The Basketball Court Swordsman

On October 23, when he saw the Golden State Warriors lose to the Denver Nuggets, Henson immediately realized how sinister the winning environment this season was.

To be honest, the past two seasons can really be regarded as the two dominant Pacers and Warriors. The Warriors basically swept all the way to the Finals, and the Pacers also gave the Cavaliers a little pressure.

But this year, things are quite different. Whether in the East or West, many teams have completed their transformation. Take the Warriors' loss to the Nuggets for example. Curry scored 30 points, Durant 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 the sudden three-pointer feeling against the sky, or the poor state of their opponents, but on their solid strength to defeat the Warriors.

From that game, it is not difficult to see that the Nuggets this season were not easy to mess with. Jokic, Gary Harris and Jamal Murray already have the ability to change the trend of the game.

Therefore, this is a season of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Warriors will be defeated, as will the Pacers. If Henson wants to win, he must take all his opponents seriously.

Even this opponent has just lost their star.

Paul George has not had a good time these days. Although the team has achieved a four-game winning streak, the voice of questioning him has become more due to the team's continuous victories.

As we all know, this summer, George and the Pacers signed a four-year contract extension worth 137 million US dollars. And it is precisely because of the need to renew George the maximum salary, so the Pacers can no longer keep Paul.

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

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

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

Of course 18 points are not low, but compared to his $137 million contract, it is not enough.

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

In the third game, George scored 20 points. Finally, Paul George finally 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 only 19 points are worrying."

"Oradipo scored 23 points, but George, who took 50 million more than him, scored 4 points less."

"Is Paul George worth 137 million? Is it wise for the Pacers to give up Paul for him!"

Seeing the last piece of news, George pressed off the phone screen angrily. It sounds like he had deliberately forced Paul away.

The media is like this. In order to attract attention, they don't care about distorting facts.

So today, as soon as George arrived at the training hall, Henson discovered that the kid was in a bad condition.

"What's wrong with him? I haven't said much today." Henson stood on the sidelines and looked at George, who was practicing to break through with the ball, and pulled Stephenson to his side.

"Who's wrong?" Stephenson looked at the court in confusion, and it seemed that he didn't notice it.

"George, don't you think he is taciturn today!?"

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

After listening to Stephenson, Henson looked at the guy in confusion. I blame myself, how could I think of finding a guy with a bad brain to ask.

"Hey, kidding. Haven't you watched the news lately? George has been questioned these days. He must be in a bad mood. After all, who wants to be said to have taken 137 million US dollars for soft food?"

Stephenson opened his hands, he was already past the age of "abnormal brain".

"Really? It's because of this..." Henson touched his chin, no wonder George was always unhappy today.

Indeed, this season due to Antetokounmpo playing the number one position, his time with the ball has greatly increased, and most of the opportunities are in Antetokounmpo. Therefore, with Antetokounmpo playing exaggerated statistics for four consecutive games, George's performance does not seem worth mentioning.

But Henson knew very well that this was not because of George's inability, but because his shots were compressed. As long as George is open to play, he can also score good data performance.

Henson admitted that too many stars have fallen after signing major contracts in recent years. Gordon Hayward of the Celtics is an example. Until now in the regular season of this season, Hayward averaged only nearly 11 points per game. There is no doubt that this is seriously inconsistent with what Celtics fans expect of him.

But the reason for Hayward's fall was more of an injury, and George didn't have trouble in this regard. The media confuses George and Hayward, which in itself is untenable.

Thinking of this, Henson was going to talk to George. But then think about it, instead of reasoning with the players, let him personally 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 more offensive tactics for George.

It was already afternoon when Popovich arrived in Indianapolis. As soon as he got off the plane, he encountered 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 the Pacers' winning streak.

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

Popovich had a serious face, but he wouldn't be happy because he came to an old friend's site. Because the relationship between Popovich and Henson at this time is not a friend, but the greatest enemy.

After getting on the team bus, Popovich is still thinking about ways to defeat the Pacers. In the past four games, four teams have proved for Popovich that simply double-teaming Antetokounmpo is not feasible.

But what if Antetokounmpo's passing route is blocked while double-teaming? Although such a defensive strategy will be very complicated to implement, the San Antonio Spurs were born for this.

They are the best offensive team 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 at least be reduced. He doesn't expect the Spurs to limit Antetokounmpo to single-digit scoring tomorrow, but as long as the Pacers are not allowed to play smoothly, the Spurs' defense will be successful.

That night, in many media previews, they gave the Spurs a key to victory: Antetokounmpo must be restricted.

A well-known self-media critic even said in the video: "As long as the Spurs can pinch the Greek, the Pacers are not threatened. This is like destroying the engine of a car, then this car is the power. No matter how strong it is, it will not help."

The hype of the media has made this game a lot of attention before it even started. So the next afternoon, when reporters saw Henson in the player tunnel, they asked Henson how he viewed the comments of the self-media critic.

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

What qualifications does a mere self-media judge have to judge the Pacers? For these "keyboards understand the ball", Henson has long been unaccustomed. Today suddenly has an opportunity to "talk" with them, how can Henson let it go?

So after hearing the question, Henson looked at the screen indifferently and said lightly, "He knows a ball!"

After speaking, Henson turned and left without saying a word.

Strangling Antetokounmpo is equivalent to strangling the Pacers? Well, you are afraid that you have forgotten the horror of being dominated by the "India City General".