The Whip of the God of Basketball

The Celtics' first preseason game of the 2002-03 season will be played in New York. In the early morning of October 8th, the entire Celtics boarded a special plane to New York. After five days of intensive training, they will usher in the first actual combat drill. For Leon, this will be very important. An important game, the effect of the "best career plan" will be tested in this game.

Although it was only five days, the changes Leon brought to this team were obvious enough. First of all, no one will be late for training. Since Antoine Walker, the team's highest-paid player, has been obediently punished, those young people naturally dare not make mistakes. Leon fixed his time to arrive at the training hall at eight o'clock in the morning, which also became the bottom line for the players to come to training in the morning.

Secondly, the team has done a lot of basic skills training during these five days, including shooting, passing, defense and physical training. Many players feel that they have returned to high school. On the contrary, the various tactical drills that Leon is proficient in did not appear frequently in the team training. He would only watch the tactical video for everyone in the half-hour meeting before the training, and then practice some relatively simple coordination tactics repeatedly in the training. .

Leon particularly emphasized the practice of pick-and-roll coordination and double and three-person offensive fast offensive coordination. In tactical training, they spent two-thirds of the time doing this kind of training.

After arriving at JFK International Airport in New York, the Celtics did not drive west to the hotel near Madison Square Garden as in the past, but turned east to Hempstead, a satellite city in the suburbs of New York. , because the venue for this preseason game is not in Madison, but is arranged at the Nassau Stadium in Hempstead. As a stadium as old as Madison Square Garden, Nassau Stadium used to be the home of the Nets in the ABA from 1971 to 1977. After the Nets merged into the NBA, it is no longer the home of any professional team, but it will still undertake the venue work of many events.

The Celtics stayed in a hotel near the Nassau Stadium. Of course, it was not as luxurious as the Metropolitan Hotel in New York. It was a simple two-story hotel, and the Celtics players lived on the second floor. Moreover, there is no professional training ground near the hotel except the Nassau Stadium. There is no way, who let this be a preseason game. Madison Square Garden has more important events to play today, so this insignificant preseason game had to be played in rural New York.

Even though the journey was exhausting, Leon decided to organize the whole team to go to the gymnasium for a simple training at three o'clock in the afternoon. The main content of the training was shooting.

"One hour, we will have an hour of shooting practice. However, I need to state in advance that our training will not end when everyone takes the ball and shoots hundreds of shots in a fixed place. There is no effect beyond the touch. We will be divided into three groups for practice. The first group is players with outstanding shooting, and you will conduct anti-interference exercises. The second group is players with relatively stable shooting, and you will conduct fixed-point exercises. Shooting practice, your shooting point will only be one point. The third group is the guys with lower shooting skills, all you have to do is practice free throws! Of course, everyone does five minutes of running back and forth before practice." In the gym , Leon arranged for the team's shooting practice in groups.

Shooting is the first item that Leon paid close attention to after becoming the head coach of the Celtics. In the past season, Leon found that the collective shooting training of the Celtics was still lacking in systematization. The main thing here is to maintain the feeling of shooting. The real improvement still depends on the extra training after training or the summer's own individual training. Leon believes that as the most important technical item in basketball, shooting must be systematically practiced by the whole team and improved together.

For this reason, the first assistant coach he invited was Siegfried, an experienced shooter who had a unique insight into the technique of shooting. As an older generation of players, the top shooters in the NBA who took the lead in reaching 40% shooting, Siegfried has many small methods and tricks for training shooting under poor training conditions. After accepting Leon's invitation to serve as the Celtics' shooting coach, Siegfried spent two weeks sorting out these methods and techniques, and spent another month studying them carefully through various channels. He has learned the new shooting techniques of modern basketball, so he is extremely well prepared and has given Celtic players a lot of help in shooting in a week.

For example, he pointed out some bad habits of Reed's left-handed shooting, because Reed's left hand is not dominant, and Siegfried asked Reed to adopt the "one-handed training method", that is, only use the left hand to dribble, take the ball, and shoot. The entire movement, to enhance the feeling of left-handed shooting, reduce the degree of stiffness. Another example is that he guides Pierce's shooting. He thinks that Pierce relies too much on the force of the whole arm, especially the upper arm, which will reduce the stability of shooting. He thinks that Pierce can properly increase the forearm in the shooting action. role.

In short, Siegfried may not be as good as many current NBA players in terms of shooting skills. His shooting posture is outdated and his shooting speed is too slow, but as long as every player is observed and guided by him A lot of gains. Including Antoine Walker, a three-point freak who is obsessed with his own shooting skills, also listened to Siegfried's advice, focusing on strengthening the strength of his fingers and wrists, and enhancing his ability to control the ball.

Therefore, Leon gave Siegfried the first group of players, including Pierce, Arenas, Reed, Walker, and Wang Zhizhi. No one expected Leon to assign Wang Zhizhi to the first group. This introverted and silent yellow-skinned player didn't have many shining points after coming to the Celtics. He didn't have enough strength or speed. The shooting touch is very good, which is rare among big men, but his confrontation has not reached the NBA level at all.

The second group of players is mainly Wahad, Malik Siri, Joe Johnson and Tony Batty. Their main characters are to practice fixed-point shooting. However, this fixed point is particular. According to tactical needs and a large amount of data processing, Leon has set several "best shooting points" for these players, that is, at these points their shooting numbers and shooting percentages are all the same. it's the best. For example, Joe Johnson, his best shooting point is two steps inside the three-point line from the right bottom corner, the top of the arc, and the 45-degree three-point line on the left.

Leon will be responsible for the practice of these players, because he can find the most accurate point, and he knows which point is the best shooting point for which player.

The third group is some inside players, such as Potapanko, Blount, Chris Anderson, Grant Long, Dalembert, etc. Their main task is to practice free throws, and they must first practice turning back. And some simple strength exercises to simulate the fierce confrontation inside, and then practice free throws to ensure that they can still hit important serve points after the fierce inside confrontation.

Dave Cowens is the overseer of this group.

The one-hour shooting practice was divided in an orderly manner by Leon. The players had just entered the state, and the time was up. Leon did not increase the training time, but told the players to continue the state into the evening game.

…………………

At 6:30 in the evening, Leon and the Celtics arrived at the Nassau Stadium again. After shooting training, Leon gave the players more than two hours to relax. New York local media reporters were waiting in the passage. As one of the topical characters during the offseason, Leon was of course taken care of by the reporters. On the way into the locker room, people kept chasing Leon and asking questions. This is something he didn’t get when he was a scout and an assistant coach. treatment.

"What does it feel like to be a coach in a team with a long history like the Celtics?" A small reporter from "The New Yorker" kept chasing Leon to ask questions, and they always asked some specious questions. Leon knew this was a novice as soon as he heard it. He is quite familiar with the media in New York. Obviously, the reporters who come to interview this kind of preseason game will not be famous people.

"I will feel very old." Leon gave a plausible answer.

"Do you have any expectations for your players in tonight's game?" The reporter continued to ask, another boring question.

"I expect them to get one hundred and fifty points." Leon joked, and then entered the locker room, blocking the reporter from the door.

This was just a joke by Leon, but unexpectedly it almost became true.

In the game that started at 7:30 in the evening, the Celtics' first preseason game of the season became the Celtics' shooting training ground. From the first quarter of the game, the Celtics shot 72 percent. The starters Pierce, Walker, Batty, Reed and Arenas, each of the five can shoot from the middle distance. Cannon, and the one-hour systematic and not-so-intensive shooting training in the afternoon undoubtedly allowed the players to maintain a good feel.

When Arenas hit a super long-range three-pointer at the end of the first quarter, the Celtics had achieved a 44:31, 13-point lead in the first quarter, and 44 points was also a terrifying single. section score.

But the crazy touch of the Celtics did not end with the end of the first quarter. Although their shooting percentage declined in the second and third quarters, their offensive rhythm became faster and faster. The simple, efficient, and fast offensive thinking that Leon upholds during the season has been fully implemented in this game. The number of passes in the offense will not exceed three times, and the opponent's foothold must always be caught. As long as a position is formed to attack, it will be handed over to Walker or Pierce for singles. Although it is simple and rough, the players feel too good at shooting, and the Knicks' defense is not effective, which makes the Celtics' scoring all the way soar.

When the Celtics scored more than 100 points in three quarters, the Knicks coach Don Channing finally couldn't sit still. He called a long timeout and asked the players to strengthen their defense and not give the Celtics easy points. Chance.

But it was too late. The Celtics scored soaring all the way. In the end, Leon was replaced by Wahad and Wang Zhizhi. But when Wang Zhizhi can hit three-pointers, who else can stop the Celtics' attack?

Finally, when Wang Zhizhi missed the last three-pointer, the score between the two sides was fixed at 147:129. The Celtics won the first game of the new season with crazy shooting and three-point performance at the Nassau Stadium victory.

And this is just the beginning.