"Six 40+ games in a row is enough, and we're going to end his record tonight."

These words were said by "Gorilla" Ewing before the game, and the self-confidence of the New York gangs seems to be good when they run to Los Angeles.

The Knicks have been in amazing form recently, and their 7-game winning streak has given them such confidence, especially in the last four games, the New Yorkers have been spinning around in the West, and they have successively knocked down the three strong teams of the SuperSonics, Rockets, and Clippers, and they don't feel invincible against the Lakers today.

"It just so happens that I like warriors with hearts, and I will never let them expire."

Zhang Qi actually doesn't want to respond to this kind of provocation, and a team like the Knicks that relies on the inside to play people and put black guns on the outside, the Lakers are not afraid of you.

The other day, when the Lakers played the Nuggets, Mutombo came in handy, and now against the Knicks, the Lakers are also ready to let Mason play a major role.

Mason cherishes this opportunity, and although he is not satisfied with his role getting lighter, the Lakers' record is getting better and better, which shows that the team did not reuse him.

The reality is really harsh, and now as Kidd gets more and more into shape on the offensive end, Mason's role is being used more defensively.

Before the Knicks, the stats of the Lakers' main players had changed a lot -

Zhang Fu: Averaged 32.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game.

Kidd: 14.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game.

Starks: 14.1 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.

Finley: 13.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.

Mutombo: 13.0 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game.

Mason: Averaged 12.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.

It's clear from this stat that Mason's importance in the team has greatly diminished, scoring is not even as good as Mutombo's, his playmaking skills have been a bit redundant since Kidd's arrival, and the Lakers now need more of his mid-range ball and shooting offense, as well as a tough low-post defense.

Mason has a certain mid-range shooting and ball handling ability, but he is not first-class, his strength is more in all-round, basically everything, but if you want to say what you are most proficient in, think about it, his low-post one-on-one defense is more important to the Lakers.

Today, Mason showed his ability to defend in the low post, whether it is Oakley or Larry Johnson, whoever plays inside will be subjected to Mason's close hand-to-hand combat.

Zhang Yu shouted very happily before the game, but he rarely went to the inside to participate in the game, he knew that the New York gangs were not ordinary black, and they should be careful with this kind of team, and let their teammates carry the dangerous work, they do this job, and he himself is mostly active in the middle and outside the three-point line, and the second is to concentrate on playing defensive counterattacks.

The Lakers' tactics today are very targeted, and the Knicks' lineup is good at playing positional battles, but as soon as the tempo picks up, they can't bear it. Especially Larry Johnson, who plays the No. 3 position, he is not afraid of Zhang Mao's physical confrontation in the positional battle, and can even fight back, but as soon as the two teams move, "Big Mom" will definitely be shown by Zhang Mao.

The Knicks' lineup is outrageously slow, and after 20 years, I am afraid that they will be hammered by various small-ball teams, especially the ability to deal with defensive counterattacks, even if it is a little powerless in this era. The Lakers' three outside players are all players with an advantage in speed, even if Kidd's absolute speed is not top-notch, but his speed on the ball can fully make up for this weakness.

In the first quarter, the Lakers kept attacking the Knicks with their advantages, even if the number of iron was higher than usual, they were not too worried, after all, their own defense was not bad, and it was very difficult for the Knicks to score 100 points on the Lakers, but as long as the Lakers did not fight with the Knicks under the basket, the feeling was not too bad, and it was not difficult to score 100 points.

The score was 26:23, the Lakers didn't lead much in the first quarter, although they played their own counterattack tactics, but the Knicks' defensive actions were too fierce, and they used ferocious defense to affect the feel of the Lakers players, and even Zhang Zhu only shot 2 of 6 in the first quarter, and only scored 7 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

Harris said: The shooting percentage is nothing, I am low and you are not high, but if you move big, you will have to pay more fouls.

Zhang, Kidd and Finley were dropped as soon as they got to the basket in the first quarter, and the Knicks paid the price for seven fouls, which laid the foundation for the rest of their game.

Koala baby fans are now more concerned about their idol's scoring data, and only scoring 7 points in the first quarter is not a good sign, and in this game, Zhang Mao's streak of 40+ is likely to be interrupted.

The second quarter of the game responded to this speculation, and Zhang was about to be put to the ground by a gang of Knicks as soon as he got inside.

Looking at it this way, the Knicks should have planned in advance, even if it costs a foul, not to let the koala baby score easily in the restricted area.

In the second quarter, in order to cope with the Lakers' defensive counterattack, Van Gundy chose to sacrifice the frontcourt rebounding scramble, strengthen the speed of defense, and reduce the threat of the Lakers' fast-break counterattack.

Fans can see that both teams are not comfortable playing today, especially Lakers fans find it very difficult for their team to score on the inside, but it is not easy to score on the outside.

Today, as long as the TV broadcast gives a close-up shot of the field, the fans can see that the muscles of the players on the field are all bulging as if they are inflated, which shows that everyone is fighting with all their strength. And this state of muscle tension will undoubtedly make the player's hand feel seriously affected, and the more muscular the player, the greater the impact.

In the first half, neither team scored more than 50 points, and the Lakers led the Knicks by three points at 49:46, and the advantage was still slim.

Zhang Yu only contributed 12 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in the first half, and his shooting percentage dropped to 4 of 12 shots, but he didn't have a good way, this kind of game is a competition of hard power, not only testing the physical talent of their respective players, experience, technology, team cooperation, and even the coach's coaching ability, or a key penalty, can affect the entire game.

The game is a stalemate, and someone has to step up and break it!

This is the key to victory that both sides know, but the Lakers' sixth man, Starks, was also targeted enough today, Mason didn't have to pick on defense, but it was difficult to make a difference on the offensive end, and these two veterans were too familiar to the Knicks.

Zhang has a mediocre touch today, but he can still attract a lot of defense from the outside, and he can also get in and make fouls, which has created enough opportunities for his teammates, but these people lack a little aggression.

Harris can see that Zhang and the Knicks are holding each other down, as long as one or two Lakers players around him step up to break the deadlock, the Knicks' entire defense will be breached, and Zhang will be freed up, and then he can take away the opponent with just one outburst.

In the second half, Kidd stepped up with the expectations of the manager and the heart of the team.

The Knicks' defense couldn't take care of Kidd from the beginning, but this guy's desire to attack in the first half was not strong, and the Knicks' defense didn't collapse.

Kidd has always been like this, his big picture is supposed to be outstanding, but I don't know why, he just doesn't want to take the initiative to take responsibility for the offense, and he will become more resolute until the manager asks him to attack.

Van Exel's breakthrough is more aggressive, Kidd's breakthrough is more cunning, he knows where to break and how to seize the moment, this style of style does have a bit of a struggle to expect him to break the point, but when his teammates have already involved enough defence, Kidd's breakthrough can be the most threatening.

In the third quarter, Kidd scored 11 points for the Lakers, which was already a super-level performance for him.

The Knicks' response was to rather let Kidd cut the points than defend the restricted area and not let Zhang Fu be liberated. At the same time, the New Yorkers did not lag too far behind on the offensive end, and they were able to defeat three Western Conference powerhouses in succession, not only by the impregnable defense of the interior line, but also by the team's hot hand on the outside.

Alan Houston's leading perimeter attack group played at a very high level in the third quarter, and the sharpshooter who joined from the Pistons swept away the slump this season, shooting 4-of-6 from three-point range today, and has scored 20 points in the third quarter.

This season's Knicks did not run in well in the first half of the schedule, and the newcomers Alan Houston and Larry Johnson both fell sharply from last season, apparently the chemistry after the trade went wrong, resulting in their defense Although there is no problem, there will always be one or two major attackers in each game, which is the crux of limiting the Knicks' performance this season.

But on the flip side, as long as a few of the Knicks' offensive players play to their level, especially the outside shooters, the team won't be able to cope.

Zhang Qi has struggled to break out in the first three quarters, and has only 16 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists so far, which is a bit low for him, especially the shooting percentage of 5 of 15 is worrying. If it goes on like this, how can he get 40+ points? Do you expect to score 24 points in the last one?

The answer is: overtime!

The Lakers didn't play much overtime this season, but the overtime with the SuperSonics a few days ago allowed Zhang Mao's 40+ to continue, and today's Knicks are not easy to clean up, in addition to Alan Houston outbursting in the third quarter, Ewing also played a 10-point performance in the fourth quarter.

Mutombo held on for three quarters, but in the fourth quarter "The Gorilla" found his chance.

Mason hit a key three-pointer with 31 seconds left to give the Lakers a two-point lead over the Knicks.

Oakley has already committed six fouls, and the Lakers seem to have the win, but they didn't expect former All-Star interior Buck Williams to grab a key frontcourt rebound in the last 11 seconds to help the Knicks equalize and the game go into overtime.

The Lakers still couldn't break the Knicks' solid defense in overtime, and the 34-year-old young coach had a brush on adjusting his defense, although it was a bit monotonous on the offensive end.

Ewing, Big Mom and Buck all shrank in the restricted area to defend, Zhang Qiu and Finley's three-point shots were supposed to be sharp weapons to break the turtle formation, but neither of them had a touch today, but Kidd shot 2 of 4 three-point shots, but it didn't work, because he didn't dare to shoot more.

However, the Knicks have a serious hidden problem, their problem of too many fouls in regular time finally broke out in overtime, Oakley's side has taken the first step in the fourth quarter, and Big Mom has to leave the stage until overtime, and then the Knicks' two interior defensive giants all played GG.

Zhang Yu was finally happy, Oakley and Auntie's defense was too fierce, which seriously affected his breakthrough, and now the two of them were GG, and he was equivalent to unloading the two 50-pound weight bags on his body.

However, Mason quickly followed suit, Kidd's performance in overtime also took a sharp turn, and Ewing and Houston on the other side were in full swing, and the Lakers relied on the excellent performance of Zhang Yu in overtime to drag the game to the second overtime.

The score was 103:103, and both sides played an overtime, and their respective scores were just over 100, which shows that the main theme of this game is "defense".

Zhang finally improved his personal data to 30 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists through his recovery performance in the first overtime, but there is still a distance from 40 points, and it is not easy to score 10 and a half points in the five minutes of the second overtime.

Especially as he is about to enter the second overtime, Zhang has already played 48 minutes, and after the second overtime, he is likely to break his career appearance record.

Van Gundy would never think so, the Knicks' interior line is about to be wiped out, and now even Ewing and Houston have each received five fouls, but Uncle Mu only has four fouls, I really don't know how this old thing controls the number of fouls?

Mutombo is indeed a bit of a demon, the Knicks have been focusing on the interior today, but he can control the number of fouls to this point, and it is really not good to be unconvinced!

However, the bigger problem for the Knicks is that Ewing and Houston no longer have much physical strength, but the Lakers still have the strength to fight one last time, not only Mutombo's footsteps are still solid, Kidd, Finley and Starks can all run, of course, the most perverted is Zhang Fu, he can still stage a dragon counterattack after the break in the first overtime, I really don't know what he grew up eating?

Foul crisis + physical problems, when the Knicks, who were playing away, were dragged to the second overtime by the Lakers, they were basically GG.

The Lakers didn't play well in regular time, mainly because they felt too bad, but the Knicks were in good shape.

But the second overtime was completely different, Zhang took only one minute to knock Houston down with five fouls, and cut off the Knicks' best outside output point.

Now the Knicks are only left with the physically exhausted Ewing and the aging Buck to guard the restricted area, they can no longer hold the impact of Zhang Mao, the entire restricted area is completely lost, the gorilla was even attacked from the side by Big Ben on the offensive end, and then was slapped down by Mutombo, and the morale of the entire Knicks team instantly fell to the bottom.

The Lakers seized the opportunity to bombard the Knicks indiscriminately, hitting a 14-0 attack wave in the first four minutes of the second overtime, and nearly kept the Knicks clean.

The New Yorkers can only helplessly play GG, their lineup really can't hold up in the late game, even if there is no foul problem, a bunch of muscle sticks + hand-to-hand fighting, how can they not last more than 50 minutes of high-intensity games, regular time or the first overtime can't win the Lakers, the Knicks can only be hammered in the late stage.

Zhang Fu's fans are still concerned about his stats, and the koala baby faced the exhausted Knicks, and finally made a big show in the second overtime, knocking the exhausted Knicks out of a hole, and almost popping up a "Holy· Shit".

Of the 16 points scored by the Lakers in these five minutes, 10 points were scored by Zhang Yu alone, no more, no less, just to bring his personal score to 40 points, and also to bring his consecutive 40+ record to 7 games.

"It's not that the strong will win, but that the winner will be strong, and we are better than them, that's all."

Zhang Qi began to pretend to be forced again after the game, forgetting that he only shot in the early 30% in the first four quarters, even if he added two overtimes, his shooting rate was less than 40%, although the data of 40 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks was very eye-catching.

One mouth is so arrogant, of course the reporter has to question his hit rate.

"I'm not a woman, but there are a few days a month when I'm in a bad mood, which makes my hand feel worse, and maybe that's why some people have a chance to take advantage of it, but it also makes the game a little suspenseful."

Zhang Qi has repeatedly broken records during this time, and he is slightly more aggressive when answering questions.

However, the discord at the post-game press conference ended here, and the Lakers' press officers then chose to ask questions from local media in Los Angeles, and they asked questions that Zhang was willing to answer.

The next day, Zhang Yi flipped through the newspaper and found that it was all about reporting his 7 consecutive 40+ news, which was a bit unexpected to him.

Zhang Wei may not know himself, what does his 7 consecutive games of 40+ mean?

No one in NBA history has ever played like this except for Chamberlain and Jordan, and that alone is awesome enough.

However, he knew that his 7 consecutive 40+ games were almost at the limit.

Originally, his record should have been broken in this game against the Knicks, but good luck allowed him to extend it for another second. However, after a day of rest, the Lakers will go to the road to play against the Rockets, and the Lakers, who have just played two overtimes, will not be in too good shape at that time.

Although the three elders of the Rockets had injuries some time ago, they have all come back now, even if the Lakers can get through the difficulties on the road, it is still too difficult for Zhang Mao to get 40+ again.

The outcome of the game was similar to what he expected, and it was another game that focused on defense, and although the Lakers even had some advantage on the court, the Rockets killed the Lakers at home with a three-point shot of 11-of-22, who shot just 7-of-23 from three-point range.

Don't look at the difference between the four three-pointers, but in this kind of strong conversation, it is enough to tilt the balance of victory in the Rockets' favor.

With a final score of 96:100, the Lakers fell to the finish line and suffered their sixth defeat of the season in Houston.

Zhang Qi cut 30 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals and 1 block, but his 7 consecutive 40+ games were cut off, fortunately, the Lakers' record is still in the safe zone, the 48-6 record means that the Lakers have to match or surpass the Bulls and have 5 and 4 games of margin for error, and Zhang Zhu's task still has 6 games of margin for error.

On Wednesday, the league announced its Player of the Week award a day later than usual, apparently considering whether to give the koala baby three consecutive Player of the Week awards, the only honor in the league's history.

Zhang Mao played three games last week, winning all of them, averaging 44.6 points, 9 rebounds, 6.6 rebounds and 3.6 steals per game, and that 50+ game helped him add a lot of points, and the shooting rate reached 56%, basically unable to find any faults.

As for the other stars in the league, the two best performers this week were Pippen and Coren Robinson, the former averaging 31 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 steals per game, and the latter averaging 33 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 1.3 steals per game, with a record of winning all three games and two wins of three games.

This made the league very embarrassed, Zhang Zhu's data completely crushed the "big dog" Robinson, not only scoring 11 points per game higher, but also nearly 3 more assists and nearly three times more steals, no matter how you look at it, you can't compare the two together; Pippen wasn't much better, with rebounds, assists, steals and steals about the same, but he was averaging as many as 13 points per game, which was a bigger gap than Robinson.

What else can be done about this, the league wants to make a balance, but Zhang Mao's data breaks the balance.

On February 27, the Lakers beat the Washington bullets 118-106 away.

On February 28, the Lakers defeated the Atlanta Hawks 95-91 on the road.

After back-to-back wins over the Hawks, the Lakers' February schedule is over, and the East and West regions together have four teams in the playoffs ahead of schedule, and the 96-97 season has begun to enter the final sprint.

Western Division Rankings –

1. Los Angeles Lakers (50-6).

2. Utah Jazz (46-10).

3. Los Angeles Clippers (42-14).

4. Houston Rockets (41-15).

5. Seattle SuperSonics (38-18).

6. Portland Trail Blazers (32-24).

Eastern Division Rankings –

1. Chicago Bulls (47-9).

2. Miami Heat (40-16).

3. New York Knicks (35-21).

4. Detroit Pistons (32-24).