The All-Star Game and the Rookie Confrontation Roster have been announced, and fans are waiting for the rosters of the three-point contest and the dunk contest.

However, at present, the All-Stars' games before the weekend have not been completed.

Today, there are 5 games to play.

Among them, the Lakers played against the Bulls at home and the Knicks played against the Heat at home, which is regarded as a preview of the All-Star Weekend. The Supersonics and Jazz games also attracted much attention.

Originally, the game between the Spurs and Rockets was also a popular game in the minds of those who set the schedule before the start of the season, but both teams disappointed people in different ways.

At 3 pm, the Knicks, who were at home, started the game against the Heat in Madison Square Garden, New York, kicking off several focus games today.

After a tingling iron-blooded battle, the Heat, who played away, beat the Knicks 86-79, completing a small achievement that won the opponent at least once against the top four in the East and West!

The game was not very good, but there were many highlights. The game was very popular, and there were many physical conflicts, which made people regret not to start the fight in the end.

Zhang Hao also watched the live broadcast of this game. After watching it, he was also very regretful...

After the Knicks and Heat games, the Supersonics and Jazz, Spurs and Rockets, Bullets and Clippers games started at the same time.

In addition to the Bullets and Clippers games, there are live broadcasts in the other four games today, with more or fewer live broadcasts on TV stations.

Zhang Hao did not continue watching the live broadcast. At 5:30 pm, he began to warm up for the game with the Bulls...

...

Sometimes, he really can't tell what's like luck.

Before the Lakers' home game against the Bulls began, an unexpected accident occurred!

The Bulls had an accident. Rodman had not returned to the team during the warm-up, and the Bulls were still calm.

But it was time to enter, and Rodman still didn't show up!

The Bulls still saw the news about Rodman from the news. After arriving in Los Angeles yesterday morning, Rodman directly transferred to Las Vegas and is still betting money in Las Vegas!

This is not the first time. Rodman is absent more than O'Neal this year, and most of them are not absent due to injuries.

So, at 8 pm, the Bulls were forced to challenge the Lakers away without Rodman.

They are quite used to Rodman's absence, and in most cases, they can deal with it steadily.

But tonight's opponent is the Lakers! Or the Lakers after O'Neal's comeback and played a few games!

Although Jordan made 10 of 19 shots, including 3 of 7 three-pointers, plus 7 free throws, he scored 30 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, Pippen scored 26 points, 7 rebounds and 11 assists, and the role players performed well in scoring, and the Bulls scored 104 points.

The Bulls did a good job in defense, with a low pace and kept the Lakers' counterattack while maintaining efficient shooting performance.

However, they exploded on the spot in rebounds! There were only 32 rebounds in the game, while the Lakers had 54!

The Bulls only made 71 shots in the game, while the Lakers had 92! Although the Bulls' 49% shooting percentage was higher than the Lakers' 44% shooting percentage.

In terms of assists, the Bulls' 30 assists were also higher than the Lakers' 26 assists.

However, the Lakers' shooting is not particularly bad, O'Neal scored 19 points and 12 rebounds, Barkley scored 18 points and 11 rebounds, Jason Williams scored 11 points and 14 rebounds, and these three players alone had more rebounds than the Bulls' team. Among the 37 rebounds of the three players, 17 were offensive rebounds... They didn't have many regular scores, but the second offensive score exploded!

With the three major insiders reasonably scoring 48 points and 37 rebounds, Zhang Hao made 29 crazy shots, making 12 of 29 shots, including 3 of 9 three-pointers, plus 7 of 8 free throws, 34 points, and 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks.

With Kenny Anderson's 12 points and 11 assists, Doug Christie's 11 points and 4 assists...

The Lakers beat the Bulls 115-104 and gave the Bulls the 8th loss this season!

After the final whistle sounded, Jordan turned his head and walked straight to the player's passage.

Even the Bulls players felt very familiar with this scene.

As long as the 95th pick is standing opposite the youngest player in the league, Jordan always does this after the game.

In fact, the Bulls have already started preparing for this game. They have been fully prepared before starting in Chicago and have to compete with the Lakers in this game.

However, the more prepared you are, the more unexpected you are, the better the ordinary accident is, and there is no defensive player with the best forward position and a giant-level player. This accident cannot be adjusted at all.

That is, the Lakers' defense was not good, and the Bulls played against the Lakers in the third quarter, 28-22, otherwise the gap would have widened long ago.

Zhang Hao looked at Jordan's irritable look and felt comfortable no matter how he looked. He played so many irons tonight, and he had lost all the pain in the name of the Lakers' No. 8 jersey.

But why did Zhang Hao feel a little regretful that Rodman didn't play?

"No, no, winning the game steadily is the most important thing. Challenging the limits... No! You must never be affected by the evil Lakers No. 8 jersey!"

...

...

With 38 wins and 10 losses, the Lakers settled in second place in the West after the last game before the All-Star Weekend!

The Lakers and Bulls game was the last game before the All-Star Weekend.

At the end of the half-season, the Bulls ranked first in the league with a record of 42 wins and 8 losses.

The Heat ranked second in the Eastern Conference with 37 wins and 12 losses, the Knicks ranked third in 35 wins and 15 losses, the Pistons ranked fourth in 34 wins and 15 losses, the Hawks ranked fifth in 33 wins and 17 losses, and the Hornets ranked sixth in 32 wins and 17 losses.

These six teams are all teams that seem to be expected to win 50+ games at the moment, but they are obviously divided into three levels, the Bulls are unique, the Heat are unique, the Knicks, Pistons, Hawks, and Hornets are competing for third and fourth, and are gradually being widened by the Heat.

In the Western Conference, the Jazz lost to the Supersonics, and their record turned into 40 wins and 10 losses. The Lakers ranked second in two fewer games, but the number of losses was already on par with the Jazz.

The Supersonics ranked third in the West with 33 wins and 16 losses.

After that, it seems that no team in the West can win 50.

It is obvious that the overall performance of the East this year is better than that of the West.

Experts analyzed that it is mainly the contributions made by the Warriors and Nets. The Warriors and Nets have been ruined for so many years and have saved up so many talents to force the Knicks, which are on the verge of collapse, and the Heat, who cannot find a way out for reconstruction, into a 60-win team.

Look at the players who signed up for these two teams, most of them were snatched from the Warriors and Nets.

Judging from the current ranking, the competition in the West is not very large, because there are more teams in the West, and starting from the sixth place in the West, there is no possibility of winning rate being less than half.

The three teams in the first tier of the Western Conference are competing with the Lakers and Jazz. The third Supersonics team has a clear record from the first two pairs.

However, the competition in the East is so fierce. The 9th Cavaliers currently have a record of 26 wins and 24 losses, competing for playoff spots with the Bullets and Magic.

The Heat seem to have not given up chasing the Bulls yet, and the competition for rankings from third to sixth is also very fierce.

By this time, the topic that had already come to the question last year is again. Can the Bulls win 70?

The Bulls' performance in the early and mid-season stage of this season is recognized as stronger than last season in the media, experts, fans and even other teams, because this year's game against many strong teams is concentrated in the first half of the season. On the contrary, in the 32 games after the All-Star Weekend, there are only 8 games against the top ten teams in the league, and the teams with a winning rate of more than 50% have only 12 games, which is easier than the schedule after last year's All-Star Weekend.

Under such circumstances, the Bulls still played terrifying performance of 42 wins and 8 losses after the first 50 games... Otherwise, why is Jordan the All-Star vote king? It's so fierce!

...

Just as the media and fans were talking about the Bulls' crazy performance after the half-season season, the stars who performed amazingly this year and the stars who regretted it, and who would participate in this year's dunk competition... and wait for things, the day after the half-season season, the NBA officially announced a news, a news that made everyone feel crazy!

At 10 a.m. on February 6, the NBA officially announced that the Lakers' Shaq O'Neal, Zhang Hao, Magic, Barkley, and Patrick Ewing of the Knicks and Mooning of the Heat, a total of 6 people applied to withdraw from the 1997 Cleveland All-Star Game due to injury.

The Warriors' Ratrill Spreville, the Mavericks' Van Exel, the Rockets' Divac, the Lakers' Kenny Anderson's alternate, the Pistons' Joe Dumas, and the Knicks' Alan Houston and other six candidates were selected.

As soon as the news came out, the media and fans felt crazy!

They are already promoting the "Los Angeles All-Star Team", promoting the four 51 superstars of the Lakers + any All-Star vs. Eastern stars in the All-Star Game. Who would have thought that all the four All-Star players of the Lakers will withdraw from the game!

...

What a bad luck!

There is indeed no tacit understanding with these broken teammates!

Zhang Hao looked at several teammates in the training ground and wanted to know these people very much.

Since we are planning to give the All-Star position and make a reservation for the team boss, can't we discuss it?

Well, Mr. Zhang didn't discuss it either, for fear that Boss Kenny would know about it, and for the other party to refuse. After thinking about it for a day, after yesterday morning's pre-match training, he secretly asked his agent to contact the league and apply for withdrawal.

I made an appointment with Kenny Anderson to come to the stadium at 10 am this morning, hoping to give the other party a Serp Riece.

Then, I saw the magician, Barkley, and O'Neal coming too.

Fortunately, Kenny Anderson is confused now. Anyway, the Lakers management is very confused. Early this morning, they received a notice from the league and agreed to the withdrawal application of their four All-Star players.

Kenny Anderson, the direct beneficiary, and the Lakers management, received the news in the end!

Kenny Anderson received four calls this morning, each of whom asked him to the stadium. He was still confused about what was going on. As a result, his teammates gave him such a big surprise.

I am moved, I must be very moved, but I feel more guilty...

Now, Kenny Anderson, Zhang Hao, Barkley, Magician, O'Neal, Del Harris, Jenny Bass, Kupchek, Jerry West... A large group of people stared at each other, not knowing what to say.

Del Harris was surprised that this situation would happen. Although it was a bit painful, all four All-Stars of his team withdrew from the game, but it doesn't matter if he was not coaching.

He really didn't expect that the difficult players of his team had such unified ideas on this matter, and he had never revealed that he had planned to do so before.

From a certain perspective, this is a good thing for the team's cohesion.

The management was speechless, purely speechless. If you discuss this with the management, Jerry West and Kupchek were speechless.

But Jenny Bass saw the business opportunity...

Several players have different thoughts.

The training ground was very quiet, so quiet that it made Zhang Hao feel embarrassed.

You have to say something!

"Ahem," Zhang Hao coughed twice to attract the attention of those present, "Well, do we still have a chance to cancel the application and continue to play in the All-Star Game? Since someone is going to launch it, just let Mr. O'Neal withdraw, and the other four of us continue to play."
To be continued...