warrior godfather

Chapter 245 The Battle of the Meat Grinder

"Finally, we invite our starting point guard, Derrick Rose, who wears the No. 1 jersey! He comes from the University of Memphis..."

Amidst the passionate voice of the DJ at the United Center, Rose came to the field under the spotlight amidst the warm cheers of the fans.

As a native of Chicago, Rose is very popular in the Windy City, and he is a real "child of his own family". Coupled with the large number of fans accumulated by the Bulls since Jordan's time, Rose is very popular across the United States.

But even in such a restless occasion, Ross still maintained a calm and indifferent expression, as if attending an ordinary party.

After the grand appearance ceremony, the United Center became brightly lit again. Rose looked at Curry on the opposite side of the court. Curry happened to be looking at him. The two looked at each other, smiled, and then looked away. .

From each other's eyes, they saw the belief of victory.

Soon, the two sides stood on the court, and Zhang Yu also came to the technical stage to shake hands with Thibodeau.

When passing the commentary booth, Zhang Yu caught a glimpse of a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye, turned his head, and couldn't help laughing:

"Hey Steve, I didn't expect you to be the one commenting on this game."

In the commentary seat, Steve Kerr, who had just resigned from the position of general manager of the Suns this summer and resumed his role as a commentator, showed his signature gentle smile and said:
"I am very happy to explain this strong matchup, and I wish the Warriors a good performance."

The match between the top teams in the East and West was naturally arranged to be broadcast live across the United States. ESPN sent a combination of Mike Breen and Kerr to explain the battle live.

After watching Zhang Yu return to his seat, Cole turned his gaze to the court, and next to his ear was Mike Breen's cadenced voice:

"Both the Bulls and the Warriors have continued to use the starting lineup that has been used this season. The Warriors are Curry, Klay, Matthews, Green and Chandler, and the Bulls are Rose, Bogens, Luol Deng, Noah. With Gibson, both sides have not encountered injuries, the lineup is complete, I believe it will be a wonderful game..."

"Di-"

Just as Mike Breen introduced the starting lineup, Chandler won the jump ball with Noah, and the Warriors rushed upfield for the first possession.

The Warriors first played a usual tactic in the opening moment. Curry dribbled the ball to the front court, came to the right 45 degrees, and hung the ball to Green in the low post. Then Curry returned to the top of the arc, and Chandler came out to cover him. The three made a strong-side off-the-ball running tactic, combined with the weak-side Clay and Matthews' running. The Warriors except Green, the other four were moving, which involved the Bulls' defense to the greatest extent.

But the Bulls immediately showed their strength as the league's top defensive team. Everyone followed their opponents firmly without losing their position. The Warriors' first wave of running ended in vain. Curry, who passed the ball, blocked Noah in front of him, and there was no chance to make a shot.

The Warriors then launched the second wave of tactics in which Clay moved to the corner on the strong side, but the Bulls, who were highly focused, easily cracked it with a switch. Gibson firmly covered Clay's shot space, and the ball still stopped in Curry. hands.

Curry looked up at the timer, and there were only 10 seconds left on the shot clock. When he waved his hand, his teammates understood, and they all ran to the weak side, took away the Bulls players, and left this side of the court to Curry and Noah.

The Bulls players did not hesitate, they all followed their opponents firmly, and they all trusted Noah's defensive ability very much.

Soon, there was no one else around Curry and Noah. Noah looked at the little baby face in front of him, opened his hands, and was ready.

He still clearly remembers the game between Florida State University and Butler University in March Madness in 2006. He and Brewer, Horford and other Florida four mastered the NBA. Even Oden was not their opponent, but he almost Lost to the Bulldogs.

Noah will never forget Curry's performance in that game. He scored 8 three-pointers and scored 39 points. That was the most dangerous moment on the way to Florida State's two consecutive championships. Fortunately, Curry chose to pass the ball at the last moment. Give it to your teammates, otherwise Florida State University may fall in the top [-].

Even though Noah entered the NBA and played for several years, he still thought that Curry in that game was the most powerful shooter he had ever seen.

Noah's thoughts were churning, and he couldn't help but took another small step forward, trying to completely seal off Curry's three-point shooting space.

And at the moment when he moved forward.Curry swung the ball to the left and stepped out with his right foot, trying to use his speed to rush into the inside from the right side of Noah.

Noah is not a big center with poor mobility. He reacted immediately and wanted to block Curry's breakthrough route, but in order to cover Curry's three-point shooting space, he was too close to Curry, so he was still blocked by Curry. Using the speed to grab half of the position, then Curry suddenly stopped, leaned on Noah's body, started again, accelerated with strength, and rushed past Noah's side completely.

Gibson quickly came to help, but instead of coming out, he stood on the edge of the lane, eluded by Curry's one-step floater from inside the free throw line.

brush!
2:0, the Warriors got off to a good start.

"Yes! Curry easily broke through Noah's defense and scored a throw. The Bulls gave Curry a shot that was close to the open. Their defense was a little lax at the beginning." Mike Breen said.

Cole wondered:
"Noah's defensive position is too high. Although Curry is very accurate in three-pointers, he should not be close to Curry. Curry has never been just a shooter. It shouldn't be... and the Bulls' defensive strategy They are very conservative and rarely give opponents a chance to open up. Currently, they rank first in the league in restricting opponents' shooting percentage. Correspondingly, they have relatively few flanking defenses. They trust each player's ability to defend alone, and their ability to make mistakes is only 17th in the league. Isn't it true? Will Thibodeau change his defensive strategy because of Curry?"

Just when Cole was puzzled by Noah's momentary change of mood, the Bulls launched an attack.

Rose came to the front court with light footsteps. Compared with the tired Warriors, the Bulls have a sweet schedule recently. They sit at home to face their opponents consecutively. Before today's game against the Warriors in the Eastern Conference, they rested for two full days. Their physical and mental state All at the top.

On the Warriors side, as before, Clay defends Rose. After experiencing three opponents without outside stars, Clay once again ushered in a difficult test.

Mike Brin also laughed:
"Klay faced Rose, and everyone should have noticed that Coach Z has been letting rookie Klay Thompson defend the opponent's outside star, starting from the Rockets' Kevin Martin, and continuing to Rose today, but he is obviously not ready. I was blown up at halftime, and Coach Z will be replaced by Tony Allen in the second half. I don’t know if it will be the same today..."

Rose on the field certainly didn't know about Mike Brin's teasing of Clay, and even if he knew, he wouldn't have sympathy for Clay.

The Bulls coaching staff considered that Clay might be defending Rose before the game, and made a plan. Rose naturally followed the established tactics.

With a wave of his hand, the other Bulls players scattered to open up space, and then Rose didn't call a pick-and-roll, and made a large frontal change of direction, which made Clay's center of gravity swing accordingly, and then Rose kicked the ground hard with his left foot, accelerating slightly, Very easily, he rushed into the inside line from the right side of Clay and passed him cleanly.

The defensive strategies of the Warriors and the Bulls are different, or other people have long expected this scene to happen. When Rose singled out Clay, Green stood on the side of the penalty area and emptied the opponent Gibson who was standing in the bottom corner. After preparing for the defense, after Clay was broken by Rose, he immediately made up for it.

Not only Green, but Chandler in the penalty area also took a step forward to compress Rose's take-off space. The entire league knows that if Rose is allowed to fly before entering the penalty area, three people under the basket will not be able to prevent him from using his incredible The technique of finishing close to the frame, through various folding and pulling rods, flashing and moving the ball into the basket.

Rose is not Westbrook's kind of player who just takes the ball and keeps his head down. He saw that his breakthrough route was completely blocked, and he didn't have a head at all. He immediately distributed the ball to Gibson who was emptied by Green at the far end.

His expansive vision allowed the pass to land precisely in Gibson's hands, and he didn't even have to make any adjustments to shoot it.

But unfortunately, Gibson has no three-point shooting ability at all. This is why Green dared to let him go. The perimeter stopped Gibson.

After being blocked by Green, Gibson did not continue to break through, but gave the ball to Luol Deng at 45 degrees. After Luol Deng received the ball, he also did not shoot a three-pointer, but carried Matthews two steps in. Using his body to press Matthews, he stopped and shot a jumper from mid-range.

This is the Bulls' offense, not much cooperation, full of a lot of individual singles.

Bang!

Under the interference of Matthews, the basketball bounced out of the basket, and the basket was huddled in an instant. Gibson, who was helpless against Green just now, turned into a god of war and entangled with Green. On the other side, Noah was with Chandler. Le collided with each other, the rebound was flicked by a few pairs of big hands, changed direction, and fell to the other side.

While the four fierce men were fighting fiercely, a dexterous figure shrank from the outside to the edge of the penalty area. When they got stuck, they picked up the rebound. It was Curry.

After he got the rebound, he looked up and was about to push a fast break, but the battle between Noah and Gibson for the offensive rebounds gave his teammates plenty of time to retreat, although Matthews and Clay missed the shot in Luol Deng The fast break was fast in an instant, but Rose, Luol Deng and Bogens had already retreated to the backcourt. The Warriors lost the opportunity to counterattack, and Curry could only slow down.

On the sidelines, Silas sighed softly when he saw that the Warriors had lost the opportunity to defend and counterattack:
"It's a pity that Wesley's impact has already caused confusion in the Bulls' defensive formation. If Klay passed the ball earlier, Klay would have an open opportunity, but the delay of the rebound is fleeting."

Ron Adams looked at the field seriously:

"Then you have to be mentally prepared. This is just the beginning. The Bulls' offensive rebound rate is the first in the league. After this whole game, we may not get too many opportunities for fast breaks and counterattacks."

Zhang Yu said in a deep voice:
"It doesn't matter, anyway, we didn't think about winning the game by fast break before the game. When we meet the Bulls, we will inevitably have to fight for positional warfare and defense."

He turned his head to look at Thibodeau on the other side of the technical table, his eyes were solemn.

Zhang Yu expected that the Bulls would fight fiercely, but he did not expect that the combination of Chandler and Green was almost robbed in the frontcourt. It seems that the Warriors will never have a chance to push back tonight. This game is destined to It was a trench warfare like a meat grinder, and in Thibodeau's style, he had to plan ahead.

……

boom!
After the cover, Noah disassembled and ran down, and slammed into Chandler, who was defending beside him, with a muffled sound and sweat splashed, but both of them just groaned, and immediately threw themselves into the next muscle collision among.

Noah had a slight advantage in this confrontation. Rose threw the ball into the air after seeing it. Noah jumped up vigorously, trying to complete an alley-oop dunk, but Chandler, who was half a step late in taking off, gave a ruthless look. Flashing past, he stretched out his hand in an unusually tyrannical manner, pulling Noah out of the air!

Bang!

Noah, who lost his balance, also lost control of the basketball. The basketball was hit hard on the rim, flying high, and the rim was shaking non-stop.

"Di-"

The referee's whistle blew immediately, sending Noah to the free throw line.

After landing, Noah staggered two steps, but just glanced at Chandler, without any reaction to this vicious foul, and even the other Bulls players on the field just came over and patted Noah's chest and Back, as if Noah just suffered a simple thug foul.

Subsequently, Noah made two free throws with a very peculiar posture, and the ball came to the Warriors.

Curry came to the frontcourt with the ball, picked and rolled with Chandler, and also passed an alley-oop to Chandler, but it was different from Rose's pass to Noah just now. Chandler had more space for the ball. Because in order to delay Curry's three-pointer, Noah's defense expanded farther than Chandler, so that Chandler was less hindered when he went down.

boom!
Seeing that Chandler was about to complete the alley-oop, Noah also hugged Chandler heavily, trying to pull Chandler down, but he underestimated Chandler's mobility and explosive power. Even the injured Chandler's physical talent is still At the top of the league, the boxing champion used his excellent core strength to maintain his body balance, smashed the ball into the basket heavily, and got the opportunity to add penalties.

After Chandler landed, he glanced at Noah contemptuously, and celebrated with high fives with his teammates. He stood at the free throw line and completed 2+0.

This is why Noah didn't respond to Chandler's fierce foul just now. Before Chandler's fierce foul, Noah had already fouled fiercely.

At this time, the game has reached 1 minute and 5 seconds at the end of the first quarter. The score is 15:18. The Bulls lead by 3 points. Both Dele and Noah have been fouled twice.

In this kind of meat grinder game, the Bulls have a slight advantage on the field by virtue of their rich experience.

In the next 1 minute, the two sides were still evenly matched. In the end, the Bulls entered the second quarter with a 21-point lead over the Warriors at 18:3.

(End of this chapter)