Victory belongs to Los Angeles!
During this All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles, the players of the Los Angeles Lakers have undoubtedly become the biggest winners.
Duane's Rookie Challenge MVP and Dunk King, O'Neal's All-Star MVP.
And Kobe, with the help of the All-Star Game, also changed some fans' stereotypes about him.
Although he doesn't pass the ball to other teammates, he still passes the ball to O'Neal.
To put it bluntly, only those whose strength is recognized by Kobe can be qualified to receive the ball from Kobe.
Of course, for O'Neal, facing the critical moment when Yao Ming's 30+7 was very likely to snatch away the All-Star MVP, Kobe suddenly extended a helping hand, which also allowed O'Neal to let go of some of the grudges he had formed with Kobe in the past.
Maybe I can't continue to associate with Kobe in life. After all, Shaq also did something, and the impact is not small. But in the team, Kobe is still his little brother who can do everything.
"He wants more honors, so go get it!"
Looking at his right-hand men, Kobe and Duane, O'Neal, who felt that this year's championship was already guaranteed, already had the idea of lying down.
…
Time has come to February 17 in the blink of an eye, the All-Star Weekend has ended, and the schedule for the second half of the regular season has restarted.
Tonight the Lakers play at home against the Trail Blazers, whose head coach Rasheed Wallace has been traded away. This is undoubtedly another game that can be easily won.
However, for such a game that can predict victory, the ticket price is more expensive than previous conferences between the Western Conference.
This is because after the All-Star Weekend, the Lakers organized a media reception and stated that Malone had passed the physical examination and would return in the following games.
This means that the Lakers F4, oh no, the Big Five, will appear together in the next game for the first time.
Lakers fans have been looking forward to this for a long time and naturally want to take a look.
However, when the game actually started, Malone was just a pseudo-starter for the sake of caution.
He played 16 minutes, made 3 of 6 shots, and only scored 6 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist.
On the one hand, Malone has been resting for such a long time and still needs a few games to feel better.
On the other hand, the starting lineup of the Big Five makes the lack of possession of the ball more prominent.
Against the leaderless Trail Blazers, the Lakers actually had to play through four quarters and only won by 11 points.
Ji Sun's worries are not in Zhuan Yu, but within Xiao Qiang!
The next issues that Zen Master needs to solve urgently are O'Neal's return from injury and the distribution of ball rights within the Lakers team after the rise of Duan.
The OK combination plus Duen all have the ability to digest 20+ shots.
And Payton and Malone can't really be used as role players, so the number of shots is reduced to less than ten.
The problem is that the Lakers only average about 80 shots per game this season.
At least 10 of these shots are required by the triangle tactic and must be reserved for role players.
Also considering that O'Neal's return has made the Lakers unable to play fast breaks at all.
This means that the distribution of ball rights has become an issue that cannot be ignored.
The Lakers need to re-run in order to maintain sufficient and unrivaled combat effectiveness in the playoffs.
Because the schedule in the second half of the regular season is tighter, the Lakers don't have time to use normal training time to run the lineup, so they can only practice through games.
After beating the Trail Blazers, the Lakers set off overnight and drove to San Francisco.
On February 18, the Lakers played against the Warriors away from home.
The Warriors have 23 wins and 28 losses so far this season. There are 14 teams in the Western Conference, but they rank 10th in the Western Conference.
Judging from the current record, the Warriors have basically been declared out of the playoffs and can prepare for the 2004-05 season in advance.
Therefore, the Lakers didn't pay much attention to this game.
Jackson arranged before the game to intentionally reduce the playing time of two injured old guys, O'Neal and Malone, in order to ease the ball rights conflict within the Lakers.
When O'Neal heard this, he immediately said: "It's a deal, double happiness!"
Malone is also aware of the current situation within the Lakers. He was injured again not long ago and clearly feels that his physical fitness has declined. Therefore, he feels that he can sacrifice the ball and playing time for the championship, so he has no objection.
However, in this case, the Lakers faced the Warriors with Eric Dampier and Clifford Robinson, and the inside was exploded.
Dampier is a lottery pick of the 1996 golden generation. His talent is no problem, but his skills are a bit rough.
This year happened to be a contract year, and Dampier's data finally exploded, hitting 12+12 and averaging a double-double per game.
Dampier has always felt that he is the center second only to O'Neal in the West.
Therefore, this time against the Lakers, the No. 1 team in the Western Conference, once O'Neal comes off the court, he suddenly becomes energetic.
No one expected that Dampier would be so experienced in fighting for second place and traveling during off-peak hours.
After the game, Dampier made 10 of 18 shots, 4 of 7 free throws, 24 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks, a double-double.
Clifford Robinson's statistics in this game are not as explosive as Dampier's, but it is still relatively easy to play against a white power forward who focuses on shooting like Stanislav Medvedenko.
He made 8 of 14 shots, 1 of 3 three-pointers, 3 of 5 free throws, and scored 20 points and 5 rebounds.
The Warriors relied on Dampier and Clifford Robinson to score 44 points together, once pushing the Lakers to the cliff.
Fortunately, Jackson didn't really sit in meditation on the sidelines. When he fell behind by 6 points in the fourth quarter, he called a timeout and sent O'Neal and Malone to the court.
At the same time, he ordered Kobe's defensive end to strangle Crazy Van - Nick Van Exel!
Let Duan be careful about his opponent in the dunk contest - Jason Richardson.
Relying on the strength of the starting five, the Lakers finally had a close call with Kobe Bryant hitting a three-pointer. Then O'Neal made 2 of 4 shots and hit a free throw to win, 100 to 98, with a 2-point advantage. Win the hard way.
After this battle, Jackson also realized that the Lakers still need Malone and O'Neal to do the dirty work inside.
And if you want them to be diligent and hard-working, then their part of the ball rights must be guaranteed first.
Therefore, the only thing left is to start from the outside and reduce some of the ball rights to meet the needs of O'Neal, Malone, and role players.
Because he didn't want to deal with Kobe, and felt that Payton conflicted with his tactical concepts, and felt that Payton was unreasonable, the Zen master could only take the initiative to talk to Du En.
After being invited to drink tea by the Zen master, Du En didn't have much emotion after the chat.
Du En said: "No problem, I am a team player and can make sacrifices for the team."
In fact, Du En knows in his heart that in the starting lineup, if he reduces the number of shots, the scoring data will be affected at most.
As the axis of the triangle offense, in order to ensure the scoring efficiency of O'Neal and Malone, Dunn still has the ball rights to feed O'Neal and Malone.
When it comes to the bench, are you counting on Fisher to score? Or will Devin George score?
In the end, don't we still have to rely on him to lead the bench and stabilize the score?
To put it bluntly, Duane was least affected by the triangle offensive tactics based on O'Neal and Malone.
The real losers are Kobe and Payton. Once Payton has no data, he may not be willing to play the triangle offense. Then the Zen Master will still have to solve Payton's point.
After Duan obtained the Pippen template, he quickly passed the rookie period and no longer needed Payton to come to the bench to share the pressure of holding the ball.
When the time comes, it doesn't matter who you are, just hang up and be done with it.
Having said that, after beating the Warriors, the Lakers quickly returned to Los Angeles.
On February 20, the Lakers faced the 76ers at home.
The starting five had a clear distribution of ball rights, and together they scored 84 points in three quarters, easily completing the task of clocking out in three quarters.
In fact, because of the three quarter clocks, Payton, Duane, and Malone all had similar shot rights, 8, 10, and 9 times respectively.
However, due to different scoring efficiencies, Payton only scored 9 points, while Duane and Malone scored 16 and 15 points respectively. This shows a slight gap.
However, the consecutive victories outweighed the conflicts over individual players' possession of the ball.
The atmosphere in the Lakers locker room was very good, with O'Neal singing and dancing and constantly providing feasts.
Driven by a good locker room atmosphere, the Lakers continued to advance and defeated opponents such as the Suns and Nuggets one after another.
It wasn't until February 26, when the Lakers faced the second-place Kings in the Western Conference at home that they once again experienced the taste of failure.
The previous consecutive victories have reduced the ball rights sharply, and Payton, who averaged only 10 points per game, felt resentful.
Taking advantage of the fast break where the Kings had a lot of defensive counterattacks, Payton started the fast break for his own selfish reasons.
O'Neal complained endlessly about this, and the Lakers also disrupted the rhythm of the game because of their sudden increase in speed, just as the King's touch exploded again.
The Zen master took the opportunity to attack Payton and charged him with it.
Payton also acted like a veteran golfer in the past, expressing all kinds of dissatisfaction and even saying bad words to the Zen Master.
When O'Neal saw that the conflict was escalating, he immediately stood up as a mediator between Zen Master and Payton, persuading both parties to calm down.
However, secretly or openly, I still hope that Payton will apologize to Master Zen, play according to the triangle offense, and stop making his own decisions.
After two days, Payton gave in.
However, Jackson still chose to cut the knot quickly, changing Payton's positioning, reducing Payton's playing time, and making Payton a pseudo-starter.
Payton's playing time was cut in half, and the ball rights dropped from 11 times per game to 6 or 7 times.
The extra ball rights are basically evenly distributed between Duane and Fisher.
The Lakers solved Payton's uneasy hidden danger. Payton dared to be angry but dared not speak out, fearing that Jackson would ignore his face and exclude him from the playoff roster, which would affect his ability to receive a championship ring.
In the end, I could only discuss a plan with the team, saying that I had strained my groin and took the initiative to recuperate.
Zen Master also felt that out of sight was out of mind, and he nodded and allowed Payton to leave the team temporarily.
Just like that, at the end of February, the Lakers had three consecutive visits to the Eastern Conference. Relying on the outstanding performance of Kobe, Duane, Malone, and O'Neal, they defeated the Wizards, Nets, and Hawks one after another, and reaped the dividends of the Eastern Conference.
Until March 3, the last stop of four consecutive away games, the Lakers visited the Toyota Center and won the back-to-back away games thanks to the stronger Lakers starting lineup.
After half a month of running-in, the Lakers have truly evolved into a complete entity and begun to officially launch a charge towards the championship.
(End of chapter)
