In the Western Conference Finals, the Rockets defeated the Spurs 4-1.

It seems simple, but in fact, the fierce battle between the two teams is extremely tragic, and the rocket is gritting his teeth to the end, if there is a slight negligence, then the victory or defeat is another matter.

However, the Rockets are better, and in the Eastern Conference finals, the Bulls' biggest opponent appeared.

The Indiana Pacers, who reached the Eastern Conference Finals two years in a row in the '94 and '95 seasons, failed to do well in the '96 and '97 seasons. Brown resigned, and Miller even moved the idea of retiring, but another Larry, Larry. The arrival of Bird has brought the team back to competitiveness. They've won 58 in one go, and look at their lineup: 7-foot-5 Giants center Schmidts, 6-foot-10 blue-collar power forward Dyer. Davis; Mullin, a member of the 6-foot-6 Dream Team; The 6-foot-7 killer Miller and the alien Kassel who got it from the rocket. Another Davis on the bench - Antonio, 6-foot-11. Davis, Gallen, who is good at projection. Rose, McGee and Best are waiting to play, a lineup that is enough to make a place in the playoffs in terms of height and bench depth, first drawing the Cavaliers in four games, and then eliminating the Knicks, the old rival of '94 and '95, 4-1, and finally standing in the division finals after a two-year absence.

After the start of the first round of the Eastern Conference finals, Pippen lost his form under the close defense of the opponent, shooting 1 of 9 in the game, but fortunately, Pippen is still remarkable in defense, and Kukoc, who does not often start, is not in very good shape, and the whole game is only 2 of 11 shots, so that the Bulls can not open the score gap with the opponent on their home court, and the Pacers' tenacious defense has achieved results, but Jordan's 31 points in the whole court still let the Pacers lose the game.

85:79 The Bulls were just six points ahead of the first game.

Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals continued on the Bulls' home court, with Pippen and Kukoc recovering to score 21 and 16 points, respectively, and Jordan scored 41 points. But Rodman grabbed only six rebounds, and the Bulls lost to the Pacers by eight rebounds. Strangely, the Bulls were unable to stabilize the situation in advance despite the absolute advantage of steals (15 to 2) and turnovers (6 to 19), and still won by six points 104 to 98.

It was incredible, but in the end, it still won.

The Bulls took a 2-0 lead.

However, the third game was moved to the Pacers' home court, and after Bird's continuous encouragement and adjustment, the Pacers defeated the Bulls on their home court, and the Pacers, who scored double-doubles with all six players, pulled back a game 107-105, and Miller scored 28 points alone; Antonio? Davis grabbed 12 rebounds, and Miller's late-minute scoring rendered Jordan's 30 points, Pippen's 23 and Rodman's 12 rebounds useless.

The big score became 2:1 The fourth game of the Eastern Conference became the most classic game of the series, and the team's five starters all scored double-doubles, Jordan scored 28 points, Pippen had 10 assists, Rodman had 16 rebounds, and Kukoc had 18 points. The team's shooting percentage is close to 6 out of 50. But the Pacers clung to it like a ghost, leading the way with center Smitz's 26 points, and all nine players on the court, excluding Mullin, scored more than eight points. And in the final moments of the game, the Bulls led 94-93, and the Pacers orchestrated a mythical offense. Miller suddenly shot out from under the basket, squeezed through multiple defenders all the way, knocked Jordan away from the front three-point line, and after receiving the throw-in, he turned around and shot directly outside the 45-degree three-point line on the right side, 96-94! Crazy Miller danced the top dance. The Bulls' first two victories came to naught, bringing the two sides back to the starting line from a new one, and the score between the two sides became 2:2.

An angry Jordan began to explode in Game 5 with his own 29 points at the top, Pippen with 20 and Kukoc with 19. The team lowered the Pacers' shooting percentage to 3-43 and doubled the number of assists. Even if the Indiana made 45 free throws at all, they couldn't pose a real threat to the Bulls, 106-87, and it looked like the Bulls could end the series with a score of 4-2 in Game 6.

But the Pacers showed the spirit of stalking with New York in Game 6, and in Game 6 in Indiana, although the leading shooter Miller had a poor performance of only 8 points on 13 shots, center Schmitz played a demon-level stat - 25 points on 11-of-12 shooting, coolie power forward Dyer? Davis scored 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Plus 4 benches have a 25-point contribution. The Bulls except Jordan 35 points, Pippen 14 points, Langley 13 points and Kukoc's 10 points, everyone else only scored 12 points, the lack of bench players made the team unable to establish a win in advance, and in the face of the Pacers, who were no less capable of finishing than themselves, the Bulls actually lost the sixth game by 3 points in the final moments. On the road to the championship since 91, the Bulls have only played a life-and-death battle with New York and the Rockets in the 92 season and last season, and with the current competitive state and physical strength are not as good as the previous two years, the seventh game faces the morale-boosting Pacers, and the Bulls' prospects are a little bleak. What's more, apart from Jordan and Pippen, the rest of the team lacks the first three consecutive championships, Cartwright, Grant, Armstrong and Paxson, who faced the Pistons in their heyday and New York. Most of the members of the opposite Pacers have experienced 7 tough games against New York in the 94 and 95 seasons and 7 big battles against the Magic. The lack of ability to fight viciously and in adversity may become the fatal weakness of the bull in the seventh war.

While watching the six fierce battles between the two sides, the Rockets, who were far away in Houston to recuperate, also paid close attention to the situation in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Even Olajuwon personally called Miller and said, "Reggie, if you kid can kick Michael out, I'll ask you to go to the Gold Club in Atlanta." ”

After listening to this, Miller said with a wry smile: "Hakim, you just get an angel, I'm not interested now, I'm preparing for the last game with the bulls." ”

Olajuwon smiled and said: "Man, I'm very optimistic about you, the current Bulls are not their peak moment, if you know that their final finishing ability is not much stronger than yours." ”

Reggie? Miller was on the other end of the phone and said, "I'll do my best, man, and if we don't bring them down, it's yours, and you have to be careful." ”

Olajuwon laughed and said, "No matter who it is, this year's championship is destined to be a rocket." ”

Miller on the other end of the phone pursed his lips and said, "Be careful of bragging, okay, if you really put Michael out of the game, you kid will definitely fulfill your promise." ”

Olajuwon laughed and said, "It's totally okay, you can play as much as you want." ”

The two of them hung up the phone after a few words, Olajuwon sat on the special sofa at home, looked up at the ceiling and muttered: "It's really a contradiction, on the one hand, the desire to fight with Michael, and on the other hand, the desire to win the team, hehe, it's really not easy to do." ”

While Olajuwon was scratching his head, Tiger was also studying his opponent with Old Tang and Dawson.

Lao Tang looked at the technical statistics of both sides in the first 6 games and said: "The bastard of 'Big Bird' is doing a good job, it's not easy to push the bull to this point." ”

Tiger also nodded and said, "yes, the Pacers did a really good job, but I'll vote for the Bulls in the end." ”

Dawson said on the side: "Anything can happen in the last game, boss, don't be too confident." ”

Tiger smiled and didn't speak, but said secretly in his heart: Confidence, Lao Tzu has crossed over, and this thing can still be wrong.

It was Lao Tang who took over the topic on the side and said, "Dawson, I'm also optimistic about the bulls, do you know why?" ”

Dawson shook his head and said, "Rudy, tell me what you think." ”

Lao Tang leaned back on the sofa and said, "I don't have any other ideas, I just want to avenge last year's revenge." After speaking, the essence in his eyes was full of memories of last year's finals.

Tiger and Dawson glanced at each other, dumbfounded for a while, I didn't expect this old boy to really hold such a grudge.

The seventh game began, and sure enough, in the seventh game, the Bulls' crosshairs were quite low, relying on all the team members to fight hard to grab rebounds to get more shooting opportunities than the other party, the Bulls and the Pacers all the way around, in the battle of life and death, the Bulls paid attention to the marking of the two tall players on the Pacers' inside, and the last excellent Smith was 3 of 7 in this game, Dell? Davis only had six shots. But relying on Miller's four three-pointers and 21 points from the bench, the Pacers briefly outscored the score in the fourth quarter. On the Bulls' side, Jordan still attacked with all his might, and his large number of shots got the Bulls desperately needed points and also caused damage to the Pacers' interior, in order to stop Jordan's layup, Antonio? Davis graduated with six fouls in 22 minutes, while Schmitz was restrained after five fouls. Pippen's 12 rebounds and Kukoc's 21 points gave the team rebounding and scoring, respectively. In this game, the Bulls grabbed 50 rebounds and 22 offensive rebounds. In the final stages of the game, the Bulls were still unable to stretch the score to more than one point, and at the critical moment of 85-83, a difficult layup by Pippen finally widened the gap to four points, and then the Pacers missed the most important offensive opportunity, and Hubble's free throw locked the score at 88-83. After 48 minutes, the exhausted Bulls were finally able to face their home fans to celebrate their third consecutive year in the Finals.

Their opponent is the Houston Rockets, the opponent of last year's Finals.

All the players and fans are what all the people who like the NBA want to see, a battle between the two strongest teams.

Here's a text about coaching. As we all know, the eleven-crowned Zen master is the coach with the most titles in history. But I think he's just a good coach, a good coach who can make things happen to people. He has Jordan and Pippen in the Bulls' six crowns, the Lakers' first three crowns he has O'Neal and Kobe, and the fourth crown he has Kobe, Gasol and Odom. These are the league's biggest superstars. Since the nineties, two Larries have been the truly great coaches. Larry? Brown and Larry? Bird. The former made the mediocre Pacers a regular in the Eastern Conference Finals and then ran to the more mediocre 76ers, and he took the team to the Finals in front of the most difficult Iverson, and then he came to the Pistons, who only entered the Eastern Conference Semifinals the year before and considered a breakthrough, won the championship that year, and the next year they only lost to the Spurs in Game 7 of the Finals. The latter took over the disheartened Pacers and immediately turned the underdogs who had no playoff tickets the previous year into a superpowerhouse team that fought the Bulls in seven games, and the next year they lost to Larry in the division finals? Johnson scored four points, but in the third year they managed to get revenge after reaching the finals stage. Yes, it's a science that can make a superstar play its due value, but it's a little bit of gold to turn a bunch of mediocre people into lions on the battlefield. Who does Brown have in his hands? Miller is a character, but he can only run, catch the ball, and shoot. Iverson is a genius, but his role for the team is often negative, if you don't put him to good use. Billups? His trait is nothing but stability; Hamilton? His runs, catches, and shots are a street worse than Miller's; Two Wallaces? One is a ticking time bomb, and the other is a strong version of Rodman (who doesn't shoot as well as a genuine big bug). Relying on these people, Brown has taken four teams to at least the division finals, which is the first time in NBA history. Bird, on the other hand, left in style the season after the Finals, just as he walked away with a fatal strike when he was younger.

Well, without further ado, now the Rockets are ready for the upcoming Finals.

The pinnacle showdown is about to begin.

(To be continued)