basketball player

Chapter 645 Chapter 643: The keyboard master
On October 10, when he saw the Golden State Warriors lose to the Denver Nuggets, Henson immediately realized how dangerous the environment for winning this season is.

To be honest, in the past two seasons, the Pacers and Warriors can really be regarded as the two dominant players.The Warriors basically swept all the way to the finals, and the Pacers can only put a little pressure on the Cavaliers.

But this year, things are very different.Whether it is the East or the West, many teams have completed the metamorphosis.Take the Warriors' loss to the Nuggets as an example. Curry scored 30 points, Durant scored 20 points, and Thompson also scored 15 points.

Moreover, the Nuggets made only 18% of their three-pointers that day!

But even so, the Nuggets can still win.They didn't rely on a sudden three-pointer feeling against the sky, nor did they rely on the opponent's poor state, but they defeated the Warriors by relying on their real strength.

It is not difficult to see from that game that the Nuggets this season are by no means easy to mess with.Jokic, Gary Harris, Jamal Murray and others already have the ability to change the trend of the game.

So, this is the season of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.The Warriors will be beaten, as will the Pacers.Henson has to take all of his opponents seriously if he wants to win.

Even this opponent has just lost their star player.

※※※

Paul George has not been very happy these days. Although the team has achieved 4 consecutive victories, the voices questioning him have become more and more because of the team's consecutive victories.

As we all know, this summer, George signed a four-year contract extension worth $4 million with the Pacers.And it is precisely because of the need to renew George with a maximum salary that the Pacers are unable to keep Paul.

Therefore, George's performance this season has attracted much attention.People even joked that he needs to use performance to fill the huge hole left by Paul.

But after four games in the regular season, George's performance was far from what people imagined.

In the first game of the regular season, the Pacers beat the Timberwolves, but George only scored 18 points.

18 points is certainly not low, but compared to his $1.37 million contract, it is not enough.

In Game 16 of the regular season, George scored 100 points.Although the shooting percentage is not bad, but people are most concerned about his final score, rather than efficiency.After all, even if you hit 2% but only get [-] points, it is meaningless.

In the third game, George scored 20 points.Finally, Paul George scored his first 20 points of the season in the third game of the new season.But there is no doubt that 20 points is not an amazing score.Besides, this is already the third game after the start of the regular season!
So, early this morning, George saw the news criticizing himself again.

"The Pacers beat the Grizzlies, but Paul George's state with only 19 points is worrying."

"Oladipo scored 23 points, and George, who got 5000 million more than him, got 4 points less than him."

"Is Paul George worth 1.37 million? Is it wise for the Pacers to give up Paul for him!"

Seeing the last news, George angrily turned off the phone screen.He said it as if he wanted to drive Paul away.

That's the way the media is, they don't mind twisting the truth to get attention.

So today, as soon as George came to the training hall, Henson realized that the kid was not in the right state.

"What's the matter with him? He didn't talk much today." Henson stood on the sidelines and watched George, who was practicing to break through the offense with the ball, and pulled Stephenson to his side.

"Who's wrong?" Stephenson looked at the court in a daze, as if he didn't notice it.

"George, don't you think he's quiet today!?"

"Oh, maybe it's a broken love."

After listening to Stephenson, Henson looked at this guy in a daze.I blame myself, why would I think of asking a guy with a bad brain to ask.

"Hey, just kidding. Haven't you watched the news recently? George has been questioned these days, he must be in a bad mood. After all, who wants to be said to have taken $1.37 million to eat soft food?"

Stephenson spread his hands, he has already passed the age of "abnormal brain".

"Really? So it's because of this" Henson touched his chin, no wonder George is always depressed today.

Indeed, due to Antetokounmpo playing the No. [-] position this season, he has greatly increased the time of possession of the ball, and most of the opportunities are on Antetokounmpo.Therefore, when Antetokounmpo has played exaggerated data in four consecutive games, George's performance seems to be worth mentioning.

But Henson is very clear that this is not because of George's incompetence, but because his number of shots has been compressed.As long as George is opened up, he can also achieve good data performance.

Henson admitted that there are too many stars who have fallen after signing big contracts in recent years.Gordon Hayward of the Celtics is an example.So far in the regular season this season, Hayward has only averaged nearly 11 points per game.There is no doubt that this is seriously inconsistent with the expectations of Celtic fans for him.

But the reason for Hayward's fall was more due to injuries, and George didn't have this trouble.The media's conflation of George and Hayward is not true in itself.

Thinking of this, Henson planned to talk to George.But after thinking about it, instead of reasoning with the player, it is better to let him use actions to regain his confidence.

So Henson returned to his office.Tomorrow's game against the Spurs, I'm afraid I have to arrange a few more offensive tactics for George.

※※※

It was late afternoon when Popovich arrived in Indianapolis.As soon as he got off the plane, he met a crowd of reporters.

There is no doubt that after the Warriors lost to the Nuggets to end their four-game winning streak, the Spurs are also considered to be the end of the Pacers' winning streak.

Therefore, the Spurs' trip is very welcome.After all, every game between the Spurs and the Pacers is a focus battle!

Popovich has a serious face, and he will not be happy because he has come to an old friend's place.Because at this time, the relationship between Popovich and Henson is not a friend, but the biggest enemy.

After boarding the team bus, Popovich was still figuring out how to beat the Pacers.In the past four games, four teams have proved to Popovich that simply double-teaming Antetokounmpo is not feasible.

But what about blocking Antetokounmpo's passing lanes while double-teaming him?While such a defensive strategy can be complex to execute, the San Antonio Spurs were born for it.

They are the team that can play the most team offense in the league, and they can always execute complex tactics clearly.

This season, Antetokounmpo is the starting point of the Pacers' offense. As long as he is strangled, the Pacers' offensive fluency will be at least half.He doesn't expect the Spurs to limit Antetokounmpo to single-digit points tomorrow, but as long as the Pacers are not allowed to play smoothly, the Spurs' defense will be considered a success.

That night, in many media previews of the game, there was one of the keys to victory they gave the Spurs: Antetokounmpo must be restricted.

A relatively well-known self-media commentator even said in the video: "As long as the Spurs can choke the Greeks, the Pacers will be no threat. This is like destroying the engine of a car, no matter how powerful the car is, it will not help."

The hype from the media made this game attract much attention before it even started.So the next afternoon, when the reporters saw Henson in the player tunnel, they asked Henson what he thought of the self-media commentator's remarks.

Henson looked at the camera and shook his head in disappointment.He didn't expect that in today's Internet age, people or ghosts can actually question his team.

A mere self-media commentator, what qualifications does he have to judge the Pacers?Henson has long been unaccustomed to these "keyboard masters".Today, he suddenly had an opportunity to "talk" to them, how could Hensen let it go?
So, after listening to the question, Henson looked at the screen indifferently, and said lightly, "He knows a ball!"

After finishing speaking, Henson turned and left without saying another word.

Strangling Antetokounmpo is equivalent to strangling the Pacers?Well, I'm afraid you have forgotten the horror of being dominated by the "General of Yincheng".

(End of this chapter)