November 27, Gund Arena, Cleveland.
The Chicago Bulls, who have come all the way, are experiencing seven consecutive away games from the Devils, and the overall mental state of the team is obviously not as good as the home team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
By the way, the Cavaliers are also in the spotlight now, starting with 8 wins and 4 losses, ranking third in the Eastern Conference!
It is worth mentioning that just two days ago, Cavaliers leader LeBron James also won the honor of Eastern Conference Player of the Week.
Now, the two best rookies of the 2003-04 season meet in tonight's game.
This is destined to determine the outcome of the debate about the strength of the two people tonight!
Tonight's much-anticipated battle will tell the fans who is the big king and who is the little king!
However, tonight's game is a little unfair to Dunn. The impact of seven consecutive away schedules on the Bulls players is too great.
Starting from the jump ball session, the Bulls players were not in very good condition.
Big Z helped the Cavaliers win the ball, and the Bulls adopted a pressing defensive attitude, but the effect was average.
James got the ball in the frontcourt, and Duan stepped forward to wrap up the ball.
Because it was a conversation between stars, Duan occasionally blocked James' breakthrough, and the referee did not blow the whistle.
James' dribbling was seriously affected by Duan. Halfway through the dribbling, he couldn't hold the ball, so he hurriedly passed the ball to his teammates.
At the same time, he asked Drew Gooden to come out from the low post to help him block the troublesome guy Duan.
However, when Duan saw James calling a pick-and-roll, he had no intention of crowding the screen and immediately retreated to the three-point line.
James caught the ball hand-in-hand and was about to rush to the basket when he found Duan appearing in front of him, not guarding the breakthrough but the shot.
At the same time, I also noticed that the Bulls set up a second and third zone defense again. At this moment, the space under the basket was extremely narrow.
So, I chose to invest in one first to try out the feel.
In fact, James has always liked shooting three-pointers, averaging more than 4 three-pointers per game all year round.
Because three-point shooting is efficient and no one will guard his three-pointers, James' three-point shooting percentage is pretty good in the regular season.
In addition, James has not gained weight yet. Although he is stronger than last year, he still looks a bit elegant. He is worthy of being Cleveland Jr. Maddie.
However, Duan still attaches great importance to defending James.
Seeing James take a shot, he immediately stepped forward to block the shot.
James is not allowed to return, but Duan can't really let James shoot!
Perhaps, it was precisely because of Duan's interference that James failed in his first three-point attempt.
The basketball hit the rim, and the rebound was quickly obtained by Josh Smith, who stayed inside and did not come out.
Josh Smith immediately passed the ball to Dunn on the fast break. James returned to the defense in time, but stopped on the wing to attract the defense, and then passed the ball to Luol Deng, who was also playing transition offense.
Ira Newbell, who defended Luol Deng, was an undrafted player. Although he was very tough on defense and dared to play hard, his physical fitness was still much worse than Luol Deng's.
Even though Ira Newbell grabbed Luol Deng's clothes under the basket, he still failed to limit Luol Deng's scoring.
2-0, the Bulls scored two points first with Duan's connection.
However, in the blink of an eye, the Cavaliers immediately grabbed the baseline ball and launched a transition attack.
The consecutive away games consumed a lot of physical and mental energy from the Bulls players. Also because they were out of shape, they were not so motivated to return to defense tonight.
Although the Cavaliers' Big Z slowed down their offensive speed, others were able to keep up with James' pace.
Duan tried his best to limit James' breakthrough and stood still, waiting for James to take off before blocking the shot, instead of anticipating James' layup three steps later.
James took an extra step and found that he had not yet found a suitable offensive opportunity, so he chose to pass the ball to Jeff McGinnis in the bottom corner.
Jeff McGinnis did not hesitate after receiving the ball and shot a three-pointer directly. At this time, Ben Gordon arrived belatedly and rushed towards Jeff McGinnis in the bottom corner.
Obviously, this defense was not successful. Taking advantage of an open shot, Jeff McGinnis hit a corner three-pointer to help the Cavaliers overtake the score.
"Brothers, cheer up! We are a playoff team and we need to bring the victory home!"
Du En clapped his hands to attract the attention of his teammates and gave them a lesson.
“We have a speed advantage in transition attacks, and we can score points with the help of defensive counterattacks!
Next I will pass the ball to you, you can perform even better!
Don’t think your opponent is very strong, don’t forget we defeated the defending champion! "
Du En originally expected to win the data and the game tonight, but obviously, he must give his teammates a little bit of sweetness tonight and draw them more cakes.
After all, they have reached the stage of exhaustion from working overtime, and now they just want to go home and rest, so they should be lazy if they can.
They didn't take tonight's game too seriously, but Duen couldn't ignore it.
For Duen, the best rookie was cheated, and this grudge must be resolved personally.
If you want to defeat the current Cavaliers, who are pretty good in the Eastern Conference, you have to rely on the strength of your teammates.
After all, Du En is also a human being. He has played six consecutive away games and is already quite tired.
Regardless of his mental state, he is not very physically fit either.
"Boss, I won't let you down." Ben Gordon raised his hand.
"Okay, let's go serve!" Du En responded with a smile.
He quickly received a pass from Ben Gordon and then handed the ball to him for him to carry the ball across half court.
Coming to the frontcourt, the Cavaliers' strategy for defending the Bulls is relatively simple, just flanking the ball holder and a three-and-two zone defense.
After being double-teamed, Duan immediately passed the ball to Ben Gordon, and then ran to the bottom corner without the ball.
James did not choose to pursue Duan, but just let Ira Newbell pester him all the way.
The Bulls played relatively simply. Tyson Chandler stepped forward to cover and caught the ball.
Duane used Tyson Chandler's screen to get rid of Ira Newbell's defense, then received the ball hand-to-hand and rushed directly to the basket.
Big Z was forced to defend in front of Du En. Du En tried to fly Big Z, but the latter remained unmoved.
Since no foul was caused, Duan had no choice but to throw the ball to Josh Smith, who was cutting to the basket.
+1 for the big center who dunks!
Josh Smith came off the rim happily and immediately returned to defense.
The teammates Du En had just inspired, this time the Bulls returned to defense in a timely manner.
Even though Big Z immediately served the ball, the Cavaliers still failed to seize the fleeting opportunity to switch offense.
In a positional battle, the Cavaliers can only try James' pick-and-roll first.
However, Duen's defensive method of going around every screen and preventing shots but not breakthroughs made James particularly uncomfortable.
James couldn't use the pick-and-roll to move in front of the small guard. Seeing that there was not much attack time, he could only try to dribble with a change of pace from his hips to shake Duan's center of gravity.
However, Du En is very experienced in defense. He only moved in small steps and did not expose any flaws.
With nothing to do, James passed the ball to Drew Gooden who was pulling to the outside.
Drew Gooden's basket is okay, but he can't make three-pointers. He is good at mid-range and long two-pointers.
Also because there was not much time, Drew Gooden could only take a step inside the three-point line immediately, and then took a long two-point shot.
But in this way, Josh Smith can defend from the inside.
Duang
Drew Gooden failed to hit the ball, and the rebound happened to be grabbed by Duan, and the Bulls immediately launched a fast break.
Because Duan said that he should pass the ball to his teammates when switching offenses, the Bulls' starting players were as fierce as tigers in fast breaks.
For a while, the Cavaliers didn't know how to defend and could only block the basket.
When Du En saw this, he immediately fired a cold arrow and followed up with a three-pointer.
When he is full of energy, Du En has a three-point shooting rate of about 40% when he takes a strong shot. Now, he will naturally not be unable to seize the opportunity to take a wide open shot.
brush--
The ball was scored, and Duan got ahead of James and took the lead in scoring personally.
But just as Du En turned around to return to defense, he found that James had already rushed to the frontcourt.
By the time Duen returned to the backcourt, the Cavaliers' long pass had already arrived.
This kind of ball is difficult to guard, and Duan can only sit back and watch James complete the dunk after receiving the ball, and then immediately step forward to pick up the ball and pass it to his teammates.
At this time, the Cavaliers retreated to the backcourt early, and the Bulls could only fight positional battles.
The Bulls played a relatively simple game. It was still Duan who initiated the game. After being double-teamed, he distributed the ball and no longer had the ball to attract the defense.
The Cavaliers' defensive focus was mainly on Duen. When they found Duen running to the basket, they immediately turned to look at Duen.
Unexpectedly, Ben Gordon broke through to the mid-range with the ball. James immediately rushed forward and took an extra step forward after Ben Gordon took off.
Fortunately, Ben Gordon was worried about James's blocking, so he specifically increased his backward angle. After taking the shot, he fell directly backward without stepping on James' instep.
The shooting was also good, because James didn't even jump, so it didn't cause much interference at all. Ben Gordon made a steady hit from the mid-range.
As a result, the score difference widened further.
Duan stepped forward and pulled Ben Gordon up, and James took the opportunity to run forward, wanting to play more and less.
However, Luol Deng returned to defense relatively promptly. When James broke into the penalty area, Luol Deng had already returned to the basket.
Of course, a rookie is still a rookie after all, and Luol Deng still lacks a little bit of defensive experience.
Because James' breakthrough movements were so consistent, the referee didn't mind if he took a few more steps.
Luol Deng took off early to block the shot with a prejudgment nature, which naturally prevented leakage.
However, just after James made a layup, another pair of big hands appeared from behind James.
Josh Smith returned to the backcourt in time and gave James a big hit.
However, because he failed to control his body, he hit James while blocking the shot and was given a whistle by the referee.
After falling, James quickly got up from the floor and plausibly asked the referee to comment.
It turned out that the referee called a foul on Luol Deng, not Josh Smith.
I have to say that the referee was quite professional. Josh Smith's block was directed towards the ball and did not touch his hand at all. Such a whistle must not be blown.
But if you want to give James some star whistles and home whistles, you can only blow the whistle on Luol Deng, but James is not very satisfied with this.
Perhaps also because of his dissatisfaction, James failed to hit the first free throw.
Luol Deng and Josh Smith said in unison at this time: "Basketball doesn't lie!"
Duang
Perhaps due to the interference of trash talk, James' mentality was affected and he missed two consecutive free throws.
The Bulls relied on the crowd under the basket, and the rebound was collected by Tyson Chandler.
Immediately afterwards, under the organization of Du En, Luol Deng dunked to vent his emotions and scored 2 points again.
Luo Er Deng practices a lot with Du En and has also received special training from Du En. He knows that when dunking on a fast break, in order to prevent the opponent from making a fast break, he needs to make a shark splash and jump to top the ball.
In normal times, Luol Deng has practiced this action many times, and now he is very successful.
The Cavaliers had to go out of the baseline to pick up the ball, and the Bulls took the opportunity to defend. They couldn't make a fast break, so they had to play positional warfare again.
James also knows that playing like this will definitely not work.
Many teams restrict him like the Bulls, which means guarding him alone, wearing him down, using positional battles to delay time, and letting him work alone.
On other teams, he could switch to a small defender and score the ball with his personal ability.
But when encountering Du En and the bull in front of him, the result of failure is that the bull will inevitably fight back.
Knowing that the Bulls were not easy to handle, James could only change his style of play and pass the ball to Big Z, allowing Big Z to finish under the basket.
One thing to say is that Tyson Chandler is indeed not Big Z's opponent, even though his defensive level has improved now.
But after all, Big Z is an All-Star center who can shoot and is so tall that Tyson Chandler basically has no way to guard him.
However, not every ball can be scored by Big Z.
As long as they can't score, the Bulls will immediately launch a fast break, and it will be difficult for the Cavaliers to defend the Bulls' transition attack in a four-on-five manner.
After playing a few rounds, Paul Silas saw that something was wrong and immediately replaced Big Z and sent more shooters to James to help James open up space.
However, the Bulls still led the defense with Du En and the second and third defenses.
Seeing James still dribbling, Duan smiled and said: "LeBron, you are too team-oriented, aren't you? Why are you just passing the ball and not scoring?"
(End of chapter)
