Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

After winning the Christmas Day game, the Bulls' overall mental state has obviously improved, and the atmosphere in the locker room has also become better.

However, what followed was even more cruel treatment by the league in terms of penalties.

The Bulls clearly have the best forward group in the league and one of the best interior configurations, but in the games after the Christmas game, they trailed their opponents by more than 10 free throws in almost every game, and in some games the free throw difference was even more than 20.

Regarding this phenomenon, Bulls fans have undoubtedly created a lot of momentum online, cheering for the efforts made by Bulls players on the court, and complaining about the physical violations encountered by Bulls players on the court.

However, there was no official response to this.

Over time, both inside and outside the league accepted the current situation that the Bulls' home games are like away games and away games are like cemeteries.

All in all, the Bull is too strong, let's weaken it!

There's nothing to say. With George and Kawhi Kawhi returning to form one after another, the Bulls won most games even when the penalties were very unfavorable.

By the end of January, when the All-Star voting results were announced, the Bulls had already posted a record of 33 wins and 16 losses, directly rushing to the second place in the Eastern Conference.

The Heat are only 2 games away from the first place in the Eastern Conference.

In fact, if the league could give the Bulls the same whistle-stop treatment as the Heat, the Bulls would have surpassed the Heat and regained the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

However, the regular season ranking does not affect the Bulls' playoff results.

In the playoffs, even if the whistle treatment is still unchanged, the Bulls are very confident that they can defeat old opponents like the Heat in a seven-game series.

Having said that, the All-Star voting results have been announced. Duan, who returned this season, is still as popular as he was back then, and he lived up to expectations and became the All-Star voting leader this season.

But in terms of the number of votes, there was no second place with hundreds of thousands of votes like in previous years.

This year, Duane only received 164 million votes. Following Duan, the new league king Durant also received 158 million votes, followed by the son of America with thick eyebrows, 155 million votes.

As the saying goes, talented people emerge from generation to generation, and each leads the way for hundreds of years.

Now the NBA has also entered a stage of innovation where a new generation of players replaces the old ones.

Durant's popularity has skyrocketed due to last year's NBA championship and Olympic gold medal, and the talented future star with thick eyebrows has also been favored by the league.

Although Duan's return to the NBA has attracted the attention of many fans, some old fans cannot spare the energy to pay attention to and support Duan due to problems such as livelihood or age.

This situation is somewhat sad, but it is indeed an inevitable phenomenon in historical development.

In the 1980s, the Magic Birds were fighting for hegemony. How many people miss them now?

The era of Jordan and the four major centers in the 1990s is not that far away from now, but except for Jordan and O'Neal, no one usually wears their jerseys on the street.

As of now, most of the stars of the 96 golden generation have withdrawn from the NBA stage.

In more than ten years, except for the occasional mention by old fans who remember their youth, who will miss the era when the four major shooting guards and the four major forwards were tit-for-tat?
Fortunately, Du En has left his own footprints in this era, and it is dazzling enough to surpass an era.

The teammates around Du En will also benefit from this and become a part of Du En's legend.

Just like this season, when the results of the fourth round of All-Star voting were announced, Ibaka successfully caught the last train and became one of the three Eastern All-Star starting forwards.

On the contrary, it was Curry. Because Duan played guard and occupied the guard spot, he lost to Wade by hundreds of thousands of votes and could only participate in the next All-Star Game as an All-Star substitute guard. .

In addition to Curry, Whiteside is also on this year's Eastern Conference All-Star substitute list.

In other words, the Bulls have four single-season All-Star players this season!

In fact, this is not surprising at all. The Bulls were targeted by the league and suffered a lot from penalties during the game.

But the team and the players themselves played very hard and were very resilient, and then won one game after another.

The head coaches of all teams in the league know the capabilities of the Bulls players and the strength of the Bulls' core players.

It is precisely because of this that the Bulls are strong enough and have successfully been recognized by the head coaches of other teams.

That is to say, George and Kawhi were recuperating from injuries and spent some time adjusting to their condition after returning to the game.

Otherwise, the Bulls may draft a starting lineup with five All-Stars.

Having said that, after Ibaka and Bai Bian got what they wanted, they also began to rest the burden on their shoulders.

On the one hand, unnecessary ball rights are reduced, and on the other hand, private life is relaxed, returning to the stage where the game is a game and life is life.

The All-Star Weekend is coming, and there is no need to keep playing hard.

In the regular season, as long as you can win normally, there are other players on the team anyway!

Besides, after finally being selected into the All-Star Game, what if you get injured before the All-Star Game starts?

Ibaka and Bai Bian are not bad, they are just showing human nature.

The vast majority of NBA players are like this. They break out in the contract year and return to normal levels immediately after signing the contract. At first glance, they look like fraudsters.

It can only be said that stars have the pursuits of stars, and role players have the survival of role players.

It is also because in the NBA, everyone has different demands, and each other's interests and pursuits may conflict. Therefore, at this time, the team head coach and team boss need to stand up and solve such problems.

During the game, Bulls head coach Scott Skiles noticed that Ibaka and Whiteside were slacking off in playing and were not as focused as before. He quickly adjusted the rotation arrangement and replaced Green and Crowe. Germany, Vucevic and others replaced them one after another.

Let's talk about it. Green's performance in last year's playoffs was remarkable.

It's just that as an unconventional weapon, it's not easy for Scott Skiles to use Green for too long.

Especially this season, the Bulls have a lot of live games across the United States, a total of 46 games.

It’s not that many bad guys can keep their peace in the regular season. There are often many more useless people in the regular season than in the playoffs.

However, because the playoffs are broadcast live across the United States, millions and tens of millions of fans are watching, so all actions will be amplified, especially those that directly rush people without rushing the ball, which are absolutely necessary and unreasonable actions.

The Bulls' previous championships were won by hard power, so Scott Skiles will naturally not reuse Green, who may become a double-edged sword.

However, Ibaka and Whiteside have lost their mentality, and Scott Skiles has to prepare more for the playoffs.

Considering that his contract is about to expire, Scott Skiles will undoubtedly want to win a few more championship rings in the last few years of cooperation with Dunn.

As a result, in several regular season games in early February, the Bulls' rotation changed a lot.

Sometimes even season All-Stars like Ibaka and Whiteside are relegated to the bench.

Of course, there were a few games where he didn't play at all and was just scheduled to take a rest.

Ibaka and Whiteside are not fools, although they were unhappy with being manipulated by Scott Skiles and were relegated to the bench. But it is also clear that Scott Scales is using this method to beat them.

Facts have proved that even if the Bulls decentralized and rested two All-Star insiders, they still have the ability to hit weak teams hard!

Not to mention, even in a strong dialogue game, the Bulls also have Duane, Curry, George, and Kawhi on the outside. Their skills are superior to those in the league, and they can easily gain an advantage.

Many times, the Bulls don't particularly care about the scoring ability of interior players. Just like the Bulls during the Jordan era, they did not need Rodman to score in the interior.

The Bulls need Ibaka and Whiteside to provide high-quality help defense, frame protection and rebound protection like Rodman.

If Ibaka and Bai Bian are unwilling to do such dirty work, then someone else will do it.

Anyway, in the NBA, the most indispensable thing is blue-collar players who do the dirty work.

It just so happens that the Bulls have two more All-Star insiders.

Let's play together before the trade deadline arrives. After all, we can get something useful back.

If the top insider stars cannot be replaced, it will definitely be no problem to replace them with some makeshift blue-collar insiders.

After being frightened by Scott Skiles's operation, Ibaka and Whiteside did stay honest for a while before the trade deadline.

No matter what Scott Skiles arranged, they chose to do it.

When Scott Skiles saw the situation, he gave up as soon as he saw it, and re-assigned Green and Vucevic to the substitute lineup.

Other Bulls players have also become much more honest after Scott Scales came to the rescue.

Throughout February, Scott Skiles, as the Bulls head coach, made a lot of tricks, but the Bulls' record not only did not decline, but also became stronger.

Except for the Western Conference's six-game losing streak, all other games ended in victory.

Before the All-Star Weekend, the Bulls had already chased their record to within one game of the Heat.

If this momentum can be maintained, there is hope that the Bulls can overtake the Heat and become the first team in the Eastern Conference before the end of the regular season.

Although there is not much hope for 60 wins this season, there is still hope for around 58 wins.

After being targeted by the league and facing unfavorable penalties, if the Bulls can achieve such a record, as long as the main players in the playoffs are not injured, this will undoubtedly be another championship.

……

Time flies to February 2th, and the New York All-Star Weekend begins.

This year's All-Star Weekend is hosted by the Knicks and Nets.

The initial warm-up performances, as well as the Rookie Challenge, Shooting Star Contest, Skills Contest, Three-Point Contest, Slam Dunk Contest and other small events, were all held at the Nets' home court, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The only event on the last day was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the home of the Knicks.

Speaking of which, during this All-Star Weekend, not many people came from the Bulls, just Duane, Curry, Ibaka and Whiteside.

The main reason for this situation is that the Bulls' main lineup has been short of players this year.

For the sake of the team's record, Scott Skiles had to control the main force, so the rookies could not be trained and could only be transferred to the Development League.

Even if Bojan is left in the rotation, he won't have much playing time.

So far, Bojan has only averaged 13.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 0.8 minutes per game.

With this data, there is naturally no chance to participate in the Rookie Challenge.

As for Gobert and others who were delegated to the Development League, they are also a bit behind in strength and have no chance to be selected as the Development League All-Star. Otherwise, they can still participate in this All-Star Weekend with Du En and others.

Besides, George and Kawhi have All-Star level strength, but they did not have enough ball rights before and failed to produce enough data to be selected as an All-Star immediately after returning from injury.

Since there is no way to play in the All-Star Game, there is no need to come to the All-Star Weekend to join in the fun.

George and Kawhi considered that after the All-Star Weekend, the Bulls would definitely strive for a record in the second half of the regular season, and their physical exertion would be considerable.

Considering that my physical condition is only half adjusted now, I am worried that I will not be able to bear it by then, so I did not come to the All-Star Weekend to have fun and waste my rest time.

By the way, although not many people from the Bulls came to this All-Star Weekend, they did participate in a lot of events.

In addition to participating in the All-Star Game, Duan will also participate in the Shooting Star Competition.

Curry and Bai Bian also signed up for events that each other is good at - three-pointers and dunks.

However, some ruthless people came to these small projects during the All-Star Weekend this year.

Although Shooting Star was just for fun, it also attracted Magic, Big Bird, and Pippen.

By the way, Pippen was Duane's teammate, and then nothing happened.

Besides, this year’s three-point contest was the most lively in recent years, with eight people participating!
In the end, it was Thompson and Irving who accompanied Curry to the finals.

Curry came to the All-Star Weekend just to have fun, and he didn't take his participation in the three-point contest too seriously.

Anyway, the honor of being the three-point king has been there for a long time, and this time the final shot was relatively wasteful.

After all the shots were taken, there was still more than four seconds to spare. It was simply inappropriate, and because of this, he only scored 25 points.

And Thompson, who couldn't stop him even if he had the touch, relied on his excellent touch and top-notch shooting skills to score 27 points in the final of the three-point contest, and then successfully defeated Curry and won the three-point king.

As for the slam dunk contest, Bai Bian was eliminated in the first round.

It can only be said that in the slam dunk contest in which LaVine participated, no matter how good other people performed, they were just foils.

LaVine has good jumping talent and a lot of work. Even Gordon is also talented, but he can't kill LaVine instantly with just one or two tricks. In the end, he can only be dragged to death by LaVine.

As the dunk king ten years ago and a free throw line dunk master similar to LaVine, Duane also participated in the dunk contest in person this time. Before the game started, he gave LaVine some encouragement from the sidelines.

After LaVine won the Slam Dunk King trophy, he also said in public: "I grew up watching Duan dunk, which has benefited me a lot!"

After this battle, Duen gained a dunk king disciple, and the NBA also gained a successor to Duen.

The only slight drawback is that Duen's successor is not as sensational as Jordan's successor.

After finishing the side dishes, it was finally the turn of the big meal.

On February 2, the last day of the All-Star Weekend, the All-Star Game is about to begin at Madison Square Garden in New York. (End of chapter)