Last season's champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, began their title defense on Friday, and the Lakers' men certainly want to win a second championship in a row when they host their first-round opponents in the playoffs, the Houston Rockets, and the City of Angels will want to continue the stellar record they made last season's playoff sweep of the Western Giants.

In the end, the Lakers relied on Zhang Mao's stable play to defeat the Houston Rockets 115-98 at home and get off to a good start to the playoffs.

The whole game, we can describe it as uneventful, but it's not that the process is not exciting, but the suspense is too lacking.

The strength of the Rockets has declined too fast, the big dream is no longer that big dream, and the glider is no longer the glider, the Rockets did not pose a threat to the defending champion throughout the game, and the pillar of the interior Olajuwon only scored a pitiful 12 points and 10 rebounds in the whole game, so he naturally could not lead the Rockets to pose a little threat to the Lakers.

Zhang Qi can see that these two elders should be completely put into storage, and the horses are put in Nanshan, they know that they can't fight hard, and now they are basically in a state of retirement.

But Koala Baby still has a lot to pursue, such as breaking through the playoffs to average 40+ points per game, which is his goal at this stage.

As a result, Zhang Fu played 38 minutes in the first game of the playoffs, scoring 50 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists, which was still his performance in the last five minutes, and the Rockets did not even let him go all out to score points.

The mood of Chinese fans may be a little tangled, if the Lakers are not playing against the Rockets, then everyone must support the Lakers and Zhang Mao.

But now it is the Rockets who are being abused, it is Wang Zhizhi, which makes some people's hearts not too comfortable, although it is not possible to talk about changing the way to Zhang Zhu and Lakers fans, but in addition to Zhang Zhu's personal fans, many Chinese fans must not be happy.

Wang Zhizhi's performance in the playoffs is the same as that of most rookies, in the face of the sudden increase in the intensity of confrontation, Wang Zhizhi, who was already at a disadvantage in this regard, is difficult to play well, only played 20 minutes in the whole game, got 2 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist, but there were 2 turnovers and 3 fouls, obviously the intensity of the confrontation could not keep up, making it difficult to play the technique.

Zhang's pre-game words came in handy, and he knew that the reason why most rookies would hit the streets in the playoffs was that their physical fitness couldn't keep up.

These rookies are pushing, rushing, and squeezing on a large scale in the playoffs, and it is difficult to complete the shooting with a normal posture and rhythm, and the referee will not give a foul, so their shooting percentage and state will naturally drop a lot.

In this case, unless it is a junior or senior player like Iverson and Duncan, most rookies will have to go through a year or two of physical training to adapt to the intensity of the playoffs.

The day before the Lakers' game, there were already two sets of duels in the east and west, including the Bulls vs Pistons, which Zhang Yu was very interested in, which was a big brother vs second brother game.

The Lakers coaching staff doesn't encourage teams to be distracted from the East right now, so most of the players are watching the games of the Western teams, and only Zhang Zhu ran to a separate room to watch the Bulls games, which really doesn't take the Rockets seriously.

Fortunately, this battle did not live up to his expectations, Pippen and Rodman were of course very red when they saw the Bulls, especially the "Big Bug" classmates, he insisted on asking for an explanation for himself and Pippen and Jackson before the game, even if the current Pistons are no match for the Bulls, he will fill the Bulls with darts.

Of course, this kind of remark doesn't even take Zhang Yi to heart, how can that guy be qualified to say these things, it's almost the same for Pippen.

The process of this game made Zhang Wei more satisfied, Rodman of course couldn't play pre-game rhetoric against Barkley, but was inserted into a dart by the big ass, but Pippen, who did not have a pre-game and amplified words, really completed the comprehensive suppression of Hill.

The specific process of the alignment of these two people does not need to be expressed more, and you can know the counterpoint performance of the two by just looking at the data.

Pippen scored 38 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals, which is Zhang's typical statistic this year. Looking at Hill again, he only has 18 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 steals, which is also in line with his consistent performance.

The performance of both of them is very comprehensive, but Pippen is obviously more impactful than Hill, and his scoring ability is much stronger, which is the advantage brought by his more comprehensive skills and playoff experience, Hill's side is obviously a lot more tender than Pippen in the playoffs, experience is one thing, but the lack of skill is the main reason. Especially under the new rules, breakthroughs and mid-range shots alone are not enough to kill all sides in the playoffs, otherwise why would Jordan and Pippen desperately strengthen their three-point shots.

But Bulls fans still don't worry about their team losing, as long as they don't face the Lakers, they all have a kind of calm that will never roll over.

Jordan broke out in the playoffs as usual this year, and the old gang leader scored 42 points in this battle, which not only proved to Pippen that "your big brother will always be your big brother", but also made Bulls fans begin to reflect on whether that trade was worth it?

Pippen's performance in this battle, coupled with Jordan and Barkley, is the combination that has the ability to beat the Lakers, and Hill is really not as good as Pippen at this stage.

The second brother returned to Chicago today and was not booed like Rodman, how to say that he is also a son, so many years of ups and downs, Bulls fans will not have no feelings for him. Judging from Pippen's performance after being traded to the Pistons, Hill still has some gaps with him in terms of immediacy, and if he wants to reach Pippen's current level, it will be at least two or three seasons later.

At this time, no one noticed the other pair's fight, and Rodman, who was much more high-profile than Pippen before the game, was beaten all over the head by a low-key big ass during the game.

This red-haired guy is really old, although his ability to grab rebounds is still one of the best, but after leaving the Bulls, without the diligent aura that Jordan attached, Rodman's downward speed is too fast.

The 37-year-old Rodman can still maintain a super blue-collar level with the Bulls, all because of Jordan's environment and the team's environment, this guy is a player who is easily affected by the environment around him.

There are many such people in the NBA, and if Rodman is sent to a disciplined team like the Lakers and Bulls, or a team with outstanding leadership and charisma as a core player, then although he still looks unreliable, he can work hard for the same goal as the team, and his motivation will not be worse than anyone else. But on the other hand, if you send him to a team like the Trail Blazers, or a team bent on messing up, then he is no less indulgent than anyone else.

The current Pistons are a team without goals, they can make the playoffs because the rest of the teams are worse, and Pippen's excellent performance, it can be said that this Pistons are completely brought into the playoffs by Pippen, and the second brother really has excellent ability to lead the team.

But the problem is that Rodman and Pippen's personal relationship is not good, and there are Jordan and Zen master as a buffer when he is in the Bulls, but it is different in the Pistons, Pippen can't control Rodman at all, and the result is that this 37-year-old guy rarely clocks in on time in training, and his diet and private life are even more indulgent, and he has had a nightclub fight and drunk driving in Detroit in just a few months, which is strange to be able to stay in shape.

Today, Barkley, whether he plays bright or dark, can basically blow Rodman out of the, and even the rebounds put Rodman at a disadvantage, the comparison of the data of the two is - 25 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists; 2 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists.

This time, the "big bug" classmates faced the big ass classmates, and they were really abused!

Zhang Qi knows why Rodman is always intimidated by Barkley, and it has something to do with O'Neal.

These three people have a lot of grudges against each other, have fought countless verbal fights with each other, and have had many physical fights, but they have always been within the controllable range. Before last year, O'Neal did not have any particularly face-losing scenes against Rodman and Barkley, and with his giant figure, he often took advantage of some small advantages.

But it's not the same since last year, Barkley in the Rockets last year smashed O'Neal with the ball in the game against the Clippers, such a huge conflict of course directly turned into a brawl between the two, although Barkley was 15 centimeters shorter than O'Neal and weighed 50 pounds, but the shark was still directly overturned by the flying pig to the ground, a violent beating. Although the game was lost, it made Barkley famous, and he was the only player who dared to face O'Neal and win.

Rodman has been even more scared of Barkley since then, because he didn't dare to go straight to O'Neal anal, at most he teased the other party with small movements and secretly elbowed, but Barkley's battle was so classic that even O'Neal was very jealous of Barkley's force value.

According to rumors within the Clippers, O'Neal once drank too much in a nightclub and said: In terms of technique, he only serves Olajuwon; In terms of talent and sassy words, he only serves koala babies; But when it comes to fighting, although O'Neal didn't say it, it is said that it happened to be after the Clippers defeated the Rockets at home that day, and it was obvious that the Sharks only obeyed Barkley in this regard.

Speaking of Rodman and Barkley, he became jealous of the big ass even earlier - Barkley played for the 76ers in the early days, and the 76ers' owner at the time was not a big deal, so he even bet on whether Barkley would dare to beat Ranbier.

Everyone knows that Rodman's eldest brother was Ranbier at that time, and the "big worm" had feelings for Ranbir as a big brother + mentor + idol, but in a game not long after, Barkley clashed with Ranbier and beat Ranbier.

I have to say that Barkley's fighting career is so direct, which also casts a shadow on Rodman psychologically, and he rarely wins against Barkley, how can he not be afraid of Barkley.

This time, Barkley was still used to teaching Rodman a lesson with his back, and he used his ass to push Rodman's balls in; And every time he was scrambling for rebounds, Rodman always found himself out of position, unable to control his balance, and it was good that he only had two rebounds.

In the remaining three matchups yesterday, the Jazz beat the Trail Blazers at home, the Clippers narrowly beat the SuperSonics in overtime at home, and the Knicks beat the Hawks by a narrow margin at home.

In these three games, the Jazz did not give the Trail Blazers any chance at home, and the point difference has always remained in double digits, and the new "Utah Three" as the only team to score 2:2 with the Lakers in the regular season, the second seed is by no means in vain, and eighty percent of this round of the series is also a sweep.

The Clippers vs. SuperSonics matchup is an important game for the Lakers to watch together, as the winner of the two teams will be their opponents in the next round.

These two teams can be said to be half a catty against eight taels in terms of strength, and the regular season record is also 2:2, it is difficult to say who will successfully stand in front of the Lakers in the end. But one thing is for sure, no matter who stands in front of the Lakers on these two teams, I am afraid that there will only be residual blood left. The first matchup between the two teams was decided in extra time, proving that this group of matchups will be a long battle.

Zhang Qian thinks that the Clippers will have a better chance of winning, and if Kemp doesn't swap with Wenbaker, it's hard to say. But in the playoffs, Wenbeck's strength in playing hard battles is still a little worse. O'Neal was a little more dominant than Payton in key moments. Coupled with the fact that the Clippers have a Zen master at the helm, it is likely that the Clippers will win in the end. And the league should also want to see the Lakers vs Clippers, so that there are more ratings.

After the Lakers defeated the Rockets in the first game, the other three sets of matchups today were also quickly decided.

The Spurs faced the Timberwolves did not form a crushing situation as everyone expected before the game, many people underestimated the interior combination of Garnett and Gugliotta, and did not expect Marbury to play a real All-Star performance in the playoffs, plus Terry Porter, Anthony Peeler, Sam Mitchell, three practical role players who can compete for the best sixth man, the Spurs almost overturned at home, and they relied on the home whistle to blow Garnett down to keep the home court in overtime.

In this game, the Lakers didn't go to watch it, and Zhang Qian didn't know until the next day that Garnett actually cut 34 points and 16 rebounds, Marbury also scored 26 points and 145 assists, and the last 7 Timberwolves made a double-double, and the two teams played the highest score of the day at 126:125.

This made him impressed with Garnett and Marbury, especially since Marbury was on his watchlist and rushed to the top 15 for the first time.

Zhang Wei knows that even a highlight performance in the playoffs must have a high enough gold content, otherwise you let Cookac have a 30+ look in the playoffs.

In the other two games yesterday, the Heat beat the Bullets at home and the Pacers narrowly beat the Cavaliers at home.

But none of these teams are on the Lakers' watchlist, and the teams in the East only need to look at the Bulls. Everyone knows that no matter how you play, the Bulls will definitely make it to the Finals in the end. But in the Western Conference, even if the Lakers are unstoppable, there is still a Jazz who can create some suspense, and the Clippers, Spurs, and SuperSonics are not all hopeful, at most they are just nine deaths.

A day later, the Bulls continued to play the Pistons at home, but this time the battle was not as intense as the first game, and Pippen couldn't score 40+ per game. The second brother Pi, who was targeted in this game, only scored 16 points, although there were still 8 rebounds and 8 assists, but the Pistons, who were unable to support themselves, needed to score more, and finally were abused by the Bulls for 26 points, basically saying goodbye to this season.

The Knicks, for their part, continued to wear out their opponents with a sleepy score of 77-72 under the leadership of Van Gundy. However, after Ewing's return, the Knicks have returned to their former level of a strong team, and they have the ability to use their paranoid defense to cause a little trouble for the next round of obsessed offensive Bulls, but that's all.

On the Western Conference side, the Jazz still didn't give the Trail Blazers a chance, the New Utah Sansha took out the prison team in only three quarters this time, and Rasheed Wallace even chose to apply for a red card in the third quarter.

Zhang Wei has another interpretation of this, although such behavior seems very irrational, but it is the dissatisfaction with the team's lack of fighting spirit that will choose an inappropriate way for this grumpy young interior player to get off the court. This also shows that he actually wants to win, but the way he handles things is too stupid.

Jerry West has now drawn a red line on the name of Rasheed Wallace, a young interior player who was one of the Lakers' backup plans in the first place. Now that Mason has let his form begin to slip, the man can return to their field of vision. Just as Rasheed Wallace's rookie contract expires next year, the Lakers can fully observe.

The final matchup was between the Clippers and the SuperSonics, a game that made the Lakers the happiest because the SuperSonics managed to beat the Clippers on the road, which made the Lakers players and coaching staff celebrate with two bottles of champagne on the spot.

The Clippers lost Game 2 in the backcourt, which was a sign in the previous game.

Cassel was of course blown out against Payton, both games. Finley is still not integrated into the Clippers system. Kobe Bryant, who played well in the first game, was limited by age and experience, and his performance in the playoffs was inconsistent, although the first game was very impressive, but the second game against Stackhouse has been at a disadvantage. As a result, the Clippers' backcourt trio was wiped out. Even though O'Neal was invincible on the inside, playing 45 minutes and cutting down 43 points, 14 rebounds and 4 blocks, the Clippers still lost to the SuperSonics at home.

The next day, the Lakers' game was put at the end this time.

The game between the Spurs and the Timberwolves started first, this time Popovich successfully limited Marbury, who exploded in the first game, and Garnett exchanged hands with each other under Duncan's strict defense, but the two Robinsons of the Spurs were full of firepower, and the Timberwolves lacked foundation after all, and it was difficult to resist under the combination punches sent by the Spurs, and was directly taken away by a wave, this battle should be Popovich's victory.

The two games in the East were still not much to watch, with the Heat beating the Bullets and the Pacers beating the Cavaliers.

In the end, of course, it was the much-anticipated Lakers who came out.

However, the Rockets couldn't catch the play at all, and the big coach in the second game accidentally opened the hanging, ran rampant in the restricted area, and scored 40 points in the first three quarters, and the Lakers were 2-0.

This made Zhang Wei a little uncomfortable, and there was a feeling of "you fell down before I could contribute".