At the Boston Public Library, a place with more than 150 years of history, it was the first public library built in the United States. Its reading room is a magnificent arc-domed building like the interior of the church, and a table lamp with a green glass cover is placed on each reading table, and the quiet atmosphere permeates every corner.

Fox-Leon was sitting in an inconspicuous place reading a book, holding a copy of Faulkner's The Noise and the Tumult and reading it with gusto, and on his left hand there was an English translation of the Water Margin, All-men-are-brothers, the earliest translation of Pearl Race. Beneath his ass sat a stack of Boston sports newspapers from the seventies and eighties. Since the morning he had been rummaging through the photocopies of the old newspapers for things related to the Boston Celtics, and in the afternoon he got bored and simply sat under his ass and went on to read the good basketball stuff that had nothing to do with it.

Today is April 7th, and the entire NBA is on hiatus for a day, because an even bigger basketball event will attract the attention of the nation - the 2003 NCAA Finals, after the end of March Madness, the final and culmination of the more than a month of national college basketball in April, Syracuse University and the University of Kansas in New Orleans compete for the highest honor in American college basketball.

Unlike almost all NBA players and coaches, Leon did not have much of an NCAA in his short basketball life, and USC, the only one he had anything to do with, did not even make it to the national tournament. However, their head coach Henry Bibby will not be upset by this, because he got Wallace's commitment to help Fox Leon get Andy Miller, and he soon said that he would leave the NCAA to go to the NBA and work for the Grizzlies.

Taking advantage of this holiday, when there were no competitions and no training, Leon chose to go to the library to spend his day. Ayatollah Khomeenes is busy planning his future career, and Leon needs a little personal space to think about where the Boston Celtics are next.

The miraculous March 21 win over the Lakers is a thing of the past, and the cigar smoke Leon left behind from that game is slowly dissipating, and it may be mentioned again and again in the days to come, but at least for now, all eyes are on the playoffs.

After the victory over the Lakers, the Celtics' record climbed to second in the East, but Leon did not give up the rotation strategy, he asked Reisert to do a comprehensive and detailed examination of the health of all players before the playoffs, no matter who has any minor problems, they will get a reasonable rest and recuperation to best prepare for the playoffs.

So the recent Celtics game looks a little stumbling, they first lost to the Nuggets, the Warriors and other teams that have missed the playoffs, and then won two games against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and then narrowly defeated the Sacramento Kings by two points at home, making everyone unable to see the strength of the Bostonians for a while.

The day before April 7, the Celtics lost to the Washington Wizards in overtime at home, which would be the last time Michael Jordan was seen on the green parquet floor of Boston, where the Flyers who scored 63 points will never set foot as a player again.

After playing against the Wizards, the Celtics have a 46-31 record, second in the Atlantic Division, behind the New Jersey Nets, fourth in the East and behind the Pacers due to a slight disadvantage against Eastern Conference teams.

The top five in the East, the Nets, 76ers, Pistons, Pacers and Celtics, have a very small margin of win, and with five games left in the regular season, all five teams have a chance to take the top spot in the East and then get all the home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Some people believe that the Celtics should go all out to win and strive for first or second place in the East, so that the first round against teams like the Bucks and Magic will have a good chance of winning. In the second round, home advantage can still be guaranteed, so it is the best choice to fight for the top two. This is also the most vocal idea within the Celtics team at the moment, including Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, who want to end the rotation in the final week and sprint to fight for a good ranking and maintain their form to enter the playoffs.

The other idea is to save the strength, as long as you make sure you finish in the top four, to have an advantage in the first round, to give the players a better rest, and at the same time to wait for the opportunity to see if you can pick an opponent in the last few games. It's mostly the old Foxes like Danny Ainge, who has a lot of playoff experience as a player and knows that while the regular season is important, the playoffs are where the real bayonets come in.

What's more, the situation in the East this year shows that although the record is close, the New Jersey Nets still have overwhelming strength, which is enough to show how weak the East will be in the face of the Western power.

Leon had spent the morning pondering whether to go all out and win, as most people say, or wait and see. In terms of personality, Leon is definitely in favor of the second type, he doesn't believe in any "really strong teams don't need to pick opponents", the history of the NBA playoffs has long proven that for a team that wants to keep moving forward, what kind of opponent each round encounters is very important.

Just like the Rockets who won two consecutive championships in the 90s, they never encountered their nemesis, the Seattle SuperSonics, in the two years after winning the championship, especially the SuperSonics in 1994, which was undoubtedly of great benefit to the Rockets. Perhaps players must not have the psychological fear of "picking opponents", but for the strategizing coach, it is absolutely unforgivable to ignore this issue.

After reading Faulkner's most famous stream-of-consciousness book, Leon's mind returned to reality, and he put the books and newspapers back in their place, walked out of the library, and came to the Trinity Cathedral opposite, where there were not many people today, and there were many pigeons waiting in front of the square for tourists to feed. The Gothic-style church looks elegant and quaint, not as towering as ordinary churches, as if it is going to reach the sky.

Leon did not go into the church, he was never a Christian, but for a traverser, there would be a fear of the gods and God in his heart no matter what. He stood in front of the church and thought for a moment, going through the Eastern Conference team records, the matchup charts, and the rest of the regular season. He had all this in his head this morning.

His mind was calculating at a rapid pace, calculating the different matchups that could arise from different outcomes, which was a very complex calculation, a lot of variables and possibilities, but for Leon, it was just a matter of standing there and being stunned for a while.

At this moment, the bell rang in the church, pulling Leon out of his thoughts, and the solemn and solemn sound of the bell made Leon decide that it was the best choice for this calm and resilient team.

……………………

On April 16, the final round of the NBA regular season, at Boston's North Shore Garden Arena, the Celtics will conclude their final regular season game at home against the Detroit Pistons, a game that will determine the final regular season top.

Before the game, the Celtics were 48-33 and the Pistons were 49-32, if the Celtics won this game, then their record would be tied with the Pistons and the Nets, and eventually the Celtics would rely on the advantage of the record to climb to the top of the East, so everyone thought before the game that the Celtics would win this game.

As a result, when the Celtics' starting list came out, everyone was taken by surprise, and Leon once again rested all the main players. Of course, even so, there are examples of all-bench lineups defeating the Lakers first, and many fans are hopeful about this game. After all, it's been a full 15 years since the Celtics last made it to the top of the East in the regular season.

But the result of the game disappointed all Boston fans, the Detroit Pistons in the Celtics' last home regular season game, cut melons and vegetables, defeated the Celtics 98-76, 22 points, successfully climbed to the first place in the East, and kicked the Celtics to the fourth place in the East.

Facing the siege of the media after the game, Leon appeared quite confident, and he bluntly said: "For the Celtics, there is no difference between fourth in the East and first in the East, after all, our goal is to win the Eastern Conference playoffs!" That's a promise I made at the start of the season! ”

Despite his rhetoric, Leon knew that the brutal playoffs were about to begin, and that Leon had chosen a hard but workable tortuous path for the Celtics. (To be continued.) )