The fifth game of the Western Conference finals between the Spurs and the Lakers, the first quarter of the game was just halfway played, and the Spurs looked like they had been pushed to the edge of the cliff by the Lakers, only 6 minutes into the first quarter, the Lakers led the Spurs by 11 points 22-11, and this is not the point, the important thing is that the Spurs now have 3 interior lines, David Robinson, Tim Duncan and Reeve Lafrentz all carried 2 fouls and sat on the bench, so now there is a low atmosphere in the entire Alamein Stadium. In the last game, after the Spurs bloodied the Lakers away from home, it was very easy for both the Spurs players and the Spurs fans to have the advantage of the home court, but at present, it seems that this game is much more difficult than imagined.

"Meng, it's time for us to duel again." The official timeout in the first quarter ended, and after the game restarted, when Meng Xu dribbled through the middle circle, Kobe Bryant met him as soon as possible. In the last game, Kobe Bryant was blown up by Meng Xu at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, which was the first time that the two faced off more than 20 times, so today Kobe Bryant is also bent on getting back on the court, and after Duncan and O'Neal are off the court, now is undoubtedly a very good opportunity.

After the official pause, because several interior lines on the Spurs' side have all accumulated 2 fouls, Popovich had to send a small lineup with Meng Xu as the core, and in the case of no one available on the inside, in the entire playoffs this season, Danny Ferry, who has not played more than 20 minutes in total, was replaced in the first quarter, in addition, several other players on the court, namely Sean Elliott, Mario Eli, Derrick Anderson, several pitchers that the Spurs can handle, All of them were sent on the field.

On the Lakers' side, after the timeout, O'Neal also sat on the sidelines to rest and began to accumulate physical strength for the rest of the game, although he only played 6 minutes, but in the first half of the first quarter, O'Neal, who shot 6 of 8 and 5 of 9 free throws, was undoubtedly the player who consumed the most physical strength in the whole game.

"Kobe, it's time for me to perform, you can watch from behind my brother." Although the effect of continuous use of the magic potion will not be as good as once, but with Meng Xu's current strength, just like the big fat man on the opposite side, no one can really stop it. After slapping the basketball twice on the spot, Meng Xu first took a step back, without even making the slightest feint, just in front of Kobe, stepped out, and then lowered the center of gravity of his body, started a continuous change of direction, and rushed directly to the Lakers' basket, in front of Lakers backup center Mark Madson, completed a seemingly very light and elegant pull-up layup, and also caused Mark Madson's defensive foul.

"Kobe Bryant keeps an eye on him, don't let him break through easily, Hores, step back to the basket." Although the Lakers were still leading in the score, after Meng Xu broke through the basket several times in a row, Phil Jackson on the sidelines couldn't sit still and began to stand on the sidelines and yell at the court. Mark Madsen has no deterrent power for Meng Xu, and the Lakers' outside defense is basically useless for Meng Xu, in 3 consecutive rounds, Meng Xu is very easy to get into the Lakers' basket, while scoring, he also continues to kill Mark Madson, in this case, Phil Jackson can only instruct Hores Grant to shrink to the basket to share a little defensive pressure for Mark Madson.

"The Spurs are starting to move back to the score little by little, but Meng Xu alone can't win the game, and the Spurs should take advantage of Shaq to move back as many scores as possible before Shaq comes back." On the commentary bench on the sidelines, Michaels was always worried about the Spurs, although before the game began, Michaels expected that in this game, the Lakers were likely to fight back strongly, so this game was likely to be very intense, but Michaels could not expect that the Lakers suppressed the Spurs from the beginning of the game, especially O'Neal, who defeated the entire interior line of the Spurs alone.

"It's only the first quarter, there's still plenty of time, Meng should be more motivated by his teammates, he has the ability, not just on his own." Seeing that the Lakers on the court had obviously begun to shrink, and Meng Xu still rushed to the Lakers' basket without hesitation, Magic Johnson frowned, Meng Xu is good anywhere, but occasionally he is impulsive, especially when the team situation is unfavorable, so people who are familiar with Meng Xu and the media call Meng Xu's behavior a convulsion.

"Hey, Meng passed the ball." As soon as the Magic's words fell, Meng Xu, who had already rushed into the paint area, was blocked by Horace Grant and Mark Madson and handed the basketball to Sean Elliott, who was already waiting in the bottom corner, through a ground-hitting pass.

"I see." When Sean Elliott hit a 3-pointer, Magic Johnson now knows very well why Meng Xu has been attacking the Lakers' basket before. After Meng Xu scored and killed the Lakers' interior through continuous breakthroughs, Phil Jackson would inevitably choose to shrink the defense, and at this time, the Spurs' group of pitchers on the court had enough space.

"Damn." At this time, O'Neal, who was still sitting on the bench, watched Meng Xu narrow the difference between the two sides to within 5 points in three minutes, destroying the advantage he had worked so hard to build, and O'Neill couldn't wait to reappear now.

"Shaq, don't rush, get some rest." Just as O'Neal was about to get up, Phil Jackson, who was standing on the side, pressed his hand on O'Neal's shoulder and motioned for O'Neal to continue to sit down. Although Phil Jackson also knows that the situation on the court is out of his control, but at this time, Phil Jackson really has no way to deal with it, and can only hope that the players on the court can hold on a little longer, as long as they can maintain the lead until the end of the first quarter, they will be considered to have completed the task well.

"Meng Xu, beautiful layup, the Spurs have equalized." With less than 1 minute left in the first quarter of the game, Meng Xu gave the ball to Derrick Anderson twice in a row, but after not hitting, Meng Xu directly chose to go to the basket after rushing to the basket this time, because Meng Xu has been rushing to the basket to pass the ball in the first 2 minutes, so in this offense, Hores Grant and Mark Madson are also somewhat lax, and it is precisely their laxity that led to all the advantages that O'Neal established in the first half of the first quarter to come to naught. And when Meng Xu's layup helped the Spurs equalize, the entire Alamo Stadium immediately boiled, and even Popovich, who has always liked to pretend to be deep, grabbed the tactical board in his hand and rushed to the sidelines to wave at Meng Xu in the court.

37-37, when the whistle blew for the end of the game, the Spurs and Lakers ended the first quarter with a super-high score. Judging from the score, this seems to be an evenly matched game, but only after watching it live, do you know how thrilling this game is, O'Neal was invincible in the first half of the first quarter, and Meng Xu also successfully took over the game after O'Neal, although the two broke out in the same time period, but this can also be called a super duel between superstars.

"It's still a cool rhythm of this kind of game." After waving to the fans who were cheering for him crazily, Meng Xu walked to the bench, and before Meng Xu returned to his seat, Duncan and David Robinson, who had already stood up, came over and hugged Meng Xu. When the two were constrained by fouls and couldn't play, if it weren't for Meng Xu's outburst in the second half of the first quarter, the Spurs might have hit the street by now.

14 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, this is Meng Xu's data in the first quarter, Meng Xu not only led the team to tie the score on the offensive end, but also protected the Spurs' basket well on the defensive end when there was no one on the Spurs' inside, and gave Hores Grant two big hats in a row is a good proof.

After a short break, the second quarter of the game began quickly, and the second quarter really entered the showdown time between Meng Xu and O'Neal, at the beginning of the game, O'Neal once again forced the Spurs' inside line, resulting in David Robinson's foul, David Robinson, who had just played less than 20 seconds, had to be very aggrieved and returned to the bench again, in this case, Duncan, who also fouled twice, was inevitably a little timid, so the Spurs' tactics in the second quarter were still based on Meng Xu, It's just that in the breakthrough tactics with Meng Xu as the core, Meng Xu and Duncan's blocking and dismantling have been added.

Just after the offensive core of the Spurs became Meng Xu, Sean Elliott and Mario Eli, who had been silent for a long time, were also rejuvenated again in this game, Sean Elliott was 5 of 7 in the first half, including 3 of 5 3-pointers, and Mario Elliott had a better hand than Shawn Elliott, shooting 6 of 6 in the half, so after the end of the entire first half of the game, the Spurs instead won 63-60, overtaking the Lakers by 3 points.

"What a pity, haven't you realized the value of Meng?" While the Spurs and Lakers were in full swing, far away in an office in Indiana, Larry Bird was watching the game with a cigar in his hand. In the season when Larry Bird rested, the Pacers, who reached the Eastern Conference Finals for 3 consecutive seasons, went to hell under the leadership of the smiling assassin Thomas, and after entering the playoffs very reluctantly this season, they were swept by the 76ers in the first round, if it was because the lineup was not good, it would be forgotten, but the Pacers' lineup this season was much stronger than the previous 3 seasons, so after the end of the playoffs, the Pacers' dissatisfaction with Isaiah Thomas reached its peak. Eventually, at the behest of the fans and team management, as well as almost all the players, Larry Bird re-emerged, and the first thing Larry Bird did after his re-emergence was to fire Isaiah Thomas and make himself the head coach of the Pacers, and also served as the general manager and president of the Pacers.