"Tim, you can't stop me." After the start of the fourth quarter of the game, O'Neal finally regained some vitality and was no longer willing to be a dead shark, although there was no sign of taking over the game now, but compared with the second and third quarters, O'Neal has begun to gradually put more energy on the offensive end.

After easily shaking David Robinson, Duncan immediately stepped up, feeling the huge power contained in the slightly thin body behind him, O'Neal did not dare to be careless, and gradually increased his strength to the maximum. In the current NBA, among all the current insiders, O'Neal is basically invincible, this big shark will not be afraid of anyone at all, but if there is anyone in this league who can make O'Neal a little jealous, it can only be Duncan behind him, this guy has only slightly inferior to his own strength, and very good defensive skills, although this is not enough to prevent O'Neal, but this is enough, every time he fights with Duncan, it is the most uncomfortable time for O'Neal. The same is true for this game, every time O'Neal gets David Robinson, Duncan will appear just right behind or in front of O'Neal.

After the break, Meng Xu did not play in the entire third quarter, and in the entire third quarter of the game, the shooting rate of the Spurs and the Lakers was very low, and the two teams failed to even shoot a 3-pointer, and this state continued until the fourth quarter. When the outside felt bad, the Spurs and Lakers basically gave up the so-called tactics at the beginning of the fourth quarter and began to fight frantically on the inside, but the more this happened, the more difficult the game became, and the lower the shooting rate of the two teams, so the scores of the two teams were always controlled within 2 points. From halftime to now, the two teams have only scored 17 and 19 points respectively in 15 minutes, and they are more and more entangled, more and more rigid, and the sound of clattering iron continues to echo in the Alamo Coliseum.

When about 3 minutes of the fourth quarter, Phil Jackson called a timeout and replaced the bench lineup, several main players began to accumulate physical strength for the final showdown, in the past, the Lakers' bench lineup last season was either led by Kobe Bryant or led by Glen Rice, and after Isiah Ryder joined this season, the Lakers' bench lineup has exploded, and all Kobe Bryant can only sit on the bench with peace of mind. After Phil Jackson made a substitution, the Spurs also changed to the bench lineup, Meng Xu and Derrick Anderson, who had been resting for a long time, led the bench lineup to play at the same time, after a long break, any player will lose the feel of shooting, so Popovich's move is also to let Meng Xu get used to the court in advance, so as to get back to the touch before the final battle.

"Meng Xu is on the field again, I don't understand Popovich's arrangement in this game, Meng Xu performed very well in the first half, but after the halftime, he sat on the bench until now, after a long break, Meng Xu can still find the feeling of the first half." Seeing Meng Xu take off his training clothes and return to the court after a short warm-up, Michaels also shook his head, the players performed well, shouldn't the head coach be happy? Instead Popovich chose to push him to the bench.

"I think until now, Popovich has not made up his mind about how to use Meng Xu, and Popovich has been hesitating since the Spurs' triangle tactics failed in the first game against the Pacers." As the group of people with the highest ball IQ and IQ in the NBA, Magic Johnson, who stayed out of the way, is very clear about the current situation of the Spurs and Popovich's dilemma, and after answering Michaels's question, Magic continued: "The more some things are suppressed, the more they tend to rebound, so I think Popovich's way of dealing with problems is wrong, maybe there is a rift between him and Meng Xu now, if it continues like this, there will even be irreparable contradictions between the two." ”

"Yes, as Arnold said, change is the source of unrest, and we can see that throughout the 3rd quarter, Meng Xu, who was sitting on the bench, did not say a word." After the intermission, although it was far away, Michaels still found that Meng Xu's expression was a little wrong.

After the game restarted, the Spurs' bench lineup on the court is all small, the center is 2.08 meters Danny Ferry, big forward Samaki Walker, small forward Meng Xu, scoring guard Derrick Anderson, organization guard Antonio Daniels, there is no big man in the team who is more than 2.10 meters tall, even Danny Ferry played the power forward position before joining the Spurs. Similarly, if the Spurs' bench lineup had been placed last season, the Lakers would not have been able to find the north, but this game was blown up by the Lakers' bench lineup, especially Derrick Anderson was kneaded by Isiah Ryder in various ways, and the offensive and defensive ends were miserable.

"Erwin, do you think Meng will be able to pull the score away for the Spurs after he returns to the court?" For Meng Xu, who is back on the field, Michaels has great expectations, and Meng Xu's performance in the first half is really good.

"I'm afraid it's difficult, we all know that Meng Xu is a very good player, but the Lakers' Isaiah Ryder is also a very stable player, this guy is an All-Star level, as long as he is there, the Lakers want to score easily, and Meng Xu can still have the kind of play in the first half after resting for such a long time, it's really hard to say."

The Spurs' first offense, after Meng Xu received the ball in the middle circle, he rushed directly to the Lakers' basket, the Lakers' current backup center on the court is a white center Greg Foster, Greg Foster is also a veteran who has come to the Lakers this season, Greg Foster's career is also extremely tragic, for a championship ring with a base salary of $80,000 to join the Bulls for three consecutive championships, but Greg Foster just joined the Bulls Jordan and retired, after a season with the Bulls, Greg Foster, who thought he had no hope of winning the championship, jumped to the Jazz again, but as soon as Greg Foster left, Jordan returned, although he followed the Jazz to the Finals for two consecutive years, but they were eliminated by the Bulls. And this season, Greg Foster joined the Lakers again with a base salary, just to get a coveted championship ring.

Meng Xu slapped the basketball while twisting his body, and after a continuous change of direction, Meng Xu broke through the encirclement of Isaiah Ryder and Robert Horry, faced Greg Foster, who pounced to defend himself, and hit a layup with an easy pull-up layup, which scored two points and also caused Greg Foster's foul, after Meng Xu hit a free throw, 68-67, the Spurs overtook the Lakers by 1 point.

"Maybe it's a very good choice to let Meng play the sixth man." Looking at Popovich sitting on the sidelines with a solemn face, Steve Cole once again made his own unique suggestion at the right time.

"The Sixth Man?" Popovich snorted and ignored Steve Cole, instead keeping his eyes back on the field. Originally, Popovich thought that Steve Cole was very talented as a coach, but he didn't expect him to come up with such a bad idea, sixth man? Let Meng Xu beat the sixth person, and still use you to say? Mike Budenholzer wanted to train him to be Reggie Miller, not to mention letting Meng Xu play the sixth man, this kind of waste of talent of the players, Popovich can't do it anyway.

"Haha, Phil Jackson called a timeout again." Less than two minutes after the Lakers last called a timeout, Phil Jackson called a timeout again, without him, when Meng Xu returned to the court, not only did he not feel cold, but also made a sudden shot, scoring 8 points in a very short period of time, creating a 6-point lead for the Spurs. At the same time, under Meng Xu's defense, Isaiah Ryder made two mistakes in a row.

When the main forces of both sides played again, Meng Xu assisted Sean Elliott to hit a 3-pointer, and he also shot the fifth 3-point of the game, which was originally a very anxious game, so the suspense was lost, and by the time the official timeout in the fourth quarter, the Lakers were already 10 points behind the Spurs. After the timeout, the Lakers, who had no hope of reversing, also gave up the game, and the battle between Duncan and O'Neal for the league's first man ended hastily, in order to resurrect and take over the game at the last moment, O'Neal, who pretended to be dead for most of the half, had no use in the slightest.

"Meng, think about my suggestion carefully." After the game, Kobe Bryant came to Meng Xu's side again, and the two stood in the center of the court and talked eloquently, not avoiding the eyes of others.

"Kobe, I think..." After a slight pause, Meng Xu smiled: "I think it's more appropriate for us to be opponents." "Even if he will eventually leave, he will not stay in the West, let alone go to the Lakers, and it is better to stay with the Spurs than to be the 3-man in the Lakers, at least there is Tim Duncan here.

"Haha." Kobe smiled and patted Meng Xu on the shoulder, his personality is clear, although now he wants to recruit Meng Xu because he feels that he is the same kind as Meng Xu, but when the two really arrive at the same team, I am afraid that they will quarrel. "Maybe you're right, but since you want to choose to be my opponent, then it's better for you to leave the west as soon as possible."

"Why?"

"Because I'm here, I'm afraid you won't be able to touch the floor of the finals for the rest of your life." Speaking of this, Kobe Bryant smiled even more exaggeratedly, completely without the grievances after the loss just now.

"Huh." Looking at the back of Kobe Bryant's departure, Meng Xu smiled awkwardly. Originally, with Meng Xu's character of not suffering, he would definitely scoff at Kobe's statement and spray back, but when he remembered that Anna had told herself that Kobe Bryant had entered the finals 7 times in his career and won 5 championships, Meng Xu had no confidence to spray back.