On the evening of January 4, 2000, Bankers Living Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana.

On this day, the Pacers sit at home to meet the challenge of the Nets.

After two months of scheduling, the Pacers have shown extraordinary competitiveness, winning against many of the league's strongest teams, and currently have a 20-9 record, which is on par with the Nets.

Before the start of the game, many people were optimistic that the Pacers would beat the Nets, because during this time, the Nets suffered some injuries, Armstrong and Cage were not healed, but fortunately their injuries were not large, and they only needed a few days to recover.

For the Nets, although Armstrong and Cage are important, as long as Chi Liang stays healthy, the Nets are the new strong team in the league and can still maintain strong strength.

Now Ji Liang has become a representative of the technical flow, skillful footsteps under the basket, accurate mid- and long-distance shooting, solid card position technology, excellent defense ability, and unstoppable assist ability, these are his best labels.

Chi Liang's style of play is undoubtedly quite difficult to restrict, he can attack inside and out, attack and defend well, and there are almost no flaws at all, so during this period of time, even if other teams have thought of many ways, it is difficult to stop Chi Liang's play.

In this game, the Nets sent O'Neal Jr., Chi Liang, Newman, Kidders and Billups, although the lineup is not complete, the Nets are still strong.

Pacers

Center: Rick Schmitz

Power forward: Dale Davis

Small forward: Jalen Rose

Shooting guard: Miller

Point guard: Mark Jackson

"Guys, the tactics for this game are very simple, we need to speed up the pace and try to drain their stamina, do you understand?"

Before going on the court, Coach Rivers pointed to the tactics board and set the basic strategy for this game based on the age of the Pacers' starters.

The game started on time with O'Neal Jr. and Davis jumping the ball.

Ji Liang is ready to run forward at any time, while Billups is standing in the back, ready to catch the ball, no matter how you look at it, O'Neal Jr. has a significantly better chance of winning the jump ball.

Unfortunately, O'Neal Jr. jumped at the wrong time, causing Davis to snatch the opening ball away.

The Pacers are on offense, Jackson is dribbling the basketball steadily, Ji Liangluo is low to defend Davis, his defensive duties are easy tonight, and Dale Davis is just a blue-collar player.

Soon, Davis received the ball with his back and didn't dare to single Ji Liang at all, but he was experienced, and when the outside cross run was over, he distributed the ball and handed it to Jalen Rose.

Compared with last season, Rose's performance is significantly better, averaging 18.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4 assists per game so far, and has a tendency to become the core of the Pacers.

After the pass, Davis immediately moved to the other side and tried to pull Ji Liang aside, but due to his lack of attack, Ji Liang was not fully attracted while focusing part of his attention on Rose.

At the same time, Schmitz stepped forward and completed the pick-and-roll for Rose.

Rose broke through, O'Neal Jr. had to change defenses, his speed could barely keep up with Rose, but Rose easily shook off and made a jump shot.

Ji Liang hurriedly stepped forward to help defend, but Rose had already completed his shooting action and hit the basket easily.

After the amplifier conversion, the Nets served quickly, and the Pacers were clearly prepared, and they stepped back quickly and did not give the Nets a chance to go fast.

Billups pressed the rhythm and waited for his teammates to settle down, at this time, Ji Liang stood in the waist position and took the initiative to reach out for the ball.

Chi Liang is the cornerstone of the Nets, a big leader, and has unlimited firing rights, and Billups naturally passed the ball to him.

At the moment of receiving the ball, Ji Liang moved a small step to the right front, and he was about to use his speed to pass Davis.

Unexpectedly, just as he was about to complete the breakthrough, Schmitz and Rose immediately left the defenders behind and wanted to form an encirclement with Davis.

At this moment, the three of them are ready to wrap Chi Liang!

Although he was extremely confident in himself, in the face of the three players' bag defense, Ji Liang did not have a hard idea, and before they completed the bag, he decisively passed to the unguarded Newman.

Unguarded, Newman raised his hand and shot to score two points for the Nets.

In the first two minutes, the two sides went back and forth, mainly to temptation, and unexpectedly, both teams felt very hot, so in the following time, Chi Liang reduced his singles and began to focus on assists.

First, Ji Liang broke through the ball, and after attracting Schmitz's defense, he assisted O'Neal Jr. to score a dunk.

In the next round, Ji Liang drew the ball to Kidders, who made a layup.

Soon, Ji Liang assisted Kidders again, and this time Kidders ran to the bottom corner outside the three-point line and hit a three-pointer in the hollow.

It didn't take long for Kidders to be the same, and there was an empty space using O'Neal Jr.'s cover, and Ji Liang immediately passed the ball, and the former made a jump shot after receiving the ball.

……

In this game, Kidders' hands were hot and hot, and it felt like he had blown Miller up.

Before the game, no one would have thought that Kidders would break out, and Pacers coach Bird was also surprised, but he didn't expect Miller to be unable to guard Kidders.

However, Bird did not take any measures, thinking that Kidders was in good shape, and maybe his true form would soon be revealed.

"Let's do it today!" After Kidders hit three goals in a row, Chi Liang increased the strength of assisting Kidders, and at the same time, under his instructions, O'Neal Jr. also continued to cover for Kidders, as long as Kidders had space to shoot, Ji Liang's pass would arrive.

The next time is the show time for Ji Liang and Kidders, and as the organizer of the team, Ji Liang has most of the rights to handle the ball.

Often when he gets the ball, he will immediately attract the attention of the Pacers, and then attract the bag, which is also the strategy that Pacers head coach Bird has established before the game, mainly to limit Ji Liang's play.

So far in the season, Chi Liang has already become the focus of research for other teams in the league, but after research, they all feel a headache, which is related to Chi Liang's characteristics.

Chi Liang's characteristics are very obvious, that is, all-round, accurate shooting, strong organization, sharp feet in the low post, excellent defense, very good at using his physical advantages to crush opponents, this type of all-round player, it is extremely difficult to defend, but several characteristics of Chi Liang almost belong to the top level, this kind of player without defects, almost impossible to defend.

If you want to defend against Chi Liang, it is almost impossible to do it alone, so before the opening, the Pacers focused on Chi Liang and wanted to limit his play.

In Bird's view, as long as Ji Liang's play is limited, then the threat of the Nets will undoubtedly drop a notch.

Unfortunately, what he didn't expect was that the Nets had a good hand, especially Kidders ushered in an explosion.

Kidders lived up to Chi Liang's trust, his hot hand and shooting percentage were high, scoring 17 points in the first quarter before being substituted.

With 17 points in the first quarter, it feels like a core.

Without a doubt, this was the highlight reel of Kidders.

However, the Nets' best performance is still Chi Liang, who played the first quarter hard, in this quarter of the game, Chi Liang's assist efficiency is very amazing, seven assists in the first quarter of Kidders, O'Neal Jr., Newman both got two assists, plus Billups, Margeti and Rucios Harris each got one assist.

14 assists in a single quarter, breaking Avery Johnson's record of 12 assists in a single quarter, and breaking the NBA single-quarter assist record!

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