At halftime, the Bulls trailed the Knicks by 16 points, 53-69.

It's not as good as the locker room, where all the players are silent and there is no communication.

This game may be the biggest crisis the Bulls have faced since the playoffs, and this crisis has no warning, and Smith's play alone has exposed the weakness of the Bulls.

Since entering the playoffs, whether it is the first round or the semifinals, the Bulls' defense has actually been poor, but the win has covered up the problem.

In the first round against the Hawks, the Bulls made them shoot 46.4%, and in the first two games of the semifinals, the Bulls allowed the Knicks to shoot 45.3%, which is much higher than the Bulls' 42.1% shooting rate in the regular season.

The team has been winning games and has also changed the mentality of the players, as well as the attitude towards defense and the reduction of concentration.

Although Smith's single-quarter spree can't characterize the decline in the Bulls' defensive quality, early detection of the signs will be beneficial to the Bulls and their goal of winning the championship this season.

'It was the worst half I've ever seen and we gave them almost 70 points. Check out our second session! They scored 46 points in the first quarter, where is our defense? Are we going to beat Miami, San Antonio, etc......" Thibodeau was angry.

Thibodeau's sense of smell is very sensitive, after the last loss to the Knicks, Thibodeau found the problem of the team's defensive execution at critical moments, and did not mention that he was afraid that the players would have any ideas, after all, the team also fought to the end.

The time is right. He needed to be angry.

Thibodeau never cared about the team's attack. He always cares about defense. It's something that's rooted in my career, because defense leads to wins.

Since the time of Van Gundy's Knicks, Thibodeau has become a defensive master in the assistant coach's seat, and Thibodeau's defensive system has also helped Van Gundy's team build an iron wall.

When it comes to the Rockets under Thibodeau and Van Gundy, they rely on a single defense and a defensive system with multiple people in the dead corner, Maddy on the scoring guard, Battier and Hayes on the front line are the team's strong points on the defensive end, and they have a good height and weight. The trio also did an excellent job of dropping back and switching positions. And Yao Ming is the defensive core of the interior, Thibodeau deliberately spent two summers with Yao Ming back to China to help Yao Ming improve his defensive skills, and the results were remarkable, making the Rockets have an absolute advantage in the center position, and the interior defense has reached the strongest height in the league.

When it came to the Celtics, the championship-winning Green Shirts hit it off with Thibodeau, a team that needed Thibodeau's defensive system to protect them. That year, the Celtics limited their opponents to shooting 41.9 percent, the league's best, while conceding just 90.3 points per game. Become the best defensive division in the league.

When it comes to offensive scoring, the Celtics, who have a big three, don't have to worry at all. How to defend well is the key to this team. Thibodeau put Garnett in the blue-collar and defensive leadership of the team, and KG was well suited to the role of the axis of the tandem interior and exterior defensive system, winning Defensive Player of the Year that year. Inside, the Green Shirts gave Perkins and Davis a lot of opportunities, and their size solved Garnett's lack of confrontation on the inside; On the outside, Pierce has deep skills, and his body and height are quite good among small forwards, while Rondo uses more speed and steals to threaten opponents, coupled with the tandem of running master Ray Allen, under Thibodeau's tutelage, the Celtics' defensive system is impeccable. Over the next two seasons, the Celtics' defensive strength declined as the team aged, but it was still at the top of the league.

Before Thibodeau joined the Bulls, they ranked 17th in the league in points conceded per game, and their defensive strength was in the middle and lower tiers. In fact, two years ago, the Bulls and Celtics played seven games, which shows the hard work of the young players on this team. What they lack is a suitable coach to build the right system for them. Thibodeau stepped in to glue the Bulls' defense, which is second only to the Celtics in defensive points conceded this season and ranks first in the league in limiting opponents' shooting percentage.

The Bulls don't have the backbone of interior defense like the Rockets and Celtics, but the team's defense is about balance. Noah, Deng and Sun Xiaotian provided defensive protection for the team on the inside and on the flank, respectively, and the substitutes Butler and Gibson were also players who focused on defense. Although Boozer still has holes in defensive pick-and-roll, he has also improved greatly after several seasons of running-in. In this way, the Bulls have developed a balanced system that promotes offense backed by defense.

In the NBA, "the defender wins the world" has always been the iron rule of Jinke, and the Bulls can succeed this season, and their defense is the strongest and powerful foundation. It is undeniable that Thibodeau's ability to achieve so much with the Bulls is inseparable from the defensive skills he has accumulated over the past 30 years, whether it is in the Rockets, in the Celtics, or now in the Bulls, this ability to turn stones into gold on the defensive end has become Thibodeau's golden signature.

Therefore, this time the locker room was angry, and Thibodeau just wanted to knock the players and what the Bulls relied on.

"Coach, don't worry, we're going to pull it back in the second half, it's our home stadium, not Madison Garden, and we won't allow them to go wild on our turf." Sun Xiaotian was the first to speak.

"That's right!" All the teammates echoed it.

"Every floor of the United Center is oozing with the sweat of Chicagoans, these sweats in exchange for honor, in exchange for glorious history, these sweats in exchange for the championship flag flying over the arena, in the second half, I need you to do nothing, we can't let go of any floorball...... "Thibodeau encouraged everyone.

For Sun Xiaotian, although this is his debut season, he is also a person who has experienced strong winds and waves, although the outcome of a game is not so important, but this is a playoff after all, and they cannot be sloppy. Although New York has a better regular season record than the Bulls, everyone knows that the Bulls have a better chance of winning.

……

At the beginning of the second half, the Bulls showed a significantly different momentum than the first half, more decisive on the offensive end and more desperate on the defensive end, in the words of Sun Xiaotian, "We need to play a typical Bull-style game." (To be continued.) )