The Celtics and the Jazz had a fierce battle in Salt Lake City, the game began at 7 p.m. MT, and the whole game was fouled continuously due to fierce physical confrontation, the referee's whistle sounded throughout the court, and all four quarters of the game, each quarter saw both sides foul four free throws.

This has nothing to do with Karl Malone's elbow knockdown of Pierce five days ago, the Celtics players are quite tough in the center of the triangle, even if the usually giggling Walker has shown 120 percent hardness in the face of Malone, he scored a game-high 31 points in the game, Malone has kept up with Walker's small steps on the defensive end, and he has been directly passed by him again and again to score inside. But Walker also couldn't stop the 38-year-old Malone's machine-like steady pick-and-roll and mid-range jumper, and the two sides fought until the final minutes of the game.

"And the last two minutes! There is still a two-point gap, you must play inside, you must play inside, use the opportunity of free throws to close the gap, and then defend them! During a timeout, Carroll repeatedly stressed the need to go inside, score on a breakaway or make a foul, and now they are two points away from the Jazz with 2:14 left in the game.

Leon crouched to the side and watched as the young people gasped for air, the loud noise around him that had caused Carol to roar all night, his voice hoarse. With the Celtics now having five players on the court, Walker, Joe Johnson, Arenas, Reid and Portapenco, Leon can sense that everyone is a little tired, and the high altitude of Salt Lake City, the extreme intensity of the game and the noisy environment of the stadium can cause players to lose their energy quickly.

For the first time, Leon saw a tired look in the eyes of a gym rat like Arenas, and tonight he faced Stockton again, Arenas had a rough time, and he even suffered a technical foul in the third quarter because he could no longer stand being harassed by Stockton on the offensive end. This made Leon not have a good feeling about the final development of the game.

Sure enough, in the offense after the timeout, Walker and Arenas completed a poor quality block, Walker did not get rid of the defense at all after receiving the ball, but he still hit the interior with all his might, but his physical strength was not as good as the first three quarters, and finally fell in the three-second zone under the defense of Karl Malone, the ball slipped out of his hand and fell out of the bottom line, the referee did not hesitate to blow the backcourt ball, Jazz ball possession, the whole court cheered, and the situation of the Celtics, who were two points behind, suddenly became bad.

Leon sat on the sidelines and watched Walker's breakthrough, and when he started, Leon knew that his foot strength was a little lacking, and his blocking and dismantling with Arenas was really bad, the block was not solid, Stockton was easy to squeeze through, and the inside cut was too anxious, and he didn't catch the ball steadily, so he had to adjust and force an attack, only to be squeezed down by the strong Karl Malone and missed. In the absence of Paul Pierce, Walker has taken on most of the team's offensive responsibilities and he's a little tired.

Carroll stood on the sidelines and paced anxiously around, and if the Jazz's next offense was successful, it wouldn't be in good shape. The old spicy Stockton did not rush to launch a counterattack, but steadily controlled the ball over the half court, the Jazz fell 1-4, Collins came over to Donnie Marshall to make a cover, Marshall used a standard UCLA-Cut to cut into the low post, Stockton did not hesitate to pass the ball to Marshall, and then Collins cut outside, Stockton transferred from the strong side to the weak side, Malone, who was originally on the weak side, suddenly started to cut into the basket, and Marshall handed the ball to Malone with an inside cut. Malone used his strong back to push against Portapanko and scored a left-handed backhand layup under the basket. The difference between the two sides was stretched to four points.

"Everybody's a little tired." Dick Hart, who was sitting next to Leon, shook his head and said, as the team's defensive coach, he could see that there was no big problem with the players' movement in the defense just now, the key was that fatigue made the players not concentrate enough, and the reaction was half a beat slower, which gave the Jazz players the opportunity to launch tactics. Hart's defensive system emphasizes physical confrontation and interior rotation, and the problem is that the Celtics have never had a good interior defender, but fortunately, this young-dominated team has good defensive discipline and habits. The problem is that constant confrontation and away pressure have made it difficult for the players to hold on, and the full-court pressing that has been the dominant mode of action for the past few seasons is slowly becoming the dominant defensive mode of the team.

"But those old guys look like they have some energy left." Leon picked up Hart's words, and he was talking about several veterans of the Utah Jazz, like Stockton and Malone, who had been playing in the league for almost two decades, thousands of games, and high-intensity confrontations like this didn't seem to have an effect on their physical strength.

"They're a lot easier on the offensive end, and I guess they don't have to push and think when they're running." Hart said a little helplessly. Stockton and Malone have been working together for nearly 20 years, and Sloan has been in Salt Lake City for 16 years, so it's fair to say that Sloan knows everything about the city, including their tactics, of course. The Jazz's offense just now was an ordinary UCLA1-4 positional air-cutting tactic, which they had practiced countless times in practice, and Sloan didn't even need to shout from the sidelines, the Jazz players could score key shots under the command of Stockton. In contrast, the Celtics without Pierce relied more on player talent on offense, and Joe Johnson scored a career-high 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting tonight, but it still couldn't make up for the lack of tactics caused by Pierce's absence.

And Leon also knows that the Celtics, who have too many young players, are not the same as the Jazz in terms of tactical richness and literacy, which is also an important reason why the players fell into fatigue in the final moments.

When Walker missed another jumper from beyond the three-point line and was launched a fast break by a long pass from Stockton, Malone was in the right position like a punctual train station, received a pass and scored an easy layup, the difference was stretched to six points, and the center of the triangle fell into a sea of cheers. Leon looked at the tired and desperate eyes of the players, and he knew that the game was decided.

The Celtics' journey to the West got off to a not-so-good start.

……………………

After leaving Salt Lake City, the Celtics didn't have time to wrap up because they had the worst back-to-back away games, so they headed to the Salt Lake City airport and flew to Arizona to start playing in Phoenix tomorrow. Leon can only save the game video first, let the bitter fruit of defeat slowly digest in his stomach, and he must deal with tomorrow's game first.

The Suns haven't been able to get a new lease of life like the Nets after the offseason guard swap, the team's record is tepid, and Stephen Marbury still has beautiful stats, but it doesn't look like he's getting his teammates to their full potential. However, on the night of the 27th, the Celtics still experienced a hard battle, Pierce's continued absence made the team continue to be weak on offense, fortunately, the Suns were also in the predicament of playing iron, two teams full of offensive talent, but because of the lack of a good enough offensive system and offensive combing, they performed a battle of iron to the audience. In the end, the Celtics lost the game by two points on the road, 83-85, and Arenas, who scored 23 points in the game, missed a three-point shot in the final minute to make the team regret the defeat.

The Celtics' suffering did not end, after a day of rest, they went to Los Angeles on the 29th, fortunately their opponent was the Los Angeles Clippers instead of the Los Angeles Lakers, the two sides fought hard for two overtimes, the Celtics finally relied on Antoine Walker's key three points in the second overtime, and a steal from Arenas, to defeat the Clippers by a narrow margin of 110:108 two points, and finally ushered in a difficult victory.

But the joy of victory did not last long, and the final game of the Western Conference road trip, and one of the strongest opponents, will be the Sacramento Kings. It was another bad back-to-back away game, with the Celtics barely having much time to rest and took the bus straight from Los Angeles to Sacramento. The Kings had a strong regular season this season, averaging over 100 points per game, and their offense was like mercury, and the team's All-Star power forward Chris Webber ushered in the pinnacle of his career this season, and he blended with the entire Kings team to play the most beautiful offense on the West Coast.

Against such a Kings team, the Celtics were beaten defenseless in the game on the night of the 30th, and they once again faced an offensive team with a complete and beautiful system, and the King's passing was so smooth and beautiful that the already exhausted Celtics players held out half the court and were completely crushed by a 10-0 attack wave from the Kings in the third quarter. At 109:94, the Celtics salvaged some points in the final garbage time, but it still couldn't change the fact that they lost hard at Arco Arena.

It was Celtic's last game of 2001, and on the way back to the locker room on the way out of the court, Leon looked at the tired and lost expressions of the players, and deeply felt how passive a team that lacked a good offensive system could be in the game. This puts Leon in an extreme contradiction, on the one hand, he wants his players, especially young players, to grow freely, and then gradually put the tactical reins that suit them. On the other hand, teams that do not have a reasonable and effective offensive tactical system play very tired games, especially in the face of high-intensity schedules such as two away back-to-back and four matches in five days, relying purely on simple tactical cooperation and player talent, there is almost no way to win in a row.

Head coach Carroll seemed to see Leon's troubles, and on the way back to the hotel, Carroll said to Leon: "I know what you're thinking about Leon, you can focus on tactics in future training, and the matter of cultivating new people can be resisted on my shoulders." ”

"But you're the manager, you have more questions......"

"So what does it matter! Do the right thing, for the sake of Auerbach ......"