In the second half of the first quarter, the Lakers lined up a big four lineup and wanted to win quickly.

The Spurs took advantage of the Lakers' interior height disadvantage and wanted to tear the hole from the inside.

But Scott Pippen switched to Duncan, with a total rating of 96 points, the peak 8-time league best defensive team for a while, although there is a disadvantage in height, but he is experienced, making up for the disadvantage in height, Qiao Hai's hand change of defense directly blocked the Spurs' idea of tearing the hole from the inside.

On the contrary, it is the Lakers' fast offense.

Scott Pippen at his peak has improved more than a little bit compared to Scott Pippen at the beginning of the season, relying on the outside iron gate combination of Scott Pippen and Kobe, the Lakers have killed many teams' outside cores in April.

Scott Pippen plus Bryant, plus Derek Fisher and Bruce Bowen, the defense of this outside rotation lineup is almost explosive.

On the offensive end, the offensive end is the most obvious aspect of Scott Pippen's improvement, the threat of individual single ball holding has increased dramatically, and on the other hand, it is the biggest role played by Scott Pippen in this game - controlling the tempo.

The Lakers play fast and break fast, Scott Pippen's advance is fast, and the rhythm is led by him to fly, although the Lakers don't have a very good point guard, but Scott Pippen's existence is enough to beat a top point guard.

The Lakers played very well in the second half, Scott Pippen and Kobe Bryant scored one after another, on the other hand, the Spurs, the inside twin towers were led by the Lakers, and the rhythm of the Spurs was directly messed up.

The Twin Towers couldn't keep up with the rhythm of the fast break, the Spurs' defense almost collapsed, and the Lakers took advantage of this wave of advantages to play a wave of 16:10.

After the first quarter, the Lakers led the Spurs by 7 points at 22:15, and relied on defense, and the defensive Spurs only scored 15 points in a single quarter.

Qiao Hai on the sidelines smiled happily, the Lakers' defensive system was very successful, and more importantly, this set of defensive tactics was very simple, man-to-man, plus Scott Pippen and Kobe Bryant's help to supplement the defense, and if necessary, send Bruce Bowen to mark the opponent's outside arrow players.

O'Neal's defense on the inside is not the top level in the super center, but the single defense is enough, O'Neal's outside line is a super single defense player, and the Lakers' defense is difficult as long as it forms a system.

O'Neal, who had a half-quarter break in the second quarter, re-entered the game with Robert Horry, Kobe Bryant and Scott Pippen and Bruce Bowen continued to play, and the point guard position was replaced by veteran Derrick Harper.

The Lakers' lineup is still an unconventional big and four small, with Scott Pippen at the top of the No. 4 position, but because O'Neal is on the floor, the Lakers can't speed up the pace and play fast break.

However, Qiao Hai changed back to O'Neal at this time, and he also guessed the next adjustment of the Spurs.

Popovich also began to make substitutions, and the inside twin towers played almost a full quarter of the game, and David Robinson was the first to suffer, and this season, David Robinson is averaging only 31 minutes per game, a career low.

As he gets older, it is difficult for David Robinson to support a full 40-minute high-intensity game, playing a full quarter in the first quarter, and Popovich can only replace David Robinson in the second quarter.

Popovich also guessed that the Lakers would bring in O'Neal in the second quarter, so he decided to keep Duncan on the court and move to the center position, with Marry Cross at power forward and Avery Johnson, Mario Alley and Antonio Daniels on the outside.

At the start of the second quarter of the game, O'Neal got a one-on-one opportunity inside, Marik Cross obviously can't be compared with David Robinson, even if it's tall, 2.01 meters Marik Cross is not enough to defend O'Neal, so the Spurs can only use Duncan to one-on-one O'Neal.

With O'Neal's dominance in the penalty area, it is clearly not something Duncan can defend one-on-one.

At the beginning of the second quarter, O'Neal got the ball and turned to make a layup to score 2 points first.

Defending the Spurs' offense, followed by another wave of singles, O'Neal scored another 2 points, and scored 4 points in a row in the opening game!

The Spurs' offense was a bit weak, and Tim Duncan struggled to do it alone.

At the beginning of the second quarter, the Lakers hit consecutive shots to open a wave of 13:4 offense, 35:19, and the Lakers led by 16 points.

Popovich was forced to call a timeout shortly after the start of the second quarter and then switched back to David Robinson.

Qiao Hai did not replace O'Neal because of the return of David Robinson, he simply asked O'Neal to attract the defense of the Spurs' interior twin towers, and then put the focus of the offense on the outside, another wave of adjustments, Qiao Hai continued to target the Spurs' outside weaknesses.

Even if Popovich was traded back for David Robinson, the Spurs were still suppressed by the Lakers.

McBrin in the commentary table couldn't help but sigh.

"The Lakers played so well that they suppressed the Spurs from start to finish."

Marv Albert also nodded: "That's right, the Lakers' tactics are correct, either give up the fight for the inside, or let Shaq alone contain Tim Duncan and David Robinson, relying on the Lakers' crushing advantage on the outside to gain an advantage." ”

"And it's worth mentioning that the Lakers' defense was excellent in this game, and before that, our biggest impression of Qiao Hai's Lakers was probably the triangle offense, and now, we're seeing a lot more."

McBrin shook his head: "Such a head coach is going to be replaced, I can only say that Jerry West is old......"

In the second quarter, the Spurs were still unfavorable offensively, but the Lakers adjusted, and the offensive end exploded in the second quarter, scoring 33 points in a single quarter.

After halftime, the Lakers led the Spurs by 20 points at halftime, 55-35.

Gregg Popovich was a little helpless after falling behind, and he wanted to win this victory to establish the Spurs league first position, but obviously, it was difficult for him to achieve his goal when the game came to this point.

So, in the second half, after continuing to struggle hard for half a quarter, Popovich gave up after seeing the margin widen to 25 points.

Popovich didn't want to waste any more energy, this game was obviously lost, the Spurs had little way to deal with the Lakers' outside offense, and their interior was pinned down by O'Neal, and there was no chance at all.

Popovich feels that his priority has changed now, from winning this game and finishing first in the league to how he should beat the Lakers.

The Lakers are too strong, it is already difficult to solve one O'Neal on the inside, and there are Scott Pippen and Kobe Bryant on the outside, Popovich is one head and two big, and his intuition tells him that the Lakers are likely to be the opponent of the Spurs in the playoffs, and if he doesn't want to find a way to solve the Lakers, this season is destined to be a fruitless season.

On the Lakers' side, Qiao Hai looked relaxed, and when he saw the Spurs replacing the twin towers and all the main rotation players, he beckoned directly to the end of the bench.

"Tarron, Reuben, Shaun...... You guys up. ”

The Spurs went up and down five times and announced that they would give up.

The Lakers are also five up and five down, the game and the sure win, the drill tactics are also successful, and the Lakers have no need to continue to waste energy.

Put on the bench, finish this game, and get ready for the upcoming playoffs!