field coach

Chapter 193 Misunderstanding
Jordan walked into the locker room with a dark face.

The teammates saw that Jordan's face was not good, and no one dared to come up, except Pippen.

"Michael, a bad hand feeling doesn't mean anything. Just win the next one. Although that kid has great potential, he is obviously not at your level now." Pippen came up and patted Jordan on the shoulder and said to him.

Jordan shook his head, walked to his closet and sat down.

At this time, Phil Jackson also walked into the locker room.

"Phil, in the next game, I will attack with all my strength." Jordan raised his head and said to Phil Jackson.

"Michael, isn't this what you should do? Have you forgotten that you can shoot at will? Or are you obsessed with defense and forget your own job?" Phil Jackson was stunned for a moment, then immediately said with a smile.

Jordan nodded and clenched his fists secretly.

For a paranoid like him, he had to get up from where he fell, and he would only be happy if he jumped up from that place and punched his opponent hard in the face.

Seeing Jordan like this, all the Bulls players are silently mourning for the Magic.

"You will suffer next time."

On the other hand, contrary to the dignified atmosphere of the Bulls, the Magic's locker room was relaxed.

"Hey, Michael, are you incarnation of Gary Payton today? The real defense of Jordan's shooting percentage is less than 40, which is too good!" Sprewell turned into a little Davis fan, looking at the latter with admiration.

Davis smiled, but compared with the relaxed performance of the whole team, his expression was not very relaxed.

"Even with full defensive skills, it is really difficult to defend against Jordan. His offensive ability is too terrifying. Today's victory is based on the fact that Jordan put most of his attention on his own defense. This is a boring loss."

DeWeese recalled the game and felt that it was a bit of a fluke to win.

Then he looked at O'Neal. This big guy scored 30 points and 15 rebounds in this game. His and Rodman's inside play can be said to be the cornerstone of the Magic's victory today.

DeWeese sat in front of his closet, exactly the same as Jordan's movements, both sitting there contemplating.

He has adjusted his mentality that was on the verge of collapse after losing two games in a row.

Right now, he just wants to win.

The next day, Davis sat in front of the TV early in the evening, preparing to watch the third game between the Rockets and the Jazz.

The Rockets, like the Bulls yesterday, also led 2-0. Olajuwon led the team to win the first two home games.

After the start of the game, the Rockets, like the previous two games, changed their aggressive style of play in the series against the Suns and began to play defense against the Jazz.

The hit rate of both sides has been maintained at a relatively low level.

But after coming to Salt Lake City, the Rockets have obviously been greatly disturbed. After all, Salt Lake City is the home of the famous Devil.

The Jazz relied on the pick-and-roll cooperation of Stockton and Malone to fight the Rockets point by point. Facing the Rockets, which has the league's top center, they played very patiently.

The Rockets were obviously slower. After half the game, they trailed the Jazz by a full 12 points.

By the end of halftime, Davis had roughly guessed the final result of the game.

Although Olajuwon has been maintaining the situation on the court, so that the point difference will not be further widened, but he has no way to limit Malone's offense well.

In the third quarter of the game, with the efforts of Olajuwon, who did not rest for a minute, the Rockets only recovered by one point.

Davis went directly upstairs to take a shower, ready to go to bed early, leaving Anna alone in the living room to watch the game in the fourth quarter.

In his opinion, this game has lost its suspense. The Jazz's performance is too stable, and the Rockets' shooting percentage today is really not like their usual performance.

Sure enough, when Davis was bored reading a book about basketball tactics on the bed, Anna walked in.

"The Jazz won. Olajuwon only scored 29 points on 23 shots. Six of the Jazz scored in double figures."

Anna briefly explained the key points of the game, and was about to go to bed.

After all, the next day was their fourth game against the Bulls.

To Davis, no, to everyone's surprise, the game on the second day became their worst confrontation of the season.

Phil Jackson completely gave up the point of defending Davis in this game and chose to let Jordan go all out.

He put all his defensive attention on O'Neal inside.

The magic team's shooters who performed well in the last game let Pippen take the lead and Jordan assisted them to block.

From the first minute, the two teams became a duel between O'Neal and Jordan.

Every time O'Neal receives the ball, besides Grant, either Pippen or Kukoc's help defense makes O'Neal extremely uncomfortable.

Jordan's side is not much better, Davis' defense against Jordan is still effective, and Jordan's shooting percentage has not been high.

In the second half, Jordan changed his style of play.

He began to attack the inside crazily.

O'Neal fouled out with six fouls just two minutes into the fourth quarter.

At this time, Davis's skill effect has not disappeared.

He watched helplessly as the situation that had lasted for three quarters collapsed in just a few minutes.

The Magic were scoreless for the full 4 minutes of the fourth quarter.

And when DeWeese's skill effect disappeared, looking at the score that had been stretched on the court, he felt a little desperate.

The Magic, which averaged 106 points per game in the regular season, only scored 78 points in this game.

The Bulls scored 88 points. Among them, Jordan made 31 of 14 shots, 18 of 15 free throws, and 4 of 1 three-pointers. He scored 44 points, which was exactly half of the team.

"Without my own defense, would Jordan have scored another 60 points in this game?" Davis looked at the red No. 23 celebrating with his teammates, thinking in his heart.

But back in the locker room, his teammates looked at him strangely.

"Michael, what happened to you today? You have scored no more than [-] points in two consecutive games. We need your offensive firepower." Nick Anderson, who was restricted by Pippen, said to Davis.

Davis was taken aback.

Anderson was the most stable scoring point for the Magic except O'Neal in this game, but he only scored 14 points.

When O'Neal was off the court, he scored 18 points and 11 rebounds.

For a while, Davis felt a dilemma.

He lay on his chair, covered his face with a towel, and began to think about whether his "defensive strategy" against Jordan, which he thought he had found a shortcut in these two games, had entered a misunderstanding.

(End of this chapter)