"Charles, who do you think has a better chance of winning tonight?" In the commentary seat, Smith has already begun to make the final warm-up before the game.

"Theoretically, the Warriors are the one with the better chances, they're healthier, they're more motivated to win the Big Seven, and the Bulls have injury concerns and they've been out of action for more than a week." Buckley rhetoric.

"But actually?" O'Neill asked with a smile.

"That's the reality, if the Bulls can't play tonight, they're going to be on the back foot in the Finals, they're playing against the best team in the universe." Barkley continued to be serious.

However, his appearance directly made O'Neal laugh, and the universe warriors moved out, which is a deep fear of the milk immortal warriors.

Smith on the side nodded earnestly.

Barkley's analysis came out of his mouth, but it wasn't wrong, and for the Bulls, tonight's game was crucial to them.

Of course, in fact, from their concealment of Butler's injury and their opening performance, it can be seen that the Bulls are clearly aware of this.

As soon as they finished speaking, Adams turned the ball back to the Bulls halfcourt, and the Finals officially began.

After Xu Yong received the ball, he singled Green, and after the breakthrough, he hit the pivot foot and turned to wipe the board.

Turning around, James held the ball outside the three-point line on the right side and beckoned Thompson to play a pick-and-roll, and then faced Butler.

It's a bit like when he's fighting, and when he sees an injury in a certain part of the opponent, he desperately fights there, which is something he will do at a glance.

After his teammates pulled away, he dribbled sideways, and when he reached the high post, he directly leaned his back against Butler and began to play with his back.

Once, twice, Butler was obviously a little unbearable.

Ankle injuries affect athletes in many ways, with slower break-through start-ups, slower movement speeds, and even weaker defensive end-of-game forces.

James hit the third counter-op press, and Butler sank his center of gravity, turned and went to the basket to put the ball in the basket.

Looking back, Xu Yong continued to break through Green, facing Pachuria's help defense and turned around and drifted in the air to hit a throw.

James also continued to call Thompson for cover, but at the shouts of Thibodeau on the sidelines, Butler chose to go around the back, and James was given space to shoot.

He didn't hesitate too much, dribbled forward and pulled into the 17-foot position, and then went straight to the jumper and dropped the knife with his hand.

Although James' statistics this season are not eye-catching, and even the impact has declined due to age, his comprehensive strength has reached its peak.

You must know that there is only one season left before the [Thanos Zhan] that Xu Yong knows.

Although it may sound strange for a player to reach his peak after 14 seasons in the league.

However, the opening rounds have become a period for Xu Yong and James to compete with each other.

Green and Butler were the victims on the court.

Xu Yong continued to play singles, but this time he was defended by multiple people, and his choice was to shoot backwards against the high difficulty of defending to the bottom line.

Fearful of his abilities, almost all the people around him rushed towards him.

"Phew!"

Xu Yong's shot smashed out of the frame.

But his face didn't look too regretful, because before he made this choice, he had already spotted someone moving quickly towards the basket.

When Adams and Pachulia stuck each other under the basket, a figure saw the landing point and jumped up to complete the rebound.

Although it was just a supplementary basket, it instantly ignited the United Center.

Because the guy who made the layup was Butler!

Xu Yong high-fived Butler in the retreat, it is indeed difficult for Butler to play in a normal state when he fights with an injury, but an important reason why he did not strongly oppose Butler's injury before is also because he knows that Butler can still help the team when he fights with an injury.

In the year he led the team to complete the Black Eight Miracle in history, Butler sprained his ankle in the second round, but he finally led the team to the finals with an injury and played a season of gods.

James continued to single Butler, and increased the range of back shots, which clearly meant that Butler was completely destroyed.

But just as he hit low enough and was about to turn around, he suddenly felt a lightness in his hand.

His ball, was broken.

The person who completed the steal was not Butler, who was pressed under him, but Xu Yong, who sneaked in from the weak side baseline.

The back-to-back has a blind spot in the field of vision, and too much back-to-back gives Xu Yong enough time to move.

When Xu Yong completed the steal, James instinctively spread his hands, and Xu Yong flew down the fast break, the United Center had already resounded with the cheers of Chicago fans in advance.

"Bang!"

When Xu Yong crossed the defense and rushed to the front court to complete the gliding windmill dunk, the United Center was completely in a boil.

Steal James + fast break violent dunk, although it is late, but it arrives!

After completing the dunk, Xu Yong also directly made a celebration of [listening], and the scene was like a rainbow.

Xu Yong opened with 3 of 4, not only showing a strong personal desire to attack, but also an extremely good personal state.

The extra work he did after the technical finals was for tonight's game.

The opening game needs to be a blow.

"Defend! Defend! ”

The scene resounded with the shouts and cheers of Chicago fans.

James gave up the front court to continue to hold the ball, Green organized a wave at the top of the arc, and Curry ran the elevator door to make a three-point shot.

Anderson cleverly went around the wing and pounced on Curry to interfere, but Curry still got up and down in the face of interference.

Although Xu Yong started the game hotly, the Warriors' overall performance was very strong, not only James, but Curry also continued the hot form of the Western Finals.

That's what Barkley said before the game, the Warriors are a team that has just come out of the Western Conference finals, and the whole state is hot.

Xu Yong glanced up at the score at this time, and then chatted with Butler before serving in the backcourt.

When the Bulls advanced to the frontcourt, Butler held the ball and played with Adams to block and break inside.

This is a common tactic played by the Bulls, but the difference between the usual is that Butler is slower to break through, and he does not score directly, but is blocked by Green, who assists in defense, and is forced to stop the ball.

But just when Green thought Butler would give up on the offense, Butler turned to his uninjured right foot and made a turnaround jumper to the right.

This time it was a surprise, and the ball finally hollowed into the net.

The ankle injury affected him in many ways, but it didn't affect his feel.

Then Butler's action after throwing in was very interesting, he didn't do anything to Green, but just turned around and threw James a [death gaze], making the latter look confused.

And that's not the end of it, as the Warriors advanced to the frontcourt, Butler took the initiative to switch to James.

And when he saw that James had no intention of continuing to hold the ball, Butler directly sprayed trash talk at James: "Try me!" soft！ ”

This sentence made James's face turn blue instantly.

Originally, he was going to beat Butler tonight, but he breathed a sigh of relief after being stolen by Xu Yong, but he didn't expect Butler to kick his nose in the face.

Especially that soft, that's not the current nickname of Green!

Before the game, the Bulls coaching staff had a strategy for tonight's game, which was to slow down and not let the Warriors speed up.

The Warriors are different from other teams, which mainly rely on defense to counterattack, but the Warriors mainly rely on three-point shooting.

So it's better to have James single-handedly play Butler one-on-one like he did in the opening court than to have Curry throw threes on the outside.

This is also the main content of Xu Yong's previous exchange with Butler.

Let's not talk about the three-point ratio of one point more than two points, the shooter needs to shoot to maintain the feel, let James play more and not pinch the shot, that is, let the splash shoot less, and from a strategic point of view, it can play a role in slowing down.

James has an obvious advantage in beating Butler with a bloody back, and he is wary of the help defense in the blind spot of vision this time, although the movement of shaking his head from side to side looks a little funny, but his final strong attack still caused Butler's defensive foul.

The two naturally had a burst of trash talk, but judging from James' flushed face at the end and the performance of one of the two free throws at the free throw line, it was obvious that Butler won the spray.

Then turning around, Butler continued to attack with Adams after the blockade, and after attracting Green's help to the defense, he successfully distributed the ball to Xu Yong, who jumped to the basket and smashed the ball into the basket directly through the slow Pachuria's heavy dunk.

The mood of the United Center was ignited again, Butler passed beautifully, but Xu Yong buckled even more beautifully.

And the trash talk of Butler and James continues: "You know what? It is impossible for Ling to catch up with Xu in this life. ”

James' face was as black as a kitchen rag that hadn't been washed in years.

Xu Yong almost burst out laughing when he heard this.

Butler's set of combos made him have to sigh that over the years, this junior of his has learned all the essence of his trash talk.

In this section, Butler is like an assassin in World of Warcraft, giving James a moment of hatred from time to time to let James slow down the offensive rhythm of the Warriors.

And Xu Yong became the output position, either holding the ball alone, or receiving Butler's pass to score, and when Butler went off the court, Jokic came on the court again and became the one who passed the ball.

Xu Yong scored 28 points in a single quarter to help the Bulls build a double-digit lead in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, although Xu Yong's score dropped somewhat, the Bulls still maintained this lead.

At halftime, the score was 57-45 and the Bulls led by 12 points.

The pressure came to the Warriors.

Because the Warriors' [strongest third quarter] is built on a half-time close game, even if they fall behind, they won't be too much.

But the Bulls dug a big hole for them at halftime.

During the halftime break, the Bulls' locker room burst into laughter.

Even if the outside world is more optimistic about the Warriors, it is they who have the advantage right now, how can this not make people happy?

However, Xu Yong was not in the locker room at this time, he was chatting with Thibodeau and Ma Long at the door of the locker room.

Malone was worried about the Warriors' death in the third quarter.

The Warriors' Death Five last season The Bulls weren't actually afraid, as long as they focused on making a splash.

But now that there is James' lineup that can be called the "Ultimate Death Five", as well as their state tonight, the Bulls are not easy to deal with.

To put it bluntly, the Warriors' [strongest third quarter] is not blown out, but actually played, they can quickly pull away the score, and of course, they can also catch up with the score in a short time.

So Malone made a suggestion at this time, a suggestion that Thibodeau was difficult to accept.

He wanted the Warriors to play five hours and Jokic as the center.

This is also the reason why he pulled Xu Yong, because like many times in the past, only with Xu Yong's support, Xibodu may accept it.

This suggestion sounds contradictory, because Adams is passive enough to play with his own death five-small space, and it would be tantamount to self-defeating to replace Jokic, who moves more slowly and defensively.

But Malone is obviously not an idiot, and the reason why he proposed it is actually very simple.

Since it's not easy to defend, let's put it, because no matter Adams and Jokic, they can't be defended in the face of five small defensive ends, nothing more than the difference between fifty steps and 100 steps.

But on the offensive end, Jokic can do much more than Adams, and it can even be said that Jokic, who has the ability to attack on the offensive end this season, can blow up Green in the low post with his passing ability.

So Malone's idea can be summed up in more concise words, that is, to play against the Warriors.

It's hard to get a defensive head coach to accept such an offer, especially if Thibodeau isn't that cold about Jokic yet.

"If our regular lineup doesn't work, I think Mike's proposal can be tried." Xu Yong didn't show a tough personality because he knew what kind of character Thibodeau was.

Sure enough, Thibodeau finally agreed with Xu Yong's point of view.

Half-time came back and the game continued.

Kerr didn't directly put the death five, but still habitually let the regular lineup play for two minutes.

In the past two minutes, James got up and ignored Butler's trash talk, Curry hit a three-pointer from the outside, and the overall feeling on the court for the Warriors was significantly better than in the first half.

It's just that it didn't help them close the score, because Xu Yong recovered physically after the halftime break and hit Green twice in a row on the court.

Seeing this, Cole showed his hole cards and replaced Pachulia with Iguodala and played the Death Five.

The change was immediate, and the Warriors continued to show their form as Thompson hit a catch-and-shoot three-pointer from a 45° angle on the right side.

After the Bulls tried two rounds to poor effect, and the Warriors reduced the margin to single digits, Thibodeau replaced Adams with Jokic.

Then, Jokic started to do the axis in the low post and singled Green with the ball.

The Warriors didn't help defending.

It's not that Kerr looks down on Jokic, on the contrary, it is precisely because he values Jokic and knows how good Jokic's passing ability is.

Then, after being ravaged by Xu Yong for most of the night, Green was ravaged by Jokic again.

Jokic's low-post technique isn't flashy, and he doesn't even look like he's too strong against it, but he's good at using his size and has a soft touch that rivals Yao's.

From the audience's point of view, Jokic is a turn, and then a one-handed hook with a one-handed hook when Green pushes out.

The moment he saw the ball go in, Green's expression instantly felt like he was constipated.

Compared with being destroyed by Xu Yong, being eaten raw like this by Jokic, a sophomore, obviously hurt his self-esteem even more.

And this situation continued in the third quarter.

Singles straight score, brace, hat-trick, four-yuan Kaitai ......

I heard that Green was the strongest center in the small-ball era? Toys only!

Green's mentality was a bit unbalanced, and he was whistled for a technical foul by the referee for making too big a move in a defense.

Then, he actually sprayed directly with the referee.

As a result, he was whistled for a second technical foul by the referee and was ejected.

There was a commotion at the scene, and Green looked really [soft]!

However, Xu Yong was not too surprised, Green's reaction was not soft, but his mentality collapsed.

After experiencing the boxing turmoil, although Green barely stayed, the team's status continued to decline and he was very aggrieved.

Now not only is he targeting him, but even a rookie like Jokic is riding on his head to, and even with a relaxed expression on his face, his pent-up emotions explode, that is, the loss of control on the court.

Maybe the current Green really has to go to a psychiatrist like James did at the beginning.

Green's departure meant that the Warriors' five came to an abrupt halt after half of the use, which was very lethal on a strategic level, and forced the Warriors to return to the regular rhythm of playing with the Bulls.

But the Warriors' state tonight was really amazing, especially when James got up and handed over the offensive control to Curry, Curry lifted his pants and showed his thick thighs, leading the Warriors and Bulls to a stalemate.

On the Bulls' side, with Jokic being substituted, Xu Yong also continued to take over the team's firepower.

He scored another 17 points in the third quarter, and by the end of the third quarter, his personal score had reached 50 points.

This time it made Barkley and O'Neill in the commentary seat excited.

Last season, Xu Yong's record-breaking speed in the playoffs can be described as a spark and lightning all the way, but the only record that he failed to break was the single-game scoring record in the finals.

But tonight, he was infinitely close, making "Baylor" in Los Angeles feel his hips tight.

In the final quarter, Kerr seemed to finally realize that Butler didn't have much scoring ability tonight, and the Bulls' offense basically relied on Xu Yong alone, and began to frantically flank Xu Yong.

Thibodeau also put Jokic on the court again at Malone's suggestion at this time, but in a two-tower lineup at the No. 4 position.

At this time, the Bulls instantly changed from one-wheel drive to two-wheel drive, and Xu Yong took off directly.

Two minutes before the end, Xu Yong received a pass from Jokic and scored 2+1 on Pachuria, raising his score to 61 points first.

And when he walked to the free throw line to execute the free throw, the scene rang out with a neat MVP shout.

"Huh!"

And when Xu Yong hit this additional penalty, the United Center was completely boiling.

A new NBA Finals single-game scoring record was set here.

Barkley in the commentary seat couldn't hide his excitement: "Satan, he make nba great again!" (Xu, he made the NBA great again!) ）

(End of chapter)