"The Magic completely sacrificed their lives in the entire first half. In fact, the Celtics' offensive efficiency is quite good today."

"And the Celtics' defensive strategy in the first half was actually very successful, because both of them had very serious aberrations in their performance throughout the first half, whether it was Allen or Dwight."

"So after the half-time, it really took a lot of hardship to be able to play with the Celtics as they are now."

Kenny Smith: "Actually, the Magic have been playing Zhou Xuan with the Celtics throughout the first half, and the biggest contribution of this is still from Su."

"Su's performance throughout the first half is really something we all see, especially a threat to the Celtics outside the three-point line."

"It can be said that if Su had not fired outside the three-point line in the entire first half, the Magic would probably be on the edge of a cliff at the moment."

Barkley: "That's right, the Magic were quite stable on the offensive end in the entire first half, and only Su and Rashad, who came on the bench."

"But Rashad's stable performance is because the Celtics can't find a player on the bench who can match him to defend."

"So after Rashad came on as a substitute, his offensive environment was actually very good. Even though Tony's defensive performance in this game made us shine, this is actually far from enough for the Celtics."

After returning from the second half, Rivers made another adjustment to the lineup.

The starting player who was supposed to be played with Rondo was transformed into Eddie House in the position of point guard.

After Rondo was targeted outside the three-point line in the second half of the second quarter, Rivers also made adjustments to the lineup as soon as possible.

Although Rondo's off-court break will directly lead to a decrease in the quality of the Celtics' defensive quality by a level.

However, since the Celtics' defense has always been shrinking to the inside line in this game and they still defend a two-and-three-way joint defense, Rondo's fate will not cause too much weakening to the defensive end.

After all, in the Celtics' defensive system, the Magic have basically lost the opportunity for the stars to break through with singles after using the pick-and-roll.

For the Magic, the best scoring opportunity in this game is from mid- and long-distance shooting.

As the Celtics' sixth man of the season, Eddie House can average 9.6 points, 1.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.

The most important thing is that Eddie House's three-point shooting percentage this season is as high as 39.8%.

It can be said that Eddie House's threat outside the three-point line is definitely a huge slight, and Doug Rivers's purpose of switching him to the court is also very obvious.

That is to provide an offensive firepower point outside the three-point line, so that the Celtics can become more impeccable on the offensive end.

However, because the team needs to contact too many teams throughout the long season, Rondo's presence can ensure that the Celtics' defense becomes more threatening.

After all, this Celtics has always been a strong defense in the league, and the teams have lost points per game this season as high as the league's first.

However, in this game, Rondo has been targeted on the offensive end, and the team is able to defend the joint defense on the defensive end.

Eddie House's defensive flaw when presenting is that it can be minimized by the team's overall effect.

With the change of the Celtics' lineup, the Magic were obviously at a disadvantage in the third quarter of the fight between the two sides.

Since the team was unable to break through the Celtics' iron-blooded defense, shooting at mid- and long distances even reduced the shooting rate as the players consumed their physical strength on the court.

Especially in today's era, most people still like to attack the basket, and there are very few people who focus on outside shooting.

So after the Celtics completed the change of the lineup in the second half, the Celtics played well on both offense and defense in the third quarter. They forced the Magic to do nothing about it several times, forcing Van Gundy to call a timeout.

But after the timeout, the Magic still failed to find a way to break the Celtics' defense.

In addition to Iverson's age, he has no speed at his peak due to his age, the main reason is that the Magic's offensive efficiency is generally low in this game.

While both Iverson and Howard were subjected to some restrictions, the Magic also dug a deep enough pit for themselves in the third quarter.

Finally, after the end of the third quarter, the Celtics played away were:

63:55

He led the Magic by eight points and ended the competition between the two sides in the first three quarters.

"Frustrated, fuck! I haven't been so frustrated with playing basketball for a long time. If I were five years younger, no, three years old! I will definitely be looking for teeth on the other side!"

After the scene, Iverson, who was sitting on the bench, threw the towel heavily on the ground, took off his hairband casually, and looked up at the wonderful replay above his head with a irritable look.

In this game, Iverson was a bit dismal tossed by the Celtics' defensive method of infinite contraction.

Although Iverson can also provide offensive firepower outside the three-point line, it is relative to breakthroughs to the inside and projections at mid-range.

Iverson's shooting outside the three-point line is the most unreliable of all his offensive methods.

During the Nuggets' period in the first two seasons, Iverson's extraordinary speed has already declined significantly.

But relying on his pick-and-roll given by his teammates, Iverson was still able to do whatever he wanted within the opponent's three-point line.

However, the Celtics' defensive method in this game obviously directly cut off Iverson's offensive route.

Forced Iverson to end away from the basket.

Because once Iverson starts to break through to the inside, the entire Celtics' defensive formation will directly shrink to the inside.

This feeling is like a bun, Iverson is like the meat filling that rushes straight into the front, and the defending players are like the folds of the bun, starting to shrink from all directions.

So in this case, Iverson also finds it difficult to force his breakthrough to the basket through speed.

If you want to break the Celtics' defensive method, you either shoot at a distance away from the basket, or you can pass the ball to the outside and let your teammates complete the attack when you break in.

However, in order to limit the Celtics' offensive performance, Van Gundy has been using Amir Johnson in the fourth position in these two games.

So this also led to the fact that even after Iverson's goal of passing through the ball became very limited, only Su Jiu and Pitrus were left.

Among them, Pitrus' shooting outside the three-point line is not very stable. After all, Pitrus is known for his defense in the league, and his scoring on the offensive end has never been his personal strength.

What's more, Pitrus can make a three-pointer, two three-pointers or even three-pointers on the offensive end, but it is definitely a bit of a dream to use Pitrus' three-pointer to kill the game.

After all, in addition to scoring, his biggest task on the court is to limit Paul Pierce's performance, and the physical exhaustion on the defensive end is enough to make Pierres feel tired.

So whenever the Celtics' defensive formation begins to shrink, the only player that the Magic can rely on on the outside is Su Jiu.

However, after the end of the third quarter, Su Jiu's personal physical strength on the court was already consumed a lot.

Therefore, when Su Jiu was inaccurate from the outside in the third quarter, the team was also scored by the Celtics in one fell swoop, thus completely falling into a disadvantaged stage.

"Let Rashad stay on the court in the fourth quarter. After all, even if we put some restrictions on the Celtics on the defensive end, if the offensive end cannot open the situation, then we will still lose the game in the end."

"I don't think we should rely on defense, but on the offensive end to rely on the players' personal abilities, because the opponent is obviously prepared."

"What's more, our score on the court is already in a backward stage, so compared to defense, what we need more is performance on the offensive end."

"And when necessary, I think we can replace Allen and use Su to replace Allen's role in breaking through and passing the ball to the inside. After all, this is his strength."

"When Allen comes off the court, we can take Ciddoo again, so that Michael can stay on the court to defend Paul (Pearce), so in this case, our shooting points on the outside will become richer."

"Although this will weaken our ability on the defensive end, if we are always in this stage of lagging behind, then we can only choose to give it a try."

"Because by defending alone, I think it's hard for us to win this game, especially now we are on the back side."

During the rest period after the end of the third quarter, Yusk, the team's offensive assistant, held a notebook and said to Van Gundy who was frowning in front of him.

As one of the three assistant coaches around Stan Van Gundy, Yusk does not have a very high sense of presence in his daily life.

Because in most cases Van Gundy would discuss with assistant coach Mondy and finally complete the decision by himself.

As for the other two coaches, they added and proposed more to Van Gundy, but did not become Stan Van Gundy's confidant, which does not mean that Yusk's personal abilities are not outstanding enough.

On the contrary, it is precisely because Yusk has outstanding personal philosophy on the offensive end, but he is the right-hand man of former Magic coach Brian Hill.

So after Van Gundy took over the Magic team, he never trained him to become his confidant.

It’s just that the team’s offensive tactics have been handed over to Yusk for arrangements. After all, as we all know, Stan Van Gundy’s concept on the offensive end is really too simplistic…

"Let's see the situation first. If we still fail to get close to the score in the first half, then this is all we can do next."

"By the way, uc, is there no way to crack the opponent's joint defense that keeps shrinking to the inside, or is there any other weaknesses besides accurate projection of the outside?"

After hearing a series of analysis from offensive assistant Yusk, Stan Van Gundy nodded helplessly.

After all, his favorite tactics are not very good at this time.

Because once Howard starts to ask for the ball in the inside, two Celtics will inevitably have a pincer attack on Howard.

However, under the opponent's compact joint defense tactics, Howard's shot speed seems a bit too slow.

Adding Amir Johnson from the fourth position to start, this also greatly limits the Magic's shooting range, so Van Gundy felt a little headache for the team's offense in the third quarter.

After hearing Stan Van Gundy's words, Yusk also took out the tactical board in his hand, and then said to Van Gundy with a serious look on his face.

"I just thought about it a little bit. The Celtics' tactics that keep shrinking to the inside line force us to shoot from the outside line, although it seems that we can only crack if we shoot more accurately at the three-point line."

"But in fact, there is not a chance to crack it, but before that we need to replace Rashad to improve our space capabilities as much as possible."

"While the opponent's focus is on guarding our breakthrough route for the inside, once our players are close enough to the basket, they will start to shrink."

"But in fact, it is difficult for them to truly achieve the same pace in this process. After all, the tactic of joint defense itself has great requirements for the players' tacit understanding of the court."

"So we can use pulling to the inside and adding a pick-and-roll without the ball to find opportunities for mid-range and empty cuts to the inside."

"And Dwight would not always stand at the basket at this stage, because this will make the opponent's inside defense more comfortable, because they can stay in their comfort zone."

"On the contrary, if Dwight can come out to do an off-ball pick-and-roll for other players, it will be difficult for the opponent to concentrate."

"Although Dwight does not have the shooting ability at the high position, his empty cut after the ball pick-and-roll is still able to tear the Celtics' formation."

"Theoretically, as long as we make enough off-ball pick-and-rolls when we break through, we can seize the inconsistent position they shrink to the inside to find opportunities."

"After all, the opponent will have a period of adjustment after each contraction, and if Rashad returns to the field, it is impossible for the opponent to shrink so unscrupulously."

Looking at the routes drawn by offensive assistant Yusk on the tactical board, Stan Van Gundy nodded thoughtfully.
To be continued...