Basketball Legends: Strikers Are King

The score was tied by the opponent, and the Magic immediately counterattacked. However, others seemed a little weak in the face of the Pacers' defense. They could only count on Howard.

Howard is also tough, scoring in singles in the paint, dunking down the pick-and-roll, and is proficient in everything.

After the Pacers entered their own rhythm, Collison scored 6 points and George scored a jumper to help the team cling to the score.

Vogel looked at the game time, reached out and requested substitutions, gradually replacing Hill, Hansbrough and Amandasson.

The Magic also changed their rotation.

The score, which was still tied at 20, was immediately broken. In the last two minutes, Hill, Hansbrough and Amandasson scored 9 points in a row, helping the Pacers to a 9-2 run.

"29-22."

At the end of the first quarter, the Pacers led their opponents by 7 points.

The fans who started taunting the Magic when they took the lead in the first quarter were immediately confused.

"How come... why are you lagging behind?"

They looked at each other in shock, and then the scores of both sides in the first quarter were displayed on the big screen.

Howard led the Magic with 8 points, while for the Pacers, Granger had 9 points and Collison had 7 points.

"It turns out that the defenders and forwards were destroyed."

Magic fans understood immediately.

"There is nothing we can do about this. We can only rely on Howard alone."

"Yeah, yeah, the Magic lost, but Howard didn't lose."

"??Isn't this the end of the first quarter?"

"Oh, that means the Magic are lagging behind and Howard won't take the blame."

"That's right."

At the start of the second quarter, the Pacers replaced Hill, Stephenson, Qi Tian, ​​Hansbrough and Amandelson as a full substitute lineup as usual.

The Magic also have a three-substitute lineup of Duhon, Redick, Larry Hughes, Ryan Anderson and Glen Davis.

Seeing that Howard, who had played the entire first quarter, did not appear, Vogel was temporarily relieved on the sidelines.

Substitute versus substitute, or even against some starters, he has confidence in his own players, but if the opponent puts Howard on the court, he must consider the possibility that the substitute will be beaten by the opponent and replace Granger and others in advance.

The two sides started the game with a wave of strikes, and then Hill found a chance to break through the basket, causing Larry Hughes to foul.

Larry Hughes is a good defensive player, but offensively he can only see breakthroughs. This is the basis for his perfect complementarity with Arenas, who is good at shooting. It is also an important reason why he does not adapt to the Cavaliers led by James.

What restricts Larry Hughes from going further is not his poor shot selection, but the important ability of many players to gain a foothold in the NBA - patience.

Larry Hughes has never played more than 2,400 minutes in a season, and basically misses about 20 games every season. This kind of attendance rate is obviously not qualified for the team's rotation players.

After all, if you miss too many games due to injury, you will need others to fill your vacancies, which leads to a paradox:

If others cannot fill your vacancy, your record will suffer a big decline, which is not bad for Larry Hughes;

If someone else fills the gap when you are absent, what difference does it make if you are in the lineup or not?

I have you, but I can only see you in some games, so you'd better make a living elsewhere.

Hill made one of two free throws, raising the Pacers' score to 30 points.

Ryan Anderson took a jump shot after receiving the ball, but his speed was not fast enough, so Qi Tian rushed to block the shot and interfered with the basketball.

"rebound!"

Under the basket, Amandasen and big baby Glen Davis immediately fought together.

Glenn got the ball and turned around to give it to his teammates.

Larry Hughes ran over to catch the ball and then wanted to break through, but Qi Tian made a decisive move and cut the basketball out of his hand.

Hill picked up the basketball and quickly dribbled towards the Magic half court.

"Quick attack!"

Redick and Larry Hughes immediately retreated to defend.

Hill's breakthrough was blocked, but he caught a glimpse of Hansbrough following up from the corner of his eye. His heart moved and he immediately passed the ball to his teammate.

Larry Hughes followed Hill and found that his opponent had completed the pass.

Hansbrough rushed towards the unoccupied basket and dunked hard!

"32-22."

"Ohhhhh!!!"

The Pacers players who were resting on the bench immediately waved towels and cheered for their teammates.

Magic coach Van Gundy immediately frowned.

The point difference was widened by his opponent, and he had to react. However, if Howard played the entire first quarter, would it affect the physical strength of the generals in the team if he was replaced now?

"It's better to stay put for now and wait and see."

Larry Hughes was attacking with the ball, but Qi Tian stood in front of him.

Qi Tian could clearly see the look in Larry Hughes's eyes. He clearly saw that he was a rookie and wanted to teach him a lesson.

"It seems you still don't understand that not everyone has the ability to teach rookies."

Qi Tian observed his opponent's movements and continuously moved sideways to block Larry Hughes.

"Tsk."

After all, Larry Hughes was already 32 years old and began to decline. He didn't expect that he couldn't even pass as a rookie now.

Larry Hughes gritted his teeth and made a pull-up jumper.

"clang!"

The basketball jumped out of the frame, and Qi Tian turned around and picked off the rebound.

"Hey~"

Seeing the score being further extended, the Magic fans on the sidelines let out meaningless sighs.

"Try to open up the score as much as possible."

Qi Tian saw that the Magic's outside line was running very fast and did not give him a chance to play fast break, so he planned to hand it over to Hill and then move to attack.

At this time, Hansbrough followed up, blocked Ryan Anderson, and reached out to Qi Tian for the ball.

Qi Tian pretended to break through and handed the ball to his teammates. Hansbrough received the ball and turned around to shoot a jumper.

"clang!"

Seeing that the Pacers' offense was blocked, the Magic fans on the sidelines brightened up, but saw Qi Tian passing through several people, running to the basket and grabbing the offensive rebound, and then gave the basketball away with a gentle push.

.

"Whoosh!"

Basketball hollow hit.

"34-22."

Just two minutes into the second quarter, the Pacers hit 5-0, widening the point difference in one fell swoop.

Off the court, Howard took a deep look at Qi Tian and asked the coach for a fight.

"Coach, let me go."

Van Gundy was a little hesitant.

Just 2 minutes have passed in the second quarter. If Howard is replaced, his playing time in the first half is likely to exceed 22 minutes, and the total playing time will be towards 40 minutes.

Even though Van Gundy believes in Howard, you must know that this is the penultimate year of Howard's contract, and the conflict with the team management has become obvious.

If the current Magic team loses Howard, its strength will inevitably drop significantly, and it may even be rebuilt directly. By then, his own position may not be secure.

You know, management never feels that they have made mistakes.

Before Van Gundy took over, the Magic were still a powerhouse in the Eastern Conference, but after a few years of coaching, they were rebuilt!

When the time comes, if the coach doesn’t leave, who will?