O'Brien has to admit that Fox Leon learned a lot from the kid during his time when the Celtics gave him assistant coach. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info His eclectic tactical concept and meticulous training design have brought a lot of touches to O'Brien, although he is a little jealous of this guy who eventually stole his job from the bottom of his heart, but in the subsequent basketball career, his coaching has more or less imprinted the shadow of Fox Leon, which has to be said to be strange, the head coach was finally influenced and assimilated by the assistant coach.

In the year since leaving the NBA and returning to Kentucky with Vogel, they have used the Kentucky Wildcats to conduct a number of tactical experiments, including improving Leon's secondary rapid offensive system and enhancing the interior offensive position to better integrate it with positional offense. Frank Vogel began to vigorously develop a one-four-small strategy with the support of data and footage, and Vogel believes that the reason why Pitino's full-court pressing plus three-point strategy did not work in the NBA was that he adopted the university's tactical system, but still used the traditional NBA lineup.

In recent years, there have been fewer and fewer excellent top centers in the NCAA, and in 03, the group of draft picks, except for Milicic, a foreigner, there is no center in the top five picks, and the only American center in the top ten picks is Chris Carman, this player is destined not to be a super interior line like O'Neal and Olajuwon. In fact, since the beginning of the 21st century, except for the Big Sharks, there is no longer a real super center, and those excellent power forwards have begun to dominate the interior, and in the near future, Vogel feels that the league will move towards rapid and miniaturization.

It took a full year for Vogel and O'Brien to complete their tactical vision and find Larry Bird through a series of relationships. Bird, who was originally struggling to recruit Carlisle, thought that their idea might be promising, so he abandoned Carlisle and decided to appoint O'Brien as head coach and Vogel as assistant coach after an interview.

In addition, Bird also poached defensive coach Mike Brown from the Spurs, plus the signing of Jackson, it can be said that in the entire East, except for the Celtics, the Indiana Pacers are the team that has quietly strengthened the most.

In this game, everything was still under O'Brien's control until the middle of the third quarter, and he first used a big and four small lineup to take the lead in the opening game, and then quickly returned to the regular lineup. The Pacers' defense has improved dramatically over the summer, and they have begun to learn to unite their muscles and strength to torment opponents.

In the second half, the two sides entered the scorching, the score on both sides was very low, at this time O'Brien decided to release the strongest lineup in his mind, the most ideal big and four small in his heart, he wanted to open the score in the third quarter, as long as the difference was 10 points, the Celtics wanted to turn the tables at the Conseco Arena as difficult as the sky.

10 points may not be a big difference for other teams, but against the Pacers, you know, against Denver on November 4, they suppressed their opponents' scores to 60 points. In the last game against the 76ers, the team led by Iverson was controlled to less than 80 points, and so far in the regular season, the Pacers have not allowed opponents to score more than 100 points, including one overtime.

This is O'Brien learned Leon's thinking, but he and Leon went in two different directions, Leon went fast in exchange for strong offensive firepower, but O'Brien started from defense, using the tight defense brought by miniaturization to instigate a quick counterattack, which not only suppressed the opponent's offense, but also opened the gap in a short period of time to form an advantage, and finally relied on the iron-like defense to wear out the opponent's hope of turning the tables.

This line of thinking can be called 1:0 in basketball.

But things didn't go the way O'Brien envisioned, Leon sent a strange interior combination, Wang Zhizhi and Dio, and after the two came on the court in the third quarter, the Celtics began to play positional offense with the Pacers.

Wang Zhizhi really can't prevent O'Neal Jr., but he won't be killed by O'Neal Jr., and O'Neal Jr. doesn't have the ability to kill the opponent, so on the defensive end, the Celtics resolutely don't wrap up, resolutely don't shrink, and resolutely don't let the Pacers get up fast. On the offensive end, the Celtics suddenly showed a dazzling tactical coordination, and the Pacers players, who were unprepared for it before the game, were a little overwhelmed by this European tactic for a while.

Of course, the Celtics didn't take the lead in the third quarter, and although they played well offensively, they lost Garnett and Brown on the inside, and they lost several rebounds, none of which were rebounded in the frontcourt, and at the end of the third quarter, they trailed the Pacers by one point, 67:68.

But O'Brien's intentions were undermined, and the Pacers were not able to play a suffocating tight defense with a one-big and four-small lineup and establish an advantage with quick counterattacks; On the contrary, the rhythm was brought into attack mode by the Celtics, and both sides fought to attack, and both sides had a good offensive success rate, changing the situation of hand-to-hand combat and difficult scoring in the first half.

In this way, Leon's purpose was achieved.

An important point of the game between attacking and defensive teams is what kind of rhythm the game will bring to the game, which will have a significant impact on the course and final result of the whole game. A player's state is often highlighted or buried in the process, and O'Brien's two-and-a-half-quarter effort was wasted in the crucial third quarter. This means that in the fourth quarter, there is a good chance that there will be a moment of competition for the superstar's singles ability, which O'Brien does not want to see.

Sure enough, after the start of the fourth quarter, Leon first re-replaced Kevin Garnett and then Chris Anderson, and this lightweight interior combination created a lot of opportunities for Garnett, who participated in the offense as the No. 5 and relied on his step-back jumper to score six points in a row. The Celtics overtook the lead and forced the Pacers to commit more troops on offense.

Offense and defense are a dynamic balance, and when you are outstanding, it is easier on the defensive end, and if you are tight defensively, you will have to play inefficient positional attacks that will wear down the physical strength and offensive feeling of the players.

The Pacers don't have a good individual like Pierce, and once they fall behind and the opponent feels good offensively, teams that want to wear down their opponents by defense tend to wear them down first.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Paul Pearce came on the court and took over the game. After he and Garnett blocked and dismantled, he stepped back directly, tilted his body, dodged Artest's defense, and hit a three-point shot at 45 degrees on the right side, rewriting the score to 88:81, and the difference was stretched to 7 points. There were less than three minutes left until the end of the game. O'Brien was still trying to find some tactical solutions or make substitutions, and in the closing stages he used another big four to fight for his life, this time with Reggie Miller. He pinned his hopes on Reggie Miller's magical three-pointer.

But the magic is not for nothing, no matter how good a scorer is, if he does not have a whole game of adjustment, unless luck is against the sky, then he will not hit the key goal at the critical moment. Reggie Miller got very few offensive opportunities tonight, and O'Brien's tactical arrangement was on the one hand, and Reed's tireless defense on the other hand made Miller feel completely untouched, and he only made one three-pointer in the whole game.

How can such a state expect him to put on a magical performance at the last moment?

101:93, with only 41 points in the first half, the Celtics successfully unlocked the offense in the second half, especially in the third quarter, relying on the sudden power in the fourth quarter, allowing the Pacers to concede more than 100 points for the first time this season and win this very crucial game.

After the game, Leon shook hands with O'Brien and Vogel and embraced, and his former partners became fierce rivals in the same district. Leon knows that tonight's victory had a little bit of luck, but also relied on the team's strong talent and star quality. And he can feel that O'Brien's roster hasn't really found a way to work yet, and once they find the right path, the Pacers will be the biggest obstacle for the Celtics on the way to winning the championship.

Leon was convinced of this and decided to set out to study their weaknesses. (To be continued.) )