Jim Bass Ambition

Chapter 151 Miller's Law
If possible, Rick Carlisle would choose to let his starting lineup play the full 48 minutes.

Except for the future star with a rookie contract, among the players who can sign with $78, Eric Strickland is already considered a good candidate.As Brandon's substitute, he averaged 18 minutes per game in the regular season, contributed 6 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists per game, and made 38.8% of his three-pointers, even slightly higher than sharpshooter Reggie Miller. .

But in the finals, his ability was indeed a bit underwhelming.

Brandon sat on the sidelines, applying ice packs to his sore ankles. Billups was stronger and faster than a year ago. Any negligence in defense would be caught by Billups. , Billups has been mediocre in these games, and Brandon has contributed a lot.

In the past, the Lakers would replace Billups in the transition period, with Fisher as the point guard at the beginning of the second quarter, but today, the Lakers unexpectedly replaced Kobe, who was feeling hot, and let Billups Smith and Fisher play a double point guard lineup.

When Kobe and Garnett were resting at the same time, Billups became the main arrow of the Lakers. Billups, who has outstanding post-up ability among point guards, took over the important task of starting the low-post offense. Strickland succeeded and helped the Lakers overtake the score again.

Carlisle's arrangement was disrupted. He intended to keep Bowen to deal with Kobe, so that Reggie Miller could rest for a while, so he discharged Strickland, Bowen, Mason, Harrington and Foster substitute lineup.

The Lakers sent Gerald Wallace and Ben Wallace to the field at the same time, allowing Artest to fight Mason hand-to-hand, while Gerald Wallace, whose athletic ability exploded, focused on Harrington with all his strength. Except for Harrington, the Pacers had no reliable offensive points, and they were beaten 6-0 as soon as they came up.

Carlisle quickly called a timeout and replaced O'Neal and Miller back on the field.

Bowen was replaced for a rest, but the Lakers replaced all the starters except Garnett, Diop came up to defend O'Neal, and Ben Wallace was moved to the power forward position.

As soon as O'Neal returned to the court, he immediately stabilized the Pacers' situation. Diop couldn't prevent the Sharks from scoring, he could only let the Sharks score as hard as possible.

Under Diop's aggressive defense, the Sharks were frequently sent to the free throw line, and Diop quickly received his own 3 personal fouls, and Garnett, who had rested for 4 minutes, returned to the court.

At the end of the second quarter, the Pacers led by two points, but neither Carlisle nor Larry Bird were happy.

The team is dominated by veterans, and the rotation is short. If O'Neal can't play an advantage in the first half when O'Neal is full of energy, then the Pacers will fall into a passive position in the second half. The trend of the previous two games was the same. In the first two quarters, O'Neal showed great power , established a lead of more than 10 points, and the Lakers began to chase points in the third quarter. If Billups hadn't felt cold in the last game and missed a key three-pointer, the total score might have been tied 2-2.

The 31-year-old Ao Pang, with a weight of 330 pounds, has to handle the ball almost every round. He scored 21 points in the half. Although his dominance is still invincible, his efficiency has declined compared to the previous two games. It's not the Shark who was able to fight against Peak Dameng for 23 rounds at the age of 48, and was able to output crazy output in [-] minutes on both offense and defense.

In the third quarter, the Lakers' counterattack arrived as scheduled.

Kobe, who endured the entire second quarter, first showed his bloodthirsty fangs. After breaking through and throwing off Bowen, he jumped into the air, folded the lever to avoid O'Neal's block, and glided to the other side of the basket for a backhand layup.

Next was Garnett, who took advantage of his height and scored consecutive shots on Anthony Mason.

The Lakers blossomed more and hit frequently.

Carlisle once tried to interrupt the rhythm of the Lakers with a timeout, but it didn't work.

When Artest intercepted Brandon's pass and scored a one-handed dunk with one-handed low-altitude bombing, the Lakers played a 16-4 offensive climax, pulling the point difference to 10 points.

Thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, the fans in the Staples Arena cheered, and the team hoped to bring the game back to Los Angeles.

One thing that, when times are good, has little effect but doubles when times are bad is fatigue.

Brandon dragged his heavy legs, gasping for breath, clenching his teeth and chasing Billups, struggling to squeeze past the iron-walled screen of Ben Wallace, desperately stretching out his right hand to try to interfere with the opponent's shooting, but At that time, the basketball had passed through the net, splashing a splash of water.

Mason used his strong body to open a bloody path after his teammate shot, and came to the weak side to try to grab the offensive rebound, but just as he bent his knees to take off, Garnett was already flying in the air, stretching out his long arms to pick the ball away .

Bowen stretched out his hands, his eyes fixed on Bryant, judging the opponent's next move.

Hold the ball with both hands, three threats, step left and cut right.

Bowen slides to the left, blocking Bryant's drive.

Bryant hit the brakes, pulled the ball back under his crotch, and turned to cut left.

Bowen quickly regained his center of gravity, waved his hands, and desperately returned to defense.

Kobe kicked the ground with his left foot, took a step back to collect the ball, and made a fadeaway jumper.

Bowen was caught off guard, split his feet, slipped and fell to the ground and became the background.

At the end of the third quarter, 78 to 65.

O'Neal scored only 6 points in the third quarter, showing a disturbing decline in efficiency.

It seems that the championship celebration prepared in advance at the Conseco Arena may be ruined.

Larry Bird knows that although the team holds 3 match points, if this game cannot be won, the momentum will completely turn to the Lakers side, whether it is the Pacers who have reached the limit of physical fitness, or two consecutive Staples' away game will make the following games extremely difficult.

Carlisle knew it, and so did Reggie Miller.

He's never been this close to being a champion.

Ghost Arrow rejected the head coach's rest arrangement. He decided to try again at Indiana's home court in the fourth quarter. Today, he felt good. He made 7 of 4 three-pointers and scored 17 points.

As soon as the fourth quarter came up, he used Foster's cover to catch the ball in the only little gap.

Kobe flew over, and Miller's three-pointer was already flying in the air. Kobe caught Miller's outstretched right leg, and the two fell to the ground at the same time.

Steve Jarvie was the closest, and his whistle sounded immediately, signaling a defensive foul by Bryant.At the same time, Miller's three-pointer accurately fell into the center of the net.

Conseco Arena erupted into loud cheers.

Kobe bounced off the ground like an electric shock and rushed to Javier to try to reason, but Javier insisted on his penalty.

Reggie Miller walked to the free throw line and made a solid free throw.

The point difference returned to single digits.

　Note: The Miller rule was written into the league rulebook for the 12-13 season.

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(End of this chapter)