The Cavaliers' opening coordination made Doc Rivers realize something. During the third round of offense and defense, he stood up and walked to the sideline.
"Look at LeBron without the ball!"
Mike Brown heard the voice: "Then give the ball to LeBron!"
Then, Andre Miller, who controlled the ball in the frontcourt, found an opportunity and passed the ball to James.
The Cavaliers' offense just returned to James' breakthrough and ball-breaking mode. Lin Yu entered a state without the ball. In this round of offense, he ran wildly for more than ten seconds, but failed to get a single chance.
James, who broke through in the middle, was unable to find an opportunity to distribute the ball, because the Celtics did an excellent job of assisting in the area defense and rotated the defense very quickly.
James was forced to take a mid-range shot under Pierce's defense.
With a bang, the basketball flew out of the frame.
It was Kevin Garnett who grabbed the rebound.
Chucky Atkins slowly pushed the ball into the frontcourt, followed by a slow offensive coordination, from Pierce's single to Garnett's mid-range catch.
They also kept trying to pass the ball to Ray Allen, but Lin Yu completely marked the opponent on the defensive end.
With more than 3 seconds left in the attack time, Garnett made a mid-range shot, and with a bang, he hit the ball successfully, and the scores of the two teams were tied.
The Cavaliers' offense switched to breakout mode, and James forced a breakthrough again. Lin Yu, who was off the ball, still couldn't get rid of his opponent's targeted defense.
The other starting players, Old Miller, Drew Gooden and Big Z are all crowded inside and have few opportunities on the offensive end.
James can only fight hard and then fight again.
Then came the Celtics' offense.
Pierce faced off against James' defense, but he was still able to score with his kaleidoscope of offensive skills.
Kevin Garnett had an absolute advantage in his confrontation with Drew Gooden.
The only one who was prevented from dying was Ray Allen.
After the success of the first shot in the opening game, the Cavaliers were completely at a disadvantage. On the offensive end, they were completely suppressed by the Celtics and could only rely on the strong shots of James and Lin Yu to score.
On the defensive end, they only did a passable job, guarding Ray Allen who should have been guarded, and then allowing the Celtics' offense to enter a cycle of Pierce's isolation and Garnett's isolation.
After a fierce first quarter, both teams fought fiercely. The score was a very low 24:17, with the Cavaliers trailing by 7 points.
"A wonderful defensive battle. The Cavaliers defended by the Celtics only scored 17 points in the first quarter. LeBron James scored 7 points. China Lin hit two three-pointers and scored 6 points. On the other side, Pierce scored 7 points and Garnett scored 7 points.
10 points."
"On one side, LeBron and Lin took most of the scoring, and on the other side, Pierce and Garnett took most of the scoring. This defensive battle has gradually evolved into a battle between star players."
Off the court, Mike Brown made urgent adjustments.
"Next, I will replace Donyell and Daniel (Gibson). We have to open up the space on the court, but at the same time, we cannot lose our defensive basics..."
In the second quarter, Lin Yu was gratified that Mike Brown finally learned to think about opening up the offense first and then thinking about how to maintain the intensity of the defense.
The appearance of Donyel Marshall and Daniel Gibson immediately provided great help to the Cavaliers' offense.
At the beginning of the second quarter, Lin Yu also changed from his normal state and suddenly became an iron man. He continued to play continuously, staying on the court to play a small role in opening up space in the offense, and continuing to defend Lei-
Allen.
Relying on the power of one star and three shots, the Cavaliers began chasing points.
Donyel Marshall's three-pointer once helped the Cavaliers narrow the point difference to less than 5 points, which was a 4-point difference.
But then, the appearance of James Posey and Tony Allen suddenly increased the Celtics' defensive intensity on the outside.
Then, with the reappearance of Pierce and Garnett, the point difference was once again widened to more than 5 points.
By the end of halftime, the score became 49:41, with the Celtics leading and the point difference being 8 points.
This also means that the Cavaliers lost another point in the second quarter.
Fortunately, their offense improved somewhat and they scored 24 points in the second quarter. The Cavaliers still have hope of winning this game.
In the third quarter, Mike Brown instantly returned to his original form and put on a defensive-oriented lineup.
They attacked and defended each other for more than four minutes. The defensive-oriented Cavaliers were completely unable to attack, and their defense was completely inferior to the inside combination of Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins, as well as the defensive master Tom Thibodeau.
Celtics under bonus.
As Garnett and Pierce continued to hit jump shots, the point difference was heading towards 15 points.
"Kevin Garnett's mid-range jumper, the basketball passed through the net, beautiful offense, 63:49, the Celtics are in front, and now their lead has reached 14 points."
Mike Brown resisted the urge to call a timeout and decided to wait for one more round.
"LeBron's breakthrough, he went to the left and made a jump shot."
boom!
There was a muffled sound.
"It's iron, look at the backboard!"
"Kevin Garnett grabbed this rebound. In this game, he seemed to have turned on the ball-sucking mode and kept grabbing rebounds..."
After grabbing the rebound, Garnett passed the ball to backup point guard Rajon Rondo.
Rondo controlled the ball across half court, and after waiting for a moment, he directly used an imaginative pass to find Ray Allen on the side.
At this time, Lin Yu was not present, and it was Ira Nubel who was guarding Ray Allen.
"Ray Allen, he ran away from the defense, caught the ball and shot directly."
Whoosh!
Amid wild cheers at the North Shore Garden Arena, Mike Brown walked helplessly to the sidelines and called a timeout that had to be called.
"Timeout, the Cavaliers called the timeout. The current score is 65:49, a 16-point difference!"
In the commentary box, Kenny Smith shook his head: "I thought this game would be the most anxious of the three Christmas games, but it turned out that before the third quarter of the game, the Cavaliers were already 16 points behind."
Off the court, during the timeout, Mike Brown still wasn't ready to change his defensive team.
The anxious Lin Yu couldn't bear it anymore. He stood up and said, "Mike, I think we should change our style of play."
Mike Brown is so overwhelmed that he no longer knows how to arrange or adjust his offensive tactics.
He was a little surprised when Lin Yu suddenly spoke, and then he let Lin Yu continue as if listening to his opinions.
"Obviously, we are no match for them when it comes to defense, so now we have to open up gaps through offense."
"Mike, put in a lineup with one big and four small, and then let LeBron and I go on the court to fight back. I guarantee that after three quarters, the deficit will be reduced to about 5 points..."
