One Year Left to Play-Chapter 271 - 96: Early Celebration

Reggie Miller grumbled back to the bench, his teammates had already noticed that since Larry Brown joined the team, Reggie Miller's mouth had become more venomous.

But they're indeed playing frustratingly now!

In the first quarter, Almon Gilliam began to explode, in the second quarter, Zhang Hao turned the tide during a crucial wear-down phase for the Pacers, in the third quarter, they managed to gain an advantage to narrow the gap, but as the fourth quarter started, Kenny Anderson suddenly went all out on his attacks, and his success rate was high!

During these few rounds, the Brooklyn Nets' three strong points all displayed their abilities, Zhang Hao came with a catch-and-shoot mid-range shot followed by another assist pass to Chales on the sideline, although Chales missed the three-pointer, Almon Gilliam rushed in to score a putback against Schmitz.

Pacers scored 11 points in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, but Brooklyn Nets also scored 10 points, and the Pacers went offensive first!

But they weren't as frantic as in the second quarter, Reggie Miller, Dale Davis, and Antonio Davis were furiously spewing words, whereas their other teammates wanted them to calm down a bit.

This might be the "positive influence" of the trash talkers on the team.

The Pacers' three trash talkers were really annoyed tonight, Dale Davis was being tormented all night by Gilliam, with their center's weak and soft defense, they disliked facing teams with forwards like Almon Gilliam, Larry Sanders, Charles Barkley, their most obvious defensive weakness was being exploited.

They trashed Gilliam for almost the entire game, not only did it not affect his performance, he even exploded, the clown turned out to be Dale Davis himself.

Reggie Miller couldn't stand Kenny Anderson, he was a starter for last season's All-Star, Kenny Anderson was the starter for the season before last, both being Eastern guards, often compared together, Kenny Anderson who's more entertaining in style was evidently rated higher, tonight Kenny Anderson didn't have great stats, but Reggie Miller has always been troubled facing speed-type defenders, he's not fazed by power types, in terms of confrontation he's not afraid, but speed types are really hard to deal with.

Also, regardless of how Reggie Miller trashed, Kenny Anderson responded with advice from an unnamed high school player, saying only: "I was an All-Star starter before you."

Making Reggie Miller's liver hurt in anger!

But what Reggie Miller really couldn't stand was that high school player, the same reason Antonio Davis couldn't stand him wasn't because Zhang Hao played well, they weren't annoyed by well-performing players, there are plenty of those, what annoyed them was Zhang Hao's calm demeanor.

He really looked like he deserved a beating!

No matter how much they trashed, Zhang Hao never responded, his eyes even occasionally showed a hint of mockery, as if saying — that's it?

Can't you come up with something new?

Actually, Zhang Hao really wanted to fight back verbally, but he thought to keep a low profile.

It's just that, the more he did this, the more those sensitive at heart felt he was pretentious.

Trash talkers are generally very sensitive.

But now the Pacers aren't as frantic as in the second quarter, they were frantic because they were displeased with Brooklyn Nets leading, hence eager to catch up the score, leading to an even greater score gap.

Now they're very calm, they know they're a strong team, having strong confidence, and also aware that it's not easy to win this game suddenly, Almon Gilliam's burst tonight, already having 29 points and 8 rebounds, now they need patience.

On the other side, Brooklyn Nets were full of momentum!

Besides Pistons and Raptors in the first month, all other teams were playoff strong teams from last season, facing anyone was equally tough, with a chance to win, they had to push for it.

Comparing to the Pacers with excellent team offense having Mark Jackson, having clear strategic key plays, Brooklyn Nets were straightforward, Randy Whitman replaced Kenny Anderson, Edwards, Vaughn Fleming, Almon Gilliam, Zhang Hao.

Apart from Zhang Hao, each had the ability to go solo, the three-man outside group could shoot mid-range or long-range.

...

After the timeout, sure enough, the Pacers quickly gained the upper hand.

Pacers called a timeout to stabilize their mindset, there were no substitutions, Larry Brown also utilized the main force to the fullest, most Pacers players were at their peak period, playing like this was no issue.

Soon enough, at 7 minutes and 31 seconds into the final quarter, Pacers relied on Derek McKay receiving Reggie Miller's pass for a three-pointer, turning around to lead the Brooklyn Nets 89 to 88 by 1 point, with a wave of 7 to 4!

Immediately after, Almon Gilliam grabbed an offensive rebound and passed to Zhang Hao for a mid-range shot but missed, Mark Jackson recovered and made a turnaround floater under back-play, Pacers led Brooklyn Nets 91 to 88 by 3 points!

Just when the Pacers felt they were about to cement the victory, Kenny Anderson fiercely broke into the basket for a running shot to takeaway two points, right after Dale Davis' cut was blocked by Zhang Hao!

Dale Davis tends to get excited, after cutting, he wanted to dunk over the incoming Zhang Hao for a block, of course, it's because he didn't have much in terms of offensive versatility, it was a reasonable choice, but his opponent wasn't a reasonable player!