So I am the god of basketball?

Kobe was in really good shape tonight. He scored the first goal and then rushed to the basket to complete an attack.

Overall, the Lakers' bench rotation has been dominant during this stretch.

So at 1 minute and 45 seconds of the second quarter, the Lakers led by 8 points, and Phil Jackson chose to replace the combination of Scottie Pippen and Jordan in advance.

Chuck Daly also immediately put Meng Lang and Barkley back on the court.

But Kobe, Jones and Ben Wallace are still on the court. ——That is, the "Five Small Lakers" lineup.

The mobility of this lineup is no problem.

The only problem is lack of experience.

Judging from this game, they adjusted pretty well.

There's also the problem of a lack of ball handlers.

If Meng Lang doesn't control the ball, then there is only one reliable ball handler in this lineup, and that is Barkley.

Jones showed his ability to handle the ball during the regular season. Meng Lang also thought he was "Little Pippen". After all, he averaged 17.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1 steal per game. In the playoffs, the performance was relatively stable, but once they reached the finals, problems were exposed.

Therefore, after Meng Lang came up, he immediately changed his style of play and focused on individual singles. Anyway, Scottie Pippen was still defending him on the opposite side. However, he carried the ball to the frontcourt, and the Bulls personnel on the opposite side switched defenses, and Jordan got in front of Kobe.

He saw that the goal he most wanted to surpass was right in front of him, and among Kobe's many mistakes in the last game, at least two were because of Jordan. Kobe, whose "Afro" hair is already a bit fluffy, wants to get this face back.

A posture that no one can stop.

Meng Lang took one look at the leading score and gave him the ball as if to give up.

With the ball in hand, Kobe faced Jordan without the panic of a rookie. He unhurriedly made a "triple threat" move. Unexpectedly, as soon as the ball made a circle in front of him, Jordan's quick eyes and quick hands grabbed it. Lost.

"I'm rough!"

Kobe also didn't expect it. After a clear curse from America, he hurriedly tried to save the ball, but in front of Jordan, there was nothing he, a rookie, could do to save the ball. He watched helplessly as the ball came into Jordan's hands.

The "Flying Man" quickly dropped the ball with the ball, and the Bulls narrowed the point difference to 6 points.

"Come on, rookie, I like your courage, do you dare to keep coming?" Scored easily, Jordan turned to challenge Kobe.

If this situation continues, Kobe will definitely leave a deep impression on Jordan earlier than he originally did. After all, this kind of "point-giving boy" is rare on the stage of the finals.

Kobe curled his lips in dissatisfaction. He must still want to fight.

His character is that if this attack fails, then I will continue to attack with the ball.

But he also knew that the Lakers would never give him another chance to try.

Kobe is very good at forcing the situation. With his status as a Laker, this opportunity for singles is still a "conscience discovery" of Meng Lang, otherwise it would be impossible for him to play in singles. Looking at Jordan's disgusting face, he suddenly said: "You are just bullying a rookie like me. If you have the ability, go to Meng!"

He just heard with his own ears that Meng Lang asked Jordan to defend him.

Jordan's joy at scoring an easy goal was wiped out.

Bird is like this, this rookie who needs a beating is like this, everyone.

He didn't know when Meng Lang started to become a unified "weapon" for these people to deal with him!
Do you really think that guy can defeat me?
Jordan's brown eyes burned. He almost lost his mind, pulled Pippen aside, and let himself defend Meng Lang! But in the end his reason prevailed over his anger. He knew very well that unless it was the last moment, he could not spend his energy on defending Meng Lang.

This is absolutely not possible!
At the beginning of this season, whether the Bulls can win depends on whether Jordan can make reasonable use of his physical fitness. As long as he can continue to score at the last minute, the Bulls can win.

The reason why Jordan became the "God of Basketball" is because in the "last three consecutive" Bulls, almost everyone became a top player on the defensive end. Even the so-called "offensive and defensive" Pippen has become older and has become less threatening on the offensive end. decline, thus having to spend more energy on the defensive end, leaving the offensive end to Jordan alone.

Such "team dependencies" are rare.

With such rare team dependence, Jordan still delivered an answer that satisfied everyone in every finals, allowing the Bulls to complete their second "three consecutive championships" in eight years.

Just such a simple sentence can actually tell the problems that Jordan needs to overcome.

That's his physical ability!
So no matter what kind of "provoking method" it was, Jordan chose to ignore it.

This is where Kobe can't compare. ——He is also a paranoid person. Sometimes Kobe will be controlled by paranoia and make some shots that outsiders think are over the top. Just because he is Kobe, there are not many people who question him; while Jordan always controls his paranoid character. , he knew very well what he should continue to be paranoid about, that is, the championship, and in order to win the championship, his paranoia made him resist a lot of impulses.

It is no exaggeration to say that Jordan in the Finals was a "game machine" and he did not allow himself to be controlled by his emotions.

This is really a terrible thing!

Meng Lang faced Pippen with the ball and went in with the ball behind his back. Pippen had a hard time resisting, but he didn't lose his position until Meng Lang got to the basket. It's just that Meng Lang didn't jump directly when he reached the basket. He calculated his steps well. When he took the ball with both hands, he stood still on both feet and resumed his post-playing posture. Then he swayed left and right to fool Pippen into not daring to reach out behind his back. , suddenly turned over to the right and made a close jump shot, hitting the ball.

Thanks to his continuous back-up play with the ball this season, Meng Lang's "post-up play" has reached 90 points.

At this stage, he can basically make fake movements with his back at will.

Pippen had a hard time guarding him.

Not just this round, but also the next n rounds.

Phil Jackson had to double-team Harper.

Only at this time, at 3 minutes and 45 seconds in the second quarter, Chuck Daly immediately called a timeout and put "Magic" Johnson and Divac back on the court. The Lakers can once again use tactics based around Meng Lang's off-ball movement.

When Pippen saw Phil Jackson asking Harper to double-team him, he just wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. However, Chuck Daly changed his formation and he had to fight alone again. At that time, he felt like crying.

The pressure to defend Meng Lang is really too much!
And he has always had the feeling that defending Meng Lang's off-ball movement will make him tired faster than guarding other people's off-ball movement. Meng Lang's body is obviously very wide, and he has a striker shape above the standard.

But when he was defending this guy, it was more tiring than defending Reggie Miller and the others.

An even worse news is that Meng Lang seemed to have a better touch. After reverting to his best scoring method, he kept firing in the mid-range. At first, he missed a few. In the second half of the second quarter, he basically raised his hand. have.

Scored five or six in a row.

The Bulls field had him cumming all over it.

If someone were to count Meng Lang's shooting hot spots in the distance area in this game at this time, they would find that the entire semicircle was red. Jordan had to enter the power mode early, but his condition tonight was not very good. He missed the first two shots, and then entered the scoring state, which dropped a lot of points. Fortunately, at the end before midfield On the first attack, he drove to the basket, not only causing Divac to foul, but also losing his balance and scoring a goal, completing a "3-pointer."

When the ball fell into the basket and Jordan sat on the floor, waiting for his teammates to pull him up, a unified shout rang out from the audience:

"MVP!"

"MVP!"

"MVP!"

……

The man Chicagoans will always trust:
Michael Jordan!

Stepping to the free throw line, Jordan steadily hit the extra free throw.

Relying on his "magic touch", the Bulls barely kept the score difference within 9 points.

At halftime, Meng Lang scored a team-high 25 points, including 16 points in the second quarter. Especially in the last 5 minutes, he made 4 consecutive shots, which directly caused Pippen's collapse. When I left the scene, the end was almost down to my crotch.

TNT's commentator also criticized Pippen's defense: "To be honest, Scottie's state has been ups and downs since the beginning of this season. This is a problem that Scottie has been unable to correct in the past, but this season, he The ups and downs of status become more frequent!”

They say women love to settle old scores.

But in fact, these commentators and reporters have the ability to turn over old scores, and they are no worse than women!

Of course, as they say, Scottie Pippen has been in bad shape this season. There are few highlight moments.

At the same time, he was sluggish for two or three games, and only performed well in a few games.

Including the always stable regular season period, this season has also had great ups and downs.

Some media broke the news that the issue of contract renewal between Pippen and the Bulls management became more and more serious, which affected Pippen's condition. But in the eyes of some media, isn't this the time when he should show his performance on the court to convince the Bulls management?

The Bulls and Pacers were inextricably tied in the Eastern Conference Finals, and it actually had a lot to do with Pippen.

5场比赛他场均只能拿到14.4分5.4篮板5助攻，投篮命中40%出头。

But he still has defense in the Eastern Conference finals!

Reggie Miller's downturn in the last two games was related to Jordan's defense, as well as his assist defense and switching defense.

But here comes the finals.

In the first game he won, he only scored 17 points, and Meng Lang scored about 30 points. But because it was Meng Lang and the Bulls won. Therefore, the media did not criticize too much.

Instead, he kept belittling the Lakers.

The loser never has the right to breathe!

But in this game, the Bulls fell behind by 9 points at halftime. The biggest reason was that Pippen did not restrict Meng Lang.

The Bulls returned to the locker room, and the atmosphere was even more subdued.

Pippen felt like he was suffocating.

Because he always felt that these people were looking at him intentionally or unintentionally. But when he looked up, he found that everyone was sitting in their seats, quietly closing their eyes, enjoying the leisure time before the second half of the game.

Only Jordan and Phil Jackson didn't know what they were talking about, and their glances from time to time made Pippen even more stressed.

The atmosphere in the Lakers' locker room is much better. Meng Lang's performance gave the Lakers a lot of initiative. So everyone looked relaxed. Barkley took the time to look at the data sheet. Meng Lang liberated his defense and no longer had to hold the ball, and his scoring data exploded a lot.

Especially in the second quarter, the Lakers only scored 25 points in total, and Meng Lang scored 16 points alone!
He is enough to support the Lakers' offensive end.

And Divac and Johnson have better organizational and support capabilities than him, and they can both find Meng Lang's position in time.

As a result, he doesn't need to contribute much...

In addition to covering Meng Lang's running, it may only be necessary to play some strong killing roles with the ball when Johnson and Divac are not on the court.

but……

Barkley didn't want to win tonight's game, or even the entire Finals, just like this. He wanted to do more. He looked at his stat sheet, looking for areas where he could do more.

Soon he discovered the direction in which he could work harder:

He only got 5 rebounds in this game!
As the "rebound king" this season, this data is obviously unqualified...

And as long as he can guarantee more rebounds, Meng Lang will definitely be able to shoot with more confidence!

Although he is already very confident, of course the more secure he is, the more confident he is!
Barkley made a decision. When the Lakers returned to the player tunnel, he said to Meng Lang: "Dream, just feel free to shoot, I will grab all the rebounds!"

Meng Lang gave him a thumbs up in advance.

He has no doubts about Barkley's rebounding ability.

And if you really want to say it, what Rodman fears most is a matchup like Barkley.

This can be seen from the data of his two finals against Karl Malone:

原本这个赛季面对爵士队，罗德曼场均2.3分7.7篮板1.5助攻0.7抢断0.2盖帽，命中率更是只有可怜的25%；接下来一个赛季的总决赛，他场均3.3分8.3篮板1助攻1.2抢断0.3盖帽，命中率为46.2%……

Faced with this kind of center of gravity and physical confrontation, Rodman must use all his strength to fight with his opponent in order to play a restrictive role.

What Karl Malone can do, Meng Lang believes Barkley can do the same.

On the Bulls side, Pippen heard a piece of news that made him desperate. In order for him to better defend Meng Lang, Jordan would shoulder the offensive end alone in the second half: "Scotty, what you have to do is, do your best. The power of that damn guy was restrained!" (End of this chapter)