War is a continuation of politics, and the field is an extension of the training ground, and what a team, a player, can do in the game, 80 percent depends on what level they have achieved in training. In the real game, there are never new tactics, no new routines, no new combinations, everything is trained thousands of times, but how to play it requires the on-the-spot performance of the players and the arrangement of the coach.

Leon let Wang Zhizhi start is by no means improvised, they have practiced this routine countless times in training, otherwise the cooperation between Arenas and Wang Zhizhi would not be so smooth. But limited by Wang Zhizhi's own ability, Leon expects that the opening five minutes will be his limit, beyond which he will no longer have a positive effect on the court, but a negative energy.

After Bradley came on the court, Wang Zhizhi couldn't bargain one-on-one, and he had no way to fully mobilize Bradley, although this 7-foot-7 big bamboo pole was far from meeting people's expectations, but on the defensive end, the NBA's block king was more than enough to deal with Wang Zhizhi, and the problem of the Mavericks' interior defense was basically solved. On the outside, Michael Finley is not a defensive gate-type player, but his height, arm span, and physical fitness are there, not comparable to Nash, let him play against Arenas, and the opening on the outside will not be so easily torn apart.

Arenas' offensive skills have not yet reached the point where he can easily get past Finley, and his positional playmaking experience is not very good, and the Celtics players are clearly in a state of confusion. Leon didn't like to call a timeout in the past games, provided that even if the situation on the field was unfavorable, but the players were not in chaos and could still stick to the style of play, now it is obviously not good, and they must pause and change the formation.

With a short timeout of 20 seconds, Leon made two substitutions, first of all, Wang Zhizhi's opening figure was completed. Six points and a rebound are quite a complete statistic for him, and he will have a chance to perform after that, but not now. It wasn't Tony Barty who replaced him, it was Chris Anderson. Compared to Barty, except for blocks, Anderson is inferior to Barty in all aspects such as technique, but Anderson has one thing that Leon values very much, and that is his passion. When the team has problems with morale, it is undoubtedly a good choice to bring on Anderson.

Immediately afterwards, Leon decided to replace Michael Reid. Swap for Steve Cole.

"Steve, you play as a shooting guard and replace Michael, but you help Gilbert take a little bit of the pressure off the ball. Also, when you play against Nash on defense, Finley continues to hand it to Gilbert. Don't be afraid of confrontation with the old ball skin, come on boy, use more around the front, and remember to defend in advance. Leon said to Cole and Arenas, respectively.

It's a two-point guard combination. The same smashing has not appeared in previous games, and it is also a routine that has been practiced repeatedly in training, in fact, this combination is designed for the Nets, mainly to deal with Kidd and Kittels's outside double big lock. Reed's own ball control ability is average, so although there will be problems in defense after using Kerr, with Kerr, Arenas and Pierce, the three more stable outside ball holders, the Celtics' positional offense will change a lot. In last year's Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics were often unable to launch a second fast break under the Nets' pressing perimeter defense. had to fall into position, and finally died in inefficient positional warfare.

Facing the Mavericks now would be a good opportunity to experiment with dual point guards.

……………………

"Back to the game. The Celtics made personnel changes, and we see, they put on Steve Kerr and Chris Anderson, replaced Reed and Wang Zhizhi, so that the Celtics have two point guards, and I don't know if their defense will have problems. Brad Nesler threw a question at Wharton and Tolbert.

"There's definitely going to be some impact, but the most important thing for Celtic right now is the offense, and obviously they're going to shift the focus from the inside to the outside. Wang Zhizhi's shining is only temporary, he is a strange soldier, and it is impossible to provide stable firepower all the time. A mature coach should be aware of the need to be grateful when miracles occur, but never rely on miracles to survive. I think Leon did it. "Wharton's rhetoric has always been distinctive.

"The Celtics' outside line will be penetrated! It's that simple. Tolbert retorted, looking unaccustomed to Wharton.

At this point, Anderson sent a sideline ball out of bounds and continued to be controlled by Arenas, and with Kerr on the court, Arenas' mentality was completely different. The veteran pressed the formation to assist, his body relaxed, and the Finley he faced was not so scary, he was just a swingman with average defensive skills, and his arms were longer and faster.

During the timeout, Leon assigned the team a special No. 1 tactic, which is a common tactic used by teams in the NBA, usually designed for the top scorer, and depending on the team's staffing, the players will have slight differences in positioning and distribution. Leon also liked this tactic in the first quarter, helping the team's two scorers, Pierce or Antoine Walker, to open up his touch, and this time he chose to start with Walker.

Walker stepped up slightly from the free-throw line and quickly stepped back to feign a move away from Nowitzki's defense, while Arenas moved the dribble from right to left, and Paul Pierce stepped forward to cover him. Chris Anderson, on the other hand, had left the left side of the rib where he was standing, rushing to the middle to cover Walker.

Two screens were made at the same time, with Arenas going 45 degrees to the left and Walker cutting to the bottom left with Anderson's screen. At the same time, Paul Pearce went to the top of the arc to threaten, and Anderson turned inside to grab the rebound. At this time, Arenas has three passing options, the first is that Pierce's side is vacant and passes directly to Pierce to shoot in three shots, the second is to plug straight at the moment when Walker walks to the basket, Walker lays down the basket, and the third is that Walker comes to the left rib and lobs the ball to Walker to complete the single.

Leon knows that with the current level of Arenas' passing, he can only do the third, the first requires good judgment and timing, and the second, not to mention, requires masterful passing skills and accurate prediction, otherwise it is a mistake. Sure enough, Arenas lobbed the ball to Walker, and when Walker received the ball, Nowitzki was not ready for his defense, and Walker turned inside to squeeze Novitzki inside, and made a small toss with his right hand.

"Great footwork, great cadence, Nowitzki had enough to choke on the defensive end today." Wharton commented on Nowitzki's defense, and his footwork and confrontation were indeed a problem.

But Nowitzki wasn't a vegetarian on the offensive end, and the Celtics switched defenses and let Chris Anderson deal with Nowitzki. Leon knew Anderson couldn't guard Nowitzki, but he needed Anderson to experience what it's like to face one of the league's top projection power forwards. Turning around, Nowitzki picked up the ball on the familiar right side of the free-throw line and fired a coherent and soft mid-range shot that Anderson tried to block, but it simply couldn't reach. The ball arcs high in the air and hollows into the net.

"Judge the timing of his shot, don't think about blocking!" Leon couldn't help but shout from the sidelines. Good defense is not about covering the opponent's ball, but not giving the opponent a good chance to shoot. For a player like Nowitzki, when he realizes he can shoot, there is basically no possibility of blocking him.

In the minutes that followed, the two sides began to go back and forth in goal. Leon's mobilization was obviously effective, Kerr's play-on released the pressure on Arenas, and Kerr's threat at the right three-point line was no less than Reed's, and when it was up to Kerr to organize the Celtics' offense, the Celtics were obviously more agile, not as simple and rough as Arenas's three-board axe.

At the same time, the Mavericks' offense is also very clear, repeatedly using Fist1 tactics, using Nash's assault ability, Nowitzki's projection ability after blocking and Finley's containment ability, and constantly infiltrating the Celtics' interior line. Nash's bare break didn't tear through the Celtic defence, but he was able to come and go in their three-second zone and attack from the Celtics' heartland. Fortunately, Anderson's presence and two blocks made the Mavericks players understand that the Celtics' interior line is not able to enter and exit casually.

At the end of the first quarter, the two sides fought at 28:29, and the Celtics temporarily led by one point. Walker scored 10 points in the first quarter, the Celtics' top scorer, and Leon is now in the game and must activate one of the twin stars in the first quarter to open him up so that the team's offense tonight has a foundation.

Leon's two experimental tactics in the first quarter worked well, but it looks like there's still a long way to go before they can really become a fundamental part of the Celtics' tactical strategy. Between the first and second quarter breaks, Leon walked up to Arenas and asked, "How do you feel, you didn't play well later in the first quarter?" “

In addition to Arenas' good opening performance against Nash, he was a lot more mediocre against Finley after that, and it seems that he lacks experience in dealing with a misplaced defense. "I'm still going to have to play against him on the defensive end, I'm struggling a little bit." Arenas drank water and said, the offensive end is fine, the defensive end of the one-on-one face Finley is indeed a little difficult for Arenas, although he has done a good job, but Finley still got 7 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists, and was the best player for the Mavericks in the first quarter.

Leon still had one move in mind at this time, but after thinking about it, he decided to save it for the third quarter, and in the second quarter he decided to rely on Pierce to get through. (To be continued.) )