Chapter 298 297. Then let’s deduct them together!
So far this season, the Bulls have averaged 102.6 points per game and allowed 96 points per game, with a net score of 6.6 points, ranking third from the bottom among the eight top teams. Only the Suns and Spurs have a lower net score than the Bulls, while the Bobcats, Lakers, Hornets, Pistons and Jazz all have a higher net score than the Bulls.

Ranked tenth in the league in offense and fifth in the league in defense, the Bulls can be said to be the worst team among the top eight in terms of overall offense and defense rankings.

The Bulls' offense was really not that good tonight. Except for Rondo at the point guard position, the Bobcats put their best one-on-one defense players at the other four positions. They did a good job of man-to-man marking and double-teaming. When Yao Ming didn't try his best to play one-on-one, the Bobcats blocked the Bulls' simple passing.

But the defense they played is totally inconsistent with the ranking!
This was the opening stage, when Zhang Yang, Felton, and Okafor had not yet worn off their shooting touch. They only scored 5 points in nearly 9 minutes. If the top three defensive teams, the Pistons, Rockets, and Spurs, were to come, they would not be able to guarantee that they could defend so well.

Without waiting for his teammates to answer, Zhang Yang continued to complain: "Yao only plays 32 minutes per game, Wallace only plays 33 minutes per game, and the two of them staggered their appearances by more than 10 minutes per game. Their best defensive time per game is less than 20 minutes... How despicable, pretending that their defense is only fifth and playing sneak attacks in the game?
They have two best defensive players in Hinrich and Wallace, Yao the top rim protector, Deng, Duhon, Nocioni, Smith (Joe)...they are only fifth in defense, the Bulls owner should fire Skiles! "

Teammates: "..."

Hill tilted his head and spread his hands, Okafor had a blank expression, Perkins had a bitter expression, Felton played depressed and looked like a teammate with Perkins...

They were also having a hard time fighting, but after Zhang Yang's complaints, a lot of their anger was relieved.

Carlisle gathered the players together to make personnel and tactical adjustments.

After the timeout, Zhang Yang and his teammates returned to the court. Felton and Perkins continued to play. Hill and Okafor were replaced by Mike Miller and Millsap.

Looking at the opposing team's lineup, Zhang Yang blurted out "MMP".

Nocioni was replaced by Chris Duhon, and the other four players remained unchanged! The opponent continued to strengthen defense!

Yao Ming, who had been staring at Zhang Yang, saw the shape of the mouth of his future national team teammate and smiled so brightly that the referee almost blew the whistle.

Whenever I fought with Zhang Yang before, he was the one swearing in the street. Now I finally see Zhang Yang swearing in the street!
Yao Ming: You know that Sefrosa can't defend you, but you still want us to replace Sefrosa for you to beat? Continue to enjoy Hinrich's close defense, Ben's backup defense, and faster rotation defense!
Duhon, a substitute, averaged 6 points, 3 assists and 1.1 steals per game, but he got a two-year, $2 million contract extension in advance, thanks to his defense. He was rated by Phil Jackson as the best team defensive point guard in the East.

The Bobcats attack and serve in the frontcourt.

Felton and Millsap launched a pick-and-roll attack.

The advantages and disadvantages of specialization and comprehensiveness are clearly reflected in Millsap and Okafor.

Okafor lost weight in time, and his athletic ability was not destroyed by serious injuries. At the age of 25, he has entered the golden period of his career. He can basically do all the jobs that an inside line should do, including singles, dunking, shooting, defense, and even passing, and his level is pretty good. In the next four or five years, he will maintain an All-Star level of 15+10+2+2 per game during his peak period. With his hard work and the improvement of his basic skills and techniques, he may be able to get through the age of 30, and after 30, he can switch to floor play and continue his form for a few more years... After all, he is called Little Duncan, and there is a successful role model standing there, so he can just copy his homework.

Millsap is still a sophomore, and maybe he can compete with Okafor in his future peak period, but he is certainly far behind now, but the direction of his efforts is single and clear. He focuses on high-post screens and support. He is extremely talented in this area, and his pick-and-roll screen skills have surpassed Okafor.

Little Duncan, after all, has a little word in his name. As an inside player, Duncan has the basic skills and techniques to guarantee a minimum of 90 points; Okafor is currently around 80+, and when he reaches his peak, most of his scores may reach 85+, but at most some individual items can reach 90+... The talent gap between the two is quite obvious.

Okafor and Felton's pick-and-roll cooperation failed to create effective opportunities, but Millsap did it!
Millsap's pick-and-roll angle and timing were better, and Felton had better starting space. Facing Ben Wallace who switched defense, he successfully started and broke through to the right elbow area.

At the same time, Zhang Yang, who was moving towards the high position, braked and ran back to cut to the basket from the left. Yao Ming quickly stopped moving to the left, took a step back, came to the top of the arc in the reasonable collision area, turned around and faced the baseline, blocking Perkins in the middle from eating the cake and covering Zhang Yang who was cutting in to receive the ball.

Ben Wallace noticed his partner's movement and stepped back faster to prevent Felton from passing him and going straight to the layup.

Felton stepped one foot into the three-second zone, braked suddenly, stepped back to receive the ball, and made a close-range jump shot...and it went in!
11 to 8, the Bobcats lead by 3 points!
When the Bulls attacked, Hinrich passed the ball to Yao Ming in the low post. Yao Ming held the ball and suddenly pushed it to the right rear.

Luol Deng cut into the basket with Ben Wallace's help, received a pass from Yao Ming and made a layup against Zhang Yang who was making a tip-in! The score difference was back to 1 point again!
Millsap was not decisive enough in his pursuit and failed to catch up, and Perkins was too slow in his follow-up defense, causing Zhang San, who was actively defending, to suffer a critical hit.

In the offense-defense transition, Felton continued to launch a pick-and-roll attack with Millsap.

This time, Ben Wallace did not speed up his retreat and continued to block Felton's shooting space. Felton successfully passed Ben Wallace in the elbow area and entered the three-second zone... and encountered Hinrich's backup defense!

When Zhang Yang moved up to a higher position, Hinrich did not follow!

Felton wanted to pass the ball to the high post, but Ben Wallace did not continue to chase him. He stood between Felton and the high post. Zhang Yang was left empty at the high post, and Felton could not pass the ball! After Ben Wallace intercepted Felton's best chance to pass the ball, he double-teamed him. Felton made a prompt decision and took the initiative to press towards Hinrich and force a shot...

This is not a bad choice, but it's a pity that I didn't get in.

Yao Ming grabbed the defensive rebound, and the offense and defense switched. Hinrich received the ball and advanced to the frontcourt and continued to pass it to Yao Ming in the low post.

It is becoming increasingly rare in the NBA for centers to post up and pass the ball. It is even rarer to assist in the low post. The last center who played this way was Sabonis.

Yao Ming often played like this when he was in China, but when he arrived in the NBA, his outside partner Francis in the first two years was a pure ball-holding inside player. His outside partners in the last three years would not cooperate with him in doing the "hard work" of running positions, so this tactic was basically abandoned.

After joining the Bulls, he demonstrated this ability in training and was noticed by head coach Skiles, who used him occasionally.

Yao Ming wanted to repeat the offense in the previous round, but Luol Deng had just come to the left side of the free throw line to set an off-ball screen with Ben Wallace, and Zhang Yang left Du Hong in the left corner open in advance and sent him to the elbow area.

When Luol Deng used a screen to shake off Mike Miller and cut in, he saw Zhang Yang blocking his path, looking as if he was going to kill him.

Luol Deng's cut was blocked, Yao Ming failed to pass the ball immediately, Mike Miller and Millsap did not do a good job in the off-ball pick-and-roll defense, but with the help of Zhang Yang, they did not miss anyone. After blocking Luol Deng, Zhang Yang rushed towards Yao Ming. With the help of Zhang Yang, Millsap caught up with Luol Deng and stood in the left elbow area to block Yao Ming's pass to the left side of the three-second zone. Mike Miller also came in from the free throw line...

The Bulls had three players on the left side of the three-second zone, and Yao Ming was surrounded by four players from the opposing team!

Yao Ming quickly dribbled the ball and took a step towards Perkins, grabbed the ball and turned over to avoid the steal from Zhang Yang who was rushing up, raised the ball, and shot from close range... missed!
Hinrich, Duhon, Luol Deng and Ben Wallace immediately retreated without even trying to steal the ball. The four opponents blocked the three-second zone and even Yao Ming couldn't squeeze in.

Zhang Yang protected the defensive rebound and passed it to Felton, so there was no way to launch a fast break.

The Bulls' team offense was blocked again after one round, but Skiles on the sidelines didn't care.

Their two point guards are not good at positioning. Hinrich is okay, at least he has an average level of positioning. When Du Hong doesn't have the ball in his hands, he is a pure catch-and-shooter, and a short catch-and-shooter at that. It is normal for the opponent to break through Yao Ming's low-post coordination.

His purpose of switching to double point guards was not to score.

Felton advanced to the frontcourt. This time he did not choose a pick-and-roll, but instead directly broke through Duhon!

Du Hong couldn't hold on and was crushed by Felton, but he kept chasing Felton.

Felton got to close range... and was forced to brake outside the three-second zone.

Yao Ming moved to the arc of the reasonable collision zone, like a mountain standing in front of Felton!

Zhang Yang successfully got rid of Hinrich on the left side of the three-second zone with the help of Millsap and ran to the high position, but his passing line was cut off by Ben Wallace who moved one step inside the free throw line; Millsap was blocked by Hinrich who switched defense and failed to cut into the basket immediately.

By the time Millsap turned around and squeezed out Hinrich to cut in, Duhon had already stuck to Felton again, forcing Felton to stop the ball. Yao Ming also moved tacitly to the left side of the top of the arc in the reasonable collision zone, blocking Millsap's cutting route.

Mike Miller was being fought by Luol Deng...Felton was about to be forced to steal the ball by Duhon and was about to force a shot, but he saw Perkins cutting in from the left baseline and quickly passed the ball!

Perkins entered the three-second zone, received the ball, and dribbled to avoid Yao Ming's outstretched "little short hands".

In comparison, Perkins looks very flexible.

Coming to the basket, Perkins jumped up with all his strength and slammed the ball into the basket with both hands... "Snap"... "Bang"...

Ben Wallace rushed into the basket from the middle and slapped Perkins' dunk ball onto the rim!
Yao Ming's move was not in vain! He made Perkins dribble the ball one more time and successfully helped Ben Wallace complete the block!
The ball hit the basket and bounced up. Yao Ming blocked Millsap's attempt to steal the ball. Ben Wallace landed and turned around to grab the rebound. His eyes went dark... Zhang Yang pushed the bounced ball back into the basket through Ben Wallace and Perkins!
(End of this chapter)