The rest is just noise

Louis said that he would be satisfied if he won the fourth game and prevented the team from being swept, but behind the scenes he did a lot of homework.

Game 5, Louis frees Ralph Sampson.

He asked Sampson to get the ball in the high post as much as possible, and if the Bucks ignored him, take bold shots.

If someone comes to defend the Bucks, make your own decision. If you have a chance, play with the ball. If you don't have a chance, pass the ball to the outside.

With Bird and John Long opening the floor for him, Sampson played like a 7-foot-4 Greek monster whose athleticism was reduced by a notch.

What makes him better than the Greek Freak is that he has a jump shot that can score from the high post. When he falls to the low post, he doesn't have to think about squeezing into the basket with all his strength. He has comprehensive but not proficient means of scoring with his back to the basket.

Sampson's activity allowed Louis to hide his strategy of allowing Bird to support a system of low-post offense.

Although the Bucks couldn't find a way to deal with this tactic, they didn't want Bird to be too tired.

The style of play that allows Bird to support the system and give full play to his personal abilities should be a bottom-line tactic until he runs out of ammunition and food. A good coach must take the initiative to seek changes. He cannot be like those coaches surnamed Lu who only feed chicken soup and ruthless main players.

If the strategy works, keep using it. Although giving the ball to Mr. Zhan and letting him play more than 40 minutes per game is the only way for the 18 Cavaliers to win in the playoffs, this kind of complete abandonment of coaching opportunities achieves the player's personal heroism.

The choice of feat is not admirable.

Sampson's love for high-post shooting was a departure from the norm, and it was also the biggest difference between him and Bill Fitch.

Every night, Fitch gets mad at Sampson for shooting from the high post.

Louis was never angry.

Ever since he persuaded Sampson to participate in the draft three years ago, he had expected that this person was a unicorn ahead of his time. He should not develop like a traditional center, but should be like a modern center, roaming, running, and shooting.

Attack with the ball and participate in fast breaks that are unacceptable to contemporary coaches.

Don Nelson felt the urgency.

At the end of the first quarter, Sampson intercepted a long pass from the Bucks in midfield and executed a counterattack by dribbling alone. He looked like a strange version of Bob Cousy. The fans in Boston Garden roared when he

When he counterattacked with an exaggerated and stable 360-degree turn dunk, Johnny Most exaggeratedly roared: "Ralph completed the best dunk in the history of the Celtics!"

Is the 1-on-0 360-degree spin dunk the best dunk in Celtics history?

If you think about it carefully, there is no dunk master in the history of the Celtics. Maybe Sampson inadvertently achieved the best dunk in the history of the Celtics.

Louie reached out and gave Sampson a high-five.

He only has one regret about Sampson, and that is that in the three years since he entered the league, he has not developed a killer move like a skyhook.

The technical characteristics of being complete but not perfect may stay with him throughout his life.

This will prevent him from becoming the core of a top team like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but next to Bird and Thomas, he will be a super supporter that everyone loves.

Don Nelson on the opposite side was stunned by Sampson's performance.

This monster has a sturdy physique and a pair of giant hands. He can run like a dragon and a tiger with a strong kick. He is unstoppable in transition offense. However, once he is on the ground, his shots over 17 feet are sometimes unreliable. He has to rely on pick-and-rolls to catch the ball.

Top up the two players, or use a screen to back up and cut in low to attack the basket.

Does this description sound like a future Greek monster?

But the candidate Nelson had in mind was Philadelphia's Dr. J.

It's just that Dr. J is not that tall.

Sampson's agility and athletic ability are more than two levels behind Dr. J, but he is really too tall, tall enough to make the impossible possible.

In the same competition environment, he may be more terrifying than Dr. J.

Compared with Dr. J and the future Greek Monster, it is more difficult to defend Sampson, who is already gaining momentum at this time.

Because he can hit high jump shots from outside the free throw line, this means that opponents cannot choose to defend by letting him a meter away to gain defensive space.

But in contrast, his coordination is not as good as that of the Greeks, his speed and athleticism are not at the same level as Dr. J's, and although he has the ball-handling threat, he is far inferior to these two.

Therefore, when defending against Sampson, one must stay close to his lower body.

The Bucks sent Bob Lanier to guard his shots. Lanier had big feet, but he was old and his running and jumping ability was not as good as when he was young. If Sampson had the ball, he would stand out.

, he definitely can’t hold on.

So Nelson also has a small design on the defensive end.

He deliberately set up a double pocket for Sampson inside the free throw line. As long as he burst into that position, the double attack would follow immediately.

The pocket formation has now become the mainstream defensive formation in the NBA.

It was the Celtics in 1981 that promoted its popularity.

The driving force behind the popularity of pocket arrays is, of course, Louis.

In that year's Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics' pocket formation silenced Dr. J. In this era where there were few superstars who combined sudden shooting and players with incredible shooting ability, the pocket formation was like a stumbling block that stifled superstars.

Nelson successfully absorbed the essence of the pocket, and the small pocket he set up inside the free throw line caused Sampson to miss consecutively.

Sampson's performance got worse and worse, and the Bucks instantly evened the point difference.

Louis called a timeout, replaced Sampson, replaced Maxwell, and asked Thomas and Bird to play a high pick-and-roll duo.

Although in theory, a breakthrough like Thomas can strangle a team's defenders, and the destructive power of pick-and-roll pulls like Bird, a shooting master, on the defense is difficult for the Bucks to limit, Nelson still found out from Thomas' technical details

Identify shortcomings and address them.

Thomas may be the best pure point guard in history, but he is also a point guard who needs the ball in his hands to be a threat.

Therefore, the two words "pure control" go together.

Because Thomas's shooting threat is far below the average level of a guard, even though most people's impression of a small guard is that he is versatile and can kill people with his shooting skills, mid- and long-range shooting is definitely Thomas's shortcoming.

Therefore, Nelson asked Moncrief to guard Thomas and asked him to work around the pick-and-roll to guard Thomas' breakthrough.

If you don’t understand how to defend against breakthroughs around pick-and-rolls, you can go over and review the 2019 World Cup Chinese team’s defenders. After encountering their own inside pick-and-rolls, they saw that their opponents were around to defend but they could not seize the vacancies missed by the pick-and-rolls.

Punish your opponent's dilemma.

Moreover, Thomas was obviously playing the game with his own thoughts tonight.

There were some balls that could have been given to Bird, but he didn't.

At certain moments that were not good opportunities, he shot.

What's worse is that the Bucks love his reckless behavior.

In doing so, he gave his opponent a chance.

Therefore, at the end of the third quarter, the Bucks overtook the Celtics.

Louis replaced Thomas and made no other adjustments.

"Isiah, come on, please tell me, why don't you fight according to the tactics?" Louis even omitted the effort of wrangling, and asked directly.

Just as Thomas was about to use his signature smile to cover up his little thoughts, he received an angry roar from Louis: "Put away your disgusting smile! Answer my question, why don't you fight according to tactics?"

Thomas' smile froze, and the dimples on his face were looming.

"The opportunity is not good..."

"Okay, then you just sit in the audience. If you feel the time has come, come back to me."

Louis stopped talking to him.

In the fourth quarter, without Thomas controlling the ball, the Celtics played the high-post pick-and-roll offensive system of the Fitch era. They did not want to play this system, which would give them the illusion that Fitch was still there.

But that's the only option unless Louis lets Bird play in the post.

Thomas' successor was Chris Ford. Facing the Bucks' defense, it was difficult for him to organize an offense. He made many tactical dead balls and passing errors.

Thomas wanted to come on and change the situation.

Louis told him: "I don't think the chances are good."

Thomas froze again.

He did not apply again, and Louis did not even look at Thomas until the end of the game. In the fourth quarter, the two sides fought the game into a bloody melee, which reminded fans of the 1981 Eastern Conference Finals.

The Celtics have always been good at playing this kind of game.

Under the leadership of Bird again, they erased the 5-point gap and fought until the last minute.

Marquis Johnson made a fatal mistake, and Laimbeer luckily stole the ball and gave it to Bird.

Bird threw a bold one-handed quarterback pass from the backcourt, and Cedric Maxwell scored the winning touchdown!

"Dear Cedric is still full of energy!" shouted Most, "and he ordered a cornbread combo for everyone in the garden!"