Salt Lake City fans also saw how powerless their MVP was when defending Shai.

Live in Salt Lake City, Marvin Albert summed up the opening rounds in one sentence:

"This is not a confrontation at all. Shea is completely teaching Malone how to be a qualified MVP!"

Karl Malone is really shutting himself down now. The offense he is proud of has no effect under the defense of Ben and Mutombo.

But the intensity of confrontation that he was proud of was still neither painful nor itchy in Shay's opinion.

It's like a man confidently pulled out his most powerful weapon, but all he got in return was a contemptuous smile.

It’s self-evident how shameful this feeling is.

Malone didn't know what to do now. After the start, he had tried everything he was good at, but to no avail.

As for Shay, he seemed to have seen through Ma Long's thoughts and smiled deliberately:

"What's wrong, Karl? Is this how you ended my era? With that slight bump?

Are you already at your wits end with me? You must not be serious about it yet, right?"

Shay's crazy taunts made Malone upset.

So much so that in this offense, when Malone was setting up an off-ball screen for Alan Houston, he deliberately took two steps toward Shay, hoping to knock him over.

I don't allow you to despise MVP like this!

But unfortunately, Ma Long's plan still failed to succeed.

He did hit Shay, but the strong Shay was not directly knocked down by Malone, but was bounced a few steps. Moreover, Malone was called a moving pick-and-roll by the referee!

Ma Long's move just now was so purposeful. It was obvious that he was heading towards Xie Yi. He took two large steps to collide with Xie Yi.

Such an obvious moving pick-and-roll would not be allowed without the referee calling it off.

It can only be said that Karl Malone is a player who was truly born in the wrong era.

With his pick-and-roll skills, Malone could have won two or three rings if he had joined the Warriors in the small ball era.

Malone's mobile pick-and-roll not only failed to retaliate against Shea's success, but also led to a direct exchange of ball rights.

A dignified MVP, from the beginning to now, he has failed more than succeeded!

Although Salt Lake City fans don't want to admit it, in front of Shea

Malone, the MVP, feels really good!

After that, Malone tried several more attacks, but all ended in failure.

The defensive combination of Ben + Mutombo is indeed too restrained by Malone.

In the original history, the 1999 Jazz originally wanted to dominate the league after Jordan retired.

As a result, they were defeated by the Trail Blazers 4-2 in the Western Conference semifinals.

The reason is that the Blazers are too strong inside.

The speed of Roaring God and the stability of Sabonis forced Karl Malone to only score 20.2 points on 43% shooting in the entire series.

For comparison, the Jazz's outsiders, Brian Russell, Hornacek and Stockton, shot 43.7%, 50% and 45.1% respectively.

This shows how badly Malone was defended in that round. He was an inside player, but his shooting percentage was not as high as that of his outside teammates.

Therefore, it is not that the two Jazz veterans have never had opportunities, and it is not that they have always been suppressed by Jordan.

The key is that we didn't see them win the championship when Jordan was away.

The Lakers' current interior defensive lineup is almost a replica of the 1999 Trail Blazers in original history.

No, enhanced version!

Big Ben's mobility is stronger than that of the Roaring God, and Mutombo's frame-protecting ability is even more powerful in history.

How else can Malone hit this ball?

His favorite style of play is to constantly pick and roll, move around, find an opportunity and then "pop" a big jump shot to easily score two points.

But if there is someone who can follow him and confront him at any time to defend Malone, Malone will be very uncomfortable, and his weakness of not being strong in single attack will be infinitely magnified.

Just like that, at the seventh minute of the first quarter, the Lakers had the ball.

Shea called for a screen from outside the three-point line, then walked to the top of the arc with the ball, preparing to shoot.

Brian Russell was blocked by Ben, and a furious Karl Malone immediately prepared to switch defenses.

But Ben also blocked Malone's route of changing defense, and if Malone wanted to bypass Ben and interfere again, it would definitely be too late.

But Karl Malone really didn’t want to let Shay shoot the ball easily, so he chose to directly knock over Ben with his heavy shoulder in order to get to Shay! This simple and crude way of defending the pick-and-roll was probably used in the 1990s.

Then he won't be called for a foul.

But when Malone hurriedly knocked over Ben and pounced on him, he saw that Shay was not in a hurry to take action, but was deliberately waiting for him to come to him. Shay just threw the ball in the face of interference!

Shay deliberately didn't take a shot when there was a big gap, so he had to set up Malone!

There is no doubt that Shay's behavior is full of provocation.

Malone was furious, Shay, don't go too far!

He jumped up hard and tried his best to interfere with Shay's shot.

On the surface, Malone's interference seems to be very strict.

But in fact, Shay had already completed the shot before Malone completely pounced on him. Therefore, Malone's interference did not bring any substantial interference to Shay.

So as soon as Ma Long landed, he heard a "swipe" sound.

Shay successfully set up Malone and scored 9 points in the first half of the game!

On the other hand, Karl Malone has still not scored a point since the first quarter!

This extremely humiliating appearance made Ma Long completely autistic.

Coach Sloan also hurriedly paused the game because after this three-pointer, the Jazz were also 9 points behind the Lakers.

After only half a quarter, the Jazz were in danger of being stretched to double digits!

Today's first game of the Western Conference Finals was completely different from what the Jazz players expected!

Shai is literally playing MVP!

Malone sat on the bench, panting.

He raised his head and found that most of the fans in the Energy Solution Arena were looking at him with disappointment.

Indeed, what Ma Long has performed so far today is simply war criminal-level performance.

Even if he is an ordinary star, his performance today is completely unjustifiable, let alone he is still an MVP.

However, Malone is not completely disappointed yet.

He still has a chance!

Once Ben is replaced, no one can restrict him anymore.

It doesn't matter, I'm just 0-for-4 from the field now, and I still have a chance to improve my shooting percentage.

Sure enough, after returning from the timeout, Karl Malone was delighted to find that Ben had been replaced!

His replacement was Rodman, who had been away from the game for a long time!

Jazz fans and Lakers fans were very happy to see Rodman on the court.

I just don’t know who will be happy in the end.

Jazz fans believe that Rodman is quite old and has suffered serious injuries, so his strength must have seriously declined.

Lakers fans believe that the return of Rodman, the demon king, will make Karl Malone even more miserable.

After Rodman came on the court, he first high-fived Shay: "It's been a long time since we did some damage together!"

Shea had a look of disdain on his face: "Don't talk nonsense, I'm here to guard the players. Hey, guard well, I don't want to see Karl Malone score easily, not even once."

Rodman showed his long-lost evil smile, and then looked at Malone confidently, as if he was not facing the MVP, but a little kid:

"Don't worry, this matter won't be difficult for a genius like me!"

As the game continues, Karl Malone has reached a point where he has to do something to prove that he is not a softie.

He looked at Rodman, whose hair was dyed pink, and began to think about the next scoring plan in his mind.

You must take advantage of the time when Ben is away to regain your face!

Rodman stepped forward and slapped Malone on the butt:

"Hello, the most miserable MVP in history."

"Fuck" Malone gritted his teeth. Who would have thought that Rodman would stab him in the chest as soon as he came up.

"Seriously Karl, you won the MVP not because of your superior strength, but because Shay missed most of the season.

Admit it, Karl, your MVP was just a fluke.

You are completely unworthy!"
To be continued...