the rest, only noise

Chapter 125
Louis said that he was satisfied with winning the fourth game to avoid the team being swept, but he did a lot of homework behind the scenes.

Game5, Louis freed Ralph Sampson.

He asked Sampson to get the ball in the high post as much as possible, and if the Bucks left him alone, he would shoot boldly.

If the Bucks have someone to defend, they will make their own decisions, play with the ball if they have a chance, and pass out if they don't have a chance.

With Bird and John Long spacing him out, Sampson played like a [-]-foot-[-] Greek monster a notch less athletic.

What makes him better than the Greek monster is that he has a jumper that can score in the high post and fall in the low post without always thinking about trying to squeeze into the basket. He has a comprehensive but not proficient method of scoring behind the basket.

Sampson's activeness allowed Louis to hide the tactics that allowed Bird to support a system to play low offense.

Although the Bucks couldn't find a way to counter this tactic, he didn't want to tire Bird too much.

The way to let Bird’s support system give full play to his personal abilities should be a guaranteed tactic until he runs out of ammunition and food. A good coach must actively seek changes. He can’t be like those coaches surnamed Lu who only know how to pour chicken soup and kill the main force.

The love for high-post shots is where Sampson is deviant, and it is also the biggest difference between him and Bill Fitch.

Every night, Fitch gets angry over Sampson's high-post shots.

Louis was never angry.

Since he persuaded Sampson to participate in the draft three years ago, he expected that this person is a unicorn beyond the times. He should not develop like a traditional center, but like a modern center, walking, running, shooting, attacking with the ball, and participating in the fast breaks that contemporary coaches cannot accept.

Don Nelson could feel his brows burning.

At the end of the first quarter, Sampson intercepted a long pass from the Bucks in midfield and dribbled the ball alone to execute a counterattack. It looked like an oddball version of Bob Cousy. The Boston Garden fans roared. When he counterattacked with an exaggerated and steady 360-degree turn and dunk, Johnny Most exaggeratedly roared: "Ralph completed the best dunk in the history of the Celtics!"

Is the 1-on-0 360-degree turnaround dunk the best dunk in Celtics history?

Think about it carefully, there is no slam dunk master in the history of the Celtics, maybe Sampson really inadvertently achieved the best dunk in the history of the Celtics.

Louie held out his hand and gave Sampson a high five.

He has only one regret for Sampson, that is, in the three years since he entered the league, he has not developed a killer move like a sky hook.

The technical characteristics of complete but not perfect may accompany him throughout his life.

This will prevent him from being the core of a top-level team like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but next to Bird and Thomas, he will be a super support that everyone loves.

Don Nelson on the opposite side was stunned by Sampson's performance.

This monster has a sturdy physique and a pair of giant palms. It runs like a dragon, kicks like a tiger, and is unstoppable in transitional attacks. However, when it is in a positional battle, shots from 17 feet or more are sometimes useless. You can either rely on pick-and-rolls to catch the ball and start to top the duo.

Does this description look like a future Greek monster?

But the candidate that Nelson thought of as a benchmark was Dr. J of Philadelphia.

It's just that Dr. J doesn't have such a tall height.

Sampson's agility and athletic ability are also more than two grades behind Dr. J, but he is really too high, high enough to make the impossible possible.

Under the same competition environment, he may be more terrifying than Dr. J.

Compared with Dr. J and the future Greek monster, it is more difficult to defend Sampson, who has already gained momentum at this time.

Because he can hit high jumpers from beyond the free throw line, this means that opponents cannot choose to put him one meter to gain defensive space to defend.

But in contrast, his coordination is not as good as the Greeks, and his speed and athletic ability are not at the same level as Dr. J. Although he has a ball-holding threat, he is far inferior to these two.

Therefore, the defense against Sampson must be close to his lower body.

The Bucks sent Bob Lanier to close guard his shots.Lanier has a pair of big feet, but he is old and his running and jumping ability is not as good as when he was young. If Sampson protrudes with the ball, he will definitely not be able to defend it.

So Nelson still has a small design on the defensive end.

He deliberately ambushed Sampson with a double pocket inside the free throw line. As long as he breaks into that position, the pincers will follow up immediately.

The pocket formation has now become the mainstream defensive formation in the NBA.

It was the Celtics in 1981 that made it popular.

And the driving force behind the popularity of the pocket array is of course Louis.

In the Eastern Conference Finals that year, the Celtics' pocket formation made Dr. J misfire. In this era when there are few superstars combined with sudden shots and players with incredible shooting ability are rare, the pocket formation is like a stumbling block that kills superstars.

Nelson managed to absorb the essence of the pocket, and the small pockets he set up inside the free-throw line caused Sampson to turn over again and again.

The worse Sampson played, the better the Bucks instantly evened the point difference.

Louis called a timeout for this, replaced Sampson with Maxwell, and let Thomas and Bird play a high pick-and-roll duo.

Although in theory, a breakthrough like Thomas can strangle a team's guard, and the destructive power of Bird's shooting master pick-and-roll pull to the defense is difficult for the Bucks to limit, but Nelson still finds shortcomings from Thomas' technical details and targets them.

Thomas may be the best pure point guard ever, but he's also a point guard who needs the ball in his hands to be a threat.

Therefore, the two words "pure control" go together.

Because Thomas' shooting threat is far below the average level of guards, even though most people often have the impression of small guards with comprehensive skills and shooting can kill, but mid-range shooting is definitely Thomas' shortcoming.

So Nelson put Moncrieff on Thomas and asked to run around the pick-and-roll against Thomas' drives.

If you don’t understand how to defend against breakthroughs around pick-and-rolls, you can go over and over again the defenders of the 2019 World Cup Chinese team.

Moreover, Thomas is obviously playing the game with personal thoughts tonight.

Some balls that could have been given to Bird, he didn't.

Some moments that weren't good opportunities, he shot.

To make matters worse, the Bucks like his brash behavior.

In doing so, he gave his opponent a chance.

Therefore, at the end of the third quarter, the Bucks overtook the Celtics.

Louis replaced Thomas, and there were no other adjustments.

"Isaiah, come on, please tell me, why didn't you fight according to the tactics?" Louis asked sarcastically, ignoring all the fuss.

Just as Thomas was about to use his signature smile to cover up his small thoughts, he received an angry roar from Louis: "Put this disgusting smile of yours away! Answer my question, why don't you fight according to tactics?"

Thomas's smile froze, dimples looming on his face.

"The chances are bad."

"Okay, then you sit on the sidelines, and if you think the time is up, come find me again."

Louie stopped talking to him.

In the fourth quarter, without Thomas dominating the ball, the Celtics played the high pick-and-roll offensive system of the Fitch era.They don't want to play the system, which will give them the illusion that Fitch is still there.

But that's the only option, unless Louie lets Bird play in the post.

Thomas' successor is Chris Ford. Facing the Bucks' defense, it was difficult for him to organize the offense. There were many tactical dead balls and pass errors.

Thomas wanted to come in and change the situation.

Louie told him: "I don't think the chances are good."

Thomas froze again.

He didn't make another application, and Louie didn't look at Thomas until the end of the game. In the fourth quarter, the two sides turned the game into a bloody hand-to-hand fight, making fans look back at the 1981 Eastern Conference Finals.

The Celtics have always been good at this kind of game.

Under the leadership of Bird again, they erased the 5-point gap and fought to the last moment.

Marquese Johnson made a fatal error, and Lambiel had a lucky steal and gave the ball to Bird.

Bird threw a bold one-handed quarter-point long pass from the backcourt, and Cedric Maxwell scored a lore!

"Darling Cedric is still full of energy!" Most yelled. "He ordered a cornbread meal for everyone in the garden!"

(End of this chapter)