Steve Nash scored 21 points and made 12 assists; don’t forget that in the original tiline he was the MVP.
Shawn Marion scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds; in D’Antoni’s offensive system, it’s not just the Canadians who thrive.
The Lakers, like the Mavericks in the previous round, are a team with incredibly strong offensive power.
Western teams are always like this, emphasizing flair, scoring, and performance, while Eastern teams often value physical combat, defense, and bloody battles more.
But the Lakers have two points that are different from the Mavericks.
The first point is that the Mavericks rely on half-court isolation plays, while the Lakers almost recreate the glory of Showti.
The second point, and the most important one, is that the Lakers have defense.
Aside from Steve Nash, the Lakers have strong individual and team defense at the other four positions.
In the protection of the system, Nash’s defensive shortcomings are not too fatal.
Before the trade happened, because the defense rotation at the three position composed of Jumaine Jones and Brian Cook was so bad, they couldn’t put any pressure on Roger, so the Lakers were always one step short of victory.
But tily reinforcents have started to make the Lakers winners.
After the ga, Mike Dunleavy Sr., who was fired by the Clippers mid-season and then joined the Lakers’ managent as a player developnt consultant, hugged the team’s head coach Rudy Tomjanovich: "The Lakers are champions!"
Mike Dunleavy Sr. almost won a championship with the Lakers in 1991 when he replaced Pat Riley and led the Lakers back to the playoffs.
But unfortunately, he ran into the rising Michael Jordan.
Now he has the chance to make up for that regret in the managent role.
After hugging Tomjanovich, Mike Dunleavy saw Matt Barnes walk past him.
Last season when he was coaching the Clippers, Matt Barnes lost his contract to continue playing with the team because he almost punched Mike Dunleavy Sr. on the training ground.
Matt Barnes still doesn’t like Mike Dunleavy Sr., and Mike Dunleavy Sr. doesn’t like Matt Barnes either.
So this old tough guy who has been mixing in the professional basketball scene since the 70s yelled at Matt Barnes: "Not practicing shooting? I told you it’s useless. Look at your shooting percentage today, damn it, 0 for 3 on threes?"
This is the ruthless ridicule of the victor to the defeated.
But Matt Barnes is not the type of person who takes things lying down.
Furious, Matt Barnes clenched his fists and stopped in his tracks.
He turned around, jumped into the crowd, and lunged directly at the suited-up Mike Dunleavy Sr.
The whole venue gasped, and ESPN’s live caras shifted from the comntators to the sidelines.
Fortunately, at the ti there were Warriors players all around who were also heading back to the player tunnel, and they managed to hold Matt Barnes back, letting Mike Dunleavy Sr. escape unscathed.
This little episode after the ga instead beca a hot topic among fans, and the old grudges between Matt Barnes and Mike Dunleavy Sr. resurfaced.
The league didn’t suspend Matt Barnes, as no one was physically hard by him.
But a warning was unavoidable.
From now on, any further misconduct, and he’ll be made an example by the league.
Matt Barnes was very irritated, and he remained angry into the next day.
"That idiot, always knows how to yap! What does he count as? He didn’t contribute anything to the Lakers’ victory, yet has the rights of a victor!"
"But you can’t just jump in and hit him," Mutombo chuckled, "You should be smarter, like Roger dealing with Pat Riley, and ’accidentally’ slap him while saving a ball."
"Don’t waste effort, Matt, no matter what, you won’t be able to harm a single hair on Mike Dunleavy’s head." Stoudemire joked about Mike Dunleavy Sr.’s receding hairline, making the whole locker room burst into laughter.
The team’s atmosphere was still relatively normal, which was what Roger hoped to see.
But what if they’re down 0-2?
Last season, the Warriors indeed ca back from a 0-2 deficit against the Pistons, but you can’t always let others push you to the edge.
The biggest reason the Lakers won the last ga was still the insufficient pressure on Kobe.
To balance offense, Erik Spoelstra wouldn’t use Roger to defend Kobe and Nash.
Tayshaun Prince had to deal with Nash because the other forwards were too slow in front of Nash.
Only Jason Richardson could match up with Kobe, and he happened to be the most diocre defensive player among the Warriors’ starters.
To give Kobe more pressure, there’s only one way: increase Matt Barnes’ playing ti like in the regular season.
Roger also shared this idea with Spoelstra.
The man who had known Roger for many years just shook his head.
"Fairy tale, huh? Matt got humiliated by Mike Dunleavy Sr., then we increase his playing ti, so he hits several threes in the next ga, defends Kobe, and finally grabs Mike Dunleavy’s collar yelling: shut up, idiot.
Co on, this is too cliché; even third-rate authors wouldn’t resort to this trope.
I know sothing similar has happened around you, Michael Reed suddenly exploded in the playoffs and beca a championship shooter.
I admit that was very inspiring, another classic Chapter in your legendary career.
But this won’t happen to Matt; he’s working hard in training. Maybe next season or the season after, he could beco a highly threatening three-point shooter. But now, at this mont, he cannot do it; he doesn’t have any shooting response ability. If we increase his playing ti, the Lakers will double-team you at halfti!"
"No problem, we’ll double-team Kobe, using rotations to kill open spaces. Our rotation ability is definitely stronger than the Lakers’, especially since they have Steve Nash. Anyway, don’t let that guy Kobe attack without restraint."
With that said, Roger stood up and placed his hands on Erik Spoelstra’s desk: "Not only are our rotations better, but even when double-tead, my offense can be better than Kobe’s."
"You’re probably the only person in the league qualified to say that," Spoelstra replied, "By the way, how’s your mild cold? Today you were coughing quite a lot on the court."
"Don’t ntion it, I’m never playing pool parties with the Olsen sisters again. That’s not an excuse for losing, this little cold doesn’t affect the ga at all."
"Your expression looks like you were quite pleased."
"Shut up, Erik, focus on the ga!"
"What!? Damn, it wasn’t at the pool party!"
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Work is not yet complete; should I imitate Roger, who keeps coughing during matches to mock him? No, the work is not yet finished. — Kobe serious-faced replied to the question "Now the score is 1-0, why don’t you look happy? You should be happy about guessing correctly."
I have always been the best scorer, there’s nothing surprising about this, I don’t feel anything about it. — Kobe responded regarding today’s ga where he outscored Roger.
I’ve never seen a player as notorious and unsuccessful as him; if he plays more than 10 minutes for any team, that team will never laugh last in the playoffs! — Mike Dunleavy fud about Matt Barnes.
Impact? Certainly not, we’ll allocate the sa playing ti to Matt as we should, who stops using a player because he shadow-boxed the air a few tis? — Erik Spoelstra discussed the impact of the post-ga incident on Matt Barnes’ playing ti.
"You’ve been coughing constantly during the ga, the dia says you caught a mild cold, is it true?"
"Yes, but it doesn’t affect the ga; it has nothing to do with winning or losing."
"Kobe was very serious today; during the ga, your fan, codian Chris Rock, was sitting next to the Lakers’ bench, telling jokes beside Kobe the entire ti, but he seed to hear nothing, showing no expression at all. After the ga, Kobe didn’t smile despite winning, how do you evaluate that?"
"I like that about him, he has an obsessive desire for victory, but he just never won before."
"Kobe thinks he’s the best scorer, what do you think?"
"Yes, he’s always been the best scorer, the best of the second place."
"How big is the gap between the first and second? This season Kobe averages only 0.3 points less than you."
"I don’t like using stats to asure the gap; the gap is reflected in wins and losses, you’ll see."
— Roger "Sports Illustrated" interview.
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