The Indiana Pacers' home arena, the Bankers Living Arena, and the Pacers' season opener against the Mavericks has begun.

At the referee's whistle, the center forwards of both teams were already in position in the center circle waiting for the jump ball.

Paul George, the core player of the new generation of the Pacers, looked at the Chinese point guard at the end of the opposite half through the Mavericks line.

Before scoring 81 points against the Houston Rockets in the preseason, Paul George didn't pay much attention to it, although he had heard of such a top-salary draft loss in the NBA.

Even if he heard that guy scored high points in the preseason, Paul George still didn't pay much attention to it, the NBA superstars, who have not scored high scores, have scored 48 points in the regular season! Besides, there must be a lot of water in the high score cut in the preseason, which is probably equivalent to the level of 40+ in the regular season, which is really good for a rookie, but such a rookie is not worthy of his special attention, and it is not an average of 40+ per game.

Chen Zhi's high-score performance is not a big deal in the eyes of Paul George before, in Chinese dialect, who doesn't eat dumplings during the New Year!

But head coach McMillan emphasized and cared for this newcomer in the team's pre-game meeting, which shocked Paul George after in-depth understanding, it turned out that this guy's performance in the preseason was so rebellious!

also scored 81 points, Kobe Bryant used 46 shots that year, plus 20 free throws, and that guy only used 42 shots, and only 5 free throws!

The efficiency is even higher than that of Kobe, who was already in a state against the sky! You must know that Kobe's shooting percentage at that time was above 60, which is far from being so low as the shooting percentage in the later stages of his career.

As the number one Komi among the active players in the league, Paul George has seen Kobe Bryant's game more than a dozen times, although the jersey number has now been changed to No. 13, but when he entered the league, George's jersey number was the No. 24 to pay tribute to Kobe.

"It seems that in this game, I really have to show my housekeeping skills!" Paul George looked at the Chinese player across from him and thought, "Relying on the advantage of height and reach, it should be able to effectively limit his projection, as long as it effectively limits him, it should not be a problem to give the crowd a victory in the home opener." ”

Paul George is still very confident in restricting Chen Dao, after all, Paul George, who started by relying on defense, is fighting against James, the first person of the generation, every time he faces LeBron James's team, no matter how strong a rookie is, can he be stronger than LeBron? Hehe!

When the referee's whistle blew, the sophomore rookie with a white headband, although young and strong, was slow to react to the jump ball this time, and was snatched by Bogut, the Dallas Mavericks launched their first attack, and the Pacers immediately retreated from the whole team.

Nowitzki, who received Bogut's jump ball, handed the ball to Chen, who took the ball to the frontcourt and found that it was not Jeff Teague, who had just turned from the Hawks in the offseason, but Pepper, the star of the Pacers! Paul George got this nickname because the pronunciation of his English name is similar to that of Chinese pickled pepper juice.

Chen is no stranger to the star player. Players who are excellent on the offensive end can easily be overlooked by fans because of their defensive ability, and the same is true for Paul George, a small forward who is both offensive and defensive. Being selected to the All-Defensive Team for consecutive years, and being selected for the All-Defensive Team in the 13-14 season, is the best illustration of Paul George's defensive ability.

"It's just the first time you attack, you changed the defense, it seems that Coach McMillan is planning to let you stare at me!"

Looking at Paul George, who bent his knees in front of him, put on a defensive posture and waited for him, and observed the situation on the field from time to time with the corner of his eyes, Chen Zhi couldn't help but smile.

Hearing this, Paul George looked at Chen Dao with a smile on his face, there was no prickly in his words, but with the smile on this little man's face, Pickled Pepper suddenly felt a little provocative!

I didn't expect it to be a little prick! A smile appeared at the corner of Pickle Pepper's mouth, "The preseason is over, welcome to the real NBA, rookie!" You'll quickly understand the difference between the regular season and the preseason! ”

Chen Zhi raised his eyebrows and smiled when he heard this, he knew that Pickle Pepper probably misunderstood that he was provoking just now, two strange players who met for the first time to talk, it is indeed difficult to be on the same frequency, and jokes may be sarcastic in each other's ears! It's a lot of talk!

However, Chen Zhi has no intention of explaining, today the Dallas Mavericks are going to take away the victory on the Pacers' home court, so it is difficult for everyone to love each other and be harmonious! Even if the opponent is a star player, there is no need!

Putting away his smile, Chen Zhi beckoned to Bogut.

Paul George immediately quickly glanced at the dynamics of the player on the side with the corner of his eye, and at the same time turned his body slightly to the right, the gesture of the opponent was an obvious action to summon the block. Bogut's block has not yet been launched, and Paul George has been prepared to deal with it in advance, not to mention the defensive ability, at least the defensive habits are indeed far greater than the bearded Harden.

Before the game, Chen Zhi had to hand over the first offense of the season to the old driver, after all, he is still the absolute leader of this team, and the first shot of the new season should be made by him, which is a conventional management in many NBA teams, and the status of the team is withdrawn.

Nowitzki, like Tim Duncan, the best power forward of all time, is not obsessed with power in the team, and is very happy to complete the transfer of power to Chen Zhi and Barnes.

Chen launched an attack, Dallas still used Carlisle's UCLA air cut system, passed the ball to Matthews on the wing, and began to cut in quickly, and Bogut was already covering in the horns.

Bogut's thick body to make a wall is indeed very competent, and the quality of cover is very high, if you want to bypass such a thick wall, I am afraid that the opponent has already run out of the gap.

Paul George's sideways movement just now was already ready to force his way through, only in this way could he follow Chen Dao's side step by step, and no matter where he ran, he could effectively restrict.

After noticing the cover in advance, it was obviously much less difficult to squeeze through, and when Paul George squeezed through the screen, he tried to shrink his back as much as possible to reduce contact with Bogut.

Myle Turner, the Pacers center who defended Bogut, saw Bogut go up to cover, and immediately followed the head coach's pre-game arrangement, shrunk the basket to protect the basket, temporarily took over the defense, and waited for George to arrive.

As for Bogut, by the time he gets the ball to overcome his offensive aversion, he will be able to arrive again a long time ago, not to mention that Bogut's mid-range threat is very small.

Myles Turner has been very faithful to the coaching staff's set-up, having given up on Bogut's defense and shrinking to the basket.

However, Chen Zhi did not mean to cut to the basket or the low post!

Turner saw Chen's off-ball run, immediately opened his eyes and ran forward, the opponent quickly passed through the right side of Bogut with his back to the basket, and did not even turn his head, his back was close to Bogut and walked back quickly, and he had rushed to the left side of Bogut and returned to the three-point line.

And George, who chose to squeeze past from the right side of Bogut, just squeezed over, and found that his opponent had gone around like a pillar, and there was an open space in front of him.

Matthews didn't dribble the ball in his hand, and immediately returned the ball to Chen.

Monta Aires, the player who defended Matthews, immediately pounced on Chen Dao as soon as he saw this, not caring about Matthews' defense.

However, the ball moved faster than people, and by the time Ellis arrived, Chen Zhi had already jumped high, perfect catch-and-shoot rhythm, and with a flick of his wrist, the basketball soared to the basket and hit a 3-point shot!

"Oh! Dallas' offseason top-salary draft pick Chen Zhi hit a three-point shot for the Mavericks in the opening game! TNT's famous commentator, former NBA player Big Shark O'Neal's deep voice sounded in the live broadcast room.

After the disbandment of the Dallas Mavericks' championship-winning lineup, although the record did not plummet, it also fell very sharply, withdrawing from the championship competition and being on the verge of the playoffs all year round.

Television broadcasters don't like the aging and slow team, and when it comes to choosing for TV, the two giants of ESPN and TNT usually rarely pick Dallas Mavericks games, but have smaller local broadcasters like Fox Sports to broadcast them.

However, Chen's rise in Dallas this year has put the Mavericks in the spotlight again. TNT will eventually receive the rights to broadcast the opener, and ESPN, while the opening game at the home of the Dallas Mavericks will be broadcast by ESPN.

"Pretty three!" Kenny Smith also sincerely praised, "Although today is the first regular season game for the Dallas Mavericks, fans should be no stranger to this player, whether it is directly from the draft to get the maximum salary or cut 81 points in the preseason, it is the hottest topic before the start of the regular season this year!" Shaq, Jazz, what do you think of today's game? ”

"The Dallas Mavericks are one of the oldest teams in the league, and the Pacers led by Paul George are the dominant side in terms of team configuration and age structure, plus on the home court of the Pacers, and this year is the 50th anniversary of the Pacers, presumably the Pacers players will give the home fans a victory." Buckley, with round eyes, analyzed.

Big shark O'Neal does not have a serious prediction of the situation, TNT has always used sports as entertainment to comment, and ESPN's former NBA head coach led commentators are not the same style, in terms of funny in the NBA players deserved the first O'Neal smiled: "Charles, when you see a Chinese player appear on the court, do you always think of some special taste!" ”

"Oh, please, Shaq! Since Yao Ming, there has been more than one Chinese player on the NBA court, so you don't have to mention that incident every time! Barkley, the big-mouthed man, widened his eyes when he heard this.

O'Neill smiled and said, "Why not! For so many years, whenever I was in a bad mood, I thought of the picture when you kissed the donkey's buttocks, and my mood immediately improved! Do you want to make another bet, for example, how many points Chen can score in this game, I really want to reproduce the moment when you kissed the ass of the donkey, and the fans should be looking forward to it! ”

Kenny Smith smiled: "I'm afraid the Jazz will never dare to bet on scoring again, besides, this Chinese draft scoring ability has been shown in the preseason, he is not the first six games in the league to average only 3 points per game, no one dares to underestimate him!" Not to mention 19 points, I'm afraid to bet on the upper limit of 49 points, and the Jazz will not agree to kiss the donkey's ass again! ”

"Hey, Kenny, don't set me up with a trick, don't think I'm really going to bet on 49 points with a hot head, this is a guy who has seen 81 points! I'm a tough guy and definitely wouldn't be cowardly like Shaq, but I can also be witty once in a while, right? However, if you have to bet, I'm willing to bet on the NBA's rookie season scoring record, and if he can break the rookie season scoring record in this game, I'm willing to kiss Kenny's ass! And definitely a kiss ass instead of a donkey! Barkley shouted.

In English, ass means both ass and donkey, and in the bet about Da Yao, Kenneth Miss, who ended up reluctant to show his ass in public, rented a donkey for Barkley to kiss.

"Come on, your bet is too insincere, the NBA player's rookie season scoring record is Chamberlain's 58 points, obviously it is impossible to break this record in a game, the highest in recent years is Brandon Jennings's 54 points!" O'Neill shook his head and said, "It's obviously cowardly, but Charles always has to pretend to be a tough guy!" ”

In the TNT studio, the three commentators were happily chatting, but Paul George scolded in his heart, "SHXT! ”

The reason why the defense Chen chose to squeeze through just now was to avoid the opponent running to the outside of the three-point line through the double cover on the off-ball side, a tactic that was played many times in the preseason game between Dallas and Houston.

For the tactics of the Dallas Mavericks, especially this tactical system that Chen Zhi commonly uses in the offense, the Pacers coaching staff specially edited the video and studied it, and came to the conclusion that the first cover point squeeze is better than bypassing, which is the reason why Pickles Pepper firmly chose to squeeze through. Unexpectedly, after choosing to squeeze through, the opponent made a three-point shot that was even simpler, and he hit three points directly on the same side!

After just this one goal, Paul George's confidence before the game has been slightly shaken!

After the actual fight, I realized that it was a bit difficult to limit this guy, not only did he start and run extremely fast, but also had excellent flexibility, and the speed at which he stepped out of the three-point line with his back just now was not much slower than running inside the three-point line!

Paul George was only slightly shaken in defensive confidence, Pacers head coach McMillan watched this three-point shot, but his heart was pounding, and a very bad feeling came to his heart, the rookie player's expression when he shot the basketball, as in the preseason, calm and confident, seemed to be very relaxed, and there was no pressure to participate in the NBA regular season for the first time!

How far can George limit him? McMillan had no bottom in his heart.