121：115

The Lakers narrowly beat the New York Knicks in double overtime at home. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

But Tony, who scored 38 points and 17 rebounds to lead the team to victory, didn't have much joy in his heart, and Ewing's words kept ringing in his ears throughout the post-game press conference.

In the time that followed, he saw with his own eyes that Ewing's legs were already trembling slightly due to physical exhaustion, but he still stood against Tony's body, forced a breakthrough through Tony's layup, missed, grabbed the rebound, missed the rebound, and then grabbed the rebound and finally made up for it.

Ewing was still sending a message of victory to the players in this situation, but what he didn't expect was that the rebound would be the Knicks' last goal of the game.

Trade rumours have been rife in recent seasons about Ewing, and the big man who was once beloved by New York fans has gradually lost his affection as he ages.

Ewing doesn't blame anyone, he didn't care when the media eliminated him from the position of the big four centers, but he hated his aging, hated the team's management's indifference, he had his own pride, he was the king of New York, so when he forced the team management to fire the old Nelson who tried to trade him, so he refused Toney's help.

In this game, he played 55 minutes, scored 35 points and 25 boards, and dragged the tired body and still young Tony to fight until the last moment, if nothing else, just to prove that he is still the super center he was at the beginning, and he does not deserve so much unfair treatment.

......

With a win over the Knicks, the Lakers have two more games on the road and they ended their February campaign.

With the All-Star Game over, every playoff team in the league or a team with a chance to make the playoffs is starting to kick in, and the playoffs will begin in late April, with some of the best teams trying to improve their divisional standings to gain home-court advantage, while those teams in ninth and tenth place will also give it a go for the playoffs.

The Lakers now have a record of 31 wins and 23 losses, and they are now ranked fourth in the West, which has exceeded the expectations of fans for the team at the beginning of the season, in front of the Lakers are the first Utah Jazz, the second Houston Rockets, and the third Seattle SuperSonics, they are some old strong teams, basically the ranking will not change much, and in fifth place is the Portland Trail Blazers, they now have a record of 28-26, and the Lakers are 3 wins behind, and there is no possibility of surpassing the Lakers in a short time.

The West is obviously not as competitive as the East, and even the Clippers, who now have a 22-28 record, have managed to finish in eighth place in the West, which is a bit surprising to everyone.

On February 25, the Lakers visited Houston.

In the face of the Rockets, who have shown their vicious fangs, everyone is not optimistic that the Lakers can win, and some people who hate the Lakers also predict that the Lakers will lose by more than 15 points.

This is not unfounded, you must know that the Rockets, who were swept in the Western Conference semifinals last season, have reassembled the Big Three this year, and their goal is to attack like the championship, and a team like the Lakers who only aim to enter the playoffs is naturally impossible to stop them.

However, to everyone's surprise, the Lakers showed a very good level of competition on the road in Houston, and the two sides fought until the last minute to decide the winner, and Olajuwon sealed the victory with two crucial free throws with seven seconds left in the game.

The score was 96:100

Bryant scored 20 points on 6-of-18 shooting, along with seven rebounds and three assists, while Tony finished with 19 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks on 7-of-10 shooting, and he wasn't bad.

But they couldn't stand the Rockets' big three, Charles Barkley shot 11 of 16, slashed 26 points, 17 rebounds and 5 assists, Olajuwon scored 25 points, 13 boards, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks on 9-of-19 shooting, and Drexler also accounted for the top points in the confrontation with Kobe, he scored 24 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists very efficiently on 7-of-11 shooting.

The Lakers didn't lose unjustly.

Then, on the last day of February, the Lakers took on the Atlanta Hawks, a powerhouse in the East, and lost again.

75：86

With neither side shooting too high, the Lakers lost by 11 points.

Kendibe Mutombo, an African mountain who is not known for his attack, blew up Tony in the opposite position with Tony.

He finished with 27 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks on 11-of-15 shooting, while Tony finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds and three assists on 6-of-11 shooting. Kobe Bryant was also very limited on the offensive end this time, and the Hawks' strategy was to prevent Kobe from receiving the ball as much as possible.

Bryant finished with 17 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals on 6-of-14 shooting, and he was separated from the team by the Hawks alone, and his performance was not enough to lead the team to victory.

In March, the Lakers' luck didn't get any better, and they were beaten again on March 2 against the Indiana Pacers, who are eighth in the East.

The Lakers scored just 85 points in the game under the Pacers' iron-clad defense, and their defense wasn't very good, allowing the Pacers to score 101 points.

Like the Hawks' strategy in the last game, the Pacers also adopted the method of letting Kobe Bryant score and locking up others, especially Toney.

Bryant was in no bad form, finishing with 28 points and five rebounds on 8-of-14 shooting and 6-of-7 three-pointers, but he made five turnovers with just one assist, and the Pacers' approach to the Lakers paid off.

Although Tony got 11 points and 18 rebounds, the team's offense couldn't be opened, and he couldn't make up for it, and no matter how many rebounds he grabbed, he couldn't make up for it.

A wave of consecutive defeats in this tense time is undoubtedly very demoralizing, and now the teams in the league have gradually figured out the Lakers' routines, and they have been able to take effective ways to deal with the Lakers, but Harris is also very helpless about this, he has no way to solve this problem, because the Lakers' ceiling is here, Kobe and Tony are still just rookies, they have only played for a short time, and they still need room to grow.

He believes that as long as the strength of these two little guys grows to the level of stars in another two years, such an approach will naturally be difficult for the Lakers.

Fortunately, the Lakers' next opponent is the Dallas Mavericks, and the Lakers can use them to regain their confidence.

The Mavericks, who have a 19-37 record so far this season, easily beat them 102-92.

Kobe Bryant played a very crazy game, he kept shooting as if he wanted to get out of the anger of the previous few losses, he made 20 shots in the game, hit 11 balls, he went crazy and scored 37 points, and he shredded the Mavericks' outside line by himself.

And Tony finally won the first 20+10 since the Knicks, he shot as many as Kobe Bryant in the whole game, also 20 times, hit 7 shots, and cut down 22 points, 10 boards, 4 blocks and 2 assists.