On June 7, the first game of the Finals was held at the Staples Center Arena, the home of the Lakers.

As soon as the game opened, O'Neal succeeded in the key position under the basket, and then dunked Da Yao to win!

Lakers fans cheered!

O'Neill provoked Li Wei on the sidelines: "Come up and cap me!" ”

Li Wei ignored him.

Cap O'Neill? Are you kidding!

This kind of unattainable thing, once is enough!

Besides, the more arrogant O'Neill is, the more it shows that he is panicked.

What if you're the No. 1 center in the NBA? What if it's an MVP? What about leading the team to 67 wins?

If you have eaten my big hat, you have eaten my big hat, and you have eaten my hat for the rest of your life!

So Li Wei ignored him, which must have made his heart even more blocked!

In the third round, O'Neill scored again and continued to provoke Li Wei: "Come up and cap me!" ”

Li Wei still ignored it!

In this game, O'Neal started well, but was limited by Da Yao and Nesterovic in the back, only 10 of 22 shots, scoring 26 points and 12 rebounds.

For others, 26 points and 12 rebounds are definitely very good statistics, but for peak O'Neal, this is really an abnormal performance.

As for 10 of 22 shots, for outside players, it is also accurate, but for peak O'Neal, the shooting rate is less than 50%, which is also an abnormal performance!

However, although O'Neal didn't play well, the Lakers relied on home-court advantage to win this battle with difficulty!

After the game, the Los Angeles media was a little uneasy, they felt that if Da Yao and Nesterovic could continue today's performance and limit O'Neal to a certain extent, the Lakers would really be in danger of being overturned by the Knicks!

In the face of the media's doubts, the big shark O'Neill was very disdainful: "Just because they want to prevent me? It's just that I'm not in good shape today! ”

In the second game, O'Neal broke out, facing the top defense of Da Yao, Ouchi, and the bags of other Knicks players, his movements were as fast as lightning, and he repeatedly succeeded in strong attacks!

Li Wei had no choice but to sacrifice the shark cutting tactic.

O'Neal's career shooting rate is 58.2%, but the free throw shooting rate is only 52.7%, so if you can't prevent him on the inside, it's really more cost-effective to cut than not to cut!

However, the drawbacks of the shark slashing tactic are also obvious.

O'Neal's free throw shooting percentage is usually around 50%, which means that one goal is usually scored in two free throws, which is an obvious point away. In addition, free throws can interrupt the game, thus giving the big shark more breathing time!

In other words, cutting the shark is completely putting the initiative in O'Neill's hands!

Li Wei doesn't advocate shark cutting, there is no way to use it today, so he has to use it.

The crazy shark slashing made the Lakers' offense fragmented, but it still didn't work!

O'Neal made 18 of 39 free throws, fortunately, he shot less than 50%, but unfortunately, he scored 18 points from the free throw line alone, and the whole game was 40 points, 24 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks!

Kobe Bryant also had a very good performance today, shooting 10-of-23 and scoring 28 points!

Under the leadership of O'Neal and Kobe, the Lakers defended their second home court and led 2:0!

After this battle, the Los Angeles media and the New York media exclaimed together that the big shark O'Neal is really unstoppable, and the Knicks are going to be eliminated!

Lakers fans are also complacent: I want to fight with our luxury division with 67 wins in the regular season and MVP, you Knicks are still too young!

On June 11, the third game of the finals was moved to New York and held at Madison Square Garden.

In this game, with the blessing of the strong home whistle, O'Neal left the court with six fouls, and the Knicks pulled back a game!

On June 14, in the fourth game of the finals, the Knicks played extremely tenacious, and with the home whistle, the two teams were inseparable. In the final moments, the Knicks led by three points, but Glenn Rice hit a three-pointer from the buzzer!

The game was taken to overtime!

In overtime, Robert Horry, Rick Fox and others all played well, but the Knicks began to play iron!

In the end, the Lakers won the game 122-116!

3：1！

With a big score of 3:1, as long as the Lakers win one more game, they will be the champions of this year!

This time, even the New York media are optimistic about the Lakers, and the morale of the Knicks is unprecedentedly low!

On June 15, Li Wei announced a training camp for the whole team.

Looking at the spiritless crowd, he exclaimed, "3:1 scared you? Last year we had a 3:0 comeback! ”

"Isn't Duncan injured?" Someone whispered.

"Oh, if there are no wounded on the other side, you can't fight? Are any of you hurt? Stand up and show me! ”

The Knicks did have an injury, and that was Hornacek. Lao Huo suffered a recurrence of his knee injury in this round of the series, and now both joints are still edema, so Li Wei has compressed his playing time.

But at this moment, Hornacek will definitely not stand up, because he knows that Li Wei is cheering everyone on!

Li Weidao: "We can turn the tables 3:0, of course, we can also turn the tables 3:1, everyone should never underestimate the heart of a champion!"

In fact, the Lakers really beat us, only the second game, the first game O'Neal was very badly defended by us, they relied on the home whistle to win, the third game we won, and the fourth game was almost able to win. If it weren't for Glenn Rice's damn three-pointer, we'd be 2-2!

This year, we have 63 wins, the Trail Blazers only 59 wins, the Trail Blazers can win two games in a row after 3:1, drag the game into a tie-break, why can't we? ”

Kevin Garnett said: "David, we understand what you said, we must win the fifth battle!" ”

"Gotta win!" The others shouted in unison.

Li Weidao: "Do you know why the Trailblazers lost? Sabonis was sent off in the last game. We have Da Yao and Lasu two top defenses, and we will not panic at critical moments. Da Yao, Rasu, in fact, your defense against O'Neill has been very successful, as long as you are a little more ferocious, we can win! ”

"Good!" Da Yao and Rasu Nesterovich nodded in unison.

"Now, let me talk about the tactics of the fifth battle." Li Weidao.

On the occasion of the finals, everyone is very nervous, and Li Wei will not arrange too complicated tactics, because if it is too complicated, everyone will easily forget, and if they forget, they will be messed up.

Therefore, just play according to the usual routine, and the quality of the player's performance directly determines success or failure!

After some simple tactical arrangements, today's training is over and everyone goes back to rest.

On June 16, Game 5 of the finals continued at Madison Square Garden.

Before the game, the morale of the Knicks team was good, and Li Wei continued to cheer everyone up before entering: "You remember, we are the defending champions, we have experienced this kind of occasion, and the opposite side is just a rookie in the finals, as long as you stick to the end, it will definitely be them who panic, and they will be the ones who lose!" ”

"Yes!" The Knicks will all agree on the promise.

This year's Finals were again broadcast live across the United States by NBC, with Costas and his old partner, Doug Collins, standing on the sidelines.

The commentary bench at Madison Square Garden, of course, was the two Knicks commentators, Mike Brin and Walter Frazier.

On the other side of the ocean in the eastern hemisphere, the five sets of village women are still in charge of the world-famous Teacher Sun and Director Zhang!