That night, the Eastern Conference Finals began, the Pacers' home court.
Between the two teams, there were two wins, two losses, and one tie in the four regular season games. They won both games at home and lost both games on the road.
This G1 battle was quite tense, 86:88, but in the end the Pacers won the game with their home court advantage.
On the 23rd, the Western Conference Finals begins.
The game started at 8:30. Zhou Quan arrived at the Central Gymnasium at 6:30 and first went to the visiting team's locker room.
"Mr. West, Mr. Jackson, hello."
Turning into the corridor, Zhou Quan saw Jerry West and Phil Jackson talking at the door of the locker room more than ten meters away. He raised his hand to say hello.
"Hey Iron Fist, hello."
"Hello, Iron Fist."
When the two saw Zhou Quan, they quickly greeted him.
"I'm here to visit the shark. Is he inside?" Zhou Quan said.
"Here, I'll call him for you." West smiled, turned around, opened the door, and shouted inside: "Shark, Iron Fist is here."
"Iron Fist, what are you doing here at this time?"
O'Neal immediately shouted inside, footsteps sounded, and then appeared at the door, followed by Kobe.
"Come here to see you first, lest you don't want to see me after losing." Zhou Quan teased.
"The Iron Fist King may not be the loser for us." Kobe said first.
"Boy Kobe, this is the playoffs, not the regular season." Zhou Quan said with a smile.
"So what about the playoffs?" Kobe said unconvinced.
"Hey, Iron Fist."
"Hello John."
At this time, another person came out of the locker room, but it was former Pistons teammate John Salley, who came out to say hello to Zhou Quan.
After he left, several people chatted outside the door.
"I didn't expect that as soon as Iron Fist came back, they would achieve the best record in the league with a garbage lineup and reach the Western Conference Finals." Jerry West lamented.
Phil Jackson said: "Even if it is a garbage lineup, Tekken alone can significantly raise the team's lower limit. What's more, they are not a garbage lineup.
Ben Wallace has played a first-class defensive center. He can definitely get a long-term contract with an annual salary of four to five million next season. The other basic salaries can be exchanged for a suitable contract. "
"We're not going to lose," O'Neal said.
John Salley said: "Tekken has not lost in the Western Conference Finals four times."
This is to boost the opponent's morale and destroy his own prestige. Kobe glanced at John Salley with dissatisfaction, and then said excitedly: "We are very strong, and we just want to break the myth of the Iron Fist King being undefeated in the Western Conference Finals."
John Salley sighed: "I remember when Iron Fist first arrived in the Pistons and one person killed several of us. I knew he would make a big scene."
"Spider, what does fighting have to do with playing ball?" O'Neal joked.
John Salley said disdainfully: "Of course it does. We didn't fight in that era and suffered a lot. Without deterrence, anyone would dare to attack you. Do you think after Iron Fist entered the alliance, who dared to attack him secretly? "
O'Neal thought for a while and said, "Yes, the postman did it and had two ribs broken. Larry Johnson also had a conflict with him and was beaten.
Dameng and that guy named Iron Fist sneak attack on the field, and then they were beaten badly. The guy's intestines were kicked out by Iron Fist, and I heard that he was full of shit. "
"vomit!"
Kobe almost vomited.
John Salley glanced at Kobe. He was worried about Kobe.
Kobe is very strong now, but that is against others. He has no advantage in front of the Iron Fist King.
The Iron Fist King is faster than Kobe, has greater strength, stronger confrontation, better skills, and richer experience. Once Kobe is beaten by the Iron Fist King on both offense and defense, there will be no OK combination. O'Neal is heavily double-teamed in the low post, and the Lakers The substitute lineup is not as good as the SuperSonics, how can we beat them?
The Lakers could beat the SuperSonics in the regular season because the Iron Fist King didn't give his best effort, but in the series, can the Iron Fist King not do his best?
…
It was almost eight o'clock. In the home team's locker room, Paul Westphal felt a little hot. He wiped the sweat from his head, then clapped his hands and shouted loudly: "Guys, now announce the starting lineup for tonight."
After everyone looked over, he continued: "No. 1, Iron Fist King. No. 2, Brent Barry. No. 3, Bruce Bowen..."
"What?"
Everyone was startled.
"I?"
Bowen thought he heard wrongly.
Westphal said: "Bruce, you have to focus on the defensive end. Your opponent is Glen Rice, the Lakers' third scoring point. Sometimes he performs better than Kobe. Now the team needs your defense." , and open three-pointers.”
"yes."
Bowen stood up excitedly and shouted back.
"..."
Corey Maggette is very disappointed. He started 68 games in the regular season and started at small forward in the first and second rounds. Unexpectedly, he chose the starting position in the Western Conference Finals.
Westphal continued: "No. 4..."
At this time, Campbell's nerves became tense. Someone was replaced at the third position, and the fourth position may also be replaced. Rodman may replace him.
"Campbell." Westphal's voice sounded at this time.
"I?"
Campbell was startled and immediately became happy.
Westphal nodded and continued: "No. 5, Ben Wallace."
"yes."
Ben Wallace was also a little worried, fearing that his position would also be replaced, but he breathed a sigh of relief.
Westphal and several assistant coaches from McMillan repeatedly discussed the starting lineup and communicated with Zhou Quan. He believed that after Ben Wallace and Bowen became the starters, it was not suitable for Rodman to also start because Then the offensive ability of the starting lineup will be too poor.
Zhou Quan also agrees with this. If only he and Barry can attack, then the Lakers' defensive force only needs to face the two of them to defeat the Sonics.
Westphal proposed that Ben Wallace and Rodman should partner in the post. The small forward was still Corey Maggette, but McMillan believed that Maggette might not be able to guard Glen Rice, and Rodman and Ben Wallace came on the court at the same time, and the height of the basket was too low.
"Iron Fist King, in this starting lineup, Ben and Bowen are not offensive. You need to strengthen your shots to ensure the main lineup scores." Westphal said.
"I know." Zhou Quan nodded.
McMillan said: "King of Iron Fist, you lock down Kobe, Bowen tries to limit Glen Rice, Ron Harper has no offensive ability now, and Barry should be able to handle it. The three of you can limit the Lakers' perimeter. Once he controls the perimeter, no matter how dominant O'Neal is in the low post, he won't be able to make waves."
Westphal said: "Elden, AC Green is 37 years old and is about to retire. Your task is to help defend O'Neal and help Ben prevent O'Neal from dying. Do you understand?"
"Understood." Campbell nodded.
Westphal added: "Elden, your current tonnage has reached 127 kilograms..."
Having said this, he turned to Brad Miller and said: "Brad, your tonnage has reached 118 kilograms. The two of you and Ben Wallace will take turns to face O'Neal, no matter who it is with the Sharks." In every matchup, you have to hold on hard and use up his physical energy as much as possible, do you understand?"
"Understood." The three of them replied at the same time.
All three of them have gained weight and conducted a lot of strength training at the request of the team this season, in order to prepare to compete with O'Neal in the playoffs.
Nodding to the three human shields, Westphal finally said to Ben Wallace: "Ben, you are the main force, and your defensive task is the most important. You must defend O'Neal with all your strength, whether he has the ball in his hand or not. Every second consumes his physical energy, and he must not be allowed to get close to the basket easily.
As long as he can't get close to the basket, he's not a threat. His hook shot is useless and can't kill us, and his height doesn't give you any advantage outside. "
"yes."
Ben Wallace shouted loudly.
At eight o'clock, the substitutes came on, and both sides also announced the starting lineup.
Lakers: O'Neal, AC Green, Glen Rice, Kobe Bryant, Ron Harper
SuperSonics: Ben Wallace, Campbell, Bowen, Brent Barry, Zhou Quan
…
The Central Gymnasium was overcrowded.
Isiah Thomas, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Drexler, Schrempf, Olaju, David Robinson, Ewing, and a lot of other players are here.
This series was broadcast live nationwide on ESPN TV, and the commentators were the Bill pairing of Bill Walton and Bill Laimbeer.
Bill Walton read the starting list and then said: "Brother Bill, the SuperSonics let Bowen start, what do you think is the purpose?
"Purpose? Brother Bill, let an undrafted player with only a little defense start the game. Why do you think? Do you expect him to attack with the ball?" Bill Laimbeer said.
Bill Walton said: "The offensive ability of the SuperSonics' main lineup in the regular season is already not as good as the Lakers' main lineup. Now that the offensive power is further reduced, it seems that Iron Fist will definitely increase his offensive firepower today."
"That's not necessarily the case. Corey Maggette averages 10 points per game. He can also use his offensive ability on the bench, and scoring off the bench is also scoring." Laimbeer said.
In the visiting team's locker room, the Lakers got the SuperSonics' starting lineup. After Phil Jackson saw it, he immediately made a deal in his mind.
He has some understanding of Bruce Bowen, the undrafted player, and all SuperSonics players have.
He is good at brown sugar-style defense. He has a lot of small moves and is very desperate. On the offensive end, he only has open three-pointers and takes very few shots, which can be ignored.
"Chris..."
He immediately asked his assistant to compile the record of Glenn Rice's matchup with Bowen and Corey Maggette, and he had the records of the two teams' encounters in the past five seasons with him.
At this time, the substitutes had already come on, and there were only five starters left in the locker room, all looking at him.
He read the Sonics' starting lineup, and Kobe was surprised: "Changed to a small forward? Bowen, I know, is a little defensive, but average, with a lot of small moves."
"I played against him the first two seasons, and he was annoying defensively, like a fly in your ear," Glen Rice said.
Phil Jackson said: "Based on my memory, Bowen's defense is better than Corey Maggette. Glen Rice also performed well against Corey Maggette this season. The SuperSonics started Bowen, of course. It is to strengthen perimeter defense.
They want to lock down our perimeter, reduce perimeter offense, and cut off the connection between the perimeter and Shaq so that our greatest advantage cannot be used. "
"Then how do we fight?" O'Neill asked.
At this time, assistant Chris had sorted out the information, and Phil Jackson took it over to look at it and said: "Glen Rice played against Corey Maggette, Glenn 30 minutes, the rookie 22 minutes, only three games, 25 : 4.5 points, Glenn has an absolute advantage."
"It's not difficult for me to beat up a rookie." Glen Rice shrugged his shoulders and said with disdain.
Phil Jackson continued: "Glen Rice played against Bowen, Glenn 40 minutes, Bowen 19 minutes, a total of six games, 18 points: 4.2 points.
Of course, this data comparison is not very accurate, because Bowen's playing time is not much, and the time with Glenn is somewhat staggered, with at most 15 minutes of confrontation time.
But it can be roughly said that Glenn Rice's performance against Bowen was not as good as against Maggette. This is for sure.
If the data of Glenn and Bowen are supplemented and Bowen's playing time is extended to the same 40 minutes as Glenn, then Glenn's scoring average will definitely drop. "
Glen Rice didn't look good, but he couldn't refute Phil Jackson's last words. The data is there. He is indeed limited by an undrafted defense, otherwise he would not have a chance to play against a player. What impression do you have of being an undrafted player?
"We're about to go out, Phil, how are we going to fight?"
O'Neill asked this question again, a little anxiously.
Raising his wrist, Phil looked at the time, then spoke faster and said: "Don't worry, as long as Kobe pulls away the Iron Fist King and we attack from the other wing, Bowen can't stop us from passing the ball to Shaq.
We have Shaq in the low post, give him the ball, and then move according to tactics to pull the opponent's defense and try not to give the opponent a chance to double-team Shaq. If they force a double team, Shaq must pass the ball to an open teammate in time. "
"It's time."
At this time, the staff pushed open the locker room door from outside and shouted loudly.
Phil Jackson stood by the door and high-fived O'Neal and the others, and continued to say loudly: "Use more pick-and-roll screens to get rid of the defense of Iron Fist King and Bowen. Barry's defense is relatively the worst. You can hit Barry more from the outside... "
The players all went out, and he followed behind and continued.
"Hey, Shark, haven't you finished laying out your tactics?"
Twenty seconds later, Zhou Quan's voice sounded, interrupting Phil Jackson's words.
"Okay, that's it for now, we'll talk about it later."
When Phil Jackson saw that he was almost in the players' tunnel, he quickly nodded to Zhou Quan and walked out of the players' tunnel.
"Iron Fist, can this kid help you?" O'Neal glanced at Bruce Bowen, who looked downcast.
Zhou Quan smiled and said: "King of being swept, please don't be swept by us this time. Three sweeps in a row doesn't sound good."
"Fuck you triple sweep!"
O'Neal exploded and roared with a loud voice: "I won't talk nonsense to you, I'm going to show up."
"Haha..." Zhou Quan and others from behind laughed so much that they squatted on the ground.
…
(End of chapter)
