Don't talk trash to him.

Chapter 115 Su, I can only rely on you from now on!

From a tactical point of view, Suwan's performance was pretty good, but in his opinion, the protagonist tonight was undoubtedly O'Neal: "Jermaine was the biggest contributor to our victory. He scored 31 points and 11 rebounds. If anyone still has doubts about Jermaine O'Neal being the best power forward in the Eastern Conference, please go back and watch this game again."

When Jermaine O'Neal heard Su Wan's praise, he immediately reciprocated: "I can play so well, absolutely inseparable from Su Wan's containment on the outside. All the defensive arrangements of the Pistons tonight are aimed at him. I told myself, you should do something, man, you should do something!"

The mutual flattery of the two made the Indiana media even happier.

Even happier than the 3-1 result tonight...

3-1 is just the big score in this series.

As long as Suwan has a good relationship with O'Neal, they can play countless similar 3-1 games.

The Pacers can also have a bright future.

They don't want the Pacers' strength to be fleeting like a flash in the pan.

Even if they can't create a "three-peat" dynasty like the "OK combination"... they will be extremely happy if they win two championships in four or five years.

Indiana fans' wishes are so simple.

The Pistons' "Fab Five" sat on the bus to Boris Johnson Airport, each with their heads down. They failed to tie the score to 2-2, which made them feel ashamed to face the Detroit folks, especially the "strict father" Larry Brown.

Little did people know that Larry Brown watched the entire game. When the game was over, the score was frozen, and the Pistons were confirmed to have lost the fourth game of the series, he smiled peacefully and fell into a sweet dream.

He wasn't actually happy when the Pistons won Game 3 of the series.

Are you kidding? The team lost the first two games of the series he coached, but won the third game without him. What does this prove?
Doesn't this prove that he is useless as a head coach?
If the Pistons really tie the score at 2-2, who knows what his reputation will be like!

He is a man who cares about his reputation, otherwise he would not have agreed to Milicic's request so humbly, not made public the fact that he was beaten by him, and agreed to announce his retirement after the series.

Now that he's done with it, he hopes to leave some regrets for Detroit fans:

If Larry Brown hadn't been admitted to the hospital at that time, maybe there would have been a real turnaround!

Everyone could see that the Pistons were in chaos in the final moments of the fourth game of the series. If he had been on the court, the Pistons would definitely not have been in such a mess.

He now hopes that the Pistons will experience the same situation in Game 4, and it would be best if the chaos starts in the first half.

Lose, lose, the more miserable the loss, the better!

Apparently Larry Brown didn't understand the Pistons' "Five Commoners" as well as Rick Carlisle did. -- It was clear from the fact that he signed a big contract with the New York Knicks and went to the "Big Apple" right after his second season as Pistons coach that he only used the Pistons as a springboard.

As a "peach picker", how much commitment can you expect from him to the team?

He just wants all the players to become his puppets and do what he says.

He thought he brought the team's tenacity, but in fact, the team had this attribute three years ago, which they had honed through repeated adversities.

The fifth game of the series returns to the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit.

A "fight to the death" between life and death.

Ben Wallace asked all the assistant coaches and staff to leave, leaving only the Pistons players. He looked at Milicic coldly and said, "If you want to leave, you can." He felt that it was Milicic who destroyed everything for the Pistons and brought them to their current situation.

The former "Golden Boy" said nothing and made no movement, he just sat there.

Ben Wallace ignored him and looked at Chauncey Billups: "Okay, let's start!"

Billups nodded and stood up. "Guys, at this point in the series, let's not think about anything else. At least we should not be eliminated in the Palace of Auburn Hills. We can lose, but not tonight."

"I will first reflect on myself. In previous games, I missed many key shots. This is my problem. I will definitely correct this problem tonight and stand up at the critical moment..."

Then Ben Wallace stood up. Like Lupus, he reflected on his own problem: "I shouldn't have gotten into a fight with that Chinese rookie. We should have focused all our attention on winning."

Next, Rasheed Wallace, Hamilton, and one after another, the main players stood up, talked about their problems in the previous games, and made guarantees.

After all the main players finished speaking, the atmosphere in the locker room changed significantly.

Billups stopped talking nonsense and finally asked everyone to gather in a circle and yelled, "Let's go back to Indiana!"

"Pistons, gogogo!"

The Pistons coaching staff and staff were waiting outside, as well as reporters from major media outlets. They heard a sudden roar from the closed locker room, and then saw the locker room door open and the Pistons players walked out one by one. The difference was that at this moment, their eyes were firm and the aura they exuded made them feel familiar.

They seemed to see the 04 Pistons team come back again.

The Pacers may have a hard time tonight...

Even the media who are usually close to the Pacers were secretly worried for the Pistons players when they saw them walking out of the locker room.

In the visiting team's locker room, Rick Carlisle was also giving the Pacers some psychological support:

"This will definitely be the toughest game in the series. I hope everyone can be fully prepared."

Su Wan listened to Carlisle and waited for him to leave before saying, "Rick is right. Tonight's game will definitely be tough, but at this stage of the playoffs, every game in the future will be more difficult than tonight. But we only need to remember one thing, 9 games. We only need to win 9 more games to win the O'Brien Cup!"

"Come on, brothers, as long as we play normally, I believe we can beat the Pistons. This is what we have done three times in this series. Tonight is the fourth time!"

When they entered the Palace of Auburn Hills again, they were still greeted by security personnel on high alert and Detroit people who were hurling all kinds of insults at them.

I think the feuds of their generation will continue until these stories become part of history.

Su Wan also felt the change in Ben Wallace. In the previous few games, whenever they met, he would blow his beard and glare at each other, wishing to have a fight before the official game. This time, he just glanced at him from a distance and then threw himself into the warm-up, his whole body full of concentration.

"The Pistons' attitude can be summed up in four words: focus on the game!" Kenny Smith also saw this, but he also had a piece of inside information, "As far as I know, Su came to the arena four hours early to warm up today, but was told that the arena was under temporary maintenance and no one was allowed to enter. I don't know if this will be one of the reasons why he wants to play well tonight, but I believe that he will never let this go easily."

Barkley nodded: "That's his character!" The words of TNT's "golden partner" were soon verified. Less than two minutes into the game, Su Wan made two consecutive mid-range shots at the free throw line. While returning to defense, he found the staff member who didn't let him enter the gym and said to him: "See, this is the result of not letting me enter the gym to warm up!"

The Pistons' temporary assistant coach could only replace Prince to the opposite side of Suwan in advance, use his long arms to interfere with his shooting, and drive him out of the "free throw line hot zone."

But Su Wan called for a pick-and-roll, and the "45-degree killer" made another mid-range jump shot.

He still looked at the staff member: "You should prohibit me from adapting to the basketball rims in Detroit, if you can do it!"

It's been a long time since we last saw such a smooth shot. Thousands of miles away at the Conseco Arena, the Indiana fans watching this scene had their breasts unclogged and couldn't help but smile. Past history tells them that whenever Suwan finds his touch, the Pacers always win very smoothly.

At 6 minutes and 13 seconds in the first quarter, the Pacers took a 6-point lead thanks to Suwan's performance.

But then, the Pistons also showed their resilience. Hamilton kept hitting mid-range shots, and Ben Wallace blocked O'Neal twice in a row in the help defense. They successfully tied the score difference with 8 minutes and 23 seconds in the first quarter.

Rick Carlisle brought Reggie Miller into the game to limit Hamilton.

In the original Pistons vs. Pacers, Reggie Miller successfully restricted Hamilton in 3 games. In the remaining 3 games, the "Masked Man" performed normally in one game, and exploded in the other two games.

This time, because of Suwan's help defense, Hamilton played normally in only one of the four games he played, and the other three games were very sluggish. But tonight he seemed to have found his aim, whether facing Reggie Miller coming up from behind or Suwan's help defense, he always found the bull's eye and hit the ball steadily.

At the end of the first quarter, the Pistons took a 28-point lead with 24 to 4.

Rick Carlisle's brows were almost twisted together. He was both familiar and unfamiliar with the Pistons tonight.

Familiarity because he had seen that resilience.

The reason for the strangeness is this resilience, which is much stronger than when he left that year.

After winning the championship, the team's spirit became stronger! You can't say that this spirit was brought to them by Larry Brown, after all, he was not on the sidelines.

In the second quarter, the Pacers encountered an even worse situation, that is, the shooting point outside the three-point line was slow to open today. At 10 minutes and 25 seconds into the second quarter, Stephen Jackson made 4 of 0 shots from outside the three-point line, and Reggie Miller also made 3 of 0 shots.

The Pistons gradually tried to open up the Pacers' outside shooting from 6 minutes and 34 seconds. In the last 2 minutes, every time O'Neal Jr. got the ball, at least 3 people would quickly appear around him.

In addition to Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace, there is also Prince.

O'Neal's low-post passing ability was put to a huge test.

He is not Tim Duncan after all.

If Suwan had not attacked the basket and completed a 2+1 before the end of the first half, the Pacers would have been trailing by double digits entering the second half.

At the end of the first half, the score between the two sides was 49 to 41.
The Pistons led by 8 points.

This is the first time they have done this in this series.

Barkley commented on the Pacers' performance in the first half: "Except for Suwan, who made 12 of 6 shots and 3 of 3 free throws and scored 15 points, the Pacers had no highlights in the first half!"

Kenny Smith was more objective: "When you choose to believe in three-pointers, you have to accept that on some nights, it becomes a disaster. This is a problem that the Suns and Supersonics cannot avoid."

"We can do it. We can do it. Let's play like this. We will definitely be able to defend the Palace of Auburn Hills tonight. Brothers, there is still the second half. We now have an 8-point advantage. We just need to hold on!" Back in the locker room, Ben Wallace roared excitedly.

In the past, when the Pistons established such an advantage in the half, they were rarely overturned.

The fans at the scene were also very excited. Before the start of the second half, when the Pistons returned to the scene, their cheers became even louder.

On the side of the stands near the visiting team's players' tunnel, there were more insults and boos.

The atmosphere on the scene was extremely intense, which stimulated the Pistons players to be more proactive and formed a good virtuous circle.

In the third quarter, they continued to suppress the Pacers in terms of rhythm.

The Pacers staged several resistances during the period, but failed to launch an effective counterattack.

The key is that Stephen Jackson and Reggie Miller have yet to find their "three-point skill package".

Su Wan has been waiting for such a moment. He will immediately turn on "The zone" mode. Otherwise, the space in the interior is too small and the competition is too fierce. If he turns it on too early, he will not be able to last until the end of the last quarter.

However, the current situation is...

三节打完，斯蒂芬-杰克逊6投0中，雷吉-米勒5投0中，两个人合计在三分线外11投0中。

During the intermission, they didn't dare to look up at their teammates.

Both of them are very clear about how passive the team is now because they cannot develop an outside attack.

Su Wan could only delay it as much as possible and start "The zone" mode later.

He knew very well that the conventional play style in "The zone" mode could no longer win on a night like this, and he had to make more extreme moves to challenge the Pistons on both offense and defense.

This means that his physical energy will be consumed more.

5 minutes?

Or 6 minutes?

Su Wan wasn't sure how long he could last in this form...

At 4 minutes and 32 seconds in the fourth quarter, the score difference reached 10 points. Rick Carlisle called a timeout. He called Suwan to him and said with some helplessness and expectation:

"Su, I can only rely on you from now on!"

Second update, brothers who wake up early please give some monthly tickets.


(End of this chapter)