On May 8, the Celtics started a rematch with the Pistons at Auburn Hills Palace, which was a no-loser game for both sides, and if the Celtics lost, they would return to Boston with a huge 0:2 disadvantage, and if the Pistons lost, the home-court advantage would change hands. Therefore, compared with the tentative nature of the first game, both sides undoubtedly attach more importance to this game.

Before the game began, fans throughout the Auburn Hills Palace Arena wore white T-shirts with the slogan "Boston-sucks" emblazoned. The long-standing feud between the two teams has made Detroit fans extremely excited, especially those who have been in the past, to see Boston's green figure in the playoffs, as if they were returning to the glory days of the 80s.

Compared with the first game of a little confused, the eyes of the Celtic players before the start of this game were obviously much firmer, the failure of the last game, and the clear tactical arrangements of the coach before the game, all made the players have a bottom in their hearts. A team that has to learn how to win on the road in the playoffs and how to face a lot of pressure on the road. Leon is also trying to learn how to stabilize his emotions in other arenas with harsh conditions. He can punch the Pacers in Conseco in the regular season, but he can't do that in the playoffs.

The game started at 7 p.m. sharp, with the Celtics featuring Walker, Pierce, Reed, Arenas and Brown, and the Pistons featuring Billups, Michael Curry, Ben Wallace, Hamilton and Cliff Robinson.

In the opening jump shot, Wallace was the first to touch the ball, and the Pistons got the offensive rights. Billups began to organize the offense with the ball, as the brain of the Pistons, Billups, who has experienced years of turmoil, has a calm overall view and a steady style of play, which is completely different from Arenas on the opposite side.

On the first shot, Billups felt that the Celtics' defensive formation had changed compared to the previous game. In the last game, the Celtics responded to all changes unchanged and followed the one-on-one defensive tactics of the regular season, insisting on not changing defenses and not easily pinching, but the effect was not too good, because although the defense is not easy to collapse, once the offense is not good, it is impossible to rely on defense to quickly chase points.

At the beginning of this game, the Celtics made a 1-4 joint defense posture, but it was only a posture, which looked like a zone defense on the surface, and was essentially one-on-one, but such a defensive line had a stronger pressure on the external players, and there was no way to break through easily. The pressure on the inside line is a little less, and it can easily be in place in the two low positions, but the upper line is likely to be pinched.

Billups made a pick-and-roll cover with Cliff Robinson at the top of the arc, the quality was not too high, and he didn't shake off Arenas' defense, not only that, Walker also had a pinch of Billups, Billups passed the ball to Robinson, Walker went back to Robinson again, and Ben Wallace was in a completely one-on-one position in the low post on the right side, and Robinson passed the ball to Wallace.

Leon wanted to see a scene where Ben Wallace singled PJ Brown in the low post, which is equivalent to two heavy tanks armed with only machine guns shooting at each other, and Ben Wallace's machine gun is not as good as Brown's. Wallace arched inward with great effort, unexpectedly pushed Brown away, and then found a gap to shoot and tried to force a shot, but before the ball could be lifted, it was cut off by Brown with a slap.

Brown got the ball, and the Celtics had another chance to quickly counterattack, Arenas and rushed halfway, but Brown did not pass the ball, but gave the ball to Pierce to slowly organize the positional attack.

Arenas looked a little dissatisfied, but he didn't dare to say anything to Brown, and Leon said before the game, cautiously launching a quick attack, focusing on Walker in the early stages of the game.

Sure enough, Pierce dominated the half, Walker began to get stuck in the low post, and the two sides were in the tentative stage at the beginning, and generally did not pinch the shot, Pierce passed the ball to Walker, Walker received the ball with a shoulder shake feint, and then walked in the middle, on top of Ben Wallace's blocked fingertips, a small toss with a right hand hit two points.

The two goals in the opening game went into Leon's calculations, and he was still a little worried, and it seemed that Carlisle continued to follow the strategy of the previous game after winning the last game.

Leon's idea is actually very simple, on the offensive end, the main point of Walker, Walker, as the team's second scorer, must continue to score in the face of the opponent's weakest power forward position, and it is best to force Ben Wallace to play one-on-one defense against Walker. On the defensive end, defending in the 1-4 zone, let Arenas target Billups, who is the best candidate to deal with Billups in terms of size, speed and strength, even if she is not as strong defensively.

At the same time, the focus of the zone defense is to defend more locally and less at the same time, while deliberately weakening the defense against Ben Wallace, giving him some opportunities to hit the basket directly after hitting the ball and receiving the ball. Leon believes that Carlisle's mistake on the offensive end is that he has a deck of cards that play extreme defense, but he wants to balance the offense and defense of the team.

It can be seen from Ben Wallace's frequent singles opportunities in the game, either Carlisle feels that Wallace's offense still has a chance to be saved, or Wallace, as the actual locker room leader of the team, Carlisle can't completely let him give up the opportunity to attack on his own. Like in the Celtics, who have absolute control of the team, Leon will not let Anderson go to singles, and Brown's singles are also limited and improvised.

On the contrary, in the first quarter of the game, Ben Wallace shot 4 times, only scored one goal in the air relay, and the other three balls, missed two singles, missed one under the basket and missed the dunk, 1 of 4, it seems that the number of times is not much, but every miss gives the Celtics a chance to quickly counterattack, because he is involved in the offense, and the speed of the return defense must not keep up.

The Celtics seized one of the few quick counter-attack opportunities, and Michael Reed hit two lethal three-pointers from the outside to turn the gap into seven points in the first quarter, 22:15, with scores low enough on both sides. The Pistons, on the other hand, obviously played even worse, and the offense looked quite chaotic, with Wallace and Robinson becoming the main points of attack, and Hamilton and Billups on the outside played to a certain extent, but did not form sustained firepower.

"Where is our defense? Mistakes, mistakes, do you think we're 3:0 now? I don't want to see any more passing mistakes, and being counter-attacked by opponents, control every back-push of the opponent, they attack very quickly, be focused, concentrate! Carlisle loudly reminded his players at the break in the second quarter that the Pistons made quite a lot of mistakes in the first quarter, giving the Celtics a lot of opportunities to counterattack, and Carlisle was quite unhappy about this.

At the same time, Carlisle also knows that this is a problem on the offensive end of the team, their transmission of the ball is not smooth, the Pistons have no offensive super-strongman, and the only one-on-one advantage is Billups, who is still quite sure of the one-on-one back in the offense. Tonight, though, Arenas played a frantic biting defense against Billups, who looked quite uncomfortable in the first quarter. Arenas is in no way inferior to Billups in terms of physicality, and when he defends with all his might, he can easily score points on his head.

Dissatisfaction is dissatisfaction, Carlisle also made adjustments in the second quarter, first he replaced Robinson, no longer let the aging him face Walker's ferocious energy, he replaced the Turkish Oku, Oku is also an interior player who can shoot three-pointers, but he is taller and younger than Robinson, he can be a center. Then let Ben Wallace go to the opposite Walker.

In the guard position, Carlisle unexpectedly sacrificed two point guards, using Atkins, Billups, and Hamilton to form a guard line to enhance the ability to transmit the ball in the backcourt and reduce the pressure on the team caused by passing errors.

Carlisle's tweaks paid off quickly in the second quarter, and although the Pistons didn't catch up on the score, the situation was stabilized, their turnovers decreased, and the Celtics' counterattack was immediately reduced. After Ben Wallace played against Walker, Walker's attack was noticeably blocked, and two consecutive attacks were disrupted.

Walker, who scored 9 points in the first quarter, only scored 3 points in the second quarter, and the Pistons also eroded the advantage established by the Celtics in the first quarter little by little, and by the end of the half, the score had become 45:47, and the Celtics led by 2 points to end the first half.

At this time, Leon had not finished playing the cards in his hand, but he was a little hesitant, hesitating which card to play next. (To be continued.) )