After Li Liang's arrival, the walker has become the most suitable shape.

In the 82 games of the regular season, they found the most suitable tactical system, a relatively simple but very effective tactical system.

Everything revolves around Li Lianglai, his passing, his three-pointers, his defensive tension, and his close-range pullup jumper.

You can pass the ball, but you're not as good as James or Nash, so you'll be paired with some three-pointers who can attack on their own.

JR Smith, Granger, and Stephenson are all players who can catch and throw the ball, and can also attack themselves when they can't catch well.

You have the best three-point history and give the team enough space to open up, so increase the number of singles in the tactical aspect and reduce the number of bells and whistles.

You can do a lot of things on the defensive end, but the basket is more average, get you a McGee who doesn't have any advantages other than the basket, and get a Garnett who used to be a historic basket.

And then you're going to do everything but the basket.

What, you also learned to protect the basket?

Okay, the number five position is for you to play.

You've got also got a nice breakaway post-retro stop-and-go jumper.

No problem, David West came off the bench, and Scola traded away, clearing the left and right rib positions and giving Li Liang space to play with his jumper.

What is strong eating in the low post, and the cooperation between the high and low posts is no longer the mainstream tactics of the Pacers.

It can be said that the Pacers' lineup and tactics are all set up around Li Liang.

Li Liang is Indiana's single-core CPU, which works well, has a low failure rate, and sometimes the peak operation is beyond your imagination.

In this respect, Bird's vision is truly unique.

Perhaps as a coach, he can't compare to some of the league's best coaches in terms of tactical richness and detail professionalism.

But in terms of strategic choice and control, he is first-class.

As a manager, as a coach, he does not lack honor, he does not lack ability, what he lacks is an opportunity.

Li Liang is his opportunity.

In the third game of the semifinals, the game entered the second quarter, and the first half of the game was almost over.

The score on the court has come to 43:35, and the Pacers lead the Bulls by 8 points.

The Bulls' score was nothing short of miserable, but the Pacers weren't much better.

In the middle and late part of the second quarter, as Bird expected, when he began to shoot more and more, the amount of iron also began to increase.

But the Pacers still maintained their advantage, because the Bulls were also playing iron, and their offense was even more sluggish than the Pacers.

Rose had no touch in the first half, and with the knife not working, the Bulls had no real breaking point, and Butler was at a loss for offense since he played against Li Liang.

The Bulls can only rely on the tactics of positional warfare and the Pacers, as well as the basket, Noah desperately grabs the frontcourt rebounds to give the Bulls a life.

Noah grabbed four frontcourt rebounds in the second quarter.

After arriving at home, the whole Bulls team had a morale bonus and played very hard.

It's a pity that sometimes the Bulls fight for a long time, and Li Liang gets back to a jumper, which hits the team very hard.

Moreover, the Bulls also have to guard against Li Liang's three-point shot, and his three-point shot is too terrible.

In the last minute or so of the second quarter, Bird replaced Li Liang for a break.

It stands to reason that Li Liang will play the second quarter in the normal rotation.

He left the game early in the first quarter today, but Bird still replaced Li Liang early to protect their core.

Li Liang shot 6-of-13 in the second quarter, and shot 20 times in the entire first half, scoring 29 points.

He alone scored as much as the Bulls' entire team.

At the end of the second quarter, the Bulls barely pushed the score to 40 points.

At 48:40, the Pacers still maintained an eight-point advantage, and the two sides went into halftime.

Li Liang single-handedly took half of the Pacers' scoring in the first half.

This is the case with a single core team, which has a relatively large instability.

Even if your core is very consistent, the form of a role player can fluctuate greatly.

Especially like the Pacers' nerve knives, JR Smith hit five three-pointers in the last game, and this one has so far made one three-pointer, and the other shots are all iron.

Not to mention Stephenson, who scored 2 points and contributed 3 turnovers by the way.

None of the three-pointers from the outside were scored.

It's just that the Pacers defense bites, no matter how fierce the Bulls are in grabbing the rebounds in the frontcourt, after losing the rebounds, the Pacers still maintain their defensive formation, and they bite very tenaciously under the basket, not giving the Bulls an easy chance to score.

The second half of the game is destined to be even tougher.

This will be a huge test of the physical strength and willpower of both parties.

At the end of the short break, the players from both sides re-appeared, and Li Liang could feel the air in the United Center getting hot.

At the beginning of the third quarter, the Pacers made mistakes in defense, or Li Liang's mistakes.

He was careless when defending Noah, and Noah seized the opportunity, found a gap in the middle, received the ball and held the ball to break through the basket and make a layup.

It was Noah's first goal of the game.

Li Liang was careless, and when he started in the second half, Li Liang still returned to the No. 4 position.

He was a little unaccustomed to it for a while.

Subsequently, Li Liang was surrounded by three people.

The bull is also a showdown, Lao Tzu doesn't care, three people, four people, just to surround you.

What defensive traps, what messy defensive strategies, is a pile of people.

Anyway, Lao Tzu rotates fast.

The three of them are around, and Li Liang still has to share the ball.

Give it to Granger, and Granger passes the ball to McGee under the basket.

McGee received the ball and turned around to dunk it, but was capped by Gasol!

But Gasol obviously had a thug move, and the referee didn't blow it.

McGee didn't say anything, and Bird on the sidelines couldn't help himself and gestured towards the referee.

It didn't work, the Bulls' counterattack was already fighting, Rose rushed to the basket and distributed the ball to Dunleavy on the wing.

Dunleavy catches the ball and makes a three-point shot, hit!

The ball was really bad, and the Bulls chased five points in a row.

The key is that these 5 points are chased too quickly, and the Pacers' 8-point advantage is only 3 points at once.

And in the first half, both sides often went three or four rounds without scoring.

Bird's face sank, and Li Liang gave Bird a look, telling him not to rush to call a timeout.

Sure enough, Li Liang immediately returned the color on the offensive end, and he and McGee blocked and forced the basket to lean towards Gasol.

This time the referee blew the foul, and if he doesn't blow it again, it means that the referee's business is not good.

It's okay for you to play with the home team, but you have to balance when it's time to balance.

Besides, this is Bruce Lee, aren't you looking for scolding if you don't blow it?

Li Liang hit two free throws from the free throw line to stabilize the situation.

Then, the Pacers successfully blocked a 24-second offensive violation from the Bulls on the defensive end.

This time they still played a very clever combination, Noah received the ball deep under the basket and went straight to the basket.

As a result, Noah didn't dare to shoot under Li Liang's defense, and passed back to Gasol, who was inserted, but the ball was not passed well and Gasol did not catch it.

By the time Gasol got the ball back, the 24 seconds had already arrived.

It can only be said that Li Liang's ability to adjust is really very strong.

Then, he seized the opportunity again, received Granger's breakthrough in the bottom corner, and forced a three-point shot!

This ball is really heart-wrenching, and when I saw that I was chasing 3 points, I made a mess, and it became an 8-point difference.

The Bulls persevered, and Rose, who was in poor form in the first half, scored the next two breakthroughs and layups.

At this time, Li Liang called a timeout.

Back on the bench, Li Liang asked Bird, "It wasn't good for me to play the No. 3 position in the first half, why did I change it again?" Won't you change formations? Isn't there any continuity in the change of formation? ”

Bird spread his hands, "I was about to call a timeout for substitutions, and you didn't let me." ”

"My manager or your manager? Besides, I didn't make a foul free throw and give you a chance to make a substitution? ”

"I'll replace you if you say anything else."

"You can do it!"

There was some argument between the two, but there was no reaction from everyone.

Normally, it's normal for Li Liang and Bird to quarrel when the game is not going well.

At first, everyone was worried about whether the two would fight.

Slowly get used to it, it's purely a bad mouth, and use this to vent the pressure.

Bird made a substitution anyway, replacing Granger with Garnett.

The Pacers used the twin towers of the interior to bolster interior defense and rebounding protection.

But it turns out that this configuration does not work as well as expected.

After the timeout, Li Liang began to be unscrupulously surrounded by the bulls in the attack.

Thibodeau has already figured it out, I can't control how other people play, I just want to press you Li Liang to death.

Li Liang's scoring requires the use of cover and tactics, and he can't be like Kobe, who can make strong shots (plus a referee) from the six people in front of him.

In the case of a three-person bag, Li Liang will definitely pass the ball.

As a result, Garnett and McGee are two points, you pass the ball to them, and the offense is basically stagnant.

McGee doesn't have the ability to attack on his own, and Garnett is really old.

As a result, Li Liang gave the ball to Hill or JR Smith, that is, the meat bun beat the dog, and there was no return.

Hill's play in the series was mediocre, and he was of little use against the Bulls.

His defense against Rose is equivalent to misalignment, and he is not consistent enough in the offense, and he is a little lost in the face of the Bulls' strong defense.

Needless to say, Smith will be lost if he should be lost, and he will be lost if he shouldn't be lost, and you think he's going to be lost and he's going to explode again.

With these two points, the Pacers' offense is working hard.

Of course, the defensive effect is indeed good, but basketball is an offensive game after all, and you have to score.

Rose launched a death charge against the Pacers' interior in the third quarter, and regardless of the extent of his knee injury, he desperately rushed inside, either scoring or causing a foul on the Pacers inside and going to the free throw line.

Rose's hard work moved the fans.

The atmosphere at the Union Center is getting hotter and louder, and the fans are cheering on the Bulls louder.

Although the Bulls have never reached the level of a championship-level powerhouse in recent years, they have always been tenacious and no one dares to underestimate them.

Tonight they really fought hard.

But that's it, at the end of the third quarter, the Pacers still led the Bulls by 5 points.

5 points, not much, maybe a few rounds can be recovered.

But it's not a lot, because it's basically impossible to chase back in one round.

The Pacers have always had this small advantage.

Because of Li Liang, he can always use his jump shot to pour cold water on the crowd when the bulls are about to get up.

"The Chicagoans are good enough, but they always have someone on their heads, and they must be thinking how good it would have been if that No. 23 had been."

Chicagoans have certainly missed that No. 23 countless times, but this one seems to be particularly strong.