At 6 p.m. on May 27, 2007, at the Cleveland Quick-Loan Center, Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Pacers and the Cavaliers, and probably the final game of the series, will kick off in two hours.

Because the Cavaliers lost on the Pacers' two away games, the Cavaliers were looking forward to winning two games in a row after returning to their home court, but the defeat in the last game and the 0-3 score made them lose even the last bit of fighting spirit.

"Guys, here's a couple of newspapers this morning, and it's all about who's going to be the Pacers' Finals opponent." Mike Brown took out a few newspapers out of nowhere, and while shaking them in his hand, he said to the Cavaliers players in the locker room, hoping to boost their fighting spirit and fight for the "honor" of the Cavaliers.

"I know that many of you, like the newspapers, have lost their fighting spirit and desire to compete, and hope to finish this game early so that they can go back on vacation." After Mike Brown said this, he paused for a moment, and swept his eyes over every player on the scene, those players who were said by Mike Brown were deliberately avoiding Mike Brown's eyes at the moment, and some even hung their heads in embarrassment.

"I can understand you guys, because I've had similar thoughts before, and it was when I was an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards, and we lost that crucial game against the Knicks for a playoff spot, and then everybody on the team, including me, was just as frustrated as you are now, thinking that we weren't going to overtake the Knicks and win a playoff spot, when there were four games left before the end of the regular season, and we gave it up early."

"It was my first season as an assistant coach, and it was the most important season of my coaching career, and I still think back to that season and can remember every game of that season clearly, but every time I think about it, I regret it and regret it very much, and I ask myself over and over again, why did we give up so much? If we hadn't given up and tried our best to play the remaining four games, would that season have been a different ending? ”

"The series with the Pacers is the first division finals for many of you, and if you love basketball and love basketball, then this series will be the most important series of your basketball career, so I hope you don't look back on today with regrets and regrets like I did."

Although Mike Brown has won two championships with the Spurs since joining Popovich's coaching staff, this Eastern Conference Finals with the Pacers is the first division final in Mike Brown's head coaching career.

Although Mike Brown has no ambition to take out the Pacers and advance to the Finals after the Cavaliers have lost three games in a row, Mike Brown does not want to be swept out of the tournament by his opponent in the first division finals.

"LeBron, my teacher once told me that no matter what kind of desperate situation you face, you can't give up easily, even if there is only a glimmer of hope, you have to make a last stand, and now I give you this sentence." After a long compilation from Balabala, Mike Brown walked up to LeBron James, the backbone of the Cavaliers, and instilled him with a chicken soup in his heart.

"Mike, I see." After listening to Mike Brown's words, James immediately thought of the opponent who was also a teacher and friend to him, and also the opponent he was facing now, when he first entered the league because of the team's infighting, change of coach, change of boss, and consecutive playoff failures and was confused, and even at a loss, that man told himself the same thing.

"Alright, guys, for our honor, for our dreams, and for the fans who support us, let's go!" Before the start of today's game, Mike Brown did not arrange too many tactics, but these players talked about life and poured chicken soup, hoping to arouse their fighting spirit and desire to win, because Mike Brown knew that the Cavaliers no longer had the possibility of changing the lineup, and Mike Brown himself couldn't think of a strategy to restrain the Pacers, so this is all Mike Brown could do, and the rest depended on the players who were about to play themselves.

Since an NBA game can take two and a half hours, or even longer, most of the spectators will not enter the arena in advance after buying tickets, but will eat outside the stadium first, spin around or something, and wait until the game starts before entering the court, but now there is nearly an hour before the game starts, and the Cleveland Quick Loan Center arena is already full.

The big score is 0-3, for the side that is behind, the fourth game is basically a cutscene, because in the history of the NBA, there has never been a series that reversed the tables after falling behind 0-3, so once a team falls into the quagmire of falling behind 0-3, not to mention the players in the team, even those fans who support them will give up their support for them.

But when the Cavaliers fell behind the Pacers 0-3 in the Eastern Conference Finals, these fans in Cleveland still did not give up their support for the Cavaliers, most of the fans at the scene were wearing LeBron James's No. 23 jersey, holding high the sign supporting James, maybe for many of them, the result is secondary, as long as they can watch James play on the spot, they are already very satisfied.

In today's game, there have been some changes in the Cavaliers' starting lineup, the most important change is that the veteran Eric Snow replaced Larry Hughes to start, because Larry Hughes was targeted by the Pacers everywhere in the first three games, and he couldn't play the full strength of Larry Hughes when he was on the court at the same time as James, so Mike Brown decided to let Larry Hughes play the sixth man.

In addition to Larry Hughes, Alexander Pavlovich, who also did not perform well in the previous games, also sat on the bench today, and he was replaced by a veteran player Damon Jones, except for the changes in the No. 1 and No. 2 positions, the rest of the Cavaliers' positions have not changed much, still center Zajunas Ilgoskas, power forward Drew Gooden, small forward LeBron James.

On the Pacers' side, Rick Carlisle also made certain adjustments to the starting lineup, because the two teams that reached the Western Conference Finals this season, the Spurs and Lakers both have very strong interior strength, so Rick Carlisle may also be preparing for the Finals, in today's game, a very rare three-inside lineup, Darko Milicic, NN-Hilario, Jermaine O'Neal three inside lines played together, and the meaning of experimenting with new tactics for the Finals is very strong.

"F***, it's too much to deceive!" After seeing the starting lineup of the Pacers, Mike Brown scolded directly, the Pacers let James shoot on the outside in the first three games, but what he did in today's game was undoubtedly even more excessive, directly sending three inside, this is to completely let go of the rhythm of the outside of the Cavaliers.

"LeBron, remember what I said to you?" After boarding the court, Meng Xu walked directly to the vicinity of the middle circle, as if agreed in advance, James also walked not far from Meng Xu very tacitly, looking at James's slightly immature face and obviously unconfident look, Meng Xu asked James with a smile.

"Hmm." After pondering for a while, James nodded at Meng Xu, I don't know why, even if Meng Xu is his opponent now, James will still be infected by Meng Xu's emotions.

"Let's finish today's game." When Jermaine O'Neal, who jumped on behalf of the Pacers, had already entered the center circle, Meng Xu stepped forward and patted James on the shoulder, and then began to slowly retreat to his position.

"Today's game, I must win!" Looking at Meng Xu, who was slowly retreating, James's fists were already tightly clenched together, and like head coach Mike Brown, James didn't want to be swept out of the tournament for the first time he reached the division finals.

Before the start of the series, James had imagined many times that there would be a scene in the game with the Pacers, but after the game began, James felt that this round of the series was torture for himself again and again, and the offensive methods and scoring methods he was good at were all out of the way, and every time he thought of standing alone outside the three-point line with a basketball, And the player who defended himself waited a few meters away from him, and a sense of shame rose in James's heart.

Also before the start of this series, James never felt that mid-to-long-range shooting was so important, so as a punishment for himself, from the end of the first game of the series, James has been on the training court to practice three-pointers.

As the referee on duty blew the whistle for the start of the game, Zajunas Ilgoskas unexpectedly lost the jump ball again, but this time the offense, the Pacers' tactics have changed very much, Tony Allen did not hand the ball to Meng Xu to organize as usual after dribbling through the halfcourt, but passed the basketball directly to Jermaine O'Neal who was waiting at the top of the arc, and it was obvious that in today's game, the Pacers' central axis on the court became Jermaine O'Neal.

After the Pacers sent a three-inside lineup, the Cavaliers will inevitably have a player on the defensive end who is in a misplaced defense, although LeBron James's body is also considered to be above average in the third position, but it is undoubtedly difficult for him to defend Darko Milicic, Darko Milicic is an orthodox center, 2.13 meters tall, more than 250 pounds, even if James' physical fitness is against the sky, there is no way to resist Darko Milicic.

So in this offense of the Pacers, the basketball swirled in the hands of Jermaine O'Neal, and it was handed to Darko Milicic by Jermaine O'Neal, and he went to the misplaced single James.

"If LeBron doesn't develop his three-point ability, not only today, but in future games, the Pacers' style of play will be the norm for other teams facing the Cavaliers." The defensive end shrinks the basket, strictly prevents James' breakthrough, and at the same time puts James to shoot on the outside, and uses the physical advantage to misplace singles on the offensive end, all of which come from James's weak three-point ability, so Michaels, who is on the commentary bench on the sidelines, also hopes that James can practice his three points hard after the end of this season, and don't let this embarrassing tactic appear again.

"El, it looks like you're going to make a mistake today." After Michaels' words just fell, the offense and defense switched, James hit a three-pointer, and Magic Johnson, who was sitting next to Michaels, also joked at the right time, but Magic Johnson also hoped that James's three-point shot just now was not a flash of inspiration, but would become the norm, a player with obvious shortcomings could not become a superstar, even if he was as strong as Jordan, he was not also practicing three points in the middle and late stages of his career, and striving to achieve all-round offensive ability without dead ends.

“MVP，MVPMVP。。。。。。” Just one three-pointer brought the atmosphere to a climax in the arena of the Quick Loan Center, and the fans chanted James' name and MVP slogan in unison, which also showed how popular James is in this arena and the city.

From the beginning, Mike Brown, who was standing on the sidelines, also clenched his fists excitedly after James's three-point shot, no need for more, as long as James can shoot two three-pointers in a row, the Pacers' defensive strategy will definitely change, in Mike Brown's view, the two sides will start a big battle that you go back and forth, and the Pacers may not be able to win the Cavaliers.

When the entire quick loan center arena was crazy about James's three-point shooting after the opening, after the shot, James who fell from the air also waved his arms fiercely, the hard training of the past few days was not in vain, although James is still far from the top three-point shooter, but through these few days of training, James's three-point shooting ability has improved, especially after continuous three-point training, James's heart has established the confidence to dare to shoot, It's no longer like in the previous game, even if there is an empty seat, you have to hesitate for a long time.