basketball player

Chapter 355 Chapter 353: The Alliance's Only Hope

The return of Ray Allen and David West gave Henson great confidence.

What confidence?An incredible 72 wins in the regular season and the confidence to still shine in the playoffs.To put it bluntly, in the case of being able to rotate and rest, I have the confidence to win 72 wins!

Now the team has basically no injuries, and the personnel are neat.In this season, Henson can finally line up without considering injury factors.The two main players, West and Ray Allen, can make the playing time of the players more even, and it is impossible for things like injuries due to fatigue to happen again.

West played crazy for nearly 40 minutes, and this situation will not happen a second time.

After the road victory over the Suns, Henson clearly emphasized the goal of the season in a coaching staff meeting-on April 4, the team with a complete lineup will go all out to win the Oklahoma City Thunder.As long as they beat the Thunder, no team in the league can prevent the Pacers from winning 5 wins.After defeating the Thunder, the team began to rest in preparation for the playoffs.

"Attention, it is a rotation, not an average rotation. After the game on April 4, we will let several players take a rest in each game until the start of the playoffs. In this way, we can avoid injuries as much as possible and save the physical fitness of the players."

In the conference room, Henson revealed his plan in full.While resting, he still has 72 wins.But this sounds like a crazy plan, and the feasibility has become higher and higher.

Let's see what opponents the Pacers need to face in April? After the game against the Thunder on April 4, the opponents after the Pacers were the Wizards, Cavaliers, Nets, Knicks and Philadelphia 4ers.These teams are not too strong, and Henson is confident that he will only lose two of them even in the case of a rotation lineup.

In this way, the Pacers' record can just reach 72 wins.Most importantly, they don't have to play with the full lineup until the last game of the regular season like the Chicago Bulls did!
Taking 72 wins while resting in rotation, from fantasy to reality, it's that simple!
"It's time to make a name for yourself, guys. If we win 72 games, believe me, our group will be indelible in the history of the league! Even after 20, 72 years, people will talk about us! Even if they forget who the championship was ten years ago, they won't forget who won 72 wins in the regular season! So, let's work together. Of course, don't tell the players about it, plan for us to know. No need, put such pressure on the players. When they feel the pressure At the time, I found out that [-] wins have already been included in the bag!"

Once the goals are clarified, future plans will be easier to implement.A great season is brewing in Indianapolis
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Henson was delighted by the state of David West and Ray Allen in training. Although they were absent for almost a month, they did not lose their competitive state.

Before the injury, David West played a flashback performance, scoring 20 in four consecutive games.Now back, West seems to have some heat left.

The most notable point is that in confrontation training, West made Horford very embarrassed.The addition of Ray Allen allowed Henson to have more changes and choices in the rotation time.

"The feeling of a complete lineup, I really miss it." Henson shook his head. The Pacers have lost a total of 8 games so far, but 4 of them were lost in March.

In other words, the Pacers with a full lineup only lost 3 games in total before March.Although the Pacers' performance in March is still excellent, it has to be admitted that the Pacers also lost that absolute dominance after a hole in the lineup.

Looking at the players sweating on the training ground, Henson couldn't help clenching his fists.He can't wait to remind the entire league of how scary the lineup of Pacers is!

That incomparable dominance is about to descend upon the entire alliance again!

※※※

On April 4, the Indiana Pacers have a game to play on the first day of April.Although their opponent, the Los Angeles Clippers, is among the top eight in the Western Conference, for Henson, the team led by Griffin and DeAndre Jordan is actually not too strong.

So today, at the Staples Center, it was discovered that Ray Allen and David West had started to follow the team to run away games.They also warmed up before the start of the game.

However, during the game, the two bosses didn't play for a minute, and they sat on the bench in training clothes and chatted all the time.

"It seems that Coach Henson is indeed very cautious. He didn't rush to let Ray Allen and David West return to the game, but continued to wait and see for protection. When the playoffs are half a month away, no one wants to take risks."

"You mean the Pacers are going to give up their 72-win record?"

"Maybe, after all, for the Pacers. Being able to successfully defend the title is the biggest victory."

Kevin Harlan and Kenny Smith, who explained the game, were only half right.Henson really doesn't want to take any more risks, but he never intends to give up the 72 wins.

Without David West, Horford and "Birdman" Anderson had to deal with the impact of Jordan, so today, most of the people defending Griffin fell on Yi Jianlian.

However, it is indeed a bit difficult for Yi Jianlian to defend Griffin.Griffin's impact and confrontation ability are not something Yi Jianlian can compete with.It is a blessing in misfortune that he was not dunked by Griffin today.

So today, Griffin's performance is very impressive.He made 13 of 8 shots in the game and scored 61.5 points with a 18% shooting rate.

It is precisely because of Griffin's outstanding performance that the Clippers have been biting the score. It seems that they are only one breath away from overthrowing the defending champion!
However, the Clippers didn't catch their breath.Until the end of the 48-minute game, the Clippers were still 3 points behind the Pacers. 109 to 106, Henson narrowly beat the Clippers away without West and Ray Allen!

"Coach Henson was so calm, the game was so tight, and he was sitting next to two players who could change the trend of the game. However, Coach Henson still followed the original plan. He was in danger and finally let the team win."

At the critical moment, Kevin Harlan, who was commentating the game, watched with sweaty palms.And Henson just stood on the sidelines with a blank face, as if his team was not leading by 3 points, but by 30 points.

In fact, although the Clippers have always been close to the Pacers, they have never been able to complete a lead since the 5th minute of the third quarter.

The anxiety of the game is just an illusion. The Pacers have been suppressing the Clippers and controlling the rhythm.Otherwise, with a mere 3-point disadvantage, the Clippers would have counterattacked long ago.

The scariest thing is this, you always think that there is only a small gap between you and your opponent, but what you don't know is that your opponent has no strength at all.

Being able to handle this tiny gap without any change proves that this opponent is actually several times stronger than you!
After the game, Blake Griffin, who was eating and drinking on Yi Jianlian's head, walked into the player tunnel in frustration. He always thought it was a narrow loss.But in fact, the strength gap between the two sides in this match couldn't be more obvious.

"Coach Henson, congratulations on your thrilling victory."

Hearing the reporter say it was a "thrilling victory", Henson raised his lips slightly, but said nothing.

"Today, you still didn't use Ray Allen and David West. Will you still play them in the rest of the regular season this season?" The reporter put the microphone next to Henson's mouth. There was nothing worth talking about in this game itself, so the reporters could only find topics outside the game.

"No, I don't intend to let those two guys pay their salary for nothing." Henson waved his hand jokingly, "Actually, I plan to let them play in the next game. I think Ray and David will definitely support this decision."

Henson replied lightly, which did not cause any uproar.After all, God knows if he's telling the truth.Have other teams experienced less of being cheated by Henson?It is very likely that you worked hard to arrange a lot of targeted tactics for Ray Allen and West, but they didn't play at all!

But just three hours after the game, reporters realized something was wrong.

In the next game, the Pacers' opponent is the current No. [-] player in the Western Conference. If they win another game, they will be able to overtake the Spurs and become the No. [-] Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference!And if the Pacers win the Thunder again
There will be no team that can prevent them from winning 72!In other words, Henson really intends to use the full lineup of Pacers to fight the Thunder!
The reporters immediately worked overtime to build momentum for this unusual game.Among them, the headline on the front page of the "Oklahoma Evening Post" summed it up very well.

"The Oklahoma City Thunder is the only hope for the league to prevent the Pacers from reaching 72 wins".

(End of this chapter)