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The three-day All-Star Weekend came to an end, with Sun Xiaotian the biggest winner and the Bulls continuing their regular season journey.

The Bulls are two-thirds of the way through the season, and after the All-Star break, all teams will be fighting with their might. Those who have a playoff chance will rush to catch the last train of the playoffs, and those who have a good playoff situation will fight for home-court advantage in the playoffs, while teams that do not have a playoff chance will focus on training young people or start planning for the draft.

The Bulls are now 40-13 and second in the East, 5.5 games away from the Heat, and it will be a bit difficult to catch up with or surpass the Heat.

The Bulls are followed by the New York Knicks' 39-14 record and just one game away from the Bulls, while the Knicks are followed by the Pacers' 35-18.

From this ranking, it can be seen that the Bulls and Knicks are the most likely to compete for second place in the East, if the Knicks end up in second place and the Bulls are in third place, and wait until the second round of the playoffs, the Knicks and Bulls may meet.

The Bulls have a tough schedule of 29 games remaining, including 17 against the top eight teams in the East and West.

Coach Thibodeau insisted on winning what he deserved and fighting for equal strength, which he did before, and then it will only strengthen, not change.

Now this Bulls team, the direction of the team basically depends on Sun Xiaotian's performance. Although in Thibodeau's system, all players have to do their part like screws. But Sun Xiaotian is now slowly adapting to this system, and Thibodeau wants to build it like a free man in football, able to attack and defend, especially in attack, giving Sun Xiaotian greater freedom. In fact, to put it bluntly, it is the master of tactics. To put it bluntly, it is to fight more selfishly.

Since January, Thibodeau has been doing this deliberately.

From January to now, Sun Xiaotian has the highest ball possession rate in the team, reaching 30.1, what is this concept? Michael. Jordan's career ball possession rate of 32.7 is the all-time high, followed by Wade's 32.1 and Bryant's 31.8.

Of course, high ball possession doesn't reflect how well a team is doing, but it can be the reason why a team is running badly.

For example, Anthony during the Nuggets period, who also had a super high ball possession rate, especially before Billups didn't go, how bad the team was running, everyone can see.

Of course, good examples are the Bulls during the Jordan era, Kobe Bryant during the two-game championship period, and Wade, the first championship in the history of the Heat team who single-handedly helped the team more.

However, judging from the current results, Sun Xiaotian has done a good job.

……

The Bulls will have a particularly tough schedule ahead, with Game 1 against the Spurs in Game 1 after All-Star Weekend.

The Spurs have a 44-19 record and are in second place in the West, with Parker and Duncan sidelined due to injury.

originally thought that the Bulls, with a full lineup, could easily win the game, but the Spurs' excellent tactical literacy still fought with the Bulls in two overtimes, and finally with Sun Xiaotian's two free throws in the last 4 seconds, the Bulls won 107-105.

Sun Xiaotian shot 11 of 24 in the whole game, got 32 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds, and Popovich, who has always been reluctant to deal with the media after the game, couldn't help but praise Sun Xiaotian when facing the media. "There are a lot of players in this league who have had great careers, but they don't know how to choose shots, they don't know what's going on on the court, what they need, but Sun is the kind of player who was born with this special skill, like Kobe Bryant, who has a very keen sense of smell, who knows everything on the court and the key to win, and he has the ability to win the game in any way, whether it's defense, rebounding, a shot, or a playmaking."

Regarding Bobo's evaluation, Sun Xiaotian quipped, "I was surprised by his evaluation, but I heard that his evaluation will make people fall into the spell, I think my performance in the next game will be kicked by the coach!" ”

Maybe it was just a joke, but it didn't come true.

In the away game against the Bobcats, Sun Xiaotian was sleepwalking all over the court, only 1 of 6 in the first half, only scored 4 points, and the Bulls were also pressed and beaten by the Bobcats throughout the game.

Fortunately, in the last 1 minute of the game, Sun Xiaotian scored 5 points in a row to help the team win the game with 1 point. In the whole game, Sun Xiaotian was 4 of 14 and only scored 13 points. Fortunately, with Noah's 25 points, 22 rebounds and 5 assists and Ruhr Deng's 24 points, the Bulls were out of danger.

……

The next game, arguably the most important, is against New York.

If this game is won, one game can be used almost as two, and the trend of the playoffs will also change.

The Knicks have been extremely good this season, and although Smalls has barely played due to injury, the team has remained very competitive thanks to Anthony's excellent play and a group of desperate role players.

Anthony averaged 28.8 points per game this season, ranking first on the scoring list, in the first three games against the Bulls, although the Knicks fell behind the Bulls 1-2, but after three games, Anthony averaged 32 points and 11 rebounds per game, and had a 53% shooting rate, which can be described as inexplicable.

Although Sun Xiaotian's state in these three games is not as good as Anthony's, his average of 22.6 points and 7.3 assists per game is also remarkable.

If the Bulls win this game and the two teams meet in the playoffs, the Bulls may have home-court advantage and take the lead.

Before the game, Thibodeau had already given the order to die and win the game at all costs.

Although the previous team had won two games in a row and played three games in four days, it was a physical challenge for the players.

But fortunately, the Knicks are also back-to-back, and in the last game against the Kings, Shambaugh sprained his right foot and did not play in this game.

The absence of Shambaugh has had a big impact on the Knicks, who are extremely athletic players and defense is one of his strengths. Humppert can play offense with the ball or move off the ball, which is extremely important in the Knicks' system.

In the game between Shambaut and Sun Xiaotian, although Sun Xiaotian scored 23 points, Sun Xiaotian's shooting rate was only 36%.

So the Knicks need to solve the problem of who will defend Sun Xiaotian in this game, but the Bulls also need to deal with the problem of who will defend Anthony. Sun Xiaotian had learned the power of the offensive kaleidoscope before, but Sun Xiaotian knew that he would prepare seriously for this game no matter what, because as long as it helped the Bulls win the championship, he would go all out.

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