The rest is just noise

Before Lu Wuxia, the person who announced so high-profile where he wanted to take his talent was Kobe Bryant in 1996.

However, Lu Wuxia's situation is different from Kobe's.

Lu Wuxia chose college, which was a choice recognized by the mainstream media.

Moreover, as a Chinese-Italian mixed race, Lu Wuxia is not like many children of celebrity couples who fail to inherit their parents' genes. He is like the combination of Louis and Lorraine's advantages.

With a handsome face that could appear in a campus youth movie, and a barefoot height of 201 centimeters, as a commander, he has a perfect temperament.

After settling his son's school choice, Louis' focus returned to professional basketball.

In the 2001-02 NBA season, the center stage still belonged to the Miracle Generation. The Lakers once again had the league's best record.

This year, they have 63 wins.

Compared with last year, both Garnett and Kobe have grown.

They lost Rashard Lewis and Brad Miller in the offseason, but the team's strength was reintegrated.

Larry Bird poached Kobe's classmate Derek Fisher from the free market as the @ starting point guard, and paired with Kobe, Artest, Malone, and Ben, the Lakers were rejuvenated from offense to defense.

There was great vitality.

Malone still has fuel, and Ben's defense is beginning to show its power.

During the regular season, Kobe averaged 31 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists per game, leading mvp simulation predictions for a long time.

Following the Lakers are the defending champion Miami Heat.

Duncan is still the only leading power forward in the league. Liu Yuqing, who is playing at the peak of his career, has become his biggest helper. Stephen Jackson and the soul of the Heat, Petrovic, can also help at critical moments.

The Heat have one of the biggest surprises this year, and that is Gilbert Arenas, who was selected at the end of the first round. This player is so fierce and precocious that he does not look like a player at the end of the first round, which greatly makes up for the lack of strength of the Heat's bench lineup.

After that, the 76ers, Knicks, and Mavericks each took the lead, and the five-strong competition for hegemony took shape last year and has not been broken to this day.

In Messiah's first season back in Boston, the Celtics ranked sixth in the Eastern Conference with a record of 47 wins and 35 losses. Compared with the past few bad seasons when Mr. Weiyi was at school, this year's progress can be said to be

Very big.

But fans are a difficult group to satisfy, especially when Thomas often makes mistakes.

Louis also gave Thomas a failing grade this year. Sixth in the Eastern Conference is a terrible position.

Why does Louis want fifth place in the Eastern Conference? Because reaching fifth place in the Eastern Conference can directly avoid meeting the Heat, 76ers, Knicks and other teams in the first round.

As long as you don't encounter these three teams, the other teams can all fight.

Now ranked sixth in the Eastern Conference, they will face the Knicks, who are third in the Eastern Conference, in the first round.

The first round of travel is a foregone conclusion.

The Knicks' experience, overall strength, talent, and lineup depth are all superior to the Celtics.

In this case, Louis has no hope for the playoffs. Every Tuesday, Louis will attend Auerbach's lunch meeting. This week, Louis completely avoided the topic of the NBA.

This made Reed's brother Zane Auerbach wonder: "Coach Lu, didn't the Celtics make the playoffs this year? How is the situation?"

Before Louis could answer, Auerbach mocked: "That's it, just playing in the first round, no match for New York."

Louis smiled bitterly: "As long as we win three more regular season games, we can avoid New York in the first round."

What is even more disturbing is that some Boston media have reviewed several controversial games Thomas lost one by one.

After rigorous and detailed review, they came to a conclusion.

In at least six games, the Celtics lost to Thomas' incompetence.

Sometimes, Thomas reacts slowly and fails to call a timeout in time, resulting in losing the game.

Sometimes, Thomas reacts too quickly, misjudges the timing and makes wrong decisions, which also leads to losing.

If Thomas was a normal coach, those games would be winnable.

Coming to the luncheon today is the director of athletics at the University of Washington. His name is Joe McKeon.

McKeon is full of doubts about Thomas' coaching ability; "From a playing point of view, Isiah's coaching ideas are outdated. He is still using the four-corner offense from 20 years ago, and that old offensive layout has been eliminated even by North Carolina.

It has been updated with the times, but Isiah is immersed in it and has never been willing to reform the system."

Speaking of this, Louis actually regrets designing a four-corner offense for Isiah Thomas.

At the beginning, he just wanted to help Thomas play in a more orderly manner when he led the team alone, but he didn't expect that this girl would miss him forever at first sight. After all these years, he would still be his treasure.

"It can't be said that the Celtics' record is actually pretty good. They won 47 games this year. Compared with previous years, they have made great progress." Zane personally liked Thomas very much, so he smoothed things over.

Retired college coach Pete Dowling laughed: "I think the Celtics are at least a 50-win team. Some of Isiah's on-the-spot decisions are actually very questionable."

Louis did not expect that in the middle of the lunch meeting, it would turn into a criticism meeting for Thomas.

It seems that everyone has been suffering from the dwarf for a long time!

However, what they said about Thomas was actually too unfair.

Thomas doesn't want to change his style of play now, but still follows Louis' advice. Louis hopes that he can continue as usual, because the team is full of newcomers, just play casually first, and then update the system when they adapt to the NBA game. The Celtics play

The method is a bit outdated, but it works, and we won 47 games anyway.

Thomas's main point of being criticized is to adapt to the situation.

Sometimes he reacts too slowly and seems stupid, but the most terrifying thing is when he reacts quickly. When ghostly thoughts come to the mind of the Smiling Assassin, no one knows what extraordinary tricks he can do.

"Actually, it's not easy for Isiah." Louis rarely spoke human words.

"Coach Lu, stop making excuses for Isiah, he is not in his first year as a coach."

Louis' kindness was regarded as a face-saving project for the president who had to find a way for his coach to step outside.

In the end, it was the old man who helped Louis out.

“Have I told you the story about my first year coaching the Washington Capitols?”

That is really an old story that is unfamiliar to everyone.

In Auerbach's first year coaching the Congressional team, he led the team to a record of 49 wins and 11 losses, ranking first in the league.

What's the secret to the Capitol's strength? A smart coaching staff? Or a strong roster? No, Auerbach's answer is simple, home-court advantage. And that's not just any home-field advantage. The Capitol's home court is a converted granary.

, there are many "aboriginals" (rats) in the museum. These aborigines always run to the field in groups during games, and every guest who comes to play here will be scared to the point of losing their fighting spirit.

Think about the scene where five or six big rats suddenly rush out from under the player's feet during a fast break.

Louis shuddered just thinking about it. A few days later, the playoffs officially started.

The Knicks gave the Celtics a hard lesson when they came up.

The Celtics misfired across the board, and Sprewell, the most reliable player in the stalemate, also misfired under this intense physical confrontation.

Ewing, who is about to turn 40, scored 12 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks in front of Yao Yueban.

He said: "If young people want to take over the torch, they still need to go through a real test."

There is not much left over from the Gold Club scandal. Ewing played full attendance in the last season of his career and blocked 1 shot per game. In the last few games of the regular season, he surpassed Posen and became the NBA leader.

All-time shot-blocking leader.

Now he is very satisfied.

In the second game of the series, Yao Yueban clearly understood that his confrontation ability was not enough to perform stably in the playoffs. He chose to avoid a head-on confrontation with Ewing and used a large number of pick-and-rolls to pull away and follow down.

He scored a game-high 32 points and 10 rebounds by eating cakes.

However, the Knicks' two wing stars determined the final outcome. McGrady's 38 points and Hill's 30-point triple-double made the Celtics desperate.

"There are many ways to fail. Some people kneel to greet death, and some people stand to endure failure." Thomas said excitedly, "Kneeling down is easy, but standing up, especially to the end, requires backbone!

"

The gap in hard power makes all tactics and chicken soup for the soul meaningless.

In the third game, the Knicks defeated the Celtics by 28 points. The only highlights of the Celtics were Yao Yueban's 28 points and Gasol's 18 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists. But they only relied on them.

Two people can't win.

Sprewell has exposed his upper limit in this series. As the leader of the sixth team in the Eastern Conference, he is still qualified. But if he encounters an opponent of the Knicks' level, it will be difficult to count on him.

Already.

It is certainly not what Louis wanted to end the 2001-02 season with such a result, but even if it goes on, the Celtics can't go very far.

Ending the season early has the benefit of ending the season early.

Louis can gather the coaching staff early and use collective wisdom to find the Celtics' future style of play.

After all, the four-corner attack is too old. The routine of 20 years ago must be buried when it is due.