Chapter 95 40 Points Defeat at Home

After the end of two consecutive home and away games with the Rockets, the Grizzlies finally ushered in a long-lost day off. They will simply take a day off before facing the challenge of the last opponent of the preseason, the Indiana Pacers.

The current Grizzlies have achieved a good record of 5 wins and 2 losses in the preseason. From the outside world, after Gasol came back, he joined the new European aid Navarro, selected Conley, and boldly introduced Asian geniuses afterwards. After Ji Feng, the Grizzlies had a good lineup and excellent offensive ability. In the 7 games played here, the Grizzlies only did not break 100 in the first game against Unikaha, which is a huge factor in the attacking firepower of the entire league. You can get the top three.

However, when the Grizzlies have full offensive ability, their defensive ability is the most worthy of criticism. In these 7 games, they can also average 99 points per game, which is also in the forefront of all teams in the league.

Offensive strength and defense weak, this is the general understanding of the outside world for the Grizzlies.

After analyzing the reasons, ESPN concluded that the offensive firepower mainly comes from the outside. Among so many outside lines, Ji Feng, Guy, Lowry, Conley, Mike Miller, Navarro, Damon Stoudemire, all are Players with full offensive power are strong in attack and weak in defense. Except for Ji Feng, who has a super-class stealing ability, the other players have very average defensive ability.

And the inside defense is also a mess. Gasol’s playing style is more flexible and can’t handle inside lines like Dayao, while Milicic is too slow to move and has a bad sense of position, and the rest are Swift. The likes, this kind of muscular man who can only run and jump like crazy, is a natural loophole on the defensive end.

But ESPN also gave the Grizzlies a sip. They believed that the Grizzlies could use their strong offensive firepower to make up for their lack of defensive strength, and they were bluntly optimistic about the prospects of the Grizzlies in the new season.

"I'm going, it sucks us so much." Ji Feng had a toothache after seeing ESPN's report. When he was in China, he knew that ESPN was known for its poisonous milk, and the team he favored would always be because of various reasons. was eliminated by such an accident.

After several ESPN's poisonous milk, the teams favored by ESPN can only shiver in the corner, for fear that people will sit at home and milk from the sky.

However, many media believe that as long as the Grizzlies with this configuration are used properly, they should be a playoff team.

When there were also objections, Su Qun, a well-known domestic basketball commentator, was worried about the weak defensive strength of the Grizzlies in his basketball column. He bluntly said that the defense won the championship, and the team that only relies on offense and ignores defense is in the season. The playoffs are not far away.

But now fans who like Ji Feng are rejoicing, hoping that the Grizzlies will reach the playoffs, and even hope that the Grizzlies can join the Rockets in the playoffs, or even the Western Conference finals.

There is such an overly optimistic atmosphere in the Grizzlies team. Coach Mark has been very proud of himself recently. The boss has expressed his trust in him. Gasol, who has been arguing about transfers, has not mentioned it for a while, which makes Mark feel This season could be an opportunity for the Grizzlies.

But Ji Feng always felt that they did not meet a real strong team. The opening game against the defending champion Spurs, Ji Feng thought this was the real test.

But even Ji Feng did not expect that the blow would come so quickly!

Time comes to October 27th, when the Grizzlies face the Pacers at home. In the previous game, the Grizzlies were smaller than the Pacers. Today, the Grizzlies, after a few games, are considered by the outside world to have the best chance for revenge.

Because the Pacers had a dismal record after defeating the Grizzlies, and they have lost three straight. They have not recovered since the Auburn Hills incident, and then with Miller retired, O'Neal lived up to the courage of the year, Artest Special left the team, and the Jagged Walker fell apart. It can only be maintained by Mike Dunleavy, but it turns out that Dunleavy does not have the ability to lead the Pacers out of the quagmire.

Today's Pacers are also a strong contender for the bottom of the league every year.

The current leader is Danny Granger, a small forward with good potential. The Pacers also pin their hopes on him.

Before the game, the Grizzlies were full of confidence, and the stadium attendance rate was close to 100%. The Grizzlies sent the strongest lineup in Mark's mind to play.

They are center Milicic, power forward Gasol, small forward Gay, shooting guard Mike Miller, and point guard Lowry.

And Ji Feng, who performed well before, returned to the bench again. Mark is now using Ji Feng as the sixth man, and starting, he still thinks that Gay can deal with most opponents.

The Pacers sent their strongest lineup, center Harrison, a league Ranger, power forward Diogu, later CBA legend, small forward Danny Granger, shooting guard Karim Rush, point guard Jamal Tinsley.

The Grizzlies made a huge noise in the audience, and Mark loudly emphasized in the locker room that they were going to win this game for a good start to the new season.

Before the game, the media did not pay attention to this game either. They believed that as long as they played normally, the Grizzlies, which had the advantage of being at home, should be able to win.

But this is the NBA, and no team is a soft persimmon. In the case of carelessness, the number one in the league may capsize. The Pacers, who have been despised, have a strong desire to win this game. Come up and directly beat the Grizzlies!

"Oh! Danny Granger stole the ball from Guy's hand, and he strode forward! Dunks!" ESPN's commentator shouted frantically: "In the first round, the Pacers showed their strong victory. Desire! Guy didn't expect Granger's defense to be so aggressive, he wasn't ready, he didn't look like he was awake, which wasn't great."

In the first round, Granger directly used aggressive defense to force Gay to make mistakes and made a dunk.

This made the Grizzlies audience very annoyed, and there was a huge burst of boos.

But the Pacers were not frightened by the boos from the sky, but were stimulated, and then they broke out with exaggerated fighting power.

In just 4 minutes of the start, they played a 15-4 attack wave, in which Danny Granger made 4 of 4 shots and scored 8 points, which made the Grizzlies go silent at home.

Then Mark dispatched troops and replaced Ji Feng, Navarro and Conley stepped up their offense, and Ji Feng completed a wonderful steal and assisted Conley to hit a three-pointer. After that, they scored again and again, but the Pacers had gone crazy.

The insider Diogu carried Gasol to complete the one-handed dunk! Gasol was disheartened, and then Granger made an unreasonable three-pointer and hit again!

At the end of the first quarter, the Pacers 43-25, already leading by 18 points!

"This ball is over." Yu Jia explained bluntly.

Ji Feng felt the same way. In the first quarter, he had done his best. He scored 8 points, assisted twice, and stole Granger, but his teammates were really weak and could not score goals.

In the second quarter, Mark still wanted to struggle a bit, but Gay replaced Ji Feng on the court again, which made Gasol very puzzled on the court and also made Ji Feng feel very painful. It wasn't much better. The basket at FedEx Arena seemed to cover its own team, but it just couldn't get in.

Driven by this, the Grizzlies were defeated like a mountain. The second quarter was 42-22. After two quarters, the Grizzlies had fallen behind by nearly 40 points. The game also declared a failure in advance and entered garbage time.

In the third quarter, Ji Feng led a bunch of substitutes to try to get points, but the pit was too big. Then Ji Feng also sat back on the bench.

143-103, the Grizzlies beat the Pacers by 40 points at home!