In the second game of the season, the Celtics played the Pacers at home. In fact, many commentators said that if the Pistons had not narrowly defeated the Pacers last year, the Pacers might have won the championship. Although the Pacers did not have the Pacers this year,
Rad Miller, but his strength cannot be underestimated.
Before the game, Rivers announced that Milicic would be the starter for this game, returning to his most familiar center position, while the original center LaFrentz would be changed to power forward. The Celtics starting lineup is
: Point guard Gary Payton, shooting guard Ricky Davis, small forward Paul Pierce, power forward Reeve LaFrentz, center Darko Milicic.
The Pacers' starting lineup is: point guard Jamal Tinsley, shooting guard Reggie Miller, small forward Ron Artest, power forward Jermaine O'Neal, center Jerry Foss
special.
At the beginning, Milicic and O'Neal competed for the ball. O'Neal, who was at his peak, was obviously better than Milicic in terms of bounce speed. He moved the ball to his own side. Tinsley controlled the ball and passed it to the 45-degree three-point line.
Artest, Artest faced Pierce and said: "Hey! Paul, today I want you to..." Before he could finish his words, the old demon Payton over there had already jumped out and swatted the ball out of his hand.
After coming down, he took two steps and saw that Ricky Davis had already thrown away Reggie Miller and rushed to the opponent's basket. With Payton's understanding pass, Ricky Davis directly made an alley-oop dunk.
.
Payton turned around and met Artest who was chasing him. Payton curled his lips and said: "There are more and more idiots in the NBA recently!" He shook his head and ran back to defend. Artest
He looked at Pierce with confusion and said, "It's obviously a one-on-one challenge..." Pierce shrugged and didn't want to talk to him.
Tinsley dribbled to the frontcourt and took a step past Payton, but LaFrentz had already made up for it. Tinsley had to retreat and pass the ball to Miller. O'Neal inside asked for the ball, but Miller did not add it.
Covering the ball, Pierce directly passed the ball. Pierce rushed out and tapped the ball. He intercepted the ball and threw it to Payton in front. Payton cross-stepped through Tinsley in an unguarded situation.
The ball goes up.
The Pacers made two turnovers as soon as they came up, giving the Celtics four points. Not to mention that Pacers coach Carlisle didn't expect this, even Rivers didn't expect it. Next, Tinsley dribbled the ball, and Ford
Sturt came out with a single block to block Payton behind him. Facing Milicic's defense, Tinsley directly passed the ball under Milicic's crotch. The ball passed by and ran in front of Milicic.
The basket, but Milicic's reaction was not slow. He turned around and jumped up to block the shot. He waited for a shot in the air and directly nailed the ball to the board. Then Milicic passed the ball to Payton and tried his best.
Running forward, the opponent's big center Foster simply did not keep up with Milicic's pace. When Milicic reached the basket, Payton had already passed the ball to his hands, and the opponent's O'Neal was already in place.
, Milicic lowered his head and pretended to break through. O'Neal took half a step back. At this opportunity, Milicic stood up and opened his hand to shoot a mid-range shot, which hit the target!
The Celtics got off to a perfect 6-0 start. The North Shore Garden Stadium burst into cheers, and fans on the sidelines even took out Milicic's photo stickers and kept shaking them.
At this inadvertent moment, the Pacers served quickly, and Tinsley dribbled through Pierce's defense. Only LaFrentz in the backcourt had not had time to participate in the attack. Tinsley faced LaFrenz under the basket.
Lentz also made a move to break through. LaFrentz subconsciously stepped back. Tinsley hit a jumper on the spot. The action was exactly the same as Milicic's just now. Tinsley pointed at Milicic provocatively.
Payton dribbled the ball to the frontcourt. The first three offenses were all counterattacks by the Pacers. There was no real offensive position battle. Only in position battle can you feel the strength of the Pacers. Payton is not a good shooter. Ting
Seeley always gave Payton half a step to prevent him from breaking through and passing the ball comfortably. When Pierce saw this, he quickly ran out and sneaked behind Payton to catch the ball. Artest was also hooked, and he
At the moment when Payton was about to pass the ball to Pierce, Payton made a pull-up jumper. Not to mention Tinsley, even Pierce was deceived by this action, but there is one person who has not been deceived, and that is
Artest, Artest blocked the ball behind Payton.
As soon as the ball hit the ground, Tinsley fell to the ground first, grabbed the ball, and passed it behind his back to Artest. Artest counterattacked and dunked.
Artest said to Payton from a distance: "Old guy, I give it back to you!"
Rivers on the sidelines signaled the team not to be anxious and slow down a little. Payton went to the frontcourt and waited for the players to get into position. Milicic took a position at a 45-degree angle on the right side of the basket. Payton passed the ball over.
, Milicic was very comfortable after receiving Payton's pass, and could directly make the next move. A good point guard has the skills that can be seen in many ordinary gestures.
Milicic made two top moves, trying to turn to the right to face the basket. Foster shifted his center of gravity to the right. Milicic leaned on Foster with his back and half-turned to the left, facing the basket.
A long left hook shot hit the target.
This guy can also shoot with his left hand? O'Neal was surprised, then smiled and said to the boss Miller: "This game is interesting." Although Miller is still the boss of this team, Miller has reached the age of retiring.
Now, the day when O'Neal will be the boss is just around the corner. Seeing that the team boss wants to tease Milicic, how could Tinsley not give him a chance.
O'Neal came out to pick and roll for Tinsley, and then quickly cut inside. Tinsley and O'Neal rushed towards the Celtics basket like two parallel cannonballs. Milicic just moved Ting towards Tinsley.
Tinsley's right shoulder swayed as if he was about to pass the ball, but instead of taking the shot, he made a fake shot. He jumped up to throw. Did Milicic also jump to block the shot? But Tinsley's throw was obviously much higher.
, Milicic did not interfere, only to see O'Neal Jr. behind him jump up to receive the ball and then perform a stretching and gliding action in the air to slam the ball into the basket.
This earth-shattering dunk even caused the courtside commentator Heinsohn to exclaim: "This guy is simply a monster!" This dunk made the North Shore Garden fans' voices shouting for defense disappear instantly, and O'Neal Jr. said to
Milicic said: "I didn't tell you last year, and it will be the same if I make up for it this year. Welcome to the NBA!"
