Victory belongs to Los Angeles!

At this year's Los Angeles All-Star Weekend, the Los Angeles Lakers players were undoubtedly the biggest winners.

Doon's Rookie Challenge MVP and slam dunk king, O'Neal's All-Star MVP.

and Kobe, with the help of the All-Star Game, also changed the stereotype of some fans about him.

Although he doesn't pass the ball to other teammates, he will still pass the ball to O'Neal.

To put it bluntly, only when the strength is recognized by Kobe Bryant can he be eligible to receive Kobe's ball.

Of course, for O'Neal, facing the critical moment when Yao Ming 30+7 is very likely to snatch the All-Star MVP away, Kobe Bryant suddenly reached out, which also made O'Neal let go of some of the grudges he had formed with Kobe Bryant in the past.

In life, you may not be able to continue to associate with Kobe, after all, Shaq has also done it, and the impact is not small. But in the team, Kobe Bryant is still his all-powerful little brother.

"He wants more honors, so go get it!"

Looking at the right-hand men who came out from under him, Kobe Bryant and Doon, O'Neal, who felt that this year's championship had been secured, already had the idea of lying down in his heart.

……

Fast forward to February 17, the All-Star Weekend has ended, and the second half of the regular season has resumed.

Tonight, the Lakers host the Trail Blazers, who have been traded away by big man Rasheed Wallace, and it will undoubtedly be another easy victory.

However, it is such a game that can predict the victory, and the ticket price is more expensive than the previous Western Power Dialogue.

This is because after the All-Star Weekend, the Lakers organized a media conference to say that Malone has passed the medical examination and will return in the next game.

This means that the Lakers F4, oh no, the Big Five, will play together for the first time in the next game.

Lakers fans have been waiting for this for a long time and naturally want to get a glimpse.

However, after the game really started, for the sake of prudence, Malone was just a pseudo-starter.

Played 16 minutes in the game, made 3 of 6 shots, and only scored 6 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist.

On the one hand, Malone has been resting for so long, and he still needs a few games to find a feeling.

On the other hand, the starting lineup of the Big Five makes the situation of insufficient points in possession even more prominent.

Playing a leaderless Trail Blazers, the Lakers actually had to play four quarters and only won by 11 points.

Ji Sun's worries are not in the moment, but within the Xiao wall!

The next issue that needs to be solved urgently by the Zen master is O'Neal's return from injury and the distribution of the ball within the Lakers after the rise of Doon.

The OK combo plus Doon all have the ability to digest 20+ shots.

And Payton and Malone can't really be used as role players, and the number of shots has been reduced to less than ten.

The problem is that the Lakers are averaging around 80 shots per game this season.

At least 10 of those shots are triangular rules that must be reserved for role players.

Considering that O'Neal's return has caused the Lakers to be unable to play fast break at all.

This means that the distribution of the ball has become an issue that cannot be ignored.

The Lakers will need to re-grind in order to maintain their abundant and unrivaled fighting power in the playoffs.

Because the schedule in the second half of the regular season is more closely scheduled, the Lakers have no time to use ordinary training time to run in the lineup, so they can only practice with games.

After playing the Trail Blazers, the Lakers set off overnight and drove to San Francisco.

On February 18, the Lakers played the Warriors away.

The Warriors are 23-28 so far this season, and they are 10th in the West out of 14 teams.

Judging by the current record, the Warriors have basically announced that they have missed the playoffs and can prepare for the 04-05 season in advance.

Therefore, the Lakers didn't pay much attention to this game.

The pre-game arrangement of the Zen master deliberately reduced the playing time of O'Neal and Ma Long, two injured old guys, in order to ease the conflict of ball control in the Lakers.

When O'Neill heard this, he immediately said: "One word is certain, double happiness is coming!" ”

Malone also knows the current situation in the Lakers, he was injured again not long ago, and he clearly feels that his physical fitness has declined, so he feels that he can sacrifice the ball and play time for the championship, so he has no opinion.

However, in this case, the Lakers faced the Warriors with Eric Dampier and Clifford Robinson, and the interior line was blown up.

Dampier is the lottery show of the 96 golden generation, and the talent is no problem, but the technology is a little rougher.

This year happens to be a contract year, and Dampier's data finally exploded, playing 12+12, with an average of two doubles per game.

Dampier has always felt that he is the second center in the West after O'Neal.

Therefore, this time against a team like the Lakers, which is the first in the West, once O'Neal is off the court, it will suddenly come to power.

No one expected that Dampier would be so experienced in competing for the second child and staggering peak travel.

At the end of the game, Dampier shot a double-double of 10-of-18 shooting, 4-of-7 free throws, 24 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks.

Cleverford Robinson's stats are not as explosive as Dampier's, but it is still easier to play a projection-oriented white power forward like Stanislav Medvedenko.

He finished with 20 points and five rebounds on 8-of-14 shooting, 1-of-3 from three-point range and 3-of-5 from the free-throw line.

The Warriors relied on Dampier and Clifford Robinson to score 44 points and once pushed the Lakers off a cliff.

Fortunately, the Zen master was not really sitting on the sidelines, and when he was 6 points behind in the fourth quarter, he called a timeout and sent both O'Neill and Malone to the court.

At the same time, he ordered Kobe Bryant to strangle Fan Maniac on the defensive end - Nick Van Exel!

Let Doon guard against the defeat of the slam dunk contest - Jason Richardson.

Relying on the efforts of the starting five tigers together, the Lakers finally relied on Kobe Bryant to hit a three-point quasi-kill, and then O'Neal was cut by the Shark to shoot 2 of 4 and hit a free throw, 100-98, with a 2-point advantage to win hard.

After this battle, the Zen master also realized that the Lakers still need Malone and O'Neal to do the dirty work on the inside.

And if you want them to be diligent and hardworking, then their part of the ball must be guaranteed first.

Therefore, the only thing left is to start from the outside and cut out some of the ball to meet the needs of O'Neal and Malone, as well as role players.

Because he didn't want to talk to Kobe, and felt that Peyton had a conflict with his tactical philosophy, and felt that Peyton was unreasonable, the Zen master could only take the initiative to talk to Doon.

He was invited to tea by the Zen master, and after chatting, Doon didn't have much emotion.

"No problem, I'm a team player and I can make sacrifices for the team. ”

In fact, Doon knew in his heart that in the starting lineup, his reduction in shooting power would affect the scoring statistics at most.

As the axis of the triangle offense, in order to ensure the scoring efficiency of O'Neal and Malone, Doon still has the ball to feed O'Neal and Malone.

When it comes to the bench, is that counting on Fisher to score? Or Devin George to score?

In the end, don't you still have to rely on him to lead the bench and stabilize the score?

To put it bluntly, the triangular offensive tactics around O'Neill and Malone, Doon was the least affected.

The real interests are still Kobe and Payton, and once Payton has no data, he may not be willing to play a triangle offense, and then the Zen master will still have to solve Peyton's point.

After getting the Pippen template, Doon quickly passed his rookie period and no longer needed Payton to share the pressure of holding the ball off the bench.

When the time comes, it's all about yourself, hang it high, and it's over.

Having said that, after playing the Warriors, the Lakers and their party soon returned to Los Angeles.

On February 20, the Lakers host the 76ers.

The starting five Tigers had a clear distribution of the ball, and they scored 84 points in the third quarter, easily completing the task of clocking in and out of work in the third quarter.

In fact, because of the three-quarter clock-in, Payton, Doon, and Malone all had similar shots, 8, 10, and 9 respectively.

But because of the difference in scoring efficiency, Payton only scored 9 points, while Doon and Malone scored 16 and 15 points respectively, so there is a bit of a gap.

However, successive victories have overpowered the contradictions of individual players' possession.

The Lakers locker room was hosted by O'Neal singing and dancing and constantly serving big meals, and the atmosphere was very good.

Fueled by a good locker room atmosphere, the Lakers continued to soar, beating opponents like the Suns and Nuggets in quick succession.

It wasn't until February 26, when the Lakers hosted the second-place Kings in the West, that they once again experienced the taste of defeat.

The previous successive victories have reduced the ball possession, and Payton, who averages only 10 points per game, is resentful.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Kings had a lot of defensive counterattacks to switch to the fast break, Payton also pushed the fast break because of his own selfishness.

O'Neal complained about this, and the Lakers also disrupted the rhythm of the game because of the sudden speed, and it happened that the king's hand exploded again.

The Zen master took the opportunity to attack Peyton and ask Peyton about his guilt.

Peyton also put on the posture of an old ball ruffian in the past, expressing all kinds of dissatisfaction, and even speaking ill of the Zen master.

Seeing that the conflict was getting bigger, O'Neill immediately stood up and acted as an intermediary between the Zen master and Peyton, persuading both parties to dissipate their anger.

However, openly and secretly still hope that Peyton will apologize to the Zen master, play according to the triangle attack, and stop making his own decisions.

After two days, Payton relented.

However, the Zen master still chose to cut through the mess quickly, changed Payton's positioning, reduced Payton's playing time, and reduced Payton to a pseudo-starter.

Payton's playing time was cut in half, and possession dropped from 11 to six and seven per game.

And the extra part of the ball is basically divided equally between Doon and Fisher.

The Lakers solved Payton's uneasy hidden danger, and Payton dared not speak out, fearing that the Zen master would remove him from the playoff squad regardless of his face, affecting him to receive a championship ring.

In the end, I could only discuss a plan with the team, saying that I had a groin strain and took the initiative to recuperate.

The Zen master also felt that out of sight was pure, and also nodded to allow Peyton to leave the team temporarily.

In this way, at the end of February, the Lakers defeated the Wizards, Nets, and Hawks one after another by relying on the excellent performance of Kobe, Doon, Malone, and O'Neal, and ate the Eastern dividend.

Until March 3, the last stop of the four-game trip, the Lakers visited the Toyota Center, and still relied on the strength of the Lakers' starting lineup to win this back-to-back away game.

After half a month of running-in, the Lakers have truly evolved into a complete body and began to officially charge towards the championship.

(End of chapter)