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Kobe naturally hopes Zhang Yang will become his successor. He wants to win another championship, and although he won't admit it openly, he knows clearly that with Howard gone, if Zhang Yang doesn't stay, he will have no more chances to win a title in his later career. When Zhang Yang decided to renew his contract, Kobe put on his leather jacket and played bass, singing loudly for quite some time at home.

He just wanted some sense of 'power transition' ceremony.

Is there any point to this? There actually is!

If there isn't that process, Kobe fans would still be happy Zhang Yang stayed, but there will always be some people dissatisfied with Kobe returning from injury and becoming second. Zhang Yang defeated Kobe in direct competition to take over as the top spot, with Kobe moving to No. 2. Kobe fans greatly increased their recognition of Zhang Yang, seeing this as a kind of Sky Hook, Magician type of heritage... Most Kobe fans also hold 'old school' thoughts.

After a while, the entrance ceremony started, and the visiting Spurs entered first, triggering boos from the crowd.

With other teams, even in the playoffs, it's hard to have such treatment, but this opponent is different. Between 1999 and 2008, in 10 seasons, the Lakers and Spurs met 6 times in the playoffs!

Although in 6 clashes, the Lakers won 4 and lost 2, the two times the Spurs won just happened to ruin the Lakers' dream of 4 consecutive championships!

In the 1999 playoffs, Jordan retired, the Miami Heat were defeated in the first round, and Ewing was out of the second round. The Trail Blazers hadn't gotten Pippen yet. Whoever won between the Lakers and Spurs had no opponent beyond them, then the Lakers got crushed by Duncan, and the Spurs had an 8-1 record in the Western Conference Finals and Finals, winning without pressure;

In the 2003 playoffs, the Kings self-destructed, and the Mavericks, with Nowitzki not yet in his prime, were evenly matched with the Kings. The Spurs and Lakers met again in the second round, with the situation where whoever won had no opponents ahead. The Lakers got crushed by Duncan again, and the Spurs easily won the championship...

After the Celtics, the NBA history's most likely chance to break through the three-peat was destroyed by Duncan single-handedly. How could fans in the Los Angeles area not hate the Spurs?

And now with the grudge between Zhang Yang and the Spurs, hostility doubled!

Of course, Lakers fans hate the Celtics the most...

But currently, the Celtics have dismantled the team, hoping for a draft pick, and among playoff teams, Lakers fans are most hostile towards the Spurs.

Also, in this series, the Lakers are at a disadvantage, Lakers fans are very tense... But they still have confidence!

When it was time for the home team to enter, watching Zhang Yang, Jordan Hill, Gasol, Bazemore, Kobe entering one after the other, the crowd's boos turned into wild cheers!

Zhang Yang and Kobe are the sources of their confidence. In the last game, Game 4, playing away, they faced a Spurs team in great form, and they were on the defensive for a long time, but Zhang Yang scored 32 points, Kobe 30 points, and they fired away to defeat the Spurs!

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After entering, Zhang Yang didn't go to greet Ginobili, who he's on good terms with. The other side didn't come to greet him either.

This was not related to the team grudge but rather the peculiar atmosphere of the Spurs side. Let alone with the opponents, they even seemed indifferent within the team, but the actual situation is not like that. Outgoing players would find most of the teammates quite pleasant once they open up and interact while at Spurs.

But if inherently introverted and not the kind of introspective like Duncan, they might feel that there's no one in the team they have a good relationship with...

Zhang Yang looked over the players on the opposite side.

Point Guard: Parker, Cory Joseph, Osiris Jefferson.

Shooting Guard: Ginobili, Belinelli, Shannon Brown.

Small Forward: Leonard, Danny Green, Damyean James.

Power Forward: Duncan, Diaw, Austin Daye.

Center: Splitter, Aron Baynes, Bonner.

He recalled the relevant information about the Spurs he saw while researching two days ago, last season after the All-Star weekend, the Spurs were forced to trade him back for Howard... Then they also tasted the 'Happy Beast Syndrome'.

Howard insisted on not being a function player responsible for rolling, countering, pick and roll, defense within the Spurs system, eventually leading to the Spurs' record falling from first in the league to fifth in the West and being eliminated by the Grizzlies in the first round.

After the season ended, just as media predicted, the Spurs couldn't keep Howard, willing to offer a 7-year veteran's top salary with bird rights, but he didn't want it, running off to sign a non-bird maximum salary deal with the Rockets.

After Howard signed with the Rockets, everyone thought the Spurs were finished.

At the end of the off-season, the Spurs' lineup was basically similar to now, only using French forward Nando De Colo in December to trade from the Raptors for Shannon Brown and Austin Daye, and those three were not part of the Spurs' rotation.

Besides Osiris Jefferson, Shannon Brown, Austin Daye, Damyean James, the Spurs this season played 11-man rotation.

In this 11-man rotation, apart from Parker, Ginobili, Duncan, Diaw, others are function players, including Leonard.

Leonard averaged 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1.7 steals in the regular season, made Second Team All-Defense, but currently, he's still just a function player, averaging 13 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 2.5 steals in the playoffs till now.

In the regular season, the highest average scorer for the Spurs was Parker with 16.5 points; second was Duncan with 15.8 points; fourth was Ginobili with 12.8 points. In the playoffs, the highest is Parker with 17.1 points, second is Duncan with 16.9 points, third is Ginobili with 15.1 points.