Zhang Hao and O'Neal's teammates were both surprised by the excitement and...happiness that couldn't help but appear on their faces now!

The guy on the opposite side showed his ability at the beginning of the game, but his strongest player actually became more and more excited and happier the more he played!

Both of them enjoyed it!

This emotion also affected teammates.

With the performance of the two teams this season, they can be called a match for each other when they meet each other!

It is of course very satisfying to win the game with absolute dominance like the second round, but if this kind of opponent with equal strength wins, that kind of sense of accomplishment...

In the first quarter, both sides tested it and made it clear that the other party was not an opponent like the previous two rounds.

Perhaps the Kings and the Trail Blazers are both champion-level teams, and even the Jazz are barely enough to compete for the championship-level teams, but the opponent in front of them is definitely at least one level better than the other six teams in the West who have entered the playoffs!

Winning and losing are unpredictable, but it also makes the two teams more eager to win the game.

Soon, the second quarter began, and both teams rotated and started a tug-of-war.

The two teams performed well, not only the stars of each, but also the high-quality role players of the two teams!

The Lakers are amazingly strong in the playoffs, a very important point - the injury problem of the substitute lineup that has troubled them for a long time in the regular season has not appeared again!

The Lakers' activation list tonight, O'Neal, Payton, Pierce, Danny Manning, Horeth Grant, Rex Chapman, Dan Marley, Fisher, Brian Shaw, Rick Fox, Mark Madson, Greg Foster.

Supersonics' activation list tonight, Zhang Hao, Jordan, Cassel, Ben Wallace, Artest, Dell Curry, Much Brecklow, Ruben Patterson, James Percy, Kukoc, Jason Williams, and Hornersek.

The depth of the lineup between the two teams is no match for the Trail Blazers and the Raptors!

When the stars of both teams are in a dilemma, both teams have suitable role players to stand up.

In the second quarter, the Lakers scored 27-24 in a single quarter, 54-52, and the Lakers overtook two points and entered the second half.

In the first half, the two teams were mainly on the offensive and defensive battle, and the Supersonics were generally slightly weaker.

Carlisle was well commanded and distributed O'Neal's physical strength very well. After learning from the two teams' first two regular season matches, the tactics and rotation adjustments of the third match against Carlisle have been better. Moreover, the Lakers won the third match against the two teams, which made Zhang Hao end the reward of the "Shark Experience Baby" without even getting the task.

O'Neal's strength, when the outside teammates have enough strength, the team attacks around him, even if it is third in the league's defensive efficiency this season, and its overall defensive performance is second only to the 76ers' Supersonics, it can't be suppressed at all!

The Supersonics have to strengthen the defensive confrontation and drag the pace, but the Lakers scored 27 points in the first quarter, and the Lakers scored 27 points in the second quarter! The role it plays is at most not to let the Lakers play better and better.

However, Zhang Hao's old teammates, including players who faced Zhang Hao many times in the playoffs, were unsure of Zhang Hao, as well as players who had faced Zhang Hao many times in the playoffs.

Not only did the score lead by only two points, but the overall performance in the first half, the Lakers were only slightly better. There was no clear and clear advantage in the score and situation. The Supersonics also performed very strongly tonight!

Sure enough, in the third quarter, Zhang Hao started to fight desperately regardless of physical energy consumption!

Zhang Hao only tried his best to output in the first half when he was reasonably allocating his physical strength, and he distributed his physical strength according to the current physical strength and the goal of playing the whole game.

But after the first half, after the break, in the third quarter, Zhang Hao directly treated the game as the final quarter!

This operation directly broke the relatively balanced situation in the first half.

In terms of the strongest state, Zhang Hao still has a gap compared to Jordan's last three consecutive periods, so he is normal and cannot lead the Supersonics to have an invincible third quarter like the Bulls in the 95-96 season and 96-97 season.

But they still performed like that in some games this season, because he has better teammates this season, so he can only play routinely in the first half, make good use of counterattack ability, catch and shoot, and make singles at the end of the quarter. Only in the third quarter did he start fighting!

After spending a season to adjust your playing habits, Zhang Hao was already very comfortable to play in the best condition when he came back from midnight!

If Jordan had not joined, Ben Wallace had received a leap-up improvement in the defensive system he had built around him. Zhang Hao would not adjust his playing style in this regard, but if he had it, of course he had to make good use of it!

Zhang Hao, who scored 12 points in the first half, scored 13 points and 3 assists in the third quarter, led the Supersonics to score a single quarter of 29-24, overtaking the Lakers 81-78 and entering the final quarter with 3 points!

13 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block in a single quarter. Zhang Hao performed very well in 4 of 7 shots in a single quarter, but his teammates also helped him very much, especially after Zhang Hao moved the baseline and blocked Fisher's cut and dropped the ball, Jordan, who was chasing the defense, grabbed the ball and passed it to Zhang Hao, and Zhang Hao counterattacked and passed it to Dell Curry. The latter made a three-pointer and overtaken the score in one fell swoop.

The Lakers naturally knew that the Supersonics were very strong in the third quarter and knew that Zhang Hao would definitely start to storm in the third quarter. They made targeted adjustments on the defensive end and worked hard to strengthen their firepower on the offensive end.

But even so, they still can't beat it! The two teams were evenly matched, but in the end, there was a bug like Zhang Hao!

Entering the break between the festival, some of the Lakers players focused on the man opposite the other side who was baring his teeth and walking towards the bench with his jerseys in his mouth.

Then, after a while, I saw the man's ever-rolling chest quickly calm down and spit out his jersey, as if nothing had happened in the previous section of the bloody competition...

O'Neal also picked up the jersey, held it for almost the entire period of rest, and spit out the jersey angrily - it's still very tired! Can the sweat absorbing water be used to replenish the electrolytes and physical strength?

O'Neal angrily picked up the functional drink and drank a large cup in one breath, sat down and rested.

This is more useful!

On the other hand, although the Supersonics surpassed the score, they still did not dare to be careless.

The actual situation of the game is not only not within the expected range of the Lakers, but also within the expected range of the Supersonics.

Defensively won the championship, this will definitely not change.

Even if you rely on FMVP to reach your feet at the strongest player in the opponent's offense in 20 years, you can destroy the opponent's offense...

But what should I do when the opponent's star's personal offense is strong to the destructive level?

The Supersonics have the third place in the regular season defensive efficiency of the league and the second place in the actual defensive effect.

The Lakers ranked fifth in the league in regular season defensive efficiency, and the actual defensive efficiency is also fourth.

They are all the top defensive teams, but facing the opponent's attack, they can only limit the opponent's incomplete attack.

The situation will change at this time, and even the gods, Buddhas and sharks are not sure how they will control it.

After the final quarter, Payton faced Ruben Patterson's defense, and made a breakthrough in rhythm change, and came to close range, and made a throw-in before Zhang Hao made up for defense.

Payton, Cassel, Mark Jackson, Andre Miller have one common feature for point guards. They are not fast on the offensive end. Payton is actually quite fast, but he is used to slow-paced attacks, but the rhythm changes are very good!

The Lakers started a fierce attack!

An unhelpful shadow shrouded the Lakers' hearts - they don't want to drag the game to a critical moment, they have many excellent key ball players.

But who can compete with Zhang Hao for the key goal?

It’s not okay to switch Jordan to their Lakers!

Jordan is the player who was defeated the most by Zhang Hao.

In the playoffs, it was the knockout stage. The first game of the series decided the initiative of the next six games. Under the double pressure, Zhang Hao put more psychological pressure on the Lakers!

This led to the Lakers playing too aggressively in the final quarter.

Positiveness is also important, but there must be a degree! If you are too positive, you will be too excited. When a player encounters this situation, he may trust himself too much and ignore more possibilities.

The Lakers encountered this situation this time. They played well at the beginning, but after Payton scored two goals in a row at the beginning of the fourth quarter, they reached 4:22 and 4:55 in the fourth quarter, and were interfered with by Ruben Patterson for two consecutive mid-range shots!

In these two rounds, Zhang Hao stuck O'Neal's rush at the basket. Kukochi protected the defensive rebound. After Payton failed to make an effort, Zhang Hao made a breakthrough layup. James Posey took the pass and made a three-pointer.

Originally, the Supersonics only led by 1 point 92-91. After a wave of 5-0, the Supersonics tied the score to 97-91, leading by 6 points!

In both rounds, Pierce has made all the first two shots to get away from James Percy's defense and gets an opportunity. However, Payton is anxious to overtake the score and wants to quickly play the advantage to widen the gap. He chooses to believe in himself, but Payton's offensive ability is not enough to shoot the ball without completely getting rid of defense and having assisted defense.

The Lakers were beaten so hard that they called a timeout.

At this time, the Lakers replaced Jordan and Ben Wallace who had been resting for two minutes in the fourth quarter, and Artest also came on, and Kassel and Zhang Hao continued to play.

After the score difference widened to 6 points, the Supersonics replaced the strongest lineup!

The Lakers had to turn on Pierce and O'Neal's singles mode.

O'Neal made a strong shot and Jordan scored a goal in the mid-range shot. Pierce scored in a singles, and Zhang Hao responded with a stronger singles.

Payton and Cassel... In the playoffs, Cassel is the one with stronger scoring stability!

In the long regular season, it is definitely impossible for Cassel to play Payton, but at the critical moment of the playoffs, Payton cannot match Cassel!

The Lakers played very well in the final quarter and played very well in the whole game. In summary, their performance was evenly matched with the SuperSonics, which were in good shape.

But Payton made an irrational choice in two rounds and missed it, and the Supersonics seized the opportunity!

The Lakers are too afraid of Zhang Hao's key goal and do not want to delay the game to determine the outcome at a critical moment. The game is indeed not delayed to a critical moment.

After playing 11 minutes and 37 seconds, Jordan supported him at a high position, Zhang Hao received the ball from the bottom line and passed the ball. Artest appeared in the right position, received the ball and made a jump shot from a close range, and the score was 110 to 104, and the score difference reached 6 points. The Supersonics secured the victory!

The Lakers asked the timeout to go back and chose to miss the three-pointer. The Supersonics replaced Ben Wallace with Jason Williams. Jason Williams made both free throws after suffering a tactical foul...

Although the Lakers made a three-pointer in the end, they were powerless to make the situation come true.

112 to 107, the Supersonics narrowly defeated the Lakers and defended their first home court in the Western Conference Finals!

In the first half, Zhang Hao scored 12 points, 13 points in the third quarter, and 14 points in the last quarter. He scored 39 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. His performance of making 13 of 25 shots was also pretty good.

But there is a little regret that he can play 40+ in a single game with 1 point. He has not played 40+ in a single game this year...

But seeing Jordan's 24 points, Cassel scored 16 points and 8 assists, Artest scored 11 points, Ben Wallace scored 7 points and 14 rebounds... Actually, let alone scored 39 points, he can win, and he is willing to score 9 points, and Zhang is also willing to...

The Lakers were very upset and unwilling. They also realized that if Peyton hadn’t been too confident and anxious in those two rounds, they had a mistake, even if they and the Supersonics scored one goal in those two rounds, they would have the advantage!

Putting aside those two rounds, they played 28-26 with the Supersonics in the other time in the fourth quarter!

But in such a game, winning or losing is just one or two rounds. Both sides played extremely high levels. They missed and the other party seized the opportunity...

...

The first match of the Western Conference Finals was won, and the basketball atmosphere in Seattle was unprecedentedly high.

Zhang Hao became a player of the Supersonics. Even if Zhang Hao officially joined the Supersonics after the regular season of the 1998-99 season, it took only two years to calculate that the improvement of the basketball atmosphere in the local Seattle market is stronger than the accumulation of the Supersonics over the past 30 years!

In two years, the number of local fan clubs in Seattle has more than doubled, and the sales of basketball equipment and basketball facilities have increased exponentially!

Zhang Hao's father didn't expect that X Sports equipment and sneakers are just struggling to compete with foreign brands in China. Indeed, these days, the plot of fawning on foreign countries is the worst, and the domestic environment still needs to be improved. This requires the efforts of the whole people, and X Sports can only do its best to guide.
To be continued...