They intensified the pressure at the 45-degree angle and baseline, strictly preventing baseline drives and backdoor cuts.
Instead, they relaxed their guarding of the previously emphasized middle, leaving only Jordan to guard the center, while the wings pressed towards the baseline.
Davis held the ball in the middle, with no one in front of him, ready to let him shoot.
Davis didn’t dare to shoot and passed it to Lewis coming around.
Lewis received the ball, cut through the middle, and Jordan’s defense was impenetrable.
Lewis tried to pass to Bernard King on the wing, but McGrady intercepted it.
The Bulls counterattacked, with Jordan jumping in the air and passing to McGrady following up.
McGrady took a mid-range jump shot and scored again!
McGrady scored 6 points in the second quarter.
The Bulls narrowed the score to a 7-point difference.
Although the Bulls’ defensive efficiency has declined this season,
it’s not because they lack ability but because they often lack focus.
Once they fully concentrate, the Bulls remain the best defensive team in the league.
Gan Guoyang knew that he had to make a move now.
He abandoned the perimeter and moved to the left low post.
At his preferred elbow area, he received a pass from Lewis.
At this time, Buck Williams was defending him.
The Bulls immediately double-teamed him, surrounding him with three players.
Gan Guoyang calmly made a bounce pass through the gap to Lewis cutting through the middle.
Lewis received the ball, leaped high, and slammed it home with one hand!
When a low-post beast gets the ball in his familiar spot, the damage to the opponent’s defense is devastating.
The Chicago Bulls knew this was the price they had to pay for defending Ah Gan.
McGrady’s fourth outside shot this time missed.
Gan Guoyang grabbed the defensive rebound, and the Trail Blazers counterattacked, but Lewis’s pass to Bernard King was too high.
Bernard King desperately retrieved the ball and passed it back, only to be intercepted by the Bulls.
John Paxson pushed the counterattack and passed to the following Jordan.
Jordan, not fast but full of fakes, changed direction and drove in.
After shaking off Gan Guoyang, he passed to Buck Williams, who scored an uncontested two-handed dunk!
This season, the Trail Blazers have made far more unnecessary mistakes than in the previous two seasons.
This is also the reason they lost more games; the team’s discipline and cautiousness have declined.
The confrontation between both sides became increasingly intense, and the Trail Blazers’ outside shooting percentage gradually declined under the Bulls’ high-pressure perimeter defense.
However, inside, Gan Guoyang’s control of rebounds and strong low-post threat prevented the Bulls from completely suppressing the Trail Blazers’ offense.
Whenever the score got close, Gan Guoyang would use low-post offense, coordination, and offensive rebounds to score and regain the advantage.
At halftime, Gan Guoyang had already scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, including 6 offensive rebounds.
Jordan gradually picked up pace in the second quarter, but it was clear he was still holding back, with 10 points, 5 assists, and 2 steals by halftime.
The score was at 54:60, with the Trail Blazers maintaining a 6-point lead as they headed to the locker room for halftime.
It was evident that even with Jordan holding back, the Bulls were slowly closing the gap.
Eroding the considerable advantage the Trail Blazers built in the first quarter.
If not for Gan Guoyang’s two unreasonable three-pointers at the end of the first quarter, the score might have been tied.
Under the Bulls’ tight defense, other Trail Blazers players were somewhat affected, with shooting percentages declining.
Meanwhile, turnovers increased, and in the final minutes of the second quarter, it was total chaos on both sides.
You lose, I steal, attacking each other in transition; some shots went in, others didn’t, leading to quick transitions.
This chaotic situation was what the Bulls preferred to see.
Phil Jackson knew that in a structured offense, the Bulls were no match for the Trail Blazers.
The Trail Blazers have Ah Gan, an all-around weapon, and the best long-range shooting space in the league; playing against them in a structured game has no future.
They must muddy the waters, disrupt the game patterns, and enter into a chaotic perimeter battle; the Bulls would then have the advantage.
The Bulls have better perimeter offensive and defensive resources, better ball control, and superior one-on-one ability from the perimeter.
Of course, Jackson originally didn’t want this, but he had no other options.
Losing to the Trail Blazers in the finals for two consecutive seasons, the Bulls have put in all their effort.
In the end, it wasn’t a matter of non-combat offense; it was just that the Ah Gan spot was unbeatable, simply unbeatable.
If that’s the case, Jackson decided to disrupt the game and see if this method would diminish Ah Gan’s impact.
In the first half, it seemed to be working, as the Bulls were gradually regaining control, and there was more left to play in the second half.
However, starting the game by digging a hole for themselves and frantically filling it later, this approach is not at all to Jackson’s liking.
Returning to the locker room, he still got angry with the players, stating he didn’t want to see such a terrible start again.
Jordan also reprimanded his teammates, considering them inattentive.
"This is Portland; we lost the finals here twice; we should win here!"
He tried to motivate his teammates’ fighting spirit, inciting a sense of revenge.
However, it seemed that the Bulls’ teammates weren’t very convinced by Jordan.
Pippen sat on the bench chewing gum, saying nothing, unwilling to talk more with Jordan.
Horace Grant snorted in disdain, grumbling, "You only scored 10 points."
The tension between the two was palpable, almost breaking into an argument in the locker room.