The fifth game of the finals came as scheduled.

Liu Mang walked into the court, and this time, the boos of the Lakers fans began to become frantic again.

Lakers fans are scared! This time it's really on the verge of elimination.

However, the Lakers all have an unwilling and unacceptable expression of defeat, which still makes many Lakers fans very excited and excited, Lakers fans have a "sense of security", as a fan is a very good mentality, always optimistic about the future of the team.

When Liu Mang saw the expressions of the Lakers players, he secretly congratulated himself that his side is also high-spirited now, and there is no possibility of relaxation, whether it is the temptation of the championship or the bonus temptation of the boss, it is the motivation of the players.

Moreover, the most important thing is that the Eagles have been infected with Liu Mang's kind of character, if they can avoid trouble, they can avoid trouble, and if they can solve the game in five games, they don't want to drag it out to the sixth game.

The best thing Zen Master did in the last game was that he decisively chose to give up, so the physical fitness of the Lakers team today is much better than the last game, and other Lakers players except Kobe, who had exploded in physical fitness, feel that they are in good condition.

Therefore, the Lakers players are all in a posture of fighting against the water.

It's just that this looks like it's going to fight, Liu Mang and Buzeer hugged and walked onto the court, and it was time to jump the ball, but they still didn't hear the prompt.

The OK trend still hasn't been triggered!

It seems that the players of the Lakers are in a posture of fighting, of course, they really want to fight, Kobe and O'Neal have no heart to cooperate!

Even if the Zen master tried his best to use psychological tactics to drive the two, the relationship between Kobe and O'Neal had completely broken down and was irreparable!

On the Lakers' side, it is still the starting combination of Payton, Kobe, Devin Brown, Malone, and O'Neal.

On the Hawks' side, the starting lineups of Liu Mang, Prince, Raheem, Rasheed Wallace, and Kwame Brown have not changed.

Although Kobe Bryant and O'Neal's hearts are completely unable to work in the same direction, the enthusiasm of every player on the Lakers team has really come up.

O'Neal defeated Kwame Brown on a jump ball for the first time, the basket fell to Payton, and the Lakers attacked first.

It was Payton who controlled the ball, Liu Mang who defended him, and the little blacksmith still handed it over to Prince to defend.

Kobe Bryant didn't take the initiative to ask for the ball this time, and suppressed the urge to solve the game by himself, he knew that now he had to use O'Neal's unsolvable offense at the beginning to play two first, otherwise it would be a waste of the fat man's physical energy.

And his off-ball end, Prince did a good job defending him, the excellent move card cut off the space for Kobe Bryant to run back, Payton commanded his teammates to run, the purpose was obviously to compress the rhythm, O'Neal to the low post position, and then Payton went over and hoisted the ball firmly into O'Neal's hands.

O'Neal, probably the worst physical fitness among the Lakers players now, couldn't eat or sleep well after losing the day before yesterday, and he felt like he had lost weight.

However, as long as O'Neal is still physically fit, he is the NBA's most unsolvable killer.

If you can't stop it, you can't stop it, O'Neal took the ball and turned around to carry Kwame Brown and smashed the ball directly into the basket.

The Lakers don't play fast and want to press the rhythm, but the Hawks don't do it, Liu Mang tries to speed up the pace, and wants to drag down the Lakers' bulky fat man by fast pace.

Almost at the first moment when O'Neal's offense was completed, Rasheed Wallace immediately picked up the ball, exited the baseline and served directly, and the Hawks, including Kwame Brown, all five of them counterattacked the fast break!

Defend with all your might, go all out to beat the pace fast, the strategy of the Hawks is very direct, and when the Lakers run back to defense, the Hawks are already about to fall.

Rasheed Wallace was really bold, and when a group of people rushed forward together, he threw the ball to the middle line, and Liu Mang really received it! That is, with two bold people, they would think of such a fast attack.

Liu Mang received the ball at the middle line and rushed to the top arc outside the opponent's three-point line, as if he was going to chase down the three points, Malone and Kobe Bryant sandwiched over, at this time Kwame Brown cut and rushed in from the left side, Liu Mang threw the ball to the basket......

Kwame Brown violently empty catch! Return one!

O'Neal just got to the three-point line! The Hawks' counterattack this time was so fierce that the Lakers, who had adapted to the slow-paced and grinding style of play in the first two games, couldn't adapt to it all at once!

Especially Rasheed Wallace dared to pass the ball into the pile, which everyone on the Lakers' side didn't expect.

In the first leg of the opening round, the two teams played two completely different rhythms at the beginning.

In the face of such a ferocious counterattack by the Hawks, the Lakers were all big on their side, and they firmly pressed down the rhythm according to Kobe's orders, and the Hawks' fast attack just now was too amazing.

The Lakers' offense is still in place, the two giants on the inside continue to dig, the last time it was O'Neal, this time it was Ma Long's turn, Ma Long's weight is huge, 41 years old still maintains such a big weight, and can maintain the state, in the face of such an opponent, Rasheed Wallace did not hesitate to go up, after the first four games, he already has enough experience in preventing Ma Long.

Just when Rashid Wallace was jealous of Malone's hard elbow, Malone, suddenly turned over and threw a throw, and the basketball spun around on the basket and hit!

The last meeting was caught off guard by the Hawks' counterattack, this time the Lakers' defense was very fast, and the enthusiasm mobilized by the Zen master made the Lakers players do a good job in the return defense at the beginning, just now I just didn't expect Rashid Wallace to actually pass the ball into the pile, this time they paid attention to this defense when they returned to the defense, and Rashid Wallace didn't stupidly want to come a second time, honestly sent the ball to Liu Mang, and the Hawks also fell into a positional battle.

If you have the opportunity, you will counterattack and speed up, and if you don't have a chance to counterattack, you will play steadily and steadily to maintain a certain success rate.

Against the Lakers who are fully defensive, the Hawks have a wealth of experience in the past two games, that is, they can only use more ferocious defense to fight the Lakers hard steel, and cut their heads on the offensive end and compare who is more iron than the Lakers.

On the Lakers' side, although Kobe Bryant did not take the initiative to organize the offense today, he did not grab the ball and shoot blindly, although they still played one by one, but when Malone, O'Neal and even Wang Zhizhi who came off the bench had the opportunity to play alone, he did not fight to shoot, let them play first, and when they were tired, Kobe Bryant would come again.

However, it doesn't matter whether Kobe Bryant is willing to organize the offense well or not, whether Kobe Bryant wants to grab the right to make the shot or return the right to his teammates.

Even if it was the only game that the Lakers won, Kobe Bryant played hard and organized the offense well, and the Lakers' offense was not much better, just saying that Kobe Bryant played well and could make the OK combination keep scoring, but the Lakers' overall offensive efficiency was still very poor, because the Hawks' defense was no worse than the Lakers.

Today, the Lakers maintained the same defense as in the first two games, Kwame Brown consumed O'Neal as much as possible, and Kobe Bryant attacked with the ball on the outside, and carried out the most ferocious defense against Kobe, and the Lakers' offensive efficiency plummeted except for O'Neal and Malone scored three goals in a row at the beginning.

And when it came time for the Eagles to attack, finally, this Finals, it was the Eagles' turn to break out!

After Prince hit a shot by Malone, he relied on Liu Mang to attract Payton and Kobe Bryant at the beginning, and Prince made the first three-pointer in the Finals!

Since the Eastern Conference finals, Prince's three-point shooting has been ridiculously poor, and it is also one of the important reasons, even one of the most important, reasons why the Hawks' offensive end could not be opened when the Lakers defended actively in the first two games.

Although Prince is only a catch-and-shoot on the offensive end, when the catch-and-shoot shooter can't shoot, the opponent is equal to 5 defense and 4, just like the Hawks ignore Payton's 4 defense and 3 defense and kill the other three Lakers players on the court except for O'Neal.

Finally, after getting the match point, Prince's touch came!

After Malone hit a jumper, Prince scored a three-pointer, and after O'Neal hit a second single hook shot, Prince hit two threes in a row, forcing Payton to go back to defend Prince.

When Liu Mang couldn't be trapped, although the Lakers' defense was good, they couldn't stop Liu Mang and Kwame Brown from blocking and dismantling!

Prince can shoot, the Hawks' offensive end running is alive, Liu Mang and Kwame Brown play blocking, it is naturally Malone to defend the blocking, and O'Neal must move back and forth between the baseline and the basket, consuming physical energy.

In the third and fourth games, O'Neal insisted on the defensive end for so long, because he didn't have to run back and forth on the baseline and under the basket like in the first and second games.

But this time, O'Neal can only follow, so either Rasheed Wallace has a three-point opportunity, or Kwame Brown has an open dunk opportunity, and if Devin Brown actively shrinks, Raheem also has a mid-range shot and an air cut opportunity.

Although the Lakers still maintained the defensive enthusiasm of the first two games at the beginning, Liu Mang and Kwame Brown's blocking and pick-and-roll will increase the Hawks' offensive success rate by four or five percentage points, which will make the Hawks' shooting rate reach 40%.

But that's enough!

In the third game, the Lakers had Kobe Bryant, who played well, and when the Hawks also struggled to defend in the first half, they could only lead by 3 points at the end of the half, and the offensive efficiency of the two teams in the first half was about the same, and the strength of the two teams was between them.

Now, when the Hawks faced the Lakers' side and the first two games of the first half of the defense, the shooting rate increased to 40%, and the Lakers' side, after a few hard chiseled shots when O'Neal was in good physical fitness at the beginning, the offensive efficiency plummeted, and even the first two games were less than 356% shooting, and at the end of the first quarter, the Lakers' shooting rate was only 34%!

Six percentage points of shooting is not a lot, but as the game progresses, the Eagles slowly pull the score apart little by little.

At the end of the first quarter, the Hawks led the Lakers by 6 points at 24-18!

Finally, the Eagles scored in the first quarter and returned to their normal performance! Liu Mang didn't score too well in the first quarter, he didn't have any good scoring opportunities in the past two games, and he was able to score more than 30 points in the third game, all by shooting and throwing himself into the air and fouling early, in the past two games, the Lakers were very successful in his defense, and the last game was just lost to Kobe.

Leading by six points in the first quarter, Liu Mang was replaced to rest, Coach Kruger wanted to change a rhythm in the second quarter, the opponent gradually got used to the current rhythm after the first quarter, Coach Kruger now occupies the initiative, he doesn't want the other party to get used to the rhythm.

Coach Krueger replaced Stockton and Boozer and changed the rhythm of the pick-and-roll from Liu Mang and Kwame Brown's under-the-basket impact to shooting.

……

After the break, the rotation lineups of the two teams came on the court, and the Lakers, who were only 6 points behind, were still very motivated to do a wave of turnarounds.

However, Stockton completely treated this game as the last game of his career, and Boozer, who brought Boozer, Prince, Barnes, and Ostertag on the court in the second quarter, came up with the first ball, and actually rushed to the basket to cause O'Neal to foul!

When Stockton and Boozer were blocking and dismantling, Fisher and Wang Zhizhi both went to block Boozer, afraid that Boozer would cut into the inside line and cause damage, although Boozer was short, but the size was really amazing, a second Marlon posture, but I didn't expect that it was Stockton who caused the kill!

It's been 20 years!

Seeing that it is possible to touch the O'Brien Cup in the last two and a half hours, Stockton can't wait.

The better he plays on the offensive end, the better the enthusiasm on the defensive end, Prince single-handedly defended Kobe Bryant in the second quarter, and Kobe Bryant hit the iron again, in these games, Kobe's hand was worn out, and Prince defended him better and better, entering a virtuous circle.

On the Hawks' side, at the beginning of the second quarter, the offensive efficiency exploded, and Stockton unexpectedly did not focus on passing, three points after blocking and dismantling, a sudden basket after blocking and dismantling, and a mid-range shot after blocking and dismantling, Stockton scored 7 points in a row in the second quarter!

And on the Lakers' side, only relying on Kobe Bryant's three-point miss by Prince, O'Neal grabbed the offensive rebound and played 2+1, and only scored this one goal, although O'Neal scored all the free throws, but only scored 3 points on 1 of 4 shots, while the Hawks scored 7 points on 3 shots!

These seven points were all scored by Stockton alone!

After O'Nealga's free throw, the Lakers were still 21-31, 10 points behind the Hawks, and when O'Nealga made a free throw, the Lakers took Wang Zhizhi down and replaced Malone with him.

Then came the Hawks offense, after Stockton advanced to the front court, in the face of Kobe's defense, Stockton couldn't play alone, he continued to block and dismantle with Boozer, Boozer was similar to Malone's elbow and pulling action, Kobe couldn't squeeze through, Stockton immediately moved to the right, and Kobe Bryant's distance, Boozer cut to the basket, Kobe could only run with Boozer.

After Stockton broke through to the right side and stepped into the three-point line, it was Malone who stood in front of him!

The few Hawks fans and Jazz fans at the scene stood up and cheered when they saw this scene, and when the Lakers fans were a little deflated because they were 10 points behind, no matter how you look at it, the cheers of more than a thousand Hawks fans and Jazz fans spread throughout the Staples Center.

Stockton saw Malone defending and didn't make a pass or shot choice so quickly, with Malone there, the Lakers' defense and dismantling changed quickly, and Stockton didn't get a good pass or shot opportunity at the first time.

Stockton dribbled back and stepped outside the three-point line, and Malone and Stockton kept a good distance.

This may be the last time we will meet him on the playing field! Whether it's as an opponent or as a teammate.

Stockton and Malone had this idea in their hearts at the same time.

The relationship between the two is not only teammates who have cooperated for 18 years, but the two have always been in a competitive state in the team, but Stockton has never won against Malone, the two have cooperated to make the Jazz brilliant for more than ten years, although they have not won the championship, but the core of the team has always been full of honor, and this person is not Stockton, it is Malone, Stockton has not won anything, and he just smiled when he lost.

However, now, Stockton wanted to win, he wanted to win very much, he raised his head and said to Malone: "Karl, this time, I think, I won." ”

Malone was stunned for a moment when he heard this, he didn't expect Stockton to suddenly say this, which was a bit hurtful!

Taking advantage of Malone's stunned mind, Stockton did not relent, seized the opportunity, and shot with a three-point push!

Continuing the hot touch, Stockton hit a three-point shot!