May 10, Sacramento, Gold One.

With O'Neal beating Divac and helping the Lakers jump possession, the game began.

Doon thought that tonight's game would be tough, but who wanted the king to mess up and adjust his defensive strategy again.

Perhaps because Doon made a lot of three-pointers in the last game by shooting cold arrows, tonight's Kings put on a 122 defensive formation to limit Doon's shooting from the outside.

The difference between 122 and 32 is whether the defender who leads the ball carrier is standing at the three-point line or the free throw line.

The two seem to be about the same, but in fact, the area that needs to be defended by 122 joint defense is much larger than that of 32 joint defense, and the corresponding defensive difficulty will naturally be greatly improved.

It is worth mentioning that both of them have the problem of relatively weak defense in the low post.

You know, with only five players on the field, a team's defensive resources are limited.

The Kings have strengthened their defense against Doon, an outside player, and have correspondingly reduced restrictions on interior players O'Neal and Malone.

We all know that offense needs space, space for shooting, space for low-post back-to-back play, and space for cutting the basket.

The more space the attacker has to attack, the more chances there are to get the easy ball, and the less difficult it will be.

The Kings let Doug Christie run to the three-point line to lead Doon in order to limit Doon's shooting.

Doon understood and immediately signaled Malone to pull outside the three-point line to cover him, ready to break through with cover.

Webb followed Malone out of the low post, but didn't run beyond the three-point line.

In order to prevent Doon from suddenly passing the ball to O'Neal under the basket, the others had no time to return to defense, and Divac couldn't defend O'Neal alone, and Webb could only follow to the free throw line.

Only by standing at the free-throw line can Webb have a chance to both inside and outside, both to delay Doane's acceleration to the basket and to immediately retract to the basket after Doane's pass to O'Neal.

However, as Malone ran beyond the three-point line, he helped Doon block Doug Christie. Doon escaped the chase with the help of the screen, and when Webb didn't come out, he undoubtedly got a half-open shot.

Seeing Doon's sudden jump, Bibby, who was defending Payton, could only step forward to interfere with Doon's shot.

But I didn't want to, Doon guessed early that Bibby would come over to make up for the defense, so this was a pass and cut cooperation between Doon and Payton, which was more common at the beginning of the regular season.

I saw Payton cut to the basket in the air, and with the help of O'Neal to attract Divac's attention under the basket, he easily completed the layup.

It can only be said that being smart is being mistaken by being smart. Rick Adelman was thinking about restricting the OK combo, but now he wants to prevent Doon from killing him as well.

Unexpectedly, Doon's excellent game reading ability saw the loopholes in the Kings' defensive lineup, and easily activated Payton, who was previously a role player.

Previously, Payton couldn't play the ball in the triangle offense, on the one hand, because of poor projection, which was not suitable for playing triangle offense, and on the other hand, because he offended the Zen master.

In fact, Payton's own strength, excluding projection, is still at the level of the league's starter.

The Lakers' starters were originally a four-star configuration, and once Payton was activated by Doon's pass, there was no way to defend it at all.

Although, O'Neal still fell in the low post, which affected the Lakers' defensive speed.

However, not long after playing G2, the Kings players who returned to their home court were also tired.

G3's conversion offensive speed and scoring efficiency are obviously not as good as G2's.

Halfway through the first quarter, the Zen master replaced O'Neal without changing Payton, and Rick Adelman realized what the problem was......

To that end, Rick Adelman used a 131 defense to try to limit the Lakers' offense.

The Lakers, under the leadership of Doon, mainly played double cover in the high post, and left Kobe Bryant in the low post to play alone with his back.

Kobe Bryant, who just returned from Eagle County not long ago, is also full of energy.

He shot 5-of-7 in the first quarter, 1-of-2 three-pointers, and 2-of-2 free throws, scoring 13 points in the first quarter!

Doon could only say that the law of rushing really lived up to its name.

30-24, the Lakers, who were playing away, took a six-point lead in the first quarter with the support of Kobe's efficient scoring.

In the second quarter, the Kings reverted to the 32-game defense of the previous game.

Seeing this, Doon was not polite, pretending to call for blocking, but in fact he suddenly used cold arrows.

As long as Webb can get out of the basket, even if Doon hits the iron, as long as the rebound falls under the basket, O'Neal still has a good chance to grab an offensive rebound and launch a second offense.

Of course, Doane felt okay in the second quarter, shooting 3-of-6 three-pointers to help the Lakers extend their lead further.

At the same time, Bryant's form was still hot, shooting 3-of-6 from the field, 1-of-3 from three-point range, and 2-of-2 from the free throw line in the second quarter, scoring nine points.

It was also because Doon and Kobe Bryant scored efficiently enough, and O'Neal, Malone, and Fisher also scored some goals in the second quarter.

Even though the Kings' scoring efficiency became higher in the second quarter, the Lakers still further widened the difference.

61-52, the Lakers entered the second half with a nine-point lead.

Speaking of halftime, O'Neal, who was not very willing to play blocking and dismantling with Doon, also had to take the initiative to propose to Doon to play blocking and dismantling in the second half because he only played 13 minutes in the first half and obtained 9 points and 3 rebounds.

Doon rejected O'Neal's suggestion on the grounds that the cooperation was not tacit enough to hurt the team on the grounds that the game training was not good.

Doon is ready to use the blocking and dismantling with O'Neal as a killer weapon, and if he can win tonight's game in other ways, it is naturally better to hide another hand.

Of course, the main reason is that Doon and O'Neal's blocking and dismantling cooperation is really not tacit enough.

In order to avoid doing bad things with good intentions and losing inexplicably, Doon still chose not to change his original style of play, continued to play steadily, and won the game.

After being rejected by Doon, O'Neill could only bring a bottle of glucose, open the lid, and drink it with tons and tons of stuffy heads, revealing a bitter wine in his throat and a pain in his heart.

Seeing this, Doon had nothing to say, so he could only muttered in his heart: "Kobe Bryant is in such good shape tonight, obviously his thigh, it's right to pass the ball to him."

Besides, Lao Tzu only had 13 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists in the first half, and he couldn't play more with the ball in the second half?

If you O'Neill eat more balls, what will I eat? ”

In order to prevent O'Neal from hurting the team on the defensive end, Doon also felt that since O'Neal was targeted by the Kings, it was better to rest off the court first.

Anyway, every time O'Neal came up, Doon would pass him a few balls to increase the Lakers' low-post threat and interior scoring.

However, in the third quarter, the Kings stepped up their defense against Kobe Bryant.

Although Kobe Bryant, who is rushing to the field, is fierce, he is also iron-headed.

Facing the three people's bags and putting back the picturesque, Doon decisively chose a high double cover to hit Malone and Grant.

Malone also scored more than a dozen points diligently in the first two games, and he worked the defensive end and blocking and dismantling with Doon.

With O'Neal out of the court, the Kings focused on defending Doon, the ball-handler, and Kobe Bryant's endpoint.

For Malone's defense, at most, Peja and others switched to the past one-on-one.

Occasionally, because of the untimely defense, Malone can also get the opportunity to shoot in the open position.

Malone did take control of the main work, scoring 8 points on 4-of-6 shooting before O'Neal returned to the court and staggered his trip.

After O'Neal came on the court, Divac and Brad Miller, who couldn't run and couldn't stand up, naturally couldn't help O'Neal.

The king can only use a stupid method to use a substitute to cut the shark in advance.

However, O'Neal played less time than G2 tonight, and although there were a lot of physical confrontations, he still held the free throws.

The free throws made 3 of 6 shots in the third quarter, although not good enough, at least helped the Lakers bite the score and did not waste the ball.

At 85-77, the Kings recovered one point in the third quarter, but it didn't have much impact on the game.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Doon took advantage of Doug Christie's absence and began shooting three-pointers from the outside again.

After making two three-pointers in a row, Rick Adelman had to switch Doug Christie back onto the court, and the Kings fielded their entire starting lineup to fight the Lakers with bayonets.

Not to be outdone, the Zen master continued to send the main lineup in addition to O'Neal still on the bench.

Relying on the double cover in the high post, Kobe Bryant played in the low post, Doon and Kobe Bryant attracted the defense inside and outside, and Payton, Malone, and Grant got some offensive opportunities.

The Kings restrained Doon and Kobe, but they couldn't work together to prevent the others from dying.

Before the halfway point of the fourth quarter, the Lakers had already scored more than 100 points.

As the margin widened, the Kings' defensive moves were a bit bigger, and Payton was pushed by Brad Miller on the waist during an air-cut layup.

As a result, Payton insisted on finishing the free throw, and was immediately helped back to the visiting locker room.

Injuries are also part of the playoffs! The Lakers are lucky, Payton doesn't have much influence in the Lakers' system.

Fisher took Payton's place as a natural fit, and played even better.

is also because Payton is injured, and the Lakers players on the court are somewhat of the same enemy.

As the saying goes, the mourning soldiers will win! With more than 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter, after Kobe Bryant hit two consecutive turnaround jumpers, the difference stretched to 15 points, and the King's morale completely collapsed.

It can only be said that the king's configuration is not bad, and the team's style of play is very restrictive to O'Neal, but it is still not enough to compete with a super team like the Lakers!

Just like tonight's game, under the law of Kobe Bryant's rush, the state is hot.

The Kings tried to press Kobe Bryant to death with a bag, but Kobe Bryant wasn't the only star in the Lakers.

With the help of Kobe Bryant's attraction defense, Doon, Malone and others can step up.

Even O'Neal, who doesn't play much, actually has a high scoring efficiency in the limited playing time.

In other words, the Kings can't win the game if one player breaks out on the Lakers.

And if the Kings want to wait for the Lakers' Big Four to all go silent, that's unlikely.

114-102, the Lakers won three consecutive victories in the Western Conference semifinals, directly forcing the Kings to the cliff 3-0.

And there are only two days left before the next G4.

(End of chapter)