Chapter 596

The Pacers extended their lead in the second quarter.

The second lineup composed of Waiters, Rudez, Copeland and others ushered in a big explosion in the transitional period between the first and second quarters.

The Grizzlies once again fell into an offensive slump, and the Pacers beat the Grizzlies to an 18:5 offensive climax, opening the point difference in one fell swoop.

After the Grizzlies suspended, Li Liang reappeared and led the Pacers to continue to expand their advantage.

Young players such as Waiters and Lu Dairi performed bravely, and Li Liang was also willing to pass the ball.

The wild passing style he developed during the Clippers period allowed the Pacers to play a beautiful fast counterattack.

In the first quarter, the Pacers were still defending the basketball in the positional battles of the previous seasons, but they started to become manic after playing.

As long as Li Liang gets the rebound in the backcourt, he will quickly counterattack and yell "Run!" at the audience.

Then the Pacers' young players were driven forward like Forrest Gump. Once the opportunity came up, Li Liang passed the ball without hesitation.

It's just that Li Liang's long pass is not well practiced enough, and he always makes mistakes.

After the Grizzlies stabilized their position, they took advantage of Li Liang's mistakes to fight back a few times, recovering some points.

At the end of the first half, the two sides scored 57:47, and the Pacers still led the Grizzlies by 10 points.

At the beginning of the third quarter, the Grizzlies finally started to fight back.

Conley scored consecutively from the outside, taking advantage of the weakness of George Hill's absence, Conley kept hitting Sloan with his personal ability.

Both Randolph and Gasol pulled away, especially Randolph, who gave up his plan to fight Li Liang, and tried to mobilize Li Liang as much as possible to give the defender a chance to attack.

The Pacers lacked Hill and George at the back line, Li Liang was sent to the power forward position, and the Pacers' defense line collapsed.

Things got worse in the middle of the third quarter.

Hibbert was hit by Gasol Jr. in a row. He had already fouled twice in the first half. In the middle of the third quarter, he got two fouls in a row and had to rest for four fouls.

Hibbert's performance against the black and white bears today was poor.

In the first half, apart from eating a piece of cake from Li Liang, they didn't score any points.

At the beginning of the game, I was counting on him to open up an embarrassing situation in the offense, but it turned out to be useless against Gasol Jr.

On the defensive end, he is still useful and plays a good role in protecting the basket.

But last season's newly formulated defensive rules made Hibbert very uncomfortable. The result was old fouls, and then faced with breakthroughs, he no longer dared to confront as in the past.

In the last game against the 76ers, Noel could be bullied on the offensive end, but the 76ers on the defensive end are really nobody.

At this scene, Hibbert's performance was greatly reduced in the face of the Grizzlies with balanced strength.

After Hibbert left the field, because Mahinmi was traded to the Cavaliers, the Pacers did not have a good backup center inside.

In this case, Bird has no choice but to replace Rudez and let this young guy play center.

Ludez is 2.08 meters tall, a former Southerner, now in Croatia, and is a typical European insider.

Like many European insiders, he plays smart, has a relatively thick body, has outside shooting ability, can pass the ball, and so on.

But there are also white players who are often criticized for one of their biggest weaknesses, which is "softness".

When he is on the bench, he eats cakes on the offensive end and makes air cuts, and he can still score points.

But let him be the main center with Gasol Jr. and Randolph tough, that would be difficult for him.

After Rudez came on the court, a big problem was that he could not protect the backcourt rebounds well.

Then Gasol was singled out consecutively, allowing the Grizzlies to chase points all the way, and in the second half of the third quarter, they chased the point difference to only 1 point.

At 75:74, the Pacers led by only 1 point, and Bird called a timeout.

Mike Brown was restless sitting on the bench. He kept reminding Bird, "Let Bruce play center, let Bruce play."

Brown really wants Li Liang to play center forward.

In the summer training camp, Brown made this suggestion to Bird and gave him a new offensive system with Li Liang as the core.

Bird made several training attempts and felt the effect was good, but never implemented it.

Because Li Liang is still quite resistant to playing inside.

Brown thinks today is a good opportunity to try this lineup.

But Bird was unmoved, and had no intention of letting Li Liang go to the fifth position.

During the timeout, he just said a few words, asked to strengthen the defense, reminded Li Liang to strengthen rebounding, and said nothing else.

Then after playing, Li Liang broke through the basket and hit a jumper.

But immediately Conley hit a three-pointer in the counterattack, and the score between the two sides was equalized.

After that, Li Liang tried to make a three-pointer and missed.

The Grizzlies took the backcourt rebounds and played offensively.

Gasol took Lu Dairi in a low position, and Li Liang came to assist in the visit to block the shot, which interfered with Gasol's hook.

No hits.

But Randolph stepped in from the wing, grabbed an offensive rebound, and made a tip-in.

The Grizzlies overtook it!

Li Liang was on fire now, and the sprayer was fully fired.

"You sons of bitches, none of you can grab rebounds! Block! Block! Have you lost your ass!"

The blowing of the hair dryer, even in the noisy scene, can make the players on the field feel the warmth of spring.

The Pacers were obviously a little confused by the high confrontation of the Grizzlies in the third quarter.

Sloan and Stephenson didn't know that they were stuck in the backcourt rebounds, no wonder they were yelled at.

Lu Dairi was a little downcast when he was scolded.

In fact, in terms of age, Lu Dairi was born in 1986 and is 28 years old this year. He was born in the 2008 draft.

But in the NBA, seniority depends on strength, voice and appearance.

Li Liang thinks that after combining the three, he has the highest score, so he has the highest qualifications.

Just when Li Liang was angry, Bird replaced Li Liang after an out-of-bounds ball.

After replacing Li Liang, Bird asked Li Liang to sit on the sidelines and watch as the Pacers were overtaken in points and the inside defense was full of holes.

At the end, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Li Liang couldn't bear it anymore, and said to Bird: "Coach, I want to play center forward."

Bird spread his hands and said, "You are not suitable."

"How about you go up?"

"If I could, I would have done it a long time ago. Do you think I haven't done it?"

Byrd actually did.

It was in the finals between the Celtics and the Rockets in 1981. When Moses Malone was crazily snatching offensive rebounds in the interior, Bird stepped forward to fight Malone in the interior and grab the backcourt rebounds.

So although he had a black history of 8 points in that finals, in 1981 he averaged 15 rebounds per game, and grabbed 21 rebounds in both the first and second games!

This kind of rebounding ability is definitely at the super center level.

When Bird entered the NBA, he started playing at the 4th position, and sometimes he would go to the 5th position.

After listening to Brown's opinion, he knew that the idea of ​​combining Li Liang's internal and external forces to play the fifth position is likely to be groundbreaking.

But he didn't want to use force, and he couldn't force a superstar to do something he didn't like to do.

He wants Li Liang to play the center forward and the fifth position by himself, and to develop and understand the new system by himself.

Sit up and move yourself!

This is where Larry Bird is better than Mike Brown, the nanny.

After looking at each other for two seconds, Bird said: "Okay, then I hope to win this game, and win beautifully."

Li Liang nodded and said, "I'm pretty, so if I win, I must be pretty."

Bird smiled, bragging about not drafting, and a little narcissistic.

But I like it.

Because like me.