The Whip of the God of Basketball

The game against the Wizards did not encounter much change in the second half. The two sides still played very fiercely. A team with Michael Jordan will not have a big problem in fighting spirit. The problem with the Wizards lies in tactics. Jordan occupies too much tactical space. In fact, they still have Richard Hamilton at the shooting guard position. This is an attacker with super off-ball running ability. Because Jordan moved to the small forward position, but Jordan, who is used to shooting guard, sometimes inevitably overlaps with Hamilton. When he wants the ball in singles at the waist, it means that Hamilton's good at slipping the bottom line C\u0026S has become a decoration.

So in the second half, when Carroll asked Pierce to devote 100% of his energy to defending Jordan, the Wizards fell into a bad offensive slump. Pierce continued to provoke Jordan, but Jordan still thought he was the omnipotent God. Destroy Pierce with offense, but what he didn't expect to destroy was the Wizards. Because Jordan's several offensive misses gave the Celtics a chance to quickly counterattack, Antoine Walker, who was dull in the half, seized the opportunity to score six points in a row, plus a three-pointer from Michael Reid, the Celtics In the middle of the third quarter, they took advantage of a small attack wave of 9:0.

After that, the Celtics never let this advantage slip away from their hands, and they only got a chance to play in the third quarter. Dennis Rodman, who made his debut this season, had 12 rebounds in the half - all of them The backcourt rebound stabilized the team's defense and offense. In the fourth quarter, Steve Kerr also hit two three-pointers on the court, which extinguished the momentum of the Wizards' counterattack. The Wizards once again suffered a defeat. It seems that Michael's comeback, in addition to attracting public opinion and boosting the confidence of the United States after 9/11, can no longer have as much impact on the NBA as it did in 1996.

It is worth mentioning that Arenas scored 6 points in the second half, a season high of 20 points, and also sent 5 assists. The Celtics' draft this summer seems to be worthwhile.

Washington was just the first stop of a long-distance trip. Then the Celtics swam around the east coast of the United States and went to Miami, Orlando, New Jersey and Toronto. It was already December when the brigade returned to Boston. For this reason, they got two days of rest to make adjustments. When the plane landed at Boston Airport, the whole team was in a happy mood, because they won a complete victory in the road trip!

This exceeded all expectations, an encouraging result. When John Carroll got off the plane, he was chased and intercepted by a large number of media reporters. Those journalists who used to look down on him are now holding long gun barrels to get some advice, and want to find out what Carroll has. Magic can allow the Celtics to achieve such results in a short period of time.

Carroll, who had just ascended to the coaching position a few days ago and flew to Washington without even holding a press conference in Boston, replaced O'Brien as Boston's new savior in a few days. No matter how much a city has a so-called "inheritance" in competitive sports, the truth that the winner is king will never be erased.

Carol was not used to such treatment for a while, he faltered in answering the reporters' questions, but the uncontrollable smile on his face still made him look radiant. In the fragmented answer, he repeatedly mentioned that "my assistant coach has given me a lot of help. Without them, we would not have passed this difficult period and achieved such results."

Carroll is of course referring to Leon. During this road trip, Leon has become the team's stabilizer. Carroll has been in the Celtics for five years, but he is not as good as Leon The prestige established by more than a year later. Although Carroll has rich head coaching experience in the NCAA, being the head coach of college students and the head coach of professional players are two completely different jobs. Carroll has not yet adapted to this position, and many times he is still too gentle, making players feel that he is easy to bully. Leon is completely different. Dennis Rodman, the biggest thorn in the team, has been punched by him. Paul Pierce has a life-threatening friendship with him, and his face, which looks a little scary when you look closely, is the same as Hamburg. Big fists, whenever the players perform badly and Leon stares at them coldly, they will have the idea of ​​"will this guy punch my head off with one punch" in their minds.

Moreover, Leon was very supportive of Carroll. He began to have more voice in daily training and competitions, but he also respected Carroll enough to be the head coach. At the same time, Carroll also gave Leon more power. This kind of mutual cooperation and cooperation allowed Carroll to successfully pass the transition period of the new coach, and won capital for himself with a beautiful record answer sheet. Boston's voice of questioning the replacement of the head coach suddenly became much quieter.

"What kind of changes have the Celtics made in the last few games? According to Coach Carroll, you have helped the team a lot since you became a tactical coach." A reporter from CSSNE TV stared at Leon, trying to get a few words from him to make up a report. Leon ignored the reporter at all, and just walked forward, until he was about to get on the bus, Leon didn't say a word. Just when the reporter was about to give up, Leonse gave him a note and said: "It has my phone number on it. If you have a chance, you can call me to interview me. I'm not in the mood for an interview right now."

After speaking, Leon got on the bus, sat in his seat and continued to meditate. This has also become a habit of Leon in the future. When he thinks about the problem, he will refuse all interviews. If he wants to interview, he can call afterwards. At this time, Leon was thinking about only one question, and that was how to get Chris Anderson.

Accepting the gift from the Spurs in Texas in the summer, the Celtics took the lead in contacting Chris Anderson. Leon also hopes that the team can sign Anderson as a free agent. But then Leon participated in planning the draft and went to Los Angeles for training, which actually delayed the matter. Then the Celtics faced a problem, that is, their roster was overcrowded, and there was no place for Anderson after laying off some short-term contract workers. And after a dispute with Angie over the choice of Arenas, Leon had to back down on the issue of signing Anderson, but this time it was not Angie who came out to oppose, but the old Celtics. Meritorious managers, including Cousy and White, reasoned that "Rodman's tattoos alone have reached the upper limit of Boston, and there cannot be another one."

Of course, Leon will not give up casually. In the summer, the Development League was officially established, and on November 1st, the 2001 Development League Draft was held in New York. After providing the basic information of the players, Chris Anderson got a very good evaluation and was successfully elected as the No. 1 pick in the first NBDL draft. He was picked by the Fayetteville Patriots, and after being picked to play two games for the Patriots, the Denver Nuggets signed Anderson to a one-year minimum contract.

Therefore, if Leon wants to get Anderson, the only way is to trade with the Nuggets. But launching a trade for a player with a basic salary is really unreasonable. The only way is to make a secret move on the plank road, and on the one hand, initiate a trade that is beneficial to both parties with the Nuggets, and then bring Anderson to Boston as an incidental. Fortunately, Danny Ainge supported Leon in signing Anderson, especially after Arenas played outstandingly during the five-game winning streak, those "Celtic styles and traditions" had long been recognized by Ainge. Forget about it, he is not the kind of rigid and dogmatic person, since Leon sees people accurately, then listen to him.

The question is how to start this transaction. The Nuggets are in the rebuilding period. After experiencing the glory of the Black Eight miracle in the 1990s, this plateau team has not come out of the quagmire. The team's transactions and signings Quite frequently, the team has been in a relatively turbulent state. Their situation this season is very similar to that of the Celtics. After the team's record rebounded last season, they started a losing streak again this season. To follow in O'Brien's footsteps and become another head coach who dismisses get out of class quickly.

After returning to Boston, during the two-day break, Carroll gave the players a day off, while Leon rushed to the team headquarters non-stop to discuss trade matters with Angie and Wallace. Two days later, the Denver Nuggets will travel to Boston to challenge the Celtics, and Leon hopes that when the game starts that day, Anderson will be wearing a Celtics uniform.