After this timeout, the starting lineups of both teams returned.

The Knicks did not change their defensive strategy because of a three pointer, but on the Bulls side, his teammates scored and Michael Jordan began to share the ball more.

Longley took the ball with his back to the basket in the left blocking area.

Seeing Pippen cutting in, he immediately passed the ball to Pippen, who made a layup with his right hand despite Larry Johnson’s block!

The Knicks attacked, a local 2-on-2 situation.

After a quick pass, Ewing took the ball at the elbow on the left side of the free throw line.

Lee, who was sliding from right to left quickly, immediately jumped out and was delayed by Longley just after receiving the hand-to-hand pass.

Before Kerr could come up from behind to defend, Lee, who was moving sideways on the free throw line, passed the ball with his right hand and hit the ground pass, instantly breaking through the defense.

Ewing caught the ball and made a one-handed slam dunk!

For several minutes, both sides started to score efficiently again, and there were no mistakes in the several tactical coordinations.

With 5 minutes and 13 seconds left in the first half, the Bulls attacked.

Kukoc made a dunk to attract a double-team.

After scoring, he missed an open jump shot on the right wing outside the three-point line!

The long rebound was picked up by Lee, who then continued to accelerate along the right sideline.

“oh!!”

A transition offense occurred and the New York fans, who had been silent for a while, began to cheer loudly again.

Kerr, who was chasing him, cursed inwardly, and when he saw Lee slowing down, he wanted to defend him and pull him up.

Near the three-point line, Lee, holding the ball in his right hand, dribbled quickly behind his back, misled his body to the right, and after a fake dribble, he accelerated the breakthrough with the ball in his left hand.

After making a wrong defensive prediction, Kerr quickly adjusted his body center of gravity and kept sliding to the right rear.

Just as the two of them arrived near the paint area, Pippen of the Bulls had already retreated back to defense.

Lee glanced at the situation behind him, and without waiting to enter the paint area, he turned quickly, and while holding the ball, he leaned against Kerr’s body and shot the ball towards the backboard with his right hand!

Instinctively pulling, Kerr turned around and wanted to return immediately, but he was still a step too late.

He watched the basketball hit the backboard and was slapped away by Pippen.

“Squeak!”

The referee blew the whistle to indicate that the goal was valid, then pointed to the free throw line, indicating that Lee still had an extra penalty.

“Shit! Don’t even think about scoring an easy goal again. I’ll block your shot next time!”

Just a little bit short of completing the defense, Pippen saw Lee standing on the free throw line and said something pretentiously next to the paint area.

On the free throw line, Lee patted the ball and didn’t pay attention to Pippen’s words.

Instead, he smiled and shouted to the Bulls:

“Hey! Come and talk trash to me with a high salary!”

The referee who just passed the ball almost couldn’t hold it in, but Pippen on the side was very angry.

Lee made the free throw and when he retreated, Michael Jordan pulled a frown on his face and whispered as he ran toward half court:

“Don’t try to provoke me!”

Lee pretended to be surprised and didn’t say much. He just asked teasingly:

“43:49?”

“Wow! Black Jesus lost by 6 points?”

With 3 minutes and 35 seconds left in the first half, Lee succeeded in fanning the flames, causing the Bulls’ dual cores to miss shots one after another.

While Michael Jordan was leading the defense, he came to the right wing and protected the ball sideways.

Clay Lee was still delivering:

“The party that is behind has no right to talk trash!”

Michael Jordan immediately strengthened his defense and attacked directly.

Lee pushed his opponent away, and after the ball was deflected, he quickly picked up the ball with his left hand and accelerated with all his strength.

When he reached the three-point line, Lee immediately stopped, took advantage of Michael Jordan’s sliding step, dribbled quickly behind his back, switched to his right hand, and broke through with his shoulder.

The two of them struggled to the right blocking area.

Lee turned around again, approached the paint area, grabbed the ball with his left hand, and leaned forward to shoot!

“Snap! Squeak!”

It was a clean and neat move, with Michael Jordan fouling immediately after he lost his position.

Lee shook his hands and walked towards the free throw line.

The old man was furious and his movements became more and more violent.

“Boo!!”

While booing, the New York fans at the scene did not forget to curse at Jordan.

As the first half was about to end, the Bulls bench fell silent again as they watched the score gap widen.

Free throws are just giving away points, and Pippen couldn’t stand the newbie showing off, so he just took the initiative to lead the defense.

The Bulls’ offense started to go in and out again, and Kukoc hit a three-pointer.

But the Knicks responded quickly.

Alan Houston scored against Kerr with his back to the basket, and Larry Johnson broke into the basket and was called for a dunk foul again.

Lee pretended to be cool and then slacked off.

In the last moment, he kept passing the ball to Ewing in the interior.

Pippen had a sullen face and stopped talking.

The score difference was widened.

Longley was repeatedly tossed around in this quarter.

The gorilla went to the basket after the screen. The two were always competing with each other.

In the final moments, Longley still couldn’t hold on, and Ewing, who was full of energy, successfully positioned himself several times, helping the Knicks score points continuously.

Although the 1-point rain scene was not pretty, the effect was very good.

On the commentary stand, seeing Ewing’s free throw, Walt Frazier said with a smile:

“Lee knows how to make the team score easily. We haven’t missed a free throw tonight. It seems that coach Van Gundy is well prepared!”

Ewing, who scored points continuously, roared and pumped his fist in celebration.

On the Knicks bench, the atmosphere team threw towels again.

In the final moments, Michael Jordan finally hit a long two-pointer from the right wing, which saved some face.

48:55, halftime ended, the Knicks still led by 7 points.

Commentator Mike Breen looked at the technical statistics and said with some surprise:

“In the first half of the game, both teams only had 2 turnovers. The Bulls really played an efficient offense tonight.”

Walt Frazier had already noticed this, but at this moment the Knicks legend was full of confidence:

“Lee will continue to control the game, and the Bulls’ plan to get easy points through turnovers will not work.”

During the halftime break, in the Bulls locker room, Phil Jackson tried his best to deliver chicken soup.

There was less than three minutes of rest in the first half of the game.

The physical strength of several main players declined, and the defensive intensity dropped visibly.

They could only rely on fouls to complete the defense.

“After this game, we will have two days to rest, and if we win an away game, we will be able to get the match point at home!”

Phil Jackson’s big shot worked, and after looking at each other, the players made up their minds to fight hard in the second half.

In the third quarter, the tenacious Bulls used their usual tactics again: Give the ball to Michael Jordan!

After playing for more than two minutes, Lee completely understood the Bulls’ tactical routine.

Be increased the screens and let Michael Jordan receive the ball and play one-on-one.

Rodman started in the second half.

The Bulls opened up the offensive space on the court, but the Knicks’ defense kept shrinking.

During the Bulls’ offense, Rodman moved on the free throw line, trying to attract Ewing, but the gorilla saw the crossover dunk in the right blocking area and rushed to the inside, sliding to the basket in the first possible moment.

Alan Houston gave a physical confrontation, Ewing blocked the basket, and with the two of them surrounding him, Michael Jordan passed the ball to Rodman on the free throw line.

The latter received the ball, with no one in front of him, and immediately took a jump shot after taking a look!

“Bang!” The shot was a miss!

The rebound bounced out, and Lee, who was following Harper in the left corner, firmly trapped the opponent behind him, retreated to the paint area, and successfully protected the backcourt rebound.

The Bulls hadn’t scored for more than two minutes.

At this time, Lee was no longer in a hurry to advance and took 8 seconds to dribble across half court.

Harper did not dare to be careless.

Facing Lee, who was holding the ball with his left hand and protecting it sideways, he continued to press and defend on the left wing.

Without a pick-and-roll, Lee dribbled the ball hard, twisted his body backward, pretended to turn around, then picked up the ball with his left hand again, lowered his center of gravity and took a big step forward.

Harper slid quickly, and Lee immediately crossed back and pretended to break through after switching to his right hand.

While the opponent moved to the left, he changed direction again.

Lee scooped up the ball with his left hand and successfully gained half a body position, then cut in 45 degrees from the left side.

Rodman immediately came up to assist and blocked the basket.

Ewing was left open at the free throw line.

After receiving the pass from Lee, he aimed for a while and made a mid-range jump shot.

The one-point rain in the last minute of the first half allowed Ewing to find his touch.

Similar to the Bulls’ positioning, the Knicks’ two inside players also stood more in the elbow area at the beginning of the second half.

The New York fans continued to cheer after scoring so easily.

Victory was in sight!

Phil Jackson on the sidelines frowned.

Harper’s defense could not limit Lee’s one-on-one breakthrough.

He made a tactical gesture and loudly reminded the Bulls to switch defense.

The Bulls were on offense, and Michael Jordan finally hit a turnaround fadeaway jump shot in the left blocking zone.

Just as he retreated to half court, he found Larry Johnson asking for the ball with his back to the basket.

Facing Pippen’s defense, Lee steadily crossed half court and came to the left wing.

At this time, Larry Johnson had been pushed to the blocking position by Michael Jordan.

The most common offensive routine, Lee quickly passed the ball to “Grandmama”, the latter received the ball, put it in his right hand, and dunked it without losing his position, but was still pushed into the paint area.

When Larry Johnson took the ball and went to the line to shoot, Michael Jordan made a great effort to block it!

“Bang!”

The basketball hit the rim and bounced out.

At that time, the basket was full of people.

He knew the ball would not go in after he shot it, so Larry Johnson rushed to the basket with Jordan.

On the other side, Ewing trapped Kukoc behind him, and Oakley was still pulling with Rodman.

He failed to dunk and was rebounded by Ewing, who put the ball in.

The gorilla started punching passionately again.

He was very familiar with this kind of competition!

“Wow!!”

When New York fans saw how embarrassed Michael Jordan was, their cheers got louder and louder.

Soon the Bulls’ switching defense strategy failed.

Although Pippen was a bit stubborn, he participated in positioning in every round and actively protected the rebounds.

Under the fierce attack of three Knicks players, Michael Jordan was unable to hold on.

With 5 minutes and 58 seconds left in the third quarter, he had just called a timeout to catch his breath.

After missing consecutive shots, Michael Jordan received a pass from Kukoc on the left wing, cut into the middle and made a layup.

Alan Houston curled the corners of his mouth and patted his thigh. He didn’t expect Jordan to be so fierce.

58:63, halfway through the third quarter, neither side had scored much.

“Let’s go Knicks! Let’s go Knicks! Let’s go Knicks!”

The cheers rang out again.

The fans became a little anxious as they failed to get the expected lead.

Lee slacked off for half a quarter, and this time he took the ball from the baseline, facing Harper’s defense again, and advanced with the ball along the right sideline.

When he was about to reach the center line, Lee led the ball forward, his left foot stepped into the air and then suddenly pushed off the ground, then took a quick step with his right foot, increasing his stride and accelerating to grab the ball.

Before Harper could react, Lee quickly rushed across the center line after the “scissor step” and instantly got rid of the defense.

“Damn it!!”

Seeing that Lee was about to reach the three-point line, Harper hurriedly accelerated to chase him.

Glancing at the movement behind him, Lee just approached the three-point line and dribbled the ball quickly behind his back.

He stopped suddenly and Harper, who was chasing him, lost his defensive position again.

Without time to block the shot, Harper watched Lee shoot a jump shot from outside the three-point line!

“Swish!” The three-pointer went into the net!

58:66, the score difference returned to 8 points again.

When Harper heard the cheers from the fans, he knew the ball had gone in again.

He felt like he was being shown off and his expression became even uglier.

Soon Harper noticed that Lee’s shaking began to increase and his dribbling speed also increased.

He had no choice but to be forced to foul and missed dunks for two consecutive rounds, making the noise in Madison Square Garden louder and louder.

This time, Lee received the ball and continued to dribble it behind his back.

After switching to his right hand, he chased the retreating Bulls to the left wing.

Rodman retreated quickly, and was still calling his teammates in the paint.

Lee stopped at the three-point line and dribbled the ball quickly.

The moment he switched to his left hand, he twisted his body and shot the ball!

The basketball bounced to the floor and flew straight to the lower left side of the basket.

Larry Johnson just slipped under the basket and received the pass.

Rodman reacted quickly and jumped to block the shot immediately.

Finally, Larry Johnson hung on defense and sent the ball into the basket with his left hand!

“Ah!!”

When he heard the referee’s whistle, “Grandmama” pushed Rodman away and pounded his chest and screamed.

Seeing the Knicks were about to get another free throw, Phil Jackson on the sidelines couldn’t hold it anymore and loudly reminded his players to stay focused.

In the second half of the third quarter, the game turned into the Bulls missing shots and the Knicks switching offense.

Unlike G1, the Bulls chose to foul and not give away points easily even if they couldn’t defend.

Jeff Van Gundy had returned to the bench by this time, smiling and clapping occasionally.

The on-site director also frequently focused the camera on the bald young coach, who indeed showed the demeanor of a famous coach.

When the Bulls started shooting free throws, Lee knew that the opponent would not be able to hold on.

Several attacks were aimed at causing fouls.

With his physical strength declining, the old guy no longer had the confidence to put the ball into the basket.

In the last 1 minute and 12 seconds of the third quarter, Lee made a cross cut and easily got rid of Harper’s pursuit.

On the left wing, Lee turned around to receive the ball, and then he faked a move, and Kukoc, who came on to defend, was directly caught off guard.

Lee released the ball with his left hand and took a step back.

He completely shook off the defense and easily shot a jump shot from outside the three-point line!

“Swish!” The three-pointer went into the net.

The Knicks players quickly retreated, and Michael Jordan received the ball in the right blocking area again.

After being double-teamed, he immediately passed the ball back to Pippen on the right wing.

After a quick shot in and out, Michael Jordan received the ball again and immediately turned toward the baseline, facing Alan Houston’s defense and hitting the response ball.

“It’s unbelievable that Michael Jordan can still hit such a difficult shot!”

Towards the end of the third quarter, commentator Mike Breen could not help but exclaim.

Walt Frazier looked at the technical statistics and said nonchalantly:

“4 of 11, 10 points. This efficiency is not enough to beat the Knicks.”

It was the same tactic, but this time Lee changed direction.

He had just received a cross pass from Larry Johnson on the right wing when Rodman switched to defend.

Lee maintained a triple-threat posture, protecting the ball at his side, while Rodman held his waist with his right hand, raised his left hand high, lowered his center of gravity, and stuck to him.

He took two quick probing steps with his left foot.

While Rodman was moving slightly backward, Lee suddenly released the ball, dribbled the ball in place, stepped back laterally, drifted slightly to the right, and quickly made a jump shot!

“Swish!” The three-pointer went into the net!

Madison Square Garden exploded in an instant.

The score was scored face to face.

The New York fans finally couldn’t hold it anymore and started celebrating the victory in advance.

Seeing that Rodman was still in a daze, Lee, who had scored the goal, smiled and shook his head, then quickly retreated in small steps.

In the final moments of the third quarter, Pippen was about to get a free throw, but the fans at the scene didn’t care anymore, they just wanted to celebrate.

70:85, after three quarters, the Knicks led by 15 points.

Michael Jordan played the entire third quarter and did not directly appear in the fourth quarter.

He took a lot of shots and consumed a lot of energy, so he had to take a break.

Both teams made lineup changes. Walt Frazier, who was on the commentary stand, felt that the game was already stable and kept praising Clay Lee:

“4 of 6 shots, 3 of 4 from beyond the three-point line, 4 of 4 free throws, Lee scored 15 points in the third quarter!”

“When the team needed points the most, Lee took over the game!”

Three three-pointers left commentator Mike Breen impressed:

“Incredible performance, Lee’s efficiency is amazing!”

On the Bulls bench, Harper could no longer hold on.

Although he rested for half a quarter in the second quarter, leading the defense in the third quarter consumed a lot of his energy.

Phil Jackson looked at the state of the main players and shook his head secretly.

He wanted to give up the game, but Michael Jordan insisted on playing.

After less than three minutes of rest, Michael Jordan came on the court again.

On the Knicks side, Alan Houston on the bench was also a little confused:

“In three quarters, Mike took 24 shots, plus a lot of back and forth runs. Isn’t he tired?”

Lee didn’t care about that. If the old guy wanted to keep playing, he would follow him:

“I’m not tired, keep playing, and tell him that the Knicks’ rules can’t be broken!”

This season, the Knicks have never lost a game when leading by double digits.

The drama of a comeback simply does not exist for Lee.

He made a total of 2 turnovers in three quarters, and just like in normal games, most of them occurred when passing the ball to the inside.

Jeff Van Gundy soon got back the main lineup.

The bald young coach would not worry about the players’ physical fitness.

They had rested for so many days, and Ewing had rested for most of the season.

If they fought against the main players, they would have more advantages.

The Knicks’ accompanying team appeared again, which also caused Lee’s data to increase a little.

With 3 minutes and 1 second left in the game, Lee began to press the time.

With 24 seconds left, Lee broke through to the paint area despite Kerr’s defense and casually shot the ball into the basket.

Then everyone rushed to the basket and there was a scramble for the ball.

In the end, the Bulls were so exhausted that Michael Jordan admitted defeat and left the court with a sullen face.

“Wow!!”

The last few tens of seconds passed and cheers resounded throughout the stadium.

93:106, the Knicks defeated their opponents and protected their home court again.

“ah!!”

Ewing was holding the ball under the basket and shouting excitedly, suppressing his opponent throughout the court.

The gorilla naturally knew what this meant.

Lee took a deep breath, felt his physical condition, smiled confidently, and high-fived everyone in the noisy atmosphere group to celebrate.

Jeff Van Gundy stood up from the bench, straightened his suit jacket, and walked to the technical table with a smile to shake hands with Phil Jackson:

“This is such a wonderful game! I look forward to our match in Chicago.”

“.”

Phil Jackson was in no mood to deal with the bald young coach.

He shook hands perfunctorily and turned away.

When Jeff Van Gundy saw Michael Jordan walking quickly towards the player tunnel, he felt completely relieved.

Playing for 40 minutes, 12 of 24 shots, 4 of 8 from beyond the three-point line, 6 of 6 free throws, 34 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 turnovers.

Seeing Lee’s data, commentator Mike Breen sighed:

“No matter what the opponent’s condition is, Lee has proved himself again by playing like this in the Eastern Conference Finals!”

“It is absolutely well-deserved to be included in the best team!”

Walt Frazier waved to Lee, and then asked him who came in front of the two of them:

“You have played highly efficient in two consecutive games, Lee, tell us your secret, everyone wants to know!”

Lee took the microphone, with a smile on his face, but answered bluntly:

“I’m in better shape, I’m younger, it’s that simple!”

“Maybe the Bulls can consider using younger defenders to match me. They can consider my suggestion!”

The three of them laughed loudly on the sidelines and started the commercial praise mode again.

The series score came to 2:0, and it was not an easy task to turn the tables.

Michael Jordan still attended the post-game press conference, wearing a formal suit and looking calm.

Facing the provocation of the New York media, he simply responded calmly:

“The Bulls will win the series, and I will be the final winner!”

The TNT reporter was no longer polite and stood up and asked loudly:

“Michael! If the Bulls don’t make it to the Finals, would you consider retiring for the second time?”

Michael Jordan seemed annoyed by the question.

He held the microphone and said with a sullen face:

“I have never said anything about retirement, and I have never thought about these things.”

“The Bulls will win the series! Ask me these questions then.”

“.”

Playing 41 minutes, he made 13 of 29 shots, 9 of 10 free throws, 35 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 turnovers.

Although Michael Jordan scored the highest points of the game and his efficiency was good, the crowd just wanted to see Michael Jordan lose.

The sports media that night all became fence-sitters:

“The Bulls are about to fall apart!”

…

By the way, don’t forget to throw power stones and leave a review to motivate me 🙂

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep