The Whip of the God of Basketball

The Pacers' first and fourth small lineup lasted only three minutes. In a dead-ball situation where the ball went out of bounds, O'Brien chose to substitute. He replaced Stephen Jackson with insider Fox, so that the Pacers returned to normal. In the lineup, Fox serves as center and O'Neal Jr. returns to the power forward position.

But these three minutes were not meaningless. They caused the Celtics three turnovers and allowed the Pacers to score twice. They pressed the defense in the half and completely opened up the space for three-point shooting. It disrupted Leon's tactical arrangement at the beginning, and the Pacers also led the Celtics by 4 points 9:5. They undoubtedly overwhelmed the Celtics in terms of momentum and took the tactical initiative.

Leon did not make any response. He was still observing and observing the state of the Celtics' starting lineup to decide what measures to take next. Now he has learned to let the players solve problems themselves when faced with difficulties, instead of immediately calling a timeout for formation changes or guidance. This is a young team with strong learning ability, and Leon hopes they can develop tacit understanding and team spirit in the process of solving problems. This cannot be achieved in daily training.

However, he also felt that the Celtics were not in particularly good condition tonight. It could be seen from their several shots that Garnett was obviously disrupted by Stephen Jackson's physical defense. Pierce It was also very difficult to face Artest. Over the past summer, this guy's defensive skills have improved greatly.

Facing Reggie Miller, Reid focused more on the defensive end, and according to the arrangement, Reid was not the main offensive point in the first quarter, so the team's offensive pressure moved to Arenas' shoulders. .

Arenas is facing off against Tinsley, a short-headed guy who comes from the streets but is very good at playing. He has Alston's advantages, but lacks an important shortcoming - poor defense. Tinsley's defense can't be called good, but it is definitely above the standard among point guards. This is due to his strong body. In one-on-one situations, as long as there is no problem with his attitude, he is rarely singled out.

His main problem on the defensive end is his lack of team defensive awareness and lack of overall defensive perspective. This is also a common problem among street players.

After the substitution, Arenas was not in a hurry to attack. After playing against Tinsley for three minutes, he felt that this guy was not that easy to deal with, and his touch was not particularly outstanding tonight. Leon's teachings to him flashed through his mind, "A qualified point guard should be able to make the optimal choice based on the situation on the court, rather than having to complete assists."

Arenas has been thinking more and more about what Leon said to him during recent games. He is a little surprised why he didn't understand or understand these things before.

When Jackson was on the court just now, Arenas tried to pass the ball to Garnett. This was undoubtedly the right thing to do, allowing Garnett to hit Jackson in a misplaced position. But the Pacers obviously thought of this, so they asked Jackson to defend forward without any effort, and Arenas did not dare to lob the ball hastily, so several attacks did not go well.

Now Jackson is off the court, Foster is on, O'Brien is starting to face off against Garnett, and P.J. Brown is facing off against Foster. Arenas thinks this will be an opportunity.

Arenas served a throw-in from the sideline. He made a "two, five" gesture toward Reid. The gesture was very fast, but Reid had already seen it. He nodded slightly to show that he understood what Arenas meant. . Several other players also understood it. This is a 25 coordination tactic. Reed at position 2 stands under the basket and Brown at position 5 stands at the top of the arc. Pierce stood farther outside on the left side, and Garnett stood farther inside on the right side. When the referee blew the service whistle, Reed began to run from the inside out, and Brown cut inside. The two made a crossover at the free throw line.

At this time, Garnett came up and set a screen for Reed close to Brown. In this way, Garnett and Brown knocked on the door and squeezed Miller away. Reed was able to go around in a circle. To the right corner, there is room for shooting.

At this time, the Pacers' defensive attention was attracted by Reid. Seeing that Reid was about to run out of an open space, Foster had to follow Reid to prepare for defense. However, the essence of this tactic is not the shooting guard running. Instead of leaving the open space, let the center quietly cut to the basket while covering the screen.

Arenas passed the ball from close range, Brown received the ball and dunked with one hand, and the Celtics easily scored two points.

"It will be three seconds later. This guy is still a little hesitant..." Leon looked at Arenas's pass. In order to deceive the Pacers' defense, he had to make a gesture to pass to Reid. This undoubtedly delayed some opportunities. Brown had been standing under the basket for a while. If he hesitated just a little bit more, he would be called for three seconds.

Although Leon said this, he was still very happy in his heart. After all, being able to seize that little bit of time without violating the rules was enough to prove that Arenas was starting to have a good hand, and he was still commanding this attack. He seized on Tinsley's weakness of no team defensive awareness, and also seized on the possibility that Foster just felt average when he came on the court. He took advantage of the neglect of P.J. Brown of the Pacers and played a beautiful tactic.

Seeing the players' performance, Leon decided not to call a timeout for the time being. In this way, in the first quarter of the game, although the Celtics were a little confused by the Pacers' one-and-four-small tactics at the beginning, the Celtics players quickly gained a foothold and began to regain the advantage bit by bit. Until the end of the first half, the Celtics and Pacers were tied at 41:41. The shooting percentages of both sides were not high, and the game was very exciting.

At the beginning of the second half, O'Brien did not start with one senior and four juniors, but returned to the regular lineup. It seemed that he had given up on this unconventional lineup arrangement. However, in the middle of the third quarter, the score between the two sides was still tight. When Paul Pierce hit a mid-range shot to lead the Pacers by two points, O'Brien called a timeout. He made another lineup adjustment, and this time they once again came up with a lineup of one senior and four juniors, but this was different from the first four and juniors in the first half. They lined up O'Neal Jr. and Al Harlin. Dayton, Anthony Johnson, Stephen Jackson and Ron Artest.

A lineup that is intimidating just by looking at its name. At this time, O'Brien and Vogel were standing on the sidelines with smug looks. Obviously during the timeout, he asked the players in this lineup to do their best, because he knew that when they tried their best, At that time, it would be quite scary.

Four of the five players are vicious all-around forwards, plus a seasoned and steady point guard Anthony to control the situation. This is the Pacers' real one-fourth-small lineup, and Al Harrington is at the power forward. The position is not at a disadvantage. The reason why Larry Bird kept Harrington was because he listened to the suggestions of Vogel and O'Brien. He gave up the renewal of the more standard inside player Bernard and gave Harrington, a big man who likes to shoot three-pointers. The striker gets a new contract.

This is a lineup that the Pacers have not used since the beginning of this season. This is the trump card left by O'Brien and Vogel to the Celtics and Leon. The opening of the lineup with one senior and four juniors is just a test. This is the truly terrifying combination that kills people.

On the Celtics side, Leon replaced Wang Zhizhi to replace PJ Brown at the center position. Garnett was also replaced by Leon, and then he called Boris from the bench - Diaw, a rookie who has only had 16 minutes of playing time this season, was still in a daze when he was called up. He did not expect that he could also play in non-garbage time.

"It looks like the Pacers have put together a very scary lineup. It feels like the ultimate version of Pitino's pressing and three-point tactic..." Carlisle watched the Pacers' five big black men come on the court, and a huge pressure came across them. He rushed over just a few dozen feet away.

As for the Celtics, Wang Zhizhi still looked blank, while Diaw had his eyelids drooped, as if he had just woken up from the bench.

O'Brien and Vogel both felt that Leon was committing suicide. Facing the Pacers' most powerful weapon, he actually took down the two King Kongs on the inside, allowing a limp Chinese and a lazy Frenchman to go to the inside. Support the scene.

O'Brien almost told the players to "tear them apart", and the fans at the scene were convinced that the Celtics would be torn apart in the third quarter.