"Jermaine's jump ball is as good as ever, haha." With the end of the warm-up of the players on both sides, when the referee threw the basketball in his hand into the sky, Jermaine O'Neal, who was slightly arched, rushed to the sky with a rub, and when O'Neal was still rising, he had already dialed the basketball in the air to the Pacers' half, giving the Pacers the first opportunity to attack. Because of Jermaine O'Neal's almost perverted bounce and explosiveness, whether in the regular season or the playoffs, the Pacers' opening jump ball is invincible, last season's 82 regular season games, Jermaine O'Neal won 80 games, only lost to the King's Webber and the Timberwolves' Garnett once, and 18 playoff games, and only lost to O'Neal once in the finals, 6 finals, Jermaine O'Neal and Shaq O'Neal 6 jump shots, Jermaine O'Neal achieved an overwhelming advantage, and the jump ball, It is also jokingly called by the media that the only place where Little O'Neill is stronger than Big O'Neal.

So when Jermaine O'Neal won O'Neal in the jump ball again and almost without suspense, the two commentators on the sidelines, Magic Johnson and Michaels, looked at the failure of the jump ball, and O'Neal, who had a big embarrassment written on his face, laughed at the same time.

Although the jump ball failed, because of the preparation, the Lakers did not leave the Pacers with the slightest flaw on the defensive end, so the Pacers' first offense after the opening fell into a positional battle.

In today's game, the Pacers' five starters are center Mutombo, power forward Jermaine O'Neal, small forward Meng Xu, scoring guard Reggie Miller, and poster Jamar Tinsley, in addition to the center position, Mutombo replaced Lorenzen White, the Pacers still continued last season's starting lineup, and the team has hardly changed in terms of tactics, it is still the same set of tactics in the second half of last season, Mutombo is under the basket, and Jermaine O'Neal is cruising near the free throw line, Reggie Miller and Jamal Tinsley were looking for opportunities outside the 3-point line, one left and one right, while Meng Xu was still holding the ball near the top of the arc to organize the attack.

The starting lineup on the Lakers' side has changed very much, the five starters from last season have now changed to three, Malone is here, and Holly himself is going to give way to Malone, but for Hawley, the starting benches are the same, anyway, the regular season is also pretending to be dead paddling, and playing as a substitute for Malone is more relaxed and reassuring, not only Malone, Payton is naturally going to start, and the current Payton has not yet reached the time to sit on the bench and mix the championship. What is more surprising is the position of small forward, after Rick Fox was traded, Brian Shaw lost the trust of Phil Jackson, and Meng Xu's rookie Devin George successfully took the position, Devin George is physically strong, has excellent foot movement, has good athletic ability, as for the rest is very general, except for the long shot that convulses from time to time, there is really no scoring means that can be used, on the defensive end, the defensive awareness is very good, it is not easy to eat feints, and the rest of the rebounds, The blocks, the steals are average, there is nothing particularly outstanding, and the only thing that is commendable is probably the attitude of the game. Although there is a lack of ability, Devin George is very important for the current Lakers, compared to the four big guys, Devin George has no requirements for the ball, and he is also very team spirit, perhaps this is why Phil Jackson arranged him in the starting lineup.

Perhaps because of the regular season, when Meng Xu dribbled and appeared at the top of the arc, the Lakers did not arrange a bag for Meng Xu, but used Devin George to defend Meng Xu alone, and Devin George's defensive strategy is also very clear, that is, always keep a distance of half a body from Meng Xu, and put the focus of defense on the breakthrough.

"Malone's ability to prevent pick-and-rolls is really good." Just when Meng Xu was about to cooperate with Jermaine O'Neal, and then take advantage of the situation to enter the Lakers penalty area, he found that Ma Long appeared in front of him just right, although the misplaced single is also part of the blocking and demolition tactics, but judging from the height of Meng Xu and Ma Long, it is really not misplaced, Ma Long is 2.06 meters tall, Meng Xu is 2.01 meters tall, the actual difference is not much, and it is basically impossible to play big with a small one. Perhaps because he has been playing blocking and dismantling for more than ten years, Ma Long, who is familiar with the essence of blocking and dismantling tactics, is also very knowledgeable about how to defend blocking and dismantling, when Jermaine O'Neal rushed to the top of the arc to cover for Meng Xu, Ma Long, who followed behind Jermaine O'Neal, completely relied on the inertial thinking formed by playing blocking and dismantling for more than ten years, and occupied an excellent defensive position in advance before Meng Xu and Jermaine O'Neal completed the blocking and dismantling, which not only delayed Meng Xu, but also blocked the passing route between Meng Xu and Jermaine O'Neal.

"Meng boy, I heard that you are very slippery in singles, and now there is such an opportunity, let me have a long experience." Trash talk and provocation are also a characteristic of Ma Long, so he successfully blocked Meng Xu's Ma Long, and soon sprayed towards Meng Xu, Meng Xu has excellent physical fitness and comprehensive offensive means, especially the back-to-back singles known as the strongest outside players in the league, and it is a nightmare for many defenders, in the finals last season, Rick Fox and Brian Shaw were played by Meng Xu's back singles. But for Ma Long, Meng Xu's back singles have no advantage, Ma Long's strength is obvious to all, although he is now old, but it is still the league's super-first-class level, so when Ma Long defends Meng Xu, the last thing he is afraid of is back singles, as long as he can't move, everything is in vain.

"Okay, I'll show you what the strongest back-to-back singles look like." After hearing Ma Long's provocation, Meng Xu immediately changed his posture of holding the ball, and faced Ma Long to turn sideways to face Ma Long, it seemed that he was really going to hit Ma Long with his back.

"What is Meng going to do? Is it to carry the back to fight Malone? After seeing the scene on the field, Lester Connell on the sidelines also frowned, with Meng Xu's ball quotient, it stands to reason that it is impossible to do this kind of thing with his own shortcomings and strengths, in the face of the aging Ma Long, Meng Xu can completely rely on his footsteps and speed to break through his defense, no matter how bad it is, he is also very easy to step back and pull out the jump shot YANSHE, why do you have to choose to play with your back, this kind of offensive method that seems to have a very small success rate.

At the beginning of this season, Meng Xu activated the task of advanced domineering, and the name of this task is called talent crushing, as the name suggests, it is to use his physical talent to crush all the opposing defensive players, and find a set of offensive methods that fit his physical talent, Meng Xu's current physical talent attributes have reached 99+, and all 6 physical attributes are overflowing, but how to find a set of offensive methods that fit his own body, Meng Xu didn't have a clue, and after thinking hard, Meng Xu decided to start with the back singles that best highlighted his physical talents.

With the continuous collision of the body, Meng Xu is close to using his strongest strength, Ma Long behind him still firmly occupies the defensive position, Ma Long is not a weak chicken like Rick Fox and Brian Shaw, Meng Xu's physical strength is the strongest among the outside players, but compared with Ma Long's super muscle stick, there is still a big gap.

When Meng Xu strengthened again, with his obviously very thin body compared to Ma Long, after leaning heavily on Ma Long's body again, this time, Meng Xu obviously felt a gap behind him, Meng Xu immediately changed the center of gravity of his body, and before Ma Long pounced again, after half of the posture of turning to the left was completed, his body was immediately pulled back, and he turned directly to the right, and Ma Long, who couldn't react, was left behind by Meng Xu in an instant.

"What a speed!" Just when Ma Long retracted his steps and turned around, he saw that Meng Xu had rushed to the basket, facing O'Neal who was making up for the defense, Meng Xu turned his back again, and then threw the basketball to the basket, looking at the basketball that had turned around on the basket a few times and fell, Ma Long still has an incredible feeling.