In the first game of the series, at the home court of the Spurs, the Spurs should have been the one who drove the rhythm, but they didn't expect to be played so passively by the opposing rookie, Popovich inevitably reprimanded the players in the halftime lounge in order to complete the counterattack in the second half, however, when Kobe Bryant was serious, Popovich always had a hard time getting what he wanted.

"Phil implied that Sun's three-pointers were more efficient than mine, and should he and Shaq tell that to Buss? Say my three-point shooting percentage is not as good as Sun's? Just kidding, what defense he faced, what defense I faced! But even if no one is guarded, Sun has such a shooting rate is very powerful, and I have to choose the timing of my shooting carefully. ”

Kobe Bryant was going to continue to shoot three-pointers in the second half, but not to force the shot for the sake of competition, if that was the case, it would have been as Popovich wished.

As soon as the second half started, Kobe Bryant became very serious, took over the offense with one hand, and expanded the score, coupled with Sun Zhuo's three-point cold arrows from time to time, the Spurs not only failed to chase the difference back in the third quarter, but was expanded to nearly 20 points by the Lakers!

The first game of the series, it's going to collapse!

The fans at the scene were all surprised and sighed.

"The Lakers actually broke us in the first game! It's so unexpected, even if there is a gap between the Spurs and the Lakers, it is by no means a team that will be defeated in the third quarter! ”

"It's all the work of the Lakers' No. 24, he's so terrible, he quietly brought out the rhythm of the Lakers' offense, and we didn't even realize it, after this game, the Spurs have to pay attention to Sun, especially his three-point shot."

Popovich thought that Sun Zhuo would be a pit, would give them benefits, and also wanted the players to steal his ball, but he didn't expect Sun Zhuo to go to the basket at all, and rarely held the ball in other positions, so he ran to the bottom corners of both sides, and he shot immediately when he took the ball, or he dribbled the ball while shaking off the defenders, and the Spurs players couldn't break his ball at all.

Popovich was already sitting quietly on the bench and had no hope for this matchup.

"The prediction of Sun is completely wrong, he has a very good ability to catch and shoot, once he finds his rhythm, the shooting rate will be very terrible, and his long shot will help Shaq and Kobe Bryant score more easily, especially when he plays well, it can stimulate Kobe to play better, this series, it seems to be very difficult!"

Popovich has realized the difficulty of wanting to advance in this series, without Sun Zhuo, the Spurs can't last seven games, and now there is Sun Zhuo, the bottom line three-point king, the Spurs want to limit Sun Zhuo in the case of limiting O'Neal Bryant, it is too difficult.

The current Lakers team is actually a bit similar to the Golden State Warriors in 2017, Durant, Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, three points, all of which are unsolvable, and you can't let all three of them play at the same time.

Sun Zhuo is actually a person who likes challenges, and if he knew that if he would really be reborn by casually choosing a team in the game, he might not choose the Lakers with a luxurious roster.

With Sun Zhuo's future development, the Lakers team in 2004 will definitely be listed as one of the strongest teams in NBA history.

At the end of the first game, the Lakers won the first game at the Spurs' home court with a 20-point victory!

Sun Zhuo scored 20 points in the whole game, and his average score per game in the playoffs easily exceeded 10 points.

Kobe Bryant scored a game-high 33 points, and O'Neal also scored 22 points.

Sun Zhuo continued to win easily in the playoffs, while Wade, who did not have a superstar teammate, was not so comfortable in the semifinals, and the Heat fought hard to the end in today's game and still lost to the Hornets.

Many people are confused by the name "Hornets" and are always unsure of which team it is.

Today's Hornets is the New Orleans Pelicans where Anthony Davis was later, which is the predecessor of the Pelicans. How did you play the Eastern Conference semifinals with the Heat?

The 2003-2004 season happened to be the last time the Hornets appeared as an Eastern team, and the following season, the Hornets were assigned to the Western Conference.

The next day was a game between the Nets and the Pistons, the Nets played miserably in this game, the Pistons deserved to be the team that could win the championship, and they only scored 56 points in the whole game, yes, the whole game was only 56 points.

The Pistons' defense made the Nets all the iron gods, and the most ironclad one was Richard Jefferson, who later teamed up with James to win the championship, he made only one shot in 12 shots, Kidd was not much better than 4-of-13, and there was another 7-of-0 on the bench......

After that, the game between the Hornets and the Heat continued, and this time the Heat equalized, and the game between the Kings and the Timberwolves was won by the Kings.

Soon, it's time for the second game between the Spurs and the Lakers.

After the first game, both sides learned their lessons, especially the Spurs on the losing side.

At the end of a training session, Popovich calmly said to everyone: "I have a lot of responsibility for losing the first game, I should have guessed that Phil would have left one hand to deal with us, he was very cunning and bold, and deliberately exposed Sun's three-point ability in advance in the series with the Rockets, I thought that if Sun really had three-point ability, Phil would let him wait until we did it, after all, they didn't need Sun to advance easily." ”

Tony Parker is a player with the potential to be a coach, and often steals from Popovich, seeing that Popovich takes the responsibility on himself, he said: "Sun is just a three-point point in the bottom corner, he hasn't shot in other positions, we just need to pay more attention to him running to the bottom corner." ”

Popovich didn't think it would be that simple, "I'm also thinking about this question, is Sun only going to be three points in the bottom corner or can he do it in all positions, but the bottom three points are more accurate?" Will you just focus on training threes in one position? I don't think you're going to do that, and likewise, Sun isn't going to just train for the bottom threes, and I'm wondering if he deliberately only shot the bottom three in the first game to make us think that he can only shoot in the bottom corner, and then wait until the second game, and then he plays in other positions, just like the first game, and gives us a cold arrow that catches us off guard. ”

Everyone doesn't know much about Sun Zhuo, and no one dares to guarantee that Sun Zhuo will hide his three-point ability in other positions, after all, since entering the NBA, people have found that he has hidden his ability to play, bounce and dunk and three-point ability in the bottom corner.

Popovich looked at Turkoglu and said: "In the second game, Phil will definitely repeat his old tricks, and will let Sun lead the rhythm from the outside, be sure to pay attention to his three points in other positions, don't think that Sun is not a threat if he is not in the bottom corner!" ”