After a 4-0 sweep of the 76ers, the Pistons could sit back and wait for their opponents in the Eastern Conference Finals in Detroit. Contrary to this set of matchups, the other group of Eastern Conference semifinals was full of sparks, and Chang Wei relatively preferred to meet the Raptors, so that he could avenge last season's one-shot shot, but in the first four games, the Raptors actually tied with the Pacers.

This made a group of experts cry out in surprise, because judging from the rosters of both sides, it is clear that the Raptors have the upper hand, after all, they have Maddie and Carter, two of the league's best swingmen. What about walkers? Their inner core is O'Neal Jr., and the outside is led by Artest, although the strength is not bad, but it is still a lot worse than Maddie + Carter.

But unexpectedly, they were able to play inseparably with the Raptors, and experts said they couldn't understand this matchup. In fact, the Pacers were able to compete with the Raptors in large part because of O'Neal Jr., who has begun to enter the peak of his career, and he has almost dominated the interior on both offensive and defensive ends. Moreover, in the face of the Raptors' two major swingmen, the Pacers are not without cards to play, Artest and Harrington can also play a huge role in the game.

While the Pistons are preparing for the Eastern Conference Finals, they are also paying attention to the Pacers VS Raptors series, and Chang Wei is even more interested in watching it. Although O'Neal Jr. and Artest are now the No. 1 or No. 2 stars of the Pacers, Reggie Miller, the top scorer in league history, is still on the court, you must know that he is 39 years old this year, and his game can be said to be one less game. Chang Wei didn't catch up with him and Jordan when he was fighting, and he had to hurry up and make up for it at this time.

However, Chang Wei will not feel pity for the Pacers because of this, Miller did not get a championship ring in his previous life, so it doesn't matter if he does it again! So Chang Wei was watching the Pacers' game while thinking about how to beat them, the Raptors naturally didn't take it into his eyes, everyone was already so familiar, and there was nothing wrong with studying for a while.

But when Billups and the others privately asked Chang Wei who had more hope of making the cut, Chang Wei found it difficult to judge. In the previous life, the Pacers naturally reached the Eastern Conference Finals this season, but they have not encountered the Raptors, especially the current Raptors, whether they can advance to the Eastern Conference Finals is still a question worth pondering.

After 2-2, the fifth game was even more important. The Raptors showed great power on their home court, with Maddy and Carter combining for 21 points in the first quarter and helping the team take the lead. Although O'Neal Jr. can call the wind and rain on the inside, as long as he receives the ball in the low post, he will immediately encounter the crazy pinch of the Raptors' interior line, forcing him to pass the ball. Unfortunately, the Pacers' main pitchers are in a slump, and only veteran Miller has been able to take advantage of occasional opportunities. The Pacers' sluggish performance on the offensive end put them down 40-47 at the end of the first half.

Fortunately, at the beginning of the second half, Artest made consecutive breakthroughs to help the Pacers tie the score, and then the difference between the two sides never exceeded 5 points, and they also alternated leads many times. In the final critical moment, Miller stepped up and hit back-to-back three-pointers in the bottom corner to help the Pacers temporarily pull away the score. Although Maddy then also burst into the outside to score consecutive points, hoping to help the team save the situation, but they still couldn't stop Artest's breakthrough on the defensive end and O'Neal Jr.'s low-post single, and finally the Raptors lost 96-98, very regrettably lost the most critical battle of Tianwang Mountain in this round of the series.

Chang Wei also felt sorry for Maddie and the Raptors he led. In the last 3.9 seconds of the fourth quarter, Maddy could have killed the Pacers, and no matter how bad it was, he could drag the game into overtime, but Davis, who was responsible for receiving the ball, made a mistake and was directly cut out of the sideline by Ellington, which ultimately caused Maddy to lose his best chance to kill, and the Raptors also lost by 2 points.

But Maddie didn't give up, and after coming to Indianapolis, he showed the quality of a top point forward from the start of the game, completely dominating the entire offensive end. He single-handedly scored 16 points and four assists in the first quarter, and by the end of the first half, he had improved his stats to a quasi-triple-double of 23 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists.

With Maddy's supernatural performance, the Raptors suppressed the Pacers almost the entire game, and even their most powerful outside defender, Artest, was powerless against Maddy. In the end, the Raptors easily defeated the Pacers 102-88 on the road, and Maddy cut a big triple-double of 35 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists to stubbornly tie the score again.

When the game returned to Toronto, the Raptors were full of morale and once took a lead of more than 10 points. But the Pacers didn't give up, they simply focused most of their energy on the defensive end, building a highly layered defensive system based on O'Neal Jr. and Artest, and the Raptors players found that their scoring was not so easy from the second quarter onwards.

The Raptors, who scored 33 points in the first quarter, scored just 21 points in the second quarter while giving the Pacers 35 points, and by halftime they were already trailing their opponents by as many as 12 points. After the start of the second half, Maddy and Carter teamed up to set off a wave of counterattacks, and seeing that the difference between the two sides was about to come to within 5 points, Miller stepped up again and hit a three-pointer to open the difference.

Miller scored 16 points and dished out four assists on 4-of-6 shooting from the outside to help the Pacers defeat the Raptors in a brutal tie-break and become the Pistons' opponent in the Eastern Conference Finals. Chang Wei couldn't help but start to reflect on whether it was right for him to suggest that Maddie stay with the Raptors, and now it seems that if Maddie doesn't change his door, it will be difficult for him to win the championship.

But now is not the time to think about it, as the entire Pistons are focused on the next Eastern Conference Finals. They played the Pacers 4 times in the regular season and only lost 1 game, which still has a certain psychological advantage, but on the stage of the playoffs, this can only be used as a reference, and it cannot determine the final victory or defeat of the series.

The Pacers are relatively easier to deal with than the Raptors, but since they can eliminate their opponents and reach the Eastern Conference Finals, they must have their own uniqueness. Don't take any opponent lightly, that's what Brown has always instilled in the Pistons, and now that the Finals are just one step away, they are even less likely to let it go.