An old house where a treasure.
The same goes for veterans of championship teams.
Just looking at the data, it doesn’t seem like much, but there are some values that cannot be reflected in the data.
Malone's playoff data has declined compared to the previous regular season, but without the deterrence of Malone's reputation as a villain, the Lakers may have to suffer a lot.
From the perspective of the Lakers' lineup, without Malone as the top inside line, no one can restrict stars like Duncan at the power forward position.
These days, there are four power forwards in the West, and there are O'Neal Jr. and Roaring God in the East. The Lakers do not have a power forward of Malone's level, and it will undoubtedly be more difficult to win the championship.
It is precisely because of this that Horry's departure and Malone's joining not only did not make the Lakers weaker, but actually made them stronger.
In fact, the Lakers lost to the Spurs last year because Horry was undercover.
It's understandable that Duncan couldn't be guarded on the defensive end. The problem is that the offensive end also pulled him. There were obviously many open spaces. He took 10+ shots in several games, but the score was only in single digits.
In this way, the Lakers were still willing to pay the mid-level to keep Horry, but Horry didn't appreciate it and wanted to hug Duncan's thigh who completely defeated him.
It's fine now, the tide has gone out, and everyone knows that without Horry, it is very important to the Lakers!
The same is true for the problem facing the Spurs today! If you want to defeat the Lakers, you need to let the Lakers lose their troops. Not having Malone is very important to the Spurs!
Also because Malone is in charge, Bowen is also worried about the situation where Kobe and Duncan will be replaced.
Even if Malone was suspended for being a bad offender, the Spurs had no chance of going further.
After Popovich learned of this, he could only continue to put pressure on Horry and let him get rid of Malone so that the Spurs could use more methods.
However, Horry has been injured by Malone's elbow. Based on his current state and very strong strength, he can only score three or four points at most.
Besides, the previous sneak attack did not destroy Ma Long. Now that Ma Long is prepared, how could he still be fooled?
There was no way, even though Duncan made 14 of 23 shots, 4 of 6 free throws, 32 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks.
The Spurs still lost to the Lakers by 8 points, 95-103.
It can only be said that the Lakers have too many people who can score!
O'Neal and Kobe scored 31 points and 30 points respectively in G2, and Duan also scored 26 points.
If Malone hadn't devoted his energy to the defensive end, the Lakers might have scored more points.
With two consecutive wins in the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers are in good shape to advance to the Finals.
Even O'Neal was a little carried away when he participated in the post-game interview.
O'Neal said: "Tim is very strong, but unfortunately, he is no match for Shaq.
Both of his championships were won together with David, and one of them was a fake championship, a shrunken championship.
We all know that it is difficult to win consecutive championships, even Shaq only has three consecutive championships..."
Duncan is the most threatening superstar to O'Neal in this era, bar none!
Previously, O'Neal was also concerned about the media comparing him to Duncan, but today, O'Neal is about to lead the Lakers to avenge the Spurs and once again reach the Finals.
O'Neal already doesn't care about Duncan!
Kobe Bryant is here, why fear a mere Duncan?
After playing G2, the Lakers set off overnight for San Antonio.
At noon, O'Neal was also very generous and treated everyone to a big meal.
Unexpectedly, everything was going on normally, but at night, when everyone was asleep in the middle of the night, continuous gunshots suddenly came from outside the hotel.
Most hotels in the United States have poor sound insulation, and the same is true for the hotels where Lakers players stay now.
After Du En was woken up, he thought someone was setting off firecrackers outside. He just cursed a few times, took out the noise-cancelling earmuffs he used when flying, and quickly fell asleep again.
It was not until the second afternoon, when everyone gathered to prepare to go to the SBC Center to participate in the G3 game, that Du En noticed that his teammates were in a depressed state of mind.
After getting in the car, O'Neill and others chatted about the shooting case last night.
However, members of the Lakers uniform team said that they had not received clear information about the shooting. This time it was probably an extra-game move by the Spurs to prevent them from having a good rest.
Most NBA players are black and are sensitive to and familiar with the sound of gunshots. Once they hear gunshots nearby, it is easy to think of other things and stay up all night.
It was Du En who was too arrogant to think that someone really had any fireworks... Considering that this was a free America and there were more bullets than fireworks, Du En was not surprised.
Not long after, the Lakers arrived at the SBC Center.
I thought that the Spurs would continue to use off-the-clock measures such as air conditioning and floor adjustments. However, I never expected that the Spurs would continue to frighten them to the end.
Not long after the Lakers players entered the visiting team's locker room, they were still changing their training clothes in the locker room and getting ready to go on the court to warm up.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, a rattlesnake suddenly fell from the ceiling.
This shocked the Lakers players. Some of them didn't even put on their pants. When they heard there was a snake, they immediately dispersed, ran out of the locker room and came to the player tunnel.
It can only be said that the Spurs' snake-letting tactic is too cool!
The SBC Center was just built in 2002!
If it's an old arena, it wouldn't be surprising if there are really snakes, insects, rats, and ants.
But it's a new arena, and a snake suddenly appeared in the visiting team's locker room. This is really no one!
And, who knows how many snakes there are in the locker room?
Most of the Lakers players are millionaires and are afraid of death. They dare not step back into the locker room without thoroughly checking the visiting team's locker room.
After the "flying snake on the ceiling" incident occurred, the arena staff and NBA official staff also acted in a responsible manner and spent more than two hours.
After checking the visiting team's locker room from the inside out, we completely ruled out the possibility that there was a venomous snake in the visiting team's locker room.
As a result, the Lakers players were delayed for more than two hours in their warm-up time. With extremely inadequate warm-up and anxiety, they stood on the stage of G3 of the Western Conference Finals.
It has to be said that Popovich is still very experienced in defending strong teams.
The Lakers players, who were already a little weak in their legs, experienced another day and night of intimidation and fright. Naturally, their condition in the G3 game was not very good.
On the contrary, the Spurs, whose lives were hanging on by a thread, had to use the courage to break the boat and go all out to deal with the Lakers players who came from afar without a good rest and were in poor physical and mental condition.
87 to 94. Although the point difference was not very big, the Lakers were suppressed by the Spurs throughout the game and lost the G3 game without much suspense.
After losing G3, the Lakers management naturally launched a protest to the league.
At the same time, some countermeasures have also been prepared, and noise-cancelling earmuffs and other items have been distributed to players such as Du En...
Next, we just wait for G4 to arrive, take revenge on the Spurs in an upright way, win the game, and return to Los Angeles to end the series.
(End of chapter)
