Legendary star

Chapter 461

"After the baptism of the last round of the series, Ron Artest is like a different person. His oppressiveness and aggression on the defensive end are no less than Gary Payton at his peak. Now, if he can sharpen his defensive awareness and accumulate some game experience, then he will be a frequent visitor to the best defensive team in the future, and even like Meng Xu Payton, he will win the best defensive player as an outside player. very likely to be."

On the evening of May 2003, 5, at the Bankers Life Stadium, before today's game started, almost everyone knew very well that the overall strength of the Pacers was much stronger than that of the Pistons, and today is the Pacers' home court. It was Meng Xu's MVP awards ceremony again, so he had just experienced a bitter battle with the Magic, and because of the away game, the Pistons didn't have much chance in front of the Pacers who were waiting for work, so the players including the Pacers and even the banker The Pacers fans in the stadium were very relaxed and optimistic before the start of the game.

But just a few minutes after the start of the game, the fans at the scene were not very relaxed, because they were surprised.The Pacers are now clearly at a disadvantage. The inside line composed of Mutombo and Jermaine O'Neal has no advantage in the face of the combination of Ben Wallace and Clifford Robinson. You must know that in the regular season, the Pacers' inside line has always been playing against the Pistons' inside line.The Pistons point guard Billups, whether on the offensive or defensive end, firmly suppressed Jamal Tinsley. In less than 5 minutes, he made 4 of 3 shots and scored 6 points. , At the same time also sent 2 assists.

Of course, even if the Pacers have no advantage inside, and no matter how well Billups plays, the Pistons will not be able to suppress the Pacers on the scene, but when Meng Xu is in Artest and Stackhouse Under double-team defense, when they are still unable to enter their game state, the power of the Pacers on the offensive end is greatly reduced. , It seems that it is already very unfavorable to the Pacers.

From the very beginning of the game, Artest stalked Meng Xu. As long as Meng Xu received the ball, Stackhouse would immediately give up defending Hamilton and cooperate with Artest to double-team Meng Xu. Although Artest's strength is not as good as Meng Xu's, he is much stronger than most players in the 2nd and 3rd positions in the league. Therefore, Meng Xu wants to use his own strength to force Artest away. Special, it's not that easy, and Artest's movement speed is also very good, even if Meng Xu tried his best to squeeze him away, Artest will post it again at the first time, in the In addition to Stackhouse's double-teaming, it was thought that Artest was covering the leak and blocked Meng Xu's breakthrough route and passing route in advance. Therefore, in the first few minutes of the first quarter, Meng Xu played is also very awkward.

And as the game continued to advance, Artest's defense became more and more crazy. After McGrady's defense was embarrassed in the last three games of the last round, Artest found that he actually liked this kind of defense. Feeling, watching the super scorer who made the entire league extremely fearful under his own defense, returning without success again and again in front of him, this huge sense of accomplishment made Artest extremely intoxicated.Therefore, before the start of this game, when the head coach Rick Carlisle arranged for Artest to defend Meng Xu, Artest not only did not have the slightest hesitation or worry, but was also extremely excited. Meng Xu is stronger than McGrady He was elected as the scoring champion for two consecutive seasons, and the miracle of 82 points in a single game has made countless people worship him.But Artest, who is extremely stubborn in his bones, just wanted to see what kind of reaction everyone would have when Meng Xu was pulled down from the altar by himself. The more defensive he is, the more aggressive he is, pushing people behind, going around the front, all kinds of small moves, pinching the waist, pushing the calf, and doing everything. As long as it can restrain Meng Xu, Artest doesn't mind using it on Meng Xu. Even if you do so, you will be cast aside by thousands of people.

"MVP, are you satisfied with my defense today?" After blocking Meng Xu's way again and resisting Meng Xu's collision with him, Artest was obviously very satisfied with his defensive performance just now. Even when he was proud, he even provoked Meng Xu in a rare way.When Rick Carlisle assigned a task to Artest before the game, Carlisle told Artest that no matter what the defensive effect on Meng Xu is, as long as he can cut off the training connection between him and his teammates and force him to constantly In singles with the ball, even if Meng Xu scored 60 points on Artest's head in this game, Artest's defense against Meng Xu was successful.

As an ambitious head coach, Rick Carlisle has only done one thing this season besides leading the team to play games, and that is to carefully study the Pacers and Nets, trying to find out every weakness of them, Then give them the coup de grace in the playoffs.The Pacers, in particular, are the subject of constant research by Rick Carlisle. During the four regular season confrontations, Carlisle tried to defeat the Pacers every time. Finally, in the final game of the playoffs, Carlisle found the Pacers. life gate.As the Pacers' offensive and defensive core, Meng Xu's offensive methods are very comprehensive, and his scoring efficiency is also very high. Therefore, when most teams in the league defended Meng Xu, they put their defensive attention on limiting Meng Xu's scoring, and did not hesitate to double-team the whole game. What they failed to do was to limit Meng Xu's scoring.But in Carlisle's view, this is precisely the reason why they can't restrain the Pacers. Compared with Meng Xu's deterrence on the offensive end, Meng Xu is more threatening in organizing the team. Tactics are the foundation of the Pacers.Therefore, in this game, Rick Carlisle has only one goal, which is to defend Meng Xu's breakthrough, and at the same time try to cut off the connection between Meng Xu and his teammates, so that Meng Xu can continue to play singles with the ball. Perhaps at the beginning of the game, Meng Xu can still guarantee a good hit rate, but once his physical strength drops, 33 of 26 in the final game and 8 of 6 in the fourth quarter are very good proofs.

"Kid, come on, you almost guarded me." After Artest's provocation, Meng Xu immediately hit a mid-range jumper, although Meng Xu countered Artest's provocation with a shot, But when Meng Xu retreated, he still frowned, obviously dissatisfied with the situation on the court.With the start of the playoffs, almost every player's physical condition has some problems, but the intensity of the game has not dropped in the slightest, but directly raised a level. In this case, many players who are applicable in the regular season Tactics and strategies will not work in the playoffs, and Meng Xu will no longer be able to score points at will like in the regular season. Take this game as an example, although Artest and Stackhouse The double-teaming cannot completely restrict Meng Xu, but they can always make Meng Xu use a more difficult method and consume more energy to complete the attack. Therefore, if Meng Xu keeps playing singles with the ball, he I'm afraid my physical strength will be exhausted if I can't last the fourth quarter.

"Jamal, you need to put some pressure on that kid."

"Jermaine, we need to strengthen our defense a little bit."

In the process of retreating, Meng Xu glanced at the bench on the sidelines and found that the head coach Larry Bird did not give any instructions, but after discussing with assistant coach Lester Connell, Meng Xu decided to change the tactics and strategies that Larry Bird formulated before the start of the game.Therefore, when passing by Jamal Tinsley and Jermaine O'Neal, Meng Xu sent them a signal to strengthen their defense.As for the rest of Mutombo and Hamilton, Meng Xu didn't need to remind them. Mutombo himself is an insider who is good at defense, and he is also a veteran who has been in the league for many years. He didn't need any reminders at all. After the playoffs, Mutombo's game state immediately rose sharply. At first glance, he looked like an old ball ruffian who played dead in the regular season and played hard in the playoffs.And Hamilton, although after coming to the Pacers, Hamilton did not seem to fit in well, perhaps because he experienced betrayal and betrayal in the Wizards, which made Hamilton very insecure and distrust everything around him. The relationship with anyone in the team is average, even Hamilton's idol Reggie Miller can't get into Hamilton's heart.It’s just that although he seems a little lonely off the field, Hamilton does his best in every game. At the same time, Hamilton will also adjust his game intensity according to the intensity of the surrounding teammates. It can be said that he is a player with a very high IQ. Meng Xu reminded that Hamilton knew how to adjust himself based on the performance of his teammates on the field.

"The Pacers have also strengthened their defense on the court. It seems that the Pacers hope to use defense to change the unfavorable situation on the court." As Billups dribbled through the half court, the Pacers' defensive strength immediately strengthened A lot, and at the same time, aiming at the weakness of the Pistons' poor outside shooting, when Billups and Clifford Robinson were in the pick-and-roll, Jermaine O'Neal stopped following him, but stopped Billups in advance and went down way, and let Clifford Robinson shoot.At the same time, after the change, several outside players of the Pacers also changed their defensive targets. Hamilton went to defend Artest, Jamal Tinsley went to defend Jerry Stackhouse, and Billup Si, Meng Xu will deal with it personally.

"Although it's only 1 minute, I have to say that it's really painful to watch such a game. If the Pacers and Pistons play like this for the entire series, I would rather not comment on their games." When the official suspension of the first quarter After the whistle blew, Michaels in the commentary could not help but complain.

After the Pacers strengthened their defense on the field, the Pistons also strengthened their defense by the way. The two teams that scored 5 to 14 in the first 11 minutes did not score a single point in the 1 minute before the official timeout. It is very normal to not score for 1 minute, but what the Pacers and Pistons showed on the court made this normal a bit abnormal.

Due to the poor long-range shooting of the Pistons, the Pacers began to shrink the basket when defending. Jermaine O'Neal, who used to help defend to the free throw line or even the edge of the 3-point line, began to shrink near the paint. With the addition of Dikembe Mutombo who spends most of his time at the basket, it will be increasingly difficult for the Pistons to score close to the basket.And the Pistons began to shrink their defense when the Pacers' outside shooting percentage was not high. Clifford Robinson and Ben Wallace stayed at the basket and Mutombo Jermaine O'Neal wrestled, and the basket was crowded with people for a while, so whether it was the Pacers or the Pistons, it would be extremely difficult to break through to the basket. In this game, what kind of situation will the two teams face.

"Everyone performed very well in the previous games. Although we are still 3 points behind, this score is still acceptable!"

"In the second half of the game, we don't need to adjust, and continue to implement the tactics in the previous game."

After all the players on the Pacers field were off the court, they were all looking up, waiting for Larry Bird's order to adjust and change, but what they heard was an order not to change, so everyone, including Meng Xu, They all looked at Larry Bird, and then looked at each other, trying to make eye contact to guess what kind of medicine was sold in Larry Bird's gourd.

"It was a strange game. Whether it was the Pacers or the Pistons, in the first half of the first quarter, neither of them played their tactics, nor did they show their due strength, but during the official timeout, Larry Neither Bird nor Rick Carlisle made any adjustments, so could it be that the current situation on the field meets their psychological expectations?" Not to mention that the Pacers players don't know what Larry Bird is thinking, even Michaels was also a little puzzled by Larry Bird's approach.

"Maybe this game is just a trial." Magic Johnson on the side, after a moment of contemplation, expressed his thoughts with some uncertainty. Every ambitious team will have its own cards. To be just in case in the playoffs, perhaps the Pacers and Pistons are now testing, wanting to let the opponent expose their cards in advance, so that they will have a better chance of winning.At the same time, Magic Johnson still has a very dark idea that Larry Bird wants to deliberately extend the time of this round of the series. The Pistons have fought the Magic for 7 games, so the longer this round of the series, The more unfavorable it is for them, and the Pacers are in poor condition, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that maybe Larry Bird really wants to play a few more games, directly dragging down the Pistons, and by the way, helping his team find Otherwise, they will definitely be more difficult to parry when they encounter the Nets who are stronger than the Pistons.

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(End of this chapter)