Such a diligent person, yet only trained his upper body and neglected his lower body.
Su Wan couldn’t understand why for a long ti.
But now, he did.
Interestingly, Howard had once developed a mid-range jumper. And his hand form and the stiffness during his jump shot were almost identical to LeBron’s.
Even more interestingly, Howard’s back attack under the basket had not been developed because he always failed to maintain his footing. In the subsequent finals 11 years later, all fans witnessed how embarrassingly LeBron powerfully attacked "the mountain of Puerto Rico".
One can only say that this is typical of products made on an assembly line.
However, Howard was still very confident. At the press conference, he told the dia upfront, "The Magic has changed this season." Before the opening ga started, he reaffird this point to the dia, "Without a doubt, we will be the dark horse of this season!"
Su Wan agreed with Howard’s statent. If he rembered correctly, the Magic had been ranked third in the Eastern Conference this season, just behind the Celtics and the Pistons.
They had even pushed the Cavaliers behind them.
Su Wan specifically looked up their roster for this season:
Stan Van Gundy, Tekeglu, Howard, Lewis...
Hmm...
That team which beat the Cavaliers "five against eight" due to referee decisions, now only lacked the "Streetball King" Alston from their lineup—otherwise, all core players were in position.
Their rise was inevitable!
Before the ga officially started, just like last year and the year before, David Stern presented the championship rings to the entire Pacers team.
Above Conseco Arena, the third championship banner was also raised...
The entire Magic team sat quietly on the bench watching.
To say they didn’t crave that would be a lie.
Moreover...
This championship of Pacers also contained elents from Orlando.
The urge to disrupt the celebration surged right before the ga started.
The big screen at the venue displayed the starting lineup for the Magic: "Point guard Little Nelson, two Morris Evans, small forward Tekeglu, power forward Lewis, center Howard."
Pacers’ lineup was still their regular one.
Stan Van Gundy’s major adjustnt for the Magic was shifting the power forward Tekeglu to small forward.
It was this change that led "Turkish Jordan" to his peak season.
If nothing changed in the future, the "Most Improved Player Award" this season would be Tekeglu’s.
The advantage of the Turkish player holding the ball was his substantial presence; he could slowly press in against his opponents while observing his teammates’ positions, deciding whether to attack himself or pass the ball.
Rick Carlisle also realized after Tekeglu handled the ball extensively that this guy was similar to Dior. Only, Dior had better physical fitness and driving ability, which didn’t make him a liability on the defensive end...
Pacers’ offensive strategy tonight was focused on aggressively targeting Tekeglu and Lewis.
Lewis’s defense was as good as a chair, and slow movent was Tekeglu’s main issue, which turned out to be a clear breakthrough point for the Magic’s flanks.
But soon Rick Carlisle understood why Stan Van Gundy dared to play Tekeglu and Lewis together...
"Magic" Howard, at his peak age, was absolutely the league’s best defensive player.
The most exaggerated aspect was that even if Lewis and Tekeglu, as the first line of defense, didn’t effectively disrupt the Pacers’ wings from charging into the box, Howard could rapidly respond and put up a high-quality block.
No wonder he was the NBA’s first "three-ti Best Defensive Player Award" winner.
His mobility was truly terrifying.
It was essentially like having the mobility of Pri Ben Wallace.
But Howard was much taller than Ben...
The Pacers’ wing attacks were frequently thwarted.
Of course, the main offensive player at this mont was Artest.
When the ti hit 5:23 left in the first quarter, Artest had already taken four shots, only making one, with Howard blocking his last attempt. Then Artest obediently passed the ball to Su Wan.
Facing Evans, Su Wan realized this Magic team was still missing a key player, Michael Pietrus, now with the Warriors.
He was the Magic’s defensive stronghold on the wing during the 2009 playoffs.
Without this guy, the Magic’s defense was truly reliant solely on Howard.
If facing soone as blunt as Artest, Howard might manage fairly well.
But now facing Su Wan, his defensive effectiveness was not as good.
Su Wan, alternating between driving and shooting, turned Howard into a "turned mouth", making the entire Magic’s defensive system passive at that mont.
Subsequently, Rick Carlisle deployed a "small lineup," maximizing the three-point shots to stretch the court space.
This move left Howard even less ti to cover defensively.
By the end of the first half, the Pacers had managed to extend their lead to 10 points.
By the third quarter, Pacers had unleashed a "three-point rain" from the entire team with nine shots and seven hits, with Su Wan alone hitting three three-pointers in that quarter, which Barkley exclaid as terrifying.
This sumr, although Su Wan hadn’t improved his physical conditioning, his three-point skills had been honed to 82 points.
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