After playing G4, the Lakers returned to Los Angeles overnight in order to avoid being harassed by Sacramento Kings fans.
Because they swept their opponents ahead of schedule to advance to the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers players will have nearly a week of rest, so it doesn't matter if they are a little tired from traveling.
What surprised Duan a little was that even in the middle of the night, there were still well-informed fans squatting spontaneously at the airport and at the entrance of Toyota Center.
"Kobe!"
"Shaq!"
"Duane!"
"Lakers championship!"
After easily advancing to the playoffs in two consecutive rounds, the Lakers championship slogan is no longer coming from Du En's mouth. Lakers fans can no longer contain their excitement!
The Lakers management, which originally wanted to sell more tickets to the playoffs, had to find other ways to expand their financial resources because the Lakers players and Lakers players shared the same hatred and eliminated the Kings early.
Ever since, taking advantage of the fans' growing enthusiasm to win the championship, the Lakers management struck while the iron was hot and held a unique fan meeting before the start of the Western Conference Finals.
The purpose is to stimulate Lakers fans to buy special playoff jerseys with "Take it Back" printed on them.
Take it Back means to take something back.
Just like Xiao Ma's classic line - I have been waiting for three years for an opportunity. I want to fight for it, not to prove that I am great; I want to tell everyone that I must get back what I lost!
Last season, the Lakers lost to the Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals and missed the opportunity to win four consecutive championships. The Lakers, who are making a comeback this season, definitely want to regain the championship.
It just so happens that during this recent period, the Spurs are still playing in the Western Conference semifinals with the Timberwolves.
The Lakers' position must be to regard the defending champion Spurs as their imaginary enemy, hoping that the Spurs will advance to the Western Conference Finals, and then personally eliminate the Spurs from the game to avenge their humiliation.
Judging from the current record, even though the Timberwolves have regular season MVP Garnett, they still trail the Spurs led by Duncan 2-3.
Under normal circumstances, as long as the Spurs don't lose two games in a row in G6 and G7, the team more likely to advance to the Western Conference Finals is undoubtedly the defending champion San Antonio Spurs.
In this year's Wild West, the Spurs' lineup looks average on the surface.
But in fact, with peak Duncan in charge, Ginobili, the god of war in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and Parker, the second player in the Spurs' championship last season, the GDP combination has already begun to show its impressiveness.
In addition, the Spurs also have elite players such as Bowen, Turkoglu, and Horry.
If you really want to talk about it, the Spurs are just slightly inferior to the Timberwolves with the three-headed monster in terms of star quality, but their overall strength is actually stronger.
To put it bluntly, there is a reason why the Timberwolves have missed the first round of the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons, including being swept out multiple times.
If it weren't for the arrival of Cassel and the Madman, Garnett's reputation as a tough guy would have been reduced to being on par with Tracy McGrady sooner or later because of his willingness to fight and retreat.
Of course, the fundamental reason for this phenomenon is that the Yin-Yang contract was forfeited draft picks for several years.
There are no decent helpers around Garnett, and the quality of the Timberwolves' rotation players is relatively poor, which is not enough to make a further step in the playoffs.
The Spurs were the defending champions before, and the Timberwolves were a first-round team. The quality of the role players on both sides has actually been greatly improved.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that in the series between the Spurs and the Timberwolves, the Spurs have the more advantage.
A few days later, the Spurs did not disappoint the Lakers management.
After a tiebreaker, the Spurs defeated the Timberwolves 4-3, advanced to the Western Conference Finals, and successfully met the Lakers.
On the evening of May 21st, nearly 20,000 Lakers fans were present at the Staples Center, including rich people and Hollywood stars in the first row. They all wore special jerseys with "Take it Back" printed on them.
It is worth mentioning that before the start of the game, the league officially announced the list of this season's regular season best lineup.
Only the OK combination of the Lakers was selected for the best team, and Du En regretted not being selected.
However, Kobe and O'Neal are both first-team players.
The Spurs only have Duncan for one team.
In the Eastern Conference finals, Ben and O'Neal were both second-team players, and the Pacers also had Artest, who won the third-team.
Judging from the best team list, it is not unfair that Du En was not selected.
These days, the unspoken rule of the best team is that at most two people from a team can be selected for the best team.
There are so many teams in the league, and they still need to share some pork.
Although the first team of the Lakers' OK combination is well-deserved, if Duan is given a third team, other teams that have entered the playoffs but did not win the best team will have objections.
The Pacers have the same record as the Lakers, don't they only have one second team and one third team?
Reminiscent of this, before Durant joined after being unable to beat him, Thompson only had two third teams. After Durant joined, he was completely absent from the best lineup.
Duan instantly understood that if he wanted to win personal honors in the super team, he must either have the ability to manipulate the media to get them to vote, or at least become the second in command of the team.
And Duen, who now has superstar strength, is naturally not satisfied with only a few third-team games in his career.
Closer to home, in G1 of the Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and the Spurs, the Lakers still have a great advantage.
Because the Spurs were still playing tiebreaker with the Timberwolves last night, and tonight they are playing back-to-back away games, the Spurs players must be physically exhausted.
After the game officially started, Duane and O'Neal came up with the same move that defeated the Kings before, a high pick-and-roll!
In fact, when playing against the Spurs, Duan doesn't need to play pick-and-roll with O'Neal at all. He can just find someone to pick-and-roll, and he only needs to pick Parker out of position.
It was also because O'Neal wanted to bully Duncan like he bullied Webb before. As early as a few days ago, he had been courting Duen and invited Duen to have several meals. Duen could not refuse, so he could only cooperate with O'Neal. beat.
As O'Neal helped Duan block Turkoglu, Duan held the ball past Rasu Nesterovich who was pulling to the free throw line. O'Neal caught the ball and went to trouble Duncan.
Duncan stood up in advance and raised his hands to block O'Neal's attack, but O'Neal was still dunked by O'Neal with a shark splash.
But although Duncan looks dull, he is actually very smart.
I know I have to confront O'Neal and interfere with O'Neal's offense, but I can't resist forcefully.
Therefore, when O'Neal took off and collided, Duncan took the initiative to retreat and release his force after the confrontation. This way, he was not knocked down by O'Neal's meat tank like Webber in the previous round of the series.
The Spurs' offensive round, if it were the past, would have been a Spurs round, with Parker and Duncan playing a pick-and-roll, and Parker finishing at the basket.
However, tonight, Kobe Bryant directly led the entire court to defend Parker, making it a little difficult for Parker to dribble.
Because Ginobili was placed on the bench, the Spurs did not have a serious shooting guard. In the starting lineup, the Spurs could only let Turkoglu come to support Parker.
At this time, Duen, who was defending Turkoglu, immediately got entangled and used the hand check rule to make it difficult for Turkoglu to move.
In the end, it was veteran Bowen who bullied Fisher for being too short and helped the Spurs dribble the ball across half court.
However, Fisher was not idle either. When defending in the backcourt, he kept using small moves to consume Bowen's energy.
Bowen is 3D, and his independent offensive ability is very average. Although Fisher is very short, Bowen did not choose to make strong shots by himself.
The ball quickly passed to Duncan, but it was not easy for Duncan to hit Malone.
Duncan still has lingering fears about that kick.
And Malone also knows that his physical fitness has declined and he cannot withstand Duncan's strength, not to mention that Duncan's low-post skills are notoriously good.
As a result, Malone played a dirty three-way defense, making it increasingly difficult for Duncan, who was already weak in physical strength.
The Spurs relied solely on Duncan's offense and it was difficult to open up the game in the first quarter.
Popovich knew Duncan's difficulties and could only send Ginobili in advance.
However, Duan and Kobe were the two locks, and they still took away Parker and Ginobili.
As for Bowen's open three-pointer, let him shoot it! It's impossible for Bowen to explode with a three-pointer and kill the Lakers in one fell swoop.
When it came to the Lakers' offensive round, Duan directly motioned for everyone to pull away, so that O'Neal didn't have to come up and just squatted in the bottom corner.
Bowen was still guarding Kobe, and Ginobili was unable to guard against Duane.
Duen turned around with a high post and shot directly to the basket.
Duncan came to help defend, Duan passed the ball to Malone, and the latter dunked in an alley-oop.
As early as the regular season, the Lakers used one matchup victory after another to tell Popovich that Parker and Ginobili cannot appear on the court at the same time.
Since Popovich forgot and made a mistake again, Dunn will naturally ask Popovich to remember it longer.
Not long after, Popovich replaced Turkoglu, but it didn't help. Duane knew how to play pick-and-roll.
Therefore, before Kobe Bryant broke out and took away the Spurs, the Lakers relied on Duan's ball-handling offense to quickly widen the point difference, laying the foundation for the G1 victory as early as the first half.
In tonight's game, the Spurs' main players are not strong enough.
In the third quarter, Popovich was worried that Duncan was injured and even directly suppressed Duncan for 8 minutes. After O'Neal came off the court, he replaced Duncan again.
Duncan has no problem with traveling at off-peak hours. As long as he can win, Duncan doesn't care about anything else.
However, the Spurs team is in poor condition, but the Lakers are full of energy and look like they are going to eat the Spurs.
After the third quarter, the score between the two teams reached 67 to 90, a huge difference of 23 points.
The Spurs are a strong defensive team. If they cannot guard the Lakers, they are destined to lose tonight.
In the fourth quarter, the Spurs only played a symbolic game for half a quarter before surrendering early.
89 to 115, the Lakers defeated the defending champion Spurs by 26 points at home in G1 of the Western Conference Finals. The dominance of the super team was undoubtedly revealed.
After G1 ended, many Lakers fans were still not satisfied and continued to stay at the entrance of Staples Center, shouting in unison: "Let's go Lakers!"
There is no doubt that in the eyes of Lakers fans, as long as they can defeat the Spurs, the Lakers can break out of the Western Conference and win another championship!
(End of chapter)
