The Whip of the God of Basketball

At the beginning of the second half of the game, the Pacers showed the same morale as they showed, and the Tigers went downhill. Just at the beginning, Jermaine O'Neal beat Garnett in the paint and succeeded, and caused Garnett's foul.

Throughout the first half, O'Neal was severely suppressed by Garnett. He basically didn't get any advantage in one-on-one situations. Garnett's attack range was farther, his shooting was more accurate, and he succeeded in several tough attacks. However, this did not cause enough damage to O'Neal. O'Neal only committed one foul in the first half, which is enough to show that Garnett's lethality in the low post is not enough.

Now, after adjustments and preparations in the midfield, the Pacers decided to start from the inside, starting from O'Neal, trying to gain an advantage in the duel with Kevin Garnett to reverse the situation on the court.

As O'Neill made a free throw, the point difference between the two sides suddenly narrowed to 1 point. After that, Pierce rushed to the basket and missed a layup, but PJ Brown once again grabbed the offensive rebound and hit a tip-in, and the point difference became three points.

In the confrontation with Foster, the experienced Brown still has an advantage. With him, Leon and the Celtics players have a defensive center, and his offensive rebounds are also excellent, often able to Provide important help to the team.

However, the Pacers' momentum has not diminished. This time, Jermaine O'Neal pulled him to the top of the arc and started a pick-and-roll with Tinsley. Tinsley cleverly used his body to push Arenas from behind and drill inside. A back pass to O'Neal, O'Neal received the ball and hit a mid-range jumper at the top of the arc.

"It seems that the Pacers' offense is quite good. O'Neal has scored 5 points in a row since the beginning of the second half. It seems that they have built up confidence during the halftime break. It depends on how the Celtics deal with it. They have always been good at it. Give the opponent a blow in the third quarter." Stockton can see that the Pacers are very powerful, and it is very wise to start from O'Neal. As the core player of the team, O'Neal Jr. has opened up and can set a good example for his teammates. Solid confidence, and the approaching score will also put tremendous pressure on Garnett and the Celtics.

"Yes, it depends on how Leon and the Celtics respond. I think their changes have not come yet. We have to wait, wait for Leon's first timeout in the second half." Cole, as the Celtics' old coach He has a deep understanding of Leon's coaching rhythm. He is a coach who is very good at calculation and timing.

"Fox-Leon has always had a 2-3 principle when he was coaching. That is to say, if the time on the court is divided into timeouts, in each game period, about 2/5 of the time, the players will He can also execute tactics according to the coach's timeout arrangements, and the remaining 3/5 often depends on the player's personal performance and the tacit understanding formed in daily training and games. Therefore, Leon will make good use of the 2/5 Time allows players to maximize the coach's tactical intentions and change the situation on the field. I think this time has not yet arrived." Cole explained in detail some of Leon's principles in coaching.

"Well, I've heard similar things. It's true that coaches can't completely control the players during the game. Some coaches just shout to the players from the sidelines to come on, strengthen defense, grab more rebounds, and run!" Stowe Keton is well-informed and mocks some chicken soup coaches by the way.

"Haha, yes, but Fox is not such a person."

Just as Cole was talking, Arenas was blocked by Jermaine O'Neal during the breakthrough, but PJ Brown once again grabbed the offensive rebound and passed the ball to Laga Bell in the bottom corner. Bell mid-range The jump shot was hit, which was Bell's first score of the game. This is undoubtedly an important two points. After Reid left the starting lineup, the Pacers obviously shifted their defensive focus to Pierce, especially Pierce's great power in the second quarter, which made Bell seem to have no sense of existence.

Now that Bell can also score goals, this undoubtedly reminds the Pacers' defense not to ignore any Celtic player.

This stalemate lasted for about four minutes, and the Pacers' ferocious momentum in the second half was gradually lost to the Celtics' tenacious defense and changeable offensive style of play. The score difference between the two sides has remained at around 1, 2, or 3 points. The Pacers' original idea of ​​regaining their disadvantage in the second half gradually came to nothing.

When Ron Artest fouled Pierce on defense, Fox Leon called a timeout. The score was 60:58, with the Celtics leading the Pacers by two points.

This was a long pause. Leon brought up the tactical board and handed it to Rick Carlisle, asking Carlisle to lay out the next tactics for the players; while Leon pulled Michael Reed over and whispered something in his ear. sentence, and then greeted the rotating players, he was about to make a move.

I looked up at the timer and saw that the third quarter had lasted 4 minutes and 15 seconds. It had almost reached a critical point. The morale accumulated by the Pacers in the midfield was at the end of its strength. Now it was the Celtics' turn to create their own storm.

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"At the end of the timeout, the Celtics made substitutions, replacing P.J. Brown with James Posey, replacing Laga Bell with Michael Reed, and Garnett stayed on the court. It looked like they were going to play. A lineup with one big and four small." Stockton glanced at the Celtics' substitutions and said with some surprise.

Indeed, the Celtics suddenly changed to one senior and four juniors. This lineup was not used frequently in the Celtics' regular season games. It was only used in the second half of the regular season when Leon experimented with various tactics and lineups. It has happened a few times and the effect is relatively average. The advantage of this lineup lies in its strong outside shooting ability. The weakness is of course at the fourth position. Posey is not good at playing the fourth position. If Pierce plays the fourth position, he will be under too much pressure on both offense and defense.

At the same time, Kevin Garnett has always been known for not liking to play the fifth position. It is not easy to let him stand at the center position. Therefore, after a few limited experiments, this lineup has basically not appeared in the Celtics' tactical routines that have been studied, so O'Brien and Vogel were a little confused when they saw such a lineup. What kind of powerful pills do you want to sell?

At this time, the Celtics served the sideline ball, Arenas served the ball from the outside, Posey ambushed the corner, Garnett went to the high post to respond, but Pierce sank to the low post. At this time, Reid suddenly made an S-shaped wander from the inside. , circled 45 degrees to the right, Arias passed the ball, and Reid took off directly before receiving the ball. When the ball flew into the air, Reid also raised his hand under the ball.

Reid jumped to the highest point, and the ball was held in his hands. Jackson, who was following the defense, still looked up at Reid. Reid had already taken action.

"It was too fast...the ball went in." Stockton also wanted to say that this tactic was too fast and too anxious, and the ball had already flown into the basket.

"Wow! This is Michael's stunt! It's beautiful. I thought he was just doing it for fun in training. I didn't expect it. I really didn't expect it." Cole couldn't help but open his mouth and said, "I didn't expect that Reed was here." The skill of catching and shooting while taking off was practiced with Siegfried last season and is occasionally used in games, mainly at critical moments when time is approaching.

I didn't expect that Reid would use such a shot when there was plenty of time.

After the goal, Reid looked very calm. He ran back to the half court and started to defend, but his heart began to surge, because he could feel that his shooting feeling was burning like a flame from that goal. spread. Throughout the first half, he was looking for the feeling, the feeling of shooting, the feeling of running. Being a substitute, the feeling of being a starter is still very different.

Although he had gone through repeated exercises in training, it was still completely different in the real game. However, Leon told him to give him a half-time to adjust and adapt, and he must perform in the second half.

Therefore, he took a risk and took a difficult shot on the ball just now, but he is confident, Fox-Leon is confident, Carlisle is confident, and the Celtics teammates are also confident.

Soon, Jackson on the Pacers side missed a mid-range jumper, Garnett got a backboard, Arenas ran wildly with the ball, and Reid was almost down to the right corner. Arenas passed the ball, and Lee The German receiver made a quick three-point shot and scored.

Two three-pointers in a row! The North Shore Garden Arena began to slowly become restless.

O'Brien smelled a hint of danger, and he immediately called a timeout, hoping to stabilize the situation.

But Reid knew in his heart that it was a bit late for the Pacers, and the storm was already brewing.