The Golden Age of Basketball

"The celtics replaced parrish with two fouls and replaced it with bill walton. walton's arrival has injected new energy into the celtics, and the ucla graduated center is as bright as ever , as long as he has no problem with his knee, when he stands on the court, he can contribute to the team."

Mostert has never lacked praise for the Celtics players. Even if it is the water dispenser administrator at the end of the bench, Mostert can find the shining points in them and praise them greatly.

However, Mostert's evaluation of Walton is quite pertinent. When he is not injured, he is definitely a center who can dominate the game.

Since Gan Guoyang entered the league, he has played against Walton several times in his rookie season. At that time, Walton was still in the unlucky Los Angeles Clippers. At that time, the Clippers almost dismantled half of the team in order to get Walton. It's a semi-crippled version.

Even this semi-disabled version can occasionally show off when he is relatively healthy, and teach Gan Guoyang, a rising star, at other times he will either linger on the sick bed and watch the healthy Gan Guoyang jumping around on the field, or lose with the team , The strength of the Clippers is really bad.

After coming to the Celtics this season, Wharton's physical condition is very good so far. The Celtics also specially formulated a physical rehabilitation and maintenance plan for him to escort this fragile giant.

Unlike the Trail Blazers, Walton has cut off his long red hair and no longer wears his distinctive bohemian headgear, but has an ordinary hairstyle.

This also seems to show the world that he is no longer Portland's rebellious son of heaven, but a hard-working sixth man on the field.

"Beep!" The referee blew his whistle, the timeout ended, and the game continued. Gan Guoyang's two free throws gave the Blazers a 14:7 lead over the Celtics by 7 points.

"Angie serves, DJ is at the top of the arc, Bird circles to the right to catch the jumper... Didn't make it, Bird's touch in the first quarter was a bit bad..."

The Celtics' serving tactic is very simple. Johnson catches the ball at the top of the arc. McHale makes a screen for Bird at 45 degrees on the right. Bird goes around the sideline to the corner to catch Johnson's pass and shoot immediately, but the ball Hit the basket and bounced high.

Looking at Bird's shot, Gan Guoyang knew that the shot would miss the shot most of the time, because the route was crooked at the beginning. He had already calculated the ball's landing point in his mind, and was ready to take the rebound and launch a counterattack.

However, Bill Wharton entangled Gan Guoyang. He originally stood on the outside. Bird's ball collapsed a little far. Wharton used his long arm to dial the basketball first, and it was like playing volleyball. Also dialed the ball to the Celtics player on the outside.

"still-alive! (There is still the ball!) DJ Johnson grabbed the ball from Walton, he passed the ball to Ainge, Ainge walked in... and passed the ball to Bird, and Bird made a three-pointer in the corner Shot from outside the line...Goal! He made it! A three-pointer!"

Bird made a three-pointer from the bottom corner. With no one defending, the Boston Garden Square boiled instantly. In this era, a three-pointer is more valuable than a dunk, and Bird is the best three-pointer in the league.

At 14:10, Bird scored six points in two attacks, and the point difference between the two sides was narrowed to only 4 points at once, and the game had just begun.

In the next few rounds, Walton fully demonstrated how difficult he is. At least for Gan Guoyang, he would rather cancel Parish's foul and let No. 00 return to the field than fight with Walton inside.

In addition to battling injuries during the offseason, Walton also actively carried out strength training and gained more than a dozen pounds.

Walton's height was originally 6 feet 11 inches without water (compared to Olajuwon's 7 feet water content is too high), and his wingspan is long. After gaining weight and strength, this experienced The veteran caused Gan Guoyang a lot of trouble on the defensive end.

"Gan turned and hooked the ball...Missed, Walton got the rebound, Celtics counterattacked! This will be the Celtics' chance to tie, dj Johnson, pull up jumper! Goal! Dj is counterattacking Hit a jumper, 14:14, the Celtics tied the score!"

Dennis Johnson made an emergency stop jumper at the top of the arc very decisively during the counterattack. Of course, if this kind of ball is shot, it is decisive. The deadly x-factor of the Walters.

After the score was tied, Ramsey immediately called a timeout. It was not good for the Celtics to play. Ramsey knew that if he wanted to beat the Celtics, he must maintain a state of suppression from the beginning, otherwise he would It is even more difficult to reverse and win at Boston Garden Square.

"We need to maintain our impact. Our impact is slowing down and decreasing. We can't fall into the rhythm that the Celtics are used to. We must dominate the trend of the game. Don't play hard at the basket, pull away Space, don't let Walton occupy the inside, mobilize him. Colter, you replace Valentine and continue to speed up the offensive rhythm. You also play Cauchy, single-handedly defend Bird, let's not flank him, single-handed defense, Don't let him drive the Celtics' offense." Ramsey adjusted during the timeout.

After consecutive offensive misses, the Blazers' offense entered a period of weakness, so they needed Cauchy and Colter to increase their propulsion. At the same time, Ramsey decided not to take special care of Bird in terms of defense.

Ramsey knows that Bird has the strength to beat a team by himself, but he would rather be shot to death by Bird, and he doesn't want the Celtics to fully bloom and play well under Bird's mobilization. The Blazers will only find themselves in a more difficult situation.

At the same time, in the face of some problems Gan Guoyang encountered, Ramsey, as a coach who knows Wharton very well, knows that Wharton's advantage lies in the excellent defensive position and tall stature in the defense, forming a three-second zone. Barrier; a mastery of everything in the offense, plus the best passing of any center.

Therefore, Ramsey asked Gan Guoyang to run more in the offense and expand the scope of activities; in the defense, he should do his best to defend alone. With Wharton's current state, the Celtics basically don't count on his singles with the ball too much.

The Celtics also made some substitution adjustments. Sam Vincent replaced Danny Ainge. The presence of two combo guards in the backcourt has always been a feature of the Celtics, which also makes their offensive organization Points become abnormally many.

But the Celtics' best playmaker wasn't point guard Dennis Johnson, but small forward Larry Bird.

This white man with superb passing skills has a keen sense of smell that is not inferior to that of Magic Johnson. His passes often have the effect of tearing the opponent's defense and directly hitting the key.

"Bird throws the ball to McHale, McHale faces Mitchell Sampson...passes back to Bird, Bird cuts to the hoop, back pass... oh, cut it off , the Blazers' counterattack, Colter went straight to the basket and made a layup, 18:14, the Blazers scored two consecutive goals after a timeout, both of which were Colter, and his breakthrough was very fast."

The four points after the timeout came from Colter's breakthrough, and his state began to improve again after recovering from smoking marijuana.

On the ball just defended, Bird used a beautiful air-cut running position to throw off Cauchy. After receiving the pass from McHale, he saw Sampson stepping forward to defend, so he did not choose to force a layup, but A beautiful back pass gave the ball to Wharton, who followed up from the middle, but Gan Guoyang's hands were really fast, and he knocked the ball away at the moment Wharton was about to start a dunk.

If Gan Guoyang went all out to defend the basket like Sampson, Walton would have an easy chance to dunk, but this successful defense gave the Blazers the upper hand again.

Ramsey's excellent strategy and scheduling, coupled with the poor state of the Celtics themselves, they ended the first quarter with a 33:28 lead.

In the conversation with Wharton, although Gan Guoyang couldn't turn the Celtics inside upside down like he did in the beginning, he didn't give Wharton too many opportunities to play.

Even so, Walton still sent out an assist, a block and three rebounds in perfect time, and did not allow Gan Guoyang to continue to grab offensive rebounds or score in singles.

"The Blazers played like the Los Angeles Lakers in the first quarter. Strong and oppressive offense, gambling defense, and a very impactful lineup. The Celtics must find a way to deal with it, especially Bird. his condition."

The gambling defense mentioned by Most refers to the Blazers' strategy of never double-teaming Bird and letting the offense pass. The Blazers suffered, but unfortunately, except for the three-pointer and the three-pointer, Bird never scored in the first quarter.

At this time, on the Blazers' bench, Ramsey still didn't let go of any opportunity to guide the players during the short break, because he was going to be on the second team. Whether the second team can withstand it will be very important .

"Clyde, if the team's offense is in trouble, use your ability to solve the problem and get through the first period... And, Sampson, hold on for a while, and you will go off the field. You have to hold up the defense, especially For you McHale, I'm sure you can handle him."

The Celtics' bench, kc-Jones, also seized all the time to solve the team's problems in the first quarter.

"Initiate more offense from our low post and take fewer shots. Our shots don't feel good. I hope to smooth the score as soon as possible in the second quarter. Kevin, don't be afraid of Mitchell Sampson anymore, you guys Don’t be afraid of him now, your opponent.” KC-Jones looked at the most stable scoring point in the team and said to him

"I know, I know, I know."