Wallace's unexpected power gave the Magic a complete advantage in the game. Although Edison had long known that Wallace could not be a soy sauce, sooner or later he would break out and play to the level of an All-Star. But Edison did not expect
He would break out so quickly, and he would come back with a bucket of gasoline in the first game of the new season.
O'Neal Jr. and Brand were having an inseparable battle, and Artest failed to break out. The Pacers' remaining hope could only fall on Stephen Jackson. But Jackson is also a very strange player, and he disrupts the game very much.
I'm good at it, and I'm not afraid of getting into position, but it's very ups and downs.
Although he sees a lot of things going on, he is very capable of executing tactics and is very obedient. But the trick is that basically as long as he honestly plays according to the tactics assigned by the coach, he will definitely not be very good, he is just an ordinary person.
But if you give him the space to play freely, he can give you a miracle. This was the case before with the Spurs and later with the Warriors. Popovich and Nelson gave him the right to shoot, but he did not shoot randomly, and he
to a positive effect.
But the Pacers' Carlisle is not good. Carlisle is a very rigorous academic coach. The biggest characteristic of academic coaches is that they like to write scripts. They want to treat every player as a puppet. So although Jackson is a very important player in the Pacers' offensive system,
It is an important link, but he does not have much room for self-expression. He can only occasionally vent his anger by shooting super long-range three-pointers or fighting.
So we see that although Jackson's statistics in those two years were not bad and his efficiency was not low, he just didn't have the feeling of dominating the court, and he lacked the momentum of giving up others.
Now when the other two points cannot be opened and the team's offense begins to tilt toward Jackson, he cannot shoulder this responsibility because he is framed by Carlisle. So the score between the two teams remains at around 8 points, and there is still more.
Feeling bigger.
At the end of the third quarter, 84-75, the Magic led by 9 points.
"Although the current game looks like the point difference is not big, less than ten points, and it seems that it can be fought back with three or four attacks, but in fact it has completely fallen into the hands of the Magic. Let's look at the game just now, the Pacers
It gives the impression that they are trying their best to chase points, not only to maintain the score gap. But the Magic look relaxed and calm, as if they are just playing with the Pacers.
Just play, wait a minute and you don’t want to play anymore, it looks like you can open up the score instantly with just one effort.” Albert, the groom, took advantage of the break between sessions and took the time to analyze the game.
"Yes, I think so too. The Magic have the upper hand completely, but I don't think they are playing around. Through their defense, we can see that the Magic players are playing very seriously, so I think they are playing offense.
It’s not that they didn’t exert full force, it’s that they were trying to exert force, but they just couldn’t.” Steve Kerr pointed while wearing a headset.
"What Steve said is more detailed. Why can't you put your best efforts into it?"
"It's still Brand. Although we saw that he played more actively in the second half than in the first half, and he was running and moving much more proactively than before. But even if he did this, he was still in harmony with the whole team.
The rhythm is not synchronized and is always a little slower. So now the Magic's offense is like a punch. The arm has been straightened, but the fist has to be retracted, so naturally it cannot hit with power."
"It's still a matter of team-wide integration."
"Well, that's right. This kind of problem is not a flaw and can definitely be solved, but it is also very troublesome and will test the head coach's ability. If it is veteran players such as Popovich, Phil Jackson or Larry Brown, they
Maybe a timeout can solve all the problems, but some bad coaches may have no solution at all and can only rely on the players to find a feeling in each game. I don’t know what kind of situation Edison will be in.”….
Edison off the court actually also discovered this problem, and Thibodeau was also keenly aware of it and raised it with him. But Edison was not in a hurry, "Don't worry about this problem for now, let's wait and see. Our game this season.
Fahe is destined to change last season, so don't box the players and let them find the answer on their own first."
Although Thibodeau didn't particularly agree with Edison's words, he knew that he couldn't refute it at this time, so he had to sigh, then turned his head and told himself not to think about it anymore.
As soon as Edison saw Thibodeau's posture, he knew that this guy had not put down the problem in his mind, so he smiled and explained further, "Tom, actually we are not in the best condition right now. We are missing an outside singles expert, so we
Our lineup is incomplete, and our opponents will strengthen our defense in response to this problem. But once we have players who can play in singles on the outside, contraction-style protection like the Pacers will no longer work, and Brand's slowness in this point also changes.
It has to be just right.”
"Paul, is Brandon Roy really that good? I think his status in your heart now, your expectations for him are almost the same as Nash last season. To be honest, I don't know what your expectations are.
Whether the idea is right or wrong, will there be any problems?"
Edison didn't answer. He knew that Thibodeau and others wouldn't believe him if he told him, just like he selected Nash last season. Only in the real game can they know how good that guy can be.
The game soon entered the fourth quarter, and at this time the Pacers' biggest problem this season was exposed-league legend Miller left.
Miller is not a person with a good reputation off the court. His perverse personality often causes him to do some despicable things. In fact, even on the court, his behavior is very bad. But no one denies his attitude during the game.
, his dedication during the game, and his leadership skills.
During his nearly 17-year career with the Pacers, Miller has long integrated his spirit into the team and has become the soul of the Pacers. Now that he has left, the soul of the Pacers will be gone.
After leaving, O'Neal Jr. and others were unable to reshape this spiritual thing for a while. Therefore, the Pacers now do not have a spiritual big brother, and there is no one who can convince everyone.
The game entered the last 6 minutes, and the team trailed by nearly 10 points, and the players began to get impatient. During every attack, as long as the Magic showed a slight flaw and the Pacers players got a little space to shoot, they would try to take the shot themselves. Regardless of
In response to coach Carlisle's request to play slowly and steadily, the players' tactical thinking was no longer unified and confusion began to arise.
Impatience is common on the court, but it is a problem for a team without a big brother. Because no one can calm the emotions of other players and stabilize the situation.
There is a saying in the arena, "Advantage, all shortcomings and contradictions will be covered up when you win, but once you can't continue, all the negative problems will explode in intensity."
This is the situation with the Pacers. First the players are impatient, and then other problems erupt like dominoes.
In fact, every walker starts to be impatient, but they cannot feel their own impatientness, but they can feel the impatientness of others. So the most classic lesson of human nature in psychology appears, "What excellent people hate most is that others are self-righteous, and
What I like to do most is to think that I am self-righteous.”
Although the Pacers players didn't say anything, they began to distrust each other and began to complain about each other. The most direct manifestation of the players' distrust of each other is that they don't like to pass the ball and like to work alone...
What the Magic players are least afraid of is working alone. If you tip the ball more and pass the ball a few times, these young players will easily get out of position and miss people. But if they work alone, no one is afraid except Nash, and maybe Howard and others will be tricked.
A block from behind.
As a result, the Pacers' offensive effectiveness became worse and worse, and their shooting percentage became lower and lower, which further strengthened the distrust among the players, and a disgusting cycle began.
Carlisle also discovered this problem. He called two timeouts in a row, but there was no way to solve it. The Pacers players were used to passing the ball to the man who looked almost so thin that you could see the bones at critical moments. Now there is no such thing
Players really can't adapt to it all of a sudden. This is not a problem of the player's ability, but purely a kind of psychological inertia.
By the time there were 3 minutes left in the game, the score between the two sides was 93-82, and the Magic had narrowed the point difference to more than 10 points.
At this time, the Pacers' last problem also broke out - they were not hungry enough for victory, and they did not have the determination to make a comeback at the last moment.
Miller's fighting spirit and hunger for victory are definitely the best in the league. Thinking about it now, the only people who can compare with Miller in this regard are Joe and Kobe, so he was able to stage a Miller moment.
Therefore, when Miller is here, the Pacers rarely give up the game early because Miller does not allow it, and others also believe that Miller can turn things around in the last few dozen seconds.
But now that Miller is gone, the Pacers' players lose their morale when they see they are more than 10 points behind. Although O'Neal and the others are still running back and forth on the court, it cannot be said that they are not working hard, but they are just dealing with errands.
.
The electronic bell rang, and the game was over.
The Orlando Magic won the opening game of the new season with a final score of 104-95.
All five of the team's starters scored in double figures. Brand was still a terrifyingly stable 21+10, and his shooting percentage was as high as 52%. And O'Neal Jr.'s personal data against him was not inferior, with 25 points.
9 rebounds.
Nash had 14 points and 10 assists. Brand likes to play in isolation. He likes to make one or two moves after getting the ball in the low post. This results in many of Nash's passes that cannot be directly converted into assist data. But Nash himself does not
He cared about this, and the judges knew it, so he was still elected as the MVP of this game.
Howard had 15 points and 13 rebounds, including 6 offensive rebounds, and the Magic began to take shape.
Both the new players and the original veterans were very excited about winning the first game, and the team also understood their feelings, so they specially prepared a small bottle of champagne in the locker room for the players to celebrate.
