Boston North Shore Garden Arena, the on-site attendance rate is full.

As one of the oldest teams in the NBA, the Celtics are also one of the most loyal fans in the league.

The team made the playoffs while being led by Stevens last year. The team has also made good momentum since the season this year, and fans have not diminished their support for the team.

Moreover, the wave of public opinion created by the media before the game also made the game more interesting.

If the Celtics can successfully overturn the Pelicans in this game, the morale improvement of the team will be unprecedented.

Stevens, look, the team you once looked down upon defeated the team you led!

Team general manager Danny Angie also came to the scene.

He looks energetic.

As a meritorious player of the team, he first created the Big Three after joining the management team, and won the championship trophy again after 22 years.

Then he made a quick decision and quickly cleared out after the Big Three Ages and obtained a large number of high-quality draft picks.

Now the team is rebuilding and playing the playoffs, nothing is more pleasant than this.

Especially tonight, Stevens is under tremendous pressure to coach, and the Celtics have great hope of winning the game.

The opponent ended his 15-game winning streak in the reconstruction. By the summer when the salary cap soared next year, he would be more confident in recruiting superstars.

After the players of the two teams arrived at the venue, Celtics players came to greet Stevens one after another.

From this we can see that Stevens' coaching is still very popular.

And at the end of the opening ceremony, when Stevens was introduced, there was a lot of applause from the scene.

Although Angie has been slandering, the fans' eyes are still bright. They know that the team has been in a quagmire in the past two years and it is Stevens who is carrying the weight.

Anji frowned slightly, but he didn't care too much.

When the Celtics win the game, fans will completely forget Stevens and turn to like McHale, who is also a meritorious player.

After the warm-up, players from both sides appeared one after another.

The Pelicans are still regular five tigers.

Stevens is the same as Popovich in rotation, with 9 to 10 players in a game, which can give the main players a lot of rest.

In addition, the team is strong this season and the main players have less time to play. The Pelicans have not encountered any injuries yet.

On the Celtics, Smart and Bradley on the outside, Claude and Amir Johnson on the front line, and center Salinger on the center.

This is an absolutely defensive lineup, with the Celtics averaging 98.6 points per game this season, thanks to this lineup in large part.

Salinger is a short and strong center forward, and Davis easily jumped to him, giving the Pelicans the chance to take the lead in offense.

Jokic responded at a high position in the frontcourt, and the ball was given to Tang Tian, ​​who was cut at a free cut.

The Celtics' defense is really good, so they are given double-teams as soon as possible.

Tang Tian distributed the ball to Ariza on the weak side, but Smart immediately assisted in the defense and rotated over.

The Pelicans' offense is still slightly insufficient, and there is no tactical opportunity after this wave of tactics.

With not much time, Ariza's last strong layup was disturbed by Johnson.

The Celtics successfully defended the Pelicans' first leg offense.

Anji smiled in the stands.

What he said is indeed correct. The Pelicans' offense has not been fully completed, and the Celtics have a good chance of fighting for defense.

The Celtics have excellent defense, but their own offense is also very urgent.

Salinger attacked Jokic at the basket and wanted to score points with the advantage of the confrontation, but Davis's assisted defense came in time. After he took action, he got a big hit and the rebound was also taken by Davis.

The Pelicans attacked the frontcourt again, and Tang Tian took the initiative to ask for the ball.

When Stevens coached last season, the Celtics' offensive core was Thomas Jr.

If he is on the court, the Pelicans will easily catch this defensive loophole.

But now Thomas is not valued by McHale and has not allowed to play, which has caused their offensive strength to plummet, but their defense has been greatly enhanced.

With the offensive system that the Pelicans have not completed, it will be very difficult to play.

In other words, compared to the Celtics when they were coaching, the people were still the same, but the system has completely changed.

Stevens' coaching experience with the Celtics is not helpful.

After Tang Tian held the ball, he signaled to the others to pull it away, and then asked Jokic to mention the three-point line to play the pick-and-roll.

The other four of these five people on the Celtics are fast and have strong defense ability, and their defenses can be connected together.

But Salinger is an exception.

This player with a weight of 2.06 meters but weighs 127 kilograms is the core of the Celtics' offensive.

If it was the last century or even the beginning of the century, such a short and strong inside player would be very popular, like Charles Barkley and Elton Brand.

But McHale is obviously a bit outdated. In the era of small ball, meeting strong teams in this kind of inside line is a standard breakthrough.

Jokic blocked Smart with his huge body. After disassembling it, Tang Tian misplaced and met Salinjie.

He lowered his body and dribbled the ball left and right, and Salinjie was like a red wine glass in the wind, and he would fall over at any time.

After seeing Claude on the right, Tang Tian accelerated to go to the left and passed Salinjie.

Davis stuck Johnson at this time, and Tang Tian broke into it and scored a dunk with one hand.

Tang Tian helped the Pelicans take the lead in scoring!

There was a turmoil on the sidelines.

Anji's brow also frowned.

He worked with Stevens for two years and is quite familiar with Stevens' coaching.

Stevens is very strict in tactical terms.

Just like training an army, the first thing to do is to obey orders and absolute execution.

This is also a major reason why the Celtics were able to make it to the playoffs with a group of character players last season.

But the Pelicans' goal just now was obviously not the tactics that Stevens had.

He glanced at Stevens.

Instead of being angry, Stevens reached out and applauded.

This made him even more incredible. When Stevens suddenly changed his sex when the Pelicans?

But he immediately realized that this was not the case.

Because in the next round, the Pelicans defended another wave of attack from the Celtics with strong execution.

Anji was very confused, but it was actually very simple.

Stevens and Tang Tian started to get in contact as early as last season. The two men were in a state of great heights and flowing. Stevens admired Tang Tian’s tactical ability very much.

Even at the training camp at the beginning of the season, the two people had a lot of private communication on tactical systems.

So he would not easily question Tang Tian’s judgment on the field.

And although he is very strict, he is far less domineering than Popovich. He gave Tang Tian a lot of freedom on the court.

Or to put it another way, Tang Tian is a privileged player in Stevens' tactical system.

Tang Tian just used this privilege to understand the Celtics' defensive weaknesses through his own judgment and changed his offensive tactics, which proved to be effective.
Chapter completed!