Throughout the first half, Sun Xiaotian felt extremely bad.

At halftime, Sun Xiaotian was 1 of 10 and scored only 4 points.

And the team also had a poor performance, with the Bulls trailing the Hawks by 17 points at halftime, 35-52.

The Hawks had three players in double figures in the first half, with Horford scoring 11 points, Williams scoring 10 points and Korver scoring 10 points.

The Eagles played as a whole and everyone had their part to play. Stevenson's half-time defense against Sun Xiaotian was extremely good, he shouted in the locker room, Sun Xiaotian was swallowed alive by himself! And tell his teammates that he will still do it in the second half, and he doesn't have to worry about this rookie king anymore.

The Bulls struggled a bit in the half, and apart from Boozer's 12 points and Luldden's 11 points, no one else contributed much. The team's poor performance is directly related to Sun Xiaotian's poor performance.

Back in the locker room, Sun Xiaotian was extremely depressed and didn't say a word.

One by one, his teammates comforted Sun Xiaotian, telling him that this was normal and hoping that he would not be discouraged.

"I think you're too restrained! I want you to relax your nerves, make bold shots, make decisive shots, and don't be afraid of not being able to throw. Also, the opponent's defensive counterattack made me suffer a lot, in the second half, we don't have to worry too much about offensive rebounding, we must quickly retreat if we can't shoot, and the formation can't ......be chaotic," Thibodeau finished speaking, patting Sun Xiaotian on the shoulder.

"Kobe Bryant said he would rather shoot 0-of-30 than 0-of-9. 0-of-9 means you've been beaten by yourself, you've lost all confidence and you can't continue playing. The only explanation is that you have lost faith in yourself. ”

Thibodeau went on to say, "You're our scorer, you're our trump card, and if you're afraid to hit the iron, you've already lost." ”

Thibodeau turned to everyone.

"In the second half, I want to see you differently and be bold and give it a go, just like we always did in the regular season."

……

As soon as the second half came up, the Bulls strictly implemented Thibodeau's strategy, speeding up the change of defense and quickly retreating. At the same time, he made a decisive shot in the attack and slowly approached the score.

45 to 56!!

But Sun Xiaotian's shooting feeling is still not recovered, if it weren't for Noah and Hinrich teaming up to chase points, I'm afraid the score would have a tendency to widen.

But Thibodeau still believed in him, and whenever Sun Xiaotian passed by him, he would encourage him.

After missing four more shots in a row, Thibodeau walked to the bench and called Lee, who took off his jacket and prepared to play.

It seems that I want to replace myself on the field, is the coach losing patience with me? After all, winning in the playoffs is all that matters.

"SUN, be focused." That's when Noah yelled at himself.

After receiving the ball, Sun Xiaotian took advantage of Noah's cover, and after a simple block, he went to the basket, and Stevenson strode after him.

Sun Xiaotian suddenly made a sharp stop and leaned back, and the shot point was very high, and Stevenson was a little out of reach.

The ball hits the back edge of the basket.

"FUCK, again?" Sun Xiaotian scolded secretly.

The ball didn't pop up this time, and after a few bounces on the basket, it fell into the net.

This throw made the scene resound with exclamations, as if he had hit the killer ball.

Sun Xiaotian saw it and breathed a sigh of relief.

Coming back, the Bulls successfully defended the Hawks and launched a fast attack, Hinrich advanced on the right side, Sun Xiaotian followed up in the middle, seeing that Stevenson and Sun Xiaotian were a little far away, Hinrich hit Sun Xiaotian at the top of the arc, Sun Xiaotian didn't think about it, he pulled it up and threw it, Stevenson hurriedly stepped forward to interfere, and the ball still went into the net.

The Eagles hurriedly called a timeout, perhaps they had foreshadowed something.

"I feel like my touch is back!"

This is what Sun Xiaotian said to Thibodeau after the end.

After returning to the court, the Bulls still fed Sun Xiaotian enough balls.

Through double cover, Sun Xiaotian received the ball and shot......

Break through defenders and make difficult layups......

Flip back jumper......

As if he had regained his magic, Sun Xiaotian hit consecutive shots, and with 2 minutes left in the third quarter, he chased the score to 62-65, only trailing by 3 points.

After hitting 0 of 4 shots at the beginning of the third quarter, Sun Xiaotian was 5 of 5 and scored 11 points in a row.

In basketball, there is a "hot hand effect", and although it doesn't make sense from a scientific point of view, in the NBA players, coaches, and spectators all believe that the hot hand effect is real.

Some players think that when they score a few goals in a row, they have a good chance of making the next shot, so they will have a good chance of choosing to shoot next time. Conversely, if he misses and misses the goal, the probability of hitting the next shot will also be affected and reduced. It is believed that there is such a so-called "feel" when shooting. However, statistical studies have shown that the probability of each shot is not affected by whether the last shot was hit or not. There is no correlation between the outcome of the last shot and the probability of the next hit.

Sun Xiaotian didn't believe in this effect, but muscle memory and mental effects would drive him to keep shooting.

Of course, Sun Xiaotian's hand return also benefited from the trust of his teammates, when a person gives the ball to the person in the empty position, and the person in the empty position throws the ball off again and again, then his chances of getting the ball will decrease next time.

……

Taking advantage of the hot feeling in the second half of the third quarter, Thibodeau instructed his disciples to hand over all the balls to Sun Xiaotian for processing, and sent three outside players to help Sun Xiaotian open up the offensive space.

Sun Xiaotian is full of confidence, he doesn't need to cover at all, he relies on his own footsteps, directly passes the defender, and he shoots directly, because he believes that he is the most sure to shoot at present.

In the last 30 seconds, Sun Xiaotian hit a three-point shot in the bottom corner of the right side to narrow the score to 1 point!

68 to 69!!

At this time, the fans were so excited that the noise that erupted from the scene could literally lift the roof.

Everyone was also amazed by Sun Xiaotian's hot hand.

There was also one attack on each side.

The Hawks' last attack was given to Williams, Williams had a bad overall view, and his shooting was unstable in the face of Sun Xiaotian, who was a lot taller than him, Williams did not make rash shots, but used his strengths, speed and good to make fouls.

His first move was quick, perhaps because he was too excited, Sun Xiaotian reached out and was caught by Williams while defending, causing Sun Xiaotian to foul at the end of the offensive time.

Sun Xiaotian was very annoyed, and kept patting his head with both hands to make himself sober.

Luis made one of two free throws.

Sun Xiaotian grabbed the rebound with less than 5 seconds left.

Traveling with the ball is like overtaking, just one step past the halfway line on the left side, and shoot directly!

At this point, the red light is on.

The ball was reluctant, but still hit the board into the net.

71 to 70!!

The Bulls overtook the score!

It was the first time the game had taken the lead.

The audience roared with joy.