It was not in vain for the Celtics to come to New York two days early for training, and Leon arranged them one by one for many characteristics of the Nets. Kidd, Martin, Kittels, Jefferson, Collins, Randy Rogers, Louis Harris...... Leon has conducted a detailed analysis of every player in the Nets, from the main player to the bench, and discussed with the players how to limit the opponent in the game. At the New York training gym, the players were less distracted by the media, and they checked into the hotel early to settle into away life in New Jersey.

In comparison, although Scott's preparation is also sufficient, it is still too insignificant compared to Leon, he just watched the video with the players, and practiced some tactics in training, completely failing to achieve Leon's meticulous preparation to every link, and only Leon's brain can withstand such a high load to divide and refine the game.

The only thing that makes him feel sorry for Leon is that the NBA playoffs are best-of-seven games, and no matter how well he prepares, he can only prepare one or two games, and then the opponent will definitely have countermeasures, and then he can only see the moves. If the NBA is a best-of-lose series, Leon is absolutely sure to make it to the end.

Now, the situation on the court is still in the Celtics' favor, and Leon knows that the Nets will definitely let Kidd give up the defense in the next step, if Reed has the ball, let Kidd defend Reed, and if Arenas organizes, continue to let Kidd play against Arenas. Kidd's height and strength dictate, and the number one to three positions in the backcourt are all within his defensive range.

It's also a very difficult aspect to deal with, and if he could, Kidd would even go to defend Paul Pierce to contain the Celtics' top scorer on the perimeter, plus.

After the timeout, as Leon expected, the Nets changed from man-to-man to local rotation defense, mainly for Arenas and Reed, to ensure that Kidd can be in a better offensive and defensive position and not be led astray by Arenas. The two sides began to fall into a tug-of-war, and the Nets' offense was as poisonous as ever, most of the time slowly, and once there was a chance for a fast break, it was lightning fast.

The Celtics, on the other hand, have been trying to maintain a fast offense, the slow-paced tactics of the first two rounds of desperate defense are gone, and the second fast offense they have practiced for two full seasons is constantly storming the Nets' defense.

Obviously, Leon wants to set the pace of the game, and against the 76ers and Pistons, Leon is confident that he can suppress the opponent very consistently with his defense, but the Nets are better defensively than the Celtics, and the Celtics must play to their advantages on the offensive end to take the lead.

But Kidd is a master of rhythm, and no matter how much the Celtics try to pick it up, Kidd always distributes the ball reasonably on the offensive end, and he acts like a voltage stabilizer to smooth the Nets' offensive current, allowing the Nets to bite the Celtics tightly on the score. The only thing that made Leon feel more fortunate was that Kidd's offense didn't feel good tonight, missing three attempts from beyond the three-point line, and shooting 2-of-9 from the entire first half, and his inconsistent shooting may be Kidd's only weakness.

The halftime was tied at 44-41, with the Celtics leading by three points going into halftime. Leon didn't make too many tactical adjustments in the second quarter, just asking his players to follow the usual style of play and try to speed up as much as possible. Michael Reed was in surprisingly good form tonight, shooting 4-of-6 from two-point range in addition to his opening three three-pointers, scoring a staggering 17 points in the half, and setting his own playoff career record for scoring points in a half.

But the Celtics didn't play well inside, and Antoine Walker continued to be bullied by Kenyon Martin, who was even able to hit back-to-back mid-range shots on the offensive end, which made Leon fury at Walker at halftime.

"You're just going to let him score on your head the way you're good at it? His shooting stance is ugly like a husk rubbing a dung ball and pushing it out, and you, just watching him push the dung ball into our basket? How can you allow him to and pee on your head over and over again! Leon unceremoniously yelled at Walker, half because he was angry at Walker's sluggish performance against the Nets and Martin, and half because he knew that Antoine Walker's play would be key to whether the Celtics could step on the Nets.

"Everyone, not just Antoine, use your brains and put some effort into it. I want to tell you that our real quality hasn't been played yet, in the first half we were just running at a constant pace with them, attacking, attacking, attacking again. I don't know if you have found the offensive feeling, shooting, we need rhythm, we need reaction speed in high-intensity confrontation! Friends will deceive you, enemies will deceive you, politicians will deceive you, you yourself will deceive you, but basketball will not deceive you. Then, we're going to make some adjustments on the defensive end, and with our offensive feel, we're going to give the opponent a heavy blow in the third quarter! Leon tapped on the tactical whiteboard as he spoke, and began to prepare for the second half.

……………………

The third section, the crucial section, is also Leon's favorite section to make an article about. A game is like a drama, the first two quarters are foreshadowing, and the last two quarters are gradually moving towards a climax. For Leon's climax, the first and second quarters were too early, the fourth quarter was too late, and only the third quarter was just right. A lot of the time the Celtics would be inextricable in the first two quarters, and then in the third quarter, the Celtics would suddenly exert their strength and take the opponent away with an attack wave.

This is the characteristic of Fox Leon, after two quarters of adaptation and stalemate, giving the opponent a lethal attack in the third quarter and leaving a deep wound, and then spending the entire fourth quarter watching the opponent bleed to death. Like a wolf pack in the wilderness, after a long run and follow, it launches a sudden attack, allowing the wounded hunter to flee with blood, and the wolf pack just follows steadily behind, waiting for the prey to fall.

But the New Jersey Nets are undoubtedly strong prey, and a wolf pack can be broken instead.

At the start of the third quarter, Leon sat back on the bench, and in the first half he stood and commanded the whole time like Scott, and whenever he had a plan in his stomach, he would sit back and watch it unfold.

At the beginning of the second half, the Nets launched an offense, and Kidd just dribbled past half when he noticed the changes in the Celtics on the defensive end, and they began to defend the team.

The NBA began to allow the emergence of joint defense this season, but it was not used on a large scale in the game, and many times it was only used by teams as a means of adjusting changes, and the one-on-one-based defense model is still the mainstream of the entire NBA. Leon's Celtics are one of the few teams that have a deep understanding of joint defense, and this is naturally thanks to Dick Hart, the defensive guru who is proficient in a variety of defensive tactics and has him in Celtics without worrying about technical problems.

In the two days in New York, the most Celtics practiced in the loan arena was not three-point shooting, not off-ball simulation training, not cooperation in quick counter-attacks, but joint defense.

"3-2 defensive ......" Byron Scott also saw Fox Leon's intentions off the court, but he couldn't help but feel a little disdainful in his heart, thinking: "Do you want to use such defensive tactics to contain us?" ”

Scott's disdain is justified, and this isn't the first time they've faced a 3-2 defense, as the Nets would theoretically be more shy of such defense. First of all, the focus of the 3-2 joint defense is to pinch the outside line, pinch 45 degrees, and put the bottom corner and bottom edge. It has a good effect against the interior line that has no shooting ability and the outside line that is not very aggressive, and the Nets do meet the requirements in this regard.

But that's just in theory, and in practice, from the regular season to the playoffs, any team that tries to limit the Nets with a 3-2 defense has learned a lesson. First of all, Kidd's movement was so fast that even if his teammates didn't run out of tactics, he could see the ball in his hands, and the quick transfer was enough to throw the team's formation into chaos when the joint defense was not well coordinated.

Secondly, the Nets' three-point shooting is not good enough, but their tall outside players make the team have a good ability to rush rebounds in the frontcourt, and the 3-2 combination defense is not suitable for protecting backcourt rebounds, and many times an excellent defense will end up losing a rebound.

Scott was not optimistic about the Celtics' 3-2 joint defense strategy, but when Kidd passed the ball to Kittels and began to run around himself, Walker, who was supposed to be one of the -2 inside, suddenly came up and exchanged positions with Paul Pearce, Walker was between Kidd and Kittels, Kidd had reached the bottom right corner, which was their usual tactical starting style, but Walker's lift made Kittels lose the gap between passes!

This momentary hesitation ruined the Nets' offensive run, and finally Kittels had to pass to Jefferson, who forced a missed shot, and Brown struggled to win the rebound, at which point the three men on the outside started at the same time, a three-line fast break. Antoine Walker took the lead, received a ground-and-pound pass from Arenas, and scored a beautiful stride on Kittels' head to kick off the third quarter. (To be continued.) )