The Whip of the God of Basketball

Miami, the Heat's game has ended early, they defeated the New Jersey Nets in the last game of the regular season, successfully ended their regular season, and finally ranked fifth in the Eastern Conference, and they are in the playoffs The opponent is the Nets.

However, Riley didn't seem to have much interest in their opponents. Even though they easily defeated the Nets in the last game, Riley knew that there was a big gap between the Heat and the Nets. In the last game, the Nets played all substitutes, which was basically impossible. Didn’t play the last game seriously.

At this time, Riley was a little concerned about the confrontation between the Celtics and the Pistons. Halfway through the game between the Heat and the Nets, he left the audience alone and never came back. He returned to his luxurious office in the American Airlines Center locker room and turned on the TV to watch the Celtics and Pistons game live.

The game was entering the third quarter, and the Celtics used a fully defensive lineup. This lineup only existed on the court for five minutes.

Riley's fingers kept tapping on the table. He was thinking silently in his mind, when the Pistons could score a goal, he got up and left to make himself a cup of coffee.

Riley waited for the cup of coffee for more than six minutes. The sound of his fingers tapping on the table became louder and louder. It wasn't until a whistle came from the TV and paused that Riley got up and left so that he could make himself a cup. coffee.

At this time, the Heat game was over. The players poured into the locker room after the interview. Everyone was very happy. Odom grinned and raised his hands in the locker room and started twerking in the locker room. Wade sat on In front of his locker, he looked at Odom with a smile that surpassed the maturity of a rookie.

When Riley appeared in front of everyone with coffee, everyone greeted Riley excitedly, but Riley remained silent, and the noise in the locker room became quiet after a while. Everyone thought Riley would give an exciting speech to summarize the season, but after taking a few sips of coffee, Riley said, "You can't get a point, you can't get a point." , then turned and left.

………………

At the SBC Center in San Antonio, the game between the Spurs and the Nuggets was coming to an end. The Spurs led by a score of 91:65. The Nuggets had no chance, but they didn't seem to care because the Nuggets had already entered the Western Conference playoffs. After acquiring Anthony this season, the Nuggets finally have their superstar and hope for the future. They have returned to the Western Conference quarterfinals after many years.

But facing the defending champion Spurs, Anthony still looked very immature, and with no worries about the playoffs, the Nuggets, who have always been good at offense, were in a mess on the offensive end. There was less than a minute left before the end of the game, and it looked like they couldn't get past it. 70 points.

Popovich was quite proud of himself while sitting on the bench. He looked up at the scoreboard, thinking that it was another game in which he lowered his opponent to less than 70 points. It looked like he could show off in front of reporters again.

Sure enough, as Anthony missed his last three-pointer, the game ended. The Nuggets' score was fixed at 67 points, and the Spurs won their 57th victory of the season.

Popovich was intercepted by reporters as he left the court. The reporters asked him several questions, but they did not ask about defending against the Spurs and suppressing their opponents to 70 points. Popovich answered a few words casually and then left, seemingly annoyed that the reporter didn't ask him the questions he wanted to answer.

After returning to the locker room, Popovich couldn't help but ask assistant coach Mario Ally, "Didn't our defense look good tonight? Another score below 70."

Avery shrugged and said to Popovich, "You should watch the TV news. The game between the Celtics and Pistons is over."

Popovich stood up, walked into the office in the locker room, turned on the computer on the desk, and asked an assistant to log in to the ESPN website. Sure enough, the game between the Celtics and the Pistons was over, but that score...

"Is it over? Are you sure it's not the end of halftime?" Popovich thought. No wonder the reporter didn't ask him questions about defense and scoring. It turned out to be because he was afraid that he would be embarrassed.

………………

Back at the North Shore Garden Arena, Bill Russell on the sidelines has completely transformed into a loyal Celtics fan. He no longer wants to hide or pretend to be fair and objective, because he has grown from this Celtics team. The Celtics saw the ultimate in defense.

The great Bill Russell, he and Reid Auerbach's greatest contribution to basketball was not creating the longest eight consecutive championships in the history of American professional sports or 11 championships alone, but being the first and establishing Secondly, it details the defense, especially a series of basic norms, actions and principles in the process of defense by the center.

It was from Auerbach and Russell that defense was no longer an accessory to offense in NBA games, a passive confrontation without the ball. They were the first to summarize and refine some crucial strategies and methods in defense, among which Although some of them were not their first, they were used earlier in professional games. From then on, defense began to become a tactic that competed with offense.

From the monotony of the 1960s, to the chaos of the 1970s, to the gradual clarity of modern basketball defensive techniques in the 1980s, several major defensive schools were formed in the 1990s. Until today, like offense, defense has begun to become comprehensive and strategic. . A team's defensive strategy can no longer be summarized by one or two simple tactics. They are as ever-changing as the offense.

But even so, basketball is still a game of comparing who scores more goals, and offense will always be ahead of defense. For those coaches or basketball enthusiasts who are obsessed with defense, the ultimate defense in their minds is to be able to turn passivity into initiative, and the defender can truly take advantage of the attacker in the confrontation.

Pat Riley, Jeff Van Gundy, and Dick Hart have all tried this, and there are many defensive coaches who use aggressive sieges, fierce physical confrontations, or quick rotations to deal with attackers. Some It has a very good effect, but the stronger offensive side will always have the upper hand. No matter what, whoever has the ball has the initiative in the game.

But tonight, Bill Russell and the well-known coaches sitting in front of the TV watching the game, in four minutes, they appreciated what the real ultimate defense is and what it means to make the opponent helpless. There is a way to go, but there is no way forward, and there is no way back.

For four minutes, the lineup of Garnett, Posey, Bell, and Browngard lasted for four minutes, but Fox-Leon used this high-intensity and impeccable four-minute period like a lion fighting a rabbit. , completely destroyed the confidence and will of the Detroit Pistons' offense.

"This is the greatest collective defensive performance in NBA history. The defensive performance in the final game of the 2004 regular season. In these five minutes, the Detroit Pistons did not score a point, did not win a free throw, committed 6 turnovers, and were stolen 4 times. , committed 4 fouls, 1 technical foul, and was blocked 3 times... What a terrible and terrible four minutes, it was like a nightmare for the Pistons players. Larry Brown tried a timeout, but it was to no avail. Remember, it has no effect."

This will be an unforgettable night in the career of the Detroit Pistons players, a nightmarish five minutes. When Billups recalled this experience many years later, he said: "For a short period of time, maybe a minute or two, I was I had doubts about whether I could play in the NBA. Even when I was traded by the Celtics, I never thought about it like this, but at that time, I really, really..."

The final score of the game was fixed at 93:45. The Pistons scored 45 points in the game, setting an NBA record for the lowest score in a single game and breaking the 1999 Bulls' lowest score of 49 points in a single game.

And Leon and his Celtics have raised defense to a whole new level.