It's hard to crack the Celtic defense, at least for McMillan. www.biquge.info Although he had two full days between games to think about what to do, his coaching skills couldn't solve the problem, and the Trail Blazers didn't have the manpower to get him to do his best.

The Trail Blazers have long been known for their sharp offense, and although they don't rank first in the league in points per game, their 113.5 points still place them in the top five in the league. But the Celtics are different, they were able to control their average points conceded during the regular season to 101.2 points per game, which is already the top 10 level in the league, and what is even more terrifying is that in the playoffs, their average points per game has dropped further to 97.5 points, which can be said to be the strongest defensive team in the league.

Defensively, the Celtics have tradition, experience, and players who can fully implement the manager's intentions, and McMillan really can't do anything when the three are combined. He can indeed count on players to shoot against the sky on three-point shooting from the outside, but he also knows that the Celtics will never allow such a thing to happen, and they will be desperate to strangle and squeeze out the space to shoot, so what hole cards do the Trail Blazers have in their hands?

In the second game, the Trail Blazers were still at a loss, and unlike the previous game, they fell into passivity in the first quarter. Rivers voluntarily chose to change the lineup and start with Tony Allen instead of Ray Allen, in order to limit the outside firepower of the Trail Blazers. Although the Trail Blazers' outside players felt cold in the first game, Rivers didn't want too many variables in the game, so it was logical to send Tony Allen and Rondo to limit the outside line in advance. And there is another advantage to putting Ray Allen on the bench, when the two sides change the rotation lineup at the same time, he can get plenty of opportunities to shoot on the outside, which can be regarded as liberating Ray Allen's firepower in disguise.

After all, under normal circumstances, most of the Celtics' shots are focused on Pierce, although he can also score, but Ray Allen wants to get more shots, Rivers's adjustment is undoubtedly in line with his heart, as a veteran, the championship is the most important, and there is no difference between starting and coming off the bench for them. In fact, as long as they are not used to pretending, the veteran players can do anything in the team for the championship.

With Tony Allen, Garnett is obviously more focused on various individual defenses and supplemental defenses on the inside, weaving a wide net inside the Celtics' three-point line. His defensive range often makes the offensive tactics of the Trail Blazers useless, and in desperation, the offensive players led by Ye Feng can only frequently hold the ball in the elbow area and play alone, which can be regarded as avoiding Garnett's interference to the greatest extent, and being tackled is much more terrible than being blocked. But there is an obvious disadvantage of singles with the ball, that is, the scoring efficiency is too low, in fact, this is also something that cannot be helped, with the defensive intensity and physical confrontation of the Celtics, how can it give you an easy chance to score?

On the Celtics' side, Rondo and Pierce's blocking and dismantling are in full swing. This is also what Rivers deliberately explained before the game, Garnett focused more on the defensive end, and the "wall" of blocking and dismantling was best played by Pierce. First of all, Pierce's consumption on the defensive end is not as great as Garnett, and secondly, he is also a qualified screener, although Pierce is only 2.01 meters tall, but his weight reaches 107 kilograms, which is only about 8 kilograms lighter than Garnett, and his strong body is indeed very suitable for being a screener. After Rondo and his block, he could have pulled beyond the three-point line, forcing opponents to abandon the idea of a two-man bag with Rondo.

The Trail Blazers struggled with not having an all-round defensive player like Garnett, and were at a loss for the Celtics' extremely simple offensive routines, and were continuously scored by opponents under the basket or beyond the three-point line. You know, Pierce shot 41.4% from three-point range in the regular season, and when Rondo's breakaway created space for him, how could he not shoot directly from beyond the three-point line? It's not even the slightest hesitation, is it?

Although the Trail Blazers scored 23 points in the first quarter, the Celtics scored 35 points under their low-intensity defense, which was an even more tragic situation than the first game. In fact, the two sides were still half-hearted in the competition of starters, and the Trail Blazers only trailed by 4 points when the coach replaced the bench, but in the last three minutes of the first quarter of the game, the Celtics played a wave of 13-5 climax, and Ray Allen hit three three-pointers alone, directly stopping the momentum of the Trail Blazers' counterattack. Admittedly, Rivers still has a hand, and the decision to remove Ray Allen from the starting line-up is now working.

In the second quarter, under the deliberate guidance of Ye Feng, the Trail Blazers strengthened the frequency of outside projection, and the shooting rate was not very good, but it also relieved the pressure on the interior to a certain extent, so that the Celtics did not dare to shrink their forces unscrupulously. Ye Feng hit two three-pointers from the outside by himself, Miller and Batum also hit one shot each, and the Trail Blazers narrowed the gap to six points at one point. However, Rivers replaced Wallace in time, and he guarded the interior, thus freeing Garnett.

If Garnett was originally only active in the low post and mid-range, now his range is more in the high post or even outside the three-point line, and with his agility, it is not very difficult to defend outside players. Under his interference, the slightly improved Trail Blazers outside line was once again dumbfounded, and the Celtics took the opportunity to pull the score away again and enter the second half with a 12-point lead.

In the last 24 minutes, the offensive responsibility of the Trailblazers was completely pressed on Ye Feng, and he struggled to support the Trailblazers' offense alone, but he could not recover the disadvantage. I have to admit that Ye Feng's strength is really strong, he can still score under such a high-intensity defense of the Celtics, but his teammates basically can't provide him with any help, and it is not good to play against a team alone, which he knew in the Western Conference Finals.

The drums in the North Shore Garden arena are getting louder and louder, the Celtics' offense is getting sharper, and what is admirable is that they still haven't let up on the defensive end, and they are still doing their best to strangle the Trail Blazers players, and their performance on the court is completely unclear that this is a group of old guys over 30. Although the team still has a new generation like Rondo, there is nothing wrong with calling them the old team.

96-80, the Celtics have another game, and the next is the home of the Trail Blazers.