O'Neal dominated the interior, so that the 76ers players did not dare to score under the basket. Although Iverson had the courage to break through to the basket and prepare for the layup, he was sent a spicy hot pot by O'Neal at the moment of the shot, which made him use more of a mid-range jumper than a breakaway layup, in order to avoid the no-fly zone that O'Neal had built under the basket.

Fortunately, Lewis and Reed both maintained a normal three-point shooting rate, and they combined to shoot four three-pointers from the outside, which was not pulled away by the Lakers. But from the first round, they have been in a disadvantageous position of falling behind the score, after all, they can't guarantee that every shot will be hit, and those that don't hit will become the Lakers' defensive rebounds.

When a team has the advantage on the inside, their offense will definitely expand to the outside very quickly, unless the quality of their outside players is really bad. And the Lakers obviously don't have such concerns, although neither Lue nor Fox are known for scoring, but a Kobe Bryant can withstand the scoring ability of all the outside players of many teams, and it is a waste not to use it.

Thanks to O'Neal's containment on the inside, Kobe Bryant can often get good shots on the outside, and although he missed two consecutive shots at first, he quickly found his touch. No way, as long as any player has the ability to shoot from a distance, and then there are so many opportunities to shoot, it is only a matter of time before he gets back to his shooting touch.

At the end of the first quarter, O'Neal had 13 points, four rebounds, and three assists, all of which went to Kobe, who scored nine points. Combined with the mixed scoring of the rest of the Lakers, they scored a total of 32 points in the quarter. Doesn't seem like much, does it? But they allowed the 76ers to score just 27 points.

To Brown's frustration, the team's 27 points were basically mid-to-long-range shots, with the only goal under the basket coming from Mutombo's secondary offense, while the Lakers' 32 points were scored under the basket, which is quite a stark contrast. Although the 76ers' three-point shooting ability is very strong, the closer they are to the basket, the higher the shooting percentage, which is an unbreakable truth, so the Lakers, who are more inclined to interior offense, can suppress them on the court.

But Brown has no choice but to do so, and he has no good way to solve it, which is determined by the configuration of the team. If Mutombo had a consistent mid-range shot, it would certainly pull O'Neal out of the basket, but Mutombo's two-point shooting rate from close range has plummeted from 68.7% to 34.9% from the bottom of the basket this season, and only 26% from mid-range, which is completely useless.

Brown sees the same problem, Chang Wei also sees it, if it is a previous life, he has a lot of solutions to make O'Neal tired, but the premise is that the team has a center who can shoot three-pointers. Although there were not many such players in the previous life, they were not few, but now the interior who likes to shoot from medium and long distances are scolded as soft eggs, let alone pulled outside the three-point line.

Now O'Neal is simply giving what he wants on the inside, and what's even more terrifying is that this guy's physical strength is still very strong, because he reappeared on the court at the beginning of the second quarter, you must know that he played the entire first quarter before, and it seems that the Zen master is really fighting for the victory of this game. In fact, it is a monster like O'Neill that can support such a huge consumption, and if it is replaced by other inside lines, perhaps only Russell and Chamberlain in ancient times can do this.

The Zen master dared to put his trump card unscrupulously, but Brown could only send a substitute lineup to create more rest time for the main players. Snow suddenly felt a lot of pressure, because the 76ers didn't have a particularly qualified scorer on the bench, and it was true that everyone could score, but the piecemeal play obviously couldn't compete with the O'Neal-led Lakers. Originally, he planned to come by himself, anyway, he also played as a scoring guard in the bench lineup, but unfortunately he is really not a scorer, although he can hit some open three-pointers on the outside, but when it comes to scoring explosiveness, it has nothing to do with him.

Seeing that the Lakers have a tendency to open up the score, Brown can only replace Lewis in advance to enhance the firepower of the rotation lineup. It's not that he doesn't want to replace Reed, but in the first quarter of the game, Reed had to face Kobe Bryant's defense for most of the time, and the latter played like chicken blood again, Reed consumed more physical strength than usual, and could only stay off the court to rest at this time. On the contrary, Lewis has not been taken care of too much, and this is the right time to come on to make up for the lack of offensive ends.

Perhaps fueled by Reed's previous performances, Lewis was quite active after his appearance, and even if he didn't get a shot, he continued to run wildly in the Lakers' defensive system, creating space for his teammates to break through or shoot. Of course, he won't be without a point himself, Snow still has some good passes that allow him to shoot with impunity in the bottom corner or at the top of the arc, and even if Horry can defend in time, Lewis is now fearless.

With the three-pointers of Lewis and Snow, the 76ers clung to the score, and the gap between the two sides always hovered around 8 points, and no matter how hard the Lakers tried, they couldn't expand the difference to double digits all at once. This was a secret relief to Brown that leading by double digits and leading by single digits is a completely different concept for a team, at least in terms of morale, and many managers call a timeout to adjust when their teams are down by double digits for the first time.

However, the Zen master took the lead in replacing several main players, in addition to Horry and O'Neal were still on the court, Kobe, Fox and Lu played together, which instantly caused huge pressure on the 76ers. The saddest thing is Lewis, Kobe Bryant completely handed over Snow to Fox to defend, but he constantly helped defend Horry, using bounce to pose a huge threat to Lewis's shooting. If it weren't for the fact that Lewis had developed the ability to shoot rapidly, he would have been deflated in front of Kobe.

Rao is like this, it is difficult for him to maintain a normal three-point shooting rate for a long time, and Mark Loach on the inside can't take advantage of O'Neal at all, and many times he can't even touch the rebound, let alone take it off and pass it out for his teammates to reorganize the offense. In this way, the offensive rhythm of the 76ers has to slow down, after all, it is easy to hit the iron when it is fast, and if you hit the iron, you will lose rebounds, and O'Neal can completely omit the link of handing the ball to the guard, and directly throw the ball to the front court with a long cross-court pass, so that Kobe Bryant or other Lakers players can complete the offense, which is obviously not the style that the 76ers have always had.