The Whip of the God of Basketball

Paul Pierce has been deliberately conserving his energy since March, during which time he has been criticized by the media for not having enough energy in his game and being criticized for being too lazy after being questioned by police behind a bar. In a nightclub. This emotion has been accumulating and brewing into the playoffs. Even in the first half of the first game, Pierce did not really activate his firepower and watched Allen Iverson continue to score points.

In the third quarter, he finally no longer needed to hide anything. In this season's MVP selection, Pierce reached third place in the current ranking. His competitive state and skills have entered the peak period from the beginning. Leon has retained his loyalty to him. Absolute trust.

After completing a breakthrough dunk at the beginning of the second half, Pierce succeeded in the next two attacks, a back-up fadeaway jumper, and a quick counterattack with a chasing three-pointer after receiving the ball. He scored 7 points in a row. The 76ers were suddenly blindsided. They seemed to be stuck in the Celtics' slow and exhausting play style in the first half, and they were completely unable to react to Pierce's whirlwind attack.

Two minutes later, Larry Brown called a timeout. The explosive power he expected from the Celtics at home did not appear in the first quarter, but appeared in the fatal third quarter. This was comparable to what happened in the first half. The situation is much more terrifying.

Leon high-fived Pierce when he came off the court. Watching Pierce score consecutively, Leon breathed a sigh of relief. For a coach, no matter how perfect the strategy is, if there are no players to execute it, or the players can't throw the damn ball into the damn basket, then everything is in vain.

Leon could see that Pierce was in good condition, no less than Allen Iverson. Neither Van Horn nor Aaron McGee was an obstacle to Pierce's progress. What Leon needs to worry about now is what cards Larry Brown still has in his hand to deal with Pierce. Leon still has many cards in his hand, but in this game he just wants to play the Pierce card well.

Because as the team's number one star, he must be in good shape at the beginning of the playoffs. This is the basis for the team's victory. If a team's star cannot exert all its energy, then it is wrong to just rely on other players to work hard. There's no way to win the series.

After the timeout, Leon did not change his tactical arrangement and continued to focus on Pierce's point. Of course, Brown made adjustments. He decided to let Kenny Thomas guard Pierce one-on-one, and then let Van Horn face Walker, taking the risk that Van Horn might be disabled by Walker, and also let Van Horn To help defend against Pierce.

Brown's defensive system is very unique. It is a typical set of blocking the center, leaving the sides, and then attacking from the bottom line. This method is also used by other teams, but few implement this strategy as strictly as Larry Brown does. After all, he even used a ruler to measure the distance between players during training to tell them how to position themselves. So in the face of Pierce's explosion, Kenny Thomas began to push Pierce to the bottom line. As long as Pierce had the intention of going to the middle, Van Horn would come to help defend.

But the problem is that Van Horn is not the Hill she was back then. Although Hill has rough skills and is a pure coolie power forward, she defends actively and fiercely. While Van Horn has good awareness, she is as soft as noodles when assisting in defense.

Pierce is not afraid of being double-teamed. He will choose to take a step back, then accelerate and rush from the center. In the past, the 76ers' big man was Dikembe Mutombo. At 7 feet 2, he was a huge obstacle for any attacker. Now the 76ers' inside man is Coleman. When Pierce stepped on the basketball and scored, Coleman's feet had just left the ground.

This scene happened three times in a row. After Larry Brown adjusted his defensive strategy, Pierce scored three consecutive points in the middle, a breakthrough, a pull-up jumper and a foul. This made Larry Brown hold his glasses and shake his head. .

There is no doubt that this 76ers are no longer the 76ers of 2001, and they will never be able to play that kind of defense again. Of course, their offense is more talented. Larry Brown is not in a hurry to replace Van Horn, because Van Horn can also contribute to the team on the offensive end. His fixed-point three-pointers and low-post attacks are good for Kyle. The special person is still a threat. Because the Celtics' defense is very simple, one-on-one.

Such a simple defensive system lacks strength but is very resilient. In the first half, under the encouragement of Leon, the Celtics relied on their strong willpower to play a tough defense. In the second half, once the offense blossomed, the defense Duan inevitably relaxed.

At this time, the effect of the desperate defense in the first half was revealed. Even if the Celtics' defensive intensity dropped, the 76ers except Iverson still did not find the offensive feeling.

Leon watched the 76ers' shooting percentage slowly pick up in the second half, while the Celtics' scoring surge under Pierce led them to sit back on the bench. He subconsciously dug into his left pocket and found it empty. Then he remembered that he didn't put a cigar in it, and he wasn't going to smoke a cigar here. He dug into his right pocket again, took out a small piece of tactical paper, and wrote down the hit rate of both sides at this time with a pen.

Without asking the technical statistician, Leon himself can calculate the shooting percentage of both sides from memory. The Celtics have reached 49.7, while the 76ers have dropped to 44.5. However, the 76ers still have some advantages in offensive rebounds. , they relied on offensive rebounds several times to extend their lives. Allen Iverson is still in good condition, but he is declining compared to the first half, and his number of strikes is increasing.

"They still haven't made much progress compared to the past..." Leon thought as he looked at the data. Compared with 2001, the 76ers have not completed the transformation. Although they have purchased new so-called offensive players on the offensive end, whether it is Van Horn or Coleman, the two former No. 1 and No. 2 picks, they are both good at the offensive end. Very talented. But their tactics are still the same as in 2001, and the people who can play the same tactics as in 2001 are no longer there.

This is Larry Brown. He doesn’t care about the team he takes over or what the characteristics of the players are. He just wants to build this group of players into his ideal team. If someone is not suitable, then please leave. .

Leon also spent time getting to know the famous coach Larry Brown. He knew that this coach started coaching professional basketball in the 1970s and was elected the best coach in the ABA three times. At that time, his style was just like that of the ABA. The ball is the same as the three-pointer. He wears all kinds of fancy suits on the sidelines, and the team he leads also plays gorgeous offensive tactics.

In the 1980s, he left the professional basketball circle and returned to college basketball, winning two NCAA championships. When he came to the NBA again, his style had undergone earth-shaking changes. He began to wear the same gray suit and round-rimmed glasses, and used the same defensive tactics to bring teams without great talent to new heights.

Leon was wondering what happened in 10 years to make Larry Brown undergo such earth-shaking changes, and what impact those 10 years of college coaching experience had on his basketball philosophy. Of course, as an opponent on the court now, he has no way of understanding these things. He only knows that the current Philadelphia 76ers cannot defeat the Celtics.

The impressions of fans and the media are always vague. To judge and predict the strength of the two teams based on some paper things, only real players and coaches who are in this arena and fight their opponents face to face can judge both sides. have a deep understanding of the situation. Although Leon is far less experienced than Larry Brown, Leon has an extremely sensitive sense of the trend of the game.

The second half of the game went all the way to the end of the fourth quarter. The Celtics were already leading the 76ers by 13 points. It was not a big score, but Leon knew that the 76ers had no way to turn around in this game. Paul Pierce alone broke out, scoring 17 points in a single quarter, and defeated the 76ers. However, Walker and Michael Reid only performed normally, and the score on the court was also very low. The Celtics were only 77:64. lead.

Iverson's shooting percentage has been declining, and others have been unable to open up the situation. In the second half of the fourth quarter, when Reid and Arenas hit three-pointers in counterattacks, the Celtics The score difference widened to 19 points, and the game completely lost its suspense.

101:79. In the end, the Celtics defeated the Philadelphia 76ers at home with a 22-point advantage. Boston fans spent a comfortable night. The 76ers, who were originally favored by the media and fans, failed to win in front of the Celtics. No resistance. Iverson once again became a lone hero. He scored 35 points in a single game, but he still couldn't drive his teammates who were poor in offense.

In the following days, the Celtics won another victory at home and away. Except for the third game in Philadelphia, the 76ers, who had the home advantage and came to the edge of the cliff, struggled to win one stop. Now Kyle The Teren easily led 3:1 in the first round. In the fourth game, they once again defeated their opponents with an 18-point advantage in Philadelphia, 99:81, and the Celtics' odds of winning the championship soared.

Even Leon himself did not expect that the Celtics, who had gone through a month of rest and recuperation, would burst out with such strong combat effectiveness in the playoffs. After the fourth game, Leon even said in the post-game news He told reporters at the press conference: I am already thinking about my next opponent.

At the same time, on another battlefield, the Orlando Magic unexpectedly led the Detroit Pistons 3:1. Magic star Tracy McGrady said the same thing as Leon. He was also thinking about his next opponent. .

I just don’t know if these two people who consider each other can meet in the next round.