Hansen’s offense and defense lit up the fan emotions, their cheers echoing through the arena.
However, such cheers didn’t affect Kobe, who faced Hansen’s defense again and used his signature post-up move and strung together a series of dribble moves to shake off Hansen.
But just as he was about to layup, Little Gasol stood tall in the paint and nearly blocked his shot consecutively.
Even though Kobe avoided the block, the ball hit the front of the rim and bounced out. Thıs content belongs to 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝~𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖~𝕟𝕖𝕥
This was the defensive strategy against Kobe that Hansen and his team had discussed earlier: tight perimeter defense combined with solid help defense in the paint.
It was quite similar to the strategy Yao Ming and Artest used against James back in the day.
Of course, Kobe wasn’t James, and the success of the strategy was partly due to Kobe being a bit too heated at the moment.
If Kobe had been cool-headed enough, he would’ve realized Okafor was open under the basket the moment he saw Little Gasol—he certainly had the skill to pass it.
But every strategy has its advantages and disadvantages, and a pumped-up Kobe responded by blocking Hansen’s shot in return.
He surely wasn’t as old as Hansen claimed; an aging Kobe wouldn’t have had the most efficient season of his career to win MVP, nor would he be averaging 30+ points in the playoffs.
Certainly, Hansen didn’t stop at this.
When Kobe penetrated the inside and was fouled by Little Gasol, getting to the free-throw line, Hansen and Guy switched positions, with Hansen voluntarily standing by the side of the free-throw line.
"Did VC give you the half-million?" Hansen, with hands on knees, turned his head to ask.
Initially, he had bet he could guard Kobe, failed, and owed Kobe half a million, which he told Kobe to collect from Carter, since Carter also happened to owe him the same amount.
More than a year had passed, and here he was, showing his concern.
After all, he knew that chasing debts, especially gambling debts, was one of the hardest things to do.
Kobe didn’t even glance at Hansen.
But the next thing Hansen said got under his skin.
"How about we bet another half-million, I bet you’ll make this shot."
Kobe’s free throw clanged off the rim.
In the arena of psychological tactics, Hansen was considered second best by no one in the league.
Then, Kobe gave Hansen a cold glare.
Yes, that was the feeling.
Hansen wanted Kobe to entangle with him, in a relentless battle like the first three quarters.
By the end of the third quarter, the Lakers led the Grizzlies 89-86.
Both Hansen and Kobe were resting on the bench at this time.
Each had expended a great deal of energy during their three-quarter duel.
Of course, the results showed that Hansen’s strategy was working.
Kobe, being heated, tended to rely on himself to resolve the battle, but the Grizzlies’ inside-out defense was reducing his efficiency.
Another detail was that Kobe didn’t adapt to the officiating like Ci Shiping and others by deliberately drawing fouls.
It was apparent that although tonight’s referee calls were still favoring the Lakers, Kobe clearly wanted to prove he could defeat the Grizzlies on his own merits.
Under such circumstances, the help the referees could offer was limited.
"Kobe is the only man on the Lakers side tonight." Such an approach indeed earned him O’Neal’s approval.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Paul and Guy led their respective teams on the court.
Paul wasn’t Kobe—he was so smart and knew exactly how to maximize the use of the refereeing standards.
He drew fouls on Faried and Speights consecutively, getting to the free-throw line and slowly expanding the Lakers’ lead.
Seeing the situation, Joerger had to bring his starters back early, and both teams entered the final stretch ahead of schedule.
With a full eight minutes left in the game, the scoreboard showed 98-91, with the Lakers in the lead.
Quite a few Grizzlies fans had already risen to their feet early because this could be the Grizzlies’ last 8 minutes of the season.
Hansen dished out an assist right after coming on, and Conley’s three-pointer from the top of the arc was steady, narrowing the Grizzlies’ deficit to four points.
Paul brought the ball forward and then realized his defender had once again changed to Hansen.
Seeing Hansen, Paul immediately signaled Big Gasol for a pick and roll.
The memory of being crossed over and humiliated was vivid in his mind—today, he was determined to personally eliminate Hansen!
Big Gasol didn’t manage to hold Hansen.
Even though Hansen didn’t know any "Little Dog Steps," his lateral quickness was still very high.
But Paul had already sped into the paint, taking advantage of the time Hansen spent navigating the pick and roll.
As a shorter player, his speed was quite impressive.
After a quick glance back at Hansen’s position, Paul swiftly laid the ball against the backboard.
However, he had slightly underestimated Hansen’s response time; by the time Paul had released the ball, Hansen had already taken off from behind him.
A very James-like chase-down block by Hansen, who flat-out pinned the ball against the backboard.
And Hansen had jumped from behind Paul, incidentally knocking him out of bounds in the process.
Hansen landed with the ball, and Paul attempted a steal, resulting in an excessive action that led to a foul call by the referee.
This sent Paul into a frenzy, as he ran up to the referee to loudly contest the call.
What about the biased officiating he had been promised?
How could they not call a foul when he was pushed out of bounds, yet now they were calling a foul on him!
It was a difficult situation for the referee as blocks were generally judged based on upper body movement, and any lower body action from the offensive player was typically in an attempt to avoid getting blocked.
From this perspective, the fact that Paul had a push-back motion as he was pushed out meant that not calling a foul was already a biased non-call.
Conley’s mid-range shot following a pick and roll didn’t go in, but Little Gasol crashed the inside and scored on consecutive put-backs, successfully cutting the deficit to a single point.