The tide of the game began to quietly turn around after Paul Pearce's successful dunk. The morale-boosting Celtics blocked the 76ers' offense on the next two defenses and hit a three-pointer on the next counterattack — from Michael Reed, who pressed the score close and allowed Larry Brown to call a timeout before Leon.

Leon watched the sweaty players sit on the bench and gulp water, knowing that the intensity of the playoffs is completely different from the regular season, and the physical exertion may increase by 30 percent. In the training the day before yesterday, Leon focused on physical adaptation exercises and defensive training in order to warm up the players in advance. Because the previous rotation rest gave the main team of the Celtics too much rest time, everyone's bones were a little loose.

Therefore, at the beginning of this game, Leon could clearly feel that the players had not yet adapted to the state of the playoffs, and everyone was playing a little tightly. Before the game, Leon told the players that if they feel that they are not in shape, they should start from the inside, and the closer they are to the basket, the greater the certainty. Of course, Leon didn't mean to let the team start from the inside, force the 76ers to shrink the defense, and then lead the outside, he knew that with the Celtics' low-post offensive ability, there was no way to change the 76ers' defensive strategy.

Larry Brown's tactical guess about the Celtics was wrong, in fact, Leon's real strategy was to start with defense, he asked Arenas to face Iverson alone, and the whole team gradually worked together to strangle the other players, no matter how strong Iverson was, he couldn't beat the Celtics alone. The reason is very simple, because the 76ers at this time are no longer the 2001 Iverson one-man offense, the whole team defense, they began to take the road of offensive and defensive balance, once other players can not provide support on the offensive end, then Iverson's disadvantage on the defensive end will be magnified, players like Van Horn, Coleman, there is no way to use other means other than scoring to help the team.

"Be mindful of the people around you, not just your opposing players, but also your teammates and the people your teammates are playing against. We need to focus our attention on the middle and the left, remember the left. Everyone knows Iverson will break through from the right, but let's not block the right, but pay attention to the left and don't give them the opportunity to shoot three points from the wing and rush to the front court! They don't have a good feel all the time, consume them, remember to consume them, we have better stamina and home advantage. Keeping all this in mind, do you understand!? Leon seized the timeout to instill his ideas in the players, and in the playoffs, he won't talk to the players like he did in the regular season and let the rest go by.

The timeout ended quickly, and the 76ers opted for substitutions, replacing Van Horn with Aaron McGee. Obviously, Brown is still not at ease with Van Horne's defense, after Van Horn was slightly shiny on the offensive end in the opening game, he still took him down, but used the defensive titan McGee, Brown is still quite jealous of Paul Pearce, last year the 76ers were shot through by "Truth", he averaged 30 points per game in the series, and threw 40 three-pointers with Walker.

This year, Brown knows that Pierce has become a true leader of the Celtics, and seeing Iverson score in the first quarter, Pierce will definitely step up.

But the game didn't seem to go into the offensive duel between Pierce and Iverson as Larry Brown thought, and Brown's defensive formation against Pierce didn't play a role, on the contrary, the Celtics seemed to be trying to defend with the 76ers, and the physical confrontation between the two sides was quite intense. This was confusing to Brown, who expected the Celtics to storm offense in the first half, which is what home teams often do at the start of the playoffs. With home advantage, they took advantage of the high morale to take the lead, while the away teams had to struggle to catch up.

Larry Brown was ready to fall into a hard chase in the first game, but he didn't expect that the Celtics did not play the sharpness of the offensive end at all, but were solidly engaged in defense and attrition, which made Brown quite worried.

But the players in the venue will not feel like this, especially Iverson, he feels that he is in hot form, although Gilbert Arenas defends very hard, but he is still a little bit behind Iverson in terms of experience and ability, and the Celtics don't seem to care about his breakthrough on the road, he can use his speed to tear apart the Celtics' defense and score points on the right side.

Paul Pearce, who had a big point battle with Iverson in the playoffs last year, has become extremely grateful for his opportunity, and the entire Celtics have played tepidly, playing coordination, playing tactics, and not having the aggressive offensive posture of the regular season.

However, they are quite fierce on the defensive end, and several fouls have made the smell of gunpowder on the court very strong, and the entire 76ers team except for Iverson has a small scoring contribution, and there is no way to support Iverson tactically. Derrick Coleman has long since lost the talent of a decade ago, and he played quite awkwardly in front of PJ Brown.

At the end of the first half, the two sides were tied, 48:48, a fairly low score. The Celtics scored fairly evenly, with Pierce, the highest-scoring player, scoring just eight points, while Iverson came out on top with 22 points, accounting for almost half of the team's scores.

At halftime, when the camera showed Larry Brown, his brow furrowed, and Fox Leon still looked nonchalant, as if everything was under his control.

……………………

"Can I make more shots in the second half?" In the locker room at half-time, Paul Pierce asked Leon. Before the game, Leon asked Pierce to restrain his impulsiveness in the first half, so he scored only eight points and made six shots in the entire first half.

Leon nodded, then said to everyone: "We did a great job in the first half, I know we played differently than usual, we had a lot of better attacking opportunities, we could have completely beaten the opponent, but we were cautious, we were restrained because it was only the first half. The long-distance run is only half the way, and too early force will only make us consume too much. In the second half, everyone, let go of your shackles and attack them hard at the North Shore Garden Arena! ”

Leon tapped the tactical whiteboard hard as he spoke, and he didn't lay out any tactics for his players at half-time, just asking them to attack with all their might in the second half.

For a team like the 76ers, a premature majority of the lead may not be a good thing, and they are good at relying on defense to play a war of attrition with Iverson's sharp knife when they are behind.

However, Leon's appearance of winning is nothing more than a bluff, and he is also unsure of this rhythm and strategy, because the change in playing style and the consumption of the defensive end will not only wear out the opponent's offensive feeling, but also the feeling of his own team. If the Celtics get used to this rhythm and can't open the offense in the second half, grinding with the 76ers and playing to the final stage, Leon will not be sure of the outcome of the game.

If his strategy is wrong, then he will be largely responsible for the Celtics' home defeat. Now, Leon has his hopes pinned on Paul Pearce.

Pierce, on the other hand, was already eager to try it, he faced McGee's entanglement throughout the first half, and then focused on rebounding and assisting, he didn't even shoot a three-pointer, which was obviously not normal, and he could feel that the energy in his body had accumulated too much. The relaxation left by the previous month's rest has been swept away by the intensity of the first half, and now he only wants to destroy the opposition with goals.

At the start of the second half, even the North Shore Garden Arena fans seemed to feel that the Celtics' outburst was coming, and the atmosphere reached its peak in an instant, and the fans began to wave white towels, and the white mist began to linger on the 16 championship flags.

The players of the 76ers also seemed to feel that the atmosphere at the beginning of the second half was not quite right, and the entire Celtics team did not have the dullness of the first half, and seemed to be full of murderous energy. Their head coach, Fox Leon, no longer sat on the bench and watched the game with his cheeks as he did in the first half, but stood on the sidelines, his left hand hanging down naturally, and his right hand resting gently on his stomach, giving him a feeling of not being angry.

In contrast, Larry Brown, who wears round basket glasses, keeps shouting at the players to remind them of some precautions, but he looks a little nervous.

In the second half, the Celtics attacked for the first time, Paul Pierce received the ball on the right side to face Van Horn, he directly passed Van Horn in one step, and then broke through directly from the baseline to the basket, facing Coleman's failed defense, directly a two-handed dunk! Scored the first point of the second half for Celtic!

Paul Pierce began to explode. (To be continued.) )