One Thousand Eight Hundred and seventy-one.Challenger Bulls

Latest website:    As the opponents of the finals last season, the two teams tried their best to retain the strength of last season or strengthen it last summer. When formulating the schedule, the game between the Grizzlies and the Bulls was arranged as the last game before the All-Star Weekend.

When the two teams were making their final preparations before the game, the penultimate game before the All-Star Weekend, the Lakers and the Heat, had already been played. After double overtime, the Heat narrowly defeated the Lakers 132 to 127.

The mid-season is about to pass, and both fans and players of each team are gradually getting out of the mental fatigue period. The players' physical fatigue is unavoidable, but the psychological aspect has been gradually adjusted. They only need to take a good rest after the All-Star Weekend, and they will burst out with more vigorous fighting spirit in the later stage of the season.

The enthusiasm of the fans is also gradually rising, especially after the Super Bowl a few days ago, the popularity of the NBA soared, driving the attention of fans who may not have watched the game for a month or so. In the last game before the All-Star Weekend, the enthusiasm of the fans reached the highest point in more than a month.

When the game between the Lakers and the Heat ended, the fans' attention naturally focused on the scheduled focus battle between the Grizzlies and the Bulls.

At 7:58 p.m., the live broadcast switched to the Chicago United Center, and the fans saw the familiar scene for many years - Sun Ce wore an arm guard and a wrist band with a small "o" printed on it in front of the camera... If it weren't for the fact that the insoles were placed on the spot, there was a feeling of smell even through the screen, and Sun Ce even wanted to put insoles on the spot.

After putting on the equipment, Sun Ce came to the court. The Grizzlies did not rest in this game. Klay Thompson, Paul George, Aldridge, and Gobert started with them.

On the Bulls side, the starting lineup of Rose, Ivan Moore, Ariza, Griffin, and Lopez Jr. appeared.

Using a center who was about to be squeezed out of the starting position by Trevor Booker in exchange for two new starting players, Sun Ce felt that the Bulls' blood profit in this transaction was not enough to describe the degree of robbery.

But at this stage, many people think that the Bulls are losing money, because Noah's performance this season was affected by injuries.

Gobert and Lopez Jr. came to the center circle. At 8 o'clock in the evening, the referee blew the whistle to start the game and threw the ball into the air. The former Grizzlies center easily defeated the current Grizzlies center to win the jump ball. The Bulls attacked first!

The Bulls accelerated as a whole. Gobert was ready when he jumped the ball. He retreated decisively when he landed. Seeing his teammates, especially the three outside players, who had accumulated years of experience in retreating, he felt at ease.

Rose advanced to the frontcourt.

He knew it was not easy to play a fast break against the Grizzlies, but he did not stop. Lopez Jr., who had reached the three-point line first, immediately went up to block Paul George. Rose took a step sideways to continue to accelerate the breakthrough. He did not stop from receiving the ball to starting quickly to rushing to the three-point line.

Sun Ce quickly let go of Moore and shrunk to the right side of the free throw line to block Rose's pull-up jumper, and at the same time with Gobert who did not expand. Together they blocked Lopez's chance to cut in and receive the ball. Rose immediately passed the ball to Moore, but Paul George went to defend Moore as soon as he encountered a pick-and-roll. His defensive tacit understanding with Sun Ce is unparalleled! Moore was covered by Paul George as soon as he received the ball.

But Moore did not stop the ball, and immediately passed the baseline. Griffin received the ball at the baseline and shot... hit!

Very beautiful fast attack, the Bulls speeded up the pace as soon as they came up! This Aldridge is really difficult. Griffin's speed is like an outside line. He slipped around the baseline and received the ball and threw it out. Aldridge went around the basket, and Gobert couldn't expand that far.

The Bulls have found ways to increase the pace from major teams this season and have developed it in depth. Gradually, they have their own fast-paced offensive style. The previous rhythm was played when Trevor Booker was on the court in the rotation lineup. Now there is no need to wait. Lopez Jr. used to play run-and-gun and was very good at fast-paced offense.

Together with Ariza, who shoots better than Snell and defends better, these two quickly integrated into the Bulls after joining the team and accelerated the progress of fast-paced offense and defense adjustment.

Sun Ce had to sigh that Sloan was still a top coach after three generations. It was indeed not given for nothing. He had a super ability to adapt to new rules and new rhythms! It was just that he met Jordan, Kobe... and him, Sun?

There is also Moore, a short forward and guard 3D who can defend positions 1-3. It is said that a team is ready to sign him with a short contract of tens of millions of annual salary or a long contract of seven or eight million annual salary after the salary cap soars this summer. He has poor rebounding ability and poor ball-holding ability, but he is very good at passing. This season, he averaged 10.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game, which gave the Bulls a headache for the foreseeable loss of talent this summer.

In the transition of offense and defense, the Grizzlies naturally have to fight a positional battle. In the frontcourt, the triangle offense began to operate.

The ball passed through the hands of Paul George, Aldridge, and Klay Thompson, who went around the top arc, and finally came to Sun Ce, who was on the right side of the top arc.

At this time, Sun Ce had already brought Lopez out by slipping to the bottom line with the help of Gobert's off-ball pick-and-roll. After receiving the ball, he took two big steps to break through and threw Lopez behind him. Sun Ce went straight to the basket! After attracting Griffin's defense, Sun Ce hung under the basket, and Gobert smashed the ball into the basket in Ariza's helpless eyes. Ariza had no way to deal with this ball.

Ariza, who has played the triangle offense, knows how much this tactical system adds to the stars! This is especially true for stars like Sun Ce who are out of position when playing against anyone.

Other superstars also need to pick opponents to play out of position, not necessarily the one with the weakest defense, because theoretically the weakest one may just be the best defense in some aspects, such as body size or athletic ability, and the one who does not restrain the superstar may be the best defense. Not being a special opponent does not mean that the defense is not good, it just means that there are no natural characteristics, and it may not be a mismatch.

But Sun Ce does not need to worry about these, he just needs to avoid the opponent who restrains him the most.

The triangle offense is to create opportunities for singles and points for the main attacking stars, and the role players only need to be responsible for receiving the ball and shooting it.

However, the NBA has entered the small ball era. Compared with the era when the strong teams played against each other with slow-paced offense and defense, Sloan has a new solution. Speed ​​up first and attack!

When the Grizzlies played against the Spurs a while ago, Popovich tried to play defense, but ended up playing himself out. Sloan learned from the experience. Facing the Grizzlies' nearly perfect traditional starting lineup, Sloan did not play a positional battle with the Grizzlies like he did in last year's finals, but instead went all out to speed up!

After trying for so long, the opponent Sloan most wanted to test the results against was the Grizzlies, because they really had no opponents in the East and swept into the finals last year. The purpose of his attempt to change was to deal with the Western powers, and the main target was of course the Grizzlies.

The Bulls' fast-paced offense and defense, the imaginary enemy is the Grizzlies.

So, the Grizzlies' starting lineup really couldn't defend! There was not much restriction on the opponent!

The starting point of the Bulls' fast-paced offense and defense system is to deal with the defense of the Grizzlies' starting lineup. Sloan has really found an excellent response strategy for the super defense with Paul George as the defensive spearhead, Klay Thompson's off-ball defense, Gobert's defense at the basket, Aldridge's mid-range single defense, Sun Ce's defense tandem, and the coaching staff's coordination ability.

Although the Bulls can't defend because the trio of Sun Ce, Paul George, and Aldridge is too strong, coupled with Klay Thompson's most stable three-pointer in the league and Gobert's excellent ability to eat cakes at the basket, the Bulls' offensive success rate is higher!

And when there is a counterattack opportunity, the Bulls, who can make a fast break with five people and have a clear way of cooperation, are more confident than the Grizzlies' fast break with a stream of consciousness.

The key is to hold on and hold on. There is no mentality explosion because of Sun Ce or Aldridge's occasional difficult goals. The Bulls did a very good job of this tonight. In the first half of the first quarter, they ensured very good tactical execution. When the Grizzlies called a timeout at 7 minutes and 22 seconds in the first quarter and entered the official timeout, the Bulls led the Grizzlies by 4 points with 23 to 19!

...

Back to the bench, this game gave Sun Ce a very special feeling. That feeling... He felt from the opponent the feeling he often felt in the first two or three years of his career.

And the performance was similar!

As a challenger, from the coaching staff to the players, according to their own situation and the situation of the imaginary enemy, they racked their brains to come up with strategies to deal with the game and it worked!

Back then, Sun Ce found a way to kill the Mavericks in the first round of his rookie year, beat the defending champion Lakers in his sophomore year, and defeated all opponents in his junior year to reach the top... In the process, they were challenging all opponents as a young team and a challenger.

Maybe others can't feel this feeling, but Sun Ce felt something similar from the Bulls in tonight's game.

This team is still on the rise!

After Griffin and Rose reached their peak and had what may be the best inside and outside duo in the league, the Bulls began to strengthen around these two people in the summer of 2014, and successfully became stronger and stronger. The key is that it can be seen that they still have room for reinforcement. This summer, the salary cap has skyrocketed, Rose's contract has one year left and Griffin's contract has two years left, and the Bulls have already dominated the Eastern Conference... Under these conditions, there will definitely be many high-quality role players eyeing them.

Sun Ce felt that he probably guessed the reason why the Bulls were in a hurry to trade when Noah's injury had not yet healed - there was enough space after the new free market opened this summer!