In the same place, the Lakers repeated the same thing two days later, only sooner: this time, they beat the Jazz in the second quarter.

'In a way, they deserved to win, and great athleticism and home advantage gave them confidence.

Stockton didn't have much hope for his crazy slashing from the beginning, which was already his most extreme performance, but Zhang Yi just did a set of ordinary operations, and his hard work for two quarters came to naught, which is the embodiment of the comprehensive strength of both sides.

Of course, he doesn't think it's because he and Malone aren't strong enough, but the Jazz don't have a third point to score with the ball, and if there is such a role player on the team to assist him, he and Malone won't be trapped by the Lakers' superior forces.

Sloan also believed after the game that Malone's threat was not fully realized in this round, although he cut 40+ in the last game, but this is the Lakers' strategy to put the score on it. Once the opponent chose to surround Malone and Stockton today, the rest of the people did not stand up to help the two until the end.

After the Lakers played their first two games, one thing is now certain: as long as they kill Stockton and Malone and don't let them drive the rest of the Jazz players, even if these two get a lot of points, it will be difficult for the Jazz to beat the Lakers.

The Bulls know this, but they don't have a Mutombo who is usually low-key and always plays a decisive role in key battles, especially the defensive ability of "African Mountain" for blocking and pick-and-roll, which is far from what fans see on the surface.

The first difficulty in the Jazz's pick-and-roll offense is to switch defenses, because against pick-and-rolls, unless you can be absolutely 100% sure that you and other teammates in the defense can stick to your opponent, you have to change defenses every time you block and pick-and-roll, and you must be ready to change defenses at any time.

However, changing the guard is easier said than done, but it is tricky for most teams.

Stockton and Malone don't need to be elaborated on their pick-and-roll prowess, and it's fair to say that most of the time, they find opportunities to complete their offense in the gaps between opponents' shifts.

At this time, the value of Mutombo is reflected, he can always complete the task of changing defenses excellently, whether it is a big defense or a small defense, or a defensive dismantling of Malone, he can do it handy, not giving you the opportunity to attack the basket directly, excellent positioning and blocking ability will force you out of the paint area, so that your blocking and dismantling can not receive the desired effect.

The Los Angeles Times praised Mutombo's defense after the game, and their biggest contributor on the defensive end is always robbed of his shine after the game.

For example, tonight, Mutombo contributed 6 big hats in the whole game, but people only remember Zhang Mao's three blocks, which is obviously unfair to a "best defensive player", but this attitude of heavy offense and light defense has not changed much until 20 years later.

There is no doubt that Mutombo is the key to the functioning of the Lakers' entire defensive system, or rather, he is the core of the Lakers' defensive system, and this role is not Zhang Zhu.

In fact, to put it mildly, half of Zhang Mao's blocks are sneak attacks, basically ambushed on the flanks or behind the attacking players, and wait until Mutombo pushes the attacking players to the point of exhaustion through card positioning and excellent footwork, then he will burst out of the grass and shout "Demacia"! Then complete a fatal block!

Dragonborn Sports also reported on Mutombo's contributions on the defensive end the following day, which was also a thank you to her teammate for his contribution to the team.

But I have to say that defense is nowhere near as glamorous as offense, and even if you do a lot of things, people usually don't remember them.

If you don't believe me, let's take a look at the contributions of the two games, he needs to go to a single guard or forward player after the Jazz's various pick-and-roll defenses, an average of 28 times per night, or more precisely, about 28 defensive rounds ended with Mutombo switching and a single guard or forward player, and the results were amazing.

These Jazz players shot 7-of-28 from the field when they were playing small, and the Jazz's misplaced offense was only 25% efficient against Mutombo, and the number of turnovers and fouls was so low that the Jazz despaired, which is equivalent to saying that you can't shoot more than once, and you can't make fouls.

The reasons why Mutombo was so successful in switching to the back are simple: positioning, footwork, awareness, follow-up, threat.

The answer is not complicated, the Jazz players are very afraid of the long arms hanging from their heads, and if they go to the basket on Mutombo's head, they will likely eat hot pot, so they rarely try.

Old Mu realized this early on, and whenever he had to mark these players after changing guards, he would basically put some distance and keep his hands half-up, giving them just enough space to think about whether they could jump up and shoot a jumper, but by the time they started to shoot the basketball, Mutombo's hand was already on top of their heads. This forced them to lean back to keep them from being covered, but this changed the ball's trajectory and resulted in a missed throw or a "Demacia" in the grass!

Zhang Yu squatting on the side is not useless, his ambush in the grass will make the attacker always frightened, all the time worried about someone behind him sneak attack, which makes many fleeting offensive opportunities missed, and finally those ordinary players will become less and less confident to shoot, and the hit rate will drop sharply.

Once the Lakers complete the block at this time, or score a few consecutive goals on the offensive end, it is easy to break the opponent's mentality.

That's the key to their 74-game win in the regular season, and the real reason why the Jazz's pick-and-roll can't pose a threat.

Sloan is not unaware of these problems, but he is helpless, because defensive blocking and outside breakthrough are Mutombo's best areas, and the best way to deal with this guy is to play in the low post, such as O'Neal This is a strong center, Lao Mu is stupid at this time.

But Malone's low-post offense is not his forte, and the two are not in the right place, so Mutombo fully exerted his skills in this round of the series, and he overcame the Jazz's pick-and-roll.

The Zen master is also very distressed now, don't look at the opponent in front of them is the Heat, but he doesn't think that the Bulls will overturn, but he is worried about how to play in the next finals?

It's tricky, the Jazz in front of them are obviously about to hit the street, but do they have a countermeasure to Mutombo's defense?

The Bulls really don't have a good deal at the moment, and the Lakers grabbed Mutombo last summer, which is very inexplicable, even worse than the Bulls grabbed Rodman the year before.

The role played by these two is undoubtedly greater for Mutombo, although they are both two-time DPOY winners, Rodman also has the toughness and life-saving attribute bonus of the top three in history in 1 defense and 1, but it cannot be denied that if compared with Mutombo, Rodman cannot establish a no-fly zone over his team, which is his biggest shortcoming, he lacks blocking ability and air dominance.

The truly perfect interior defender has top-notch blocking and can support a team's defensive system on their own. Rodman is too short to cover the hat, and his air defense is also insufficient, whether it is in the Pistons, Spurs or Bulls, he can only be a piece of the golden puzzle in the defensive team, but he can't support a defensive system, which is where he is inferior to Mutombo.

The Lakers got 2-0 first, and there will be two days of rest before Game 3 begins, and the Jazz will return to Salt Lake City for a final resistance.

The next day, the "Billy Battle" between the Bulls and the Heat also began, and as a result, this battle set the lowest ratings for this year's division finals, because the combined scores of the two teams are less than 150 points, and this kind of ugly game will of course be spurned by fans, regardless of whether you are a Bulls or a Lakers.

The Heat may have taken a "yesterday's recurring" script for this game, because the process and ending of the game were similar to the previous one.

Before the game entered the fourth quarter, the Heat led by 6 points, 1 more than two days ago, and Rodman had 5 more fouls, Jordan and Pippen did not have 20 points, and the score of the two teams was 56:50, which looked like it had just finished the first half, but the Heat undoubtedly had a big advantage.

With such a score, the six-point advantage does seem to be huge, but Pat Riley made a desperate gamble and let Mourning play the final 12 minutes, and the result was that Mourning failed to score a regular goal in the final quarter, and even made 2 of 4 free throws.

Not only did the Heat suffer Mourning's Waterloo in the final quarter, Hardaway and Mashburn also struggled to get the ball to the basket under the high-intensity defense in the final quarter, and they were no longer able to accurately hit the ball under heavy physical contact.

The Bulls weren't much better, Jordan wasn't younger, and he and Pippen scored 38 of the team's 50 points in the first three quarters, which meant that the rest of the team didn't contribute much and was physically exhausted, so they were also tired in the final quarter.

But at this time, the gap in talent is reflected......

Everyone has lost their energy, and their shooting moves are deformed, but I can just throw the ball in, and it's not very efficient, but it's a little bit higher than you—hey! It's just so skinny, are you angry?

Jordan is naturally the Bulls' most consistent point of attack, as everyone knows that the Bulls' triple winning streak was won by stepping on the shoulders of the Knicks and Pat Riley, and many of the victories were built in the fourth quarter, and it is the same now.

Tonight, Jordan decided the outcome of the game again at the end.

Two minutes before the end, after assisting Pippen's three-pointer, Jordan put on another spectacular solo show - he dribbled to a layup, changed hands behind his back, bypassed Mashburn, and made a backhand layup under Mourning's block.

"It's too hard to make a layup." Mourning said after the game, "I covered the ball with my whole hand, but he was too strong, he held the ball firmly and sent it to the basket in a daze. ”

The final score was 70:67, and after Hardaway missed the layup, Jordan made a key mid-range shot 1:02 before the end of the game to help the Bulls overtake the score and seal the win.

This game was almost exactly the same as the last game, although the Bulls had ups and downs in the first three quarters of the two games, facing the embarrassment of role players not being able to stand up, but they all relied on Jordan and Pippen to seize the opportunity in the fourth quarter, showing the quality of a championship team.

In the two games, the total score of the two teams in the fourth quarter was 43:22, and the Bulls outscored the Heat by 21 points in the fourth quarter, almost double the Heat's final score.

On the other hand, the Heat, who only scored a pitiful 11 points in the fourth quarter of their first two games, almost scored in the final quarter of two consecutive games, which is why they lost, because every time it came to a critical moment, no one could step up, and their own defense could not prevent the offense of the opposing hero.

If you look at it this way, even if Howard really joins the Heat, will it cause a qualitative change in this team?

Not necessarily, because Howard is not a good offensive star, and what they lack is a star who can score with the ball in critical moments.

But what's interesting is that the two teams that were beaten 2:0 were very tough afterwards and didn't admit the end of the world.

The Jazz don't feel like they have a chance, and when they return to their Devils' home court, Sloan and his duo are convinced they still have a chance.

It's the same with the Heat, with both Pat Riley and Mourning feeling that the Heat still have a chance, and as long as they return to their home court, they may be able to solve the problem of lackluster finishes.

It is said that in the locker room, a frustrated Mourning took off his wet jersey with a blood mark on his ribs, but even he didn't care if it was Rodman's blood debt, because the atmosphere of going home after being eliminated permeated the locker room, and they had to find a way to win the third game.

Pat Riley's post-match interview was even a bit of gunpowder, saying that he was disgusted with the cliché that the rest of the game was a "must win", and after the game, he took on his gangster godfather-like look, saying: "Even if it's 0-2 now, it doesn't mean we're going home." It's not the end of the world. ”

However, the Miami media is pessimistic, believing that the Heat will have to win four of the Bulls' remaining five games, just as 55-year-old Pat Riley beat 22-year-old Allen Iverson in the 28-meter sprint.

But any miracle can happen in the NBA, Jordan thinks the Bulls can't relax, and he's not happy with his teammates' performance, "They're a team that doesn't matter if they lose right now, and we have to be careful." In the next game, if we had been 10 points behind in the first three quarters, the result would have been completely different. ”

Jordan has reason to complain about this, but the Heat are indeed more convincing than the Jazz's hard mouth.

The Heat outperformed the Bulls in the first three quarters of both games, leading by 5 points in the first game and by 5 points in this one, and they managed to limit the rest of the Bulls players except Jordan and Pippen.

If Jordan unfortunately said that the Heat led more in the first three quarters of the next game, then the Bulls may not be able to catch up.

Here we must name Tony Kukchi, who was pinned on by the Zen master, who only scored 2 points in the first game, and today's performance was even more awesome, but he didn't score a point, this embarrassing performance made Zhang Yu feel embarrassed for him.

Kukoc was a quasi-All-Star who averaged 13.2 points, 4.5 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game in 28 minutes in the regular season, which translates into 36 minutes of performance, which is close to 17+6+6 All-Star data, but who would have thought that his performance in the division finals was even inferior to O'Neal Jr.

That's right, if you look at the stats alone, O'Neal Jr. scored four points in garbage time in Game 2, which was more than Kukoc's two games combined.

After watching the second game of the Bulls, the Lakers team became more confident.

Zhang felt in his heart that if these role players of the Bulls were this snakeskin performance, then they would not let the Bulls win a game.

It's no joke, the two games combined, all the players of the Bulls except Jordan and Pippen combined didn't score 50 points, is this playing snake?

Of course, the Lakers admit that the defensive intensity of the Eastern Conference Finals is stronger than their own side, but this kind of intensity is not that the Lakers can't get it, and they won't be scared! Just kidding, they have an active No. 1 boss who is the best in attack, and they will never encounter the problem of the Heat's weakness.

On the contrary, the Lakers' final quarter is more terrible than the Bulls, and the reason is also because they have an invincible big handsome.

On May 22, the Lakers set off for Salt Lake City, one of the four most difficult home courts in the league.

Zhang Wei deliberately faced thousands of fans who came to see him off at the airport in Los Angeles, and accepted an interview with his own media.

"Lyon, what do you think is the number one factor for the Lakers to win on the road?"

"Can I say pretending?" Zhang Qian complained about himself first, and then pretended to force, "I think 'concentration' is the most critical factor affecting performance. We need to be more focused in the next game. He did not mention specific tactics, but again mentioned the word "concentration".

"Tell me why?"

"Well...... Just respect your opponent, because I don't want to be seen by my opponent because of my carelessness. ”

"Uh...... The Lakers are currently 2-0 ahead, and no one has ever pulled back such a total score in the finals, is it too cautious? ”

"No, it's not prudence! Did I say that the possibility becomes zero only when people give up, and I don't want to think that the possibility is zero, no matter how meaningless others think? ”

"This ...... I'll have to look up the Dragonborn quote first, but it seems like this is said for the opponent? ”

Zhang Fu faced the joke of his own reporter and said with a smile: "That's right, these words seem to be said for them, but they are not reminding them, but reminding ourselves." Let's put it this way, if I was in a Jazz situation, I would be like: if they can beat us 2:0, why can't we give them back? Even if you are 100 points behind, there may be a meteorite falling at the last second and shooting straight into the opponent's rest area. So before the final whistle blew, I thought I'd do everything I could first. And right now, we're on the dominant side, and if we can't even do what the desperate side can do, then we really don't deserve to go to the finals. ”

"I see, now that the Lakers are about to leave for the NBA's famous Devils home game, can you tell us what you said to your teammates before you left?"

"I told them: Remember, warriors. When playing away games, you can have courage, blood, and hatred in your heart...... But there is no fear...... Nor can we have fear in our hearts, because once there is fear in our hearts, the enemy will not fail! Fear is our greatest enemy, and courage will make you brighter than a thousand suns, and the enemy will crush before you. ”