Isaiah Thomas' recent days with the Pacers have been okay, and this is his third year at Indiana, and according to his immediate boss and former rival Larry Bird, this is most likely his last year with the Pacers if he can't lead the team to some success. However, judging from the current situation of the team, he is doing well, and the Pacers have been strong since the beginning of the season, second only to the Boston Celtics.

In December, January, when the Celtics fell into a small fluctuation, the Pacers maintained a stable state, especially in January, they achieved an exciting wave of 12 consecutive wins, jumping past the Nets, Pistons and Celtics to jump to the first place in the East, for a time many people praised, in just three years, the Pacers have returned to the ranks of the top teams, which has both Bird's credit, and Thomas's ability has also been affirmed.

In particular, his close relationship with the team's star player, Jermaine O'Neal, who has blossomed since coming to the Pacers, gives him confidence that he can stay with the Pacers. So in the first quarter, when O'Neal Jr. was forced to sit on the bench and watch the Celtics take the lead, Thomas still believed that his Pacers could take advantage in the next game, and the Pacers beat the Celtics on the road a week ago.

It's just that in that game, Michael Reed was out due to injury, and the Pacers' best player came out of O'Neal Jr., the outside anchor Reggie Miller, who completely extinguished the Celtics' hopes of a comeback with two crucial three-pointers in the final minutes of that game. Tonight, in the first quarter after Reed's return, at least so far, Reggie Miller has not shot a single three-pointer, and although his inseparable marking from the outside has led to Tinsley getting a good score on Arenas, not letting Miller open his hand is one of Leon's basic strategies in this game.

Isaiah Thomas is a very smart coach, with a Chicago street background and a brilliant career in the Detroit Bad Boys. It makes him very, very good at getting along with players with unruly personalities, which is why O'Neal Jr. called Thomas "coach" until many years later. But Thomas's coaching style is very different from his upbringing and basketball experience.

The Pacers are averaging 97.9 points per game so far, and although they are short of their opponents, the Boston Celtics' 104 points, but in the 2003 season they were already in the top eight in the league.

So far, he's done pretty well over the course of almost three seasons. The Pacers' players have a very good tactical quality, and they can often play a pleasing offense, but Thomas has not been very satisfied, especially their starting point guard Tinsley, a point guard who is from the same street as Thomas, has never been able to meet Thomas's requirements.

This may be a common problem among superstar coaches, who all believe that their players should spot every opportunity and take advantage of them as well as they do, but the reality is that there is only one Isiah Thomas on the basketball court.

When O'Neal Jr. had to sit on the bench at the start of the second quarter to continue watching the game, and at the same time Reggie Miller couldn't get rid of Michael Reed. The Pacers began to fall into the downwind, an all-out downwind.

This season, when the Boston Celtics pitchers have good touches, they're almost unstoppable — which seems like nonsense, but it's actually true. The Celtics' playbook maximizes the feel of the shot, and their clean, fast offense snowballs the score when players have a good shooting feel.

Arenas adhered to Leon's short, fast passing guidelines. And with great confidence, he forced a shot from beyond the three-point line in a row, and then he was able to hit - Jamal Tinsley's useless defense. Let Arenas shoot as easily as he does shooting drills.

"Stick it, stick it, defend like a man! How can you watch him shoot like this on your head! Watching Arenas score back-to-back goals on Tinsley's head, Thomas finally couldn't take it anymore and Tinsley pulled it aside and scolded. And Tinsley lowered his head and crossed his waist to train silently, he also wanted to defend against Arenas, but he was born on the street and his defensive footsteps were completely unpassable, and once he was close to the defense, the consequences would only be worse, and he would be wiped out.

With the outbreak of Arenas, the difference between the two sides opened up again in the second quarter, at this time Thomas called a timeout, replaced O'Neal Jr., and immediately stabilized the situation, O'Neal Jr. faced the Celtics' not hard enough interior line, and scored in a row again, he grabbed the frontcourt rebound twice in a row to make up for the rebound, stopping the decline of the Pacers.

The game became more and more intense, and the consecro stadium began to diffuse steaming heat, which was formed by the sweat of the players, the heat emitted by tens of thousands of fans and the heating air conditioning of the stadium, forming a cloud of air conditioning above the stadium, Leon stood on the sidelines wearing a formal suit, and began to feel that the sweat was constantly rising, the huge noise on the scene was undoubtedly irritating, and the hot air affected not only the coach, but also the players.

The anger on both sides began to grow, starting from the collision foul between Pierce and O'Neal Jr. in the first quarter, the two sides moved a lot, and in the second half of the second quarter, Artest pestered Pierce, PJ Brown and O'Neal Jr. spoke more and more directly, and Tinsley began to show his ferocious side in the face of Arenas, who was giving and demanding. Celtics players are starting to get more and more brought down, fouled, and overturned.

Leon paced on the sidelines and yelled at the referee.

In the last offense near the end of the first half, Paul Pierce broke through with the ball again, and in the first half he was one of the Celtics' worst shooting touch, but he knew how to adjust, constantly using the breakthrough to cause kills, and when O'Neal Jr. was fouled twice and did not dare to defend with all his strength, he broke through many times, and the Celtics relied on him and Arenas to maintain a double-digit lead over the Pacers in the first half.

In the face of Pierce's breakthrough, Artest chased closely, and this time it was not O'Neal Jr., it was Brad Miller, who did not jump, but raised his arms high and then his whole body slammed up. A clear blocking foul, but it sent Pierce to the ground. It wasn't the first time Pierce had fallen like this in the first half, not even the second.

The referee's whistle blew, but the scene didn't calm down, and Paul Pearce jumped up from the ground and punched Miller just as hard with the same top move Miller had just made to him.

The two sides exploded at once, Artest, who was behind Pierce, immediately rushed between the two, Brad Miller looked like a ruffian, and Reggie Miller had stepped forward to persuade loudly. Antoine Walkla held Paul Pearce. However, Arenas was not afraid of Artest meeting him, and stepped forward and glared angrily, but Tinsley was not to be outdone, and stood next to Artest.

The fans in the stadium booed at the Celtic players like crazy, and the referee's whistle kept blazing in an attempt to separate the players on both sides. At this time, PJ Brown came out, he dragged Paul Pierce away, walked to the front, glared at everyone on the Pacers, and the momentum on the Celtics' side immediately overwhelmed.

Or Reggie Miller. He was old enough to step forward to appease PJ Brown, and the two discussed a few words before the two sides dispersed.

Of course, Pierce ate a technical foul. Reggie Miller hit a free throw, and Pierce hit both free throws to give the Celtics a 62-52, 10-point lead to end the first half.

This skirmish at the end of the half. A more intense second half was to come, 15 minutes later.

……………………

At half-time, the dressing rooms on both sides presented a completely different scene, in the away dressing room. Fox Leon is trying to calm down his players, after all, this is an away game and there is a chance that a clash with the home team will be a loss.

"It's their strategy, to disrupt us with more physical confrontations, we are not afraid of confrontations, we have to be brave enough to come forward and fight, but we also have to be careful to protect ourselves, Paul you can't have any more technical fouls...... And Gilbert, put your focus on keeping your shooting touch. In the first half, we had a bit of a concentration of goals, which was not a good thing......" León analysed the situation in the first half as he calmed the players.

Celtics players have long been accustomed to Leon's own computer brain, such as shooting distribution, which cannot be seen without video support, he can form a shooting distribution map in his mind as long as he stares at the sidelines, and can also draw the picture on the tactical board.

The Celtics over-concentrated their scoring at the three-point line and the three-second zone in the first half, and once the second half is not good and the Pacers shrink their defense, they risk falling into a scoring drought.

On the other side of the home team's locker room, Isaiah Thomas was yelling at his players, which he rarely did, but today he felt the need to make the Pacers' players understand how to deal with the game tougher.

"Pull down their impact on the basket, hinder their breakout, cling to their three-pointers, and if they dare to rush in, make them look good! It is very important to give them a little bit of hardship at all costs, to make them afraid, to make them afraid, to make them lose the confidence to win! "Thomas has taken the same game as he did with the Bad Boys, and he has seen the Celtics as a playoff competitor and is determined to establish a psychological advantage over the Celtics from this game onwards.

In his opinion, although there is a hard stubble of PJ Brown on the other side, like Arenas is still too young, Walker has always not had a big temper, and Pierce is not easy to deal with, and there is nothing else.

On the Pacers' side, Brad Miller beat O'Neal, O'Neal Jr. is a straight kid who dares to fight and punch, not to mention Artest, who broke Jordan's ribs with his head, as well as Foster and Tinsley, all of whom are not easy to mess with. Coupled with home-court advantage, Thomas decided to give the Celtics a taste of the Pistons in the second half.

As for that coach of theirs? A rookie coach with no qualifications, no background, and no experience, maybe he is a genius in coaching technical ability, but the basketball coaching circle never wins with technology.

Of course, he didn't know that although Leon was in the dressing room at this time to advise the players to be calm and explain tactics carefully, in the first half of the game, Leon had already pinched two signing pens to draw tactics.

He didn't want to see his players being hit and knocked to the ground, but as a coach, he couldn't go up and argue with the opposing players, so he had to blow the wind to the referee.

But there is always a limit to human patience. (To be continued.) )