Chapter Eighty-Three: The Decisive Moment
Thibodeau called a timeout, and when the timeout was over, Hamilton came back on the pitch in place of Hinrich, and it was clear that he was looking to add security on the offensive end.
Hamilton, who rested for a few minutes, eased up a lot, and waited for the front court to serve, after Noah held the ball firmly in the high post, he began to run quickly without the ball, Rohrdeng and Boozer made off-ball covers one after another, but Lillard also fought at this time, but he was not experienced enough defensive after all, and was blocked by Boozer, Hamilton took the first step to receive the ball and opened his hand to hit a three-pointer.
Swish.
The three-point needle went into the net, 94:93, and the two sides only had one point left. The Bulls' offense took 11 seconds and 1:09 left before the end of the game.
Chen An did not ask for a timeout, but just gave a gesture of pressing down with both hands on the sidelines, he was telling his players to be calm, and he must also be calm at this time, because the Bulls were directly marking the whole court, Hamilton stuck to Lillard, Butler and Rohr Deng firmly clamped Harden, and the old AK saw that the situation was not right, and quickly ran back to answer, which prevented Chen An from calling a timeout.
The old AK used his height to catch the ball and stabilized, he is still very experienced, and at this time the role of the veteran is reflected, Harden ran directly to the frontcourt, took away Butler and Rohr Deng at one time, Lillard used his speed to temporarily get rid of Hamilton, took the ball from the old AK and pushed it across the half court.
It's just that what I didn't expect was that Lillard was just about to pass the half, Butler rushed over and caught him with Hamilton one after another, Lillard didn't dare to hesitate, seeing Anderson running across the half court and hurriedly passed the ball, but Boozer quickly posted it.
Harden tried to get rid of Roll Deng to come over to catch the ball, but Roll Deng wrapped Harden very tightly, Anderson was a little unable to deal with it for a while, so he had to return the ball to the old AK who had just run over the half, the old AK held the ball and stabilized it in the high post, his opposing defender was Noah, but Noah did not save.
Taking advantage of this time, Lillard accelerated over and prepared to receive the ball with his hand, but the old AK didn't give it, of course, this was deliberate, this was a tactic, Lillard bypassed the old AK, and faced Harden who ran over to give a no-ball cover, blocking Rohrdden.
After Harden caught the ball from the old AK, the old AK immediately rushed down to the inside, and Harden only had Butler in front of him during this time.
This tactic was successful, but seeing that there were only 8 seconds left in the 24-second offensive time, Harden did not hesitate, and directly held the ball to the inside, Butler immediately followed, but Harden suddenly made an emergency stop, Butler was ready to block on tiptoe, but the next moment Harden accelerated forward, and Butler wanted to kick his feet to catch up, but his feet were unbearable, and the whole person almost fell to the ground.
Perfect!
Chen An, who watched this scene, couldn't help but admire in his heart, this person was so beautiful that he directly shook Butler, if this goal is scored, it will definitely be one of the top ten goals.
Without Butler's follow-up, Harden successfully entered it, stopped two steps away from the paint area, and then made a gesture, Noah did not hesitate at all and directly pounced out to block, Harden seemed to have expected this, only to see his wrist pressed down, that is, a blow to the earth passed through Noah's side, Noah tried to block it with his foot but was a step too late.
In the next second, I saw that the old AK held the ball steadily, and flew directly into the air when no one was guarding him, and he slammed the dunk with both hands.
"Beautiful!"
Chen An, who was standing on the sidelines, waved his arm vigorously, and at such an anxious moment, Harden handled the ball so calmly, and used his personal ability to get rid of the defense and assist Lao AK to score two more points for the team, which undoubtedly tilted the balance of victory in favor of Magic.
And this offense, the Magic team used up 20 seconds, and the game time was only 49 seconds.
Thibodeau did not call a timeout, Chen An stood on the sidelines and shouted: "Defend, defend!" ”
The Magic players all quickly returned to defend their own half, and when the Bulls players came, Lillard immediately found Hamilton and clinged to it, Harden defended Butler, Zhu Fangyu still played against Rohr Deng, Anderson and Boozer were entangled, and the old AK went to the No. 5 position and Noah grabbed the position.
At this time, the Bulls are still three points behind, and it stands to reason that they should speed up the pace, but they maintained a slow pace throughout the game, and they couldn't get up fast for a while, and forcing the speed up can only increase the chance of mistakes, which is the price they have to pay.
The Bulls are still the same old routine, Rohr Deng first feints with the ball, and then Noah mentions the high post to respond, Hamilton runs without the ball, Boozer and Rohr Deng give off-ball cover again, but because Lillard follows too closely this time, Hamilton does not have enough room to shoot, but in the process of changing defenses, Rohr Deng changed to Harden, he is afraid that he feels that he has found a soft persimmon, opens his hand to pass the ball, and begins to play Harden with his back.
Seeing this, Chen An felt that the goddess of victory seemed to be beckoning to him, he knew Harden very well, Harden's weak link on the defensive end was lateral movement and a lot of running follow-up defense, but the most unafraid was the back single, his core strength was extremely strong, you must know that when the Rockets played against the Grizzlies in the last life, he repeatedly defended Gasol Jr., and the effect was very good, because Gasol Jr. could not move Harden.
Really!
Luo Er Deng originally thought that he had jumped to a soft persimmon, but after two hits, Harden did not move, this time, Luo Er Deng was not easy to deal with, and at the moment of his hesitation, Harden's left hand passed through like a ghost and slapped his ball away.
This is an extremely clean break, Harden's reaction is also extremely fast, after the break, he copied it, and then quickly pushed the counterattack, Lillard on the other side also followed up quickly, Harden accurately found the follow-up Lillard, passed the ball over, Lillard stopped directly after receiving the ball, and then stepped back to the three-point line, and then raised the ball to throw, but Butler flew over, Lillard put the ball down again, shook it, and dribbled sideways to take a dry jump shot.
The basketball flew in a perfect arc towards the basket and then hollowed into the net.
99:93!
The Magic took a six-point lead, and Lillard continued his hot hand to score 33 points in the game, setting a career-high high.
Steady!
With a six-point advantage and 23 seconds left in the game, Chen An knew that half of the victory was in his pocket, but he still didn't dare to be careless.
An enraged Thibodeau called a timeout and then roared at his players, which is understandable, and Roldeng nearly buried the game with a mistake, which was too much for Thibodeau to accept.
Taking advantage of the pause, Chen An hurriedly replaced, and at the last moment he had to make the best use of it, he directly replaced Harden, Zhu Fangyu and Anderson, because the next round was defense, he replaced Beverley, Crowder and Green, anyway, he still has three timeouts, as long as he is defended, he can ask for a timeout, and then replace Harden and others.