Now that the Hornets called a timeout, the 76ers were back on the bench as well.

"The Hornets were playing quite uncomfortably and that's a good thing, because we are doing well defensively and keep going. But now that the Hornets have called a timeout, it means that they have identified the problem and are ready to fight back. So wait a minute. Larry said with a pause. Luke, wait a minute, you're going to be in charge of getting their attention, drawing the defenders' attention to yourself and letting the others score. Aaron, Michael, it's up to you to score and organize! Big Ben protects the rebound, Bryan is always ready to take the opportunity to shoot, shoot when it's time to shoot, don't hesitate! Remember! ”

"Remember!" The players replied in unison.

"Alright, let's play!"

Back on the court, as Larry said, the Hornets have strengthened their defense against Luke, and Marsh has basically been following Luke all along. Derrick Coleman, on the other hand, was replaced with PJ Brown to strengthen the defense and rebounding protection, and the rest was basically the same.

As before, Luke still ran around, attracting the attention of all the players, and then let Allen and Reed attack, and from time to time also catch the ball and attack on his own, combining virtual and real, so as to confuse the enemy.

In this way, the 76ers won their first two games, and then moved to Charlotte, the home of the Hornets.

Charlotte has the famous North Carolina here, and it stands to reason that the basketball atmosphere is still very strong, but the Charlotte Hornets have been in a bad situation. In fact, it's not that the fans don't support it, after all, the basketball atmosphere here is very good. Its attendance has been among the best in the league for several seasons. Unfortunately, in order to make a lot of money, the boss claimed that he lost $15 million last year and could lose $20 million this year, forcing the city government to pay for the construction of a new venue, which evolved into last year's referendum, which was ultimately unanimously opposed by the citizens of Charlotte.

Due to the deterioration of the relationship between fans and owners, the Charlotte Hornets reached the semifinals of the Eastern Conference playoffs this year, but the team's attendance plummeted to the lowest point in the league this year. Half of the fans would rather not go to the game than give the owner more ticket revenue. So in this year's playoffs, the attendance of the Charlotte Hornets was quite miserable. One could even say. The 76ers came here to cheer on the 76ers more fans than the Hornets' local fans.

This took a toll on the morale of the Hornets. It also made them decide to move out of here. (May 10, 2002) NBA owners voted today in New York to allow the Charlotte Hornets to leave North Carolina and move to New Orleans, Louisiana, starting next season. New Orleans has wanted an NBA team since the Jazz moved to Salt Lake City in 1979. Now I finally got my wish. As a result, the governor of Louisiana approved $1.75 million in April. to meet the cost of the team's relocation. But that's another story.

But the Charlotte Hornets players were affected. Veteran players like Marshburn and PJ Brown had less impact, but Barang Davis didn't play his part in Game 3.

He scored just 10 points and used 16 shots. There were also 10 mistakes. The performance can be described as quite dismal.

In this way, the 76ers took advantage of the situation to win the third game. The aggregate score is 3:0 ahead.

In the NBA's record for such a long time, there are very few teams that have been overturned by a score of 3-0, and the 76ers don't want to be one of them. So in the next fourth game, the 76ers started all the games and directly began to violently "forcibly demolish".

In the face of the Charlotte Hornets' defense, the 76ers are attacking with all their might every time, not giving the Hornets a chance to breathe. But the Hornets still haven't given up and are still trying. It wasn't until the final moments of the game that the two sides decided that the 76ers were finally stronger and took the win. The 76ers defeated the Charlotte Hornets 4-0 overall.

"Come on!" After the game, the players shook hands amicably, and Mashburn said to Luke. "I'm sure you'll make it to the finals!"

"Of course I know!" Luke said with a smile. "We're going to win the championship!"

"Haha, then come on!" Mashburn said. After that, I went to say goodbye to the other players.

The 76ers' game is over, but the other Eastern Conference game is quite tangled.

Miller vs New York Knicks. Especially when the Pacers were not yet mature, but now the Pacers are quite good and made it to the Finals last year, which is exciting news.

Now, although the New York Knicks have strengthened their lineup, after the center section has been strengthened, the New York Knicks even have the confidence to compete with the Lakers.

But Miller was still not afraid. After the 76ers defeated the Hornets, the New York Knicks were tied 2-2 with the Pacers. Both sides had their own wins with a stunner and a big lead.

The game continues.

The Western Conference was much better, the Lakers defeated the immature Kings 4-0 and advanced to the Western Conference Finals, while the Spurs also directly defeated the Mavericks in the same state with a score of 4-1 and also advanced to the Western Conference Finals, which will be played shortly after. And now the Pacers and the New York Knicks are the only suspense.

So after all the other games were over, Larry had to start preparing for the next phase of the plan, which is the plan for the Eastern Conference Finals, and it was two plans.

The first is the plan to deal with the Indiana Pacers.

The Pacers entered the Finals last year and fought against the newly rising Lakers, which cannot but illustrate the problem, although there is a big change this year, the basic lineup is still there, and it is still very competitive. Especially Miller on the outside. He has a high long-range shooting percentage, a fierce defense, running, and running without the ball are all quite good players, and he has a big mouth that dares to say and do anything, and is a lawless person who will do anything for the sake of victory. On May 25, 1998, in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pacers faced the Chicago Bulls led by Jordan. Previously, the Bulls led 2:1, and as long as they won this game, they could win the match point. In the final stages of the game, the Bulls led by 1 point. With 0.7 seconds left in the game, everyone's hearts were tightly grasped by Miller, he spared a big circle, rushed out from the inside, pushed away the god around him, took the ball outside the three-point line, turned around, shot, the ball crossed a beautiful arc in the air, and hit! I think at that moment, God's heart was broken. Miller is the soul of the entire walker, and if he guards against Miller, he will hold the throat of the walker's fate.

Everyone knows the trick, and Larry knows it, but no one can stop Miller. I believe that without Detroit's strongest defensive lineup, no one would have been able to limit him. Larry certainly knows this when he was a coach for the Pacers. There is no way, only to temporarily formulate a two-man defense strategy to see if it can be suppressed.

Next up is the New York Knicks. The New York Knicks themselves haven't been doing very well this season due to injury issues, but since the addition of Theo Latliff from the 76ers, the strength of the interior has skyrocketed. Although he sent Larry Johnson as a super power forward, he got more, and now he not only strengthens the interior line, but also the outside line, George? The addition of Lynch added a big lock to the New York Knicks' outside defense. Add Alan Houston, Ratrill Sprewell, Glenn Rice, Marcus Camby, and the Knicks are quite strong. And it's the 76ers themselves who put the final piece of the puzzle together for them.

There's no way now, it's the sin of the 76ers themselves, and they have to pay it back.

It is very difficult to completely defend the offense of the New York Knicks, but now it can be seen that without Larry Johnson, the New York Knicks put the offensive point on the outside, after all, the two people on the inside, Theo Ratlif and Marcus Camby, are both defensive players, rebounding and defense are their strengths, but the offense is forgotten, and the second offense under the basket is their main way of scoring. The players on the perimeter were happy, and Ratril Sprewell got more possession and had more points, which made him very excited. Playing harder.

There is no way, this can only be done slowly, step by step, and now Larry doesn't have a good way.

While Larry was struggling with the plan, the game between the New York Knicks and the Pacers began again. (To be continued......)