Legendary star

Chapter 758 Trouble
"Larry, it seems that Jermaine is not very optimistic about his recovery?" On April 2008, 4, the last game of the 16-07 regular season, Jermaine, who was reimbursed for the season after only playing one game- O'Neal finally made a successful comeback before the start of the playoffs. Maybe he just couldn't let go of his comeback. Jermaine O'Neal's performance today was very average. He only scored 08 points and 24 rebounds in 6 minutes. Therefore, Jim Morris, who sat on the sidelines with Larry Bird to observe Jermaine O'Neal's recovery, frowned and discussed Jermaine O'Neal with Larry Bird.

"This is the first game, let's take a look." Larry Bird, sitting next to Jim Morris, looked at Jermaine O'Neal, who was replaced, and frowned. The worry is that Jermaine O'Neal will leave a psychological shadow after being injured, afraid of confrontation, and timid. If an inside player cannot overcome these psychological pressures, then he is really finished.

For 7 consecutive seasons, Jermaine O'Neal has been the main power forward of the Pacers. He is the second most powerful player in the Pacers team after Meng Xu. It is still very important to the Pacers, which is why the management and Jermaine O'Neal himself hope that he can come back before the start of the playoffs.

Perhaps in the regular season, the Pacers can still rely on Meng Xu's tactics to achieve a good record, but Meng Xu is not an iron man, he also needs to rest, especially in the postseason when he can't afford to lose every game. For Sai, it is even more necessary for someone to stand up and share the pressure for him, so that Meng Xu can reasonably allocate his physical strength.

"Larry, in fact, we will play the playoffs according to the main lineup of the regular season, should it be possible?" Jim Morris is actually opposed to rashly changing the main lineup. When NN-Hilario came back, he It is not recommended to replace Kwame Brown with NN Hilario, because the inside combination composed of Kwame Brown and Darko Milicic is already very reasonable in his opinion. As for Jermaine O'Neal, if There are still more than 20 games before the end of the regular season, and he will not object to letting Jermaine O'Neal play the main force, but now that the playoffs are about to start, the Pacers simply don't have extra time to adjust and run in up.

"We still have to listen to Rick in terms of the team's personnel arrangement and scheduling. After all, he is the head coach of this team." Although Jermaine O'Neal is missing, the Pacers' 81 In the first game, the Pacers still won 62 games. As the head coach, Rick Carlisle naturally contributed a lot, and Larry Bird has always believed in Rick Carlisle's coaching ability. Therefore, although Larry Bird is now the vice chairman and president of basketball affairs of the Pacers, Larry Bird will not go off the court directly to interfere with the team's staffing.

Let alone Jim Morris and Larry Bird discussing the Pacers' staffing in the playoffs, in fact, even Rick Carlisle is a little upset about it now, in NN- Hilario and Jermaine- After O'Neal returned from injury, the Pacers' inside line became unprecedentedly bloated. Jermaine O'Neal, NN-Hilario, Darko Milicic, Kwame Brown, who should start these four players? No one is suitable as a substitute, and how to allocate their playing time is a headache for Rick Carlisle. In addition to these four players, there are also the hard-working Jeff Foster and the champion Mutom Bo.

Although Mutombo is now 42 years old, in the absence of Jermaine O'Neal and NN Hilario, Mutombo's performance is still quite impressive, averaging 15 minutes per game , can also contribute 3 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks, but after NN-Hilary returned, Mutombo's playing time was squeezed to only a few minutes left Now that he is back, Mutombo has no chance.

As for Jeff Foster, Rick Carlisle is even more guilty. This year is Jeff Foster's contract year. For any player in a contract year, more playing time is required. Getting better data and striving for a better contract is a matter of course, but Jeff Foster has never made any request to Rick Carlisle. How does the coach arrange it? How Carlisle will execute, especially after the Pacers traded Kwame Brown, Rick Carlisle was worried that Jeff Foster would be dissatisfied with losing the main position, but Jeff Foster not only has no dissatisfaction, and actively helped Kwame Brown integrate into the team. You must know that before Kwame Brown arrived, Jeff Foster had always occupied the starting position, and in less than 40 minutes of playing time, the game Both contributed 11 points and 12 rebounds, but after the Pacers traded for Kwame Brown, Jeff Foster not only lost his main position, but his playing time and average data also dropped sharply.

Celtics head coach Doc Rivers is also upset with Rick Carlisle. Rick Carlisle is upset about how to arrange the playing time of so many players, and Doug Rivers is upset about it. How to deal with the huge inside group of the Pacers in the playoffs? Although the Celtics' record of 64 wins and 18 losses has secured the first place in the regular season, they did not have any advantage against the Pacers. The Celtics lost three games in the first matchup, and the three losses were all on the inside.

Although the Celtics also have a super insider like Kevin Garnett, the Celtics can no longer produce an outstanding insider except for Garnett. Facing the Pacers with multiple insiders Doc Rivers really has nothing to do with the exhaustion and round-by-wheel battle. Once Garnett's physical strength is exhausted, the Celtics' advantage will collapse. So after the regular season, Doug Rivers is thinking about how to deal with the Pacers if they encounter the Pacers in the playoffs.

And Doug Rivers has the same mood as Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy. With the growth of Dwight Howard and several signings in the offseason, the Magic has grown from a belly last season. Leaping into the third place in the Eastern Conference, Stan Van Gundy was very satisfied with pushing the Cavaliers out of the top three at the end of the season, because this way he could avoid his nemesis the Pacers, but who would have thought that the Pacers would Lost the chain, lost two games in a row at the critical moment of competing for the top spot in the Eastern Conference, and there is no way to reach the top spot in the Eastern Conference, so the Magic had to face the Pacers ahead of schedule in the second round of the playoffs. For Stan Van Gundy in the conference finals, it was a disaster.

Dwight Howard has performed very well this season, averaging 21 points, 14.2 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game. He has been dubbed the number one center by many media. With Rashad- Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Jameer Nelson and other powerful players, the head coach Stan Van Gundy is going to make a big play in the playoffs. There may be difficulties in the finals, but it is still not possible to reach the Western Conference finals questionable.

It's just that due to Howard's weak lower body strength, Howard will be very aggrieved every time he encounters those insiders with strong lower body strength, especially against the Rockets and Pacers, Howard's performance will be greatly reduced, so in the regular season In the sprint stage, Stan Van Gundy has been staring at the Pacers' rankings, ready to wait for an opportunity to avoid the Pacers in the playoffs, but Stan Van Gundy turned out to be clever and was mistaken in the end.

(End of this chapter)