After the timeout, the Bulls finally found a way to limit the Knicks, shrinking the defense, preventing breakouts and not shooting, and waiting for Zhou Xuan to pass the ball, and then they saved.

Zhou Xuan's weakness is his height, which is easy to be disturbed when he pulls out on the periphery. Doing so disrupted the Knicks' offensive rhythm, with Stadamire and Matthews each missing a shot. Matthews felt very bad today. D'Antoni replaced him and brought on Azubuuk.

Zhou Xuan gradually figured out the opponent's defensive routines, shrinking and expanding together, and I don't know how Thibodeau made the players have a tacit understanding in two months, and he is worthy of being a super defensive coach.

When he returned to defense, Zhou Xuan yelled at his teammates, Azubuke followed Korver, and the others also shrank, like the Bulls, although the Knicks were slower when switching positions and expanding out to defend, but the Bulls were not so accurate on the outside, Rose missed two shots, and Lore Deng also shot wide.

Zhou Xuan shot very resolutely at the last moment, and it was all on the outside, shooting 2 of 5 three-pointers. He scored 22 points in the first quarter. 28 points, 2 rebounds and 9 assists in the third quarter. Rose played badly in this quarter, only scoring two points, 20 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists, and the data was surpassed by Zhou Xuan.

81-85, the Knicks still trailed by four points.

Every time Thibodeau watched Zhou Xuan play, he had a feeling that he couldn't see through, he rarely made mistakes on the court, and his strength seemed to be bottomless.

D'Antoni also has a headache, Zhou Xuan has played too much time and is already very tired. He is averaging 37 minutes per game this season, which is still easy to win games and rest in garbage time. Playing a team like the Bulls, the coach didn't dare to replace Zhou Xuan. I definitely played more than 40 minutes today.

"Zhou, if you can hold on with your physical strength, I want you to continue to shoot while the others defend with all their might. Amare is responsible for blocking and pick-and-roll, attracting the defense high and not cutting empty. ”

"Understood." The two said in unison.

Stoudeye has already served Zhou Xuan and is willing to be a green leaf, although he is the Knicks' leading scorer, averaging 22 per game. 7 points, but Zhou Xuan is the core of the offense. He thinks that Zhou Xuan is more domineering and reliable than Nash's offense, and as long as he is in a good position, Zhou Xuan will definitely pass the ball to him.

Before the players came on the field, Thibodeau instructed: "Derek, guard against Zhou Xuan, and be stricter with him without the ball." As long as he passes the ball, don't let the ball go back to him, we can lead the Knicks by 19 points, and we can win the game at the end! Take out the spirit of the first half. ”

The final quarter of the game began.

The Bulls attacked first, Rose brought to the frontcourt, and Zhou Xuan let go of one and a half distances. In the third quarter, Rose felt bad, Zhou Xuan planned to change his defense, if he didn't score consecutive shots, it would hurt morale, and he didn't mind Rose pulling out. He watched the side run with his eyes, and as soon as Boozer came up, he immediately stepped back to dodge and chase Rose from inside the three-point line.

Ross has a chance to shoot on the periphery, but can he guarantee efficiency? As soon as Zhou Xuan withdrew, Rose moved sideways and took a step to pull up the periphery and throw, deflected.

This defense seems to be a little irresponsible, but in fact, Zhou Xuan is well thought out, including his retreat to block the right side and let Rose move to the middle area. Rose's three-point shooting isn't accurate everywhere, with only 9% in the right corner, around 37% on the right side, 30% in the middle, 35% on the left side, and interestingly, a high percentage of 55% from the left corner. It's his shooting habit that allows him to shoot in the middle and have a good chance of hitting iron.

Stadamire took the backcourt rebound and passed it to Zhou Xuan. After arriving in the front court, Zhou Xuan dribbled the ball under his crotch and burst out to the right side, Anderson pulled out to cover, Zhou Xuan then moved to the middle, dodged Rose, and saw that Gibson was also blocked by Xiao Si, unable to block, and he shot when he pulled it up, and it was a very unreasonable three-point shot, under the interference of Gibson, the ball smashed the back edge of the basket and hit, and he scored 31 points! 84 to 85.

Zhou Xuan's three-point shooting rate in the bottom corner on both sides is less than 30%, the three-point shooting rate in the middle can reach 48%, and the two sides are also about 44%, and the total 40% is much more threatening than Rose's outside.

The Knicks' home court was so strong that the fans stopped sitting and stood up and shouted for defense.

Zhou Xuan entangled Rose, encountered a block and went to the three-point line to chase the defense, forcing Rose to go to the middle, this time Rose did not shoot, his shooting confidence has been affected, passed to Lore Deng, who gave the baseline no ball cover and ran to Korver in the bottom corner on the other side.

Stadameyer defended the shot, which was the right choice, and it was better to score two points than three, and Korver forced his shot wide, and the rebound was grabbed by Boozer, and the rebound was scored by a cricket. 84 to 87.

The Knicks attacked, and Zhou Xuan waved his teammates away, choosing to single Rose. Some of the fans led the way in chanting the "MVP" slogan!

This exerted a lot of psychological pressure on Rose, Zhou Xuan didn't care, he didn't listen to the shouts of the fans at all, and his attention was on how to pass.

He dribbled to the right with his crotch down, then paused with the ball in his right hand and brought his left hand closer together, as if he was about to throw a shot. He hit a number of three-pointers in the third quarter, and just hit another one, and Rose decided he wanted to make a quick shot and took a small step forward.

Zhou Xuan used the "worship Buddha" feint, his right hand changed direction and passed Rose with his left hand, cut in the middle, took the ball one step before the free throw line, and took three steps to the right side for a layup, Boozer let go of Stodameire to make up for the defense, Zhou Xuan handed the ball to his right hand in the running and circled half a circle behind him, and passed the ball to the left side behind his back.

Stoudeyer received the ball in an empty position, jumped up in one step, and smashed the ball vigorously! 86 to 87. Zhou Xuan had his 10th personal assist and scored a double-double.

The Bulls attacked, and after a few passes, Rose jumped into the interior and made a difficult pull-up shot under the interference of Stoudamire, and the ball bounced out of the frame. Gallinari took the rebound and threw it to the frontcourt, and Zhou Xuan and Azubuike attacked quickly.

Zhou Xuan took the ball to the front court, faced Gibson, turned his head to look at Azubuke on the side in the middle, and did not pass, but threw the ball straight to the rebound with one hand. He accelerates in a straight line, but Gibson needs to turn and chase after him. No matter how fast the inside line is, it is impossible to turn around and accelerate as fast as Zhou Xuan. Zhou Xuan shook off Gibson in two steps, took a step forward from the free throw line to receive the rebounding basketball, jumped up in one step, shrank in the air, used his back as a cover to avoid the side block, and scored a basketball with his right backhand. Rose was a step slower to catch up with all his might. Zhou Xuan scored his 33rd point, 88-87.

Thibodeau called for a timeout again, unhappy with the player's performance. It was the fifth timeout the Bulls called, and there were extra timeouts. Each team in the NBA has the right to request a regular timeout with seven minor registrations. Each team is limited to no more than 4 timeouts in the fourth quarter; No more than three timeouts within two minutes of the fourth quarter's worst. During overtime, 3 timeouts are allowed per team.

Su Qun shouted: "It's overtaken, Zhou Xuan played like a god in the second half, and this goal scored the best five." ”

Yang Jian said: "He gave himself a beautiful assist, a perfect combination of breakthrough and ball sharing. ”

Su Qun said: "The fans are still applauding, Zhou Xuan has now completely conquered the New York fans, which is not easy, and the New York fans have always been notoriously difficult to serve." ”

"His strength is indeed too strong, and his popularity is far better than Yao Ming."

The mage erupts and the whole of New York goes crazy! For Knicks fans, such an era of "city-wide love" for a player is long unfamiliar. Zhou Xuan's soaring sky gave the passion that had been suppressed for many years a reason to explode.

In the field, they shouted for a glimpse of Zhou Xuan's performance; Off the field, they lined up for a No. 99 jersey. From the local Chinese community to the Asian community to the whole of New York, the mage frenzy is spreading at an unstoppable rate.

How popular is Zhou Xuan? Just look at the slogans raised by the female fans in the stands to know the answer.

"I love you, Stephen Chow!" Chinese female fans wrote. But her limelight was completely stolen by another sign next to her - "You are my everything!" I am your future! This sentence is embellished with a bright red heart, indicating the determination of blonde female fans to "make a promise to each other".

The stadium that can accommodate nearly 20,000 people is not uncommon with such slogans, and there are a large number of female fans. They don't seem to be here to watch the game, but to go on a blind date.

On the right side of the audience, there was a group of Chinese fans who came en masse, and they all put on Zhou Xuan's mask and raised their hands to cheer for him. The metaphor of the mask is obvious - everyone wants to be Zhou Xuan!

Jerseys, sneakers, equipment, autographs, clothes worn by Zhou Xuan. So far in the regular season, any souvenir in Zhou Xuan in New York is what most Knicks fans want to collect.

Zhou Xuan's business storm hit, and Coke broke the merchants who sold jerseys. They haven't seen a star's jersey sell so well in years. Even with the No. 99 jersey prepared, the fan rush quickly emptied their inventory, even at the official Knicks memorabilia store. Stadameyer's No. 1 is far worse than him.

The two teams are only one point apart, the momentum gap is huge, the Bulls lead by 19 points was recovered, and the players are already lacking in confidence.

At the beginning of the game, Rose was trapped to compress the defense, still in a state of dumb fire, the offense mainly relied on Boozer and Lore Deng, Thibodeau did not dare to change to the bench, the veteran Thomas, the swingman Brewer sat on the sidelines, they were too slow, and any weakness at this time could be caught by the Knicks, because Zhou Xuan was there, he did not doubt this at all.

The Knicks' offense is more blossoming. In order to defend Zhou Xuan's breakthrough, the Bulls' perimeter defense relied on rotation to change positions, and Anderson and Gallinari stood up and shot three points each.

Zhou Xuan sent three assists in a row, and then hit a 60-degree jumper from a pass from Gallinari. In the following game, the Bulls were never able to take the lead again.

Barkley said: "Zhou Xuan dominated the game in the second half, and if his team-mate had shot on time in the first half, he would have scored 30+20 again. ”

Smith laughed: "Even if we don't get 20+ assists, it's going to be a memorable Christmas game." ”

In the last 45 seconds, the Knicks led by 10 points, Zhou Xuan was replaced, and the fans applauded. His stats were fixed at 35 points, 2 rebounds, 14 assists and 4 steals. Of those, 29 points were scored in the second half.

In the end, the Knicks 111-103, Christmas Eve reversed the Bulls!