"No matter how strong you are, we won this game today, and we will definitely win this series!"

At about 7 o'clock in the evening on May 19, Paul Pierce, who walked out of the players' tunnel amid the cheers of the audience, looked at Meng Xu, who was already making pre-game preparations on the court not far away, clenched his fists, and said very firmly in his heart.

Although Jermaine O'Neal has now returned, but due to injuries, his deterrence at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends has been greatly reduced, and after entering the playoffs, Jermaine O'Neal's average points per game are only less than 14 points, so the key to this series with the Pacers is the defense of Meng Xu, as long as Meng Xu is choked and his scoring efficiency is reduced, then the probability of the Celtics defeating the Pacers will be greatly increased.

Because of Kevin Garnett on the inside, the Celtics are not afraid of those outside players who focus on breakthroughs, but when they encounter Meng Xu, who can break through and shoot, they have a headache, and the players who defend Meng Xu must not only be physically strong and not be squeezed away, but also move well and cannot be passed by Meng Xu in one step, which is why Paul Pierce should take the initiative to ask Ying to apply to defend Meng Xu, because with the current situation of the Celtics, The best person to defend Meng Xu is only Paul Pearce.

In the series with the Cavaliers, although he was a little embarrassed when he was against LeBron James, after 7 series, Pierce has also accumulated rich defensive experience, and James and Meng Xu are the same type of players, so for defending Meng Xu, Pierce still has a little confidence, as long as he takes out the end of defending James and treats Meng Xu as a James defense.

"The Celtics and Pacers are the two teams with the best regular season records this season, and both have shown the potential to win a championship in the playoffs, so this season's Eastern Conference Finals will definitely be one of the best matchups in recent seasons."

After all the players on both sides walked out of the player tunnel, Kenny Smith on the sideline commentary bench began to tout the two teams, as the only NBA playoff game today, and one of the most important games of the season, TNT took out almost all of its broadcast resources to broadcast the game between the Pacers and the Celtics live, TNT is very much looking forward to the Pacers and Celtics series, can set a new ratings record.

"In the pre-game press interview, both Meng and Paul seem to look down on each other, Paul said that he would let Meng Xu postpone his retirement, while Meng said that his decision will never change, and the Celtics have no ability to make changes, Charles, what do you think about this?" Paul Pierce's shouting to Meng Xu before the game attracted countless eyeballs and caused a lot of controversy, and Kenny Smith, the melon-eating masses, did not have the consciousness of calming things down at all, after all, controversy has ratings.

"This time I'm on Meng's side, Paul is obviously a little overconfident, Meng is far stronger than he imagined, and he is not as strong as he imagined, the last round of the series is proof that this time he is going to play against Meng, who is stronger than LeBron, so I don't think Paul can deliver on what he said." Although Barkley also joined the Rockets in the twilight of his career, to join forces with the two old guys of Big Dream and Glider, but for those superstar-studded teams, Barkley has always had no good face, from the Lakers in F4 to the current Big Three Celtics, Barkley doesn't look down on them very much, maybe this is what Lao Ke did, you can't do it, but in all fairness, Barkley was already on the verge of retirement when he went to the Rockets, and Barkley didn't win the championship even if he went to the Rockets, Perhaps it is the reason for this failure that makes Barkley a little "dark" in his heart.

After Barkley expressed his support for Meng Xu, Kenny Smith and Reggie Miller on the side were obviously stunned for a moment, probably thinking in their hearts whether this product got the wrong script today, you jumped out to support the Pacers, but what should we do, is it possible for the three of us to unanimously support the Pacers and Meng Xu, this is also too nonsense, and will be scolded to death by Celtics fans and spectators.

"I think what Paul said is not entirely unreasonable, the Celtics have three superstars in their playing years, in addition to Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, Leon Bowie, these great role players, and Sam Cassell, Eddie House, P.J. Brown and other playoff veterans, so it is unrealistic that the Celtics have no chance at all." After making eye contact with Reggie Miller, Kenny Smith had to stand up for the Celtics, and as Reggie Miller, it was impossible to support the Celtics, so this time he could only let Kenny Smith sing the villain.

"Kenny, if you want to win a championship, you can't just build up stars." If it was Barkley who said what he said just now, then Reggie Miller would definitely have to debate with him, and even take out the pain point of his failure to huddle back then, but now it is the "poor" Kenny Smith who said this, so Reggie Miller decided to let him go and just express his own opinion.

"Reggie is right." As soon as Reggie Miller's words fell, Barkley echoed, but soon Barkley thought of something and hurriedly began to change the topic: "The Pacers have some changes in their starting lineup today, Meng changed to the No. 2 position today, and James Posey started today at the No. 3 position, are the Pacers going to change their tactics today?" ”

"Compared to the Pacers, the Celtics' starting lineup today has not changed, it is still center Kendrick Perkins, power forward Kevin Garnett, small forward Paul Pierce, shooting guard Ray Allen, and playmaking guard Rajon Rondo."

"The Celtics have a very weak rotation because the Big Three occupy most of the team's salary space, so they basically don't have much room to change the lineup, but the Pacers, Rick Carlisle is very fond of playing some new tricks."

After Barkley and Reggie Miller read out the starting lineups of both sides, the starters of both sides, who had finished their warm-ups, began to stand in their respective positions, and Darko Milicic and Kevin Garnett, who were jumping on behalf of both teams, also walked into the center circle one after another, waiting for the referee on duty to blow the whistle for the start of the game.

"Jermaine, are you alright?" Meng Xu, who was standing at the bottom of the center circle with Jermaine O'Neal, moved two steps to where Jermaine O'Neal was after seeing the strange look on Jermaine O'Neal's face, and then asked him softly.

"Meng, I'm fine." After a major injury this season, Jermaine O'Neal is no longer the spring man he once was, so the task of jumping the ball on behalf of the Pacers fell to Darko Milicic and Kwame Brown.