The Whip of the God of Basketball

"You little bastard, you rested just because you said you wanted the players to rest? Who gave you this power? Are you the one who pays the players? Do you know what the media is saying now? They say that you deliberately refrigerated the stars for fear of failure. This way, even if we lose, we still have a reason!”

In Boston, in the Celtics' small office at the North Shore Garden Arena, Danny Ainge was banging the table against Leon in anger. In the last game against the Detroit Pistons, Leon unexpectedly had top star Paul Pierce sit on the bench for the entire game. Not surprisingly, the Celtics lost this game 93:98 at the Palace of Auburn Hills, ending Leon's three-game winning streak after his comeback.

Before the game, there were no reports of injuries related to Paul Pierce. In fact, Pierce's body was relatively healthy. In addition to a groin strain caused by continuous battles last month, Pierce's knee injury had been troubled before. It hasn't tortured him this season, and he didn't even need to wear a knee brace in many games.

Therefore, Leon's cold storage of Pierce is even more incredible, not to mention that the opponent is the Pistons, currently the contender for the first group in the Eastern Conference. Now the top six teams in the Eastern Conference have very close records, and the outcome of a game is very close. Probably the final playoff spot. After losing this game with the Pistons, the Celtics' ranking dropped to fourth in the Eastern Conference, tied with the fifth-placed 76ers, relying on their slight advantage in the Eastern Conference record to lead the 76ers in a high position.

The Detroit Pistons kicked off the Indiana Pacers and occupied the first place in the Eastern Conference. This result caused the Celtics to suffer a lot of criticism. Ainge was very annoyed by this. When the Celtics returned to Boston, he Just call Leon for training.

Leon looked indifferent. He took a piece of mint candy from Angie's table and put it in his mouth. He spread his hands and said, "You are becoming more and more rude to me now. In fact, I was planning to discuss it with you." Yes, but I made a temporary decision. You know, Paul played very hard in three overtimes with the Nets. I don't want him to have any accidents in Auburn Hills. The Pistons' style of play was still quite rough. On the day of the game with the Nets In the evening, Reisert came to me and said that he hoped that for the sake of player health, I would increase the rest time for the players. I hesitated for a while, and then finally let Walker rest during the Nets game. Anyway, he was on the court. It's better not to go up. I think you should know that Reisert came here to find him, it was Arnold's intention... Don't tell me, you don't know about this, little bastard."

After listening to Leon's words, Angie's face changed, and the angry expression quickly disappeared. He smiled and said: "Little bastard, it seems that many things can't be hidden from your eyes. What did Reither say wrong? Is that true? This is indeed what Arnold means, but in the end whether to rest players still depends on you. If you feel that you can withstand the pressure from inside and outside, you can let the players rest and then fall outside the top four. Or you can ruthlessly draft the main force, take the Celtics to the first place in the Eastern Conference, stabilize your coaching position and shut up many guys. However, Reisert's suggestion is not made up casually, every team has injuries. Hidden danger, the Celtics have been healthy for many years, but that’s why we have to be more careful.”

Leon nodded, and then he said: "Why didn't Arnold call me directly? He could directly instruct me on many things instead of always reminding me in a roundabout way. I haven't talked to Arnold on the phone for a while. I don’t know how he is doing now.”

Since it was confirmed that Auerbach leaked the transaction information, Leon has discovered that Auerbach is almost everywhere on many levels, but nowhere. He always affects himself through various relationships, but he does not want to think about it. Contact him directly like before.

"Fox, I want to tell you that now, no one will give you advice or guidance. You will only be tested instead of helped. If you can withstand the test, you will naturally make progress. If not, you understand. Also, some of your methods in the past month have been very beautiful, but I think this has attracted the attention of David Stern, including this time freezing Pierce. He will not like to see the team's star player not playing in the game. Those who are injured but do not play. Of course, we will deal with it in the league. What you have to do is to appease the players and let them have a good rest without creating bad emotions."

Leon nodded again, stood up and was about to leave. At this time, Angie stopped him again and asked, "You haven't told me yet, which part of Reisert's words was wrong?"

Leon said: "Reithert is a cautious and friendly person. He never makes irresponsible remarks to others behind their backs. But this time, he mentioned Cowens and said that Cowens used his main force too much. If it weren't for Cowen, Reithert would not have said that without Si's permission, and the only one who could allow Cowens to allow others to say bad things behind his back was Arnold."

After that, Leon left the office. Angie sat on the stool and thought to himself: "This guy is getting more and more difficult. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Isn't it too fast for Auerbach to mature him like this... …”

……………………

After returning from Detroit, the Celtics will play a game against the Nets at home, and then begin a tough road trip.

At 7 pm on March 18, the Nets visited North Shore Garden. This time Leon once again rested a main player, PJ Brown. Brown is 32 years old this year and is a veteran. After coming to the Celtics, he greatly improved the team's interior defense and became the backbone of the team.

At the same time, he selflessly imparted his skills to Chris Anderson and Dalembert during training, helping the two young people grow. Brown has not missed a game this season, so Leon let him rest and he was very of reluctance.

But with Leon's persistence and persuasion, he still chose to obey. In addition to Brown, Steve Cole, who was on the bench, was also put on the injured list by Leon. The reason for their injury rest was "leg pain due to age."

Without these two experienced veterans, it was very difficult to face the Nets and Celtics. The Nets, who were reversed at home in the last game, came with the momentum of revenge. They beat the Celtics at the beginning. The Celtics scored 22:10, and Antoine Walker was ravaged by Kenyon Martin again, suffering two big blocks in the first quarter.

After that, the Celtics started to catch up hard, but the Nets were brought into the rhythm of a defensive battle at the beginning of the game. They always kept the point difference at about 6 points. The seemingly small point difference turned out to be A natural chasm that the Celtics cannot overcome.

Until the last quarter, Leon once again sent Wang Zhizhi, but this time Wang Zhizhi was no longer magical. Martin's dedicated marking made Wang Zhizhi lose his role as a surprise player. Instead, he was chased and beaten twice in counterattacks because of his poor return defense.

In the end, the Celtics lost the defensive battle at home 72:79, with a 7-point gap.

After the game, criticism of the Celtics and Leon poured in, believing that he rested players at will at a critical moment in the battle for a playoff spot, causing the team to lose to an important competitor. Fall again and again, the key is to lose the momentum and the spirit.

In the post-game interview, few reporters cared about the winning Nets and their coach Scott, and asked a few hasty questions. When it was the turn of the Celtics and Leon to interview, everyone rushed forward, everyone wanted to ask about their ugly personality.

"Our regular season is very long, and my players need to rest because they all have injuries. If you say they have no injuries, then you can just ask any basketball player and ask them, Are injuries always following you from the moment you step on the basketball court? I think, when necessary, I will still let my players rest. Otherwise, why would a team give so many players quotas? ?"

Leon's answer was unusually firm, and a bigger storm of public opinion is still waiting for him. He will be under tremendous pressure until the end of the regular season.