basketball player

Chapter 100 099: Analysis of Eastern War Situation
The All-Star Weekend is naturally a double feast for fans and players, and the fierce regular season battle will be interrupted this weekend.Whether they are fans or players, they will enjoy basketball happily and enjoy the basketball feast brought to the world by this highly commercialized league.

After the All-Star Game, the players have no time to breathe, and they will immediately continue to fight in the regular season.

As usual, after the All-Star Game, there will usually be some small-scale transactions in the league. Each team will change the configuration of the team in order to strengthen the lineup and hit the playoffs.

Henson and his Pacers did not participate in the lineup transformation, because the current situation of the team still makes Henson very satisfied.If you can't trade for a superstar, you'd rather stand still.

However, there is still an Eastern Conference team this season that got an absolute superstar in the middle of the season.That is Carmelo Anthony, who has finally settled down since last summer!
As soon as the All-Star break ended, the Nuggets reached a deal with the impatient New York Knicks.

This means that the New York Knicks, supported by only Stoudemire alone, instantly formed a Big Three lineup with Anthony, Stoudemire and Billups.

Although in Henson's view, it is a bit far-fetched for this lineup to be called the "Big Three" by the media, after all, Billups is no longer a giant figure.

But one thing Henson must admit is that Anthony joining New York is likely to change the pattern of the East.From now on, there will be one more terrifying and powerful opponent in the East.

It seems that the difficulty of the playoffs has risen to a higher level.

If the Pacers don't want to be eliminated in the first round, it's about climbing the leaderboard as much as possible.

Because if it falls to the 6th, 7th, and 8th places, then there is a high probability of facing one of the three opponents of the Bulls, Celtics and Heat in the first round of the playoffs.

For Henson, he definitely didn't want to meet such a strong opponent in the first round.

But what if you want to rush up?There are also difficulties.Since the regular season, the winning percentages of the Bulls and Heat have gradually become stable, while the Celtics have been in the first group since the beginning of the season.

Unless someone is injured or there is a major change in these three teams, their results will hardly be Waterloo in the next two months.

It is not impossible to rush to second or third in the Eastern Conference, but it is very difficult.Henson doesn't want his players to burn out during the regular season, only to go home one round in the playoffs.

He hopes that the team can hone more in the playoffs and play more games, even if it's just one more round.

Henson knows very well that the playoffs are the perfect place to train players.The speed of improvement between young people who have played in the playoffs and those who have not played in the playoffs is often very different.

So Henson's plan is to stabilize the fourth or fifth place in the Eastern Conference as much as possible, so that he doesn't have to face too strong opponents in the first round and doesn't need to consume too much energy.

Then, Henson needs to find a way to kill the No.5 or No.4 team with a record similar to the Pacers.From the current point of view, there are two teams that are most likely to become the Pacers' opponents in the first round, and that is the Magic and the Knicks!

The Magic have Howard and have Finals experience.The Knicks have superstars and strong personal abilities.These two teams are strong enough, but they are not overwhelming in front of the Pacers.Therefore, Henson believes that the Pacers can try to hit the second round.

That's right, hit the second round.Although Bird's only task for himself this season is the playoffs, after all, the Pacers have not touched the threshold of the playoffs for four years.But Henson doesn't ask himself that way, he always does better than others ask.

I believe that such a first-round game can hone people more than letting players play more than ten regular season games.

Henson told the players his goal, and the players were eager to try, hoping to have a blockbuster season.

Before the start of the season, everyone thought that Henson would not be able to pull the Pacers into the playoffs, but now, they are heading towards the Eastern Conference semifinals.

In the remaining 2 games in February, the Pacers have 4 wins and 2 losses, and their performance is still stable.Among them, in the loss to the Suns, he was still killed by the old-fashioned Nash, piercing his heart with an arrow.

"There are also many types of losses. Being slaughtered and fighting for the lore are two completely different ways of losing. Although the Pacers lost to the Suns, their performance is commendable. Get ready, this young army will disrupt the situation in the East just like the Oklahoma City Thunder!"

After the game with the Suns, Mike Breen said so.

Now, more and more people are starting to compare the Thunder with the Pacers.Because both teams are very young, and both have messed up the existing rankings in their respective divisions.

Coincidentally, the Oklahoma City Thunder are now No.4 in the West.The Pacers and Thunder have been considered the two teams with the most potential in the league.

"Who knows? Maybe four or five years from now, we'll see the Pacers and Thunder meet in the Finals."

This is the famous NBA commentator Marv Albert's evaluation of the Pacers and Thunder.

Henson doesn't have the time to worry about the complex issue of whether the Pacers are the Eastern Thunder or the Thunder are the Western Pacers.

After the time entered March, the battle became more and more tense.Every team is going crazy, hoping to change the rankings at the last minute.

In the first game in March, the Pacers extinguished the Warriors' arrogance. Monta Ellis was no longer miraculous, and the Pacers won easily.

But then facing the three Western Conference teams Thunder, Mavericks and Rockets, the Pacers suffered a three-game losing streak!

If Henson can accept the loss to the Thunder and Mavericks, the team's inexplicable loss to the Rockets made Henson unbearable.

One theory is that Coach Henson Joe was so angry in the locker room after the game that he punched and smashed a locker in the locker room of the Toyota Center.

The evidence is that Coach Henson was spotted with a bandage on his right hand when he came out of the Toyota Center, and that's when several workers entered the locker room to fix something.

After this incident was exposed, the Pacers were once pushed to the forefront.

The generals are at odds, which is news that all fans love to hear.

"If getting angry is useful, Coach George Karl's Nuggets will be the league champion!" After hearing about this incident, Barkley couldn't help but take George Karl as an example and made fun of Henson.

It turns out, however, that sometimes getting angry really helps.

输给火箭之后，步行者队立马在主场以10分之差肢解了76人。艾尔.霍福德今天在低位不可阻挡，他14投11中，在76人队白人中锋霍伊斯头上拿下了全场最高的26分！
In this game, Henson deliberately let Horford hit Hawes in the low post.

"Today, I need you to play like before! Play like a traditional center!" Henson's words were kept in Horford's heart from beginning to end. Facts have proved that listening to Coach Henson's words can lead to good statistics.

Only one day later, the Pacers slaughtered the Timberwolves, who had lost 101 games this season, with a brutal score of 75 to 50 in Minnesota.

"This is really a brutal massacre! The blood of the Timberwolves almost melted the ice in Minnesota! We can see that Coach Henson is very angry, and the Pacers are also very angry! At this time, it is better not to mess with them!" Mike Breen sighed, and the Pacers scored in double figures with 7 players.

It seems that Coach Henson's punch in the locker room was not in vain.

On March 3, the Pacers won again, this time it was the Toronto Raptors who were "tragicly murdered".

Granger and Horford scored 25 points each, highlighting their role as Eastern Conference All-Stars.The Raptors were almost unable to resist throughout the game. The reason why they only lost 12 points was because Henson replaced all the main players early.

Henson's punch gave the Pacers a three-game winning streak.This allowed the Pacers to achieve a score of 39 wins and 23 losses in times of crisis, ranking fifth in the Eastern Conference.And it is only two games away from the No.4 Orlando Magic!

However, after a wave of three consecutive victories, the Pacers still haven't gotten rid of the situation of being talked about by Bark.

"Do you know why the Pacers have won three consecutive victories recently? Because the three opponents they faced are too weak! Believe me, the next game against the New York Knicks, Coach Henson's Pacers will show their true colors!"

In fact, not only Barkley, many people think so.Among them, Carmelo Anthony, the super scorer who just transferred to the Knicks.

"We're going to win, don't forget the Knicks are climbing to a higher ranking now. The Indiana Pacers can't stop me, they can't stop the Knicks!"

The superstar who just moved to New York smiled confidently in front of the camera.

(End of this chapter)