"It was an unbelievable game between the Lakers and the Spurs."

"Yes, this season's Lakers and Spurs were originally the two most reliant teams in the league, but this game is now a superstar matchup between O'Neal and Duncan."

After three quarters, the Lakers led the Spurs by five points at 78-73, with O'Neal having 44 points and 15 rebounds and Tim Duncan having 41 points and 17 rebounds. After the Spurs were absent from David Robinson, the offensive end was greatly affected, and a group of iron gods on the outside made the Spurs unable to even play the basic tactics of inside-out, and in this case, Popovich could only put the treasure on Duncan, and Duncan was also on full fire for the first time this season.

As for the Lakers, Duncan, who lost his interior partner due to the absence of David Robinson, can no longer restrain O'Neal. In the case that the triangle offense could not run smoothly, Phil Jackson also desperately hit O'Neal, and everyone else, including Kobe, had to serve O'Neal.

This season is the year that Kobe Bryant has completed his transformation, as the pride of the 96 generation, Kobe Bryant played two seasons off the bench for Eddie Jones after coming to the Lakers, and it was not until last season that he was corrected and became the Lakers' starting point guard. After Phil Jackson came to the Lakers this season, Kobe Bryant went one step further and replaced Glen Rice as Phil Jackson's handpicked second-in-command, not only an important part of Phil Jackson's tactics, but also became the team's main scorer in many games.

But all this changed because of the playoffs, after the playoffs began, O'Neal became the only core of the team, and everyone else had to serve O'Neal, which made Kobe a little difficult to adapt to, and even a little tangled. Sometimes it's clear that his chances are better, but the coach still asks him to give the ball to O'Neal. This game is like this, in the second half of the second quarter, O'Neal went off the court to rest, stayed on the court to lead the bench Kobe, shot 6 of 11, cut 12 points, shooting percentage and offensive efficiency Kobe admitted that he had surpassed O'Neal, but then after O'Neal came on the court, Phil Jackson still stubbornly asked Kobe to hand over the ball, and at the same time asked Kobe to continue to serve O'Neal.

After the start of the fourth quarter of the game, the situation on the court changed, due to the rebound in the shooting rate of the outside four, especially Meng Xu's shooting rate, Tim Duncan gradually reduced the number of singles and began to tilt his limited energy to the defensive side.

The opposite Lakers did not change accordingly, but still played O'Neal. As the best babysitting coach in the league, Phil Jackson is undoubtedly very successful, but when it comes to on-the-spot adaptability and fighting spirit, Phil Jackson is undoubtedly a little worse than the current top coach in the league, Leley Popovich and even Larry Bird.

After the start of the fourth quarter, not only Meng Xu hit two 3-pointers in a row, but then Sean Etellio Mario Elie opened, especially Avery Johnson finally shot a 3-point again after 21 games, and the Spurs not only filled the 5-point gap after a wave of three-point rain, but also led the Lakers for the second time in the game after the opening.

In this case, Phil Jackson had to call a timeout, although O'Neal's offensive efficiency was still not low, but it could not stand the Spurs' 3-point shooting rate of 5-of-8 shooting. Phil Jackson didn't just mess up the Spurs' grip with a timeout, the Lakers also strengthened their outside defense against the Spurs after the timeout. In the first three quarters, the Spurs' three-point shooting was 1 of 7, and the Spurs in these seasons are not a team that is good at three-pointers, so Phil Jackson did not make a targeted arrangement for the Spurs' three-point shooting, but it was this small mistake that made the Lakers bury their hard-earned advantage in the first three quarters in just the first two minutes.

After the timeout, the style of painting on the court changed abruptly, O'Neal caused Duncan's fouls in a row, and Duncan, who had accumulated 4 fouls, had to go to rest.

"Meng, now everything depends on you." With the loss of David Robinson and the loss of Tim Duncan, the remaining players of the Spurs suddenly lost their backbone, and the game was also very chaotic in this round, Avery Johnson burst inside with the ball, and a small throw layup was covered by O'Neal. When Meng Xu returned to the Spurs' bench, Mike Budenholzer shouted loudly beside Meng Xu.

"Bryant, I haven't made a move in a long time." The form on the court looks very bad for the Spurs, but Meng Xu still doesn't want to give up, at least until Duncan returns to the court.

Resisting Meng Xu's provocation, seeing O'Neal who reached out for the ball, Kobe Bryant still passed the ball over.

"It won't be that easy, big fat man." After Duncan got off the field, O'Neal only needed to sit back, and Spencer was pushed out more than a meter away, O'Neal glanced at Spencer with contempt, and turned around directly, while Spencer was frightened by O'Neal at this time and stood in place and didn't dare to move.

Just as O'Neill was about to end the attack with a violent dunk, he suddenly felt a figure flying behind him.

"Shaq, be careful." Ron Haber, who was near the penalty line, seemed to sense that something was wrong and shouted at O'Neal, who was already in the air.

"Big fat man, be careful behind you." When the basketball in O'Neal's hand was fanned out of the sideline by Meng Xu from behind, O'Neal looked at Meng Xu behind him with an incredible look after landing on the ground. Although the referee blew Meng Xu's foul at the end, Meng Xu still used this way to motivate the morale of the Spurs players on the field.

After O'Neal made one of the two free throws, Spencer sent a baseline ball, and just after Johnson took the ball to halftime, Meng Xu, who was already waiting at a 45-degree angle on the left side of the three-point line, reached out directly to ask for the ball, and without the slightest hesitation, Johnson handed the basketball to Meng Xu's hands.

Meng Xu stretched out the ball behind him with one hand in his right hand, turned sideways at Kobe Bryant, who was defending him, and glanced up at the scoreboard. With seven minutes left in the game, the Spurs trailed the Lakers by one point at 90-91.

After taking a deep breath, Meng Xu tried to calm down the still somewhat nervous mood at the moment, recalling the state of selflessness he entered during the All-Star Three-Point Contest. Since the All-Star Three-Point Contest, Meng Xuchang can no longer find that selfless and fearless mentality.

"Bastard, it's almost 20 seconds." Kobe Bryant was in front of Meng Xu, trying to reach for the basketball in Meng Xu's hand, but he couldn't reach it because of his insufficient arm span.