Chapter 197 I Can’t Even Write a Script

Meng Jin scored 22 points in the second quarter. He wanted to use his personal scoring to widen the gap, but the Bulls fell behind by 4 points at the end of the half.

Meng Jin soon realized that this Bulls team needed him to do more. If he only focused on scoring, it would be difficult to lead the team to victory.
He must take into account scoring, defense, and rebounding like he did in the first quarter, and maybe even some organization occasionally, so that he can truly carry the team forward.

Losing Jordan is not just a simple loss for the Bulls, they also lost an excellent organizer and a top perimeter defender.

In the third quarter, Meng Jin adjusted his playing style and focused more on defense. Meng Jin thought that as long as Dominique Wilkins could be restricted, the Hawks’ offense would be constipated. Meng Jin was only half right. He did a good job in defending Wilkins in this quarter, allowing this super scorer to only score 5 points. However, the Hawks’ offense was not constipated. Doug Rivers and Spot Webber both broke out, especially Spot Webber. He scored 10 points, 3 assists and 2 steals in this quarter, and his performance was quite eye-catching.

This season, the Hawks often used the double point guard lineup of Doc Rivers and Webber. In order to make up for the height deficiency of Webber, the Hawks put two 213CM tall guys, Jon Kaunkik and Kevin Willis, on the court at the same time. Moses Malone became the team’s sixth man this season.

The Hawks’ lineup played well on the court, but their locker room was not harmonious. Veteran stars like Moses Malone were unwilling to be a substitute, and he felt that he was not old enough. Moses Malone still averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds per game last season. His relegation to the bench this season was entirely the fault of new coach Bob Weiss.

The new Hawks head coach Bob Weiss felt that Moses Malone could not adapt to his tactical system. Moses Malone did not cry or commit suicide. He was a decent player. Moses Malone would still play diligently, but at the same time he made it clear to the management that he would not renew his contract with them. This would be his last season with the Hawks.

The Hawks management did not try to retain Moses Malone. Two seasons ago, they were looking forward to his arrival. The management hoped that Moses Malone and Wilkins would create sparks and lead the Hawks to win the O’Brien Cup. Two seasons later, the management also recognized the reality. Moses Malone was no longer the man who shouted to the camera after winning the championship in 1983, “I slaughter my opponents as hard as Al Capone (the godfather of the Chicago gangster from 1925 to 31).

For the sake of the team’s record, the management sided with the rookie coach and acquiesced to the decision of Moses Malone to play as a substitute.

Moses Malone was treated coldly, and the first person to speak up for him was not an Hawks player or his former 76ers teammate, but Charles Barkley.

Barkley once regarded him as a spiritual father, and he has always been imitating Moses Malone’s playing style. To some extent, Barkley can be seen as the spiritual continuation of Moses Malone in the NBA.

But Barkley’s words are useless except for venting.

In addition to defense, Meng Jin also does the supporting work. You should know that he basically did not touch this job in the past few seasons. Meng Jin’s passing ability is average, and his advantage lies in his vision. After Meng Jin jumps, he has a feeling of seeing all the small players and can observe the positions of his teammates.

In this quarter, Meng Jin made three assists, all of which were breakthrough passes, two of which were to Paxson.

Paxson’s shooting mainly comes from two tactics. One is to run from the wing to the high position, with his teammates blocking for him. He receives the pass from his teammates in the high position and then shoots. The other is to stand on the outside, waiting for the ball to be passed by his teammates after being double-teamed. If the opportunity is good, Paxson will receive the ball and shoot.

These two tactics are not complicated, but they are of great help to the Bulls. They enrich the Bulls’ offensive levels and create more space. When opponents are staring at Meng Jin, they must also be careful of Paxson’s running, because he is a player who has the ability to punish you for missing people on defense, and he is too accurate.

This is why Bach insisted on keeping Paxson on the court even though his defense was terrible. Paxson was a perfect match for Meng Jin on the offensive end. He could help Meng Jin create space for breakthroughs, and he was also able to make shots after receiving the pass from Meng Jin.

After the third quarter, the Bulls were trailing by 8 points, and this difference continued until the middle of the final quarter.

“Shh!”

After a pick-and-roll, Little Potato Webber went straight to the basket. After deceiving Cartwright with his eyes, Little Potato made a super high throw and the basketball went straight into the net.

The on-site commentator Tom Doll said: “The difference between the two sides reached double digits. The rhythm of the Bulls’ game was not smooth. They did not play their own running and gunning style, and they did not do well enough on the defensive end. After all, the team did not lose an ordinary player, they lost an MVP-level player. Meng played very hard and very well tonight. He had filled in all his statistics before the game was over, but it is obvious that he is still exploring ways to lead the team to win.”

Another commentator, Johnny Kerr, nodded: “He needs time, we have to give him some time. I believe he can lead this new Bulls team back to the top.”

The two commentators on the scene seemed to have made the final judgment. The Bulls did play very passively tonight and were suppressed by the Hawks since the third quarter.

In the Bulls’ offensive round, the Hawks’ defense retreated as soon as Meng Jin got the ball. Now the Hawks’ tactics were very clear. They would not allow the opponent to shoot or break through. The Hawks already had a 10-point lead. Head coach Bob Weiss’s idea was simple and conventional. He felt that as long as they played steadily, they could maintain the advantage to the end.

In an instant, Meng Jin completed a strong breakthrough with the ball and went one step outside the penalty area. Meng Jin directly ignored the Eagles’ iron bucket formation and scored the ball between Jon Cowank and Kevin Willis, pressing the two big guys!
On the surface, neither of them lost their position, but in fact there was no defensive interference at all. Meng Jin’s jumping height was exaggerated, his shooting point was very high, and the arc of the basketball was 45 degrees downward. This was Meng Jin’s unique way of shooting, and various media named this move “three-step layup.”

Tom Doll shouted excitedly: “This move cannot be defended. Whether it can go in depends entirely on his touch. The moment Meng Jin shot, his head was already above the basket.”

Johnny Cole laughed, “I couldn’t do that even playing with kids’ hoops.”

The ball was exchanged, and the Hawks continued to let Little Potato Webber launch the offense. He was very active in the second half.

Webber continued to use pick-and-roll, but a player of his height had great limitations, and he basically started his offense with pick-and-roll.

Little Potato Webber quickly rushed to the right elbow area and then threw the ball into the air!
Little Potato has a very broad field of vision, which is his greatest magic weapon for survival in the NBA. During the process, he saw Wilkins cutting into the penalty area without the ball.

Wilkins also held back his energy and jumped with all his strength!
His performance in the first half was okay, but in the second half he felt uncomfortable being defended by Meng Jin. Although he scored some points, his presence was not strong. In the eyes of fans, he seemed to be offline. Even Doc Rivers and Eddie Redmayne had a stronger presence than him.

Wilkins flew higher and higher, but the ball didn’t come.

Meng Jin grabbed the moon in mid-air and intercepted the ball. He thought that these two people were crazy for daring to try an alley-oop in front of him.

After stealing the ball, Meng Jin held the ball and prepared to drive straight in. As soon as he started to speed up, Little Potato rushed over.

Little Potato wanted to make a gambling steal, he was very good at it, but Meng Jin reacted quickly, protecting the ball while directly knocking Little Potato Weber away!

Little Potato fell to the ground, but the referee not only did not sympathize with him but also called a defensive foul on him.

No one in the NBA will sympathize with the weak, but Meng Jin admires his courage very much. Not every player dares to fly over to block the shot when seeing him rushing at full speed.

Meng Jin reached out and pulled up Little Potato Weber. The game continued and the Bulls served the ball from the sideline.

The ball passed over Paxson and went directly to Meng Jin. After dribbling across half court, Meng Jin did not pass the ball. He made a gesture for a single play.

Standing in front of Meng Jin was Wilkins.

Wilkins’ defense has always been known to be paper-thin, but the Hawks did not intend to let one person defend Meng Jin. As soon as Meng Jin accelerated, the little potato on the wing immediately surrounded him, and there were two big men waiting for Meng Jin behind him.

Meng Jin received the ball outside the three-point line, jumped out of the encirclement of Wilkins and Little Potato Webber with a jump step, and then fired from the top of the arc.

“Shh!”

Long two-point shot.

Hawks head coach Bob Weiss shook his head. Meng Jin’s play was very unreasonable. No one would receive the ball and jump outside the three-point line, but Meng Jin is good at making the unreasonable reasonable.

Doug Rivers controlled the ball across half court. The Hawks played as a team in this round and had an opportunity, but Rivers missed the shot.

Meng Jin did not go on a fast break. He chose to return to the inside to protect the rebounds. The two big men of the Hawks still put a lot of pressure on the Bulls’ inside.

After grabbing the rebound, Meng Jin still chose to do it himself. He moved at a constant speed to outside the three-point line and then suddenly accelerated!
The change in rhythm did not catch the Eagles off guard. The Eagles players on the field were very focused in the last few minutes. All five of them retreated to the half court as soon as possible. Meng Jin took a step outside the penalty area to receive the ball, turned around, and scored the ball against multiple defensive players!

The score difference was narrowed to 4 points. In these few rounds, the Bulls did nothing but give the ball to Meng Jin.

Meng Jin showed his personal ability to solve problems in the second half of the final quarter. This was something he had planned long ago. In the third quarter, he used his own attractiveness to help his teammates score, and in the fourth quarter when the defense was the most intense, he stood up to solve the problem himself.

This is the method Meng Jin has figured out to win the game. He leaves the simple points to his teammates and does the difficult tasks himself to ensure the overall hit rate of the team.

Looking back, Wilkins made a mid-range shot, which could help the Hawks stop the bleeding temporarily, but he could not stop Meng Jin.

In the Bulls’ next offensive round, Meng Jin scored again. He broke into the Hawks’ restricted area without a pick-and-roll. The Hawks deliberately pushed Meng Jin to the left, trying to force him to finish with his non-dominant hand. This trick might have some effect on others, but it was useless for Meng Jin. With the skill of [Left-Right Balance], Meng Jin’s finishing with his left hand was as stable as his right hand.

Meng Jin scored with a high left-handed shot.

The Hawks were speechless. They were almost all gathered in the penalty area, but they were still able to break through. It would have been fine if they could just break through, but they were able to finish so stably.

The game soon came to the last 29 seconds, the two sides were tied, and the Hawks had the ball.

Little Potato Webber held the ball at the top of the arc to press the time, and Moses Malone moved to the high post to set a screen.

In the last 3 minutes, the Hawks replaced the experienced Moses Malone.

Little Potato took cover and went to the right.

Little Potato Webber played very well throughout the game, but he made a mistake at the most critical moment.

Meng Jin showed his great courage and ability to read the game in the last defense. He directly let Wilkins and BJ Armstrong go to double-team Webber.

Webber made a pass error under pressure, which is the disadvantage of small players. They may play at a high level in regular time, but at critical moments, as the defensive intensity increases, their room to play will become very small.

BJ Armstrong got the ball and called a timeout.

The home fans were excited because the Hawks gave Meng Jin 20 seconds.

The tactic arranged by the Eagles was to prevent Meng Jin from receiving the ball. Bach’s response strategy was to let Meng Jin suddenly run one step forward of the center circle when serving, and then throw the ball into the air.

Bach was very confident in Meng Jin’s jumping ability. No one could beat him in this situation. He had been a coach all his life and had never seen a player who could put a coin on the top of the backboard.

After the timeout, the Bulls serve the ball in the frontcourt.

The Hawks chased and blocked Meng Jin, but Meng Jin did not run one step to the center circle as planned. Grant almost violated the serve rule, but fortunately Grant trusted Meng Jin enough. He threw the ball into the air, and Meng Jin overpowered Doug Rivers and Kevin Willis to catch the ball.

In the last defense, the Hawks sent out big man Kevin Willis to defend Meng Jin. According to experience, the probability of choosing to shoot in the last attack is greater than layup and dunk, so the Hawks chose Kevin Willis.

However, they made another misjudgment, and Meng Jin broke through with the ball after shortening the time to 8 seconds.

Kevin Willis was half a beat slow from the moment Meng Jin started, and could only pin his hopes of defense on his teammates.

Meng Jin rushed into the penalty area, then turned sideways and made a shooting motion.

The three eagles flew together, very neatly.

Meng Jin basically does not make any fake moves as his physical fitness does not require them. Meng Jin took advantage of his opponents’ mentality and instantly shook off three of them.

A person with great physical fitness is scary, but a person with great physical fitness and brains is even scarier.

The next second, Meng Jin received the ball, took a step forward, and made a one-arm dunk.

This is almost Meng Jin’s most unpretentious dunk, but it is one of the most impressive dunks for all fans because it is a buzzer-beating dunk!

The light came on after the dunk and the game ended, leaving the Hawks not 0.1 second.

The commentators were amazed, the fans were screaming, and the teammates were cheering. Meng Jin scored a buzzer-beater in his first game as the team’s sole core player. Such a game could not be written in the script.

(End of this chapter)