This year's Bulls' roster strength is significantly stronger than in the previous two years, and they failed to achieve a 73-win record, because the second consecutive championship attracted too much hatred.

However, in the case of the league-wide targeting, being able to achieve a record of 66 wins and the first place in the league is enough to prove that the Bulls are excellent.

In other words, experienced Eastern Conference playoff teams, in order to avoid the Bulls as much as possible and ensure that they can play a better ranking in the playoffs, are basically in the second half of the regular season, trying their best to climb up.

For this reason, the battle between the eastern teams this year has also become extremely fierce.

The old teams in the East, most of which have come ashore, occupy a good position.

So, the first person to come to the United Center in Chicago this year is a new face - the Atlanta Eagles.

The Hawks are in a similar situation to the Pistons, being a completely civilian team.

However, if you really want to talk about it, the starters are quite capable of playing, Bibby, singles Joe, Josh Childis, Marvin Williams, Horford.

In addition, in the bench lineup, there are also available talents such as Tyronn Lue and Zaza Pachuria.

In the regular season, the Hawks have a lot of strength in the East.

But now that it's the playoffs and the Bulls, who are the first in the league, they naturally have no chance of winning.

In the next series, the Bulls played with ease.

First of all, a wave of three consecutive wins laid the victory, of which the two games at home were the main three-quarter check-in, and the whole game was a victory with a huge advantage of 20+.

By the time of G4, the Bulls, as usual, reduced the playing time of the main players and played tacit ball with the Hawks.

Even so, the Eagles almost didn't win.

Fortunately, Scott Skels has a lot of coaching experience, and whoever has a hot hand can go down.

It's just that for Zhu Fangyu, who has a good feel in G4 garbage time, it's a little difficult to accept.

"Grass mud horse, Lao Tzu finally scored two three-pointers, why did you replace Lao Tzu?"

The Bulls are a championship team, and they really can't give Zhu Fangyu much playing time and ball control this season.

During the regular season, Zhu Fangyu scored 13 points in the most games.

If it weren't for Doane's words, Zhu Fangyu would not have been on the Bulls' playoff roster.

However, Doon also has his own considerations, after playing this season, he will return to China to prepare for the Olympics.

When the time comes, Zhu Fangyu, who knows the roots and cooperates with the relatively tacit understanding, will definitely come in handy.

As a young player, Zhu Fangyu lacks experience in competitions.

And the high-intensity game of the NBA playoffs can be regarded as a kind of exercise for Zhu Fangyu, which is extremely rare.

It is precisely because of Dune's relationship that Zhu Fangyu has gained a certain amount of playing time in these four playoff games.

However, in the first three games, the most shots were made 4 times in one game.

The Bulls didn't play much tonight, and Zhu Fangyu finally got relatively plenty of playing time and ball possession.

It is rare to have the opportunity to play more in the playoffs, Zhu Fangyu also played more actively, and then the state was also good.

But just when the score was about to go to the double, he was pressed to the bench by Scott Skels because he played too well.

"Xiao Zhu, you played well, congratulations.

The coach has his own considerations, don't be angry.

There's still a chance in the next games, and if you keep taking the chances, you'll definitely be able to play better and better in the NBA in the future. ”

Dune also saw that Zhu Fangyu was not convinced, but it was not good to support Zhu Fangyu in public to vent his dissatisfaction with Scott Skeyles.

Moreover, it would be good for everyone to know this kind of thing in their own hearts, but it is not easy to make it public.

"Alas, Brother Du, I'm not so angry, I just feel that I finally found the feeling, and it's a pity that this was actually replaced."

Hearing this, Du En continued to comfort Zhu Fangyu and said: "When your strength is strong enough, for a team, you are more important than the coach, then the coach is your puppet."

And when you're not strong enough, you have to learn to obey the coach's orders, which is your way to survive as a player.

Besides, the NBA is not about fighting and killing, and human feelings cannot be avoided anywhere, and you can understand the rest yourself, and I will do it all. ”

Doon still revealed to Zhu Fangyu that he was playing tacit ball tonight, and Zhu Fangyu had also seen it in the CBA, but most of the tacit ball in the CBA was not played in the playoffs.

There is still a big difference between the two sides, so Zhu Fangyu didn't turn a corner for a while, and this time he was a fan of the authorities.

"Brother Du, I understand, next time I'll understand what to do."

"There's no need to understand too much, as a player, playing well is what you should do, and don't care about anything else."

"Okay, I see."

has been playing with Doon for more than half a year, and Zhu Fangyu also knows that the Bulls are Doon's team, and Doon will not be unfavorable to him in terms of work and team, he just needs to be obedient.

And Zhu Fangyu is also self-aware, she originally came to hug Dune's thigh, and she mixed a championship ring first, which is better than anything else.

So, just be obedient.

To get back to business, the Bulls quickly returned to Chicago after losing to G4.

The first round of the playoffs G5 was soon underway, and the Bulls regained the win and advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals with a 4-1 record.

Before the Bulls advanced, the opponent in the Eastern Conference semifinals was actually one step ahead of the Bulls and advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Magic, who are fourth in the East, swept the Raptors, who are fifth in the East, 4-0 and became the opponent of the Bulls in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

As for the other group of Eastern Conference semifinals, the Celtics, who are second in the East, defeated the Wizards, who are seventh in the East, 4-2, and the Cavaliers, who are sixth in the East, beat the Pistons, who are third in the East, 4-3.

James is about to lead the Cavaliers to the TD North Shore Garden Arena in Boston to experience the power of the Celtics' Big Three.

If James stops at this year's playoffs and huddles with other stars in the future, he may explain: "Shaq also did ......"

Of course, James is only up against the Celtics' Big Three, and Howard is about to face the Bulls' four All-Stars.

If you really want to talk about it, it was Howard who was even worse in this year's playoffs.

Although Howard also has some helpers around him, the quality of the stars is still much worse than that of the Bulls.

On May 3, the Eastern Conference semifinals G1 between the Bulls and the Magic began, and the Bulls gave the Magic defensive intensity as soon as they came up.

Now the Magic have formed a star-studded style of play, but as soon as Lewis came up to single Josh Smith, he was covered by the latter face to face.

The Bulls took the opportunity to counterattack, and Luol Deng relied on the transition offense to help the Bulls score 2 points first.

The Magic got the ball again, and Nelson took advantage of Howard's pick-and-roll to the basket.

At this time, Garnett stepped forward to delay and cooperated with Kassel to pinch Nelson.

Although Nelson and Howard's blocking and dismantling is a part of the Magic tactics, Nelson's passing ability is extremely limited, and many times he breaks through the basket and attacks the basket by himself, even if he feeds Howard, sometimes the pass is very outrageous.

This time, Nelson's breakthrough was blocked by Garnett and Cassel, of which Garnett's defensive range is so large that it can be described as covering the sky.

Nelson couldn't get the ball to Howard, and because of his limited passing vision, he was forced to stop and jump to Lewis in the bottom corner.

Lewis caught the ball and shook it, then started to rush to the basket.

However, Josh Smith was not fooled and clinged to Lewis's defense, not giving an inch.

Just when Lewis didn't know whether to continue playing to the basket or looking for an opportunity to pass the ball to his teammates, Garnett actually appeared in front of Lewis again.

I can only say that I haven't watched Garnett's game, and I don't know how terrifying Garnett's defense is!

A seven-foot giant with long hands and feet kept pounced on the outside line and cooperated with his teammates to complete the pinch.

In the face of this kind of sweeping defense, whether it is a breaker or a pitcher, it will feel very troublesome.

Because Howard lacks the ability to attack independently, the Magic's scoring method is mainly composed of breaking through the basket from outside players, and breaking through unfavorable points to the outside to shoot from the outside.

Now that the breakthrough will be trapped, and the shooting will also be interfered with, naturally everything will stop, and all of a sudden will fall into a scoring drought.

It is said that after Lewis was pinched, he was about to pass the ball out, but he was directly slapped away by Josh Smith.

Garnett, who was close at hand, picked the ball in the air and handed it to Kassel to carry the ball forward.

The Bulls tried to counterattack, but the Magic were not slow to defend back.

Seeing that he was about to fight a positional battle, Doon ran directly to the low post and helped his teammates attract defense first.

Lewis couldn't defend Doon alone, Howard was guarding the basket again, seeing Doon's back to catch the ball, Howard could only come to Doon's side, and once Doon received the ball, he immediately hit it.

Seeing this, Cassel directly accelerated to break through, and Nelson was not easily broken through by Cassel, but Cassel didn't want to burst to the basket.

After all, after Nelson, then you will have to face Howard's defense.

Cassel played very smart, and knew who to hit at this time.

Moreover, Kassel is one of the four kings of the mid-pitch industry, and the half-volley is second to none in the league.

After breaking through to the free-throw line, Cassel opted to slow his back.

Nelson's defense of Cassel was inexperienced and took the initiative to come forward to fight, but Cassel took advantage of this confrontation, took a step back, and then turned over to shoot.

Nelsonton, who had just finished the match, was in place, and if he wanted to block Kassel's ball, he had to jump high enough and bend his knees to build up his strength, but Kassel made a quick shot.

It can only be said that players who have been able to play in the NBA for so many years have two brushes.

Kassel's technique of back-to-back half-volley is too skillful! Obviously he looks very thin, but no one else can block Kassel's goal, and even if it can cause interference, there are very few of them.

Brush –

The basketball hollowed into the net, and the Bulls took another two-point lead.

I don't know if it was a rush to the doctor, but the Magic players realized that the offense launched by the outside was easy to be defended by Garnett, so they chose to pass the ball to Howard who asked for the ball in the low post.

The Magic played the Raptors in the first round, and Howard asked for the ball in the low post and relied on his body to eat Bosh and Banyani.

The Bulls' interior line is Garnett and Josh Smith, where does Howard get the confidence to dare to play like this?

"Mother's Day is coming, don't forget to greet your mother for me!"

Garnett didn't say a word and turned on the trash talk mode, and at the same time, the small movements in his hands did not stop.

Howard tried to dribble to the basket, but after a step on the dribble, the ball was stabbed by Garnett, but Howard reacted quickly and immediately followed to stabilize the ball.

But then, Howard didn't dare to dribble anymore, so he could only hold the ball with both hands and then keep looking left and right to see when his teammates would step forward to respond.

Soon, Turkoglu came over to solve the problem.

Howard faked a pick-and-roll and immediately cut to the basket, and Turkoglu fed Howard the cake as usual.

I didn't want Garnett to anticipate it, so he jumped directly and cut the ball in the air with one hand.

Turkoglu knew that Howard could jump, so the ball he was given wasn't short.

Unexpectedly, this kind of ball made specifically for Howard can be easily hooked, and then complete a steal in the air by predicting the passing route.

There is no way, it can only be said that there is no way at all.

The Magic's regular scoring methods were all guarded by the Bulls.

As for the Bulls, the offensive tactics have not been developed much, and they can easily establish the advantage by relying on defensive counterattacks alone.

Soon, Big Van Gundy called a timeout and tried to let the Magic players shoot three-pointers from the outside to see if they could open up space for other players to create better scoring opportunities.

However, the Bulls also have a strong perimeter defense, and the Magic can't open a breakthrough from Doon and Roel Deng.

And because Howard doesn't have the ability to attack independently, if Nelson asks Kassel, Garnett can let Howard save from the inside and help Kassel interfere with Nelson's shooting.

At 13-27, the first quarter was over, and the Bulls had taken a 14-point lead.

Of course, the Hawks played in the first round of the playoffs, and the Bulls did the same.

However, relying on defense, it is still relatively unusual to limit the Magic's scoring to 15 points in a single quarter.

It can only be said that after Garnett joined the Bulls, the Bulls finally had someone who was able to help defend in the center, glue the Bulls' excellent individual defense ability together, and build an excellent overall defense.

Although the Bulls' defense was not weak in the previous two years, it is undoubtedly stronger this year.

It is also because of the stronger defense that the Bulls won the playoffs, which seemed easier than the previous two years.

75-106, the Eastern Conference semifinals G1 between the Magic and the Bulls, the Bulls directly gave the Magic a crushing victory with a huge gap of 31 points.

Originally, the Magic came to the Eastern Conference semifinals with the momentum of sweeping the Raptors, thinking that even if they couldn't win against the Bulls, they wouldn't lose too ugly.

But now it seems that when the Magic can't break through the Bulls' defense and score effectively inside and outside, maybe the Magic's performance in front of the Bulls is not as good as the Hawks in the previous round.

The Eagles relied on all the people, and the offensive end was not so stretched, and the average points per game were around 90 points.

Once the Magic were restricted from scoring in the restricted area, they could only bet on the long two-point and three-point areas that Garnett couldn't sweep.

However, if you want to score on the outside, it is not so easy, and you need to find open space to shoot.

Looking at G1, the Magic shot 8-of-29 from three-point range, shooting only 27.5%.

Relying on such a three-point shot will definitely not help the Magic win.

On the other hand, the Bulls shot 9 of 20 three-pointers, with a shooting rate of up to 45%!

Of course, the Bulls won by 31 points and could have won the G1 game even if they didn't make a single three-pointer.

And this advantage is played by defense and counterattack.

It's called, defense wins the championship! (End of chapter)