The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!
Chapter 425 - 205 The Birth of the Indiana Dynasty

Chapter 425: Chapter 205 The Birth of the Indiana Dynasty

The buzzer sounded, and the stats for the Lakers team were set:

Kobe made 7 out of 23 shots, 1 out of 5 from the three-point line, and 5 out of 6 free throws, scoring 20 points with around a 30% shooting percentage. In addition, he also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers.

This was a bad game.

It was also Kobe’s worst performance in the finals.

Yao Ming made 6 out of 12 shots, hit all 5 of his free throws, and ended up with 17 points. He also had 9 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks along with 3 turnovers.

The shooting percentage looked alright.

But there are many ways to limit the defense inside.

One of them is to limit his shots.

Yao Ming was only given 12 shooting opportunities in this game.

As the team’s "second-in-command," just this output was clearly insufficient.

If Yao had made 8 out of 12 shots, even with fewer attempts, you could say his performance was excellent.

50% shooting from 12 attempts, the output plus the efficiency, can only be considered average.

Of course, even so, they were still the two best performers on the Lakers team.

The rest of the players’ stats were even more dismal.

The Lakers’ defeat was due to Kobe’s poor condition, and also because when the Lakers’ two key players were frantically double-teamed, the other Lakers players failed to provide any response. Otherwise, the Pacers wouldn’t have double-teamed Kobe and Yao Ming so recklessly.

On the Pacers side, after the first half had just ended, everyone’s stats were nothing special, with only Su Wan’s stats shining. But in the second half, as the Lakers gradually fell apart within the Pacers’ defense, defense drove the offense, and everyone got a piece of the "dumpling":

Su Wan ultimately scored 36 points for the game, and he did it in just 31 minutes and 23 seconds, an extremely outstanding performance.

Little O’Neal also scored 20 points and 11 rebounds in this game, the second time he scored over 20 points in the finals.

Ever since Rick Carlisle decided to have him cover for Foster, a large part of his energy shifted from offense to defense.

This is the biggest difference between Little O’Neal and Little Si:

His professional dedication is much higher than Little Si, who also came straight from high school, willing to follow the head coach’s instructions.

Little Si prefers to put all his energy into offense rather than defense.

Artest ended up with a "Rookie LeBron" stat line of 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists for the entire game.

The others were similarly well-fed.

Except for Tinsley...

He got a total of 11 minutes on the court for this game, and it was basically all in "garbage time." That should have been a good opportunity for him to pad his stats, but "haste does not bring success," the more anxious he got, the harder it was to unravel the knot behind the milk cap, and he ultimately made just 1 of 5 shots during this time.

Otherwise, in this game, the Pacers could have won by more than 40 points.

Such a defeat suddenly hit the Lakers on the head after two consecutive comebacks, leaving everyone dazed. Only Kobe, sitting on the bench when the buzzer sounded, looked at the score as if to etch it into his brain forever.

It was clear to see, his eyes were filled with a flame of revenge.

Bill Walton also saw his look and couldn’t help but sigh, "Kobe really wants to come back and win the next game. He’s the type of player with a strong vengeful nature, and such players are often more successful, it’s just..."

It’s really tough! frёeweɓηovel_coɱ

The strength of the Pacers this season lies in the maturity of their offensive system, and defensively they have nearly the best defense in the league... This gives the Pacers the ability to win games offensively and the capital to win defensively.

They are a team extremely good at seizing opportunities.

Specifically, once they detect a weakness, they will not hesitate to bite down on it and not let go until the enemy is completely devoured.

This game thoroughly exposed the issue of the Lakers having only Kobe and Yao Ming.

In the next game, the Pacers will definitely continue tonight’s defensive patterns and even perfect them more. With a 39-point difference, it’s hard to believe that just a better performance from the role players will chase back the score.

It would require Kobe to return to his previous form, Yao Ming to have more shooting opportunities, role players to begin to explode, and the overall defense to put more pressure on the Pacers...

Well...

This actually wouldn’t be much different from switching to a new team.

Even if Bill Walton believes that the Lakers can perform better in the next game than tonight, it certainly won’t be to such a great extent.

Phil Jackson, when facing interviews after the game, also said: "Kobe and Yao bore most of the burden. When they were contained, it was difficult for the other players on the Lakers team to give them enough support, and that’s the reason (for the Lakers’ dismal defeat)!"

"I’m also quite curious to see what excuses the Los Angeles media will come up with this time!" Su Wan said after the game, ever petty, directly cueing up the Los Angeles media that had previously crazily ridiculed him about that "Game-winning shot" before pushing Kobe.

The next morning, the Los Angeles media responded:

Silence from everyone!

Not just them, after this big victory, the media that had previously thought the Lakers could win three straight and head to Indiana with a 3-2 lead automatically fell silent as well.

All the remaining media were already prematurely celebrating the Pacers’ "three consecutive championships" and the establishment of a new Dynasty.