When Duncan walked off the bench with his head down, Leon also turned around from the sideline and sat on the bench, allowing Tim Duncan to go off the court early due to foul issues, and at least in the first half, the Celtics would have the advantage on paper. The Spurs replaced Duncan with Malik Rose, who is 6-foot-7 tall and has a power forward position, who was drafted by the Hornets in the 1996 draft and traded to the Spurs the following year, where he has played until today.

This year is the peak year of Malik Rose's career, and it is also his contract year, and he is at his best both technically and physically, but he is only averaging 10 points and 6 rebounds per game. As soon as Popovich replaced Rose, Leon immediately replaced Durham Porter and put Paul Pierce on the lineup, and in a short period of time, the Celtics achieved a suppression of the Spurs in the lineup.

Antoine Walker returned to the power forward position, Paul Pierce threatened the Spurs' perimeter defense at the small forward position, and it will be up to the Celtics players to play on the floor.

Arenas hit both free throws to make it 7-6, and the Celtics took a one-point lead.

After the loss of Duncan, the Spurs' offensive focus shifted from the inside to the outside, and David Robinson was no longer the omnipotent 7-foot small forward, but more of a screen and rebounding on the offensive end. Parker dribbled past halftime, Robinson made a block in the high post, and then Robinson went down, and Stephen Jackson in the bottom corner was up to 45 degrees ready to rush for a rebound or catch.

In Duncan's absence, Parker is the offensive engine of the Spurs, Robinson's down obviously has no effect, PJ Brown is staring at Robinson while reaching out to delay Parker, Parker hesitates and does not dare to drop the ball directly to Robinson, losing an offensive opportunity.

Brown's delay gave Arenas time to keep up, Parker's breakthrough route was blocked, he had to turn around and jump up and knock the ball to Jackson, this pass was not good, Jackson was not stable in receiving the ball, and there was no way to shoot directly when he got the ball, nor could he break through directly, so he had to dribble and adjust, at this time Reed's defense had been pasted.

Jackson finally had to force a shot from 19 feet, and the ball hit the neck of the basket with Reed's effective interference, and PJ Brown grabbed the backcourt rebound and quickly handed the ball to Arenas.

Arenas dribbled like the wind across the halfcourt, the Spurs dropped back very quickly, but without Duncan's defensive position was leaky, Antoine Walker had squeezed the all-important corner of the free-throw line, and Reed fell to the bottom corner. Arenas paused for a moment, then suddenly started and went inside with Walker's pick-and-roll. This time he didn't break through directly, but gave the ball to Waiche Walker, who stepped on the three-point line and hit a long-range two-point shot!

The classic secondary fast attack, relying on concise coordination and accurate positioning to quickly complete the attack, does not pursue more and less in a fast attack, but attacks the opponent's unstable foothold to find a relatively easy shot space.

By this time, the Celtics fans had already packed the North Shore Garden Arena, and although it was just a simple mid-range jumper, it showed fans the power of the Green Light Cavalry under Fox Leon, and it seemed that Leon's return really rejuvenated the Celtics on the offensive end.

"I said that when Fox Leon comes back, the Celtics will regain their quick offense, their no-frills passing and their beautiful jumpers, which we've seen with the Celtics in the first half of the season." Kenny Smith couldn't help but praise the Celtics for their quick offense when he saw Walker's goal.

If the Spurs are the best and fastest team in the league, then the Celtics are the most methodical team to play quickly and on the counter, and they don't have a super point guard to push the offense, and most of the time the engine is Arenas. The reason why the Celtics were able to fight back without any mess is because they have the best fast-break trainer, Fox Leon with the Hawkeye.

Yesterday in Waltham a full day of training, Leon did not practice anything else, but took the players to practice without the ball, and the players who did not do this training for a month began to be a little uncomfortable, all kinds of mistakes and stumbling. Leon yelled at everyone on the sidelines for nearly an hour before everyone adjusted, and many of the reactions and routines that had been somewhat forgotten returned to the players' minds and nerve cells.

"Kenny, I have to say your insight is as short as my hair, it's just a counterattack, how can you tell the Celtics of the past are back? I believe the Celtics will still rely on the defense they have relied on lately against the Spurs. Ross Barkley still believes that it will not be easy for the Celtics to return to the rhythm of the past.

As soon as Barkley's words fell, Spurs Bruce Bowen got a three-point open shot in the bottom corner, and the Spurs have a strong ability to move the ball from the outside. Recently, the Celtics no longer followed the strict one-on-one rules of the past on the defensive end, and began to rotate and fill in the position, which made up for the gap, and Bowen made a three-point shot in the bottom corner!

"Rebound!" Leon stood on the sidelines and saw the ball and knew it was crooked, shouting for the rebound, Walker jammed Rose, Brown pressed against Robinson, and Michael Reed grabbed the backcourt rebound before Jackson.

Reed didn't give the ball to Arenas or Pierce, but went on his own with the ball.

Dribbling through isn't Reed's forte, as a Camp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; S's shooter, his dribble is relatively high, which makes it convenient for him to shoot quickly. At the same time, because he shoots with his left hand, but he is not left-handed but right-handed, it will make people feel a little awkward to watch him break through.

But Reed still tried to squeeze out of Parker, who was following the defense, and rushed all the way in with the ball, and dodged Jackson's steal with a ball-holding loop, and scored a right-handed layup! The Celtics relied on counterattacks to score four points in a row to rewrite the score to 9:5.

Popovich immediately called a timeout, apparently the Spurs didn't know how to play after Duncan was off, Robinson was old, Parker was too tender, neither of them could carry the burden on the offensive end, and Popovich needed to rearrange the situation to stabilize the situation.

"To do a good job, sometimes you just have to have an indomitable momentum. I've learned a lot in this month, Michael. As the player came off the field, Leon patted Reed and said.

In Leon's absence, Reed evolved from the team's fourth-leading scorer to the third-point point of attack, averaging 16.9 points per game, and shooting from three-point range down by two points. Instead of just ambushing in the bottom corner as he did before, he is more involved in the active attack, and sometimes when the offense can't be opened, Cowens will try to get Reed to play one-on-one.

In this era of super shooting guards, Reed may not be remarkable, but he will be an important point in Leon's system, and Leon is also happy to see Reed gain confidence in this month, which is much earlier than he expected.

And on the Spurs' side, there is one person who is very similar to Reed, and that is Stephen Jackson, who is opposite Reed on the court.

"Stephen, now I need you to step up, attack decisively, be careful to start closer to the basket, don't force a breakthrough casually, don't throw three points casually, use your body, strength, score, I need to score!" Popovich asked Jackson off the bench to pick up the offensive beam.

Aside from Tony Parker, Jackson is the team's only point of attack with the ball on the court at the moment, and now it's not rotation time, Ginobili can't play yet, and Jackson's ball-handling offense is needed to continue the Spurs' firepower on the court before the second team comes on the court.

Jackson was born as a bitter boy and grew up in Port Arthur, Texas, where the most famous place was Porter Arthur Prison. Like Reed, Jackson was born into a devout Christian family, but he grew up less Christian and more like a crusader, relying on violence along the way. Since he was a child, he often fought with people, and on the court, he even fought without saying a word. This also forged his strong and tough style of play.

After being drafted by the Suns into the NBA, his style was obviously incompatible with the Suns' style of play, he was cut, played in the Continental League, was signed by the Nets, was cut again, and finally settled in the Spurs, and was picked up and cultivated by Popovich to become an important scorer and outside defender for the Spurs. So far this season he is the team's third-highest scorer.

After the timeout, the Spurs' offensive focus really shifted to Jackson's side, two screens, a cross switch, and Jackson got a one-on-one chance with Reed on the left side.

Jackson tried to pick up Reed with a tentative step, but Reed didn't move, just lowered his center of gravity and stared at Jackson. At the pre-game preparation meeting, Leon reminded Reed that the main focus is on his projection and second rebound, his first step is not fast, but he has a lot of power, and he is very good at finding a gap to force shots.

Sure enough, seeing that there was no way to shake Reed, Jackson slammed his shoulders and held the ball to impact, pushed Reed away at once, and then turned his back to the bottom line, found a small space, and threw a slight backward jumper.

The ball bounced around the basket and ended up in the net, a slightly lucky goal that stabilized the Spurs' position.

Then, Jackson hit another mid-range shot, grabbed a frontcourt rebound and scored a layup, and the Celtics relied on Pierce's individual ability to score five points in a row, and the two sides bit tightly in the first quarter.

Leon watched Jackson flex his muscles and high-five his teammates after the goal, and he knew it was time for him to take a break from the bench as well. (To be continued.) )