On March 24, the Lakers beat the Suns again, O'Neal scored another 30 points, and Kobe Bryant also scored 22 points, and the Lakers won three in a row.

A wave of three consecutive wins, the Lakers' two consecutive defeats have made up for the gap, and now, the Lakers are only one win away from the fourth Rockets in the West, and they may overtake the Rockets at any time, come to the fourth place in the West, and then complete the system side tasks.

Another quest, the Los Angeles Times block, was resolved, but ESPN was still holding on.

One of the necessary conditions for the completion of the quest is that ESPN apologizes, but ESPN does not apologize and is still unwilling to bow its head, so the quest is still not completed.

Moreover, Qiao Hai felt that in a short period of time, it was difficult to complete the quest task.

That's bad news.

And the good news is that Qiao Hai is not far from completing the side quest.

But on March 26, the Lakers lost to the Kings at home, ending a three-game winning streak.

Fortunately, the Rockets also lost, and the win margin between the two teams is still one.

O'Neal was in poor shape in this game, and Kobe Bryant only played normally, scoring 21 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.

And when the team needed Scott Pippen, Pippen still failed to play the role of a giant, he shot 6 of 15 in this game, got 16 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists, since joining the Lakers, Pippen's personal score has never exceeded 20 points.

Obviously, the 33-year-old Scott Pippen has entered the end of his career, and the current Scott Pippen is only a top starter at best, and he can no longer be required of him by the standards of a superstar.

On the bright side, Scott Pippen still has a big role for the Lakers and can connect the team.

So, in fact, the Lakers got Scott Pippen, and their strength was still strengthened.

And in Qiao Hai's view, it is normal to lose two games a game, in this league, there is no team that will never lose, even the Bulls, who made history, have lost at least 10 games in a season.

So, Qiao Hai didn't care.

But Qiao Hai doesn't care, and there will be other people who care.

Joe Hai's overall record is 17-3, with one loss to the Cavaliers and one loss to the 76ers led by Allen Iverson, and then this loss to the Kings.

With three losses, losing to the Cavaliers is an upset, losing to the 76ers is understandable, and losing to the Kings is a little unbearable.

The Kings are the direct opponents of the Lakers in the playoffs, Vlad Divac is a Lakers veteran, and Divac was sent away by Jerry West himself, and he lost to the direct opponent of the playoffs led by the Lakers veteran sent away by Jerry West, and it was also at home, so such a loss is obviously unacceptable.

Coupled with the fact that Cortlambis has been emphasizing the problem that Qiao Hai is too young, Jerry West, who has been hesitating all along, was almost conquered by Qiao Hai's 14-game winning streak, and he was directly ready to remove the word agent in front of Qiao Hai's head coach.

As a result, a wave of two consecutive defeats, Jerry West began to hesitate again.

After three consecutive wins and losses to the Kings, Jerry West felt that maybe he should bring in Phil Jackson to play a real triangle offense.

In fact, the Lakers have negotiated Phil Jackson before, and reached a verbal agreement, only one step away from signing, but Qiao Hai took office and led the team well, and Jerry West temporarily stopped the signing process, but early April was the last date for the Lakers and Phil Jackson to negotiate at that time, and at that time, the Lakers must make a choice, whether to believe in Qiao Hai and let Qiao Hai stay, or directly sign Phil Jackson, who has proven himself in the Bulls.

It's going to be a tough choice to decide, and Jerry West is hesitant, but Mitch Kupchak doesn't know it all.

In Mitch Kupchak's view, the Lakers' current record is good, and Qiao Hai is very likely to stay, he doesn't think much about Phil Jackson anymore, and he also takes it for granted that Jerry West will not think about Phil Jackson anymore.

The best head coach for the Lakers is already in front of you.

On March 28, the Lakers defeated the Knicks, facing Patrick Ewing's team, the Lakers played very hard, falling behind at halftime, and finally relying on Joe Hai to O'Neal, O'Neal made efforts at the end of the quarter, and the Lakers barely won the victory, the score was 99:91, and the Lakers only won by 8 points.

Back-to-back games against the Grizzlies the next day, considering that the opponent was not strong, O'Neal consumed a lot in the last game, Qiao Hai rotated and let O'Neal substitute, but this rotation was directly replaced.

……

Scott Pippen played badly, he seemed to be completely limited by Tony Masenberg, and he couldn't even give out a few assists, Kobe Bryant scored 11 points in the first quarter and did well in the second quarter, but the Grizzlies, who are currently the second-to-last in the West, broke out.

Mike Bibby hit three three-pointers to score 13 points at halftime, Sharif Abdulahim made 6-of-6 shooting and scored 15 points at halftime, relying on the combined 28 points of the Grizzlies twins, and the Lakers trailed by 11 points at halftime.

In the second half, Qiao Hai glanced at O'Neal, who was sitting at the end of the bench, restrained himself, and still didn't go to O'Neal.

He pinned his hopes on Kobe Bryant and Scott Pippen to chase points.

But in the third quarter, Mike Bibi scored again and again, his hand was still hot, and his outburst alone directly dragged down the rhythm of the Lakers' whole team, and after three quarters, the Lakers were still 10 points behind.

As a last resort, Joe Hai was replaced by O'Neill.

The 10-point gap is not much, and the Lakers still have a chance to recover.

Qiao Hai also knows that his head coach name is also preceded by the word agent, and losses like losing to the Cavaliers and Grizzlies obviously can't be too much, otherwise it will give Jerry West a not very stable impression.

Therefore, Qiao Hai was forced to replace O'Neal, still hoping to win the game.

O'Neal played, Qiao Hai discussed the next style of play with Byron Scott off the court, trailing by about 10 points, and it was still very difficult to chase points within a quarter.

But suddenly there was a series of shrill whistles on the field, accompanied by exclamations from all over the field.

Joe Hay and Byron Scott hurriedly looked up to see that O'Neill was holding his ankle and struggling on the floor.

Something happened! O'Neal has only been on the scene for five or six seconds!

Lakers trainer Garivetti rushed directly to the sidelines, Qiao Hai also paid attention to the sidelines, the referee blew to stop the game, and the big screen replay on the scene turned out that Grizzly center Cherokee Parks suddenly reached out and pulled O'Neal when he flew to dunk, which directly caused O'Neal to fall to the ground heavily.

After landing on the ground, O'Neill hugged his ankle and showed a painful look.

Gariveti examined it and shook her head at Qiao Hai.

The situation is not optimistic, Qiao Hai's heart sank, and he was about to be finished.

O'Neal was quickly stretchered out of the court, and the Lakers were forced to make substitutions, and without O'Neal, the Lakers' chasing points was very unsuccessful.

In the end, the Lakers lost the game 96-104.