After the defeat to Philadelphia, the Celtics spent two days at Waltham in a focused training camp, and with the help of Jimmy Young, Leon meticulously edited the game against Philadelphia, bringing together every turnover, every poor offensive option and every defensive distraction for the players to show in a pre-practice session. Leon went out of his way to put Antoine Walkla on the first row and let him see every three-pointer he shot in the game, a total of 11 shots, none of which were hit.

"If you draw another four-point line outside the three-point line, will you shoot fewer three-pointers? Because you ran to shoot a four? Leon sarcastically mocked Walker at the small meeting. Leon is not a man who likes to take advantage of words, and in the NBA there is an endless amount of trash talk, and he can collect a basket of trash talk in two hours on the sidelines, but he is still willing to communicate with anyone in a normal and serious tone. It's just that this time he was really by Walker, with a three-point shot of 0 out of 11, and almost every shot actually had a better choice.

That's the difference between Leon and O'Brien when they were assistant coaches, O'Brien chose to be a good guy, a people-friendly coach who was good at soothing players and getting along with players, and was supported by everyone. Leon, on the contrary, is kind but never flattering to his players, with a straightforward and stubborn temper, but also very flexible when dealing with problems. In short, he behaved very well, neither letting the players feel that he was rigid and dogmatic and alienating him, nor would he give people the image of a good man and a bully. In short, there are no more than three people who dare to directly criticize the team's number one star in Celtic, and Leon is one of them, and Walker has nothing to say.

Although Walker is the number one star of the Celtics, he is not a boss at all in terms of personality, he is giggling on weekdays, and his style on the court is also heavy on offense and light on defense, often taking small steps and being lazy and lazy. He doesn't have any fights off the field, he mixes with every young player, after the game, he likes to go to bars and nightclubs, drink and dance, and do something that rich people love to do, sleep at night and everything will be fine, and then train and participate in games. Especially with Dennis Rodman and Chris Anderson on the team, the old one and the younger, the three of them together can blow up a nightclub. Although he has superb skills on the court, he is also nicknamed "Comedy" because of the slightly comical technical characteristics of his funny celebrations, which shows what his personality is.

Therefore, in the face of Leon's sarcasm, he lowered his head and admitted his mistake, and at the same time couldn't help but cover his mouth and snicker, he felt that Leon's analogy was quite interesting. So when a reporter asked him why he liked to shoot three-pointers so much, he replied without thinking, "Because there is no four-point line", and he was a funny king.

In comparison, Paul Pierce, the other level of the twin stars, is much more mature and stable, especially after being stabbed in the summer, he has a new understanding and view of life and basketball, and he has begun to treat his career with a more serious and serious attitude. So his face was ugly at the whole meeting, and he didn't feel complacent because he was the best player in that game, but he was frustrated that he couldn't lead the whole team, and he began to think of himself as the leader of the team, to pay for the victory, to be responsible.

Regardless of the difference between the two, the effect of this small meeting and targeted training camp is still quite significant, and in the next home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Walker made a big show, scoring 33 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists with a quasi-triple-double data, and swept away the depression of the previous game on the body of the Eastern Fish Belly. In this game, he shot very cautiously from three-point shots, only hitting two of three shots, giving full play to his talent on the offensive end, and led the team to a 105-95, 10-point advantage with Paul Pearce, who scored 25 points.

But in the following game against the Utah Jazz on December 21, there were some small accidents.

After the glory of the late 90s, the Jazz inevitably declined step by step with the aging of Karl Malone and Stockton, but the strong second elder still persisted in Salt Lake City, and Karl Malone can still play efficiently and steadily for 40 minutes and score 20 points, and the body that has been exercising all year round makes people feel that this is a 38-year-old veteran. Stockton has been degraded by a major knee injury, but his form has recovered this season, with scoring and assists picking up. But the Jazz are no longer the Jazz who have made two Finals appearances against the Bulls.

In this regular season game in Boston, Malone met his old rival Dennis Rodman again, and the two old guys who were not confused were much more friendly, but Malone still wore the same Jazz jersey for 20 years, and Rodman gave himself a new disguise like a chameleon. The well-groomed but visibly aging Jazz struggled to hold up for three quarters at the North Shore Garden Arena, and were finally overwhelmed by the young and impactful Celtics in the fourth quarter, with the energetic Arenas, Pierce, Walker and even Reed tirelessly attacking the Jazz's interior line, which was dominated by rookie Jamal Collins, could not withstand the spears of the Green Rovers. The difference was suddenly stretched to 11 points.

When Paul Pierce made a beautiful breakthrough dunk on the horse's head and yelled at the sky with both hands in fists, Malone, who had had enough, finally couldn't help but wave his iron elbow in the next attack, he took advantage of a misplaced single opportunity to rush Pierce, and hit the ball directly upwards with both hands on the inside, and the left elbow hit Pierce's chin hard, and the blood flowed for a while. Pierce was stunned, and at this time, Chris Anderson was the first to rush out of the bench to fight with Malone, Dennis Rodman stepped forward and grabbed Anderson, and then he pointed at Malone's nose and scolded him for being a ** raiser.

Malone looked indifferent, looked down at Pierce and patted him, and then consciously walked to the locker room passage, while receiving the crazy scolding from the fans, he left the court with his head down, and he was ejected from the court by the referee for a physical foul. Malone has been rampant in the NBA arena for more than ten years, and countless players have fallen under his elbow, including some superstars, and he has never been polite, once he is in a hurry, he relies on this to vent his anger.

Leon didn't have time to reason with Malone at this time, although Leon didn't necessarily have to be a postman in the ring to fight, but now he was more concerned about Pierce's injury. Pierce was hit on the jaw like this, the whole person was stunned, the team doctor came up to do emergency bandaging and resuscitation, Pierce slowly sobered up, and sat on the sidelines for a while with the support of his teammates and staff, and felt that his brain was a little clearer before leaving the court, and it seemed that he was going to go backstage to do a brain CT to see if there was a possibility of a concussion.

Boston's fans are also well-informed, such small accidents have long been ignored, the court quickly returned to normal, and the game lost suspense, the Jazz were disheartened, losing and losing, and the Celtics won two consecutive wins at home.

However, problems arose for the Celtic, and during the post-game check-up, Paul Pearce was diagnosed with a minor concussion and needed a week or so of rest before he could return to the game, meaning he would miss three or four games. After a difficult start to the season and bottoming out after the change of coach, the team's current form has stabilized, with a 12-12 record that ranks just eighth in the East, just one win away from the ninth-ranked Hornets. Next, the Celtics will face a tough schedule of four consecutive road trips in the West.

In the past two years, the difference in the strength of the eastern and western teams has become wider and wider, and the eastern teams to the west to play away from home is almost a send-off, while the strong teams in the west come to the east to travel and relax. The Celtics' original interior strength is a flaw, and there is no better attacker on the outside, and this away trip can be described as unlucky.

On December 23, the last home game before the road trip, the Celtics played the Grizzlies, a Western Conference underdog, and the last dinner before leaving, after repeated discussions between Leon and Carroll before the game, it was decided that Dennis Rodman would start in place of Pierce, and then let Antoine Walker play the small forward position. However, this move did not have a particularly significant effect, the team's firepower was greatly reduced after the absence of Pierce, and Dennis Rodman was able to limit the young Pau Gasol, but without Pierce's containment of Sean Battier, he rarely tore apart the Celtics defense with offense.

The game wasn't tough but it was scorching, with the Celtics holding a slim lead and the Grizzlies fighting until Carroll decided to bring on Joe Johnson in the third quarter.

When Johnson scored seven straight points on Sean Battier's head with a skilful dribble and an unpretentious mid-range jumper to make a 2-and-1, both Carroll and Leon knew that Pierce's bench should have been found on the trip to the West.

A person's destiny depends on self-struggle, of course, but also to take into account chance and luck.