If you could say the Pacers’ peculiar lineup only started to show so effect in the first half, by the third quarter, especially in the first half of the fourth quarter, the effect beca glaringly obvious, with the huffing and puffing Shaquille O’Neal daring not to catch the ball.
Because...
Once he caught it, even if he made the basket, he had to rush back on defense imdiately, or else the Pacers would quickly inbound the ball and complete a "5 on 4" fast break attack to score.
The Heat Team actually had quite so experience dealing with a "4 on 5" situation in the frontcourt.
Second only to the Lakers during the 2022–2024 season.
Unfortunately, their own advantage overlapped with that of their opponents, who also had a size advantage.
If Shaquille didn’t score, it was even worse.
Within 5 seconds, he would see Su Wan slam dunk, giving him a mocking smile, "If I were your coach, you would have been benched a long ti ago."
Stan Van Gundy was still too patient.
But as Shaquille O’Neal’s physical fitness continued to plumt, Van Gundy had no choice but to take him out.
Shaquille would normally play around 33 minutes per ga in the playoffs, but with the ga’s fast pace and all the targeting strategies, his endurance had reached its limit long ago.
No sooner had the Heat taken Shaquille out than the Pacers imdiately took out Reggie Miller, put in Foster, reverted to a position war, and shrunk Wade’s shooting space inside.
Even with the "Referee God" on his side, Wade’s team, cornered and desperate, could only watch as they lost the ga by 90 to 103, a 13-point defeat.
He helplessly walked towards the spectator stands.
Despite the imnse pressure, Wade still managed to score 30 points in that ga.
"Looking at Shaquille O’Neal, he scored 16 points in the first half of the second quarter, but ended up with only 24 points for the whole ga, aning in the later stages when the Heat Team was hemorrhaging points, he only got 8..."
"I think everyone should know by now that Shaquille O’Neal is no longer the Shaquille from the Lakers; his strengths are no longer enough to overlook his weaknesses. And his weaknesses are growing, becoming the pri target for the Pacers like tonight!"
"There’s no doubt, he was the biggest problem for the Heat Team’s loss tonight!"
Bill Walton unleashed a barrage of criticisms at Shaquille O’Neal, going all-out.
He wasn’t the type of comntator to be too aggressive.
But who could bla him, given his past conflicts with Shaquille O’Neal?
During the "three consecutive championships," Shaquille O’Neal was in his pri, brimming with arrogance, and attacked many people, including Bill Walton who also wore the number 32 jersey.
Back then, Shaquille stood at the pinnacle, dominating with his strength, and Walton couldn’t argue against him.
Tis have changed, and this "Shark" has aged, presenting more points for criticism.
Shaquille’s face after the ga was like a rock in a latrine.
Stinky and hard!
After the last ga, he had said, if he hadn’t missed the first ga of the series, the Heat Team would now be up 2-0.
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Then in the third ga of the series, the Pacers turned him into the biggest problem for the Heat Team’s loss, a slap in the face that truly stung.
What was even more fatal was:
He couldn’t figure out a way to break this strategy.
Yet Shaquille O’Neal found an angle to vent, "Who the hell scheduled this shitty ga plan? Why do we have to wait so long to play the third ga of the series!"
Without such a break, the Pacers would never have had ti to co up with such a bizarre strategy!
Indiana’s reporters didn’t cut him any slack, "Hey, Shaq, that’s not what you said a week ago!"
At that ti, Shaquille O’Neal had said, "I’m not in top form tonight, but wait, in a week’s ti, you’ll see a more terrifying ’Big Shark’!"
In fact, during this period, Shaquille was a "giant in words, a dwarf in deeds," especially when it ca to training. While with the Lakers, he often sought ways to avoid training, and after coming to the Heat Team, his attitude improved for only one sumr, until Pat Riley’s harsh extra training sessions provoked his contrary nature, which was getting worse.
If "eating well and sleeping well" counts as Shaquille’s "best shape," then he certainly achieved that over the week.
But in terms of his state on the training court, at best Shaquille could be said to have barely t the training objectives.
However, from Shaquille O’Neal’s perspective, showing up to train was already a sign of a good attitude.
A dig that struck a nerve in Shaquille, breaking his defense, "The Pacers can only resort to such despicable ’Shark Cutting’ tactics to deal with , they would be no match if they played fairly!"
However, no matter how furiously he raged after the ga, in the fourth ga of the series, the Pacers still wore him down to the point of temperlessness using that sa peculiar lineup.
Stan Van Gundy had thought of creating space on the outside first to relieve the pressure of Shaquille O’Neal being double-tead under the basket.
But there were two things he couldn’t change:
One was Shaquille O’Neal’s deplorable free throw percentage, worsened by fatigue as the ga went on;
The second was the "numbers advantage" the Pacers were bound to form with their quick counterattacks;
In the fourth ga of the series, the Pacers secured another victory.
"Is Shaquille O’Neal still considered a superstar now? He’s not even All-Star material, have you ever seen a team’s star sitting on the sidelines in the last five minutes? He’s nothing more than an obese ’Gorilla’!"
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