The Zen master made a quick decision and asked Richmond, the point guard on the court now, to hand the ball more to the inside, so that O'Neal could directly hold the ball and play alone. At first, O'Neal was a little cautious because of what happened in the finals last season, but he soon found that Mutombo's strength was completely incomparable to last season's, which made him start to become unscrupulous, and he fell into deep singles in a row.

Mutombo was a little sore, he felt that O'Neill's back singles had become stronger, and he couldn't bear it, and he was complaining about the strong shark while gritting his teeth to slow the latter's advance. But some things didn't go with his will, and O'Neal came to the basket with a few consecutive singles, and a small hook easily scored the ball.

Brown's face darkened a little, he didn't expect Mutombo's strength to suddenly drop to this level, and there was no way to face O'Neal's singles. It occurred to him that he had always chosen interior players and had the idea of developing Durham Potter as a starting center, could it be that at that time, he had considered the decline of Mutombo's strength?

Seeing that Mutombo lost his armor under O'Neal's singles, and the Lakers began to slowly chase the score closer, Brown gritted his teeth and stomped his foot, ready to change to Dylam Porter to top one, but before he could ask the technical table for a substitution, Chang Wei whispered to him next to him: "Coach, how about we replace Memet and try it?" I think he should be able to surprise him. ”

Brown frowned imperceptibly as he looked at Oku, a Turk who was sitting at the end of the bench. In fact, Oku's performance during training camp can only be described as mediocre, nothing particularly impressive, and not tough enough, which is the fundamental reason why Brown does not plan to give him a chance to play. Although he believes in Chang Wei's vision, he still doubts Oku's skills, even Mutombo can't carry O'Neill, can this big Turkish man do it?

For Oku's level, Brown didn't see it, Chang Wei is clear, in the previous life, Oku was able to become the main center next to the new Utah duo of Delon and Boozer, and there is definitely something outstanding, and Oku's strongest thing is his outside projection, you must know that this is a big man with a height of 2.11 meters, and almost no one can complete the block when he shoots.

Although Oku dribbles averagely, is slow, and has little ability to attack with the ball, his projection ability is excellent and can always put opposing defenders in a dilemma. The only thing to consider is that after replacing Oku, the rebounds will only depend on Hill, can he really help the team grab enough rebounds on O'Neal's head?

However, now that the Lakers have chased the margin to just one point, Brown must make a decision as soon as possible. Seeing Mutombo's panting appearance, Brown was ruthless and directly replaced it with Daimpoter and Oku. When the old coach made a decision, Chang Wei's eyes couldn't help but widen, is this really Larry Brown, who is known for his caution and iron will? If you don't agree with each other, you will go to the twin towers, and it is also a twin tower composed of two rookies, and there may not be a second coach in the entire league who can do it.

In fact, Brown also has a hard time, his team's interior reserves are not enough, and there are only two pure centers besides Mutombo, Hellam Porter and Oku, so the 76ers will often play a small lineup last season. If it's just Dalem Porter, then the scoring ability of the inside line is about zero, and Chang Wei admires Oku so much, why can't he send the twin towers to try? You must know that this is only the first game of the new season, although Brown wants to win, but to be honest, the outcome of this game does not determine anything, Zen masters dare to start Szzebiak, why can't we go to the twin towers?

To Brown's surprise, the duo of Bowler and Oku worked very well, with the two of them attacking and defending to give O'Neal and Walker a headache. Knowing that he wasn't good offensively, Bowler specialized in rebounding and mid-range offense, while Oku often moved to the high post or beyond the three-point line to catch the ball and then make a pull-up jumper.

Compared to other rookies who entered the NBA from the NCAA, Oku is already very mature, and although he is only 22 years old this year, he was born in 1979 and has played in the Turkish league for five seasons. After two missed shots, Oku finally found his senses, instantly turning into an even more terrifying outside anti-aircraft gun than Lewis, and more importantly, he also dared to fight and fight for rebounds inside, which relieved the pressure on Hellam Porter to a certain extent.

Oku's shooting made the Lakers very distressed, and if O'Neal and Walker continued to shrink under the basket, Oku would have very open shooting space; If one of O'Neal and Walker is defended, Iverson and Reed will have plenty of opportunities to drive to the basket. The Zen master is very helpless, he doesn't know how the 76ers fancy these rookies, it stands to reason that the rookies will definitely be a little unaccustomed to playing, but the 76ers' twin towers obviously don't have this problem, and they can actually suppress the Lakers.

Under the three-point shooting of Oku and Reed, the gap that had been almost erased widened again, and the 76ers led by eight points at 78-70 at the end of the third quarter, which was quite a blow to the Zen master, because it meant that at least in this game, the Lakers did not take advantage. In the fourth quarter, neither side could make progress, the 76ers could not open up the difference, and the Lakers could not close the score, and finally the 76ers narrowly defeated the Lakers 100-95 in the opening game.

This made the Zen master feel a little frustrated, but soon he regained his strength, to some extent this is not a complete Lakers, even if there is a training camp and preseason run-in is far from enough, it is not so simple to add a three-master around the "OK combination", although Szzebiak has a gentle personality, he will definitely not compete with Kobe Bryant and O'Neal for the position of the team leader, but it is not easy to get these two arrogant guys to agree.

After the game, the Zen master came over and shook Brown's hand, and at the same time said meaningfully: "Larry, this is just an inconsequential game, you won the championship last season because you were lucky, and the Eastern Conference playoffs are not as competitive as we are in the West." You won't have such good luck this season, the championship will be ours! ”

Brown smiled slightly: "Regardless of whether the ending of last season is luck or not, it is not you who end up winning the O'Brien Cup." We've also increased our available manpower this year, so see you later! ”