PJ Brown's fouling made the Celtics' originally stable advantage begin to loosen a little, George Carr is worthy of the old coach who has been in the league since the 80s, and a small trick made the Celtics suffer. Although Anthony Mason is the starting point of the Bucks, he is 36 years old, his body and ability are not as good as before, and his role in the team is far less than that of PJ Brown, who is in his prime.

And Brown is the center, the only reliable interior line on the Celtics so far, Mason is a forward, without Mason, the Bucks have Kukoc, Tim Thomas, and Kaffee on the bench, all of them are tall and strong forward players, which is also what George Karl has been coaching for so many years - like to pile up mobile and versatile forwards.

Although this accumulation in the Bucks is far less successful than in the supersounds, in this game, the Bucks have taken the initiative on the field through a small trick. At this point, Leon had to bring on Bowler Bowler, with the young Haitian replacing Brown on the team's interior line.

With Ray Allen hitting a free throw, the gap narrowed to six points. Thankfully, there was not much time left in the second quarter, leaving the Bucks not much time to fight back. Paul Pierce stepped up at the critical moment, and after Allen hit a free throw, he suddenly started to dribble from the backcourt all the way to the Bucks' interior, taking advantage of his unpreparedness to face the double defense of Tim Thomas and Kaffee and forced a layup, causing Tim Thomas to foul and go to the free throw line.

When George Carr saw the foul, he scratched his ears and cheeks angrily and yelled at the referee, who seemed to him that Pierce, a cunning guy, had cheated another foul. Pierce hit two free throws to turn the gap back to eight points, with 17 seconds left until the end of the first half.

"Full-field marking! Pay attention to confrontation and scale, don't foul, don't give your opponent a chance to open a seat! Leon, who rarely commands from the sidelines, also started yelling this time, knowing that he had to fight for a 10-point or so lead in the first half. Once you get five or six points, then the form will be different and the pressure on the team at the beginning of the second half will become very high. So this time the defense has to defend against the opponent.

Reed's offensive state in the second quarter has been much better, he scored 7 points in a single quarter, but the opposite Ray Allen has scored 21 points, 21 points in the half, his hand is hot, but Leon is still not ready to use other players to help Reed wrap Allen. This kind of thing is a big benefit, but also a big risk. Against a team like the Bucks, each of the five players on the court with projection ability and a liberal offensive style led by George Karl, it will be a painful price to easily wrap up.

But one-on-one doesn't seem to be a particularly good solution.

Sam Cassel dribbled quickly across the half, and Arenas led the defense. Cassel is an out-and-out ball ruffian, he is thin but does a good job of dribbling and protecting the ball, half-turning his back to Arenas without giving him the slightest chance to steal, while looking up to watch his teammates' runs and Celtic's defensive positions, ready to strike the final blow.

Reid was tangling with Ray Allen near the baseline at this point. Obviously, Ray Allen is going to run around in a big circle, and Reed sticks to Ray Allen like a kraft candy, just ready to "I will go wherever you go, and I will accompany you to the end of the earth when you go to the cape".

"Fool. What's the use of dwelling on this place? Leon was in a hurry from the sidelines, and Reed seemed to be sticking tightly, but it was useless at all, because Ray Allen's position was deep. He flashed near the baseline, and all the other Celtics players basically had their backs to him, while the Bucks players were facing him. That means Bucks players can come forward at any time to cover Ray Allen. And the Celtics players are likely to not be able to take care of Ray Allen, and it is useless for Reid to wrap up tightly at this time, and he will be out of position when he blocks people, or simply foul him.

The right thing to do is to keep a certain distance from Ray Allen, pay attention to other Bucks players, and judge the route of Ray Allen's position by their runs, which requires the defender to have a lot of experience and a high level of tactical literacy, and even if he has these two points, he is likely to be completely unable to keep up with the opponent's movement on the ever-changing court.

Sure enough, almost 10 seconds after Cassel took off from beyond the three-point line, Ray Allen suddenly activated, and instead of going around the baseline, he went through the middle! Squeezed past Durham Porter and Walker, broke through the barrier under Tim Thomas' cover and ran to the right 45-degree position. Reed, who was close to Ray Allen, couldn't even run hard, couldn't catch up at all, and no one came to make up for the defense, so the whole team watched Ray Allen run to 45 degrees outside the three-point line to receive a pass from Cassel, jump, and shoot three-pointers!

A beautiful sword unsheathed, Ray Allen's shot was like a swordsman drawing his sword, swift and sharp, and the moment the sword was drawn, the ball flew in the air, like stabbing the tip of the enemy's sword.

"Beautiful shot, *** is going to score......" Leon looked at this jump shot, he knew that the ball was going to go in, the rhythm was too good, the shot was too comfortable, and it was strange not to score. Leon rarely swears, but this time he couldn't help but curse in his heart, the team has no PJ Brown, and there is really no one who can really defend. In the past half season, although the Celtics have won most of them and have a record at the top of the East, they have always relied on the team's strong offensive power, and they have not matched in defense, sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad. The old Dick Hart is starting to doubt his abilities.

Leon knows that the root cause is that this group of players is too inexperienced, and defense is more dependent on experience than offense, and many times he does not blame the players for making mistakes of one kind or another.

However, with Ray Allen's three-point hollow into the net, Leon could not contain his frustration and anger at the players' defensive performance, and he asked the referee for a long timeout, and when the players replied that the bench was about to sit down and drink, Leon waved his tactical board and said to them in a deep voice: "Get up from the stool, do you think the first half is over?" With just 0.6 seconds left before the end of the first half, it was the referee who left a little time for Celtic after watching the footage.

Walker, Pierce, and Arenas, who had just sat down to bring up the water, all bounced off their stools like their butts had been electrified, and Darem Porter and Reed were standing next to Leon, who had five people around him, and he had 0.6 seconds to design an offensive strategy for the players.

0.6 seconds, which is the moment of lightning, from the serve to the player's touch, the player must just touch the ball and throw the ball, otherwise it will be too late. At this point, the difference between the two sides is 5 points, and the Celtics still maintain the lead, but the momentum seems to have shifted to the Bucks' side, which is why Leon must call a timeout, he doesn't want to watch the players hang their heads and throw the ball on the court, go back to the locker room, even if it is 0.6 seconds and he has to try.

Leon wanted to devise a tactic of inside air catch, which was a tactical method with a relatively high success rate in 0.6 seconds. The players pulled away, and a guy with a good bounce slipped into the inside line on cover, and the outside line passed the ball directly into the air. The challenge is how to distract the opposing interior defender and cover up the intention to get an empty catch.

Just as Leon was making the set-up, Reed suddenly said, "Let me shoot a three-pointer, I can shoot a three-pointer." ”

The players who were listening carefully to Leon's tactics all focused on Reed, and they didn't know what this guy meant, including Leon. A different coach might ignore Reed and continue to set up tactics, or simply push Reed to the bench to calm down.

But Leon didn't, he looked at Reed and said, "Tell me what you think, give you five seconds." ”

"I've recently practiced a technique of quick shots, which Seeger taught, and Arenas and I have practiced together, and it has worked." Reed answered Leon's question in five seconds.

Leon thought for a moment, handed the tactics board to Reed, and said, "Leave it to you, complete this tactic." ”

Reid was stunned, and the others were also stunned, how could any coach let the players arrange their own tactics? But time waits for no one, Reed didn't think much about it, took the tactical board and began to set it up. In fact, the tactics he laid out were simple, everyone pulled away, he stood at a 45-degree angle on the right side, and when he received a pass from Arenas, he threw it.

"It's as simple as that?" Leon asked.

"It's as simple as that, but I have a certain take on me, and I think I can throw it in." Reed said that the devil knows what he's been practicing for the past two days. Leon turned his head to look at Sigfried, the old man scratching his head, as if he didn't expect Reed to put on the field what he had practiced in his usual games.

But no matter what, I have to try, the timeout has come, and the 0.6 seconds of the first half, the Celtics' last attack, a seemingly unimportant random attack, may affect the trend of the second half of the game.

Leon watched Reed walk on the court, and he didn't know what this guy had been secretly practicing in the past two days, and he didn't even let him know that he dared to use it in the game. However, he was also pleased to feel that Reed was beginning to show a kind of self-confidence, which could be seen from the fact that he had just dared to take over the tactics of the board drawing.

The referee gave the ball to Arenas on the sideline and blew a whistle for the last 0.6 seconds. Reid was standing at a 45-degree angle, no cover, no running, he just stood there.

At this time, Leon found that Arenas's ball had not yet been passed, and Reed had already started to jump! He jumped straight into the air and made a shooting gesture with both hands, but there was no ball in his hands! Ray Allen, who was defending him, was a little flustered, he didn't know how Reed on the opposite side jumped like that, and his attention was still on Arenas on the serve.

When Reed was about to jump to the top point, Arenas passed the ball and he threw the ball directly into Reed's hand, and when Reed reached the highest point, the ball was just in his hand. Reed took advantage of the situation and made a shooting move in the air and pushed the ball out!

The ball slices through the air in a straight arc and heads straight for the basket. Leon looked at the ball and thought to himself, "Beautiful shot, *** is going to go in too." ”

"Huh!" The ball smashed into the basket, the red light came on, and at the end of the first half, Reed hit an incredible three-pointer to stretch the gap to 8 points again! (To be continued.) )