Basketball Legends: Strikers Are King

"Come again?"

Fans who have been watching the Pacers for a little longer have already felt the familiar atmosphere approaching and murmured to themselves.

After establishing Granger as the core, the Pacers struggled for three years before reaching the playoffs again in the 2010-11 season.

In addition to the factors that the lineup is constantly improving and the strength is gradually increasing, a stubborn problem has been plaguing the Pacers, both from fans and coaches.

That is the intermittent power outage of the offense due to Granger's technical characteristics.

Stability has always been Granger's shortcoming. He could score 33 points on 13-of-23 shooting, and 7 points on 2-of-14 shooting. It would be very difficult for the Pacers to win without important output.

After the rest of the team grew up, the Pacers' predicament did not improve.

Collison and Hibbert are considered good if they can stably output more than ten points. Hansbrough can usually contribute double-digit points, but in the playoffs he was beaten by his opponents.

George can indeed do it, but fans soon discovered that his sometimes super-god and sometimes super-ghost state is clearly the same as Granger's.

As a result, the team's one neuroswordsman became two, and the situation still did not ease.

"Now that Danny is not present, the two nerve knives have turned into one..."

Pacers fans feel the ominous atmosphere.

You must know that in the years 2008, 2009, and 2010 when Granger was the only one, the Pacers' winning rate could not exceed half.

Pacers fans need to be thankful that their head coach Vogel is not a very stubborn coach.

After discovering that the team's offense was not going well in the third quarter, although he did not know why the inside attack did not work, he immediately began to adjust the team's offensive tactics.

"The inside line is brought up to do the pick-and-roll, providing space for the outside line to break through,"

Vogel first gave instructions to the substitute insiders Hansbrough and Mahinmi, and then said to the outside players,

"You must be decisive when taking outside shots, don't hesitate!"

"clear!"

Qi Tian and others nodded and came to the field.

Qi Tian took the basketball from Augustin and immediately stopped for a jump shot.

"clang!"

The basketball jumped out of the frame and was grabbed by Mahinmi.

"Give me!"

Qi Tian immediately opened his hand to ask for the ball from his teammates. Alan Anderson could not catch up and could only watch Qi Tian shoot a three-pointer.

"Whoosh!"

"66-71."

"Isn't that too accurate?"

The Pacers fans on the sidelines were stunned.

Although Qi Tian doesn't take many shots, he has made 3 of 4 shots from beyond the three-point line, and his three-point shooting rate is as high as 75%.

Qi Tian retreated to defend with his teammates, but he was not happy at all.

Amandelson was replaced by Mahinmi, which strengthened the team's substitute center position, but the strength was limited. On the contrary, Collison was replaced by Augustin, which weakened the offensive rotation of the substitute lineup not a little bit.

"It seems I can only rely on myself."

Qi Tian felt a sense of unyielding pride and was ready to lead the substitute lineup into a battle.

Calderon received a pass from his teammate and hit the ball, and then stole Augustin, but their attack was blocked by the Pacers and Mahinmi got the rebound.

"Quick attack!"

Qi Tian pointed forward and then rushed out. Augustin received the pass and passed the ball directly.

Calderon quickly returned to defense and saw Qi Tian jumping up first, so he could only make the first foul and send Qi Tian to the free throw line.

"Uh-huh."

"Uh-huh."

Qi Tian made two free throws and scored the 21st point of the game.

"68-73."

The Raptors felt something was wrong, so in the 9th minute of the game, they directly replaced Lowry and asked him to lead the bench.

Stephenson broke through and scored a layup, and Lowry also caused Mahinmi to foul, stopping the bleeding for the Raptors.

"Substitute!"

As the game entered the final 8 minutes, Vogel took the lead in making substitutions, replacing West and Hill.

West scored in a single inside, but Calderon fired from the outside and hit accurately.

"Whoosh!"

The score continued to rise, Lowry broke through and scored, assisting Calderon to hit his second three-pointer.

"74-84."

"pause!"

The Raptors hit consecutive three-pointers, and the point difference reached double digits, forcing Vogel to call a timeout.

“Is this the power of the three-point shot?”

Granger, who was still cheering for his teammates, was thoughtful.

After the Pacers got close to 5 points, their offense became much more stable. West scored 4 points in a row. However, the opponent relied on a free throw, a mid-range shot and two three-pointers to pull the score closer again.

.

"Beware of your opponents' outside shots and force them to the basket!"

Vogel glanced past Stephenson, seemingly dissatisfied with his defense.

But George played the entire third quarter and couldn't start too early in the fourth quarter. At this time, he could only rely on Stephenson.

Brian Shaw, on the other hand, didn't take it seriously. Stephenson has great defensive potential. The reason why his opponent hit consecutive three-pointers was because Stephenson's subjective will was not strong. With such a timeout, Stephenson should have cheered up.

Sure enough, although Stephenson was very nervous, he also knew that it was his defense and stepped up his defense against Calderon.

"clang!"

Qi Tian received the ball in the backcourt, quickly rushed to the frontcourt, and scored an easy layup;

But then Lowry fired back with a layup.

"78-86."

In the last 4 and a half minutes of the game, the Pacers trailed their opponents by 8 points.

Vogel changed his generals and sent all the main players up. The same goes for the Raptors on the other side.

The audience at the scene and in front of the TV knew that the real decisive battle was about to begin.

Granger's heart lifted.

The so-called critical moment, in layman's terms, relies on the stars in the team. The stronger the players and the stronger the mentality, the more stable their performance will be;

People who are psychologically depressed tend to behave outrageously.

Without him, can the current Pacers still be better than their opponents?

The only thing that reassures Granger is that Lori DeRozan on the opposite side is not a veteran either.

Young people mean they are prone to making mistakes and paying tuition. In a duel between two young teams, one team will inevitably disappoint the fans.

Granger hopes not to be a Pacer.

Qi Tian received the pass and held the ball in the high post. He exchanged a look with West under the basket and decisively passed the ball, assisting West for a layup.

"80-86."

Bargnani's attack was blocked by West. Seeing Qi Tian rush to the basket and get the rebound, Raptors fans' hearts immediately lifted.

"Keep it steady."

The Pacers didn't find an opportunity for a fast break, so they honestly fought positional warfare.

Hill passed the ball to West under the basket. Facing Bargnani's defense, West turned and threw confidently.

"clang!"

Raptors fans' eyes lit up, West's move made the iron stronger!

"Rebound!"

Hibbert jumped hard and grabbed this crucial rebound!

The eyes of Pacers fans lit up.

West did not take the lead this time. After catching the ball and attracting the defense, he directly distributed the ball to Qi Tian from the outside.

Qi Tian collects the ball, jumps up, and shoots in one go.

"Whoosh!"

"83-86."

The Pacers narrowed the point difference to 3 points in the last 3 minutes and 16 seconds!

“ohhhh!!!”

"Oh selling cakes!"

Pacers fans were overjoyed.