"At 28:24, SuperSonics lead by 4 points."

Elgin Baylor said: "Jordan shot 3-of-7 in the first 11 minutes, 2-of-2 in the back, 5-of-9 in the quarter, 0-of-1 from three-point range, plus 2-of-2 free throws, and had 12 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, and 1 foul. ”

Robertson said: "Iron Fist made a lot of shots, shooting 8 of 12 in a single quarter, shooting 66.7 percent, 1 of 2 three-pointers, 1 of 1 free throw, and got 18 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 3 steals, 1 block, 1 turnover and 1 foul. ”

Elgin Baylor analyzed: "Iron Fist made a large number of shots, which shows that the Bull's tactics are right, and the Bulls' tactics today are to lock up others and let Iron Fist fight alone." ”

Robertson nodded and said: "So don't look at Iron Fist's 18 points in a single quarter, but his physical consumption is very large, such a big consumption, the supersonic is only 4 points ahead, George Karl should have fallen into Phil Jackson's tactical trap." ”

"Possibly."

Elgin Baylor said: "The Bulls have a twin-tower tactic behind them, although they still let the supersonic play a lot of fast breaks, but they also force the supersonic to play a lot of positional battles.

In the positional battle, the Bulls locked up others and forced the Iron Fist King to single out Jordan, and there was Mutombo in it, and the offensive efficiency of the Iron Fist King did drop a little. ”

Robertson shook his head and said, "66.7% is already very high. The problem with hypersound is that others score too little, adding up to only 10 points.

This shows that the Bulls have put their fearsome defensive power to play in positional battles, making it impossible for the SuperSonics to score.

The others scored a total of 10 points, but most of them were scored in fast breaks, and they rarely scored in positional battles.

Leitner did run a few open spots, but he had a mediocre hand today, shooting 1-of-4. Hawkins was also in average form today, shooting 1-of-3. And Schramf was targeted by Pippen today, who was in very good form today, especially on the defensive end. ”

On the Bulls bench, there was a good atmosphere.

Jordan didn't really think the twin-tower strategy was useful at first, but now he doesn't see it that way.

Although the twin-tower strategy makes the overall speed slower, at least half of the time, it can limit the fast-paced offense of the supersonic, which is why the Bulls can bite the score in the back.

"Phil, how do you play in the second quarter?" He asked after taking a few breaths.

"Robert Parish and Tony Kukoc on the inside, small forward Krichon Kaffee, guards Steve Cole and Randy Brown."

Phil Jackson chose to arrange the lineup for the second quarter, and then said: "He played 11 minutes in the first quarter, and his physical exertion was greater than Michael's, so he shouldn't be the first to play in the second quarter."

The SuperSonics are also accustomed to using a substitute lineup, and their bench lineup is very good, so we also use the bench lineup to top it and see the situation first.

Michael, Scotty, you have to try to recover your strength, and when the Iron Fist goes up, you go up whenever you want. ”

Pippen didn't say anything, and Jordan nodded.

Jordan's physical consumption is also very large, after all, his physical strength is no longer comparable to his peak, although the consumption of off-ball offense is not as good as the consumption of the big nuclear iron fist with the ball, but the off-ball running is also very physical.

On the supersonic bench, George Karl sensed the problem.

Iron Fist fought so hard, scoring 18 points in a single quarter, but only leading by 4 points, how to fight later?

"Their defense in positional warfare is too strong!" Zhou Quan said with a serious expression.

Schramf, Hawkins, and Drexler all nodded, and their positions today were like getting stuck in a quagmire, and they were stained by Pippen and Harper, and they couldn't run out of open positions at all.

Leitner, on the other hand, clapped his hands with some chagrin.

He had the most chances, as neither Mutombo nor Bill Winnington could keep up with his movement, but he only made 1 of 4 shots, wasting a lot of small open opportunities.

George forced his composure, thought for a moment and said, "Their bench doesn't have the defense of the main lineup, and we have to score with all our strength on the bench." ”

Zhou Quan was stunned, it was really like this, Jordan and Pippen, Ron Harper, and Mutombo could not play the whole game.

Among them, Jordan should have the best fitness, Pippen and Harper are a little worse, and Mutombo is a big center and definitely needs more rest.

And comparing the bench lineup, of course, the supersonic is more powerful.

In the first place, it was to not weaken the depth of the squad, so Whithitt did not bring in Mutombo, and this advantage must now be maximized.

George Carr then set up the bench and said, "Matt Geiger and Sam Perkins on the inside, Drexler, McMillan and Hugh Porter Davis on the outside. ”

Then at the beginning of the second quarter, the supersonic attack, the glider singled Steve Cole, hit a three-pointer, and stretched the margin to seven points.

Then the Bulls attacked, Kukoc was caught by Sam Parkin and the glider on the right wing, and distributed the ball to Steve Kerr, who shot and returned a three-pointer.

Back on the page, Perkins missed a long-range two-pointer, but Matt Geiger made a layup on the head of the top 50 superstar and veteran Parish.

Then Kerr made a three-point shot on the head of the glider, missed, Matt Geiger protected the rebound, and the supersonic played a fast break, and the glider didn't shoot after hitting the basket, and gave the ball to Perkins on the left wing three-point line, Perkins made a three-point shot, was fouled by Kukoc, missed, and made three free throws.

Two minutes had passed since the second session.

After Perkins hit one of the first two free throws, Zhou Quan came on for Hugh Porter Davis, followed by Jordan and Pippen, replacing Randy Brown and Jason Kaffee.

In the next ten minutes, Zhou Quan focused on passing and fast attack, trying to conserve his physical strength.

Jordan and Pippen didn't dare to go all out, because the superSonics' bench lineup was stronger than the Bulls, and if the two of them ran out of physical strength, they might be crushed by an iron fist later.

In the sixth minute of the second quarter, the Bulls were still five points behind, at which point the Bulls called a timeout and then replaced all the main players.

On the supersonic side, because Matt Geiger played well, he was left on the court, and the other main players played again.

At halftime, 52:50, the SuperSonics only led by two points.

Zhou Quan scored 26 points in the half, exactly half of the team's scores, shooting 56%, 2 assists in the first quarter, 4 assists in the second quarter, 6 assists in the half, and 3 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 block.

Jordan scored 20 points in the half, shooting 48.5% from the field, and had 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.

In the third quarter, the two sides were still fighting a war of attrition, both wanting to consume each other's physical energy.

The Bulls' main hope is to consume Zhou Quan's physical energy, and they defend the others with all their might, leaving Zhou Quan to play alone.

Zhou Quan really can't help it, in the main lineup, the Bulls' defense is too strong, he can only shoot a lot, because his teammates don't have many good opportunities.

But as long as the Bulls came off the bench, the defense was not so strong, and his teammates could run out of position, so he focused on passing and assisting, played some breakthrough point tactics, and saved some physical energy.

In this way, he did not allow the bull to fully achieve the purpose of draining his physical energy.

In terms of supersonics, they hope to use a deep bench lineup to drain the physical energy of the Bulls' main players.

But the Bulls' bench lineup is also good, and the third quarter is also half the main and half bench, so the goal of the SuperSonics has not been well accomplished.

At the end of the third quarter, 74:74, the two teams were tied.

Zhang Reasonable said: "Zhou Quan scored 32 points in the third quarter, with a shooting rate of 52.4%, and played 32 minutes in the third quarter, and his performance was still good, and his score alone accounted for 43% of the team.

The SuperSonics' other main players, including the sixth-man glider, have played less than 25 minutes.

In terms of fitness, if Zhou Quan can hold on in the fourth quarter, the superSonics' main lineup should have some physical advantages. ”

Xu Jicheng nodded and said: "Jordan scored 26 points, shot 46.4%, and played 33 minutes in the third quarter." Pippen also played 33 minutes, and Jordan was the same as above. Mutombo and Harper's time was controlled at 28 minutes. The main reason is that Jordan and Pippen have more playing time, one minute more than Zhou Quan. ”

Zhang Li sighed: "Although there may be some physical advantages, but it is not big, the Bulls' bench lineup is actually not bad."

And in terms of tactics, the supersonic wanted to use the fast pace to drag down the physical fitness of the Bulls, but many times they were dragged into positional battles by the Bulls. ”

Xu Jicheng said: "Then in the fourth quarter, it is likely to be a hard battle, and at the critical moment, look at the performance of the core players." ”

The game entered the final quarter, and from the beginning, both sides were in the main lineup, both hoping to lead their opponents at the beginning of the final quarter.

On the Bulls side, instead of playing the twin-tower strategy, it was Mutombo and Kukoc who played inside.

Phil Jackson judged that it was all to the end, and the physical consumption of supersonic speed was also very large, and the fast attack ability was definitely not so strong.

But he still told Mutombo and Jordan to try to stop their opponents' quick shots and passes.

The Bulls attacked first, Jordan ran aggressively, but Zhou Quan followed him and had no chance, Pippen missed Schlamb's head, and Rodman grabbed the rebound in the backcourt.

"It's still a fast attack!" Zhang Cheng shouted excitedly.

Mutombo blocked Rodman's fast pass, and Rodman turned to hand the ball to Hawkins, who came down to pick up, and Hawkins passed the fast Zhou Quan.

Time was delayed for at least three seconds, and the rest of the Bulls had already returned to defense, and the fast break had no chance.

Zhou Quan received the ball near the left wing midline, pushed forward against Jordan's defense, and began to accelerate forward when he was close to the three-point line, and continued to change direction and break through, forcing Jordan to keep retreating.

Just as he was taking a step past the three-point line, he suddenly made a sharp stop, then took a step back extremely quickly and shot a three-pointer.

Jordan wanted to grab it too late, so he could only watch Zhou Quan shoot.

"Brush!"

The water splashed and hit the three-pointer.

"Three points in a small vacancy? Pretty! Zhou Quan didn't shoot many three-pointers today, 1 of 2 shots in the first quarter, and he didn't shoot three points later, this three-point shot made Jordan a little unexpected! Zhang said excitedly.

"Zhou Quan's continuous shaking and transformation, his ability to break through with the ball is too strong, Jordan is constantly being shaken back, and there is no way to come back." Xu Jicheng said with a smile.

Bulls attack.

Jordan ran from the right wing to the left flank and failed to shake off Zhou Quan.

Although he is an individual, Zhou Quan is not bad, and because of his age, his physical fitness is better than him.

Zhou Quan's speed is faster than him, and he has a better ability to drill into people's cracks, coupled with a strong confrontation ability, sometimes he is the one who squeezes out of the cover.

And Zhou Quan didn't shoot with all his strength in the second and third quarters, and passed the ball if he could, just to accumulate physical energy for the last quarter.

Jordan didn't have a chance, Pippen didn't pass the ball, he was a top 50 superstar, of course, he had to come by himself, a superstar is to be able to stand up at a critical moment.

"Bang!"

It's a pity that under Schramf's defense, this three-point shot was not shot.

It just so happened that Zhou Quan followed Jordan into the paint area and grabbed this backcourt rebound.

When it came time to switch attacks, Matt Geiger and Mutombo were left behind.

Zhou Quan changed direction continuously, killed out of the crowd, and began to push with all his might, after killing the middle line, there was only Ron Harper in front of him, Jordan was on his left side, Hawkins was on the right wing, and there was no one around.

He kept the free throw line and Jordan and Harper firmly around him before choosing to split the ball to Hawkins.

Hawkins stopped on the right-wing three-point line, was in a wide open space when he received the ball, exhaled and calmly jumped.

"Brush!"

There was a splash and a three-point shot.

The Bulls attacked, called a timeout after serving.

"That's the supersonic fast break, that's the Iron Fist threat with the ball. When he launched a fast attack, if there was no Mutombo inside, Jordan would not be able to defend him alone, and he had to rely on his teammates' packs, and then his passing was deadly, and his teammates' open space must not escape his vision. Elgin Baylor exclaimed.

Schramf made a meritorious contribution to preventing Pippen from missing two shots and helping the team lead by six points. Robertson said with a smile.

"He's getting a salary of five million a year at his age, and it's a three-year contract, and the SuperSonics still value him very much, as long as he doesn't get hurt, he performs well." Elgin Baylor nodded.

Before the Bulls bench, Phil Jackson said to Pippen seriously: "Scotty, don't take the risk, be patient, we're going to pass more, we're going to tear up their defensive formation with passes, understand?" ”

Jordan also said to Pippen with a straight face: "Scotty, play with your brain, because of you, we are 6 points behind." ”

"I, I see."

Pippen was dissatisfied with Phil Jackson's attitude towards him, but in the face of Jordan, he couldn't let out a fart, so he could only agree with a sigh.

Then, the two sides were once again locked in a bitter battle.

In the fifth minute, Zhou Quan stole Pippen's cross pass to Jordan and played a counterattack to help the team lead by 7 points.

"This is Zhou Quan's fifth steal of the game, and he also gave away two blocks today." Zhang said happily.

On the right wing, Jordan crossed the midline to ask for the ball, and held the ball to play Zhou Quan.

Phil Jackson wiped his sweat and looked at Jordan and Zhou Quan.

His triangle tactic is to create singles opportunities for Jordan, but since Zhou Quan's stealing ability has reached the most terrifying level in history, the last thing he likes to see is Jordan holding the ball and singles Zhou Quan.

(End of chapter)