Despite trailing by 16 points at halftime, the Bulls had 24 minutes left to recover.

As soon as the third quarter came up, on the offensive end, it was Ruer Deng who took the lead in the shot, and scored 7 points in a row at the beginning. On the defensive end, the Bulls did a good job of containing the Knicks' offense through ferocious pressing, decisive area packing, and rapid rotation.

The Knicks' offense suffered repeated setbacks, the scores of the two sides gradually narrowed, and the momentum of the two sides gradually reversed.

On the offensive end, in addition to Lu Erdeng's play, Sun Xiaotian gradually recovered his touch after shooting 3 of 8 in the first half, hitting two three-pointers in a row, further damaging the morale of the Knicks.

The Knicks are only supported by Anthony's singles, after all, he has a salary of more than 20 million dollars, and he has to stand up at a critical moment, which is also his unshirkable responsibility as the boss of the house, so he will never give up, no matter how unfavorable the situation is for him.

Anthony ignored the Bulls' defense, through his super offense, shot into the basket many times, Sun Xiaotian admired Anthony's play in his heart, this guy really deserves to be the leader of the 03 generation, this man who once fought with James and Kobe Bryant, with this heart, not many people can achieve it.

Although Anthony still performed well, the Knicks' offense as a whole was very different from the first half, and the others made mistakes on the offensive end and suffered frequent setbacks.

The Knicks' offense was frustrated in large part by a change in the Bulls' defensive strategy in the second half. In the first half, the Bulls were a little hesitant to cut off Anthony or Smith from the interior. Always afraid to be decisive, especially with Chandler.

Although Chandler had limited offensive means. Defensively, most teams will also play one defense and one defense. But today, especially in the first half. Chandler simply incarnated the inside overlord, and played internal and external cooperation with Anthony many times in the first half, and staged several empty connections one after another, and the connection between Anthony + Xiaosi that the Knicks management wanted to see was not realized, but the cooperation of Anthony + Chandler played a similar effect. In the first half, he grabbed 15 points and 9 rebounds, as if he had regained his form in the Hornets and Mavericks.

In the first half, when Anthony burst into the box, the inside player went back to cover Anthony. A lot of times Chandler is missed. Entering the third quarter, Thibodeau asked his players to wrap up Anthony early, and not only that, but the players who defended Chandler had to stay in front of him at all times and try to squeeze him out of the basket.

As a result, the internal and external cooperation of the team in the first half was blocked, and the situation on the field gradually reversed.

Woodson frowned when he saw the Knicks' performance on the court in the third quarter, and understood that Thibodeau's move was starting to work, and Woodson hurriedly sent Smith in the hope that he could pull the Bulls' defensive formation.

Thibodeau also knew that his strategy had obvious drawbacks. That is, "wound the enemy by a thousand, and damage yourself by 800". It was a physical test for the players, but there was also a foul crisis, with Boozer, Noah and Gibson all having four fouls before they knew it.

The ultimate goal of defense is to find an effective way to attack, although Lu Erdeng and Sun Xiaotian have awakened from the outside, but if Anthony is allowed to kill like this, it will be very difficult for the score to overtake.

However, at this time, the momentum of the Bulls on the court has risen, and if they want to increase their strength, they can only use violence to counter violence. In terms of scoring ability, the Bulls' lineup of one big and four small is the most explosive, but the "one big" point has been abolished.

Thibodeau hurriedly called a timeout and said to his disciple: "Some people say that I am more stubborn and will not change, especially in the playoffs, and I want to change it today." By the way, Ruhl and Sun, I'm afraid you two won't be able to rest for a long time......"

Thibodeau unexpectedly brought on Lee, Butler and Radmanovic, and the lineup on the field at this time was Sun Xiaotian, Lee, Butler, Ruhr Deng and Radmanovic, which was actually a five-small lineup, which was a lineup that Thibodeau had not used in the whole season.

The reason why Thibodeau dared to use such a lineup was that there were too many internal fouls on the one hand, and the delay in opening the situation in the offense was also a reason, but with the existence of Sun Xiaotian, Thibodeau increased his confidence in using this lineup and boldly used this lineup.

This is why Thibodeau has said more than once that "before I know it, this rookie turned out to be the most reliable player on the Bulls"

The most worrying thing about this lineup is the interior defense problem and rebounding, when there was an interior before, the Bulls also let Chandler have to eat and drink, isn't such a five-small lineup looking for a sadistic rhythm?

But surprisingly, the Bulls' five-small lineup was full of firepower on the offensive end, and Radmanovic, who usually rarely performs offensively, actually hit one after another.

On the defensive end, everyone made quick rotations and clamped ball carriers, which also caused the Knicks to make mistakes one after another.

At this time, Sun Xiaotian, as the ball handler on the court, played a vital role during this time. On the defensive end, whether it's defending the opposing point guard or switching to someone else, it's done a great job. On the team's defensive counter-attack, he can also watch the six-way and assist his teammates to score.

During this time, the Bulls unexpectedly took the initiative on the court, and in less than three minutes, they played a 13-3 attack wave and successfully narrowed the score to 2 points.

Woodson saw that the momentum was not right and hurriedly called a timeout.

When the Knicks players came off the court, they were very depressed, and they understood that their poor performance made head coach Woodson call a timeout, and it was difficult to speak, but Woodson also knew that he didn't blame his disciples, but he was a little slow to react.

'They were something I didn't expect and obviously now he wants to increase the pace and it makes us a little bit slow, so let's play small!'

Woodson also put on a small lineup, trying to get a quick fix.

After returning from the pause, the two sides were almost similar in lineup and characteristics, and they came to the stalemate stage again.

The conversion speed of both sides is very fast.

Anthony just made a jump shot here, the Bulls quickly sent the baseline ball, Sun Xiaotian passed quickly, and Lu Erdeng, who had scored 12 points in this quarter, was still full of vitality, and when he received Sun Xiaotian's pass, he had already arrived in the front court, facing two defenders, he was extremely resolute and went directly to the penalty area.

After Lu Erdeng entered, his center of gravity was unstable, he stumbled a little, and then when he was about to fall, he didn't care about anything else, and threw the ball directly, and he didn't know whether it was in or not, so Lu Erdeng used his strength to fall directly on the floor and out of the bottom line, and hit the camera brother.

“bingo！！”

The ball hits the board into the frame!

However, Lu Erdeng did not get up for a long time, and kept covering his right foot!

"He's broken!" (To be continued.) )