On December 25, local time in the United States, the annual Christmas war that attracted much attention in the league officially arrived.

The league has only arranged three games in this year's Christmas game, which can be said to be a game that makes fans look forward to it.

But what fans are most looking forward to is the defending champion Grizzlies welcome the Boston Celtics at home.

The Grizzlies and Celtics are definitely the most luxurious teams in the league. They are an offensive team with a historical level and a team with a Big Five. When these two teams are about to fight in the Christmas game, it really makes fans a little crazy.

At present, one-third of the regular season has passed, the Grizzlies have a record of 27 wins and 2 losses, ranking first in the league, and the Boston Celtics have 24 wins and 4 losses, ranking second in the league.

In addition, there is no team in the league that has lost less than five games. Even the Cleveland Cavaliers, who rank third in the league, have lost six games, opening some gaps with the Grizzlies and the Celtics.

This season's Celtics can definitely be called crazy under a series of operations by General Manager Anji.

With the team originally having the four giants of Ray Allen, Pierce, Cassel, and O'Neal, Angie introduced Kevin Garnett and "Lone Wolf" Marbury respectively in the offseason.

Although Garnett and Marbury are not at their peak due to injuries, the lean camel is bigger than the horse. Compared with most players in the league, Garnett and Marbury are definitely stars.

Even though the "Alien" Kassel's status has declined significantly due to age reasons, his personal data has dropped to single digits this season.

But as a well-deserved main control point on the bench, Kassel's role is still very obvious, which can relieve Marbury's pressure to the greatest extent.

It is worth mentioning that the Celtics, with a strong lineup last season, were upset by the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The fundamental reason is that the elderly O'Neal cannot solve the performance of Howard's point.

Anji, who knows that the center position needs to be strengthened, introduced a younger O'Brient this summer.

Although O'Brient is just an inconspicuous marginal person in the league, his height of 2.13 meters and 270 pounds are still very strong.

Once the magic led by "Warcraft" Howard in the playoffs again, O'Brient will at least give the Celtics more choices.

It would not be possible that the elderly "Big Shark" O'Neal must grit his teeth and fight against "Warcraft" Howard to the end even though he was clearly at a disadvantage.

Anji, the old fox, has a very thorough understanding of the saying that one has learned from one's mistakes. During the offseason, he has basically strengthened the vacancy in various positions in the substitute lineup.

However, Celtics coach Sam Mitchell is a head coach who does not trust substitutes.

As long as the score difference on the court is not wide enough to make him feel at ease, Mitchell will basically leave the main players on the court, and the average time for the main lineup to rest in each game is very scarce.

So far, three of the Celtics' starting five players have played for more than 40 minutes.

Paul Pierce, who averaged the highest playing time per game, reached 41.3 minutes, and even the "Sharks" O'Neal, who had the least playing time, had to play 38.2 minutes.

Because of playing time, the 36-year-old "Shark" O'Neal complained a lot to head coach Sam Mitchell.

After all, the physical energy consumed by running back and forth on the field like O'Neal is already much greater than that of other players, and O'Neal's physical strength is basically squeezed out in 38 minutes.

It made O'Neal feel his muscles dancing on him every time he got out of the field, but he couldn't control his muscles.

Throughout his career, O'Neal averaged more than 38 minutes of playing time, but only had four seasons.

At that time, O'Neal was just a young man in his 20s, but even so, O'Neal would still feel tired and often stage eye defense on the defensive end to adjust his physical strength distribution.

Physical strength became an obstacle to limit O'Neal's breakthrough of the ceiling at that time. It can be said that any movement of O'Neal's tonnage on the field was a physical consumption.

Sam Mitchell used the 36-year-old "Big Shark" O'Neal as the peak shark, which made O'Neal, who averaged only 28.7 minutes per game last season, unable to help curse himself, and more than once sarcasticated Sam Mitchell in front of the media that he was not a qualified head coach.

However, Sam Mitchell's record in coaching the Celtics this season is pretty good. Mitchell can continue to sit firmly in the position of head coach. Even if the "Big Shark" O'Neal is dissatisfied, he can only grit his teeth and persevere in every game.

After all, O'Neal is no longer a giant in his peak period. Even if he applies for a deal from the team, no one dares to ask for an annual salary of up to 20 million yuan.

The more arrogant Ao Pang was at his peak, the more frustrated Ao Pang was at this stage.

Especially when O'Neal saw the starting center Marc Gasol who played for the Grizzlies, averaging only 27.6 minutes per game, O'Neal only felt that the league was full of hostility towards himself at the end of his career.

Before the game started, assistant coach D'Antoni supervised the players' warm-up on the sidelines, while Luke waved to the side to call Yi Jianlian aside.

"Allian, you will start in this game against Kevin Garnett. This is a challenge for you, but it is also an opportunity."

"Your figure is very similar to Kevin. A scout compared you to the second Kevin long before the draft."

"Kevin is my former disciple. I really know his offensive habits too much. Now, due to injuries, Kevin lacks the explosive power at his peak, so his main offensive methods come from the middle distance on both sides."

"With your current physical fitness, Kevin is not as good as you in this regard, but the most important thing you should be careful about is trash talk."

"I believe you should also know that Kevin is a trash talker. He often uses this method to try to anger his opponents and disrupt the rhythm of the opponent's game."

"As long as you can ignore Kevin's trash harassment, you have no reason to be at a disadvantage in this set of matchups. After all, Kevin is no longer what you think of now, and you have also undergone a huge change compared to entering the league." He reached out and patted Yi Jianlian's arm, and Luke said with a serious look on his face.

When Yi Jianlian heard that he would be arranged to start and compete with Kevin Garnett, he was excited and did not feel very surprised.

After all, since Paul Gasol was injured, Yi Jianlian and Novak have discussed in private who would be the starting lineup by Luke on the day of the Christmas game.

In fact, no matter who the two are starting, the other party will not be surprised, but when Yi Jianlian learned that he would have a head-on confrontation with Kevin Garnett on the day of the Christmas game, Yi Jianlian, who had been prepared for a long time, still couldn't hide his excitement.

"Don't worry! Coach! I'm not afraid of Kevin at all!"

"I've been ready to fight Kevin to the end! No! It should be the preparation to blow him up!"

Looking at Yi Jianlian's appearance as confident and excited, Luke felt relieved, but he also turned around to Bill Ranbir behind him and sighed, "The players brought out by you are different. Ah Lian is obviously much more confident now. His passion is probably something that most people can't imagine."

Ranbir was still very helpful to be able to hear praise and affirmation for himself from Luke's mouth, but a hint of contempt appeared on his face, "Of course! Yi is now a real man!"

"Although that guy Kevin is indeed a bit tricky, I'm not sure whether Yi can gain the upper hand in this set of matches, but what I can guarantee is that the word retreat will definitely not appear on Yi!"

After patting his chest confidently, Ranbir leaned over his head and whispered to Luke, "And Yi is also a fighting master now. He knows very well how to respond to the opponent's small movements on the court. At least in the NBA field, Yi is definitely a professional!"

"I just don't know whether Yi Yuan wants to be a player like me!" A hint of fanaticism appeared in Ranbir's eyes.

"It's better not to be as violent as you, otherwise Asian fans will not be much tolerant of your actions." Luke shrugged helplessly.

...

The Celtics' starting lineup in this game is still the same Big Five combination: Marbury, Ray Allen, Pierce, Garnett, and O'Neal.

For Sam Mitchell, the word "Earth does not explode, the first release does not take a holiday, and the word "Step" does not deserve to appear in Mitchell's dictionary.

Even if the player's injury is not serious, Mitchell wants the player to play with injuries, let alone get adjustments and rest in a healthy situation.

When it comes to using and arrangements for players with overlapping positions, Sam Mitchell does have his own set of methods, and the effect is quite good.

But when it comes to coaching skills, Mitchell has nothing to do with excellent coaches. If the league head coach is divided into five levels of the pyramid, Sam Mitchell will probably be on the fourth level.

Otherwise, you would not have lost the league's best coach by chance and quickly disappeared in the league.

However, Sam Mitchell was highly valued by Angie, the general manager of the Celtics. Even the old fox Popovich gave up. There is really no place to reason about such things.

On the Grizzlies, the five starters were: Paul, Martin, Artest, Yi Jianlian, and Marc Gasol.

Seeing the starting lineup announced by the two teams, the live commentator Thomson couldn't help but smile and said, "I didn't expect Lu to use Yi as the starting striker to replace the vacancy after Paul was absent."

"You know, the player Yi faced this game is Kevin, a man who has won the regular season MVP for three consecutive years and won the best defensive player for many years."

"I don't know if Lu's adjustment is a kind of confidence in Yi's personal strength or the team's choice that was forced to do."

"Of course, I personally prefer the latter. Although Yi has been in the league for three years, he has never proved himself on this venue."

"As for Kevin, I don't need to say much, the records he has kept will be difficult to break in the next few years."

Partner Tom Hovas: "I think you shouldn't say too early on the joke. Just as before Yi and Andrew had a physical conflict not long ago, no one thought that there was a beast hidden in Yi's body."

"And according to the Memphis rumor, Yi has been training with Bill recently. I believe everyone knows who Bill is."

"Yi is following him and trains for so long, it makes it hard to believe that Yi has not changed."

"I think Yi's appearance may bring surprises to everyone again!"

After the game started, the Grizzlies were the first to get the ball.

As soon as the Grizzlies started the attack with two guns in the backcourt. As for the others, they all pulled to the outside. Even center player Mark Gasol pulled outside the three-point line, setting up a set of positions on the court where everyone stood outside the three-point line.

Seeing the offensive formation set up by the Grizzlies, the Celtics were obviously confused. Even head coach Sam Mitchell stood on the court with a puzzled look on his face. It was obvious that he didn't know what the Grizzlies were going to do.

Did the five people stand outside and frantically shoot three-pointers?

What a joke!

The Celtics players are not wooden stakes, so how could they let the Grizzlies make unscrupulous three-point shots on the court!

Since no team will defend the joint defense at the beginning, when Mark Gasol stood outside the three-point line to open up the space, the elderly "Shark" O'Neal had to follow him with resentment.

It is definitely something that can make O'Neal feel broken by letting O'Neal, who weighs close to 150 kilograms, defend to the three-point line.

Just when Sam Mitchell was standing off the court and looked confused, Chris Paul suddenly started to exert force on the Grizzlies and took advantage of the speed advantage to pass Stephen Marbury's defense in one go.

Since all the Grizzlies and five players stood outside the three-point line and formed an U-shaped shape, this also forced the Celtics players to stand even more outside.

When Chris Paul passed Marbury in one step, the Celtics' inside line was wide. Even Kevin Garnett, who was in the right corner, reacted immediately and helped the basket to defend, but failed to stop Paul from making a layup.

"Swish~"

With Chris Paul easily succeeding in the empty basket, Sam Mitchell didn't react too much and didn't understand where the Grizzlies' offensive intentions were placed.

Could it be that everyone is pulling away and letting Chris Paul play singles by holding the ball alone by emptying the Celtics' defense in the penalty area?

Looking at Sam Mitchell frowning on the other end of the venue and thinking hard, Luke sat under the court without expression, as if all this was expected on the court.

In fact, the "u-type tactic" used by Luke was the offensive method that later generations liked to use the most.

And with this unique skill, the Clippers led by Coach Lu not only educated the Utah Jazz, who has three best defensive player Gobert in the Western Conference semifinals.

With the season-ending reimbursement of the star Leonard, he lost in a desperate battle with the Western Conference champion Suns for six games before he was unfortunately defeated.

In the semi-finals, Tyron Lu's "u-type tactic" directly made Gobert the best defensive player useless.
To be continued...