"Tim, how is your physical strength, can you still hold on?" At the end of the 3rd quarter, on the bench, Popovich looked at Duncan and asked with concern, David Robinson was subject to the number of fouls in this game and did not play a lot of time, while Tim Duncan played more than 30 minutes in the 3rd quarter of the game, which was the biggest contributor to the Lakers' inability to pull away from the score, and among the Spurs' several interior lines, only Duncan was able to withstand O'Neal on the defensive end. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

"I'm fine." Duncan was wiping the sweat from his neck with a towel, and one of the team's assistant coaches was helping Duncan pinch his shoulder.

"Meng, what about you?" After Duncan's satisfactory answer, Popovich turned to Meng Xu. Meng Xu's playing time in this game is second only to Duncan, far exceeding the previous playing time, and Popovich is also a little worried about Meng Xu's physical strength.

"Coach, don't worry, I'm completely fine." After Meng Xu took a sip of water, he nodded. looked at Duncan with some envy, a special massage, when will he have this kind of treatment.

In this game, Meng Xu was sprayed wildly by Popovich in the locker room at halftime, and every time he held the ball, Lakers fans would boo him, which also inspired Meng Xu's strong competitiveness, although Meng Xu was very tired at the moment, but driven by competitiveness, Meng Xu also nodded firmly.

"That's good, Meng, in the last quarter, O'Neal will hand over to David and Tim to deal with, your task is still to defend the opposite No. 8, and by the way, increase your shots on the offensive end, understand." Hearing Meng Xu's answer, Popovich was also relieved, in Popovich's heart, Meng Xu is now the fourth most important player in the team after Duncan, Robinson, and Johnson, and Meng Xu's performance has been able to affect the team's overall record. In addition to Meng Xu's good defense, the Spurs' lack of 3-point shooting ability is also an important factor, since the game against the Raptors, Meng Xu's shots have also increased significantly, and the average of 5 3-point shots per game has exceeded one-third of the Spurs' 3-point shots as a team.

The first three quarters were tied at 73-71, with the Lakers heading into the final quarter with a two-point advantage.

After the game restarted, Meng Xu returned to the position of small forward, in order to save more physical strength for the offensive end, Duncan no longer took on the task of defending O'Neal in the fourth quarter.

This game has been played so far, Phil Jackson is not satisfied with the situation on the court, this game did not play the Lakers' established tactics at all, the Spurs not only defend very well, but also the inside and outside co-defense ability is also first-class, in the case of Glen Rice was abolished by himself, the Lakers also lost an important outside scoring point, and the game is very difficult so far.

Fortunately, O'Neal has always been able to maintain a good offensive shooting rate, as soon as he thought of O'Neal, Phil Jackson shook his head, and when it came to O'Neal, he had to say that damn free throws, in this game, O'Neal got 13 free throws in the third quarter, but only hit 6 balls, not even half of the shooting rate. If you just say the dominance under the basket, O'Neal is stronger than Michael Jordan, but O'Neal's shortcomings are also very obvious, poor shooting, small offensive range, once he leaves the basket, then O'Neal's lethality will drop significantly, although he knows his shortcomings, but O'Neal just doesn't improve his shooting, in his own words, that is: "If I can shoot, what are you still playing?" ”

"In the first 3 quarters of the game, both teams played very well, especially O'Neal alone blew up the entire interior line of the Spurs, and Tim Duncan's performance was not inferior to O'Neal, there is no doubt that O'Neal and Duncan are the two strongest interior players in the league at present." When the game was about to start, the magician in the commentary seat also said with some excitement.

"Yes, it was a very good game, but from the sidelines, the Lakers didn't have the ability to play a triangle offense, and the Spurs lost that suffocating defense that they had this season." While echoing the magician, his partner also said with a little regret.

"That's true, because of the Spurs' strong overall defensive strength, the Lakers' triangle offensive tactics are not fluent, and I think this is also related to the team's short run-in time. And the Spurs' defense is indeed very good, but in this game they faced O'Neal. ”

"Beautiful, O'Neal pushed David Robinson above and dunked directly."

"Tim Duncan, Duncan broke through directly from the wing with the ball, hit a pull-up jump shot, a beautiful shot, and caused a foul on AC Green."

"The Spurs started to wrap O'Neal, and in the face of David Robinson and Tim Duncan, O'Neal didn't pass, turned his back and hit a hook shot."

"Tim Duncan, it's Tim Duncan again, easily shook AC Green, Duncan dunked."

At the start of the fourth quarter, both O'Neal and Duncan wanted to take over the game and take each other away in waves, and the game was getting more and more anxious when neither team was able to limit the other.

After the success of the continuous singles AC Green, the Lakers also began to wrap Duncan, when Duncan received a pass from Johnson and was about to break through from the wing again, Rick Fox, who was originally defending Meng Xu, dropped Meng Xu and stepped forward to wrap Duncan, after seeing Duncan being trapped, Meng Xu also followed the tactical deployment in training, ran to a 45-degree angle outside the 3-point line on the right side, and Duncan, who was sandwiched by AC Green and Rick Fox, directly turned around and passed the ball to Meng Xu.

After Meng Xu received the ball, before Kobe Bryant's supplementary defense arrived, he didn't have the slightest direct shot, and hit a 3-point shot, 81-81, and the Spurs equalized the score. Entering the fourth quarter, after the activation of the big heart skill, I don't know if it was the effect of psychology, Meng Xu's shot became more decisive.

"Beautiful 3-pointers, why is his shooting posture so familiar." Seeing that after Meng Xu scored 3 points, he still maintained the posture when he shot, and the magician on the commentary seat looked a little weird. Meng Xu's jumping height is not high, but his body is very stretched, and the bending range of his elbows is not large, this shooting posture is too familiar.

"Bird, it's Larry Bird." The magician's brain was running rapidly, searching for all the information that existed in his mind, and just after Meng Xu shot with a step-back shot in the face of Kobe's defense and hit a 3-pointer again, the magician also shouted loudly in the commentary system.