On April 30, 1997, the Lakers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers away to complete the sweep of the opponent, although they were not the first team in the West to advance to the second round, but due to the Seattle SuperSonics and Phoenix Suns unexpectedly tied 1-2, the Suns still had a one-game lead, so that the Lakers got at least three days of rest.

On May 1st, there was a game in the east and west, the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic were 2-1, the Heat led by one game, today's game is still Orlando's home field, in the last game Magic's number one core "penny" Hardaway played a brave 42 points, the score of the two teams was 2-1, if the Magic team can still win today, then the two teams will play the fifth game.

Standing on the edge of the cliff, the Magic team rallied, and Anfernee Hardaway once again became the savior, he scored another 41 points in this game to lead the Magic to a 2-2 score, and the Heat's two home wins are now useless, and the two teams are back on the starting line.

The SuperSonics, who were also on the edge of a cliff in the West, redeemed themselves in Phoenix, beating the Suns 122-115 to tie the score at 2-2, and Gary Payton had 28 points and 14 assists.

That way, the Lakers get two more days off.

On May 2, the Hawks won away against the Detroit Pistons, and the score of the two teams was also 2-2.

On May 3, the SuperSonics returned home without giving the Suns any more chance, and they defeated the Phoenix Suns 116-92, and SuperSonics power forward Schramf made a big move, scoring a near-triple-double of 24 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds, so that the SuperSonics eliminated the Phoenix Suns with a total score of 3-2, and they will play the first game of the second round against the Lakers on May 5.

On May 4, the second round of the Western Conference playoffs started first, and the game between the Jazz and the Rockets was also hailed as the most intense group of games in the Western Conference playoffs this year. The first game between the two teams was played first on Utah's home stadium, and this year's second round of the playoffs will be played on a best-of-seven basis, with home and away games on a 22111 basis, with the team with the better regular season record having home advantage.

The Jazz played even better in the first game, with their role players stepping up, and after the two core players of Karl Malone and Stockton were killed, the Jazz bench scored a total of 32 points, and the Rockets scored only six points on the bench. In the end, the Jazz defeated the Rockets 101-94 to get their first victory.

The first round of the Eastern Conference finally ended today, and the two teams that returned home did not give their opponents another chance, with the Hawks eliminating the Pistons 84-79 and the Heat eliminating the Magic 91-83.

On May 5, the Lakers, who had rested for five days, finally welcomed their second-round opponent at home.

The five-day break seemed to make the Lakers players forget about the state of the playoffs, and after the game began, O'Neal failed to make three consecutive strong inside shots, only getting two free throws on the third offense, but unfortunately the guy with the wrist like a petrification missed both free throws, and in the opening three minutes, the SuperSonics took an 8-0 lead.

The SuperSonics' tactics today are very reasonable, they use Sean Camp to pull O'Neal on the inside, Schramf forces Elden Campbell to hit consecutive shots, and in defense, Camp and Schramf keep wrapping up O'Neal, putting other Lakers players on the outside, and defending Liu Han, Lakers head coach Harris's dull tactics were seen through by the SuperSonics.

The game continued, the Lakers no longer used O'Neal to force the supersonic inside, Liu Han took the initiative to mention the ball outside the three-point line, O'Neal gave Liu Han a single block cover, and Van Exel and other Lakers players all pulled to the outside to open up space for O'Neal and Liu Han.

Liu Han relied on O'Neal to cover and shake off Gary Payton's stalking, and then suddenly accelerated into the supersonic inside, Sean Kemp let go of O'Neal to make up for Liu Han, Liu Han did not play strongly after dribbling to the basket, but passed the ball out from the back of his head, and O'Neal, who followed up, received the ball and flew directly into a violent dunk, and O'Neal, who had already started speed, was unstoppable.

Next, the Lakers no longer stuck to man-to-man in defense, Sean Kemp didn't shoot well, and O'Neal began to pay more attention to the interior defense.

Liu Han entangled Gary Payton on the outside, the opponent was the initiation point of the supersonic attack, Van Exel could not defend, so Liu Han could only defend.

The SuperSonics' shooting percentage began to decline after the Lakers tightened up their defense, and Schramf, although he had a good shot, was still a little intimidated by O'Neal's defense, and his passing awareness was not as good as that of other players from Europe.

The Lakers put down the supersonic offense and continued their successful tactics just now, Liu Han came out to hold the ball and cooperated with O'Neal, both strong points have the ability to attack, and Liu Han's three points made the supersonic jealous, and the other players of the Lakers team can wait for opportunities on the outside.

Liu Han can have a lot of options after passing O'Neal's cover, he can shoot by himself, or he can burst into the basket, and the current O'Neal speed is also very good, and few people can stop O'Neal who has started to speed after blocking and dismantling.

Through several collaborations between Liu Han and O'Neal, the Lakers gradually caught up with the score.

At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers trailed by just two points, 23-25.

Liu Han did not rest in the second quarter, but continued to play with the Lakers' bench players, the Lakers can now play only two point guards, Van Exel and Liu Han must have one person with a substitute in the second quarter, otherwise the Lakers will struggle in the second quarter.

After the supersonic changed the bench, Liu Han began to play strongly, and he can now ignore the bag of these substitute players, whether it is a backward jumper behind his back, or a sudden shot after pulling the ball outside the three-point line, it is difficult for supersonic players to limit Liu Han's play.

Liu Han played seven minutes in the second quarter and then went off the break, scoring 19 points in seven minutes to lead the Lakers' bench to overtake the score and extend the lead to eight points.

After Liu Han left the court, the Lakers once again entered O'Neal's strong offensive mode, Van Exel and Eddie Jones were cruising on the outside waiting for an opportunity, and Kobe Bryant was also replaced by Liu Han.

The two teams played hard-fought for the remaining five minutes of the second quarter. At halftime, the Lakers led by eight points heading into the second half.

After the start of the second half, Liu Han rested enough time to continue playing, and the Lakers still used the tactics of letting Liu Han and O'Neal cooperate with each other in the first half. Although this tactic is simple, it is very effective, whether it is O'Neal or Liu Han, both of them have super individual ability, can easily tear through the supersonic single defense, and if the opponent is trapped, then the rest of the Lakers players must get a chance.

The SuperSonics will not give up the game easily, head coach George Karl is not a coach who can't defend, in the face of the Lakers' tactics of relying on star singles, George Karl is determined to give it a go, he asked the players to give up the defense of other players on the Lakers, that is, to defend Liu Han, O'Neal is not on the inside without Liu Han's pass, he is also difficult to play. George Carr felt that he would rather be shot to death by the rest of the Lakers than defeated by Liu Han alone, a tactic very similar to the tactics of Pistons head coach Chuck Daley against Jordan in the mid-to-late eighties, when Jordan was eliminated by the Pistons in the playoffs for three consecutive years.

However, although the rest of the Lakers players were a little too relaxed at the beginning of the game today, after half the game, the feeling of the game returned, and the supersonic tactics fell into embarrassment after the other Lakers players hit shots one after another.

The third quarter ended with the Lakers leading by 16 points.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Liu Han went to rest, O'Neal also had to rest, the intensity of the playoffs made the players feel very tired, and Harris did not want to lose his core at a critical moment.

The SuperSonics took advantage of the Lakers' core break at the beginning of the fourth quarter to play an offensive climax, and they once narrowed the gap to five points, but after a five-minute break, Liu Han and O'Neal returned to the court, and the SuperSonics failed to close the score again.

The Lakers finished the first round of the playoffs with three games, while the opponent played five games with the SuperSonics, and then rested for only one day before continuing the second round, which made the superSonics players gradually unable to keep up with the physical strength in the final time of this game, after all, the intensity of the playoffs is much higher than that of the regular season.

In the end, the Lakers defeated the SuperSonics 117-102 to claim their first win in the second round of the playoffs. O'Neal played 38 minutes and scored 24 points and 14 rebounds, and Liu Han played 37 minutes and scored 28 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.

Starting on May 5, the second round of the Eastern and Western playoffs has also gradually begun, and since both teams in the East have played five games in the first round, their second round of the playoffs will not start until the 6th.

In the game on the 6th, the Hawks challenged the Bulls away, Jordan scored 34 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists, although the Hawks led in the first half of the game, but ultimately failed to win, Jordan scored 16 points in the final quarter, almost single-handedly beating the Hawks.

On the Western side, the Jazz and the Rockets fought again, the Rockets failed to stage a comeback on the road, they were killed by Jazz shooter Hornacek in the last moment, Karl Malone scored 34 points and 11 rebounds, Olajuwon only got 17 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, and Olajuwon, who is nearly 35 years old, has not been able to limit the Jazz core Karl Malone in any way. That way, the Jazz have a 2-0 lead over the Rockets for the most part.