Don't talk trash to him.

Chapter 178 Eastern Conference Finals, here we go again!

At the beginning of the second half, Arenas showed his firepower after drinking the "chicken soup", and he successfully hit three consecutive shots against Artest. This made Artest anxious, his eyes turned red.

Su Wan almost couldn't help but wanted to remind Arenas to pay attention to his ribs.

Fortunately, Arenas is not a person who is used to talking trash.

In other words, he used to like to talk trash, but last year after he talked trash to Wade, Larry Hughes said to him during the intermission, "If you talk trash again, you'll have to defend yourself." After that, he became much more honest.

Seeing Artest almost going crazy, Arenas didn't dare to say "trash talk". He even wanted to comfort Artest: "It's not that serious, is it? Man, you defended me so badly in the first half, and I only scored three goals..."

Arenas stopped talking. Even he himself was not sure whether what he said just now was a consolation or...

ridicule?

Anyway, the effect was not what he wanted. Artest completely transformed into an "angry bull" and he became the red in Artest's eyes.

All kinds of intense confrontations also stimulated Arenas' competitive spirit.

However, as a "core player with the ball", facing this high-pressure approach consumes a lot of his physical energy.

After the third quarter, he was gasping for breath. He was not sure whether he was playing basketball or boxing.

Various physical collisions basically never stopped.

Arenas felt hot all over. Based on his past experience, he estimated that after the game, he would turn into a "purple man".

Is this Artest's confrontation?
Arenas had always been competing against Suwan before, but this was the first time he faced Artest's defense for a long time, and Artest was at his "anger level max".

Yesterday he read in the news that LeBron thought that this season's "Best Defensive Player Award" should go to Artest. He didn't feel anything at the time, but now he thinks LeBron is right.

The sense of oppression and suffocation he brings to the game cannot be brought by other defensive players.

This brings us to Su Wan.

Originally, Artest didn't play a game for a year after being suspended. But this time, he didn't play during the suspension, but he didn't stop fighting with Suwan.

As Suwan continues to improve, he also maintains his one-on-one defense very well.

After announcing that he would compete for the "Defensive Player of the Season Award" again this season, he focused even more on the defensive end.

The only change in him now compared to two years ago is that he has become stronger.

This may make him even worse at defending those outside shooters. After all, with his size, running for a long time continuously consumes more energy than ordinary people. But defending Arenas is absolutely handy.

After Arenas made three shots at the beginning of the third quarter, his shooting percentage quickly dropped to 8 of 2.

The Wizards were once again left behind by more than double digits during this period.

In the fourth quarter, Arenas changed his playing style. Facing the close entanglement of the "Beast", he began to look for the positions of his teammates more. Caron Butler and Jamison took on more finishing responsibilities during this period.

But Jamison soon revealed the reason why he was abandoned by the Warriors despite his gorgeous personal data:
Once he is targeted by the opponent's defense, his scoring efficiency will plummet.

O'Neal's speed of movement near the three-point line is a little slower than his. But there is no problem in moving sideways to interfere with his movement after a little distance. At the same time, Suwan will also help to defend. This brings us to Jamison's biggest problem - he does not have a good passing ability!
A scorer may not have a good vision, but he must have the ability to pass the ball. Otherwise, it will be difficult to handle the ball if he is double-teamed by the opponent.

For example, in these few rounds, Jamison's consecutive attacks failed, causing the Wizards to lose their last resistance.

108 to 93, the Pacers defeated the Wizards by 15 points and won their first game in the semifinals with almost no setbacks.

The overall score is 1 to 0.
Artest immediately rushed to the assistant coach and took the statistics of the game from him. Suwan and O'Neal also came over. The three of them covered the "number of hits/total number of shots" of the three opponents like scratching lottery tickets, slowly moving them away and looking at the numbers one by one.

阿里纳斯24投10中，命中率41.7%，拿到了25分5篮板6助攻；

卡隆-巴特勒15投6中，命中率40%，拿到了14分4篮板；

贾米森18投7中，命中率38.9%，拿到了17分8篮板；

Judging from the shooting percentage, it should be Artest who treats us to a meal.

But the three of them added up the opponent's scores and found out...

56 points!
Just one point more than the "55 points" Rick Carlisle said.

"I rely on!"

"Gan!"

Suwan and O'Neal Jr. cursed almost at the same time.

As for Artest, he also shouted, but a smile of relief immediately appeared on his face.

Foster and Dio were standing next to them. When they heard that none of the three brothers had escaped, they immediately called Tinsley and the others over. This meant that tomorrow's lunch would be a big meal, so they had to discuss it carefully.

Looking at their lively appearance, Su Wan and O'Neal Jr. looked at each other and rolled their eyes at Artest.

"Defensive player of the season? Haha..."

"To be honest, it's just that Gary Payton and the others are old, otherwise it wouldn't be his turn!"

"Exactly, my eyes were red, and I let Gilbert score 25 points."

"How about I guard him the day after tomorrow, or I'll have to accompany him to the next meal."

"I think you're right, Sue. You should have come. I think he thought he was going to lose, so he let Gilbert get two more points on purpose."

"Yeah, he's a bad person!"

"It's definitely not possible!"...

Artest, who was standing next to them and listening to the two people arguing in front of each other, wanted to open his mouth several times, but the words that hurt his heart made him open his mouth for a long time without saying anything.

Damn, it's all Gilbert's fault!
Artest simply blamed all the mistakes on Arenas.

The next game is waiting, I will skin you alive!

After the game, Suwan was interviewed, and at this time the reporters already knew about their bet with Rick Carlisle.

"Why did such a bet come about?"

"Maybe Rick Carlisle needs to give us some extra motivation. You know, the first round of the playoffs is over, and the next round is a completely different level of competition. We need to be more positive."

"So how many games do you think the Pacers can beat the Wizards in?"

"Of course I hope it will be as soon as possible, preferably within 4 games. I don't want it to drag on until after 5 games."

……

Suwan's two answers, the first answer made Cleveland very angry, and the second answer made Washington people very angry.

Eddie Jordan took the opportunity to use Suwan's answer to encourage the Wizards: "See? Suwan doesn't take you seriously at all. He thinks he can sweep you. He doesn't even think there will be a sixth game in this series. This is a naked humiliation. Now it's time for you to respond. Prove him wrong, kids!"

However, if we really want to talk about the matter of "chicken blood", is there anything more motivating than bleeding your wallet?
These Foster guys are really ruthless!
The meal cost nearly three thousand dollars.

Artest cursed: "Jeff, if you don't grab 15 rebounds in the next game, I'll beat you until you vomit everything you ate!"

Foster was stuffing a serving of Australian lobster into his mouth. As he ate, he said, "I should be worried about you three. If those three guys from Washington score more than 55 points again, that will just fill my stomach so I can keep eating!"

With just these words, how could Su Wan and the other three not push themselves to their full potential?

And after reviewing the first game, they also found that although Washington has "Three Musketeers", they still play the "ball-holding core" style of play. As long as they can limit Arenas, they can limit the presence of the other two on the offensive end.

Their play style was originally very simple, Arenas held the ball and organized the play, either by himself or by passing the ball. Caron Butler and Jamison were mainly responsible for grasping the ball he passed and helping to open up space.

To put it bluntly, it can be regarded as a variation of "one star with four shooting stars".

It’s just that Arenas can shoot and break through, so his requirements for space are not that extreme.

Therefore, Eddie Jordan's inside line is equipped with "blue-collar players" who are specialized in protecting the rim and "eating cakes", and they do not have the ability to open up space. As long as Arenas' passes are cut off, the scores of these two people will also be restricted.

Since the goal is to limit the "ball-holding core" style of play, all problems become simple.

Because no matter whether it is a technical type like Kobe who specializes in scoring, or a "reckless" type like LeBron who specializes in using his body and pick-and-roll screens to break through and pass the ball, they can limit them very well.

Arenas is a combination of the two styles, but he has his problems. He is 1 meters tall and weighs 93 kg. Facing other number one players, he basically has no disadvantage. But facing a forward like Artest, if he can't open up the distance at the beginning, he will be defeated in the confrontation.

Especially after the last game, Artest is now more experienced.

In addition, there is Suwan and O'Neal's backup and assist defense.

In the second game of the series, Arenas only shot 19 of 7. Including free throws, he only scored 19 points in this game.

This is the first time he has scored less than 20 points in a single game since this year's playoffs.

It's okay that he didn't score well, but he was intercepted a lot and didn't organize the game well. Arenas is an emotional player. Once he gets angry, he will force the shot without seeing the opponent, eh? This seems to be talking about the snake in Los Angeles. Well, although "paranoid" and "hot-headed" are two completely different personalities, their performances on the court are exactly the same at times, both are "self-centered"!
This resulted in a significant decline in Jamison and Caron Butler's presence on the offensive end, as the Pacers had expected.

Especially Caron Butler, who only scored 11 points in this game and shot 11 of 3.

Jamison does have his own ability to attack for a long time, but his problem of not having the means to pass the ball has been noticed by Rick Carlisle. In this game, whenever he has the ball, the Pacers will form a "pseudo double-team" defensive formation to create a sense of pressure on him when holding the ball.

As a result, without Arenas' passing help, he only scored 15 points and shot 16 of 6.

The "Three Musketeers" became the "Three Dumb Gunmen" tonight, and the Pacers successfully won the second game with 91 to 76.

Bill Walton looked at the final score and said, "This is a Pistons-style victory. Obviously, the Pacers wanted to win with defense from the beginning of this game, and the final result also proved that they have such ability!"

After watching the game, Kenny Smith expressed a view that he had felt for a long time but became more certain after this game: "The Pacers are very good at dealing with teams with big ball handlers. If you want to beat them, you must have two strong ball handlers to disperse their defensive strength, especially to prevent Ron, Jermaine and Sue from focusing on the same person. Currently in the league, no one can perform well against these three people."

Kobe can't do it, LeBron can't do it, and now Arenas, who averaged 35.5 points per game in the first round of the playoffs, has also proved that he can't do it either!
O'Neal Jr. became the one who treated the guests after the game. Artest won in a thrilling way. Jamison's 37.5% shooting percentage in the second game was only 36.8% higher than Arenas' 0.7% shooting percentage!

It was a thrilling victory, but Artest started rapping and DJing at the same time.

But O'Neal was very angry.

Barkley was watching them having fun on the sidelines in the studio, and suddenly said, "I think there is no suspense. The Pacers will sweep the Wizards in four games."

then……

The "Three Musketeers" returned to their home court and exploded together, scoring a total of 77 points and winning the game at home.

——Charles, please shut up!

After the third game, Suwan publicly called out Barkley on Facebook, asking him to stop giving "poisonous milk".

However, the Wizards' "Three Musketeers" were able to perform well mainly because of their touch. But it's impossible to have such a hot touch every day, so even if they won a game at home, they couldn't hold on in the next home game and lost by 24 points. In the fifth game of the series, the Pacers, who returned to their home court, did not waste the match point, and easily defeated the Wizards by 5 points, 108 to 94, eliminating their second opponent since the playoffs with a score of 14-4.

"The Voice of the Pacers" Bobby Leonard excitedly shouted: "Eastern Finals, here we come again!"

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(End of this chapter)