The NBA midseason championship has ended, the Lakers defeated the Pacers 123-109 to win the championship, James won the MVP, and more importantly, the Lakers can get a $500,000 championship bonus, superstars like James and Bushy Eyebrows naturally don't care about this meager bonus, but the Lakers have many base-salary players, such as Reddish, Wood, Prince, Hayes desperately needs this prize money, $500,000 is almost equivalent to their income for half a year, which is not a small amount, and more importantly, through this trip to the midseason tournament, the Lakers have strengthened their team cohesion, and at the same time, it has also given people a glimpse of how the team will play in the playoffs, which has rekindled the hope of Lakers fans for a championship.
The Bucks, who are also contending for the championship, were not so lucky, losing 119-128 to the Pacers in the semifinals, and there was a discordant voice in the team's locker room after the game, Portis questioned the team's new head coach Adrian Griffin, saying that the team lost too much. Indeed, on the overall strength of the team and the quality of the stars, the Bucks obviously belong to the better side, the main reason for the loss is that the offensive engine of the Pacers Haliburton was not prevented, the whole game made Haliburton easily get 27 points, 7 rebounds and 15 assists, and what is more exaggerated is that there was no mistake, Haliburton hit a key three-point to lock up the victory at the last moment, the Bucks not only lost home, but also lost a lot of bonuses, the Bucks' players will definitely be dissatisfied, after all, the Bucks also have many base salary players in the team.
So why can't the team defend Haliburton, the main reason is that the Bucks are now a backcourt combination of Lillard and Beasley, both of whom are holes on the defensive end, and individual single defense cannot limit Haliburton's offensive passing, and the Bucks did not carry out a targeted defensive strategy for Haliburton in advance, which led to the team's loss. On the other hand, the Lakers pinched Haliburton from the beginning, forcing Haliburton to make 2 mistakes in less than three minutes of the game, which proves that it is not Haliburton who is powerful, but the Bucks' defense has a problem, if the team can take the victory over the Pacers seriously at that time, the finals face the Lakers has a great chance of winning, the Bucks' interior line has two top defensive experts, and they are not afraid of thick eyebrows at all, the Lakers' three-point league is the bottom, and the Bucks can be described as Tianke Lakers.
The Bucks are afraid that their bowels are going to regret it now, they should really have seriously prepared for the game, and they regret that they should not have traded Holiday for Lillard in the offseason, seeing that the Lakers won the championship by defense, the Bucks should now understand that defense is the key to winning the championship.