the rest, only noise

Chapter 1267

As someone who has seen the entire growth of Ralph Sampson's career so far, Louie believes that Sampson has developed two peak periods in the previous 16 years of his career.

The first peak period began in 1984. That year was Louis' first year in charge of the coach, his fourth year as Sampson's development coach, and Sampson's first year as a starter.

In the third game of the Finals against the Lakers, Sampson finally dominated the game with a unique posture, announcing the rise of the NBA's number one center in the 80s and 90s.

Since that year, Sampson has become what people are familiar with. For other centers, he is like an insurmountable mountain.

This was proven again in the 1985 Finals.

Sampson held the title of the first center, helped the Celtics complete four consecutive championships, and then fell in front of the young Knicks in 1988.

After that, Sampson's status in the team began to improve, and then he became a comprehensive, offensive and defensive interior ruler, which was his second peak period.

This peak period ended in 1992. In the next two years, Sampson suffered from the lack of overall strength of the Celtics and the irreversible aging brought about by age, and began to slip from the position of ruler.

Subsequently, he moved to Miami and became the leader of that cosmic team, and the role of the team further degraded.

The Heat don't need him to do everything he did with the Celtics, he just needs to stand up when necessary, as he did in the 1995 playoffs.

Since that year, Sampson's strength has become difficult to define.

He has a tendency to be auxiliary, but he still has the performance of overwhelming super centers like Ewing. At the same time, Ewing has also begun to be able to suppress him on the scene.

The folds of time are clearly imprinted on Sampson's battle-hardened body. Louis once thought that he would quickly fall out of the ranks of super giants like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, maintain the All-Star level until the age of 38 or 39, and then suddenly usher in the limit of his competitive state, just like Duncan in the 2016 playoffs.

Louie believed that Sampson's torch would still pass, but he developed a third peak period after returning to the Celtics.

Chuck Daly placed him high, as a tactical pivot, to keep his limited physical strength from being exhausted in hand-to-hand combat in the paint, and then there was nothing else.

Daly just put Sampson in a high position and gave him a tactical position. The rest is to see what answer Sampson can deliver.

Sampson, who has played professional games for 16 years, has already mastered all the skills he should master.

While teams are still willing to build around the 36-year-old, he hasn't disappointed.

At this stage, Sampson is omnipotent. There may be some centers who can do better than him in individual specialties, but in general, Sampson is the fifth passer among active centers after Sabonis, a first-class but not top rebounder, a shot-blocker who can surprise people at critical moments, a high-level passer second only to tragedies, and a pick-and-roller second only to Ewing and Malone.

The Celtics' game is simple, 40 percent of their offense revolves around Sampson, 40 percent of their offense revolves around Malone, and the remaining 20 percent is split between Hill and the others.

But if there is no foundation laid by the 40% led by Sampson, the remaining 60% will also have problems.

Since the Lakers' starter has Barkley's loophole, as long as Sampson calls the pick-and-roll, he puts a sending proposition in front of the Lakers.

Whether Garnett took a step back and let Sampson shoot, or Barkley took the initiative to switch defenses, or let Barkley and Garnett double-team Sampson.

None of those three options work in the first quarter.

If Garnett takes a step back, Sampson will shoot decisively, Barkley will switch defenses, and the result is still the same.

Sampson would never take Barkley's defense seriously.

If Barkley gave up Karl Malone and Garnett double-teamed Sampson, it might be effective, but Malone would never stand still like a wooden man.

He pulls away the first time, and that's the scariest thing about this version of Sampson.

His judgment of the situation and his pass selection are as sharp as a monster.

After half a quarter, the Celtics led the Lakers by 17 points 11 to 6.

Louis took the lead in making substitution adjustments.

First he returned Garnett to the four, then took Barkley and replaced Buck Williams.

Old Buck was placed in the fifth position by Louis.

This means that Buck Sr. needs to take on the task of defending Sampson in the high post.

Wilson first helped the team ease the situation with a three-pointer.

14 is better than 17
The opponent changed from Garnett to Barker Sr., and Sampson didn't even call the pick-and-roll.

He grabbed the ball with one hand and flicked old Buck.

Subsequently, Sampson took a step to the left, collected the ball and shot.

"Shh!"

"I don't even think it's necessary for him to shake Buck away." Nelson sighed, "Ralph can completely ignore Buck's defense. Their height difference is too great."

Bird jokingly said: "Thanks to someone's cultivation, Ralph should have shot on Buck's head willfully like those talented idiots, but someone made him understand the importance of court space many years ago."

"Someone" frowned and said, "Who knew he was so obedient..."

If Old Buck had nothing to do with Sampson, Louis would have nothing to do either.

It's not that he can't think of a way, but with the Lakers' inside configuration, they can't limit the connection between Sampson and Malone.

Barkley's defense will be penetrated, and a short insider like Barker will be suppressed by Sampson's height-no, strictly speaking, Sampson's method of suppressing Barker is skill. To deal with Barker, he does not need to rely on his height to play.

After a few rounds, Sampson scored 6 points in a row for Barker Sr. Fortunately, Barros and Wilson were on the line, otherwise the point difference would be further widened.

Although the Lakers did not have enough staffing inside, Louie's attempts continued.

After Barker Sr. was replaced, Garnett returned to the fifth position to face Sampson again, and his partner at the fourth position was James Worthy.

Worthy was a big small forward in his early years, but players of his style will inevitably change their positions when they get old.

The fourth position is the most suitable position for him now.

Louie wants Worthy to consume Malone with speed and offensive flexibility.

However, when Sampson saw Malone and Worthy facing each other, he did nothing, passed the ball directly, and pulled himself outside the three-point line.

Worthy defends Malone without any advantage except speed.

Malone hit his back and raised his elbow facing the basket, disintegrating Worthy's defense on the spot.

It is a pity that Worthy cannot play a certain role in the fourth position as Louis expected.

His speed has a slight advantage over Malone, but Malone didn't need to compete with him in speed, and he flattened his defense with strength.

Worthy's defeat indicates one thing - the Lakers do not have the talent reserves to limit Boston's inside double stars.

To defeat the Green Army, we have to find another way out.

Except for Malik Rose and Ben Wallace, who didn't make the active list, Louie tried all the insiders, and the result was the same.

Finally, coach Lu, who will be stronger in his life, admitted with difficulty that he could not do anything against Sampson and Malone on the defensive end with his existing cards.

At that time, there were less than 2 minutes left in the first quarter.

The Celtics led by 30 points 21 to 9. Daly replaced the inside double giants to rest and let Hill lead the second team.

Louis also replaced Wilson, Garnett, Barros, and Liu Yuqing, and replaced Dumars, Ellis, Kobe, and Ostertag.

When the defensive end is not easy to defend, you have to do something on the offensive end.

Louie's strategy is to attack the Celtics' basket, and quickly disrupt the Celtics' position, allowing Daly to replace the Big Two in advance.

Louie's arrangement is only valuable when the two giants inside are on the court and the Lakers can still attack the basket smoothly.

The Lakers, who were up and down, began to attack around the perimeter.

Dumars made a nice breakthrough and gave the ball to Kobe.

Kobe was standing high on the left wing. When everyone thought he would choose to attack by himself, he used one hand to call out the expert to pass the ball to Ellis who was outside the three-point line in the bottom corner.

Ellis raised the knife and hit a three-pointer.

He didn't applaud Kobe, but just glanced indifferently at Hill, who missed him, as if to say: Did you fucking forget how the Celtics died back then, how dare you let me vote like this?

(End of this chapter)