After a full day's rest, the Nuggets are at home, ready to 'take on' the Los Angeles Lakers.

After sending Van Exel away, the Lakers officially decided to take the 'OK combination' as the core and initially built the Purple and Gold Dynasty.

The current Lakers are starting to reach their peak and are the favorites to win the championship in a shortened season.

The Nuggets are very serious about the incoming Lakers, and they hope to beat the Lakers and get a win.

Among all the people present, the one who was most eager to win was Van Exel, who was sent away by the Lakers at a 'cabbage price', and naturally felt very unhappy, wanting to prove himself by beating the Lakers.

Unlike the previous game, D'Antoni adjusted the starting lineup again, replacing Ji Liang with Foxon and returning to the starting lineup.

The day before, D'Antoni went to Chi Liang to convince him to become the sixth man on the team.

In D'Antoni's opinion, Ji Liang is more suitable to be the sixth man. With his style of play, if he wants to play to his strength, he undoubtedly needs a lot of possession.

However, in the starting lineup, most of the ball was controlled by Van Exel and McDyce, and Ji Liang couldn't play his full strength at all.

In order to avoid Chi Liang's dislike, D'Antoni ensured that his playing time would not be lower than that of the starter.

At the same time, during the period of leading the bench, Ji Liang also has the authority to control the ball and unlimited fire.

In addition to the name of the starter, Chi Liang did not lose anything, but also had more authority and was able to better play his strength.

Under D'Antoni's expectant eyes, in the end, Chi Liang did not refuse, and he played two good games, how could he offend the head coach. What's more, during the period of leading the bench, he was able to control the ball, and at the same time, the defensive pressure he faced was bound to drop a lot.

In a sense, this can fully exploit his strength and get better data.

On the evening of Feb. 10, the Pepsi Center in Denver was packed, filled with hustle and bustle, and the atmosphere became even more frenetic than the previous one.

Compared with the previous round of home games, this time, there are many fans who are holding Chi Liang's posters and subtitles.

After only playing two games, Chi Liang has won the recognition of a large number of Nuggets fans.

By the time the Lakers played, the sound in the arena changed from cheers to boos, hoping to affect the Lakers' state.

As for the away atmosphere at Pepsi Center, the Lakers are used to this kind of scene and have not been affected much.

Lakers starting lineup: center O'Neal, power forward JR Reid, small forward Eddie Jones, scoring guard Kobe, point guard Derrick Harper.

Judging from the lineup alone, the Lakers are stronger, especially O'Neal, who has reached his peak and has incomparable dominance.

As for Kobe, he is still wearing the No. 8 jersey, coupled with the explosive head, which gives people a sense of unruliness.

After sending off Van Exel, Kobe Bryant officially became a starter, and is still on the road to progress, according to history, it will take another three or four years to reach the peak.

How to limit O'Neal has become the Nuggets' biggest headache.

O'Neal is 216 centimeters tall and weighs 325 pounds, with such a large body and incredible flexibility, these qualities can be described as a once-in-a-century talent.

As long as O'Neal has the ball under the basket, he can easily get open opportunities with just a turn or back, even if the package tactic is implemented, O'Neal can easily solve it.

As long as O'Neill is in a good position on the inside, few players will be able to limit him.

Of course, O'Neal also has a flaw, and that is free throws, and Nelson Sr. took advantage of O'Neal's weakness of missing free throws to invent the shark slashing tactic. Since this tactic came out, it has given O'Neill a lot of headaches, and this has become the most effective way to limit O'Neal.

Soon, under the organization of the referee, the two sides began to enter the jump ball session, and O'Neill and Lafrenz came to the center of the court to jump the ball.

Looking at O'Neill's size, Lafrentz's whole person has changed, he knows that he is going to be tragic again, he was abused by Olajuwon yesterday, and today he is afraid that he will be abused by O'Neill again.

After the two sides were ready, the referee threw the basketball vertically into the air, and when the basketball began to fall, the two centers jumped one after another.

Almost overwhelmingly, O'Neal slapped the basketball to Harper.

Derrick Harper, who was also a former All-Star, is now in his 16th and final season.

The current Harper is naturally not as good as Van Exel, but he is extremely experienced, and under the pressure of Van Exel, he controls the basketball steadily.

Defended by Van Exel, Harper dribbled the basketball unhurriedly without any sense of urgency.

Once O'Neal was squeezing under the basket, Harper hoisted the ball to O'Neal.

After getting the ball, O'Neal didn't attack at the first time, holding the basketball with both hands, waiting for his teammates to open up the space.

The Lakers' players started to run, taking their respective opposing players away and leaving room for O'Neal to play alone.

The next moment, O'Neill slammed backwards, and Lafrenz felt a strong surge, and his chest was stuffy, and he was directly knocked away by O'Neill.

Bang dang~

After knocking Lafrenz out of the way, O'Neal went into the reasonable collision zone and smashed the basketball violently into the hoop!

Seeing this kind of scene, even Chi Liang felt frightened, and at the same time felt sad for Lafrentz.

Poor Lafrentz, he's still a rookie, he was abused by Olajuwon in the last game, and now he has to face O'Neill again.

In the opening period, Lafrentz was abused twice by O'Neal, and in order to stop O'Neal, the Nuggets had to take the pack.

O'Neal didn't continue to play hard, but passed the ball out and someone else attacked the basket.

With O'Neal to attract the defense, the rest of the Lakers' players were obviously much easier and shot the basket with great efficiency.

On the other side, Van Exel, who is in a state of explosion, breaks through Harper again and again, uses his personal ability to tear apart the Lakers' defense, or shoots or passes, and connects the Nuggets' offense.

Compared to the Lakers, the Nuggets have an advantage in the point guard and power forward positions, and Lafrentz can also open up space and lure O'Neal away.

Even so, compared with the Lakers, the Nuggets' efficiency is still much worse, and they are starting to gradually fall into disadvantage.

In just four minutes, the Lakers scored 12 points, and the Nuggets only had 8 points, and all of them were won by Van Exel and McDyes, and there was a clear gap.

Beep~

At this time, the referee blew the whistle for a timeout, and in the face of the strong Lakers, D'Antoni had to choose a timeout.

"Chi Liang, replace Foxen!"

During the timeout, D'Antoni sent Ji Liang on the field.