The Whip of the God of Basketball

O'Brien must admit that he learned a lot from Fox Leon when he was an assistant coach with the Celtics. His eclectic tactical concepts combined with meticulous training designs brought a lot of touches to O'Brien. Although he was a little jealous of the guy who eventually took his job away from him, in his subsequent basketball career, he His coaching was more or less imprinted with the shadow of Fox Leon, which has to be said to be strange. The head coach was eventually influenced and assimilated by the assistant coach.

In the year after leaving the NBA and returning to Kentucky with Vogel, they used the Kentucky Wildcats to conduct many tactical experiments, including improving Leon's secondary fast offensive system, enhancing the offensive position of the inside, and allowing it to Can be better combined with positional offense. With the strong support of data and video, Frank Vogel began to vigorously develop one-fourth-small tactics. Vogel believed that the reason why Pitino's full-court press plus three-point tactic could not work in the NBA was because The reason is that he adopted the university's tactical system, but still used the NBA's traditional lineup.

In recent years, there have been fewer and fewer excellent top centers in the NCAA. Among the top picks in the 2003 draft, except for Milicic, a foreigner, there was no center in the top five picks. The only American center in the top ten picks was Ke. Reese Kaman, this player is destined not to be a super insider like O'Neal and Olajuwon. In fact, starting from the 21st century, except for the Sharks, there are no longer true super centers in the league. Those excellent power forwards have begun to dominate the interior. In the near future, Vogel feels that the league will become faster and smaller. .

It took a full year for Vogel and O'Brien to complete their tactical vision and find Larry Bird through a series of relationships. Bird, who was originally worried about recruiting Carlisle, thought their idea might be promising after an interview, so he gave up on Carlisle and decided to appoint O'Brien as head coach and Vogel as assistant coach.

In addition, Bird also hired defensive coach Mike Brown from the Spurs, and signed Jackson. It can be said that in the entire Eastern Conference, except for the Celtics who made big moves, the Indiana Pacers are the team that has quietly strengthened the most. .

In this game, until the middle of the third quarter, everything was still under O'Brien's control. He first used a lineup with one large and four small to take advantage of the opening, and then quickly returned to the regular lineup. After Brown's training in the summer, the Pacers' defense has made great progress. Under Thomas, they only had individual defense and lacked teamwork. They began to learn to unite their muscles and strength to torture their opponents.

In the second half, both sides became anxious, and the scores on both sides were very low. At this time, O'Brien decided to release the strongest lineup he had created in his mind. When the score is opened, as long as the score difference reaches 10 points, it will be extremely difficult for the Celtics to make a comeback at Conseco Arena.

10 points may not be a big difference for other teams, but facing the Pacers, you know, against Denver on November 4th, they suppressed their opponent's score to 60 points. In the last game against the 76ers, the team led by Iverson was controlled below 80 points. So far in the regular season, the Pacers have not allowed their opponents to score more than 100 points, including an overtime game.

This is why O'Brien learned from Leon's thinking, but went in two different directions with Leon. Leon went for speed in exchange for strong offensive firepower, but O'Brien started with defense and used The compact defense brought about by miniaturization can instigate quick counterattacks, which not only suppresses the opponent's offense, but also creates an advantage by widening the gap in a short period of time, and ultimately eliminates the opponent's hope of comeback by relying on iron-clad defense.

This kind of thinking can be called the 1:0 doctrine in the basketball world.

But everything did not develop in the direction O'Brien imagined. Leon sent a strange inside combination, Wang Zhizhi and Diaw. After the two came on the court in the third quarter, the Celtics began to play positional offense with the Pacers.

Wang Zhizhi really can't guard against O'Neal, but he won't be beaten to death by O'Neal. O'Neal doesn't have the ability to beat his opponent to death. Therefore, on the defensive end, the Celtics are determined not to double-team, resolute not to shrink, and resolute not to Get the walkers up. On the offensive end, the Celtics suddenly showed a dazzling tactical coordination. The Pacers players, who were unprepared for this before the game, were temporarily frustrated by this European tactics.

Of course, the Celtics did not take the lead in the third quarter. Although they played well offensively, they were missing Garnett and Brown inside. They lost several rebounds and had no offensive rebounds. At the end of the third quarter, they were 1 point behind the Pacers 67:68.

But O'Brien's intention was ruined. The Pacers failed to use a large and four small lineup to play a suffocating pressing defense and establish an advantage through quick counterattacks; on the contrary, the rhythm was brought into offensive mode by the Celtics. , the two sides fought hard to attack, and both sides had a good offensive success rate, changing the situation of hand-to-hand combat and difficulty in scoring goals in the first half.

In this way, Leon's purpose is achieved.

In the duel between an offensive team and a defensive team, an important game point is the rhythm of the game, which will have an important impact on the entire game process and final result. A player's status is often highlighted or buried in the process. O'Brien's two and a half quarters of efforts were in vain in the critical third quarter. This means that in the fourth quarter, it is very likely that there will be a moment of competition between superstars in singles ability, which is something O'Brien does not want to see.

Sure enough, after the start of the fourth quarter, Leon first replaced Kevin Garnett, and then paired it with Chris Anderson. This lightweight inside combination created many opportunities for Garnett. Participated in the offense and relied on his fadeaway jumper to score 6 points in a row. The Celtics took the lead and forced the Pacers to invest more in their offense.

Offense and defense are a dynamic balance. When your offense is outstanding, the defensive end will be easier. Similarly, if the defense is tight, the inefficient positional offense that must be carried out will consume the players' physical strength and offensive feeling.

The Pacers do not have an outstanding singles player like Pierce. Once they fall behind and the opponent's offense feels good, teams that want to rely on defense to kill their opponents will often kill themselves first.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Paul Pierce came on the court and took over the game. After a pick-and-roll with Garnett, he stepped back, leaned away from Artest's defense, and hit a three-pointer from a 45-degree position on the right, rewriting the score to 88:81. It opened to 7 points. There are less than three minutes left before the end of the game. O'Brien was still trying to find some tactical solutions or make substitutions. In the final stage, he once again used one senior and four juniors to fight. This time he used Reggie Miller. He pinned his hopes on Reggie Miller's magical three-pointer.

But magic does not happen for no reason. No matter how good a shooter is, if he does not have a whole game of debugging, unless he is unlucky, he will not hit the key goal at the critical moment. Reggie Miller got very few offensive opportunities tonight. On the one hand, O'Brien's tactical arrangements, and on the other hand, Reed's tireless defense made Miller feel nothing. He only made one shot in the game. Three point shot.

How can we expect him to perform a magical performance at the last moment in such a state?

101:93. After only scoring 41 points in the first half, the Celtics successfully unlocked the offense in the second half, especially the third quarter. Relying on their sudden power in the fourth quarter, the Pacers lost points for the first time this season. 100, won this very crucial game.

After the game, Leon shook hands with O'Brien and Vogel and hugged each other. The former partners and colleagues have become strong enemies in the same district. Leon knows that tonight's victory has a little bit of luck, and it also relies on the team's strong talent and the strength of the stars. And he can feel that O'Brien's lineup has not really found a way to operate. Once they find the right path, the Pacers will be the Celtics' biggest obstacle on the road to winning the championship.

Leon was convinced of this and decided to study their weaknesses.