Chen Jie's appearance became the focus of everyone's attention.
They wanted to know if Chen Jie was really fine, and was there really no problem with Chen Jie's condition?
They even want to know whether Chen Jie can lead the Bulls out of the first quarter's decline.
All suspense will be revealed soon.
One minute later, the second quarter started.
Chen Jie, Chris Duhon, Kwame Brown, Antonio Davis, Griffin.
The Bulls have this formation.
On the Cavaliers side, LeBron James and Mo Mo are still on the court. Pavlovic comes off to rest, Ilgauskas comes off to rest, Gooden comes off to rest, and Luke Jackson and Scott are replaced.
Williams, and Anderson Varejao.
Of the three players, except for Luke Jackson, Chen Jie had never heard of their names in his previous life.[
One can imagine how strong they are.
However, although the Cavaliers' starting lineup is strong this season, their bench depth is really not deep. Paul Silas needs to rest the main players, so he can only replace these few players.
The strength gap between the Cavaliers' main lineup and their substitute lineup is too big, which is actually one of the reasons for their recent decline in performance.
Perhaps, at the beginning of the season, the Cavaliers' main lineup is physically strong enough to play more than thirty minutes in a game to maintain the team's continued competitiveness. However, as the season progresses, at this time, the main lineup will need
Rotation or rest, and their bench depth is not enough, it is natural that their record will decline in the middle and late stages of the season.
In fact, Paul Silas had no choice. He kept LeBron James and Mo Williams on the court, to a certain extent, just to ensure the competitiveness of the bench lineup.
The Bulls have already sent Chen Jie. If it weren't for Ilgauskas and Gooden really need to rest, how could Paul Silas send in a few substitutes?
Now, he can only hope that during the four or five minutes when the main players rest, the Bulls will not catch up with the score under the leadership of Chen Jie.
In fact, after seeing the lineup that the Cavaliers have fielded at this moment, many media who just had doubts about whether Chen Jie could lead the Bulls to counterattack are now beginning to think that Chen Jie can lead the Bulls to counterattack.
After all, with the Cavaliers' current lineup, there really is no one who can cause trouble to Chen Jie.
James has played one quarter and his physical strength should be about the same, so his performance will be compromised.
In this case, even if Chen Jie hasn't recovered yet, he should be able to cope with it.
What's more, Kwame Brown, who broke out at the end of the first quarter, is still on the court. He can become Chen Jie's assistant and give Chen Jie a lot of help.
In fact, the media's speculations are quite reliable.
Facing the Cavaliers' lineup, the Bulls can be said to have an advantage. This period of time is also their best opportunity to counterattack.
Just now the media were saying that even if Chen Jie's condition has not recovered yet, it must be enough.[
What's more, at the beginning of the second quarter, Chen Jie showed his normal state?
When Chen Jie announced his return with a pull-up three-pointer from the outside during the Bulls' first offense, no one doubted that the Bulls would launch a counterattack.
Chen Jie's condition has recovered, and the Cavaliers are now rotating their lineup. In these few minutes of the game, it can be said that there is no suspense at all.
The development of the game also confirmed everyone's guesses.
After Chen Jie hit a three-pointer, although James immediately retaliated with a breakthrough, the alley-oop between Chen Jie and Kwame Brown once again allowed the Bulls to narrow the point difference to single digits.
James still wants to try to break through. At this time, he doesn't dare to put his hope in his outside shooting.
He must ensure stable scoring, because he knows that once he misses a three-pointer, the Cavaliers' fate will be reversed.
James wanted someone to carry the team on his shoulders and help the team get through this difficult four-minute period.
However, Chen Jie did not give him a chance for this breakthrough.
Although Griffin is still the main defender against James, because Chen Jie is facing Mo Williams, his physical strength is not as good as in the first quarter, and his desire to attack is not as strong.
Therefore, Chen Jie has enough energy to help defend James.
After seeing James break through Griffin and relying on Kwame Brown for a layup, Chen Jie flew out from behind and nailed the basketball in James' hand to the backboard with a big block.
James watched helplessly as Chen Jie flew out from behind. He wanted to dodge, but at this time, his ability to resist Kwame Brown was already at his limit. It was impossible to make any moves in the air.
Therefore, although he was on guard, he still took a hit from Chen Jie.
After landing, James didn't even have the energy to jump up and fight for the basketball.
Kwame Brown caught the basketball easily and passed the ball to Chen Jie.
When Chen Jie came on the court, he was still playing point guard, and his opponent was still Xiao Mo.
In the two defenses just now, the first time Xiao Mo was negligent and before he had time to adjust, Chen Jie hit a three-pointer.
The second time, he was not very focused and watched helplessly as Chen Jie sent a beautiful assist to Kwame Brown.
The third time, Xiao Mo did not allow himself to make another mistake.
Because Ilgauskas and Gooden were no longer standing inside, Xiao Mo did not position himself closely to Chen Jie and did not defend Chen Jie's breakthrough.
He chose to stand about half a step in front of Chen Jie. This position could defend breakthroughs and Chen Jie's shots.
It seemed that Xiao Mo planned to take on the task of defending Chen Jie by himself.
Paul Silas understood, and everyone also understood, that no one could guard Chen Jie in normal condition by himself.
Almost all league teams use teamwork when defending Chen Jie.
This kind of teamwork may not be obvious and there is no direct double-teaming, but as soon as Chen Jie breaks through, he will immediately find himself surrounded by his opponents.
In other words, all the defenders' energy is on Chen Jie. Once the person directly defending Chen Jie loses his position, someone will immediately come up to help defend.
In fact, when Xiao Mo defended Chen Jie before, the Cavaliers also adopted this tactic.
As soon as Chen Jie breaks through Xiao Mo, Cavaliers players will immediately come up inside to fill in.
But now, the Cavaliers no longer work as a team.
Xiao Mo took on the defensive task alone.
He knew that this was a difficult task to complete, but he still took it upon himself.
Because he has to protect his teammates inside and he has to wait for the Cavaliers' main force to come back.
In the first quarter, Chen Jie was replaced because he got distracted while defending Xiao Mo.
Now that he is back, Chen Jie faces Xiao Mo again. Many people think that he should have the idea of revenge on Xiao Mo.
For this ball, he should choose to play singles.
And if he plays alone, in the eyes of many people, the success rate should still be very high.
However, Chen Jie's choice surprised many people.
He did not play in isolation, but passed the ball to Kwame Brown, who was in a position inside.
Chen Jie's desire to attack seems not as strong as outsiders imagine.
Why?
Many people don't understand. Has his condition not recovered yet?
However, looking at the first ball and the second ball, his three-pointers and passing were obviously outstanding.
How could it be possible to hit a shot like that if the condition was not restored?
But if he recovers, he should choose to play this ball in singles!
Seeing Chen Jie's choice of this ball, the media once again had questions in their minds.
Kwame Brown's singles were still as strong as in the first quarter. Facing the Cavaliers' substitute insiders, he still had a great advantage.
He fired up his defender and dunked, ending the Bulls' attack.
The score difference came to seven points.
When Chen Jie retreated, he high-fived Kwame Brown who ran over to celebrate with a smile on his face.
Seeing this scene, many Chicago fans were comforting themselves again.
Chen Jie should have recovered. The reason why he chose to pass the ball was because Chen Jie wanted to help his teammates score more points. After all, the Cavaliers' lineup is still very weak.
Maybe Chen Jie doesn't even bother to play with them.
That must be the case.
Chen Jie's condition has definitely recovered.
Otherwise, how could he still block James?
With this thought in mind, the Chicago fans tried their best to reassure themselves.
There is indeed nothing wrong with Chen Jie's condition.
Many people can actually see this.
On that three-pointer at the beginning of the second quarter, his take-off height and the feel of his shot were the same as when he was normal.
The second pass, the alley-oop with Kwame Brown after the breakthrough, both in terms of timing and passing technique, are also very good.
There is also the shot blocking, his jumping height, timing, and activeness in assisting defense. These are all noticed by others.
Therefore, a reasonable explanation should be that facing the Cavaliers' lineup, Chen Jie seemed to have no interest in attacking, so he chose to pass the ball to his teammates.
Many people still want to believe that.
Therefore, in the next few attacks, Chen Jie chose to pass the ball to his teammates. There were even several times when Duhong, Kwame Brown and Griffin did not have very good opportunities, but Chen Jie still passed the ball.
After giving it to them and letting them launch their own offense, as if Chen Jie was just a basketball transfer station, the media, Chicago fans, still didn't worry about anything wrong with Chen Jie.
Maybe what happened in the first section was just an interlude.
Now, everything is fine.
The Bulls still have a great hope of winning this game.
