God's hand behind the scenes

Chapter 460
The Pacers' team doctor and physical trainer still have two skills. They made full use of every second of the halftime break, and the main players in the team have more or less recovered their physical strength.But Carlisle is still a little worried. He doesn't know how the Pistons will deal with his team in the second half. The difference between the playoffs and the regular season is still too big.

Carlisle's premonition was not wrong. At the beginning of the second half, the Pistons players still performed vigorously, and Brown also deliberately replaced Prince with Wade in the starting lineup, once again playing a three-guard tactic.The three guards seem to reduce the defensive intensity of the Pistons, but they can meet Brown's requirements to the greatest extent, which is to try to exhaust the Pacers' players in the shortest time, so that they can't keep up on both ends of the offense and defense. With one's own footsteps, losing is a natural thing.

The three guards Billups, Hamilton and Wade set off a whirlwind on the court, and the transition offense was in full swing. What made the Pacers feel even more broken was that Thomas and Ben were not much slower.In fact, the Pistons seldom play like this during the regular season, but now it is the playoffs. If they want to defeat their opponents as soon as possible, it is necessary to resort to this trick.

Although Artest felt the pressure on the offensive end was greatly reduced, he still couldn't help the team narrow the point difference, because now the Pacers' perimeter defense relies on him alone, but he has to face three capable players. An excellent guard who is eligible for the Hall of Fame.He was embarrassed to find that no matter who he chose to guard, he would pay the price. Even if he could guard one of them, the other two players were not vegetarians.

The scores of both sides are constantly rising, but the difference is still quite obvious.The Pistons are very familiar with the passing and cutting cooperation. Wade and Hamilton's running and mid-range shooting make the opponent hard to defend. .The Pacers basically can only rely on Artest's singles and Miller's strong shots to score, and there is no guarantee of efficiency. The other main scoring point, Jermaine O'Neal, has almost nothing to do under the defense of Ben.

In fact, this is the status quo of most teams in the league. They only need to maintain one or two stars. Other role players may occasionally break out, but most games still rely on the performance of stars.Teams like the Pistons are quite different. They don’t have top stars in the league like the Spurs and Lakers, but they can win the game with a strong overall offense and defense. To some extent, they are the most special in the league. team.

However, this particularity made Carlisle very troubled, and the process of the game was completely different from what he had expected.What's more, the Pistons' three-guard lineup directly took the rhythm of the game away. The little physical strength recovered by the Pacers players during the halftime break was quickly exhausted. The talented Artest can still do his best to complete the coach's tactical intentions in every round, but he is just one person.

In the third quarter, the Pistons scored 6 more points than the Pacers. Although it didn't look like much, it actually opened the difference between the two sides to double digits.However, the entire Pacers team has not lost confidence. After all, it has not reached 20 points. In fact, even if the point difference is opened to more than 20 points by the Pistons, they will try it in the last quarter to see if there is any hope of reversal.

Although Artest and Jermaine O'Neal are the current stars of the Pacers, but at such a critical moment, Miller is still the first to stand up.The veteran decisively took over the team's offense.He ran with all his strength on the field, never giving up any chance to catch and shoot, and under his encouragement, the intensity of the Pacers' game gradually increased. Less than 3 minutes into the fourth quarter, They abruptly narrowed the point difference to single digits.

But Chang Wei could see very clearly off the court that Miller was at the end of his battle. He was obviously gritted his teeth and looked for opportunities on the court. Will move a bit.From the way he often leans on his knees and gasps for breath, it can be seen that his physical fitness has reached a limit.

Carlisle also saw that Miller couldn't hold on, but now he was only one breath away from tying the score. At this time, replacing Miller may not be worth the loss.However, when he saw that Miller was being intercepted continuously on the outside due to lack of physical strength, he couldn't help but sighed. It would be impossible not to replace him at this time, let him play again at the last moment!
After Miller was replaced, he sat on a chair and panted heavily. The staff handed him a large towel, which he used directly to cover his head. Only the violent ups and downs of his chest made people feel his previous fatigue. .In fact, Miller has long decided to retire after the end of this season, but as a normal NBA player, he also hopes that he can get a championship ring.Reaching the Eastern Conference finals with the team again this year undoubtedly made him extremely excited, but the reality is so cruel.

Without Miller's containment on the outside, the Pacers' offense became more and more sluggish, and they could only rely on the personal abilities of Artest and O'Neal to score.The Pistons players are not in a hurry. Although they also hope to kill the opponent with a stick, it seems obviously impossible now. It is better to wear down the opponent's spirit little by little, and by the way, further increase the point difference open.

When Miller reappeared with 4 minutes and 27 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the difference between the two sides returned to double digits again.In Miller's career, there have been too many similar situations, and he has tried countless times to help the team through difficulties, but this time he was unable to recover. opponent.

Although Miller still hit 2 three-pointers under the cover of his teammates, it was of no avail. The Pacers still lost 87 to 95 in the away game and unfortunately lost the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals.Although the performance of most teams in away games is not as good as at home, it is also good for the Pacers to win one or two away games, which will further increase the possibility of them rushing out of the East.However, now they have encountered a black door, which looks like an ominous sign no matter how they look at it.

As for the Pistons, Brown and Chang Wei breathed a sigh of relief. They did not expect to solve the opponent's most threatening three-point shooter so easily. If they can continue to play like this in the next game, they will advance to the finals. It's just around the corner.

(End of this chapter)