June 9, 2000, Boston.
At 7 p. m., the area outside Boston's New Garden was a sea of green. As the team bus drove into the underground parking garage, the Lakers players could clearly feel the city's almost overwhelming fervor through the windows.
The Celtics' locker room.
Doc Rivers stood in front of the playboard, offering no lengthy explanations, but only making the most crucial matchup adjustments. "Tonight, Gary ( Gary Payton ), you'll be guarding Kobe. Eddie ( Jones ), you'll be guarding Fisher."
At that moment, veteran Ron Harper, who was sitting in the corner in front of the locker room, tied his shoelaces and slowly stood up. As an absolute hero who had helped Phil Jackson win three consecutive championships in Chicago, no one in this locker room understood the crux of the Triangle Offense better than him.
"Matchmaking alone isn't enough, Doc." Harper stepped forward and took the tactical pen from Doc Rivers' hand with remarkable ease. He drew several large crosses on the three circles on the strong side of the tactical board.
" Phil's triangle system is essentially built on spacing and the pivot of the first pass." Harper looked around at his teammates in the locker room. "If we just retreat inside the three-point line and wait for them to get into position, we're doomed. What we need to do is directly destroy their 'starting line'."
Harper turned his gaze to Gary Payton and Eddie Jones: " Gary, listen up. In the Triangle Offense, Kobe is doing what Michael ( Jordan ) did back in the day. He loves receiving the ball at the horns, where the free-throw line extends to the weak side. From there, he can post up or back off to the strong side, which is a crucial playmaking point in the Triangle Offense."
Harper slammed his pen on the edge of the free-throw line. "You have to put physical contact on him before he even gets into position! Push him out of that position, don't give him even the slightest comfortable space to receive the ball!"
"As long as Kobe has difficulty receiving the ball, the Triangle Offense will come to a fatal halt." Harper gestured towards the paint with his pen. "As for Shaq, the Triangle Offense relies heavily on feeding the ball to the low post. KG, Dikembe, don't let them comfortably lob the ball in. Half-front them, spread your long arms wide and disrupt Fisher's passing vision!"
Harper tossed the tactical pen back onto the table.
"Remember, as long as we pressure the Lakers and force them to delay their offensive initiation by more than 8 seconds, the Triangle Offense offense will be completely paralyzed and automatically relegated to Kobe or Shaq's hasty and reckless isolation plays. At that point, the entire offense will crumble."
Lin Qi stood up from the corner, his gaze fixed on Eddie Jones, who was tying his shoelaces.
" Eddie, Kevin ( Garnett ) and Rasheed ( Wallace ) gave the Lakers a lot of trouble last game. The Lakers will definitely be heavily attacking the paint tonight." Lin Qi's voice was calm and confident. "On offense, if you get an open shot, don't hesitate for a second. Put all those shots in."
Eddie Jones looked up, tightened his shoelaces, and nodded emphatically.
Lakers locker room.
Phil Jackson, abandoning his usual easygoing demeanor, slammed his fist on the whiteboard with a cold, piercing gaze. " Kobe, play more off-ball this game, move to the weak side. Use Shaq's screens to get past the defense, catch the ball and shoot. Shaq, I want you to destroy their defense in the paint."
At 8:00 PM sharp, amidst the deafening chants of "Let's go Celtics!" from nearly 20,000 fans...
With a whoosh, the second game of the NBA Finals officially began.
In the jump ball at center court, O'Neal took the lead first thanks to his terrifying explosiveness.
Lakers' first possession. Fisher steadily dribbled the ball up half-court, and Kobe immediately started his run on the right wing. He attempted to use O'Neal Jr.'s solid positioning screen to quickly cut from the baseline to the top of the key.
However, tonight he was guarded by Gary Payton. Facing O'Neal Jr.'s screen, the only point guard in NBA history to win the Defensive Player of the Year award displayed the best screen-squeezing skills in history among guards.
Just before he was about to collide with the screener, Gary Payton lowered his center of gravity to an extremely low position, his feet moving rapidly in a very fine, high-frequency rhythm. He tilted his shoulder to the side, making his entire body extremely "thin," like a sharp piece of paper sliding through a crack in a door, and forcefully squeezed past O'Neal Jr.'s body!
Moreover, in the instant he squeezed past, Gary Payton cunningly and fiercely used his hip to create an active confrontation with O'Neal Jr., directly disrupting the latter's screen and causing the young center to painfully step back.
Kobe had just received the pass at the top of the arc and hadn't even had time to turn and face the basket when " The Glove " Gary Payton was already looming over his face.
Gary Payton spread his arms wide, lowered his center of gravity, and used his aggressive chest to completely block Kobe's driving lane. Kobe's series of probing steps failed to shake Gary Payton in the slightest, and when he forced a drive, Gary Payton's agile lateral movement and extremely solid core strength forced him to stop. Helpless, Kobe could only stop the ball and lob it to the inside.
O'Neal received the ball in the low post, backed down, and with a dull thud of muscle impact, Mutombo was forced to step back half a step. Before Garnett could collapse and double-team him, O'Neal quickly passed the ball to Peja on the perimeter, but unfortunately, the latter's three-pointer missed.
The Celtics then launched a counterattack.
Gary Payton dribbled up the court quickly, and Eddie Jones positioned himself on the right wing. Facing Fisher, who was shorter and shorter than him in both height and wingspan, Jones didn't even ask for a screen. After receiving the ball, he immediately launched a simple pull-up jumper and easily made the shot thanks to his extremely high release point.
2-0!
The Celtics took the lead from the start.
The Lakers ' offense still heavily relied on O'Neal's dominance in the paint. The Big Shark used brute force to blast past Mutombo, then turned and hooked a shot to tie the game.
But the frenzy at the New Garden has only just begun.
With 2 minutes and 30 seconds left in the first quarter, Garnett held the ball at the high post to facilitate the play. Eddie Jones used a screen to drive straight to the top of the arc from the left wing, with Kobe Bryant behind him. Gary Payton arrived with the ball, and Jones caught the ball, jumped, and shot with fluid movements.
"Whoosh!"
The first three-pointer went in cleanly!
Less than a minute later, the Celtics grabbed the defensive rebound and launched a fast break. Gary Payton drew the defense in the middle and quickly passed the ball to the left wing. Eddie Jones, who was running at high speed, received the ball and completely ignored Peja, who was still two meters away from him, and pulled up for a three-pointer!
"Whoosh!"
The second three-pointer pierced through the heart!
10-4!
Just four and a half minutes into the game, Phil Jackson was forced to call a timeout.
With 6 minutes and 30 seconds left in the first quarter, Jones found himself under Kobe's extremely tenacious defense on the right wing. He made a series of back-and-forth runs, sprinting from the right corner all the way to the left wing. Just as Kobe was slightly delayed by the crowded paint, Garnett delivered a brilliant pass.
Jones received the ball in the corner, and facing Kobe's extremely fierce diving save, he released the ball while almost losing his balance.
"Whoosh!"
The third three-pointer!
In the final seconds of the first quarter, Jones faced Kobe's one-on-one defense at the top of the arc, dribbling repeatedly to pressure the clock. With three seconds left on the shot clock, he suddenly made an explosive step-back, creating half a body distance, and launched the final three-pointer of the quarter over Kobe's fingertips.
The basketball traced a perfectly round arc through the air, accompanied by the crisp sound of it swishing against the net, and the red light came on.
The fourth three-pointer!
The first quarter ended with the score at 24-13.
The Celtics lead by 11 points.
Eddie Jones went 6-for-9 from the field in the quarter, including 4-for-4 from three-point range, resembling a relentless shooting machine and scoring 16 points in the quarter.
"An incredible shooting performance!" NBC commentator Isaiah Thomas shook his head repeatedly on the commentary desk. "Faced with Kobe's extremely aggressive defense, Eddie Jones was unstoppable from beyond the arc in the first quarter! He single-handedly tore through the Lakers ' defense!"
The second quarter completely turned into a personal show by Eddie Jones.
Early in the second quarter, both teams' rotating lineups battled it out on the court. The inside-outside connection between Billups and Rasheed Wallace was frequently effective, widening the score gap at one point.
In the second minute of the second quarter, Eddie Jones cut to the left wing using Rasheed's off-ball screen. Kobe tried desperately to get past the screen, but was still a fraction of a second too slow. Jones received the ball and decisively pulled up for a shot.
"Whoosh!"
The fifth three-pointer!
29-15!
The entire stadium's dome seemed about to be lifted off by the cheers.
Just over three minutes later, the Celtics' full starting lineup returned. Garnett held the ball high up the court, scanning the entire field out of the corner of his eye. Jones suddenly changed his running route, using Mutombo's extremely wide frame to cut from the right wing to the left baseline corner.
Garnett quickly passed the ball to Jones, who received it in the corner. Kobe's help defense was still a fraction of a second too late.
"Whoosh!"
The sixth three-pointer went in cleanly!
34-17!
The point difference was instantly widened to 17 points!
Phil Jackson called another timeout. On the Lakers ' bench, the usually composed " Zen Master " finally couldn't contain himself any longer.
"The moment that number 7 receives the ball, double-team him immediately!" Jackson slammed his hand on the whiteboard. "We'd rather have any other Boston player open for a layup than let him even glance at the basket again!"
The Lakers ' extreme defense did work. In the following minutes, Kobe and Fisher almost frantically double-teamed Jones beyond the three-point line. But this short-sighted defensive strategy completely freed up the rest of the Celtics.
Garnett's mid-range jumpers and Pierce's cuts to the basket left the Lakers ' defense overwhelmed.
In the 9th minute of the second quarter, New Garden witnessed the most frenzied peak of the first half.
Jones was double-teamed on the right wing, but he calmly passed the ball around. Pierce's dribble drew everyone's attention, and then a backheel pass found Jones again, who had quietly moved to the left corner.
There was no one in front of Jones at this moment.
Kobe desperately sprinted from the paint to make a save, but it was too late. Jones calmly adjusted and took the shot.
"Whoosh--!"
The net tumbles and swirls, the seventh three-pointer!
41-24!
"My God! Seven three-pointers, seven out of seven!" Bob Costas clutched his head in the commentary booth, his voice cracking with excitement. "That's a new career high for three-pointers in a half! Tonight, the basket looked like the ocean to Eddie Jones!"
The first half ended with the score at 45-28.
The Celtics returned to the locker room with a commanding 17-point lead.
Statistics show that Eddie Jones scored 24 points in the first half with an extremely high efficiency, shooting 8-for-12 from the field and 7-for-7 from three-point range. Meanwhile, Kobe, under immense pressure on both offense and defense, only managed 10 points on 4-for-10 shooting in the first half.
Halftime, Lakers locker room.
The atmosphere was oppressive and suffocating. But Phil Jackson remained seated firmly in front of the whiteboard, his expression as calm as still water.
"A 17-point difference is just a number, not a death sentence." Jackson's voice wasn't loud, but it instantly silenced the locker room. He looked at Kobe, who was drenched in sweat, " Kobe, Gary Payton has forced you into extremely difficult shooting positions. In the second half, stop those forced pull-up jumpers over the defense. Go to the low post to get the ball, or aggressively drive to the basket to draw fouls. We need you at the free-throw line, not wrestling with that old guy at the three-point line."
Kobe gritted his teeth and rubbed his face hard with a towel. "Understood."
Jackson turned to O'Neal and drew a heavy circle on the whiteboard around the paint. " Shaq, in the second half, we're going to drag this game into the mud. Slow down the pace as much as possible. Every possession, the ball must be in your hands. Crush them in Boston's paint."
"As for Eddie Jones..." Jackson finally frowned. "In the second half, we'll give him full-court 'face-to-face' defense. Completely cut off his receiving routes and force him to dribble the ball himself. Whoever is responsible for guarding him, stick to him like a shadow and don't worry about anyone else!"
In the Celtics' locker room, however, a different tactical scenario was unfolding.
Lin Qi stood in the center of the locker room, looking at the stat sheet, his expression still calm, not letting the 17-point lead go to his head. "Great first half." Lin Qi looked at Eddie Jones, who was covered in sweat. " Eddie, you had an incredible first half. But listen, in the second half, Phil Jackson will do everything he can to prevent you from receiving the ball. Don't force position; what you need to do is take the guy guarding you to the weak-side corner and completely clear the strong side. You're the most attractive player on the court right now; as long as you're there, the Lakers ' defense is crippled."
Eddie Jones nodded firmly, his eyes resolute; he understood the value of "bait" in tactics.
Lin Qi turned to the coaching bench. " Tom, the defense is yours."
Lead assistant coach Tom Thibodeau jumped to his feet. The workaholic, known for his defense and toughness, roared in his signature hoarse voice, clapping his hands forcefully.
"Listen up, guys! Down by 17 points, the Lakers will definitely try their best to slow the pace in the second half, hoping Shaq can chip away at the deficit point by point in half-court sets!"
Thibodeau slammed his hand on the backcourt area of the whiteboard, the sound echoing throughout the locker room, "We need to do the exact opposite! We need to run! But all of this depends on rebounding! Kevin, protect our defensive rebounds, they're our lifeline for fast breaks! Grab the rebound and immediately push for transition! Whether it goes in or not, run whenever you have the chance!"
He stared intently at the entire team, his hoarse voice laced with ferocity. "I'm going to make Shaquille O'Neal O'Neal do endless 94-foot shuttle runs in the second half! I'm going to completely drain that Big Shark's energy pool!"
" Gary!" Thibodeau turned to Gary Payton, "Keep physical with Kobe! Every possession, every second, stick to him! Make it hard for him to even breathe!"
"Seventeen points is nothing compared to the safety of the OK Duo!" Head coach Doc Rivers stepped forward at the opportune moment to give his final pre-game pep talk, "Go onto the court and wear them down with your speed and defense!"
Everyone stood up and clasped their hands together heavily.
"One, two, three, Boston!"
A deep, powerful battle cry erupted from the locker room.