NBA: Start by torturing Jordan and add points to upgrade

At the end of March, Webber and Ginobili, who had been injured for a long time, were re-examined by the team doctor to check their recovery progress again.

But this time the news was like a bolt from the blue.

Reimbursed.

The recovery of both Webber and Ginobili from their injuries was not as expected. They were unable to return on the date previously set by the team. They need more time to recover their bodies.

At this point in the season, the team is still unable to determine when they will return, which basically means that their seasons are over!
The Pacers' style is not to let their players return directly to the playoffs in such a rash and hurried manner!
The risk is too great, the benefit is too small, and it is easy to produce negative effects, which is definitely not worth it!

In other words, the Pacers can only fight in the playoffs with the current players!
In fact, because the main players played too much time at the end of the regular season, the Pacers had to be wary of injuries during the playoffs or at the end of the regular season, and Carlisle had to let the players relax and rest appropriately.

From this perspective, there is good news for the Pacers.

That is, the Cavaliers' record is steadily improving!
They played quite well in the second half of March. Although they were caught up by the Pacers by 2 games, they still had a 3-game advantage over the Pacers. It would be very difficult for the Pacers to surpass them.

Since they can't catch up, the players are under less pressure.

They can also feel more at ease when they rest!
So, in the first game of April, Carlisle couldn't wait to start resting.

He was really worried that Lin Tian would be too tired during the last wave of offensive frenzy in March and get injured.

In this game, Lin Tian, ​​Artest and Christie rested together and none of them played in the game. Other main rotation players of the team like Parker, Miller, Haslem, etc. also did not play for too long in this game.

The main idea is that half of the people are resting and the other half are slacking off.

With the depth of the Pacers' current lineup, it would be incredible if they could win the game with this style of play!
They lost to the Wizards without any suspense, and the team's 8-game winning streak came to an end.

The biggest reason why the Pacers dared to rest their players in early April is that on April 4, the Celtics will play against the Magic, the current No. 4 team in the Eastern Conference!
Normally, the Magic can easily defeat the Celtics and continue to consolidate their first place ranking in the Eastern Conference.

But who knew that at this moment, the Magic team lost unexpectedly!

Although all their players played, Pierce was in superb form again tonight, scoring 44 points and 11 rebounds, and successfully led the team to victory!
The Pacers lost the game after resting, and the Celtics defeated a strong opponent. After one game against the other, there was originally a gap of 2 games between the two sides, but in the blink of an eye, only the last game was left!
If the Celtics win the next game and the Pacers lose, the two teams' records will be tied! The Pacers can only rely on the record advantage between them to barely maintain their eighth place.

In short, the first game of April gave the Pacers' central midfielder a wake-up call. Be it Carlisle or Lin Tian, ​​how could they dare to rest them in the remaining games?

On April 4, the Pacers played with all their players again, and their opponent was the Seattle SuperSonics!
The Sonics' record this year is still quite good. They have now won 48 games and are expected to get 50 wins again after many years!

After the team reintroduced the team's meritorious player Payton, the whole team showed a very good mental outlook and the whole team showed the momentum to compete with the Lakers for the position of dominance in the Western Conference.

The Supersonics team now has three outside players, Ray Allen, Lewis and Payton, as the core, assisted by excellent shooters such as Radmanovic, Brent Barry, Antonio Daniels, etc., to create an offensive system that relies mainly on shooting and all arrows are fired at the same time!

With two of the league's top shooters, one of the most experienced point guards in the league today, plus a large group of excellent shooters in the league, it is only natural that the Sonics' record has been steadily improving!

The first half of this game also showed how crazy the firepower of the Supersonics is now!

雷·阿伦上半场比赛3分球4投4中拿下18分，刘易斯3分球4投3中拿下12分，再加上虽然3分球只有5投2中，但却贡献了10分7次助攻的佩顿，超音速队在三个火枪手的带领下，上半场比赛就拿下了61分的高分！

As for the Pacers, maybe because the whole team had a long rest due to not playing in the previous game, the players were in very bad condition in this game!

整个上半场，除了林天之外全队3分球7投0中，阿泰斯特总计8投2中，克里斯蒂4投1中，米勒4投1中，林天之外只有两个人的命中率超过了40%，分别是4投2中的哈斯勒姆和7投3中的帕克。

Apart from Lin Tian, ​​the other players on the Pacers only scored 21 points.

在这种情况之下，哪怕林天上半场比赛20投12中，3分球5投3中，罚球4罚3中拿下30分5篮板2助攻，可却是无力阻挡球队大比分落后。

61: 51.

At the end of the first half, the Pacers were still trailing by 10 points!
"Leave Lin alone! Don't double-team him!" During the halftime break, McMillan issued an instruction that might make him regret it for 20 years.

"He can't beat us alone! Although he scored 30 points, the Pacers are still 10 points behind us! In the second half of the game, we must continue to increase our firepower on the offensive end and continue to attack with all our strength! We must widen the gap as soon as possible!"

"As long as our offense can hit the target and we can maintain our efficiency, then it won't be a problem even if Lin scores another 30 points in the second half! They can't win!"

"But the others must be watched closely! If we can't defend against the other players on the Pacers when Lin explodes, then we are definitely going to lose this game!"

"So, do you understand what I mean? It's no problem for Lin to score 60 or even 70 points tonight! But you have to stop the other Pacers players!"

"understand!"

The SuperSonics still have a chance to surpass the Mavericks and climb to third in the Western Conference, so they are determined to win this game and cannot afford to lose!
Perhaps the only pity is that the Pacers did not rest their players in this game, otherwise the Supersonics would definitely have won more easily.

At the beginning of the second half, the Supersonics implemented Karl's requirements very well!

Payton organized the team right from the start, with almost the entire team moving out to the three-point line. Then Payton found Radmanovic in the corner and assisted him in making the first three-pointer of the second half!

Continuing the Pacers' attack, Lin Tian faced Payton's one-on-one defense and went to the basket. After attracting the help of Sonics center Vitali Potapenko, he quickly passed the ball to Miller who was completely open on the other side.

But Miller missed the open shot from close range.

Looking back, the Supersonics immediately counterattacked. After a series of passes, Lewis shot from a 45-degree angle on the wing and made a 3-pointer!
Then Lin Tian used a screen to find Haslem, who had a good touch in the first half and made two shots, but Haslem's mid-range jump shot also bounced out of the frame.

This time Allen grabbed the rebound, then dribbled the ball forward, made his way to the frontcourt, and then made a cold-blooded shot, but the fatal three-pointer went out of his hand!

"Shh!"

Just one minute into the third quarter, the Supersonics widened the score gap to 1 points with three consecutive three-pointers!
The firepower of the Supersonics is indeed extraordinary.

Seeing that the team was almost unable to fight back after being beaten by the Supersonics, Carlisle could only call a timeout immediately.

"Do you deserve Lin?" Carlisle looked at the dejected substitutes and said coldly, "Think about it carefully. Do you deserve Lin? Our game has been going on until now, our season has been going on until now, do you really deserve Lin?"

"Think about how we got our record, think about what Lin did for the team's victory in March, and then think carefully about whether you are worthy of being Lin's teammate!"

"Honestly, at this point in the season, I can accept that you guys can't make shots, and I can tolerate all of you not being able to make layups. I know you all tried your best!"

"But! What about defense? Where was your defense tonight? Just on those three 3-pointers, Doug, what were you doing when Allen shot the 3-pointer? How the hell did Radmanovich get open? Why did Lewis get a huge open position on the wing?"

"Payton's passing skills are so good that he can just pass the ball into a wide open space?" Carlisle spread his hands and said angrily, "What the hell are you doing? Are you working hard on the court? Do you want to win?"

"If you don't want to, then tell me and get off the floor! If you still want to win, if you still have a little bit of shame, if you don't want to be called Lin's Tom, Tom, or anyone else on the Pacers!"

“Then cheer up! Prove your strength to me! Prove that you all deserve to be the champions and deserve everything Lin has done for you!”

"Now, the last chance! Get on the court. I don't care what method you use. Stop the Sonics' offense! I will make every attack of theirs extremely difficult. I won't allow them to take even one open shot!"

"understand?"

"understand!"

"Very good, then on offense..."

"Give me the ball on offense, and tonight, we'll go home with a win!"

After Carlisle finished speaking, Lin Tian finally stood up, looked at everyone on the team and said, "I believe in you, and you must believe in me, so let's go, let's beat the Seattle people back to their messed up place!"

After the timeout, neither side made any substitutions because of the 9:0 lead at the start, but the attitude of the Pacers players was obviously a little different.

In the first attack after returning to the court, Lin Tian called Miller to come up and cover.

The experienced Payton had made preparations early on. When he was about to take a step forward to push Miller behind him, he suddenly felt that the determination and strength of Miller's pick-and-roll this time were much stronger than before!

This time, Payton couldn't squeeze through!

Failure to squeeze through means that Lin Tian got an absolutely large open space!

"Shh!"

2 seconds later, Lin Tian's 3-pointer went through the net and he got the first point for the Pacers in the second half!
"Defense! Defense! No need to press, go back to half court! Don't leave anyone behind!" After Lin Tian scored the goal, he stuck to Payton on the spot, while shouting to direct his teammates to get into position.

"Are you going to fight to the death?" Payton was as relaxed as ever. He didn't even try to advance with the ball, but let Allen go to organize the game.

As for himself, he knew that he would be beaten by Lin Tian tonight, but he felt that the team would definitely win! For Payton, this was enough.

Anyway, he has been beaten by Lin Tian so many times that he has long been used to it.

"Is it too late? Can you catch up with the 16-point gap with your current situation?"

“16 points is nothing!” Lin Tian snorted, “How dare you, a guy who was scared by me and didn’t even dare to dribble the ball, talk trash to me here?”

"You're welcome." Payton said shamelessly, "I'm almost 40. What's wrong with taking a break and letting the youngsters handle the competition? This is perfectly normal!"

"Yes, yes, the older you get, the more shameless you become!" Lin Tian muttered again, and the Supersonics team's ball had already been moved to the frontcourt.

Allen's organizational ability is naturally far inferior to Payton's, but in today's Supersonics team, there is obviously no need for too good organizational skills.

Everyone can pitch, everyone can run.

Just break through the defense and find teammates in open space!
This is what Allen thought and did.

He dribbled back and forth outside the three-point line to find his rhythm, then suddenly accelerated, trying to pass Christie in one step.

But this time, Christie's lateral movement was so fast that she didn't even give Allen a chance to take a step before she stood in front of him again!
This block caught Allen off guard, and his dribbling was noticeably stumbling.

Just once is enough!

Lin Tian didn't know when he let go of Payton and came behind Allen. He saw the opportunity and took the basketball out of Allen's control. Then Lin Tian accelerated and rushed towards the front court.

When he just came to the Supersonics' three-point line, the basketball had already been passed to him.

Then Lin Tian just slapped the ball once, then he took the ball and jumped up, raising his hand and making another one-arm slam dunk with a very long gliding distance!

"boom!"

"Keep defending! Keep going! Three minutes! Within three minutes, I will reduce the score difference to less than 3 points!"

"Yes!"

In response to Lin Tian's roar, the entire Pacers team roared in unison. Thanks to Lin Tian's consecutive 5 points, the morale of the Pacers was completely boosted!
And the way they show their high morale is to defend!
The Pacers have three of the league's top defenders in Artest, Christie and Lin Tian, ​​plus their two inside players are also strong. When the team is defensive, the Supersonics have a really hard time!
Facing Lin Tian, ​​Payton was simply unable to organize an offense, and the team's tactics were almost completely stagnant. Lewis and Allen also found it difficult to find opportunities against Christie and Artest, and could only rely on their personal abilities to attack.

But unfortunately, although the twin stars of the Supersonics have All-Star level strength, they have not really reached the level of top stars. Their ability to attack with the ball is not as good as Kobe, McGrady, and Iverson. Even compared with weaker stars such as Carter and Pierce, they are still not good enough.

Both of them are shooters in essence!

This is why many people believe that shooters cannot lead their teams to win championships.

They are too poor at breaking through the opponent's dense defense and targeted deployment, and they do not have the ability to break through the tough defense. These shortcomings may not be obvious in the regular season, but when it comes to the real fight in the playoffs, their style of play is really not good enough.

In the third quarter, the Pacers raised their defensive intensity to playoff levels.

Punches hit flesh and muscles collide constantly, and the level of confrontation is greatly improved!

Amid the crazy cheers of the fans in Conseco Fieldhouse, the Pacers defended the Sonics' attackers time and time again, making their attacks fruitless time and time again!

In the entire third quarter, the Supersonics only scored a total of 19 points!
Although this number looks good, you have to know that they scored 9 points in the first minute of the third quarter!
That is to say, they only scored 11 points in the last 10 minutes of the third quarter. On the Pacers side, most of their players still couldn't find their rhythm and kept missing shots.

But that's not the problem.

Because they have Lin Tian!
They just need to defend well and leave everything to Lin Tian, ​​that's enough!

Eight minutes into the third quarter, Lin Tian made a double change of direction from outside the 8-point line to shake off Payton, then made another 3-pointer! The Pacers narrowed their deficit to 3 points!
Then with 3 minutes left in the third quarter, Lin Tian grabbed the rebound and advanced with the ball, making his way to the free throw line of the Supersonics team, then suddenly stopped and threw the ball, hitting it again!
The gap between the two sides was narrowed to 3 points, with only the last ball left!

Less than 20 seconds later, Lin Tian once again rushed into the inside and grabbed Radmanovic's shot that bounced out of the basket, and continued to dribble forward.

Then Lin Tian pushed to the frontcourt again. This time, the Supersonics couldn't help it anymore, and Allen and Payton rushed up at the same time.

But at the moment when the two of them rushed up at the same time, Lin Tian suddenly sped up the pace of dribbling, pushed the basketball forward, exerted force under his legs, and passed by Allen and Payton in the blink of an eye. Then, before the two could react, Lin Tian made another direct 3-point shot!
"Shh!"

Tied!
With 2 minutes and 29 seconds left in the third quarter, the Pacers finally tied the score! They cleared the dilemma of being 19 points behind tonight! The pit they dug was filled, and the two sides were once again on the same starting line!

"Defend against one more ball!" After scoring the goal, Lin Tian still did not celebrate. Instead, he opened one hand, signaling everyone not to relax and to keep fighting!
7 seconds before the end of the third quarter, Lin Tian dribbled to the frontcourt for the last time in this quarter, and then suddenly started after the time was reduced to the last 3 seconds!
He took two steps forward and suddenly stopped, almost stepping on the 3-point line, and completed a long-range 2-point shot before Payton caught up and interfered!

"Shh!"

"Buzz!"

Two voices sounded at the same time, and the third quarter of the game was over!

The Pacers have already overtaken by 4 points!
The entire Conseco Center was filled with cheers. The fans were extremely excited and kept roaring in celebration.

Our King never lets us down!

In this quarter, Lin Tian played the full 12 minutes. In this quarter, Lin Tian focused his offensive efforts on mid-range and long-range shots. He hardly attacked the basket, but instead took mid-range and long-range shots again and again!

In this quarter, he took 15 shots and made 11 of them, including 3 of 5 4-pointers and 1 of 1 free throws, scoring 27 points in a single quarter! His score tonight once again reached 57 points!
而他的这27分，除了4个3分球之外，剩余的7个运动战进球有5个都来自于罚球线以上的区域！
This is also the reason why he only got one free throw in this quarter.

Lin Tian is competing with Supersonic in his own way!

Don’t you like shooting? Aren’t you good at shooting?
Then let’s have a competition to see who is the best shooter in the league!
19: 33!

The Pacers beat the Supersonics by 14 points in this quarter!
80: 84!

At the end of the third quarter, not only did Lin Tian score 57 points, but the Pacers also finally took the initiative in the game. They entered the fourth quarter decisive battle with a 4-point advantage!
"Amazing!"

Barkley gave a very calm evaluation of Lin Tian's performance tonight, especially in the third quarter.

He had to be calm.

Lin Tian's performance in this quarter was really a bit scary.

Lin Tian has had nights where he scored more than 27 points in a single quarter, but he has never given Barkley a feeling similar to tonight.

He just had a feeling: Lin Tian tonight was invincible!

He felt the cold-bloodedness, madness and ghostly oppression from Lin Tian tonight!
The same feeling also appeared in the hearts of many people.

Including Payton, who played against Lin Tian throughout the game.

This unruly guy who refused to submit to anyone and claimed that you can knock me down but you can never beat me to the point where I can't stand up, suddenly had a strange feeling in his heart.

Lin and I may never be players of the same level! The gap between us is much bigger than you can imagine!

Payton never had this feeling when playing against Jordan.

He suddenly felt that being beaten up by Lin Tian so many times was nothing to be ashamed of.

Everyone has a different level!

It's normal to be beaten.

The human heart is a very magical thing.

During the third quarter, although Lin Tian kept shooting and scoring, Payton was not discouraged at all. He always put all his strength into facing Lin Tian and tried every means to defend against Lin Tian's attack. He even made a successful judgment once and directly blocked Lin Tian's shot!

But during the break between the third and fourth quarters, when Payton thought about these things, when he came on the court again to face Lin Tian at the beginning of the fourth quarter, he suddenly had a negative thought: "I can't defend him anyway, so why try so hard?"

As soon as this thought came out, Payton's defensive effect disappeared in an instant!
Lin Tian, ​​who was facing him, could feel this gap the most! Payton's little tricks disappeared, and the claws that were always on Lin Tian's arm were also moved away. From time to time, he would look for opportunities to give Lin Tian's thighs 1-2 knees, and they were no longer elusive.

Simply put, Payton's defense is much cleaner.

Although on the surface the confrontation between the two men remained intense, Payton's defense remained strong.

But Lin Tian felt much more comfortable when he was attacking!
Now that you're comfortable, there's no need to save face for Payton!

Lin Tian didn't care why Payton suddenly lowered the intensity of his defense! Even if his uncle suddenly came, Lin Tian didn't care!

While you are sick, I will kill you!
In the fourth quarter, Lin Tian, ​​feeling that Payton's defensive standards had declined, began to rush into the inside again and again, challenging the weak inside line of the Supersonics again and again.

He achieved good results in almost every attack, either causing the Sonics to commit a foul in the paint, or Lin Tian himself making a layup or slam dunk.

Because Lin Tianchong was too comfortable and happy, even his 3-point shooting touch declined a little.

Throughout the fourth quarter, Lin Tian only made 3 of 6 shots from beyond the three-point line.

But in this entire quarter, Lin Tian's total hit rate was 13 of 7. In other words, Lin Tian made 3 of 7 shots within the three-point line in this quarter!
These 5 goals all came from within the 3-second zone!
Lin Tian's playing style at this moment was completely opposite to that in the third quarter. He broke into the inside again and again, got fouled again and again, and then stood on the free throw line.

In this quarter, in addition to 13 of 7 shots, Lin Tian also got a total of 13 free throws and made 12 of them!
Throughout the fourth quarter, Lin Tian scored 28 points again!
He scored a total of 55 points in the second half of the game!
And he also scored 30 points in the first half tonight!
This means that Lin Tian broke the second highest scoring record in NBA history that he had just created this season!

He scored 85 points!
And he could actually get more points tonight.

But with 1 minute and 40 seconds left in the game, when Lin Tian made another three-pointer, widening the gap between the two sides to 3 points, Carlisle called a timeout and then replaced Lin Tian.

Carlisle's action was met with boos and curses from the entire stadium.

They angrily accused Carlisle and criticized him.

There's still 1 minute and 40 seconds left! How can we replace Lin?

The main players of the Supersonics haven’t gone down yet!

Why should we let our forest go?

In the last 1 minute and 40 seconds, Lin Tian might not be able to break Chamberlain's 100 points, but if he could get another 5 points, there would be absolutely no problem in bringing his score to 90 points!

Why should he be replaced?

"Give us Lin! Give us Lin! Give us Lin!"

"Carlisle sucks!"

"get out of class dismissed! Carlisle, get out!"

"We don't want Carlisle! We want Lin!"

"90! 90! 90! 90!"

"Let Lin fight for a while longer!"

"You are destroying history! You are a sinner!"

"Chamberlain will knock on your door tonight and take you away with him!"

That night, Carlisle suffered the worst crisis since he coached Indiana.

The entire stadium booed him.

This crazy booing made Carlisle feel guilty. He looked at Lin Tian, ​​wanting him to continue playing.

But when he turned around, he saw Lin Tianqi, who had played the entire first 46 minutes and 20 seconds, sitting on a chair panting, with his head covered with a towel, not moving, allowing the team doctor to put an ice pack on him.

We can’t let him get in!
After seeing Lin Tian, ​​Carlisle was sure that what he did was right!

There is no need to let Lin Tian continue playing just to break the 90-point record.

The next game is the most important!
This match has already secured victory! There is no need.

Carlisle felt that it was unnecessary as Lin Tian was already too tired to move.

But the booing from the fans did not stop.

They really wanted to see Lin Tian continue playing.

"This is probably the biggest crisis in Rick's life," said TNT's Barkley. "But this time I support Rick's choice 100%! Look at Lin, when the camera gives the Pacers bench, take a good look. Look at Lin's condition."

"He could barely move. He wasn't excited at all about his career-high tonight, and he didn't celebrate at all. I even thought he was considering not attending the press conference tonight."

"It's not easy to play against Payton, who is one of the most badass guys in the NBA. Scoring 85 points against his defense... well, even scoring 85 points against my grandma's defense is not an easy thing."

"In short, Lin is too tired! He is really too tired!"

"I think our Lin really needs a break and some space."

"As for 90 points? Who can say there won't be opportunities in the future?"

Kenny followed up, "I agree with what Charles said. Extreme fatigue plus extreme excitement are the most likely to lead to injuries and accidents! Letting Lin leave the court after the team has secured victory is definitely a protection for him!"

"I know there must be countless fans who feel disappointed that Lin didn't get 90 points, but I also believe that as long as they are real fans and people who really like Lin, they will definitely applaud Carlisle's choice this time!"

“Giving up is sometimes more worthy of praise and admiration than pursuing something forcefully!”

"But we still have to celebrate Lin! Congratulations to him for scoring 80+ points for the second time in his career! He also became the only player in NBA history to score 80+ points twice in a single season, and the only player in NBA history to score 80 points or more in a single game twice or more in his career!"

"Congratulations to him! Another record that belongs only to Lin, the first in history!"

In any case, after what Kenny and Barkley said, Carlisle will definitely suffer much less discussion and public opinion attacks.

After all, fans aren't the devil, right?

They could clearly see how tired Lin Tian was.

It doesn’t have to happen this time, maybe next time!

Considering Lin Tian’s age and age, maybe he can break the record in the next game?

However, compared to the fans who were relieved, the NBA players were the ones who were truly relieved. (End of this chapter)