NBA: Start by torturing Jordan and add points to upgrade

"There are two ways to break through the Celtics' defense!" Payton said, looking at the other three. "First, of course, the Knicks should play more as a team, share the ball more, and each player should look for a teammate after getting the ball instead of forcing their way through."

"The first thing everyone should do after getting the ball is not to raise it and aim at the basket, but to share the ball with their teammates!"

"The best way to deal with the Celtics' defense is to pass! Constantly pass the ball to cut through and move the Celtics' defense around, and then the Knicks will get open shots."

"This method is the simplest tactically. It doesn't rely on the individual abilities of the players; it just requires them to unite."

"The other method is theoretically much more difficult, which is to use unreasonable methods to constantly attack, challenge and bombard the Celtics' position, put pressure on them time and time again, and break down their defense time and time again."

"No matter how well you defend, I can still make the shot. No matter how good Duncan and Howard are at defense, I can still tear your defense apart!"

"This method requires a very high level of individual ability from the players. If their individual ability is not up to that level, and they cannot attack the Celtics' defense indiscriminately, then these one-on-one plays will turn into a series of missed shots and turnovers, and the team will be completely controlled by the Celtics."

"Simply put, it's about both individual and team play; both methods can break down the Celtics' defense."

"It seems the Knicks will have to rely on Lin's individual ability to win the game!" Payton had barely finished speaking when the other three voiced their opinions in unison.

"I think so too! In the first quarter, Lin was mostly testing the waters. He wanted to see if his teammates were feeling good tonight and what their condition was like."

"So he was looking for teammates more often. But even though he passed the ball a lot, when the Celtics wanted to extend their lead, Lin would always take the shot himself, score, and quickly narrow the gap."

"In the first quarter, from a tactical and strategic perspective, the Celtics completely dominated the Knicks. If the Celtics played against any other team and came out like this, they would have led by at least 15 points in the first quarter!"

"But against the Knicks, although they had the upper hand and completely dominated the game."

"But they didn't even manage to lead by 10 points!"

As the commentators said, the Celtics completely controlled the pace of the game in the first quarter, and the Knicks were completely dominated for the entire quarter.

However, the score was far less dramatic than it appeared on the field.

28: 20!

At the end of the first quarter, the Knicks were only down by 8 points!

Of the Knicks' 20 points, 14 came from Lin Tian! It can be said that Lin Tian single-handedly withstood the Celtics' system and led his team to stay close in the score!
When the second quarter began, Don Nelson did not change the team's usual rotation. Lin Tian, ​​who played the entire first quarter, sat on the bench to rest, while Anthony and Stoudemire led the team to continue fighting on the court.

Meanwhile, the Celtics retained two key players, Howard and Artest, while Ginobili, the Sixth Man of the Year, also played.

The Celtics' rhythm changed immediately after Ginobili entered the game.

It's getting faster!

Led by this "Argentine magic weapon," the Celtics suddenly started running!
That's not all; while they were running, they maintained the high efficiency they had in the first quarter.

Ginobili's ball-handling and execution skills are already quite strong. Coupled with his offensive firepower spread throughout the entire half of the court, when he runs freely, his unpredictable driving routes and his pull-up jump shot at any time catch people off guard.

If it were just his individual offense, that would be fine. Ginobili can score, and he can score a lot of points, but he's not the type who can single-handedly defeat the opponent and score 4-50 points anytime, anywhere.

As for the reason, you can tell from his nickname.

Besides his widely known nicknames such as "Argentine Vulture" and "Argentine Demon Blade," this guy has another nickname.

'15-Minute Lin Tian'!
This nickname perfectly describes his strengths and weaknesses.

His advantage is that when he is full of energy and can run and sprint, he is almost invincible!

Passing, shooting, driving, scoring, defense—he can do it all, and he does it all exceptionally well!

However, his problem is that once his playing time exceeds 20 minutes, his efficiency begins to decline, and it is very obvious. Over the years, his physical fitness has just not kept up.

If he plays too much, such as averaging more than 30 minutes per game, he is likely to suffer an injury!

Ultimately, Ginobili has everything except durability.

He can be Lin Tian for 15 minutes, but he can't become a superstar. That's pretty much his ceiling.

Within 15 minutes, Ginobili is unstoppable; within 25 minutes, he can be considered an All-Star caliber player. However, once his playing time exceeds 35 minutes, he should pray for the future.

Whether it's good or bad, whether it's a god or a ghost, it all depends on luck.

But the second quarter, especially the beginning of the second quarter, was clearly Ginobili's time, and it was clearly Ginobili's time to dominate!
Driven by his back-and-forth clashes and frenetic energy, the Celtics maintained their momentum in the first three minutes of the second quarter, outscoring the Knicks 10-5!

Their lead has now increased to 13 points.

At this point in the game, even old Nelson dared not let Lin Tian rest any longer.

"Lin, get on the court." Old Nelson patted Lin Tian on the shoulder and said, "You know how to play, right?"

"Of course." Lin Tian stretched his body and said, "I'll beat them so badly that they won't dare to help defend my teammates, so badly that they'll put all their defensive focus on me, making them hesitant to attack and afraid to help defend."

"I beat them so badly that they didn't dare do anything except double-team me! Once I've completely flattened their defense, that's when my teammates will make their move!"

After Lin Tian finished speaking, he didn't wait for Old Nelson to say anything more and went straight onto the court.

Next up is his turn.

In the first quarter, Lin Tian tested his teammates' condition, wanting to see if they had any solutions for the Celtics' defense.

But clearly, the Knicks players weren't in good form tonight.

Now it's time for Master Lin to wreak havoc on all sides!

When Lin Tian first entered the game, Rivers on the opposing team remained unmoved, not bringing Duncan, Parker, and others onto the court, and instead letting Ginobili and Howard lead the substitutes to continue the fight.

For Lin Tian, ​​with one less Duncan in the paint, it will be much easier for him to drive to the basket!
Since you're not here, I have to take advantage of your absence and make a big splash!
Hurry up, I'm going to take your lives!
In the very first round back on the court, Lin Tian unleashed his full power!
Lin Tian dribbled past Ginobili outside the three-point line, then performed two crossover dribbles before changing direction and charging straight towards the basket. On the way, facing Artest who came to help defend, Lin Tian used a very slight deceptive change of direction to trick Artest out of his balance.

Lin Tian's path to the paint was immediately clear, and between him and the basket, there was only Howard as the last barrier!

For Lin Tian, ​​he now had space to attack, distance to accelerate, and he had also gotten past the defenders who were there to help him defend.

Then the rest is quite simple!

Lin Tian accurately predicted the moment of impact, raised the basketball high with one hand, and placed the other hand in front of his chest as he flew towards Howard!

Howard, under the basket, saw Lin Tian rushing over and seized the opportunity. He gathered his strength, took a deep breath, and then rose up like a helicopter!
He jumped incredibly high, his head almost parallel to the rim, and his defensive stance was perfect, with his arms raised vertically without any downward or forward leaning.

At least from an aesthetic point of view, this was an absolutely perfect defensive play!

"Oh!"

A muffled thud rang out as Lin Tian and Howard collided head-on, their chests meeting. The sound was so loud that even Stoudemire, who was closest, widened his eyes in surprise. Howard had the advantage in height, being nearly 20 centimeters taller than Lin Tian, ​​and also had a longer wingspan; Howard's hand was even touching the basketball in Lin Tian's hand.

Just when it seemed that Lin Tian was about to be eliminated by Howard's block in this head-on confrontation, Lin Tian's hand, which had been positioned in front of him from the beginning, came into play!
He gently exerted his strength, pressing against Howard's chest, giving himself an extra burst of power. With this extra force, Lin Tian once again made a pose in mid-air that almost defied the laws of physics.

He leaned back again, and the basketball, which was about to be blocked by Howard, miraculously moved backward, skillfully dodging Howard's block. Then, due to inertia and a miscalculation, Howard lost control of his hands and swung them towards Lin Tian.

This is the moment!

Lin Tian unleashed his full power once more, and with a remarkably clear whooshing sound, he slammed the basketball towards the rim with one hand!
"boom!"

This time, no matter how high Howard jumped or how good his physique was, he couldn't stop Lin Tian's powerful dunk!
After a loud bang, Lin Tian almost completely lost his balance and ended up hanging on Howard's body. The two of them fell to the ground at the same time.

"Oh!"

With another muffled thud, Howard, who had been barely maintaining his balance, lost his footing completely due to Lin Tian's trip and landed awkwardly on the floor.

Lin Tian, ​​who had lost his balance, regained it by using the air-to-ground grip and landed steadily on the floor.

When the two landed at the same time, Lin Tian stood with his legs apart on either side of Howard's body, while Howard fell to the ground in a disheveled state.

Dominate the world!

Look down on all living beings!

At this moment, Lin Tian seemed to be the king of the whole world. He stood at the highest point and looked down on everything!
Several seconds passed before Madison Square Garden finally reacted, with fans erupting in a frenzy of roars and shouts. They had gone completely mad!
All the passion, enthusiasm, adrenaline and hormones surged wildly, countless people blushed, waving their hands as if celebrating the victory of some world war, everyone on the scene was in a state of complete high as if they were on drugs.

That shot was absolutely insane!
Howard jumped incredibly high, and Lin Tian's incredible layup almost exceeded the limits of the human body. This head-on collision between the two was truly breathtaking for all the fans.

Even just this one goal alone is absolutely worth the ticket price. Every fan who gets to witness this goal live will definitely get their money's worth!

That was fantastic!

"That dunk could be one of the top ten dunks in NBA history! It's terrifying! It's unbelievable, how could Lin dunk such a crazy dunk?" Kenny held his head in his hands, still unable to believe what had just happened.

"For a moment, I thought Lin was going to get blocked." Miller shook his head repeatedly, he also needed to calm down.

"The Knicks have indeed used their best approach to deal with the Celtics' defense."

"By targeting a single point and using individual skill to break down a team's defense!" Payton said, "Lin is indeed the most likely and capable person in this league to accomplish this!"

"Now, who's left?" Barkley yelled from the side, "I'm asking you, who's left!"

So, both are 2 points, but there is a huge difference between 2 points.

Lin Tian's two points directly reversed the momentum between the two sides.

The Celtics players then failed to score on three consecutive possessions. Howard himself had two shots that were more outrageous than the last. One was a strong drive to the basket that missed, and the other was a hook shot after a lateral step that resulted in an airball!

Also, Ginobili's step-back three-pointer bounced off the rim and missed!
In three possessions, the Celtics missed three shots in a row, and the response they received, of course, was Lin Tian's incredible performance!
He chose to fight one-on-one for three rounds in a row, and won all three rounds!
Two mid-range pull-up jumpers, one long-range three-pointer, plus his own dunk when he first came on the court, Lin Tian single-handedly scored a scoring run in just two minutes!

9: 0!

In the blink of an eye, Lin Tian unleashed a 9-0 offensive surge!
The Celtics' 13-point lead vanished in the blink of an eye!

During this period, the person who should take the blame and be held responsible the most is Rivers!

If it were any other experienced head coach, they would have immediately called a timeout after Lin Tian's first dunk, to let the players, especially Howard, catch their breath and forget about that moment.

But he didn't call a timeout! And for the next three rounds, he didn't call a timeout either!
This completely wiped out the Celtics' lead!
By the time he called a timeout after Lin Tian had scored four consecutive goals, it was already too late.

The climax was over, and the score difference was only 4 points. Lin Tian also needed some rest after scoring four consecutive points.

Doing this all by yourself is quite tiring.

"Toad, toad! Cabin! Cabin! Come on! Come on! We can do it! Come on, let's keep trying! Come on!" Rivers continued to roar wildly and excitedly, although his words were not very nutritious and were mostly dry chicken soup.

But for the Celtics players, in the current situation, pure motivational talk is actually more effective.

After all, they don't need any sophisticated tactics right now; what they need is to forget Lin Tian's madness just now!

It's worth mentioning that, unnoticed by anyone, one of the Celtics' assistant coaches was a chubby middle-aged man who clearly disapproved of Rivers' tactical arrangements.

This guy's lips were clearly turned down, he was definitely rebellious.

This is Tom Thibodeau, the Celtics' lead defensive coach!

Of course, if you ask Thibodeau what to do in this situation, his answer will be very simple.

"Let Duncan and the others play a little longer. If Duncan were on the court, would he have been beaten so badly by Lin Tian? Definitely not!"

"Increasing the playing time of our key players is the best way to win!"

"What? What if they don't have enough stamina? That's easy to say!"

"If you pay more attention to this during regular training and improve in this area, then everything will be solved, right?"

The plan goes through!
Thibodeau, of course, had no idea that his strategy of heavily utilizing key players would, more than a decade later, acquire a completely new and distinctive nickname.

'Plantation Basketball'!
Single-handedly, he restored the status of his Black followers to that of the Age of Exploration.
With the timeout over, players from both sides returned to the court, and at this point, both sides had essentially brought back all their key players.

The Knicks were clearly looking to counter the Celtics' tall and strong frontcourt trio, so they temporarily benched Wallace and brought in Smith!

The remaining four players are all starters.

Aren't you tall, strong, and good at collapsing the paint to defend?

Alright! Let's have a competition and see which side has bigger muscles and which player is stronger!

The Celtics, on the other hand, kept Ginobili on the court, rested Josh for the time being, and had the remaining four players start.

Clearly, the Celtics have no intention of changing their previous strategy; they will continue to use their collective defense to stop the Knicks' offense.

Ginobili's presence will undoubtedly make the Celtics' offensive system more three-dimensional and diverse!

After all, Josh is a pure finisher, while Ginobili can do so much more!
The decisive moment of the first half has arrived ahead of schedule!

Next, we'll see which side is harder! (End of Chapter)