So I am the god of basketball?

The big screen at the scene was now showing Chuck Daly.

The Lakers fans, who were a little nervous at first, were no longer nervous.

Because Chuck Daly was calm and not nervous at all.

Ever since the Western Conference Finals against the Warriors, Lakers fans have regarded Chuck Daly's expression as a "barometer." As long as his expression is normal, it means that there is no problem with the Lakers.

Even if the Lakers are behind in the score, there will be no problem!
If they feel there is something wrong, they will also feel there is something wrong with them.

That's the trust they have in Chuck Daly right now.

In their view, as long as Chuck Daly thinks there is no problem, it means the Lakers are still on their rhythm.

Soon, on the Lakers side, Meng Lang, who had the ball, attracted a double-team and quickly passed the ball to Russell.

Russell continued to pass the ball to Divac under the basket.

Divac showed his "jack of all trades" attributes, with a small hook shot under the basket, successfully hitting the ball.

Rodman was still able to get into position quickly, but his ability to fight was not as strong as it was in his peak period. Divac exerted force suddenly, and he had no way to stop him.

The Lakers took the lead again.

Next, the two sides took turns leading, and until the end of the first quarter, the difference between the two sides was still around 3 points.

The Lakers lead 28-25.

Chuck Daly glanced at the statistics. He ignored Jordan's 7 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, and did not look closely at McGrady's efficiency of 6 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. What he cared about was the playing time of these two people. Looking at Jordan's 10 minutes and 23 seconds and McGrady's 11 minutes and 04 seconds, he nodded slightly and did not make any adjustments.

In the second quarter, both sides were still fighting fiercely.

Although the Bulls entered the finals two years later, their championship experience is no less than that of the Lakers. It can be said that this year's finals is a showdown between the two teams with the most experience.

Therefore, even under such pressure, the Bulls still performed at their usual level.

This is the main reason why they can keep up with the Lakers.

A team that can make it to the finals can’t be that weak.

At least it is impossible to be beaten by the opponent from the first quarter.

Although this situation has occurred in the finals, it is only an isolated case.

Besides, this is Jordan's Bulls after all, there is a limit to how weak they can be.

At the end of the first half, the Lakers' lead was only 5 points.

Michael Jordan scored 13 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in the first half.

McGrady scored 15 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists.

The two of them carried the Bulls in the first half.

Their performance, as well as the attitude of the entire Bulls team on the court in the first half, made the commentators and fans far away in Chicago breathe a sigh of relief.

There is no way. Before the finals, the Lakers were in such a terrible state. Although the Bulls made it to the finals this year,...

They really weren't sure how the Bulls would perform against a Lakers team like this.

They were afraid that the Lakers would "kill" the Bulls in one wave.

Fortunately, from the current situation, the Bulls are doing well and they are in a stalemate with the Lakers.

The commentator of the Chicago local TV station was very excited: "We can fight, we can fight. As long as we maintain this state, we can fight!"

However, at the beginning of the second half, the situation changed suddenly. The Lakers were in an extremely ferocious state from the beginning, launching wave after wave of attacks. It seemed that the tactics were no different from the first half. But the Bulls, who were able to keep up the rhythm and counterattack in the first half, were unable to withstand the pressure in the second half.

Especially after 7 minutes and 14 seconds in the third quarter, Michael Jordan and McGrady began to "lose power", but the Lakers continued to play steadily. By the end of the third quarter, the Lakers had widened the gap to more than 10 points.

During the intermission, the live camera was focused on Michael Jordan and McGrady.

The two of them have almost the same "emoji package":
Breathing heavily.

Anyone who sees them panting will think they are so tired!
Chuck Daly glanced at the Bulls' playing time again. After three quarters, there were a total of 36 minutes. McGrady played for 31 minutes and 24 seconds, and Jordan played for 30 minutes and 45 seconds. The two of them only rested for 10 minutes in total.

Jordan, who was born in 63, is 37 years old this year!

At this age, his physical fitness is bound to cause problems in high-intensity competitions.

And in this team, it’s not just Jordan who’s 37 years old, there’s also…

Rodman!
This guy, whose condition has declined even further, was already unable to maintain a high-quality performance in the game. Now he has problems with his physical fitness, and has become a direct burden to the team.

In the last three minutes of the third quarter, the Bulls lost three consecutive backcourt rebounds, all of which were snatched away by Ben Wallace in front of him.

If he were in his prime, Rodman would not be afraid of a guy like Ben Wallace.

but now……

When he looked at Ben Wallace, it was as if he saw the shadow of his own peak period!

At this moment he understood this sentence:

Time is not forgiving!
This is also the reason why Chuck Daly has been paying attention to the playing time of the opposing team's main players. This is an elderly team. If they really compare physical fitness with the Lakers, a group of young people who are at their peak, they will definitely lose.

So in this game, Chuck Daly only emphasized one point from the beginning, he required everyone to maximize the intensity from the beginning.

Let’s put it this way!

The Chicago Bulls and the Chinese men's basketball team are actually similar.

In high-intensity games, they can only play well for one or two quarters. As their physical fitness declines, their condition will inevitably fluctuate, and that is also the opportunity for the Lakers to win the game.

If the Bulls still had some strength to fight back in the third quarter, then they really had no resistance at all in the entire fourth quarter. The Lakers did not rush ahead. They maintained the rhythm of the first three quarters and defeated the Bulls steadily.

98 to 92, a 16-point victory, the Lakers won their first game in the finals.

Michael Jordan scored 18 points in three quarters, only 2 points in the last quarter, and only 20 points in the first game of the finals.

Barkley didn't look at the statistics, but in his impression, this should be Jordan's lowest score in a single game in the finals: "This old guy, it's really time for him to retire!"

McGrady scored 26 points. Like Jordan, he scored most of the points in the first three quarters. He only scored 3 points in the last quarter.

He is in his prime, but his problem is...

He has too much to bear!
The Bulls need his full support on both offense and defense. Even Barkley said: "This is no longer what Scottie Pippen does...Even after Michael Jordan retired in 94, Scottie's contribution to the team was not so great..."

From Barkley's comment, we can actually see what McGrady needs to bear in the Bulls!

Of course, what surprised the outside world the most was the Lakers' state in this game...

Chuck Daly did not make any adjustments, he just watched and let the Lakers players play on their own. After the tense first half, the Lakers gradually took the initiative and successfully won the game.

This team seems to be able to find a way to win as time goes by.

Moreover, everyone can see that the Bulls and the Warriors are completely different teams. However, in front of the Lakers, they all had the same result. They were slowly dragged into their rhythm by the Lakers, and then directly crushed...

“Who on earth can stop the Lakers?”

“Is a new history about to be born?”

"This Lakers team is really terrible!"

The new history refers to winning the championship with a perfect record of "15 wins and 0 losses in the playoffs". In the history of the NBA, no team has ever done this. No matter how strong a team is, it will always lose a game in the playoffs.

Even the Orlando Magic, which once had a record of 73 wins and 9 losses, could not escape this fate.

But now, the Los Angeles Lakers, with a record of 74 wins and 8 losses, seem to be on track to create new history.

Anyway, judging from the result of the first game...

Most media believed that even Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls would find it difficult to win even one game against this team.

The Bulls' biggest problem was clearly exposed on the stage of the finals, and this season's Lakers are the kind of team that, if you have any problems, they can seize the problem, keep attacking, and finally beat you in the last wave.

This team has too many safeguards.

On the outside, there is Meng Lang, the regular season MVP, on the inside, there is Ben Wallace, the "Defensive Player of the Season", and Kobe is on the "Third Team"...

Plus the tacit understanding formed over the years...

That’s why the Lakers are so strong now.

Michael Jordan was unhappy when he heard a reporter ask him before the second game of the Finals whether he had the confidence to win the next Finals. In his opinion, such a question from the reporter was the biggest insult to him!

He's Michael Jordan. Why would these reporters think he would be swept in the finals?

Just because the opponent is Meng Lang?

Because they just won by 16 points in the first game?
This……

He is indeed hard to refute!
In fact, he himself was not sure.

The biggest difference between Jordan and Kobe is that Jordan can see the situation clearly.

Take his second comeback announcement for example. When he failed to make the playoffs in his first season and when he found that his body was not strong enough to support him to complete a whole season, he told everyone before the new season arrived: This is my last season.

Then he started to enjoy the game and everything the league gave him.

After hitting the mid-range buzzer-beater with his personal logo in the All-Star Game, he chose to leave the court, ending his All-Star journey with such a moment. Even though Kobe later ignorantly used free throws to overtake, he refused to play again.

He knew that even if he went up again, he might not be able to have such a moment, so he didn't force it.

Now is also such a moment. It’s not that he has reached the point where he doesn’t force it, but after the first game, he clearly realized that the Bulls did have an insurmountable problem:

Some of the core players are older, including him!
If we can't solve this problem, we won't be able to defeat the Lakers.

Since there was no confidence in defeating the Lakers, the 37-year-old Jordan chose to remain silent.

Now he probably understood why those "superstars" he had seen before chose to remain silent at this age and stage of their careers instead of wearing a crown on their heads. It was because they all knew that at the end of their days, even if it was to maintain their dignity as former "superstars", silence was the best way.

It’s not too late to show off even after defeating the Lakers in one game!

Middle-aged men are like this...

But everyone knows that this is difficult.

In the second game of the finals, Michael Jordan showed his determination to win, and Phil Jackson also wanted to activate others to help Michael Jordan and McGrady save as much energy as possible in the early stages of the game.

However, the Lakers did not make any changes in response to this wave of adjustments. Instead, they played more fiercely. Their purpose, of course, was to force the Bulls to let Michael Jordan and McGrady step out to save the team as soon as possible.

Compared to what Phil Jackson wanted to accomplish, it was obviously much easier for the Lakers to achieve their goal.

After all, this is the finals. It is not a place where role players need to step up and perform well in order to win as some people say, but a place where the core of the team needs to step up and fight to the death at the critical moment.

Just based on this point, Michael Jordan and McGrady can't escape it!

In the second game of the finals, Jordan played bravely and scored 31 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists. Considering his age, this data is enough to be called "brave". McGrady's final data was also fixed at 27 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.

As the "second in command", he also exceeded the task this time.

But the Bulls still lost.

They lost in the last 5 minutes, during which time Jordan and McGrady made a total of 5 of 1 shots.

But who can blame them?

They played for more than 44 minutes in this game, and Phil Jackson wanted to reduce their workload and ensure their performance in the later stages.

But the Lakers played too aggressively, and the two of them had to step up and share the pressure for the rest of the team.

And once they took over the offense, the ball could no longer be put down.

Big score 2-0!

However, this is not the most desperate time for the Bulls, as they will return to their home court next.

The cheers from the home fans will make them feel relaxed, and maybe they can play a more perfect game and win Game 3 of the Finals.

In fact, as long as they can win one game, according to the current public opinion, they will still be honored in defeat.

The Lakers also knew that the third game of the finals would determine the direction of the entire finals, and they made serious preparations for this game before the game.

This is what the Los Angeles media said:

"Chuck Daly even took out the tactical board, wiped it, wrote it again, wiped it again, wrote it again, and repeated it several times!" (End of this chapter)