There is a big difference between an offensive team and a defensive team in terms of the style and strategy of the game.

When an attacking team takes the lead, their next goal is to widen the margin even further to the point where the opposition can't catch up.

After a defensive team has taken a certain lead, the main goal of the game is to hold that advantage until the end of the game.

The difference in basketball doesn't seem particularly big, but it's noticeable if you use a football analogy.

Some teams that follow a 1-0 doctrine are typical of defensive teams, and when they have a little advantage, they start defending with all their might.

Basketball games are relatively much faster to switch between offense and defense, and the distinction between offensive and defensive responsibilities of players is not so clear.

But there is also no shortage of teams on the basketball court that pursue the idea of "1:0" doctrine, the Pacers in the first two seasons, and the former Spurs are typical representatives.

I'm not very good offensively, I'm more rigid, but I make your offense worse, and I can't score goals.

With an advantage of more than 5 points, he began to desperately press the rhythm, and the difference of 10 points was insurmountable.

This style of play is of course not popular with fans, and in the past two seasons, with the development and popularization of three-point shots, there are various rule changes, and the "1:0" style of defensive play has been eliminated in the NBA.

Balanced offense and defense, offense is stronger than defense is the mainstream of the NBA at present.

The Spurs have made a transformation, and the Pacers are still in the midst of a difficult transformation.

It took more than five years for the Spurs to successfully transition, and the Pacers, this is their first season.

Many habits still can't be changed, and some ideological and tactical things need to be corrected for a long time.

In the first shot of the opening of the third quarter, Sloan used continuous cover on the outside, and when he had the opportunity to directly rush to the basket, he still habitually gave the ball to Li Liang in the horn position.

Li Liang broke through the basket with the ball and was trapped, and the ball was distributed to McGee on the inside, but he made a mistake and the ball was intercepted.

This ball Sloan can attack on his own, but because of Li Liang's oppressive force, he doesn't want to be scolded like Finson, so he passed it.

The Pacers quickly retreated, and the Spurs' starting lineup was different from the first half.

In the first half, Popovich used a combination of Dio and Duncan, which did not work very well, and Dio could still play a better role on the bench.

So Popovich sent Bonner, hoping to use Bonner to open up the situation on the offensive end.

As a result, Bonner received the ball on the bottom line and faced Li Liang, who was defending him, but he had no chance at all, and finally stumbled to pass the ball out, Parker reorganized the offense, passed to Duncan and barely missed the mid-range shot.

After Li Liang grabbed the rebound in the backcourt under the basket, he found that there was a chance in the frontcourt, and Sloan had already rushed through the halfcourt.

He immediately gave a long pass to Sloan, who received the ball and threw off Parker and made an easy layup!

After scoring the goal, Li Liang said to Sloan, "Believe in yourself and attack more." ”

Sloan nodded, feeling encouraged.

As a backup point guard who started in place of Hill, Sloan has average ability, he is a 10-year undrafted pick, and his talent is lacking.

Playing with a player like Li Liang, he has a lot of pressure.

In fact, in terms of personal ability, he has the ability to attack independently.

Sloan, who was encouraged, let go more and became more aggressive in the subsequent game, hitting two throws in a row, causing the Spurs to dare not wrap up Li Liang at will.

And the Spurs played very old and spicy when the offense was blocked.

Parker and Duncan both fouled back-to-back fouls and scored from the free throw line to keep the score at 10 points.

That's when Stephenson began his show.

He first forced a basket in the offense and took a big hat from Duncan.

Immediately afterwards, the Spurs counterattacked, and in the defense, he made a casual move, making Leonard play 2+1.

I turned around and wanted to give an answer ball, and when I got the ball, I threw three points, and if nothing happened, I hit the iron.

The operation was as fierce as a tiger, and when I looked at the score, I was beaten 0:5.

The point difference was chased to 5 points, and Li Liang had no choice but to foul when Parker pushed back and then entered the official timeout.

"What are you doing? Why are you fooling around on your own! ”

When he got off the field, Li Liang salivated at Stephenson again.

He was speechless, he played well in the first half, why did he have intermittent brain damage again?

Stephenson replied, "Then why did Sloane encourage him to attack?" ”

Li Liang said: "That's because he needs encouragement, do you think you need encouragement?" ”

It turned out that Stephenson saw Li Liang encouraging Sloan to fight by himself, and he felt that he could also fight, but he knew that he was in a hurry and made all kinds of mistakes.

Stephenson thought for a moment and said, "I think I need to." ”

God, you still need encouragement, you need to accept a little criticism and blows, okay?

As soon as your brain is hot, you have all kinds of confidence, as far as your level of attacking with the ball, are you worthy?

Stephenson's advantage is still a step after receiving the ball, as well as an open cut under the basket.

He has a certain ability to attack with the ball, but he must not be the main point of attack, the point of domination, but a secondary point of attack, an X-factor.

The reason why he was able to digest a lot of the ball with the Pacers was because of the Pacers' roster structure and style of play.

With Granger seriously injured, Paul George's lack of ball-handling ability, and David West being older and inside, the Pacers need an outside ball-handling flashpoint to rely on individual ability to open up the situation when the team's offense can't open.

From this point of view, Stephenson is actually chasing ducks to the shelves, nerve knives, sometimes he can play excellent performances, and sometimes the choices he makes make make people scratch their heads.

It's just that the Pacers' "1:0" doctrine gives Stephenson enough margin for error to play with the ball recklessly.

Anyway, if you don't hit the offense, you can get it back in the defense.

Because of this, the Pacers have never been able to beat a true championship-level team.

Now that Li Liang is here, Stephenson is not allowed to squander the ball so casually.

Not only because Li Liang is more sure of holding the ball, but also because the Pacers' tactical system has changed from "defense helps offense" to "offense-oriented, defense supplemented", and his squandering of the ball is very damaging to the situation.

Li Liang repeatedly emphasized and taught Stephenson this, he listened a little, and then forgot about it.

Because it's really hard to change the habit of playing.

In the middle of the timeout, Larry Bird also reminded Stephenson to be a little more mindful of the ball, but Finson's face was not good-looking and not very happy.

He's an emotional player and it's so hard to keep him in control.

Bird knew Stephenson best, he didn't say anything more, but he had a solution in his mind.

After the timeout, Spurs perimeter Danny Green missed a three-point shot.

The score was not narrowed further and the Pacers could breathe a sigh of relief.

Li Liang seized this opportunity, held the ball in a high position to organize the offense, and at the moment of Leonard's distraction, he made a direct three-point shot from the outside and hit it!

The home fans really gasped.

There's no way, last season's Western Conference Finals were really scared by Li Liang.

But who in the entire NBA hasn't been feared by Li Liangtou?

A three-pointer stretched the margin back to eight points.

As soon as this three-point shot was made, the overall offensive feeling of the Pacers was found again.

Next, JR-Smith also received Li Liang's ball in the counterattack and hit a three-point shot.

And Stephenson successfully made a steal in defense, and then suppressed his desire to attack and passed to Li Liang.

Li Liang made an ultra-long-distance long pass to Sloane under the basket.

Sloan catches the ball again and reflexively makes a layup!

In the third quarter, the Pacers re-launched an offensive climax, stretching the margin to as many as 14 points in one fell swoop.

By the end of the third quarter, the score had become 86-72, and the Pacers had taken an absolute lead.

I have to say that the Pacers are still in good shape tonight.

Li Liang played very steadily as the core of the team, offensively, defensively, and assisted, as long as the three fools were in a normal mind and followed the process he arranged, the Pacers' performance on the court was really good.

Larry Bird sighed on the sidelines, this guy is really talented, and he can pinch his teammates together so quickly to exert his combat effectiveness, and he is almost catching up with me back then.

And the state of the Spurs is a little bad, especially Leonard, when he is playing against Li Liang, he always feels that he is not playing right, and he can't make a difference.

However, the game is not really over yet.

There is also time for the final fourth quarter.

14 points, if you put it in 2004, it would be an insurmountable point difference.

86:72 should even be the final score.

But in 10 years, a lot has changed.