Not too many people know what Pierce went through in the summer because he was so low-key. After returning to Los Angeles at the end of the season, he spent two weeks adjusting his body, resting well, and starting his summer training training.

The biggest change in his technique was the addition of his ability to carry the ball in the low post on the left side, and in the days before 2002, he was always able to cause big problems for opponents on the right side of the basket, because he was a right-handed player and he was used to using his precocious offensive skills on the right side.

But the left side was his weakness, so in the summer he started to work his left back, everything was reversed from the right, the feeling when he dribbled back, the direction of the turn and shot, and the way he read the defense, it was a challenge for him, and now he has the courage to accept all challenges. He's decided to add an offensive trick to himself every summer for the rest of his life, until one day he's the most skilled guy in the league.

At the same time, he began to control his diet, and when he was still young and vigorous when he first entered the league, he would run to Burger King for a big portion of Castle and a big glass of Coke every time a perfect game night passed and he won a beautiful victory. From this year onwards, he will abstain from these foods that are not conducive to competitive conditions, and only drink water, and at most a little red wine.

After returning to Boston after an exhausting summer, he learned a lot from the one-month training camp. Sigfried, an experienced veteran, provided Pierce with a lot of experience in shooting. Pierce is only 25 years old now, and he is at his best physically, and he often uses his physical fitness when shooting, shooting extremely high and keen to jump. But Sigfried gave him some shooting experience that he could use until he was 40 years old, how to lower his shot point appropriately. At the same time, the method of not being blocked will benefit Pierce a lot in the years of his growing years.

So, when Pierce scored 11 straight points in the third quarter of the first game, he excitedly waved his arms and responded to the tidal cheers of the North Shore Garden with a hoarse roar.

Apparently. Bill Cartwright's timeout didn't work, Jalen Rose couldn't stop Pierce, and the clip didn't work either, the Celtics' level of small-range short passing was surprising, and once there was a pack, the Celtics would be able to defuse it in three passes.

Cartwright knew that it was the positioning idea of the triangle attack at work, and the reasonable distance distribution greatly weakened the role of the pack, but not the pack. Pierce was already unstoppable. The scales of victory tipped dramatically in the third quarter, and Paul Pearce, who suddenly came out of nowhere, gave the Bulls a taste of what the truth about Boston basketball is.

"But I think the main problem for the Bulls is on offense, and if they have someone who can step up and score, then the Celtics' offense isn't that scary. Pierce is unstoppable right now, but his form won't last forever, and their offense will return to normal, the question is when will the Bulls' offense return to normal? Charles Barkley finally said two words between the third and fourth quarters. With the sensitivity of a professional footballer, he realizes that when a team is ugly on the field. Nine times out of ten, there was a problem with the attack, and I couldn't throw it in, and I was always beaten back by the way.

The Bulls' offense stalled from the third quarter, and as Pierce kept scoring, the Bulls had to start playing positional battles step by step. The hallmark of a strong team is when the opponent keeps hitting high shots and the team does not get easy-ball opportunities such as quick counter-attacks. Relying only on strong positional warfare can still bite the score, and rely on continuous successes in positional warfare to turn the unfavorable situation around.

The easiest way to succeed in this positional attack is to rely on the team's superstars, with the top scorer relying on a simple one-on-one attack to stabilize the situation. Or they have a clever positional attacking tactics to ensure that every player gets a shot with a high success rate. The problem with the Bulls is that they have a little bit of both. But none of them are good enough.

Bill Cartwright began to try to continue to play from the inside, using Eddie Curry as a point to continue attacking the Celtics' weaker interior line, while Tyson Chandler continued to attack the frontcourt rebounds and create chaos. But Cartwright miscalculated, and since the Celtics changed their tactics on the offensive end, how could it be the same on the defensive end?

Leon activated Pierce on the offensive end and let Pierce take the lead alone, so the rest of the people are not idle, their task is to defend. When the Celtics no longer pursue the all-round speed of the second fast break, it means that Arenas, Reed, and Walker don't have to rush and can focus more on getting up to the defensive rebound. Since the team doesn't have an efficient backcourt rebounding protector, then all the players grab the rebounds together.

Several of the Celtics' outside players, such as Arenas, Pierce, Reed and Johnson, are all strong outside players with wide shoulders and broad backs, and they are not much worse than interior players in terms of physical confrontation, especially in the face of a tall but thin young guy like Chandler, a slight block on the outside will make Chandler unable to impact the frontcourt rebound.

At the same time, Leon replaced Mark Blunt in the third minute to replace Tony Barty, although Blount is not high, but he is tall and has long arms, and it is enough to deal with Curry, a young interior who still lacks enough experience and skills, especially in the second half of the third quarter, when Walker came off the court and Chris Anderson came on the court, Curry was completely wilted, after all, he ate Anderson's two hats in the first half, and there were some shadows in his heart.

By the fourth quarter, the Bulls launched a final counterattack, and this time Cartwright used the weapon of their team's leading scorer, Jalen Rose, who was once one of the Michigan Five Tigers.

In the 01-02 season, after switching from the Pacers to the Bulls, Rose gradually grew into the Bulls' leading scorer. This tall and thin small forward, accurate shooting, and excellent organization and passing, only scored 7 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds in the fourth quarter of this game, completely lacking the demeanor of the team's number one attacker, for only one reason, the Celtics' point guard Michael Reed fought to not score, and he had to follow Rose closely so that he could not score a point.

As Celtic's No. 3 attacker last season. Michael Reed has grown over two seasons into an excellent all-around attacker, and he has a fierce rivalry with Joe Johnson at the shooting guard position, with Reed having better three-pointers, Johnson being better in mid-range and more microwavering, and who the coach uses is entirely up to the needs of the team.

But the season begins. Reed began to make some changes to his positioning, and he decided to focus more on defense. This was further facilitated by the arrival of Sigfried, who was a tough defender in his playing days, incredibly tough and stubborn, and he brought that temperament to the Celtics and to Michael Reed. In the first game against the Bulls, by the end of the third quarter, Reed had only scored 5 points, but he locked up Rose. Locks the bull's sharpest horns.

"Keep your defensive intensity Michael, but be mindful of foul control, be sure to control fouls, don't give Rose a chance to go to the free throw line. Also, you need to pay attention to your teammates and don't just stare at the person in front of you...... Dick, give them a defensive tactic and go into more detail. "In one of the timeouts in the fourth quarter. Leon reminded Reed, who had already committed four fouls, to keep himself under control, and Rose had already scored six points in the fourth quarter. It looks like it's going to be quite difficult to stop him completely.

Leon then handed over the tactical board to Dick Hart, Leon is not a person who likes to nag and talk to the team for a long time, he is very relieved to leave the defensive matters to Hart, he never minds the assistant coach in training or games "overstepping" to arrange tactics or command, when necessary, let more professional people complete the task. It's a mind that a manager should have.

"Pay attention to the distance with your teammates, pay attention to the side, block the passing lane, you can let Rose shoot, but you can't let him pass the ball to lead his teammates to score. That's the bottom line! Be sure to pay attention to this! Hart said as he drew a picture on the tactics board to demonstrate how to effectively prevent a two-man combination when defending a pick-and-roll. In the fourth quarter, the Bulls finally began to ditch the triangle that didn't suit them well and began to create shooting opportunities for Rose with simple pick-and-roll combinations.

Hart's defensive skills are profound, even if the defensive foundation of the Celtics team is not good, under his adjustment and the influence of Sigfried, Cowens and others, it is enough to withstand the Bulls' counterattack in the fourth quarter. Although under the leadership of Rose, the Bulls played an offensive advantage of 30:22 in the final quarter, but in the third quarter their winning side has been crushed, and the hole dug is too big.

When the buzzer sounded at the end of the game, the score was fixed at 98:91, and the Celtics won by seven points at home to the Chicago Bulls to get the new season off to a flying start.

"Congratulations to the Celtics, who put in a pretty good game, Paul Pierce was voted the best of the game, deservedly deservedly, with 30 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Antoine Walker had 19 points and nine rebounds, but he grabbed nine rebounds. And Arenas, 15 points and 8 assists, a beautiful first half. I would say that this game has changed my opinion of Celtic, they have a lot of character, they play very, very strategic, and I bet it all comes down to their new coach. There were only 4 timeouts in the game, and I don't know if I was unresponsive or full-fledged, but I want to say that the season has just begun, and the Celtics still have a long way to go. "Kenny Smith summed up a Celtic after the game.

"Yes, no matter what you have in mind, a long season will be your worst enemy. Also, our new season has begun, a perfect commentary game! Dedication by me Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, goodbye friends! ”

The commentary ended with Barkley's closing remarks, but the Celtic game was not completely over, and after returning to the locker room, Leon clapped his hands to quiet down as he faced the players who were excited about the win. But the problem was that there was no quiet at all, and Pierce took the lead in raising his arms and cheering, and then a group of people began to dance around Leon as if he had won the championship.

Leon was also a little crying and laughing, so he could only shake his head and wait for everyone to slowly calm down and stabilize their emotions before he said, "Thank you, good victory." I'm sure I'll never want to taste failure again. This night, my coaching maiden night, thank you all, I will always remember it. For victory! ”

Leon raised his right hand into a fist, and all the Celtics coaching staff made the same gesture, shouting "for-the-win!" ”

Victory, León has experienced the greatest pleasure and charm of competitive sports. (To be continued.) )