The difficulties faced by the Lakers on the court were naturally seen by Zen Master standing on the sidelines.
Jackson was about to call a timeout, replace Fisher on the court, and then arrange for Kobe to go to the low post to help O'Neal share the offensive pressure.
Who would have thought that at this moment, Du En, who always puts the team first, would suddenly not follow the routine and switch to singles.
I saw Du En on the court, pretending to signal Malone to come to the high post to set him a pick-and-roll.
Weber followed up from the post, and Doug Christie, who was guarding Doon, retreated to the corner.
Once Duane passes the ball to Kobe, he and Peja double-team Kobe.
If Duane passes the ball to O'Neal, he switches defense in front of Kobe, and Peja shrinks to the basket to double-team O'Neal.
If Malone gets the ball, he can also switch to Malone and delay Webber a little.
This time, however, Doug Christie didn't wait for Duane to pass the ball.
What Doug Christie saw was that as soon as Malone reached the three-point line, Duan took advantage of the screen and shot a three-pointer.
Weber's original intention was just to come up and delay, to prevent Duan from directly driving to the basket, sharing the pressure with O'Neal, and forcing Duan to play the ball early.
It can only be said that Duen's 15 assists in a single game in the last game really left a deep impression on the Kings' players, who mistakenly thought that Duen could only pass the ball.
By the time Weber realized something was wrong, it was obviously too late to pounce.
Du En suddenly fired a cold arrow, raised the knife and dropped it, and got a three-pointer.
Malone saw Du En pull up suddenly and thought about going back to the basket to grab the rebound, but unexpectedly he made a steady hit.
After seeing the three-pointer hit, Malone came to his senses and immediately returned to defense.
The Kings were not slow in switching offense, but Duane and others had already returned to defense in advance. Even if O'Neal was a little slower, Divac also did not reach the basket in the first time.
It was also because the transition attack did not start, so the Kings could only fight again in position.
Kobe noticed that the Kings seemed to intend to let Peja, who had a good touch, continue to shoot three-pointers, so he anticipated Bibby's passing route in advance and completed the steal.
Immediately afterwards, there was a fast break to help the Lakers score another 2 points.
More than two minutes earlier, the Kings had just established a 5-point advantage, but in the blink of an eye, Duan and Kobe erased the difference.
The Zen master's mind, which was already restless, returned to its state of calm.
However, after these days, the Kings have adjusted more than just their defense.
On the offensive end, the Kings also played more boldly than G1.
The same tactics of passing, cutting, covering, catching and shooting, which were previously assigned to Peja, were suddenly applied to Bibby.
Payton's defense against Bibby is not unserious. Compared to the regular season, Payton's attitude has been much more correct.
However, in the face of the Kings' large number of off-ball movements and pick-and-roll cooperation, Payton still failed to keep up with Bibby.
In the blink of an eye, Bibby helped the Kings score a three-pointer and widened the point difference.
"Take your time and don't rush."
Watching Payton signal Malone to serve immediately, Duan deliberately slowed down the pace of the game.
Although the Lakers are lagging behind now, with so many stars on the Lakers, no matter how tight the opponent's defense is, the offensive problem can still be solved.
Right now, the Lakers are still focusing on defensive issues.
Payton needs to slow down, and O'Neal needs to play slower.
Returning to the frontcourt, Du En observed the Kings' zone defense position and signaled his teammates to spread out.
When Kobe saw Duan's gesture, his face was full of questions: "Isn't this my tactic?"
Just when Kobe was surprised, Du En suddenly shot a cold arrow again, pulling it out directly from outside the three-point line.
Because the Kings are in a three-two zone defense, not a one-three-one zone defense or one-to-one four-zone defense, it was clear that Doug had just made a three-pointer, but Doug Christie was still waiting for Doug inside the three-point line.
It is precisely because of this that Duan took a step ahead of the three-point line, and Doug Christie had no way to interfere with Duan's shooting.
Perhaps it's because the three-point attributes have further improved, or because tonight's touch is relatively good, Du En's wide-open three-point shots are as stable as daily training.
brush--
After scoring again, Dunn responded with Bibby's three-pointer, helping the Lakers even the point difference again.
The Kings were not worried about whether the Lakers could score. After Duan scored, the Kings increased their speed.
In the end, it was Kobe who took the initiative to foul Webber under the basket, preventing Webber from scoring directly for a layup.
Taking advantage of Weber's free throw opportunity, Jackson chose to replace O'Neal and Payton first.
When Fisher and Grant came on the court, they also brought corresponding tactical arrangements to the court.
Duan soon learned that Jackson asked him to pick and roll with Malone and Grant in the high post, leaving Fisher and Kobe to lurk in the two corners, and he understood Jackson's intention.
The Kings' defense is stronger on the inside than on the outside. If the Kings' inside line is pulled to the outside by the Lakers' high pick-and-roll tactics.
Then, Duan only needs to pass the ball to Kobe, and Kobe can combine sudden shots with ease in the low post, whether he is posting up Bibby or Doug Christie.
To take a step back, even if Kobe is double-teamed by two people in the low post, he will always be closer to the basket and his shooting percentage will be higher accordingly.
In terms of defending the Kings' transitional offense, Malone and Grant are both in high positions and have a shorter retreat distance. Naturally, they are not afraid of the Kings using defensive counterattacks to increase their speed.
After Weber made two free throws, the Lakers followed the Zen Master's arrangement.
Since there were no substitutions on the King's side, and Rick Adelman was not a roundworm in the Zen master's belly, I didn't know what new tactical adjustments the Zen master would make on the spot, so he didn't see any tricks and immediately made targeted measures. Defensive placement.
When Duan passed the ball to Kobe, Kobe singled out Peja and slid down the baseline for a dunk, the Lakers tied the score again.
The Kings, as always, rushed to serve the baseline ball, trying to catch the Lakers off guard.
However, the Lakers had already prepared a special defensive response. The Kings did not start a fast break and could only start a positional battle again.
It's Bibby again who runs without the ball and takes advantage of the screen to shoot a three-pointer!
However, in today's era, even if the three-pointers are very fierce in training and almost always hit, once in the game, even if there is a wide open space, the shooting rate usually does not exceed 40%.
Although Bibby just scored a three-pointer not long ago, he failed to seize the open opportunity this time.
Hearing Duang's sound, Malone took a step forward and grabbed the rebound.
Immediately afterwards, Malone passed the ball to Duen and started a fast break.
Duen originally wanted to play steadily, but the rebound was protected by Malone, so he immediately followed the ball quickly, attracted the defense from the wing, and then hoisted the ball to the basket.
Malone is still very good at eating cakes. Even though Webber fouled, Malone still scored the two plus one.
After half a quarter, the Lakers finally came back to win and took the lead.
However, Malone's free throws were not good tonight, and he failed to hit the extra penalty.
The Kings took this opportunity and launched another wave of transition attacks, which caused the score difference between the two teams to be tied again.
Next, Duan used Kobe to attract some defensive attention in the low post, faked a sudden pass, and went to the middle to get to the basket.
Peja and Bibby saw that Duan broke into the basket too fast, so they gave up the idea of stepping forward to compensate for the foul.
Duan's dunk helped the Lakers gain a 2-point advantage.
However, the good times did not last long. Although the Kings' fast break was defended by the Lakers, Divac also noticed that O'Neal was not around and he had a mismatch advantage in beating Grant.
Ever since, relying on his personal strength, Divac bullied Grant and helped the Kings recover two points, evening the difference.
In this way, both teams focused on playing to the basket. The Lakers relied on Duan and Kobe to play two-man basketball. The Kings no longer played team basketball. They handed the ball to Divac first and focused on Divac.
During the following period, the scores of the two teams increased alternately, and they played extremely anxiously.
However, this situation did not last long.
More than 10 minutes into the first quarter, Jackson took the initiative to change the formation and replaced O'Neal.
The Kings' defensive strategy against O'Neal has not changed. They double-team as soon as they get the ball.
However, this time, O'Neal played very bravely. He withstood three people's double-teams and slammed the ball into the basket.
The main reason is that in order to increase offensive efficiency, the Kings have been speeding up transitions.
Running back and forth all the time is quite exhausting, not to mention having to help each other defend.
The loss of physical strength caused their pace and confrontation to drop a notch.
O'Neal, however, spent half a quarter recharging his energy off the court and showed his best form as soon as he came up.
The Lakers also relied on O'Neal to score 6 points in less than 2 minutes at the end of the first quarter, finally helping the Lakers widen the point difference.
29 to 33, the Lakers entered the second quarter with a 4-point lead.
To the King's surprise, O'Neal did not continue to play at the beginning of the second quarter.
At the beginning of the second quarter, the Lakers again played two guards, Fisher and Kobe, playing in the low post, and Dunn led Grant and Stanislav Medvedenko in the high post.
Because each other has defensive loopholes, the two teams can only continue to seize each other's defensive loopholes and widen the point difference through offense.
But it was similar to the first quarter, basically scoring points alternately, and it was difficult to widen the point difference.
It wasn't until the second and a half quarters that Jackson asked O'Neal to come up and travel at the wrong peak.
Although the Kings replaced O'Neal with Divac, Webb went to rest.
The Kings couldn't rely on Webber to fight hard, and Doug Christie and Peja on the outside were locked up by Kobe and Duane.
It's obviously not an easy task for the Kings to turn defeat into a victory just by letting Bibby lose three points.
With Rick Adelman taking over the main team, Bibby, who was exhausted, was hitting three-pointers more and more often.
The Lakers relied on O'Neal and made several strong plays under the basket.
Of course, O'Neal slowed down the Lakers. After Webb came back after a three-minute rest, O'Neal quickly went to rest.
Malone returned to the court and continued to waste time with Weber, and Duan also used Malone's screen to score two more three-pointers.
However, the number of strikes also increased. Due to his declining physical strength and his condition was obviously not as good as in the first quarter, Duan took the initiative to reduce his three-point shots and passed the ball to Kobe.
But this time, Kobe changed from his usual reliable image and suddenly connected the two irons, missing the Lakers' opportunity to widen the point difference.
O'Neal is not here, Kobe is determined, and although Malone can play a role, he has become a role player. Duan must step up to boost morale.
Ever since, Duen called two pick-and-rolls in a row and took the initiative to switch to Brad Miller.
With two consecutive cross-steps, Duan passed Brad Miller smoothly, followed by a European step and a fake pass, and went to the basket for a step-up dunk.
Bibby, who let go of Fisher to cover up defense, also became one of Duane's backdrops.
When everyone is tired, having someone in the team dunk can definitely boost morale.
Not long after, relying on a defensive counterattack, Malone grabbed the rebound and handed the ball to Duen, who fed Malone another piece of cake.
He plays the difficult balls by himself and his teammates take the easy ones. Duan is becoming more and more qualified to be the star of the playoff team.
Led by Duen, the Lakers stabilized the situation and even widened the point difference.
At the end of the second quarter, the Zen Master repeated his old tricks, and O'Neal came on again to hit hard.
This also forced Rick Adelman to send two substitutes and use the shark-cutting tactic in advance.
Also relying on Duan's outstanding performance of 21 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists in the first half, the Lakers continued to lead 55 to 60, entering the third quarter with a 5-point advantage.
Fortunately, at the beginning of the third quarter, the Kings did not dare to use the shark-cutting tactic immediately, and O'Neal also seized the opportunity. Before leaving the game, he made 3 of 5 shots and 2 of 4 free throws, scoring 8 points, helping the Lakers consolidate their advantage.
After O'Neal came off the court, Kobe finally found his touch and ushered in a small explosion. He scored 6 points in a row in the low post and stopped the Kings.
After the timeout, the Kings had to increase the number of three-point shots in order to chase points.
Preferring to do bad things, Peja and Bibby's continuous strikes allowed the Lakers to continue to expand their advantage, and the point difference once widened to 13 points.
However, as the game went on, Kobe's touch became very bad again under the restriction of double-teaming.
The Kings, who switched to playing in the low post again, quickly narrowed the point difference to less than 10 points.
Duan had to step up and act as the captain of the fire department. By standing on the free throw line, he increased the advantage to 10 points point by point.
When O'Neal came back, Duan knew that G2's victory was guaranteed.
At the end of the third quarter, O'Neal lived up to the expectations of the Lakers fans at the scene. He scored 4 points in the final quarter and also gave Weber a big hat.
77 to 89, the Lakers entered the fourth quarter with a 12-point lead.
Because they hold a 12-point advantage, the Lakers are definitely not willing to make mistakes, but actively choose to lower the pace of the game and strengthen their defensive intensity.
In order to increase the speed of retreat, the Lakers even took the initiative to give up some rebounds.
But it's all worth it!
Although the Lakers only scored 17 points in the fourth quarter, the Kings were not much better.
Even though they relied on switching offenses and shark-cutting tactics to chase points and rounds, they only scored 22 points in the end.
99 to 106, no one expected that the exciting offensive battle in the first three quarters would turn into a dull defensive battle in the fourth quarter!
Thanks to the Lakers, their star player can not only score but also defend!
In this game, Duan not only scored 29 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists, but also scored 2 steals and 1 block.
Although Kobe only scored 27 points in 23 shots, his 3 steals were also very important.
Because O'Neal didn't play much time, he only scored 21 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks. But who can say that O'Neal's blocks are not crucial?
It was also thanks to the three players of Du En who scored and defended, and each stepped up for a period of time to help the team stabilize the situation. The Lakers were not deprived of a home victory by the resilient Kings.
However, we have to play away again next time!
G2 is the home court of the Lakers, and it’s so difficult for the Lakers to win!
Who knows what kind of trouble you will encounter if you go to the Kings' Golden One Arena?
(End of chapter)
