Jim Bass Ambition

Chapter 253 Let's Split the Pot First
The first quarter set the tone.Once O'Neal goes smoothly, no one can stop him, and the outside salutes also showed their power. Reggie Miller, Bruce Bowen and Hawley fired consecutively, making the Lakers care about one thing and lose another.

Even though the Lakers sent a substitute, they failed to reverse the defeat. Compared with the surprise of the previous two games, Wade showed his rookie side in this game. It may be that the first two games were played too easily. In this game, Wade's offensive options are relatively simple. When he gets the ball, he basically breaks through and kills the inside line. However, the iron wall formed by O'Neal and Jeff Foster is not so easy to break through. The latter's defensive efficiency ranks second in the league, second only to the Spurs, and even slightly better than the Pistons.

The zone defense has a strong restrictive effect on players who are good at breakthroughs. Wade frequently encountered help defenses. Pull further apart.

Seeing that the effect was not good, Zen Master hurriedly replaced Wade, but the Pacers have stabilized the situation.After Artest and Billups returned to the court, piecemeal scoring still failed to narrow the point difference, while Kobe and Garnett encountered the Pacers' key marking all the time, and it was not easy to connect the ball.

At halftime, the Lakers trailed by nearly 39 points 57 to 20.

Although the third quarter came up, Kobe began to take over the game, hit 7 goals in a row alone, scored 19 points in a single quarter, led the team to a 29-17 offensive climax in a single quarter, and once narrowed the point difference to 6 points, but Miller Then he showed his killer instinct and hit two consecutive three-pointers to stabilize the point difference.At the same time, the Pacers strengthened their defense, slowed down the pace of the game, and reduced the number of passes to avoid mistakes. With a multi-pronged approach, the Lakers never turned over. The 10-point difference was like an insurmountable gap. Couldn't turn it over.

86 to 98, the Lakers suffered a defeat in Indiana.

Kobe scored 35 points in the air, including 29 points in the second half; Garnett had 16 points and 14 rebounds, but only made 14 of 5 shots, and his performance was mediocre; Wade performed poorly, scoring only 8 points on 1 of 4 shots; Billups and Artest scored 9 points and 11 points respectively, tepid, and did not limit the opponent's players, allowing Payton and Holly to play the best performance of the series; the team shot less than 40%.At the same time, there were a terrible 17 turnovers. The Pacers scored 21 points through the Lakers' turnovers, and the Lakers scored 6 in this data.

"Losing to the Lakers last season made me angry. We can't lose to the same opponent twice in a row. It's unforgivable. We defended our home court. In the next games, we will continue to win until we tear it apart." They, this championship trophy will stay in Indiana, for Reggie, Gary and Byron, we all have to win this round of the series.” O’Neal, who scored the team’s highest score of 32 points and 9 rebounds, was interviewed after the game when said.

"Jeff brings energy to the team. His offensive rebounding and defense provide us with more opportunities to attack and make it easier for Shaq to play. He has been playing for the Pacers since he entered the league. Whatever the team asks of him, he will do his best to complete the task. I feel very lucky to have a player like Jeff on the team. Our goal is to keep winning in the next two home games, Gained the advantage of the series. In the first two games, the team just finished the Eastern Conference Finals with the Pistons. It was a fierce series. The players were a little tired, but now they are ready." Pacers coach Rick Carlisle praised Jeff Foster, who played as a surprise soldier. Foster played 32 minutes and scored 8 points and 12 rebounds, including 7 offensive rebounds. The Pacers had 10 more rebounds than the Lakers. The offense scored 15 more points.

Ma Long has been wearing protective boots on his feet because of his injury. During the game, photographers captured his anxious expression on the bench many times.

"The specific return date has not yet been determined, and my feet are still a little uncomfortable, but I think I can take off this thing at any time and return to the court. There are many people who can play on the team. The coaching staff and team doctors let me sit on the sidelines. I have to follow their advice when I am fully healthy before playing. It is painful not to play, but I can only be cautious and trust my teammates. The team did not play well in this game. Solve this problem, and don’t forget that we are still in the lead.” After the game, Malone expressed his desire to return to the court in an interview.

"Our performance was terrible, the five guys on the field never found the same pace, fell behind from the beginning of the game, put ourselves in a difficult position, and spent the remaining 40 minutes chasing points, but the opponent Well done. I don't think anyone on the team wasn't working hard or was thinking elsewhere, but the truth is the team played shit and did a very good job of protecting the backboard and controlling turnovers. Poor, these two items do not depend on your touch, but entirely on your attitude. In this game, the opponent took about 20 more shots, so it is difficult for us to win. I think, instead of thinking about who is the best It’s FMVP, why not be more pragmatic and work together to win this championship trophy first.” Jim, who is far away in Los Angeles, also expressed his attitude in the interview, and the team’s sloppy performance caused him to drop the remote control several times.

After seeing off the "Los Angeles Daily News" reporter, Jim dialed Brian Shaw's phone to ask about the team's situation.

According to Xiao, the team is studying the video very seriously. The coaching staff took the lead and pointed out all the mistakes made in the game. The players also stated that they will seriously win the next two away games and strive to end the series. in Indiana.

Generally speaking, FMVP will be awarded to the first core of the championship team, but there are accidents in everything.Players are all people, not data in the game, everyone will have their own ideas.For example, one of the routines in the league is to desperately mark the players in the opponent's team who have a contract year, so that they cannot get good data, so their mentality fluctuates, they lose touch with the team, and even cause internal strife.

The same is true for FMVP. No player will think that he has too many honors.Especially when the team honor is enough, individual honor and salary are also key issues for players to consider.

Although in the interview, Jim expressed his trust in the players and the coaching staff, Jim deeply hoped that things were not going to the worst situation he imagined.

Two days later, the fourth game between the two sides continued in Indiana.

(End of this chapter)