The Pope of Basketball Community

On June 1, the first battle between the two sides started at Madison Square Garden.

David Stern did not go to the scene to watch the game. He watched the live broadcast at home and waited for the assistant to report the news about the ratings.

The bad news came when the players were warming up. As Stern expected, the ratings were not high, only 10.7. Although it will rise after the game starts, it is very sad. Fabi.

This is the charm of superstars, and it is the embodiment of Michael Jordan's value. The ratings of all the finals he participated in were extremely high, and even reached a record-breaking 17.9 in 1993.

Assistant Adam Silva asked: "David, which team do you think will win?"

"I hope the Knicks win because they have a good offense. If the Knicks can hold high the banner of offense next season, I hope they can establish a dynasty." Stern said two hopes in a row, obviously not looking forward to the Jazz.

This is the sadness of the Salt Lake City team. In terms of geographical location, the Jazz can only be regarded as a fourth-tier city in the NBA, not even as good as Toronto, where the Raptors are located.

In addition, Salt Lake City is also the center of Mormonism, and Mormons are fanatics. If this place is not the worst, it must be in the bottom five of the league.

CCTV5 live broadcast, Zhang rationally introduced the players. "Today the Knicks changed again. Oakley returned to the starting lineup and partnered with Ben Wallace. The point guard was Starks, the Houston shooting guard, and small forward Bowen."

Sun Zhengping said: "Oakley and Malone are old rivals. Malone has elbowed many people. When facing Oakley, he has to restrain himself, otherwise the two are likely to fight."

Some media have selected the dirtiest player in the league, and Malone ranked second.

Malone once knocked "Assassin" Thomas directly from the air to the ground and fainted. In this playoffs, Malone also knocked "Admiral" Robinson into shock with his elbow.

Wicked people still need to be grinded by wicked people, and it is Oakley who ranks first on this list.

Oakley has never been afraid of vicious fouls or fights. What he is good at is avoiding the referee's sight and using small and big fouls to prevent opponents from scoring.

Jazz starters: Stockton, Hornacek, Russell, Malone, Foster.

Starks' cameo as point guard was the result of discussions between Yang Rui and Van Gundy, and he planned to make a surprise move.

The 36-year-old Stockton has started playing health-preserving basketball this season. His physical fitness was originally poor, with a height of 185cm and a weight of only 77kg.

In his previous life, Yang Rui was very curious about Stockton's defensive level, because many people said that this naturally thin guy was extremely tough and top-notch defensively.

Because of this, Yang Rui watched a lot of videos and found that Stockton has a good sense and many small moves, but after being misplaced, he basically has nothing to do. A big man who can shoot **** is hard to say, Stockton's defensive honor is too watery.

On Starks, in order for him to single out Stockton directly, this is a good opportunity.

Oakley covered Houston without the ball from the side. Houston attracted the inside defense and could single out, or pass Oakley to support the pass. He can shoot when there is an open space.

Foster won the jump ball and the game started.

The Knicks are man-to-man defensively, and their positions are relatively inside. Playing the Jazz can shrink as much as you want. Sloan doesn't allow players to shoot more three-pointers at all. Unless it is a particularly good opportunity, wait to be scolded.

Entering the playoffs, the Jazz also shot the least three-pointers among all teams, averaging 9.1 shots per game.

Malone gave Stockton a high pick-and-roll, Oakley immediately switched defenses, Stockton took two steps laterally, and passed to Malone who squeezed Starks' air cut in the middle.

As soon as Malone took a step, he was blocked by the retracted Ben Wallace, and Foster was emptied. Oakley also let go of Stockton's retraction,

A trap is formed.

Ma Long is 206cm tall, unable to squeeze into the basket and forced a shot with limited efficiency, and distributed the ball to the left baseline.

Foster took the ball open, stood still and waited for his teammates to respond, and passed the ball.

This white center, who was selected by the Bullets with the 8th overall pick in the second round of 1990, has a horrible offensive ability and relies on defense to make a living. This season, he averaged 5.7 points per game, which is the peak of his career. His scoring is all based on missed shots at the basket, and his shooting percentage is only 44.5%. The league would be hard-pressed to find a blue collar bluer than this.

The Jazz players pass back and forth, pick and roll moves, and almost 24 seconds have passed without passing an open space. Russell made an emergency stop and missed a jumper under Bowen's interference, and Daben protected the rebound.

The Knicks attacked, Starks dribbled the ball to the frontcourt and was next to Stockton. He waited for Houston to get rid of it with an off-ball screen and passed the ball.

Malone switched defenses quickly, Houston didn't have a direct shot and gave the ball to Oakley.

Oakley stood still protecting the ball, and then distributed it to Starks who was running to the left baseline. The latter caught the ball and missed a jumper. The opportunity has come up, Starks catches the ball and makes a quick shot, but Stockton can't block it.

Big Ben was stuck on the other side, grabbed the offensive rebound and passed it out. Houston ran to the free throw line to catch the ball and made it under the interference of Hornacek. 2 to 0.

The players don't have any fancy offensive moves. The Knicks have been coaching the catch and shoot for the past two days, using their height advantage and sense of rhythm to make quick shots, and then grabbing offensive rebounds. The Jazz only has Malone as a rebounder's weakness.

The Jazz attacked, and the penalty area was blocked by Knicks players. They made a mid-range and long-range shot from the outside. 24 seconds were approaching. Malone's mid-range shot was missed by Starks' interference, and Ben grabbed a rebound.

In the Knicks' positional battle, Malone changed to defending the basket in order to protect the backcourt rebounds. Foster averaged 18.5 minutes per game and only 3.5 rebounds, which was weak.

Houston relied on Oakley to get rid of Hornacek, received the ball to get a misplaced one-on-one chance, accelerated and took two steps to get rid of Foster, and made a high-post jumper.

Similar to the position just now, Houston feels extremely soft, with two hollows. 4 to 0.

The Jazz attacked, the players passed back and forth, and the pick-and-roll, but every time the Knicks switched defenses in time, there was no space.

Hornacek broke through on the right side and missed the basket under the interference of Oakley. Big Ben grabbed the rebound.

The Knicks played very simply. Starks took to the frontcourt to single out Stockton and missed a jumper.

In the Jazz's positional battle, the pick-and-roll was limited by the Knicks' compressed defense.

Even though the opponent blocked the penalty area, the Jazz still tried hard to hit the basket. According to Sloan's arrangement, they shot near the basket. This was a strategic error.

As soon as Stockton breaks through, he will get into the crowd and distribute the ball. Malone can only choose a high mid-range shot and can't get into the basket.

Hornacek also couldn't run out of time with Foster's cover. The Knicks players were determined to switch defenses, and some people rotated to make up defenses. Anyway, Foster didn't care about the outside.

Watching the game from the sidelines, Yang Rui had a strange feeling. He felt that the biggest weakness of this Jazz team was the well-recognized coach Jerry Sloan.