no shortcuts in basketball

Chapter 150 Who Is Not An All-Star
After a day off, the Bulls continued to host the Pacers at home.

The Pacers have been in trouble since the brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills and have failed to reach the playoffs for four consecutive seasons.

However, with the addition of Boozer this season and the rise of young players such as Darren Collison and Roy Hibbert, they are also rising rapidly.

Collison, Brandon Rush, Granger, Boozer, Hibbert, this lineup is very competitive in the East.

The game was also more intense than many people expected.

Although Granger was severely restricted by the double gates of Allen and Xu Yong, Boozer's performance left the Bulls somewhat helpless.

The power forward in his prime was destroying the Bulls' defense with one mid-range after another, just as he had been in Utah.

Moreover, his offensive selection is very fast, and he will shoot ahead of time without waiting for your pincer attack to be in place.

But in the end, it was the Bulls who won the game.

Because the Pacers can't do anything with the Bulls' outside double guns.

Boozer scored 30 points, but Rose and Xu Yongjia scored almost 50 points together.

Moreover, the head coach of the Pacers, Jim O'Brien, is obviously not good enough. The team's rookie Paul George performed well on the defensive end, but he didn't get much playing time.

With a wave of two-game winning streak, the Bulls got on the plane to Houston and started their western road trip.

This will also be their biggest challenge at the beginning of the season. First, they will go around the "Texas Three" site, and then they have to face the defending champion.

But the good news is that they will first face the Rockets, the weakest team among these teams.

Returning to Houston after a few months, Houston fans also gave Yao Ming applause and cheers.

The Rockets did not keep Yao Ming, but after some operations, the team still has a starting lineup of Brooks/Lowry + Hamilton + Luol Deng + Scola + Noah, and it is still a playoff-level team in the West .

However, the Bulls played very easily in this game. They basically sealed the victory in three quarters, and the remaining quarter was the performance time of the substitutes.

This game was actually very similar to the game against the Heat. The Rockets had no way to break through the Bulls' defensive iron net. They could only score points piecemeal, and naturally there was not much suspense about the result.

But despite the loss, Noah played quite well on the Rockets side.

While he scored 16 points, he also had an all-round performance of 14 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks.

After the game, Noah laughed and chatted with Xu Yong for a long time.

Just like Harden didn't shine until he arrived at the Rockets in history, players need a bigger stage to break through their ceiling.

If Noah develops in the Bulls, the upper limit is Draymond Green, but when the Rockets have more rights to dominate the ball, in this era when centers are scarce, there is a faint trend of the number one center in the West.

So being traded is not necessarily a bad thing for Noah's personal development, especially in the contract year.

After defeating the Rockets, the Bulls got off to a very strong start with three consecutive wins despite a difficult schedule.

However, just when Chicago fans were looking forward to the Bulls continuing their efforts, the Bulls lost to the Mavericks and Spurs in back-to-back games. After three consecutive victories, they suffered a two-game losing streak.

The Bulls did not have too many problems with their own performance. Rose, Xu Yong and Yao Ming's performances were all online, especially Xu Yong. In the game against the Spurs, he scored a game-high 35 points with his stable mid-range shooting.

The key to the problem is defense. Nowitzki and Duncan simply ate Artest alive.

And they are not the same as Boozer, not just one person scoring, but using their own containment to revitalize the entire team.

In this level of confrontation, this situation is completely enough to determine the outcome of the game.

At the same time, after losing to the Bulls, the Heat used a "round table meeting" to stabilize the morale of the army and achieved a wave of four consecutive victories, including a 96-70 bloodbath against the Magic.

For a moment, the Jamies, who had almost disappeared due to the disastrous defeat in the opening game, jumped up in unison, mocking the Bulls for a while.

Such as "There are some teams that are ranked high at the beginning of every season but disappear quickly in the end", "Grandma O'Neal leads the team better than Thibodeau", "A group of old, young, sick and disabled people gather together and shout I want to win the championship, why does this plot seem so familiar?" and so on.

The pressure on the Bulls was even greater than Yao Ming expected, because when they formed a team, they stood on the opposite side of Jamie, not to mention that the season started with a bloodbath for the Heat.

It is against this background that the Bulls came to Los Angeles, the last stop of this road trip.

They will next have an away game against the defending champion Lakers. The latter has won 5 consecutive victories since the start of the game and is in a brave state.

The only good news is that they have a rare two days of rest and can use the time to adjust their mentality.

Xu Yong continued to maintain the same training intensity as in the past.

Here I have to mention why Megan Fox didn’t come to Xu Yong to discuss life again, because this summer, Fox has reunited with her ex-boyfriend Brian Austin Green who had been talking for five years. A wedding was held in Hawaii, which has been baptized by wildfires.

So for Fox, Xu Yong's current state is: experience it, and then send blessings to the other party.

Without a woman, he's brimming with energy and enjoys the kind of high-intensity training Grover demands.

This evening he was exhausted after training and was sitting on the sidelines to rest.

Just then Thibodeau came to the training hall.

Because there have been many such private exchanges between the two, Xu Yong is also relatively relaxed, sitting there drinking water, smiling and reaching out to greet Thibodeau.

Thibodeau sat down next to him, and then suddenly asked: "Do you think that playing with one big and four small will do more harm than good?"

Xu Yong didn't expect Thibodeau to ask this suddenly, but seeing the latter's serious expression, he knew that the two had communicated too much, and Thibodeau wanted to ask him for his opinion.

He put down the water bottle, and then said his true thoughts: "I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages."

"Huh?" Thibodeau looked at Xu Yong unexpectedly, and it was obvious that Xu Yong's answer was somewhat unexpected.

You must know that the reason why he asked this question was because the team's recent poor condition, and based on his understanding of Xu Yong, Xu Yong should not have thought of this.

"But I think it should be used as a secret weapon rather than a conventional weapon. Its weaknesses are too obvious and it is too easy to be targeted." Xu Yong continued.

His words are based on the Warriors' "Five Death Players." As the Warriors' trump card, the "Five Players of Death" can be said to be a nightmare for opponents in that era. Especially in the beginning, it was often the Warriors who resorted to this attack. Fa, the game was immediately ruined.

But even then, the Warriors rarely use the "Death Five" in the starting lineup, because the average height is too short, and the opponent will be very passive in the beginning to catch your weakness inside.

Thibodeau obviously didn't think of this level, he nodded seriously after thinking for a while.

In the two games against the Mavericks and the Spurs, the Bulls were passive at the beginning and could not regain the initiative later on.

"Playing the Lakers, I will arrange for Jermaine to start." Thibodeau said his arrangement.

Xu Yong did not raise objections.

O'Neal Jr. has mid-range, is already a kaleidoscope in the low post at this stage, and even has good rebounding ability, which matches well with Yao Ming.

But O'Neal's potential injury is a big problem. If Xu Yong remembers correctly, O'Neal only played more than [-] games in Boston this season before being reimbursed for the season.

If it weren't for this, it would be impossible for the Bulls to sign him for 500 million a year.

But it's hard to say about injuries. You have to know that even if he is a starter, with Yao Ming, O'Neal's pressure will be much less.After making a decision, Thibodeau asked Malone to practice with the adjusted lineup until the next day's training session.

O'Neal looked very excited.

He chose to sign with the Bulls for 500 million in the summer, which shows that he has pursuit, but in these five games, he was a little embarrassed. He was not as effective as O'Neal as a center substitute, and he couldn't get much playing time as a substitute power forward, so he was a bit marginalized.

Now that he suddenly became the starter, he was very motivated and even tried to dunk O'Neal.

The training intensity of the Bulls went up immediately.

These old guys have played too many games, and their desire to compete really needs something like this to stimulate them.

……

On the evening of the second day, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the arena was full.

The Lakers and Knicks have always been the top two teams in the league by market value, and Kobe is the guarantee of the team's ticket sales, and the games are basically full.

Not to mention that in addition to the two-strong matchup tonight, there is an additional topic, that is, O'Neal has returned to Los Angeles.

Although the OK combination has settled their feud over the years, O'Neal always attracts attention every time he returns to Los Angeles.

During the warm-up before the game, the on-site photographers were looking for O'Neal's shots. O'Neal and Yao Ming were talking and laughing there. This scene under the spotlight is very classic.

While Xu Yong was warming up, he saw Swift again on the bench.

The arena where Swift appears the most is still the Staples Center, and it was just a coincidence that she went to Chicago before.

Swift did not sit in the front row of the auditorium this time, but sat in the middle near the audience aisle with a large bag of popcorn and friends.

When the camera came to her, she waved her hands wildly, looking like a starless star.

The warm-up ended soon, and the scene entered the opening ceremony.

The Bulls took the lead as the visiting team, with Rose, Tony Allen, Xu Yong, O'Neal Jr. and Yao Ming.

When he saw the Bulls' starting lineup, Phil Jackson on the Lakers' side was stunned for a moment.

The Lakers debuted as the home team, Fisher, Kobe, Ariza, Gasol, Bynum, the lineup that Lakers fans are so familiar with.

During the final tactical arrangement before the game, Phil Jackson drew a lot and talked a lot with a tactical board, which is rare.

It can be seen that Thibodeau's starting adjustment caught the Lakers off guard.

The short whistle sounded from the sidelines, and the starting lineups of both sides appeared one after another.

Bryant's expression was very relaxed before playing, and he chatted with his old friend Nicholson on the sidelines.

Although his personal statistics this season are not very dazzling, compared with the beginning of last season, all members of the team are healthy and have won successive battles, so he is naturally in a good mood.

Yao Ming and Bynum's jump ball in the center circle.

With the whistle of the referee, Bynum took the lead and turned the ball back to the Lakers half, and the game officially started.

After the Lakers advanced to the frontcourt, Fisher gave the ball to Gasol in the low post on the strong side.

The Lakers still play the triangle offense, and Phil Jackson's game plan is to attack the Bulls' power forward's weak point.

The sudden adjustment of the starting lineup by the Bulls caught Jackson a little off guard, but he did not temporarily change the game strategy, but arranged more details.

For example, Kobe didn't move much at the beginning of the game. At this time, he has to do more off-ball moves on the weak side.

However, Jackson's arrangement did not succeed, because Allen followed Kobe like a ghost.

When Thibodeau replaced O'Neal as the starter, he was also considering who to replace. In the end, after weighing the balance, he chose Artest because Allen's defensive effect was obviously better against Kobe.

Facts have proved that his choice was very prophetic.

Gasol turned around and saw that Kobe had no chance, and Ariza, who was in the corner on the strong side, was also stared to death by Xu Yong, so he directly chose to attack in a low position.

A very personal label with a back and a bow to sense the center of gravity of the defense, and then a fake turn to turn around and go straight to the basket.

I have to say that Gasol's low post skills are quite beautiful.

However, O'Neal did not lose his defensive position. He has been trying to destroy the ball in Gasol's hands during the retreat.

The two fought to the basket, and in the end Gasol suddenly squeezed away O'Neal, smashed the ball into the basket with his right hand, and gave the Lakers a head start.

Kobe Bryant smiled and found Gasol to high-five. Since his outstanding performance in the finals last season, Gasol is now almost a power forward with Dirk Nowitzki, Duncan and Garnett.

Phil Jackson also raised his eyebrows. He could have temporarily adjusted his tactics, but in the end he chose to believe in Gasol, and Gasol lived up to his expectations.

Thibodeau moved his body at this time, and O'Neal had to face Gasol as soon as he started. This was not an easy task.

The Bulls were attacking, and Xu Yong ran out to catch the ball and didn't have a chance to make a phone call. Just when he was about to play a pick-and-roll tactic, O'Neal leaned against Gasol in the low post and asked for the ball.

Obviously he wanted to fight back after being hit by Gasol just now.

Xu Yong knew about Thibodeau's tactical adjustments, and naturally he also knew the importance of O'Neal.

After receiving the ball, O'Neal Jr. turned around and chose to attack facing the frame. He made a fake move to break through to the free throw line, and suddenly changed direction and broke through from the baseline.

He looks a little heavier now, but his change of direction is not slow at all.

When Gasol reacted, it was too late to stop him from breaking through, so he could only use his body to squeeze O'Neal, trying to squeeze him out of the bottom line.

This strategy is correct, but Jermaine O'Neal's steps are big, and he has crossed the basket after two steps, and then suddenly turned back with force.

"Oh!"

Directly smash the ball into the basket with one hand!
There was a commotion at the scene.

O'Neal's response to the dunk was quite tough.

After the dunk, O'Neal also bulged his hands and turned his head to roar at Gasol.

Who isn't an All-Star power forward?

There was another person who was very excited at this time.

Yao Ming took the initiative to high-five Jermaine O'Neal during the retreat.

It may be sad to say it, but this is the first time he has a serious and capable inside partner.

　I sit in front of the computer typing every day, and I have almost forgotten what life is like. Today when I was taking a break, I saw an up owner from Station B taking pictures of catching crabs in the river and catching fish in the fields. It really felt like I was back in my childhood. I felt like I was a kid. and living in two worlds now

　　
　
(End of this chapter)