On April 17, 2004, the playoffs officially began, except for New York, the "tyrant" Mo Xi took his Knicks to Madison Square Garden and ushered in the challenge of the Green Shirts.

For the Boston Celtics, neither the New York fans, nor the neutral fans, nor even the Boston Nationals themselves have made a win an option for this series, and in their opinion, avoiding a sweep is already the best ending for them in this playoffs.

It's not amazing that the Celtics can still make the playoffs after a big reshuffle, and only two people on the team can still be remembered for their names out of Boston, one is Paul Pearce, and the other is the peerless talent of Las Vegas, Nevada, both then and ten years later, another high school first-round pick, hope in the Ohio desert, and the emperor's leading big brother, Ricky Davis.

The Celtics' record is actually not very good, only 36 wins, but in the weak East, they actually suppressed the Cavaliers, who ushered in the Chosen Son, to reach the Finals. Even at the end of the season, there was a change of coach, and they were such a team that they had to face the New York Knicks, who had the best record in the league.

However, as a prestigious team with a long history and championship tradition, Celtic have always maintained their tough attitude and resilience to launch a Jedi counterattack.

The first game was played at home in New York, and after a final game of the regular season against the Pistons, it was more of a warm-up game for the Knicks. The Celtics did not do a good job of strengthening the interior this season, and their current starting center is Walter McCarter, the Knicks' draft pick that year. In the first game, Mo Xi only played 28 minutes, but he shot 11 of 14, plus 5 free throws, and cut 27 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 blocks, and the Knicks beat Boston 114-91.

Maybe the first game was completely stunned, and in the second game, Mo Xi went down earlier, only played 26 minutes, and then went off the break with 24 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks. It's the silence of every house in front of the TV in Boston. At the end of the game, the Knicks beat the Celtics again 120-90.

The Celtics returned to Boston with such desperation.

John Carroll, who is the Celtics' interim head coach, has foreseen his next journey, sweeping, and then being removed from the position. In desperation, John Carroll withdrew and locked himself in the manager's office, his hands digging deep into his hair, clawing at him in a mess. John Carroll doesn't want to end like this, there must be another way, the Green Shirts' playoff journey shouldn't end like this, John Carroll's head coaching journey shouldn't end there, he still has a chance, yes, he still has a chance.

John Carroll, like a man on the verge of drowning, frantically stretched his hand out of the water and tried to grasp a straw.

That might not save him, but at least, it was an opportunity.

John Carroll jerked to his feet, the chair behind him slammed into the wall with great force, bounced, and then fell to the ground. John Carroll frantically rummaged through the desk, searching through piles of papers for the two faxes he had received a week earlier.

He really didn't want to use this thing, because he thought it was really awkward, as if it would damage his dignity and the majesty of the Celts for decades, but it had come to this point, and if he didn't do it, the Celts and him would be even more offended, and all of this was the fault of the damned Knicks.

Every dynasty has its founders and gravediggers, and today, he, John Carroll, is going to be the gravedigger, even though he knows that these two faxes are just bad intentions from the teams that really have the strength to compete for the championship, just to make him a night watchman.

Mo Xi kissed Ding Xiaowei, who was still asleep, and then boarded the plane to Boston, the whole Knicks were so high-spirited, as if they were unstoppable, and it seemed to be the case.

But twenty minutes into the game, everything was a bit unexpected.

With 4:50 left in the first half, the New York Knicks led by five points at 40:35, and it didn't seem surprising to just look at the stats, but many of the coaches who had their eyes on the game were smiling.

Sweating profusely, Ratliff sat down on a chair, covered his head with a towel, gulped down his drink, and drained half of the bottle in one go, before he had the strength to speak, and he said to George Carr solemnly: "Coach, it's not right to fight like this!" ”

Ratliff didn't really want to talk to the coach so directly, but he couldn't bear it anymore, and the whole Knicks are now stuck in a strange rhythm, and they can win, which is absolutely no problem, but this is definitely not the feeling of the Knicks, this kind of victory will make the Knicks feel very uncomfortable, even tired.

There was also a flash of gloom in George Karl's eyes, as a coach he can notice more than the players on the court, and the Celtics have changed dramatically in tactics, or rather strategy. George Carr had to admit that the other party was very accurate and precise, and there were many things that he didn't even think of himself.

Let Arenas, Anthony and Sprewell and others have a better offensive play, which seems to be very bad for the Celtics, but the offensive efficiency of these three people is too low, and will squeeze a lot of Moxi's offensive deterrence, and at the same time, several experienced veterans in the team were suddenly targeted by the other party ruthlessly for some reason, so the entire Knicks are now in a situation where the veterans are out of breath, and several scorers are playing more and more unreasonable, it can be said that it is completely messed up, and the reason why the Knicks can still lead now, Completely dependent on Moxi's strong dominance.

George Carr was curious about what turned the rookie coach of the opposite Green Shirts upside down.

Obviously, he has always been in an advantage, but the Knicks really don't have that kind of shocking dominance.

George Karl took advantage of the official timeout to get Thibodeau to carefully set up the defense again, and he pulled Mo Xi aside to communicate.

George Carr said: "Do you see the problem that arises? ”

Mo Xi nodded, shook his head again, and said, "I don't know, I can only feel that something is wrong, but I don't know what is going on." ”

George Carr muttered slightly, and then said: "We don't have time to study this now, there are still almost five minutes until half-time, listen, Mo, in these five minutes, we don't want any offensive tactics, play these five minutes as if they were the last five minutes of the game, the court is completely handed over to you to play singles, time-consuming, remember, consuming time, pressing down the tempo, we don't play fast offense, efficiency doesn't matter, I just need you to keep the tempo down, so that we have more respite." ”

Mo Xi wiped the sweat from his face with his clothes, nodded, and signaled to George Carr in the noisy arena of Boston that he understood. Mo Xi has a faint feeling that behind all this, there is definitely a huge conspiracy waiting for the Knicks, and victory is no longer what the Knicks are pursuing in this series, and for the Knicks, what is more important now is how to know what the people who are targeting the Knicks like this want to see.

The game continued, and George Karl changed his previous violent offensive style and replaced it with a hard-hitting lineup that is considered a Knicks version.

Center Moxi, power forward Reggie Evans, small forward Anthony, scoring guard Sprewell, and point guard Arenas. The core structure of this roster is a point of view, and these guys are one of the few combinations that the Knicks can use to the most in a slow tempo.

Arenas, though still a little uncomfortable, complied with George Karl's request to slowly push the ball through half court for eight seconds before handing it to Sprewell, who came to the free throw line.

After receiving the ball, Sprewell froze directly in place, did not move, did not make any feints, as if he was just observing the form on the field.

At this time, Mo Xi began to fight for the position, trying to get a good receiving position in the low post, but the Celtics' tactical execution was extremely resolute, and Paul Pierce directly let go of Anthony, faintly forming a situation of early entrapment for Mo Xi.

Sprewell hesitated and passed the ball to Anthony in the open space.

As an NCAA MOP, Anthony has an advantage in this rookie class that is difficult for anyone else to achieve, that is, tactical execution ability, so when facing the unguarded big vacancy, Anthony hesitated for three seconds, and still did not choose to shoot, until he found that Paul Pierce still did not have any intention of wanting to return to defense, so he made a three-point shot.

"When", Anthony is still iron, he is indeed the best scorer in the class of 03, not even one, but his current offensive ability and experience are still far from enough, this is the third open three-point he has missed in this game, although he only made three three-pointers in total.

Mo Xi brutally pushed away the Green Army players around him, forcibly impacted the offensive rebound, and after taking off the rebound, before Mo Xi wanted to jump again, the referee's whistle had already sounded, and he was fouled for the rebound.

Mo Xi silently handed the ball to the referee, grabbed his shirt and rubbed his face, he was also a little impatient.

The Celtics went on the attack.

Although Ricky Davis's form has dropped significantly since he was traded to the Celtics, his physical talent is there, and it has also brought a huge boost to the Celtics.

Relying on his excellent physical talents, Ricky Davis directly forced Arenas, Arenas hesitated and was passed by Ricky Davis, but Ricky Davis did not choose to continue to rush, he distributed the ball to Paul Pierce.

It was Anthony who normally played against Pierce, but Pierce had to use cover to find Sprewell, who had better defensive ability, as if he felt that it was really no challenge to play Anthony.

At this time, Pierce's offensive ability has been completed, not to mention the current Sprewell, even if Sprewell is at its best, he may not be able to defend against it.

Pushing away the defender, Pierce pulls a step sideways and then makes a reverse step-back jumper.

Pierce moves slowly, as if waiting for the Knicks' interior to come up with a defense. Reggie Evans was almost immediately on the verge of trying to block the ball, and that was the reason for him to play, to block the team's interior pillar in the face of the opposition's almost obvious killing inside.

But Mo Xi's reaction was beyond his expectations.

Mo Xi took a step forward, and then fanned the basketball out of bounds as if playing volleyball. After losing weight, Mo Xi was not only faster, but his bounce also obviously rose a notch, but Pierce's slow-motion retreat was too slow this time, and he was stuck in the rhythm by Mo Xi and fanned directly.

Entering the playoffs, the Knicks' defense looks full of holes, but it is the most problematic place, because the Knicks have a top-level rim protector on the inside.

For the Knicks, the problem they have to solve now is still the strange offensive end.

This time, Mo Xi was very direct, directly mentioning the high post to ask for the ball, but the Celtics were even more decisive, Atkins directly let go of Arenas, who had just advanced to the front, and went straight to Mo Xi.

Arenas doesn't have as many ideas and tactical literacy as Anthony, in Arenas's opinion, this is an insult to his Chiguoguo, so he didn't think about it, and the brush was a three-point shot.

Well, Mo Xi feels that he seems to vaguely understand the other party's thoughts, the Knicks' lineup is really lacking in Mesozoic players, Sprewell can barely be regarded as one, but he has also come to the end of his career, as long as the Knicks' veterans are forced to go off, then the Knicks' imps are on the court, even if there is Mo Xi pressing the lineup, it will be obvious that there will be various "hero balls". In this league, this kind of game is undoubtedly very good, but it does disrupt the good rhythm that the Knicks have always had, and you must know that in such a team that is full of offensive talent, offensive rhythm and style are sometimes even more important than efficiency.

The Celtics want the Knicks to get into a mess, and once they do, anything can happen.

Mo Xi decided that he had to force a few pick-and-roll combinations with Arenas to get the Knicks' rhythm back in the game.