The Whip of the God of Basketball

As one of the few tactical legacy left by Rick Pitino in the Celtics, the three-pointer has been vigorously promoted by Leon this season. In the summer training camp, he specially opened up a special three-point training subject for the players. Through video playback, data comparison statistics, posture correction, empty-handed running and three-point tactical drills, he continuously strengthened the team's overall three-point shooting. ability.

However, Leon still has quite strict requirements for the selection of three-point shots, and has formulated a lot of rules about three-point shots, such as "no forced three-point shots without the adjustment of the conductive ball, except for quick counterattacks." Walker often had problems in the first two seasons.

There is also "in the three-point shooting area you are not familiar with, please choose a breakthrough or two points." Nurse's good point is the 30-degree area from the top of the arc to both sides, Pierce's area is 45 degrees on the left and the bottom corner on the right, Michael Reid is good at firing at 45 degrees on the right, and Joe Johnson's favorite The best place is still the left bottom corner - not just three points.

Of course, the team's four-pointer Antoine Walker shoots in all directions without dead ends. He dares to fire in every area. Leon's advice to him is, "You'd better shoot when there is no one in front of you. "

Therefore, in this case, the Celtics not only made the most three-pointers in the league in the first few games, but also achieved a fairly high shooting percentage, which greatly improved the Celtics' offensive efficiency.

In this game, Leon always asked the players to restrain their desire to shoot three-pointers in the first half, just to keep the Lakers shrinking. In the third quarter, a sudden three-pointer broke out, causing the Lakers' defense to collapse quickly.

Without O'Neal's efficient and continuous scoring in the interior, the Lakers would not be able to bite the score when the Celtics broke out in the three-point rain. Phil Jackson had expected this situation before the game, but he was caught by Deller. The situation of Mbott starting and constantly grabbing offensive rebounds was confusing. He underestimated Fox Leon's preparations and did not remind the players to prepare for the three-point defense in time.

Seeing that the point difference between the two sides widened to more than 10 points in the critical third quarter, the Lakers wanted to get out of this parquet floor full of grievances, all they could rely on was persistence and a little luck And the superstars on the team.

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"What else can we do? Watch as they get shot through by their 3s? Do something guys, play hard, no Lakers player wants to lose here, no matter what's on the other side Crap, it's all Boston, it's all Celtics territory. Wake up, the season's just started, and so is this game!" Jackson yelled at his players during a third-quarter timeout. In the last season, the Lakers were double-killed by the Celtics. The last time they won here was in April 2001. After enduring the players' poor performance several times, he finally couldn't help but get angry.

Jackson is not a coach who likes to yell at players. Many times his efforts are not on the court but off the court. On the court, he is used to letting the players solve problems by themselves and use what they have learned on the training ground.

But tonight doesn't look like it's going to work. The constant injuries after the start of the season, the consecutive defeats, and the lack of team motivation after winning the three consecutive championships have caused the players to lose the tenacity they have had on the field for the past three years. Spirit and courageous kingly temperament. The last game was defeated by the Cavaliers, and this time they have to face the Celtics, the historical enemy. The opponent's state is amazing. Phil Jackson could feel a sense of disappointment, confusion, spreading across the Lakers' bench.

Under such circumstances, Jackson knew that there was only one person who would continue to steadfastly pursue victory and firmly believe that he could rely on his own strength to save the team, and that was Kobe Bryant.

After the timeout ended, Jackson could see Kobe's firm eyes. This competitive young man grew up so fast. When he won the championship in 2000, he was just a good assistant next to O'Neal. shooting guard. Now, two years have passed, and he is already a super scorer who faintly has Jordan's temperament. On the road to winning last year, Kobe's role has become more and more prominent. When he cleared obstacles such as the Spurs and Kings in the West More important than O'Neill.

In the first half of the game, Kobe had already shot 18 times. Without O'Neal and his teammates were lacking in aim, Kobe began to help the team by constantly scoring shots-although he only hit one of them. With 8 goals, the hit rate of more than 40% is not bad. But in the third quarter, when the Celtics kept hitting three-pointers, Kobe also tried to use three-pointers to continue the life of the Lakers. Unexpectedly, the consecutive misses made the Lakers fall into a pit.

Even so, Jackson still has to rely on Kobe and believe in Kobe. After the timeout is over, the two sides return to the court. The Lakers' offense, Kobe directly takes the ball to organize the offense. Samaki-Walker made a pick-and-roll for Kobe on the right, but the quality of the pick-and-roll was extremely poor, and he didn't block anyone. After the split, the two Celtic defenders quickly switched defenses. Walker also tried to cut inside. Kobe ignored him at all because Reed locked his position well after switching defenses. So Kobe chose to dribble to the left.

After switching defenses, Chris Anderson faced Kobe. At this time, Reed got rid of Walker and Reed stepped forward to signal Anderson to retreat. Tony Batty on the inside had already filled the position. Anderson could let Kobe go and find his own defender. Reed faced Kobe again. In this game, Reed put most of his energy into consuming Kobe. Obviously he is not Kobe's opponent, but being able to reduce Kobe's shooting percentage to a certain extent is already the limit of what Reid can do.

Kobe's continuous crotch dribbles seemed useless. Then he suddenly started to break through from the right side, and after shaking Reid's center of gravity, he immediately stopped for a jump shot. The ball drew a relatively smooth curve and passed through Basket, hit two points. A typical Kobe Bryant-style goal can be regarded as stopping the bleeding for the Lakers. He finally stopped trying three-pointers from the outside.

Looking back, Pierce tried to retaliate with a similar one-on-one attack. He faced Kobe on the right side and dribbled the ball with his left hand. The ball was dropped, the ball was intercepted, this time Kobe did not attack by himself, he passed the ball to Fisher who was about to go down, and Fisher made another high throw to Samaki Walker who had already reached the three-second zone, Walker made an empty layup. Kobe played one offense and one defense, helping the Lakers chase four points in a row.

"What the hell are you thinking? Do you want to give me one back? How could you have such a naive idea? The Celtics play team basketball, you have to learn to share, share!" Kobe, who had the upper hand, did not forget to face Pierce spat trash and kept yelling "share". Because during the wave of three-point attacks in the third quarter, Pierce shouted "You should learn to share the ball" at Kobe who missed consecutive three-pointers. How could Kobe, who is extremely vengeful, miss such a good opportunity to counterattack.

Leon on the sidelines couldn't hear the conversation between the two, but as a coach he knew that under such circumstances, Pierce should be given a chance to prove himself in front of Kobe.

Leon is not the kind of head coach who likes to exercise authority over players, everything needs to be listened to him, everything must serve the team and obliterate the player's personality, when allowing players to have their own "show- "time" time, the premise is that you can get the ball in.

Sure enough, Pierce once again received a pass from his teammate. This time he no longer faced Kobe head-on, but used his broad back and buttocks to withstand Kobe and crush him a little bit. Back when Shaquille O'Neal wasn't on the court and was sitting on the bench in a denim shirt, no one had a bigger ass than Pierce, and he didn't have to worry about getting to the paint and encountering a huge shark .

Pierce used his back to crush all the way to the inside line, then turned inward, and after slightly shaking Kobe away, he used an up and down step to squeeze Kobe away, then picked the basket with his right hand, and hit the board high. After the goal, Pierce stood in front of Kobe and glared at him for two seconds before running away. Obviously, the two of them were facing each other.

But at this time Leon called a timeout. He took advantage of Arenas' off-ball foul when defending Fisher and called a 20-second short timeout. It seemed that he wanted to arrange a defense to prevent the third quarter By Kobe Bryant's continuous counterattack.

"Paul, you come to confront Kobe one-on-one, remember, block him. Michael, you go to deal with Holly, and remember to help defend Kobe by the way. Chris, help Paul pinch Kobe." Leon said three short sentences As soon as the arrangement was completed, the players looked suspicious, especially Reid and Pierce. Reid defended Kobe for most of the game, and the effect was not bad. He always felt that he could lock Kobe.

And Pierce thinks he can deal with Kobe one-on-one, whether it is offense or defense, he can beat him without Anderson's pincer attack and Reid's help defense. Arenas was on the sidelines looking ready to move, because Arenas hadn't had any chance to play in this game, and he was full of thoughts about whether to have a one-on-one confrontation with Kobe.

But none of them spoke. After all, countless facts have proved that trying to question the consequences of Leon's decision is nothing more than being slapped in the face. Leon looked at the players who had some doubts but dared not speak, and added a sentence when the timeout beep sounded: "He can't pass the ball."