The rest is just noise

Chapter 550: Get up from where you fell

This was a strange game. The Knicks never thought of relying on the referees to run their own offense.

From the first second of the game, they put their goals on the table.

Defend, confront, bite, chase.

It's not about getting more points than you, but it's about controlling your points to be less than mine.

It sounds like nonsense, but at the competition level, getting more points and letting the opponent get fewer points than yourself represent two different meanings of the game.

The Knicks' defense shut down almost all of the Celtics' offense.

In the first quarter, 23 to 20.

The Knicks led by 3 points. At the beginning of the second quarter, when Stevens was helping to defend Sampson, he hit the opponent's shoulder.

The foul was so obvious that the referee blew the whistle decisively.

Louis turned back and looked at Wilson: "Benj, are you ready?"

The Knicks' ace, Benjamin Wilson, did not play in the first quarter.

For a whole section, his heart was tortured, and Louis' call was like giving life to a dying person.

Wilson clenched his fists and stood up: "Yes, coach!"

Half a minute into the second quarter, the Knicks made large-scale substitutions.

Louis replaced Hornacek, Stevens and Ewing with Stockton, Wilson and Oakley.

The Knicks' lineup on the court is Stockton, Ellis, Wilson, McHale, and Oakley.

There is no pure center, but the five positions are well balanced.

The Celtics replaced Bird at the beginning of the second quarter and faced off with a lineup of Thomas, Danny Ainge, Harper, Jim Peterson and Sampson.

Sampson went to the free throw line and made both free throws.

22 to 23

Sampson led the Celtics to strengthen their defense. The biggest change for the Knicks was Louis' change of ball handlers.

Usually Stockton holds the ball and connects the ball. Today, his responsibility is just to carry the ball across the half court.

After halftime, he gave the ball to Wilson and stood aside to watch the wind.

Wilson holds the ball at the top of the arc and calls for tactics.

McHale ran a wonderful 2-high day, facing the Celtics' twin-tower lineup, and was lucky enough to match up with center Peterson.

Although Peterson is a center, with his defensive ability, it is difficult to guard McHale.

McHale falsely turned around to test, and then turned back.

25 to 22

Letting Wilson hold the ball to organize is to prevent the offensive threat of the ball holder from being ignored by the Celtics. Unlike Stockton, Wilson is a player who will take decisive action if given a chance to shoot.

The Celtics counterattacked quickly.

Thomas scored on a break from Sampson.

Sampson used his offensive threat to attract the Knicks to double-team and lob the ball to Peterson inside.

Peterson dunked, 24-25.

The Celtics once again implemented their strategy, giving the Knicks' ball handler enough offensive space to prevent being penetrated by the pick-and-roll. Wilson did not hesitate and took a step inside the three-point line.

"Bang!"

He seemed to have been sitting on the bench for too long, and his hands felt cold.

But it doesn't matter, Sampson was taken out of the penalty area, Oakley swung his elbow to push Peterson away, grabbed the offensive rebound, and then passed it to Ellis on the outside.

"We can't let that person take action!" Bird shouted while sitting in the audience.

Ellis stabilized his center of gravity, and when the defense came, the ball had already flown out of his hand.

"Whoa!"

"Dale~Ellis!!!" Groom Albert shouted, "He always appears at such moments!"

Suddenly, Wilson stopped in the frontcourt.

By himself, he pressed Isiah Thomas all over the court.

"You're looking for fucking death!"

Thomas lowered his center of gravity, opened the way with his elbow, and then accelerated forward.

Wilson's reflexes were frighteningly strong. He turned sideways and opened his hands angrily to stop the accelerating Thomas, forcing the opponent to use a more conservative approach to pass the half.

Just when Thomas wanted to find someone else to pass the ball and launch an attack as soon as possible, McHale came to the outside.

His defensive strength and wingspan completely blocked Thomas' vision.

Working with Wilson, he forced his turnovers.

Wilson, who grabbed the ball, was like a cheetah charging towards its prey. He went to the frontcourt and used an astonishing tomahawk dunk to call the Celtics' timeout.

27 to 22

!@#@^

"K.C. Jones is very conservative. He doesn't want the Knicks to gain momentum. This timeout was called at the right time!" Billy Cunningham said before he finished speaking.

"Wait, what is Benjamin doing?"

In full view of everyone, Wilson challenged Larry Bird, who was taking a rest: "How long do you plan to sit there?"

Tom Heinsohn's mentality suddenly changed. "This young man seems to have forgotten how embarrassed he was when facing Larry in the past two games!"

"Coach, that guy is going to come up." Wilson was referring to Bird.

Louis saw Bird getting up and obeying K.C's instructions. Wilson's judgment was correct.

Louis snorted and faced his team members, "Get up wherever you fall."

Everyone looked gloomy and just looked at Louis.

"If I say I'm going to press them full court again, do you have the guts to execute my plan?"

Louis believes that many people will remember how their murderous press was cracked by the Celtics in Game 3.

"Coach, just tell us what you want us to do!" Wilson said.

"Okay" Louis changed the lineup, "Benj, Honey, Alex, Michael (Cooper), Oak, I hope to see the most violent full-court press, don't care about the number of fouls you get, my principle is only

1. The Celtics can score from free throws, yes; the Celtics can score by any means other than free throws, damn no!"

The repercussions caused by the Knicks' change of formation caused riots in the Garden.

"Little Lu is going to use the full-court press again?" Cunningham laughed in surprise, "Did he forget what happened in Game 3?"

Heinsohn's sense of Louis has been greatly reduced, but he does not think that Louis is a person who cares about food and not fights.

"Perhaps, it is precisely because he remembered that he did this."

The Celtics let Sampson rest, and Thomas, Ainge, Bird, Reggie Lewis, and Ron Harper formed an anti-full-court press five.

K.C Jones is indeed an old friend of Louis, and he knows how vengeful Louis is.

The Green Army's lineup is very targeted. Four of the five players on the court can dribble. Conversely, the Knicks only have two players who can dribble.

The gap between the ball handlers will profoundly affect the efficiency of breaking the full-court press.

Louis knew this was going to happen, but he still had to carry it out.

"This is going to be a war of attrition." Tomjanovich said worriedly, "Is it possible?"

"Maybe this is Coach Lu's purpose."

Zhao Yuanzheng glanced at Louis who was not communicating with anyone else.

"Coach Lu believes that the failure of Game 3 is just an accident. Once the two sides form a tug of war, the Celtics will be the unfavorable party."

The referee blew the whistle to restart the game.

From the first second, Bird decided to give Wilson some color.

When he leaned against Wilson with his body and the ball came towards him, Wilson behind him suddenly and violently hit his lumbar spine, causing him to lose his center of gravity.

Before the referee could blow the whistle, Bird stood up and pushed Wilson away: "I'm going to destroy you, you little bastard!"

Wilson's reaction was not as excited as in Game 3. He looked at Bird indifferently and did not expand the conflict. The referee called him a foul.

"Doesn't it count if Larry pushes people?" Louis asked.

It really didn't count. This is the most difficult point for referees to deal with when a conflict occurs. The person who provokes trouble should be punished, but what about the person who responds to the challenge? Strom's habit is to punish the one who takes the initiative to provoke trouble.

"It's okay, coach."

Wilson clapped his hands to cheer up his teammates.

"Keep defending! Just like the coach said, let them take free throws, okay! Do they want to score in other ways?" Wilson looked at Bird in front, "No fucking way!"

Wilson reduced collisions that might have resulted in foul calls, increased confrontation, and used his energy, physical fitness, and athleticism to make it difficult for Bird to stay in a certain position to catch the ball.

The Knicks-Celtics game turned into a horrific, raw brawl.

Bird gets stuck first, and Wilson will use all his strength to take over the position and use any part of his body to hold him up.

Others are running and grabbing positions, Stevens plays the role of a panacea, and Cooper still has the power of first-level defense.

The ball from the Celtics was given to Ainge.

The next second, Ainge was flanked by Stevens and Cooper.

He only needs to pass the ball to Thomas to defeat the Celtics' defense, but he has fallen into a situation where success is considered a success as long as he can pass the ball.

The person who caught the ball was not Thomas, but Lewis.

Lewis was too nervous and his mind was empty. He forgot about returning the ball to Thomas and dribbled the ball across half court.

Hornacek who appeared in front of him reminded him of Thomas.

By the time he really wanted to pass the ball, it was too late.

The basketball was intercepted by the Knicks on its way to Thomas' palm.

This is why the Knicks' full-court press is called murder.

They really defended with the mentality of killing their opponents.

The Celtics' pass was intercepted and quickly reached the frontcourt. Wilson gave the ball to Hornacek at the top of the key.

Hornacek attempted his third three-point shot of the night.

This time, I have it!