Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

Chapter 101 Take it Back, Let's go Lakers!

After playing G4, the Lakers returned to Los Angeles overnight in order to avoid being harassed by Sacramento Kings fans.

Because they swept their opponents ahead of schedule to advance to the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers players will have nearly a week of rest, so it doesn't matter if they are a little tired from traveling.

What surprised Duan a little was that even in the middle of the night, there were still well-informed fans squatting spontaneously at the airport and at the entrance of Toyota Center.

"Kobe!"

"Shaq!"

"Dune!"

"The Lakers Championship!"

After two rounds of playoffs, the Lakers' championship slogan no longer came from Duane's lips. The Lakers fans couldn't contain their excitement!

And the Lakers management, who originally wanted to sell one more playoff ticket, had to think of other ways to make more money because the Zen master listened to the tune and didn't listen to the announcement.

Ever since, taking advantage of the fans' increasing enthusiasm for winning the championship, the Lakers management took advantage of the heat and held a special fan meeting before the Western Conference Finals.

Its purpose is to stimulate Lakers fans to buy special playoff jerseys printed with "Take it Back".

Take it Back means to take something back.

Just like Xiao Ma's classic line - I have been waiting for three years for an opportunity. I want to fight for it, not to prove that I am great; I want to tell everyone that I must get back what I lost!
Last season, the Lakers lost to the Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals and missed the opportunity to win four consecutive championships. The Lakers, who are making a comeback this season, definitely want to win the championship again.

It just so happened that during the recent period, the Spurs were still playing the Western Conference semifinals with the Timberwolves.

The Lakers' position must be to regard the defending champion Spurs as their imaginary enemy, hoping that the Spurs will advance to the Western Conference Finals, and then personally eliminate the Spurs from the game to avenge their humiliation.

Judging from the current record, even though the Timberwolves have the regular season MVP Garnett, they are still 2 to 3 behind the Spurs led by Duncan.

Under normal circumstances, as long as the Spurs don't lose two games in a row in G6 and G7, the team more likely to advance to the Western Conference Finals is undoubtedly the defending champion San Antonio Spurs.

In this year's Wild West, although the Spurs seem to have a relatively average lineup on the surface.

But in fact, with peak Duncan in charge, Ginobili, the god of war in the 04 Athens Olympics, and Parker, the second player in the Spurs' championship last season, the GDP combination has already begun to show its impressiveness.

In addition, the Spurs also have elite players such as Bowen, Turkoglu, and Horry.

To be honest, the Spurs are just slightly inferior to the Timberwolves with the three-headed monster in terms of star flavor, but their overall strength is stronger.

To put it bluntly, there is a reason why the Timberwolves have missed the first round of the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons, including being swept out multiple times.

If it wasn't for Cassel and the Madman, Garnett's reputation as a tough guy would sooner or later be reduced to the level of McGrady because of fighting and retreating.

Of course, the root cause of this phenomenon is that the Yin-Yang contract was fined and confiscated for several years.

There are no decent helpers around Garnett, and the quality of the Timberwolves' rotation players is relatively poor, which is not enough to make further progress in the playoffs.

The Spurs were the defending champions before, and the Timberwolves were a first-round team. The quality of the role players on both sides has actually been greatly improved.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that in the series between the Spurs and the Timberwolves, the Spurs are the more advantageous side.

A few days later, the Spurs did not disappoint the Lakers management.

After the tiebreaker, the Spurs defeated the Timberwolves 4-3, advanced to the Western Conference Finals, and successfully joined forces with the Lakers.

On the evening of May 5st, at the Staples Center, nearly 21 Lakers fans, including the wealthy and Hollywood stars in the first row, all put on special jerseys with "Take it Back" printed on them.

It is worth mentioning that before the start of the game, the league officially announced the list of the best regular season teams for this season.

The Lakers only had the OK combination selected to the best lineup, and Duane regrettably lost the selection.

However, Kobe and O'Neal are both first-team players.

And the Spurs only had Duncan for a while.

In the Eastern Conference finals, Ben and O'Neal were both second-team players, and the Pacers also had Artest, who won the third-team.

Judging from the list of the best team, it is not wrong for Dunn to lose the selection.

These years, the unspoken rule of the best team is that a team can have at most two people selected for the best team.

With so many teams in the league, they still need to share some pork.

Although the first team of the Lakers OK combination is well-deserved, but if you want to give Dunn a third team, other teams that made the playoffs but did not win the best team, you have to have opinions.

The Pacers have the same record as the Lakers, don't they only have one second team and one third team?

Reminiscent, Thompson had only two and three teams before Durant couldn't beat him and joined. After Durant joined, the best team was completely fine for him.

Dunn instantly understood that if he wanted to gain personal honor in a super team, he must either have the ability to manipulate the media to get them to vote, or at least become the team's second child.

And Duen, who now has superstar strength, is naturally not satisfied with only a few third-team games in his career.

Closer to home, in G1 of the Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and the Spurs, the Lakers still have a great advantage.

Because the Spurs were still playing tiebreaker with the Timberwolves last night, and tonight they are playing back-to-back away games, the Spurs players must be physically exhausted.

After the game officially started, Duane and O'Neal came up with the move that defeated the king before, high pick-and-roll!

In fact, when playing against the Spurs, Duan doesn't need to play pick-and-roll with O'Neal at all. He can just find someone to pick-and-roll, and he only needs to pick Parker out of position.

It was also because O'Neal wanted to bully Duncan like he bullied Webb before. As early as a few days ago, he had been courting Duen and invited Duen to have several meals. Duen could not refuse, so he could only cooperate with O'Neal. beat.

As O'Neal helped Dunn block Turkoglu, Duane took the ball past Rasu Nesterovic who was pulled to the free throw line, and O'Neal went to find Duncan's trouble after receiving the ball.

Duncan stood still in advance and raised his hands to block O'Neal's attack, but O'Neal was still dunked by a shark splash.

But although Duncan looked dull, he was actually very smart.

I know that I have to confront O'Neal and interfere with O'Neal's offense, but I can't resist.

Therefore, when O'Neal took off and slammed, Duncan took the initiative to back off after the confrontation, and he was not knocked down by O'Neal's meatball chariot like Weber in the previous round of the series.

The Spurs' offensive round, if it was in the past, it should be a downwind round. Parker played a pick-and-roll with Duncan, and Parker ended up rushing to the basket.

However, tonight, Kobe directly led the defense of Parker, making it a little difficult for Parker to dribble.

Because Ginobili was placed on the bench, the Spurs did not have a serious shooting guard. In the starting lineup, the Spurs could only let Turkoglu come to support Parker.

At this time, Dunn, who was defending Turkoglu, also immediately entangled him, using the hand check rule to make it difficult for Turkoglu to move an inch.

In the end, it was veteran Bowen who bullied Fisher for being too short and helped the Spurs dribble the ball across half court.

However, Fisher was not idle either. When defending in the backcourt, he kept using small moves to consume Bowen's energy.

Bowen is 3D, and his autonomous offensive ability is very average. Although Fisher is very short, Bowen did not choose to make strong shots by himself.

The ball was quickly passed to Duncan, but Duncan was not very good at playing Malone.

Duncan still has lingering fears about that kick.

And Malone also knows that his physical fitness has declined and he cannot withstand Duncan's strength, not to mention that Duncan's low-post skills are notoriously good.

Ever since, Ma Long played the dirty defense of the three lanes, making Duncan, who was not physically strong enough, play harder and harder.

The Spurs relied solely on Duncan's offense and it was difficult to open up the game in the first quarter.

Popovich knew Duncan's difficulties, so he could only send Ginobili in advance.

However, Duan and Kobe were the two locks, and they still took away Parker and Ginobili.

As for Bowen's open three-pointer, let him make it!It is impossible for Bowen to break out with a three-pointer and kill the Lakers in one fell swoop.

When it came to the Lakers' offensive round, Duane directly signaled everyone to pull away, so that O'Neal didn't have to come up, and just squatted in the bottom corner.

Bowen is still defending Kobe, Ginobili is facing Dunne, there is no way to defend.

Duane turned around with high backs and directly rushed to the basket.

Duncan came to help defend, Duan passed the ball to Malone, and the latter dunked in an alley-oop.

As early as the regular season, the Lakers used one matchup victory after another to tell Popovich that Parker and Ginobili cannot appear on the court at the same time.

Since Popovich forgot and made a mistake again, Dunn will naturally ask Popovich to remember it longer.

Not long after, Popovich replaced Turkoglu, but it didn't help. Duane knew how to play pick-and-roll.

Therefore, before Kobe Bryant broke out and took away the Spurs, the Lakers relied on Duan's ball-handling offense to quickly widen the point difference, laying the foundation for the G1 victory as early as the first half.

In tonight's game, the Spurs' main force is not strong enough.

In the third quarter, Popovich was worried that Duncan was injured, and even directly pressed Duncan for 8 minutes, and then replaced Duncan after O'Neal left the field.

Duncan has no objection to such things as traveling at the wrong peak. As long as he can win, Duncan doesn't care about other things.

However, the Spurs team is in poor condition, but the Lakers are full of energy and look like they are going to eat the Spurs.

After the third quarter, the score of the two teams came to 67 to 90, a huge difference of 23 points.

The Spurs are a strong defensive team. If they cannot guard the Lakers, they are destined to lose tonight.

In the fourth quarter, the Spurs only played a symbolic game for half a quarter before surrendering early.

89 to 115, the Lakers beat the defending champion Spurs by 1 points at home in G26 of the Western Conference finals. The domineering power of the super team is undoubtedly revealed.

After the end of G1, many Lakers fans were still unsatisfied, and continued to stay at the entrance of the Staples Center, still shouting in unison: "Let's go Lakers!"

There is no doubt that in the eyes of Lakers fans, as long as they can beat the Spurs, the Lakers can rush out of the West and win another championship again!
(End of this chapter)