Due to age and physical strength, Jordan changed his approach to power, and rarely bravely broke into the interior to make layups, dunks and fouls as he did when he was younger, but chose to make pull-up jump shots on the outside. But Jordan has not changed in the slightest in terms of defense, and it can even be said that he is stronger. For Jordan, it can be said that he has won almost all the honors he can get in the NBA (of course, it is impossible to think about those single-game rebounds, single-game points, and season averages in ancient times), even so, Jordan is still strict with himself on the court, treating himself as a newcomer, and not sparing his physical efforts to defend. Especially in the Finals, in the Finals of '98, the Bulls needed more and better defense. Because the Bulls have a relatively low shooting percentage on the court, they need better defense to suppress the opposing offense (the Bulls shot only 37% overall in Game 4 and Game 5 of the Finals at 38.7%).

In the first game between the Bulls and the Jazz, the Bulls had to play on the road because they lost their home-court advantage in the Finals by losing to the Jazz twice in the regular season. The scores of the two teams have been quite tight, and both teams have paid great attention to defense, but obviously, the Jazz team has more confidence because of the two wins over the Bulls in the regular season and the home game, and at the last moment, Jordan could not take the Bulls out of the circle of defeat, and the Bulls lost by a small score. In this game, the Bulls did their best to bring the game into overtime, but due to poor performance off the bench, the Bulls still lost 85-88, even though Jordan scored 33 points and Pippen had 21 points.

In the Bulls' playoffs in recent years, the Bulls have never tried to lose in the first game, and the rest of the Bulls and Jordan are aware of the seriousness of the situation. They know they're going to have to win Game 2 anyway, because as long as they can win one of the Jazz's first two home games, they have a good chance of winning, otherwise, they have a good chance of losing.

This proved true in the later matches, and now that the first game has been lost, there is only one chance to win back in the second game. The second game is still a copy of the first game, the scores of the two teams are alternately rising, the battle to the last moment, the hero is always Jordan, in the last moment Jordan's 3-pointer decided the outcome of the game, and at the last moment, Pippen missed the 3-pointer, as a result, Jordan grabbed the offensive rebound, and this offensive rebound is very important, so Jordan hit again, the turning point of the two teams in the whole court was at this moment, and finally the Bulls defeated the Jazz 93-88, it should be said that the Bulls completed the task, That is, one win at the Jazz's home court in the first two games.

In the second game, Jordan scored a high score of 37 points. The third game that followed, returned to the home court of the Bulls, I thought that this game would still be a tense game, but I don't want the Jazz team to still seem to be unable to adapt to the Bulls' home frenzy, there have been too many excellent teams here to lose back, as a result, all the Jazz players in this game seem to be sleepwalking, Malone, Stockton and others are like no scope how to shoot and how to miss. In the whole game, the Jazz scored only 54 points, setting a record for the lowest score in the Finals, while the Bulls were in full bloom, Jordan had 24 points and Kukoc had 16 points. In Game 3, the Bulls were fully out of their game, while the Jazz looked less confident.

The fourth game that followed, although it was not like the third, but it was clear that the Bulls still continued the momentum of the third game, and the Bulls had three bull horns in full swing, Jordan scored 34 points, Pippen scored 28 points, plus Rodman's 14 rebounds. In those days, if the three horns of the Bulls were at the same time, which team could stop them?

As a result, the Bulls beat the Jazz 86-82 in Game 4. In this way, in the first four games, the Bulls led 3-1, and it can be said that the sixth championship is coming.

At this time, everyone probably thought that the Bulls would take advantage of the victory in Game 5, which is also the last home court of the Bulls, to win 4-1 against the Jazz and win the sixth championship on their home soil.

But the Jazz also seem to be aware of the seriousness of the problem, and Malone and Stockton also seem to know that in a 3-1 situation, it will be a bit difficult for them to finally overtake. But at this point, they don't have much pressure. After all, if you lose one, you will go home, and if you win, there is still hope. Just call with your surname.

So without any pressure, they played quite well. Both Stockton and Malone shot well, and the Bulls also seem to want to end the Finals battle at home. But maybe God didn't want Jordan to end his NBA career like this, or maybe God didn't want Joe's last game to be so unclassic, and in the final moments, the Jazz stubbornly defeated the Bulls, who had almost won, 83-81, and turned the overall score into 3-2.

Next up is Game 6 of the Finals, which is also one of Jordan's most classic battles.

Since June 14, 1998, all the rankings you can see about the NBA history classics have listed this moment, this goal, this game, at the top of the list, because: First, is he Michael? Jordan, the most classic moment deserves to belong to the greatest; Second, when his basketball career was perfect, this moment, this goal, this game, pushed it to the extreme. The game is back in the Utah Plateau. This time last year, Jordan contracted food poisoning. And this year there is nothing going on.

There is no doubt that Game 6 of the 1998 Finals was the greatest game of Jordan's basketball career. Although Jordan was 35 years old at the time, and his physical strength and explosiveness were no longer at their peak, the fierceness of the battle, the beauty of the ending, and the historical significance of the battle ensured that it deserved its status. For them, the sixth game is equivalent to the seventh, and they can only win, not lose. Although the Bulls still maintained a 3-2 overall advantage before this game, the final two games will be played on the turf of the opponent Utah Jazz, and if they can't win Game 6, Game 7 will be more difficult.

But at this time, the disaster happened: shortly after the start of this must-win game, Jordan's most important helper Pippen suffered a back injury, not only played only 26 minutes, but also had difficulty bending down to pick up the ball.

But that didn't end the way, as Stockton hit a crucial three-pointer for the Jazz with 41.9 seconds left to nearly kill the Bulls, who led 86-83 and Game 7 seemed inevitable.

But Jordan didn't think so, and after the timeout, he scored two points on a layup in just five seconds to close the gap to within one ball.

Then came the best defense, and rightfully so, Jordan.

It was about 21 seconds before the end when Jordan went from the opposing core player Karl? Malone cut the ball in his hand and bought valuable time to turn things around - without that break, the Jazz could have extended their advantage to three or four points; Even if the Jazz don't attack, the Bulls may only have three to five seconds to execute the final shot. Therefore, in terms of the meaning of the strategic surname, the value of Jordan's steal is by no means under the "last shot".

Malone received a pass from Stockton in the low post and was about to single Rodman, but unexpectedly, Jordan was not far behind him and did not run away. said that it was too late, it was too fast, and I saw Jordan quietly sneak up to Malone and "snap" the racket down. Malone fell to the ground, watched Jordan take the ball in his hand, snatch the most important "letter" that should have been sent from the "postman", and rushed to the front. The ball crossed the halfway line with more than 15 seconds to go. Jordan slapped the ball from beyond the three-point line and watched the clock tick by. The Jazz stuck to the defensive strategy developed by head coach Sloan, sending only Brian? Russell stepped forward to keep an eye on Jordan.

But it turned out that even in this period, Jordan was old, but assigning someone could not prevent him.

Nine seconds before the end, Jordan started to kick in, breaking through from the right side, with Russell close behind. At the top of the arc above the free throw line, Jordan suddenly made a sudden change of direction and pulled the ball back, but Russell couldn't turn back and slipped to the ground. There was an empty space in front of Jordan, and he calmly jumped up and made a move......

What followed was a perfect picture: simply getting into the basket, and Jordan maintained a shot posture and stood on the court, full of kingly style. With just 5.2 seconds left on the timer, the score was 87-86 and the Bulls took the lead.

Although there were 5.2 seconds left, the Jazz's final shot, which had already broken his guts, was handled a little sloppily. 5.2 seconds, a one-point gap, but Stockton hurriedly shot from the three-point line, and the ball hit the basket and bounced away. Jordan leaped high and held out six fingers as the Bulls won their sixth championship. The perfect curtain call.

"But you still haven't said how to break through their defenses." Big Ben asked.

"Nope! He has already said it. ”

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