The Pistons have made a lot of preparations for this game.

Although the competition for the new generation of superstars is a personal competition between Grant Hill and Zhang Hao, the Pistons management and coaching staff must create better conditions for Grant Hill to compete with Zhang Hao.

They must seize the opportunity of O'Neal's absence and help Grant Hill defeat Zhang Hao once.

From Zhang Hao's participation in the Nets to joining the Lakers, Grant Hill has played against Zhang Hao four times in front and has never won once. This is too much pressure for Grant Hill to compete.

And Grant Hill is the Pistons' face-to-face!

The focus of the Pistons' defense tonight is to defend Zhang Hao. As long as Zhang Hao can be limited to scoring, judging from most of the Lakers' past 39 games, it will definitely have a huge impact on the Lakers' offense.

The Pistons' overall defense is very good, indeed missing Alan Houston, which made them lose a scorer who averaged 20 points per game on the offensive end, which affected their complete promotion to the top team. However, without Alan Houston's defensive end dragging, their defense is the top five in the league, and they currently have only 89 points per game. In the case of defending Zhang Hao, it can also greatly interfere with the rest of the Lakers.

However, the Collins Brothers also had a worry before the game. Buckley!

That Christmas battle allowed Barkley to sweep away the evaluation of "cliff-like decline", and Barkley's evaluation became "reserving physical strength for the playoffs."

Tactics are to some extent equivalent to gambling, just like hitting the main scorer and shorting unstable secondary pitchers, so is strategy.

The regular season is not like the playoffs, with a high probability of a surprise in the regular season. The Bulls lost to the Raptors, the third-last in the East this year. One of the important factors is that they can still win the trial and error opportunities of losing one or two games or even three games like the playoffs. The strategies and tactics are all one-time gambling.

In order to better limit Zhang Hao, the Pistons bet that Barkley won't play so hard.

The bet failed!

The non-intermittent defense switch against Zhang Hao was blocked by Ratliff's frame protection, and the use of Lynch Hunter to limit Kenny Anderson. On this basis, as long as Barkley takes the initiative in the offensive end, the Pistons can't defend it at all!

The Pistons started the offense very well, and the people who wanted to defend were also very good. However, halfway through the first quarter, the Lakers relied on Barkley's 6 points and the threat he brought, and scored 12 points in the half quarter, which was comparable to the Pistons.

With Grant Hill turning around and making a throw shot from a close range, the Pistons led 13-12, and the Lakers called a timeout at 6 minutes and 41 seconds in the first quarter.

Zhang Hao and Kenny Anderson did a good job of adjusting. After Barkley scored two consecutive goals at the beginning, he actively took advantage of the threat brought by Barkley and changed the team's playing style in time.

But it was not so good to use. During the suspension period, Del Harris made more targeted adjustments to Barkley's performance tonight.

The Lakers replaced George Lynch with Jason Williams, and Zhang Hao went to the small forward position.

The Pistons replaced Addis Thorpe with Terry Mills to enhance their shooting ability.

The Collins brothers of the Pistons had no choice. They successfully used their fast retreat and defended the number of shots without suppressing speed or rhythm. This is their good defense.

But the Lakers' offensive success rate has not been reduced. Since this is the case, we will sacrifice some effective defense and enhance offense.

After all, it's still helpless to defend the Lakers!

This is something that almost all NBA teams can do at present. Unless the Lakers' own external touch is extremely poor, and they only need to shrink and stare at the dead, Zhang Hao has been stable and outstanding, otherwise they have to follow the rhythm of the Lakers and play offense.

...

After the timeout, Kenny Anderson received the serve and pushed it to the frontcourt, passing it to Zhang Hao, who was asking for the ball outside the three-point line.

Grant Hill was ready to face Zhang Hao who was leaning against him outside the three-point line.

Zhang Hao raised his elbow, held Grant Hill, and turned left to break through!

Grant Hill was prepared for a long time. He had felt Zhang Hao's powerful upper limb strength many times. He quickly withdrew and blocked it in time using the faster burst speed to block Zhang Hao in time.

Zhang Hao suddenly pulled the ball back, and Grant Hill rushed forward to prevent Zhang Hao from taking a step back and three-pointer.

However, after Zhang Hao took a step back, he took the ball behind him and avoided Grant Hill who was rushing forward. The "King of Cross Steps" triggered! The speed soared to 92, and started at the fastest speed, breaking straight into the inside line!

Terry Mills is really talented and fat, and his movement speed is not greatly affected. He is in place in time. Ratliff is also ready to block and interfere after Terry Mills blocked Zhang Hao. Zhang Hao seized the opportunity to pass the ball across the ball. Barkley from the left bottom line received the ball before Grant Hill made a comeback.

Terry Mills's fat ball movement speed surprised Zhang Hao, and Zhang Hao's outside change breakthrough surprised the opponent even more.

I have seen it before, but at that time, Zhang Hao had to use it once, and his movements were very awkward.

And now, how long has it been? Two months! Zhang Hao can already perform directional movements smoothly on the outside!

Look at Ratliff, who is about the same height, and then look at Zhang Hao. Grant Hill felt his scalp numb.

14-13, the Lakers took the lead by 1 point.

Del Harris' ability to use Barkley is not the way he uses Barkley's threat to organize an offense like Zhang Hao and Kenny Anderson did in the first half of the first quarter.

It's good to play like that, but it won't work the best.

What is the best way to use an inside player with averaging 20+ points per game?

Score!

Helping Barkley score and maximizing Barkley's scoring ability is the best choice Del Harris believes.

The key point is that there are almost no such thing as playing around Barkley's threat. It is actually quite difficult for teammates to cooperate around this point. It is better for the whole team to help Barkley score points.

Zhang Hao has no objection to this.

Although Grant Hill imitated his Zhang's style of playing tonight and scored 8 points in the first half of the first quarter, while Zhang has not scored 1 point yet. He really wants to score with Grant Hill, but winning is the most important thing.

When the pass was sent out, he received a system prompt that the "Mr. Bad"'s advancement goal failed and the number of silver lottery draws was extremely rare.

However, there are still regular goals to be accomplished.

The sum of the three data is higher than Grant Hill, among which the score is the most important, and he and Grant Hill are the strongest, and they are also scored.

But the way to accomplish...

In addition to scoring with Grant Hill, there is another way...

Defend Grant Hill!

Joe Dumas advanced to the frontcourt and passed the ball to Grant Hill. This time it was Zhang Hao who stuck with Grant Hill.

Grant Hill has the advantage of speed and wants to turn around and break through with speed like before against George Lynch. However, Zhang Hao judged the direction of Grant Hill's breakthrough, took a step ahead of time and stuck the position. He raised his elbow to hold Grant Hill during the confrontation. Grant Hill bumped himself and hit the pipa bone. He was unable to turn around and change direction as soon as possible due to pain.

Protecting the ball and withdrawing from the three-point line, Grant Hill felt the improvement in Zhang Hao's defensive details, and his small movements became more!

Looking at Zhang Hao's face that was only 20 years old and still has a tender and immature face, his calm and righteous face looks like a good person, but he is a little devil villain!

Turning around and breaking hard, Grant Hill can only break straight into the inside without avoiding Zhang Hao's mid-range shot interference!

Zhang Hao mainly blocked Grant Hill's mid-range shot, posted it on the opponent's designated jump shot, Jason Williams pulled in and shot, Grant Hill passed the ball to Terry Mills, and Doug Christie made up for defense.

Terry Mills, the big brother who once played with Jason Williams, gained weight, was really surprising. His ability to grab was not as good as when he was 104 kilograms, but his skills became more and more delicate. He immediately took the ball and passed the head of a person in the three-second zone and hung the ball to Lynch Hunter on the right side of the three-second zone.

Lynch Hunter was surprised to receive the ball and quickly made a move, but did not make a shot. Seeing Jason Williams grab the rebound, Lynch Hunter quickly retreated.

He just took advantage of Kenny Anderson to make up for the free Joe Dumas sneaked in to see if he had a chance to pick up an offensive rebound. Who knew that Terry Mills had passed the ball.

Terry Mills has developed a 43% three-point shooting percentage this season with an average of 3.3 three-point shooting, and a career-high average of 2.9 assists. He has also played for half a season, but his teammates are still not used to it. Before Eddie Thorpe comes, Terry Mills is a sports insider!

Both teams have made adjustments in their playing style based on the current situation. The Lakers began to attack around Zhang Hao or Kenny Anderson to create scoring opportunities for Barkley. Barkley either shoots or passes according to the current situation.

This style of play is similar to Barkley's style of playing in the Suns and the core style of playing in the inside. Zhang Hao completely freed up the inside space for Barkley. The way of launching an offense from the outside even gave up the space for mid-range shots. Although Zhang Hao also sacrificed some things, the offense became more beneficial to the Lakers as a whole.

Under this change, the Pistons, which took the initiative at the beginning, were forced to make adjustments.

The Lakers' early attack on Grant Hill forced Grant Hill to score the ball and failed to score continuously like in the first half of the first quarter. Zhang Hao went to defend Grant Hill, freed Doug Christie, and restricted Joe Dumas with Kenny Anderson, and could also make up for the opponent's mid-range pitcher.

But the Lakers' defense did not do that well against Ratliff and Lynch Hunter. Grant Hill, Joe Dumas, and Terry Mills all passed well.

The situation of the game is different from the first half of the first quarter. The Lakers caught Barkley at the disadvantage in the first half of the first quarter and tied the score tightly, but the score was similar to the first half of the first quarter. Both sides have made adjustments now, playing their own offense more targetedly, and the score is still tightly tied.

Relying on Lynch Hunter to catch Joe Dumas from the outside, the Pistons led the Lakers 29-27 to enter the break when they finished the first quarter.

...

2 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal, which is Zhang Hao's performance when he finished the first quarter.

9 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist, this is Grant Hill's performance after the first quarter.

Zhang Hao was very effective in striking the defensive adjustments made by his teammates. Grant Hill scored 7 points in the first half of the first quarter and only 2 points in the second half. Moreover, because he did a good job of making up for Grant Hill's first pass point, Grant Hill only got 1 assist in the first quarter, but he got it in the first half of the first quarter.

Del Harris has no objection to this defensive strategy. One of the strategies that usually have a good role in defense is to force the opponent to pass more, and more passes may make mistakes. However, except for Ratliff, the other four players on the Pistons have excellent passes, which produces poor results, which does not mean that the defense is not good.

And with Barkley's 12 points in a single quarter, the Lakers tied the score tightly. If it weren't for Lynch Hunter's buzzer-beating three-pointer, the Lakers would have been ahead when they finished the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Zhang Hao continued to play, with Fisher, Brian Xiao, Magicians, and Jeromy Colsey playing.

On the Pistons, Grant Hill also continued to play, and the combination of garbage dogs Jerome Williams, Michael Curry, Grant Long and Terry Mills came on.

The Pistons' lineup is also amazing. Except for Michael Curry's 196 cm, the other four are 203 to 206 cm.

The Pistons have been ruined for a few years after the Bad Kids Legion era, and have accumulated a lot of things. This is the reason why they can rise rapidly after Grant Hill reaches its super-powerful level. The talent of the character player lineup has indeed accumulated, and now there is only one scorer outside Grant Hill.

After the second quarter started, Grant Hill took advantage of the Lakers' defensive targets against him and connected the offense with Terry Mills. It was not as strong as the lineup, but it was enough.

However, the Lakers are playing hard. Zhang Hao encountered Jerome Williams' defense, which was really a headache. This guy dared to use his face to hit O'Neal's arm, his shameless defensive strategy, and his small movements continued...

Indeed, the Pistons have more advantages at the moment. When it comes to the rotation stage, Barkley and Kenny Anderson have both gone down, and the Lakers are once again at a disadvantage.

As for using personal abilities to lead the team, Zhang Hao is still not as good as Grant Hill. He is stronger than being a pure scorer, but the Pistons have a good defense.

After playing 5 minutes and 11 seconds in the second quarter, the Pistons have led the Lakers by 6 points 40-34.

When the Lakers attacked, Zhang Hao turned around from the middle distance from the left bottom line and turned around and leaned against Jerome Williams, but the opponent was tightly attached, and there was no chance to step or turn over. He could only turn around and break through, and was blocked by Grant Hill in time!

The Pistons had already defended Zhang Hao's back with great defense. Zhang Hao was blocked and raised the ball. The Pistons' defensive rotation was very fast. Zhang Hao saw Fisher cutting into the inside and could only pass it.

Fisher received the ball without shooting, and rushed straight to the basket, confronted Terry Mills, and made a tough throw shot... into the ball! And it also caused Terry Mills to foul!

At this important moment, when the opponent may continue to widen the score gap without scoring the goal, the rookie Fisher once again showed his biggest characteristic, big heart, able to make the most rational choice, dare not make random shots!

Zhang Hao was very happy and excitedly went up to brisk Fisher with high fives. As long as you don’t enter my house, you will be a good teammate.
To be continued...