On March 2, 1999, U.S. time, the Lakers faced the Rockets at home.

Scott Pippen and Eddie Jones faced their old clubs for the first time after the trade, and Qiao Hai finally met a strong team again.

However, the Lakers played very easily in this game, and they were already 100% proficient in the triangle offense, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal broke out one after another, scoring 30 points, and Scott Pippen was also very powerful in the face of his old club with a bad relationship, and contributed a new high in assists since joining the Lakers - 11 assists.

In the end, relying on the outbreak of the "Big Three", the Lakers defeated the Rockets 109-87 and won six consecutive victories.

With a wave of six consecutive wins, the Lakers have an overall record of 8 wins and 8 losses, surpassing the Timberwolves in one fell swoop and returning to the top eight in the West.

So, overnight, all the media headlines became: The Lakers won six in a row and returned to the top eight in the West!

Qiao Hai also completed the previous side quest, and after receiving the reward, he got 20 victory points, plus 4 victory points from the last four consecutive wins, Qiao Hai saved another 24 victory points, and it was useless for him to save it, after all, he didn't need it for the time being.

After playing the Rockets, the Lakers will play against the Phoenix Suns again.

Bruce Bowen once again limited Jason Kidd and the Lakers snapped another win, 9-8 and a seven-game winning streak.

On March 5, the Lakers faced off at home against the SuperSonics, who had beaten them before, with Jerry West and Mitch Kupchek, as well as Kotlambis, who had just taken up his role in the scouting department.

Perhaps Cortlambis was impressed by the supersonics, because he fell in front of the supersonic and finally left the position in disgrace.

This game is also a big test for Qiao Hai, the strength of the supersonic is not weak, Gary Payton is one of the superstars in the league today, although Wenbeck has declined seriously, but he was also a super power forward at the flying level, Detreveschramf is a shooter above the level, at least compared to the Suns, this supersonic team will not be so easy to defend.

However, Qiao Hai's style of play is still very simple, he requires his team to play a good offense, and the defensive end plays ordinary man-to-man defense, Qiao Hai believes in 100% proficiency in the triangle offense, he doesn't think that with supersonic defense, he can resist the Lakers' complete triangle offense.

In the first quarter, Kobe Bryant was defended by Gary Payton very badly, and he continued to shoot iron, and after Qiao Hai shouted on the sidelines, Kobe obediently reduced his shots, Shaquille O'Neal broke out inside, and the veteran center Alden Polynes couldn't prevent O'Neal's one-on-one singles at all.

So, relying on O'Neal's 16 points in the first quarter, the Lakers led the SuperSonics by 5 points in the first quarter at 27:22.

In the second quarter, Qiao Hai changed his rotation strategy in the previous games, he did not replace Kobe and O'Neal, but replaced Scott Pippen with Rick Fox and Derrick Fisher with Bruce Bowen, and the court instantly became a non-point guard lineup, and many people were confused.

Qiao Hai pulled Kobe and Bruce Bowen and gave them an order.

"Kobe, you go with the ball, organize the offense, Bruce, both offensive and defensive, entangle Gary Payton and make him uncomfortable!"

Soon, Bruce Bowen carried out Qiao Hai's request, which really made Gary Payton uncomfortable, and throughout the second quarter, Bruce Bowen entangled Gary Payton to death, so that Gary Payton couldn't play at all, both offensive and defensive, and was in a suppressed state.

Qiao Hai called this trick: fighting poison with poison.

Anyway, Bruce Bowen's role is to act as a pawn, to redeem the opponent's arrow player, and as long as Bruce Bowen can do this, he will succeed.

The playmaker on the court was replaced by Kobe Bryant, his threat on the outside is the biggest for the Lakers, and the SuperSonics invested a lot of defensive strength to defend the young Kobe, thinking that Kobe Bryant would not pass the ball according to the previous way of playing, but Kobe suddenly turned into a passer and sent a second pass in a row.

I have to say that Kobe Bryant still listens to Qiao Hai very much.

In the second quarter, under Qiao Hai's sudden change, the Lakers stretched the difference to double digits in one fell swoop, and the situation was very good.

In the second half, the Lakers continued to maintain their lead, and finally, when the final timer beeped, the Lakers won by 109 points, 109-98.

With eight consecutive wins, Cortlambis' face was full of disappointment, and Qiao Hai proved with this game that he was indeed better than Cortlambis.

But Cortlambis still doesn't think so, he just thinks Qiao Hai is lucky, taking over the first five games of the Lakers, the Lakers have met the Nuggets, Grizzlies, and Clippers, the top three teams in the West, such consecutive victories have relieved Qiao Hai, and at this time, the Lakers' triangle offense has been formed, relying on the formed triangle tactics, Cortlambis thinks he can also win the last few games.

It's just that Jerry West didn't stay patient and gave him this chance.

From start to finish, Cortlambis still believes that Johi is just lucky, and his own luck is too bad......

With 10 wins and 8 losses, the Lakers moved up one place, surpassing the Phoenix Suns and moving to seventh place in the West.

After this game, the team held a high-level meeting, at which Qiao Hai met with Cortlambis again, but the meeting between the two was already very awkward, there was no conversation, just looking at each other and smiling.

Jerry West praised Joe Hay at the meeting and said that as long as Joe Hay needs it, the team will try to meet it.

So, Qiao Hai put forward a demand: "The team really needs an interior rotation player now, and my request is that this interior rotation player doesn't need to be too strong in individual offensive ability, he can protect rebounds, protect the basket, and be more flexible." ”

Qiao Hai still wants to get a flexible interior rotation player, so that he can take down O'Neal at a critical moment and use Kobe Gastro Pippen to win the scorching game more safely.

Jerry West nodded and said, "Don't worry, Joe, we'll be looking for a new interior rotation player as soon as possible, and you can also put forward any candidates."

But Qiao Hai didn't have any candidates to offer, because he couldn't think of any other high-quality interior players at this stage who could exempt him from the contract......

After playing the SuperSonics, the next game is the real challenge, because the Lakers' opponent in the next game is the Jazz.

Under Del Harris, the Lakers played a game against the Jazz, and in that game, the Lakers supported three quarters of the game, and finally couldn't withstand the Jazz's impact in the fourth quarter and lost the game by nine points.

After more than a month of games, the Jazz are in first place in the West with a 13-3 record.

The Lakers challenged the first place in the West away from home, and the difficulty of this game can be imagined.

Qiao Hai also made careful arrangements, and Mitch Kupchak also called and told Qiao Hai that even if he loses this game, it will not be a big deal and will not affect the team's evaluation of Qiao Hai, but he still hopes that Qiao Hai can win this game.

Qiao Hai also thinks so, the Lakers have won 8 in a row, and there is no reason to end the winning streak in the next game.

So in the next battle, the Lakers must win!