Leon is looking forward to seeing the San Antonio Spurs again, but he doesn't want it to be a Christmas game, a festive season where any game looks like entertainment rather than a decent revenge. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In order to give the players the awareness that "this is not a holiday but a war", Leon had to repeatedly stress the importance of tomorrow night's game before, during and after training. He also showed a video of last year's Finals at the pre-game video viewing session, showing the moment when the Spurs defeated the Celtics to win the championship in Game 6 at the SBC Center - the Celtics lost so neatly that they literally put the crown on Tim Duncan's head.

But when Leon arrived at the Boston Garden Arena on the night of the 25th, he knew it was all over. It's almost like a Christmas party, full of Christmas hats, trees, balls, bells, and even Christmas knots in the Celtic dressing room.

Leon ripped the stuff off and threw it in the trash, and the players looked elated, jostling around the locker room. Since defeating the Lakers with absolute strength in Los Angeles, Leon can feel a little relieved that the team has been gritting its teeth and holding back. Before a more violent storm arrives, the team will be in a relatively relaxed state of mind.

Leon knows that this is normal, and that it is not possible for a team to be tense all over the course of a long season, and it is normal to have tensions and relaxations, ups and downs. A good coach must be able to adjust the mental state of the team, so that the team will not collapse too tightly, nor will it collapse too loosely.

"The timing is not good, the timing is not good......" Leon was frustrated while smoking in the locker room, at home, against a stable, formidable opponent like the Spurs on Christmas Eve, it was not as rosy as fans imagined, and he could go all out for revenge.

Instead, the Celtics will be saddled with more pressure, while the Spurs can play more intensively, just like the Celtics did in Los Angeles a few days ago.

Last year's game against Spurs made Leon realise that this is a fairly solid and ruthless team, and no amount of frenzied atmosphere can affect them from the away side. Last year's Green Army fans in Boston were almost in a frenzy, but instead they took two wins at North Shore Gardens.

After smoking a cigarette, Leon snuffed out the cigarette butt and came out of the bathroom, only to see Kevin Garnett sitting alone on a stool, his eyes closed, and he didn't know what was muttering to his mouth. The other players were busy with their own business, Arenas was tossing his headphones, Dalem Porter was bandages on his feet, Reid was meditating on the Bible, and Pierce and Posey were outside for reporters.

That's how it was in the Celtics locker room before the game, everyone was going to be busy, but as soon as Leon called for a call, everyone would come together.

Leon walked over to Garnett and sat on a stool, and with more than an hour to go before the game began, Leon wanted to talk to Garnett.

"Do you have a habit of reading newspapers?" Leon asked Garnett, meaning that there has been a lot of talk about Duncan and Garnett lately.

"No, I don't read the newspaper." Garnett replied that he didn't open his eyes, he seemed to be meditating.

"It's a good habit to get rid of a lot of distractions...... You look a little nervous, Kevin, though. ”

"No, I'm not nervous."

"You're nervous, and when you're nervous, your left foot shakes slightly, rhythmically. As I stood there, I could feel how often you were shaking and how often you were nervous. ”

As soon as Leon said this, Garnett's originally slightly trembling left leg immediately stopped, and his eyes opened. He glanced at Leon and silently walked away to the bathroom to take a shower.

It would be impossible to say that outside public opinion has no influence on Garnett, and Leon knows that Kevin Garnett and himself are completely two types of people. Leon is an unusually thorough and understanding person who thinks about everything, and the negative public opinion from the outside world rarely interferes with him, on the contrary, he will try to take advantage of these things. Garnett is different, his contradictory and sensitive personality makes him quite strange when faced with negative comments, sometimes he is tolerant and generous, sometimes petty.

Those harsh words sometimes made him angry, and vowed to prove it to others; Sometimes it will make him fall into a depression and loss that he can't extricate himself from. He almost never had the second situation since coming to the Celtics, which was when he got a little lost against the Timberwolves, but he quickly came out of it and played superstar in recent times.

Seeing Garnett, Leon thought of Anderson, and thought of the group of players under his command whose personalities were more worrying than one another, and suddenly felt so tired, why did he gather such a group of guys who don't make people worry?

………………

The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m., with Christmas games broadcast live across the United States, and the North Shore Garden Arena, home of the Celtics, is packed to capacity, with almost a third of Boston City families tuning in to the game at home tonight.

There were fans on the sidelines who displayed their signs, "Welcome Spurs, you don't have a general, and we have an extra king." ”

With the retirement of David Robinson, the Spurs Twin Towers era is officially over, and the interior of this Black team will be guarded by Tim Duncan alone.

Before the start of the game, the two sides warmed up on the court, and Duncan looked quite relaxed, swaying and swaying, wandering around, chatting with the referee, talking to the technical desk, and even saying hello to Leon.

This perennial expressionless, unpretentious and dull-headed guy is called "the-big-fundamental" by Americans, and everything about him looks uneventful, his face, his technical movements, his news, his speech. But it's the kind of player who always makes people feel unstoppable. It's a completely different feeling than when you face Shaquille O'Neal.

He's a guy who can make an impact on every aspect of the game, not just causing devastating nuclear damage on the offensive end like O'Neal did, and it's almost impossible to let Duncan attack like he did against the Lakers and not let anyone else play, and the Spurs' system is destined to make it difficult to separate Duncan from the others.

Leon thought about using the ultimate death defensive lineup in the game, but the recent back-to-back away games, his own summons, and Anderson's problems have made the team's training fragmented. And that kind of defensive training requires a lot of mental power from players, full attention and continuous summarization after training, and Leon does not have absolute confidence in this set of defense at this time.

What he can rely on most now is the sheer quality of Celtic and the confidence that he will have the upper hand against Popovich if the players can fully cooperate.

Tonight's referee is the bald Crawford, the show-stealing referee who has started to talk around with the ball, ordering this and that, and the game is about to start.

The starting lineups of both sides, the Celtics are still a stable five-man group, while the Spurs started with Nesterovic, Ginobili, Tim Duncan, Parker and Bruce Bowen, and after losing David Robinson and Stephen Jackson, Popovich found a replacement for Nesterovic and promoted Ginobili to the starting point guard.

Garnett surprisingly didn't shoot magnesium powder before the game started, I don't know if he forgot or something, just warmed up, Garnett's situation was completely different from Duncan's, he kept frowning and concentrating on shooting drills.

The referee tossed the ball into the air and the game began, with the Spurs taking the lead and Parker holding the ball to start the first offense.

The game has just begun, both sides are in the midst of a trial, Parker dribbled the ball over the half court to near the three-point line, Duncan stepped forward to make a block, after the substitution, Garnett suddenly pounced on Parker, at this time Parker made a clever ground pass, passed the ball to Duncan who went down after the block, Duncan received the ball in his most familiar and comfortable position, and shot a two-point shot.

The first point of the Christmas war, the basic board jumper from the basic skills, does not match the gorgeous and lively atmosphere of Christmas Eve at all.

Leon's mind was spinning, and he knew that this game was going to be completely different from the Lakers, and he was going to use his little brain. (To be continued.) )