Early May in Boston brought a few rare days of leisure.
After a clean 3-0 sweep of the Charlotte Hornets, the Celtics were given almost a week of valuable rest. With other Eastern Conference matchups bogged down, the Boston players even had time to enjoy afternoon tea on the Charles River.
But the atmosphere in the training hall's video recording room was extremely tense.
The room was dark, with only the projector screen emitting a soft blue light. Lin Qi and head coach Rick Carlisle sat on the sofa, each holding a cup of coffee.
On the screen, a key game of the first round of the Western Conference is playing: Game 3 of the Los Angeles Lakers Utah Jazz.
This series was far more intense than expected. Utah's dynamic duo, Stockton and Malone, are getting old, their pick-and-roll tactics, honed over a decade, still managed to cause trouble for the star-studded Lakers.
"Wait a minute."
Lin Qi suddenly spoke. Rick Carlisle immediately pressed the pause button on the remote control.
The scene freezes in the middle of the second quarter. At this point, the Los Angeles Lakers have committed three consecutive turnovers on offense, allowing the Jazz to go on an 8-0 run and widen the gap to double digits.
The broadcast cameras captured footage of the Los Angeles Lakers' bench.
Head coach Phil Jackson was sitting in the coach's chair. He crossed his arms over his chest, closed his eyes slightly, and watched as the situation on the court gradually spiraled out of control.
It wasn't until the score difference reached 12 points that he slowly stood up and called a timeout. During the timeout, Phil, as seen on the broadcast, simply said a few words to the players, handed the whiteboard to assistant coach Tex Winter, and stepped aside.
"What do you see, Rick?" Lin Qi pointed to Phil Jackson on the screen.
Rick Carlisle frowned and stared for a long time.
"An almost arrogant stubbornness." Rick Carlisle's voice echoed in the quiet video room. "If we were down by eight, I would have called a timeout on the second possession when they were gaining momentum, brought in a defensive specialist to cut off Stockton's passing lanes, or immediately set up a clear-out isolation play specifically for Malone to stabilize the tempo. But Phil didn't."
Rick Carlisle put down the remote and turned to Lin Qi: "He doesn't intend to interfere with the game's on-field management. He's waiting for the players to solve the problems themselves."
"Very keen observation." Lin Qi nodded approvingly. "People say Phil Jackson isn't good at calling timeouts. But actually, it's not a matter of ability; it's his coaching philosophy."
Lin Qi stood up and walked to the curtain.
Phil isn't a coach who frequently redraws plays during timeouts. His coaching philosophy is. "I've thoroughly refined the ' Triangle Offense ' system during training camp and the regular season. If the play doesn't go smoothly on the court, it's because the players aren't following the instructions strictly, or they've made mistakes in reading the defense, not because my tactics are flawed."
"So, the reason he doesn't call a timeout, or doesn't draw anything during a timeout, is actually to convey a message..." Rick Carlisle suddenly realized, "'I won't come to your rescue; you need to recall your tactical principles and adjust yourselves'?"
"That's right." Lin Qi nodded. "For teams that have been playing together for many years, this can cultivate the players' self-correction ability. But for an opponent of our caliber, this is their biggest weakness."
Lin Qi sat back down on the sofa and pointed out the fatal flaw in this philosophy.
" Rick, if we get to the NBA Finals and suddenly change our defensive matchups or the timing of our double-teaming of O'Neal in a certain quarter, Phil will absolutely not abandon his Triangle Offense immediately and switch to a simple pick-and-roll. He will stubbornly insist that Jordan, Kidd, and Barkley stay in their positions and continue running that complicated set of plays. He will need at least a whole quarter, or even the next game, before he reluctantly admits, 'This thing needs a change.'"
Rick Carlisle's eyes lit up. As a head coach, he knew all too well what such slow reaction meant in top-level competition. Popovich and Pat Riley often exploited these windows of inattention when playing against Phil Jackson, turning the tide of the game in one fell swoop.
"Let's talk about his tactical system itself." Lin Qi picked up the remote, pressed play, and the picture started moving again. "What do you think is the fundamental difference between the Lakers ' Triangle Offense and our dynamic offense?"
Rick Carlisle watched the Lakers players' movements on the court.
After dribbling the ball across half-court, Kidd did not immediately initiate a fast break. Instead, he stopped at the top of the arc, waiting for O'Neal to box out in the low post, for Jordan to position himself on the strong side, and for Marion to create space on the weak side.
What should have been a smooth tactical initiation looked awkward on the field.
"Too rigid," Rick Carlisle pointed out the problem incisively. "Our offense, while having basic routes, allows Gary ( Gary Payton ) or Chris Paul ( Pierce ) to immediately close out possessions once they see a local advantage. But the Lakers are different..."
Rick Carlisle pointed to Jason Kidd on the screen. " The Triangle Offense is more extreme. It requires all five players on the court to first establish that triangle position before they can start passing the ball and reading the defense."
"This brings us to the deepest internal conflict within this Lakers." Lin Qi took a sip of coffee and hit the nail on the head.
"The essence of the Triangle Offense is to slow down the pace, play half-court set offense, and find open cuts on the weak side through ball movement. It doesn't require a point guard who holds the ball for long periods to direct traffic; it only needs someone who can accurately pass the ball to the center."
Lin Qi looked at Kidd on the screen, Kidd seemed a bit hesitant. "But look at who the Lakers ' point guard is? Jason Kidd. The league's top fast-break master, the playmaker who needs the ball in his hands to dictate the game's tempo."
Rick Carlisle watched Kidd pass the ball into the paint from the top of the key, then run to the weak-side corner to act as a spot-up shooter, and couldn't help but shake his head. "That's a complete waste of Kidd's talent. Kidd wants to push the fast break, wants to pass the ball quickly to create opportunities; but Phil tells him to set up his position, to pass the ball out, and then wait for the inside to pass it to him."
"It's not just Kidd." Lin Qi's gaze swept over the other elderly figures on the screen: 38-year-old Jordan, 38-year-old Barkley.
" The Triangle Offense requires a lot of off-ball movement and cuts to the weak side. Michael and Charles have top-tier basketball IQ, so they certainly know how to run those routes. But Rick, he's 38 years old, and by the fourth quarter they simply can't run that many complex off-ball routes."
Lin Qi's words precisely exposed the weakness of this behemoth that is the Lakers.
"Your previous suggestion of a twelve-man rotation is one of the best solutions to deal with this kind of rigid system," Lin Qi, looking at Rick Carlisle.
"In the NBA Finals, whenever O'Neal had the ball, we would cut off the passing lanes in advance. As soon as they got into position, we would use our bodies to challenge them. More importantly..."
Lin Qi stood up.
"We need to maintain high-pressure counter-attacks for the entire 48 minutes with long rotations. Once Kidd realizes that our slow Triangle Offense in the first half is no match for our defense, his instinct as a point guard will drive him to initiate an attack himself within six seconds in the frontcourt."
Rick Carlisle understood the owner's intention. "Once Kidd starts to break away from the tactics and go it alone, and even Jordan starts to take over the offense himself in order to win, Phil Jackson, sitting on the sidelines, will feel that his tactical system has been disrupted."
"When they're winning, these conflicts are masked." Lin Qi watched the Lakers barely win the game thanks to Jordan's game-winning shot on the screen. "But once they fall behind in a series, when players want to take matters into their own hands to win, while the coach insists on sticking to the established tactical system... this internal disagreement about how to win might further deplete their internal energy."
The recording studio fell silent again, with only the post-match handshake segment still playing on the projection screen.