The Whip of the God of Basketball

Dalembert is not particularly conspicuous among the rookies of the Celtics in the past two years. He does not have the arrogance of Arenas' rapid rise, does not have Reid's steady progress step by step, and does not have Joe Johnson. A comprehensive range of developments. He doesn't even have the ubiquitous passion of Chris Anderson. Since this season, Anderson has become a stable inside substitute for the Celtics. The crazy vitality on the court is often reminiscent of Dennis Rowe Rodman, with more and more tattoos on his body, is also filling the tattoo vacancy left by Rodman after he left.

Dalembert is just a tall Haitian center who lacks sufficient strength. His hardware is quite complete, but his software is still lacking. This is the difference between inside players and outside players. An excellent outside attacker can often achieve significant improvement in a short period of time. This improvement will be reflected in field performance and average data per game; His growth is often painful and long. Except for those talented super rookies, many big men have to go through a long period of suffering, sitting on the bench, unremitting training and learning, in order to sharpen their edge one day.

Dalembert sat on the bench most of the time after he came to the Celtics. In the last season, he occasionally got more chances to play and played well, but his single function and lack of experience , making it easier to fall into foul troubles more often. He has a very high defensive efficiency in the NCAA, but in the NBA, taller, faster outside attackers, and stronger inside players make him a little at a loss

Dalembert worked hard to gain 15 pounds in the summer, and the sweat in the gym made him look stronger and stronger, but after the start of the season, Leon, as the head coach, still gave Tony more opportunities at the center position- Barty, a center/power forward combo player with enough offensive skills, his mid-range threat is obviously more compatible with the Celtics' quick and agile offensive play.

However, in the fifth game against the Lakers, Leon accidentally mentioned Dalembert to the starting center position to deal with the Los Angeles people without Shaquille O'Neal.

………………

Arnold Auerbach once again appeared in the auditorium of the North Shore Garden Arena. He wore sunglasses and held a black cane. People couldn't see his expression, but they felt that the Cardinal looked even older. Completely retiring from the Celtics did not make Auerbach look healthier or more energetic. On the contrary, doing nothing after unemployment would make every old man look haggard and sluggish, and Auerbach, who was once all-powerful, was no exception.

Before the game started, Leon walked up to Auerbach's seat. The old man stood up from his seat, held his cane, and waved to Leon. Leon stepped forward, only to hear Auerbach say: "Give the Lakers some Let them know that they can no longer do whatever they want here." After speaking, Auerbach sat back, his voice was not loud, but Leon with sharp ears could hear it.

After entering the new century, Auerbach watched the Celtics' once biggest opponent, the Lakers, complete a great three-peat hegemony, but his own team was still struggling in the quagmire. It is conceivable that his heart is complicated. Last season, the Celtics double-killed the Lakers at home and away, but it was a pity that they failed to reach the finals to reproduce the grand occasion of the yellow-green hegemony. Now, Auerbach is putting all his hopes on Fox Leon, having not watched any of Celtic's past four wins. This game will be Leon's debut in front of Auerbach.

The four-square big screen at the scene showed the scene where Auerbach and Leon were talking just now. Although the fans didn't know what the two said, this scene symbolized the mission of the two figures of the era. Applause and cheers When it started to sound, Leon had already turned around and walked back to his team's bench, but the enthusiastic scene that broke in from the scene made the atmosphere reach a high point for a while.

On the other side, the Lakers players looked quite calm. Wearing purple jerseys, they were all expressionless, with the calmness that a three-peat champion should have. O'Neal's absence has cost the Lakers three of their past five games, with a humiliating loss in Cleveland last time out, but Phil Jackson still looks relaxed and hasn't changed the team's mindset. The starting lineup continues to use the small lineup of Samaki Walker, Devin George, Kobe Bryant, Fisher and Robert Horry. The 6-foot-9 Samaki Walker at center, Horry Appeared on the field as a power forward.

The only thing the Celtics changed was the center position. Dalembert replaced Batty in the starting lineup. The others were Walker, Pierce, Reed and Arenas as always.

"Increase the offensive rebounds and don't miss any chance." Before going on the court, Leon held Dalembert and ordered. In the previous games, Leon always asked the players to give up offensive rebounds and return to defense quickly. The Celtics themselves are good at quick counterattacks, so they are particularly afraid of the opponent's quick counterattacks. In the absence of a strong offensive rebounder, Leon chose to strategically give up the offensive rebounds and use the whole team to retreat quickly. Avoid falling into the bad trap of "missing the quick counterattack and being hit by the opponent's quick counterattack".

However, such a strategy does not apply to all opponents, such as the Lakers tonight, Leon has noticed the recent weakness of the Lakers, without O'Neal, the protection of backboard rebounds will be a problem.

The game officially started at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Dalembert stood in the middle circle and jumped the ball with Samaki Walker. After the Lakers lost O'Neal, the 6-foot-11 Dalembert became the The biggest player on the field, but he looked a little nervous. In the jump ball, he actually dialed the ball to the Lakers' side. Kobe got the ball and gave the Lakers the first possession.

Dalembert looked at Leon nervously, and Leon beckoned him to get into defense quickly and not care about these unimportant details.

The offensive mode of the Lakers seems to be different from other teams. The transmission of the triangle offense often makes people feel that it is meaningless, because unless the superstar inside is pinched and passes the ball, the Lakers' transmission often rarely passes open. It is the players who launch their own offense after dribbling or behind the back to complete the finish. Only after a deep understanding of this tactical concept will you know that the ultimate goal of the triangle offense has never been to create open Easy-balls, but to allow players to find gaps where they can launch their own offense, especially superstars can get one-on-one singles Opportunity.

But now the Lakers have only one superstar, Kobe.

The Lakers formed an offensive triangle on the left side, Fisher, Samaki-Walker and Kobe, Samaki-Walker was in the low post, Fisher passed the ball to Walker, Kobe started to try to get rid of it on the baseline, he Pretending to walk in from the bottom line, thinking that Reed would come to block and then turn to the outside, but Reed was not fooled at all, but vacated the bottom line for Kobe to follow him. Because Reid knows that players standing in the bottom corner in the triangle offense will not slip to the bottom line casually, which will affect the formation of the triangle formation this time.

Sure enough, after getting rid of the invalid, Samaki Walker could only try to single Dalembert. Dalempo may be special, but he still has the ability to defend one-on-one. Walker is not O'Neal. His attempt to force the ball hit the edge of the basket, and Antoine Walker got the backcourt. Rebound, fast pass to Arenas to launch a quick counterattack.

However, the Lakers' retreat speed is extremely fast, which is what a championship team should have. Kobe has become the arrow in the retreat. He was targeted by Reed just now, and he has already chased Arenas and started to bite. , Do not easily give Arenas a chance to play.

Arenas is not a passing master. His passing line was pointed out to him by Leon and practiced repeatedly in training. Once he was defended one-on-one, his vision and concentration began to be affected. Obviously, this is Jackson's strategy. He pinched Arenas fiercely at the beginning, so as not to give the Celtics a chance to quickly push back in the opening game. Kobe's defensive ability is something that Arenas has not experienced and encountered in the previous games. The crazy tenacity and close follow-up that cannot be thrown away make Arenas have no chance to quickly play the ball.

The Celtics fell into position to attack. Paul Pierce received the ball at the top of the arc. Facing Devin George, he tried a breakthrough and then stopped for a jumper. The ball also missed. Dalembert rushed to the inside to fight The frontcourt rebound, but he was firmly stuck by the Lakers players. Fisher got this backcourt rebound and switched offense and defense.

Obviously, offensive rebounds are not so easy to grab. Seeing Dalembert trying to fight hard but getting nothing, Phil Jackson, who was sitting on the bench and smiling, couldn't help but sneer in his heart. When he saw Leon change the starting lineup and put on the taller, younger Dalembert, he guessed that he wanted to grab more offensive rebounds on the Lakers, but Jackson didn't worry about it at all.

"You should really take a good look at the first few Lakers games to see if we lost on rebounds." This is what Jackson wanted to say to Leon at this time. In the first five games, although the Lakers lost more than they won, they didn't lose in rebounds in any game. On the contrary, they rebounded more than their opponents in several games. Especially in the protection of backcourt rebounds, the Lakers relied on shrinkage defense and collective rebounds, and did not miss too many offensive rebounds to their opponents. Only when they faced the Portland Trail Blazers did they lose 18 offensive rebounds. No other opponent has more than 10 offensive rebounds.

Immediately, Kobe hit a strong three-pointer from the outside, a frontal ultra-long three-pointer, hollow into the net, 3:0, the Lakers scored the first goal of the game.

"Defense! Protect our rebounds!" After Kobe scored, Jackson stood up from the bench and shouted to the players. He rarely shouted to the players at the beginning of the game. He didn't say this to the Lakers players, but more like he said it to Leon. In Jackson's heart, Fox-Leon seemed to be too young, and his thinking was too simple.

And Leon stood on the sidelines without saying a word. No one knew what he was thinking, but one thing is certain, he definitely watched the first five games of the Lakers.