"We won! We won! On the evening of June 18, 2003, just after the referee on duty blew the whistle for the end of overtime, in the center of the court at the Staples Center, the home of the Lakers, the Pacers players celebrated wantonly on the court after the game, and the atmosphere in the Staples Center was extremely quiet, most of the fans were quietly watching the scene in front of them, and even a very small number of Lakers fans were already hiding their faces and crying.

At this time, the Pacers are very excited, today's victory in this game can be said to have basically laid the Pacers' road to defending the title, in the case of a big score of 3-1 lead, the Pacers defending this year's championship can be said to be a sure thing, so the Pacers are extremely excited and excited. Especially those players who have only joined the Pacers this season, to Mutombo who has not won a championship for many years, and rookies like Nn Hilario and Tyshaun Prince, their mood is even more exciting now, Mutombo is excited that after more than ten years of hard work, he finally has the opportunity to taste the championship, and for rookies like Hilario and Prince, entering the league in the first season, they can win the championship with the team, which will undoubtedly be more beneficial to their future careers.

Just as the Pacers were up and down, celebrating in a circle around the center of the court, Lakers head coach Phil Jackson stood on the sidelines, staring at the scoreboard with straight eyes, still can't believe that the game was lost like this, and similarly, all the players on the Lakers bench also looked at the court with a stunned face, especially Devin George had covered his face with a towel and cried, next to Devin George, O'Neal, who had six fouls in overtime, leaned on his seat with a huge body and looked at the court with a blank face. Among the Lakers players on the court, Kobe Bryant sat alone under the basketball hoop, glancing over the arena from time to time, while Payton and Malone walked to the sidelines with the same illness, leaning on the billboard, their eyes full of complexity.

In the interval between celebrating with his teammates, Meng Xu saw Kobe Bryant sitting in a daze under the basketball hoop, Meng Xu sighed softly, maybe it is really as Larry Bird said, after having O'Neal, Phil Jackson will not need Kobe, in today's game, if Phil Jackson can coordinate the timing of O'Neal and Kobe Bryant's efforts on the court, the Pacers have no chance to defeat the Lakers at all, and they don't even have the opportunity to drag the game into overtime, Phil Jackson is too superstitious about O'Neal, In his heart, as long as O'Neal stands on the court, he can solve a problem, and turning a blind eye to Kobe's growth, it is really very difficult to let a superstar who is at his peak go to another superstar of comparable strength and be a little brother, not to mention that Kobe Bryant is the kind of character who is unwilling to be subordinate, so the discord between O'Neal and Kobe Bryant has actually been doomed a long time ago. When lamenting Kobe, Meng Xu also thought of himself, in fact, in Meng Xu's bones, he is the same as Kobe, he loves to be in the limelight and is unwilling to be subordinate, maybe if he had been soft-hearted for a while and stayed in the Spurs, he might also face the status quo of Kobe and O'Neal.

Although today's game is only the fourth game of the series, today's game is undoubtedly very important for the trend of the entire series, which is why there are many so-called "bricks" who predicted in advance before the game that the team that wins this game will win the final victory of the series. And after losing this game, not only the outside media, but even the media up and down the Lakers, and the media that support the Lakers, do not think that the Lakers can reverse the Pacers and win the entire series after falling behind 1-3.

"In today's game, both teams played very well, both us and the Lakers showed their best form, it was a very difficult game, very lucky, we got the final victory!" When the post-game news will begin, Larry Bird, as the winner's side, still looks very calm, after all, winning this game only increases the odds of the Pacers winning, and the Pacers have not really defeated the Lakers and won the championship yet.

"Meng, can you tell me why you made so few 3-point shots in today's game?" After Larry Bird took the lead in speaking, the first reporter to ask the question directly pointed the microphone at Meng Xu, although Meng Xu is the core of the Pacers, but after Meng Xu came to the Pacers, he rarely attended the press conference before and after the game, especially in the playoffs, and was not strictly guarded by Larry Bird, which also made these reporters very dissatisfied, and today Meng Xu attended the post-game press conference for the first time, and these reporters on the scene naturally put all their attention on Meng Xu.

"The number of three-point shots is related to the team's tactics, and when we have a large group of excellent 3-pointers, I naturally have to reduce the number of 3-point shots." Meng Xu smiled slightly, said this sentence sincerely, and then motioned to the next reporter to ask a question.

After Meng Xu's answer ended, the reporters on the scene immediately whispered, after all, Meng Xu's famous saying is "It's easier to shoot 3 points than 2 points!", such a 3-point madman, after the team has other 3-point shooters, and reduce his 3-point shots, and use the two points that he thinks are more difficult, which is somewhat unbelievable.

"Meng, do you think that after winning today's game, you have already won the final victory? It looks like the Lakers can't pose any threat to you anymore. The second question was asked by a reporter from the Los Angeles Times, and the reporter from the Los Angeles Times asked a question, not only very unpopular, but also deliberately dug a pit and waited for Meng Xu to jump in, although in the case of a big score of 3-1 lead, even if Meng Xu said a little wild words, there would be nothing, but after these reporters who looked like dung, took the words out of context and deliberately distorted them, Meng Xu's "wild words" today will definitely cause the Lakers, and even all the fans who support the Lakers, to be angry. Therefore, after the Los Angeles Times reporter asked a question, the rest of the reporters on the scene were also waiting to see how Meng Xu responded, and O'Neal, who was sitting next to Meng Xu, looked at the reporter's eyes, obviously very angry, this reporter from the Los Angeles Times, when he asked this question, did not consider the feelings of Phil Jackson and O'Neal, who were also sitting at the scene, what is the Lakers can no longer pose any threat to the Pacers? If the reporter had asked a question in private, O'Neill would have been able to scold him.

"Do you think the Lakers don't have the slightest chance? Originally, I thought that as a media in Los Angeles, you would be a loyal supporter of the Lakers, and even if the Lakers were in a desperate situation, you would firmly believe that the Lakers would be able to get out of the quagmire, but, alas, 。。。。。。 Although after winning this game, the victory of the Pacers seems to be a certainty, but Meng Xu does not want to be very arrogant and shout a declaration of victory, because it is not only disrespectful to O'Neal and Kobe, but also disrespectful to himself. Therefore, Meng Xu did not answer this question directly, but first asked the reporter a rhetorical question, and Meng Xu began to shake his head as he spoke, obviously very disappointed that the reporter of the Los Angeles Times could ask such a question. Then with a sigh, looking at the embarrassed dark color on the reporter's face, Meng Xu said slowly: "Here I want to quote a famous quote from Mr. Phil, the charm of basketball is that no amount of Hollywood scripts can write all the changes on the basketball court." There are seven games in the whole series, and winning this one can only mean that we are one step closer to victory! And the Lakers have Shaq, Kobe, today's game, the two of them combined to score more than 80 points, and they also have Gary and Carl and Robert, such a group of great players, so although we won today, we still won't take it lightly. ”

"This kid, it's a talent if you don't want to be a coach!" Originally, he was still a little worried, and Larry Bird, who fell into the pit as soon as Meng Xu's mind was hot, showed a smile on his face after hearing Meng Xu's answer, in the NBA, the winner can be arrogant or open-mouthed, but the winner still has to show the generosity that the winner should have, in order to gain the respect of others, and to those who shoot casually and belittle the opponent after winning, they will definitely become the target of everyone's siege.

After Meng Xu's voice fell, Phil Jackson and O'Neal turned their heads to look at Meng Xu almost at the same time, the reason why Phil Jackson looked at Meng Xu was naturally because Meng Xu quoted his own sentence, and the reason why O'Neal looked at Meng Xu was because of Meng Xu's appreciation and respect for himself between the lines, although these are useless in O'Neal's opinion, but considering that Meng Xu used to look down on himself on any occasion, and the entire Lakers only Kobe Bryant could enter his eyes. Therefore, O'Neill had a surprised expression on his face after hearing Meng Xu express his respect for himself for the first time.

"Didn't the New York Times reporter come today?" After answering the Los Angeles Times reporter's question, Meng Xu stretched out his hand to signal the next question, but the New York Times reporter who was supposed to ask the question in order did not stand up, so Meng Xu couldn't help but ask a joke, after Meng Xu's words fell, the press gallery immediately erupted in laughter, and just after the New York Times reporter stood up with an embarrassed face and was about to ask a question, what made him feel very embarrassed was that Meng Xu shouted directly: "Okay, next!" ”

"85 points, 26 rebounds, 11 assists, the Lakers duo had a terrifying performance, but it was difficult to bring a victory to the Lakers!"

"With a hard-fought overtime win over the Lakers, the Pacers are one step closer to defending their championship!"

"An epic Finals where the Lakers and Pacers teamed up to deliver the best game in NBA history!"

On the second day after the end of the game, almost the entire basketball community in the United States was discussing the game last night, whether it was O'Neal who blew up the Pacers' interior alone, or Meng Xu hit seven consecutive goals at the end of the fourth quarter and scored an equalizing goal at the last moment to drag the game into overtime, or Meng Xu in the overtime, facing O'Neal and Hawley's joint block, the aerial walk and three consecutive pull-up layups staged were the focus of everyone's discussion.

On June 20, in the midst of heated discussions, the Pacers defeated the Lakers 91-82 at the Staples Center to win Game 5 of the Finals, thus defeating the Lakers with a total score of 4-1, successfully defending the championship, and becoming the sixth team in NBA history to win the championship two consecutive years.

After the loss in the last game, the Lakers obviously have no fighting spirit, and many players are sleepwalking after they come on the court, especially in the last moment of the fourth quarter because of the collision with Kobe, which caused Kobe to lose Meng Xu's Devin George, and was replaced by Phil Jackson less than 3 minutes after playing. O'Neal was also in poor shape because of his physical exhaustion in the last game, but O'Neal still scored 22 points and 12 rebounds. Kobe Bryant, on the other hand, still fought to the last minute as in the last game, but when his teammates were not in the state and the Pacers were crazy about him, Kobe Bryant also shot only 12 of 26 shots in the end.

"Debeken, why do you have such a stinky face? We won! We are champions now! When the whistle blew at the end of the game, just as the Pacers went up and down to celebrate the victory over the Lakers and defend their championship, the two old guys on the Pacers, Mutombo and Reggie Miller, were still sitting on the bench. Reggie Miller has got what he wanted last year, and this season has been reduced to a marginal person in the Pacers, so Reggie Miller has a very light view of this year's championship, after all, the Pacers have not contributed much in the process of winning the championship this season. And Mutombo, an old guy who won the championship for the first time, can still be so calm after the game, which is also very unexpected by Reggie Miller.

"I remembered going to the Finals with the 76ers." Mutombo only played for the 76ers for one and a half seasons, but it was in that season and a half that Mutombo went from being the best defensive player and one of the best interior players in the league to the 76ers' home game loss, and the 76ers also played against the Lakers in the finals that year, 5 series, although Mutombo had done his best, he was still blown up by O'Neal, and was returned home by the Finals trip that the entire Philadelphia had high hopes for. It was from that time that Mutombo's mentality and physical state changed, so that he was waived by the 76ers after his contract expired. Although at the beginning of joining the Pacers, Mutombo had the idea of re-entering the Finals with the Pacers, proving himself again, and taking a ring at the end of his career, but when Mutombo really stepped on the Finals again, helped the team defeat the Lakers and defeat the big fat man, Mutombo did not have the slightest thrill of revenge.

"We're all old!" Looking at Mutombo, and then at Malone and Payton standing under the basket in the distance, looking up at Malone and Payton above the court, Reggie Miller let out a sigh.