As one of the few tactical legacies that Rick Pitino left with the Celtics, the three-point shot has been heavily promoted by Leon this season. In the summer training camp, he opened up a special course for the players to practice three-point shooting, and continuously strengthened the team's overall three-point shooting ability through video replay, data comparison statistics, posture correction, empty-handed running and three-point tactical drills.

However, Leon still has quite strict requirements for three-point shooting selection, and has formulated a lot of rules about three-point shooting, such as "you must not force a three-point shot without passing the ball adjustment, except for quick counterattacks", which is a frequent problem for Walker in the first two seasons.

And "choose a break or two points in the three-point shooting area you're not familiar with," which is the result of the shooting percentage area, Leon delineates the "high shooting zone" for each three-point shooter through data analysis, such as Arenas's specialty point is the 30-degree area at the top of the arc to the sides, Pierce's area is at the left 45-degree and the right corner, Michael Reed is good at firing at 45 degrees on the right, and Joe Johnson's favorite place is the left corner - not just three-pointers.

Of course, the team's four-point great, Antoine Walker, was an all-round shot that dared to fire in every area, and Leon's advice was, "You'd better shoot when there's no one in front of you." ”

So, in this case, the Celtics not only shot the most three-pointers in the league in the first few games, but also got a fairly high shooting percentage, which made the Celtics' offensive efficiency much better.

In this game, Leon always asked the players to restrain their desire to shoot three-point shots in the first half, just to make the Lakers continue to shrink, and suddenly the three-point explosion in the third quarter led to the rapid collapse of the Lakers' defense.

Without O'Neal's efficient and continuous scoring on the inside, the Lakers would not have been able to bite the score when the Celtics burst out with a three-point rain. Phil Jackson had anticipated this situation before the game, but he was confused by the situation of Durham Porter starting and constantly fighting for rebounds in the frontcourt, and underestimated Fox Leon's preparation, and did not remind his players to be mentally prepared for three-point defense in time.

Seeing that the difference between the two sides widened to more than 10 points in the crucial third quarter, the Lakers wanted to retreat from this parquet floor full of grievances and hatreds, and all they could rely on was gritting their teeth and persevering. A bit of luck and the superstars in the team.

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"What else can we do? Watching being shot through by their three-pointers? Do something boys, do your best, no Lakers player wants to lose here, no matter what kind of garbage on the other side, this is Boston, it's all Celtics' turf. Wake up, the season has just begun, and so is this game! Jackson yelled at the players during the third-quarter timeout. Last season, the Lakers were beaten by the Celtics. The last time he won here was in April '01 and after putting up with a couple of bad performances from his players, he finally couldn't help but get angry.

Jackson is not a coach who likes to yell at his players, and many times his kung fu is not on the field but off the court, where he is used to letting the players solve problems on their own and use what they have learned on the training ground.

Tonight didn't look like it was going to be good, though, with a steady stream of injuries, back-to-back defeats and a lack of motivation after winning three consecutive titles. All of them have made the players lose the tenacity and courageous spirit of the past three years on the field. The last game was a big defeat to the Cavaliers, and this time it has to face the historical rival Celtics. The other party's state is amazing. Phil Jackson could feel a sense of disappointment, confusion on the Lakers' bench.

In this case, Jackson knows that there is only one person who will continue to pursue victory with determination, convinced that he can save the team on his own, and that is Kobe Bryant.

After the suspension ends. Jackson could see Kobe Bryant's determined eyes, a competitive young man who had grown so quickly that he was just a good assistant to O'Neal when he won the championship in 2000, a shooting guard who excelled offensively and was better on the defensive end. Now, two years have passed. He is already a super scorer with a faint Jordan temperament, and on the road to winning the championship last year, Kobe's role began to become more and more prominent, and his play was even more important than O'Neal when clearing obstacles such as the Spurs and Kings in the West.

In the first half of the game, Bryant had already made 18 shots, and in the absence of O'Neal and the lack of crosshairs of his teammates, Bryant began to help his team by constantly scoring shots - although he only hit 8 of them, a decent shooting rate of more than 40 percent. But in the third quarter, when the Celtics kept hitting three-point shots, Kobe Bryant also tried to use three-point points to continue the Lakers' life, but he didn't expect to miss consecutive shots, which made the Lakers fall into the pit.

Even so, Jackson still has to rely on Kobe Bryant, believe Kobe, after the timeout, the two sides returned to the court, the Lakers' offense, Kobe Bryant directly took the ball to organize the offense. On the right side, Samaki Walker made a block for Kobe, but the quality of the block was extremely poor, neither blocking people, but the two Celtics' defenders quickly changed defenses after the split, Walker also tried to cut inside to ask for the ball in the waist position, Kobe ignored him at all, because Reed stuck the position very well after changing defenses. So Bryant chose to dribble to the left.

After changing the defense, Chris Anderson faced Kobe, at this time Reed, who got rid of Walker, stepped forward and signaled Anderson to retreat, and Tony Barty on the inside had already filled in the position, Anderson could safely let go of Kobe Bryant to find his defender, and Reed faced Kobe Bryant again. In this game, Reed put most of his energy into the consumption of Kobe, obviously he is not Kobe's opponent, but being able to reduce Kobe's shooting rate to a certain extent is already the limit of what Reed can do.

Kobe Bryant's continuous crotch dribbling didn't seem to be useful, and then he suddenly started to break through from the right side, and after shaking off Reed's center of gravity, he directly stopped the jump shot, and the ball drew a relatively smooth curve, or through the basket, and hit a two-point shot. A typical Kobe-style goal can be regarded as stopping the bleeding for the Lakers, and he finally stopped trying to make three-pointers from the outside.

Looking back, Pierce tried to return the opponent with a similar one-on-one attack, he faced Kobe Bryant on the right side and dribbled with his left hand, and after a shoulder shake feint, he wanted to pass over Kobe's right hand, but Kobe Bryant reached out and poked the ball off, the ball was stealed, this time Kobe did not attack himself, he passed the ball to Fisher, who was already on the verge of going down, and Fisher made a high throw to Samaki Walker, who had already hit the three-second zone, and Walker made a layup. Kobe Bryant attacked and defended, helping the Lakers chase four points in a row.

"What the are you thinking? Want to give me back? How could you have such a naïve idea? Team basketball played by the Celtics, you have to learn to share, share! Kobe, who had the upper hand, did not forget to spit trash at Pierce and kept shouting "share". Because in the three-point attack wave in the third quarter, Pierce shouted "You should learn to share the ball" to Kobe Bryant, who missed consecutive three-point shots, how could Kobe, who was extremely vindictive, let go of such a good opportunity to counterattack.

Leon on the sidelines couldn't hear the conversation between the two, but as a coach, he knew that in this case, Pierce should be given a chance to prove himself in front of Kobe.

Leon is not the kind of manager who likes to exert authority over his players, who needs to listen to him, who has to serve the team and erase the personality of the players, who allows the players to have their own "show-time" time on the pitch when appropriate, provided that you can get the ball in.

Sure enough, Pierce received a pass from his teammate again, and this time he no longer faced Kobe Bryant head-on, but used his broad back and ****** to resist Kobe Bryant and crush it a little bit. When Shaquille O'Neal was not on the court but was sitting on the bench in a denim shirt, no one on the court had a bigger butt than Pierce, and he didn't have to worry about encountering a huge shark after hitting the inside.

Pierce used his back to crush all the way to the inside, then turned inward, and after shaking Kobe Bryant slightly, he squeezed Kobe Bryant away with a up and down step, and then picked up the basket with his right hand and hit the board high. After the goal, Pierce stood in front of Kobe Bryant and glared at him for two seconds before running away, apparently the two men were just facing each other.

But at this time, Leon called a timeout, and he called a 20-second short timeout when Arenas was fouled without the ball while defending Fisher, and it seemed that he was going to set up his defense to prevent Kobe Bryant's continuous counterattack in the third quarter.

"Paul, you come one-on-one against Kobe, remember, seal him. Michael, you go to deal with Hawley, and by the way, remember to help defend Kobe. Chris, help Paul pinch Kobe. Leon finished in a short three sentences, and the players looked a little questioning, especially Reed and Pierce. Reed defended Kobe Bryant for most of the court, and the effect was not bad, and he always felt that he could lock Kobe.

And Pierce thinks he can deal with Kobe Bryant one-on-one, whether it is offensive or defensive, and he can get rid of him, without Anderson's pinch and Reed's help defense. Arenas looked like he was on the sidelines, because Arenas hadn't gotten any chance to play in this game, and he was full of thoughts about whether to have a one-on-one showdown with Kobe.

Neither of them spoke, though, as it had been proven countless times that trying to question the consequences of Leon's decision was nothing more than a slap in the face. Leon looked at the players who had some doubts but didn't dare to say anything, and added when the timeout beep sounded: "He won't pass the ball." (To be continued.) )