Chapter 123: The end of the Jordan era

Leon and his Celtics didn't have much time to stay in Boston to savor the joy of their first victory. Of course, this was indeed a crucial first victory. Perhaps in the eyes of the fans and the media, they will soon forget this ordinary and ordinary regular season and put their interest and energy into more exciting collisions later, but only Leon and his coaching staff understand that they can Winning the next game in their own way is of great significance to the team's forward strategy throughout the season.
Before the start of the season, Leon and his coaching staff formed a certain degree of agreement. They exchanged opinions and eliminated some differences of opinion through the summer trip to Katadine Mountain, and finally decided to follow Leon’s advice. The blueprint moves forward. They will work together to build a team tactical prototype that focuses on fast offense, supplemented by superstar singles and high-intensity pressing defense.
This kind of tactic is becoming harder in the defense of the league, and the teams are undoubtedly going against the trend at the moment when the teams are hoarding the inside. Moreover, the Celtics have always been known for their tough defenses in history, and they have been light and small. The fast break tactics seem to be incompatible with the heavy traditions of the Celtics.
Therefore, the management represented by Danny Angie still hopes to introduce strong inside players as soon as possible to make the team more balanced on offense and defense, and become a truly balanced team. However, Leon has always refused to sell off their potential in exchange for some powerful strikers before Joe Johnson, Arenas, Reid and other young defenders grow up. The coaching staff's two Celtic veterans Cowens and Siegfried's support for Leon made Angie's heartbeat in the summer. Finally retained the young Celtics backcourt.
But the only thing that can really support Leon is victory. A veteran with impulsive personality like Cowens and still with iron-blooded Celtic blood in his veins. Deep down in his heart, he must also agree with Angie's construction of the Celtics. Some ideas. Just as an assistant coach, and out of appreciation for Leon, he temporarily stood on Leon's side.
Wait-and-see people like Cowens are not few in the Celtics, including those former celebrities of the Celtics. Once Leon’s strategic and tactical ideas are proven wrong, they will not be able to bring them to the Celtics. victory. Then Leon will be greeted not only by criticism, but also by the risk of a rapid fall. In the past two years, this drama has been staged several times.
It can be seen that the victory over the Bulls is so precious, on the plane to Washington the morning after the game. Leon rarely fell asleep on the plane. In the past, when he was an assistant coach, Leon rarely slept on short-haul planes. He would take time to plan tactics and study his opponents, but this time, the relaxation after tension made him not sleep enough.
The Celtics started the season with a very difficult schedule. There were three back-to-back games in the first ten games, and a total of six games accounted for 60%. After the first game is over, they will start a three-game journey. On the night of the flight to Washington, it was a back-to-back. Challenge the Wizards on the road. Then I will go to New York and Chicago respectively.
As early as when Leon received the schedule, he secretly criticized the league for arranging the Celtics' schedule so torture people, but there is no way, the long regular season is a huge test for the coach and the team.
After arriving in Washington, Leon canceled the team training originally scheduled for the afternoon and asked the players to immediately return to the hotel for rest. And he himself watched a Wizards game against the Raptors in the room. In the opening game, the Wizards lost a 68:74 away game and lost an ugly iron fight. Once the basketball Michael Jordan condescended to become a substitute this season. In this game, he scored only eight points on 4 of 14 shots and lost to Carter-led Raptors. The old trapeze looks very old in comparison with the new trapeze.
Of course, this is a topic that the media and fans care about. Leon is concerned about the Wizards' tactics and rotation. In a big deal in the summer, the Pistons and the Wizards swapped their heads. The Wizards sent away Hamilton, who was in conflict with Jordan, and got Stackhouse, the season's scoring champion in the 00-01 season. In this way, Jordan was put on the bench, starting with Kwame Brown, Lightner, Stackhouse, Larry Hughes, and former Jazz Titans Brian Russell.
The Wizards’ strength on paper feels quite strong, with talent and experience on the inside, a powerful single point on the outside, a 3D player who is experienced enough to defend and have a three-pointer, and a talented ball-handling and attacking player. Combo guard, sitting on the bench once was No. 1 in the world. Before the start of the season, the media and fans were very optimistic about this team. Even the embarrassing loss of the first game did not make people give up hope.
Leon didn’t think so. After arriving at the hotel, he watched the video of the game in the room for more than two hours, and finally came to the conclusion: This is not a complete basketball team. It is not so much a Washington Wizards. The Washington Wizards match Michael Jordan.
Jordan, the greatest star in history, his personal charm and influence are too huge, huge enough to annihilate a team. From the first game against the Raptors, Leon can notice that even if Jordan becomes the team's substitute, he is often above the entire team. If it were ten years ago, there would be no problem at all, he could beat a team alone, but this year he is 40 years old, maybe he still has a superhero heart, but he has no superhero skills anymore .
So Leon knows that the seemingly neat and powerful lineup of the Wizards has not really kneaded into a whole. If Jordan is not Jordan, while retaining the ability that he has now, perhaps in Doug Collins, the coach of Jordan’s early Bulls. Can become a strong Eastern team under training.
Of course, this does not mean that the Celtics can easily defeat their opponents. Leon has no reason or confidence to think that this will be an easy battle, so when there are three hours before the game, Leon called all the coaches. Group members held a simple pre-match meeting.
"We have to strive to establish a double-digit advantage in the first half, and then we can survive the opponent's counterattack in the second half." Leon said to several assistant coaches in the coaching meeting to solicit their opinions.
The Wizards and Celtics are also a back-to-back game. They must also be tired. The difference is that they return to the home court. The advantage of the home court is that they can get better rest and higher morale. The disadvantage is that it is easy to relax. Leon thought that he could not use the tactics of a quick second attack in the last game. This would be a huge drain on the team's physical strength. He decided to turn it around and focus on the star's one-on-one attack in the first half. It is expected that the touch of Gemini can establish enough advantage for the Celtics, and then start to consume the Wizards from the second half. Waiting for the opponent to fill the pit until the end of the game, must not let the opponent fill the pit.
Leon's strategy has been approved by the coaching staff, but physical coach Hess thinks that the physical fitness of the Celtics team may be better than expected, and Dick Hart thinks. If you don't play the offensive feeling at the beginning, whether you can withstand the counterattack in the second half will be a big problem, and if the Gemini is inefficient in the first half, then the Celtics may be a big rout.
Leon knows that Hart's concerns are justified, but when the overall strength is not strong enough, he can only use his strategy to maximize his advantages and avoid disadvantages.
……………………
At seven o'clock Eastern Time, in the center of the Wizards' home court. The Celtics, wearing a traditional green uniform, challenged the Washington Wizards. One year after his comeback, Michael Jordan was still able to get the cheers of the mountains and the tsunami in the center. Leon watched the once basketball in the dark, but could vaguely feel that the sacred light on his body was no longer so dazzling.
The game started on time. Compared with the first game, Leon's slightly nervous state of mind had calmed down early, and he began to sit quietly on the sidelines and watch the game go on.
The Celtics focused their offense on Walker and Paul Pierce as soon as the game opened. The Celtics, who succeeded in the first offensive jump ball in the opening game, handed the offensive power to Pierce who was in the low post. But Pierce turned around and missed a jumper. Brian Russell's experienced defense gave Pierce enough interference.
This is not a good sign. As expected, the Celtics missed consecutive offenses. Pierce made 1 of 3 shots and Walker made 1 of 4 shots. Neither star seemed to find an offense. Fortunately, their defense was hard enough, and the Wizards didn't make a lot of gains on offense. The two sides were caught in a low-scoring stalemate.
The turning point appeared in the middle of the first quarter. Leon made a substitution. He replaced Paul Pierce, who played a normal role, and Joe Johnson. At the same time, the Wizards also replaced Michael Jordan. The situation suddenly changed. Now that the team's strategy has been decided, Leon will never change easily. In the first half, he continued to ask the team to end the offense in a simpler way to avoid possible mistakes caused by too many passes. Joe Johnson is doing this. His tactics were very good, he began to use the singles skills he improved in the summer to keep scoring. Of course, this situation only lasted about four or five rounds. When Jordan started defending Joe Johnson, Johnson, who was still quite immature in his skills, quickly misfired.
However, Walker slowed down and began to rush to the basket with small steps. If the Wizards' starting lineup is weaker on defense, then it is Lightner. The forward is undoubtedly unable to stare at the fat. Toutuo's drunken footsteps. The Wizards who lacked effective defensive strategies as a whole were beaten by the Celtics and fell behind by 11 points in the first half.
In the second half, the Wizards, who had been slowed down, started chasing points. Stackhouse’s offensive power was amazing, but his turnovers were also amazing~EbookFREE.me~ Thanks to Leon’s "Eagle Eye Off the Ball Training", Celtic People's ability to catch mistakes and push back is quite strong, and the speed of cooperation is shocking. The Celtics were still a team that relied heavily on the individual abilities of their players in the fast break last season. This season seems to have suddenly become the Lakers of the-period, but they don't have a magician on the court.
The game is increasingly moving in the direction of Leon's prediction. In the last timeout of the fourth quarter, Leon used the last defense. In five seconds, the Celtics led the Wizards by two points. Leon bet that the Wizards’ last shot would be handed over to Michael Jordan. He boldly decided to double-team Jordan for three. He set up a triangle defensive trap near the right side of the free throw line to allow Michael Reid. Guide Jordan into the trap.
When Jordan broke through from the right with the ball, and then prepared to stop the jump shot near the free throw line, but when three people suddenly stepped forward, Jordan paused and then took the jump shot. Maybe he used to throw the ball in this situation and drag the game into overtime, but this time it was the clear "clang" sound of basketball hitting the front of the basket.
95:93, the Celtics defeated the Washington Wizards in an away game with difficulty, and achieved two consecutive victories in the opening season. At the same time, Jordan's Wizards swallowed the bitter fruit of two consecutive defeats.
Jordan's era is really over long ago. (To be continued.)