Byron Scott's rich playoff experience allowed him to smell a bad smell from Walker's fast-break layup, so when Jefferson broke through from the baseline and forced a layup to be blocked by PJ Brown, Paul Pierce squeezed Kenyon Martin to get the backcourt rebound, and the Celtics launched a three-line fast break again, this time when Reed fell to the bottom corner to catch the ball and hit a three-point shot, Scott immediately called a timeout.

The tactical formation used by the Celtics in these two rounds was something that Scott did not anticipate at all, a 3-2 joint defense, and Antoine Walker was not one of the two in it, but ran to the outside to act as a small forward. Pierce stepped up to the power forward position and guarded the interior with PJ Brown. Pierce may only be 6-foot-6 tall, but he's sturdy enough to play Kenyon Martin one-on-one under the basket.

Antoine Walker originally suffered a loss in the face of Martin, but after coming to the outside, his height became an advantage, plus Michael Reed and Arenas, excellent defensive positioning and cooperation, so that Kidd couldn't find any way for a while.

Kidd had no choice, and Scott didn't really have anything in his head, he could only call a timeout to cool down the situation, and the momentum of the Celtics' continuous reliance on quick counterattacks to score did not bode well for the Nets. And Fox Leon knows that Scott will not have any good solutions, he will not have any contingency plans, because this joint defense tactic has not been used by the Celtics in the entire regular season, and the idea of letting Walker put Pierce on the top of the interior was also recently discussed with Hart, and then two days of full training in New York, and finally had an effect on the court.

"Three minutes, three more minutes, after three minutes, whether the opponent's attack can break through our joint defense or not, we have to change our defensive strategy. Back to man-marking, enhance backcourt rebounding protection, shrink, remember we're going to shrink. "Leon gave the players three minutes in the timeout, which is basically what it looks like until the next timeout.

Leon knows that this 3-2 joint defense is by no means invulnerable, it has holes, just like the holes of the 2-3 joint defense are in two 45 degrees, and the weakness of the 3-2 joint defense is mainly in the bottom line. In the first half, the Nets' main offensive initiation points were still at the top of the arc, 45 degrees and the ribs, and they didn't instigate many attacks from the baseline. In fact, in the attack just now, Kidd had already run to the baseline to organize the attack, which made Leon's heart tighten.

Leon is confident that Kidd will not find a way to crack it anytime soon, and unless his three-point touch suddenly returns, the 3-2 defensive perimeter pressure will hold them down for a while. But Kidd's keen sense of smell on the court allowed him to run to the bottom corner to catch the ball as soon as possible, which was quite scary, so Leon asked the players to use this strategy only for the next three minutes, and after three minutes, once the Nets got used to the 3-2 defense, they would soon seize the weak point and attack.

Therefore, Celtic must seize these three minutes to extend the score advantage as soon as possible to lay a good foundation for the next games.

Sure enough, back on the court, the Nets' offense still did not improve, the Nets relied more on Kidd and Kittels in transferring the ball, neither Martin nor Collins were masters on the inside, and the strong pressure on the outside of the 3-2 joint defense team made the Nets' guide meaningless. Kenyon Martin tried to get the ball in the low post, but Pierce desperately stuck around and didn't give Martin a good chance to catch the ball.

Martin is not a master of attacking in the low post in the first place, and he does not have the ability to create good scoring opportunities for himself, and once he is uncomfortable receiving the ball and is not in a good position, it will be difficult for him to attack. The mid-range shots shown in the first half disappeared in the second half, and he didn't have the courage to break the deadlock with mid-range shots when the whole team was not going well.

In the end, the offense was launched from Kidd, he completed a small match with Kittels in the bottom corner, Kittels passed the ball back to Kidd in the bottom corner, Kidd forced a three-point shot against Arenas' defense, Pierce grabbed the backcourt rebound again, it was his eighth rebound of the night, and obviously in addition to scoring, Pierce can also help the team in other ways.

Without pressure on the defensive end, Walker released more energy on the offensive end, and he began to try to score points in athletic battles rather than playing Martin in positional battles. By the time Pierce got the rebound, Walker was already on his way. Now the Nets face a serious problem, and when Walker moves to the small forward position, he is difficult to stop on the fast break.

After receiving a short pass from Arenas, Walker slid small steps, with a slow but rhythmic pace, held the ball with both hands and gritted his teeth to the basket, and before Martin could return to defense, he ended the attack with a layup.

Walker waved his paws like a crab after the goal, and it was clear that the guy was a little carried away, and he seemed to have forgotten all about the embarrassment he faced the Nets last year.

This scene did last less than three minutes, and the Nets, who did not have a super offensive strength, were stuck in the throat by the Celtics' 3-2 joint defense, and they couldn't stop Walker's quick counterattack, and Scott watched the Celtics stretch the difference from a few points to a dozen points in the third quarter. Finally, when Kidd finally hit a three-pointer in the bottom right corner, Leon finally called a timeout, and when the time came, it was time for them to put away their aggressive defensive strategy and use the rest of the day to consolidate their advantage.

At 68:55, the Celtics led the Nets by 13 points at the end of the third quarter. 13 points, in the 2003 NBA playoffs, at the level of the Eastern Conference Finals, it was almost an insurmountable score. Both sides may not break 80 points in the end, and the Celtics may break 90 points if they feel better, and 13 points is an impossible task for the Nets in such an offensive and defensive situation.

In the fourth quarter, when Kittels and Kidd missed consecutive three-pointers, Leon knew that victory was not far from him and the Celtics, and the Nets had no Kobe, no Iverson, no Carter, no Maddy, no one could force a score with the ball and recklessly pull the gap between the two sides to a palpable distance. Those three minutes of the third quarter were fatal for the Nets.

By the end of the game, the score was fixed at 90-78, and the Celtics won their first win in the Eastern Conference Finals by 12 points. There was no doubt that it was Fox Leon's night, the rhythm and melody of the whole game was in his hands, and compared to Leon, Scott, the best coach, looked like a stupid bear in the circus.

It didn't end with the Celtics' win in New Jersey, and the next day, on May 20, the Nets vowed to defend one of their home courts in a rematch between the Celtics and the Nets. They pressed the Celtics from the start, and the trident of Martin, Kidd and Jefferson swept away the previous offensive decline, frequently forced quick counterattacks, and caused multiple defensive fouls on the Celtics.

This situation lasted until the last quarter, five minutes before the end of the game, the Nets also led the Celtics by 6 points at 77:71, and the Celtics were very passive as a whole tonight, Leon's 3-2 joint defense has lost its effect, and a three-pointer each from Kittels and Kidd made Leon dispel the idea of continuing to defend together. Seeing that the Nets were about to slowly grind the six-point gap to the end, Paul Pierce exploded.

He first steals Kidd's pass on the defensive end, counterattacks and layups, and also causes Kidd's foul and hits free throws, and then the Celtics defend the Nets' offense, Pierce hit an unreasonable outside three-point shot on the counterattack, and the score is tied in two rounds.

Scott called a timeout and couldn't stop Pierce, who then hit another mid-range jumper and a last-minute layup to score a crucial two-point break to stretch the gap to four points. As Jefferson missed a jumper from beyond the three-point line, Chris Anderson grabbed the rebound, made a foul, and hit one of two free throws, and the Nets missed the offense again, and the score of the second game was fixed at 81:86, and the Nets lost again at home.

Celtic surprisingly won two straight games on the road to take a 2-0 series lead and will be back at home.

For a while, public opinion was in shock. (To be continued.) )