The Lakers and Clippers are both star-studded teams, but there is still a certain gap in strength. The former entered the playoffs as the first in the West, and the Clippers struggled to gain home-court advantage. The gap on both ends of the floor has made it difficult for the Clippers to keep up with the Lakers' beat, which has doomed them to go far in this series.

There was not much suspense in the second half of the game, the Lakers used an airtight defense to let the Clippers lose points in continuous counterattacks, the latter's onslaught not only failed to narrow the score gap, but made their state worse, and finally surrendered even after failing to finish the third quarter, and the disadvantage of up to 25 points was pinched in the hands of the Lakers, and naturally the Clippers would not have a chance to turn the tables.

After the game, O'Neill couldn't hide his disappointment in an interview, "I don't seem to have hit two goals in a row, which is unacceptable." O'Neal also picked up a technical foul late in the third quarter for pushing Mutombo.

Mutombo scored 28 points in the third quarter by O'Neal today, but his defense around the front kept the dead fat man out of the Clippers' offensive system while not delaying his control of the restricted area.

Today, the Clippers' outside offense still can't hit the Lakers' paint zone, Kobe Bryant, Kassel, including Finley are still difficult to rush into the restricted area to score, and the Clippers' outside players don't even have a dunk when facing Mutombo's help and defense.

It's clear that Mutombo is still the best defender of the paint area in the current game, and this year's Defensive Player of the Year is still in his bag.

In fact, just keeping O'Neill out of the team system is already a big success. Because the core of a successful team is not only about scoring on its own, but also about destroying the opponent's defensive system, at least making the opponent's defense porous and creating more opportunities for teammates, but the Lakers' defense today clearly did not appear like that.

In this game, O'Neal's problem is that he can't apply his dominance and scoring ability under the basket to the whole team, he can't use his own play to activate his teammates, even if such a score really makes him get 40+, it will not help the whole game.

On the other hand, Zhang Zhu, he was watching the excitement for a lot of time today, but he suddenly strengthened his attack in a certain period of time, but it was the only two outbreaks tonight, and the koala baby made the team's lead from single digits to double digits, and then from double digits to 20+, which is equivalent to completing the final word in the two most critical stages, obviously this is the real field control ability and dominance.

Zhang did not play in the fourth quarter and only played 30 minutes in the game, but contributed an extremely efficient 24 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, in addition to a perfect performance of 4 steals.

"I'm not fighting alone, I've got a bunch of great teammates, the Lakers have the advantage in the rotation, and we have the experience and the energy that if they want to stop us, they're going to have to be lonely for at least the next two summers."

Zhang Mao's words made O'Neill and many players hate, of course, it is impossible not to go on vacation in the summer, this is their freedom, and no one can take away this freedom.

On the Clippers' side, in addition to O'Neal's 28 points, Kobe Bryant's performance in today's game can also be regarded as good, after all, in the face of the Lakers last season and this year's regular season, he can still score 18 points today, which is really not easy for a 19-year-old second-year guard.

Eddie Jones is a fourth-year player who is 6 years older, but only counting the one-on-one rounds between the two, Kobe Bryant is not actually inferior, the comparison of the two full-court statistics is 18 points: 19 points, Kobe Bryant only lost by one point. If it was against Starks, who had beaten him four times in a row last season, Bryant had the upper hand against his old rival today, with half of his 18 points coming against Starks.

If you look at it this way, Eddie Jones's defense has been very successful, and Kobe Bryant's progress is amazingly fast, if Kobe Bryant can have the upper hand against Jones next season, it doesn't seem to be too high now.

But this season, both Harris and Zhang have found themselves underestimating Eddie Jones' individual defensive ability, and he is fully capable of limiting Kobe Bryant to at least average level alone, and if his teammates can cooperate occasionally, then he can make Kobe Bryant not play much more efficiently.

As a result, the Lakers' strategy and changes in Game 2 are already on the horizon.

Of course, O'Neal has to let Mutombo continue to defend alone, but considering that the Clippers will definitely think of some countermeasures for the Lakers' forward defense after they go back, the Lakers players must provide more support to Mutombo in the second game, just like the sneak attack bag used in the first game of Zhang Mao, and he can't do it alone in the next game, Kidd also has to find an opportunity to do it.

But regardless, Harris is now confident of knocking out the Clippers. In the first game, they have figured out the details of the Clippers, and the OK combination at this stage cannot really threaten them, and now they can look at the Jazz and Spurs.

Results of the first game of the 1997 NBA Playoffs Division Semifinals:

Western Conference - Lakers (1) VS (0) Clippers; Jazz (1) VS (0) Spurs.

Eastern Conference – Bulls (1) VS (0) Knicks; Heat (1) VS () Pacers.

The next day, the Lakers players had popcorn and drinks ready to watch the second game between the Jazz and Spurs, but before this game, they had to watch the Bulls-Knicks game first.

There was nothing to mention in this game, the Knicks' offense struggled to break through the defense left by the Zen master, but Don Nelson's offense was enough to break down the Knicks' defense.

Van Gundy's tuned defensive system is almost perfect, but no matter how strong the shield is, if it is not filled by offense, there will be holes, and the Bulls just rely on the shining performance of the stars on the court to make this series no suspense.

Jordan 24 points, Hill 25 points, Barkley 20 points, the Bulls' Big Three collectively in this game, each of them had a few flashes to be on the highlights, Van Gundy's painstaking shield was shattered in this battle, and the individual ability of the star allowed the iron-blooded New Yorkers to reap only one defeat and honor.

This result is unsurprising, Zhang Qi feels that the Knicks may be able to win one or two games at the home whistle after returning to the home court, they are unlikely to win a fair battle, the gap in personal ability is too big, and the current Ewing and Big Mom are not at their peak, otherwise they can bite off a few bones from the Bulls.

Today's second game is the contest that the Lakers really care about, and the result of Malone's suspension was only added yesterday morning, and it seems that this kick makes the league unbearable.

Malone was suspended for one game, and the Jazz's interior line was only supported by McDyes, which can show how big the gap between him and Malone is.

I still remember that in the first half of the season, when McDaces didn't come to the Jazz, the Utah also defeated the Spurs Twin Towers after strengthening the outside line, and Malone did not fall behind at that time, and the Utah Twin Brakes' blocking and dismantling offense was still unstoppable even if it was the Twin Towers.

But today is different, the Spurs twin towers completely locked McDyce, and Stockton can only rely on his own outside line to launch an offense, which makes the scene a little bit of the flavor of the Suns later, but when I think of the Spurs in another time and space, the Spurs can always restrain the bombardment of the Suns, and today's Jazz is naturally restrained by the Spurs, and a Malone has seriously tilted the balance of victory and defeat.

"It seems that Marlon is still powerful!"

Zhang Qi saw that the Jazz team was pressed and beaten by the Spurs throughout the game, and he had to sigh that the postman who was almost killed by him, the name of the number one forward in history is really worthy of his name, once he has enough helpers around him, this guy can compete with himself and Jordan.

San Antonio fans have been clamoring that Duncan will surpass Malone in the future, Zhang Wei does not deny that Duncan has this potential, but at least the current Duncan is still a lot worse than Malone, and the gap in this is by no means five or six points of ability value can be explained.

The Spurs took advantage of Malone's suspension to pull one back on the road, but this made the gap between the two teams clearer.

In the next game, Malone will re-form a double-up front interior with McDyce, and if the Spurs can't win the game at home, the morale damage to their own side will be greater than 0:2 away. Because this will give birth to a thought in the hearts of Spurs players "We can't beat the Jazz with Malone", and at the same time, it will also give Jazz players absolute confidence, and they will give birth to the idea of "With Malone, we won't lose".

On May 6, the Lakers didn't have time to sum up too much for the Jazz and Spurs, and they were about to start Game 2 of the division semifinals with the Clippers.

Today, the spirit of the Zen master is not very good, the double eyelids have become single eyelids, and the eye sockets are almost black, obviously the sleep quality is a little low.

In the past two years, the reputation of the Zen master has dropped a lot, and the honor brought to him by the three consecutive championships cannot last for a lifetime, and Harris has become the hottest coach in one fell swoop in the past two years, although he is the same as the Zen master back then, he was ridiculed for relying on players to win the championship, not by his own true ability.

But let's be honest, if a basketball coach wants to win a championship, how many people in history don't rely on players? And what championship team doesn't have one or two superstars?

In basketball, superstars dominate everything, and the role of the head coach is of course, but it is far less important than that of a football coach.

Among the nearly 30 coaches in the NBA, having at least double-digit coaches to coach the Lakers will not be worse than Harris leading the team, just as there were many coaches who could win the championship if they coached the Bulls.

Therefore, the Zen master can't come up with much to help the Clippers defeat the strong with the weak, because it is the players who play a decisive role in any tactics, and if the players can't play tactical effects, no matter how good the coach is, it is useless.

Kobe Bryant was like this in this game, even O'Neal didn't play the performance expected by the Zen master, at least O'Neal couldn't let his teammates score easily after being trapped, you can say that this is because the Lakers' defense is too good, but as the strongest center in the game, you must have this ability, and Olajuwon didn't complain about his teammates' lack of effort when he won the championship.

Despite this, O'Neill was able to give his all in the second game, and there were signs of that from the first round. Now O'Neal has more enthusiasm in the game that he didn't have before, and he even frequently pulled out to cover Kobe and Kassel in the second game.

In the first quarter of the game today, fans were able to see a lot of this, O'Neal at least pulled out to make seven or eight off-ball screens for Cassell and Kobe, which was really positive for O'Neal, who had a high chance of scoring when he got the ball in the low post.

Kobe Bryant also tried his best, and many people have found that he is a player who can stimulate him and stimulate his desire to win the stronger the opponent in the game, which is exactly the same as Jordan did back then. But even the more mature Jordan couldn't break through the first round of the playoffs in the first three seasons, and the 19-year-old Kobe Bryant wanted to rely on his personal ability to go against the sky, which was naturally even more impossible, and Zhang Mao would never give him the opportunity to make the next mistake.

The biggest turning point in this game occurred in the first quarter, and it can even be said that it was this turn that allowed the Lakers to determine the victory early, making the next three quarters of the game and even the entire series become no suspense.

There were 3 minutes left in the first quarter of the game, and Kidd's three-point shot almost hit him, and of course no one among the Lakers players could have expected this kind of miraculous situation, Kobe Bryant grabbed the rebound and launched a counterattack directly, only Kidd and Zhang Wei had time to chase after him, but both were two or three steps away from him.

Generally speaking, such a fast break in the NBA is basically impossible to stop, so Kidd gave up treatment after chasing halftime, and he was not known for his speed.

But Zhang Zhu was still desperately chasing back behind him, and what made the fans not even dare to breathe was that Zhang Zhu actually narrowed the gap between the two after rushing through the half. Fans saw that Zhang Qi ran as fast as a 100-meter flyer after full speed, and every step he took could shorten the distance between the two, and when they both rushed to the three-point line, Kobe Bryant was only one position ahead.

Bryant's senses were keen, and after he took off, he noticed something unusual behind him, and a terrifying pressure came at him, so he chose the safest two-handed dunk.

But this kind of security is really useless in the eyes of the eight players behind them whose eyeballs are about to fall out.

Zhang Qi and Kobe Bryant jumped at the same time, and Kobe, who did not have long eyes in the back of his head, whether it was the speed of the bullet or the height of the jump, of course, was far inferior to Zhang Zhu, who had accumulated most of the court from behind and exerted all his strength. And this time, the koala baby who flew to the highest point was really flat-framed, he could fully reach the height of the rebound with one head, and grabbed Kobe's two-handed dunk directly into his own hand in the air, and the two people at that moment were like carrying out a hand-to-hand air relay.

But since all of this was done in the blink of an eye, when Zhang Mao took the ball into his hands, he probably didn't feel the shock of the block. It wasn't until Bryant lost his balance and threw himself on the floor and Zhang rushed into the buffer zone like a Hummer that the contrast was a bit shocking, though nothing compared to the shock of seeing the slow-motion replay later.

O'Neal has grown his mouth long enough to swallow an apple at the moment, and the eight players on the court can clearly see the picture of Kobe Bryant's dunk being snatched from behind by Zhang Qi. At that time, Zhang Fu's jumping height felt almost half a body taller than Kobe, of course, the reality is not so exaggerated, this is the illusion created by the figure and arm span of the two, especially the impact. But at that moment, Zhang Qi really seemed to be riding on Kobe. And the fans at the scene and in front of the TV really knew through the replay how brutal Zhang Zhu's block was!

Fans can see through the slow-motion replay that Zhang Yu was jumping up and grabbing the hat on the top board, and there was no physical contact with Kobe Bryant until the two landed because of the instantaneous time difference, so there was no foul on this ball.

Kobe Bryant was like being knocked into the air by Zhang Mao, which was completely caused by inertia and loss of balance in his body.

After Zhang Fu completed the block, there was a more perverted action before landing, he actually turned around in the air and threw the basketball in the direction of his teammates, and then quickly adjusted his posture and rushed into the buffer zone. And during the whole process, the two still had no physical contact, and even touched the basketball first in the process of grabbing the basketball in the air.

After the referee repeatedly confirmed the video, of course he would not give Zhang Mao a foul for this block, which is a good hat!

"Death Cap!"

The commentators from all over the world said the same word in unison.

There is no doubt that this is a cap that is enough to make the capped person have a psychological shadow for a lifetime, and he must feel sorry for Kobe Bryant for a second, because this shot should become a nightmare-like existence, and it will always be repeated in his dreams.

"Boy, think of me whenever you dunk."

After Zhang Fu landed, he used the unmanned buffer area around the basketball hoop to unload the momentum, rushed to the audience, he had stabilized his body, and then immediately turned his head to look at Kobe Bryant who fell to the ground, and quickly ran back to make up for it. What's even more annoying is that he didn't have any intention of pulling up the other party, so he turned around and left in a dashing manner after dropping this sentence, leaving only Kobe Bryant, who was lying on the ground and couldn't react in his brain, and was stunned for several seconds before feeling the pain.