The longest river

Chapter 102 Pacers Change Coach

The fans at the stadium were going crazy.

This is fucking amazing!

Yang Shuai was also very excited after seeing the game-winning shot go in, and he roared at Brown on the sidelines.

The shout stunned everyone on the sidelines, while Brown's face flushed red.

Perhaps at this moment, those present finally realized just how escalating the conflict between Brown and Yang Shuai had become.

After shouting, Yang Shuai didn't linger. Instead of waiting for his teammates to rush up and celebrate, he went straight to the technical table and, to the astonishment of the staff, jumped up on it with a single step.

Then, amidst the surprised and shocked gazes of the fans, he shouted directly:
"Fuck the Bulls!"

The entire city square stadium erupted in cheers at that moment.

They absolutely adore a high school student who is not only handsome and skilled in combat, but also has such an outgoing personality!

After the match, the two teams shook hands.

"Played well."

"Negative energy from Michael Jordan +1111".

When shaking hands with Jordan, Jordan smiled and commented on Yang Shuai.

If it weren't for the system, Yang Shuai felt he would have been fooled by Jordan by those familiar words.

It's clear he gave Pippen a good dressing down today, so Jordan is going to go all out in the later games.

Two days later, Game 4 of the series continued in Indianapolis.

Jordan unleashed his killer instinct in this game, scoring 45 points and leading the Bulls to a 106-96 victory over the Pacers.

Scoring 45 points in the playoffs is already terrifying, but what's even more terrifying is that Jordan only needed 23 shots, making 16 of them, including 3 of 4 three-pointers. He completely crushed the Pacers.

Furthermore, the Pacers did not employ the spacing tactics they used in the previous game's comeback.

Rather than saying Brown was stubborn, it's more accurate to say that Brown knew that even if they won that way, it wouldn't have much to do with him as the head coach.

Game 5 was a foregone conclusion. The Pacers' morale was low after failing to win Game 4, and they were ultimately defeated by the Bulls in Chicago, losing 1-4 and being eliminated.

Yang Shuai's rookie season has officially come to an end.

Averaging 20 points per game in the first round and 16 points per game in the second round, with three game-winning shots, this performance is already perfect for a high school rookie.

In particular, performing slightly better in the playoffs than in the regular season is a characteristic of "superstars" in the basketball world.

Although Yang Shuai is not yet a superstar, his potential has already been fully revealed.

The season has ended, but after only two days of rest, Yang Shuai has already started showing up at the training center.

Brown's coaching ability was completely exposed when he faced Jackson in the playoffs.

It's no exaggeration to say that if Yang Shuai were in the starting lineup and paired with a defensive coach, the results might be even better than with Brown.

After all, Yang Shuai at least has advanced basketball concepts.

Even with spacing basketball, Yang Shuai doesn't think the Pacers can beat the Bulls.

The fact that Game 3 was able to turn the tide was largely due to how he broke Pippen's mentality.

But Pippen can't keep letting him break his mentality like this forever. Under normal circumstances, the Jordan + Pippen + Rodman wing combination has the strongest help defense in the league.

If the Pacers only started using this tactic in the playoffs, their teamwork wouldn't be comparable to the Bulls' at all.

They only have a chance if they play like this for a whole season.

Of course, those are all unknowns for Yang Shuai, because he doesn't even know where he will play next season.

Although he lost this series, it was very meaningful for him.

The first thing we did was to get him to adjust his future career path.

His biggest improvement in his rookie season was definitely his defense, but even with that, his approach to defense needs to change.

Originally, in order to compete for a starting position, he improved his help defense after his individual defense reached All-Star level.

However, this kind of "all-around defense" is not very useful in the playoffs.

Especially when facing Jordan, if you can't defend him one-on-one, then you can't defend him.

Therefore, his priority in improving this area is to maximize his single-target defense, at least to the superstar level.

He also needs to gain weight so that his physicality can match Jordan's.

Then, in terms of offense, he needs to continue to improve his ball control and dribbling skills.

Now that his opponents know his three-point shot can extend beyond the three-point line, they will directly defend him by stepping on the three-point line.

However, these upgrades require a lot of points, and he currently has a severe shortage of points.

Including the points he earned during the regular season and the two rounds of playoffs, he only has a total of 5 points.

This amount is only enough for him to redeem one Grade B upgrade pack.

We still need to count the points.

He was practicing when a voice came from the entrance of the training hall.

"I was wondering who came to the training facility to train just two days after the season ended. Turns out it was you."

Yang Shuai looked up when he heard the sound, and then saw Bird's familiar figure.

He was surprised, but he stopped his training and greeted him with a smile.

"Come on, let's have a three-point contest." Bird's hands were itching again.

Ten minutes later, the two sat on the sidelines chatting.

"Your three-point shooting has improved a lot," Bird remarked after sitting down.

In the first round, he scored 21 goals, while Yang Shuai scored 24. Unwilling to accept defeat, he scored 22 goals in the second round, while Yang Shuai scored a perfect 25.

In the third round, he scored 21 points, while Yang Shuai still had 24.

Yes, Yang Shuai has learned to control his goal tally.

"That makes sense, though. If you don't improve much, you won't get past New York." Bird had also watched Game 2 of the first round.

"In the end, we still lost to Chicago." Yang Shuai shook his head. In this era, if you can't beat Jordan, then everything is meaningless.

“It’s good to have ambition, but you also have to know that Michael couldn’t beat us back then either.”

The phrase "God wore the number 23 jersey, but we beat him" originated from Jordan's first playoff run in 1986.

That season, Jordan, in his second year, led his team to the playoffs as the eighth seed, and then faced Bird's dominant Celtics in the first round.

Jordan scored a whopping 63 points in Game 2, but the Bulls still lost the game and were swept by the Celtics.

That being said, Yang Shuai was actually well aware that their situations were completely different. The Bulls and Celtics were vastly different in strength, but the Pacers and Bulls were not that far apart.

"Done (Walsh) told me that the team's spacing style of play was your idea?" Bird then changed the subject.

Yang Shuai was somewhat surprised when he heard this, but not too surprised. It's quite reasonable for the management to have informants within the team.

He nodded.

"How did you come up with this? Did it just fly into your head while you were showering again?"

Bird gestured as he spoke, referring to Yang Shuai's comment at the All-Star Game, which had been reported by the media.

"No, it's probably because I'm an archer, and I'm more sensitive to things like space." Yang Shuai made up a plausible reason on the spot.

"That's true. I think your idea is very good. If the team makes use of it, they might be able to beat the Bulls."

Bird's words surprised Yang Shuai, since apart from aggressive coaches like Don Nelson, other coaches in this era don't value spacing.

It's not that they're all as stubborn as Brown, but rather that in this era, without the no-hadn-check rule, the efficiency of outside scoring simply can't keep up with inside scoring.

However, Bird wasn't wrong, because they definitely couldn't compete with the Bulls in terms of interior efficiency, especially now that Jordan had so many low-post isolation plays. To beat them, they had to use a different tactical system.

"But what's the use?"

Bird knew it, Young knew it too, but the Pacers' head coach was Brown.

“Who knows?” Bird said something meaningful at that moment.

After the second round of fierce competition, the matchups for the East and West division finals were determined.

In the Western Conference, although the Rockets once again pulled off an upset by eliminating the Lakers in the first round, they were swept by the SuperSonics in the second round.

Payton held Drexler to just one game where he scored over 20 points, while he himself averaged 24.5 points per game.

This season, Payton became the second perimeter player after Jordan to win the Defensive Player of the Year award, but his offensive abilities have been underestimated.

The SuperSonics' opponent is the Jazz, led by the "Utah Jazz duo".

In the Eastern Conference, the Bulls' opponent is once again their familiar rival, the Magic.

The Magic swept the Pistons 3-0, easily defeated the Cavaliers 4-1, and reunited with the Bulls at the top of the Eastern Conference.

Because the Bulls lost to the Magic last year, the Eastern Conference Finals are obviously more exciting to watch.

Before the conference finals began, a reporter interviewed O'Neal during the Magic's open practice and asked him a question.

This is a very standard question: Shaquille O'Neal asked how many games the Magic could win after the Pacers won one game against the Bulls.

O'Neal's answer was interesting: "My answer is four games, but definitely no less than two."

The answer of four games is to express one's determination, and no less than two games means that no matter what, one will not win less than the Pacers.

However, a week later, the Magic were swept by the Bulls...

Yang Shuai almost peed his pants laughing when he learned the result.

His initial unhappiness at failing to defeat the Bulls was completely swept away by O'Neal.

To be honest, he never watched Shaq play in his past life; at most, he watched highlight reels, and those highlight reels all started from the "OK combination" era.

As for what came before that, he really knew nothing at all.

As a result, in just the few years he traveled through, he saw O'Neal get swept twice.

First, he was defeated by Hakeem Olajuwon in the Finals, and now he's been defeated by Michael Jordan.

You might say Shaq is weak, but he was already in the NBA Finals when he was a kid.

You know, Shaq is strong, but he gets chopped off all the time.

Something seems wrong.

Yang Shuai was still reminiscing when Vaccaro called him.

"Two pieces of good news, which one do you want to hear first?"

"...Any one is fine."

Larry Brown has been fired.

Then the first piece of good news was quite exciting.

In other words, the Pacers' management chose him over Brown?
Why does this sound so comforting?
"What's the second good news?"