Chapter 164 Discussion about winning and losing in the finals
At noon, Wang Tiejun held a birthday party at home, and his teammates, management and coaching staff came to the door with gifts.
There were so many people that not only did Zhang Lili help, he also hired a chef from a Chinese restaurant to help.
In the evening, he and Zhang Lili watched the Eastern Conference Finals.
After two consecutive victories, the Knicks lost two away games and were tied by the Bulls. Now they have tasted the consequences. The New York media scolded the team bloody, which increased the pressure on the team.
Back at home, 97:94, they lost the most critical G5 game again, allowing the Bulls to get the match point.
Jordan and Pippen, the league's top perimeter duo, combined to score 57 points and grab 21 rebounds.
Jordan made 11 of 24 shots, a field goal percentage of 45.8%, and 7 of 9 free throws. He scored a triple-double of 29 points, 10 rebounds, and 14 assists. His explosive performance shocked all the media.
As for the Knicks, Ewing made 12 of 23 shots, 52.2% from the field, 8 of 14 free throws, and scored 33 points and 8 rebounds. His performance was also very strong.
Before the game was over, Zhang Liangli was singing carols for the Bulls again, and said happily: "Look at the rebounds the Bulls grabbed, they should have surpassed the Knicks by several points, right? If the Knicks lost today, there would be no other reason.
, it’s a rebound.”
Wang Tiejun also nodded, “Tonight the Knicks were weak in rebounding.
Obviously the Knicks have better rebounding ability. In the first four games, the Knicks had more rebounds. In the key G5 game, the Bulls got more rebounds. Isn't this looking for death?
After watching the game, the data comparison between the two teams also appeared on TV.
Zhang Lili pointed at the TV and said: "48:37, my God, the Knicks grabbed 11 fewer rebounds?"
Wang Tiejun laughed and said: "Losing only 3 points, if the Knicks grab two more rebounds, they can get the match point, instead of letting the Bulls get the match point. Look, Brother Zhang, what I said is right, the Knicks
The inside combination is just not good and unreliable at critical moments."
Zhang Liyi nodded and said: "Ewing had 8 rebounds, two less than Jordan. He is a super center. His rebounding tonight was so disappointing. Oakley had 6 points and 4 rebounds. This performance, ugh!"
The Knicks' performance was criticized by the New York media the next day.
Especially Ewing and Oakley, the two are considered the league's top inside combination, but they only got 12 rebounds together. You must know that Jordan got 10 rebounds as a shooting guard. This performance caused them to be criticized by the New York media and
The crazy abuse and accusations from New York fans.
"Old K is right, we should trade the inside. Ewing and Oakley are not good at all. They are unreliable at critical moments. They are rebounding waste. With them in the Knicks, we will never win the championship."
New York Sports even publicly asked the Knicks management to make a trade.
The attitude of the media and fans made the Knicks feel nervous. Everyone was very uncomfortable and the atmosphere was extremely depressing.
After a day's rest, the two teams came to the Bulls' home court.
In the visiting team's locker room, Ewing and Oakley sat together and talked quietly.
"Charles, this is our last chance. We can't let that kid get us wrong. Grab a few more rebounds, please!" Ewing said.
Oakley's face twitched again and again, and he nodded: "Brother, leave it to me. I'm designated to have double figures in rebounds this time."
He really did it. In the G6 game, he grabbed 11 rebounds, but only scored 11 points. He didn't steal or block a single shot. He did almost nothing on the defensive end and only focused on rebounding.
Ewing also grabbed 13 rebounds and made 12 of 18 shots, with a shooting percentage of 66.7%. However, he only made 5 free throws and made two. He did not have enough destructive power in the penalty area and scored 26 points in vain.
The entire Knicks team worked together and grabbed 42 rebounds, 16 more than the Bulls. However, they blocked 4 fewer shots than the Bulls and made 9 more turnovers. They made 1 of 8 three-pointers. With huge rebounds
With the ball advantage, the Knicks, with the most terrifying home court advantage in the 1990s, were chased by the Bulls, 88:96, and lost their last chance. In the past five seasons, they were eliminated by Jordan's Bulls for the fourth time, becoming
The bull’s biggest sufferer.
The Bulls made another victory, eliminating the Knicks with a total score of 4 to 2 and advancing to the finals.
After watching the game, Zhang Lili sighed: "The Knicks performed well inside tonight, but they were completely overwhelmed on the outside and made as many as 19 turnovers. So they grabbed so many extra rebounds and still lost the game."
Wang Tiejun said: "Comparing the shooting percentage, it seems that the Knicks are a little higher."
"Less than two percentage points, more or less, the difference is not big."
Zhang Lili analyzed: "Look at their shots, the Knicks had 16 more rebounds, but only took one more shot than the Bulls.
With similar shots and similar shooting percentages, the Knicks lost for only one reason: free throws."
"Free throw?" Lao Wang quickly stared at the TV and saw that it was true.
The Knicks made 17 of 25 free throws, a shooting percentage of 68%. This is not low, at least it is much higher than his free throw shooting percentage.
But the Bulls made 27 of 29 free throws, with a shooting percentage of 93.1%. In this alone, the Bulls scored 10 points more than the Knicks.
Zhang Lianda said: "Look at their true shooting percentage, which includes free throws. The Bulls are as high as 58%, while the Knicks are only 53.7%. So don't look at the Knicks' shooting percentage, which is more than a percentage point higher.
But that didn’t work, and the true shooting percentage was more than 4 points lower, so we lost the game.”
"Free throw? Damn it, the bull won't come for me, right?" Lao Wang murmured.
Zhang Liyi nodded and said: "The Bulls will be beaten inside by you and Barkley. If they don't kill you, who will they kill? Although your free throw shooting rate can barely reach 60%, but look at the Knicks, their free throw shooting rate is 68%.
, I really lost on free throws.”
"What should we do?" he asked quickly.
Zhang Li thought for a while and said: "You have to speed up your shots and don't let them have the chance to cut you. The most important thing is to increase the attack at the basket so that they can cut you, but you also have the opportunity to score two plus one."
He felt that this was not the solution. He was not O'Neal, and he could not get up fast enough. As long as he really wanted to cut him, he would have a chance. The chance of playing two plus one was very small.
…
The 1993 championship is related to the establishment of the Bulls dynasty. Whether Jordan, who has won two consecutive championships, can establish a dynasty is very important to the positioning of his career in history, so it is particularly concerned by the media.
Jordan's influence has completely exceeded the basketball circle. His performance affects Nike's shares and affects Chicago's economy. Therefore, not only the sports media carried out various reports on this finals, but other media also participated in the coverage.
In the next few days, major media began to analyze the situation of this year's finals, thoroughly analyzing the Bulls and Suns from top to bottom, from coaches to players, from skills and tactics to execution on the court, from offense to defense, from
From the outside to the inside, from three-pointers to free throws, no one is outside the scope of the media's analysis.
Many retired or active stars in the league have accepted interviews with the media and expressed their opinions.
The New York Times published an interview with Bill Russell on its front page. Russell said: "Looking at the lineup, the Suns are stronger inside and the Bulls are stronger outside. Both teams have a chance to win.
But analyzing the strength of the coaching staff, the Bulls undoubtedly have the advantage. One is a championship coach with two consecutive victories, and the other is a newly appointed rookie coach. There is no comparison at all. They will play a decisive role in on-the-spot command.
From the analysis of the players' on-court execution ability, the Bulls are undoubtedly stronger.
The Bulls are already a championship team with two consecutive victories. The lineup of the two consecutive championships has not changed much and is very stable. They have rich experience in the finals, and they have rich experience and willpower to play against the wind.
On the Suns, only Danny Ainge has experience in the Finals. Other players, including Barkley, do not have any experience in the Finals. They can only play with the wind.
So I am more optimistic about the Bulls. If the Suns want to win the championship, this lineup will have to be refined for at least one season before they have a chance. Next season, I am optimistic about the Suns winning the championship next season."
Russell's views represent the views of the vast majority of media and fans. Although the Suns achieved the first record in the regular season and performed well in the playoffs, in the eyes of most people, the Bulls with Jordan
More powerful.
Moreover, in this playoffs, the Bulls completed a sweep of the first and second rounds, performing more brilliantly than the Suns.
With the Eastern Conference Finals and Western Conference Finals completed, ESPN once again adjusted the chances of the Suns and Bulls winning.
Last time, ESPN adjusted the Bulls' championship probability to 75%, while the Suns' probability remained unchanged, but this time, both teams made adjustments at the same time.
The Bulls adjusted from 75% to 80%.
The Suns adjusted from 38% to 20%.
ESPN gave its own explanation for this adjustment: "The reason why the Bulls' chances of winning the championship have increased again is because Jordan has reached the Finals twice and won the championship twice. They have become accustomed to winning in the Finals.
On the other hand, the Suns have no experience in the finals, which is a fatal weakness, and they may even collapse in the finals."
Barkley was extremely angry. He took the initiative to find the media and fought back against ESPN, saying: "Espn's attitude once again proved their amateurism, so they never got the copyright of the Finals, because everyone knows that the rights to the Finals will be
If the copyright is handed over to them, it will be a huge disaster."
ESPN was also angered by Barkley's words. Nick Lohman, editor-in-chief of the Basketball Channel, said in an interview with the media:
"Okay, Sir Barkley is the most professional. If he is so professional, why hasn't he beaten Jordan once in so many years?"
Amid the spat between Barkley and ESPN, the official schedule for the Finals was announced.
The g1 game starts on June 9th, and the competition format is 232, which will be held on 9th, 11th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 20th, and 22nd.
On June 4, the Suns gathered all players and resumed training.
That night, Wang Tiejun contacted his eldest and second sister and told them that CCTV would broadcast the finals and asked them to bring their parents to Sijiu City in the next two days.
Da Ya and Er Ya were naturally very happy and quickly agreed.
Valley
On the 5th, CCTV's frontline team arrived in the United States, led by Sun Zhenping, plus a three-person filming team.
On the 6th, they rushed from Los Angeles to Phoenix and met up with Zhang Lili.
At half past five in the afternoon, Wang Tiejun completed his training and invited Sun Zhenping and others to dinner at a Western restaurant.
After greeting each other and exchanging pleasantries, everyone sat down and ordered food.
Zhang Liji communicated with Sun Zhenping first and said to him: "Tie Jun, Mr. Sun wants to enter the Suns team to film some team training and conduct interviews. Can you communicate with the management?"
"That's no problem. Didn't you say that the NBA has always wanted to develop our domestic market? The league and the teams should not refuse, right? Teacher Sun, you can just apply directly to the management." He said.
"That's right, then Teacher Sun, we will go to the Suns headquarters tomorrow morning." Zhang Liji nodded and said to Sun Zhenping.
Wang Tiejun said: "I will give you Mr. Colangelo's personal number. You just need to contact him first. I will give him a call first. He is our boss and general manager."
After dinner, Sun Zhenping and his team went to his home to film some of his training process at home.
The next morning, the Suns held a tactical meeting.
Assistant coach Lewis first introduced the situation and said: "Judging from this Eastern Conference Finals, facing the Knicks, who are also strong inside, the Bulls' offense is very obviously focused on Jordan and Pippen.
In the six-game series of the Eastern Conference Finals, the two of them took 60%, 61%, 46%, 61%, 56%, and 60% of the team's shots respectively.
In other words, this is how they should attack us, otherwise they will not be able to launch their offense at all when they are at a complete disadvantage inside."
Head coach Westphal continued: "Based on this situation, we must strengthen our defense on the outside to avoid being beaten by our opponents.
But the two of them will definitely strengthen their breakthroughs and cause damage to our inside line, so the inside line must also be prepared to make up for the defense.
On the offensive end, Old K's No. 5 position is very important, because it is our most dominant position and is closest to the basket, so our offense needs to be strengthened."
After the tactical meeting, the team started training. When it was almost 12 o'clock, Colangelo personally brought Sun Zhenping, Zhang Lili and his team to the training hall.
The Suns issued Zhang and Sun interview passes with the team, allowing them to enter the team's training base for interviews at any time without any barriers, and even enter the locker room. Of course, they need the player's permission before entering the locker room.
Starting from this day, a large number of media from all over the United States rushed to Phoenix to prepare to report on the upcoming finals.
That night, in China, CCTV 5’s evening news announced that the NBA Finals would be broadcast live in real time.
After the sports news, a talk show was arranged for Wang Tiejun, hosted by teachers Song Shixiong and Su Qun. It was very long, a full 25 minutes, and the process from domestic to NBA was very detailed, only going to jail was omitted.
experience.
The reaction to this news was generally modest.
There are still relatively few NBA fans in China, and the average sports fan doesn't even know about the NBA or its strength in the basketball world, so they don't care about the news that a Chinese has entered the league to play.
However, the reaction from the fans was not big, but it caused a shock in the industry.
Some of the best basketball players in the country, such as Sun Jun, etc., others don't know how powerful the NBA is, but they know and deeply understand the power of the 1992 American Dream Team.
They simply can't believe that a Chinese compatriot can enter the NBA and play in the finals with Jordan as the main center.
Apart from this group of players, the Hebei Province team was also the most shocked. They couldn't believe that a young man they fired could actually make it to the NBA and reach the final step.
Song Ming, the leader of the provincial team, watched this program and sighed in his heart: "If I had known this, I wouldn't have fired him. If he had stayed, we might be the champions now."
Although criminal imprisonment is a dishonorable experience, and staying in it will lead to criticism, there is really no rule that says that such a person cannot be allowed to stay in the team.
However, he was not the only one who decided to fire Wang Tiejun at that time. It was a collective decision, so there is no use regretting it now.
On the 8th, in Sijiucheng, Da Ya and Er Ya were riding around in a minibus all over the city.
The brother asked them to find a high-end hotel with a big TV in the room. If the TV is small, parents might not be able to see it clearly, so don’t be afraid of spending money. They obeyed and searched many hotels, but they couldn’t find a hotel with a big TV.
, there are very few hotels even equipped with TVs in their rooms.
No, they found out that there was a Sino-foreign joint venture hotel called International Hotel and ran over.
The two of them had stayed in Sijiu City for the past few months and had gained a lot of experience and courage. They entered the hotel and went to the front desk. When they asked, they found that the room was equipped with a large TV, but this hotel only entertained foreign guests and was a national special hotel.
Hotels used to generate foreign exchange.
Now the country's economy has not developed and there is a serious shortage of foreign exchange, and tourism is the best industry for generating foreign exchange.
Da Ya and Er Ya were very disappointed. Er Ya was the boldest and said to the staff dissatisfied: "Comrade, why don't we let Chinese people live in this place? It's not like we don't want to pay."
"Comrade, I just said that this is a hotel for the country to generate foreign exchange. Didn't you understand? If you have foreign money, you can stay there."
The staff was impatient and down-to-earth.
"Foreign money? We have it."
Erya took out a purse, took out a stack of U.S. dollars from it, showed it to the staff, and asked: "This is U.S. dollars, American money. My brother brought it to us, do you accept it?"
The staff member was stunned and blurted out: "Is it fake?"
Da Ya hurriedly waved her hands and said, "No, no, it's true. My brother works in the United States. He gave this to us. You can check it."
The staff member took it from Erya and saw that it was really US dollars, and there were quite a few of them. They were all one hundred US dollars, a total of eight hundred US dollars. After careful inspection, they were all genuine. He looked at Erya enviously.
The woman said: "So your brother is an overseas Chinese?"
"Can we live here now?" Erya asked.
"Yes, of course," the staff member said repeatedly.
"We want two single rooms, one of which must have a big TV, at least 19 inches." Erya said.
"That requires a deluxe suite. There are no ordinary standard rooms." The staff member said hurriedly.
"Okay, okay, we want a deluxe room and a standard room." Da Ya said hurriedly.
"How many days do you want to book?" The staff hurriedly went through the formalities.
"Starting from tomorrow, at least ten days." Erya said.
"Comrade, is this money enough?" Da Ya asked carefully.
The staff member did the math, shook his head and said, "It's only enough for five days."
"So expensive?"
Da Ya and Ya Ya looked at each other and were very reluctant to part with each other. Eight hundred US dollars is already several thousand dollars. Are they being ripped off as foreigners?
However, there was nothing I could do as my brother told me, so Erya had no choice but to say: "Six days have been decided in advance. We will bring enough money when we come here tomorrow, and we will not miss you."
"besides?"
As soon as the staff member was stunned, his mind immediately started to move, and he wanted to exchange some US dollars from these two girls.
"There's not much left, just a little." Da Ya quickly explained.
Wang Tiejun remitted another US$50,000 to his family last month. This money was not converted into RMB and is still lying in the bank, so he is not worried about running out of money.
But she is also afraid that others will ask them to exchange U.S. dollars, because even the staff of the bank where the money is deposited want to exchange U.S. dollars from them.
After booking a room, the two women quickly rented a van and rushed to their hometown.
On the 8th, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the Bulls arrived in Phoenix and held a press conference at the hotel.
Zhang Lili and Sun Zhenping also rushed to the hotel to attend the press conference.
There were hundreds of media attending the press conference, with a large number of cameras erected in the front row, and the hall was packed densely.
"Director Zhang, do you think the Suns have any hope of winning the finals?"
Squeezed in the crowd, Sun Zhenping was already sweating profusely and felt inexplicably nervous, so he asked in a low voice.
"There is hope. They played two games in the regular season and won one and lost one. But the Bulls should have greater hope. They have more experience in the finals. This is the Suns' biggest weakness." Zhang Liye also whispered.
At this time, the host announced that the press conference had begun.
Entering the question-and-answer session, the host began to turn over the cards.