"Audience friends, welcome to the 1998-1999 NBA Finals! I'm McBlin. ”

In the finals, McBrin sat in the commentary booth and started his work tonight.

"The first game of the finals will be held at the Great Western Forum Arena in Los Angeles, and this game will be broadcast live by me and Mav Albert."

There was a lot of noise in the arena and there was a lot of noise on live TV, and McBrin had to raise his voice.

'The game is about to start and we can see that the starters on both sides are already on the pitch.

Mav Albert took over: "Let's take a look at the starters on both sides, first of all, the Lakers, their starting five tigers are, point guard Derrick Fisher, scoring guard Kobe Bryant, small forward Scott Pippen, power forward Robert Horry and center Shaquille O'Neal. ”

"The Knicks' starting lineup has changed a lot, and they changed their starting lineup again for this game, starting point guard with Charlie Ward, scoring guard with Alan Houston, small forward with Ratlills Prewell, and Patrick Ewing with Cote Thomas on the inside."

The Knicks' starters are the most variable, the point guard position, Charlie Ward and Chris Childs are likely to start, the second and third positions, Alan Houston, Ratlers Prewell and Aunt Larry Johnson are all likely to start, the inside Patrick Ewing is definitely the starter, and the other position, Cott Thomas and Marcus Camby are also likely to start, but in this game, Jeff Van Gundy chose Coatt Thomas.

The Lakers' side is naturally the regular starting five, and in the face of the Knicks, the Lakers naturally don't need to make any changes.

To play a defensive team like the Knicks, first of all, you must do a good job in your defense, and secondly, Qiao Hai should focus on the outside or inside according to the opening situation, and how to play the offense mainly depends on the Knicks' defensive strategy.

The game starts with Patrick Ewing and O'Neal jumping the ball.

In the West Finals, O'Neal faced David Robinson, and in the finals, he met Patrick Ewing again, and met the old super center in a row, O'Neal was actually excited, playing the Spurs, because David Robinson had Duncan's assistance, so O'Neal was slightly suppressed.

In the finals, O'Neal felt that Ewing didn't have a helper of Duncan's level, and this time he should always exert his strength.

The main attack of the Lakers at the beginning was O'Neal, and in the opening jump ball, O'Neal jumped hard and directly grabbed the ball of the first attack in the opening game.

O'Neal fed the ball to Scott Pippen, then rushed to the edge of the box himself, turned his back against Patrick Ewing, and opened his hand to ask for the ball.

Scott Pippen didn't hesitate and gave the ball directly.

O'Neal hit hard, turned around and hit a small hook to press Patrick Ewing to hit.

Patrick Ewing didn't have a helper, Cott Thomas didn't flank, in fact, even if Cote Thomas rushed over to flank, he couldn't withstand O'Neal's strong hit.

O'Neal opened the scoring and the Great Western Forum Arena erupted in cheers.

The Knicks' offense, the Lakers' outside defenders are listed separately, Kobe Bryant defends Alan Houston, Scott Pippen vs. Ratlills Prewell, the Lakers' outside one-on-one defense is still very strong, and the Knicks' point guard is not as good as the Spurs' Avery Johnson, after various reversals on the outside, the Knicks just can't find a chance.

In the end, he could only give the ball to Patrick Ewing, and Ewing also wanted to return a ball to O'Neal, but in the face of O'Neal, Ewing was really old, and he couldn't hit O'Neal with his back, so he turned around and missed the shot.

Scott Pippen rushed to grab the rebound, the Lakers directly counterattacked and fast-attacked, Kobe Bryant scored a light dunk in the frontcourt, and the Lakers opened 4:0.

Then, the Knicks attacked, they still played hard, in fact, Jeff Van Gundy's lineup in this game was too conservative, the Knicks' offense was somewhat dependent on Aunt Larry Johnson, not on the Big Mom, the Knicks had fewer attackers on the outside, either Patrick Ewing singled, or Ratlills Prewell singled, Alan Houston could only catch the ball and shoot, and the role could not be played at all.

The Knicks' ball, Sprewell made a strong burst and made a stop-and-go jump shot, but he still didn't score.

Jeff Van Gundy values defense and never cares about offense.

The Knicks offense failed, and Jeff Van Gundy didn't care at all, he just stood up and commanded the defense.

As a defensive team, Jeff Van Gundy was unhappy with the Lakers' consecutive goals in the opening game.

In the positional battle, the Lakers continued to give the ball to the inside, O'Neal hit hard, turned around and threw strongly, but did not score.

Cott Thomas was good at protecting rebounds, he grabbed the rebounds, and the Knicks gave the ball to the madman Ratley Les Prewell, and they continued to keep the tempo down.

On the offensive end, it was still the breakthrough of the madman Sprewell, but Scott Pippen's defense was good, Sprewell could only pass, and Alan Houston on the outside received a pass for the first time in the game and shot in the middle.

With a crisp wiping sound, the Knicks finally scored.

But turning around to a wave of attack from the Lakers, O'Neal hit the inside to attract the pinch and divide the ball to the outside, Scott Pippen shared the ball again after receiving the ball, and Kobe Bryant directly hit a three-pointer on the outside, hmph! Also enter!

7:2, the Lakers are in hot form!

Kobe Bryant still behaved like Jordan in this game, or at least half of Michael Jordan, scoring 5 points in a row at the beginning, especially the three-pointer just now, which was bursting.

On the defensive end, the Lakers have always been one-on-one, man-to-man, but the effect is good, the Knicks' offense is also single-handed, and the Knicks' offense is not strong in the first place, in order to withstand the Lakers' offense, Jeff Van Gundy didn't even dare to play Larry Johnson.

As a result, in the first 6 minutes, the Knicks were directly blown up by the Lakers who were in hot form.

In six minutes, the Lakers played a wave of 14:6 and directly led by 8 points.

In the second half of the quarter, the Knicks made a substitution to replace Larry Johnson, and Qiao Hai also followed the substitution, replacing O'Neal with Bruce Bowen, directly a small lineup, and rushed up.

The Knicks are powerless to resist, they have no playmakers, they don't have a qualified point guard on the outside, and once the tempo is pulled up by the Lakers, they can only blindly lower the tempo, and as a result, they lose their real rhythm.

At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers led by 12 points at 33:21.

After playing the first quarter, Qiao Hai knew that the finals were not a big problem.

The Knicks can't stop O'Neal at all, which is completely different from the Spurs, the Spurs rely on the inside twin towers, and they can withstand O'Neal's penalty area, but the Knicks can't, Patrick Ewing's state has declined a lot, although it is stronger than David Robinson, but it is only strong in offense and defense, and the single defense may be worse than David Robinson.

On the outside, Kobe Bryant seems to have continued the state of the Western Finals, and in the first quarter, he made various strong shots from the outside, which was able to score.

In this regard, Qiao Hai can only sigh: Michael Jordan's follow-up role has come out, Kobe Bryant played like Jordan, after three games of adaptation in the Western Finals, Kobe seems to have found the real Jordan's way of playing and opened his mind......