At night, the 20,000-seat Consec Arena is once again a sea of yellow tonight, like Indiana's endless cornfields. In order to welcome this national live game, most of the fans spontaneously wore bright yellow T-shirts representing the Pacers, giving the game a playoff atmosphere.www.biquge.info It's only the eighth game of the season, and it's still in its infancy, but the Pacers' excellent performance at the start of the season has certainly inspired fans, especially since tonight's opponent is the Celtics.

The two best teams in the East at the moment, whoever wins will temporarily ascend to the top of the East and even the league, and this is likely to be a regular season exercise battle between the two teams that will compete in the East this year, so everyone from top to bottom, from players to reporters, is very important to this game.

Fox Leon is no exception, and the Celtics have been facing tough games in the early stages of the season, which will be a great challenge and test for the entire team's mental state, tactical level and ability to adjust, and it will also be a boost to further cohesion and unity of the team. The pre-match war of words is an outward manifestation of Leon's desire to put pressure on the players and arouse their will to fight.

Of course, Leon knows that the grandmaster of the war of words, Larry Bird, has not yet squeaked, and it is clear that he is waiting for the outcome of this match, and if the Celtics lose to Conseco, they will get a graceful and merciless sarcasm from Big Bird, which is not what he wants.

So before the game started, in the dressing room, he made a rare pre-game mobilization, cheering up the players with a concise and powerful speech, and telling everyone, "Everyone here tonight will want to kill us in their hearts, and the only way to get us out alive is to win!" ”

Maybe Leon should change letting us out alive to "let me get out alive", after all, he is Indiana's number one public enemy, and when the players from both sides entered and DJ introduced the players, when DJ announced Leon's name in a lifeless voice, the audience burst into huge boos.

This is still quite rare in NBA games, and fans will boo the players in many games, because there may be some grudges between the two teams, such as Bill Lambir, who is a must-have background music for every away game. The coaches are different, most of them are polite, they scold Fang Xuan on the sidelines without any conflict with the players and fans, they at most attract some disdain from the fans when arguing with the referee, and other times they are supporting characters on the pitch after all.

Leon is different, after all, he can be called punching Consecco, kicking the Pacers, a fight with many enemies has made him a big villain in the hearts of Indiana fans, many fans at the scene tonight have their own taunting slogans to dedicate to Leon, and even a child also wore a mask made of Leon's poster on his face, but it was painted as a fierce thug, several scars and a black blindfold, and the brushstrokes were ridiculous and cola.

Leon ignored this, he just stood coldly on the sidelines, crossed his arms in front of the boos and thumbs down from the audience, neither pretending to be relaxed nor angry, just waiting for the game to start like a stone statue. Perhaps in the past six months, Leon deliberately showed the public too much of his violent and personality side, so that many people ignored that he was a peaceful, calm and focused person at heart.

Leon's performance has undoubtedly infected the Celtic players, playing away from home, not only need passionate encouragement, but also need to be calm and calm, especially in the opening, the home team is often imposing, the away team must maintain enough concentration, not disturbed by factors outside the field.

The Pacers' on-court ceremony ended, Kevin Garnett finished his magnesium powder, Pierce straightened his head, Arenas touched the soles of his shoes, Reed loosened his arm guards, PJ Brown stood in the center circle early, and the Celtics Five were ready.

The referee tonight is the league's famous master of balance, Steve Jarvey, the referee who is known for his ability to control the situation was named to officiate this game, which is enough to show that the league attaches great importance to this pizza, and also shows that Stern really doesn't want the two teams, especially Leon, to have any more moths.

O'Neal Jr. and PJ Brown jumped the ball, O'Neal took the lead in the ball, the Pacers attacked, Tinsley controlled the ball, and the game officially began.

The Pacers' starting lineup is a bit different from last season, they managed to grab Stephen Jackson ahead of the Atlanta Hawks in the summer, and then they traded Brad Miller, got Pollard, and corrected Jerry Foster, and in the starting lineup, they actually fielded O'Neal Jr., Jackson, Artest, Tinsley and Reggie Miller's big four small lineup, this lineup also played amazingly after the start of the season.

This is undoubtedly a bold attempt by O'Brien and Vogel in terms of tactics, which not only inherited Pitino's tactical ideas, but also was consolidated and strengthened by Leon during his time with the Celtics, especially with strong statistical support, which is why O'Brien and Vogel were able to get the support of Larry Bird, so that he finally gave up Carlisle and was willing to hire them to take charge of the Pacers.

Of course, in the face of the Celtics' inside line, Garnett and Brown, they still dare to sacrifice this lineup, and Leon knows that O'Brien must be prepared.

"With such a risky lineup at the beginning, what was the other side thinking?" Carlisle couldn't help muttering, if you deal with other teams, forget it, the Celtics are not vegetarian insiders, where can a little O'Neal withstand it?

On the first offense, the Pacers played a simple No. 5 tactic, playing the ball to O'Neal Jr., who was able to receive Artest's pass in a good position on the left side, and then turned over and hit a shot to open the scoring.

"Than Thomas's tactics are simple but effective......," Leon thought to himself as he watched O'Neal Jr.'s goal. Thomas is too complicated in his offensive tactics, and at the same time too reliant on the low post of the forwards, and is undoubtedly outdated in the current trend of more and more crowded space and everyone is trying to find ways to expand the space.

Before Leon could finish his sigh, Arenas dribbled just past half and was suddenly caught by Artest and Stephen Jackson! Before Arenas could react, the ball had been intercepted by Artest, Jackson rushed to the front court quickly, Atay made a pass, and Jackson dunked!

A double bag clip for the pseudo-full-field.

The ball just now, it was originally Tinsley against Arenas, and at the moment when Arenas was just over halftime, Tinsley suddenly let go of Arenas to chase Pierce, and Jackson and Artay forced Arenas in the corner of the half. O'Neal Jr. blocked Garnett and Brown by himself near the top of the arc, and Miller stared at Reed, resulting in a mistake by Arenas.

"This is a derivative defensive tactic of Pitino's full-court packing, which should have started to press with a double pack just after the serve, and now they wait for Arenas to pass through the half, although it is easy to be penetrated by a pass from the opponent, but the effect is also better, because our space is compressed by half......" Leon commented in his heart about this defense, it was indeed a good defense that was unexpected, it was obviously designed.

Then the Celtics attacked again, and the Pacers no longer used this defense, but began to mark man, O'Neal Jr. against Brown, let Stephen Jackson go against Garnett, and began to go around the front defense.

Before the game, Leon arranged the opening court for the players to have more small cooperation and one-on-one singles, because he knew that the Pacers would definitely use more one-on-one single defense, which was Vogel's favorite, and the best way to deal with single defense was naturally singles, and singles were used to force the Pacers to make changes in the defensive formation.

But Jackson's defense was quite brave, Garnett was not in place for a while, and Jarvey's whistle did not move, even though some of Jackson's movements had been pushed and pulled.

On the other hand, Artest kept Pierce on the tightest guard, and finally Arenas had to complete a pick-and-roll with Brown before breaking through to the mid-range and forcing a jumper. The ball flies quickly in the air and hits the board into the basket!

For an important goal, the Pacers' three fronts are all black and hard all-round defenders, and if you want to find a breakthrough, you must work the guard.

But then, when Jackson hit a three-point jumper after a pick-and-roll from beyond the three-point line, Leon knew that tonight's game was going to be tough. (To be continued.) )