brand's head is like a cloud on the cage, and the "captain" can't see the basket at all. Besides being tall, this guy's strength is also
With his feet, Brand had a "ping-pong" collision and failed to get a good shooting angle.
Skiles breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Brand being guarded, but when he heard Edison's shouting from the sidelines, he felt relieved again.
"Steve, speed up the game appropriately, cooperate with Howard in the high post, and throw the ball to the basket. That guy can catch it."
In fact, there is no need for Edison to say that Nash, who has been immersed in the NBA for more than 10 years, has already discovered the flaws in the Bulls' defensive defense.
So in an instant, the Magic switched back to their original V-shaped offense, but it was not as fast, it was not an offense of 8 seconds or less.
As mentioned before, Sangueira is a player with no speed. He already looked clumsy against Brand. Now when he meets Howard, he is so embarrassed that he barely stumbles with his left leg.
Some people may have said, can't Sangela stay in the three-second zone and not go out to die?
Of course it's possible, but after doing the pick-and-roll, Nash is allowed to shoot. At Nash's level, no one interferes with his shooting percentage. How can I put it, he makes 90% of his free throws all year round.
At the end of the first quarter, 28-21, the Magic led by 7 points.
Although it is only the first quarter, it has actually set the tone for this game. Even professionals can already predict the outcome of this game and even the entire series. Because in this quarter, the Bulls have already produced
They tried their best, first came out with surprise troops, and then strengthened their defense. They basically played all they could, but in the end they still lost by 7 points.
And the Magic also have a bench that makes 29 other head coaches drool. So unless Lady Luck is at work and a Bulls player suddenly hits every shot, they have no chance of winning.
But as mentioned before, even goddesses are unreliable. Even if Ben Gordon returned to the court, he didn't make much of a splash.
In the end, the Magic defeated the Bulls 112-99 at home, giving them a good start in this season's playoff journey.
Brand was the best player in the game. Playing in the playoffs for the first time, he was more focused and active. In addition, the Bulls really had no good way to deal with him, so in the end he played 33 minutes and scored 28 points and 13 points.
rebounded and was elected the best of the game.
As the team's commander, Nash also contributed outstanding statistics of 13 points and 12 assists.[
On the Bulls side, Hinrich never found his touch. In the end, he only made 5 of 16 shots. Including free throws, he also scored 13 points. Although he scored as many points as Nash, he only had 5 assists, which can be said to be completely
He failed to be a good commander of a team.
Although Ben Gordon was troubled by fouls at the beginning, he did live up to his reputation for outstanding performance as the game became more intense. In the limited 25 minutes, he made 10 of 20 shots, ranking the highest in the team.
29 points. It can be said that the Bulls did not suffer a defeat in this game, all due to his outstanding performance.
After the Magic game ended, the results of other games also came out one after another.
I won’t go into details about the specific scores to avoid anyone saying that I am dragging out the number of words. In short, “Some are happy and some are sad.”
