Chapter 394: More Than ***
"These bastards look so ugly?"
"There is a problem with this odds at first glance!"
"The Lakers don't do that, do they?"
“……”
Of course, these complaints come from the gambling dogs, and they are the most illogical.
But whoever bought a big score before the series started, it has already been posted. And those who bought the Bulls to score 2 and 3 points first, this will almost be able to buy a house with a sea view. Only the gambling dog that bought the Lakers to win the championship is trembling on the rooftop with a radio waiting for a miracle, and if there is bad news, they will have to line up and jump down.
Of course, the Lakers' appearance will not be so ugly, there are a lot of match-fixing in football, but in basketball there are many fewer such cases, everyone at most scolds the league for favoring one side, but rarely questions that a team is playing match-fixing.
In the first half, the Lakers swept away the decline of the previous three games, which was to force themselves to continue for another second, and at this moment thousands of gambling dogs were the most difficult to accept, they temporarily raised to buy the Lakers to be eliminated by 4:1, in a delusional attempt to stop the loss, but if the Lakers drag the series to the sixth game, these people are afraid that they will have to really take a leap of faith to be free.
Zhang Yu is too lazy to care about the life and death of these gamblers, a bunch of bastards really jump down, and they are tired and tired.
In the second half, the Lakers attacked for the first time, and Zhang Qi completed 2+1 with a layup that made Hill fly out of the bottom line, and by the way, many guys on the rooftop almost slipped and fell.
Hill's ball has been defended very well, and he can fly out from the bottom line, which shows that he has kept up with Zhang Mao's breakthrough, but unfortunately he can't blame him for failing in the confrontation link, and he has to fight the street if Jordan is so hard.
Zhang Fu's impression of Hill has changed in his heart, in the past, he felt that this person would make slow progress because he didn't work hard enough, but now seeing his desperate defense, he thought that such a tough guy shouldn't be so unbearable, he underestimated this guy before.
But no matter how tenacious Hill was, it was difficult to resist Zhang Zhu's repeated onslaught, and Koala Baby continued his firepower into the second half, bursting the entire Bulls' defense with strong individual combat ability, and the Lakers' advantage quickly expanded to 16 points.
The Bulls can only deploy heavy troops to defend Zhang Zhu again, Kidd naturally played the role of Zhang Zhu's deputy general at this time, and his breakthrough with the ball also made the Bulls uncomfortable, not only Van Exel was penetrated by him, but the Bulls' interior defense must also allocate some energy to avoid being taken advantage of by Kidd, but this makes the entire defense line appear more holes.
Kidd didn't show much in the first half, but in a limited few singles he had already made Van Exel difficult to guard against.
Some Lakers fans still think that Van Exel's exchange for Kidd is not profitable, thinking that these two are equal in athleticism, one is good at attacking, the other is good at defending, and it is impossible to say who is higher and who is lower.
But Van Maniac has always been an attacking defender who plays with passion, while Kidd is a traditional defender who plays with his brain. Even if the two really don't distinguish between high and low, the former will not study the video and will not analyze the opponent's playing habits and technical characteristics. Kidd, on the other hand, has been studying Van Exel. This distinction will inevitably lead to the further back you play, the greater Kidd's advantage.
After the first four games of the finals, Van Exel's start to fend off Kidd's breakaway, who could use his offensive and defensive habits to target.
In the first half, Zhang Mao's state was too good, and Kidd didn't have many opportunities to perform, but in the second half, Zhang Zhu began to make balls for Kidd, hoping that he could help him share the defensive pressure, and Xiao Zhengtai's stage became bigger.
Lakers fans' eyes were on Zhang Qi and Kidd for a while, but if the Lakers have an advantage over the Bulls, then it is not only the outside play, but also the inside line.
If Zhang and Kidd performed on the offensive end, then Mutombo supported the overall situation on the defensive end.
Mutombo had outperformed Big Ben defensively when he returned in Game 2, and the two were still far apart from each other in the box, and although Ben could make opponents uncomfortable with his positivity and athleticism, he didn't have the control at this time, let alone Mutombo's deterrent power to make Jordan and Hill try to avoid confrontation with him just by one stop in the box.
Mutombo's injury does not involve athleticism, at this time after three games of warm-up, he has already recovered his state, as long as the outside teammates don't send too early, his historic ability to pick positions and blocking ability can be brought into play, just one person is enough to make Jordan and Hill dare not easily go deep into the Lakers restricted area, at this time the Lakers really have a historic defense, Mutombo This gate is too important for the overall strength of the defending champion.
Hill struggled to play in the second half, Van Exel's face was on the back foot against Kidd, and Jordan alone was unable to pose a threat to Mutombo's penalty area, and the damage he could do was high but limited.
Barkley was Jordan's right-hand man in the first four games, but he didn't dare to attack under the basket easily today, except for Mason who put more pressure on him, he also had to worry about whether he would be shaken by Mutombo.
Mutombo single-handedly tied up two Hall of Fame superstars, and that's the value of the three-time DPOY, and the old dog's contribution in the penalty area, although silent, was not inferior to Zhang Mao's charge.
The core of the Lakers' offense and defense plays at the same time, which is the complete team that is invincible in the regular season.
The referee also continued to add fuel to the fire in the second half, the Lakers began to pull the score away from the court, and the home fans sang the "Dragon Song" that they forcibly recorded in the halftime, but the dragon language of the cheating father is really difficult to remember in a short time, which will only be sung blindly by impression, but fortunately, the melody is not far away, and 20,000 people hum it together It is quite imposing.
The time and place are all on their side, the Lakers players are playing better and better in the second half, Jordan can only start to take over the game alone, he quickly scored 6 points on consecutive shots, but the Bulls' defense is full of holes, the Lakers scored 16 points in half a quarter and continued to lead 72:56.
Jordan felt like he was back in the isolated situation he was a decade ago, and today only Barkley can give him an occasional breather, but to maintain his hopes of turning the game into a victory, he can only continue to display all kinds of difficult shooting points as he did 10 years ago.
That's when Don Nelson finally discovered the Lakers' intentions, and these guys wanted to nip their counterattack in the bud with a preemptive strategy.
He guessed correctly, Harris felt at halftime that instead of watching out for the Bulls' counterattack, it would be better to take a risky move, and let them launch an offensive attack in the second half to take the lead and suppress the momentum of the Bulls.
This is the tactic of attacking instead of defending, and the Lakers hope to replace passive defense with active offense.
After the start of the second half, the Lakers behaved more like the backward side, they attacked more actively than the Bulls, and the waves of surging offense made the Bulls breathless and could only passively parry.
Don Nelson saw through the Lakers' intentions, but there was no good way to crack it, let alone avoid it.
The Lakers are fierce at the moment, and the Bulls are not suitable for hard work on the road, if they are replaced by other coaches, most of them will choose to endure first, and the best choice is to wait for the Lakers' offensive to slow down, and then launch a counterattack.
However, Don Nelson can't bear it, his basketball philosophy is just the opposite, and he also believes that offense is the best defense, since the Lakers want to attack them, there is no reason why the Bulls should not fight, in a word: who instigates who is a dog!
The Bulls are indeed not cowardly, but flying against the wind is never a good idea, even if the Lakers players are not as strong as the Bulls, but the time and place are in their hands, the Bulls are now only relying on Jordan and Barkley to play, it is difficult to gain the upper hand in such a situation.
Zhang Wei also knows that now is the best chance to end the game, compared to the Bulls' leaky defense today, the Lakers can not only attack, but also defend, since the Bulls are the first iron, he doesn't mind fulfilling these guys.
In the middle of the third quarter, Zhang Wei began to take turns playing singles with Jordan, and he also scored a variety of difficult shots, including unbalanced backward shots and ultra-long-distance three-point shots thrown at the end of 24 seconds can be called into the basket, this quarter of the game has become an acrobatic performance of the two ball kings, even Don Nelson and Harris on the sidelines keep shaking their heads, Zhang Zhu and Jordan's play reminds them of the god in their respective impressions, and the Buddha blocks and kills the first person in the active service.
It's just that Jordan was able to compete with Zhang Zhu a year ago against the fairy ball and was evenly matched, but people have to obey the old, even if he scored 15 of the Bulls' 25 points in this quarter, Zhang Zhu still has a higher efficiency skill in 6 of 10 shots and 6 free throws, and Zhang Zhu surpasses the 35-year-old Jordan in both kinds of lethality today.
Hill, who has been blown up, was substituted in the last 3 minutes of the quarter, and Don Nelson has already seen that Hill's form is problematic, but the latter is unwilling to sit on the sidelines, and when he sees Zhang Yu doing more to Kukoc, he immediately asks Don Nelson to fight, regardless of the discomfort in his knees and ankles.
After the first three quarters, the Lakers continued to widen the score at 88:70, Jordan's 15 points in a single quarter versus Zhang Mao's 19 points in a single quarter.
Zhang Qi scored 39 points in only three quarters today, and the Lakers are only 1 point away from the fourth condition for winning, and the Lakers who have met the four winning conditions will basically not lose the game, and the fourth quarter of the game is at most a passing scene, and no matter how the Bulls counterattack, it is impossible to catch up with the 18-point gap in one quarter.
But in the finals, there will naturally be no early abandonment, coupled with the strong desire of the Big Three to fight, the Bulls still sent all their main forces to fight the Lakers to the end in the fourth quarter, and the final playing time of the Big Three exceeded 40 minutes.
This is the result that the Lakers want to see, and they are eager to consume more physical energy of the Bulls players, which is also their advantage, even if Mutombo and Mason, who are relatively older on the inside, are still young if they are compared to Jordan and Barkley of the Bulls. Their three backcourt players are even more age-hungry, and if they can drag the series to Game 7, it will undoubtedly close the gap between the two sides again, and the Lakers' chances of winning will become higher.
The final score of the game was 115-102, and the Lakers were chased by the Bulls to only 10 points in the final quarter, which made the Chicagoans fight until the last minute of the game.
The Lakers' purpose has succeeded, Hill can already feel obvious discomfort in his knee at the moment, and even Barkley is not just talking, the Lakers are not only killing opponents today, Mason is also using physical confrontation to consume Barkley. After this dead fat man finished the fifth battle, he really felt a lot of pain in his back and leg joints, and these joints that had been fighting for more than ten years were obviously lacking in durability after five finals.
Among the Bulls Big Three at the moment, Jordan is in the best physical condition, Jones and Starks can't play the role of consuming the old gang leader, of course, Jordan's own durability is also historic, but I don't know if this has anything to do with his retirement for more than a year.
Zhang Yu scored 39 points in the first three quarters today, and simply handed over the ball in the fourth quarter to continue to develop the confidence of his teammates, and he was almost not seen to attack with the ball in this quarter, resulting in only 42 points at the end of the game, but another 11 rebounds and 10 assists were recorded, which was also his second triple-double in the Finals, and the Lakers' last winning condition was also achieved.
'We renewed a second for ourselves, but it's not the time to be happy, we have always played well at home, this win was expected, the biggest difficulty was in the sixth, it was on the road, we have to bring the suspense back if we want to create a miracle.
Zhang Zhu's words are basically nonsense, but the on-site interviews after the game are usually this kind of nonsense, and the reversal of a sentence back and forth has the same meaning.
'We had too many singles but we didn't have a choice, they were really aggressive defensively, everybody was desperately filling in the position, they were more of a team when they were defending, and that's something we need to learn.'
Jordan's words after the game were almost nonsense, he felt in his heart that the real reason for the Bulls' loss, in addition to the difficulty of playing on the road, was that the Lakers took the lead at the beginning and mastered the rhythm of the game, and the referee's penalty scale was more favorable to the Lakers.
Don Nelson doesn't think the Bulls have exposed many problems, no matter how strong the team is, the strength of the team will be discounted on the road, especially in the away game like today, which is more biased in favor of the home team, unless they play well and someone can win it when someone is explosive, such a loss does not mean that they are not strong.
But the Bulls players can still see their regret from the disappointment after the game, they failed to finish the Lakers in Game 5 and let them escape from death, and then they have to put the victory and defeat on the last home court. But at this time, everyone in the Bulls players inevitably had a thought in their hearts - if they accidentally let the Lakers go to the next game, then all the pressure will have to be transferred to them, and the balance of victory and defeat will be completely in favor of the Lakers, because Game 7 will return to the Lakers' home court.