The Basketball Court Swordsman

Paul George scored the first two points for the Pacers at the beginning. Although only two points, for Thibodeau, who is extremely defensive, these two points are very heart-warming.

His layout is all set for the Pacers' old starters in the past. The original starting shooting guard Matthews is not good at breaking through with the ball. Therefore, the instructions given to Noah by Thibodeau also do not need to change defense in the face of a breakthrough.

But now, the situation is completely different. Paul George is a player who can break through with the ball, and he has a clear height advantage in the second position.

Bogans' defense is very tough and active, but no matter how active he is, it is impossible to suddenly increase his height by 10 cm.

The fans in the United Center became more and more excited, and the stands seemed to be rolled by a red sea.

The Bulls' offense is still a bit too dependent on Rose's personal ability. Rose still intends to solve the problem by himself. He just bypassed the screen and entered the penalty area, only to find that all the Pacers players wearing dark blue away jerseys were in front of him.

Rose gritted his teeth. It stands to reason that the Pacers could not be so fast. He wanted to pass the ball, but he could not find the pass target in time because his vision was completely blocked.

In this way, Rose forced a layup against the Pacers' tight defense. It's a pity that the foul was missed, but it caused the Bulls' offense to fail again.

"Coach Henson's defensive layout is very targeted. He knows that Rose has a strong ability to break through and score, so it seems to be a 2-3 zone to protect the basket as much as possible." Van Gundy began to look at Henson with admiration. The zone defense is in the NBA. It's not popular, but if you use it well, you can get amazing results.

"Zone defense? Damn it." Thibodeau also saw Henson's strategy. He just wanted to block Rose's attack as much as possible, and other people would let it go temporarily.

To break the zone defense, the most important thing is to shoot the ball. But Thibodeau didn't plan to call a timeout so early, he could only pray that Rose could see the opponent's strategy.

The Bulls' offense was not good, and George once again used his big strides to break Bogans.

Although Noah's defense was very active, he didn't let George score directly. But George is tall and arms long, and Noah can hardly complete the cover directly.

George successfully made a defensive foul for Noah, allowing Chicago's defensive backbone to foul early. Thibodeau is putting pressure on the referee, but this still cannot change the fact that the Bulls' defense has fallen again.

Two free throws were made, 4-0. Henson relied on his unexpected changes to eat and drink offensively.

"On offensive variables, Henson Joe is indeed richer than Thibodeau." Van Gundy shook his head. Thibodeau was his assistant coach back then. In the defensive environment of the 90s, the lack of offensive variables does not seem to be the case. What a big problem.

But now, the sport of basketball has changed drastically. Only defensive, it seems that some are not enough.

Rose finally discovered the fact that the Pacers were defending the zone after two consecutive offensive encounters, so he began to look for his teammates.

But Lor Deng and Boozer didn't seem to be in the game yet, and both of their mid-range shots went out of the box.

Seeing the "red waves" on the stands of the United Center gradually subsided, Henson felt very enjoyable.

It wasn't until Horford made a precise three-pointer at the top of the arc that the Pacers started a wave of 9-0, and Thibodeau was finally willing to stop the game. For Thibodeau, who started as a defensive player, it is a humiliation to let others hit a 9-0 climax!

"9-0, the United Center was hit! The Pacers' tight defense successfully restricted Rose, and the Bulls lost control of the defense. It seems that Paul George's sudden start disrupted the arrangement of Coach Thibodeau. We originally thought it would be one A one-sided series, but for now, the Pacers will cause a lot of trouble for the Bulls!"

Before the game began, people thought it was amazing that the Pacers were able to beat the Bulls evenly. Absolutely no one would have thought that the Pacers would be a killer move when they came up!

Henson's goal has been achieved. George made 2 of 3 shots and two free throws and scored 6 points and 1 assist, helping the Pacers to establish a 9-point advantage. With a 9-point advantage as the basis, the Pacers can play at their favorite rhythm.

The Bulls' offense has always been a weakness, and chasing points is not their strong point.

Of course, Thibodeau is not stupid. Although he and Henson are both rookie coaches, Thibodeau had a reputation before becoming a head coach.

How to break the zone defense is something that even every fan knows, Thibodeau cannot be helpless.

"Change defense when you encounter George pick-and-roll, delaying his breakthrough! Derek, pass the ball more, use the shooting ability of his teammates to break the zone defense." Thibodeau's arrangement seemed perfect, but after the timeout was over, all the players returned. It was discovered that Henson had replaced George with Matthews.

Paul George, the future superstar, is just a fake starter today.

When George came off the field, Thibodeau's so-called shrinking defensive strategy was completely invalidated. When Lor Deng and Bogans were about to hit the Pacers' defense with shots, they found that the Pacers' strategy had become a half-time man-to-man!

Henson is always able to adjust first!

He likes to figure out what the opponent thinks, think about problems from the perspective of the opponent's coach, and then respond in advance.

Van Gundy couldn't help but applaud Henson when he saw that the Pacers changed their adult-to-man defense in time while Rose was looking for a pass goal from beyond the three-point line.

Sometimes, the match between coaches may be more exciting than the confrontation between players!

At this time, Ross obviously can break through and score, but he obviously did not see that the Pacers' defensive strategy has changed.

Fortunately, Lor Deng recovered the touch and scored twice in a row to help the Bulls stop the bleeding in time.

But compared to Rose's breakthrough, Henson is obviously more willing to see Lor Deng shooting from the outside. The reason is simple, Lor Deng can't kill people, but Rose can.

The game continued, and Rose did not finally wake up until halfway through the first quarter. But at this time, the score difference of 10 points or less has been firmly pressed on the Bulls.

After entering the rotation time, Thibodeau is eager for Korver, Brewer and Gibson to work together to change the trend. However, George, who had played early, did not let this happen.

When Korver and others were still looking for a feel, George had already started scoring consecutive goals.

He played well in the second team, and Yan Ran is a superstar in rotation time.

28 to 18, the Bulls fans couldn't believe it. 62 wins against the Bulls. After the first quarter, they fell behind by 10 points in the United Center!

In the second quarter, the Bulls launched a crazy counterattack. Henson's defensive strategy of shrinking the basket was hit hard by the opponent's three-point rain. Korver, Brewer and Lor Deng all shot.

This made Henson very annoyed. Why could the Pacers easily defeat the magic? In addition to the Pacers' own strength issues, the Magic's weak performance outside the three-point line was the catalyst that led to their deaths.

But it is clear that the Bulls shooters did not lose sight.

In the last 2 minutes and 55 seconds of the second quarter, even Rose started to score three-pointers. His long shot hit, once narrowed the difference to 4 points!

Fortunately, Hinrich, who came off the bench at the end of the second quarter, used a tough defense to force Rose to make two mistakes. He made a big show in front of his old club and caused the Pacers to fight back twice. In the end, he was 60. Compared to 51, it kept 9 points behind.

The Bulls' desperate counterattack in the second quarter made Henson aware of the strength gap between the two sides.

When it comes to three-point shooting, the Bulls are not much inferior to the Pacers. On defense, Thibodeau’s system makes the Bulls’ defense equally tough.

When these two conditions are similar, the Bulls have one more Derrick Rose than the Pacers, which is undoubtedly very deadly.

In the second half of the game, the contention between the two sides entered a white-hot stage. As the Bulls' three-point shooting percentage has been increasing, Henson had to let the players leave the basket to block the three-pointer.

In this way, the young wind city rose can bloom.

In the third quarter of the game, Rose scored 10 points in a single quarter, helping the team to narrow the difference to only 1 point.

Fortunately, in the fourth quarter, the Pacers made some super-regular three-pointers. In the end, Henson won the first game of the series at the United Center with a five-point advantage.

But Rose and Lor Deng scored 26 and 24 points, respectively, representing Henson's defensive end. Without the unexpected 9-0 in the opening game, the Pacers would be in danger.

The basketball game is like this, no tactic is absolutely perfect. This is also the first time that Henson won the game but found that his tactics did not completely suppress the opponent.

The magical three-point performance of the team in the fourth quarter can only prove how well the players prepared before the game, but cannot prove that Henson completely overwhelmed Thibodeau.

To defeat the Bulls evenly matched, Henson needs a Rose of his own.

Unfortunately, he didn't.

1 to 0, the Eastern Conference semifinals were an upset when they came up. For a time, public opinion exclaimed. But Henson, who won the victory, seemed unhappy.