"The Celtics replaced Parrish, who fouled twice, for Bill Wharton. Walton's arrival has breathed new life into this Celtic team, and the UCLA graduate center is as smart as ever, as long as he has no knee problems and can contribute to the team when he is on the court. ”

Moster has never been short of praise for Celtic's players, and even the water cooler manager at the end of the bench can spot the shining light in them and praise them.

However, Most's assessment of Wharton is quite pertinent, and when he is injury-free, he is definitely a center forward who can dominate the game.

Since Gan Guoyang entered the league, he has played against Walton a few times in his rookie season, when Wharton was still in the hapless Los Angeles Clippers - at that time, the Clippers almost demolished half of the team in order to get Wharton, and the result was a half-crippled version.

Even if this semi-crippled version can occasionally show up when he is relatively healthy, he can teach Gan Guoyang a rising star, and at other times he will either linger on the sickbed and watch the healthy Gan Guoyang bounce around on the court, or lose with the team, the strength of the Clippers is too poor.

Since coming to the Celtics this season, Wharton's physical condition has been very good so far, and the Celtics have also developed a physical rehabilitation and maintenance plan for him to protect the fragile giant.

Unlike during his time with the Trail Blazers, Wharton had cut off his long red hair and no longer wore his distinctive bohemian head, but instead had a plain hairstyle.

This also seems to show the world that he is no longer the unruly pride of Portland, but a dedicated sixth man on the court.

"Beep!" The referee blew the whistle, the timeout ended, and the game continued, and Gan Guoyang's two free throws allowed the Trail Blazers to still lead the Celtics by 7 points at 14:7.

"Angie serves, DJ is at the top of the arc, Bird goes around to the right side to catch the jump shot... Didn't go in, Bird felt a little bad in the first quarter......"

The Celtics' serve strategy was simple, Johnson received the ball at the top of the arc, McHale made a screen for Bird at 45 degrees on the right side, Bird went around the sideline to the corner to receive Johnson's pass and immediately shot, but the ball hit the basket and bounced high.

Gan Guoyang watched Bird shoot and knew that there was a chance that the ball would not be able to be shot, because the route was crooked at the beginning, and he had already calculated the landing point of the ball in his mind, ready to take the rebound and launch a counterattack.

However, Bill Wharton entangled Gan Guoyang, he was standing further away, Bird's ball collapsed a little far, Wharton used his long arm to grab the basketball first, and played the ball to the outside Celtics players like volleyball.

“still-alive！ (And the ball!) DJ Johnson grabbed the ball from Wharton, he gave it to Angie, who went inside... Split the ball to Bird, who shot from outside the three-point line in the bottom corner...... Ball in! He threw it! A three-pointer! ”

Bird hit a corner three-pointer and the Boston Garden Square was instantly boiled over when no one was guarded, and in an era where three-pointers are more valuable than dunks, Bird is the best three-pointer in the league.

At 14:10, Bird scored six points on two attacks, and the difference between the two sides was suddenly narrowed to only four points, and the game had just begun.

In the next few rounds, Wharton showed how difficult he was, at least for Gan, who would rather remove the foul on Parrish and return the No. 00 to the court than fight with Wharton on the inside.

In addition to battling injuries in the offseason, Wharton actively engaged in strength training and gained more than a dozen pounds.

Wharton's height was originally 6'11" without any water (Olajuwon's 7-foot water content is too high for comparison), and with a long arm span, the experienced veteran caused a lot of problems for Gan Guoyang on the defensive end after having the weight and strength.

Gan received the ball and turned around and hooked his hand...... missed, Wharton won the rebound, and the Celtics counterattacked! This will be the Celtics' chance to equalize, DJ Johnson, pullup jumper! Ball in! DJ hit a jumper on the counter-attack, and at 14:14, the Celtics tied the score! ”

Dennis Johnson is very decisive in the counterattack at the top of the arc to stop the jumper, of course, this kind of ball is decisive when it is thrown, and it is brainless if it is not shot, Dennis Johnson's nerves have always been thick, and he is the Celtics' lethal X-factor if he does not play according to the routine.

After the score was tied, Ramsey immediately called a timeout, which made it difficult for the Celtics to play, and Ramsey knew that if he wanted to beat the Celtics, he had to keep his form pressed from the start, otherwise it would be difficult to come back and win at Boston Garden Square.

'We need to keep our impact, our impact is slowing down, we're going to be lower, we can't get into the rhythm that Celtic are used to, we have to dominate the game. Don't force it under the basket, open up space, don't let Wharton get entrenched inside, and move him. Colte, you replace Valentine and continue to increase the tempo of the attack. Cauchy, you also play, single defense Bird, let's not flank him, single defense, don't let him lead the Celtic offense. "Ramsey made adjustments during the timeout.

After a series of missed shots, the Trail Blazers' offense went into a period of weakness, so they needed the addition of Cauchy and Colter to add propulsion, while on the defensive side, Ramsey decided to insist on not taking special care of Bird.

Ramsey knows that Bird has the strength to beat a team by himself, but he would rather be killed by Bird than have the Celtics play well under Bird's transfer, in which case the Trail Blazers will only find themselves in a more difficult situation.

At the same time, in the face of some problems encountered by Gan Guoyang, Ramsey, as a coach who knows Wharton very well, knows that Wharton's advantage lies in his excellent defensive position and tall stature in defense, forming a barrier in the three-second zone; Attacking mastery of all attacking methods, plus the best passing among the centre-forwards.

Therefore, Ramsey asked Gan Guoyang to run more in the attack and expand the range of activities; In defense, he is fully single-handed, and with Wharton's current state, the Celtics basically don't expect him to play alone with the ball.

The Celtics also made a number of substitutions, with Sam Vincent coming on for Danny Ainge, and the presence of two two-way defenders at the back has always been a feature of the Celtics, which has also made their offensive playmaking point unusually large.

But the Celtics' best offensive playmaker isn't point guard Dennis Johnson, but small forward Larry Bird.

The white man with superb passing skills has a keen sense of smell not inferior to that of Magic Johnson, and his passes often have the effect of tearing apart the opponent's defense and hitting the vital point.

"Bird passes the ball to McHale, who faces Mitchell Sampson... The pass back to Bird, who cut to the basket and passed the ball behind his back...... Oh, it was cut off by Gan, the Trail Blazers counterattacked, Colter hit the basket directly, hit a layup, 18:14, the Trail Blazers hit two shots in a row after a timeout, both of them were Colter, and his breakthrough was very fast. ”

The four points after the timeout came from Colter's breakout, and he began to get better again after recovering from marijuana smoking.

The ball just defended, Bird used a beautiful air cut run to shake off Cauchy, and after receiving McHale's pass, he saw Sampson step forward to make up for the defense, so he didn't choose to force a layup, but a beautiful back pass handed the ball to Wharton who followed up from the middle, but Gan Guoyang was really fast, and the ball was knocked off at the moment when Wharton was about to start the dunk.

Wharton would have had an easy dunk if Gan had gone all out to defend the basket like Sampson, but this successful defense gave the Trail Blazers the upper hand again.

Ramsey's excellent strategy and scheduling, coupled with the Celtics' own poor form, ended the first quarter with a 33-28 lead.

In the conversation with Wharton, although Gan Guoyang couldn't turn the Celtics' interior upside down like he did at the beginning, he didn't give Wharton too many opportunities to play.

Even so, Wharton delivered an assist, a block and three rebounds, and did not let Gan continue to grab rebounds or score alone.

"The Trail Blazers played like the Los Angeles Lakers in the first quarter, with a strong and pressing offense, a gambling defense, a very impactful lineup, and the Celtics had to find a way to deal with it, especially Bird, who needed to get back to his form."

The gambling defense mentioned by Moster refers to the strategy of the Trail Blazers who will never contain Bird, and let the offense not pass, if Bird is allowed to shoot in the first quarter, then the Trail Blazers will suffer in the whole game, but unfortunately except for that three-point and three-point shot, Bird never scored in the first quarter.

At this time on the bench of the Trail Blazers, in the short intermission, Ramsey still did not miss any opportunity to coach the players, because he was about to play the second team, and whether the second team could withstand it would be very crucial.

"Clyde, if the offense is in a rut, use your ability to solve the problem and get through the first period...... Also, Sampson, hold on a little longer, get off the court, and you're going to have to hold up the defense, especially against you McHale, and I'm sure you'll be able to handle him. ”

On the Celtics' bench, KC Jones also seized all the time to solve the team's problems in the first quarter.

"Attacking from our low post and taking fewer shots, we didn't feel good on the shots, and I wanted to get the score out as soon as possible in the second quarter. Kevin, stop being afraid of Mitchell Sampson, you're opponents now, don't be afraid of him. KC Jones looked at the team's most consistent scoring point inside and said to him.

"I know, I know, I know."

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