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The first preseason game of the Celtics' 02-03 season will be played in New York. In the early morning of October 8, the Celtics team boarded a special plane to New York. After five days of intensive training, they will have their first actual combat drill. For Leon, this will be very An important game, the effect of the "career plan" will be tested in this game.

Although there are only five days, the changes Leon brought to this team are obvious enough. First of all, no one will be late for training. Since the team's highest paid Antoine Walker has been punished obediently, those young people naturally dare not make a second. Leon fixed his time to the training hall at 8 o'clock in the morning, which became the bottom line for the players to train in the morning.

Secondly, the team has done a lot of basic skills exercises in these five days, including shooting, passing, defense and physical training. Many players feel that they are back in high school. On the contrary, Leon’s proficient tactical exercises did not frequently appear in the team’s training. He would only watch the tactical video in the half-hour meeting before the training, and then repeatedly practice some relatively simple cooperative tactics in the training. .

Leon especially emphasized the practice of pick-and-roll coordination and two- and three-person offensive rapid offensive coordination. In tactical training, they have two-thirds of their time in this training.

After arriving at Kennedy International Airport in New York, the Celtics did not drive west to the hotel near Madison Square Garden as they did in the past, but instead turned east to the satellite city of Hempstead in the suburbs of New York. , Because the venue for this preseason game is not in Madison, but at the Nassau Stadium in Hempstead. As the same old stadium as Madison Square Garden, Nassau Stadium was used as the home court of the Nets in ABA in 1971-77. After the Nets merged into the NBA, it will no longer be the home of any professional team, but it will still take on many venues for the competition.

The Celtics checked in at a hotel near the Nassau Stadium. Of course, there is not the luxury of a New York Metropolitan Hotel at all, but a simple two-story hotel where Celtic players live on the second floor. And there is no professional training venue near the hotel except Nassau Stadium. No way, who makes this a preseason. Madison Square Garden has more important events to be held today. So this irrelevant preseason game had to be played in the countryside of New York.

Even though the boats are busy, Leon decided to organize the whole team to go to the gym for a simple training at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The main content of the training is shooting.

"In one hour, we will practice shooting for one hour. However, I need to declare in advance that our training will not end when everyone takes the ball and shoots a few hundred in a fixed place. This is in addition to keeping us It’s useless except for the touch. We will be divided into three groups for practice. The first group will be players with excellent shots. You will practice anti-interference. The second group will be players with relatively stable shots. What you want to do is fixed point. Shooting practice, your shooting point will only be one point. The third group is the guys with lower shooting skills, all you have to do is to practice free throws! Of course, everyone should do a five-minute return run before practice." In the gym. , Leon arranged the team's shooting practice in groups.

Shooting is the first thing Leon has paid close attention to after becoming the Celtics head coach. In the past season, Leon found that the Celtics' collective shooting training is still lacking in systematization. The players' shooting training in the team The main goal here is to maintain the feeling of shooting, and the real improvement depends on additional training after training or individual training in the summer. Leon believes that as the most important technical item in basketball, shooting must be systematically practiced by the whole team. Improve together.

For this reason, the first assistant coach he hired was Siegfried, an experienced shooting master who has a unique insight into the technique of shooting. As a player of the older generation. NBA took the lead in hitting 40% of the top shooters. In the case of poor training conditions, Siegfried has a lot of small methods and tips for training shots. After accepting Leon’s invitation to serve as the Celtics’ shooting coach, Siegfried spent two weeks sorting out these methods and techniques, and spent another month studying them through various channels. With the new shooting technique of modern basketball, he was extremely well prepared and gave the Celtics a lot of help in shooting within a week.

For example, he pointed out some bad habits of Reid's left-handed shooting, because Reid's left hand is not the dominant hand. Siegfried asks Reid to adopt the "one-handed training method", that is, to dribble, pilling, and shooting with only his left hand. To enhance the feeling of left-handed shots and reduce stiffness. Another example is that he directs Pierce's shots. He believes that Pierce relies too much on the force of the entire arm, especially the big arm, which will reduce the stability of the shot. He thinks Pierce can appropriately increase the forearm in the shooting action.

In short, Siegfried may not be as good as many players in the current NBA in shooting skills. His shooting posture is out of date and his shot speed is too slow. However, as long as each player passes his observation and guidance, there will always be Many gains. Including Antoine Walker, a three-point freak who is obsessed with his shooting skills, and he also listened to Siegfried's advice, focusing on strengthening his fingers and wrists, and enhancing his ability to control the ball.

Therefore, Leon gave Siegfried the first group of players, including Pierce, Arenas, Reid, Walker, and Wang Zhizhi. Leon assigned Wang Zhizhi to the first group that no one had expected. This introverted and silent yellow-skinned player didn't have too many shining points after coming to the Celtics. His strength and speed were not good. The shooting feel is very good, rarely seen among big men, but his confrontation has not reached the nba level at all.

The second group of players is mainly Wahad, Malik Siri, Joe Johnson and Tony Barty. Their main characters are to practice fixed-point shooting. However, this fixed point is exquisite. Leon has set a few "best shooting points" for these players based on tactical requirements and a large amount of data processing, that is, at these points, their number of shots and percentages are both it's the best. For example, Joe Johnson, his best shooting point is two steps within the right corner three-point line, the top of the arc, and the left 45-degree three-point line.

Leon will be specifically responsible for the practice of these players, because he finds the most accurate point, which point is which player's best shooting point, his heart is clear.

The third group is some inside players, such as Potapenko, Blunt, Chris Anderson, Grant Long, Dalem Porter, etc. Their main task is to practice free throws, and they have to practice return runs first. And some simple strength exercises to simulate the fierce confrontation of the inside line, and then practice free throws to ensure that they can still hit important serve points after the fierce inside line confrontation.

Dave Cowens is the supervisor of this group.

The one-hour shooting practice was divided by Leon in an orderly manner. The players had just entered the state and the time was up. Leon did not increase the training time, but told the players to continue the state into the night game.

……………………

At 6:30 in the evening, Leon and the Celtics arrived at the Nassau Stadium again. After the shooting training, Leon gave the players more than two hours to relax. After returning, there was already some in the stadium. Local New York media reporters are waiting in the passage. As one of the topical figures in the offseason, Leon was certainly taken care of by the reporters. On the way into the locker room, people kept chasing Leon and asking questions, which he didn't get when he was a scout and assistant coach. treatment.

"How does it feel to be a coach for a team with a long history like the Celtics?" A small reporter from the "New Yorker" has been chasing Leon to ask questions, and they always ask specious questions. Leon knew this was a novice when he heard it. He and the New York media are still quite familiar. Obviously, reporters who come to interview this kind of preseason will not be any famous people.

"I feel very old." Leon gave a specious answer.

"Do you have any expectations for your players for tonight's game?" The reporter continued to ask, another boring question.

"I expect them to get one hundred and fifty points." Leon joked, then went into the locker room and blocked the reporter from the door.

This was just a joke made by Leon, but it almost became true.

In the game that started at 7:30 in the evening, the Celtics' first preseason game of the season became the Celtics' shooting training ground. From the beginning of the first quarter, the Celtics shot up to 72%. Starting Pierce, Walker, Batty, Reid and Arenas, each of the five can serve beyond the middle distance. Cannon, and the one-hour systematic shooting training in the afternoon, which is not very intense, undoubtedly kept the players good touch.

When Arenas hit an ultra-long-range three-pointer at the end of the first quarter, the Celtics had achieved a 44:31, 13-point lead in the first quarter, and 44 points were also a terrifying single. The number of points scored in the quarter.

However, the Celtics’ crazy feel did not end with the end of the first quarter~lightnovelpub.net~ Although their shooting percentage declined in the second and third quarters, their offensive rhythm increased. The faster you play, the simple, efficient, and fast offensive thinking of Leon last season has been fully implemented in this game. The number of passes in the offense will not exceed three, and the opponent's footing will always be grasped. As long as a positional attack is formed, it is handed over to Walker or Pierce for singles. Although simple and rude, the players feel too good to shoot and the Knicks' defense is not strong, which makes the Celtics' scoring soar.

When the Celtics broke 100 points in three quarters, the Knicks head coach Don Channing finally couldn't sit still. He called a long timeout and asked the players to strengthen their defensive efforts instead of giving the Celtics easy points. opportunity.

But everything was too late. The Celtics scored soaring all the way. In the end Leon replaced Wahad and Wang Zhizhi, but when Wang Zhizhi could hit the three-pointer, who else could stop the Celtics from attacking?

Finally, when Wang Zhizhi missed the last three-pointer, the score of the two sides was fixed at 147:129. The Celtics won the first game of the new season with crazy shooting and three-point performance at the Nassau Stadium. Victory.

And this is just the beginning. (To be continued.)