94: 064: The most bloody slaughter, Roger repeatedly seals the throat!
94: 064: The most bloody slaughter, Roger repeatedly seals the throat!
“We don’t need him; you just need me now,”
Finally, Roger declared his sovereignty.
His confidence, his momentum, and everything they had achieved so far gave the Bulls players a feeling of “we can really trust him”—a feeling previously reserved only for Michael Jordan.
Phil Jackson watched Roger without speaking, not interrupting this moment when a leader was born.
Back in October when he first met this kid, he could never have imagined the Chicago Bulls returning to the stage of the division finals.
Truth be told, Roger had exceeded all expectations.
He showed the professional basketball world that high school rookies could indeed survive in the NBA.
He made the whole league see that the Bulls without Michael Jordan were not trash.
He had successfully led the Chicago express through the dark tunnel.
He had proven himself entirely worthy of taking up Michael Jordan’s mantle.
During the regular season, there might have been talk of Penny being the true successor to Jordan.
But as the playoffs progressed, such voices had nearly vanished.
Roger had withstood the real test, becoming an 18-year-old superstar.
But Roger wasn’t satisfied with just reaching the stage of the Eastern Finals; he wanted to take home the Eastern Championship trophy.
Unconsciously, Roger had transformed from a person accustomed to failure into one who was used to winning.
He got used to overcoming seemingly impossible opponents one after another, used to the cheers of the fans and the disappointment of his opponents.
So Roger had relentlessly pursued Riley to this point.
Riley was probably the first man in Roger’s professional career to make him deeply experience the agony of defeat.
Now, he had the chance to plunge the dagger personally into Riley’s chest.
Now, he had the opportunity to prove that Michael Jordan, that bastard, was not a god, to show that the world could move on without him.
He would definitely grasp such an opportunity, no matter how difficult it was.
In this respect, the Zen Master felt that Roger and Jordan were cut from the same cloth.
But precisely because they were the same type of people, they could not coexist.
On the Bulls’s side, the players’ morale had been lifted by Roger.
On the Knicks’s side, Riley, of course, could not accept the outcome of losing the game.
He was still spurring his players on, “Fight, fight, fight!
I need the ultimate confrontation!
The Chicago Bulls are a team that relies on shooting; intense confrontation will be to their disadvantage!
On the defense, we have to stay focused at all times.
Even if your teeth get knocked out, kick them off the court and then get back into defense!”
Thus, in an atmosphere that was breath-taking and with both sides harboring an intense desire to win, the physical confrontation between the teams continued to escalate in the second half.
Compared to the second half, the first half seemed no more than a warm-up.
The merciless battle exhausted the players’ shooting touch, making the game ugly.
The Bulls had plenty of opportunities, but poor shooting kept the team’s shooting percentage at an abysmally low level,
The Knicks, who were not very good at offense to begin with, couldn’t find any reliable means of attack.
Coupled with bad touch, their shooting percentage was likewise horribly low.
The game was filled with fouls and free-throws, chopping up the rhythm of play.
Patrick Ewing was knocked down again and again under the basket, Roger was jostled all over in the confrontations.
Roger, who always despised the small ball style, admitted that he was starting to find the blood and iron basketball not so wonderful after all.
The slow pace, fierce confrontations, and stagnant scoring made the game difficult to watch, I suppose, but even more challenging to play due to the test of will it required.
Roger, experiencing the highly targeted postseason, also deeply realized his own limitations; he couldn’t yet attack the basket with the sheer disregard of all true superstars.
It didn’t matter how many steps it took them; they could make it through.
Roger still relied more on jump shots and floaters, those finesse moves, but fortunately, he had a good touch that day.
Throughout the third quarter, both the Knicks and the Bulls were held to under 20 points.
The Knicks scored 17 points, the Bulls 16.
Roger alone scored 8 points.
Pat Riley was near collapse, how on earth to stop that damn No.
The fourth quarter started at 58 to 57, a score that in the small ball era would barely be a halftime score.
From this, one could see just how rough the defense had become in this game.
From now on, every round, every shot, every rebound, every second, was of utmost importance.
Because these were the final 12 minutes.
Riley finally found a way to at least somewhat restrict Roger in the fourth quarter.
Every time Roger made two consecutive shots, Pat Riley would immediately call a timeout without hesitation to cool down Roger’s touch.
This tactic was effective.
Roger had been shooting well today, but every time he was interrupted by Riley and then re-entered the game, he would lose his rhythm and had to miss a few shots to find his shooting feel again.
But just when he found his groove, Riley would call another timeout!
Apart from that, in the final five minutes, Riley also found a solution to the offensive issues: hand the damn ball to Ewing and punch it inside!
In this defensive situation, the best offensive strategy was to push the ball inside.
Even if the shot didn’t go in, there was a higher chance of drawing a foul.