At this moment, O’Neal received the ball at the low post and attempted another move, but his turning layup was interfered with by Ben Wallace and missed.
Little O’Neal took the defensive rebound, and the Trail Blazers launched another fast break. Gan Guoyang feigned an attack after receiving the ball, then directly passed to Kobe for a smooth aerial reverse layup!
The Trail Blazers executed high-quality plays on both offense and defense, narrowing the score gap to just 3 points! Jackson called a timeout.
The Trail Blazers brought in Big Ben and Little O’Neal, placing Gan Guoyang in the three position, completely activating their offense.
At the same time, the two young players withstood the fierce inside attacks from the Lakers, with their defense full of energy.
Single plays, alley-oops, O’Neal’s punishment to the Trail Blazers’ inside was entirely insufficient.
There’s little time left in the third quarter, and Gan Guoyang showcased his prowess as the "King of the Third Quarter," closing the score gap.
In the past, any slight adjustment mistake by the Lakers, like letting O’Neal take a rest, would be seized by Gan Guoyang to hold the Lakers in a tight grip.
But now Gan Guoyang knew he needed a break; his scoring peak had passed, and he needed to adjust a bit, preparing for the fourth quarter.
The feeling of not having unlimited stamina is really troublesome, especially during the regular season; you have to pace yourself.
Gan Guoyang took the initiative to have Carl substitute him out and patted Barkley, saying, "Charles, it’s your turn."
Barkley, long eager, had been enthusiastically cheering at the sidelines during the Trail Blazers’ chase for points.
As a veteran, his passion for the game has always been at a full score, better than many retired-minded veterans.
Barkley immediately took off his warmup jacket, warmed up a little, and joined his teammates on the court, while Terry Porter also came in for Brellock.
On the Lakers’ side, O’Neal remained on the court as Jackson dared not let him rest too early, and in terms of rotations, Jackson always preferred having the core play through the third quarter, rest a bit at the start of the fourth, and then play to the end.
In the backcourt, Jackson switched out Jide for Brian Shaw, using Rodman to replace McGrady, with Holi returning to the small forward position.
In the last few minutes of the third quarter, the Trail Blazers aimed to seize the opportunity to level the score, while the Lakers tried to maintain their lead heading into the fourth quarter.
After the timeout, the Lakers’ offense organized again, the ball given to O’Neal at the low post. O’Neal utilized his absolute power and height advantage to crush Ben Wallace, turning to hook and scoring two points, reestablishing the lead.
Yet the Trail Blazers’ offense didn’t succeed, they faced tight pressure from the Lakers’ defense in the backcourt, resulting in a disrupted pass near mid-court, a pass error, and a Lakers’ counterattack with Brian Shaw making the layup.
The Lakers’ backcourt pressure defense mirrored the Bulls of old, Rodman’s expansion worked excellently.
The score gap returned to 7 points again, and Gan Guoyang sitting on the bench said to Dick Hart beside him: "The Lakers are much stronger than last year, they’re very resilient."
If it were last year’s Lakers, two rounds of counterattacks might have overwhelmed them, but now they’ve withstood it, able to bite through offense and defense.
"They’ve gotten stronger, but we’ve indeed become worse," Hart bluntly said.
Barkley got the ball in the low post, using his back to force-feed Rodman, a somewhat slow turn, then hard-charged for a layup, which missed.
But Barkley grabbed the offensive rebound, went up again, yet was interfered with, seized the offensive rebound again, and this time using footwork to turn and make a leaning jumper, finally getting two points.
The long-restrained Barkley unleashed all his brute force to score difficultly, along the way brushing two offensive rebounds.
However, during the confrontation under the basket, Barkley had intense physical contact with O’Neal, giving O’Neal an elbow, making the big guy very unhappy.
"Watch your moves, Charles!" O’Neal warned Barkley while running forward.
This made Barkley quite displeased, wondering who he was to warn him?
"Watch your mouth, Shaq!" Barkley retaliated.
Later, the Lakers missed an outside shot, and O’Neal grabbed the offensive rebound.
Ben Wallace first blocked and interfered with O’Neal’s tip-in, but O’Neal similarly seized the offensive rebound.
As he prepared to rise again, he was pulled down by Barkley, almost falling dramatically, and the referee called a foul.
O’Neal glared at Barkley, who showed an indifferent expression, saying, "I told you, watch your mouth, Shaq!"
O’Neal stepped to the free-throw line, making the first free throw but missing the second, as Barkley collected the rebound, quickly advancing from the backcourt.
In the center, he made a signature behind-the-back pass to the wing to Porter, who redistributed to Kobe. Kobe drove the ball to the basket, attracting the defense.
He passed to Barkley, who caught the ball and prepared to rush for a dunk, but O’Neal would not allow Barkley to score easily.
From behind, O’Neal forcefully pushed Barkley out of bounds, the push wasn’t heavy enough to make Barkley fall, and he retained possession of the ball.
But this move cost Barkley a scoring opportunity for a dunk, along with their prior physical conflicts and bickering, Barkley got furious, lifting the ball and hurling it at O’Neal’s head!
Unprepared, O’Neal hadn’t expected Barkley to throw the ball at him, hitting him squarely in the forehead.
Time froze for 0.1 seconds, O’Neal couldn’t believe Barkley would hit him with the ball, while Barkley was merely waiting for O’Neal’s reaction.