Inside the TNT Studio.
Amid a chorus of gasps, Smith got fired up again, shouting, "Charles, look! Yao just blocked Shaq! How many centers in the entire league can block Shaq one-on-one? Plus, he’s already got 6 points this ga. What do you say? Wanna make another bet?"
Barkley shook his head frantically.
He wasn’t touching another bet, especially not one involving Yao Ming.
"That was just a fluke. Shaq got careless," Barkley said. "Look, Shaq’s already dropped 16 points. He’s completely dominating Yao Ming."
Aside from that one block, Yao Ming had been completely outmatched in his confrontation with O’Neal in the first half.
He was only 2-for-6 from the field, so not only was his scoring limited, but he also hadn’t been able to contain O’Neal.
After a pause, Barkley offered a rare, fair-minded comnt. "But, while the current Yao is definitely no match for Shaq, he might actually be able to contend with him in the future."
Across from him, Ernie Johnson nodded in agreent.
"Our expectations for Yao are too high. Yes, he was the number one pick, but this is still just his rookie season. Expecting him to imdiately beco a top-tier center on the level of O’Neal is just too unrealistic."
Didn’t they see last year’s number one pick playing worse and worse, still struggling with the Wizards?
However, that block gave the Lakers a huge morale boost.
Jackson even ca to the sideline, constantly clapping and cheering for Yao Ming.
The dia was in an uproar, but Jackson’s mindset had cald down considerably after visiting Yao Ming’s ho with Chen Yu.
The reason the dia, or rather, the Lakers fans, had such high and demanding expectations for Yao Ming was because the Lakers had traded O’Neal for him.
So the fans felt they’d gotten the short end of the stick and subconsciously hoped Yao Ming could replace O’Neal.
But that was O’Neal, a historically elite talent, one of the best in all of NBA history.
In other words, there’s a number one pick every year, but there’s only one O’Neal.
If you judged Yao Ming purely by the standards of a number one pick, he was actually playing very well for a rookie.
At least he wasn’t showing signs of being a bust like Brown.
On the court, an enraged O’Neal chose to respond to being blocked. He backed down Yao Ming and forcefully slamd the ball into the hoop.
Yao Ming still couldn’t stop him.
But that was on the defensive end. On offense, Yao Ming was still making an impact.
Lakers on offense.
Yao Ming made a reverse cut straight to the free-throw line, raised his arms, and used his wide fra to set a solid screen on Poseidon, sealing him off.
His timing was perfect.
Knowing Yao Ming’s screening habits weren’t great, Jackson had been running targeted drills with him for the past two months.
He was even using the training thods provided by Chen Yu.
Kobe dribbled around Yao Ming’s screen, drove straight to the basket, and then chose to pass back.
Yao Ming caught the ball and calmly drained the mid-range jumper.
Jackson, who had just sat back down, imdiately started clapping again.
Beside him, Lambis nodded repeatedly. "Yao is very smart."
Even though he couldn’t stop O’Neal, Yao Ming was using his agility to his advantage, getting involved in the team’s offense and helping his teammates score. That was really all they could ask for.
This was a key reason why the Lakers were still able to keep the score close as the half neared its end.
Jackson watched as O’Neal stayed in the paint, a re spectator, not following Yao Ming on his reverse cut. He folded his arms, thought for a mont, and then suddenly said, "Kurt, what do you think about moving Yao to the four?"
Lambis, beside him, was startled and quickly shook his head. "Phil, I don’t think that’s a good idea. He’s too tall. His agility is relative to the center position. If you actually put him at the four, he’d have no advantage at all."
The current Yao Ming was quite agile, but that was in comparison to clumsy, traditional centers.
If he were at the four, facing a bunch of power forwards around 6’10", Yao Ming’s agility would get completely exposed.
"And then there’s his stamina," Lambis continued his analysis. "His conditioning isn’t actually that good. Even now, if we have him frequently moving outside the paint, he’s already showing signs of fatigue by the fourth quarter."
Jackson shrugged. "It was just a thought. But this whole season, I’ve been thinking about how to deal with Shaq."
He used to be other teams’ headache; now he was theirs.
It was a question Jackson had been pondering ever since the Lakers completed the trade in the sumr.
It wasn’t until Yao Ming started playing better and better and found his role on the team that Jackson began to form so ideas.
"Finding a player who can limit Shaq one-on-one on the defensive end is just too difficult."
The league had spent years searching for a player to counter O’Neal, but no one had ever really succeeded.
Even if such a player existed, the Lakers wouldn’t be able to acquire him.
Jackson continued, "So, could we solve this problem with offense?"
"Offense?"
Jackson nodded. "Since we can’t stop Shaq, the idea is to limit him as much as we can, and then make up for the points he scores by outscoring him on our end."
"Think of it in a series. We don’t need to shut Shaq down and make him go from averaging 30 points a ga to 15. We just need to limit him slightly, say, down to 25 points a ga. Then, on the other end, we exploit Shaq’s inability to defend on the periter and have our center score just as many points. It’s like trading pieces in chess. We cancel him out."
"That way, at the very least, our interior defense won’t be the primary reason we lose. Then we can rely on our periter players to get a lead and win the ga."
"That’s the basic idea. You get it?"
Lambis thought about it seriously for a mont and then nodded.
Over the years, the league had tried many tactics against O’Neal: sending him to the free-throw line, speeding up the pace of the ga, fronting him in the post, and, of course, the most common thod—the double-team.
Jackson was clearly taking a different path. He was conceding they couldn’t stop O’Neal and instead focused on using a stronger offense to compensate for the points he scored.
It was a rather novel approach.
"But that places very high demands on the center," Lambis said.
At a minimum, he has to be soone O’Neal can’t guard, soone who can score about as many points as O’Neal himself.
Jackson nodded and pointed to Yao Ming on the court. "Exactly. But we have Yao. Isn’t he the perfect choice?"
Lambis paused, stunned. He looked at Yao Ming running on the court, and it suddenly clicked.
It was no wonder Jackson had co up with this idea. It was all because of Yao Ming’s arrival.
Jackson said, "What are Yao’s advantages? He’s tall, and for his height, he also has excellent agility, plus a decent ability to battle in the post. So he can use that agility, use his turnaround jumper, to score from spots where Shaq can’t effectively defend him."
"And if the Suns use their power forward to help defend, the power forward won’t have the height to effectively limit Yao either."
"So Yao’s offensive potential is huge. He could absolutely beco a player like Nowitzki or Garnett, just operating from the center position."
"Add to that his ability to set screens and pass out of the post, and his help to the team is clearly far greater than just parking himself in the paint to bang against Shaq."
As Lambis listened to Jackson’s analysis, he nodded repeatedly, but then sothing suddenly dawned on him.
"Phil, isn’t this the developnt plan for Yao from that training manual Chen gave you?" Lambis said. No wonder it had sounded so familiar. He finally realized it was the exact sa stuff described in Chen Yu’s manual.
Jackson had just rephrased it in his own words.
Lambis gave Jackson a strange look. ’Jackson must have read that training manual until the pages were worn thin,’ he thought.
A flash of embarrassnt crossed Jackson’s eyes. He explained, "It just goes to show that Chen and his people had a very accurate assessnt of Yao’s potential."
Consider when this training manual was created: it was when the Suns were preparing to draft Yao Ming as the number one pick specifically to groom him to counter O’Neal.
Then, at the last minute, things changed, and the two teams completed the trade.
In other words, the developnt plan for Yao Ming in this manual was the culmination of the entire Suns organization’s best thinking on how to use him against O’Neal.
And Jackson had just taken it and used it directly.
Lambis nodded, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Well, we’ll find out if it works once we try it. But for now, Yao is already a huge help to Kobe."
Kobe had never enjoyed this kind of all-around support before, especially not screens and pick-and-rolls from a big man.
With Yao Ming’s fra, as long as he could co out and get his timing right, he was a natural-born screener.
That’s why this season, Kobe’s offensive efficiency had clearly improved. His scoring average had surged to 29 points per ga, putting him at the top of the scoring charts.
As the two of them talked, the first half ended. The Suns led 61-57, a 4-point lead.
O’Neal had already exploded for 19 points in the half.
But Kobe’s scoring wasn’t far behind; he had also put up 17 points in the half.
"Alright, everyone, ti to work."
As the half concluded, the Lakers’ legendary team doctor, Gary Vitti, was the first one on his feet, calling for his dical team to get ready.
Currently, the Suns had the number one "miracle doctor" in the league.
But as a powerhouse franchise, the Lakers’ dical staff configuration was also top-tier in the league.
They just won through quantity.
This season, the Lakers had five full-ti team doctors for their five starters—practically one for each.
The Lakers players, for their part, didn’t linger on the court. The mont the half ended, they imdiately returned to the locker room.
This was also one of Jackson’s requirents.
Halfti was only fifteen minutes long. Every extra minute spent on the court was one less minute of rest.
In the past two years, following the Suns’ championship win, so of the details behind their victory had been dug up by the dia, especially the operations of the Suns’ dical team.
For example, back when Ewing and Olajuwon were on the team, to maintain their condition, Chen Yu would demand that everyone return to the locker room as quickly as possible to get rest.
Then, after returning to the locker room, the entire dical team would imdiately get to work, using various thods to serve the starters, alleviating their fatigue and ensuring they were in good condition for the second half.
So it was no exaggeration to say that the entire league was learning from the Suns.
Gary Vitti, one of the Lakers’ ritorious figures, doted on Kobe like a father, showing him ticulous care. He imdiately pulled Kobe over to a seat and began using massage techniques to relax his calf muscles.
He was no longer young, and this work was not easy, but he always did it himself.
While working, he even asked if his technique had improved and how far he still was from Chen Yu’s level.
Everyone knew that Chen Yu’s physical therapy and massage techniques were in a league of their own.
Olajuwon often boasted in the locker room that Chen Yu’s massages felt better than, well, you know.
"It’s great, getting better and better," Kobe said quickly.
He said that, but he knew that in terms of technique and effect, Gary Vitti was worlds apart from Chen Yu.
In fact, during the sumr, Kobe had almost no communication with the Lakers’ managent, partly to avoid any awkwardness related to O’Neal.
The reason it was "almost" no communication was that Kobe had made one request: he wanted the Lakers’ managent to find a way to poach Chen Yu for the Lakers.
But obviously, that had failed.
It was no exaggeration to say that the Suns would sooner let O’Neal go than they would Chen Yu.
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