At the end of the timeout, Jordan blocked with Grant on the right wing, and then cut inside, Pippen, who held the ball on the left wing and feintmed, passed the ball in time, Rodman changed defenses, and Jordan received the ball and made a quick stop jump shot and hit a ball.

"13:6, Jordan shot 2 of 3, the feel is good, but the next state, the defensive end has to perform." Bill Wharton said.

Zhou Quan still played without the ball, and when Secali attacked the paint area, he also took advantage of the more people inside.

"Damn it!"

Jordan had a headache when he saw Zhou Quan enter the paint area, and cursed secretly.

Borrowing Secali's body to get rid of Jordan, Zhou Quan crossed the box to the left wing, and at this time the ball reached the hands of Joe Dumas on the left wing three-point line, and he immediately passed the ball down.

Zhou Quan received the ball and made a jumper, Jordan pounced out of it and flew to block, but the rhythm was already half a beat slower, and there was no cap.

"Bang!"

The psychological quality is too stable, and Zhou Quan's shooting action is not affected, but this ball failed to hit, and he missed the first shot of the night.

"Mine!"

Rodman rose up and grabbed the offensive rebound on the heads of Cartwhite and Grant.

"Shet!"

Jordan saw another backcourt rebound, which made him very angry.

"Rebounding is so strong!"

Zhang Reasonable couldn't help but praise.

Zhou Quan immediately drilled the baseline after shooting, took the ball from Rodman and pulled it to the right wing, and then singled Jordan to the basket.

At this point, Secali made a pick-and-roll for Joe Dumas on the left wing, and Joe Dumas got rid of Pippen, went around Cartwhite, and cut inside along the baseline to the basket.

Zhou Quan dribbled back and took a step.

Jordan quickly grabbed it, but Zhou Quan immediately moved a step sideways to the downside, the ball was also pulled up, and he pushed it with one hand, and the basketball flew straight to Joe Dumas against the baseline.

"Brush!"

Along the baseline, Joe Dumas cut into the paint area in one step, the ball arrived, and the catch cushioned a small throw to score a goal on Grant's head.

Zhang Cheng said excitedly: "Tactical opponent, the piston played too actively. Zhou Quan ran without the ball in the penalty area, ripped the Bulls' penalty area defensive formation to shreds, and then took the opportunity to play a flank cut tactic.

Now the Bulls are quite passive, not only passive on the offensive end, but also stealed twice in a row by Zhou Quan, and the defensive end can't prevent the Pistons' offense. ”

"At 15:6, the Pistons still lead by nine points." Sun Zhenping said happily.

Phil Jackson shook his head helplessly and lost another backcourt rebound, which was already the second person, and there were only 5 rebounds in total tonight.

He turned around and hooked his finger at Scott Williams, who stood up excitedly, and when he got closer, he admonished, "The most important thing you can do when you go up is control the rebound, you know?" It's our lifeline. ”

"Got it, Coach." Williams muttered.

"Bang!"

The Bulls attacked, Pippen singled Joe Dumas and missed.

"Mine."

Rodman was full of energy and once again came to prominence, grabbing the backcourt rebound on Cartwhite's head.

"Tick!"

But the referee blew the whistle and gave Rodman an offensive foul.

Rodman just grinned, didn't excuse himself, and handed the ball to the referee himself.

The Bulls took the opportunity to substitute Scott Williams in place of Cartwhite.

"Rebounding, don't give up a single rebound, do you hear it?" With his hands forming into trumpets, Phil Jackson shouted loudly from the sidelines.

The Bulls attacked, Pippen was targeted by Joe Dumas, and Jordan came out to catch the ball and singled Zhou Quan.

"Bang!"

Fake a real shot, then a pull-up jumper, missed, but Grant grabbed the rebound.

"Brush!"

Jordan rushed down to catch the ball and forced a jump shot under Zhou Quan's block, this time hit.

15:8, Pistons attack.

"Rebound, bastard!"

Losing a backcourt rebound, Chuck Daley was furious.

"Bang!"

Under Jordan's defense, Zhou Quan missed the second goal of the day.

Scott, who had just come on the court, grabbed the rebound in the backcourt, and Jordan counterattacked and scored a goal to chase the score to 15:10, only 5 points behind.

"Zhou Quan is now 5 of 7 shots, 1 of 1 three-point shots, Jordan's defense has come up, and Zhou Quan's hand has declined." Zhang reasonably reminded.

"Jordan shot 4 of 6, he felt very hot today, Zhou Quan should be careful, strengthen the defense of Jordan, don't let him go crazy." Sun Zhenping said.

Zhang Li nodded and said: "The Pistons can lead, mainly because of Zhou Quan's several defenses, and now the Bulls' state is coming back, chasing points, Jordan also prevented Zhou Quan's two attacks, you really have to be careful." ”

Next, under the leadership of Jordan, the Bulls stabilized their position, and the scene began to stalemate, and after the first quarter, 30:24, the Pistons still led by 6 points.

After the player left the game, Bill Wharton said: "Jordan played the whole first quarter, and then shot 1 of 3, a total of 5 of 9 shots, 2 of 2 free throws, and got 12 points and 1 rebound.

Pippen didn't have much chance today, and Joe Dumas was locked up, shooting 1-of-3 and scoring just two points. And Grant also scored four points. Seven players rotated in the first quarter, and five players scored. ”

Williams said: "On the Pistons' side, Zhou Quan also played the first quarter, only shot once, and didn't shoot yet, a total of 5 of 8 shots, no free throws, 11 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 foul.

Joe Dumas scored 4 points on 2-of-4 shooting, the Assassins scored 2 points on 1-of-2 shooting, and Secali was good today, scoring 6 points on 3-of-4 shooting, and the Pistons also had 7 rotations, with a total of 5 players scoring. ”

Bill Wharton laughed: "The Bulls stabilized the situation after a bad start, didn't let the game go one-sided, and performed well. ”

This is when the second quarter begins.

Zhou Quan and Jordan played again, neither rested.

On the Bulls' side, the No. 1 position has backup guard Trent Tucker to play point guard, the No. 3 position is Rodney McCray, and the interior is Cartwight and Wilpeldo.

Zhou Quan, on the other hand, focused on organizing offense, passing the ball to his teammates, and defending Jordan on the defensive end, as he did in the last few minutes of the first quarter.

In addition to him, there are Mark Aguirre and Darnell Walker on the outside, and Pollinis and Trimmers on the inside, relatively speaking, the second and third positions are weaker than the fourth and fifth positions, and the strength of the two substitute interior lines is still good.

"In contrast, if the Iron Fist gets rid of Michael Jordan, the bench lineups of both sides are similar, and the Pistons should still be able to maintain the advantage in the first quarter." Bill Wharton said.

After his words, after the second quarter, at 52:46, the Bulls still trailed by 6 points.

Zhou Quan handed out 5 assists in a single quarter, made 1 of 3 shots from Jordan's head, got 2 points, 1 rebound, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 turnover, and Jordan made two steals, shooting 6 of 11 in the half, shooting 54.5%, and 1 of 2 three-pointers, scoring 13 points.

Jordan scored 6 points on 3-of-8 shooting from Zhou Quan's head, but also delivered 2 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 turnovers, but also made 1 steal for Zhou Quan, shooting 8-of-17 in the half, shooting 47% from the field, 2-of-2 free throws, and scoring 18 points.

At half-time, players from both sides returned to the locker room.

The Pistons' bench was closer to the players' tunnel and walked into the tunnel first, when a large group of media reporters blocked them.

"Iron Fist, before the game you said before the game that you were going to be the God of the United Center tonight, did you mean it?" A reporter asked in a loud voice.

Zhou Quan walked forward slowly and said, "You heard me right, that's what I said. ”

"Do you think it can be done?" The reporter asked.

"I'm doing that." Zhou Quan smiled.

"You're not going to get away with it, Michael is going to smash the damn pistons and he's going to kill you too." A local reporter shouted angrily.

Zhou Quan couldn't help laughing, and there were some Detroit reporters laughing with him, and after laughing, he said: "It's a pity that we are leading now." ”

With that, he lined up the reporters and led his teammates into the hallway leading to the visiting team's locker room.

The group of reporters immediately turned around and surrounded the Bulls who came in behind.

"Michael, you said before the game that you wanted to control the fate of the Pistons, do you think you've done it now?" A reporter from Detroit asked.

His question upset all the local reporters and glared at him.

Jordan said coldly: "What I said will definitely be fulfilled, and we will eventually control the fate of the Pistons." ”

With that, he pushed past the reporters and walked over.

"Can the bulls really do it?"

"Maybe, that's Michael Jordan after all."

"Look at the second half, the Pistons were really strong tonight, and the Bulls didn't play home-court advantage."

After Jordan and the others left, a group of reporters talked about it.

On the ABC TV commentary bench, Bill Wharton analyzed: "Jordan's hand began to decline in the last period of the first quarter, and he has not been able to adjust back to the end of the half, of course, this is also the result of the iron fist defense. In contrast, the iron fist, which is better combined with individual offense, has a higher shooting percentage and a more reasonable shot. ”

Williams laughed: "Judging from the situation in the first two quarters, the Pistons obviously intended to let Jordan play alone, and 17 shots in the half were very much. ”

"Yes, Joe Dumas locked Pippen's angle today, and the Pistons were going to do that." Bill Wharton said.

Williams cautioned: "If it continues like this, the Bulls will be on the back unless Jordan can play hot against an iron fist.

This kind of chance is still very high, Jordan has this ability, and he also has this willpower. But the Bulls and Jordan have to pay attention, this kind of opportunity to play an iron fist alone is only on the outside, and the Pistons are not on the outside to wrap Jordan, once Jordan's hand is not good, it will be really troublesome. And it should be noted that in fact, his feel is already declining. ”

Bill Wharton nodded: "Yes, Jordan and Iron Fist didn't have any ball-handling breakthroughs today, probably because the jump shot felt good, so there were very few free throws."

Jordan had two more fouls, but they were also fouls from Iron Fist from outside shots, and Iron Fist didn't have a single free throw. ”

Williams said: "The reason why Jordan jumps outside is also because he is afraid that he will be caught when he rushes in, and he feels good, so he rarely breaks through with the ball, except for the second dunk against Secali." ”

In the home team's locker room, the atmosphere was very tense, because after coming back, Jordan actually angrily sprayed head coach Phil Jackson.

"Phil, they locked up Scotty, don't you see? You have to fix this, it's your responsibility, OK? ”

Phil Jackson was a little embarrassed, how could he not see it, in fact, he had already let the inside line come out in the first quarter to block Pippen, but the effect was average, and Pippen still couldn't get rid of Joe Dumas.

Pippen pulled outside to catch the ball, and the effect of breaking through with the ball was average, Joe Dumas's defense was quite strong, and he couldn't break in, and if he couldn't break in, he couldn't form a threat on the strong side, and couldn't create opportunities for Jordan on the weak side.

In the 18 minutes of the second quarter, he shot 3 of 8 shots, and the shooting rate was only 37.5%, including 1 of 3 three-pointers.

Truth be told, if Grant hadn't had a good day and scored 12 points, the team would have fallen behind even more. It's not that he didn't see these situations, he saw them and tried to solve them, but it didn't work well.

"Michael, calm down, at the critical moment of the tie-break, we can't have internal problems." Jerry Claus persuaded.

Jordan snorted and sat down, like a volcano about to erupt.

"Phil, find a way to solve the problem." Jerry Claus whispered to Jackson.

Jackson nodded, and said after a deep groan: "Michael, for the sake of today, you have to reduce your outside jumpers, your shooting percentage has come down, you must increase the ball breakover, or cut inside without the ball, we have a higher shooting percentage." ”

"How do you solve Scotty's problem? You made me give up the ball-handling style of play, and you have to find a way to solve his problem and get him the ball. If I just keep the ball in my hands, won't they cover me? Jordan said with a suppressed anger.

Phil Jackson pushed his glasses and said calmly: "The main task of the assassins is to lock the connection between BJ and Scottie, and so is Joe Dumas, so it is difficult for Scotty to receive the ball deeper on the flank, and can only receive the ball outside the three-point line, but under the defense of Joe Dumas, he is not threatening from the position far from the penalty area, which is the problem we have to solve now." ”

Jordan nodded, motioning for Phil Jackson to continue.

Phil Jackson used his brain and said, "There is no other way, only the simplest pick-and-roll can solve this problem." The simplest is the best. ”

Jordan knew that Phil Jackson had no other way, and he decided to come on his own.

In New York at this time, Stern was meditating.

The Bulls were a little disadvantageous in the tie-break, and he hoped that the Bulls would complete a three-game winning streak to help his very optimistic Michael Jordan reach the top of his career, and Jordan would benefit the NBA league when he reached the top.

The Olympics made the dream team, the dream team went to the world, and the NBA went to the world, and it also made him firm in the idea of creating gods.

Because of this idea, he even vetoed the one-for-one trade between Barkley and Zhou Quan on trumped-up grounds, for which the owners of the Numerals team and the owners of the Pistons also complained about him, but he had to do it and did not regret it.

He is the face of the team owners, and his interests are basically the same as those of the owners of the 27 teams, and the ultimate goal of vetoing the trade is to increase the value of the league, and in the end, the two owners of the Pistons and the number team reluctantly agreed to his decision.

If his idea comes true, the value of the Pistons and the number team will also increase, and the purpose of the merchant is to make money, so the two bosses can only acquiesce to his approach in the end.

This is also the reason why the news of this deal was suppressed and not announced, because no one wants the news to be exposed.

Of course, privately, he also promised the two teams that they would give some preferential treatment at the right time, such as special regulations and so on.

But now, the Bulls are a little invincible to the Pistons, which he didn't expect, and he didn't expect Zhou Quan to improve so much this season.

……

Joint Center, beginning of the third session.

Both sides are basically in the starting lineup, only the Bulls' No. 5 is Scott Williams, not starting center Carter White.

Bulls attack.

On the left wing, Pippen crossed the dotted line of the free throw line and flanked Scott, but the Assassin blocked BJ's pass angle and the run was unsuccessful, so he had to turn around and run outside the three-point line to ask for the ball.

In the first half, he was able to receive the ball in this way, but Joe Dumas's defense was too good to make him famous, missing several three-point shots, and repeatedly unsuccessful breakthroughs with the ball, and he had to continue to try this quarter because he had no other way.

But Jordan didn't give him a chance and took the ball away from BJ.

On the right wing, Jordan holds the ball, and in the face of Zhou Quan's defense, he wants to use the sharpest spear, a spear to pierce the defense of the iron fist.

"Oh, backslapping?" Bill Wharton exclaimed suddenly.

"This guy!"

Zhou Quan was backed by Jordan with his left shoulder, and he knew that he was in trouble.

Jordan began to dribble and leaned back, the strength was not big or small, it was tentative, Zhou Quan could only defend, and it was useless to withdraw the stool if the strength was small, it would only allow Jordan to strengthen the play.

He expected Jordan to suddenly get more bang up next time and hit him off guard.

"What?"

However, in the next moment, Jordan suddenly turned around and directly assaulted him.

After Jordan burst Zhou Quan, he took two steps in, forcing Rodman to come up to make up for the defense, but he suddenly changed direction downward, and then broke through the second line of defense, stuck to the bottom line and hit the paint area, and then flew up, holding the ball in his left hand, and wanted to dunk.

Sekari returns to the basket and blocks it.

"Bang!"

"Tick!"

Jordan's left hand was deflected, flashed Secali's big hand, and under the strong dunk, he not only blocked the opponent, but also relied on the opponent's thug to foul, so that the referee blew the whistle.

"Oh!"

The audience boiled instantly.

On the sidelines, a large number of stars and Hollywood stars stood up to cheer and applaud the ball.

"Yikes!"

Jordan threw his fist and roared excitedly.

"Is Jordan going to fight a wave?" Lewis Williams said excitedly.

"Two plus one, if you go in, it's only three points." Bill Wharton laughed.

Williams said excitedly: "The Pistons are very strong tonight, the key tie-breaker, the Bulls are likely to be killed, the dream of a three-game championship is facing shattering, the team's tactics are at a disadvantage, will it force Michael Jordan's ultimate form?" ”

"Possibly."

Bill Wharton said with a smile: "Jordan's ultimate form is either desperate or in an angry situation, and now it has both. ”

Williams said: "Bill, Jordan never seems to have hit an iron fist in his back, I'm talking about the outside, not the low post, he's done that in the low post. ”

Bill Wharton nodded: "Jordan is taller, his strength is also very good, his confrontation ability is definitely not weaker than Iron Fist, after Iron Fist loses weight, it may even be slightly stronger, coupled with his turnaround and backward jumper, his back is a huge threat to Iron Fist."

Let's put it this way, under the single defense, no one in the league can defend against Jordan, including Iron Fist, he can only deal with Jordan's offense in other ways. ”

"Brush!"

Jordan added a free throw.

"Jordan has 21 points, Zhou Quan should be careful." Zhang reasonably reminded.

At 52:49, the Bulls trailed by 3 points and the Pistons attacked.

(End of chapter)