The Whip of the God of Basketball

The Los Angeles Lakers have always been a symbol of talent. Even in the dark years of the 1960s when they were often suppressed by the Celtics, people's evaluation of the two teams was often that the Lakers were more talented, but the Celtics were more team-oriented. ,More powerful.

During the show-time period of the 1980s, the Lakers formed an unprecedented lineup with three No. 1 picks. Many times when facing teams in the Western Conference, they did not need any special tactics. They only needed talent to crush their opponents. Once they crushed them, they would be ten. Year.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Lakers recruited perhaps the most talented center in the history of the league and a talented high school student, creating a dynasty in one fell swoop. Therefore, the Los Angeles Lakers have always been a symbol of talent, just like Hollywood means superstars and talented filmmakers. Here, diligence and team are always the last words.

After acquiring Karl Malone and Payton in the summer, the Lakers' paper talent has already exploded. However, only Phil Jackson knows that this is not the foursome in their peak period. In fact, except for Kobe, everyone else is declining. Malone has already Come to the end of life. Even so, Jackson is still confident that this is the most talented team in the league. Many times, he does not need to intervene, and the players can solve the problems themselves.

This night against the Celtics made Jackson re-examine the possible gaps between the two sides. When Arenas and Michael Reed continued to break through the Lakers' defense, when Kevin Garnett regained his offensive feeling in the third quarter and attacked the inside, when Pierce used his one-on-one ability to When the critical stage took over the game, Jackson did not see any special tactical arrangements made by Fox-Leon.

The humiliating defeat at Staples last year made Jackson feel that Leon must have some conspiracy, so he kept a low profile before the game and did not give Leon a chance to attack. Unexpectedly, the opponent was equally calm, and did not use any side tactics during the game. Instead, they went head-to-head with the Lakers to compete for strength, internal strength, and depth. The Celtics rotate normally from beginning to end, with fixed players at a fixed time.

The Celtics' super defensive lineup that appeared in the previous games also did not appear, and some of Jackson's targeted arrangements for this were completely useless.

When the game progressed to the latter part of the third quarter, the Celtics still led the Lakers by 7 points and began to rotate the lineup. Jackson realized that Fox-Leon wanted to really test the current Kyle team in this game. Compared with the Jets and the Lakers, who has the stronger hard power. There is no doubt that so far, green has overwhelmed yellow. The Lakers have more destructive weapons, but the Celtics are more balanced and united. They are changeable but determined in offensive tactics, and their defense is tenacious and persistent.

But Jackson is experienced in many battles, and he knows that there is only one factor affecting the Celtics' performance at this time, and that is mentality.

"Time-out!" Jackson called a timeout. The 7-point gap began to make the Lakers players a little anxious. This was not what Jackson wanted to see. What he wanted to see was the Celtics getting impatient.

On the other side, the Celtics began to enter the rotation. In this game, Leon insisted on the nine-man regular rotation, with Alston and Posey on the outside, Anderson and Dalembert on the inside, and Arenas and Pierce on the inside. One of the outside ball-holding points is always on the court, and the inside line ensures that PJ Brown and Garnett have one. It can be described as a very regular and stable rotation.

"Take a rest for a while, PJ, Daleham, get ready to play. Everyone did a good job, keep the status quo, especially your mentality. Stable, stable, no matter who is on the opposite side, no matter where this is, you want to kill them Or do they want to kill you, the calmest person can get to the end." Leon told the players to maintain a good mentality.

Full of passion before the game, calm response during the game, and chaos after the game. These are the requirements and concepts that Leon has always instilled in the players. More importantly, Leon also smelled something different. He knew that in this case, the cunning Jackson would not give up so easily.

"Jackson must have noticed that the current Celtics are stronger than the Lakers, unless Kobe can escape from the troubling lawsuit and return to 100% condition. This guy must still be thinking about last year's game. And that cigar." Leon thought to himself. Last year, the Celtics were able to win at such a disadvantage, which really made the Lakers lose face.

Tonight, Leon also noticed that Kobe Bryant is not in 100% good condition recently, which has caused many loopholes in the Lakers' perimeter defense, and if Payton is on the court, their offense will not be able to run smoothly.

After the timeout, the Celtics' lineup became Dalembert, Garnett, Pierce, Alston and Reed, with Arenas and Brown taking a rest. For the Lakers, O'Neal also sat on the bench, and Medvedenko was replaced on the inside. It seemed that Jackson was going to let the outside lead the pursuit of points.

In the third quarter, the Celtics kept attacking the inside. Although their scoring efficiency was not as high as the three-pointers in the first half, they played steadily and maintained the lead. Now it is the Lakers' turn to gamble on the outside and use quick counterattacks and defense to chase points. I don’t want to go into the fourth quarter trailing.

Sure enough, as soon as the timeout ended, Kobe caught the ball, faced Reid's defense, relied on Malone's pick-and-roll to bypass it, and suddenly pulled up a jumper from outside the three-point line in a small gap. The ball passed through like a flying knife. The basket, a life-saving three-pointer, the score became 74:70, and the point difference suddenly narrowed to four points!

This three-pointer undoubtedly ignited the fire of hope among the fans at the scene. They saw the precursor of the Lakers' counterattack, and the pressure on the Celtics increased sharply.

But Paul Pierce is on the court. This native of Los Angeles and a die-hard Lakers fan is already an out-and-out Celtic at this time. After Kobe Bryant made a three-pointer, he immediately responded with two points on offense with a step-back jumper. The score difference was widened to six points again.

"Pierce feels like he has improved again this season. He is becoming less and less soft at critical moments, and his shot selection is always just right." Dick Stockton couldn't help but comment after seeing this ball. Pierce has made great progress in the past two seasons. He has made steady progress under Leon, and has already entered the ranks of first-class stars from the second-rate All-Stars in people's minds in the past.

Back at the end, Kobe once again held the ball and fired from the outside, but the ball hit the front of the basket. Kevin Garnett grabbed the rebound, and the Celtics launched another counterattack.

As Leon expected, although Kobe broke out in the previous game against the Nuggets and hit the key to the victory, Leon, who was also involved in a lawsuit, understood that Kobe must be suffering from lawsuits and public opinion at this time. It was painful, and Kobe's pain was much greater than his own, and the moral condemnation he received was far greater than his own. In this case, no matter how strong the will is and how fierce the desire to win is, it is inevitable that the state will be poor due to insufficient training and unstable mentality.

Kobe, who averaged 30 points per game last season, has dropped to 23 points per game this season. As long as Kobe is not in good condition, the Lakers can't beat the Celtics under normal circumstances. This is the most useful information Leon got in this game.

At this time, Garnett has passed the ball to Alston. Alston's fast break is not as fast as Arenas, and he cannot attract the opponent's defense. However, he was very stable and passed the halftime quickly and gave the ball to Pierce. Pierce took the ball and looked outside the left three-point line, waiting.

At this time, Garnett had already reached the three-second zone. He made a beautiful position and pushed away Medvedenko behind him. Pierce decisively passed the ball to Garnett. Garnett caught the ball and turned around to shoot and faked away. Medvedenko dunked with both hands in an open position.

"Garnett... Malone covered the defense... Oh... God, Garnett fell to the ground... Karl Malone, his elbow hit Garnett's head. I don't know if he is okay. ."