After less than a week of rest, Michael Reed felt a little out of the game, at least in the first quarter, when he struggled a little. And Fox Leon knows that it's not that Reed has degraded in such a short period of time, but because he's going to face Ray Allen tonight.

In the first quarter, Ray Allen scored 13 points alone, more than half of the Bucks' overall scores, and Reed was responsible for marking Allen one-on-one, but the effect was terrible. Reed's defensive strengths are his strong body, confrontational contact defense, and precise positioning, while his weaknesses are defensive footwork and some hand movements. And Ray Allen is a smart guard who is very good at getting rid of, and his off-ball running, cutting route selection after receiving the ball, and shooting combination ability are among the best in the league, which makes Reed quite difficult to defend him.

"How does it feel? Struggling? You've got to step up your defense. Leon said to him as he sat next to Reed. Leon is a coach who likes to chat with players off the pitch, no matter what the situation is on the pitch, he will take time to chat with the players on the bench, rather than just standing on the sidelines and watching the game. This is what Dick Hart taught him that a coach must constantly communicate with his players, especially those who can make a difference on the pitch.

In response to Leon's bluntness, Reed lowered his head and wiped his sweat without speaking, apparently feeling a little frustrated. Since about last year, many media fans have begun to compare Reed with Ray Allen, and have come to the conclusion that Reed and Ray Allen are still far apart. Reed is not a talkative person, he never argues about anything in the media, and he rarely gives interviews after games, but he is a very strong guy, and he cares a lot about these comments, so every time he plays against the Bucks, he secretly fights with Ray Allen. You have to try to perform better.

In the last game in Milwaukee, he didn't have a chance to play, the Celtics' guard line was shot through by Ray Allen, this time he came back, trying to contain Ray's performance, but he didn't expect the result of his full defense, that is, he received a foul and was scored 13 points by the opponent.

"If Ray Allen can be defended by you one-on-one, then he won't be Ray Allen. You should know that a lot of times you can't lock someone outright, but you can also make it impossible for your opponent to lock you down. If he gets 20 points, then you get 30 points, and if he scores 30 points, you score 35 points, and that will also make the team win. Think about the feeling on the offensive end, adjust it, what we need is your score. And if you can put Ray Allen under pressure on the offensive end, it will also make him feel less than capable when he is attacking. "Leon is like a mentor, teaching to Reed, but there is a limit to Leon's teaching. He wasn't going to stare at Reed's endless preaching, and the situation on the field changed a bit.

PJ Brown reappeared in the second quarter, and after being refrigerated by Leon for half a quarter in the first quarter, Brown returned to the court like a full tank of fuel. Fight like you did in the NBA for the first time. On the defensive end, he made two blocks in a row and stunned Tim Thomas. At the same time, on the guard line, Leon sent the veteran Kerr, and he and Walker completed two beautiful pick-and-roll combinations. Walker licked the basket and made a mid-range pullup jumper to stretch the margin to 12 points, forcing Bucks head coach George Karl to call a timeout.

When Brown came off the field. Leon punched him in his strong pecs, then patted his arm and said nothing. Brown didn't speak, just stopped frowning as he did in the first quarter, grinning and sitting on the bench. "Ready to play Michael, I hope you calm down, do your own thing, don't get frustrated, don't get upset. As a shooter, always keep a cool head. The only adjustment Leon made during the timeout was to bring on Michael Reed, because he had a hunch that George Karl should re-bring Ray Allen on the court, and he didn't want Reed to watch Ray Allen on the court.

However, George Karl made more than just a change to Ray Allen, a seasoned veteran coach who saw that his opponent was playing at home for some reason, and PJ Brown on the opposite side was making waves on the inside.

At the end of the timeout, the players of both sides returned to the court, and at this time Leon also got up from the bench and stood on the sidelines, he knew that the game was slowly entering the stage of wits and courage, and he could no longer sit on the bench and pour chicken soup on the players, and he needed to pay close attention to the situation on the field. He found that the main change in the Bucks' offense is that Tony Kukoc has begun to become the main point of attack, and the super sixth man of the Bulls' last three consecutive years still has a strong comprehensive ability. And his height of 6-foot-11 really has a big advantage, he received the ball with his back at 45 degrees on the right side and 18 feet from the basket, then turned around and walked to the baseline to force Paul Pierce, and forced a mid-range jumper from the baseline without Pierce being out of position, narrowing the gap to 10 points.

The Celtics' defensive system is like this, one-on-one, less rotation, each sweeping the snow in front of the goal, occasionally arranging defensive traps, the only trap mechanism is PJ Brown, which is also a set of defensive strategies and rules formulated by Leon and Dick Hart after repeated pondering in the summer, according to the characteristics of the players and the team's development strategy of "attacking first and then defending". The advantage is that the defense is very tough, and it is rare to be completely broken up by the opponent's wave of attack, and the disadvantage is that it is easy to be played to death by a single master.

And George Karl's team is a lot of single masters, and the offense is open and free, so the Celtics often suffer against the Bucks, but tonight the Celtics' offense was significantly better and they maintained the lead.

When it was the Celtics' turn to attack, after two rounds, the adjustment of the Bucks' defense was also revealed, at this time the Bucks' lineup on the court was Sam Cassel, Ray Allen, Anthony Mason, Tony Kukoc and Jason Kaffee, in defense Kafee played small forward, Kukoc played power forward, and the two people switched in the offense. And the center position was given to Anthony Mason, and Carl asked him to deal with PJ Brown.

Mason made a name for himself with the New York Knicks in the '90s, a member of the Pat Riley Muscle Gang, and then went to the Hornets where he developed the ability to play and assist, from a rough man to a playmaker, and then to the Bucks, who wanted to play with the three Musketeers in the '02 season. Unexpectedly, there were problems within the Bucks, the team's record plummeted, and they didn't make the playoffs, and Mason also failed to raise his ambitions, and now he is 36 years old, and he has also entered the countdown to his career.

But when Mason met PJ Brown, the two inside big men who had gone through the '90s era quickly got together like wrestling. The first two rounds were okay, the two sides just had a fierce physical confrontation, but in the sixth minute of the second quarter, when PJ Brown gave Pierce a single block cover, Mason pushed Brown away and wanted to follow Pierce, but Brown directly wrapped his arm around Mason's arm to prevent him from leaving.

I watched as Pierce made a right-handed layup with a nice shoulder shake and cross-step. Mason shook off Brown's arm hard, and then slammed his chest into PJ-Brown, not afraid of this center who was half a head taller than himself, after all, Mason was Brown's predecessor in terms of seniority, and even Olajuwon dared to defend and dare to top at his peak, let alone a Brown.

And Brown is not easy to bully, he once again showed his angry eyes, and pushed back with his chest. Two people like cattle are on top near the free throw line. The two of them are very smart, and they are at the top. Just don't move your arms and don't do your hands, after all, the one who does it first will be punished. The referee had already noticed that the two guys were a little angry, and they looked at the top. immediately whistled and stepped forward to stop it, and the two guys were holding each other up, and the trash was already in their mouths.

It took a lot of effort from the players and the referee on both sides to pull the two apart. And the scolding has begun to have a tendency to move his hands in the end, Mason has begun to move his finger at Brown's nose, and Brown pushes away and pulls his Pierce to get on. Luckily, Walker grabbed Brown by the waist and pulled him away. didn't let him rush up and scuffle with Mason.

Since entering the 21st century, the league has paid more and more attention to the image of the court, and there have been fewer and fewer violent incidents, and the kind of tough confrontation in the nineties has gradually been eliminated. But as the "old and young" who grew up in that period, Brown and Mason still retain the spirit of that period, and they are brave on the court and not afraid of confrontation.

The ball can be lost, but the man cannot be lost.

In the end, Brown and Mason each had a technical foul and hit 50 boards each. But then, it didn't look like Mason was relenting from a technical foul, and the cunning old oilman kept giving Brown problems on the defensive end.

Leon saw that George Karl sent Mason to get Brown, and their regular power forward Tim Thomas was beaten by Brown so much that he didn't even know his mother, so he let Mason use this trick to deal with Brown, after all, as long as Brown doesn't play well or sits off the court, the Bucks' offense will have an advantage. Although Chris Anderson drove the team's emotions in the first quarter, both Carl and Leon knew that such a drive would only work for a short time and could not last a whole game.

Sure enough, only two minutes later, on the way back to defense again, Mason pulled Brown who was about to go down the sideline, causing Brown to stumble and fall under his feet, and Mason also fell down and pressed on Brown. This time Brown was on fire, and no one stood up, just lying down and began to pull Mason's clothes. Mason was obviously more experienced in fighting, and he used his position advantage to press Brown, and his arm pressed Brown's arm, just to keep Brown from getting up.

The fans in the circle all stood up, and the referee rushed forward to separate the two, but there was one man who was faster, and it was Fox Leon. Because the place where the two fell to the ground was close to the Celtics' coach's bench, Leon could no longer stand Mason's constant provocation and suppressing Brown's arrogant movements, he ran to the two of them in three steps and two steps, grabbed Mason's arm as thick as his thigh, glared at Mason and said, "Get your ass out of the way." “

Mason didn't expect the other coach's coach to rush up like this, he was a little stunned, Brown had already turned over and pushed Mason away, at this time the players and coaches on both sides had already rushed up, Cowens grabbed Leon in the back, and the referee also separated the people on both sides, and the scene was chaotic.

Mason wanted to step forward and scold Leon a few words, but when he met Leon's knife-like gaze, he couldn't open his mouth for a while, and he even ignored Brown's angry eyes on the side. He also saw the faint scar on Leon's face, remembered the recent news about him, and Malik Ciri, who had his chin knocked off - he was standing behind Leon and pulling Leon's arm, and Mason suddenly had no sense of provocation and returned to the bench under the pull of his teammates.

The chaos was finally brought under control, and the referees began to exert their power, sending Mason and Brown off the court, and then gave Leon a technical foul, and Ray Allen executed a technical foul free throw, which closed the gap to six points. (To be continued.) )