For the Bulls, backup center Scott Williams, plus the other four starters.
On the Pistons side, the Assassin, who only played one minute in the final quarter, came on the field again and played all the starting players.
The Pistons still focus on locking Pippen down and not letting him catch the ball easily unless he pulls outside the three-point line to get the ball.
BJ advanced to the frontcourt, close to the top of the arc. At this time, Grant and Jordan were pulled out to do a pick-and-roll, and suddenly cut inside, while Jordan cut outside the three-point line to get the ball.
Rodman and Joe Dumars did not switch defenses. They still followed their own people, but they were half a beat too late.
"Whoosh!"
The Assassin's position was to the left, and BJ's passing angle to the right was open. He passed the ball to... the right low post.
"brush!"
Grant, who cut inside, caught the ball and rushed into the paint, threw a ball towards Sekali under the basket, and hit a goal.
"Buzz buzz..."
The United Center immediately erupted in enthusiastic cheers.
"Defend! Defend! Watch your guys, pay attention to pick-and-rolls, pay attention to the opponent's inward cuts..." At this moment, Chuck Daly roared on the sidelines.
"Oh, at the critical moment, Grant successfully cut inside, 100:96. Now the Bulls are still four points away. The Pistons should be careful." Bill Walton reminded.
The Pistons attacked and the Assassins advanced with the ball.
The Bulls did not dare to press in the backcourt because the Pistons had three defenders on the court. Once the backcourt press was broken, it would be a big trouble.
The assassin advanced slowly to the frontcourt, close to the top of the arc, when Zhou Quan ran over from the left wing.
"Pick and roll?"
Jordan, who followed Zhou Quan, secretly speculated and was ready to defend against the pick-and-roll.
It is indeed the pick-and-roll. The pick-and-roll is the simplest and most useful tactic for dealing with defenses.
When Zhou Quan ran two steps away from the assassin, the assassin suddenly passed the ball over, then moved one step towards Jordan to block it. After receiving the ball, Zhou Quan immediately dribbled past the assassin.
"Oops!"
Jordan and BJ were shocked at the same time.
At this time, they were forced to choose to switch defense.
But just when BJ wanted to keep up with Zhou Quan, Zhou Quan changed direction at the top of the arc, surpassed him in one step, and reached the top of the arc.
"It jumped in."
Seeing Zhou Quan pass the top of the arc, Sun Zhenping shouted excitedly. Before he could finish his words, Zhou Quan had already passed the free throw line.
Scott Williams was pulled to the left midfield by Seikali. At this time, he no longer cared about Seikaly and moved sideways continuously, trying to block Zhou Quan.
Grant, who was struggling with Rodman under the basket, was also completely focused. He ignored Rodman and stared at Zhou Quan who was holding the ball and killing him.
In addition, Jordan, who was blocked by the assassin, also turned around and jumped down.
At this moment, Seikali, who was two steps outside the left waist, the Assassin, who was on the left side of the top of the arc, and Rodman, who was on the right side of the basket, were all open.
"Pass the ball!"
At this moment, whether it was Bill Walton, Lewis Williams, Zhang Lili, or Sun Zhenping, they all shouted.
However, Zhou Quan did not pass the ball.
The Assassin's open position was useless because Jordan was in the middle, so he could only lob the ball and give Jordan a chance to return to defense.
Rodman didn't think about it. If the big bug makes a trick, it will be in trouble.
Seikali can indeed pass the ball. If it were not such a critical moment, he would definitely pass it. But at the last critical moment, it is better to believe in yourself than to believe in Seikali.
Accelerating at his feet, he stepped past others. He took one step past Scott Williams, who was moving slowly laterally, and then jumped up facing Grant under the basket. He grabbed the ball with his right hand and raised it high, ready to dunk.
Grant immediately jumped up, hands in the air.
The next moment, Zhou Quan swung his right arm outward to pass Grant's left hand, then turned his palm over and turned the dunk into a send-off. With a slight pick, the basketball flew towards the basket.
At this moment, the noisy United Center was completely silent. Countless fans from both sides held their breaths and only stared at the orange basketball.
"brush!"
The next moment, the basketball went hollow into the basket.
"oh!"
Two thousand fans from the away team, a few people on the Pistons court, and on the bench were all excited in an instant.
"ah!"
Zhou Quan, who scored the goal, waved his fist in excitement and roared at the assassins who were rushing over.
"It's in! It's in! Zhou Quan scored a goal despite the pressure. Now it's 102:96, and the pressure is back on the Bulls' side." Zhang Lili roared with excitement.
Sun Zhenping laughed and said: "It's so beautiful! This is Zhou Quan's 37th point. There are now 115 seconds left, and the point difference is still 6 points."
Bulls offense.
On the right wing, one step inside the 45-degree three-point line, Jordan asked for the ball with his back to Joe Dumars. BJ pulled to the right wing, passed the ball, and ran to the right corner.
At this time, the right wing was the strong side, so the Pistons' defensive formation moved to the right, and Zhou Quan on the left wing also reached the left end of the free throw line.
At this time, Grant came up to do a pick-and-roll and stood on the left hand side of Joe Dumars. Jordan immediately took the ball and bypassed Grant and broke through from the right side.
Rodman, who followed, immediately changed defense to block Jordan.
At this moment, Zhou Quan quickly started and rushed to the right wing.
He judged that Jordan could not see him at this moment because there were three obstacles between him and Jordan, who was breaking through with the ball, Joe Dumars, Grant, and Rodman. Jordan did not have his full panoramic vision. Observe It's beyond his power.
Jordan bypassed Grant and changed direction again to force past Rodman.
In the confrontation, Rodman got directly up to him. Jordan raised his elbow and put the tip of his elbow on the former's chest, and then took the opportunity to attack Rodman again.
But just when he bypassed Rodman and was about to rush to the paint area, a Pistons player rushed over very quickly.
"What?"
He didn't even have time to see who it was. He only saw the number 1 on the opponent's chest. That was the jersey number of the person he hated the most, but why did Iron Fist appear here?
The next moment, Zhou Quan rushed past him and took away his ball.
"asshole!"
At the critical moment, the ball was intercepted. At this moment, Jordan's eyes were splitting.
At this moment, the referee wanted to blow the whistle, but he had no chance because Zhou Quan did not make contact with Jordan at all. The ball bounced off the floor and was taken away by Zhou Quan before it fell into Jordan's hands.
"Oh? Oh, oh, oh, Iron Fist stole Jordan's ball, he stole the ball..." Bill Walton exclaimed, and then shouted excitedly.
At the three-point line, seeing Zhou Quan steal the ball, Joe Dumars immediately turned around and rushed down. Grant's reaction was half a beat slower. Of course, his speed was not as fast as Joe Dumars, and he quickly fell behind.
"Jo!"
With a loud shout, Zhou Quan quickly took the ball and gave it to Joe Dumars.
Joe Dumars quickly picked up the ball, passed the midline, and went straight to the basket.
Jordan was chasing after him, but he was several steps behind. His eyes were so anxious that he was bleeding, but how could he catch up? He can only hope for Pippen.
Pippen returned to the defense from the left elbow area, faster than Grant, and first returned to the basket. At this time, Joe Dumars reached the left midfielder and made a pull-up jumper.
Pippen took off to block the shot, but missed it.
"boom!"
But it missed, it was a little short, and the ball hit the basket and bounced.
The next moment, Jordan and Zhou Quan rushed in at the same time, took off at the same time, and reached for the basketball with their big hands.
At this moment, Jordan's advantages were reflected. He was taller, had a longer wingspan, jumped higher, and was nearly a foot taller than Zhou Quan.
"Yes."
When he saw that his right hand was about to catch the ball, Jordan was extremely excited, but at this moment, a big hand came over from below.
"Snapped!"
The ball was kicked away.
At this moment, Zhou Quan's precise striking ability was demonstrated.
The ball was picked up and bounced off the backboard. Pippen and Rodman jumped to grab the ball at the same time, but neither one caught it. The ball was knocked out by Rodman and flew to the free throw line.
"Grant?"
Zhou Quan was withdrawing from the crowd under the basket. With only his peripheral vision, his full panoramic view instantly allowed him to see Grant on the free throw line, and he immediately turned around and pounced.
At this time Grant caught the ball and passed it to bj.
After taking the first step, Zhou Quan jumped forward with a bigger right hand, giving him another chance to demonstrate his precise striking ability.
"Snapped!"
The basketball that Cobra Grant just shot was shot away instantly.
"oh!"
Lamentations echoed through the United Center.
In the ABC commentary box, Bill Walton roared excitedly: "Iron Fist sent a steal..."
On the court, players from both teams rushed towards the Bulls' frontcourt, but Zhou Quan's diving thrust was too hard and the basketball rolled out of the baseline.
"Beautiful! At the last moment, Iron Fist played top defense. Now there are 90 seconds left. The Bulls have the ball and serve from the baseline." Zhang Lili said excitedly.
Pippen served from the baseline, and Jordan rushed straight from the center to the frontcourt for a fast break.
Joe Dumars was chasing after him, but he was not the physical monster like Jordan. At this time, his physical fitness was gone and he could not keep up.
Behind him, Zhou Quan, who was in better physical condition, passed Joe Dumars and chased after him hard.
Behind the baseline, Pippen held the ball with both hands and continuously moved sideways to the right. After dodging Rodman in front of him, he threw the ball with both hands and passed the ball to Jordan who crossed the center line.
The basketball flew towards Jordan in a parabola. Zhou Quan was only one step behind Jordan. At this time, the basketball began to decline.
"Not enough."
While running, he looked up at the ball. The ball was too high. His full panoramic vision told him that even if he jumped with all his strength, he would have no chance of touching the ball. So he gave up the idea of stealing the ball and pursued Jordan with all his strength.
Jordan also observed the ball while running, and then adjusted his pace. The moment he caught the ball, Zhou Quan, who was one step behind, took the opportunity to catch up from the right.
Jordan caught the ball with both hands and found that Zhou Quan was chasing him, so he immediately threw the ball forward, and then pushed his right elbow outward to block Zhou Quan.
But at this moment, Zhou Quan suddenly used his strength to dive forward, surpassing Jordan in an instant, and pointed his left hand towards the thrown basketball.
"predict!"
The precise striking effect appeared again, and he poked the basketball with his finger.
"..."
At this moment, Jordan was truly speechless.
"oh!"
The United Center erupted with huge exclamations from Bulls fans.
"Steal the ball!"
At this moment, Zhang Lili felt his nerves tense up and his hair went numb. He couldn't help shouting loudly, his voice seriously distorted.
Lewis Williams jumped excitedly in his seat and shouted excitedly: "On the tenth steal, Iron Fist had his first career playoff triple-double, and it was a triple-double of points, assists, and steals. "
Bang, Zhou Quan landed and slid forward, sliding directly to the basket.
The basketball he missed rolled to the left wing, and Joe Dumars immediately pounced on it behind him. Jordan was too fast. After rushing to the basket and making an emergency stop, when he pounced again, Joe Dumars had already got it. ball.
"Whoosh!"
Joe Dumars saw Jordan rushing to his side and immediately passed the ball to Zhou Quan.
At this moment, the players from both teams all turned around and rushed towards the Pistons' frontcourt.
Zhou Quan did not advance quickly, but slowly.
"It's so beautiful! Zhou Quan dives to steal, it's the first time I've seen it, haha!" Zhang Lili laughed excitedly.
In the ABC commentary box, Bill Walton praised: "This steal of Iron Fist was so exciting! Usually it is only like this when saving the ball, but I didn't expect that he completed a diving steal."
Williams said excitedly: "Special reminder is that this is the first triple-double in the playoffs consisting of points, assists, and steals. At the same time, the 10 steals also broke the single-game steal record in the playoffs. Congratulations to Iron Fist , you set two records at once."
Bill Walton once again praised: "Iron Fist is indeed the double champion of assists and steals in the regular season, and only he can produce such data."
At this time, Zhou Quan advanced to the left wing of the frontcourt. When he reached the three-point line, Jordan had already changed.
"Jordan, your dream of three consecutive championships is doomed, I'm telling you." There was no trash talk throughout the game. At the critical moment, Zhou Quan resorted to trash talk.
The corners of Jordan's eyes twitched, and his steel teeth almost shattered.
"What?"
The next moment, he saw Zhou Quan suddenly jump up one step away, but he did not react because of the trash talk.
At this moment, Zhou Quan jumped up with extremely firm eyes, and his full level of willpower made him full of confidence to advance.
The next moment, with a flick of the wrist and a flick of the fingers, the basketball was released.
"Three points?!"
Zhang Lili exclaimed.
"brush!"
Jordan turned around and looked back, only to see that the orange basketball was hollow, like a knife stabbing his eyes hard, causing him to close his eyes.
"Oh ho!"
The moment the water splashed, the players on the Pistons, the bench, two thousand Pistons fans, hundreds of kilometers away in Detroit, and even as far away as the other side of the Pacific, instantly turned into a boiling ocean.
"I hit it! I hit it! I hit it!"
Sun Zhenping jumped excitedly, and with a bang, the table in front of him was knocked by him.
"Hahaha... 40 points, Zhou Quan's first playoff game with 40+ points." Zhang Lili laughed excitedly and couldn't help himself.
On the court, Zhou Quan was extremely excited and waved his fist vigorously.
"105:96, the Pistons' lead reaches 9 points, and there are 61 seconds left. With Iron Fist's current super explosive state, the Bulls' hope of comeback is getting smaller and smaller." Bill Walton said.
"The Bulls called a timeout, a long timeout, and this was their last timeout. The Pistons still had a short timeout," Williams said.
Bill Walton suddenly laughed and said: "There is a very interesting question. I would like to know now. Gentlemen from ESPN, do you want to modify the chances of the Bulls and Pistons winning the championship? You still have 61 seconds. This is your last chance. opportunity."
"Ha ha……"
Lewis Williams burst out laughing.
"Oh...oh...oh..."
After Jordan sat down, he gasped for air.
He is not willing to lose to Iron Fist, not to the Pistons, not to lose the opportunity to win three consecutive championships, not to be willing to fall down immediately after climbing to the top of the super giant.
Phil Jackson held the tactical board and squatted down to say something. Jordan suddenly snatched the tactical board and smashed it to the floor.
With a bang, the Bulls bench was stunned, and Phil Jackson was also stunned.
"Give me the ball."
Jordan spat out these words from between his teeth in an unquestionable tone.
Phil Jackson sighed and did not pick up the tactical board. He stood up and stepped aside without saying anything else.
For him, this series is over.
Above the Bulls bench, ABC TV's camera No. 3 captured all of this. The director immediately switched the camera and put the scene directly on the hanging screen.
"Good guy, at the critical moment, the Bulls were in internal strife, and Jordan threw Phil Jackson's tactical board. Now the Pistons' luck came." Bill Walton said.
Williams shook his head and said: "Everyone says that Iron Fist is similar to the Assassin. In fact, Michael Jordan and Iron Fist are also very similar. They both have a strong desire to win and are never willing to admit defeat. But Iron Fist is different from Jordan in one thing. Jordan is more rational."
In the CCTV commentary box, Zhang Lili said: "The last time the Bulls paused for the second time until this timeout, Michael Jordan did not score for one minute, but Zhou Quan played an extremely strong defense. His state at the last moment was so shocking. People are amazed.”
"I really hope Zhou Quan can advance to the Eastern Conference Finals." Sun Zhenping said excitedly.
(End of chapter)
