Chapter 104: Mr. Key

"The Lakers are in danger now." After Meng Xu hit this three-pointer, Phil Jackson immediately called a timeout, with 5 minutes left and a 6-point gap, the Lakers have fallen into a dangerous situation.

"Tim, you'll play later, as long as you withstand this wave of comebacks from the Lakers, the victory will be ours." After the timeout, Popovich also made targeted arrangements for Phil Jackson's adjustments.

Sure enough, after Phil Jackson called a timeout, the Lakers sent all their main players, and O'Neal only rested for a few minutes before he was back on the court.

"Bryant sent the ball to the sideline, and after Glen Les successfully received the ball, the ball was transferred to Ron Haber's hand, Haber shook Johnson, and after O'Neal received the ball, he singled Duncan again."

"The bag is clamped, the Spurs have implemented a double bag on O'Neal, beautiful moving steps, O'Neal has a continuous turn, a beautiful hook hand, O'Neal faces the Spurs' double bag and hits easily."

"Hey, why did the whistle blow, the referee blew for a foul on Tim Duncan, and the Spurs players were a little uncalm."

"Senior, black whistle, definitely black whistle." Meng Xu shouted at Duncan, O'Neal's attack just now, Meng Xu witnessed all the processes in the back, Duncan's defense was no problem at all, and Duncan did not play or interfere with the ball when he blocked O'Neal.

"Meng, calm down." Duncan grabbed Meng Xu, who was arguing with the referee on duty.

The hot-tempered Popovich couldn't sit still on the sidelines, yelling at the court, and in this case, the referee blew Duncan for a foul, which was not a good sign.

Seeing the referee put the whistle in his mouth, Johnson hurriedly pulled Meng Xu towards the vicinity of the center circle.

After O'Nealga hit a free throw, the gap between the two teams was reduced to three points.

"Johnson and Duncan's blocking and dismantling cover, Meng Xu threw off Glen Les, who defended himself, beautiful running and excellent positional sense, Johnson's ground-hitting pass, Meng Xu received the ball and was ready to shoot."

"Kobe Bryant's defense is very good, Meng Xu has no room to shoot, Meng Xu passed, and Duncan hit a shot on the head of AC Green."

"Spurs are coming to an end." When O'Neal rushed from near the free throw line to the inside, moved back two points for the Lakers again with a violent dunk, and also caused Duncan to foul, the guest commentator of this game, Kenny Smith, also sighed.

The Spurs, who lost Duncan, are basically in a dominant position in the face of the Lakers and O'Neal.

"We haven't lost yet, we just need to win this game, for David, for Thiem, we just need to win." After seeing Tim Duncan's unwilling end, Meng Xu shouted loudly at several teammates around him.

"Victory, victory." Several Spurs players who were still on the court circled the city, put their palms together, and shouted loudly.

"A bunch of idiots, can you win by shouting loudly?" Standing near the free throw line, O'Neal with his hands on his hips ready to take the free throw, looked at the Spurs players who were besieging the city with disdain.

"Fatty, wait for you." Meng Xu, who walked to the vicinity of the penalty area and waited for O'Neal's free throw, responded unceremoniously after hearing O'Neal's ridicule.

This game has been played so far, although the Spurs are still leading, but for O'Neal, this game is over, David Robinson is absent, Duncan is off, the Spurs' remaining few bench inside, not to mention one-on-one, even if it is a double bag, O'Neal can play them all over the ground. And after Duncan went down, the Spurs also lost their most stable and threatening offensive point.

After Duncan 6 fouled, the Spurs, who had lost their interior pillars, could not stop the raging O'Neal at all, in this case, Popovich glanced at the timing card on the court, and began to deploy the shark slashing tactics in advance with a big wave, regardless of whether O'Neal has the ball or not, as long as the Lakers attack, the Spurs players will foul O'Neal and send him to the free throw line.

For O'Neal's weakness, the whole franchise is well known, since the old Nelson invented the shark cutting tactic, this tactic has become one of the tricks of all teams to deal with the Lakers, but the shark cutting tactic is obviously a tactic that kills a thousand enemies and loses eight hundred.

Just when O'Neal led the Lakers to start chasing points, in the remaining 4 minutes of the game, the Spurs frantically sent O'Neal to the free throw line, and in 3 minutes, O'Neal got 14 free throw opportunities, but only hit 6 of them, and the Spurs still led the Lakers by 1 point with less than a minute left in the game.

"Try to score this round and delay time, understand?" Popovich pulled Johnson and Monxu to his side, the two players Popovich can trust right now.

In the last few minutes, this wave of shark slashing tactics, although it successfully prevented the Lakers' counterattack, but the Spurs also paid a huge price, Meng Xu 4 fouls, Spencer 5 fouls, Jaren Jackson and Marik Cross all 6 fouls left, Sean Etellio is now pushed down the position of power forward, the important thing is that the current situation is still favorable to the Spurs, with 54 seconds left, as long as the Spurs score this offense, even if the Lakers use up 24 seconds, Will still give the Spurs enough time to complete another attack.

After returning to the court, Avery Johnson received the sideline ball and threw the ball directly to Meng Xu. As a first-class point guard in the league at present, although he has weaknesses such as poor shooting, Johnson's overall view is good enough, and Johnson is undoubtedly very clear about what to do when and when.

Now Meng Xu is facing not only Kobe, but the defense of Kobe and Glen Rice, as the most threatening point on the Spurs at present, at the last moment of the game, the Lakers naturally want to pinch Meng Xu, as long as the Spurs' remaining two offenses are held, the victory belongs to the Lakers.

Listening to the defensive sound shouted by the whole court, the basketball finally returned to the hands of Meng Xu, who got rid of Kobe's entanglement, after receiving the ball, Meng Xu did not hesitate, and made a decisive shot directly outside the 3-point line. Since that shooting after the official timeout in the fourth quarter, Meng Xu's mentality has changed, and now there is nothing that can shake and interfere with Meng Xu's determination to shoot.

The basketball hollow shot, but only scored two points, and the referee found that Meng Xu stepped on the line after watching the video, and even then the Spurs still led the Lakers by 3 points at 108-105, with 30 seconds left.

In this case, Phil Jackson called a timeout again, ready to arrange the Lakers' last offensive tactic.

"Meng Zhen is a natural key player, a player with a big heart." Meng Xu has staged two stunners this season, and at the last moment of this game, he hit the key ball again.