Chapter 878: So-Called Open Conspiracy, Only the Willing Take the Bait!

Buck Williams, a former multi-time All-Defensive Team player, and Charles Oakley, this season’s hot candidate at forward for the All-Defensive Team, their double-team could be called perfect—experienced, rough as hell… but O’Neal still finished the bucket!

On the New York Knicks side, the first thing that flashed through their minds was Zhang Hao repeatedly fouling O’Neal in last year’s All-Star Game, but this time O’Neal scored on a hanging layup with a man on his hip, then walked to the free throw line—and the and-one actually went in!

The thought of using Hack-a-Shack had just popped up and was immediately strangled in the cradle…

20–18, the Lakers are up by two!

O’Neal’s fearless play didn’t instantly blow the game open for the Lakers; instead, over the next few minutes, the score between the Lakers and the Knicks stayed deadlocked.

O’Neal can’t attack like that every single possession either—he can’t keep the efficiency up, and it would affect the later stages of the game.

In their first matchup against the Bulls this season, O’Neal also picked up a few things.

Coming out that aggressive on the first possession was to show his attitude and his ability, trying to display stronger gravity.

That didn’t really work; Charles Oakley and Buck Williams both box out better than Ewing. If O’Neal doesn’t have the ball, they just need to box him out.

All three of the Lakers’ frontcourt scorers rely on being close to the basket, so even though the Knicks fear O’Neal’s scoring, their defense isn’t thrown off. The defensive discipline Pat Riley left behind has been inherited perfectly by Jeff Van Gundy.

So O’Neal isn’t in a hurry. If the other side doesn’t score, he just lets Brian Shaw run the offense—if they score, great; if not, he and Jason Williams crash the boards, and if they don’t get it, so be it.

But when the Knicks do score, O’Neal goes all-out for one inside touch; if he doesn’t get it, he goes right back at them the next trip.

O’Neal hasn’t been given any “you must take the lead, you must stretch the gap” directive. With this lineup—Fisher, Brian Shaw, George Lynch, Jason Williams, plus him, Big Fatty—the goal is simple: take the high-contact intensity the Knicks started and crank it even higher!

This style of play from the Lakers is totally different from their usual, and not even something that showed up in the five games after the All-Star Weekend. On the Knicks side, they’re caught off guard; Jeff Van Gundy keeps flipping through his little notebook… he has no response prepared!

Van Gundy is anxious. Over on the Lakers bench, even though the Silver Fox mapped it all out this way, he’s not exactly sitting easy either. But he has to stay calm and commit to playing a style they’re not good at.

Any style of play goes from “not good at it” to “good at it,” doesn’t it…

Now it’s all about which side loses its cool first.

Being older actually comes with an edge. When John Starks strung together 5 points to put the Knicks ahead, the Silver Fox kept his composure. But coming out of the official timeout, when the Knicks’ offense suddenly went cold, an O’Neal isolation dunk, a mid-range shot from Doug Christie who’d just rotated in, and a putback plus the foul from Jason Williams sparked a 6–0 run, making it 32–29, and that’s when Jeff Van Gundy couldn’t sit still anymore!

Neither team had made subs during the official timeout, but as Jason Williams stepped to the free throw line for the and-one, the Knicks were the first to move, bringing in Ewing and Alan Houston!

Watching Jason Williams knock down the free throw, Zhang Hao clapped his hands.

He was applauding Jason Williams’ excellent second-chance effort—and also celebrating… that the other side finally bit the hook!

Jiang Taigong fishing: those who wish to bite, bite.

By this point, anyone with a bit of tactical understanding could see what was going on.

The Lakers are the ones actively cranking up the physical battle, while the Knicks have gotten dragged into it passively as circumstances allowed.

The hook has no bait, but the Shark is chasing from behind. To get out of the jam, you have to bite the “bait,” but once you bite, you’re the one on the back foot.

Whichever side brings in their scorers first will see those scorers run into the fiercest defense in the latter half of the second quarter!

Jeff Van Gundy understands this clearly now—but he still couldn’t hold back.

Brian Shaw, Doug Christie, George Lynch, Jason Williams, and O’Neal flipped on the meat grinder mode in the latter half of the second quarter!

At this timing, the side that brings in its scorers first actually has the initiative to open up the offense, but why were both teams holding back, refusing to be the first to bring in scorers? Because “initiative” is just initiative—it only raises the probability of the offense clicking, and probability is still just probability.

And sure enough, with Alan Houston and Ewing on the floor, the offensive boost they gave the Knicks wasn’t as big as expected!

The Lakers’ defense made Alan Houston and Ewing feel like they were playing the Heat—except it was like both they and the Heat had taken defense to its absolute extreme!

From 7:44 to 10:18 of the second quarter, after the Knicks made their substitutions, they managed just one field goal from live play—and no free throws!

The Lakers… were even more miserable. In two and a half minutes, they only got a single point off O’Neal going 1-for-2 at the line.

33–31, the Lakers’ lead had shrunk by one.

But this situation had Del Harris fired up. The other side biting the bait just means they’re on the hook. Whether you can reel the fish into the net depends on the struggle that comes next.

Luckily for them, they pulled it off!

Taking advantage of the Knicks calling a timeout, Del Harris sent out a lineup of Kenny Anderson, Doug Christie, the Magician, Barkley, and Zhang Hao.

The Knicks, in the final minute plus, answered with John Starks, Alan Houston, Larry Johnson, Charles Oakley, and Ewing.

On the Lakers’ side, the defensive plan was to sit stubbornly in the paint and concede the perimeter—if the Knicks wanted to launch from outside, go ahead. On offense, the Magician and Kenny Anderson would deliver the ball, and Zhang Hao would let it rip!

Defense is a gamble, so how is offense any different? Betting that Zhang Hao can put the ball through the hoop isn’t any less of a tactic than running sets—excerpt from the future Lakers coaching great Del Harris’s book, “The Silver Fox Chronicle”…

Zhang Hao came in and immediately drilled a tough three, then followed it with a fast-break dunk for two, and then drew a foul on another fast break, knocking down both free throws. In the final 1 minute and 42 seconds, he single-handedly launched a 7–3 run!

At halftime, the Lakers led 40–34, finally stretching the margin beyond five—up by six as the half ended!

Absolutely exhilarating!

Since entering the NBA, Zhang Hao had never played this relaxed.

He could sit on the bench for almost an entire quarter in a game where the opponent was strong and the score was tight—this had never happened before!

This is O’Neal. This is what happens after a few games of building chemistry and confirming just how explosive their defense can be!

This feeling is too damn good—everyone else paves the way, and he comes in to harvest the game. That feeling is just unreal!