On the morning of the 11th, the Lakers held a press conference to announce the resignation of Jerry West and the inauguration of Kupchak as general manager.

This news did not cause much shock to the outside world, because there were signs of it two years ago.

But less than two hours later, the news that the Postman had reached a buyout contract with the Jazz sparked speculation in the media.

When the big-mouthed Charles Buckley saw the news, he immediately expressed his personal opinion through his blog, with a powerful headline, "Postman, Gravedigger in the Iron Fist Age".

"The Postman has the last year left on his contract, and he just got knocked out of the first round by the SuperSonics, and he bought out his contract with the Jazz, why? There's only one reason, postman Karl Malone wants to pursue his championship dream late in his career.

So let's analyze, which team will he go to? The contract is not a problem, and any team can offer him a base salary contract in order to join the championship with a base salary.

Joining the SuperSonics has the best chance of winning the championship, but I know that the Postman will not, that is a man of ambition and will not throw himself against the enemy for the championship.

Then the second is the Lakers, who are the most powerful team in the league except for the SuperSonics, so the Postman joining the Lakers is the most likely.

If the Lakers had the Postman, the SuperSonics would have the most formidable opponent and the Lakers would be the gravediggers of the Iron Fist era. ”

As soon as Barkley's article came out, it attracted great attention, and even Zhou Quan couldn't help but go in and read it, because the title was too attractive.

"This bastard is against me, it's a way to the dark. And the gravedigger, how many days can you fight at the postman's age? How much better than David Robinson? ”

That is, I skimmed through the article to see what Barkley had to say, and then didn't pay attention to it.

For the next few days, he rested to his heart's content, taking his family out on a yacht and cruising the Pacific Ocean.

A few months ago, he had already ordered a new ship, more than 70 meters in length, more than 20 meters wide, with four decks, it is the most luxurious and advanced yacht at present, which can be used for deep-sea voyages, and can be driven directly back to China, spending 1.6 billion US dollars, and has already started construction.

On the 15th, the second round is over.

The Kings eliminated the Spurs 4-1 and will face off against the SuperSonics in the West, which will start on the 18th, with a best-of-seven system and a 22111 home-and-away system.

The Nets eliminated the Raptors 4-1, the Celtics eliminated the Magic 4-1, and the Eastern Conference finals will begin on the 19th.

For the Western Conference Showdown, while the Kings are very strong, the media is also overwhelmingly believing that the SuperSonics will win the series and maybe even a sweep.

As for the Eastern Conference finals, some media support the Nets, and some media support the Green Team.

On the 17th, the King arrived in Seattle and held a press conference at the hotel at 3 p.m., which was attended by Chris Webb and Mike Bibby.

"Coach Adelman, a lot of media think that the Kings will not escape the end of being swept by the supersonic in the West, what do you think of this kind of voice?" A reporter from the Seattle Times asked.

Rick Adelman shrugged his shoulders and smiled politely: "The supersonic is really powerful, and the Lakers have been swept again, which is very emotional."

But we're not a Lakers, we won the SuperSonics in the regular season, we have a pretty strong fighting spirit and confidence, and we're looking forward to doing a miracle. ”

"When you say miracle, do you mean eliminating the supersonic and reaching the finals?" The reporter was surprised.

Adelman smiled and said, "You can think of it that way, although supersonic is powerful and Tekken is terrifying, we always have to have hope, right?" ”

The reporter then asked: "Peja's injury in the second round, how much impact will it have on the Western Conference finals?" Will he miss the game? ”

Speaking of this, Adelman said helplessly: "Our luck is not good, yes, Peja cannot return at the moment, the team doctor said that he will have at least ten days of rest. ”

The next question was asked by a New York Times reporter, who asked Weber: "Chris, there has been a lot of news about the Postman joining the Lakers these days, if the Postman really joins the Lakers, do you think the Lakers will become the gravediggers of the Iron Fist era?" ”

Chris Webber spread his hands and said: "Everyone wants to be the one who ends an era, I don't know if the Lakers will have a chance to end the Iron Fist era, but if they get the Postman, the Lakers will be much stronger than the current Lakers, and they have a good chance to challenge the supersonic of the Iron Fist King." ”

"Michael, you're about to fight the Iron Fist King, do you have the confidence to challenge him?" The next reporter asked.

Michael Bibby said, "Well, that's a super difficult thing to do, and I'll try it." ”

"Will you hold the ball in front of him?" The reporter asked.

"Of course, I'm a point guard and I have to carry the ball. But our tactics are different from the supersonic big core play, what we pay most attention to is the distribution of the ball and the transfer of the ball, the magical tackling ability of the Iron Fist King, we are not very afraid. ”

On the 18th, the day of the G1 match of the Western Finals.

At eight o'clock, the two sides announced the starting list.

Kings: Divac, Chris Webber, Hidit Koglou, Doug Christie, Mike Bibby

SuperSonics: Ben Wallace, Lewis, Bowen, Cory Magetti, Zhou Quan

NBC commentators were James Worthy and John Moore, with the former saying, "Peja is injured and Sophomore Hidutkoglou is on the starting small forward position.

The Turk is a big forward's height, two centimeters taller than Webber, but he's a small forward, and a small forward with playmaking skills, good at the perimeter, and can shoot threes.

This season, he is a bandit on the Kings bench, a commander in the bench, and can also play at the power forward position when necessary, and he plays with great aura. ”

John Moore said: "Bruce Bowen defended the Turk and suffered a loss in height, he was only 201 centimeters, plus his reach, at least 10 centimeters in height.

The Turk has playmaking skills, and together with Michael Bibby, he can handle the ball well and is not afraid of tackles from the Iron Fist King.

Back then, the Bulls weren't afraid of Iron Fist's steals, just because Jordan didn't hold the ball, Pippen was in charge of organizing, and I think the Kings planned to do the same, reducing Bibby's ball-holding time and allowing the Turks to hold the ball more and organize the offense. ”

At half past eight, the game began.

After the jump ball, the king attacked.

Michael Bibby took the ball up front and took a look at Divac before handing the ball to Hidutkoglou in the left elbow area and running himself.

Everyone else was also running, constantly moving, interspersing, reversing, blocking, and the whole frontcourt immediately presented chaos.

But this chaos only belongs to the supersonic, not to the king, because every run of the king is a tactical act, not a random run.

Ben Wallace followed Divac closely, the center in the Princeton system is very important, requiring him to take on the playmaking function, and now Divac is being targeted by Big Ben and cannot receive the ball to organize the attack, then the Princeton system immediately started another tactic, with Hidduteklou holding the ball in the left elbow area to organize the attack, creating a back door for his teammates, so Michael Bibby will pass the ball to Hidutkoglou.

The Turk received the ball with his back to Bowen and the basket and looked to the right wing.

At this time, the Kings' shooting guard Doug Christie ran to the right elbow area and was about to receive the ball, and Cory Magetti immediately went around the front defense and cut off the passing and receiving routes of the two.

But at this time, because Corimagetti was staring at the Turk in the left elbow area, and his eyes were not on Doug Christie behind him, his back door opened.

Doug Christie quickly started cutting inside and ran to the basket, but by the time Corimagietti found out, it was slow, and at that point, the Turk made a one-handed pass.

This tactic requires the person with the ball to have the ability to pass the ball with one hand, because it is more convenient and sudden and faster to pass the ball with one hand, and if the pass is slow, the back door will be closed immediately, and Corimageti will catch up with Christie again, or someone else from the SuperSonics will make up for Christie.

Doug Christi cut into the box from the right elbow area and received the ball in one step, and did not dribble, but went straight to the basket in two steps, and Big Ben and Lewis were already a beat slow to return to the basket.

"Bang!"

Under the one-handed split, the supersonic basket was exploded.

Zhang Li said: "In the regular season, the supersonic king played three wins and one loss, and the losing game was too good, two scored 20+, and six scored doubles.

The king's tactics are smooth, the players' hands are out, the offensive firepower is even more powerful than the supersonic speed, and the real mercury-like offense can't be stopped by anyone.

What's more, their tactics can largely circumvent Zhou Quan's defense, making his steals and blocking abilities impossible to play.

However, there is another reason why the Kings can win one game in the regular season, Zhou Quan did not play fully on the offensive end, and it is impossible to keep his hands in the series now.

In addition, Peja's absence is also a considerable loss of power for the Kings, and his shooting is quite accurate. ”

At this time, Zhou Quan hit a three-pointer on Michael Bibby's head, which was quite easy, and the fake shot shook off the defender, and then shot in the open space at the top of the arc.

It's the King's attack again, it's the same tactic, but this time it's another back door.

Just after the basket was hit by an open space, so this time Big Ben's position shrank a little, Divac had a chance, Michael Bibby passed the ball in, and then started to run down on his own.

After Divac received the ball in the low post on the left wing, point guard Doug Christie began to run along the three-point line to the right corner on the weak side, while power forward Chris Webber moved to the top of the arc and Michael Bibby ran to the right wing low post to fill in the position of Gang Zeweb.

As Webb moved towards the top of the arc, Lashad Lewis was between Webb and Divac, and was close to Webb, keeping his eyes on Divac to prevent him from passing the ball to Webb.

In this way, Lewis's backdoor opened, and his eyes were not on Webb, who had just run to the high post, suddenly ran back and cut quickly to the basket.

Lewis's eyes were fixed on Divac's side, and he was caught off guard and did not keep up with Webb's countercut, Webber appeared open in the penalty area, and Divac immediately passed the ball with one hand.

"Oops!"

Seeing Divac's pass, John Moore immediately let out a loud shout.

Zhou Quan, who had just run to the right waist position with Bibi, reacted as soon as Webb ran inward, immediately made up for the defense, and pounced to the basket with all his might.

He moved even ahead of Webb, got through the basket before Webb and pounced on Divac.

And Divac, who passed the ball, threw it with one hand, and hurriedly withdrew when he saw the action of the Iron Fist King, and almost made a mistake, but fortunately, his hand was big.

"Smack!"

Big Ben was quick and slapped the basketball that Divac was about to take back, and Zhou Quan just pounced in front of him, grabbed the rebounding basketball with both hands.

"Beautiful! Iron Fist breaks the ball, no, it's Ben Wallace who breaks the ball. But if it weren't for Tekken's defensive moves, the result would have been Webb's catch-and-shoot layup. James Worthy said excitedly.

"The biggest flaw in the King's backdoor strategy is Michael Bibby's movement, his defender is the Iron Fist King, so this is a tactical design error, and his movement brings the Iron Fist King to the closest position to the basket." John Moore said with a smile.

James Worthy nodded: "I suspect that even if Webb received the ball just now, it is very likely that he will be blocked from the flank by the Iron Fist King, and the Iron Fist King definitely has that strength." ”

When Zhou Quan was close to the top of the arc, he saw Divac leave the paint area because of the three-second rule of defense, so he suddenly accelerated and stepped over, directly from the right side of Michael Bibby, two steps over the right end of the free throw line, and crashed into the penalty area.

Lewis had pulled to the bottom left corner, and Chris Webb was in the left blocking area and couldn't get back to the basket.

Divac, on the other hand, had just left the paint area because he had been defending for three seconds, and when he re-entered, he was already half a beat slower to return to the basket.

"Bang!"

Zhou Quan smashed the king's basket with one hand.

"Zhou Quan's breakthrough score is very easy, and the King's interior defense is relatively average." Zhang Li said with a smile.

"Any defender who is facing the Iron Fist with the ball will be mentally weak by three points first, and it is very good to have ten points of defensive ability and play seven points." Yu Jiadao.

Zhang Li nodded and said: "In the same way, when any ball carrier faces Zhou Quan's defense, he can play fifty percent of his strength is very good."

is like Kobe, who is now considered a first-class quarterback in the league, even close to the top level, but how much strength can he play in front of Zhou Quan? ”

At 2:5, the king attacked.

Hisitkoglou played a pick-and-roll with Chris Webber on the run, and Webber got a small space to pick up a pass from Divac and hit a shot from mid-range.

"Lewis is disgraced again, this is the second time Webb has run out of the open seat." Yu Jia said.

Zhang Li thought for a while and said: "I think the Princeton system of defending the king is better to change to joint defense, and defend the ball but not people."

But the Princeton system also pays attention to the transfer of the ball, and it is unclear how effective the tactics of joint defense are. ”

Yu Jia said: "There are not many teams in the league that really play joint defense now, and the main thing is man-to-man defense, which tests individual ability more. ”

Zhang Li smiled: "NBA stars need to perform, and one-on-one can make them play more exciting, so the average star doesn't like joint defense very much, which will limit their offense."

The SuperSonics have also trained joint defense tactics in team training, but they are still not familiar with it, and the team is a little rusty to use it.

If you use an unfamiliar joint defense against a team with very good passing ability like the Kings, you may be able to break the supersonic defense with a single pass. ”

(End of chapter)