Before the start of the game, Paul Pierce carefully checked his ankle, jumped around the court, twisted hard, felt that there was no problem at all, made an OK gesture to the team doctor on the sidelines, and began to warm up. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the last game at North Shore Gardens, Pierce slipped on a breakaway in the fourth quarter, twisting his right ankle almost 90 degrees, and was carried off the court, never returning to the court. Fortunately, after he got off the court that game, James Posey stubbornly stepped up and hit a key three-pointer, and in the end, the Celtics gritted their teeth and pressed the Lakers to achieve a 2-0 good situation.

After a preliminary examination by the team doctor and an MRI after the game, the team doctor believed that Pierce was only a mild sprain, and only needed ice and physiotherapy, and he would recover quickly, and it was estimated that he would be able to play on the day of the third game.

But how could Fox Leon and the Celtics' propaganda agencies let go of such an opportunity to throw a smokescreen, and the Boston and New York media immediately posted the day after the game that Pierce was likely to miss the third game, and it was doubtful that he would be able to play in the fourth. Pierce himself said bluntly in an interview that the ankle injury is not too bad, but it will not be very optimistic.

This is quite exciting for the Lakers and Los Angeles fans, Pierce is the most important scoring point and offensive playmaker on the outside of the Celtics, and is also the spiritual leader of the Celtics, and once Pierce is unable to play, it will definitely be a major positive for the Lakers.

Unexpectedly, the whole of Los Angeles was put on the spot by this kid who was born in Inglewood, and he appeared on the floor of the Stamp Center with a loud bang, wearing the green jersey that Los Angelesers hated the most. And he himself used to hate this green outfit immensely, but now he wants to wear this outfit to Los Angeles to kill the Lakers.

Pierce used to be a die-hard Lakers fan, and his favorite star was none other than the greatest superstar in Lakers history, Magic Johnson, who was born there every weekend when the Lakers' most glorious 80s, when their home arena, the Great Western Forum Arena, was being built in Inglewood, and Pierce, who was born there, begged his parents to take him there every weekend to watch the Lakers. He aspires to one day be like Magic, wearing the Lakers' purple and gold jersey and galloping across the floor of the Great Western Forum Arena.

As a result, on that heartbreaking night in 1998, he not only dropped to an unexpected tenth place, but was also drafted by the team he disliked the least and least wanted to go to - the Boston Celtics. The team he cursed countless times as a child became the first place he played for, and he stayed for six years, and it looks like it will stay for a long time.

Looking back on this, Paul Pierce's mood was not affected in the slightest, and some of his former classmates and friends in Los Angeles, as well as his mother, as well as his childhood idol Magic Johnson, were also present at the game. Except for his own mother, Pierce believed that these people would be on the opposite side of him, but he still greeted them with a smile, and at the same time firmly stated in his heart that he would help the Celtics be crowned early in Los Angeles!

Once they win this game and take a 3-0 lead, the Lakers will have no chance of turning over, and Pierce remembers what Fox Leon said to him before the game, "If you don't let a miracle happen, it's the biggest miracle." ”

The more the championship is close at hand, the more cautious you must be, otherwise the hope will be greater, the disappointment will be heavier, and the pain will be deeper.

After American country singer Don Williams sang the national anthem and DJ introduced the players from both sides, the third game of the '04 season finals, the battle for Los Angeles began. Tonight's referee is not surprising, the league has arranged for Jarvi, this Leon is more annoying, and likes to play a balanced referee. Seeing Stern sitting on the sidelines smiling, Leon thought to himself that this guy must want to watch the finals play a few more games.

Indeed, how can the showdown of the century between the Celtics and the Lakers end with a sweep? It has to be ups and downs to attract more audiences. Leon also expected this, knowing that the Lakers were fighting with their backs in this game, and they would definitely go all out to fight with the Celtics. So Leon called on the players to take it easy in the first half, reduce fouls, reduce turnovers, reduce the tempo, and don't let the Lakers play momentum and climax.

However, things don't always go the way the coach thinks, and the Lakers started with a really high morale, and Payton changed the problem of too much sticky balls in the first two games and kept feeding O'Neal the ball. PJ Brown is no longer so ferocious after two episodes of O'Neal because the shark's elbow is really not vegetarian. Especially in the opening stanza, Brownie would rather let O'Neill score.

As a result, at the beginning, O'Neal felt surprisingly good, as long as he caught the ball, he could score points, and the Celtics did not cover and rarely fouled, so he let the Sharks score 15 points in the first quarter and helped the Lakers take a 28-24, four-point lead in the first quarter. The 28 points were also the Lakers' highest score in the first quarter since the Finals.

In the second quarter, the Lakers' offense began to intensify with the sound of the Staples Arena, and Jackson fielded a lineup of Fisher, Fox, O'Neal, Kobe and Rush, which was closer to their starters during the three-game championship. This lineup is obviously more fluid and tacit on the offensive end, and the young player Rush has a huge three-point threat on the court, and he shot three three-pointers in the second quarter as a surprise player, which once helped the Lakers stretch the gap to 11 points.

On the Celtic side, as the game deepened, they got into a lot of trouble. The Lakers made a very important adjustment on the defensive end, that is, to let Kobe Bryant defend Arenas, and Fisher and Payton to deal with Reed, which limited the Celtics' offensive first engine, and many times they had to stop and play positional battles with the Lakers. This is exactly what the Lakers want, although the Celtics have a more sophisticated tactical coordination and system, but in the high-intensity confrontation of the Finals, sometimes the exquisite tactics are not as good as the superstar singles and fast breaks.

And the Lakers are well aware of this, and Jackson insisted that O'Neal and Kobe Bryant should not waver in their singles, making full use of the triangle offense to create opportunities for them. In fact, against the Celtics' super overall defense, only superstar singles can crack, turning basketball from five people to one-on-one, and the Celtics' exquisite defensive coordination will lose its power.

What worries Leon even more is the referee on the court, Jarvey, the master of balance, can see through some of his tricks Leon can see through it at a glance, and most of the penalties he makes are no problem, the problem is that those actions and behaviors that are on the verge of fouling, he will blow it if he is on the verge of fouling, and he will not blow it if he is on the verge of fouling. Although there are only some subtle differences at a time, such as a ball possession and a free throw, these subtle things are likely to add up to a huge difference between the two sides, until the final result of the game.

"If you want the Lakers to win, you can blow the whistle right now!" When Kevin Garnett was whistled for a third foul in defense in the second half of the second quarter, Leon finally couldn't hold back and yelled at Jarvey. and clenched his fists and was about to rush to the court, but Carlisle drank Cowens and pulled him tightly in the back, so that Leon did not rush up and punch Jarvey.

Of course, Jarvey will not be polite to Leon, and directly a technical foul gives the Lakers a chance to make free throws, and then Garnett has to go to rest. Leon replaced Durham Porter and formed a twin tower with Brown on the inside, hoping to withstand the Lakers' offense in the final part of the second quarter, as the difference between the two sides was close to 15 points.

When Bryant hit a free throw at the free throw line, the difference between the two sides became 15 points, 61:46, the Lakers showed strong offensive firepower in the first half, and also gave the Lakers fans on the scene a huge motivation, 0:2 behind the big score does not look so terrible, win one game tonight, the next game is still in Los Angeles. Just like the semifinals against Spurs, what is even more crucial is that if the score is 2:2, Tianwangshan will be played in Los Angeles.

With less than 20 seconds left before the end of the first half, the last attack of the Celtics, a 15-point difference, Leon called a 20-second short timeout and simply laid out the tactics. After eating a technical foul, Leon also calmed down a lot, knowing that punches can solve some problems, but not the problems at hand.

The Celtics played impetuously throughout the first half, and although Pierce's return gave the Lakers some shock, the Celtics didn't take advantage of that advantage to take the lead, and now they have to fight to catch up.

The timeout ended quickly, the Celtics served the sideline, and they played a very neat cut-around strategy, Pierce and three other players lined up near the free throw line and then scattered, Pierce pretended to go to the baseline, and then went back to the three-point line, Brown made a cover for him, and Pierce caught the ball and hit a three-point shot.

It's not over yet, the first half went too smoothly and seemed to make the Lakers players forget how they were abused by the Celtics in the first two games, Fox was careless in the backcourt, and was touched by the sudden Dalem Porter, Arenas grabbed the ball in front of Kobe, and then rushed to the basket with speed, grabbing a change hand in front of the timer and making a layup.

"Buzz!" With the buzzer sounding at the end of the half, the score instantly became 61:51, and the difference was narrowed to 10 points.

"I told you that if you want the Lakers to win, you should blow the whistle right now!" Leon got up from the bench and yelled at Javi, who was not far away, before heading back to the dressing room with the players. (To be continued.) )