On November 20, the Celtics welcomed the New Jersey Nets at home in a crucial game.

After a fun and exciting day at the Golden God Casino on the 19th, Walker and his party returned to Boston with Leon overnight, and then trained with the whole team on the morning of the 20th. Leon arrived at the training gym at nine o'clock in the morning as usual, and this time he found that there were quite a few of them, and everyone arrived at the gym early. Including Walker and others, who spent a day drinking in the casino yesterday, still arrived at the training hall on time. A good team training atmosphere can boost the morale and enthusiasm of the whole team, and when everyone is focused on training, even the laziest players will maintain a high level of concentration during normal training hours.

Leon knows it's not just because of the effect of giving his team a few tough ideological and political lessons yesterday, but also because tonight's opponent is the New Jersey Nets, the team that wiped out the Celtics' Finals dreams last year. Although Leon understands that last year's Celtics were nowhere near the level of a Finals team, no one will give up the chance to regain glory with the Finals stage looming after a 15-year absence, let alone the Los Angeles Lakers if they reach the Finals.

The 2:4 defeat, Rodman's departure, Auerbach's old body is one step closer to death, for the current Bostonians, the current New Jersey Nets, just like the New York Knicks in the 60s, the Washington bullets in the 70s, and the Philadelphia 76ers in the 80s, are the biggest enemies in front of the same division. There may be many teams in the West that are stronger than the Nets, but in the real playoff battle, the Nets are the ones who stand in the way.

Especially this summer, the Nets have strengthened their interior defense by bringing in Deacbe Mutombo, and they will undoubtedly want to take it a step further in the new season, and they have their sights set on going beyond the Boston Celtics. Directly aimed at the western Haoqiang, and did not take the Green Army in his eyes at all. Leon felt this from the pre-game press conference, when the two sides took turns in open practice and an interview for an hour at North Shore Garden on the afternoon of the 20th, Nets head coach Byron Scott has been talking about their changes on the defensive and offensive end this season, but he has been dismissive of their opponent Celtics, saying that they have improved significantly. It may be a threat.

The Celtics' training was carried out after the Nets, Leon was mentioned the most is the recent team's two consecutive defeats, after a season of nine consecutive wins, the Celtics have continuously planted a heel in the hands of the Eastern team, the 76ers are the Eastern Conference hegemon of 01, and the Bucks are also competing with the 76ers in 01, and now they are going to meet the current Eastern Overlord Nets, which will naturally feel more than lucky.

'We were well prepared and we had three days to rest after two defeats in a row. During these three days, I talked to some players, exchanged some views with them on the future development, and solved some problems. I think it's over two straight defeats and now it's a new beginning, and we'll start tonight and keep moving towards our goal. "Leon is still very confident in this game, he has prepared very well and there is one thing he is sure is a big positive for Celtic. That is, the role that Mutombo played after coming to the Nets was not as good as he thought.

Although in previous games, the Nets have beaten the Spurs twin towers. Dekembe Mutombo seems to have played a good role, but in recent games against the Mavericks, Mutombo's slump in form has made it difficult for him to keep up with the fast-paced game for long periods of time. He has become accustomed to the 76ers' defensive strangulation that relies on frontcourt rebounds and is extremely slow-paced, and it is very inapplicable to the high-intensity defensive and offensive track and field style of play of the Nets.

On the 20th, Leon spent almost three hours editing and watching footage of the Nets' previous game, and he was sure. The Mutombs are a breaking point if Byron Scott continues to trust the four-time Defensive Player of the Year.

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After a three-day absence, the Celtics players returned to the parquet floor of the North Shore Garden at 7:30 p.m., and they swept away the gloom of their previous losing streak and regained their vigor and vitality. Two days of rest and a moderately intense training session during the day today made them look energetic. Leon once again fielded his regular starting lineup, with the Twins, Arenas, Reed and Tony Barty, the same main lineup for the Celtics in last year's Eastern Conference Finals against the Nets, and a summer has passed, and they are no longer the same as last season.

Jason Kidd was the first to experience this, and after the opening kick-off he found himself facing a defender who was Michael Reed. Reed has undoubtedly become the Celtics' defensive sapper on the outside this season, blocking where the strong points are, and using his first line of defense to shield the Celtics' relatively weak interior defense. Kidd could clearly feel the strong pressure from Reed, and he almost completely abandoned the help and echo in defense, and completely stared at Kidd one-on-one.

This makes the Nets' offense unable to unfold as much as they want, although Kidd's passing still has the ability to change the offensive situation on the court, but Reed's kraft-like defense makes Kidd's independent offensive threat discounted, which is very bad for a point guard, and a point guard without offensive threat is unrealistic to rely purely on passing to drive the offense, after all, this is not football, and the point guard is not a quarterback who only needs to pass.

However, the score between the two sides did not open up in the first quarter. Because the Nets are also very good at dealing with the Celtics' ball path, that is, they are squeezing the outside line, constantly delaying in the front court and rotating in the backcourt, Kenyon Martin is like a dog skin plaster, and the Celtics' second rapid counterattack can't play at all, and can only rely on the personal ability of Walker and Pierce to score points.

Leon also has a headache on the sidelines, Arenas is fast, has strong projection ability, basic point guard passing ability, and he can learn a set of rules assigned to him, but as a point guard, he is still far from enough offensive creativity, he is very good at creating shooting opportunities for himself, but often ignores some fleeting offensive opportunities. In comparison, Kidd on the other side is the other extreme, his shooting ability is as ineffective as the six-vein divine sword, but his passing is murderous without blood.

Leon had been in basketball for less than three years, and he had a superhuman talent for tactics, and Auerbach didn't allow him to learn tactics too early, in order to keep his sensitive sense of tactics on the basketball court and not be bound by those rules and lines. Leon is certain that Jason Kidd must have a similar talent, and he may not have learned tactics seriously and systematically, but the continuous accumulation of experience and innate spirituality make him seem to be an ordinary pass, but he has the magic of leveraging the entire tactical operation.

Thankfully, even though Kidd was able to deliver a brilliant pass, the Nets, who were thin on offense, were unable to tear through the Celtics' defense, and the two sides battled for 24 minutes in the first half to tie the second half. The turning point of the game came in the third quarter, when Leon replaced Arenas with Joe Johnson, and after playing a two-point guard against the Mavericks, he used an uncontrolled lineup in this game.

Unexpectedly, this lineup worked surprisingly well against the Nets, especially on the offensive end, the Celtics completely entered the one-on-one training mode, and several one-on-one players took turns to solve the problem with singles. Leon is not the kind of school who likes to run and cut in the middle of the game, he loves efficiency, and everything that can score efficiently, whether it is a clever tactic or a rough single, can be the choice he needs.

Joe Johnson is exactly the player he needs right now. In the Eastern Conference finals last season, he had a brilliant performance, and he was not afraid of the defense of Skills and Kidd at all. Tonight against the Nets' defensive stalwart Skids, he once again showed a wonderful one-on-one skill, and he kept in mind what Leon had told him before the game, "There's nothing on the basketball court that can't be solved by a single game, and if there is, then two." "He doesn't have to worry about his teammates' movements, he just puts his heart and soul into the basket, and he's found that he's good at it.

Joe Johnson scored nine straight points in the third quarter to stretch the gap to 11 points in one fell swoop and forced Scott to replace Mutombo while sending Jason Kidd to the opposite of Joe Johnson.

Led by Johnson, the morale of the Celtics players was high in the third quarter, and all the players who came on the court showed everyone their offensive methods, such as breakouts, jump shots, dunks, three-pointers, and hooks. The two sides were locked in a chaotic battle.

Scott is a well-organized and well-organized coach, but Johnson's single play completely disrupted the Nets' routine and the Celtics' offense, and the two sides fell into a state of mutual punching from the beginning to the fourth quarter. In this state, it is really the brave in the chaos wins, Mutombo, who is not good at fighting, did not get a chance to play in the second half of the third quarter and the fourth quarter, and the offensive enthusiasm of the whole Celtics team was stimulated, and it was maintained until the fourth quarter, and the Nets were hacked to death by the Celtics in the North Shore Garden, and the Celtics were also a small revenge for last year's Eastern Conference Finals.

However, after the game, back in the locker room, Joe Johnson, who played well, did not seem particularly excited, he silently went into the shower and began to shower, refused to be interviewed by reporters, and chose to leave after taking a shower and changing clothes. Because the day he left Boston was getting closer and closer. (To be continued.) )