Legend of Tomorrow

? Before the start of the finals, when predicting the outcome online, people were overwhelmingly optimistic about the Suns, even though the Pacers have veteran Reggie Miller who is about to retire.

Almost all of Miller's opponents at the same time have retired, and the remaining veterans will join his team for a championship ring. Miller's old teammates in the Pacers are also leaving one by one. The once unruly Dazui became confused under the years.

Should I go or stay? As he was thinking about his career path, the then general manager Big Bird Bird tried his best to retain Miller. The words The Pacers need you made Miller decide to devote his entire career to the Pacers.

Under Miller's hard work, the Pacers re-accumulated a group of strong players this season and reached the finals.

Everyone knows that this is Miller's last season. When he last appeared in Madison Square Garden, the New Yorkers who hated Miller the most had reason to use the most vicious words and boos at the highest decibels to sarcastically mock this person. Enemies with empty hands.

But on that night, there was only a touch of sadness and respect that filled the entire game. All the spectators stood up and shouted his name. Miller, a guy who used to talk trash, has won the respect of fans and opponents with his never-give-up spirit.

After playing in the NBA for eighteen years, Miller left countless classics, such as the Miller moment, the chokehold, and the gentleman's courtesy.

Miller can still play a role. In the fifth game of the Eastern Conference Finals, he played 33 minutes, made 11 of 16 shots, 4 of 8 three-pointers, 1 of 1 free throws, scored 27 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists, helping the Pacers win. The Battle of Tianwang Mountain proved his strength.

However, the gap between the two teams' lineups is obvious, and the Suns can be said to have advantages in every position.

Especially at the No. 1 position, the Pacers' starting point guard is Jamal Tinsley, and the substitute is Anthony Johnson. Both of them are just role players. Their single defense cannot limit Guo Xu. People think that the suspense of the finals is not who wins, but how many games it takes for the Suns to win.

In interviews before the game, everyone in the Suns was very confident, but the Pacers players and coaches only said that they would try their best.

Guo Xu is the most confident person. Without the battle at Auburn Hills, it would have been an accident for the Pacers to enter the finals. How could they win the championship? The team that won the championship in the previous life in 2005 was the Spurs, but the Suns defeated the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.

On June 9, the first battle between the two sides started in Phoenix.

Due to the late start of this season and the tiebreaker in the Eastern Conference finals, the Pacers only had two days of rest before starting the finals. The Suns had a huge advantage in terms of player physical strength.

Even so, D'Antoni did not arrange mainly run-and-gun tactics. Instead, he asked Stoudemire and Nene to form a twin-tower starting lineup, attack from multiple positions, and constantly use pick-and-roll screens to create mismatched offensive opportunities.

This was the main tactic used by the Suns against the Timberwolves last season. O'Neal's defense was good, but compared to Garnett, he was still slightly inferior and not tough enough. This can be seen from his face. As long as O'Neal Jr. is withdrawn from the penalty area, the two Suns insiders can attack the basket together, which is enough for the Pacers.

Jeff Foster is a blue-collar center with a height of 211cm and a weight of 110kg. In Guo Xu's previous life, Foster was an unknown blue-collar player until his retirement, with no bright spots in any aspect except for grabbing offensive rebounds.

Foster is at a disadvantage against the Suns' two major insiders and can be left open outside the penalty area on the offensive end. His statistics this season are at the peak of his career, scoring 6 points, 8.3 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.2 blocks in 25 minutes.

You can see Foster's ability to protect the frame just by looking at the data. The 7-foot white man has almost no blocks. His defensive method is to rely on his height to interfere. He can deal with ordinary insiders, but he can't jump against Stoudemire or Nene. Just watch them perform.

The Pacers' substitute is not as good as Foster. Dale Davis is 36 years old. In order to keep up with the rhythm of the game, he chose to lose weight. He is 211cm tall and weighs only 104 kilograms.

Austin Crosier is a space-based power forward who is 206cm tall and weighs 107kg. His ability to protect the frame is even worse. He has long become a representative of high salary and low performance. This season's 37.8% field goal percentage is speechless, and he only averages 8 minutes per game in the playoffs.

In order for the Pacers to switch defenses indefinitely, the inside players are relatively mobile. The only human shield is Scott Pollard, who is 211cm tall and weighs 120kg. He is only a marginal player in the team.

Guo Xu passes the ball to his teammates to attack the inside, and he looks for opportunities to shoot from the outside. He only breaks through when he is mismatched against the big man. If he rushes in and attracts double-teams, he will also choose to distribute the ball. This style of play was beyond Coach Carlisle's expectations, and the Pacers were defeated in three quarters.

Carlisle believed that Guo Xu would try his best to compete for FMVP and would not take very few shots in the finals, so he emphasized his defense before the game. As a result, Guo Xu focused on organization throughout the game, attracting defensive assists to his teammates.

Guo Xu can focus more on the defensive end by playing this way and try his best to pester Tinsley.

He played 38 minutes in the first game, making 6 of 11 shots, 2 of 5 three-pointers, 3 of 4 free throws, scoring 17 points, 4 rebounds, 18 assists and 2 steals; Tinsley made 0 of 5 shots and 0 of 2 three-pointers. In the game, there were no free throws, 0 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists.

Six members of the Suns team scored in double figures and shared the ball selflessly. Only Stoudemire scored 20+. He played 36 minutes and scored 26 points and 10 rebounds, beating O'Neal who had 18 points and 7 rebounds.

O'Neal currently has a shortcoming. He relies too much on shooting to score. His shooting percentage drops sharply when Nene, Diop, Haslem and others take turns to defend him when turning around from behind.

In the first game, O'Neal Jr. made only 6 of 18 shots, 6 of 6 free throws, and no assists. With the performance of the core of the team, it is not surprising that the Pacers lost by 27 points.

In the second game between the two sides, O'Neal Jr. regained his feeling, and the Pacers were defended like a blacksmith on the outside.

Jackson and Artest's shooting percentages were only 36.4% and 31.6%, which is terrible. Reggie Miller made 3 of 6 shots and scored 6 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists. It is difficult to regain the courage of the past.

The Suns won again 107-86, leading the total score 2-0.

In the third game in Polis, the Suns won easily again. With a solid defense, they could always have the last laugh with a superior offensive efficiency.

Tinsley was beaten by Guo Xu in every game. In his best game, he scored 8 points and 10 assists, never scoring in double figures. Guo Xu scored 20+10 in two games, with a shooting rate of over 50%.

In the fourth game, the league probably didn't want to see another sweep of the finals. The Pacers' home whistle was more obvious. O'Neal scored 36 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 blocks, and made 15 of 17 free throws in the game. Jackson finally showed his strength once, hitting 6 three-pointers and scoring 26 points, 2 rebounds and 3 steals.

With the efforts of the two, the Pacers pulled back a game 101-94.

On the defensive end, the Pacers made a lot of defensive moves and the smell of gunpowder was very strong. Stoudemire and Foster almost got into a fight when they clashed, but luckily they were stopped. The Pacers have the idea of ​​​​successful in order to win. If these two are suspended together, the Pacers will definitely make money.

In the fifth game, the Suns turned away and gave the Pacers no chance. Guo Xu kept a low profile for four games and then exploded. He breaks through with the ball, catches and shoots, attracts double-teams and distributes the ball. His style of play is very flexible and he dominates the court.

He made 16 of 25 shots, 7 of 12 three-pointers, 8 of 8 free throws, and scored 47 points and 8 assists.

Tinsley's mentality has completely collapsed. He can't guard Guo Xu one-on-one and frequently fails on the offensive end. He made only 4 of 12 shots, 0 of 4 three-pointers, 4 of 4 free throws, and scored 12 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals.

Joe Johnson, Marion, and Laga Bell also performed well, once again guarding Artest and Jackson.

The Suns won the away game with a score of 79, defeating the Pacers with a total score of 4-1, and successfully retained the championship.