hotmtlnovel Chapter 468 Another career high! He's out of the game early again!
Chapter 468 Another career high! He's out of the game early again!
In late March, Webber and Ginobili, who had been injured for a long time, underwent follow-up examinations by the team doctor to check their injury recovery.
But this news was like a bolt from the blue.
It's been reimbursed.
Both Webber and Ginobili's injury recovery is not progressing as expected, and they will not be able to return on the date previously set by the team. They need more time to recover.
If the team still can't confirm when they'll return by this point in the season, it basically means that both of them are out for the season!
The Pacers' style is not to let their players make a hasty and reckless return to playoff games!
Such risks are too great, the returns too small, and it's easy to have negative effects; it's definitely not worth it!
In other words, the Pacers can only compete in the playoffs with their current roster!
Furthermore, because the key players played too many minutes at the end of the regular season, the Pacers also have to be wary of injuries occurring during the playoffs or at the end of the regular season. Carlisle needs to give the players some time to relax and rest.
From this perspective, there is also good news for the Pacers.
That means the Cavaliers' record is steadily improving!
They played quite well in the second half of March. Although the Pacers closed the gap to 2 games, they still had a 3-game lead over the Pacers, making it very difficult for the Pacers to overtake them.
Since they can't catch up, the players are under less pressure.
They can rest more comfortably!
So, in the first game of April, Carlisle couldn't wait to start resting his players.
He was genuinely worried that Lin Tian might get injured from exhaustion during the final offensive surge in March.
In this game, Lin Tian, Artest, and Christie all rested and did not play. Other key rotation players such as Parker, Miller, and Haslem also did not play for long periods of time in this game.
The main idea is that half the people rest and the other half slack off.
With this kind of play, given the Pacers' current roster depth, it would be a miracle if they could win!
They lost to the Wizards without any suspense, thus ending the team's eight-game winning streak.
The main reason why the Pacers dared to rest players in early April is that the Celtics will face the current top team in the Eastern Conference, the Magic, on April 1st!
Normally, the Magic should be able to easily defeat the Celtics and solidify their position as the top team in the Eastern Conference.
But just then, the Magic suffered a shocking defeat!
Although they had their full roster available, Pierce was in superhuman form again tonight, scoring 44 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, leading his team to victory!
The Pacers lost due to resting their players, while the Celtics defeated a strong opponent. With one inside and one outside, the two teams were originally two games apart, but in the blink of an eye, only one game remains!
If the Celtics win again and the Pacers lose in the next game, their records will be tied! The Pacers will only be able to maintain their eighth position by virtue of their head-to-head record.
In short, the first game in April gave the Pacers a wake-up call. Neither Carlisle nor Lin Tian dared to rest in the remaining games.
On April 3, the Pacers fielded their full roster again, facing the Seattle SuperSonics!
The SuperSonics have had a pretty good record this year, with 48 wins so far and a chance to reach 50 wins again after many years!
After re-bringing back their veteran player Payton, the team has shown a very good spirit, with the whole team displaying the determination to compete with the Lakers for the Western Conference title.
The SuperSonics now have a shooting-oriented, all-out offensive system built around three perimeter players: Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, and Gary Payton, supplemented by excellent shooters such as Radmanovic, Brent Barry, and Antonio Daniels.
With two of the league's top shooters, one of the most experienced point guards in the league, and a whole host of other excellent shooters, it's no surprise that the SuperSonics' record has steadily improved!
The first half of this game also demonstrated just how insane the SuperSonics' firepower is right now!
雷·阿伦上半场比赛3分球4投4中拿下18分，刘易斯3分球4投3中拿下12分，再加上虽然3分球只有5投2中，但却贡献了10分7次助攻的佩顿，超音速队在三个火枪手的带领下，上半场比赛就拿下了61分的高分！
As for the Pacers, perhaps because they missed the previous game and the whole team was too rested, the players were in a very bad state in this game!
整个上半场，除了林天之外全队3分球7投0中，阿泰斯特总计8投2中，克里斯蒂4投1中，米勒4投1中，林天之外只有两个人的命中率超过了40%，分别是4投2中的哈斯勒姆和7投3中的帕克。
Apart from Lin Tian, the rest of the Pacers team only scored 21 points.
在这种情况之下，哪怕林天上半场比赛20投12中，3分球5投3中，罚球4罚3中拿下30分5篮板2助攻，可却是无力阻挡球队大比分落后。
61: 51.
The Pacers were down by a full 10 points at halftime!
"Don't worry about Lin! Don't double-team him!" During halftime, McMillan issued an instruction that he might regret for 20 years.
"He can't take us down by himself! He scored 30 points, but the Pacers are still down by 10! In the second half, keep increasing our offensive firepower and keep attacking with all our might! Widen the gap as quickly as possible!"
"As long as our offense is effective and we maintain our efficiency, even if Lin scores another 30 points in the second half, it's no problem! They can't win!"
"But we have to shut down the rest of the Pacers! If we can't stop the rest of the Pacers when Lin has an outburst, then we're really going to lose this game!"
"So, you get what I mean? Lin can score 60 or even 70 points tonight, no problem! But he has to stop the rest of the Pacers!"
"clear!"
The SuperSonics still have a chance to overtake the Mavericks and climb to third place in the Western Conference, so they are determined to win this game and cannot afford to lose!
Perhaps the only regret is that the Pacers didn't rest any players in this game; otherwise, the SuperSonics would have won much more easily.
At the start of the second half, the SuperSonics implemented Karl's instructions quite well!
They started by having Payton orchestrate the offense, with almost the entire team stretching out to the three-point line. Then Payton found Radmanovic in the corner and assisted him to hit the first three-pointer of the second half!
Following the Pacers' offense, Lin Tian drove to the basket against Payton's one-on-one defense. After drawing help defense from SuperSonics center Vitaly Potapanko, he quickly passed the ball to Miller, who was completely open on the other side.
Miller's open floater, which was practically touching, missed.
The SuperSonics immediately launched a counterattack. After a series of passes, Lewis pulled up from the 45-degree angle on the wing and shot, hitting a three-pointer!
Then Lin Tian used a screen to find Haslem, who had a good shooting touch in the first half and made two shots, but Haslem's mid-range jump shot also bounced off the rim.
This time, Allen grabbed the rebound, dribbled up the court, and then coldly attempted a three-pointer, which flew out of his hand!
"Whoosh!"
Just one minute into the third quarter, the SuperSonics extended their lead to 19 points with three consecutive three-pointers!
The Supersonics' firepower is indeed extraordinary.
Seeing that his team was almost powerless against the SuperSonics' onslaught, Carlisle had no choice but to call a timeout immediately.
"How can you face Lin Yao?" Carlisle looked at the dejected substitutes and said coldly, "Think about it carefully, how can you face Lin Yao? Our game has come this far, our season has reached this point, do you really think you've done right by Lin Yao?"
"Think about how we achieved our results, think about what Lin did for the team's victory in March, and then think carefully about whether you deserve to be Lin's teammates!"
"Honestly, with the season going like this, I can accept you guys missing shots, and I can tolerate all of you missing layups. I know you've all tried your best!"
"But! What about the defense? Where was your defense tonight? Those three three-pointers just now, Doug, Allen, what were you doing when you were shooting those threes? How the hell did Radmanovic get those open looks? And why was Lewis getting such wide-open looks on the wing?"
"Is Payton's passing skill really that good? He can just throw the ball out and create huge open spaces?" Carlisle spread his hands, angrily saying, "What are you guys doing? Are you even trying on the field? Do you even want to win?"
"If you don't want to, then tell me and get off the court! If you still want to win, if you have even a shred of shame, if you don't want to be called Lin's Tom and Dick teammates or anyone else on the Pacers!"
"Then get your act together! Prove yourselves! Prove you all deserve to be champions, and that you deserve everything Lin has done for you!"
"Now, this is your last chance! Get out on the court! I don't care what methods you use, shut down the SuperSonics' offense! I'm going to make every single one of their attacks incredibly difficult; I won't allow them a single open shot!"
"Do you understand?"
"clear!"
"Very good, so on the offensive end..."
"Give me the ball on offense, and tonight we'll go home with a win!"
After Carlisle finished speaking, Lin Tian finally stood up, looked at everyone on the team, and said, "I believe in you guys, and you definitely believe in me, so let's go, let's send those Seattle guys back to their crappy place!"
After the timeout, neither side made any substitutions due to the 9-0 lead at the start of the game, but the Pacers players' attitudes were clearly different.
On the first offensive play after returning to the court, Lin Tian called Miller up to set a screen.
The experienced Payton was well prepared and was about to step out to squeeze Miller behind him when he suddenly felt that Miller's determination and power in this screen were much stronger than before!
This time, Payton couldn't squeeze through!
Not being able to squeeze through meant that Lin Tian had gained a huge open space!
"Whoosh!"
Two seconds later, Lin Tian's three-pointer spun through the net, giving the Pacers their first point of the second half!
"Defense! Defense! No need to press too hard, go back to your half! Don't let anyone slip through!" After scoring, Lin Tian immediately marked Payton and shouted instructions to his teammates to get into position.
"Going all out?" Payton remained as relaxed as ever. He didn't even try to dribble the ball up the court, instead letting Allen call for the ball and organize the offense.
As for himself, he knew he would be crushed by Lin Tian tonight, but he felt the team would definitely get a win! For Payton, that was enough.
Anyway, he'd been beaten up by Lin Tian so many times, he was used to it.
"Isn't it too late? A 16-point gap, can you even catch up in your current form?"
"16 points is nothing!" Lin Tian snorted. "You're the kind of guy who's so scared of me that he doesn't even dare to dribble the ball, and you still have the nerve to talk trash to me?"
"Seriously?" Payton said shamelessly, "I'm almost 40. What's wrong with me occasionally slacking off and letting the younger players handle the games? It's perfectly normal!"
"Yes, yes, yes, the older they get, the more shameless they become!" Lin Tian muttered again, as the Supersonics had already dribbled the ball to the frontcourt.
Allen's playmaking ability is certainly far inferior to Payton's, but in the current SuperSonics team, there is obviously no need for a great playmaking ability.
Everyone can shoot, everyone can run.
Break through the defense and then find an open teammate!
That's what Allen thought, and that's what he did.
He dribbled back and forth outside the three-point line to find his rhythm, then suddenly accelerated, trying to get past Christie in one step.
This time, Christie's lateral movement was incredibly fast, preventing Allen from taking a single step before she blocked his way again!
This block caught Allen off guard, and his dribbling visibly faltered.
One shot is enough!
Lin Tian had somehow let go of Payton and moved behind Allen. Seizing the opportunity, he swiftly snatched the basketball from Allen's control and then accelerated, sprinting towards the frontcourt.
Just as he reached the SuperSonics' three-point line, the basketball had already been passed to him.
Then Lin Tian only patted the ball once before gathering it, jumping up, and slamming it down with a one-handed dunk that covered an incredible distance!
"boom!"
"Keep defending! Keep going! Three minutes! Within three minutes, I need to narrow the gap to within 10 points!"
"yes!"
In response to Lin Tian's roar was a united shout from the entire Pacers team. Thanks to Lin Tian's five consecutive points, the Pacers' morale was completely boosted!
And the way they demonstrated their high morale was through defense!
The Pacers have three of the league’s top defenders: Artest, Christie, and Lin Tian. In addition, their two big men are not leaky either. When the Pacers put their effort into their defense, the SuperSonics have a really tough time!
Payton was unable to organize an attack against Lin Tian, and the team's tactics almost came to a complete standstill. Lewis and Allen also struggled to find opportunities against Christie and Artest, and could only rely on their individual abilities to launch strong attacks.
Unfortunately, while the SuperSonics' duo possessed All-Star caliber talent, they didn't truly reach the level of top-tier stars. Their ball-handling and offensive prowess was not comparable to that of Kobe, McGrady, or Iverson, and even fell short of the standards of weaker stars like Carter and Pierce.
Both of them are essentially archers!
This is why many people believe that shooters cannot lead a team to a championship.
Their ability to break through opponents' tight defenses and targeted strategies is too poor, and they lack the ability to break through tough defenses. These shortcomings may not be obvious in the regular season, but in the real, cutthroat playoffs, their style of play will really be insufficient.
The Pacers raised their defensive intensity to playoff level in the third quarter.
Every punch lands hard, muscles collide constantly, and the level of combat is greatly increased!
Amid the frenzied cheers of the fans inside Conseco Arena, the Pacers repeatedly thwarted the SuperSonics' offensive efforts, thwarting their attacks time and again!
In the entire third quarter, the SuperSonics only scored a total of 19 points!
Although this number looks good, it's important to remember that they scored 9 points in the first minute of the third quarter!
In other words, they only scored a total of 10 points in the last 11 minutes of the third quarter.
On the Pacers' side, most of their players still haven't found their rhythm and are frequently missing shots.
But that's not a problem.
Because they have Lin Tian!
All they need to do is defend well and leave everything to Lin Tian, that's enough!
With eight minutes left in the third quarter, Lin Tian faked out Payton with a double crossover dribble beyond the three-point line, then pulled up for a three-pointer and made it! The Pacers narrowed their deficit to nine points!
Then, with 3 minutes left in the third quarter, Lin Tian grabbed a rebound, dribbled the ball up the court, drove all the way to the SuperSonics' free throw line area, suddenly stopped, pulled up and shot, and made it again!
The gap between the two sides has been narrowed to 3 points, with only one ball separating them!
Less than 20 seconds later, Lin Tian once again rushed into the paint and caught Radmanovic's shot that bounced off the rim, and continued to dribble forward.
Then Lin Tian pushed the ball forward again. This time, the SuperSonics couldn't hold back any longer, and Allen and Payton rushed forward at the same time.
Just as the two of them rushed forward at the same time, Lin Tian suddenly increased the pace of his dribbling, pushed the basketball forward, and exerted force under his legs. In the blink of an eye, he passed by Allen and Payton. Then, before the two could react, Lin Tian once again took a three-point shot!
"Whoosh!"
They've tied it!
With 2 minutes and 29 seconds left in the third quarter, the Pacers finally tied the score! They swept away the 19-point deficit they had faced tonight! The hole they dug for themselves has been filled, and both teams are back on equal footing!
"Defend against another goal!" After scoring, Lin Tian didn't celebrate. Instead, he spread out one hand, signaling everyone not to relax and to keep fighting!
With 7 seconds left in the third quarter, Lin Tian dribbled to the frontcourt for the last time in the quarter, and then suddenly started running after the clock was down to 3 seconds!
He dribbled forward two steps and then suddenly stopped, almost stepping on the three-point line, and completed a long-range two-point shot before Payton could catch up and contest it!
"Whoosh!"
"Buzz!"
Two voices rang out simultaneously: The third quarter is over!
The Pacers have taken a 4-point lead!
The entire Conseco Center erupted in cheers, with fans in a frenzy of excitement, constantly roaring in celebration.
Our king never disappoints us!
In this quarter, Lin Tian played the full 12 minutes. He focused his offensive efforts on mid-to-long range shots, rarely attacking the basket and instead repeatedly taking shots from mid-to-long range.
He took 15 shots in this quarter, making 11 of them, including 4 of 5 three-pointers and 1 of 1 free throw, scoring a whopping 27 points in the quarter! His total points for the night reached 57!
而他的这27分，除了4个3分球之外，剩余的7个运动战进球有5个都来自于罚球线以上的区域！
This is why he only got one free throw in this quarter.
Lin Tian is challenging supersonic speed in his own way!
Don't you like shooting hoops? Aren't you good at shooting hoops?
Let's have a competition and see who is the best shooter in the league!
19: 33!
The Pacers outscored the SuperSonics by 14 points in this quarter!
80: 84!
By the end of the third quarter, not only had Lin Tian scored 57 points, but the Pacers had also finally taken control of the game, entering the fourth quarter with a 4-point lead!
"Absolutely amazing!"
Barkley gave a very calm assessment of Lin Tian's performance tonight, especially in the third quarter.
He had no choice but to remain calm.
Lin Tian's performance in this quarter was truly frightening.
Lin Tian has had nights where he scored more than 27 points in a single quarter, but he has never given Barkley a feeling like tonight.
He just had a feeling: Lin Tian tonight is invincible!
He sensed cold-bloodedness, madness, and a ghostly, oppressive aura emanating from Lin Tian tonight!
The same feeling has also arisen in the hearts of many people.
This includes Payton, who matched up against Lin Tian for the entire game.
A strange feeling suddenly arose in the heart of this arrogant guy who didn't submit to anyone and claimed that you could beat me down but you could never beat me so badly I couldn't stand up.
Lin and I were probably never in the same league! The gap between us is much bigger than I imagined!
Payton had never felt this way when playing against Jordan.
He suddenly realized that there was really nothing shameful about being beaten up by Lin Tian so many times.
Everyone's levels are different!
Getting destroyed is normal.
The human heart is a very mysterious thing.
During the third quarter, although Lin Tian kept shooting and scoring, Payton did not lose heart at all. He always gave his all to match up against Lin Tian and tried his best to defend against Lin Tian's offense. He even successfully judged once and blocked Lin Tian's shot!
During the break between the third and fourth quarters, when Payton thought about these things, he suddenly had a negative thought when he went back on the court to match up against Lin Tian at the beginning of the fourth quarter: "I can't defend him anyway, so why bother?"
Once this idea came out, Payton's defensive effectiveness vanished in an instant!
Lin Tian, who was matched up against him, could feel this difference the most! Payton's little tricks disappeared, the claws that were always on Lin Tian's arm were gone, and his knees that used to strike Lin Tian's thighs once or twice were no longer unpredictable.
Simply put, Payton's defense was much cleaner.
Although on the surface the confrontation between the two still seemed intense, Payton's defense remained solid.
But Lin Tian felt much more comfortable when he was attacking!
Now that you're comfortable, there's no need to give Payton any face!
Lin Tian didn't care why Payton suddenly lowered his defensive intensity! Even if Payton suddenly got his period, Lin Tian wouldn't care!
While you are sick, I will kill you!
In the fourth quarter, Lin Tian, sensing that Payton's defensive intensity had decreased, began to repeatedly charge into the paint, challenging the SuperSonics' weak interior defense time and again.
He almost always achieved good results with his attacks, either drawing fouls from the SuperSonics' interior players or scoring directly with layups and dunks.
Because Lin Tianchong was too comfortable and happy, even his three-point shooting touch dropped a bit.
Throughout the fourth quarter, Lin Tian only made 2 of 6 three-point attempts.
However, Lin Tian's overall shooting percentage in this entire quarter was 7 out of 13. In other words, Lin Tian made 5 out of 7 three-point attempts in this quarter!
All five goals came from inside the three-second zone!
Lin Tian's playing style at this moment was completely opposite to that in the third quarter. He repeatedly drove into the paint, drew fouls, and then stood at the free-throw line.
In this quarter, in addition to making 7 of 13 field goal attempts, Lin Tian also received a total of 13 free throw attempts and made 12 of them!
In the entire fourth quarter, Lin Tian once again scored 28 points!
He scored a total of 55 points in the second half!
He also scored 30 points in the first half tonight!
This means that Lin Tian has broken his own record for the second-highest scoring game in NBA history, a record he just set this season!
He scored 85 points!
He could have scored more points tonight.
But with 1 minute and 40 seconds left in the game, when Lin Tian hit another 3-pointer, extending the lead to 10 points, Carlisle called a timeout and then substituted Lin Tian out.
Carlisle's action earned him boos and jeers from the entire stadium.
They angrily accused Carlisle and launched a tirade against him.
There are still 1 minute and 40 seconds left! How can you substitute Lin?
The supersonics' main players haven't gone down yet!
Why should our forest be allowed to remain?
With 1 minute and 40 seconds left, Lin Tian might not be able to break Chamberlain's 100 points, but scoring 5 more points to bring his total to 90 points is absolutely no problem!
Why should he be replaced?
"Give us the forest! Give us the forest! Give us the forest!"
"Carlisle is rotten!"
"get out of class dismissed! Carlisle, get out!"
"We don't want Carlisle! We want Lin!"
"90! 90! 90! 90!"
"Let Lin fight a little longer!"
"You are destroying history! You are a sinner!"
"Chamberlain will be knocking on your door tonight and taking you with him!"
That night, Carlisle faced the worst crisis of his tenure as coach of Indiana.
The entire stadium of fans booed him.
The cacophony of boos made Carlisle feel guilty. He looked at Lin Tian, hoping to get him back on the field.
But when he turned around, he saw Lin Tianqi, who had played the first 46 minutes and 20 seconds, sitting panting in a chair, covering his head with a towel and not moving, letting the team doctor put ice packs on him.
We can't let him play!
After seeing Lin Tian, Carlisle was certain that he had done the right thing!
There's no need to send Lin Tian back up to continue playing just to break a record of 90 points.
The next match is the most important!
The game is already won! There's no need for that.
Carlisle felt it was unnecessary; Lin Tian was already too tired to move.
But the boos from the fans in the stadium did not stop.
They really want to see Lin Tian continue playing.
"This is probably the biggest crisis Rick has ever faced," said Barkley of TNT. "But this time, I fully support Rick's choice! Look at Lin, when the camera focuses on the Pacers' bench, take a good look. Look at Lin's condition."
"He was almost completely immobile. He showed no excitement about his career-high tonight and didn't celebrate at all. I even think he's considering skipping tonight's press conference."
"Going up against Payton is no easy feat. He's one of the worst guys in the NBA. Scoring 85 points against him... well, even scoring 85 points against my grandma isn't easy."
"In short, Lin is exhausted! He's really exhausted!"
"I think our forest really needs rest and some space."
"As for 90 points? Who can say there won't be another chance in the future?"
Kenny added, "I agree with Charles. Extreme fatigue combined with extreme excitement is the most likely cause of injuries and accidents! Letting Lin leave the field after the team had already secured the victory was definitely a way to protect him!"
"I know countless fans are disappointed that Lin didn't score 90 points, but I also believe that true fans, those who truly like Lin, will applaud Carlisle's decision!"
"Giving up is sometimes more praiseworthy and admirable than forcibly pursuing something!"
"But we still have to celebrate Lin! Congratulations on his second career 80+ point game! He also becomes the only player in NBA history to score 80+ points twice in a single season, and the only player in NBA history to score 80+ points in two or more games throughout his career!"
"Congratulations to him! Another record that belongs only to Lin, a record that's the first in history!"
In any case, after Kenny and Barkley's remarks, Carlisle will definitely face far less criticism and public attacks.
After all, fans aren't monsters, are they?
They could see clearly how tired Lin Tian was.
It doesn't have to be this time, it can be next time!
Given Lin Tian's age, he might break the record in the next match.
However, while the fans breathed a sigh of relief, the NBA players were the ones who truly breathed a sigh of relief. (End of Chapter)