Chris. Paul, his arrival is undoubtedly a big reason why the Pacers can become a Finals team. He is the Pacers' most important scoring point and offensive playmaker, as well as the team's spiritual leader.

Henson's tactical ideas can be proudly realized on the court, and the Pacers' ability to distribute shots reasonably and play a beautiful team offense is inseparable from Paul. Once such an important player is not available, it will definitely be a major positive for the Thunder.

So as soon as the game started today, the Thunder were very excited, eager to seize the opportunity to win the game without Paul anymore. When Paul returns, if the Thunder already leads 3-1, it will be difficult for the Pacers to turn the situation around.

Brooks stood on the sidelines from the start of the game, urging his players to play. Because of Paul's injury, Brooks has added a lot of tactics for Westbrook.

Once Westbrook can pose a threat to the Pacers' interior, the Pacers will have to help defend or trap. When the time comes, as long as this No. 0 guard can divide the ball, the Thunder will be able to get a lot of open shooting opportunities!

Tearing up the defense with a breakaway and then splitting the ball is a simple and crude way to do it, but it works. The Heat relied on James to fight with the Pacers to tie seven, but this time, it was the Pacers and not the Heat who had injury problems!

Facing Stephenson, who started in place of Paul, Westbrook was clearly more confident than in the previous two games. In his opinion, as long as Paul is not around, the Pacers will not be able to compete with him in the No. 1 position.

Although Stephenson is not afraid of confrontation, he is indeed not as calm as Paul. The first time the Thunder attacked, Westbrook deceived Finson with a fake cover and went straight to the basket.

Seeing this, the Pacers' defense had to shrink, so Westbrook slipped the ball through the gap and into Ibaka's hands. The Congolese forward hit a solid mid-range jumper, and the Thunder easily won the "one blood"!

"Beautiful offensive coordination, the Thunder's offensive thinking is very clear. It seems that Coach Brooks is making good use of Chris. Paul is out with an injury. Westbrook has never been more active in this series. ”

Brooks clapped at the players in the field, and Henson. Instead, Joe sat on the bench, as if it was the Thunder and not the Pacers who were having injury problems.

Can Brooks be upset? Westbrook is an attacking guard with a hot head, and he has little playmaking ability that a playmaker should have. It's playmaking, not passing.

Westbrook's passing ability is not bad, and he can do things like getting the ball to his teammates from the crowd. But good passing doesn't mean good organization, and there is still a big difference between the two.

But if it's just a simple and rough breakaway, even Westbrook can do a good job. Without Paul's containment, Westbrook is simply a hotbed of breakaway shots.

After the Pacers' offense, Stephenson did not look for George or his own nonsense, but deliberately found Horford.

However, it may have just come on the court before he shot hot, and Horford's three-point shot came out of the box. Westbrook personally grabbed the defensive rebound and advanced directly with the ball!

This number 0 quickly weaves through the crowd and finally cuts past Danny with a beautiful front change of direction. Green, one-handed smash score!

There was a blue "wave" in the stands at the Chesapeake Energy Arena, and Henson felt the cheers coming from behind him almost burst his eardrums.

One break, one dunk, Westbrook did get the game off to a good start. It can be seen that after being tortured by Paul for a half time, Westbrook can't help but want to vent all the grievances in his heart.

Henson pouted, Westbrook's offense was indeed more fierce than he had imagined. Although Stephenson is not afraid of heaven and earth, he is afraid of meeting this kind of person who is really playing with himself.

It seems that defending Westbrook requires a calm and calm defensive master like Paul.

Although the opponent led 4-0, Henson still recognized the team's offense just now. Perkins can't defend it, and Horford can get a lot of opportunities with just a little run! That time, Stephenson had a good pass and the opportunity was already out. However, Horford couldn't shoot the ball.

But whenever he has the chance, Henson is not afraid of not being able to score.

For now, the team is still following Henson's plan. And in Henson's plan, he didn't think the Pacers would take the lead at the beginning.

The Pacers attacked for the second time, and Stephenson got a hard pull-up layup. This layup is very beautiful from the breakthrough to the action, the only thing that is not beautiful is that the ball does not go up.

Nonsense, in the face of such an excellent rim point as Perkins, it is so easy for Stephenson to pretend to be X. Don't underestimate Perkins, the biggest weakness of the Thunder has always been that the interior is too weak. As a result, after trading to add Perkins in the middle of last season, the Thunder soared straight into the sky.

At the Celtics, Perkins' interior defense was also one of the keys to the Green Shirts' championship.

Perkins once again defended the Thunder's interior, but instead of a defeat, Henson saw that Perkins had missed Horford again. The ball was also because Finson was in possession, and if it was Paul, Horford would definitely get a shot.

Henson could see the benefits of the defeat, but others, especially Thunder fans, didn't. What they saw was the embarrassment of the Pacers after losing Paul.

The Thunder attacked for the third time, with Westbrook getting his second assist of the game, while Ibaka scored his second goal with a slam dunk.

The ball was still the same old routine, and Stephenson's reckless steal was passed by Westbrook in one step. Westbrook used his own breakthrough to draw in the defense and then distributed the ball to the Congolese.

It seems that a 10% defensive awareness bonus is not enough for Stephenson, a guy who is prone to brain pumping.

This time, Horford pounced on Ibaka very quickly, but Ibaka only made a fake throw, deceived Horford and immediately dribbled a strong dunk.

Ibaka was a brutalist interior player with explosive athleticism, and once he flew up, Horford and West were out of reach.

6 to 0, two consecutive dunks. The entire Chesapeake Energy Arena was in high spirits, as if they had embraced the first O'Brien Cup in franchise history.

Before Kevin, the scoring champion, could make a shot, the Thunder launched a wave of explosive offense. What will Coach Henson do? Will he switch to Hinrich, who is more solid defensively? Stephenson is certainly a good player, but he is still too young, and it is still too risky to use him as the starting No. 1 in the Finals. ”

Mike. Brin shook his head, Stephenson is a "firefighter" type guy who is better suited to come off the bench and play the point guard position than to start. But what makes Brin even more strange is that Henson should know the players under him better than he does. When it comes to employing people, Henson almost can't make mistakes. His sometimes ingenious roster tweaks and substitutions have won more than one game for the Pacers.

Why did he make a mistake today?

The camera showed Henson, but the Chinese coach still didn't stand up. If it was in normal times, it is estimated that he was ready to take off his leather shoes and rush to the court to settle accounts with Stephenson.

But at this time, Henson was very calm, and he was still communicating with the people around him.

If Henson was communicating with his assistant Vogel, it wouldn't be anything special. But what surprised people was that Henson's communication partner was Paul, who couldn't play due to injury!

Is there anything Henson has to say about a player who can't play?

"See? Brooks' tactics are clear, breaking out to find the inside. So later, Westbrook will get plenty of ball-bearing opportunities. When the time comes, you're going to make him pay the price for his mistakes. Henson leaned into Paul's ear, and you didn't know what he was talking about.

Paul only nodded silently, not answering at all.

"And then on the offensive end, I'm sure you saw that as well, my tactics worked. Perkins is accustomed to shrinking the box defense, and his task is to protect the basket and help defend the mid-range offensive points. But he didn't pay much attention to Horford's defense outside the three-point line. Horford has missed many times on these offenses. So later, look for Horford more on the offensive end. Once Perkins is forced out of the three-second zone, tell George to make a breakthrough! ”

Paul listened and nodded.

Mike. Brin didn't know what Henson and Paul were muttering, but he was sure of one thing - every time the Pacers conspiracy between two brains on and off the court, it meant that the Pacers' opponent was in big trouble!

In the blink of an eye, nearly 4 minutes passed in the game, and the Thunder played a wave of 10-2 starts. Henson finally got up from the bench and called a timeout.

The temptation time is over!

Mike. Around Bryn, the Thunder fans cheered and their powerful offense completely stopped the Pacers, who were known for their defense! Can the fans not get excited?

Mike. Brin was upset, but he didn't know why he was upset.

Mo Fei, Henson. Joe was also able to get Chris. Did Paul rise from the dead?