443: Work harder, I'm about to miss
The Banker Life Arena was filled with joy, and Stephenson's dunk excited Indianapolis fans.
This is Lance Stephenson, a funny guy who is between an angel and a demon. If you are his teammate and a fan, you will really like him.
But if you are his opponent, you may even want to kill him.
Link wants to kill Stephenson now, of course, in the form of basketball.
After two rounds, the Grizzlies also found some ways of playing in the Pacers. First, the Pacers, like the previous Grizzlies, focus on defense, and then on the offensive end, supplemented by exquisite team cooperation.
The Pacers have five positions, each with excellent defensive ability to pick them up. It seems that the Pacers and the Grizzlies are the same type of team.
You can say that the Pacers are now like a weakened grizzly bear. They have a Gasol, Roy Hibert who is more than tall but weak in all aspects.
There is a Randolph and West who can score and defend and have skills, but have a slightly lower data.
There is a weakened version of Link, Paul George, who is comprehensive in technology, can attack and defend and is also graduated from Fresno University.
A weakened version of Conley George Hill and a weakened version of Iguodala, Stephenson.
However, since it is a weakened version, it is definitely not as strong as the original.
Stevens clapped his hands on the sidelines, reminding everyone to continue to concentrate. It's time for the genuine army to fight back.
"Defense! Defense! Defense!"
As the Grizzlies were pushing with the ball, deafening shouts rang out in the entire arena. Indiana fans are indeed enthusiastic, as if they were the sixth player on the basketball court.
But what the Grizzlies' villains like to do the most is to pour cold water on others!
This time the Grizzlies' offense was obviously much more patient. Faced with Stephenson's entanglement, Link used violence to defeat the violence and pushed Fenson away several times, keeping his distance from him.
Just when Link and Stephenson were entangled, Gasol Jr. had already raised the high position without realizing it. Then Link suddenly started and wanted to get outside the three-point line to catch Conley's ball. Stephenson immediately followed, but was blocked by Gasol who was raised to the high position.
Hibert did not chase Link. "Black Yao Ming" knew very well that if he followed him to the outside, he would be beaten so hard that he didn't even know him.
So, Link received the basketball and got a fleeting shot opportunity. At this time, Stephenson had not completely blocked it. If Link chose to shoot, it would be an opportunity.
But Link was not in a hurry to take action. He made a fake shooting move and tricked Stephenson into getting all the focus up, and then he slowly passed by Stephenson.
After breaking through Stephenson, Link killed the basket! Hibert? He was just pulled to the middle distance by Gasol. At his speed, he had no way to quickly return to the penalty area.
In this way, Hibert and all Pacers players could only watch Link break into the inside and then staged a one-handed dunk. Interestingly, the dunk was almost the same as Stephenson's dunk just now.
"It's just a trick, Lance, I can do it anytime!" After Link dunked, he did not run all over the field as exaggeratedly as Stephenson, but instead squirted a trash talk at Stephenson.
Although Stephenson said nothing, his gritted teeth completely revealed his anger.
Larry Bird, sitting in the luxurious box, didn't know what Link and Stephenson said, but he was sure that it was definitely not a good thing.
Bird began to worry. Stephenson was a time bomb. Once ignited, he was likely to "kill" his team.
"Lance, don't pay attention to him. We are still ahead, fight slowly!" David West saw Link's trick, so he reminded Stephenson to tell him not to be fooled.
Stephenson nodded, but he didn't know what he thought in his heart.
The Pacers attacked again, and Link thought that the Pacers were a weakened version of the Grizzlies, which was really unreasonable.
Although their offense is a team offense, their tactical execution ability is not as superb as the Grizzlies. First of all, George Hill is not a point guard who takes organization as his mission, and he was not when the Spurs were.
Although in San Antonio, people like to call him Parker's successor. Hill had 43 games in the 2009-10 season, and it seems that Popovich has a plan to let him take over Parker's mantle. But in fact, Hill and Parker are not the same players at all.
With the Spurs, Hill has not had any season of assists per game of more than 3. However, his average score per game has been double-digit for two consecutive seasons.
When he first arrived in Indianapolis, Vogel asked Hill to organize the attack, but Hill replied, "I'm better at scoring. Can I play No. 2?"
"Try whatever you want." This is Vogel's reply to him.
So, Hill, who was out of Popovich's control, completely let himself go this season. He averaged 11.5 shots per game, with the most career. He averaged 14.2 points per game, which is also a career high.
It seems that there is nothing wrong with having such excellent attack power, but this is exactly the problem that the Pacers' offensive efficiency has not improved.
Without a good point guard, no matter how good the system is, the players cannot execute it. People always say that Link has a strong ability to execute tactics, but Link is very clear that without Conley, he would not be able to execute those tactics alone.
This time the Grizzlies strengthened their defense, and Hill's shortcomings of insufficient organizational ability were immediately exposed. The Pacers' passing was like constipation and could not play smoothly.
In the end, the basketball was handed over to Stephenson. In Vogel's system, Stephenson is actually the point guard!
Don't doubt that although Stephenson is a player who is occasionally funny, he does have the talent to organize offense. As long as he has a clear mind, he can barely sort out the Pacers' offense.
The premise is that he needs to keep his thinking clear. This is why Link keeps stimulating him!
If even Stephenson starts to get his brain, the Pacers' offense will basically be able to rely on singles.
"Come on, aren't you going to make me burn? But I feel like I'm about to catch a cold. Let my body heat up. Don't you want to break through and finish my dunk?" Link hooked his finger at Stephenson, but Stephenson ignored it.
Finson finally sent the ball to Hill, but Hill's close jump shot missed under Gasol's interference. The Grizzlies' defense instantly made the Pacers' offense difficult.
"Don't you have any courage? Since that's the case, I'll get points on your head!" Link quickly ran towards the frontcourt, and Stephenson didn't dare to leave at all.
Stephenson felt that the Grizzlies didn't seem to have fought seriously at all in the first few rounds. Once the Grizzlies became serious, the Pacers seemed to be completely unable to withstand it.
After Conley slowly passed the half, he hung the ball to Gasol Jr. Gasol faced "Black Yao Ming" with his back, but was not in a hurry to advance, but waited for Link to run. After Link threw away Stephenson and ran to the free throw line, Gasol sent the ball to Link.
Frank Vogel off the court was a little envious. The Grizzlies' passing was indeed too smooth.
Flexible transmission of the ball often allows players to get better opportunities. Link was vacant again, and Stephenson was one step away from Link at this time.
But like just now, Link did not rush to shoot, but waited for Stephenson to come and then started to make moves.
Link raised the basketball with one hand and made a pass in. Stephenson immediately turned around, thinking that Link had returned the ball to Gasol.
But after turning his head, Stephenson found that Gasol and Hibert were staring at him with a fool's eyes.
"I Cao!" Stephenson suddenly realized and quickly turned around. But it was too late. At this time, Link had already made a jump shot from the free throw line, and he was completely fooled by the one-handed fake pass!
And this kind of shooting without anyone being interfered with is a sure win for Link!
Stephenson straightened his arm in despair, but still could not stop the ending of the basketball passing through the net.
"Hahaha, one-handed fake pass, this ball reminds me of Michael Jordan! Stephenson was completely fooled. His defense, which he claimed to be indestructible, became extremely funny in front of Link. Link scored continuously on Stephenson's head, and the Pacers' small advantage had disappeared."
After scoring the goal, Link did not make any exaggerated celebrations, but continued to "talk" with Stephenson. The reason why he could shoot twice in a row, he deliberately waited for Stephenson to come up was to maximize the time bomb.
"Try it, maybe you can keep my hit rate from 100%.
Under the nose of Bird, the "First Ancestor of the Force King", another powerful man was torturing the nerves of Pacers players.
Chapter completed!