While fans were still discussing Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the first round of the Western Conference Finals quickly attracted public attention.

As a result of the game, the Thunder lost to the Mavericks 116 to 121.

Durant scored 40 points, Westbrook and Harden each scored 20 points, and the three of them combined for 80 points, but the Thunder still lost.

Just because, Nowitzki of the Mavericks scored 48 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks!

What's even more outrageous is the way he scored, 12 of 15 shots, 24 of 24 free throws...

You can understand that even if the Thunder have the inside combination of Ibaka and Perkins, they still can't defend Nowitzki at all and can only use fouls to prevent him from shooting.

It’s not that our army is not strong, but the enemy has Gundam!

Nowitzki's condition this year, especially as the playoffs progressed, became more and more outrageous.

Of course, in addition to Nowitzki, Terry and JJ Barea also scored 20+ each, becoming the driver's right-hand men.

In his own villa, Xu Yong made pancakes for O'Neal while chatting with him about the Western Conference Finals.

Although it is not yet time to consider the next opponent, this game is worth their attention.

O'Neal was lamenting about Nowitzki's condition.

If the Bulls really face the Mavericks in the playoffs, it will be difficult for them to limit Nowitzki.

First of all, the lineup of one big and four small players will definitely not be useful. Whether it is Battier or Artest, they are like ATMs to Nowitzki.

But with the regular lineup, neither O'Neal Jr. nor Gibson could limit Nowitzki.

What Xu Yong is worried about is not Nowitzki.

Single defense cannot prevent double-teaming, it just tests the team's rotation speed.

Before he was reborn, he watched a video in which Wade reviewed the 2011 Finals between the Heat and the Mavericks. In his eyes, it was Barea, not Nowitzki, who decided the outcome of the game.

This is not to say that Nowitzki is not strong, because it is impossible to prevent Nowitzki from scoring. What you can do is to reduce Nowitzki's scoring efficiency.

In fact, the Heat were very successful in this regard. Through constant double-teaming and help defense, although Nowitzki averaged 26 points per game, his shooting percentage was only 41.6%, which was comparable to Kobe in 2010, who was known as the most iron-clad player in the finals.

But they were unable to contain Barea throughout the series.

Barea has accurate shooting, strong ball transfer ability, and most importantly, his breakthrough speed is incredibly fast.

It felt like a basketball elf appeared on the court. Although his playing time was not high and his points were not many, as long as he came on the court, the Mavericks could quickly launch a wave of attacks.

In fact, Barea played an indispensable role in the Mavericks' previous sweep of the Lakers, including the first game against the Thunder.

Or to put it another way, although the Mavericks only have one superstar, Nowitzki, all the role players are also very tough.

So it’s no surprise that after the Heat lost, James fans would strongly oppose Nowitzki’s statement that he could win the championship alone.

The next day, the second game of the Eastern Conference Finals continued in Chicago.

The United Center was still packed, and the enthusiasm of Chicago fans was unprecedentedly high because of the victory in G1.

Some fans even held up a sign that read 4-0, completely ignoring the meaning of the toxic milk.

During the pre-game warm-up, the camera was focused on the Heat team.

Most of the Heat players had serious expressions, as the loss in G1 had a significant impact on them.

But there was one person whose expression looked extremely happy.

James' face looked as if the Heat had won the championship.

Yes, that's right. In yesterday's training, Spoelstra increased his ball possession rate and designed many small tactics suitable for him, making him feel like he was back to his previous Cavaliers team.

It turns out that he is an absolute goat when it comes to power struggles.

After the warm-up, the starting lineups of both sides were announced one after another.

Heat: Chalmers, Wade, James, Bosh, Ilgauskas

Chicago Bulls: Rose, Xu Yong, Artest, O'Neal, Yao Ming

There are not many changes in the lineups of both sides. The only change is that O'Neal Jr. returned to the Bulls' starting lineup.

Ilgauskas passed the ball back to the Heat's half, officially kicking off the game.

The Heat started with James holding the ball, and he set a pick-and-roll with Ilgauskas in the high post.

After breaking it apart, he threw it directly from mid-range.

This was like a dream back to Cleveland, where they would test their touch on the Kings first.

“Swish!”

His first mid-range shot attempt went in.

In a sense, what Wade said is right, because a player's performance is indeed closely related to his mentality, especially the impact on shooting.

Just like the players of the men's basketball team, if they don't dare to play and don't want to play, then in the end they can only play 20 points out of their 60 points.

And although James' shooting is unstable, it's not that he can't shoot. In the previous game against the Celtics, the Heat were able to win the battle within 6 games, and it was really because James' shooting started.

This is obviously a red flag for the Bulls.

And the signal is getting stronger.

After the switch, the Heat stuck to the defensive strategy of focusing on key players from the previous game, and with the help of James and Wade's quick defensive abilities, they successfully disrupted Artest's shots from the outside.

After James grabbed the defensive rebound, the Heat launched a defensive counterattack. James and Wade connected in a fast break, and Wade completed an alley-oop dunk and scored.

Xu Yong attacked the defense in the positional battle. He did not play pick-and-roll with Yao Ming. Instead, he used his size to back down Wade just like he did in the All-Star Game, causing the latter to commit a foul.

He went to the free throw line and made both free throws, helping the Bulls score points.

But looking back, Wade and Bosh found James after the pick-and-roll, and James received the ball from the outside and shot a three-pointer...

“Swish!”

The knife fell with a sudden movement.

After scoring the goal, James performed the big egg dance celebration while retreating.gif.

This was a celebration invented by "Alien" Cassell, but because the action was too exposed, it was listed as a banned celebration like Wade's throat-slitting ceremony.

James made this move at this time, obviously he was extremely proud.

But this was very reasonable for him. After all, he had won the power struggle and his touch was so good that he felt like he was floating in the sky.

As for the ban on celebrations, isn't it just a 15,000 yuan fine? That's nothing to him.

The fans at the United Center were in an uproar.

In the last game, James only scored 8 points in the whole game, but tonight he scored 5 points just after the start of the game, and all of them came from shooting.

They didn't know what happened, but James was indeed very different from the previous game.

In fact, not to mention the fans, even the players on the Bulls, including Xu Yong, did not expect this at all.

You have to know that in history, the Mavericks were able to beat the Heat not only because of their own outstanding performance, but also because they left James open on the defensive end until James dared not shoot.

So, James went to Dallas last night and stole Nowitzki's shooting bag?

But no matter what the reason is, a James in good form obviously poses a different offensive threat to the Bulls.

The Bulls continued to attack the frontcourt. O'Neal Jr. received the ball and rushed to the basket, but was blocked by James' assist defense.

James was not only active on offense tonight, but also had a strong presence on defense.

The camera turned to Spoelstra on the sidelines, as if he wanted to know what the young head coach had done in the past two days.

However, Spoelstra's face did not show happiness, but rather looked solemn.

Although he understood Wade's concessions as a leader, when a team has to compromise with a player, it can easily get out of control.

James' former team, the Cavaliers, is a good example. They changed coaches and teammates, but in the end they couldn't be coaxed anymore and just left.

On the court, the Heat once again played a defensive counterattack, with four against three in the frontcourt.

Wade returned the favor this time by passing the ball to James on a fast break, and James flew up to perform his signature axe dunk.

Just floating in the sky was no longer enough for him; he wanted to truly fly.

But just when he pulled the ball to the highest point, a familiar figure appeared in front of him.

That was Xu Yong who came out from the side.

When James pulled the ball to the highest point.

“Bang!”

Xu Yong directly sent the racket flying out of the court from the side.

There was a burst of exclamations at the scene.

Most of them didn't notice where Xu Yong came from!

After Xu Yong landed, he turned around and said to James: "This is Chicago."

This familiar sentence made James instantly dream back to the opening game of last season.

Steals, drifting three-pointers, and technical platforms.

These memories suddenly burst out from my mind.

It wasn't a dull pain like a thumb ache, but a sharp sting to the soul.

At this time, the large LED screen on the scene began to play the replay of the previous ball. Although Xu Yong was defending Wade, his attention was always on James.

Obviously, after James scored consecutively at the beginning of the game, Xu Yong captured the Heat's intention to cooperate with James at the beginning of the game tonight.

So when Wade passed the ball, he was already moving with the ball, and then completed the side block without James noticing him at all.

As the replay ended, there was applause and cheers from the audience.

The defensive round just now was actually very important, because if James had scored again on a fast break, the Bulls would have been stopped at the beginning of the game.

At this time, Xu Yong walked to Artest and talked to him about the switch defense.

Artest can defend from the 2nd to the 4th position. Although he has some difficulty keeping up with Wade's speed, the focus of the Heat's offense tonight is not on Wade.

The Heat had a sideline ball, and James received the ball from the outside, then he found that the person defending him had changed from Artest to Xu Yong.

The previous block stung him a bit, and he didn't choose to pass the ball or call for a pick-and-roll like he did in the past, but instead got ready to make a shot.

After all, he has a good touch tonight, so he may be able to beat Xu Yong successfully.

The players of the Heat team also cooperated well to create space for singles. The main goal of tonight's game was to make James happy first.

James tried a triple threat to break through Xu Yong, but Xu Yong put much more pressure on the ball than Rose.

As a sophomore, Xu Yong was able to directly enter the first defense, which was really the result of his hard work.

His size, speed, skills, and even experience have all reached a top level.

James soon discovered that he couldn't get the ball down the field when facing the basket, and if he did, he would most likely be intercepted just like before.

So he could only choose to play one-on-one with his back to the basket.

Xu Yong was immediately delighted when he saw James' choice.

Others on Mount Rushmore carved stone statues on the mountain, but James did the opposite, he wanted to gather the mountain.

One mountain in Chicago is not enough, do we need another one in China?

James started his post-up attack, but in Xu Yong's eyes, this was just showing off his sword in front of Guan Gong.

When he made his first effort, Xu Yong had already moved the bench sideways and quickly grabbed the ball.

However, James' physical fitness is really exaggerated. Even when he lost his balance, he still reacted and grabbed the ball with both hands.

Two people, four hands grabbed the ball together.

However, James had no grip as he fell backwards, and was completely at no advantage in the power confrontation with Xu Yong.

"Bring it here!"

Finally, Xu Yong used both hands to snatch the ball directly from James' hands.gif.

The steal was so clean and neat that it was no exaggeration to call it a robbery.

The other players on the Heat team were unable to react in time and could only watch Xu Yong perform a one-on-one fast break.

Xu Yong quickly broke through to the frontcourt, and after taking a look at the backcourt where no one was defending him, he immediately did a one-handed windmill dunk for show.

The United Center was instantly boiling.

In the defensive round that just ended, Xu Yong blocked James in a three-on-four situation, and then stole the ball from James one-on-one and showed off a dunk.

This is how he single-handedly turned the momentum of the game around!

And more importantly, he sent a very direct and tough signal to the Heat: Even if James is in good form today, if you want him to hold the ball and attack all the time, you have to ask his opinion first!

Now Spoelstra can fully understand the feelings of the Cavaliers head coaches.

Because there's really nothing he can do except give the option to James.

It's not that it can't be done, it's that he shouldn't do it, otherwise James can tell you that 8 points is not his limit.

The Heat's offense, the ball is still in James' hands.

After a mistake in the back-to-the-basket attack, James chose to try facing the basket. He had to score a goal in front of Xu Yong today no matter what.

It's not that you're stubborn, but when you win a power struggle, you have to flex your muscles.

Otherwise, when others find out that you are really not capable of doing it, you will be embarrassed to keep holding the ball.

James knew Xu Yong's ability to steal the ball, so he didn't rush to pass the ball. Instead, he tried to use deceptive moves to divert Xu Yong's defensive attention.

For example, he first looked behind Xu Yong, as if he was going to pass the ball to his teammate.

After finding that Xu Yong was not taking the bait, he shook his shoulders left and right, trying to create a good opportunity for a breakthrough.

But the result was that Xu Yong not only did not fall for the trick, but also took direct action!

When Jordan asked Xu Yong to keep the ball away from the defender during offense, it was not only about the technical move of turning and fading away, but also a common sense of offense.

James obviously didn't have this common sense, and his ball kept dangling in front of Xu Yong's eyes.

It's like a beautiful woman in cheongsam twisting her hips in front of you, it would be inappropriate if you didn't show some reaction.

Xu Yong rushed forward to steal the ball without waiting for him to pass it.

His hand poked the ball and James instantly lost control of the ball.

James instinctively reached back to grab the ball, but he failed to control it and the ball flew out of his hand and out of the court.

The referee blew the whistle, indicating out of bounds, backcourt ball.

The United Center was in a frenzy.

In two consecutive rounds, James was intercepted once by Xu Yong, and once he was forced to make a mistake without even having a chance to dribble the ball!

Barkley in the commentary booth was so beaten that he covered his face with his hands. He had never seen a superstar play so badly.

Of course, the most desperate person at this moment was Spoelstra, who was rubbing his face with both hands. His expression looked like he had really collapsed.

You successfully released the military power by 8 points, but this is the result?