From today on is the king

Chapter 765 764. I think I won this time
The fifth game of the finals arrived as scheduled.

Liu Mang walked into the stadium. This time, the boos of the Lakers fans became manic again.

Lakers fans are scared!This time it was really on the verge of elimination.

However, the Lakers are all unwilling and unable to accept the defeat, which still makes many Lakers fans very excited and excited. Lakers fans have a "fantastic sense of security".

When Liu Mang saw the expressions of the Lakers players, he secretly rejoiced that his side was also high-spirited now, and there was no possibility of slack. Whether it was the temptation of the championship or the temptation of the boss's bonus, they were the motivation of the players.

Moreover, the most important thing is that the Eagles have acquired Liu Mang's personality. If they can avoid trouble, they will avoid trouble. If they can solve the game in five games, they don't want to drag it to the sixth game.

The best thing Zen master did in the last game was that he decisively chose to give up, so the physical fitness of the Lakers today is much better than the previous game. Except for Kobe, who was originally physically explosive, the other Lakers players feel that they are in good condition.

Therefore, the Lakers players all have a posture of fighting back.

However, it looked like it was going to be a struggle. After Liu Mang and Boozer hugged and walked onto the court, it was time to jump the ball, but they still didn't hear the prompt.

The OK trend is still not triggered!

It seems that the Lakers players are trying to fight. Of course, they really want to fight. Neither Kobe nor O'Neal have the heart to cooperate!

Even if Zen Master tried his best to use psychological tactics to drive the two of them, the relationship between Kobe and O'Neal has been completely broken and cannot be recovered!
On the Lakers side, it is still the starting combination of Payton, Kobe, Devin Brown, Malone, and O'Neal.

For the Eagles, the starting lineup of Liu Mang, Prince, Raheem, Rasheed Wallace, and Kwame Brown has not changed.

Although Kobe and O'Neal's hearts are completely unable to work in the same direction, the enthusiasm of every player on the Lakers has really come up.

O'Neal beat Kwame Brown for the first time in a jump ball, the basket fell to Payton, and the Lakers attacked first.

Payton is in charge of the ball, Liu Mang is defending him, and the little blacksmith is still handed over to Prince to defend.

Kobe didn't take the initiative to ask for the ball this time, and resisted the urge to solve the game by himself. He knew that now he had to use O'Neal's unsolvable attack at the beginning to play two first, otherwise the fat man's energy would be wasted.

On his off-ball end, Prince, who defended him, did a good job. His excellent movement blocked the space for Kobe to run back. Payton commanded his teammates to move. The purpose was obviously to suppress the rhythm.

O'Neal may be the weakest player in the current Lakers team. After arguing with Kobe the day before yesterday, he couldn't eat well or sleep well. He felt like he lost weight.

But as long as O'Neal is physically fit, he is the most unsolvable killer in the NBA.

If you can't stop it, you can't stop it. O'Neal took the ball and turned around to push Kwame Brown away, and smashed the ball directly into the basket.

The Lakers don't play fast and want to press the tempo, but the Eagles don't do that. Liu Mang tries to speed up the tempo, trying to use the fast tempo to drag down the heavy and fat Lakers.

Almost at the first moment when O'Neal's offense was completed, Rasheed Wallace immediately picked up the ball, exited the baseline and served directly. The Eagles, including Kwame Brown, all five counterattacked fast break!

Defensively and fast-paced, the strategy of the Eagles is very straightforward. When the Lakers ran back to defend, the Eagles were almost down.

Rasheed Wallace was really daring. He threw the ball to the center line while a group of people were rushing forward together, and Liu Mang really caught it!That is to say, with two courageous people, they would think of such a fast break.

Liu Mang received the ball from the center line and rushed to the top arc of the opponent's three-point line. It seemed that he was going to chase for a three-pointer. Malone and Kobe double-teamed.

Kwame Brown's violent lob!Returned one!
O'Neal just hit the three-point line!This time the Eagles' counterattack was so fierce that the Lakers, who had adapted to the slow-paced play of the first two games, couldn't adapt to it all at once!

In particular, Rasheed Wallace dared to pass the ball into the crowd, and no one on the Lakers thought of it.

In the first round of the confrontation, the two teams played two completely different rhythms at the beginning.

Facing such a ferocious counterattack from the Eagles, the Lakers were overwhelmed. They firmly followed Kobe's order to lower the tempo. On the defensive end, Kobe was still very capable. After all, he was the youngest defensive team. The Eagles' fast break just now was really amazing.

The Lakers still fell behind in this offense, and the two giants inside continued to dig. The last time it was O’Neal, this time it was Malone’s turn. Malone’s weight is huge, and he still maintains such a large weight at the age of 41. He can still maintain his form. Facing such an opponent, Rasheed Wallace stepped up without hesitation. After the first four games, he already has sufficient experience in defending against Malone.

Just when Rasheed Wallace was afraid of Malone's iron elbow, Malone suddenly turned over and made a throw. The basketball spun around the rim and made a hit!

The last meeting was caught off guard by the Hawks counterattack. This time the Lakers retreated very quickly. The enthusiasm mobilized by Zen Master made the Lakers players do a good job of returning to the defense at the beginning. Just now they didn’t expect Rasheed Wallace to pass the ball into the crowd. They paid attention to this point of defense when they returned to defense. Fall into positional warfare.

If there is a chance, counterattack and speed up. If there is no opportunity to counterattack, then fight steadily to maintain a certain success rate.

To deal with the fully defensive Lakers, the Eagles have already had a wealth of experience in the past two games, that is, they can only use a more aggressive defense to fight the Lakers hard steel, and the offensive end cuts their heads and competes with the Lakers.

For the Lakers, although Kobe didn't take the initiative to take on the task of organizing the offense today, he didn't grab the ball and shoot blindly. Although he still played one by one, when Malone, O'Neal, and even Wang Zhizhi, who came from the bench, had the opportunity to play alone, he didn't compete for the shot. Let them play first, and when they were tired, Kobe would come again.

However, whether Kobe is willing to organize the offense well or is unwilling to organize the offense well, whether Kobe wants to grab the shot or return the shot to his teammates is not important.

Even in the only game the Lakers won, Kobe played well and organized the offense well, and the Lakers' offense was not much better. It is just that Kobe played well and allowed the OK combination to keep scoring.

Today the Lakers maintained the same defense as in the previous two games. Kwame Brown consumed O'Neal as much as possible, and Kobe from the outside attacked with the ball and attacked Kobe. The most fierce defense against Kobe. Except for O'Neal and Malone scoring three consecutive goals at the beginning, the Lakers' offensive efficiency plummeted.

And when it came time for the Eagles to attack, finally, in this finals, it was the Eagles' turn to explode!

After Malone hit a throw, Prince relied on Liu Mang to attract Payton and Kobe's double-team at the start. Prince made the first three-pointer in the finals!

Since the Eastern Conference Finals, Prince's three-pointers have been outrageously poor. It was also one of the important reasons why the Eagles couldn't open up the offense when the Lakers were active in the first two games, and even one of the most important reasons.

Although Prince's offensive end is only a catch-and-shooter, when the catch-and-shooter fails to make a shot, the opponent is equal to 5 defenses and 4 defenses, just like the Eagles ignore Payton's 4 defenses and 3 defenses to kill the other three players on the Lakers except O'Neal.

Finally, after getting the match point, Prince's touch came!

After Malone made a throw, Prince scored a three-pointer. After O'Neal hit the second singles hook, Prince scored two consecutive three-pointers, forcing Payton to go back to defend Prince.

When it was impossible to double-team Liu Mang, the Lakers' defense was good, but they couldn't stop Liu Mang and Kwame Brown from playing pick-and-rolls!

Prince was able to make the shot, and the Eagles' offensive running came alive. Liu Mang and Kwame Brown played pick-and-rolls, and it was Malone who defended the pick-and-rolls. O'Neal had to move back and forth between the baseline and the basket, consuming energy.

In the third and fourth games, O'Neal lasted so long on the defensive end because he didn't have to run back and forth between the baseline and the basket like in the first and second games. Payton and Kobe pinched Liu Mang, and Liu Mang couldn't play the pick-and-roll, which made O'Neal relatively easy on the defensive end.

But this time, O'Neal can only run along. In this way, either Rasheed Wallace has a three-pointer, or Kwame Brown has an air-cut dunk opportunity. If Devin Brown actively shrinks, Raheem also has mid-range shots and air-cut opportunities.

Although the Lakers still maintained their defensive enthusiasm in the first two games at the beginning, Liu Mang and Kwame Brown's pick-and-rolls increased the Eagles' offensive success rate by four or five percentage points, allowing the Eagles to hit [-] percent of their shots.

But that's enough!

In Game 3, the Lakers had Kobe playing well. In the first half, when the Eagles were also struggling defensively, they could only lead by [-] points at the end of the half. The offensive efficiency of the two teams in the first half was about the same.

Now, when the Eagles faced the Lakers' defense that was similar to the first half of the first two games, they increased their shooting percentage to 30.00%. On the Lakers side, after O'Neal's physical fitness was good at the beginning, after a few tough shots, the offensive efficiency plummeted. They didn't even hit 30.00% of the field goal percentage in the first two games.

A shooting percentage of six percent doesn't seem like a lot, but as the game progressed, the Eagles gradually opened up the score bit by bit.

After the first quarter, the Eagles led the Lakers by 24 points 18 to 6!
Finally, the Eagles scored in the first quarter and returned to normal performance anyway!In the first quarter, Liu Mang didn’t perform very well in scoring. In the past two games, he didn’t have any good scoring opportunities. In the third game, he scored more than 30 points. It was all due to shots and early fouls by throwing himself into the air. In the past two games, the Lakers defended him very successfully. The last game was only lost to Kobe.

Leading by six points in the first quarter, Liu Mang was replaced to rest. Coach Kruger wanted to change the rhythm in the second quarter. The opponent gradually got used to the current rhythm after the first quarter. Coach Kruger now took the initiative, and he didn't want the opponent to get used to the rhythm.

Coach Kruger replaced Stockton and Boozer, and changed the rhythm of the pick-and-roll from Liu Mang and Kwame Brown's basket attack type to a shooting type.

……

After the intermission, the two teams played in rotation. The Lakers, who were only 6 points behind, were still very motivated to make a comeback. Seeing Stockton and Boozer come up, the Lakers had the same idea as Coach Kruger, thinking that the Eagles would start shooting.

However, Stockton played this game as the last game of his career. In the second quarter, Boozer, who played with Boozer, Prince, Barnes, and Ostertag, rushed to the basket and caused O'Neal to foul on the first ball!

When Stockton and Boozer were playing pick-and-roll, Fisher and Wang Zhizhi went to block Boozer, fearing that Boozer would cut inside and cause damage. Although Boozer was short, he was really amazing in size.
It's 20!

Seeing that it is possible to touch the O'Brien Cup after the last two and a half hours, Stockton can't wait.

The better he played on the offensive end, the more active he was on the defensive end. Prince single-handedly defended against Kobe in the second quarter, and Kobe hit the iron again. In these few games, Kobe's touch has been worn out. The more Prince defends against him, the better he is, entering a virtuous circle.

As for the Eagles, at the beginning of the second quarter, the offensive efficiency exploded. Stockton unexpectedly did not focus on passing. After the pick-and-roll three-pointer, the pick-and-roll basket, and the pick-and-roll mid-range shot, Stockton scored 7 points in a row in the second quarter!
The Lakers, on the other hand, only relied on Kobe's missed three-pointer by Prince and O'Neal grabbed an offensive rebound and scored 2+1. They only scored this one goal.
These seven points were all scored by Stockton alone!
After O'Nealga made a free throw, the Lakers were still 21 to 31, 10 points behind the Hawks. Taking advantage of O'Neal's free throw, the Lakers took Wang Zhizhi down and replaced Malone.

Next came the Eagles offense. After Stockton advanced to the frontcourt, facing Kobe's defense, Stockton couldn't play alone. He continued to pick and roll with Boozer. Boozer was similar to Malone's elbow and pull action.

After Stockton broke through to the right and stepped into the three-point line, Malone stood in front of him!
The few Eagles fans and Jazz fans at the scene stood up and cheered when they saw this scene. When the Lakers fans were a little discouraged because they were behind by 10 points, the cheers of thousands of Eagles fans and Jazz fans spread throughout the Staples Center.

When Stockton saw Malone defending, he didn't make a pass or shoot choice so quickly. With Malone, the Lakers changed defenses quickly against the pick-and-roll. Stockton didn't get a good pass or shot at the first time.

Stockton took a step back from the dribble and exited the three-point line, and Malone and Stockton maintained a very suitable distance.

This might be the last time I met him on the field!Whether as an opponent or as a teammate.

Stockton and Malone had this thought in their minds at the same time.

The relationship between the two is not just teammates who have worked together for 18 years. The two have always been in a state of competition in the team. However, Stockton has never won against Malone. The cooperation between the two has made the Jazz brilliant for more than ten years.

However, now, Stockton wants to win, wants to win very much, he raised his head and said to Malone: ​​"Carl, this time, I think, I won."

Ma Long was stunned for a moment when he heard this. He didn't expect Stockton to say such a sentence suddenly, which was a bit hurtful!
While Malone was in a daze, Stockton was not relentless, seized the opportunity, and shot a three-pointer!

Continuing the fiery touch, Stockton hit a three-pointer!
(End of this chapter)