For the first time in five weeks, the Celtics played the Cavaliers today, with the Celtics and their opponents playing until the last minute.
No kidding: Since April 5, the Celtics have either won or lost by 10 points, losing by nine points to the Knicks — but by the end of the third quarter, they were already 29 points short.
It's not hard to see why: The Celtics like to decide from the three-point line. The three-point shot of the rainstorm collapsed the opponent, and the soldiers were bloodless; If you catch up with the opponent and rain three points, you will lose even at home.
Today's game is also simple: the Cavaliers are without Mitchell and Allen, there is no way, bet on three points.
In the first half, the Cavaliers shot 11-of-25 from three-point range, trailing the Celtics by five points; In the second half, the Celtics switched defenses and blocked three-pointers, allowing Cavaliers center Mobley to score 14 points on 7 shots, but the Cavaliers shot 4-of-23 from three-point range. The three-point rain faucet is turned off, and the game is over.
The best moment of the game, I think, was Tristan Thompson vs. Horford. Nine years ago, the Eastern Conference Finals were played against each other, and they are still the two of them. At that time, LeBron watched them fight hand-to-hand - today LeBron is watching from the sidelines.
Holiday summed up a paragraph after the game, which can be regarded as the purpose of this season's Celtics:
"Take their three-pointers and let them play inside. Strus can shoot, but he and Garland, and the Cavaliers, we want them to go inside and shoot tough two-pointers...... In this era, it is better to put two points than three points...... They're going to make tough three-pointers anyway, and they're getting close to the basket, and we can jam and get stuck, and that's better for us. ”
Lock three points and mess with two points, and that's the Celtics.
Tatum scored 33 points on 11-of-25 shooting for the second straight game. It's worth mentioning that he played the entire second half with Holiday today, presumably against the Cavaliers' sleepless four starters in the second half.
So it's no surprise that Tatum shot 3-of-11 in the second half: physical.
There's a strange assignment here.
Among the players who have not been eliminated in the playoffs so far this season, the first player who averaged points per game in the first half was Tatum, with 15.4 points. In the first half, Mitchell, Alexander, Luka and Edwards were all behind him.
In the second half, Tatum scored 8.8 points, just above Turner and Garland. Jalen 12 points — for comparison: Edwards averaged 18 points per game in the second half of the playoffs, shooting 58 percent from the field. Brunson had 18 points, Irving had 16 and Jokic had 15.
From a different perspective: In this season's playoffs, Tatum scored 15 points and 3 assists on 10 baskets in the first half; Brunson shot 12 baskets in the first half and had 14 points and three assists.
Tatum had nine points and two assists on eight second-half shots, and DiVincenzo had 10 points and one assist on seven second-half shots.
The first half was slammed over Brunson, and the treatment in the second half was DiVincenzo.
I suspect that this is the Celtics' distribution strategy: when the physical fitness was in full force in the first half, the whole team was three-point rain + Tatum led the pipe, and a wave widened the difference; In the second half, you can play leisurely. If there is still a need for competition in the second half, Jalen will attack hard.
But this distribution is easily unbalanced: Tatum shot 46 percent in the first half and 36 percent in the second half in the playoffs this season. Today he shot 8-of-14 in the first half and 3-of-11 in the second. At the end of the game, he burst into a three-point shot for Jalen, but most of the time, he didn't shoot well.
Other teams prefer the "ace tandem to let everyone warm up collectively until the superstar takes over" style of play, such as the Nuggets' Murray scored 9 points in the first half and 12 points in the second half, and Jokic scored 12 points in the first half and 15 points in the second half. Edwards scored 14 points in the first half and 18 points in the second half.
In comparison, the Celtics are also unique: Tatum led the league in scoring in the first half and third in the team in scoring in the second half - Jaylen and White both outnumbered him.
It's really a three-point bet on three points of rain, and the winner is directly determined in the third quarter, either winning by 10 points or losing by 10 points, and not playing the last minute?
Alexander had the best playoff game of his career. Luka Doncic had the second-worst playoff game of his career.
The young and swift Thunder won a tortoise-hare race, tied the Mavericks, 2-2, and regained the home advantage.
Irving scored 14 points in the final 15 minutes of the last game to close the Thunder, and Coach Mardey didn't want to make him comfortable anymore. Chet and Jaylin Williams hit Irving with seven assists in the first half: Dallas was happy to eat a basket.
Dallas blocked 9-3 in the first half, leading the Thunder by five rebounds and 11 points, as always, with an inside advantage.
In the second half, things changed.
Giddey played four minutes in the second half, but as an inside player: This is the routine that was tried in the battle against the Pelicans, "No longer - Giddey, you try?" Anyway, you can't prevent anyone from the outside......"
The Thunder began to pile up on the strong side, and the weak side made up for the basket, at the cost of emptying the weak side PJ Washington, but Gafford, the king of cakes, missed a dunk in the third quarter, and the other was blocked from behind: it was all done by Dort, who was a head shorter than him.
Then, the Thunder ushered in today's secret weapon.
Last summer, the Mavericks traded a draft pick + Bertans to the Thunder.
The Mavericks used that pick to get their future mainstay Lefry. The Thunder got Kentucky's Carson Wallace, "the strongest perimeter defender in the 2023 draft, 193 cm and 88 kg, tough defensively, fearless, can interfere with opponents when they are not out of position, nearly 2 steals per game in college, and is good at stealing the ball when opponents break through", known as Kentucky Smart Jr.
Carson and Jaylin played at the same time, and the Thunder trailed by seven points. Jaylin was involved in the pinch attack with a high delay, and Josh Green was slapped off by Giddey for time on the weak side; Giddey then pressed Gafford for a counter-attack. Then Carson appears.
first let Haddawi participate in the pinching of Irving, then turned around, and hit three points in the next round, chasing the difference of 4 points; At the end of the third quarter, Irving couldn't get rid of Carson and had to share the ball, and Dallas couldn't get it.
In the fourth quarter, Irving hit a three-pointer on a counterattack - was blocked by Carson.
The midfielder got rid of Carson at a pace and missed the throw.
I had to find cover to hit Chet - shooting the only shot of the fourth quarter.
86 usually Owen missed the back of the cardson.
In the next round, the signature backward shot missed.
In the fourth quarter, Irving faced Carson Wallace and shot 0-of-4.
Coach Marde, of course, understood, and in the fourth quarter, Carson ended with the ace quartet — Alexander, Jayway, Chet, and Dort — and reversed.
Manager Presti's Draft Vision:
Carson Wallace, who just pestered Irving.
The year before, Chet and two Williams.
Further back, Giddey, Aaron Wiggins.
Alexander was exchanged, but his Thunder teammates, chosen.
Prestie: It's a small thing, but let me introduce Durant, Westbrook and Harden, who I drafted three years in a row in 2007-09, and the other teams that preceded their selections of Oden, Mayo and Thabit......
Carson choked Irving, Dallas and Luka. Luka also had a triple-double, but had the second-lowest 18 points of his career playoff and seven turnovers. Of course, you can't judge a hero by success or failure, after all, he has a knee injury.
Let's just talk about mentality.
Luka made a second mistake today, and the ball hit Giddey in the face and was copied by the Thunder. He didn't return to the defense at the first time, but jumped with the referee on the sidelines to protest.
A second-half pass to Washington went out of bounds, and he walked back with his head down.
The seventh mistake, the pass was copied, and his first reaction was not to quickly return to the defense (Chet next to him had already started), but to spread his hands.
Not to mention that when he missed the ball and stole a rebound in the front court, he always bowed his head first, "Alas! ”
——In the seventh game of the 2016 finals, Coach Lu famously said, "Body language! Pay attention to your body language!! ”
It's not that Lukka hasn't experienced a similar scale. He had more physical contact than he does when he played in Europe, and he admitted that he adapted quickly to the NBA because of the wider space. After all, basketball in the FIBA world is really hand-to-hand combat. But when he competed with the referees in this year's playoffs, he was not as active as when he first arrived. After today's game, Luca said, "We made 52 per cent free throws, that's not acceptable. - 94-96 down, could have tied the game, he himself hit 1 of 2 free throws.
What is positive body language? Every time Levry misses the ball, his first reaction is to rush to the front court to rebound, or watch the referee confirm the ball and then run back to the defense, at most he clapps his hands to express regret. Seeing his teammates shoot, while returning to defense, he turned around and pointed at his teammates, "Good job, buddy!" ”
(Not to mention that Leffrey has just lost his family)
Alexander scored a career-high 34 points today. He only shot one opening three-pointer in the whole game, and then it was his signature footwork + mid-range shot.
After the match, he said, "We just kept going, round by round, and in the end the game went against us." ”
Round by round, two points and two points, and in the end he won.
There is no suspense for Jokic to win the MVP this season, and the main thing that the public is talking about is the MVP rankings of Alexander and Luca. In fact, they are completely different players.
Luka is the core of the global ball handler, averaging 34 points, 10 assists and 4 turnovers per game; Alexander is more of a two-way player, averaging 30 points, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 turnovers per game.
The biggest difference: Luka has 92 touches per game in 8.3 minutes and Alexander has 71 touches in 6.8 minutes per game.
The ball-holding core can release the whole team with personal threat + wide vision, and the lower limit is extremely high, but there must be a perfect deputy (Irving) and a blue-collar who shoots goals; Two-way players can't create so many empty spaces, but they can chisel round by round, and they don't mind their teammates doing it, so there are many adaptations and possibilities.
It's no secret either, each team makes its own choice.
The most interesting moment of Alexander's day was not the 22-point second half that led the team to a comeback, but the Thunder led 96-92 with 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
As the team's absolute trump card, Alexander grabbed a spot with Jones Jr. at the free-throw line, but when he saw Jalen Williams rubbing the ball at the top of the arc, Alexander understood and moved two steps away. Jaylen missed, Alexander didn't complain, and immediately began to command the defense.
The Thunder have been rebuilding from a rebuilding team, slowly piling up teenagers and raising rookies, and being able to race and grind step by step in the face of adversity, which is not only the vision of Coach Presti, but also the atmosphere of the team.
And the key to that atmosphere was that as one of the regular season MVP candidates, Alexander could do so in the end, leading the team to survive the team's collective offensive struggles and play the best playoff game of his career.
And in the end, watching Jay, who was in the second grade, was going to take over, "I'll let you go".
Alexander admitted after the fight that it was the most meaningful match he had ever played.
Indeed, it is like the epitome of his past five years, with the thunder brothers accumulating thousands of miles:
Unity, perseverance, round by round from the trough, and finally the game fell to the Thunder.