Champions Creed

Chapter 122 Chapter 121: It’s so refreshing to collect heads with low health (please give me a monthly ticket!)
On the bench, Jordan and his teammates were guzzling Gatorade and sweating profusely.

In the third quarter, in order to deal with the Magic's fast conduction, the Bulls' main players spent too much physical energy and energy on the defensive end.

Now they didn't even have the energy to talk, they were all busy recovering their strength.

This is actually the norm for the Bulls after the third quarter of the game. This old team always seems to be unable to keep up after the sprint.

But if they were five years younger, they could have played defense of that quality for two consecutive quarters.

But now, playing that kind of defense in the third quarter alone could almost cost them half their lives.

However, in previous games, the Bulls could use this trap-like defense to kill the game directly at the cost of sacrificing half their lives.

With repeated mistakes and counterattacks by the Bulls, the confidence of countless opponents will be completely worn out in the third quarter.

Even if they couldn't completely widen the score in the third quarter, the Bulls would only have to deal with an opponent whose morale was already low in the fourth quarter.

But tonight, after sacrificing half of their lives, the Bulls are still behind by 1 point!
And the Magic's morale remains high!
Just now in the last moments of the third quarter, the smooth cooperation between Salu, Harper and Roger is still being replayed on the big screen, causing people to cheer.

In such an atmosphere, it was the Bulls whose morale was low.

Are the Bulls really finished?
The Zen master doesn't think so.

It is true that the situation is difficult, but it is far from being completely over.

Ultimately, the Magic's biggest headache today is still defense.

In the third quarter, although the Magic tried their best to control turnovers, the Bulls still launched some counterattacks, otherwise it would have been impossible to narrow the gap to only 1 point.

The key to the lag is that, apart from the occasional counterattack, the Bulls' offensive performance in positional warfare was really poor.

The Magic used rotations to wear down Jordan's energy, and then used double-teaming to reduce Jordan's shooting percentage.

At least for today, the Magic's strategy was successful.

Although Pippen's shooting percentage was good, his lethality was far from comparable to Jordan's.

However, this is exactly what the Zen Master wants to take advantage of in the fourth quarter.

As of now, only Harper is most effective when defending Jordan in this way.

Although McKay tried hard, his pace was a little slow.

Anthony Bowie and Donald Royal can only play a little role in consumption.

But Harper's physical condition began to have problems in the third quarter.

Like the other Bulls players, Harper is no longer young, and Jordan's tight defense almost cost him his life.

If Harper can't perform in the fourth quarter as well as he did in the previous three quarters, Jordan will be free.

Although Jordan is already in a state of physical exhaustion, as long as the Magic team's defense is slightly lax, Jordan can still dig out your heart!
The fourth quarter started quickly. In the first two minutes, the Zen Master asked Jordan to rest. Seeing this, Brian Hill asked Harper and Roger to rest as well.

Jordan was finally brought on in the 10th minute of the game, with the Bulls leading by 2 points.

Meanwhile, Harper and Roger also returned to the field.

Both sides have almost sent out their decisive battle lineups in advance!

Harper's defense and Roger's return allowed the Magic to quickly lead by 10 points.

But after playing for a while, Harper's defensive effectiveness began to decline.

In the sixth minute of the fourth quarter, Jordan ran with Harper all over the half court, leaving Harper breathless.

Finally, Jordan received the ball and made a jump shot from mid-range on the left side. Because Harper couldn't keep up, Jordan shot very quickly and didn't even have time to double-team him.

"Don't run your lungs out, old man." Jordan taunted Harper after the goal.

In the subsequent off-ball confrontation, Jordan found that Harper's strength and pressure were not as strong as before.

Jordan then comfortably received the basketball in the low post, then turned around and made a jump shot to score!
After Jordan scored, Harper was gasping for breath on his knees. Jordan had forced Harper into a dead corner!

On the bench, Brian Hill gnashed his teeth. If there was one thing he had not expected in today's game, it was Harper's physical condition.

His physical breakdown occurred earlier than Brian Hill expected.

He thought that Harper could at least last half of the fourth quarter.

But obviously, this is almost impossible.

Chief assistant coach Richie Adubatu yelled at Brian Hill: "He's done. I feel like his bones are falling apart. No one can keep defending Michael with such high intensity!"

"Shut up, of course I know, but what can I do?"

O'Neal stood up at this time: "Coach, I want to play the game too. Now is the time for the great big diesel to turn the tide."

"Go back and sit down!"

"Oh."

The shark's plan to imitate Saru fails.

The Shark was indeed just joking. He knew that with his current physical condition, he would be out of breath more than the half-dead Harper after running a few rounds.

Brian Hill originally had a careful plan, but it turned out that a basketball game is not like chess or math problems, and not everything will develop as expected.

Now, he had to change his plans.

The team survived the third quarter not to lose in the fourth quarter.

At this time, on the court, Michael Jordan received the ball outside the three-point line on the right.

Harper rushed to Jordan like an old broken car with its engine about to explode, with his soul burning out.

But Jordan was completely toying with him. When Harper rushed to him, Jordan, who had originally raised the basketball, accelerated again and broke through Harper.

Facing Roger who came to defend, Jordan made a quick stop jump shot.

At this point, Jordan led the Bulls to narrow the gap to only 4 points!
After scoring the goal, Jordan looked at Roger with a smile and said, "To be honest, this is the first time I've seen a defending champion celebrate a victory after leading by one point in the third quarter. Just now, I didn't know what you were so excited about."

Jordan mocked Roger's swagger after the third quarter, when the Magic, whose lead was shrinking, called a timeout.

In the Magic's subsequent attack, Harper missed all three shots from the wide open three-point line, which was the most direct manifestation of his physical collapse.

The Zen Master immediately paused the game to give Jordan some breathing space so that he could continue to play.

Although there was some unexpected situation, the victory of the game will still belong to the Bulls!

Why was he so confident? Because after Harper was out of action, Mackay, Bowie and Royall were not very effective in defending Jordan.

In other words, no one can stop Jordan in positional warfare from now on, not even the exhausted Jordan!

The Bulls still have hope!
On the bench, Harper felt his heart beating very fast, almost reaching the limit he could bear.

Big drops of sweat dripped onto the floor, and he didn't even have the strength to raise his hand to wipe the sweat off.

This is the price of defending Jordan with all your strength from the first quarter.

"I'm sorry, just take a break. I can do it." Harper didn't want to ruin the originally perfect game in his hands. He wanted to hold on for a while longer.

But Brian Hill would not let him do something that was a sheer waste of time. He had to immediately curb Jordan and not let him continue to play well: "Okay, Ron, take a break. Next, we will execute the plan to end the game ahead of time."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's eyes lit up and they were ready to go.

Roger was particularly excited, he couldn't even help but curl up the corners of his mouth which was harder to suppress than AK.

Finally, finally here!
Finally, he could kill the game himself! The game resumed, and Michael Jordan played with confidence.

Although he was very tired, it was obvious that Harper fell down before him.

He doesn't care who defends him after the timeout. It's all the same anyway, just kill them all!

The Magic team's five-man team came on the court, namely Salu, Roger, McKay, Grant and Cage.

So, the next person responsible for defending Jordan is McKay?
At least that's what the Zen Master thought. He could even foresee the tragic end of Mackay. Even if Jordan was at low health, it was not so easy to defend.

But then, the Magic's defensive positioning surprised everyone.

Including Michael Jordan himself.

Because Roger took the initiative to stand next to Jordan, he will be the one who will defend Jordan next!

Jordan looked at the guy next to him and frowned: "Seriously?"

"Are you scared?" Roger replied with a smile.

"I think you are really desperate. You are actually using you to defend me."

"No, it's you who are at the end of your rope, Michael, and I'm going to prove it very quickly!"

This was the first time in Roger's career that he was assigned the task of guarding the opponent's top scorer.

In the past, Roger would occasionally defend against the opponent's top scorer, but that was mostly due to forced matchups due to rotations.

But today, Roger was tactically arranged to defend Jordan, which is a completely different concept from the occasional one or two rounds of confrontation.

An occasional round or two of friction is at most a conflict, but a direct confrontation is a total war!
It didn't matter if Michael Jordan was occasionally defended by Roger one or two times, but if he lost in this all-out war, it is not difficult to imagine what would happen.

Jordan, who had finally regained his prestige with a record of 20 wins and 1 loss, would fail because of this total war defeat!
Michael Jordan, who had already started gasping for breath and was almost exhausted and unable to resist violently, now fell into the hands of Roger, who was in much better physical condition!
Roger couldn't help laughing. I really like this kind of dying prey!
Thank you all for your efforts. Now, it’s my turn to harvest this head!

The referee blew the whistle, the sideline ball was kicked out, and the final battle began!
Unlike Letitia, Roger didn't waste even a second with Jordan. The moment the referee blew the whistle, Roger immediately pounced on Jordan and touched him all over.

The decisive battle between the kings made all the fans so excited that they stood up and watched the game.

Jordan gritted his teeth. He thought he could attack easily after killing Harper, but he didn't expect to meet Roger again.

He tried hard to break free, but his physical condition affected his speed, his agility, and even his strength.

When Jordan wanted to get the ball with his back to the basket in the low post, he found that he couldn't get into a safe and stable position!
Roger's strength has increased a lot this season, but in many people's inherent thinking, he is still that skinny defender who lacks confrontation.

Jordan's strength declined a lot due to physical influence.

As one side gained strength while the other side lost strength, Jordan had absolutely no advantage in the confrontation.

Seeing that Jordan couldn't get into position, Dumas gave up the idea of ​​passing the ball and wanted to challenge Marciolioni one-on-one.

After a simple change of direction in front of his body, Dumas stopped and shot from mid-range.

Saru's interference was a little slow, but it still formed interference.

In addition, Dumars's touch was unstable due to fatigue, so the basketball did not hit the target.

With his physical strength stretched to the limit, it wasn't just Michael Jordan who had a poor shooting percentage on the Bulls; the Bulls' offense was stagnant.

Before, they could still rely on Jordan for support. But now that Roger was guarding Jordan, their last point of support completely disappeared.

Cage grabbed the rebound and the Magic attacked. Roger, who had just tortured Jordan, made another breakthrough and caused Rodman to foul.

Phil Jackson just felt desperate. After pestering Jordan closely, Roger still had the energy to complete a breakthrough on the offensive end!
Roger was also very tired, but not to the point where his physical strength had run out like Jordan and Harper.

On the defensive end, as a help defender, Roger's physical energy consumption was not that great.

On the offensive end, Roger did not force a carry in the third quarter, and only played some simple balls assisted by Salu.

And Brian Hill was so confident that he let Roger rest for two minutes in each quarter, while Jordan played the entire first and third quarters.

Therefore, Roger's physical energy consumption is now within a normal range.

He was also very tired, but not so tired that he completely collapsed.

After standing up, Roger made two free throws to further widen the score gap.

While retreating, Roger shouted to the Bulls: "Where is your basketball god? Did he fall asleep today?"

The God of Basketball is not asleep, he is working hard.

Under Roger's off-ball pressure and McKay's timely double-teaming, Jordan failed to score.

However, the Worm grabbed the offensive rebound and immediately found Pippen who was left open.

As a result, Pippen followed in God's footsteps and missed the shot in a wide-open position.

Pippen got a lot of open opportunities today, but his efficiency and output were just so-so.

Just as Brian Hill planned, Pippen's offense was ineffective.

Roger was very busy. He just finished criticizing Jordan and started criticizing Pippen: "See? It's not stupid to let you go. This is exactly the choice of smart people!"

After he finished his speech, Roger used Grant's screen to score another goal over Rodman's head who was coming to defend: "Little Danny, when you were still begging Popovich for an annual salary of 700 million, others were begging me for 2000 million."

Busy, Roger is so damn busy!

I can't spray it at all!
The score was widened to 8 points again, and Roger was about to dominate the Bulls in the fourth quarter.

Of course Michael Jordan would not accept all this easily, he still wanted to struggle.

In this round, Jordan used another active skill "God's Elbow" to finally suppress Roger in the key position and successfully received the basketball.

After receiving the ball, Jordan wanted to make a quick decision, so he planned to take a step back and make a jump shot before the double-team came.

Take advantage of the opponent's unpreparedness and shoot a quick shot! Jordan has been working to simplify his finishing movements after catching the ball this season. No one can beat him in this aspect of quick shots!

But after pushing Roger, Jordan found that he couldn't even break through half a step of space!

At this time, McKay's double-team was coming up quickly, and Jordan had to make the next decision immediately.

Just then, he saw Pippen cutting in. The poor touch in the fourth quarter made Pippen no longer wait for outside shots, but decided to go inside.

Jordan then gently pushed the ball to Pippen who was cutting in with his back to the basket.

After receiving the ball, Pippen took two big steps straight towards the basket, but just as he raised his hand for a layup, he saw Roger appear in front of him!

After Roger defended Jordan, he immediately switched to Pippen and blocked the shot. In this round, he defended both Jordan and Pippen at the same time!

After completing the block, Roger ran forward quickly. A true team leader must work very hard on both defense and fast breaks.

Derek McKay received the basketball and swung it hard, passing the ball to Roger who was already in the front.

At this time, there was no one around Roger, so he lifted the basketball with one hand, turned 360 degrees in the air and completed a dunk!
The Orlando Magic have regained a 20-point lead over the 1-10 Chicago Bulls. The Bulls are very likely to lose their second game of the season in Orlando!
After the dunk, Roger roared to the sky as the referee blew the whistle to stop the game, and pointed to the championship banner on the dome of the arena.

It feels so good to harvest the heads of people with low health!

All the fans at the scene cheered at that moment, and their cheers belonged only to Roger. The powerful Chicago Bulls could only walk off the court with their heads down, and could only become the subordinates of the young king on the court!

Steve Jones is at a loss for words of praise:

"Before, you all thought he was just a pure scorer. But now, he is a true leader. Look at the scene in front of you, look at the excited fans, and then look at the embarrassed Michael and the Bulls. In the magical Orlando, the God of Basketball is not called Michael Jordan!"

(End of this chapter)