Chapter 666 First Appearance

On February 23, the Pacers returned to the home court, Kevin Garnett made his debut in the team, and the opponent was the Golden State Warriors.

The Warriors are still indomitable in the league, but before and after the All-Star Game, they lost a little bit more.

However, this does not affect the Warriors firmly occupying the first position in the league.

The games they won were still easy, with big victories of around 20 points.

Their system is unique in the league, and many people have never expected that basketball can be played like this.

With the entire NBA tactics tending to "unlimited pick-and-rolls", Cole raised the banner of passing and cutting.

This tactical play made many teams uncomfortable. Coupled with the Warriors' perverted three-point accuracy from the outside, many teams surrendered early.

At present, there is no one in the West who can wrestle with the Warriors, while the Cavaliers and Pacers are left in the East.

Among them, when the Pacers traded for Kevin Garnett, people's expectations for the Pacers further increased.

But Bird knew that if the team pinned their hopes on a 39-year-old veteran, even if he was Garnett, it would be unrealistic.

Of course, the significance of Garnett's arrival is still very significant. He not only filled the vacancy in the team's interior, but also made more changes to the team's starting lineup.

Li Liang can now return to the starting small forward position and let Garnett play the starting power forward.

However, it is not necessary for the matchup. Li Liang still appeared as the starting No. 4. The person he has to deal with is Draymond Green.

As night fell in Indianapolis, the Conseco Arena was undoubtedly full tonight.

The addition of Garnett has increased the ticket price of the Pacers game a lot.

Tonight's pre-game ceremony was particularly grand, and a short promotional video shot after Garnett came to the Pacers was played on the big screen at the scene.

Garnett is indeed very popular, and this is also a respect for a veteran who is about to retire.

Everyone knows that Garnett will only stay with the Pacers for half a season, but their goal is the championship, so everyone is united and doesn't care what happens next.

After all, Li Liang probably won't stay in the Pacers for long, so whoever he is.

Now that the season is just over halfway, fans from all over the world have begun to "recruit" Li Liang.

For example, when I went to Philadelphia the day before yesterday, some local fans put up signs, hoping that Li Liang would come to the 76ers next season.

Li Liang's style of changing places with one shot gave hope to fans everywhere.

However, Li Liang's style is still very badass, like some teams that are destined to fail for many years, he doesn't want to go at all.

To go is to go to a team with a strong foundation or a reliable management team.

Therefore, each team still has to take a mirror to look at themselves. If it is too bad, black technology can't save it.

Tonight's game between the Pacers and the Warriors should be said to have attracted a lot of attention.

However, it is a pity that Curry missed the game because of a sore ankle.

Curry has been suffering from serious injury problems in the past few seasons and missed many games, which also led him to sign a very cheap contract.

As a result, Curry has exploded this season, and so far there have been no major injuries.

Once there is a small problem, the team immediately asks Curry to rest, and the small injury is recuperated to prevent the problem.

And the opponent is the Pacers, if they can't beat them, there must be a reason why they can't beat them.

The Pacers' starting lineup has not changed, McGee is still the starting center, and Li Liang starts at the fourth position.

For the Warriors, Livingston replaced Curry in the starting lineup, and the Warriors' starting center has stabilized as Big Mouth Bogut.

Without Curry, the Warriors' three-point pressure from the outside fell on Thompson.

In the opening game, the Warriors succeeded in jumping the ball, and Livingston succeeded in a mid-range jumper after a pick-and-roll and scored the first point.

Without Curry, the entire Warriors' tactical system has changed.

The pass-and-cut tactic needs enough space and requires Curry to use his attractiveness to create opportunities for his teammates.

One of the important reasons why traditional academic tactics such as passing and cutting are gradually abandoned in the NBA is that the court is "getting smaller and smaller."

The so-called getting smaller does not mean that the field is getting smaller, but that the players are getting bigger and bigger, their speed is getting faster, their explosive power is getting stronger, their confrontation is getting more intense, and their attack time is getting shorter and shorter. .

In early professional basketball and NCAA college basketball, players can also get opportunities through full running, spooling, cutting, and running back.

Because the physical fitness of the players is generally average, and the offensive time of the university is more abundant, there is a lot of room for tactics.

In today's NBA, maybe you run for half a day, pass it over and cut it, it is not as effective as two players with a pick-and-roll opportunity to throw it directly, because your running position is under the pressure of high-intensity defense, and it is difficult to run out of open space. of.

The Warriors subverted this because of the existence of Curry and Thompson.

Now without Curry, the Warriors' passing and cutting have collapsed, and they basically can't fight.

After Livingston hit the mid-range in the opening game, Li Liang picked up Hill's pass in the middle, went down, and rushed to the basket against Green, causing Green's foul.

Green raised his hand helplessly.

Damn, Bruce Lee is targeting me.

This game has just started, and a foul is on the head, who can bear it?

Li Liang doesn't care, he knows that to deal with people like Green, he must be suppressed from the very beginning, give him some flair, let him know that this is Lao Tzu's territory, don't open your mouth to me Beep show your biceps, show your head off.

Two free throws were made, and the Pacers quickly opened.

The Warriors feel like another team without Curry, and their tactical style suddenly becomes particularly "popular".

They tried to move the ball quickly and "hit the wall" in the offensive position, but they made mistakes under the Pacers' dense defense.

With no room to pull, every extra pass increases the risk of a turnover.

This is also where basketball has developed to a certain extent and is different from the past. Passing more balls is not necessarily a good thing.

After that, the Warriors reduced the past multi-pass offense and replaced it with simpler small coordination.

Carry out tactical operations around Klay Thompson, and make full use of Thompson's shooting at this point.

Thompson quickly scored 4 points in a row, while the Pacers played steadily, and every player gave a chance to play at the beginning.

Li Liang played, Hill played, JR-Smith and Granger also tried to attack with the ball.

Bird's offensive tactical system is estimated to be comparable to that of Avery Johnson, taking turns in singles tactics.

However, if your players have this ability, taking turns is a very efficient means of scoring.

Not only is it efficient, but it also saves effort. You can put more physical energy into defense when you play and look around.

The reason why O'Neal is so good is because when he is attacking, the ball is given to him, and others can watch, so that everyone will have more energy, and of course it will be easier to win the game.

The two sides soon reached an 8:8 tie.

At this point, the Pacers' offense began to have some problems.

The result of everyone taking turns to attack with the ball is that the players with good touch were not continued, and those with bad touch also came out to try, and the result was even worse...

This is a stubborn problem that the Pacers have not solved until now this season, that is, the offensive end will misfire from time to time.

Especially when the outside line suddenly started to hit the iron, JR-Smith and Finsen felt as if they were contagious.

One iron, each iron.

The point is that their goodness is not contagious, for example, they never infect some good shooting touch from Li Liang.

If you want to infect him, you will infect poor ones. If you don't enter, I won't enter.

In contrast, the Warriors took advantage of the Pacers' offensive misfiring and consecutive misses in outside shots, and continued to launch quick counterattacks.

Klay Thompson shot directly after catching the ball in the counterattack, and he was merciless in three-pointers and mid-range shots.

He scored 13 points alone in the first half of the first quarter, helping the Warriors turn the score into 24:12, leading the Pacers by as much as 12 points.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Bird immediately called a timeout, and then adjusted the lineup.

He replaced McGee with Kevin Garnett.

The Wolf King ushered in his first appearance in the Pacers.