Basketball Legends: Strikers Are King

"No, it can't be?"

When the point difference really widened, the Pacers fans wearing No. 33 jerseys on the sidelines couldn't believe it.

"Quick, quick, second brother, give me a slap!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the companion next to him gave him a slap in the face, and then looked at him with concern:

"Are you okay?"

"I really didn't dream?!"

The fan covered his cheek and said with emotion. Only then did he hear the question from his companion,

"Why do you care about me after you beat me?"

"Didn't you ask me to slap you? I will never hesitate to slap you."

"Huh? Forget it!"

Jersey No. 33 shook his head, turned to look at the field, and said excitedly,

"I haven't seen such a smooth attack in a long time!"

The Pacers played a wave of momentum and became more powerful. George caused Wade's mistake, got the basketball, and turned around to find Hill.

With the outside line blooming, Hibbert naturally couldn't sit still and decisively blocked Turiaf for the ball. However, the Heat's defensive tactics worked, and James rushed over to interfere.

"clang!"

The basketball jumped out of the hoop.

But West grabbed the offensive rebound and hit a tip-in, successfully opening the point difference to double digits.

Wade was about to retaliate, but George caused his opponent's mistake again and stole Wade for the second time!

"ohhh!!"

"Deduct one!"

The Pacers fans became excited. Looking at the Heat's empty half, some anxious fans had already stood up. They believed that George would definitely deliver a dunk that was so exciting that it could be ranked among the top five.

Wade started faster this time. Before George could start, he rushed over and committed a foul.

The Heat requested a substitution and replaced Shane Battier with Mike Miller.

Facing Qi Tian, ​​who mainly attacks from the outside, Battier's footsteps became a flaw and he was unable to keep up with his opponent.

Hill organized an attack from the outside. Qi Tian looked at him and rushed to the basket decisively, and indeed received the pass.

After Qi Tian attracted the defense, he found George in the bottom corner. George made a decisive three-pointer from an open position.

"Whoosh!"

Basketball hollow hit.

James succeeded in a breakthrough layup, although the point difference was already widened by his opponent;

Qi Tian assisted Hibbert to score again, but Hibbert fouled and sent the newly debuted Joel Anthony to the free throw line.

"52-64."

In 6 minutes of game time, the situation suddenly changed, and the Pacers actually opened the point difference to 12 points, which gave Pacers fans an unreal feeling.

When has the team ever had such a smooth offense and launched a 17-5 attack wave?

The Heat's three-pointer finally opened its account, and Miller hit a three-pointer from the outside to narrow the point difference.

But then Qi Tian responded with a sudden stop jump shot, raising his score in a single quarter to 10 points while steadily maintaining the point difference.

At the end of the third quarter, the Heat trailed their opponents by 14 points, 55-69.

"Seven, seven, seven!"

"Apocalypse!!"

As soon as the buzzer sounded at the end of the third quarter, the Pacers fans on the sidelines cheered loudly to support Qi Tian.

Qi Tian smiled at the fans and walked to the bench to listen to the head coach's arrangements and prepare for the fourth quarter.

"I'm not saying that. In the third quarter of the game, the Pacers' offense was really smooth. It was much better than the first half."

"That's right. Defensively, you can guard against the opponent's perimeter, and offensively, you can be both inside and outside. This is what the Pacers should be like in my mind."

The data of the two teams in the third quarter were timely displayed on the big screen. The Pacers defended their opponent's 1 of 9 shots from beyond the three-point line. They led 15-6 and 5-2 in rebounds and assists. They played a single quarter.

Score of 26-12.

Listening to the whispers of the fans around him, Bird had no expression on his face, but he was already making calculations in his mind.

Now that it has been anticipated and even made clear that Granger's upper limit will not be too high, is there any way to build a team with George, Qi Tian and others as the core?

The basis is naturally there:

Compared with the 29-year-old Granger, the 22-year-old George and the 19-year-old Qi Tian are obviously more valuable to cultivate. At least they have enough room for improvement, although I am not sure whether it is imagined;

The highly similar technical characteristics of George and Granger can also allow the team to smoothly transition to the new leadership period;

The most important reason that allowed Bird to dare to carry out this plan was the smoothness of the offensive end.

After coming through the days of O'Neal and Artest, Bird made it clear that for a defensive team, the lower limit is actually very high.

After all, no matter how weak the offense is, you can rely on defense to bring your opponent to the same level as yourself, and at least you won't lose too many points.

But the upper limit means over-reliance on the team boss. The Bulls are an example. With Rose, they can stand at the top of the league with teams such as the Heat;

Without Rose, or if Rose's performance is poor, they will have to accept the fate of being eliminated early.

So Bird had long wanted the team to follow the Spurs' lead and transform in time.

"Will the emergence of George and Seven be a node in the Pacers' transformation?"

The best manager thought about it for a while and rejected the idea.

There are many disadvantages to giving up Granger rashly:

The first one is that they cannot get back chips of comparable value. Now that the Pacers have a complete lineup and there are no positions in urgent need of reinforcement, should they use the team boss to replace them with a substitute?

The second reason is that the team's momentum is good. As long as Hill and Hibbert are renewed in the summer, the overall upward momentum can be maintained. Making rash transactions can easily affect the team's chemical reaction.

"Go and inquire with the Magic about Howard and see if you can get him in exchange for Granger?"

An idea suddenly appeared in Bird's mind.

Hibbert will become a restricted free agent this summer. Bird thought about using him to offer Howard, but the risk was too high.

Once the deal doesn't take shape and Hibbert leaves the Pacers sadly, the Pacers will be in a state of confusion.

Of course, the main reason is that the Magic did not accept Hibbert and Collison's offer.

The apparent reason for the Magic was that they disliked the Pacers for giving them too few first-round picks. Bird knew that the main reason was that they had just eliminated the Magic in the playoffs.

What is the difference between making a deal with the team that eliminates you, giving away the team boss, and surrendering as a gift?

"But it may not be impossible to replace it with Granger."

Byrd silently wrote it down in his mind, preparing to talk about it when he went back.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Heat did not give up. Chalmers scored 9 points with a hot touch, and James and Wade also teamed up to score points.

However, Hibbert West scored consecutively inside and George Hill scored 8 points in a row, opening the point difference to 20 points in the last 3 minutes of the game.

The Heat replaced Wade, James, Chalmers and other main players with substitutes and chose to give up.

The Pacers then replaced their main players, and Stephenson and Price got the chance to play in the playoffs.

At the end of the third game, the Pacers at home beat the Heat by 19 points with a score of 94-75, leading their opponents 2-1!