Chapter 198: Soaring

After a win against the Detroit Pistons, the Lakers claimed their 65th regular season win, and with seven games left to go the entire regular season, the Lakers are on their way.

After Liu Han came back, the Lakers rejuvenated, although the Lakers did very well during the two months when Liu Han was banned, but they always lacked a domineering spirit to control the game, O'Neal was very strong inside, but it was not enough to change the temperament of the whole team, only Liu Han made the Lakers appear comfortable in the game, just like the game with the Pistons, the Lakers controlled the rhythm in their own hands throughout the game, and did not panic too much when the Pistons launched a counterattack.

Originally, at the beginning of the season, the Lakers' hiring of George Crent, who had no NBA coaching experience, was seen by many as a failure, and the Lakers team in last year's Finals was split up, many players were traded, and only O'Neal and Liu Han remained, which was a symbol of the Lakers' rebuilding in the eyes of many commentators and reporters, who predicted that it would be difficult for the Lakers to do well in the regular season this season, but now there will definitely be no one to say that the Lakers are not good. Over the course of the season, the Lakers swept almost every other team to achieve an astonishing win percentage, and they also broke a nearly three-decade NBA winning streak that has been in the history of the NBA. Now, Liu Han is back and leading the team with the style of a king towards their goal.

Next, the Lakers will host the Vancouver Grizzlies at home after a two-day break back in Los Angeles.

The Grizzlies continued their swinging journey this season with the youngest team to join the league in '95, and the team drafted center Bryant Doctrins with the sixth pick in the first round in the original 1995 draft, a two-meter-13 tall high school forward who weighed nearly 270 pounds and played against Liu Han when he was a student at Oklahoma State University. The Grizzlies were picked in the draft the following year, and they drafted hopeful Sherif Rahim, who was heavily used as soon as he entered the Grizzlies, and if it weren't for Liu's appearance, he would likely be able to compete with Iverson for the rookie of the '96-97 season.

While the Grizzlies have a number of great youngsters and role players, the overall team has not yet established a style and the coaching staff and management are quite chaotic, so they have been strong contenders for the overall pick. In addition, the basketball atmosphere in Vancouver is really not very good, their court attendance has been the lowest in the league for many years, and there are often fans defecting at home. Take Liu Han as an example, as long as he goes to Vancouver to participate in a game, the local Chinese will turn the Grizzlies' home court into Liu Han's home court, and every time Liu Han scores, the Chinese fans will make the Grizzlies' home stadium resound with MVP shouts.

In the face of such a weak team, the Lakers played very easily, Liu Han and O'Neal only played 28 minutes and 30 minutes respectively before resting, most of the time was played by the Lakers' bench and young players.

Although Sharif Rahim performed well, scoring 26 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists in the game, the Lakers had seven double-doubles, Liu Han and O'Neal both scored 20, and the Grizzlies were beaten by the Lakers for 37 points.

After a day of rest, the Lakers continue to host the Phoenix Suns at home.

The Suns are a dark horse in the West this season, although they also made the playoffs last season, but their win rate is less than fifty percent, only ranked seventh in the West, and this season they traded a lot of players, at the beginning of last season was originally regarded as a lottery team, but what people didn't expect is that the Suns in the 94 draft Jason Kidd and the 95 draft pick Antonio McDyce led all the way to the strong opponents, plus the veteran Rex Chapman and Kevin Johnson played well, They're 51-25 so far, and if it weren't for the Lakers, SuperSonics and Jazz in the West this year, the Suns might have been able to finish better.

Steve Nash has been eye-catching since leaving the Suns to join the Lakers, and he has made Suns management regret it with his passing and shooting, but with the rise of Jason Kidd, Suns management is no longer so concerned about losing Nash.

Although Jason Kidd is much weaker than Steve Nash's scoring ability, he is very strong defensively, often succeeding in small defenses, and the average less physical defender can not defend Kidd at all. Therefore, this game will be a big test for Nash, and it will be interesting for fans to see if he can prove himself in front of Kidd.

On the inside, the Suns' 95 draft pick saw Antonio McDyce with strong physical fitness and good movement at his feet, but he was much weaker than O'Neal in terms of strength, and the Suns had no other strong defensive points on the inside except for McDyes, and the Suns suffered a lot on the inside.

As long as Liu Han is counted, the Lakers can be said to be the team with the strongest firepower on the outside in the league, except for O'Neal and Elden Campbell, who has not recovered from injury, other players have a certain three-point ability, plus Coach George Krent has emphasized the importance of three points since he entered the Lakers, it can be said that the Lakers are now the team with the most three-point shooters in the league.

The game was held on April 10, 1998, and after the game began, the Lakers first killed the Suns from the inside, and the Suns also took advantage of Nash's defensive weakness to let Kidd single Nash, and the Suns did not let the Lakers easily pull away the score.

Six minutes into the first quarter, Nash was replaced, and Liu Han began to control the ball before the Lakers began to gradually pull the score away.

In the second quarter, Nash re-played, and he led the Lakers off the bench to play a high-speed offensive frenzy, widening the gap between the two teams to more than 15 points in one fell swoop.

The Suns had no choice but to let the main team return early, and George Krent was also very targeted and immediately sent Liu Han and other players, and the Lakers kept suppressing the score.

At halftime, the Lakers led by 17 points heading into the second half.

At the start of the second half, two Suns veterans, Rex Chapman and Kevin Johnson, suddenly erupted, and the two veterans, both in their thirties, gave the Lakers a head-on blow from beyond the three-point line.

However, the Lakers are still playing very strong under the leadership of Liu Han, they frequently hit the Suns inside with three fouls on the inside, Antonio McDyce was first replaced because of 4 fouls, and then Clifford was also replaced because of too many fouls, so that the Suns collapsed inside, and the Lakers took advantage of the situation to continue to expand the score gap.

At the end of the third quarter, the Lakers recreated to stretch the gap to more than 15 points.

Entering the fourth quarter, both teams were playing off the bench first, and Nash began to show the results of his recent three-point practice, using his teammates' cover to grab three-point shots, and in one fell swoop, the gap in the score expanded to more than 20 points.

In the end, the Suns gave up the game with four minutes left in the game, and they trailed the Lakers by 23 points.

The Lakers increased their regular-season win tally to 67 games with the Suns win over them, and they will tie the Bulls' record of 72 wins with five games remaining. (To be continued.) )