Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, held at the Charlotte City Coliseum. Compared to the Auburn Hills Palace Arena, it is much more shabby.

Charlotte's mayor never dreamed that a year-old rookie would make it to the NBA's divisional finals. Now the NBA has one game a day, and every game is broadcast live across the United States, and the shabby facilities of the Charlotte City Coliseum are also watched by audiences across the United States and even the world through live broadcasts.

If he had known that the Bobcats would make it to the division finals, Mayor Charlotte would have to build a new arena.

The city gymnasium is in disrepair and is often used for middle school sports meets, and the seats are also dilapidated, and the appearance is even more unsightly. It should have been a good publicity opportunity for the city of Charlotte, but now it's a negative one. Jordan originally invited the mayor to watch the game today, but the mayor himself was a little embarrassed to come.

I remembered that the Hornets moved out of Charlotte City because of the dilapidated arena, and if this continued, Charlotte City would not become a laughing stock for basketball fans. After learning the hard way, the mayor of Charlotte personally contacted Jordan to express his intentions and decided to allocate $300 million to build a new arena for the Bobcats.

Jordan is really good these days, one after another, first the team wins. Then the mayor came to the door to help the team build the arena, and Jordan mentioned it in the summer, and they didn't pay attention to him.

In the end, the home tickets were sold out, which has never happened before. In the past, there were 18,000 seats, but two or three thousand were vacant each time, and the same was true in the playoffs.

With a historic run to the divisional finals, everything was different.

This is the reality of sports clubs, there are results, there is attention, there is everything.

On May 27, 2004, the third game of the Eastern Conference Finals officially began.

The warring sides, the Bobcats, the Pistons.

Hu Qingniu and Larry Brown smiled at each other on the sidelines, I don't know why, Hu Qingniu always felt that Old Man Brown was smiling a little weirdly today. It felt like, digging a pit waiting for him to jump.

The two teams have long been very familiar with each other after the first two games, skipping any prelude and directly starting to pinch each other.

As the side that won the last game, Hu Qingniu had no reason to make adjustments, so he still followed the strategy of the previous game, focusing on the inside twin towers.

If the Pistons don't flank the shot, then the main one is Sabonis, who can save a lot of effort by playing big instincts alone. If the opponent flanks Sabonis, then hand it over to Dazhi, although it is not a simple mode, but there are many scoring opportunities.

was suppressed by the opposite twin towers one after another, and the double Wallace was very faceless, but he was helpless, and at the end of the first quarter, the difference had been stretched to 5 points.

In the second quarter, the two teams put on bench lineups as usual.

But when it started, Hu Qingniu realized that something was wrong, who was the blue No. 15 opposite, wasn't that a melon, could he still fight?

Hu Qingniu recalled carefully that Melon seemed to have only played about 8 minutes in the first quarter before being replaced. Now it seems that this is what Old Man Brown has arranged a long time ago, and he has changed the formation and let Melon bring a substitute.

For a while, Prince was partnering the other four in the starting lineup.

Melon's aggressiveness, Hu Qingniu simulated it a little in his mind, Ragabel and Stevenson were too short, and Melon's shooting speed and action speed were very fast, it was difficult for them to interfere with him.

As for Gerald Wallace, Hu Qingniu glanced over and glanced at him at the end of the bench. Since returning from the ban, Hu Qingniu has been letting him play as a substitute, and he has not played 10 minutes in a game.

But now the situation is that the opposite side is melon. Well, there is no other choice, give him a chance.

"Gerald! Get ready to warm up! Hu Qingniu shouted at the end of the bench, and Gerard Wallace looked up, with surprise in his eyes.

Gerald Wallace, who was guarding the water cooler, was already desperate, and finally the team reached the Eastern Conference Finals, which was his chance to make a name for himself. But because of the fight, the coach has stopped reusing himself. During this time, Gerard Wallace felt like he was back in the time when he was with the Kings, sitting next to the water cooler, pouring water for his teammates every day, and waving a towel.

Regretting the beginning, Gerald Wallace thought about it carefully after the incident, and found that the entire Bobcats were dying by themselves. Even Reggie Evans, who is admittedly hot-tempered, was only pulled into the water by himself once. Other times be a good baby. But Gerard Wallace is already a second offender. The first time he violated the rules and rode a motorcycle, he was injured, and the second time he was jealous of others, and it also caused a fight.

When the opportunity comes, it's up to him to see if he can seize it, Wallace cheers himself up in his heart, and this time he must regain the trust of the coach.

Gerard Wallace warms up on the sidelines and waits for dead ball time.

But after waiting for two minutes, there was still no dead ball on the field, and by this time Melon had already raised his butcher's knife and slaughtered the Bobcats' substitutes.

Mid-range shots, three-pointers, face frame breaks, back plays, worthy of being called an offensive kaleidoscope, Little Melon is just a rookie, but he has taught lessons to two old birds on the Bobcats' side who are known for their defense.

The 5-point advantage disappeared in an instant, Hu Qingniu originally wanted to see the situation, and he didn't want to waste the timeout. Because in hand-to-hand combat with a team like the Pistons, every timeout is precious.

This is especially true for Hu Qingniu, who has excellent on-the-spot adjustments, who is accustomed to making a late move, first figuring out the Pistons' routines, and then calling a timeout.

But there was no dead ball on the field, just when Hu Qingniu was hesitating to call this timeout. Ragabel, who was on the field, seemed to understand the coach's dilemma, and he got a foul by holding the ball carrier early when attacking from the opposite side, and the dead ball time came.

However, because the Bobcats did not commit four fouls, the opponent only got one out-of-bounds serve.

Ragabel's spirituality bought him time to stay on the court, and Hu was hesitant to take Bale off because he was relatively less physical, and he would be blown up when he switched defenses against melons. But this hand led the foul himself, which made Hu Qingniu understand that Bale is a player who can observe the situation on the court. In other words, he has a higher basketball IQ than Stevenson.

So, Hu Qingniu decisively took Stevenson down and replaced him with Gerard Wallace.

Gerald Wallace, who scored 12 points, performed well. He didn't care about his physical strength to block Melon's offensive line, ensuring that he didn't miss a single step.

Rao is melon has rich offensive skills, and his body is a little stronger than the opponent, but he is also very uncomfortable to defend and his attack is blocked. Melon still has to save his energy to wait for the decisive battle, but Gerard Wallace knows that if he doesn't work hard now, it may be the last time he will play in this game.

At the end of the second quarter, the Bobcats caught up again.

When Gerard Wallace came off the field, Hu Qingniu patted him on the shoulder with satisfaction.

"Well done, boy."

Gerard Wallace went back to the dressing room in a glee.

The melon incident reminded Hu Qingniu that his fixed impression of Larry Brown was that he was rigid and rigid, but how could a head coach who could coach for 20 years and get so much praise not have two brushes. Now it's important to note what lies ahead of Larry Brown in the second half.

The weird smile before the opening, Hu Qingniu still remembers it in his heart.