"KG, take good care of your injuries and don't rush to train in private.
I believe we have a chance to compete together in the finals.
But please also believe that we have the strength to maintain our advantage until the day you come back. "
The Bulls swept the Celtics 4-0 to advance to the Finals, and then returned to Chicago with the Eastern Conference Championship trophy. On behalf of the other Bulls players, Dunn said goodbye to Garnett.
Next, Garnett will temporarily leave the team to treat his knee injury.
Everyone in the Bulls supports Garnett to recover from his injury first. Even if something happens by then, Garnett can continue to take the blocking injection and appear in the finals.
If the Bulls can go smoothly in the next finals and get three points early, then it won't be too late to notify Garnett to come back.
Calculating the time, there is still at least one week before the finals start.
Even if the Bulls play smoothly after the finals start and win the first three games, it will still be at least half a month until G4 starts and Garnett returns to the team.
Although Garnett's knee was sprained, the meniscus was not damaged.
Now we need to recuperate, mainly to recuperate from minor injuries to avoid any sequelae in the future.
Half a month of rest will not allow Garnett to fully recover, but it can at least alleviate the injury and reduce the adverse effects of an emergency comeback.
In this regard, Garnett himself wants to persist in playing every finals game.
However, Garnett's family and management team did not support him doing this.
On the Bulls side, Duan also made it clear that he hopes Garnett can rest in peace and recuperate. Naturally, the Bulls management will not be able to say anything more.
By the way, as Garnett temporarily parted ways with the Bulls and his team, the news spread like wildfire after Bulls staff revealed it to the outside media, causing heated discussion in the outside world.
Originally, the Bulls swept the Celtics to advance to the finals, which has made fans across the United States infinitely optimistic that the Bulls can achieve the feat of creating a dynasty for three consecutive championships.
But at this juncture, the bull's internal weakness was exposed.
After all, Garnett, who left the team, is the Bulls' second-in-command, and he is also the Bulls' center player with the fewest number at any position.
If Garnett cannot participate in the finals, the Bulls' overall strength will inevitably be greatly affected.
"The biggest enemy of the Chicago Bulls is not the Los Angeles Lakers or the San Antonio Spurs in the West, but injuries!"
"Although the Boston Celtics were eliminated, they also consumed the Chicago Bulls' bullets! KG's injury and departure from the team may be the biggest turning point in this year's playoffs!"
"KG left the team for treatment. Can the Chicago Bulls build a dynasty again without KG?"
"Dunn has encountered a problem that the magician faced back then - can he still win the finals if Kareem is absent from the game? The next finals may become the biggest test of Dunn's career!"
"KG is injured and leaves the team. The Chicago Bulls face the biggest problem in winning three consecutive championships? Who is likely to be the best helper next to Du En?"
"No one can stop the Chicago Bulls! KG leaving the team to receive treatment will only make Duan even more legendary!"
"The finals is a stage for superstars, but it is also a stage for young people! Duen will lead the Bulls youth team to the championship award stage again!"
After the news came out, there were many people who badmouthed the Bulls, but there were also many media who continued to have confidence in the Bulls.
Duan has proven with facts that as long as there are enough helpers around him, he can win the championship, and there will be more than one.
Now the Bulls only injured Garnett. At best, they temporarily lost a second-in-command.
Even if the Bulls are short of a center, without Garnett, they still have a physically gifted substitute like Milicic.
As for no one who can serve as a substitute for Milicic, aren't there some veteran power forwards?
It takes a thousand days to raise troops, but they can be used only once. They have been raised for so long in the regular season just to use them in key battles like the finals.
In other words, the Bulls have not clearly established the team's third leader this season.
Ben Gordon's statistics are at the level of a third-stringer, but his physical fitness is a bit poor. He is not an offensive and defensive player. Looking at the team's victory contribution value, he is not as good as Luol Deng and Josh Smith.
Fortunately, the Bulls do not lack people who can play.
If there is no third boss, then everyone is the third boss.
Luol Deng and Josh Smith have become All-Star substitutes. If they were on other teams, they would be somewhat giants.
The Bulls continue to follow the rule that the forward is king, and the way basketball will be played in the future, in the finals, both the Lakers and Spurs will be enough to give them a drink.
Relatively speaking, the Bulls, whose inside strength has declined, are more afraid of the Spurs who have Duncan.
However, the Western Conference finals have reached G6, and the Spurs are no longer able to protect themselves against the aggressive and murderous Lakers.
Because the Spurs have been dunking and dunking all year round, they only rely on recruiting veterans to strengthen their team, without signing big-name stars to enhance their strength.
It was also because of problems with perimeter defense that he was defeated by the Lakers who owned Kobe Bryant.
This season, the Lakers have strengthened O'Neal and formed a twin interior tower with Gasol.
No matter how strong Duncan is, he can't beat four hands with just one fist.
On May 31, G6 of the Western Conference Finals came to an end.
The result of the game did not surprise everyone. The Lakers won G6 of the Western Conference Finals and once again won the Western Conference Championship trophy.
However, compared with last year, the Lakers felt like they were mourning and were not excited at all, as if they had lost the Western Conference Finals.
After the game, Kobe was interviewed and explained in front of media reporters.
"We are the Los Angeles Lakers, and winning the Western Conference championship is a common occurrence for us.
We lost to the Chicago Bulls last year and they are our opponent this year.
Last year we were the biggest losers in the league, but this year we are stronger and we are back!
We knew we were one step away from winning that damn championship!
After beating the Chicago Bulls, we will celebrate!
Before we win the championship, we have to stay calm and face a formidable opponent like the Chicago Bulls. "
In the same interview with the media, Master Zen also expressed a similar attitude: "We are still four wins away from a moment truly worthy of celebration!
Making it to the Finals is cause for celebration, but I have to warn my players that once you lose the Finals, that feeling of regret will haunt you for a whole year.
I hate the feeling of losing. We lost to the Chicago Bulls last year and lost to a team led by Duane.
Like Kobe, we turn the regrets in our hearts into the power of progress. We become stronger, which is to return to the place where we fell in the future.
We have to get up here and move towards it again.
No matter what, we will feel pressure to face the Chicago Bulls led by Dunn again in the Finals.
They are the strongest team in the league, they are the team that won the championship for the second consecutive time, they are a mountain that is difficult to climb!
However, we are here just to climb over it and conquer it! And this is the fun and meaning of the NBA. "
After the interview with the Lakers, the content of the post-game interview related to Kobe and Jackson quickly spread to the ears of Du En and others.
I learned that the Lakers are facing the Bulls as a formidable enemy and attach great importance to the next round of the finals.
The Bulls players had to end their short vacation early, and everyone was in the hotel again, restarting the boring training day after day.
Only in this way can the Bulls players ensure that they are in good enough condition to face the upcoming finals.
On June 6, G1 of the Finals between the Bulls and Lakers started at the Chicago League Center.
Milicic, who started the game, played very actively and helped the Bulls get the ball from the beginning of the game.
Because Garnett was away, the pick-and-roll tactics of Cassel and Garnett, which the Bulls had played a lot in the past, were not copied.
After all, Cassel and Milicic don't have much tacit understanding.
In order to increase inside scoring and make up for Garnett's missing points, Dunn ran to the low post early and caught the ball with his back.
The Lakers did not choose to go forward, but let O'Neal try to defend Duan alone.
O'Neal Jr. can earn a maximum salary of nearly 20 million in the league because he is not only good at offense, but also good at defense. He is a superstar with strong offensive and defensive capabilities.
However, when Duan gets the ball in the low post, he can not only attack, but also pass.
As Duan hit O'Neal with his back first, knocking O'Neal's center of gravity away, he then slid to the bottom of the basket and pretended to attack the basket.
Gasol under the basket was attracted by Duen and chose to help defend.
Then Du En threw a high ball to Milicic behind Gasol. The latter did not disappoint Du En. He directly used his physical talent to perform an alley-oop dunk.
In the Lakers' offensive round, the Bulls directly launched a full-court press.
Hinrich had no problem dribbling originally, but in the previous Western Conference semifinals, he injured his left wrist. Now his dribbling is somewhat affected by the injury.
As the saying goes, if you are sick and can kill you, the Bulls will naturally do anything to win.
Facing the Bulls' full-court press, Kobe could only meet Hinrich in the backcourt and get the ball early.
And the person defending Kobe is naturally Duan!
Against generals, kings against kings! Duen has always been unafraid of confronting his opponent's boss.
Even on the offensive end, Duan often calls out small guards in pick-and-rolls, and even travels at staggered times in order to win.
However, when it came to a real tough fight, Du En never gave up.
When Kobe saw Duen coming forward, he was not timid at all. He just raised his iron elbow to welcome Duen's impact.
Fortunately, Du En had already put on the breastplate.
As the saying goes, once you get old, you will get familiar again.
Now Du En wears a breastplate to fight and feels no discomfort at all.
Kobe also took advantage of Duen by not using his iron elbow skills because of Duen's technology.
At the same time, under a lot of confrontation, he was also worried about dribbling errors, so he could only hand the ball back to Hinrich first.
After Hinrich got the ball, he lobbed it to O'Neal on the sideline. The latter took the ball and singled out Josh Smith, but was not impressed and could only try a turnaround jumper.
O'Neal Jr.'s low-post offense is fine, but he prefers shooting.
The shooting percentage is often not as high as that of other low-post offensive techniques.
Besides, Josh Smith's defense is indeed not bad.
Although he didn't block the shot this time, he still used physical confrontation, which affected O'Neal's shooting touch.
With a bang under the basket, the centers from both sides crowded under the basket and pushed each other.
Gasol was a little more graceful in grabbing rebounds. The method he adopted was to get stuck in the position to fight, and then take off to grab the rebound.
Milicic was more active and proactive, jumping first and grabbing the rebound in the air.
However, Gasol pressed forward immediately after Milicic landed, not giving Milicic a chance to pass the ball, and seemed to have the intention of reaching out for the ball.
However, Milicic is a European player and still has some passing skills.
As Milicic passed the ball to Luol Deng on the outside, the Bulls immediately started a transition attack.
The Lakers have the same four-star configuration as the Bulls. The starting lineup looks perfect, but they just don't have the money to strengthen the small forward.
Now the starting small forward is Walton, who has been with the Lakers for five years.
In addition, there was Ariza on the bench for half a season, but due to poor golf skills, he could not fully integrate into the triangle offensive system, so even though the defense was okay, he was still put on the bench by Zen Master.
Of course, Walton Jr. is not bad either. With the basket, he can open up space for other Lakers players.
For the Lakers' outside defense, Hinrich and Kobe are enough, and O'Neal and Gasol can defend the inside.
For other teams, Walton's defense would be a little worse, so it wouldn't be a problem at all.
However, it is different when meeting a bull.
The Bulls mainly focus on defensive counterattacks and switching offenses. When Walton Jr. faced Luol Deng, not only was he a bit slower, but the physical confrontation was also not at the same level.
I saw Luol Deng single-handedly getting to the basket. After pushing against Walton, he took off and completed a dunk on Walton.
Walton Jr. seemed to want to commit an offensive foul. After Luol Deng's ball was knocked away at the start, he fell backwards.
Ever since, I have contributed to Luo Er Deng a picture of a man who dominates the world and looks down at the ants.
He didn't hear the whistle, but Walton was very conscious. He got up before his teammates came forward, then directly took the ball and slipped out of the baseline, passing the ball to the oncoming Kobe.
When Duan saw this, he immediately stepped forward to fight. Kobe passed the ball to Hinrich, allowing Hinrich to share some dribbling pressure.
And Hinrich quickly passed the ball to Gasol who returned to the frontcourt. Gasol directly acted as a pivot in the high post and passed the ball to Kobe who was running without the ball.
After receiving the ball, Kobe ignored Duan's block and made a strong pull-up shot from the mid-range.
Before Kobe got rid of Duen, he also elbowed Duen with a small movement. Due to this, Duen was half a beat slow and failed to follow Kobe's footsteps, and in turn did not completely interfere with Kobe's shooting.
brush--
Now that Kobe's skills are perfected and his body is still at its peak, he has a faint flavor of Jordan after his three-game winning streak.
However, Duen knows how to turn Kobe into the Kobe who can do three irons and three irons. For the next game, Duen is more looking forward to it than worrying. (End of chapter)
