After the game against the Rockets, the Pacers returned to their home court for a day of rest before heading off for a game on the road, the Pacers are now on a nine-game winning streak and are gaining momentum, but it won't be easy for them to get a 10-game winning streak because their next opponent is the mighty Atlanta Hawks.

The Hawks' performance this season has really been eye-catching, with two interior combinations that are very similar in terms of function and style of play, plus a group of outside shooters, the Hawks have a bit of the charm of the Spurs team that David Robinson and Duncan were on back then. In the current environment, where the offense represented by the Warriors and Pacers is more of an outside-oriented team, and the Hawks and Grizzlies are one of the few teams that insist on combining inside and outside, and the team has a good record.

For example, this year's Spurs and Rockets, although they also have super interior players like Duncan and Howard, the team's tactics have begun to gradually tilt to the outside, especially the Spurs, who still insisted on using Duncan as the core at the beginning of this season, but the results were not particularly ideal, so their core has gradually shifted to the fast-growing Leonard.

But the Eagles' two inside lines are different from those pure inside lines of other teams, neither of them is the kind of standing pile type of inside line, and the range is not bad, which also leads to the Eagles can completely empty the inside line when necessary, so as to use their high mobility and range advantage to maneuver with the opponent.

This season, the Hawks' record has almost always occupied the first place in the East, and this position is very solid, even if the Pacers won a wave of 9 consecutive wins under the leadership of Ye Xuan, they only rushed to the second place in the East, which is still 4 wins worse than the Hawks who have always been in the first place in the East, and the Cavaliers, who have just formed a new Big Three this year, can only rank third in the East, which is two wins worse than the Pacers.

It's not because the Cavaliers are too poor on paper, but because the Cavaliers' coach really doesn't know what they're doing, and there is no chemistry between the Big Three just formed, so getting acquainted with each other still consumes a lot of time, but they have also achieved an 8-1 record recently.

On January 22, the game against the Hawks started on time, and the Pacers also wanted to win this game, after all, as long as they won this game, they would be able to win 10 in a row, but the Hawks would not let the Pacers get their wish so easily.

At the beginning of the game, Hibbert won the jump ball smoothly, in fact, it is not surprising, whether the opponent is Paul Millsap or Al Horford, the height is relatively disadvantaged, but the strength of these two is mainly in the sports battle.

Ye Xuan controlled the ball and came to the frontcourt, and the Eagles also directly sent Demar Carroll to defend Ye Xuan in accordance with 'international practice', Ye Xuan's physical fitness is naturally not reflected in the face of this beast small forward, but using this kind of small forward to defend Ye Xuan means that as long as Ye Xuan can pass the opponent, the defensive end will be very passive.

Sure enough, after Ye Xuan has been improved many times, he is no longer the Ye Xuan at the beginning of the season, and directly used the feints and speed to pass Carol in front of him, and Korver on the side hurriedly came over to make up for Ye Xuan, but Ye Xuan's speed is what Korver's turtle speed can catch up, and as a result, he can only watch Ye Xuan connect the two of them, and then hit the ball with a throw.

However, in the face of Ye Xuan's strong opening, the Hawks were not to be outdone, and immediately made a block by Jeff Teague and Paul Millsap, and then passed back to Mishen, who received the ball with a feint and shook off Hibbert, who came over to make up for the defense, and then handed the ball to Horford with a low hand, Horford only needed to jump lightly and put the ball into the basket with both hands.

I have to say that the Hawks have defeated many teams with this kind of small cooperation on the inside, including the Cavaliers and the Warriors, who have also lost to the Hawks this season. Fortunately, the Pacers still have a great advantage in the competition on the outside, Ye Xuan's point can often involve the attention of two people, and sometimes he can even find a gap in the bag between two people, which makes the Pacers not have any advantage on the inside, but they can still play back and forth with the opponent.

In fact, Korver also needs to pay some responsibility in this situation, because Korver's movement is really a bit frighteningly slow, which is why he has a very good shooting ability, but he has not become an all-round guard like Ye Xuan, Curry, or Reggie Miller, but can only be a simple spot shooter.

However, since Ye Xuan directly used up the large-scale physical recovery potion in the last game, if Ye Xuan was still allowed to play continuously like the game against the Warriors in this game, Ye Xuan would definitely not be able to bear it. Therefore, Ye Xuan played very hard in the first quarter of the game, wanting to establish an absolute advantage from the first quarter like the previous game, and then win the game in one fell swoop.

It's a pity that although the opponent can't defend against Ye Xuan's point when defending, it won't be like the last game against the Rockets, constantly making mistakes on the offensive end, not only losing the ball, but also giving the Pacers a chance to break fast. Therefore, although the Pacers played very aggressively at the beginning, they did not have any advantage in the score.

By the time the television was timed out in the first quarter, the Pacers were unable to establish a solid enough lead, and the margin between the two teams hovered between two and five points. At this time, the Hawks took the lead in personnel adjustments, taking the lead in replacing Carroll and Korver, with Schroder Jr., and Soflosa, who had just been traded from the Thunder.

First, because Schroder is the key training object of the Hawks, there is no problem in letting Xiao Huang Mao play for a while. On the other hand, he also wanted Soflosa to restrict Ye Xuan a little, after all, Korver's defense was really a little weak, while Soflosa was able to cause Ye Xuan some trouble on the defensive end. And in terms of the speed of the defense, Schroeder and Sofrosa are obviously faster than Carroll and Korver.