Champion, please stay!

Chapter 253, Section 251: The Emperor's New Tactic
The starting lineups for both teams came onto the field.

The Knicks fielded a starting lineup of Curry, Hughes, Yi Shui, David Lee, and Chandler.

Yi Shui looked at the opposing five: Rondo, Ray Allen, Pierce, Garnett, Perkins, and Tom Thibodeau standing with Rivers on the sidelines. It was breathtaking.

Two words flashed through his mind—iron-blooded, hand-to-hand combat!
The match started at 8 p.m.

Chandler beat Perkins to win the jump ball, and Yi Shui immediately launched an attack from the left flank! After landing, Chandler also immediately moved to the right flank and charged towards the other side.

The Celtics players, who had been retreating in an orderly fashion, quickly quickened their pace.

Yi Shui received a lob pass from Hughes on the left side of the free-throw line, but was sandwiched between Pierce and Ray Allen.

Yi Shui lifted the ball and flicked it towards the right side of the top arc.

Curry followed up, using David Lee's screen at the top of the arc to shake off Rondo, received the ball, and faced Garnett who was rushing out, and took a three-pointer... and it went in!
In the transition between offense and defense, Pierce initiated an attack by going one-on-one against Yi Shui, forcefully breaking into the double-team of Yi Shui and Chandler, and passing the ball to Rondo, who was cutting in from the left baseline.

David Lee collapsed under the basket, and Garnett went out to screen for Ray Allen. Rondo ran around the basket and lobbed a long pass from the right baseline to the left 45-degree angle.

Ray Allen had just made his run out of position using Garnett's screen when the ball arrived. He caught the ball and launched a three-pointer... and it went in!
Even as an opponent, Yi Shui felt that the Celtics' offensive play this time was really beautiful! It was noticeably different from two and a half months ago!
He discovered while studying the scouting report the night before last that the actual situation of the Celtics was not entirely the same as what the media reported and most fans knew.

In the past 12 games, the Celtics have averaged 96.5 points and allowed 92.5 points per game, winning by slowing down the pace, grinding out the defense, and wearing down their shooting touch.

But the Celtics scored 96.5 points on only 75 field goal attempts per game, with a remarkable 48% shooting percentage! That's the best performance in the league since the All-Star break!

In this morning's pre-game meeting, D'Antoni also emphasized that the Celtics' improved offensive success rate is the real reason for their improved record after the All-Star break.

The key player in this Celtics offensive play was undoubtedly Rondo.

It was as if he had a god's-eye view. In that position, where he could barely see the other side of the field, he was still able to pass the ball accurately. Although it was a pass within the tactic, his timing and basic passing skills were absolutely amazing.

But what truly impressed Yi Shui was Garnett.

In their first two encounters, Garnett somewhat displayed the mentality of 'I am a superstar, I am not resigned to this'.

In this offensive play, Garnett really acted like a pure role player!
First, he created space on the left mid-range, then went to the baseline to screen for Rondo who was circling around, and after screening Curry, he immediately moved up to screen for Ray Allen... No! Calling him a pure role player wouldn't be accurate either.

Which blue-collar player can orchestrate the offense? Only Garnett!

When it was the Knicks' turn to attack, Hughes received the inbound pass and quickly advanced the ball.

Yi Shui was the first to rush out, forcing the retreating Celtics players to quicken their pace.

Yi Shui received the ball in the frontcourt and broke through, passing it back to Curry, who then passed it to David Lee who was cutting in.

David Lee received the ball and attacked the basket... but was blocked by Perkins and Pierce.

Rondo secured the defensive rebound, advanced the ball to the frontcourt, and initiated the offense with a pick-and-roll with Garnett, then passed it to the wing.

Ray Allen rotated to the sideline, and the ball returned to Garnett, who was positioned high up and made an open mid-range jumper.

The Celtics lead 5-3!

The Knicks had anticipated that they wouldn't be able to stop the Celtics' slow-paced, half-court team offense.

The Knicks didn't stop. Curry, who had retreated to block Perkins, immediately picked up the ball and passed it to Hughes, continuing their charge!

Rivers on the sidelines is completely out of control this time; things aren't going as they predicted!
During the preparation phase, he was certain that the Knicks would choose to go all out against them in terms of star players.

This judgment was unanimously approved by the coaching staff and players.

Because in recent Knicks games, whenever the team's offense is not going well, they will choose to focus on star players. With Chandler joining, Yi Shui has been freed up on the defensive end, and there is room for them to play like this.

They are confident in their defense, believing it to be stronger than any opponent the Knicks have faced in the last few games.

Just like in the first few rounds, they defended the fast break very well. No matter how the Knicks attacked, they were able to push the opponent into a half-court game.

But the opposing team didn't care about that at all. They pushed forward quickly, passed the ball quickly, and shot quickly. Whether it went in or not, whether they were defended or not, they continued to charge in the next possession!
...

After playing for 3 and a half minutes, the Knicks called a timeout.

The Celtics have taken a 4-point lead, 11-7!
7投4中、其中三分球1中1、加上2中2的罚球，凯尔特人队开局进攻打得比平时还要更好。

The Knicks made only 3 of their 8 shots, and the Celtics played excellent defense.

But the Celtics' coaches and players all felt very uncomfortable!
Mainly on the defensive end, they defended very successfully, but it wasn't the kind of defense they wanted.

When the other side rushes in, pass the ball twice and then throw it away, not giving them a chance to get into a good defensive position or use teamwork to wear them down in close combat!

Instead, they were the ones being worn down—they fought eight rounds in three and a half minutes!
In the 12 games since the All-Star break, they have averaged less than 19 shot attempts per quarter, which, including free throws and turnovers, averages only 22 possessions per quarter.

They failed to keep the round count down at the start tonight!

Each offensive possession lasted around 20 seconds, unaffected by the opponent's increased pace. However, the opponent was too fast; from the free throw to the completion of the shot, it took less than 10 seconds!
After only a few minutes of playing, Perkins was already wiping sweat as he returned to the bench!

Rivers noticed this problem at the very beginning of the game. He first praised his players' performance loudly, and then emphasized that they needed to slow down the opponent's speed. As for how to slow down... well, he emphasized it with great enthusiasm.

Thibodeau, who was promoted to chief assistant coach at the end of last season and came under the radar of many teams, also had no advice to offer.

He's not a strategic coach, but a tactical one. His defensive preparations against the Knicks' fast breaks have been executed so well at the start of the game that he's already accomplished his mission.

As for how to slow down the opponent's pace, that's the job of the head coach who is in charge of overall offensive and defensive coordination.

The Celtics players are already used to this.

After Rivers finished his pep talk, the timeout wasn't over yet, so Rondo called his teammates to discuss something...

After the timeout, Rivers did not make any lineup changes, allowing the starting lineup to continue playing.

They've only played for a few minutes, and their offensive and defensive performances have been so good, there's no reason to rotate players.

On D'Antoni's side, Curry, Hughes, and Chandler were replaced by Chalmers, Duhon, and Swift, while Yi Shui and David Lee continued to play.

The Knicks are on offense, inbounding the ball from the center line.

Chalmers received the ball and passed it to Yi Shui, who had pulled out of position. Pierce defended very far out, practically standing on the three-point line.

The rest of the Celtics' defensive formation was also set up.

Whether we can slow down the Knicks' pace is still uncertain, but since we've finally fallen into a half-court defensive game, we have to hold them off.

Chalmers moved to the right corner, Duhon went to the left 45-degree three-point line, David Lee went to the left mid-range, Swift went to the left baseline...

After creating space, Yi Shui dribbled to the right side of the top arc, facing Pierce's defense, and slapped the ball heavily to the left with his right hand while simultaneously pushing off the ground with his right foot.

Pierce quickly moved to the right, reacting very fast, but!
After Yi Shui dribbled the ball and pushed off the ground, both feet left the ground at the same time, and he took small, quick steps to bounce the ball back! He used his left foot to stop the lateral movement to the left, and with the help of the league's top-tier wingspan, he pulled the ball back from the left.

As both feet land, push off with your left foot and dash forward down the right flank!

At that moment, there was enough room for a person to squeeze between Yi Shui and Pierce!

Garnett moved quickly to help defend... but couldn't stop him. Pierce was completely out of position and did nothing to delay the attack. Moreover, Yi Shui's speed of movement was even faster than Garnett remembered!
Yi Shui suddenly moved close to the basket, grabbed the ball, took a step, switched the ball to his left hand, and slammed it into the hoop over Perkins!
Before Perkins could react, his hand had just reached up when everything went black...

The fans in the stadium cheered wildly!

They'd never seen this move before! It was the Emperor's newest tactic!

The Celtics' three forwards, who were outmaneuvered by a one-man attack, all started cursing. They had no recollection of this move, and they hadn't seen it in the Knicks vs. Pacers game footage they had repeatedly studied the day before yesterday.

Not to mention the Celtics players, most of the Knicks players had never seen this move before. Only Curry, who was at the arena yesterday and was on a rest day after a six-game road trip, saw Yi Shui developing new technology.

But Curry didn't expect that Yi Shui would be used directly tonight!

It was used very roughly, extremely roughly. If Pierce had chosen to press down on Yi Shui when he was breaking the ball, Yi Shui would most likely have made a mistake.

But the Great Emperor dared to use it! And relying on his heaven-defying physical condition, he managed to pull off this move!

That move of pulling the ball back after it bounced so far, then bending down and changing direction to dash forward was so cool!

After the cheers subsided, the fans began chanting "Kevin".

Pierce couldn't save face anymore, so he ran up the court, faced Yi Shui's defense, and asked for the ball to go one-on-one!
Starting with a triple threat, Pierce executed a smooth drive followed by a step-back, creating space to lift the ball and launch a fadeaway three-pointer over Yi Shui's onslaught... but he shot too hard and missed!
David Lee secured the defensive rebound and tried to pass it to Duhon... but couldn't get it through!
Pierce's teammates were certain he would take the shot, and they started preparing their defense as soon as he went one-on-one.

The coaching staff had no solution, but Rondo came up with a plan—he and Ray Allen would work together to prevent the opposing team's fast break players from receiving the ball. Duhon and Hughes, whoever was on the court, would double-team the opposing team, forcing them to pass the ball to another guard.

The biggest difference between the Knicks' run-and-gun offense and the Suns' run-and-gun offense is that the Knicks rely heavily on Duhon and Hughes to push the fast break, and they can't improve on that due to roster issues.

But David Lee didn't pass to Chalmers; instead, he flicked the ball forward!

The Yi River has already rushed out!

Pierce and Perkins, chasing behind Yi Shui, tried to stop him from receiving the ball, but they couldn't keep up at all; the speed difference was too great!
David Lee's shot was very powerful, but fortunately it was in the right direction. Yi Shui charged into the three-point line with all his might before he caught it.

Without dribbling, Yi Shui used the momentum of his sprint to grip the ball with both hands and took three big steps!
Garnett retreated to defend immediately when Pierce stepped back, getting to the basket first. Facing Yi Shui rushing in, he chose to aggressively press forward...

"bang"

Yi Shui slammed the ball into the basket over Garnett!

With consecutive dunks on Perkins and Garnett, Yi Shui led his team to tie the score at 11-11!

Being caught up by 4 points isn't a big deal, but Rondo noticed that only 30 seconds had passed after the timeout.

They emphasized slowing down the opponent's attack, but the opponent attacked even faster instead!

In that defensive positional play, Rondo can't blame anyone; the Great One had new one-on-one tactics.

But this time, being countered by Yi Shui single-handedly was his fault.

He never expected that David Lee, whose passing ability was so average, would dare to pass such a ball when there was only one teammate in the frontcourt, and the speed at which Yi Shui started the counterattack was also beyond his expectations.

Rondo didn't know how to describe his feelings. The last time they faced off was only two and a half months ago, not two and a half years!

In the transition between offense and defense, Rondo advanced to the frontcourt, and Pierce continued to call for the ball.

Rondo made a gesture, and Pierce's eyes widened. He glared at Rondo and then... moved to the right sideline.

This scene surprised many Knicks players. After suffering setbacks on both offense and defense, and seeing Truth burning with anger, he was actually suppressed by his little brother Rondo!

Yi Shui was disappointed; he really wanted to have a few more rounds of one-on-one combat with Pierce, but he didn't find it strange.

In his memory, Rondo should have already been regarded as the future core of the Celtics by this time, and had the support of two superstars, Garnett and Pierce.

In the next few years, Rondo will enter his peak period, winning the assist title, being selected to the All-NBA Team, and being selected to the All-Defensive First Team... until he suffered two consecutive seasons of serious injuries in the 12-13 and 13-14 seasons, which affected his athleticism, reduced his driving threat, and caused his defense to decline, leading to his abandonment by Ainge.

In the next few minutes, the Celtics returned to a more cautious and methodical approach.

On offense, focus on good teamwork; on defense, stop trying any tricks and just play the normal defensive retreat to delay the enemy.

Rondo's coaching mindset was on full display at this moment.

Since we've determined a contingency strategy that's bound to work even if we can't think of one, we should stick to it, especially since we're not inherently at a disadvantage.

At this point, you should wait for the other side to make a mistake.

For example, if Yi Shui dunks twice in a row, will he be unable to contain his excitement and swing the ball around?

Rondo's expectations were dashed. When the team was able to run and play, Yi Shui said he would stop playing one-on-one and instead focus on defense and leading the charge!

With 10 minutes and 13 seconds remaining, the Knicks called a timeout.

20比23，尼克斯队落后3分，过去5分多钟比分9比12……德安东尼有点蛋疼，但在预料之中。

In their January matchup, the Celtics' offense was so poor that they couldn't gain an advantage in the first half.

Seeing Rasheed Wallace take off his training uniform, D'Antoni knew the time was right and substituted in Curry, Webster, Barnes, Yi Shui, and Chandler!
(End of this chapter)