The rest is just noise

January 15, 1987, Boston Garden

New York Knicks vs Boston Celtics

Another game widely considered a preview of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Knicks have made great progress so far this season and are the only team in the league with a winning rate of over 80%. Needless to say, the Celtics are powerful. They have won the championship for three consecutive years and are the undisputed dynasty.

The difference from last season is that the Knicks no longer regard the Celtics as a team to beat in the future.

Starting this year, they will treat the Celtics as their opponents.

At the beginning of the season, Louis was still unsure.

The Knicks' performance so far this season has convinced Louis that they already have the strength to challenge the Celtics.

Tonight's game is a rematch between Wilson and Bird.

Louis hopes he can match up with Bird, but the Celtics want Bird to avoid facing up against Wilson.

This is a normal idea. Normal coaching staff will use strategies to avoid direct confrontation between the two. Because they understand that even if the offense is as stable as Bird's, it will be very difficult to play against Wilson's incredible physical condition.

Louis is not worried about the matchup between Wilson and Bird.

It's not that he thinks Wilson will defeat Bird, but he feels from the bottom of his heart that Benj should compete with Bird to figure out his place in the league.

Even if Bird goes to class and hurts his self-esteem with trash talk, it's still worth it.

An uneducated rookie is not a good rookie. Wilson should also have a complete rookie season.

At the beginning of the game, the Celtics knew the importance of matchup.

If they get the matchup wrong, they'll be in trouble.

Therefore, in order to prevent Bird from facing Wilson head-on, K.C. Jones asked him to play the fourth position, Sampson mentioned the fifth position, Laimbeer substituted, and Ron Harper and John Long played the second and third positions respectively.

Bit.

It was strange to see McHale in a Knicks jersey opposite Bird.

The Knicks came to the Garden determined to win.

"Don't be careless. Don't forget that the Knicks won last season." Tom Heinsohn said.

He mentioned last season's disappointing regular season game to get the fans to boo the Knicks.

As long as the fans are powerful enough, the momentum they create cannot be underestimated by anyone.

The Knicks first showed off their signature, N.UCLA system, dynamic pick-and-cut from the three-point line, and the running of Wilson and the returning Dale Ellis.

In order to allow Wilson and Ellis to complement each other's running positions, Louis and the coaching staff updated the Exhange ky (high dynamic offense).

It's still in the experimental stage now, but the effect is good, and it can cause people to walk around in circles.

When running this set of pick-and-cuts, Wilson was quite adaptable except for the lack of touch. On the contrary, Ellis, he almost didn't change anything, but because there were too many things off the court, he couldn't maintain normal training and games at all.

The face is confused.

His off-ball offense and three-point threat are very important to the Knicks, but now it seems that they are not counting on him.

On the other side, the Knicks' offense originally had four ace systems: a high-post offensive system dominated by Bird and Thomas, a No. 2 offensive system dominated by Thomas and Sampson, a four-corner offensive system dominated by Thomas and Bird's low-post offense.

Axis' No. 4 offensive system.

The outside partnership of Long and Harper makes the Celtics' offense tend to help outside shooters find their touch first.

As a result, the Knicks failed to attack on their own, but turned around and did an excellent job on defense.

Wilson always has confrontation problems when defending alone, but he has no problem defending Long and Harper.

If the Celtics don't let Bird play the fourth position, with the latter's size, he will probably be a disaster.

Wilson is gradually becoming like Tayshaun Prince, with a thin body, full willingness to defend, and a strong sense of presence when assisting in defense. One of them sweeps the paint area with Ewing, and the other controls the high ball transfer.

The Celtics lost most of their halftime movement.

Except for Bird's back-up position to find John Long's long shot, and Thomas' own breakthrough, Sampson had no choice but to play in isolation.

Louis had already anticipated this, so the Knicks defended in a targeted manner at the beginning. McHale used his 244cm long arm to steal a lob pass from Bird to Sampson.

After Dale Ellis missed Long's second three-pointer, Louis concluded that he was in poor condition and made a decisive substitution.

Louis replaced Dennis Rodman, so the Knicks had another energetic Spider-Man forward on the court.

Bird played the fourth position against McHale, but his touch was not good and his passing was frequently affected by the opponent.

The Knicks formed an astonishing defensive network in the paint, making it difficult for the Celtics to use coordination to create an ideal offense.

The more they try to cooperate, the more likely they are to make mistakes.

However, under Stockton's guidance, the Knicks gradually cooperated.

Ewing and McHale relied on 2High to score half of the team's points.

Wilson took over the ball appropriately several times and penetrated John Long's defense.

Nowadays, Long feels like he is in his twilight years. The three-point threat in the early years has dropped greatly. The defense that was originally passable has now turned into a big hole.

27 to 14

This start was definitely something the Celtics did not expect.

"What I want to say is that the Celtics should never underestimate the Knicks. There are various signs that their reconstruction has been completed and they are different from the past!" Heinsohn said worriedly, "This year's Knicks are

A true challenger!"

In the second quarter, K.C Jones responded.

Letting Bird play the 4th position will only increase his wear and tear. McHale is a 4th position who can defend the 3rd position. Moreover, his defense is definitely not weak. The Knicks can now have the league's best defense only because of Yokohama.

Because the meat grinding warriors of the second team are definitely not enough.

Bird returned to the third position, facing Rodman.

Louis rested Wilson and put together a lineup of Hornacek, Corbin, Rodman, Oakley and Ewing.

If Stockton is the reason the Knicks' offense is performing so well, Ewing is the reason their defense is suffocating tonight.

From protecting the basket to sweeping outside the paint, he did everything flawlessly.

K.C let Bird rest, and Thomas played the second quarter with Sampson, Laimbeer, Ainge, and Harper.

The Celtics, who were struck by the Knicks' defensive opening, gradually recovered.

Sampson started to show off his power.

He frequently caught the ball in the high post and scored in five consecutive rounds.

He forced out the Knicks' double-team and used the vision brought by his height to distribute the ball.

When Ron Harper hit a three-pointer to tie the Celtics, Louis called the game to a halt.

The Knicks made no mistakes just now. Everyone did what they were doing, but no one could prevent Sampson's offense, including Ewing.

Louis changed again, taking off Oakley and playing Bol. Ewing went to the fourth position to face Sampson. Bol protected the basket. Regardless of Laimbeer's three-pointer, the Celtics had a natural opportunity on the offensive end.

.

Whether Laimbeer can hit an open three-pointer from the top of the arc greatly affects the Knicks' defensive layout.

Laimbeer's three-point shooting percentage this season is his worst in four years.

This is why the Knicks boldly let him vote.

However, Laimbeer is the kind of player who "will hit the shot when the team needs it most."

The moment he made the three-pointer, the Knicks' defense evaporated.

Relying on Sampson's destructive power alone, Thomas changed the situation on the field just by passing the ball.

Then, Bird returned to the court and replaced Thomas, with Ainge playing the one position.

At this moment, Louis stopped the game.

He waved his hand gloomily.

Wilson, Rodman, John Salley, Alex Stevens, and Oakley murder the tight end.

Seeing these five people, the Celtics knew exactly what the Knicks were trying to do.

But they would never have imagined that the intensity, hardness and ferocity of Knicks' murderous press were much stronger than the last time they saw him.

These were four minutes that took Boston's breath away.

Danny Ainge, who was assigned to the No. 1 position, thought he was qualified for this position.

But the long-arm forest composed of Wilson, Stevens, Selley, and Rodman told him: No, you can't.

Apart from these four Spider-Men, the only one in the Murder Press who is not a Spider-Man is Oakley, the toughest man in the league.

Moreover, four of these five people did not hesitate to commit fouls.

Once something goes wrong, or the Celtics have the possibility of breaking through the defense, they will immediately commit a tactical foul.

In 4 minutes, the Celtics only scored 4 points.

The Knicks scored 12 points.

The situation that was originally reversed by the Celtics is now back in the hands of the Knicks.

Incredulously, K.C requested a timeout and hurriedly called Isiah Thomas back onto the court.

Louis prepared to withdraw the murderous pressing force, but was opposed by Wilson.

"Coach, we can continue!" Wilson said excitedly, "The show is about to begin!"

Louis doesn't think this is a good idea: "Isiah is coming up."

"Isiah is short, we can start by preventing the ball!" Wilson was so excited that he couldn't think straight.

Louis didn't mind the willfulness of young people. He looked at the other four people in the murder press formation: "What do you think?"

Oakley became their representative, and the evil star said ferociously: "I want to ravage them for a few more minutes."

"Okay, then press for two more minutes." Louis said, "Just two minutes, don't bargain with me."

Reality is skinny, passion and desire cannot change a thing.

That is, once Thomas gets the ball, they can only foul.

After all, no player in this lineup is under two meters tall.

In order for the murderous press to reach the intensity that can limit Thomas' super speed, they need a peak Chris Paul.

This is of course a luxury.

Thomas can break the press when he catches the ball, but he is not easy to catch the ball. These people also know how dangerous it is to catch the ball for Thomas.

Therefore, after two minutes, they spent more energy and fought with the Celtics to no avail.

46 to 43

With 2 minutes left before the end of the first half, Louis withdrew his murderous pressing formation.