While excitedly retreating to the halfcourt, Li Yang stared at the Bulls players who pressed up. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Defense, this is what Popovich deliberately emphasized during the timeout, if you want to narrow the point difference, it is obviously not enough to have offense, you must also start from defense.

Offense is the Bulls' weakness compared to defense, and this has to do with the coaching style of head coach Tom Thibodeau, whose two previous coaches, Jeff Van Gundy and Doug Rivers, are not very good at offense.

After Nate Robinson dribbled to half-court, Belinelli began to run, and he tried to get the chance to attack by running directly away from Li Yang.

But obviously, he underestimated Li Yang's ability to follow the defense, although Li Yang's ability to assist defense and supplement defense is where he can contribute the most on the defensive end, but his excellent movement ability allows him to not suffer when he is not on the defensive side.

After Belinelli ran around the court without getting an attacking opportunity, Robinson began to look for teammates who could attack, and the ball was handed to Boozer.

The Spurs did not use Duncan to play against Boozer, but used Split, and Duncan to defend the weaker offensive Noah, obviously this arrangement will make Duncan less pressure on the defensive end, and at the same time, it can also play a better role in Duncan's defense.

No, Boozer took the ball and attacked Split, and immediately ushered in Duncan, who assisted in the defense, after entering the basket.

Facing the defense of the Spurs' two interior players, Boozer's shot failed to hit, and Duncan grabbed the defensive rebound.

The ball was not handed over to Mills for the first time, but to Li Yang, who is obviously the most impactful player in this lineup.

Li Yang took the ball to the other side of the court quickly, bringing up the overall speed of both teams, rushing to the three-point line and then pausing slightly, Li Yang seemed to be waiting for his teammates to follow up, and the next moment, Li Yang started suddenly and began to break through!

With the performance of the previous ten days of short contract and three games, Li Yang has already attracted the attention of Spurs opponents, especially the Bulls because of the All-Star weekend in between, and Thibodeau is very defensive and he also mentioned the defense of Li Yang before the game, and the strategy is to prevent breakthroughs.

But it's one thing to know before the game, it's another thing to actually get up to the game.

Belinelli followed Li Yang and rushed wildly, just gaining a foothold in the three-point line and preparing to breathe a little easier, who knew that Li Yang suddenly launched an attack at this time.

The suddenness of the start, coupled with Li Yang's proud speed, almost without any suspense, Li Yang broke through Belinelli's defense.

Under the basket, Noah, who had already retreated one step earlier, moved his steps for the first time and was ready to step forward to make up for the defense, as the defensive pillar of the Bulls' interior line and the defensive pillar of the entire team, Noah took on the important task of protecting the restricted area in the Bulls.

Before the game, Thibodeau did tell Noah to pay attention to Li Yang's impact on the basket, so at this time, after finding that Li Yang had broken through Belinelli, he immediately made up for it.

Dribbling the ball, Li Yang rushed to the outside of the three-second zone, facing Noah's defense, almost the same as in the previous round, Li Yang suddenly stopped rushing forward, and then turned around and pushed the ball out.

It's Duncan again, the free-throw line position, and Duncan, who ran from the backcourt, has just arrived at this time.

After receiving Li Yang's pass, this time, there were no defenders in front of Duncan, and although Noah was also rushing out, it was too far away after all.

"Whew!" Duncan made an easy shot and hit a two-point shot.

After Duncan sent Li Yang an aerial relay just now, this round, Li Yang also returned an assist, and after these two rounds, the score of the two teams became 41:37, and the difference was narrowed to 4 points.

The Spurs continued to start from defense, and just this round, they got the opportunity to play the offensive and defensive transitions through defense, so after the Bulls attacked again, they started to defend again.

Lack of offensive system support, the biggest problem of the Bulls on the offensive end is the lack of cooperation, the last two seasons, they also have Rose in the team, you can rely on Rose's personal ability to tear apart the opponent's defense to create offensive opportunities, this season without Rose, the Bulls' weakness on the offensive end is becoming more and more prominent.

At this time, among the five players in the Spurs team, except for Mills, the other four are very good defensively, and it is obviously very difficult for the Bulls to complete the offense if they only want to rely on their individual talents, especially at this moment, when the Spurs pay great attention to defense.

The basketball went round and round in the hands of several players and eventually returned to Nate Robinson, and I don't know if this was because the Bulls saw Mills slightly weaker defensively or if they were habitually dependent on point guards.

Nate Robinson is known for his title of dunk king, but in fact, on the offensive end, Nate Robinson is also quite versatile, whether it is a breakthrough or shooting, it has a certain lethality.

Perhaps because he felt that Mills's body was not strong, this time, he chose to break through.

Robinson's strong body and excellent speed are what Robinson relied on when he broke through, starting to rush forward, and after fighting Mills' body, Robinson used his strong body to force Mills to rush by.

Standing near the three-point line on the left side, Li Yang wanted to rush over to make up for the defense as soon as he saw Robinson break through, but after thinking of Belinelli's lethality outside the three-point line, he stopped the thought.

Fortunately, the two players on the Spurs interior have excellent defensive awareness, and the two work together tacitly, with Split being responsible for supplementing Robinson and Duncan guarding the basket.

Seeing that the interior line couldn't rush in, and the offensive time was about to end, Robinson made a mid-range pull-up jump shot.

"Bang!" Robinson's shot popped off the basket as Mills hit the basket as he chased after him.

Under the basket, Duncan collected the rebound again, and then sent the ball to Li Yang's hands as soon as possible.

"Stand out!" On the sidelines, Tom Thibodeau shouted with his arms waving his arms, signaling the Bulls players to speed up the defense and not give the Spurs a chance to launch a counterattack.

The Bulls are not a well-trained defensive team, this time, their retreat speed is very fast, after Li Yang dribbled to the outside of the three-point line, he saw that the opponent's defensive formation had fallen, so he no longer forced the attack, passed the ball to Mills, and suppressed the rhythm.

Mills, who received the ball, pressed the tempo and waited until all the players were down to halfcourt before handing the ball to Duncan, who was already one step inside the three-point line.

Duncan didn't hold the ball for a long time, the ball was just handed over to him, and when he turned around, he passed the ball to Li Yang on the right side, and at the same time, he also moved to the right side to block Li Yang.

"Again?" On the court, Noah and Belinelli flashed this thought in their minds at the same time, Li Yang and Duncan had completed two cooperation before, both of which were Li Yang with the ball and Duncan responded, and both offenses were successful, which made them have to play twelve points.