After a day of rest, the Bulls continued to face the Pacers at home.

The Pacers have been in a slump since the brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills and have failed to make the playoffs for four consecutive seasons.

However, this season with the addition of Boozer and the rise of young players such as Darren Collison and Roy Hibbert, they are also rising rapidly.

Collison, Brandon Rush, Granger, Boozer, and Hibbert, this lineup is very competitive in the Eastern Conference.

This game was more intense than many people expected.

Although Granger was restricted by the double gate of Allen and Xu Yong, Boozer's performance made the Bulls helpless.

The power forward, who is in his prime, was just like when he was in Utah, destroying the Bulls' defense with one mid-range shot after another.

Moreover, his offensive choices are very quick, and he will shoot in advance without waiting for you to double-team him.

But in the end, it was the Bulls who won the game.

Because the Pacers have no way to deal with the Bulls' duo of outside shooters.

Boozer scored 30 points, but Rose and Xu Yong combined for nearly 50 points.

Moreover, the Pacers' head coach Jim O'Brien is obviously not very good. The team's rookie Paul George performed well on the defensive end, but he did not get much playing time.

With two consecutive wins at the start of the season, the Bulls boarded a plane to Houston and began their Western Conference road trip.

This will also be the biggest challenge for them at the beginning of the season, first going around the territory of the "Texas Big Three" and then facing the defending champions.

But the good news is that they will first face the Rockets, the weakest team among these teams.

After returning to Houston after several months, Houston fans also gave Yao Ming applause and cheers.

The Rockets did not keep Yao Ming, but after some operations, the team still has a starting lineup of Brooks/Lowry + Hamilton + Luol Deng + Scola + Noah, and is still a playoff-level team in the West.

However, the Bulls played very easily in this game and basically secured the victory in three quarters. The remaining quarter was the substitutes' performance time.

This game was actually very similar to the one against the Heat. The Rockets had no way to break through the Bulls' iron defense and could only score by playing piecemeal. Naturally, the result was not very suspenseful.

However, although they lost the game, Noah of the Rockets played quite well.

He scored 16 points and also had an all-around performance with 14 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks.

After the game, Noah also chatted with Xu Yong for a long time with a smile.

Just like Harden only shined after joining the Rockets in history, players need a bigger stage to break through their ceiling.

If Noah continues to develop in the Bulls, his ceiling will be that of Draymond Green. However, when he joins the Rockets, he has more rights to control the ball. In this era when centers are scarce, he has a tendency to become the best center in the Western Conference.

Therefore, being traded may not be a bad thing for Noah's personal development, especially in his contract year.

After defeating the Rockets, the Bulls have started the season with three straight wins despite a tough schedule, which is very strong.

However, just when Chicago fans were expecting the Bulls to continue their success, the Bulls lost to the Mavericks and Spurs in the following back-to-back games, suffering two consecutive losses after three consecutive wins.

The Bulls did not have too many problems with their own performance. Rose, Xu Yong and Yao Ming all played well, especially Xu Yong, who scored a game-high 35 points in the game against the Spurs with his stable mid-range shots.

The key to the problem lies in defense. Nowitzki and Duncan simply devoured Artest alive.

And they are different from Boozer. They not only score points by themselves, but also use their own containment to activate the entire team.

In a confrontation of this level, this situation is enough to decide the outcome of the game.

At the same time, the Heat used a "round table meeting" to stabilize the morale of the team after losing to the Bulls, and won four consecutive games, including a 96-70 bloodbath of the Magic.

For a moment, all the James fans who had almost disappeared because of the disastrous defeat in the opening game jumped up at once and sneered at the Bulls.

Such as "At the beginning of every season there are some teams that are ranked high but quickly disappear in the end", "O'Neal's grandmother coaches the team better than Thibodeau", "A group of old, young, sick and disabled people get together and shout that they want to win the championship, why does this plot seem so familiar" and so on.

The pressure on the Bulls was even greater than Yao Ming had expected, because when they formed the team, they stood on the opposite side of the James fans, not to mention that the season started with a bloodbath against the Heat.

It was against this backdrop that the Bulls arrived in Los Angeles, the last stop of their road trip.

They will next face the defending champion Lakers away from home, who have won five consecutive games since the start of the season and are in great form.

The only good news is that they have a rare two days of rest, and can use the time to adjust their mindset.

Xu Yong continued to maintain the same training intensity as in the past.

By the way, I have to mention here why Megan Fox didn't come to Xu Yong to discuss life again, because this summer, Fox reunited with her ex-boyfriend Brian Austin Green, whom she had been dating for five years, and the two held their wedding in Hawaii, which had not yet experienced the baptism of the Freedom Wildfire.

So for Fox, Xu Yong’s current state is: having experienced it, and then sending blessings to the other party.

Without a woman, he is now full of energy and enjoys the high-intensity training required by Grover.

That night he was exhausted after training and was sitting on the sidelines resting.

Just then Thibodeau came to the training hall.

Because the two had had many such private exchanges, Xu Yong was relatively relaxed. He just sat there drinking water, smiling and extending his hand to greet Thibodeau.

Thibodeau sat down next to him and suddenly asked, "Do you think the one-big-four-small style of play does more harm than good?"

Xu Yong didn't expect Thibodeau to ask this suddenly, but seeing the latter's serious expression, he knew that the two of them had communicated a lot and Thibodeau wanted to ask for his opinion.

He put the water bottle down and said what he really thought: "I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages."

"Huh?" Thibodeau looked at Xu Yong unexpectedly. It was obvious that Xu Yong's answer was somewhat beyond his expectations.

You have to know that the reason why he asked this is because the team has been in poor condition recently, and based on his understanding of Xu Yong, Xu Yong should not have thought of this.

"But I think it should be used as a secret weapon rather than a conventional weapon. Its weaknesses are too obvious and too easy to target," Xu Yong continued.

His words were based on the Warriors' "Death Five". As the Warriors' trump card, the "Death Five" could be said to be the nightmare of opponents in that era, especially at the beginning. Often, when the Warriors used this style of play, the game would be ruined immediately.

But even so, the Warriors rarely use the "Death Five" as a starting lineup, because their average height is too short, and the opponent will exploit your weaknesses in the interior at the beginning, which will put them in a passive position.

Thibodeau obviously didn't think of this. He thought for a while and nodded seriously.

In both games against the Mavericks and the Spurs, the Bulls were passive from the start and could never regain the initiative.

"When playing against the Lakers, I will arrange for Jermaine to start." Thibodeau stated his arrangements.

Xu Yong did not raise any objections.

O'Neal is good at mid-range shooting and is now a low-post kaleidoscope. He is even good at rebounding, and is a perfect match for Yao Ming.

But O'Neal's injury risk is a big problem. If Xu Yong remembers correctly, O'Neal only played more than 20 games in Boston this season before he was ruled out for the season.

If it weren't for this, the Bulls wouldn't have been able to sign him for $5 million a year.

But it's hard to say about things like injuries. You know, even if he starts, O'Neal will have much less pressure next to Yao Ming.

After the decision was made, Thibodeau asked Malone to practice with the adjusted lineup during the training session the next day.

O'Neal Jr. seemed very excited.

The fact that he chose to sign with the Bulls for $5 million in the summer shows that he has aspirations, but he was a bit awkward in these five games. He was not as effective as O'Neal as a substitute center, and he couldn't get much playing time as a substitute power forward. He was a bit marginalized.

Now that he suddenly became the starter, he was full of energy and even tried to dunk over O'Neal.

The Bulls' training intensity suddenly increased.

These old guys have played too many games, and their desire to play really needs something like this to stimulate them.

…

On the second evening, the Staples Center in Los Angeles was packed.

The Lakers and the Knicks have always been the top two teams in the league in terms of market value, and Kobe is a guarantee for the team's ticket sales, with basically every game being sold out.

Not to mention that in addition to the two-strong showdown tonight, there is an additional topic, that is, O'Neal is back in Los Angeles.

Although the OK combination has reconciled over the years, O'Neal always attracts attention every time he returns to Los Angeles.

During the pre-match warm-up, the photographer on the scene was looking for shots of O'Neal. O'Neal and Yao Ming were talking and laughing there. This scene under the spotlight was very classic.

While Xu Yong was warming up, he saw Swift again on the bench.

The arena where Swift appears most often is still the Staples Center, and her previous visit to Chicago was just a coincidence.

This time, Swift did not sit in the front row of the audience. Instead, she sat in the middle near the audience aisle with her friends, holding a large bag of popcorn.

When the camera was turned to her, she waved her hands wildly and really didn't look like a star at all.

The warm-up was over quickly and the opening ceremony began.

The Bulls, as the visiting team, took the court first, with Rose, Tony Allen, Xu Yong, O'Neal Jr., and Yao Ming.

When seeing the Bulls' starting lineup, Phil Jackson from the Lakers was stunned for a moment.

The Lakers took the court as the home team, with Fisher, Kobe, Ariza, Gasol, and Bynum, a lineup that Lakers fans are so familiar with.

When making the final tactical arrangements before the game, Phil Jackson rarely took the tactical board and drew and talked a lot.

It can be seen that Thibodeau's adjustment of the starting lineup caught the Lakers off guard.

A short whistle sounded on the sidelines, and the starting lineups of both sides came on the field one after another.

Kobe looked relaxed before he came on the court and even chatted with his old friend Nicholson on the sidelines.

Although his personal statistics this season are not very impressive, compared to the beginning of last season, all the players in the team are healthy and have won consecutive games, so he is naturally in a good mood.

Yao Ming and Bynum jump ball in the center circle.

As the referee blew the whistle, Bynum jumped up and pushed the ball back to the Lakers' half, and the game officially started.

After the Lakers advanced to the frontcourt, Fisher passed the ball to Gasol in the low post on the strong side.

The Lakers were still playing the triangle offense, and Phil Jackson's game plan was to attack the Bulls' power forward's weak point.

The Bulls' sudden adjustment of the starting lineup caught Jackson off guard, but he did not change the game strategy temporarily. Instead, he arranged more details.

For example, Kobe didn't move much at the beginning of the game, but now he has to do more off-ball movements on the weak side.

However, Jackson's arrangement did not succeed because Allen followed Kobe like a ghost.

While Thibodeau was replacing O'Neal with the starters, he was also considering who to replace him with. After weighing the pros and cons, he finally chose Artest because Allen's defensive effect would obviously be better against Kobe.

It turned out that his choice was very prescient.

Gasol turned around and saw that Kobe had no chance and Ariza in the strong corner was also closely watched by Xu Yong, so he directly chose to attack in the low post.

A very personal back-bending move to sense the center of gravity of the defense, followed by a fake turn and then turning back to attack the basket.

I have to say that Gasol's low-post technique is quite beautiful.

However, O'Neal Jr. did not lose his defensive position. He kept trying to disrupt the ball from Gasol while retreating.

The two fought to the basket, and finally Gasol suddenly exerted force to squeeze O'Neal Jr. away, and slammed the ball into the basket with his right hand, taking the lead for the Lakers.

Kobe smiled and high-fived Gasol as he retreated. Since his outstanding performance in the finals last season, Gasol is now almost a power forward on the same level as Nowitzki, Duncan and Garnett.

Phil Jackson also raised his mouth. He could have adjusted the tactics temporarily, but he finally chose to trust Gasol, and Gasol did not disappoint his expectations.

Thibodeau moved his body at this time. O'Neal Jr. had to face Gasol as soon as he started, which was not an easy task.

In the Bulls' positional attack, Xu Yong ran out to receive the ball but didn't have a chance to shoot directly. Just when he was about to use the pick-and-roll tactic, O'Neal Jr. was asking for the ball with his back to Gasol in the low post.

It was obvious that he wanted to fight back after being hit by Gasol just now.

Xu Yong knew Thibodeau's tactical adjustment and naturally knew the importance of O'Neal Jr. He stretched out his hand to signal to move away and then lob the ball in.

After receiving the ball, O'Neal Jr. turned around and chose to attack facing the basket. He faked a breakthrough to the free throw line, and suddenly changed direction and broke through from the baseline.

He looks a little overweight now, but his movement of changing direction is not slow at all.

By the time Gasol reacted, it was too late to stop him from breaking through, so he could only use his body to squeeze O'Neal and try to push him out of the baseline.

This strategy was correct, but O'Neal Jr.'s steps were big. He had already crossed the basket after two steps, and then suddenly made a strong effort and turned around.

“Bang!”

He slammed the ball into the basket with one hand!

There was a commotion at the scene.

O'Neal Jr.'s response to the dunk was quite tough.

After the dunk, O'Neal flexed his muscles with both hands and turned around to roar at Gasol.

Who isn't an All-Star power forward?

There was another person who was very excited at this time.

While retreating, Yao Ming took the initiative to go over and high-five O'Neal Jr.

It may sound sad, but this is the first time he has had a serious and capable inside partner.