The Golden Age of Basketball

For Kevin McHale, who has been in the NBA for six seasons, his brother Mitchell Sampson from the University of Minnesota has always been his heart disease.

McHale still remembers how when he first entered the University of Minnesota basketball team, he was Sampson's partner in training, how he was tortured to death by this senior who was proficient in various offensive skills.

When Sampson left college in 1978 and entered the NBA as the No. [-] overall pick, McHale felt reluctance and envy, but also a little bit of relief—finally, he no longer had to be suppressed by this guy.

But two years later, in 1980, McHale also entered the NBA. He was selected by the Celtics with the third overall pick in the first round. He had to face Mitchell Sampson again in the game against the Trail Blazers.

McHale, who has won two championships with the team, has become the out-and-out king of the low position in today's NBA. Especially since the beginning of this season, after Maxwell was traded away, McHale Became the team's starting power forward, and the standard inside data of 20 points and 10 rebounds in the first [-] games has become his daily routine.

He looks thin and thin, but he has great power in the low post. As long as he holds the ball in the low post, he will score in all likelihood.

His outstanding wingspan, nimble footwork and delicate touch make him a big killer in the Celtics' low position, but this big killer faces Mitchell Sampson tonight, and once again Failed.

Before this game, in the 10 direct conversations between McHale and Mitchell Sampson, his best performance was 21 points, and his average scoring in 10 games was 12.3 points. In the first five seasons of his career, he averaged 15.2 points per game, and the highest score in a single game was 46 points. His personal performance was completely below the average performance, not to mention the performance of any high-profile superstar.

In fact, technically speaking, McHale has surpassed Mitchell Sampson and has become one of the best inside players in the NBA, regardless of offense or defense. He cannot play well in the matchup with Sampson , largely due to psychological factors.

For McHale, perhaps the only thing he deserves is that he has been selected by the Eastern Conference team, while Sampson is in the Western Conference. In such a season, the two have only two chances to meet.

Now, KC-Jones hopes that McHale can break the psychological shadow of Sampson and carry the team's offense in the second quarter.

The reason why the Celtics traded Maxwell, apart from the lack of aggressiveness, was the most important reason for McHale's overall growth. He is already the second tactical core of this team.

After the start of the second quarter, the Celtics began to use McHale as the tactical starting point and launched a comprehensive counterattack.

"McHale got the ball in the post, turned around and hooked ... the ball hit the rim, Jones got the rebound, and McHale got a little edgy."

Seeing that he missed the hook, McHale clenched his fists and had nowhere to vent. He was indeed too impatient. When facing other defensive players, no matter how tall, short, fat or thin, McHale had an immobile temperament, able to Make good use of your abilities accurately and finally put the ball in the basket.

But in front of Sampson, he always seemed to want to prove something.

"The Blazers' counterattack, Colter's advancing speed was very fast, and he went straight to the layup! He missed it, but Sampson followed up and made up the ball. 35:28, it made the situation worse."

This is a good habit of the Blazers in the fast break. The inside players follow up very fast. Once the front guard fails to score the ball in the first time, they can always catch up and make up for it.

Because McHale was still immersed in the trouble of not being able to succeed in singles, he neglected to mark Sampson, which caused the Celtics to easily lose two points.

"E-on-guy." Byrd walked past McHale and said to McHale with his mouth curled.

The relationship between Bird and McHale is actually not as good as it looks on the court. Although they are both talented and white, they have completely different personalities.

Bird is paranoid, competitive, and has an almost harsh attitude towards himself and his teammates; McHale is jovial, basketball is not the only thing in his life, and he has many other things to enjoy.

In the last season, when McHale scored 56 points in a single game, setting a Celtics player scoring record in a single game, Larry Bird immediately blasted 60 points in the next game, bringing This data is refreshed.

With such a character, it is destined that the two of them will not be able to become friends.

But Bird also very much agrees with McHale's talent and basketball skills. He also knows that although McHale is not as good as himself, he is also a tough player who is eager to win and has a strong will.

In normal training, when Bird had any opinion on McHale, he always used Danny Angie as a small mouthpiece and asked Angie to discuss with McHale. This strange way of communication continued until the two retired.

But now on the court, Bird still skipped the small megaphone and went directly to McHale to encourage him, although there was only a simple sentence.

McHale took a deep breath, served the ball from the bottom line, and after running halfway, he continued to stand firmly on the inside line.

"McHale again, Bird has the ball, he lobs it to McHale, McHale dribbles and turns, tricks Sampson, layup! Nice footwork, McHale, a great up and down Step by step, watching him play singles is really pleasing to the eye."

Johnny Most finally saw McHale's classic up and down singles, and couldn't help but be very excited.

McHale's footsteps in the interior are stable and solid, and his fake moves are very realistic. When one turns around and raises his hand, the defender's defensive center of gravity often shifts. At this time, McHale changes positions, the pivot foot does not move, and the other Take a step up with your feet, squeeze your body past the defender, and you'll have a gap in front of you for a layup.

For other players, such a gap might not be enough to be a scoring opportunity, but McHale's slightly thin body and his super long arms played a role at this time. It's an easy layup.

With this trick, McHale has an astonishingly high success rate in low-post singles, which has greatly enriched the Celtics' tactical system and made the Celtics extremely strong this season.

In the subsequent offense, McHale, who had found the sense of offense, began to score consecutively in front of Sampson. He used all his offensive skills to make Mitchell Sampson look old and couldn't keep up. On McHale's action.

"McHale got the ball, turned over and made a jump shot! The ball went into the basket! The 10th point of the second quarter! McHale scored 10 points in a row! The score became 40:38, and the Celtics were only 2 points behind. The Blazers had to Called a timeout, they have no way to limit McHale, please allow me to call McHale the king of the low post!"

After playing with the second team for half a quarter, the score was approached by the Celtics. Ramsey also had to call a timeout to make adjustments.

He replaced Mitchell Sampson, a veteran who had played enough time, and was beaten a little by McHale in the second quarter.

"Your little brother is not afraid of you anymore, Mitchell." Gan Guoyang, who sat on the bench and watched Sampson being blown up, still did not forget to tease him.

"Oh shut up Gan, be careful that you will get kicked when you go up." Sampson didn't mind Gan Guoyang's ridicule, anyway, Gan Guoyang has always been like this, but Sampson knew in his heart that he really couldn't guard against McHale.

"Gan, stop talking, get ready to play." The Blazers' main lineup is about to return to the court.

"Okay, let me take care of McHale." Gan Guoyang didn't want to watch McHale make trouble inside the Blazers.

"No, you have your mission, you don't want to defend McHale, leave it to Kenny Carr; you don't want to help defend easily, do your own thing, control fouls, control the free throw line, don't pinch McHale , Don’t give the Celtics room to play outside, and, more importantly, our offense, remember, keep oppressive, keep suppressing them.”

Ramsey has repeatedly emphasized the defensive strategy. If the game is against other teams, Ramsey will not hesitate to adopt Bellman's defensive system, double-team the arrows in advance, and use fast rotation to disrupt The opponent's line of attack.

But the Celtics are different. Under the premise that the overall defensive level of the players is not enough, facing the Celtics rashly using this trick, the Blazers will die miserably. Use man-to-man defense without double-teaming McHale.

"Gan, your supplementary defense is very good, but I hope you understand that sometimes you have to learn to give up and do your own thing." Ramsey seemed to be afraid that Gan Guoyang would lose control of his legs, so he instructed Gan Guoyang alone before going on the field.

Gan Guoyang nodded speciously. He thinks that now he is rarely killed by opponents because of "nosy". In the case of the Blazers team's personal defensive ability, his supplementary defense and auxiliary defense are very important. He doesn't think he has to give up his style of play against the Celtics.

But the old man’s words are always right. Once the timeout was over, Gan Guoyang had just entered the field and immediately received two fouls. One was called a defensive foul when defending Bird from the outside, and the other was defending against McHale. At that time, another thug foul was called.

In addition to a foul in the first quarter, Gan Guoyang was about to be blown off by the referee as soon as he went up.

"Referee, are you trying to mess with me on purpose? Give me two fouls in a row? I'm so fucking honored!" Gan Guoyang was thinking about playing to suppress McHale's momentum, but he didn't expect to get two fouls immediately. Don't get angry.

Ramsey was even more indignant, yelling at the referee, he just reminded Gan Guoyang to be careful, Gan Guoyang is really a face-slapping little prince, his opponent's face is the same as his own face.

But the facts cannot be changed. Gan Guoyang, who had just played for 1 minute, was replaced by Jones immediately, and the situation of the Blazers suddenly became worse.