"Gary has been cut off again." Full-court pressing defense has always been a weapon for the Pacers this season, most of the games, as long as the Pacers are behind in the first half, or the two sides are anxious, the Pacers will use full-court pressing defense in the third quarter, but the Pacers' full-court tight defense today has directly improved by a level compared to the usual games, and the defense composed of four all-round swing men is as insurmountable as an iron wall, and the connection between the Lakers inside and outside is completely cut off, as long as the ball is passed, it will face the risk of mistakes.

Especially the 36-year-old Gary Payton, an experienced All-Star guard, is already embarrassed by Meng Xu's personal pressing. Although with the increase of age, Payton's physical fitness has declined seriously, but relying on his rich game experience and excellent awareness, Payton still has a big advantage in facing some young guards, but now facing Meng Xu, who is taller than himself, but his flexibility and movement speed are also beyond himself, and his prediction ability and awareness seem to be stronger than himself, Payton is really very difficult, and even Peyton's best bulldozer-style back singles have lost their former brilliance in front of Meng Xu. With his back not moving, no room to shoot, and no chance to break through, it is no exaggeration to say that today's game is the most embarrassing game in Payton's entire career.

Due to the particularity of the full-court pressing tactics, basketball was always in Payton's hands at the beginning of the third quarter of the game, but at this time Payton was not able to play the role of a superstar, under the pressure of Meng Xu, Payton attacked 6 times, made two mistakes, and 4 times barely shot outside the three-point line, but only hit once, hit the iron twice, and once shot a three-point non-stick, and at the end of the first half of the game also led the Pacers 6 points Lakers, At the beginning of the third quarter, the Pacers overtook the score.

So looking at the players on the court, constantly doing useless switchback and running, Lakers head coach Phil Jackson also stood on the sidelines, anxiously gesturing to the court, and finally when Payton wanted to hand over the basketball to Kobe Bryant under the cover of Devin George, but was stealed by Meng Xu again, Phil Jackson immediately walked towards the technical table on the sidelines and made a gesture to apply for a timeout.

"Phil Jackson called a timeout, I don't know if he can find a strategy to break the Pacers' full-court pressing, if the situation on the court still does not change after the timeout, then the Lakers will not be able to hold on to the fourth quarter of this game."

"Maybe in this case, Phil Jackson should consider letting Kobe Bryant hold the ball."

"The Lakers are having a hard time right now, Phil Jackson didn't expect the Pacers to have such a lineup in the game, and now the Lakers are facing not only how to solve the Pacers' pressing problem, but also how to deal with a team that is far more athletically talented than themselves. At that time, the Bulls had already proved to the world that they couldn't crack the outside pressing, even if they had a dominant big man, they couldn't play the power they should have, because when the team's outside players couldn't find a way to crack the tight defense, the inside players would face the dilemma that they might not even be able to receive the ball. While Michaels and Jeff Van Gundy were thinking about countermeasures for the Lakers, Magic Johnson said something very pessimistic.

"It does seem like that, and maybe when the whole league was thinking about how to deal with the Bulls' full-court pressing, Phil Jackson would never have imagined that one day he would face the same problem." After some analysis by Magic Johnson, this game is basically a serious Jeff Van Gundy instead showed a happy smile, Jeff Van Gundy and his teacher Pat Riley led the Knicks are a ghost under the Bulls dynasty, recalling that he and Pat Riley stayed up all night, constantly looking for the past when the Bulls pressed the defense all day, and looked at Phil Jackson's dilemma when he faced the Pacers' full-court tight defense today, Jeff Van Gundy felt the thrill of revenge.

"Larry, as you expected, Kobe Bryant started to attack with the ball." After the timeout, Phil Jackson really arranged for Kobe Bryant to start holding the ball, and seeing that the Lakers changed exactly the same as Larry Bird expected after the timeout, Lester Connell, the assistant coach on the side, was already dancing excitedly.

"It looks like we should be able to win this game easily." Seeing that Phil Jackson's adjustments were always within his expectations, Larry Bird also nodded with satisfaction. Although Larry Bird has been repeatedly telling his players that the Lakers are not terrible, and the so-called Big Four are just paper tigers, but in fact, Larry Bird does not despise the Lakers at all, even before this game, the pressure on Larry Bird is quite large, if you want to defeat the Lakers in this year's finals, then the Pacers' two home courts cannot afford to lose, as long as they win these two home courts, in the case of a big score of 2-0, the Pacers will establish a confidence to win, Psychologically building an advantage over the Lakers, as there have only been two reversals in the history of the Finals when they were 2-0 down, the most recent of which was 35 years ago.

Although Hamilton's defense is also very good, it is far from Meng Xu's level, and one of the major weaknesses of the full-court pressing tactics is that once the defender is broken, then the field will be full of holes, which is why pressing defense will be a touchstone for superstars. And Kobe Bryant is obviously much better than Payton in the face of Meng Xu's pressing now, but after Kobe Bryant broke through Hamilton's defense, he did not have the slightest intention of connecting the team, but chose to use his own offense to kill the Pacers.

"This Pacers have just a lot of athleticism!" Although the Pacers' pressing defense, after Hamilton was broken by Kobe Bryant in a row, it seems that Kobe Bryant has cracked it, but the Pacers' full-court pressing is still continuing, and after Kobe Bryant broke through Hamilton's pressing, the first choice is either to break through or shoot, which also led to the Lakers falling into a situation where Kobe Bryant is alone on the offensive end. On the defensive end, the Lakers were really crushed by the Pacers' super athletic talent, especially Malone, Payton and O'Neal, who have gradually been unable to keep up with the pace of the game under the Pacers' faster and faster pace of the game.