The game was about to start and Zhang Hao was sitting on the sidelines.
Listen more, watch more, and learn more…it’s the same old process.
The Nets' starting lineup remains the same, Kenny Anderson, Edwards, Gilliam, Jason Williams, and PJ Brown.
The Bulls sent out a lineup of Ron Harper, Jordan, Pippen, Rodman and Longley.
After the game started, the situation was not quite what Zhang Hao had imagined.
It was one-sided for sure, but the team that was leading was actually the Nets!
This is not important. Zhang Hao's attention is not on the score at all. He found that the Bulls seemed to be playing? The opponent's tactic was to attack with Rodman as the end point of the attack!
"No! No! They are really serious about tactics!"
Zhang Hao suddenly thought of a very special and interesting aspect of the tactical system of future Celtics head coach Brad Stevens - executing offensive tactics around Marcus Smart's shooting.
This tactic is not a conventional tactic, but a tactic used when forced to do so.
Zhang Hao suddenly realized, yes, when the Bulls were forced to need Rodman to score, they were really pushed to the limit.
Unlike his teammates on the court who felt humiliated from the bottom of their hearts and played harder, he had a shocking feeling - the Bulls were trying to get stronger even in games like this.
But then, Zhang Hao felt so humiliated!
In the eyes of the Bulls coaching staff and players, the Nets are only worthy of playing such a role!
This feeling is crazy! Even though he is not on the court, he is also a part of the Nets. This feeling is really humiliating!
After 6 minutes and 8 seconds, the game entered a timeout due to a dead ball.
11 to 6, the Nets lead by 5 points.
The score was so low... A five-point lead looks good, but it was a five-point lead when the Bulls only scored six points.
The Bulls' defense was not focused, or even that attentive, but the defensive ability, awareness, and habits of the five players on the opposing team... were all too strong. Judging from this situation, even if the Bulls defended casually, Zhang Hao felt that it would be difficult for the Nets to score over 100 points.
"The three-point line is shortened, the range from the three-point line to the reasonable collision zone is smaller, and there is no defensive three seconds... The biggest beneficiary must be the team with good defense, but we are not!"
Zhang Hao was a little sad.
At this moment, he heard Randy Whitman's call, and without any hesitation, he burst into tears and rushed to the side of the chief assistant coach.
"Kenny, Greg, Axl, Jason, PJ, you guys go ahead...don't be distracted, play well."
Randy Whitman actually said half a sentence extra!
Why do teammates feel that the extra half sentence is directed at Zhang Hao alone?
Zhang Hao was distracted just now.
The scent of lemon is spreading...
Zhang Hao's attention has been focused on the court. This time, he was placed at the small forward position.
He thinks that any position is similar...
Randy Whitman looked at Zhang Hao. He made such an arrangement because he didn't want Zhang Hao and Rodman to face off against each other .
The timeout was almost over and the referee signaled for both teams to return to the court.
Seeing the players on the opposing team, Randy Whitman was glad that he made such a decision, because none of the three strongest players on the opposing team went off the court to rest!
The lineup of Steve Kerr, Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, and Bill Wennington is on the court!
…
The moment he stepped onto the court, Zhang Hao's previous nervousness, worry... and other negative emotions were swept away.
He was trying hard to analyze possible favorable conditions. Perhaps the opponent didn't care about them at all. This was a favorable condition. If he made good use of the favorable conditions, he might be able to gain an advantage.
Also, standing on the same court with Jordan and playing against Jordan made Zhang Hao excited!
Then, from the very beginning, Zhang Hao had a nightmare...
When Zhang Hao came on the court, the Bulls' defense became obviously different. When he moved, there was always someone next to him!
Although he couldn't play double team or double-team in advance, no matter how Zhang Hao moved, the opponents, from Steve Kerr to Rodman, switched defense very quickly.
Kenny Anderson reacted quickly and seized the opportunity to make a close-range jump shot to score two points.
Zhang Hao's first attack played a big role. Kenny Anderson just took advantage of the gap in the mid-range when the Bulls switched defense and rushed straight to close range. However, the defense was so important that he was caught off guard.
I always felt something was wrong, but the game was still going on, so Zhang Hao immediately retreated and devoted himself to defense.
Zhang Hao is not good at defense. There is nothing he can do for the time being. He needs time to learn and experience in games, but attitude is very important. First of all, he has to work hard on the defensive end to have a chance to learn how to defend in the game.
After Pippen advanced to the frontcourt, Zhang Hao immediately came to the top arc to guard.
Pippen did not play one-on-one, nor did he continue to look for opportunities to create chances for Rodman like before. Just when Zhang Hao was curious about what the other party was going to do, someone came over. It was Jordan. Pippen began to break through from the left side with the help of a pick-and-roll!
"Do you need to use a pick-and-roll against me?"
It's just so righteous.
With justified confusion, Zhang Hao quickly switched defense with Graham.
But switching defense quickly is useless. Pippen averaged 22 points per game during Jordan's retirement! Facing the forward and guard line defense of the two of them, he easily occupied a favorable breakthrough space.
Just when Zhang Hao thought Pippen was going to score easily, Pippen passed the ball to Jordan!
Jordan received the ball from Zhang Hao and played a back-to-back singles game!
"What does this mean?"
Before Zhang Hao could think, Jordan had already pushed towards him! He quickly pushed back at Jordan.
However, Zhang Hao, who had been invincible against the Hornets' outside line in the past two games, was suppressed this time!
Jordan is 198cm tall, weighs 99.7kg, and has a strength rating of 93… Zhang Hao was pushed back half a step, and Jordan used the feedback force to flip over and bounce back, and in the air he made a long two-point shot as steady as if he was leaning against a wall…
Hollow hit!
Zhang Hao's defense caused almost no interference!
Moreover, Jordan did not avoid the attack, but took the initiative to take advantage of Zhang Hao's two biggest advantages on the defensive end - static confrontation and height and wingspan.
Jordan tilted his neck and said to Zhang Hao, "It would be better to put a chair here instead of letting you defend."
Zhang Hao felt like his little heart was stabbed. Before the game, Kenny Anderson had said that Jordan was the superstar in the league who loved to bully rookies the most, not even one of them.
I was mentally prepared, but it still felt bad!
After Jordan finished talking trash, he quickly retreated, and Zhang Hao also quickly left the court.
Zhang Hao had no fast break opportunities, the Bulls did a good job of retreating!
"They actually research a team like ours? Eh...what's wrong?"
Zhang Hao slowed down and ran to the frontcourt, thinking quickly about how to deal with the Bulls' switching defense, but no matter how he thought about it, based on the team's tactics and the configuration of his teammates, he found that there was no chance! Their conventional tactics made it difficult to create opportunities for the pitcher under the Bulls' defense!
Then find a way to create breakthrough scoring opportunities for Kenny Anderson!
This is what Zhang Hao thought and did the same when he got to the frontcourt.
But after the Bulls defended for one round, they defended better in the next round. Kenny Anderson took advantage of the opportunity that Zhang Hao had to break through when the Bulls were guarding him tightly, but Jordan blocked it. Kenny Anderson passed the ball to Graham who was in a big gap on the right sideline, and Graham shot a three-pointer...
Missed!
When Graham shot, Zhang Hao decisively cut to the inside. Coincidentally, the ball flew towards him. When Zhang Hao was about to jump and grab the ball, Rodman appeared!
Rodman's move scared Zhang Hao. Rodman jumped up and spread his legs in the air, almost like a split. Zhang Hao jumped up and bumped into Rodman's legs. At this time, Rodman had already caught the ball before Zhang Hao, and rolled on the ground after being hit...
The referee blew the whistle, and Zhang Hao was fouled while grabbing the rebound!
It's a foul, so what? Zhang Hao had no intention of arguing about it. His head was full of question marks - it was just a rebound, and this man with tattoos all over his body and even on his face, with nose rings and lip rings... a very strange look, was it necessary to fight so hard for a preseason game?
I didn't see this guy fighting so hard in the first half! Why did the opponent seem to become a different team as soon as Zhang Hao came on the court?
At this time, Zhang Hao already felt something was wrong. In the next few rounds, he confirmed one thing, something that he found incredible - the Bulls, the invincible team in his mind, actually targeted a rookie like him!
When he was running, the opponent used switching defense to block him; when he successfully counterattacked, the opponent directly committed a tactical foul; when he received the ball in a positional battle without accelerating the rhythm, the opponent surrounded him and double-teamed him to steal the ball...
On the defensive end, Jordan just kept his eyes on him and used switching defense to single him out. Even if someone from the Nets came to double-team him, Jordan didn't pass the ball. What's the difference between being one against two and being in an open position?
Even when grabbing a rebound, Rodman acted like he was facing the murderer of his father!
The score was quickly reversed. The Nets scored 11 points in the first half. At the end of the first quarter, the score only rose to 18 points. In nearly 6 minutes, the Nets only scored 7 points!
During the time when Jordan was playing crazy one-on-one , he scored 13 points by himself!
23 to 18, after the first quarter, the Bulls easily went from being 5 points behind to leading by 5 points!
During the intermission, Zhang Hao was substituted and sat on the bench, feeling a little confused.
No ability to fight back at all... This is not important. He has thought about the situation where he will not be able to fight back at all when playing against the Bulls.
But, this is definitely not the process!
After reviewing the situation in the first quarter and feeling the changes in his teammates' emotions, Zhang Hao suddenly understood what had happened.
Intentional! The Bulls started the game with intentional "casual" defense!
Let Rodman take the lead. Although the Bulls want to take advantage of the Nets' weakness to train, their fundamental goal is to make the Nets players relax!
Just when the Nets felt they had a chance... no matter what kind of chance it was, the Bulls shattered their beliefs in one fell swoop!
Zhang Hao found this incredible, but it was probably true! Even when facing a weak opponent like the Nets, the Bulls wanted to trample them under their feet, to the point where they lost confidence and fighting spirit and would never be able to turn things around!
Why?
Zhang Hao really couldn't figure it out: "Do they need to?"
Every player on the Nets never thought that they would be a better team than the Bulls. They just worked hard and wanted to seize any chance to win, just like they did in the past two games against the Hornets.
Not only against the Bulls, but against any opponent, they will choose to do so, and there is a chance of success.
But what the hell, the Bulls didn't play by the rules at all!
Nets head coach Butch Baird and chief assistant coach Randy Whitman had no idea what to do about this.
The gap in strength is too big and the opponent is in good shape. This is not a problem that can be solved by the coach alone, and the opposing coaching staff is so powerful.
But at the start of the second quarter, the Nets seemed to have another chance...
The Bulls replaced all three players except Steve Kerr and Bill Wennington with a pure substitute lineup. They just ran tactics when they came on the court. They didn't care whether they played well or not or whether their shots made or not. It was time to "polish tactics" again, and Kukoc became the tactical core.
During this period, Charles and Gilliam led the team to catch up with the score. At 4 minutes and 47 seconds in the second quarter, the Nets made a 12 to 6 run in the second quarter and overtook the Bulls by 1 point with 30 to 29!
The Bulls called a timeout!
After hesitating for a while, Randy Whitman discussed with Butch Baird and prepared to replace Zhang Hao, but was rejected by Butch Baird.
"Butch, in this situation, Axel's mentality will collapse!"
"Let him try."
"but……"
"Maybe he can do it?"
"Don't blame me if he has a mental breakdown. I don't take him as seriously as you do." Randy Whitman snorted.
He has talent, but how can he handle pressure? These are still areas that Butch Baird needs to examine. After all, it is only the preseason. If Zhang Hao is not enough to carry his expectations at this stage, then in the regular season, keeping his job will definitely be his primary goal .
Things like this need to be decided early.
Because to make changes, he has to pay a lot.
The timeout is over and the game continues.
As soon as Zhang Hao came on the court, he found that the opponent had actually changed the starting lineup!
Jordan scored 13 points in the first quarter. Zhang Hao thought that the opponent would not play again, but unexpectedly, not only Jordan played, but also Ron Harper, Pippen, Rodman and Longley!
Zhang Hao had a feeling that the other party was going to get him...
" Who did I offend?"
Zhang Hao's hunch was correct. After the Bulls started the attack, Jordan continued to focus on him.
This time, Zhang Hao was placed at the power forward position and played with Charles, Vaughn Fleming, Gilliam, and Jason Williams, but Jordan insisted on looking for Rodman for an off-ball pick-and-roll, forcing Zhang Hao to switch defense to him, and then Jordan leaned on Zhang Hao to ask for the ball.
"Where's your mid-range shot? I'm really disappointed. I thought you were so good at it, but now you don't even have a single point..."
After Jordan finished his mumbling, he didn't even try to fake or fight back. Before Jason Williams could pounce on him, he turned around and shot a jump shot...
Hit it again!
It’s 15 minutes!
Zhang Hao didn't say anything and ran to the frontcourt, but at this time he found that Jordan didn't leave, which meant that Jordan chose to defend him alone!
Moreover, the entire Bulls team stepped up their confrontation!
Before, it was difficult for Zhang Hao to find opportunities by running, but now it is difficult to find the running rhythm! Jordan's rough confrontation is no less than that of most power forwards.