After a day of rest, the Bulls continued to host the Pacers.

The Pacers have slumped since the Auburn Hills Palace brawl and have failed to make the playoffs for four straight seasons.

However, this season with the addition of Boozer and the rise of young players such as Darren Collison and Roy Hibbert, they are also rising rapidly.

Collisson, Brandon Rush, Granger, Boozer, Hibbert, this lineup is very competitive in the East.

The game was also more intense than many expected.

Although Granger was very limited by Allen and Xu Yong's double gate, Boozer's play left the Bulls a little helpless.

The power forward in his prime was just as he did when he was still in Utah, destroying the Bulls' defense with mid-range after mid-range.

And his offensive options are quick, and he doesn't wait for you to get the pinch in place before he shoots early.

But in the end, it was the Bulls who won the game.

Because the Pacers can't do anything with the Bulls' outside shots.

Boozer scored 30 points, but Rose and Xu Yong combined for almost 50 points.

And the Pacers' head coach Jim O'Brien is clearly not up to the mark, and the team's rookie Paul George is great on the defensive end, but he doesn't get much playing time.

With a two-game winning streak to kick off the season, the Bulls boarded a plane to Houston and began their Western road trip.

It will also be the biggest part of their season start, taking a lap around the "Texas Big Three" and then facing the defending champions.

The good news is that they will face the Rockets, the weakest of these teams, first.

Returning to Houston after a few months, Houston fans also applauded and cheered for Yao Ming.

The Rockets didn't keep Yao Ming, but after some manipulation, the team still has a starting lineup of Brooks/Lowry + Hamilton + Lore Deng + Scola + Noah, and it is still a playoff team in the West.

However, the Bulls played an easy game in this game, basically locked up the win in three quarters, and the remaining quarter was the bench's performance time.

This game is actually very similar to the game against the Heat, the Rockets have no way to break the Bulls' defensive net, and the scoring can only be scored piecemeal, and the result is naturally not too suspenseful.

However, although he lost, Noah's play on the Rockets' side was quite good.

He scored 16 points while also had an all-around performance of 14 boards, 5 assists and 2 blocks.

After the game, Noah also laughed and chatted with Xu Yong for a long time.

Just as Harden didn't shine until the Rockets in history, players need a bigger stage to break through their ceiling.

Noah will be capped at Draymond Green if he continues to develop with the Bulls, but when the Rockets have more power to dominate the ball, in this era of scarcity of centers, there is a faint trend of being the first center in the West.

So being traded is not necessarily a bad thing for Noah's personal development, especially in the case of a contract year.

After beating the Rockets, the Bulls got off to a strong start with a three-game winning streak in a difficult schedule.

However, just when Chicago fans were expecting the Bulls to continue their efforts, the Bulls lost to the Mavericks and Spurs in the following back-to-back games, and suffered a wave of two consecutive losses after three consecutive wins.

The Bulls didn't have too many problems with their own play, Rose, Xu Yong and Yao Ming were all on the line, especially Xu Yong, who scored a game-high 35 points against the Spurs with his stable mid-range shooting.

The key to the problem was defense, with Nowitzki and Duncan directly devouring Artest alive.

And unlike Boozer, they didn't just score alone, they used their containment to revitalize the whole team.

In this kind of confrontation at the same level, this situation is more than enough to decide the outcome of the game.

At the same time, the Heat used a "round table" to stabilize the morale of the army after the loss to the Bulls, and won a wave of four consecutive wins, including a 96-70 bloodbath against the Magic.

For a while, the Jammys, who had almost disappeared because of the fiasco in the opening game, jumped up in unison and sneered at the Bulls.

Such as "there are some teams that are at the top of the rankings at the beginning of each season but disappear quickly in the end", "Grandma O'Neal leads the team better than Thibodeau", "A group of old, young and sick people get together and shout for the championship, how does this plot seem familiar" and so on.

The pressure on the Bulls was even greater than Yao expected, as they were on the opposite side of Jammy's group when they formed the team, not to mention that the season started with a bloody Heat.

It was against this backdrop that the Bulls came to Los Angeles, the last stop of their road trip.

They will next face the defending champions Lakers, who have won five in a row since the start of the season.

The only good news is that they have a rare two-day break and can use time to adjust their mentality.

Xu Yong continues to train at the same intensity as in the past.

By the way, I have to mention why Megan Fox didn't come to Xu Yong to discuss life again, because this summer, Fox has reunited with her ex-boyfriend of five years, Brian Austin Green, and the two held a wedding in Hawaii, which has not yet experienced the baptism of freedom and fire.

So for Fox, Xu Yong's current state is: he has experienced it, and then sent blessings to the other party.

Without the woman, he's very energetic now, and he's happy with the kind of high-intensity training that Grover demands.

He was exhausted from training that night and was resting on the sidelines.

That's when Thibodeau came to the training gym.

Because there have been many such private exchanges between the two, Xu Yong is also relatively relaxed, just sitting there drinking water, smiling and stretching out his hand to greet Thibodeau.

Thibodeau sat down beside him, and then suddenly asked, "Do you think that the big and four small ways of playing will do more harm than good?" ”

Xu Yong didn't expect Thibodeau to suddenly ask like this, but seeing the latter's serious expression, he knew that the two had communicated a lot, and Thibodeau wanted to ask for his opinion.

He put the water bottle down and said what he really thought: "I think the pros outweigh the cons. ”

"Huh?" Thibodeau looked at Xu Yong in surprise, and it was clear that Xu Yong's answer was somewhat unexpected to him.

You must know that the reason why he asked this is because the team has been in poor condition recently, and with his understanding of Xu Yong, Xu Yong should not be unexpected.

"But I think it should be used as a secret weapon, not a conventional weapon, because its weaknesses are too obvious and too easy to target." Xu Yong continued.

His words are based on the Warriors' "Death Five", as the Warriors' killer feature, the "Death Five" can be said to be a nightmare for opponents in that era, especially at the beginning, it was often the Warriors who sacrificed this style of play, and the game was immediately spent.

But even then, the Warriors rarely use the "Death Five" to start, because the average height is too short, and the opponent will be very passive at the beginning of the game to grasp the weakness of your interior line.

Thibodeau obviously didn't expect this, and he thought for a while before nodding seriously.

In the two games of the Mavericks and the Spurs, the Bulls were passive at the beginning, and they couldn't get the initiative back later.

"Playing the Lakers, I'll arrange for Jermaine to play as a starter." Thibodeau made his own arrangements.

Xu Yong did not raise objections.

O'Neal Jr. has a mid-range, and at this stage he is already a low-post kaleidoscope, and even his rebounding ability is not weak, which is a good match for Yao Ming.

But O'Neal Jr.'s injury concern is a big problem, and if Xu Yong remembers correctly, O'Neal Jr. only played more than two dozen games in Boston this season and was reimbursed for the season.

If it weren't for this, the Bulls wouldn't have been able to sign him for 5 million a year.

But it's hard to say about injuries, you must know that even if you play as a starter, the pressure on O'Neal will be much less by Yao Ming's side.

But it's hard to say about injuries, you must know that even if you play as a starter, the pressure on O'Neal will be much less by Yao Ming's side.

With a decision, when it was the next day's training session, Thibodeau let Malone practice according to the adjusted lineup.

Little O'Neill looked excited.

His choice of 5 million to sign the Bulls in the summer shows that he has a pursuit, but he is a little embarrassed in these five games, playing center bench is not as effective as O'Neal, and he can't get any playing time before playing as a substitute, and he is a little marginalized.

Now that he's suddenly a starter, he's full of energy and trying to keep O'Neal out.

The intensity of the Bulls' training came up all at once.

These old guys have played too many games, and their desire to compete really needs something like this to stimulate it.

……

On the evening of the second day, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the arena was full.

The Lakers and Knicks have always been the top two teams in the league in terms of market capitalization, and Kobe Bryant is the guarantee of the team's ticket sales, and the game is basically full.

Not to mention that in addition to the showdown between the two finalists tonight, there is an additional topic that O'Neal is back in Los Angeles.

Although the OK group has been released over the years, O'Neal always attracts attention every time he returns to Los Angeles.

During the warm-up before the game, the on-site photographer was looking for O'Neal's lens, O'Neill and Yao Ming were talking and laughing there, and this scene in the spotlight was very classic.

When Xu Yong was warming up, he saw Swift again on the bench.

The stadium where Swift is most seen is still the Staples Center, and it was only a coincidence that he went to Chicago before.

Instead of sitting in the front row of the audience this time, Swift sat in the middle with a large bag of popcorn in his hand and his friends next to the audience aisle.

When the camera was given to her, she waved her hand frantically, and it really looked like she was no star.

The warm-up ended quickly, and the scene also entered the opening ceremony.

The Bulls took the lead as the visiting team, with Rose, Tony Allen, Xu Yong, O'Neal Jr., and Yao Ming.

When he saw the starting lineup of the Bulls, Phil Jackson's expression on the Lakers' side was stunned for a moment.

The Lakers came on as the home team, Fisher, Kobe, Ariza, Gasol, Bynum, Lakers fans are so familiar that they can't be more familiar with the lineup.

During the final tactical arrangement before the game, Phil Jackson rarely drew a lot with the tactical board and talked a lot.

It can be seen that Thibodeau's starting adjustment was a surprise to the Lakers.

A short whistle sounded on the sidelines, and the starting lineups of both sides came on one after another.

Kobe Bryant's expression was relaxed before he came on the court, and he chatted with his old friend Nicholson on the sidelines.

Although his stats this season are not very dazzling, compared to the beginning of last season, the team is full of health and consecutive wins, and he is naturally in a good mood.

Yao Ming and Bynum's jump ball in the center circle.

As the referee's whistle blew, Bynum jumped first to bring the ball back to the Lakers half, and the game officially began.

After the Lakers advanced to the frontcourt, Fisher gave the ball to Gasol in the low post on the strong side.

The Lakers are still playing a triangle offense, and Phil Jackson's game plan is to play the weak point of the Bulls' power forward.

The Bulls' sudden change in the starting lineup caught Jackson off guard, but he didn't change the game strategy at the moment, but laid out more details.

For example, Kobe Bryant didn't move much at the beginning, and at this time he had to do more off-ball moves on the weak side.

However, Jackson's arrangement did not succeed, because Allen followed Kobe Bryant like a ghost.

Thibodeau was also considering who to replace when he was starting O'Neal Jr., and in the end, after weighing up, he chose Artest, because against Kobe, Allen's defense is obviously better.

His choice proved to be prescient.

Gasol turned around and saw that Kobe Bryant had no chance, and Ariza in the bottom corner of the strong side was also stared at by Xu Yong, so he directly chose to attack in the low post.

A highly personal back-to-back bow senses the center of gravity of the defense, and then a turn-around feint is followed by a turn-around and straight to the basket.

I have to say that Gasol's low-post technique is quite beautiful.

However, O'Neill Jr. did not lose his defensive position, and he kept trying to break the ball in Gasol's hands as he retreated.

The two battled to the basket, and finally Gasol suddenly squeezed O'Neal Jr. away and smashed the ball into the basket with his right hand, giving the Lakers the first time.

Kobe Bryant smiled and high-fived Gasol, who is now almost on the same level as Nowitzki, Duncan and Garnett since his strong performance in the Finals last season.

The corners of Phil Jackson's mouth also rose, he could have adjusted his tactics on the fly, but he finally chose to trust Gasol, and Gasol lived up to his expectations.

Thibodeau moved his body at this time, and O'Neal Jr. was about to face Gasol as soon as he started, which was not an easy task.

The Bulls' positional attack, Xu Yong ran out to catch the ball and didn't have a direct chance, just when he was about to play the blocking and dismantling tactics, O'Neal Jr. was asking for the ball with his back against Gasol in the low post.

Obviously, he wanted to fight back after being beaten by Gasol just now.

Xu Yong knew Thibodeau's tactical adjustments, and naturally knew the importance of O'Neill Jr., so he reached out and hoisted the ball into it.

O'Neal Jr. turned around and chose to attack with a face frame after receiving the ball, and his feint to break through to the free throw line suddenly changed direction and broke through from the baseline.

He looks a little heavier now, but the change of direction is not slow at all.

When Gasol reacted, it was too late to stop him from breaking through, so he could only use his body to squeeze O'Neill Jr., trying to squeeze him out of the bottom line.

This strategy was correct, but O'Neal Jr. had a big step, two steps later he had already crossed the basket, and then suddenly he reflexed.

"Bang!"

Straight to the basket with one hand!

There was a stirring at the scene.

O'Neal Jr.'s response to the dunk was quite tough.

After the dunk, O'Neal Jr. also bulged his muscles with his hands, and turned around and roared at Gasol.

Who isn't an All-Star power forward?

There was also someone who was excited at this time.

Yao Ming took the initiative to go over and high-five O'Neal Jr. in the retreat.

It may be a little sad to say, but this is the first time he has a serious and powerful inside partner.

Nest in front of the computer every day typing,I've almost forgotten what life is like.,When I was resting today, I saw that there was an up master at station B who shot catching crabs in the river and catching fish in the field.,It's a bit like going back to the feeling of being a child.,I feel like I'm living in two worlds when I was a child and living now.

(End of chapter)