The Lakers, who returned to Staples, were not afraid of the Rockets at all, and they returned to their home court from 2-0 down in the last round to start a winning streak and defeat the mighty defending champion Spurs in four straight sets. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info This 1-1 draw grabbed the home court advantage, and the Lakers certainly have confidence. After all, the Lakers made a lot of reinforcements last summer, and the Rockets' roster didn't change much.

If the biggest improvement of the rocket compared to last year should be Yao Ming's growth. Last season, the Rockets mainly used Yao Ming to play O'Neal's backup center when he was resting, and tried their best to use Oku and Wang Zhizhi to pull O'Neal apart. And in this series, Tang Shuai did the opposite, arranging for Yao Ming to smash O'Neill head-on, striving to form a pair. In the last game, O'Neal only grabbed 7 rebounds, and Yao Ming's confrontation ability improved significantly after exercising and gaining weight. Every time they scramble for rebounds, the two of them interfere with each other's positions under the basket, causing most of the rebounds to fall into the hands of other players.

In the third game, Oku was the beneficiary, as he cut a double-double of 16+10. But on the Lakers side, Malone cut 30+13, and Oku, Bosh, and Wang Zhizhi are all difficult to defend against this veteran who will turn 41 years old in two months.

In the last 6 seconds, the Lakers relied on Malone's free throws to seal the victory, and with Maddy's final three-point miss, the Lakers won 97-101 and took a 2-1 lead.

The veteran Zen master is also secretly proud, the Lakers and the Rockets have been too familiar with many confrontations, and now the Rocket's cards are basically gone, but the Zen master can skillfully use the agitation method to stimulate the bloodthirsty Kobe, and then give full play to Ma Long's body and technical advantages to burst the Rocket's No. 4 position, this kind of use of several superstars to play different tricks of the handsome style restrained the rocket. If the rocket can't make any changes to deal with it, it's dead.

Can the Rockets make any changes?

At the beginning of the fourth game, the Rockets were still the original five-man starters, Yao Porter McBee. The Zen master couldn't help but sneer in his heart, this rocket is really out of line, Lao Tang has played all the hole cards.

The Lakers also repeated the same trick, the first shot Kobe George Payton pulled outside the three-point line, O'Neal also pulled Yao Ming to the weak side, and handed it to Malone to single Bosh in the ribs. The Rockets players were torn apart by the Lakers, and only Yao Ming was closer to Bosh, but he was stuck in position by O'Neal.

Ma Long's tendons and flesh could not be resisted by thin waves, he forced his position to the basket, got up and shot 0:2. As the Zen master reminded him before, although Malone is not known for eating his back, it is still more than enough to squeeze out of Bosh.

Billups didn't show any weakness and immediately assisted Turkoglu on a mid-range shot. The two sides went back and forth, and at 13:17, the Rockets called a timeout, and Tang Shuai came off the bench after some arrangement. The Lakers were shocked, Wallace is coming!

Speaking of the American Wallace, he was injured in the regular season game against the Kings on March 21 and finally returned after a long break. At this moment, Wallace is full of thoughts about repaying the trust that the team has given him.

***

Twenty days ago, Dawson and Yuanfei interviewed Wallace.

"After careful consideration, and the observation of your injuries, the team has now decided on a 12-man squad for the playoffs." Far Flying.

"It's okay, I'm mentally prepared." Wallace smiled wryly and said he felt he shouldn't be able to make the playoffs.

"The team's playoff roster for this season includes: Tracy, Yao, Chauncey, Heaton, Memet, Richard, Tony, Wang, Michael, Chris, Joe and—" Dawson paused deliberately at this point: "You, Gerrard." ”

Wallace was dumbfounded, is the team really willing to leave a place for him who is still unhealed? He said, "Captain, what should he do? Isn't he playing the playoffs? ”

"This time it was Hakim who took the initiative to mention to the team management that he already has a serious back injury, and although he has the ability to return to play briefly, he could be injured again at any time." Yuan Fei said: "So he wants to give up the position to you, or Munch." In the end, the team decided to give you the spot. ”

'The team has given enough trust to the young players and hopefully you can repay the team with your performance on the pitch.' Dawson smiled kindly. He looked at Wallace as if he were looking at his own son. Dawson Sr. is also approaching the age of retirement, and he has dedicated his life to the team, hoping that the young players will work together to win the championship for the team.

"Yes, I know......" Gerald. Wallace, a tough guy, actually cried at this moment.

(Quick fact: In this era, each NBA team can only report a 12-player roster in the playoffs, and it cannot be changed at will.) Substitutions can only be requested if a serious injury results in the absence of an active player for more than 3 games. So Wallace is very attached to this 12-man roster, which is related to whether they can play in the playoffs. This rule was changed to 13 activations in '06. )

***

Wallace came on the court with a heavy responsibility - to keep an eye on Kobe. Yuanfei couldn't help but think of Wallace in his previous life, Kobe Bryant had never suffered a loss, although it was impossible to completely contain Kobe Bryant's superstar in terms of data, but there were still more wins and fewer losses (Wallace was the boss of the Bobcats, and the Bobcats had the title of "Lakers nemesis".) Wallace had an 11-9 advantage over Kobe Bryant throughout his career, with an absolute 7-1 advantage during the Bobcats).

Maddie hit a mid-range shot to close the gap. The Lakers once again handed over to Malone, who had the biggest offensive grasp, and he forced Oku to turn around and jump shot. Wallace suddenly stepped in and slapped the ball away.

Billups scored the ball and scored a fast break, 17-all.

Payton dribbled and directed his teammates to run, and suddenly played the ball to Fox, Wallace made a steal on the slope, and a fast break dunked the ball, and Payton couldn't stop him from scoring despite keeping up.

The rocket bench erupted in cheers, and Tang Shuai nodded with satisfaction. That's it, despite Wallace's mediocre shooting ability, the defense and energy he provides to the Rockets is something that other players will be hard to replace. Keeping him on the list is the right thing to do!

The Zen master gritted his teeth in anger. Last year, when the Lakers were about to collapse the Rockets, a big shooter Wang Zhizhi stood on their bench and led the Rockets' bench to shoot through the Lakers' bench. This year was another time when the Lakers had the upper hand, and the Rockets brought out the defensive gate Wallace from the injury number, which changed the situation again. He was so angry that he wanted to stomp his feet, but he had nowhere to vent, so he could only shout to Peyton to be steady.

Payton was not discouraged, and still insisted on implementing the tactics, constantly feeding the ball to Malone, who singled Oku one after another. But I don't know if it was made a shadow by Wallace's help defense, Ma Long's success rate was not high these times, and he finally caused a foul after hitting 2 irons in a row, but he missed a free throw.

With Reed's whistle ball blocked by Payton, the first quarter ended with the Rockets overtaking the score 23-22.