"This ball is getting more and more interesting!" Zhang Weiping couldn't help but laugh and said in the commentary box.
Tonight's game was the most enjoyable one he had given since "Yao Shark's first duel."
In that game, after Yao Ming met O'Neal, he gave O'Neal three consecutive blocks and almost didn't let him pass.
Tonight, Xu Yong dunked on James again, and dunked with another hand while showing off his steal. They were exactly the same!
"This is a world-class small forward." Yang Yi was overjoyed and directly said what he had written.
Xu Yong's explosive performance in his debut, let alone tonight, will not worry about selling the "Basketball Pioneer" in the future.
What excites him even more is that Xu Yong is an outside shooter, which may have greater market potential than Yao Ming.
That's countless money that can't be touched, but can be seen.
Don't talk about it. Xu Yong deserved it when he rejected him. He has never had such a thing as shame. From now on, he will be the number one Xu Chui!
"We must get to know Xu again. He is an incredible guy." On the other side of the commentary box, Reggie Miller couldn't help but exclaimed.
As a former superstar and now a senior commentator, he has read countless people. Even in his eyes, Xu Yong's game temperament is absolutely rare.
The rookie directly challenged the league's deputy No. 1 player, and the key is that he succeeded both times. This is definitely not what the outside world says [parallel import second place].
If this was a parallel import, then he hoped that there would be more such parallel imports in the future.
Xu Yong's steal and dunk not only helped the Bulls to overtake the score, but also reversed the trend that the Bulls had always been suppressed.
The Bulls took advantage of the momentum to pursue and played a 6-0 wave, stopping the Cavaliers.
When the Bulls players came off the court, there was overwhelming cheers.
For the first time since Jordan retired for the second time, they felt that the Bulls were full of vitality again.
It is no exaggeration to say that the expectations for this Bulls team are even higher than the one three years ago.
Because the talents of Rose and Xu Yong are much higher than those of Ben Gordon and Luol Deng.
And besides them, Noah and Deng are also talented.
There are four such players in a team, just tell us whether you expect it or not!
Of course, the game lasted 48 minutes. This wave stopped the Cavaliers' offense, and the outcome of the game was not determined. Even the situation was still unclear.
Because after returning from the timeout, James changed his style of play.
He still played with the ball, but started calling pick-and-rolls.
Each player has his own personality and will make completely different choices when encountering the same problem.
Xu Yong was dunking and stealing to show off his crotch. Kobe had to fight Xu Yong for a whole game, and it was face to face.
If someone gives him a pick-and-roll, he will most likely say, "Put away your damn pick-and-roll, I want to go one-on-one with this guy" just like he did when he criticized Malone.
Because Kobe is paranoid, so paranoid that he often gets mad.
But James is different, he is smart.
After trying twice in a row and failing to take advantage of Xu Yong, he stopped playing hard.
There is a pick-and-roll and it's not Smart's fault.
And the effect of this pick-and-roll is indeed very good.
Varejao, in particular, is a seriously underrated player.
He has excellent pick-and-roll ability, first-class ability to prevent pick-and-rolls, excellent rebounding and defense, and he is also very good at supporting. There is not much difference between him and Noah.
His wingspan is even a few centimeters longer than Noah's, and his peak season statistics were even better than Noah's, averaging 14.1 points, 14.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
If it weren't for him being too glassy, he would have a chance to have a career similar to Noah's.
At this time, we have to mention Noah again. Now Noah is too thin. He is out of position against James who uses the pick-and-roll space to get up to speed. As a center, he has no advantage in confrontation and is completely unstoppable.
And unlike many people's impressions, James' shooting during this period was not bad.
In six years, even if it is a lump of elm wood, it has been practiced.
Of course, although James and Simmons both have "S" in their names, they not only pose, but also practice.
Or it can be said that James' overall shooting level at this time is stronger than during the Heat.
It's not that he stopped practicing when he got to the Heat, but because he gained weight and muscle, just like when Xu Yong first entered college, his shooting became unstable.
So when James came up with the Cavaliers' ace tactic of pick-and-roll with Varejao, the Bulls really couldn't restrain him.
As for flanking, this move is the most useless against James. Others can be hacked, but James' passing ability cannot be hacked.
But apart from Embiid, which MVP is easy to limit?
So under the leadership of James, the Cavaliers quickly regained the momentum of the game.
However, they also failed to win the game in one go.
It also played well tonight because of the Bulls.
Although Noah couldn't guard him, he worked really hard. He seemed to want to prove something tonight;
Rose also vents himself on the offensive end. You must know that he has proved in the playoffs last season that even in NBA-level games, he can give and take what he can in the NCAA;
Xu Yong became the soul of the Bulls tonight. Although James' choice to call the pick-and-roll prevented him from performing as well as before on the defensive end, when the Cavaliers were tired of dealing with Rose's breakthrough on the defensive end, he always It can come out from the side and deliver a fatal blow to you.
And when Rose comes off the court, he can become a ball-holding swingman like he did in the preseason, sorting out the Bulls' offense.
Of course, even Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown has to lament that as a rookie, Xu Yong seems to be too durable.
Halftime is almost over, and it seems like he hasn't seen Xu Yong take a break yet?
And this approach is very motivating to teammates.
For example, "The newcomers are working so hard, so why should we not work hard?", "Although we can't do what Xu Yong did, at least we can't hold back" and so on.
Of course, most of them will not know Xu Yong's abnormal training methods and the way Sandek used Xu Yong during the two-year NCAA period.
All in all, just like Xu Yongyong is afraid of James, the Bulls did not show any timidity in front of the Cavaliers tonight, but instead played completely competitive.
Because it is inevitable to make mistakes when you are young, but also because you are young and fearless.
The game came to the final decisive moment with both sides taking the lead alternately.
At this time, there were only the last 35 seconds left before the end of the game. The score on the field was 96. The Bulls had the ball and their timeout time was up.
For the Bulls, Xu Yong scored a team-high 22 points, Rose scored 20 points, and Deng generally only scored 9 points today.
DeNagro laid out a tactic for Rose.
After returning from the timeout, the Bulls failed to run this tactic because defensive master Brown's defensive response was a master key.
Except for O'Neal who huddled under the basket, he chose two men to guard Xu Yong and Rose.
This trick is really great, because Deng's hand feels average today, and there is also Sangela who poses little offensive threat.
So until the end of the Bulls' tactics, Noah turned into the future Draymond Green, holding the ball at the free throw line to support him. As a result, he had no chance to pass the ball out for a long time.
In the end, there was no choice. Seeing that the attack time was running out, Noah could only choose to take a mid-range shot.
"Dang!"
Then, as he had shown throughout the preseason, his mid-range shot came out of the frame, the rebound was collected by O'Neal, and the Cavaliers called a timeout.
At this time, there are only 16 seconds left in the game.
Originally, the Bulls had a chance to kill the game, but with the failure of this wave of offense, this opportunity is now given to the Cavaliers.
After a pause, Noah seemed extremely annoyed. After sitting down, he suddenly punched the bench next to him.
Although he played very hard, the Cavaliers had James and O'Neal, and his performance tonight was very poor.
Not to mention the key shot just now.
At this moment, Xu Yong, who noticed this scene, walked directly to Noah.
At this time, all the other teammates looked at Xu Yong with nervous expressions on their faces.
Noah used to find trouble with the rookies, but he played so badly tonight, Xu Yong can definitely make trouble for him at this time.
However, Xu Yong's next actions left everyone in awe.
Because before Xu Yong walked up to Noah, he first reached out and patted Noah on the shoulder: "Don't blame yourself, your choice of action is fine."
Then when Noah looked up, he said in a very calm but very sure tone: "Don't worry, we won't lose."
