On June 1, after six consecutive games, the Pistons were still superior, defeating the Pacers 4-2 and successfully advancing to this year's finals.
Perhaps it's because the Pistons use iron-blooded defense to limit their playoff opponents to less than 80 points per game.
Many media began to build momentum for the Pistons - defense wins the championship, and the Detroit Pistons have a chance to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers and win the championship!
Of course, more media still believe that the Los Angeles Lakers, a super team that focuses on offensive basketball, are the truly unrivaled kings this season!
The Pistons used defense to punish the Pacers, who were No. 1 in the Eastern Conference, but were unable to use defense to restrict the Lakers, who had a luxurious lineup. They swept the defending champion Spurs 4-1.
Especially the media in Los Angeles have begun to loan the championship and FMVP.
Even the second Lakers dynasty and three consecutive championships are beginning to be imagined.
It is worth mentioning that on June 2, the Lakers officially announced that Payton had returned from injury, and the Lakers' paper strength had returned to its peak state.
Of course, because Payton's injury was pushed to his waist, although he did not hurt his spine and only strained his muscles, for the sake of safety, Payton still started as a substitute and strictly controlled his playing time.
This means that Payton's return will not disrupt the Lakers' rotation. At most, it will gain some playing time in the substitute lineup and will not affect the overall situation.
Time soon came to June 5, and the Pistons and their team arrived in Los Angeles, and the war began.
Many Lakers fans spontaneously came to the hotel where the Pistons players were staying and began to make noise for the Pistons players, affecting their rest.
However, it was not as outrageous as when Lakers players were in a San Antonio hotel and listened to gunshots in the middle of the night.
On the afternoon of June 5, Lakers legend Magician, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy arrived at the Toyota Center together to cheer up Kobe, Duane, O'Neal and others who were still training.
Because Du En is only a first-year rookie and not yet a black player, the three heroes are not very familiar with Du En, so they just gave them a few words of encouragement.
In the blink of an eye, the time came to the evening of June 6th, at the Staples Center, the 2003-04 NBA Finals, G1 between the Lakers and the Pistons was about to begin.
Because it happened to be Sunday, the Lakers players appeared in platinum jerseys.
However, the Lakers fans at the scene were wearing platinum, gold, purple and gold jerseys, as well as the previous "Take it Back" special jerseys. In short, there were all kinds of jerseys. They didn't look neat, but rather messy.
"Dunn, is it your first time to play in the Finals? Don't be nervous. We all believe in you. You can help the Los Angeles Lakers win."
Magic, with two guardians on the left and right - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy, specially brought the ball for tonight's game from the technical table and handed it to the referee in charge of the jump ball in the center circle.
By the way, just before the game started, I gave a few words of encouragement to Du En and others.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy were not as talkative as Magic. They came up to apologize for a moment and then followed Magic down again.
"Relax, man, and if you're nervous, give the ball to Shaq!"
O'Neal patted Duan on the shoulder, then stood in the center circle, preparing to jump the ball.
Not long after, the referee threw the ball high, and then the whistle sounded.
Du En scratched his head: "Shaq, didn't you tell me to relax? Why did you break the ball?"
O'Neal spread his hands and ran to the low post.
Because the Lakers have a regular starting lineup, Fisher, Kobe, Duane, Malone, and O'Neal, they still try to defend normally at the beginning.
Kobe did not guard Billups, but got entangled with Hamilton right from the start, while Doan followed Prince to the bottom corner to smoke a cigarette.
Originally O'Neal was supposed to be defending O'Neal, but Ben ran outside the three-point line and played a pick-and-roll with Billups. O'Neal's ability to defend the pick-and-roll was extremely poor, and he had no way to defend in the high post, so he had to switch to Malone to defend.
In the first round, the Pistons played very patiently. First, Billups and Hamilton crossed the screen at the top of the arc. Hamilton failed to get rid of Kobe and could only pass the ball to Billups again.
Immediately afterwards, Billups and Ben played a pick-and-roll on the left sideline, and Malone was forced to step forward and delay Billups.
Hamilton circled from the right side, using the two screens of Prince and Roaring God, to cut to the basket.
Duane noticed that Kobe had no time to chase Hamilton and could only immediately make up for it in front of Hamilton.
Just as Kobe squeezed past the Roaring God, he found that Duan had switched to defend Hamilton, so he retreated to Prince again.
After being squeezed through the screen by Kobe, Roaring God immediately broke away and ran outside the three-point line at a 45-degree angle on the right side to help open up space for the Pistons.
O'Neal couldn't follow up, so Billups passed the ball to the Roaring God.
Seeing this, Fisher could only save for O'Neal, but still failed to interfere with Roaring God's three-pointer.
brush--
The roaring Tianzun scored a three-pointer as soon as he came up. The originally noisy Staples Center seemed to have stopped time and the sound disappeared instantly.
"Shaq, pick up the ball quickly!"
Kobe seemed a little dissatisfied with O'Neal for not guarding the ball just now. Kobe was obviously near the baseline, but he did not pick up the ball and slip out of the baseline to serve.
O'Neal didn't say much after hearing this. He took the ball and sent it to Duan who was also near the baseline, but turned a blind eye to Kobe.
It is worth mentioning that the Pistons directly pressed the whole court and used defense to put pressure on the Lakers players.
Prince directly interfered with Duan's dribbling, and even Kobe Bryant on the side was physically contacted by Hamilton.
"Derek!"
While dribbling, Duan used his upper body strength to lean on Prince, and at the same time signaled the dribbling defender Fisher to come over quickly to help him share the dribbling pressure.
Before the finals started, Du En had already planned in private to give it a bold try and win the finals MVP!
Facing a strong defensive team like the Pistons, if you want to score high points, you will definitely consume more energy on the offensive end than in the previous playoffs.
Therefore, in terms of physical strength, save as much as possible.
Fisher is the most famous dribbling defender in the league. Didn't the Lakers sign him to do this?
Fisher was also self-aware and quickly came to help Duen.
However, not long after Duan passed the ball to Fisher, Fisher passed the ball to Duan.
In terms of disrupting dribbling, Billups's defensive pressure is greater than that of Prince.
Fisher also wanted to be like Duane, who connected with his back and turned around to pass Billups, but Billups could not only provide physical confrontation, but also continue to exert defensive intensity and ensure that he did not lose his position.
In order to prevent dribbling errors, Fisher could only pass the ball to Duan in advance.
Fortunately, Duan's ability to get rid of the ball and catch the ball have already reached the All-Star level. Otherwise, he might not even be able to catch the ball if he was interfered by Prince's long arms!
After dribbling the ball past half court, Duan immediately called O'Neal to step forward and play a high pick-and-roll.
Before the game, Jackson carefully analyzed the Pistons' defensive system for the Lakers players, which mainly consisted of full-court press and mixed defense.
Many people have never heard of the professional term "mixed defense", but what about one-mark four-team defense? Maybe you've heard a little bit about it.
One-mark four-zone defense is a type of mixed defense that combines man-marking and zone defense.
In today's era, there is another word that can be used to describe mixed defense, and that is illegal defense.
However, with the legalization of zone defense, the illegal defense that became famous in the 1990s has now become a thing of the past.
The Pistons' mixed defense, in addition to man-marking and zone defense, also incorporates unlimited defense changes.
It is also because of unlimited defense changes. The Pistons will switch defenses whenever they are screened. Then, relying on the defensive help of Ben, they can attack the ball holder in the high position. The Pistons' defense can be as good as an iron barrel.
Of course, the Pistons' mixed defense is not without its weaknesses.
Just like the zone defense, as long as the space is wide enough, three-pointers and two-pointers can be shot from the high post, and there are people in the low post who can make air cuts, the mixed defense can be easily solved.
Why did Jackson insist on Fisher starting?
It's not because Fisher can shoot three-pointers! At the same time, his dribbling ability is also very good, one of the best in the Lakers team, and he can share the dribbling pressure for Duan and Kobe under the tight defense of the whole court.
The Lakers play the Pistons, and in the starting lineup, Fisher, Kobe, Duane, and Malone can all shoot.
As long as the high pick-and-roll is used to solve the problem of O'Neal squatting under the basket, unable to catch the ball and unable to shoot, all the troubles will be solved.
But if Malone is injured, the Lakers use Payton as the starter, and O'Neal squats under the basket, then if you want to break the Pistons' mixed defense, you can only use a stupid method-that is, rely on star players to play in isolation.
Illegal defense was extremely popular in the 1990s, but as long as you are as accurate as Jordan, you can still kill everyone even without three-pointers.
Duane doesn't have Jordan's shooting ability, but with O'Neal's cover, it's no problem to shoot a few more three-pointers.
As long as you use the screen to shoot fast enough and shoot accurately enough, unlimited defense changes are for nothing!
"This is my stage!"
Du En knows very well that in this series, he will definitely have a chance to shine!
Duan is different from Kobe! At least Duane wouldn't say to O'Neal and Malone - put away your damn pick-and-roll!
In fact, Du En, like his good brother Wade, is a pick-and-roll man. The more pick-and-rolls, the better. How can he take the initiative to ask his teammates to go aside?
This time, Duan also relied on O'Neal's solid cover to leave Prince behind.
At the same time, Ben had just rushed out from the free throw line, and Du En shot a three-pointer without hesitation.
brush--
With the knife in hand, Du En responded with a three-pointer from Roaring Tianzun.
"Shaq, your pick-and-roll is so good. You are responsible for 80% of my shots! Let's kick their butts together!"
In order to prevent O'Neal from becoming suspicious, Du En only used O'Neal as a cover tool, but he went crazy to brush up the data. Du En immediately pulled O'Neal.
O'Neal didn't think much about it when he didn't get the ball. After all, Prince had already switched defenses, and Roaring God took another step up in the low post.
Once he is delayed by Prince and double-teamed by Big Ben and Roaring God, he will fall into the trap set by the Pistons and be unable to escape.
Only Kobe, who ran to the low post, seemed to have already understood everything. Even when Du En returned to defense, his attention was still on Du En.
(End of chapter)
