Leon has long realized that the Celtics have little offensive talent on this lineup, and they were able to only fall behind by four points in the first half, thanks in large part to the Lakers' laxity, especially on the defensive end. They led the Lakers by seven rebounds, and the referees were very respectful, making six more free throws than the Lakers in the first half, which was at Stamps.

But Leon knew that the Lakers wouldn't make that mistake all the time, making Chris Anderson constantly walk the backdoor, grab the frontcourt rebound, and send him to the free throw line. When O'Neal is on the court, the Celtics' offense will be very difficult, and there is little they can do but rely on Williams' piecemeal singles and scramble to get the chances.

In the second half, if the Celtics want to win, or at least lose is not ugly, there is only one way, that is, to defend to the death, since their own offense is not good, then pull the Lakers' offense to the same level, and then use rich experience in playing iron to grab rebounds to overturn the opponent.

But it's easier said than done, not to mention anything else, O'Neal is almost incomprehensible to this, and at the same time there is Kobe Bryant who is holding his breath, Kobe Bryant shot 2 of 8 in the first half, and he was completely out of shape. But if Kobe Bryant broke out in the second half, coupled with O'Neal's steady play, the Celtics would have almost no chance of winning, so Leon had to bet and gamble with defense, and he decided to turn on a complete joint defense mode in the second half.

………………

The game restarted, and after the halftime break, the Lakers players looked a lot calmer, and the golden jerseys blended in with the Staples Center, as if they were five King Kong fighters guarding Los Angeles. And the Celtics players are like ugly elves in green, and at the beginning of the second half, the Celtics violated the foul in the middle of the attack for 24 seconds, and the fans booed the whole stadium, as if to mock this group of untalented guys.

Only Leon applauded loudly on the sidelines, which is also one of his strategies, if there is no good offensive opportunity, he would rather drag the time until the last second, rather than just miss the shot to give the Lakers a chance to get a rebound in the backcourt to counterattack. In this way, after the violation, the Celtics players handed the ball to the referee, and the Lakers served in the backcourt, and they had to start grinding the position.

Phil Jackson made a change in the midcourt, and he decided to let Kobe Bryant play at the beginning of the second half, and if Kobe can get his feel back, then the Lakers can easily rely on talent to crush the Celtics with the play of the double star.

But in the Lakers' first offense in the second half, Phil Jackson found that the Celtics turned on the joint defense.

This is the first season in the NBA that allows joint defense, and many teams have not yet become accustomed to this defensive strategy that has been isolated from the NBA for many years, although under the three-second defense rule, many joint defense tactics can not be played well, but a basic 3-2 joint defense or pseudo-2-3 joint defense can still play a special role in special moments, leaving teammates at a loss.

Sure enough, when Bryant was holding the ball on the right side, he found that there were always two Celtics players waiting for an opportunity in his expected path, but there was no one to mark him. O'Neal was no different on the inside, where he could feel the threat of a pack from the Celtics at any moment, while his two basic inward passing lanes were blocked.

What was not threatened by the defense was the bottom corner, where there were large open spots on both sides, and Robert Hawley and Fox were able to easily find themselves in the bottom corner, at which point Bryant hesitated a little, but he still chose to pass.

He adjusted his pace on the right side, accelerated from a 45-degree breakthrough, Hawley made a fake cover in front of him, and then ran to the bottom corner, Kobe Bryant decisively split the ball, and Hawley made a three-point shot from the bottom corner!

"Phew!" Hawley's three-point shot was completely inaccurate, leaving only a crisp iron hit. However, O'Neal got the rebound in the frontcourt, and his massive body can grab two positions alone.

Damham Porter didn't hesitate to foul and didn't give O'Neal a three-point shot, and O'Neal looked rather annoyed, flicked his big elbow and glared at Damham Potter viciously. Undeterred, Delham Potter confronted O'Neal head-on, and players from both sides immediately stepped forward to pull the two apart.

O'Neal found that in the first quarter, the young man who was knocked to the ground by himself and watched him hit casually, by the third quarter, the fear of him had disappeared, maybe he still couldn't prevent O'Neal, but he was not afraid of O'Neal.

Standing at the free throw line, O'Neal missed two free throws, Chris Anderson grabbed the backcourt rebound again, and he was simply possessed by Dennis Rodman in this game, and he had grabbed 12 rebounds in the half.

The Celtics continued their half-court attrition, their offense unhurried, as if they were now four points behind but four points ahead. However, such a slow-paced offense undoubtedly couldn't find a hole in the Lakers' defense, and with 1 second left in 24 seconds, Anderson barely shot from the middle distance, missed the ball, and was rebounded by O'Neal.

The Lakers wanted to launch a fast offense, and the Celtics retreated very quickly, because they didn't pay much attention on the offensive end, and basically as soon as Anderson made a shot, everyone retreated.

The Lakers are once again facing a joint defense, and if they can't open the mid-to-long-range shot, they are likely to have no way to take the Celtics' joint defense, or wait for the game to deepen, and the Celtics' own defense will loosen.

Halfway through the third quarter, the Celtics and Lakers only scored a total of 7 points, the Celtics relied on Williams to hit a three-pointer from the outside, and on the Lakers' side, Kobe Bryant relied on two breakthroughs to tear apart the Celtics' defense, a direct dunk and a foul on the free throw line to score two points.

The extremely low scoring efficiency made the audience on the sidelines drowsy, but the Celtics played more and more energetically, although they still trailed by five points, a little more than at halftime, but the successful defense, constantly forcing the Lakers to play iron, made this group of lads very fulfilling. The main players on the bench are also in the state, constantly cheering for the substitutes, in this place where tens of thousands of people are enemies, the encouragement and support of teammates is particularly important.

In this way, the Celtics survived the third quarter, and the two sides played 12:14 in the third quarter, and the Lakers only scored 14 points, leading the Celtics by six points into the fourth quarter.

But at the beginning of the fourth quarter, what worried Leon still happened, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Kobe Bryant hit a shot from the outside, and then broke through the inside line to fold the layup, and a back-of-head pass to O'Neal for a strong dunk, the Lakers scored 6 points in a row, and the Celtics only relied on Long's mid-range shot to score two points, and the Lakers instantly stretched the difference between the two sides to 10 points.

This is a very dangerous signal, which means that the Celtic defense is starting to loosen. The joint defense requires the players to have a very tacit cooperation and put a lot of attention, otherwise a mistake will miss a big space for the opponent.

Even more worrying for Leon is the resurgence of Kobe, once the super scoring guard turns on offensive mode in the fourth quarter, the Celtics without Paul Pierce will not be able to fight the Lakers, because in the fourth quarter, the super scorer is the most efficient offensive tactic.

“Time-out！ Leon asked the referee on the sidelines for a 20-second timeout, and he decided to completely solve the hidden dangers that Kobe Bryant could pose in this game.

……………………

Chris Anderson hardly rested in this game, and when the main players were not available, Anderson's passion and cunning learned from Rodman became the Celtics' greatest assets in this game.

After the timeout, the Celtics played a beautiful sideline ball tactic, and Anderson took advantage of O'Neal's negligence, turned around and ran inside, and received Alexander's pass directly into the air for a layup. The Lakers have already made a lot of these mistakes tonight, and there is not much Phil Jackson can do but shake his head on the sidelines.

After the goal, Anderson's face was expressionless, he didn't roar or fly, and he seemed a little too calm, because he was going to make a move that would blow up the whole game.

When Bryant once again held the ball from the middle and went straight into the Celtics' three-second zone, Anderson swooped over like a vulture that had been hovering for a long time, stretched out his arm in front of Kobe, and then directly knocked Kobe to the ground.

Kobe Bryant almost spun half a circle in the air and fell to the ground heavily, and the audience sitting close to the court could hear the heavy sound of Kobe Bryant falling to the floor, and the Staples Arena exploded instantly, and the audience all stood up, and the Lakers players all rushed towards Anderson, and the Celtics players surrounded Anderson very calmly. O'Neal walked towards the Celtics players like an angry T-Rex, and maybe he and Kobe Bryant had a conflict, but only if they were both Lakers players, and they would be consistent on the court.

The scene was in chaos, and Stern, who was sitting in the VIP position, also stood up, he couldn't remember how many times the Celtics had similar things happen in recent games, and Anderson's foul just now made him feel familiar.

It's still the Celtics, it's still the Lakers, but that was his first term long ago in 1984, and in the Lakers and Celtics Finals, Kevin McHale's clothesline-style foul on Lambis was also on the Lakers' home court, and after that foul, the game was completely reversed.

And at this time, in the face of the chaotic scene, Leon just stood quietly on the sidelines with his arms crossed, as if nothing had happened. (To be continued.) )