The next day, the Pacers welcomed the Atlanta Hawks at home. Although the Hawks have made the playoffs for six consecutive seasons, the team is not in good shape at the moment, and before the season, general manager Danny Ferry overhauled the team according to his own ideas, forming the current roster, the team missed out on the former starting power forward Josh Smith, who has become a free agent, and signed veterans Paul Millsap and Elton Brand instead, and hired former Spurs assistant coach Mike Budenhall as the team's head coach.

Although there are still many talented players in the squad, such as Al Horford, Jeff Teague and Louis Williams, the chemistry between the players after the major change has been the biggest problem for the team this season. Al Hoford's health issues plagued the team late in the season and a lack of coordination between the players, resulting in as many as six players averaging more than 10 points per game, but only hovering between 7th and 8th in the East. Coach Frank, on the other hand, also sees his opponent as a potential opponent in the first round of the playoffs.

Before the start of the game, Coach Frank also simply adjusted the lineup, since it is the opponent of the playoffs, it is better to use the lineup that will play in the playoffs in the future to practice. So Ye Xuan was promoted to the starting position, let Ye Xuan play point guard, and Paul George mentioned the small forward position, with Lance Stephenson as the sixth man.

The game started soon, Ye Xuan, who was promoted to scoring guard again, was very active at the beginning, and after making a no-ball cover with David West, he ran out of the vacancy, and Hill's pass also arrived instantly, Ye Xuan received the pass and took a step inward to make Jeff Teague, who had come to the defense, retreat, and then took a step back to the three-point line, and directly hit a three-point shot. After hitting this shot, Ye Xuan glanced at Korver very meaningfully, after all, he relied on his projection talent to get into the NBA.

As a result, Korver didn't feel those deep meanings, he only thought that Ye Xuan was provoking him, and after coming to the front court, he beckoned directly to Teague, and Jeff Teague rarely saw Korver take the initiative to ask for the ball, so he didn't consider handing the ball to him directly, Korver received the ball and shot a super long three points directly in the face of Ye Xuan. After hitting the three-pointer, Korver said to Ye Xuan, "You will pay for your arrogance, rookie." Ye Xuan was also confused.

However, Ye Xuan found that Korver's speed was indeed slow enough, Ye Xuan didn't let his teammates help this time, he ran out of the gap with a reverse bottom line run, and the pickled pepper's ball arrived immediately, Ye Xuan received the ball, and hit a three-pointer in the bottom left corner.

After the shot, because of Korwall's provocation just now, Ye Xuan glanced at Korver again, and then blew his hand, indicating that his hand felt hot today. However, Korver is a veteran after all, and he is a pitcher known for his stability, so he did not rush back in anger, but ran tactics as usual.

And Jeff Teague and Demarare Carroll, who controlled the ball, made a block and broke through directly, Ye Xuan hurried over to make up for Teague, but Teague made a back pass and handed the ball directly to Korver, who was ambushed in the bottom corner, and another empty three-point shot, Korver hit a 3-point shot, and shrugged at Ye Xuan.

And on the commentary table on the sidelines, Jeff Van Gundy found a clue, "Oh, after the opening, the scoring guards on both sides were full of firepower and had already shot two three-pointers respectively, but I found an interesting thing, after Ye Xuan shot three points in the opening game, he stared at Korver intentionally or unintentionally, and Korver also sprayed trash talk directly at Ye Xuan after returning the color. It seems that Ye Xuan intends to challenge the league's top three-point master. ”

Mark Jackson also went on to say, "yes, the two of them were still shooting each other's second three-pointers and made a defiant move at the opponent, and it looks like we could see a three-point battle today." ”

Not to mention that the two people at the commentary table chatted hotly, and the rhythm on the court also changed rapidly, after Hill handed the ball to Pickle Pepper to deal with, he took the defender away and pulled away to let Pickle Pepper play alone.

Pickled peppers faced Demarre Carroll's defense, directly changed direction in front of the opponent, and then hit a shot. Turning around, Teague hoisted the ball to Paul Millsap, who was in a position to play inside, and Millsap used his footwork to shake off David West and made a layup. In the next few rounds, the Pacers' offense was very smooth, and under Hill's tandem, Pickled Pepper and Ye Xuan's offensive efficiency was very high.

The Hawks, on the other hand, barely maintained the score with their super high three-point shooting percentage. When the game entered the first quarter of the TV timeout, Frank temporarily replaced Ye Xuan, who had scored 12 points on 4-of-5 three-point shooting, and replaced Lance Stephenson, at this time the score of the two teams was 22:19 The Pacers led by three points.

After Lance came on the court, Pickles returned to his familiar position as a shooting guard, facing the slow Kyle Korver, forcing a direct breakthrough into the box and causing a foul on Millsap, who hit both free throws. The other party also found out about this problem and hurriedly asked Carroll to switch defenses with Korver.

However, on the offensive end, the Hawks still maintained their hot touch, and after Jeff Teague and Carroll made a wall-to-wall cooperation, they directly retreated to the three-point line and hit the shot. The offensive success rate of both sides was very high, and with less than 3 minutes left in the first quarter, Coach Frank took the lead in replacing the main lineup to rest, and Mike Budenhozer saw that the opponent replaced the main team, so he also waved his hand and replaced his own substitute.

Compared with the Pacers' defensive benches, the Hawks' benches are known for their sharp offense, and Scola missed the shot after receiving the ball, allowing the Hawks to seize the opportunity instantly. Elton Brand grabbed the rebound and handed it to Shervin Mark, Shervin Mark, after quickly advancing to the frontcourt, a horizontal pass handed the ball to Louis Williams next to him, and Lou Wei received the pass and pulled it up directly and shot it, hitting the three-point shot.

After the bench team finished the first quarter on the court, Ye Xuan found that today's Hawks' three-point shooting rate is indeed very unscientific, only in the first quarter of the game, the Hawks shot 8 of 11 three-pointers, and the shooting rate was as high as 72%. The Hawks also led the Pacers by four points at 36:32 at the end of the first quarter with a super shooting percentage.