It's a pity that Keown Clarke is only a substitute after all, and his strength is not as good as Lafrentz, even if he tries his best, he can't limit O'Neal.

This is only on the defensive end, the offensive end has also been affected, Keon Clark, who does not have the ability to shoot from the medium and long range, can't lead O'Neal at all, causing the Nuggets' offensive efficiency to begin to decline.

Lafrenz's biggest role is to be able to lure O'Neal away for Nuggets players to attack the basket.

In the current NBA, three-point shooting is not 'popular', because the closer you are to the basket, the higher the shooting percentage, and many outside players like to impact the restricted area.

However, the Lakers have O'Neal in the restricted area, and it is undoubtedly much more difficult to attack the basket.

Soon, the first half ended.

56:62

For more than two minutes, the Lakers were mainly anti-away, and the originally erased point difference was pulled away by the Lakers again, if it wasn't for the lack of time, the Lakers might have widened the point difference to double digits.

During the halftime break, Ji Liang gulped Gatorade, watched D'Antoni lay out his tactics, and didn't say a word.

D'Antoni took the tactical board and drew a tactical layout on it so that the players could see their movements and their tactical lines.

"We've got to limit O'Neal, Clark, and if we can't limit O'Neal, then foul and send that fat guy to the free-throw line! Also, we can't go down in rhythm, do you understand? ”

Almost all of the Nuggets' preparation is related to O'Neal.

There is no way, if you want to beat the Lakers, you must limit O'Neal, which is also a headache for many teams.

"Got it!"

After receiving the players' answers, D'Antoni did not continue to lay out the tactics and let the players hurry up to recover their strength.

Not long after, after the halftime break, Ji Liang did not play for the time being, staying on the bench to rest.

Similar to the Nuggets, the Lakers also sent a starting lineup to continue to fight with the Nuggets.

Perhaps it was too much energy in the first half, or perhaps it had something to do with the Nuggets' foul tactics, O'Neal significantly reduced the number of times he attacked the basket and instead focused on grabbing rebounds and defense.

As for the Lakers' offense, most of it is done by Kobe Bryant and Jones, who both have excellent individual ability.

Under the offensive of the Lakers, even if the Nuggets fought back, they still did not pull the point difference, but had a tendency to be pulled bigger and bigger.

D'Antoni kept an eye on the situation, his brow furrowed, and waited until the eighth minute of the third quarter to finally call a timeout.

In just eight minutes, Clark received three fouls, all of which were given to O'Neal.

In addition, O'Neal's containment was too strong, causing the point difference to be widened to double digits.

After the timeout, D'Antoni began to play small, with Ji Liang replacing Clarke, McDies and Fortson in the box, and the rest of the positions remained unchanged.

Although Fortson is only 203 centimeters, he weighs 118 kilograms and has a particularly strong lower body.

Fortson is a second-year rookie with the potential to become a rebounding monster due to his excellent positioning ability and obsession with rebounding.

Compared to small forward, Fortson is better suited for the power forward position. But due to McDyce's presence, Fortson was almost fixed at the small forward position.

This time, too, was an opportunity for Fortson. As long as you get it right, you may get more playing time.

Due to Chi Liang's reasons, Fortson can only be regarded as a pseudo-starter, and his playing time is relatively limited. This time, as long as Fortson plays well at the power forward position, there is hope for more playing time.

After getting on the small lineup, the Nuggets' offense has obviously improved, O'Neal did not dare to let go of McDyce, and was led away by McDyce, and the efficiency of impacting the restricted area naturally improved a lot.

On the defensive end, the Nuggets are still the same, but fortunately, Fortson is extremely obsessed with rebounding, plus McDyce and Ji Liang, to protect defensive rebounds.

Perhaps due to the decline in physical strength, in the last three minutes, the shooting rate of both sides declined, and the field began to be filled with the sound of iron.

Kobe, in particular, almost turned into a blacksmith, and smashed all his shots on the basket again and again.

With dozens of seconds left in the third quarter, the Lakers' possession, Harper, after dribbling past half court, first delayed for a moment, and then handed the ball to Bryant.

Without hesitation, Bryant broke through with the ball, used cross-steps to break through Billups, and began to attack the penalty area.

Before Fortson could help defend, Bryant didn't force a shot, but gave the ball to J.R. Reed.

Without hesitation, Red jumped up and wanted to dunk with both hands.

"Go down!"

At this moment, Chi Liang appeared in time, jumped high, and slapped the basketball vigorously in the form of a volleyball smash.

With great force, the basketball flies down and then bounces quickly towards the front court.

At the first time, Van Exel started quickly and grabbed the basketball first. But under the harassment of Kobe, he lost the opportunity to break fast.

Van Exel advanced with the ball and looked at the time by the way, with 15 seconds left until the end of the third quarter, which was also the Nuggets' last offense.

Van Axel didn't rush to attack, stopping when he got to the front, watching his teammates' movements while delaying the time.

Harper didn't dare to steal and pulled away from Van Exel.

With less than ten seconds left, Van Exel moved and forced Harper with the ball.

Harper is very helpless, now he is 38 years old and has entered the end of his career, how can he keep up with Van Exel's footsteps, and he was broken through by the other party in an instant.

"Oops!"

Kobe Bryant's heart suddenly rushed to help prevent Exel, and Harper was almost suddenly sieveed in this game. But the Lakers are also helpless, and after trading Van Exel, the only point guards are Harper and Fisher.

Neither Harper nor Fisher could limit Van Exel, resulting in the opponent already scoring 21 points.

In the face of Kobe's help defense, Van Exel remained calm and distributed the ball to Billups.

The moment Billups received the ball, Jones rushed to pounce.

Unfortunately, Billups chose to pass the ball and passed the ball to Ji Liang, who ran to the bottom corner.

Without hesitation, Ji Liang caught the ball and jumped and threw the ball to the basket.

When Ji Liang was shooting, many Nuggets fans stood up, their eyes unblinking, staring at the flying basketball.

"It's in!"

At the moment of throwing the basketball, Chi Liang knew that the ball was there, and when the ball was still flying, he turned around and pointed his index finger in the air and made a celebration in advance.

Boom~

With the sound of striking iron, Chi Liang's body instantly stiffened, and he hurriedly turned to look at the basketball. I saw the basketball bounce high, and then smashed on the basket, and after a few spins on it, it fell into the net very unwillingly.