Draymond Green used his body to block a fleeting shot for Curry, and Brogdon pounced on it despite being a little late. Under his interference, Curry smashed the basket with three points. Looney grabbed a crucial frontcourt rebound in the chaos to help the team take the lead with 14 seconds left in the game. The Pacers still had a last-ditch chance, but LeVert slipped on the breakout and the Warriors struggled to win the game and end the Pacers' three-game winning streak.
Pacers coach Carlisle missed the game because of a positive COVID-19 test and was represented by assistant coach Lloyd Pierce. After the game, Pierce thought the team had lost, but overall did a good job: "We only let the opponent score 102 points, which is not their level. Our players played really hard today and did a lot of what we wanted to do... The only pity was that Karis (Levert) fell down in the crucial round. ”
This passage is a microcosm of the current situation of walkers. Their players are hard-working, professional, know how to play, can execute coaching tactics, and have a talent — something you can see in the market, and when the Pacers announced that the team was in a rebuild, their players immediately caused a scramble in the market. They're not a big problem as individual athletes, but when they're playing side by side as a team, you always feel like there's something wrong with this team. It's especially evident when they lose a key backcourt rebound, when they make inexplicable mistakes on the final offensive, and when they're 2-11 in a last-minute game of the season.
Curry's three-point shot prevented him from equalizing Ray Allen on the three-point shooting list in this game. He came off the court with some chagrin and slapped the bench hard. In this game, the Pacers guarded his three-pointers, allowing him to shoot another game of 5-of-15 three-pointers. During the game, whenever Curry scored a three-pointer, the crowd at Banks Life Center — now called Gabridge Arena — would collectively stand up and cheer loudly. The match was attended by 17,018 spectators, nearly 4,000 more than the average Pacers' home attendance. Judging by the situation on the spot, more fans wore Curry jerseys to watch the ball than any Pacers player jersey.
Curry didn't play well in this game, he didn't make three points, and there were 7 turnovers, but the star effect he brought has reflected the Pacers' problems from the side. Compared to Curry's "dazzling", the problem with walkers is called "mediocrity". The past few seasons have proved that the backcourt at the level of Brogdon and LeVert to drive the interior of the level of Turner and Sa Jr. to carry out the blocking attack, the upper limit of the whole system is too low. It's not just a key ball problem, not just a ball carrier problem, not just an interior problem, not just a role player problem, and it's not a problem that a change coach can solve. Finally, the Pacers officially announced last week that the team would end the half-dead ordeal of the present day and enter the reconstruction period. Players including Turner, Sabonis Jr. and LeVert were all on the shelves.
In other teams, the rebuild may have started long ago, but this is not the case with the Pacers. Unless last resort, pacers will never mention the word "reconstruction", let alone "rotten", the reason for this, must start from the merger of the ABA and the NBA.
As the aba's hero, the Pacers suffered serious financial problems in the last few years of the ABA, so much so that they had to reduce their expenses by selling some star players. When the ABA and the NBA merged, the NBA imposed a $3.2 million entry fee on pacers. Meanwhile, because the NBA was only willing to accept four ABA teams, the Pacers, Nuggets, Nets and Spurs, the league ruled that they needed to pay huge compensation to The Kentucky Colonels and St. Louis Spirits who failed to join the NBA. In addition, the team that just joined the NBA did not have a TV dividend in the first 4 years. The team owner at the time, Bill Ethan, was even worse off from his already wealthy family.
In the last years of the ABA, Ethan has been borrowing from banks to pay for the necessary expenses of the team, but this method of moving the east wall to make up for the west wall will not last long. In mid-1977, the team began to fail to pay salaries, and in July, the bank issued an ultimatum: If the Pacers could not pay back the money within a week, they would forcibly declare the Pacers bankrupt. Ethan had no choice but to start looking for a next family willing to take over the team, and the next family was not willing to let the team stay in Indiana, he wanted to move the team that had won the ABA championship three times to Minnesota, northwest Indiana.
Nancy was the wife of legendary Pacers coach Sri lanka Leonard, who led the team to triple crowns, and was the team's general manager at the time. When everyone was helpless, she thought of a way to save the team: the team could pre-sell season tickets for next season in advance, and as long as 8,000 people were willing to buy them, the Pacers could raise enough $2 million to help the team through the difficulties and keep the team in Indiana.
As the Leonards joined forces to solicit votes for the team on television, a vigorous "Defend the Pacers" operation began in Indianapolis. Fans took to the streets, calling on everyone around them to contribute to keeping the Pacers in India. As the TV station announces the ticket purchase situation every 2 hours, more and more people come to the camera, including middle-aged people in suits and leather shoes, faltering old people, beautiful sisters with curly hair on shawls, and children holding their own piggy bank...
With less than two hours to go before the fundraising deadline, the Pacers sold fewer than 7,000 tickets, and everyone was almost desperate. But in the last two hours, the Indians exploded with astonishing purchasing power. When Nancy came on to announce the results of the final ticket sale, she announced with a suppressed cry: "We sold 8,028 tickets." ”
Everyone on the live broadcast began to applaud, hug and cheer. Whether it is a Pacers fan or not, anyone who has watched the live broadcast will firmly remember the moment that belonged to the people of Indo-City. Six years later, brothers Herb Simon and Melvin Simon, who set up an industrial investment firm in Indiana, bought the Pacers together, completely solving the team's financial problems. They all admit that the televised ticket show was also one of the reasons why the brothers, who didn't know much about basketball, bought the Pacers: they valued not only the team itself, but also the close bond between the team and the fans and the community, and believed that such a team would have a good future.
Today, Melvin has sailed west, and Herb is nearly ninety years old, and the Pacers have grown from a new army to the backbone of the alliance. The bond between the team and the fans is even closer. In 33 seasons from 1989 to the present, the Pacers have missed only seven playoff games, only one season with a winning percentage of less than 40 percent and only one top-ten pick (10th pick in 2010, paul George).
This team prides itself on "never messing up", partly because Indiana is called the "state of basketball", Indiana University has countless fans, if the Pacers are broken, local fans can turn to college basketball, on the other hand, because they believe that the fathers and elders of Indopolis voted to keep them here with their hard-earned money, and they should not repay the fans with a bad attitude in any way - even if the fans have stopped buying the mediocre ones.
Intellectually, the fastest way to rebuild is always to mess up. Take out the players who still have trade value for draft picks, and then fight for the worst record to get a higher pick. But that's never what walkers do. Before this game against the Warriors, the pacers who announced the rebuilding had just played a three-game winning streak and then fought to the last second in the game against the Warriors. That's what this team has always been about: I can cook, but I can't provoke.
It doesn't matter if the head coach is sick, it doesn't matter if the whole team is injured, even if I'm already on the shelves, as long as I'm still wearing the Pacers jersey, I have to put all my efforts into playing as well as I can, win for this team, and return every fan who comes to see the ball.
More than three decades later, the Pacers have embarked on an Indiana-inspired path of team building. They do not have a high-level signing, they pay more attention to the cultivation of new talents, as evidenced by the 5 fastest improving players in the history of the team. Countless young people who were not optimistic when they entered the league have become the pillars of the team here, promoted and raised salaries, become big bosses, enter all-stars, and embark on the peak of life. The pacers have come all the way, fighting Jordan, fighting OK, and resisting Zhan for many years, because they have never been able to reach the top, may not be considered a giant, but they can also be called a powerful prince.
Whenever the team is facing a rebuild, the Pacers can always complete the transition of rights as quickly and steadily as possible, except for the 4-year sink in the retirement of Reggie Miller, the reconstruction efficiency is very high at other times. Now, although a new round of reconstruction is about to begin and the time has come to change the dynasty, we also have reason to believe that this team that will never fall apart will not sink for too long.
The Pacers' rebuild may have failed since the day Victor Oladipo was injured, only now. They tried various ways to salvage the situation, but to no avail. Such things abound in their team history. When the heavens and the earth work together, the heroes are not free. In life, there are always times when you have done everything you can, made all your efforts, and finally everything is over, maybe it is a little luck, maybe it is a little strength, after all, the arm can not twist the thigh, and is knocked down by a more powerful opponent. There is no shame in this. You fight to the last minute, try to get to the last minute, and that's enough.
The die-hard indiana pacers have spent thirty years telling the same thing: Even if one day, man is a knife trick, I am a fish. Then please make hob meat, don't make lunch meat.