After beating the Spurs, the 76ers continued their journey this season. The whole team really wants to play with the Lakers, who are currently riding in the West, but unfortunately, according to the NBA schedule, any team only needs to play one home and one away game in the regular season with teams in different regions, and the 76ers will have to wait until next year if they want to meet the Lakers this season.

Although the team still maintains its absolute dominance in the East, Chang Wei has not relaxed the training of players, and in his opinion, everyone still has a lot to check and fill in the gaps. For example, Iverson's long-range shooting, Lynch's defense, Mutombo's offense, etc., as long as there is improvement, it is easy to feedback on the court, and it can also make the team play more easily.

Before you know it, the month of December has arrived, and in this month, the most eye-catching and the most profitable for the NBA is undoubtedly the Christmas War. Every year on the first day after Christmas, the NBA schedules only a few heavyweight games, and these games are known as Christmas Wars. Since the 40s of the last century, the NBA has had a tradition of launching heavyweight games on Christmas Eve, and BA's selection criteria for the annual Christmas game is a "feud", or it can be an open ring for popular stars to compete for popularity and market, all to attract attention.

As a team with a lot of action this summer, the 76ers are naturally scheduled to appear in the Christmas game, but the official staff in charge of formulating the schedule before this time would not have imagined that this team could actually become the leader in the East, which can be regarded as a crooked play. However, the number of Christmas games at this time is still relatively small, and the league has only scheduled two games this year, just one in the East and one in the West, with the Lakers vs. the Trail Blazers in the West and the 76ers vs. the Pacers in the East.

The Pacers in the 90s of the 20th century can be said to be a strong side, they have reached the Eastern Conference Finals in the last three seasons, and even reached the Finals in the 1999-2000 season, although they were finally defeated by the Lakers 4-2, but there is no denying their strong strength. Reggie Miller, Jalen Rose and O'Neal Jr. are the trio that the Pacers are proud of, and they happen to be perfectly distributed among the three generations, who are currently just 1.5 wins behind the 76ers.

Brown is afraid of Miller, after all, the "Miller moment" of 8.9 seconds and 8 minutes has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, this is a great scorer who can score points with Jordan, so Brown's pre-game arrangement is completely aimed at Miller, he is bent on locking up this old and strong top shooter, and does not hesitate to arrange for Iverson and Snow to double the bag.

However, in Chang Wei's view, the biggest threat to the Pacers is not the long-established Miller, but their current leading scorer Jalen Rose. Although his reputation is not as good as Miller's, and his personal accolades are only the best rookie second team in 94-95 and the most improved player in 99-00, he really hit the 76ers' soft underbelly. In fact, it is not a weakness, but with a half-hung flank gate like Lynch, who is still being tempered, it is estimated that it will be difficult to limit Rose's play.

In addition, O'Neal Jr. is also a noteworthy point, of course, he was not the top inside line in the league in his previous life, but now he is still a little fresh meat full of infinite talent, although Chang Wei used props for Mutombo, he does not dare to guarantee that he can compete with O'Neal Jr., sometimes the suppression of talent is more terrifying than props, and he has little confidence in this group of duels.

However, it would be wrong to say that Brown's layout is problematic, although Miller is 35 years old, he is still the soul of the Pacers, and if he can suppress his play, it may be a big blow to the morale of the Pacers. In fact, in addition to player training, Chang Wei still treats the head coach's arrangements as a bystander, which is also the most common attitude after his rebirth, after all, he has watched many things from TV, and his personal experience is different.

If Chang Wei belonged to this era, maybe the sense of participation would be stronger, right?

This Christmas game is the home of the 76ers, and all the tickets are quickly sold out, after all, the 76ers have not participated in the Christmas game for many years, and only those very old die-hard fans will vaguely recall the grand occasion of Philadelphia back then. And now that they finally feel the warmth and passion of the Christmas war on their doorstep again, it is normal for the tickets to be sold out.

When the 76ers players entered the stadium to warm up, more than half of the seats in the arena were already occupied, and seeing the home team show up, this group of emotional fans was eager to beat gongs and drums and set off firecrackers as a way to show their support and encouragement. Looking at Chang Wei, who was a little dumbfounded, Brown asked with a smile: "Chang, have you experienced such a competition atmosphere before?" ”

Chang Wei shook his head and said: "To be honest, the NCAA semifinals may be just as popular, but it is not my home stadium after all." Now it's a good feeling to see that the vast majority of the fans on the sidelines are supporting their team. ”

Brown closed his eyes, as if to hug the whole arena, and muttered: "That's why we have to do everything we can to win this game, I don't want to disappoint the fans in Philadelphia, for any team, the support of the fans should come first, maybe a lot of people don't care about the influence of the fans now, but I know that their power can completely change everything." ”

Chang Wei smiled: "So we are bound to win this game?" ”

'Confidence and certainty are two different things, I'm willing to do my best to win and everyone should think that way, but that doesn't mean we can win the game without any obstacles. Football is round, basketball is the same, as strong as a bull can lose, and no one dares to say the result of the game until the last minute. ”

Without waiting for Chang Wei to continue to ask, Brown smiled: "Although it is a difficult task to beat the Pacers, it is not impossible, as long as we can maintain the belief that we must win and play our own style, it is possible to win the Pacers." ”

Watching the players line up on the court for layups, Chang Wei smiled and whispered, "I hope so!" ”

In his opinion, this is undoubtedly a tough battle, not to mention the overall strength of the Pacers, many teams have extra bonuses when playing Christmas games, and everyone wants to show their faces in front of a national audience. Although this game is the home of the 76ers, with the Pacers' unrelenting style, they will not have too many worries about playing on the road, and for the 76ers, if they lose the game, the Pacers are only 0.5 wins away from themselves, and the top of the Eastern Conference may change at any time.