127-124, the Suns beat the Bulls, the Suns' 13th win in their last 14 games, and the record continues to dominate the table.
Although the Suns only won 3 points from the final score, they actually led by up to 27 points, the Bulls chased some in the fourth quarter, and brushed the last minute garbage time to make up for some points, but it had no impact on the ownership of the winner.
The Sun is soaring in the regular season, but the voice of doubt has never been broken, and the more typical view is that the regular season is played well, and the playoffs may not be good.
What is the relationship between the regular season and the playoffs, pulling back the time to five years ago, one person has given the answer.
On March 28, 2017, the Cavaliers were bloodied by spurs 74-103 on the road. After the game, the Cavaliers players hung their heads in the locker room and the room was silent until a man stood up.
"Brothers, do we have that switch?"
The knights will be surprised, what does "switch" mean?
The man looked around the locker room and raised his voice: "Everybody must have heard something, some people say it doesn't matter if we don't play well in the regular season, we're like having a status switch, entering the playoffs and pressing it, you can change right away." I can tell you that the switch or whatever is nonsense. In this world, high-level sports leagues do not have that kind of switch, you are loose in the regular season, and you can win the championship in the playoffs? The feeling of the game, the discipline of the defense, these all need to be cultivated in the regular season. I know we're strong, but you can believe me, that switch never existed, and if you want to play the playoffs well, you can't relax in the regular season. ”
The man who said this is James Jones, now the general manager of the Suns, and the manager of the 2020-21 season.
Jones' playing career has been very exciting, he has never averaged a single season in double figures, but he played 14 seasons in the NBA and won 3 championships. Some people joke that Jones is bundled with LeBron James, because the elder Jenn follows from the Heat to the Cavaliers, Jones follows, and then lies on the championship ring, but from another point of view, James takes Jones everywhere he goes, and he must have something superior.
In the Knights of james 2.0, only two people dared to intimidate old Zhan, one was Director Lou and the other was Jones, which peaked in the 2016 Finals. During the half-time break of that game, Director Lou criticized James for not playing well enough, and Old Jen was very angry, thinking that the coach was deliberately targeting him, so he approached Jones.
"Bro, I really can't believe the coach could say such a thing." James said to Jones.
Jones stared at James with a serious expression and asked, "Did the coach say something wrong?" ”
James was a little embarrassed. "That's right, but..."
Jones interrupted Old Jan's words: "LeBron, the coach is right, you already know the answer, come on and take us to win." ”。
What happened in the second half of that game is beyond words.
Whether playing or being general manager, Jones has gained universal respect as a professional because he is both persistent and calm, just like the sun is now.
Jones entered the management of the Suns in 2017 and immediately began to reform the team, changing coaches, introducing stars, and getting together, but when the Suns reached the finals last season, Jones's operation changed from the previous big axe to a small repair.
This is the right way to operate, the Suns have not made the playoffs for ten consecutive years, need a dose of strong medicine to "save their lives", and after reaching the Finals, it needs to be a small dose of supplementation, a team that has proven that the chemical reaction in the team can impact the highest peak of honor, and does not have to show the management's ability to live on the lineup.
Jones' main job in the 2021 offseason is to leave the core members of the Suns to win the Western Conference championship, and then bring in reinforcements to fix the shortcomings, such as signing McGee is to fill the holes exposed by the Finals that Ayton has no one to defend in the box.
Jones' route for the Suns is to be steady, with them being third in offensive efficiency and second in defensive efficiency this season. After beating the Bulls, the Suns improved to 43-10 this season, the only team in the league to win more than 80 percent. If injuries can be avoided, the Suns lock up home-court advantage in all rounds of the playoffs.
The Bulls are second in the East, having been top in the East for some time, while the Suns pulled away a double-digit score difference in the first quarter, pressing down on the Bulls all the way. From the offensive point of view, the Bulls did not play badly this time, DeRozan and Lavin jointly cut 70 points, which is already quite strong, but the Bulls did not lose points fiercely, the injury stop of "Ball Brother" and Caruso seriously reduced the quality of the Bulls' defense, Paul was centered, McGee and Booker blossomed inside and outside, although the Bulls set off a wave of points in the fourth quarter, but the Sun was slightly tight, and the Bulls were empty.
You can say that the Suns didn't play the full-body Bulls, but the Suns widened the point difference to nearly 20 points in the second quarter with a lineup without Paul and Booker and Ayton, McGee, Payton, Bridges, Crowder, Cameron Johnson, the first two were the Suns' reinforcements in the offseason, the last three were members who won the Western Conference championship last season, this fivesome has no star flavor, but it can hold the weak weakness of the Bulls defense, which is a kind of combat force formed by the Suns after last season's Finals trip. When the opponent has a flaw to catch, they can catch it.
This is the "stability" of the championship team, and the Suns have shown this "stability" last season, and Jones' operation has successfully continued this temperament into this season.
Before the start of the season, the best odds for winning the championship in the Western Conference team were not the Suns, nor the Warriors, but the Lakers, and the Lakers became the counterexample of the Suns.
After the Lakers won the championship in 2020, for two consecutive years like toy assembly, the lineup was dismantled and built, built and demolished, nothing to find a whole lineup run-in period, the result is that the more the run-in is more painful, the more "vague" the championship is, especially this season, spending resources in exchange for Wei Shao, directly leading to defensive relegation, and the fantasy of Wei Shao to enhance the effect of the attack is completely reversed. Wei Shao's playing style is not suitable for the Lakers, and it is forced out of the 2018 version of James and the 2020 version of the thick eyebrows, Zhan Mei carries the weight forward, and the Lakers are still only the ninth in the West.
If the Lakers maintain such a ranking, they will have to play the playoffs, which means that the probability of ending up in eighth place in the West is high, so the first round is more likely to hit the sun. The Lakers in 2020 and 2021, when they encounter the current Suns, they can use Zhan Mei to block and dismantle direct talent to kill, and the defensive end has enough resources to resist the Suns' interior line to eat cakes, and the combination of three points of the mid-shot no dead angle attack, but today's Lakers, Zhan Mei's ability to attack the city is still there, but the defensive conditions are much worse than the previous two years.
Where can the Lakers defend themselves? Aren't they all abandoned, renew Tucker don't want Caruso, Kuzma and Pop to exchange for Wei Less, such a hypertensive operation, you guess if it was Jones, he would not do it?
The opposite of the Sun's way of success is the source of the Lakers' frustration, which is the contrast in the "article" of basketball.