On the night of May 18, 2003, New Jersey, it was a clear and beautiful summer night, and the lights of New York and New Jersey, two of the most densely populated places in the United States, lit up the entire night sky. People who have toiled all day to work can finally sit in front of the TV and watch a game of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals that is still being anticipated. Of course, the luckier ones can watch the opening battle of this series to the Grand Finals live.

Leon and the Celtics will arrive at the arena by bus half an hour before the start of the game, and the staff on the scene are already in a hurry, and if the players can't get to the scene in time to participate in the game, it will be a major mistake for the NBA staff. Leon looked unhurried, and the Celtics players were all in good spirits, with Paul Pierce entering the aisle in a white T-shirt and khaki trousers, with huge headphones on his head and listening to music, and Antoine Walker in a gray-and-black baggy casual suit with a CD player in his hand.

In the face of the influx of reporters, Leon avoided all the interviews, and he would not tell them that the Celtics were deliberately late. They dragged out their training in the New York loaned gymnasium until there was an hour and a half before the start of the game, and only left the gymnasium after repeated urging by the team leader, and stepped on the spot to arrive at the Continental Airlines Arena.

In the locker room, the players are all in a hurry to change their jerseys, there is no time to ramble, there is no time to listen to Leon's tactics, there is no time to make exciting speeches, there is no time to encourage each other, they will return to the same place they came last year, face the same opponent again, and start to attack the finals again.

"I've told you all the things you need to do, forget about the regular season, forget about last year's game, and focus on tonight, more than two hours from seven o'clock, it's not the end, it's the beginning, but a good start will determine how we're going to finish." In the passage, Leon gave his final instructions to the players.

In the rest of the game, Leon will constantly adjust the team's tactics through timeouts and substitutions to remind the players how to deal with the situation on the field, but he will not stress the importance of the series anymore and will not make any more exciting speeches, all of which he has done before the game. Leon believes that against a team that eliminated them last year and ruined their Finals dreams, and if the players' emotions still need to be ignited and inspired, then they don't deserve to win this series.

"This is the last time I'm going to explain to you this series, the importance of this game, and I hope that when you feel like you're about to lose, you're about to lose it, you're about to give up, ask your heart, ask your thirst for victory and your desire for revenge, and then everything will fall into place. Okay, do what you have to do. ”

After Leon finished speaking, the Celtics players have already appeared, the Nets have been warming up for a long time, and there is not much time left for the Celtics to warm up, but Leon knows that the players don't need to warm up anymore, what they need is a game.

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Byron Scott looked at the belated Celtics, and didn't know what kind of medicine was sold in the gourd of the guys opposite, especially the head coach Fox Leon opposite, Scott also suffered several losses in the regular season, and was reversed by the Celtics at home by Wang Zhizhi's three-point reversal, Leon always seems to have some whimsical tricks.

But Scott knew in his heart that Fox-Leon's strange move was not a whim, but a tactical change supported by a deep theoretical and data base. Leon is constantly studying others, others are constantly studying him, and now his perverted calculation and observation skills have long been known, and his tactical micro-manipulation ability to play the field in local areas and in a short period of time is even more unparalleled, if there is any weakness, probably he is just a coach after all, there is no way to play for the players, and there is no way to prevent the players from making mistakes. And he really doesn't have a lot of experience, and when it comes to more complex situations, he doesn't have a special sense of the game like coaches who have the experience of a player.

However, this weakness is almost impossible to see in the first two rounds of the playoffs, and Scott carefully watched the footage of the first two rounds of the Celtics, and felt that Fox Leon made almost no mistakes, played well to the Celtics' strengths, avoided weaknesses, and more importantly, he began to gradually grasp that special feeling, as evidenced by the three-pointer that inspired the team in the semifinals against the Detroit Pistons.

"He's learning to grow with the team in the playoffs, even if it's short-lived, but I don't know how important it is for a team to go far." Scott thought to himself. He couldn't help but think of the days in the 80s when he was in the Los Angeles Lakers, following Magic and Riley to the Finals again and again.

When the game was about to start, Scott retracted his mind, mentally he still had confidence in the Nets, and the first two rounds of chopping melons and vegetables made the players quite good both physically and mentally. He also made plenty of tactical preparations before the game, and he wanted Leon to understand that the Nets are completely different teams from the 76ers and Pistons, and it is impossible to rely on Pierce and Walker, or three-pointers to beat the Nets.

Since there is no super inside line in the East, Scott is confident that he will win the East again and aim for the championship!

Thinking of this, Scott couldn't help but straighten his back, the game had begun, the Celtics' Brown fought for the ball, and the Celtics began their first offensive in the Eastern Conference Finals amid the noise of the fans at the Continental Airlines Arena.

Contrary to Scott's expectations, Arenas did not organize the Celtics' offense, and he handed the ball to Michael Reid after halftime, which is very rare in the Celtics' offense. Reed will always be the killer who hides in the shadows, stabbing you through the heart when you're defenseless. But now, he's at the top of the arc, holding the ball, and organizing the attack decently. Arenas sank to the bottom line, a position Reed used to be in. "Damn, Kidd's defensive position has been moved, and that place isn't for him......" Scott almost immediately saw the crux of the situation, which was Kidd's alignment, and he had to go near the baseline to follow Arenas.

But Scott only had a vague feeling about what such a change could bring to the game, and he believed that Kidd could solve the problem on the court, after all, he was the best No. 1 in the league.

On the other hand, the Celtics, Reed's organization at the top of the arc did not have any effect, he commanded for a long time and finally gave the ball to Antoine Walker near the free throw line, and when Arenas failed to cut inside and Pierce did not shake off Jefferson, Walker made two feints and then stepped back and missed a jumper. Walker still seems a little weak against Kenyon Martin.

The Celtics seemed to have expected this, and no one on the team went to the front court to grab rebounds, but retreated at full speed. The ball was snatched by Kenyon Martin, and when it was in Kidd's hands, the Celtics were already in full position, and Kidd had no chance to launch a fast break!

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In the first five minutes of the game, the scoring of both sides was quite low, on the Celtics side, Reed became the main control, but he didn't know anything about combing the offense, but relied on Brown's two screens, and hit two dry three-pointers on the outside, which made Byron Scott's head wrinkled for a while.

And the Nets' offense was even worse, because in five minutes, although the Celtics missed many times, the Nets only reacted once and successfully counterattacked, relying on Jefferson's fast-break layup to score two points, in addition to Kenyon Martin getting a frontcourt rebound and scoring two points, and then they were helpless in the positional battle!

When Michael Reed hit his third three-pointer of the first quarter with Brown on cover from beyond the three-point line, Byron Scott couldn't straighten his waist anymore and called a timeout. Five minutes was enough time for him to see through Leon's trick - he asked Reid to organize the offense, not out of offensive considerations at all, nor any special offensive tactics, but purely out of defensive considerations.

He let Arenas run without the ball in order to draw Kidd's defensive energy, and constantly used counterruns and air cuts to take Kidd deeper into the field and prevent Kidd from launching a quick counterattack!

Kidd is a well-known triple-double machine, and as a point guard he can pick up so many rebounds, in addition to his height and reach, it's his positional awareness. The upper line of the free throw line is his favorite rebounding position, where he can avoid competition with interior players, grab some long rebounds that are far from the ground, and then can quickly launch a counterattack to create good offensive space for the Nets' forwards who have physical talent and no technical talent.

But when Kidd was confronted with Arenas, who was like a water rat, burrowing around behind him, he could never return to the position he knew and liked.

At 11:6, the Celtics got off to a good start, and Leon also gave Byron Scott a warning, you guys, I know your routine. (To be continued.) )