Chapter 872 [Free Air, Innocent People Lying at Gunpoint]

O'Neal helped the Pacers defeat the Celtics. He was in a good mood and chatted with Guo Xu on the phone for more than half an hour. Of course, he was not talking about his feelings about winning, but about the movie he was going to make in the summer.

This guy's mind is no longer on the basketball court, so being promoted was a complete surprise.

The Pacers' lineup is not strong, and O'Neal has already begun to decline. In the regular season, he averaged 30 minutes per game, scoring 17.4 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 1.7 assists, and shooting 60.3% from the field. Physical strength is a weakness and he cannot compete for long periods of time.

The team's leading scorer is Caron Butler, averaging 20.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, and shooting 45.6% from the field.

The team's third scoring point is Jared Jack, a combo guard who played with the Spurs. Unlike the point guard, who averages 13 points and 4 assists per game, the others are ordinary role players who focus on defense.

Wings Jarvis Hayes, Marquis Daniels, and Maurice Evans are not very strong players. They can only make do with catching, shooting, and defense. There is Kenyon Dulin as a substitute at the No. 1 position. Run the offense and shoot the 3-pointer.

But the Pacers won because their lineup restrained the Celtics and defended the penalty area very well.

The Celtics are a slow-paced team, and they became even slower after Garnett was retired for the season. The "big baby" Glen Davis who entered the starting lineup is a fat man with a height of 206cm and a weight of 131 kilograms. Kendrick Perkins is a fat man with a height of 208cm and a weight of 122 kilograms.

In a duel between three fat guys, they can all resist each other. O'Neal is experienced in offensive end and can play pick-and-rolls and attack in the low post. Perkins can't do anything if he can't get into the penalty area. Davis's offensive performance is slightly better. He has a mid-range shot that is not very accurate. He can pull out the pick-and-roll, but cannot beat O'Neal in the low post.

The Pacers are not the only ones who can resist O'Neal. The backup center Roy Hibbert is a high center who is 218cm tall and weighs 122kg. When defending near the penalty area, he can interfere with shooting by relying on his height and wingspan.

The Pacers are weaker at the 4th position, Jeff Foster and Cardinal, who is not tall and can shoot three-pointers.

The Celtics mainly rely on Pierce and Ray Allen to score. It's really a trap to have two teammates in the starting lineup who can let go at will.

The two teams slowly bucked the trend and fought for position. They played very anxiously in every game, and the score difference only exceeded 10 points in one game.

In the tiebreaker, Ray Allen felt terrible. He made 2 of 11 shots, 0 of 7 three-pointers, 1 of 1 free throws, and only had 5 points, 7 rebounds and 1 assist. This is not the first time that Ray Allen has performed abnormally in a key game. His performance in the tiebreaker in last year's playoffs was also poor.

The abnormality of the team's internal and external stars caused the Green Army to be completely unable to break the zone defense.

They only scored 75 points. Although they defended well, the Pacers only scored 80 points, but they reached the second round with a 5-point advantage.

What's funny is that after the game, a group of "Rondo brags" appeared, saying that he was a star point guard and was seriously underestimated. Because he averaged 16.7 points, 10 rebounds and 9.7 assists in the seven games of the series, he almost had a triple-double.

However, this is the points he scored while averaging 15.9 shots per game, shooting 41% from the field, 25% from three-point range, and 65.7% from the free throw line. The free air completed the defensive task very well in this series and interfered with Rondo's shooting.

There are also ball blind people who say that Rondo is a pure point guard and a traditional point guard that is about to become extinct in the league. So the question is, which era in the NBA has the tradition that players are put two meters away from each other and make various shots?

O'Neal and Butler played well, and the Lakers' Ellis and Bogut played well. As a result, one person was innocently accused on the Internet, and that was Kobe.

Many fans on the Internet said that he wasted his teammates, which was unfair. In fact, his teammates were never wasted, but he just didn't have as much ball rights when he was teammates with Kobe. Isn't it natural for the coach to give the boss unlimited power?

On May 4th, the first game of the Suns VS Lakers began.

The atmosphere in the pre-match interview was harmonious, with both sides exchanging compliments. Guo Xu praised Joe Johnson, Ellis, and Bogut, while the entire Lakers team praised the strength of the Suns' Big Three. This is not a tense series, more like a friendly match.

Because the Lakers know that they are at a disadvantage and it is almost impossible to eliminate the Suns and advance. The entire team is self-aware and has placed themselves in the position of challenger.

Guo Xu was teammates with Joe Johnson, and he also chatted with Bogut during the celebrity weekend. The two even went to Guo Xu's concert together. In addition, Guo Xu praised Ellis. Now that Ellis is playing at a high level, he has no reason to be less optimistic.

"Zen Master" Jackson changed the starting lineup, Ellis, Joe Johnson, Artest, Odom, Bogut.

This arrangement is because everyone knows that Fisher can't guard Guo Xu. It is easy for Guo Xu to beat him and he can break through with a change of direction with speed during the counterattack. Once the Lakers come up, they must double-team Guo Xu tightly from outside the three-point line. Being extremely passive.

In this life, Fisher is just an ordinary role player. Without that 0.4-second buzzer-beater, fans can't say he has a big heart, and no one calls him a perfect championship puzzle piece.

Someone really said this in the past life, and the reason is that without O'Neal, Kobe has two championships, without Gasol, Kobe has three championships, and without Fisher, Kobe has zero championships.

He is a heavy guard who moves slowly laterally, and is often beaten by speedy guards. He can be a starter because he has a three-point shot and is familiar with the Lakers' triangle offensive system. He is not strong.

The Suns' starting five: Guo Xu, Moreau, Roy, Stoudemire, Gasol.

The regular season game against the Lakers and Suns did not start with small ball tactics. Gasol has started 18 games in the regular season. This is the first time in the playoffs. His defensive effect against Bogut is very good, he can clear the penalty area on the offensive end, and his screening effect is better than Millsap.

With the help of Haslem, Gasol controlled his diet and performed some high-intensity training, and the weight loss effect was very significant. He lost a full 30 pounds in half a year and now weighed 120 kilograms.

In terms of diet, Gasol eliminated high-calorie foods and even began to drink less soda.

His muscle lines are still not obvious, and his movement speed is the slowest among the Suns, but he is much better than when he first came here, at least he doesn't look like a fat man anymore.

Gasol also cut off his long hair. With his sleek crew cut and a deliberately grown beard, he immediately looked much more mature and masculine, which was even better than plastic surgery.

He made rapid progress because there were too many supermen on the Suns team, which stimulated him a lot, and he didn't want to be the worst one.

Needless to say, there are four dunk champions. Jordan, Gortat, and Millsap also often dunk during training. In such an environment, if he does not lose weight, he will appear out of tune with the group.

After the game started, Guo Xu did not hold the ball to challenge Ellis. Instead, he passed the ball to Roy to challenge Artest. He and Morrow relied on the inside players' off-ball cover movements on both sides and the bottom line to look for offensive opportunities. .

This attack was aimed at the Lakers' lineup. Artest was mainly defending Roy, and Joe Johnson had to follow Morrow. Even if he defended Morrow, he would consume a lot of energy on the defensive end.

On the offensive end, Joe Johnson is the core. It doesn't matter if Morrow is beaten by him. His teammates can come back in other positions, but the energy consumed by Joe Johnson cannot be made up. Once his scoring efficiency decreases, the Lakers will be very passive, and the offensive ability of Battier on the bench will be one level worse.

During the regular season, the Suns used this strategy twice, and team basketball made the Lakers feel helpless. It's also difficult for Ellis to break through the Suns' defense in the starting lineup. They have a zone defense system with four people protecting the penalty area.

The Suns can slowly grind out the position with the Lakers, and when it's time to break fast, they will break fast...