Chapter 172: The Indiana Rout
After the first Knicks slaughtered the Pacers, the entire league was boiling, and as the defending champions, the Knicks' every move was closely watched by several other teams, eager to analyze every hair of the Knicks to the fullest. And now, the Knicks' bloody crackdown on the Pacers has made the entire league sober, that is the Pacers, one of the Eastern giants, the Pacers, who are based on the Eastern giants in defense, have been cut 130+ points, more than 50 points behind, and everyone is trembling, because it is difficult for them to find a team that can play the same record against the Pacers. The footage of the Knicks and Pacers game was played all night by basketball workers across the league, every frame was paused, every frame was thoroughly studied, and every frame was secretly wondered if this was the Knicks' weakness.
A game doesn't show anything at all, and people need more Knicks game footage.
So, in the second game between the Knicks and the Pacers, countless scouts and assistant coaches flocked to the game, and everyone was eagerly waiting for the latest game to see if the Pacers would surprise them, at least let them see the weaknesses in the Knicks. After the first game, the Pacers were generally underestimated, and no one seemed to think the Pacers were still capable of coming back from defeat, even though the game was only played once.
The second game was again in New York, Madison Square Garden.
The heat of the first game between the two sides continued into the second game, but the slight difference was that there was more arrogance in the eyes of the Knicks and more hatred and a hint of fear in the eyes of the Pacers.
As soon as the game began, the Knicks exploded directly with frightening offensive firepower, scoring 40 points in the first quarter, which was the highest score in the first quarter of the league's playoffs at the time. All the personnel of the other teams who watched the game on the scene were silent when they saw this scene, the teams that can enter the playoffs are not simple, not to mention that the teams sitting here are all teams that have entered the second round, and there is no mediocre hand, the strength of a team is not only dependent on players and coaches, but also many complex factors, an indispensable part of the team's staff, and these people here are all elites in the intelligence gathering or analysis industry, they know very well that the most terrible thing about the Knicks is not their offense, It's their defense.
It stands to reason that the faster a team is paced, the more points he concedes, just look at the comparison between the Knicks in the regular season and last season, but in the playoffs, the Knicks magically challenged this common sense, and they pressed the opponent's score to a point lower than last season's playoffs, which is simply incredible.
The silence of these men contrasted sharply with the madness of the other fans in the stands, and George Karl saw the presence of these people at a glance, laughed three times, and invited the Knicks giants to whisper something to them.
Immediately afterward, the spectators in the stands felt the magical changes that had taken place on the field.
The Pacers "exploded", they fought to catch up after a quarter of decline, firmly biting the score, the difference between the Knicks and the Pacers was never higher than 25 points, which made Pacers fans overjoyed, at least the team can start chasing points, compared to the last one-sided slaughter, this is really a strong improvement.
But the other basketball workers hiding in the stands suddenly laughed dumbly.
They couldn't see that George Karl had clearly discovered their existence, and this stubborn old man was very grumpy and said that you can watch the game if you want, but you don't want to know about my team.
However, the Knicks only occasionally slowed down the tempo, and did not really lower their defensive intensity, for a team, the defensive intensity is easy to drop, and it is difficult to bring it up again, and the Knicks are not just aiming for the Pacers, nor the division championship, but the championship. It's a good thing that the Knicks got into this defensive state early, but it's not necessarily a good thing, and maybe they can keep it until the Finals, but it's also possible that they'll let it go before the Finals and it's hard to bounce back.
But George Karl has no other choice, or rather, he is now infected by the atmosphere of the whole Knicks team, the whole city of New York, and no one can stop them, no one, not even God.
Whatever this crazy blasphemer may have in his heart, God is busy.
The Knicks defeated the Pacers in the third quarter, and the game ended, and the Knicks defeated the Pacers again with a 20-point advantage at 105:85, because the Knicks played obviously not as passionate as the last game in the second game, and Moxi's performance could only be described as decent compared to before, playing 28 minutes, 10 of 14 shots, 8 of 10 free throws, 28 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks. The rest of the Knicks were also decent, judging by the game scenes and statistics, as if what they had just won was just an ordinary regular season game.
The hyena-like Pacers who fled from New York did not give up hope, because although they lost their first two games, they will return to their home court next, which is their last chance of survival.
The first game back at home was the Pacers' most anticipated game, but the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.
At 114:90, the Pacers still lost the game by a large score, but they have improved a little compared to before, at least their score is more than 90.
In this game, Mo Xi played 32 minutes, cut 30 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists and a cover, but when people saw Mo Xi's data, it was just an "oh" and passed, maybe this season's Mo Xi is like O'Neal's first championship, no matter what kind of data they get, people will only think that this is deserved, even if they look at the next 40 + 20, people will only think "This is his real strength" after the initial surprise. ”
With a score of 3:0, Indiana was desperate.
From the initial self-confidence, to the current complaint, the Pacers seem to have returned from a wandering circle in purgatory.
Larry Bird is no longer thinking about this playoffs, he is thinking about the next season of the Pacers, this playoffs will undoubtedly be an eternal shadow in the hearts of Indiana, and the impact on them next season will undoubtedly be huge.
In the fourth game, Mo Xi scored 30+10 data again, leading the Knicks to 120:91, and directly swept the Pacers out.