Pierce is a bit self-conscious, he now gets caught in the middle of Snow and Bale every time he gets the ball, and even in the low post he struggles to open his back-to-back singles, because he has to prevent Snow from cutting his ball off at all times. If he doesn't want to be tackled, then he has to move a notch faster and throw the ball before the opponent has time to close the circle.

In fact, this is risky, Pierce is already among the league's top scorers with 20+ points per game, but his skills are not yet mature, and it is unrealistic to speed up his shots, which will disrupt his rhythm. However, after a few attempts, Pierce gradually got the hang of it, and adjusting was not an impossible thing for him, and now that the situation was urgent, he could be said to have been forced out by the environment, which gave Bell and Snow a big headache.

Brown was also helpless, and after Pierce recovered, even the Celtics' offense was reactivated. In fact, this is also inevitable, because for the Celtics, their most common tactic is Pierce and Walker taking turns to hold the ball alone, Walker certainly can't take on such a heavy responsibility alone, but Pierce, who can handle the double bag, insure the team.

Thanks to the efforts of the Celtics' twin stars, the first half ended at 55-all, and this was because Lewis hit a very lucky half-court three-pointer in the final minute, otherwise the 76ers would have to go into halftime with a score disadvantage, which Brown simply cannot tolerate, even if the opponent is second only to them in the regular season standings.

When Brown walked into the dressing room, everyone was talking about the first half, and of course Pierce was the main point of discussion. The Celtic big man has impressed every player who has played against him, and some even made fun of Snow, after all, he was the first man on the team to face Pierce's big ass.

Seeing the head coach push the door in, the noise in the locker room instantly dropped a few decibels, and after a few seconds, it was silent. Everyone was convinced that Brown would be harsh in their criticism, but Brown's first words surprised them: "Guys, you played well in the first half, and although you didn't take the lead, I know you did your best......"

this style of painting is not right! Shouldn't it be a boast first, and then a hard criticism?

Brown's words didn't make the players feel relaxed, they were even more nervous, but Brown really didn't intend to criticize them, every player who came on the pitch did a good job, and the reason why they didn't take the lead or even almost fell behind was just because Pierce was so good. The Celtics' star had 21 points and eight rebounds in the first half, while also dishing out four assists and two steals, which is almost the statistics of most players for the entire game, so you can imagine how good he is.

Seeing everyone's uneasy looks, Brown made a two-handed downward motion to signal everyone to relax, and then he continued: "Pierce is difficult to defend, I watched his performance in the first half, and with our current strength, we may not be able to limit him for the time being. But! "That doesn't mean we're going to lose this game, there's 24 minutes left in the second half and we can fight back harder, so I need you guys to play better!" ”

"We're going to play against them in the second half, we have more scorers, it's definitely not hard to get the ball to the basket, can he blow up our whole team by himself? We're going to fight back! Tell them who's the defending champion! Brown stood in the middle of the locker room and shook his fist vigorously, like a madman, Chang Wei was afraid that the old coach would have a heart attack because he was too excited, but it looked like Brown was full of red light, as if he had rejuvenated, there should be no big problem......

After cheering up his players, Brown began to lay out his second-half strategy, and everyone was surprised to see that he was planning to put Reed back in the starting lineup, which was not easy for a veteran coach who had always insisted on defensive victory. In fact, there is nothing to arrange in the tactics, basically some routines in the team's tactical manual, Brown just put forward his own ideas and requirements for everyone, and how to implement it depends on the players' performance on the field.

After the start of the second half, Pierce still maintained his hot touch, but the 76ers had found their rhythm, and Reed fired wildly from outside the three-point line as soon as Reed came up, helping the team bite the score to the death. The Celtics' defense is too weak relative to their offense, which is completely different from the iron-clad style they've always adhered to, but it's a good thing for Reed, as he can often find open space on the outside, and with Ballam Porter on the inside, he's fearless.

The score of the two sides has been very tight, until the final moment of the game, the 76ers also only led by 2 points, and only left the Celtics with 3.1 seconds, which is undoubtedly a test of a team's tacit understanding and tactical cooperation. O'Brien used up the last timeout of the team, and he had to plan his final attack tactics, maybe he could make a kill!

The opportunity to make a shot unsurprisingly fell to Pierce, and even if anyone knew about it, O'Brien had to let the ball get to Pierce and let the guy settle the last offense. So far, Pierce's stats have come to 37 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists, absolute star stats, and it's normal to give him the ball.

After the timeout, Barty finally sent the ball out when the allotted time was about to expire, and Pierce, who was deeply trapped, struggled to catch the ball, but now he was surrounded by Lewis and Bale, and his shooting vision was close to nothing. Seeing that the time was about to come, Pierce didn't have time to make adjustments, he pushed his butt up, and after pushing out a little space, he immediately jumped out of his hand.

Bale reacted quickly, and he was on Pierce's side, so he didn't have to worry about being fouled by Pierce, and he tried to reach out, and his fingertips were very lucky to rub the bottom of the basketball, instantly changing the trajectory of the basketball. This is very similar to Olajuwon's winning block in the finals in 1994, and the result is not far off, the basketball that flew out did not even touch the basket, and when the basketball was still in mid-air, the final whistle had already sounded, and Pierce failed!

Looking at the basketball that fell on the floor, Pierce slowly squatted down, he covered his face, tears couldn't stop flowing from his fingers, but the outcome of the game was already sealed, and the 76ers won the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals.