"Tyshawn, you start in place of Reggie in today's game and go to defend Richard on the other side."

"Jermaine, you play the No. 5 position today, don't have too much entanglement with the opponent under the basket on the offensive end, directly mention near the free throw line, and look for opportunities in the high post."

At around 7 p.m. on May 21, 2004, in the home locker room at the Bankers Living Arena, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle was holding a tactics board and explaining the tactics to several players who were about to start the game. Because the Pacers swept the Nets in the semifinals, and the rest of the teams went through six and seven games to separate the winners, the Pacers got more than a week of rest, so the Pacers are in a very good mood before the Eastern Conference Finals.

Rick Carlisle has coached the Pistons for two seasons, and several cores of the Pistons, Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups, and Ron Artest are all players recruited and promoted by Rick Carlisle, and even the current defensive system of the Pistons is built by Rick Carlisle himself, so Rick Carlisle is very familiar with the opponent the Pacers face in the Eastern Conference Finals.

After the Pistons fired Rick Carlisle and ushered in Larry Brown, under the operation of Larry Brown, the overall strength of the Pistons was significantly stronger than last season, but after Larry Brown took office, he did not completely overthrow the offensive and defensive system established by Rick Carlisle in the Pistons, but on the basis of Rick Carlisle, tinkered with it and further improved it, so the Pistons under Larry Brown and the Pistons coached by Rick Carlisle have their tactical characteristics. Even the shortcomings are very similar, and this gives Rick Carlisle the opportunity to prescribe the right medicine.

What do pistons do best? Defensively, of course, the Pistons have been one of the three best defensive teams in the league under Rick Carlisle, and after Larry Brown took over, the Pistons have become the team that has conceded the fewest points in the league this season. But in Rick Carlisle's view, the Pistons' goal is precisely defense, and the Pistons' defensive system is built with Ben Wallace as the core, Ben Wallace's single defense ability and co-defense ability are top-notch, but Ben Wallace has an obvious shortcoming, that is, height, Ben Wallace, who is officially 2.06 meters tall, is a little shorter than Meng Xu's real height, which leads to Ben Wallace in the face of those tall interior lines with a large attack range and a basket in his hand, he will basically be at the point where he has no place to use his strength. And the Pacers now have exactly one such an inside line, although Jermaine O'Neal's mid-range shooting is still some gap compared to Kevin Garnett and Nowitzki, the two little princes of jumpers, but Jermaine O'Neal's mid-range shooting is now quite stable, especially after blocking and dismantling with Meng Xu, the jump shooting rate near the free throw line is close to sixty percent.

"Guys, let's go, go and kick their asses, slaughter them, sweep them!" After arranging all the tactical arrangements, Rick Carlisle suddenly held up the tactical board in his hand and shouted a victory declaration to all the Pacers players in the locker room in a high-pitched voice like never before.

Rick Carlisle was ordered to take over the Pistons in two seasons, transforming the Pistons from a fish belly to an Eastern powerhouse, and led the team to the division semifinals for two consecutive seasons, but the management of the Pistons said that Rick Carlisle was fired, and even the day before Rick Carlisle was fired, Rick Carlisle was still representing the Pistons to the draft, and in this case he was fired, and no one could swallow this breath. It is also with a deep hatred for the Pistons management that Rick Carlisle took over the Pacers who had just eliminated him at the invitation of Larry Bird, and the Pacers defeated the Pistons twice at the Auburn Hills Palace Arena in the regular season this season, and every time Rick Carlisle saw the fans of the Auburn Hills Palace fall into a depression because of the team's loss, Rick Carlisle's heart will rise a sense of revenge, but after all, it is the regular season, not to mention that the Pistons have indeed become stronger under the leadership of Larry Brown, As a result, Pistons management won't regret firing Rick Carlisle. So before the regular season ended, Rick Carlisle hoped to meet the Pistons in the playoffs, but the Nets were too uncompetitive to pull the Pistons off the third spot. And when the Pistons eliminated the Heat in the semifinals to become the Pacers' final opponent, Rick Carlisle had to sigh that God really had eyes and finally gave himself this chance to get revenge.

"Sweep them away!" After a brief lull, there was a flurry of slogans in the Pacers' locker room.

。。。。。。

"It looks like the Indiana fans aren't very friendly to Richard!" When the visiting Pistons players walked out of the tunnel, the bankers' living arena instantly resounded with boos, especially when Richard Hamilton walked out of the tunnel, the boos reached its peak, and the extreme fans of the Pacers who had been waiting on both sides of the tunnel were spraying Hamilton with various words starting with F and words like traitor.

As the Pacers' No. 2 scorer in the Finals last season, the Pacers were able to defeat the Lakers to defend the championship, and Richard Hamilton was indispensable, but Hamilton joined the Pistons as a free agent after the end of the season, which also made Richard Hamilton, who was supposed to be an Indiana hero, become the target of everyone in Indiana overnight.

"Richard, are you alright?" Looking at Hamilton, whose face was cloudy, Ben Wallace, who was on Hamilton's side, also asked Hamilton with great concern. In fact, Ben Wallace's current mood is also very complicated, Larry Brown values Ben Wallace very much, but in Ben Wallace's heart, Larry Brown's status is not as good as Rick Carlisle, although before Rick Carlisle coached the Pistons, Ben Wallace had already mixed up some names, but Rick Carlisle was the first head coach to establish Ben Wallace as the core, and it was under Rick Carlisle that Ben Wallace was elected the best defensive player for two consecutive seasons, And made the All-Star and was named to the All-Star Team. Therefore, after the end of last season, when the management of the Pistons announced the dismissal of Rick Carlisle, Ben Wallace immediately called the general manager and expressed his protest, although the successor Larry Brown successfully convinced Ben Wallace with his ability, but Ben Wallace still can't help but miss Rick Carlisle in his heart.

In the current Pistons team, Ben Wallace has the same thoughts, but Ben Wallace is far more than the one, and the most missed Rick Carlisle among these people is undoubtedly this season's star Darko Milicic, Milicic has had many contacts with Rick Carlisle before participating in the draft, Rick Carlisle not only promised Milicic that the Pistons would definitely select him, but also formulated a detailed training plan, development, and playing time for him, but how to be a son of heaven and a courtier, The successor Larry Brown regards Milicic as a mustard, as the pride of the league as a leader, Milicic has only gained less than 200 minutes of playing time this season, so in Milicic's heart, the current head coach of the Pistons is not at all favorable.

"In today's game, the Pacers' starting lineup has changed a lot." When the players on both sides began to warm up, Michaels also got the list of starters for the two teams today, compared to the series with the Wizards and the Nets, the Pacers have a very large lineup today, first of all, Jermaine O'Neal went from the No. 4 position to the No. 5 position, and Nn Hilario started today, in addition to a big change, that is, Tyshawn Prince replaced Reggie Miller as the starting point guard of the Pacers, as he got older, Reggie Miller's state declined rapidly, In the series with the Nets, it even became a loophole for the Nets, so when facing the Pistons who were stronger than the Nets, after discussing with Reggie Miller, Rick Carlisle put Reggie Miller on the bench.

"The Pistons' starting lineup today hasn't changed much, it's still center Ben Wallace, power forward Rasheed Wallace, small forward Ron Artest, shooting guard Richard Hamilton, and playmaking guard Chauncey Billups."

"Sure enough, it's still the same." After seeing the Pistons' starting lineup, Rick Carlisle let go of a hanging heart, Larry Brown is a veteran coach with more than 20 years of coaching experience, so before the game started, Rick Carlisle was still a little worried about whether Larry Brown would change lineup today, and whether he would still have a killer weapon against the Pacers, but judging from the Pistons' starting lineup today, the probability of this possibility is very small.

The starting lineup and team tactics of the Pistons are very stable, and because there are no superstars in the Pistons team, the five main players each have obvious shortcomings, so the division of labor between several starters of the Pistons is clear, and the strength of the team and the whole is used to make up for the lack of individual ability to the greatest extent, which has the effect of 1+1 greater than 2, and because of this, the Pistons' tactics have very little room for turn, and many commonly used tactics do not have the soil to take root in the Pistons, because they lack the players and ability to implement this tactic.

Of course, Larry Brown, who is not far from Rick Carlisle at this time, is also guessing the tactics and style of play that the Pacers will use today, and before the start of this game, Larry Brown has a hunch that Rick Carlisle will definitely remove Reggie Miller, but Rick Carlisle's use of Jermaine O'Neal is really unexpected by Larry Brown. After all, the interior combination of Mutombo and Jermaine O'Neal still has a certain advantage in the face of the Pistons' double Wallace, and Rick Carlisle actually gave up this advantage today and replaced Mutombo with N.N. Hilario, a sophomore rookie, this bold change is something Larry Brown could never have imagined.

"Hmph, no matter how you change, as long as we follow the arrangement made in advance, there will be hope to take away a victory from here."

Larry Brown's pressure is very high now, originally after taking over the Pistons, Larry Brown didn't take his predecessor to heart, even after hearing the news that Rick Carlisle was in charge of the Pacers, Larry Brown laughed and knew, but who would have thought that his predecessor would play an earth-shattering season in the Pacers, and at this time, as Larry Brown, who snatched Rick Carlisle's position, will naturally be pulled out by Pistons fans for comparison, Although the management of the Pistons has been very supportive of himself so far, Larry Brown also knows that if he can't lead the Pistons to prove his strength in front of Rick Carlisle's Pacers, then his position will definitely be shaken, and Larry Brown also vaguely feels that his predecessor, who is full of bad taste, will definitely do something in this series to revenge the Repactors.