NBA: Goat is actually me

Chapter 178 Twice a Week

Although he has already secured the season's scoring title, Meng Jin's performance has not stopped yet.

On April 4, in the game against the Magic, Meng Jin scored 5 points in a single quarter and defeated this weak Eastern Conference team in just three quarters.

4月7日，孟进用39分13篮板10盖帽的另类三双帮助球队险胜小牛。

On April 4, facing the Cleveland Cavaliers, Meng Jin scored 11 points without mercy, leading the Bulls to a 55-118 victory over their opponents.

The Cavaliers' record has shrunk significantly this season, and they have only won 35 games so far. It's not that they are not good enough, but the injuries are too severe. This season, the Cavaliers' core players have played together in very few games. Ron Harper played 7 regular season games and was reimbursed for the season. Doherty almost rested in the first half of the season and only returned in the second half of the season. Larry Nance was inexplicably injured in the second half of the season...

Mark Price is very solid, with an attendance rate of over 85% this season, but he is just a white small guard after all, and his physical fitness means that he is not good at tough shots. In regular time, Mark Price's mid-range shots and three-pointers are both killer weapons, but at critical moments, the opponent's defense intensity increases, leaving him with fewer opportunities to shoot.

Price had been observing Meng Jin while playing tonight, his eyes full of envy. Price thought that if he could have Meng Jin's height and physical fitness, he would be invincible in the league, and no one would be able to stop his shooting from the outside.

Price isn't the first person to have had this fantasy, and he won't be the last.

As April approached, Jordan's firepower weakened a lot. After losing hope in competing for the scoring title, Jordan focused on winning and paid more attention to defense and organization.

In the game against the Bucks on April 4, Meng Jin scored 14+ again!

As the season draws to a close, his teammates are showing signs of fatigue, and for the sake of the team's performance, Meng Jin must step up and do more.

The Chicago Bulls' current first place position in the Eastern Conference is not stable. The Pistons are only three wins behind them. There are still six games until the end of the season, and anything can happen.

Of course, the Bulls are not satisfied with the first place in the Eastern Conference. They want to be first in the league. The Bulls have set their sights on the finals.

The Bulls currently lead the second-placed Lakers by one win. As the season draws to a close, the competition between the two teams is entering a white-hot stage.

The added bonus of home-court advantage in a strong confrontation is self-evident. Coach Bach also tried his best for the team's playoff advantage. In the last month, he once again increased the playing time of Meng Jin and Jordan. This month, Meng Jin's average playing time reached an exaggerated 45 minutes, and he almost played every game.

Since April, the Lakers have only lost one game, and the Bulls are even more exaggerated, with a perfect record so far.

But the last six games are not favorable for the Bulls. They will play against the Celtics twice and have another game against the Pistons.

On the other hand, the Lakers' last six opponents are the Warriors, Rockets, SuperSonics, Timberwolves, Clippers and Trail Blazers.

This schedule is obviously much easier than that of the Bulls. Apart from the Portland Trail Blazers, there are no strong opponents. At this time, the Rockets and Supersonics have not yet risen, the Clippers and Timberwolves are regular members of the free-scoring team, and the Warriors are just a team on the edge of the playoffs.

Magic Johnson shouted the slogan of winning the next six games in the locker room. Pat Riley meant something similar. He asked the Lakers to grit their teeth and persevere, focus on themselves, and not fail at the last minute. He believed that the Bulls' last six games would definitely not be so smooth.

Coach Bach also knew that the last six games would be difficult, so he found Phil Jackson to provide psychological counseling to the entire team. Phil Jackson felt that he was getting further and further away from the position of head coach, and now he is more like the team's psychological counselor.

Phil Jackson gathered everyone together before the game and took out a drum.

Phil Jackson started beating the hand drum in front of everyone. Phil Jackson explained that this was a ritual in the daily life of North American indigenous peoples and he hoped that his players could do the same. Beating the drum meant to gather everyone together and get their heartbeats into the rhythm of the game.

"What the hell? I wouldn't do such a stupid thing!" Jordan walked away cursing.

Phil Jackson did not force every player to beat the drums. His purpose in doing so was to allow the players to release pressure. Sometimes calling the coach an idiot can also relieve pressure.

On April 4, the Chicago Bulls defeated the Washington Bullets 14-111.

This was a back-to-back game. Meng Jin originally thought that the Bulls' only enemy was physical strength. After all, the Bullets had been eliminated early and missed the playoffs, so they didn't need to fight desperately.

Unexpectedly, the Bullets suddenly stood up and sniped the Bulls at this critical moment. Bernard King scored 30 points like a young man. Second-year rookie Harvey Grant scored 18 points with 11 of 23 shots. Ikiels, who came off the bench, also scored 15 points.

All the Bullets players worked together and the game was decided in the last 2 minutes. Meng Jin used his superhuman physical fitness to rush in and dunked two balls, including a 2+1.

You read that right. At the very last minute of the game, which was still a positional battle, Meng Jin unreasonably killed the suspense of the game with two dunks.

In an interview after the game, Meng Jin said: "This is the most critical moment of the game. I can't afford to make any mistakes. You know, there is no safer way to score than dunking."

The next day, the Lakers defeated the Rockets 113-102. The Bulls watched the live broadcast of the game. Olajuwon was like having diarrhea in this game. He only made 15 of 5 shots, which made Meng Jin couldn't help but swear. If Meng Jin didn't know Olajuwon's character, he would even suspect that he was fixing the game.

The Lakers don't even have a reliable center, so Olajuwon shouldn't play like this.

On the Rockets side, Maxwell and Thorpe both exploded and scored 25 points, otherwise the game would probably have been decided in three quarters.

Magic Johnson scored a standard triple-double of 25 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds in this game. Magic Johnson is the lower limit of the Lakers. As long as he performs normally, the Lakers will not be too bad.

On April 4, the Bulls faced another tough battle.

They beat the Pacers 115-111 at home. The Pacers are striving for a better playoff position and played very hard in this game.

Meng Jin and Jordan teamed up to lock down Reggie Miller tonight. The two of them took turns to make Reggie Miller take only 7 shots in this game, making 2 of them. Including free throws, Reggie Miller only scored 9 points. Tonight was a miserable night.

However, another Pacers scorer, Chuck Person, was given a lot of offensive space and scored 33 points tonight.

Jordan's shooting was average tonight, making 24 of 11 shots. Meng Jin also had a bad start, but he adjusted his playing style in time, increasing the number of breakthroughs tonight, earning 18 free throws, making 15 of them, and scoring 40 points in total.

The Pacers did not complain about Meng Jin's number of free throws after the game. The referee did not particularly favor Meng Jin tonight. Meng Jin's free throws were almost all earned by himself and there was no controversy.

Pacers coach Dick Versace even praised Meng Jin after the game. Dick Versace said that no one can always be in hot form, not even a superstar, but a true superstar can keep a cool head when he or she is in a slump and help the team win in his or her own way. This is the biggest difference between superstars and ordinary stars.

Dick Versace implied that Meng Jin had already entered the ranks of superstars.

The Bulls' consecutive victories made the Lakers feel overwhelmed. They almost capsized in the game against the Supersonics on April 4. Tonight, the Supersonics' double guns Kevin Johnson and Darrell Ellis both broke out, scoring 17 points and 32 points respectively. The game was decided in the last 28 seconds. James Worthy used a mid-range buzzer-beater to defeat the Supersonics, keeping the suspense of the league's first place.

However, the Lakers vs. Supersonics was not the only buzzer-beater that day. In a game that ended later, the Bulls also defeated the Celtics.

The game was deadlocked until the last offensive and defensive round, when Larry Bird made a three-pointer to change the score to 108 to 107. With 12 seconds left in the game, Bach did not call a timeout, allowing the players to play freely.

After Meng Jin took the ball, he dribbled across half court from the backcourt. Jordan stood on the wing with his arms open. Meng Jin had no intention of passing the ball. With 7 seconds left, Meng Jin started close to Reggie Lewis. Meng Jin's speed did not increase, but this was not due to Reggie Lewis. In the last attack, Meng Jin certainly could not accelerate and rush in to dunk like he did in regular time. The Celtics would not give him this opportunity.

Meng Jin dribbled the ball with his left hand and went to the elbow area along Reggie Lewis. Dennis Johnson probed back and forth. He wanted to double-team him but was very hesitant. John Paxson was a cold-blooded killer from the outside. Reason told Dennis Johnson that he could not let go of such a person at this time.

However, Dennis Johnson finally chose to let John Paxson go and rushed forward to double-team Meng Jin, because another voice in his brain told him that no killer was more cold-blooded than Meng Jin.

The moment Dennis Johnson double-teamed him, Meng Jin suddenly grabbed the ball!
Then turn in the opposite direction!
Reggie Lewis judged Meng Jin's movements correctly. He kept sticking to Meng Jin and could feel the change in Meng Jin's center of gravity.

However, Reggie Lewis still lost his position, and Meng Jin's turning step was ridiculously large, almost the same as other people's sideways step or jump step.

Robert Parish rushed over, with little time left, and he bet that Meng Jin would definitely take action.

Robert Parish's situation was similar to Reggie Lewis's. He judged Meng Jin's next move correctly, but failed to defend it.

Meng Jin threw a high arc with one hand towards Robert Parish's outstretched long arms.

The ball went almost straight up and down, like a drop of water falling into the sea.

“Beep~~~~~”

The ball goes in and the light comes on!

108:109.

Meng Jin stood there pretentiously, he felt that doing nothing at this moment was the best way to celebrate. The next second all his teammates rushed to him, pressed him to the ground and celebrated wildly.

When Meng Jin got up from the ground, the Celtics players had already left the field sadly, leaving only a lonely back.

"This is the third time the Bulls have beaten the Celtics this season. What do you think of this?"

In response to the reporter's questions, Meng Jin made a bold statement: "Don't worry, there is still one more game."

On April 4, the Bulls will face the Boston Celtics for the last time in the regular season.

When the reporter asked Meng Jin why he didn't celebrate after the buzzer beater, Meng Jin said: "There's nothing to celebrate, I'm just doing my job."

At the moment Meng Jin made the buzzer-beater, the saddest people were not the Celtics, but the Lakers.

The Lakers did not go home after the game. A group of people watched the Celtics and Bulls game in the locker room. Magic Johnson also joked: "I swear, this is the first time in my life that I want the Celtics to win so much."

After Larry Bird made that three-pointer, the Lakers thought the Celtics had succeeded in their sniper attack, but when Meng Jin scored the goal that settled everything, the hearts of the Lakers players, including Magic, stopped for a beat.

On April 4, the Bulls defeated the Bullets by 19 points.

On April 4, the Bulls defeated the Celtics 20-129 on the road, defeating the Celtics four times this season!
After winning the game, Meng Jin did not forget to inquire about the results of the Lakers and Clippers. The Lakers were concerned about the Bulls, and the Bulls were also paying attention to the Lakers' situation.

The Lakers' opponent in this game is the Los Angeles Clippers. As their sworn rivals in the same city, the Clippers were determined to beat the Lakers tonight and tried their best to snipe them, but they were powerless. All the Clippers' main players played for more than 43 minutes but still failed to stop the Lakers from taking away a victory.

In the final game of the season, both the Bulls and the Lakers will face the strongest opponents in their respective divisions, the Bulls' opponent is the Pistons and the Lakers' opponent is the Trail Blazers.

The two games started almost at the same time, and the styles of the two games were indeed completely different.

The Lakers and the Trail Blazers had a fierce offensive battle, with both teams scoring 37 to 33 in the first quarter.

The Pistons and the Bulls fought a defensive battle. Tonight, the Bulls fell into the Pistons' rhythm and trailed by 22 points with 27 to 5 in the first quarter.

The second quarter was also a meat grinder-like defensive battle, with the Bulls leading 45-47 at halftime.

The fans who just turned on the TV thought they had tuned into the wrong channel. 45 points in the first half, is this a score the Bulls can achieve?
At the beginning of the second half, the Detroit Pistons attacked first. Jordan made a death-entanglement on Isaiah Thomas outside the three-point line, forcing him to almost drop the ball. Isaiah Thomas was forced to pass the ball. Joe Dumars on the wing took the ball and went directly to the inside, but was destroyed by Meng Jin's instant half-forward defense!
Meng Jin and Jordan are both tough guys who never give up. They defend with all their might, and they respond the same way the Pistons deal with them.

The hand-to-hand combat between the two sides lasted until the last 33 seconds.

Michael Jordan made a successful jump shot after consecutive dribbling at the top of the arc!
91 flat!
After the Pistons called a timeout, Chuck Daly arranged a tactic. The tactic was to let Joe Dumars receive the ball and finish, but Bach saw through it. Bach asked Jordan to stay close to Joe Dumars. Rodman was frightened when he saw Jordan's fearless look and did not dare to take the risk of giving the ball to Joe Dumars.

Isaiah Thomas received the ball and dribbled to the top of the arc, then shot hard against Paxson's defense.

"Bang!"

The iron is not hit.

Meng Jin grabbed the rebound and called for a timeout!
The situation today is different from the match against the Celtics, and Meng Jin's game strategy is also different.

In the last 13 seconds, Bach handed the offensive opportunity to Jordan. Before that, he had hit two key mid-range shots and was in hot form tonight.

Jordan started with the ball, Joe Dumars was 100% focused and pounced on him the moment Jordan jumped.

"Bang!"

The basketball bounced out of the basket, and Joe Dumars touched Jordan's wrist. It was a hidden foul!
But Jordan did not complain, nor did he kneel down. Just as he was about to accelerate, a black shadow suddenly appeared in the air.

Meng Jin tapped lightly, and the basketball hit the rim several times before falling into the net!
Meng Jin used his second buzzer beater in a week to help the team defeat the Pistons.

This time he couldn't control his emotions and beat his chest and roared at the camera.

There is nothing more satisfying than defeating your opponent using the method they are good at!

(End of this chapter)