(8,000 words, so it's late)

The first game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Spurs was not very easy, according to the words of many media after the game, after that, the Lakers are at present, in addition to the Terminator tactics, other conventional tactics or the Lakers' regular playing style are basically understood by the Spurs.

So the day after the game, almost all the media in the United States didn't think the Lakers played amazingly because of the Lakers' victory, and they didn't think the team did badly because of the Spurs' defeat, on the contrary, basically more than half of the media praised Popovich's tactics, although they lost the first game, but in the eyes of these people, Popovich and the Spurs did not lose the series.

"We said a long time ago that the game between the Spurs and the Lakers would be the best game, and in fact the first game of both sides was a good proof of that, 145-131, a horrible 85-73 in the first half, these two teams showed everyone all their energy in one game, offense, defense, everything Both teams did a great job, if you look at the regular game time, the two teams don't have a winner, The reason why the Lakers were able to win was because they had a stronger ability to finish the game, of course, the reason why they were able to finish the game was naturally because of the Terminator tactics that had almost no failures so far, in the Terminator tactics, Kobe Bryant was Jordan, and a team led by Jordan and Coach Z could not lose"

This was the headline on the front page of USA Today the day after the game, and it was basically replicated by most of the media in the United States, of course. Others, such as the New York Times, are very unconventional. The Lakers' Terminator tactics will be studied thoroughly by Popovich in the following games. And the Lakers can only win two games at most in this round of the series, and were finally eliminated by the Spurs 1-4 or 2-4, but for a very 'new' statement like the New York Times, there is not much market in the United States.

After all, the title that the Lakers are wearing now is the title of the strongest team in history given by the national media, in this case, although the Lakers' first game was a little difficult, but after all, they also won, who will look down on the Lakers at this time?

Of course, now the whole United States is happy with the performance of the Spurs. There is no intention to belittle the Lakers, but simply expect that this is an extremely exciting round or a matchup that will go down in history, and the final winner can naturally only be the Lakers, after all, just like these media themselves say, the strongest team in history needs to have the strongest supporting role in history, and the Spurs are such a role, of course, for these media, the Spurs are such a role to set off the Lakers, but for the Spurs themselves, Whether they would like to be such a character is unknown.

A supporting character who always wants to be the protagonist is not a person who follows the ideas of ordinary people.

"Coach. Here's a match clip of all the Spurs' retreat footage from the last game."

May 24, 2005, Los Angeles Lakers Head Coach's Office. After Zhuang Fei came to his office early in the morning, he instructed Green to edit some important game footage of yesterday's game, such as the Spurs' rapid retreat to block the Lakers' regular offense.

Zhuang Fei never thinks that his team's offense is invulnerable, no team can say that their offense is invulnerable, even if it is now called invincible or perfect terminator tactics by many media are not invulnerable, even if this tactic will remove the bad influence on the player, just need a terminator player, such a player is not so easy to find, After all, to be able to have a mid-range shooting ability like Jordan and to have the incomparable confidence in his shooting like Jordan or Szzebiak, and also need a very sharp sense of smell and movement and running ability for offense, such a player is at least 2 in Zhuang Fei's opinion in the last 10 years, barely 2, of course, even if there is a terminator, there are players who pass the ball to the terminator, but when in the rapidly changing NBA playoffs, this tactic may not dare to say that he is invincible, In this case, Zhuang Fei naturally has such an awareness, and in his opinion, it is not very important whether his tactics are invincible, the important thing is that his team can always win.

After taking over the edited video of yesterday's game that he brought from Green's hand, Zhuang Fei watched it very seriously, and the more he looked at Zhuang Fei's brows at this time, the tighter he wrinkled, which also made Green, who had been standing on the side, a little worried.

As the assistant coach of the Lakers, of course, he knows very well how terrible it is for Popovich to be able to make his offense unaffected while containing the Lakers' offense in yesterday's game, to put it bluntly, the Lakers are not afraid of the Boston Celtics' extreme strategy of sacrificing their offense to defend, and they are also not afraid of the New York Knicks' method of completely ignoring their own defense is to smash the opponent with their own offense, in the NBA, there are not many examples of success with this extremely extreme method, After all, their extremes are hurting the Lakers or their opponents as well as hurting themselves, and Popovich's approach is much smarter than these two. Of course, this is not to say that these people don't want to be like Popovich, who can both block the Lakers and protect themselves, it's just that they can't do what Popovich can do, just like the Terminator tactics, Zhuang Fei can do it, but others can't.

"It's really powerful, the Spurs' retreat formation is definitely not something that can be done in yesterday's game" Zhuang Fei took a long breath, watched the video, turned off the big-screen TV in front of him, and then lay on his chair and sighed, and at this time, Green on the side also nodded.

When he sent the video, he had already seen it in advance, and he was able to draw conclusions that Zhuang Fei could draw, the NBA's first assistant coach's basketball level was the top in the NBA, just because he had been by Zhuang Fei's side, making him, a person who was not very confident, more dependent on Zhuang Fei or even more unconfident. In this case, Zhuang Fei has been wanting to kick him out and let him stand on his own feet since he discovered this situation in the past two years. In the old days. When his ability was not good, Zhuang Fei didn't mind that this disciple of his kept asking, 'Coach, what should we do', after all, he really didn't know what to do at that time, but now, this guy is the top coach in the league in both offense and defense, at least in Zhuang Fei's dynasty system, there are only three coaches who have reached A-level or above in offense and defense at the same time. Besides Popovich, it's him and Pat Riley.

"Coach, I don't think there should be any big problems, although our regular offense may be affected, but can't we still play the Terminator tactics?" Looking at his teacher like this, Green also said with some comfort, but after Green finished speaking, Zhuang Fei immediately shook his head.

"You don't know the side effects of the Terminators, how long can we take against a team with defensive intensity like Spurs? I don't want to ruin these players," Zhuang Fei frowned, and then said with some meaning: "Since Popovich deliberately made such a retreat formation against the Lakers' regular offense a long time ago, do you think he hasn't studied the Terminator tactics?" You should know that too. The Terminator tactics have not been without failures."

In the end, when Zhuang Fei finished speaking, Green was also silent, and the Terminator tactics were indeed not without failure. In the first time he faced the Timberwolves in the regular season, the Terminator tactics did not play out, or they played, but in the end they failed, and in that game, Kobe, who was extremely miserable by Bowen and Garnett, was not very confident in his shooting, and always wanted to attack further from the basket, rather than shooting directly.

In this case, Kobe Bryant, who missed the fighter, was not able to exert the power of the Terminator tactics when facing the Timberwolves with strong defensive intensity, defenders of the level of Garnett of the Timberwolves or Duncan of the Spurs, even if they really can't prevent the Lakers' Terminator tactics for the first time, but they will never give Kobe so much room for hesitation, and this is the reason why Zhuang Fei is always dissatisfied with Kobe's shooting, this is not because Zhuang Fei is dissatisfied with Kobe's offensive desire, Rather, he was not satisfied with Kobe's desire to shoot.

Although Kobe Bryant's current shooting is 100, no player in the entire NBA is better than him in shooting, but Kobe's shooting ability is not like Szczerbiak's own tempering, in this case, how can he have the confidence of Szczebiak in his own shooting?

Moreover, at this time, before Zhuang Fei entered the main Lakers, Kobe Bryant's shooting was very good, but he was more of a young player who relied on his body and impact to play, just like Pierce in the Timberwolves, the reason why Pierce gave up using his physical talent to play and play back offense was not because he liked to attack with his back, but because he suffered a huge setback when he used his physical talent to play, and was blown up by Carter, which eventually forced him to change his playing style.

In the NBA, every young player wants his offense to be chic and domineering, not old-fashioned, so why didn't Kobe attack the basket when he was in good health at this time? Moreover, in his own opinion, he can get a 100% shooting rate by hitting the basket, and even if he misses the basket, it is possible to fail, and in the regular season, it is precisely because Kobe Bryant has achieved great success in his own style of play that he has always maintained this style of play, you know, because his impactful offense makes his shooting rate in the regular season almost close to 60%, and the player who dunks the most in the league in a single season is him, with an average of 7 dunks per game, This also excludes some layups or other offensive methods under the basket, in this case, even if Zhuang Fei has been emphasizing that the Lakers' leader should use more shots to solve the battle, but the final effect is very limited.

Although Green does not have a dynasty system and does not know that Kobe's shooting ability is 100, he also knows that the team's leading player is indeed not mature enough, and he also knows where the loopholes in the team's terminator tactics are said by Zhuang Fei, after all, this is a tactic that pays great attention to timing and speed, and Kobe's current style of play is not so timing.

"Maybe he had too many opportunities before, and the timing was too good, so he didn't care about these things" Finally, Green thought secretly in his heart. There was a group of people like Hill and Webb who gave him the stars and the moon. Unless they meet Garnett for the Timberwolves and Duncan for the Spurs. Even if he misses the plane, he can also score the opportunities created for him by the team, after all, Hill created enough opportunities for Kobe Bryant to squander a lot of time, but the situation is a little different now.

"Coach, are you saying Popovich has found a way to deal with our Terminator tactics?" Although he agrees with Zhuang Fei's guess, Green still has some doubts at this time, and he also values the opponent that his teacher values the most, but Popovich is no matter how strong he is. It's not that strong, is it? The Timberwolves were able to block Kobe Bryant's terminator tactics in that game because of a mistake, George Karl has no defensive principle, plus Bowen's closeness and Garnett's co-defense are too strong, it can be said that he is the first in the league, which has the same result as that game, although Ragabel and Duncan are also very strong, but without a theoretical basis, they can't do the same effect as Garnett and Bowen so quickly, aren't these two people also very embarrassed at the last moment of the last game? This also proves that Ragabel is inferior to Bowen in close defense, and Duncan is inferior to Garnett in help defense?

If Popovich really saw the weakness of Kobe Bryant's Terminator tactics through one game. Green is not surprised that a coach of this caliber has such ability. If he can use Kobe's weakness to develop a set of operational defensive tactics theory in a game, then Green absolutely does not believe it, which is also terrifying.

It's just that in the face of Green's doubts, Zhuang Fei didn't answer, and he didn't have an answer himself.

"Who knows?" In the end, the head coach of the Lakers also lay on his chair and thought again, and Green saw Zhuang Fei like this, and his heart was also a little mysterious.

"This round of the series doesn't seem to be easy," in the end, Zhuang Fei's assistant coach also secretly sighed in his heart, and then turned around and left Zhuang Fei's office

May 25, 2005, Los Angeles Staples Arena, this is the second game of the Los Angeles Lakers and Spurs Western Conference Finals, and it is also one of the most important games for Lakers fans, after all, they know that as long as the team led by Zhuang Fei 2-0 is unlikely to have any possibility of turning the tables in the future, so as long as Zhuang Fei can beat the Spurs in this game, and the final team's big score becomes 2-0, then the Spurs will not have any chance, theoretically, but when this game starts, They felt that something they had thought was too satisfying.

In a basketball game, it is a very tragic thing for a player to be targeted by the opposing team, and if you can defeat the opponent in the face of the opponent's targeting, then you will make yourself very happy, and if you play badly in the face of the opponent's target, then it is definitely not a happy thing.

At this time, Kobe Bryant was such a player who was targeted by the opponent, but there was no way to get rid of it, so he was in a very unhappy mood at this time.

"Abominable"

At this time, Kobe Bryant looked at Howard on his side and panicked, just after getting rid of Ragabel's entanglement, he didn't shoot immediately after receiving Hill's pass, but was about to dunk under the basket, Howard suddenly came out from the side, Kobe Bryant didn't pay attention to the surrounding situation when he was about to impact the basket, according to Kobe's estimate, Howard was impossible to arrive, but now this guy did arrive, just like Duncan not long ago.

"Kobe, are you okay" Looking at Kobe Bryant, who was staring at Howard with red eyes at this time, Hardaway on the side also hurriedly went up to grab his teammate, this game The Lakers' leading player played very tragically, from the beginning of the game, the Spurs blocked the way for the Lakers' No. 5 tactics to go to the basket just like the previous game. In this case, the Spurs' defense of Kobe Bryant in this game was actually strengthened, so that the Lakers' leading player could neither go to the blue, nor could he pull out to shoot, so it can be said that Kobe Bryant had fewer opportunities to shoot without the ball.

The Lakers' No. 5 tactic is not so easy to be blocked, this is one thing that everyone knows, after all, the No. 5 tactic is not just two players on a flat arm to hit the basket, the players at both ends of the flat arm can still go outside when they rotate around Webb, but this offensive efficiency is not so high, plus Kobe Bryant's focus is taken care of. The Lakers' offense in this game was basically dominated by Hill. Hardaway and Szzebiak shared. And the offensive efficiency of these three is not low, but it is not so amazing.

Coupled with the Spurs' fast-break blockade of the Lakers, the Lakers played a tough game in this game, and the Lakers, who took advantage of the home court advantage and some whistles at the end of the first three quarters, actually trailed the Spurs by 5 points, which was simply an unthinkable thing, and when the fourth quarter began, when the Lakers were ready to use the Terminator tactics again, and Kobe Bryant was also looking forward to his own outburst again. only to find that Spurs did not give him this opportunity. Duncan and Ragabel, coupled with Howard's co-defensive strangulation, simply drove him crazy.

"I'm fine," Kobe Bryant said to Hardaway after taking a deep breath, and at this time, Hardaway also shook his head as he looked at Kobe Bryant, who turned away and was not ready to beat Howard.

This is the fourth time that Kobe Bryant has been blocked in the fourth quarter of this game, and three of these four blocks were given by Duncan, and one was given by Howard, all of which were when Kobe Bryant was about to make a layup or dunk, and such a block was extremely infuriating. When Hardaway thought of this, he also looked deeply at Howard and Duncan, and then also turned away.

"The Lakers are in trouble now" After Kobe Bryant was hatted by Howard, the Lakers fans in the Staples Arena were a little depressed, and they saw their own players being attacked four times in a row, and there was no way to be happy with anyone. And in the same way, Barkley in the commentary seat at this time was also a little depressed. He is still optimistic about the Lakers in this game, but now that the Lakers are going to be tragic.

"Well, they were supposed to chase the points when they played the Terminator tactics at this time, but now there is no way to close the score" Kenny Smith on the side also nodded after Barkley frowned.

At the end of the third quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers were five points behind, which was completely different from the Lakers' lead at the end of the third quarter of the last game, the Spurs continued the suppression of the Lakers in the second half of the last game, the last game was after the start of the second half, the Lakers who did not use the Terminator tactics were suppressed by the Spurs, and in this game the Lakers only lost by five points in the third quarter, which is indeed a very good offense of this team, otherwise it may have lost more.

For many people, a five-point deficit is nothing to the Lakers, and the Los Angeles Lakers fans on the scene have been looking forward to their team being able to play the Terminator tactics again in the fourth quarter to end the game, and in the regular season, the Terminators tactics are like playing with the opponent for 20 points in a quarter, even if the last game was against the Spurs, the Lakers Terminators tactics easily suppressed the crazy Spurs in the middle of the quarter, and at the same time opened up 6 points by the way, in this case, The five points that Spurs lead are nothing.

It's just that what I never expected was that after the Lakers played the Ultimate's tactics in this game, there was no sign of catching up with the score, and the extremely efficient offense of the Terminator was not reflected in this game, of course, although the Terminator tactics were not able to help the Lakers catch up with the score, but it did not let the Spurs pull the score away, so to speak, the two sides entered a state of balance again on the court.

For the Lakers, they don't want this game to end up in such a balanced situation, they are chasing points.

At this time, for TNT's commentators and Lakers' home fans, this game is very surprising, and similarly, Zhuang Fei is also very surprised when this game is played so far, although he has such an idea, Popovich can make a targeted arrangement for the Lakers' terminator tactics in this game, but when such an arrangement appears, Zhuang Fei will feel a little incredible.

In the face of the Lakers' terminator tactics, the Spurs' head coach's area defense is not to learn the defensive tactics of the Grizzlies and Celtics in the face of the Lakers, and the interior one-man stake and one-person sweep is the way to learn when the Timberwolves beat the Lakers, although the Spurs do not have the strongest player like Garnett, but the effect of Duncan and Howard is no worse than Garnett, in this case, Although the Spurs still haven't been able to find a theoretical defense that makes the Terminators leaky because of Kobe's style of play, it does reduce the offensive efficiency of the Terminators' tactics.

And now the Lakers' offensive efficiency can't catch up with the Spurs' score, and what makes Zhuang Fei even more difficult is that even if the Terminator tactic is limited, Zhuang Fei can't replace this tactic. Because it's still the Lakers' most efficient tactic to date.

"What a disgusting guy" watched the Spurs trumble through the defensive strategy of so many teams facing the Lakers. Zhuang Fei was a little speechless about Popovich, the coach with the strongest learning ability in the NBA or the strongest copying and copycat ability.

"But I'm so good at learning other people's things. This can be regarded as an enviable talent," Zhuang Fei finally looked at the old opponent who was already smiling on the side with some complication, and sighed in his heart.

Zhuang Fei felt that Popovich's style was very helpless at this time, and at this time, Popovich, who almost cornered the Lakers, didn't think there was anything wrong with his style, if he could defeat his opponent, he had to do whatever it wanted, whether it was someone else's thing or his own mortal enemy's thing, as long as it could be used, if he could achieve the final goal, he didn't mind others saying that he didn't have his own things or being ridiculed for plagiarism.

"No matter how perfect your tactics are. Without a perfect executor, you will still lose" Just like Zhuang Fei's view of Popovich is very complicated, Popovich's view of Zhuang Fei is the same, in his heart Popovich is very appreciative of Zhuang Fei's terminator tactics, this is the only tactic he has studied in his basketball career for more than a month but has not made any progress, that is to say, this is the only tactic in his basketball career that cannot be learned and copycated, in Popovich's opinion, this can be called the most perfect tactic.

Even if he was targeting the defense like this, the success rate of the Terminator tactics was extremely high, and you know, Duncan took over the game after the start of the fourth quarter. At this time, Duncan and Howard took turns to use their interior advantages to play the Lakers' weak interior, and the success rate of the Spurs' offense was naturally self-evident. But even so, the Spurs still haven't been able to pull the score away by even one point, which means that even if the Terminator tactics are limited, they can be compared to the Spurs' interior offense, and Popovich is extremely shocked every time he thinks about it. If this tactic can be used for the whole game against them, then they can't play the Lakers at all, but it is clear that this tactic should not be used for a whole game, just like a super player can't take over the game for a whole game.

"Hmph, although Kobe Bryant is very powerful, but he is really not Jordan, this tactic should indeed be called Jordan tactic" When he saw Kobe Bryant hitting one goal and the second ball was taken again, Popovich also thought a little comfortably in his heart that the Spurs won this game.

119 to 112, this is the last score of the game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs, the Spurs won the Lakers by 7 points, and the Lakers used foul tactics at the last moment, and still failed to chase the game back, and after the Spurs won, the total score between the Lakers and the Spurs became 1-1, but the Lakers lost the home court advantage.

"Coach Z lost at home, this is the first time this Chinese has lost at home in the playoffs in the last three years"

After the game, not to mention the disbelief of the Lakers fans, even the commentator Kenny Smith was a little incredulous, although he was more optimistic that the Spurs could win.

At this time, after the Lakers' first defeat in the playoffs this year, the Lakers' players, especially the Lakers' leading player Kobe Bryant, were also unwilling to squat under the Lakers' basket and beat the court floor with his right hand.

He didn't lead the Lakers to a final win over the Spurs, he scored 30 points in the game, 18 points in the fourth quarter with a single player with the Terminators, and 18 points from a player in the fourth quarter, which was a great performance, but in the Terminators, it was a very unsuccessful score, because those six blocks in the fourth quarter cost his team the last chance to win.

It's just that at this time, in the face of this extremely annoyed Lakers player, other Lakers players didn't know how to comfort him for a while, and finally could only forcibly pull him up.

This game loss is Zhuang Fei's first home loss in the playoffs in the past three years, and it is also the first home loss of the Los Angeles Lakers this season, in the regular season 41 home games and 5 home games in the playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers have won 46 consecutive home games this season, and the failure of this game, the Lakers' home winning streak is also over.

Although the day after the end of this game, the media that has been touting the Lakers as the strongest team in history recently also made Zhuang Fei a little surprised and did not belittle the Lakers, after all, for any team, losing so much in the playoffs does not mean anything, although they are indeed very young, but this IQ is still there, so except for the New York Times after the Lakers lost, mocking Zhuang Fei and the Lakers and gloating, other media are very rational to sympathize with the Lakers' defeat, There are even some media outlets that have openly expressed criticism of the New York media gloating, and even some Los Angeles media are ready to have a newspaper 'holy war' with the New York media, and the theme of the holy war naturally revolves around the Lakers and the Knicks.

On May 27, 2005, after a day of rest, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Spurs challenged the Spurs away, which was the third game between the Lakers and the Spurs, and it was also commonly known as the battle of Little King Mountain, and the outcome of this game was crucial to the trend of the entire series.

In this game, the Lakers lost 105-116 to the San Antonio Spurs in their first game on the road, losing the crucial battle of Little King Mountain.

And the day after the game, there was an uproar across the United States. The Lakers are in danger.

At the same time, the front-page headlines of the Boston Globe, controlled by Adelson, were recognized by most of the media in the United States.

"Will the Los Angeles Lakers be the best team ever? Maybe it's the Spurs, maybe it's some other team? ”

The nationwide campaign against the Lakers and Zhuang was kicked off by the Boston Globe. (To be continued......)