Legendary star

Chapter 760 Advancing to the Regional Finals

Chapter 760 Advancing to the Regional Finals
"Dwight, you performed very well today."

On May 2008, 5, after the fourth game of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Pacers and Magic, a frustrated Dwight Howard sat on the floor of Amway Arena, looking up at the ceiling, wondering what At some point, Meng Xu, who had no victor's awareness at all, went straight to Dwight Howard, trying to persuade this lost lamb.

Maybe it's because Dugu is seeking defeat now and is superior, or maybe it's because he has become the head of the Odin brand. Every time Meng Xu encounters those young players who encounter setbacks, he can't help but want to enlighten them. , impart a little experience to them, pour a little chicken soup or something.

"Is it not bad?" Looking up at Meng Xu standing in front of him, Howard looked aggrieved, looked at Meng Xu and asked back, in today's game, Howard scored 24 points and 15 rebounds. But it didn't help. The Magic still lost today's game 88 to 97. After the Magic was swept by the Pacers, the somewhat childish Dwight Howard was also very frustrated. Performance, Howard is quite dissatisfied.

After entering the league for three seasons, Howard began to gradually enter the pinnacle of his career. For the first time in his career, he averaged 20+10 per game, and was selected to the first team of the best team and the first team of the best defensive team. Ranked fourth in the selection of the best defensive player and fifth in the regular season MVP selection, Howard has now entered the ranks of the league's first-line superstars, and Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy is also at the end of the regular season. , and told Howard that the time has come for us to take off.

In the face of piles of honors and praises, Howard is obviously a little swollen. He even played the old tricks before the series with the Raptors. When he was interviewed by reporters before the first game of the series, he was complacent. Full of rhetoric, we are already thinking about the next round. In the East, only the Pacers and Celtics are opponents of the Magic.Although the Magic finally eliminated the Raptors with a big score of 4 to 1, Howard, who was defiant, was criticized by the media, especially the Canadian media, who described Howard as a clown.

And after the start of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Pacers, Howard, who performed poorly, naturally became the target of all the media. The soft playoff, Mr. Regular Season, all the ugly nicknames were put on Howard. Howard, who has a strange brain circuit, really can't understand why these media who were still singing his praises a few days ago suddenly became his enemies. Is it because of that sentence that I am already thinking about the next round?Howard remembered that Meng Xu had said this several times. Why couldn't I say what Meng Xu said?
So during the entire series with the Pacers, Howard was in a very depressed mood. The pressure of the game, the criticism from the outside world, the reprimand from the head coach, all these piles, one by one, let him always hold the attitude of enjoying basketball. Howard was overwhelmed playing the game, so after losing the last game of the series, Howard did not leave, but sat on the floor beside the court with complicated emotions, feeling lost, unwilling, and relieved, so in Meng Xu After walking over, Howard wanted to find an answer from him.

"If you can perform like this every night, maybe the series is not over yet." As a spiritual mentor, Meng Xu certainly would not use the truth to hit the heart of a fragile young man, the magic and the Pacers as a whole The gap in strength is too great. The inside line is blown up by the Pacers, and the outside line is also blown up by the Pacers. Even if they are given O'Neal or Duncan who are at their peak, they can't pass the Pacers. field, not to mention a Howard who is obviously inferior to them.

"Don't pay attention to those voices from the outside world, concentrate on training, concentrate on playing, and vent all your energy and dissatisfaction on the court. Only in this way can you become better." Most coaches in this league don't care about players psychological changes, because they don't have so much time and patience to care about those things. All they want is the performance and strength of their players, and to play well according to their own tactics.Meng Xu, who is the core of the team, is different. In order to achieve better results and make the Pacers stronger, Meng Xu must always pay attention to the changes in the mentality of his teammates. Of course, all of this is Meng Xu. Learned from Tim Duncan and Reggie Miller.

"Are you venting your energy and dissatisfaction on the court?" After listening to Meng Xu's words, Howard lowered his head and began to think about the mistakes he made in this round of the series.

The Magic currently has only one core tactic, that is, one center and four shooters. Dwight Howard has one pillar in the paint and four shooters outside. All shots are unfavorable, so in many cases, the Magic's offense relies on the outside, relying on Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu, as well as Jameer Nelson.

However, as the fulcrum of the one-center four-pitcher tactic, Howard's role is still very important. Every time Howard opens up inside, the Magic's hope of winning is at least 14%. On the contrary, as long as the Magic meets the kind of Dwight- Howard can't handle the inside line, and the Magic will play very hard. In the first three games of the series, Dwight Howard averaged 11 points, 1 rebounds, and 15 block per game, which is not even a pass. Therefore, the first three games In the game, the Magic lost to the Pacers by as much as [-] points per game, and Howard, who is the core of the tactics, is naturally to blame.

After Meng Xu's praise and enlightenment, Howard's mood improved slightly. After embracing each other for a while, and hearing the legendary "The future is yours", Dwight Howard and Meng Xu were in a good mood. Xu walked into the player tunnel one after another.

After sweeping the Magic, the Pacers became the first team to advance to the conference finals. As for the remaining matchups, whether it was the Celtics against the Cavaliers, or the Spurs against the Hornets in the West, the Lakers against the Jazz, After four games, they all tied 2-2, so the Pacers will usher in another long "holiday".

 Thank you for the reward I want to wake up the world, thank you.

  
 
(End of this chapter)

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