The Whip of the God of Basketball

On May 8, the Celtics started a second game with the Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills. This was a game that both sides could not afford to lose. If the Celtics lost, they would have a huge 0:2 deficit. Disadvantage Back to Boston, if the Pistons lose, the home court advantage will change hands. Therefore, compared to the tentative nature of the first game, both sides undoubtedly paid more attention to this one.

Before the game started, fans throughout the Palace of Auburn Hills wore white T-shirts with the slogan "Boston-sucks" printed on them. The long-standing feud between the two teams makes Detroit fans extremely excited, especially those old fans. Being able to see Boston's green figure in the playoffs seems to bring them back to their glory days in the 1980s.

Compared with the slight confusion in the first game, the eyes of the Celtic players were obviously much firmer before the start of this game. The failure of the previous game and the coach's clear tactical arrangements before the game all made the players feel confident. end. A team must learn how to win on the road in the playoffs and learn how to face huge pressure on the road. Leon is also trying to learn how to stabilize his emotions in other arenas with harsh environments. He could punch the Pacers in Conseco in a fit of excitement during the regular season, but he couldn't do that in the playoffs.

The game started on time at 7 o'clock in the evening. The starting lineups of both sides continued from the previous game. The Celtics were Walker, Pierce, Reid, Arenas and Brown, while the Pistons were Billups, Michael Curry, and Ben- Wallace, Hamilton and Cliff Robinson.

On the opening jump ball, Wallace was the first to touch the ball, and the Pistons got the right to attack. Billups began to organize the offense with the ball. As the brains of the Pistons, Billups, who has experienced years of instability, has a calm overall view and a steady style of play, which is completely different from Arenas on the opposite side.

On the first goal, Billups felt that the Celtics' defensive formation had changed compared to the previous game. In the last game, the Celtics responded to the ever-changing situation by staying the same. They followed the one-on-one defensive tactics of the regular season, insisting on not switching defenses and not easily flanking. However, the effect was not very good, because although the defense was not easy to collapse, But once the offense is not good, there is no way to rely on defense to quickly chase points.

At the beginning of the game, the Celtics adopted a 1-4 zone defense posture, but it was just a posture. On the surface, it looked like a zone defense. In essence, it was still one-on-one. However, such a defense put more pressure on outside players. It is strong and cannot easily break through, and it is easy to be followed and flanked by counter-running and air-cutting. The pressure on the inside line is less, and the two low positions can be easily reached, but the top line is likely to attack.

Billups made a pick-and-roll screen with Cliff Robinson at the top of the arc. The quality was not too high and it did not get rid of Arenas' defense. Not only that, Walker also double-checked Billups. Si passed the ball to Robinson, and Walker went back to confront Robinson again. At this time, Ben Wallace was completely in a one-on-one position in the low post on the right, and Robinson passed the ball to Wallace.

The scene that Leon wanted to see appeared. Ben Wallace singled out PJ Brown in the low post. This was equivalent to two heavy tanks equipped only with machine guns. Ben Wallace's machine gun was not as good as Brown's. Wallace worked hard and arched inward, but he pushed away Brown. Then he found a gap and tried to shoot the basket. As a result, Brown slapped the ball away before it could be lifted.

Brown got the ball, and the Celtics had a chance to counterattack quickly. Arenas rushed halfway, but Brown did not pass the ball, but gave the ball to Pierce and slowly organized the offensive.

Arenas seemed a little dissatisfied, but he didn't dare to say anything to Brown, and Leon also said it before the game. He cautiously launched a quick attack and focused on Walker at the beginning of the game.

Sure enough, Pierce took control of the half and Walker started to get stuck in the low post. At the beginning, the two sides were in the testing stage and generally would not attack. Pierce passed the ball to Walker. Walker received the ball and faked a shoulder shake, and then walked to the middle. -On the fingertips of Wallace's block, a small right-hand floater hit two points.

The two goals at the beginning were both included in Leon's calculations. He was a little worried at first. It seemed that after Carlisle won the last game, he continued to use the same rules as the previous one. strategy.

Leon's idea is actually very simple. Focus on Walker on the offensive end. As the team's second scorer, Walker must keep scoring when facing the opponent's weakest power forward position. It is best to force Ben Wallace to challenge Walker. Conduct one-on-one defense. On the defensive end, the 1-4 zone defense allows Arenas to target Billups. In terms of size, speed and strength, Arenas is the best candidate to deal with Billups, even if her defensive ability is not Not that strong.

At the same time, the focus of zone defense is to defend more and less locally, and at the same time deliberately weaken the defense of Ben Wallace, giving him some opportunities to attack the basket directly in singles and after receiving the ball. Leon believes that Carlisle's mistake on the offensive end is that he obviously has a deck of cards to play extreme defense, but he wants to adjust the team's offensive and defensive balance.

It can be seen from the fact that Ben Wallace often has singles opportunities in games. Either Carlisle feels that Wallace's offense still has a chance to save, or Wallace is the actual locker room leader of the team and Carlisle cannot fully Let him give up the opportunity to attack independently. For example, in the Celtics who have gained absolute control of the team, Leon will not let Anderson play in singles, and Brown's singles are also limited and impromptu.

On the contrary, in the first quarter of the game, Ben Wallace took 4 shots and only scored one goal in the alley-oop. He missed the other three goals in two singles and missed a dunk while catching the ball under the basket. It seemed that he was 1 of 4. There weren't many times, but every miss gave the Celtics a chance to counterattack quickly. Because he participated in the attack, the speed of returning to defense would definitely not be able to keep up.

The Celtics seized the few opportunities to counterattack quickly. Michael Reid hit two fatal three-pointers from the outside, turning the difference between the two sides into 7 points in the first quarter, 22:15. The scores on both sides are low enough. The Pistons obviously played even worse, and the offense seemed quite chaotic. Wallace and Robinson became the main attack points. Hamilton and Billups on the outside played a certain role, but they did not form sustained firepower.

"Where is our defense? Mistakes, more mistakes, do you think we are 3:0 now? I don't want to see any more passing mistakes, and I don't want to see counterattacks by the opponent. I have to control every counterattack of the opponent, their attacks. The speed is very fast, you have to focus, focus!" Carlisle loudly reminded the players during the second quarter break that the Pistons made quite a few mistakes in the first quarter, giving the Celtics many opportunities to counterattack. Carlisle was quite dissatisfied with this .

At the same time, Carlisle also knew that this was a problem on the offensive end of the team. Their ball transmission was not smooth. The Pistons did not have any offensive superpowers. The only one with a certain advantage in one-on-one was Billups. He was attacking The one-on-one back-ups in the game are still quite confident. But tonight, Arenas launched a crazy biting defense against Billups, and Billups seemed quite uncomfortable in the first quarter. Arenas is no inferior to Billups in terms of physical fitness. When he defends with all his strength, everyone can easily score points on him.

Dissatisfaction ended with dissatisfaction. Carlisle also made adjustments in the second quarter. First, he replaced Robinson, no longer letting the old man face Walker's fierce energy. He replaced him with Turkish Okur, who is also a good player. A three-point shooter inside, but he is taller and younger than Robinson, and he can be a center. Then let Ben Wallace go against Walker.

At the guard position, Carlisle unexpectedly deployed a double point guard, using Atkins, Billups, and Hamilton to form a back line to enhance the ball-conducting ability of the backcourt and reduce the impact of passing errors on the team. pressure.

Carlisle's adjustments quickly bore fruit in the second quarter. Although the Pistons did not catch up in the score, the situation was stabilized, their mistakes decreased, and the Celtics' counterattack intensity immediately dropped. After Ben Wallace faced off against Walker, Walker's offense was obviously hindered, and two consecutive offenses were interfered with.

Walker, who scored 9 points in the first quarter, only scored 3 points in the second quarter. The Pistons also bit by bit eroded the advantage established by the Celtics in the first quarter. At the end of halftime, the score had become At 45:47, the Celtics ended the first half with a 2-point lead.

At this time, Leon had not finished playing the cards in his hand, but he hesitated a little, wondering which card he should play next.