The Whip of the God of Basketball

Leon and his Celtics didn't have much time to stay in Boston to savor the joy of the first victory, of course, this is indeed a crucial first victory. Perhaps in the eyes of the fans and the media, they will soon forget this ordinary and ordinary regular season, and put their interest and energy into more and more exciting collisions later, but only Leon and his coaching staff understand that they can Winning a game in their own way is of great significance to the team's strategy for the entire season.

Before the start of the season, Leon and his coaching staff formed a certain degree of agreement. They exchanged opinions through the summer trip to Mount Katahdin, eliminated some differences in opinions, and finally decided to follow Leon's advice. blueprint moving forward. They will work together to build a prototype team tactics based on fast offense, supplemented by superstar singles and high-intensity pressing defense.

This kind of tactic is becoming more and more tough in the league's defense, and there is no doubt that the team is going against the trend at the moment when the teams are frantically hoarding insiders. Moreover, the Celtics have always been known for their tough and powerful defense in history. The fast-break tactic doesn't seem to fit in with the Celtics' thick tradition.

Therefore, the management represented by Danny Ainge still hopes to introduce strong inside players as soon as possible to make the team more balanced in offense and defense and become a truly balanced and strong team. However, Leon has always refused to sell off the potential of young defenders such as Joe Johnson, Arenas, and Reed in exchange for some powerful strikers before they grow up. The coaching staff's two Celtics veterans Cowens and Siegfried's support for Leon made Angie stop his eagerness in the summer, and finally retained the young Celtics backcourt.

But the only thing that can really support Leon is victory. A hard-core veteran like Cowens, who has an impulsive personality and still has iron-blooded Celtic blood in his veins, must agree with Angie's view of the Celtics in his heart. Some conceived, just as an assistant coach, and out of appreciation for Leon, he temporarily stood on Leon's side.

There are not many wait-and-see parties like Cowens in the Celtics, including those former celebrities of the Celtics. Once Leon's strategic and tactical thinking is proved to be wrong, he will not be able to bring the Celtics. If he wins, Leon will not only be greeted with criticism, but also the risk of rapid downfall. In the past two years, such a drama has been staged several times.

It can be seen how precious the victory against the Bulls is. The next morning after the game, on the plane to Washington, Leon rarely fell asleep on the plane. When Leon was an assistant coach in the past, he rarely slept on short-distance planes. He would spare time to plan tactics and study opponents, but this time the relaxation after tension made him sleepless.

The Celtics' schedule at the beginning of the season was not easy. There were three back-to-back games in the first ten games, and a total of six games accounted for 60%. After the end of the first game, they will start a journey of three consecutive away. On the night of flying to Washington, it was a back-to-back game, challenging the Wizards away. Then they will go to New York and Chicago respectively.

As early as when Leon received the schedule, he secretly scolded the league for arranging the Celtics' start schedule so torturously, but there is no way, the long regular season is a huge test for the coach and the team.

After arriving in Washington, Leon canceled the team training originally scheduled for the afternoon and asked the players to return to the hotel immediately for a rest. And he himself watched a game between the Wizards and the Raptors in the room. In the opener, the Wizards lost an ugly 68-74 away game. The former basketball god Michael Jordan condescended to become a substitute this season. In this game, he only scored 8 points on 4 of 14 shots. He lost to the Raptors led by Carter. The old flying man looked old in comparison with the new flying man Incomparable.

Of course, this is a topic that the media and fans care about. What Leon cares about is the Wizards' tactics and rotation. In a big deal in the summer, the Pistons and the Wizards exchanged the main players. The Wizards sent away Hamilton, who was in conflict with Jordan, and got Stackhouse, the season's total scoring leader in the 00-01 season. In this way, Jordan was put on the bench, and the starters were Kwame Brown, Laettner, Stackhouse, Larry Hughes and the former Jazz titan Brian Russell.

The strength of the Wizards on paper feels quite strong. They are talented and experienced on the inside, have a single point with strong firepower on the outside, an experienced 3D player with tough defense and three-pointers, and a talented ball-handling and attacking player. A combo guard, the former No. 1 in the world is still sitting on the bench. Before the start of the season, the media and fans of all parties were also optimistic about this team. Even the embarrassing loss in the first game did not make people give up hope.

Leon didn't think so. After arriving at the hotel, he watched the game video in the room for more than two hours, and finally came to the conclusion that this is not a complete basketball team. Washington Wizards with Michael Jordan.

Jordan, the greatest star in history, his personal charm and influence are too huge, huge enough to annihilate a team. From the first game against the Raptors, Leon could detect that even if Jordan became the team's substitute, he was often above the entire team. If it was ten years ago, there would be no problem at all, he could beat a team by himself, but this year he is 40 years old, maybe he still has a superhero heart, but he no longer has superhero skills .

So Leon knows that the seemingly neat and powerful lineup of the Wizards on paper has not really been kneaded as a whole. If Jordan is not Jordan, and at the same time retains the ability he has now, perhaps in Doug Collins, the early Jordan Bulls coach. Under the training, it can become a strong team in the East.

Of course, this does not mean that the Celtics will be able to easily defeat their opponents. Leon has no reason or confidence to think that this will be an easy battle, so when there are three hours before the game, Leon called all the coaches The team members held a simple pre-match meeting.

"We have to strive to establish a double-digit advantage in the first half before we can survive the opponent's counterattack in the second half." Leon said to several assistant coaches at the coaching meeting to ask for their opinions.

The Wizards and the Celtics are also a back-to-back game, and they must be tired. The difference is that they returned to the home court. The advantage of the home game is that they can get a better rest and gain higher morale, but the disadvantage is that they are easy to relax. Leon thinks that he can no longer use the tactic of fast second attack in the last game, which will consume a lot of physical strength of the whole team. He decided to do the opposite and focus on the one-on-one attack of the stars in the first half. It is expected that the Gemini's touch can establish enough advantages for the Celtics, and then consume the Wizards from the second half, waiting for the opponent to fill in the hole until the end of the game, and must not let the opponent fill in the hole.

Leon's strategy has been approved by the coaching staff, but fitness coach Hess believes that the physical fitness of the Celtics team may be better than imagined, and Dick Hart feels that if they do not play offensively at the beginning Whether they can withstand the counterattack in the second half will be a big problem, and if the Gemini is inefficient in the first half, then the Celtics are likely to be defeated.

Leon knew that Hart's worries were justified, but when the overall strength was not strong enough, he could only use strategies to play his advantages and avoid disadvantages.

…………………

At 7:00 Eastern Time, at the MCI Center, home of the Wizards, the Celtics in traditional green uniforms challenged the Washington Wizards. One year after his comeback, Michael Jordan still received cheers from the MCI Center. Leon watched the former basketball god in the dark, but he could vaguely feel that the divine light on him was no longer so dazzling.

The game started on time. Compared with the first game, Leon's slightly nervous mentality calmed down early, and he began to sit quietly on the sidelines and watch the game.

The Celtics focused their offense on Walker and Paul Pierce at the beginning of the game. The Celtics, who succeeded in jumping the ball for the first time in the opening game, handed over the right to attack to Pierce, who was in the low post, but Pierce Turning around and missing a jumper, Brian Russell's seasoned defense gave Pierce enough interference.

This is not a good sign. Sure enough, the Celtics missed consecutive offenses. Pierce made 1 of 3 shots and Walker made 1 of 4 shots. Neither star seemed to find the offensive feeling. Fortunately, their defense worked hard enough, and the Wizards didn't make much gains on offense. The two sides fell into a stalemate with low scores.

The turning point appeared in the middle of the first quarter. Leon made a substitution. He replaced Paul Pierce, who was not playing well, and replaced him with Joe Johnson. At the same time, the Wizards also replaced Michael Jordan. The situation suddenly changed. Now that the team's strategy has been decided, Leon will never change it easily. In the first half, he continued to ask the team to end the offense in a simpler way and avoid possible mistakes caused by too many passes. Tactics like a fish in water, he began to use Xia Tian's improved singles skills to score continuously. Of course, this situation only lasted about four or five rounds. When Jordan started to defend Joe Johnson, Johnson, whose skills were still quite immature, quickly misfired.

However, Walker slowed down and began to hit the basket with small steps. If the Wizards' starting lineup is relatively weak in defense, it is Laettner. The drunken footsteps of Thu Tuo. The Wizards, who lacked an effective defensive strategy as a whole, were beaten by the Celtics like this, and fell behind by 11 points in the first half.

The Wizards, who were relieved in the second half, began to chase points. Stackhouse's offensive power was amazing, but his mistakes were equally amazing. Thanks to Leon's "Hawkeye off-ball training", the Celtics caught mistakes and pushed back. The ability is quite strong, and the speed of cooperation is shocking. Last season, the Celtics were still a team that relied heavily on players' individual abilities in fast breaks. This season, it seems that they have suddenly become the Lakers in the show-time period, but they don't have a magician on the court.

The game was moving more and more in the direction Leon predicted. In the last timeout of the fourth quarter, Leon used it for the last defense. In five seconds, the Celtics led the Wizards by two points. Leon, who bet the Wizards' final shot would go to Michael Jordan anyway, made the audacious decision to triple-team Jordan, trapping a defensive triangle near the right side of the free throw line for Michael Reed Lead Jordan into a trap.

When Jordan broke through from the right side with the ball, and was about to stop for a jumper near the free throw line, but when three people suddenly stepped forward, Jordan paused, and then forced a jumper. Maybe he used to be able to throw the ball in this situation and drag the game into overtime, but this time in exchange for the crisp "clang" sound of the basketball hitting the front of the basket.

95:93, the Celtics defeated the Washington Wizards in an away game and achieved two consecutive victories at the beginning of the season. At the same time, Jordan's Wizards swallowed the bitter fruit of two consecutive losses.

Jordan's era is really over long ago.