The Whip of the God of Basketball

Carlisle's life with the Celtics was quite comfortable. Obviously, the team's top management here was much friendlier to him than the Detroit Pistons. After all, he was a Celtic player during his playing days and also stayed with the team. Won a championship together. In the Celtics, which pays attention to green blood, he is a well-deserved star. If Leon hadn't had outstanding achievements and secured a lot of seniors in the summer, what happened to Leon would have made the Celtics this season. Maybe the head coach will be Carlisle.

Just after the Celtics were in full swing in the first three games, killing their first three opponents almost like chopping melons and vegetables, Leon flew back to Boston directly after the Hornets game due to investigation reasons. The Celtics team, led by Carlisle, went to Detroit to prepare for the game against the Pistons.

Visiting the old place again brings a special feeling to your heart. In his two years in Detroit, Carlisle really got what a coach should get - record, honors and experience. Of course, he also lost some, losing his life network in Detroit, losing the opportunity to reach the top here, and losing the team he built with his own hands. Not only was he at odds with the Pistons' top management, but the Pistons players didn't even say they liked him. So on the night before the game, no Pistons players called him to invite him to dinner or anything, which undoubtedly made him feel a little jealous. sad.

However, Carlisle quickly adjusted himself. He knew that he was sometimes easily affected by emotional factors. For example, in the Eastern Conference finals last year, the guy Leon seized on his weakness and provoked a relationship with the Pistons, which led to a critical situation. The team lost due to poor direction in the game. This time the roles were reversed, he couldn't make such a mistake again.

Although Carlisle is an assistant coach, half of the team's training in the summer is handled by Carlisle himself. For such a powerful team with a complete lineup and extraordinary talents, Carlisle has also invested a lot of effort and put his own basketball skills into practice. The various team training knowledge and experiences learned in his career are applied to daily training.

On the basis of Leon's second quick attack system, Carlisle made several improvements. The first was the addition of coordination tactics between high-position ball-carrying players and defenders. In the past, Walker was at the overlapping point of the two triangles. He had more support and independent attacks, but less coordination because his pick-and-roll screening ability was too poor. When the role was replaced by Garnett, the situation was completely different. Garnett's precise mid-range and outstanding cover ability gave the tactics more possibilities.

The second point is to increase Michael Reed's role in the offense. Reed has been playing the role of a "stealth killer" before, and his containment effect is greater than his actual offensive effect. Carlisle realized that Reed had the potential to attack independently. He asked Reed to increase his shooting opportunities through baseline penetration and switching between strong and weak sides. In the second game against the Grizzlies, it was he who made two shots in the third quarter. Four three-pointers from the bottom completely defeated the Bear.

The third point is what Carlisle is currently trying, which is to try to release Arenas. He feels that Leon imposes too many restrictions on Arenas. Although he has always been the starting point of the Celtics' fast break, he understands To the series of "organizational rules" formulated by Leon for Arenas, he felt that this would constrain his desire to attack.

However, Leon readily accepted the first two points. Only the third point, Leon always had reservations. He told Carlisle that Arenas was a good defender, but he could actually become better. A sapling without correction would grow No matter how strong it is, it will still be a tree with a crooked neck.

Carlisle has a different view on this, because he saw the progress of Arenas this summer and saw how crazy he was in training. He felt that Arenas could compete with his former disciple Billups. Next, even more than him.

On the night of the 5th, at the Palace of Auburn Hills, where Carlisle had achieved success and fame over the past two years, Carlisle stood on the opposite side of the Pistons. Before the game started, he shook hands with Billups and hugged Ben Wallace. The fans at the scene gave him warm applause. No matter what, Carlisle still deserves the respect of Detroiters. Not far away, a man wearing glasses looked at him with a cold gaze. That was the new head coach of the Pistons, Larry Brown.

This game received no less attention than the Celtics' first game. People are eager to see what kind of changes the Detroit Pistons will have without major changes to the main lineup and only changed the head coach; and Boston In the absence of the Celtics head coach, can assistant coach Carlisle lead the Celtics to avenge themselves.

The Celtics maintained a stable starting lineup, while the Pistons started with Wallace, Hamilton, Billups, Prince and Campbell. Prince, who was a substitute last season, started at the starting small forward position. On the pick list, Wallace's inside partner was replaced by the taller Campbell.

Compared with Carlisle's lineup last season, the Pistons' current starting lineup is taller. Campbell in the interior makes up for Wallace's lack of top defense, and Prince brings energy and height that Michael Curry cannot. comparable.

With a jump ball, Ben Wallace won the Pistons' first offensive right. Billups dribbled the ball across half court and started their attack.

The two sides played a bit tepidly at the beginning. After three games of cutting leeks, especially the volcanic eruption in the first game, the Celtics will undoubtedly be a little relaxed mentally. At the same time, they are away from home. The coach wasn't here yet, and even Garnett wasn't in a hurry to take action. Arenas, on the other hand, was very anxious and hit one of his two three-pointers in the opening game.

On the Pistons' side, Hamilton made a mid-range shot and Ben Wallace made a layup with an offensive rebound. However, neither side succeeded in several other attacks. The scene turned out to be quite dull.

However, when Arenas once again stepped up and hit a three-pointer from the outside, the situation began to change. Larry Brown couldn't sit still. He couldn't tolerate the opposing point guard hitting a three-pointer so easily, and he Knowing that this situation is very dangerous, it is very scary for the point guard to open up the offense.

"Strengthen the defense, lead the defense!" Brown yelled to the court. At the same time, Billups also hit a chasing three-pointer in the counterattack. 7:6, the Pistons took a 1-point lead.

In the next offensive round, Billups's defensive intensity against Arenas suddenly increased. He began to lead the full-court hand-check defense against Arenas. For a while, Arenas became very strenuous after halftime. , let alone launch an attack as soon as the half is over.

The duo of Pierce and Garnett came into play. Garnett made a pick-and-roll and Pierce came inside. When the defense came up, he passed it to Garnett for a shot. When the defense failed, he stepped in and drew a foul. For a moment, the Pistons The defense is really helpless against two people.

The Pistons' offense was as monotonous and smooth as a tractor planting rice. It was positioned 1-3-1. Campbell screened Billups and cut out. Wallace inside made a single block for Prince or Hamilton. Cut out, Prince cuts in; without a chance, Wallace and Campbell stand parallel to both sides of the penalty area, Prince and Hamilton cross the baseline to change positions; before there is a chance, Billups does it himself or hands the ball over. Give it to Campbell to cut to the bottom corner, and Hamilton or Prince will go to the top line to hold the ball and look for a one-on-one opportunity.

It's such a simple routine that the Pistons use over and over again, and then make detailed changes based on the situation on the court.

"It's really so monotonous... Exactly what Fox said." Carlisle looked at the Pistons' offense on the field and took out the note left for him by Leon from his pocket, which contained Leon's evaluation of the Pistons' offense. And a tip.

After working with Leon for three games, I am really not used to it when Leon is not in Carlisle. For a simple offensive routine like the Pistons, Leon will clean it up in three rounds. However, Carlisle still disagreed with the tip left by Leon, so he didn't take it to heart.

However, although the Pistons' offense was extremely monotonous, Billups' performance and Hamilton's precise C\u0026amp;amp;amp;amp;S still allowed them to maintain a certain degree of efficiency. And their defense gradually began to show its power as the game progressed. The second quick counterattack that the Celtics were good at was difficult to be effective, not because the Pistons were fast enough, but because the details of the Pistons were good enough.

The core concept of the second quick attack and the source of its power is to hit the opponent before his footing is stable. The opponent has obviously returned to defend and is in place, but his body and mind are not there. His mind is still confused and he doesn't know what is going on. , it takes a few seconds to react. If the defensive understanding between the players is not good, the reaction time will be longer.

And Carlisle found that the Detroit Pistons' defensive positioning response was very quick, the formation speed was very fast, and they could increase the intensity in a short time. Arenas tried to speed up several times, and Garnett also tried to play the ball at the top of the arc, trying to get the ball up in 7 seconds. The attack ended within a minute, but the result was a hasty shot and missed shots because there was no loophole in the Pistons' defense.

At the end of the first quarter, the Celtics trailed the Pistons by 1 point 22:23. In the second quarter, a more prominent offensive problem emerged. The Pistons' defensive intensity suddenly increased further, and the physical confrontation was even more intense than in the first quarter. Carlisle tried to use Garnett's low post attack to open up the situation, but Garnett faced effective interference from the Pistons and missed three consecutive offensive shots. The Pistons launched a counterattack and created a 7:0 climax. With the help of this wave The Climax Pistons established an 8-point lead in the first half and maintained it until the end of the half.

Carlisle tried to make adjustments during two timeouts, but still did not change the situation on the court. At 51:43, with an 8-point disadvantage, the Celtics encountered their first tough battle since the start of the new season. Huge pressure began to appear on Carlisle. At this time, he finally remembered the tip that Leon gave him. There was only one sentence - go to Alston.