The Whip of the God of Basketball

Leon stood on the sidelines and watched Arenas restrained on the court, hesitating on the first ball and passing the final ball. He knew that this kid must be thinking wildly.

In the draft two years ago, Leon knew that this guy had talent, but his talent was not to be a super point guard, but that he had tenacity, outstanding ball sense and strong self-confidence. These things Sometimes it is more important than so-called physical fitness.

After stimulating Arenas and letting him come to the Celtics, Leon decided to let him play point guard. His body was too small for the shooting position, and his limbs were a bit too big to play point guard. Leon asked him to play point guard because he could vaguely feel the development direction of future point guards from him - don't ask where this feeling came from, Leon himself didn't know.

Soon Leon saw the potential in this kid with a hard-working spirit - the potential to become a super scorer. But this is not what Leon wants, nor is it what Arenas himself wants. Leon hopes that he can take a more balanced route, slowly releasing his firepower, while teaching him to become a stable and qualified point guard; And Arenas felt that he could become a god and be omnipotent.

At this time, Jason Kidd is skillfully controlling the Nets' offense. He handed over the ball after halftime and gave the ball to Jefferson who was on the line. He slid around the baseline from left to right and reached the right corner. Then Jefferson shot a feint from the center and Pierce, The triple defense line of Garnett and PJ Brown was waiting for him. How could Jefferson suddenly move? He immediately transferred the ball to Kidd. Kidd made another fake move to shake Arenas away, and then entered the penalty area with a fake move. The layup pass was passed to Kittles who cut to the baseline from the weak side. Kittles made a backhand layup and easily scored two points.

A very simple breakthrough point, breakthrough point and inside cut. Kidd not only completed the last assist, but also launched the attack. There was no sloppiness in his passing, and he slid to the baseline very quickly, and he was immediately given. Jefferson cleared up the breakthrough space on the left side and also attracted the Celtics' defensive attention to the right side.

Finally, Kittles in the left corner completed a layup. For the Nets, which has relatively poor positional warfare coordination, it is quite good to be able to rely on tactics to score like this.

On this side, Arenas once again shouldered the burden of organization. This time he learned his lesson and no longer stuck his butt out and imitated Mark Jackson. Like Kidd, he handed the ball over after halftime. He couldn't pass the ball to Magic anyway. For a pass like that, just make a tactical starting point. Then Pierce received the ball and broke through to score a layup. Arenas stood in the bottom corner for two seconds and did nothing.

"It was a good scoring opportunity just now. You made a good pass!" Pierce did not forget to comfort Arenas. In fact, it was because Garnett and P.J. Brown gave Pierce a double screen. As long as it was not Ben Wallace, the double screen would The screen was well done and Pierce got inside and scored properly.

When the game gradually became regular, Arenas discovered that the power of habit is powerful. Everyone is cooperating according to the usual training routines and the tacit understanding accumulated in daily games. Occasionally, the coach calls a timeout and arranges one or two key points. tactics. What's even more frightening is that Arenas himself is increasingly playing in the routine he is used to.

The positional offense obediently handed over the ball or looked for opportunities to break through two, and then controlled the rhythm during the quick counterattack. The Celtics' unhurried but precise fast break was like a king's gun with steady power and tricky angles. The Nets were breathless.

Indeed, the Nets could not beat the Celtics without Garnett last season. With Garnett, the Celtics' counterattack speed and changes have been upgraded to a new level, the kind of multi-person push for short distances. With a little cooperation, they even showed the style of the super strong Celtics team in 1986, setting off waves of cheers in the North Shore Garden.

66:53, the Celtics established a 13-point lead in the first half. In the regular season, the Nets did not conduct targeted defense, allowing the Celtics to play a stronger fast break. They were basically unable to control the rhythm. Just can't keep up, and replacing Alonzo Mourning is useless. The Celtics' positional battles don't force the low post at all.

The situation was excellent, but the more it went like this, the more anxious Arenas felt.

In the first half of the game, his statistics were good, 10 points, 4 assists and 1 steal. He did not fall behind in the head-to-head confrontation with Kidd. But this is not what he wants. What he was thinking before this game was that he frequently assisted in the first half and occasionally made a few three-pointers. In the third quarter of the second half, he came into full fire, scoring 15 or 20 points and leading the way. The team established the victory in one fell swoop.

In the end, he won the best player of the game with a performance of 35 points + and 10 assists.

But now it seems that his performance tonight will not be any different from before. He will score about 20 points, 5 or 6 assists, and be the third or fourth man. This is different from what Leon said to him before the game!

In the locker room at halftime, Pierce had already begun to laugh at Arenas, saying that he only played two good shots and was a general for two minutes before becoming a soldier again. Arenas also knows that his two so-called good goals are nothing more than a tiger.

"If you can win this way, then why not keep playing like this?" Carlisle said in the locker room. He was so upright until Leon rolled his eyes at him.

But this is Carlisle's real idea. He also thought that Arenas' offensive power should be released before, but after seeing the Celtics' second fast break tonight, Carlisle realized that releasing Arenas' offensive power is It makes no sense, because the Celtics' outside firepower is really strong enough, so strong that it may be a waste for Arenas to take too many shots.

Leon didn't say anything. He just asked the players to stabilize their defense first in the second half. With a big lead, the situation where no one scores is more uncomfortable for the opponent than if both sides score.

But obviously, Arenas didn't listen to a word.

After the start of the second half, Arenas pounced on the offense. Several of his shot choices were very poor. As a result, the veteran Kidd seized the opportunity and organized the team to launch a counterattack. A 7:0 climax directly reduced the score difference to 6 points. Leon had to call a timeout.

At this time, Leon made an unexpected substitution. He replaced Michael Reid, who played well in the first half, and replaced him with Laga Bell, who had not had a chance to play this season. Then inside, he replaced PJ Brown and replaced Wang Zhizhi, who also had not had a chance to play this season.

This unreasonable substitution had an extraordinary effect, because in this lineup, Arenas seemed to have really become a general. Wang Zhizhi is a complete space-based insider, and Laga Bell is a pure flanker, which gives Arenas room to play.

In the offense after the timeout, he gave up his outside shots and began to use the steps he had practiced hard in the summer to break through Kidd's defense.

With strong arms and slender but explosive calf neck, Arenas is like a football running back wearing protective clothing. He holds the ball in his hand and rushes into the paint. He scored 6 consecutive points and succeeded in an attack. Relying on two free throws, the Nets' proud perimeter defense was completely unable to do anything to Arenas.

"When necessary, he is the best blaster..." Leon looked at Arenas' crazy breakthrough. He knew that this kid would not be able to escape the path he had paved for him no matter what.

Arenas scored 11 points in the third quarter and caused the Nets to end the game early due to too many fouls inside. The Celtics withstood the Nets' counterattack and defeated their old rival with an 101:90, 11-point advantage and won. Winning five consecutive games to start the season.

Arenas scored 25 points, provided 8 assists and 2 steals, and was named the best player of the game after the game. In an interview, Arenas said: "When I first came to the Celtics, I wanted to choose No. 1, but then I chose No. 0 because I felt that in Boston, compared to those great histories, I have nothing. Now I think I have taken a lot of steps on the road from starting from 0... I will do better this season."

Halfway through the words, Arenas walked away. He said what was in his heart, but what he didn't say was that the person who didn't let him choose No. 1 and chose No. 0 was Fox Leon. Starting tonight, he decided that no matter what the future holds, at least he will listen to Leon's teachings in the past few years and reach the end of the road starting from scratch.