Chapter 560: When the Map Is Exhausted, the Dagger Appears

Michael Jordan is the absolute ruler with the ball in hand, but he has witnessed a way of domination that descends from the sky, namely off-ball movement.

Fan Xi has gravitas.

He who scored 101 points in a single game and has achieved a super quintuple-double, wherever he goes, can drive the defense, and it's not just Derek Rose's eyes that are focused on him. When he starts moving, the Bulls' defensive arc will shift on its own.

These changes will give the Knicks' players a fleeting opportunity, as long as they can seize it.

Fan Xi is influencing the game in a way that does not involve holding the ball.

Monta Ellis's scoring demonstrates this possibility.

Previously, when Fan Xi was with the Kuaisuan, he often used such a move.

At that time, he was more like a teammate cultivator.

Now, he has been forced onto Liangshan.

He can only accumulate chemistry in this way.

Returning to halftime, Fan Xi raised his defense to the highest level, conducting all-around defense on Rose. Under Fan Xi's defense, Rose failed to increase his speed, and in his confrontation with Fan Xi, he broke through two steps and passed the ball to Luol Deng.

Luol Deng faced Monta Ellis's defense; the two differed greatly in height, and Monta is also a well-known defensive sieve.

Deng turned his back and used his height and weight to overpower Monta.

Monta was forced to retreat step by step by him; although he tried to steal the ball, the gap was huge.

After Deng's final impact shoved Monta back a step, he turned and shot... As he shot, Fan Xi rushed over, jumped up, and reached out to interfere.

Fan Xi is now expending more energy than usual.

But it still did not stop Luol Deng from easily sinking the basketball.

Although Monta was working hard on defense, and although Fan Xi's help defense was also extremely hardworking.

The problem objectively exists.

McBlin said on TV: "The Knicks' lineup defense is too weak. Even against the Bulls, whose offensive firepower at the two-three positions is mediocre, they struggle so much; if they miraculously defeat the Bulls to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals and then meet the Heat, wouldn't they be torn apart?"

He has a condescending evaluative attitude, and he likes to see the Knicks suffer humiliation.

But looking back, Monta Ellis, under Fan Xi's 'full escort', entered the paint, attracting the Bulls' defense to contract, then he passed the ball to Fan Xi; Fan Xi feigned, then backhanded the ball to the left baseline corner, where JR Smith happened to run by, ball and player meeting, he shot immediately.

Swish!

Three-pointer made.

Not only did the Knicks' lead not shrink, it actually expanded.

After hitting the three-pointer, JR Smith became very excited, pounding his chest while roaring.

He roared toward the spectators on the sidelines.

He was very excited.

"Actually, Stoudemire also had an offensive opportunity just now." Jordan analyzed from the sidelines; his on-court judgment and basketball IQ are far superior to those three ESPN commentators.

"Monta Ellis takes over Jieke Fan's role of driving into the paint, JR Smith becomes Jieke Fan's influence beyond the three-point line, Stoudemire is a turret from midcourt to the basket, and there's also Ben Wallace, who handles positioning and rebounds."

Jordan said.

"You mean, Jieke Fan turns the other four into his arms, centrally controlling them, moving them as if they were his fingers?" Dennis Rodman asked in surprise.

"You can understand it this way. Fan Xi is now the team's brain; he does not create chemistry, he makes other teammates an extension of his ability. This requires strong computational ability, and this style of play can make up for the team's lack of chemistry. However, in establishing this model, there will be losses, which requires a sufficiently smart brain." Jordan analyzed.

Rodman listened, increasingly astonished, and couldn't help but ask Jordan: "Were you like that with us back then?"

"I tried it, but I found that the triangle offense still suits us best. You guys are too smart." Jordan said with high emotional intelligence.

In other words, Jordan at this moment admits he lacks the wisdom to make the Bulls players of his era an extension of his ability.

There are two reasons for this. First, the triangle offense is too mature. Second, the Bulls players' IQ and basketball IQ are indeed stronger than those of the four Knicks players now.

JR Smith spending his life figuring out the 3D player role would already be a blessing from heaven; Stoudemire is a pure offensive machine, Monta Ellis's basketball IQ is lacking to the point of van Gogh's level, yet it's not so low that old Nelson would give up on him, and he would help normalize the still-fragile Stephen Curry of back then.

Ben Wallace's basketball IQ is decent, but he's old.

While speaking, the Bulls scored on the other end, with Carlos Boozer punishing Stoudemire with a mid-range jumper.

But soon, Sideline Coach Thibodeau's face darkened, because Fan Xi assisted Stoudemire's score on the other end.

The tactic remains to have Monta Ellis break through Luol Deng's defense from the wing, with Fan Xi providing escort on one side. When Monta Ellis encounters a wall-like defense, he quickly passes to Fan Xi on the other side for support, and Fan Xi then sends the ball out with thunderous speed.

Stoudemire followed up, easily dunked, and a floater untangled the Bulls' chaotic paint.

The Knicks' offensive firepower became evident.

Thibodeau requested a timeout, hoping to quickly improve the defensive issues.

He did not want to continue stalemating with the Knicks, and he demanded his players quickly suppress the Knicks' offensive posture and quickly close the point gap.

He repeatedly emphasized defense.

He put Ronnie Brewer on the court, demanding that Brewer preemptively restrict Monta.

The game continued.

Ronnie Brewer received Rose's pass and entered the paint, but Ben Wallace pressed him down, ball and all, and the referee called a jump ball.

This dissatisfied both sides.

The Knicks considered it a clean block.

The Bulls and their home crowd of twenty thousand fans considered it a foul.

Ben Wallace, leveraging his strong physique, deflected the ball to Stoudemire.

Fan Xi received the ball past midcourt; although Ronnie Brewer got off to a poor start on offense, on defense he entangled Monta.

He followed Monta Ellis like a shadow.

So, Fan Xi passed the ball to Stoudemire.

Stoudemire went one-on-one against Carlos Boozer.

Fan Xi wandered on one side, creating favorable one-on-one conditions for the scoring king.

In the end, Stoudemire drove into the paint and his floater went in.

Carlos Boozer's defensive skills are very shallow.

Stoudemire's basket gave the Knicks a double-digit lead.

Thibodeau flew into a rage on the sideline.

He again had Taj Gibson warm up.

Thibodeau was on the back foot, even though he had stressed at halftime to stick to his style.

But now, the Knicks suddenly underwent a big change.

Rose finished a floater.

Then the Bulls finally made a defensive stop: Monta Ellis's layup was contested and missed, and Joakim Noah also grabbed the rebound.

The game continued.

Time ticked by.

The Bulls were cutting the deficit, but the pace was extremely slow.

Fan Xi said at halftime that if the deficit narrowed to one point, he would switch the lineup.

But now, Kevin Garnett was already yawning on the bench, and even Tyson Chandler hadn't expected to rest this long.

They were the Knicks' defensive mainstays, expecting the game to be a war of attrition, but Fan Xi instead put them into a hibernation-like rest.

The fourth quarter ended quickly.

If not for Derrick Rose's buzzer-beating three-pointer, the Knicks' lead would be five points; now they still lead by two.

The Bulls cut the deficit by seven points in this quarter.

Rose's three-pointer set the United Center ablaze and erased the earlier 11 minutes 59 seconds of embarrassment and passivity.

Thibodeau's face was not pleasant.

He merely reached out to give Rose a high-five as the players returned to the bench.

On the Knicks' side, there was some excitement, because they originally thought this lineup could last at most five minutes, but they hadn't expected it to last until the end of the third quarter, and they even endured Joakim Noah's injury midway.

Ben Wallace sat on the bench, panting, his stamina no longer able to sustain further play.

He had fulfilled his duty and stepped aside.

Larry Brown began arranging the fourth-quarter lineup, putting Tyson Chandler, Kevin Garnett, Baliya ni, Prince, and Fan Xi on the court together.

This lineup was balanced on both ends and had height.

He hoped to replicate the first-quarter success.

…

"The Knicks indeed have many tricks; they can always roll out various lineups. But they lead by only two points. The fourth quarter is when true strength is tested—do they have what it takes?"

McBlin posed a soul‑piercing question on TV.

Jeff Van Gundy also stuck to his usual take, reasoning that the Bulls must win and the Knicks had no new tricks left.

Only Reggie Miller played the contrarian, saying: "Isn't there still Jieke Fan?"

His view was weak.

On ESPN he found no support; even as he analyzed his reasons, ESPN cut to an ad.

When the ad ended, both teams' players had already walked onto the court.

Fan Xi received the inbound from Prince past halfcourt, with Derrick Rose still guarding him.

Fan Xi called for Kevin Garnett to set a screen; Garnett gave Fan Xi a solid screen, Fan Xi drove past, Bariani used Tyson Chandler's screen to cut baseline to baseline, Fan Xi passed to the right corner, and the receiver shot immediately.

That shooter released with textbook form……bang!

It clanged off the iron.

The rebound was tipped by Tyson Chandler, but it didn't go in.

Joakim Noah grabbed the rebound.

He passed it to Rose, who advanced steadily.

"Did you see that?"

McBlin shouted on TV: "This is the downside of constantly changing lineups—their players lose touch from resting too long. Jieke Fan always thinks he's the only smart one in the NBA; other teams strictly run seven‑ or eight‑man rotations in the playoffs, yet he'd love to run a twelve‑ or thirteen‑man rotation, showing he thinks he can master any style. But, you can't have too much of a good thing."

McBlin always finds an angle to attack.

It still looks that convincing.

But if Fan Xi didn't change the lineup, the first half might have collapsed.

Rose set a pick‑and‑roll with Taj Gibson at the top of the key, then drove into the paint; under Garnett's help defense, he quickly stopped, faked, and stepped in……the whistle blew.

Garnett's defense was clean, but the referee deemed his outstretched hands had infringed on Rose's shooting cylinder.

That was a standard shooting foul.

Garnett was furious; this was his fourth foul.

Before, he was a superstar and often got the benefit of such calls; now the referee gave the call to Rose.

He couldn't bear the disparity and roared at the referee to pressure him.

The referee didn't indulge him as before, instead giving him a technical foul to snap him to his senses.

As Garnett was about to continue arguing, Fan Xi pulled him away, and Larry Brown quickly substituted Stoudemire for him.

The times have changed.

"Garnett must accept that he is no longer a superstar," Reggie Miller said on TV, feeling deeply.

At that moment, the camera caught Thibodeau's smile on his face.

It was obvious that Garnett's return to the bench was a huge boon for the Bulls.

Although Stoudemire was the regular‑season scoring champion and had reached the peak of his career.

in the Bulls' eyes his threat was far less than that of the past‑his‑prime Garnett.

Next, what other tricks does Jieke Fan have?

Xibo Du's eyes were full of teasing anticipation.

He thought Fan Xi had no more tricks.

In fact, Fan Xi didn't intend to keep using any strange tricks.

His gaze turned resolute.

It's already the moment when the map is exhausted and the dagger appears!

…