Chapter 82: The Dullness of the First Battle
All the Wizards fans were completely in a frenzy, and all the Chinese who watched the NBA Finals live on TV began to get excited.
Gong Feng's statistics in the half reached 10 points and 6 assists, which is a statistic that an All-Star can only get in the Finals half, such a statistic undoubtedly hits back against those who think Gong Feng is not an All-Star yet.
Can the Wizards lead the Lakers by 15 points at halftime? Can a team that is considered a must-lose team in this series?
Everyone was excitedly waiting for the changes in the second half, and everyone thought that the Lakers would come out in the second half with all their housekeeping skills.
There were indeed a lot of changes in the second half, Gong Feng and other five people did not continue to play, Jordan, Hubert, Simmons, Leitner, and Haywood played.
Yes, you read that right, it was Haywood who played, not Oakley...... Phil felt bad the moment he saw Heywood playing!
Sure enough, when O'Neal was ready to single Heywood, Heywood ......
It was a foul, but it didn't foul at the beginning, but he stood up to O'Neal at the beginning and pressed the ball down hard when he couldn't stand it...... The foul was a bit big, and the referee warned Hywood after the penalty.
Under normal circumstances, Haywood might have been fouled, but these referees have been given clear instructions from above to take proper care of the Wizards, because the ratings of this Finals have set a new high this season!
23 vs. OK combinations, the gimmick in this is too attractive for everyone to watch this round of the finals!
The Lakers' home court ticket prices have once again hit a new high, and the first row is the most fierce...... Too many celebrities want to brush their faces at this time.
Jordan and OK will face off in the finals, can they still meet in the future?
With such an eye-catching finals, the league must want to play a few more games!
Do you know how difficult it was for the Wizards to win this first game? In all the predictions, the Wizards' victory in a Finals game is a rare event!
O'Neal rubbed his hands that were beaten very painfully, and went to the free throw line, which was already in a bad mood, and he didn't have a high free throw shooting rate, and he was already very unhappy...... In short, he didn't hit two free throws.
Heywood grabbed the rebound and immediately handed it to Hubert, why not Tyrone Lue? Of course, it's because the current Wizards are going to control the rhythm on the court, because the Wizards are going to play a triangle offense.
Where is there a triangle offense, it's just that after handing the ball to Jordan in the front court, all the players go to open up space.
In the face of Kobe's defense, Jordan, who has been resting for more than 30 minutes, is too firepower, if he is quickly chased by the Lakers to score in this section of the game, Jordan will definitely guarantee that he will be on the front page tomorrow, and the first big word on the front page definitely describes that Jordan will never be at the peak of the past.
If such a report comes out after the first game of the finals, it is better to kill Jordan directly!
Collins knows Jordan too well, and he can use Jordan to the extreme!
The third quarter ended with O'Neal making free throws and a constant one-on-one with Jordan...... Although it is a little different from the ideas of many fans, watching Jordan and Kobe Bryant go head-to-head is also a beautiful picture that is almost impossible to see in the history of the finals!
But as time passed, Jackson, who was sitting on the sidelines, began to look darker and darker.
In this quarter of the game, Haywood had 4 fouls, Simmons 4 fouls, and even Hubert 4 fouls!
O'Neal scored 4 points on 4-of-12 free throws!
Fortunately, Kobe Bryant scored 10 points to save some face for the Lakers, but Jordan continued to lead the Wizards forward with a 6-of-14 shooting after a full quarter, and Lightner also scored 7 points against Horry's defense.
Both old men were completely in a desperate state at this time.
The two sides were tied in the third quarter, but the Wizards still led the Lakers by 15 points, although the cost of this was that Jordan and Leitner were tired enough.
However, the Lakers' distraction in the fourth quarter also became completely different.
In the fourth quarter, Gong Feng and others played again, but the same as in the second quarter, Oakley and Kwame played at the same time......
This led directly to one thing, and that was that O'Neal began to become completely helpless in this game.
Kwame's height, bounce and mid-range shooting can all be played as a power forward, and the Lakers can't grasp this shortcoming.
Although the Lakers still closed the score in the end, the Wizards still won the game with a score of 107-100 at their own pace.
A victory that surprised everyone!
After this game, Phil who was interviewed? Although Jackson's face was very ugly, he still made a statement about this defeat of the Lakers!
"We did so little preparation before the game, and the loss of this game was a dereliction of duty for me and a dereliction of duty for all the coaching staff of the Lakers."
"Although the seven games in the West took us too much energy, we didn't prepare well for this round of the Finals...... But if you lose, you lose, and the Lakers won't continue to find reasons to shirk if they lose! ”
"But rest assured, the Lakers will not neglect the second game if they neglect one game, we will put all our energy into the second game, and we will show the same attitude as we will deal with the Finals opponent to deal with the Washington Wizards!"
Collins did not refute Jackson's meaning at the press conference, although Jackson still showed in his words that the Lakers have confidence in winning this round of the Finals and take all the responsibility, but in terms of whether they are ready for the game, the Wizards have indeed done a lot of preparation, and the Lakers seem to have been immersed in the wave of carnival.
As for the stars, they didn't say much, although O'Neal still complained about the Wizards' shark-cutting tactics, but he still agreed very much with the strength of the Wizards, and O'Neal's complaints were more to win sympathy......
Yes! O'Neal is trying to win sympathy, which also means that the Lakers as a whole have noticed a small change in the league's penalty decisions for the Lakers, and the Lakers no longer get the obvious kind of care, which is not good news for the Lakers.
After the events that shook the world in September '01, there were so many things that the United States must have borne the brunt of the first wave of impacts, and many countries changed their policies as a result.
This incident has a certain obstruction effect on the global promotion of the NBA, and the reaction of the United States to the exclusion of other peoples is once again showing signs of rear-heading...... This series of things is exactly what the NBA's top brass is really afraid of.
The NBA needs another new growth point, and Jordan is undoubtedly an important part of it, and Gong Feng, who has lived in the United States for more than nine years and won three consecutive NCAA championships with a very broad public base, is also an important figure in promoting globalization.
Kwame, who entered the NBA in his first season as a very controversial high school student, finally entered the third team and won the All-Star MVP...... These are all important figures that can attract more attention to the NBA.
Not to mention that because of Gong Feng and Wang Zhizhi, Huaguo's eyes were nailed to the NBA for the first time, once some Chinese people who have just come into contact with the NBA feel the discriminatory culture of the NBA......
Maybe the Chinese government won't do much, but if the NBA wants to continue to promote globalization, it will enter a whirlpool...... Besides, Duke fans will not let Gong Feng be wronged, although there is no sign of Duke in the NBA, but Duke's state can be described as one of the cradles of American basketball culture.
You're discriminating against a Duke-born player, are you trying to veto something? Or are you no longer paying attention to the development of players in the NCAA?
This is even more of a big trouble!
The most important thing is that in this round of the series, the Lakers are absolutely dominant, and if you lose in such a situation, you lose to a bunch of Wizards with first-year rookies as the core...... Do you still blame the alliance for deliberate favoritism?
As long as the referee at this time doesn't keep an eye on the Lakers, he is already taking care of the Lakers in an alternative!