June 12, Los Angeles, Staples Center.
During the NBA Finals, the spotlights and flashes from Hollywood stars were still dazzling. But in the Boston team's locker room, there was no noise, and no sign of panic due to the previous loss.
Over the past two days of rest, Lin Qi and Rick Carlisle spent time in the hotel's video room meticulously analyzing the game 3 footage frame by frame. The Lakers won the last game on two fronts: the increased pace of the small-ball lineup led by Kidd, and the home referees' zero tolerance for high-intensity physical battles in the paint.
"Since they dare to go small, we'll punish them in the paint."
At the start of the game, Phil Jackson was determined to continue his winning streak from the previous game. Midway through the first quarter, he made a bold move, bringing Lamar Odom back into the center position in an attempt to stretch Boston's defensive spacing.
Without hesitation, Rick Carlisle turned and walked towards the bench, calling out Wang Zhizhi's name.
When Wang Zhizhi took off his training uniform and stepped onto the court, the Lakers ' " Zen Master " on the bench frowned slightly.
The game restarts, Boston goes on offense.
Billups had the ball at the top of the key, and Wang Zhizhi set a high-quality screen before quickly cutting to the outside.
Odom instinctively took a step back, trying to block Billups's path to the basket. With that one step back, Billups flicked his wrist and passed the ball back to Wang Zhizhi on the outside.
With no one guarding him three meters in front of him, Wang Zhizhi receives the ball, adjusts his breathing, bends his knees, and shoots.
"Whoosh!"
A three-pointer swished through the net.
The Lakers ' small-ball lineup was countered by Boston in terms of spacing. If Odom chose to close out and defend Wang Zhizhi, the Lakers ' paint would be completely exposed, and Garnett could easily score against the undersized Marion in the paint.
But this was just the appetizer. What truly dismantled the Lakers ' small-ball lineup was Rick Carlisle's second card – " The Rasheed Wallace " Rasheed Wallace.
In recent seasons, Rasheed has increasingly preferred to float on the perimeter and shoot three-pointers, and people sometimes overlook the fact that he is actually a power forward with superb low-post skills and extremely strong core strength.
In the latter part of the first quarter, Rasheed established position on the left low post, guarded by Lamar Odom. Odom was shorter in comparison and his strength was nowhere near that of Rasheed.
Billups lobbed the ball directly into the paint.
In the past two years, in order to be able to go toe-to-toe with Shaquille O'Neal O'Neal, that 300-pound monster, in the NBA Finals, Rasheed has sweated a lot in the Boston training facility. He frantically trained his core strength and lower body stability, all in order to be able to withstand the Big Shark for a little longer in the paint.
But even he himself didn't expect that the strength he had trained to fight against O'Neal would be used against Lamar Odom today.
After receiving the ball, Rasheed didn't even bother to make a feint when facing Odom, who was slender and had a soft playing style.
He lowered his center of gravity, exerted force with his left shoulder, and slammed the hammer backward.
"Bang!"
Odom let out a painful groan, his entire body being forced back two steps by the enormous force, his defensive balance completely collapsing.
Rasheed spun towards the baseline and slammed the ball into the basket with one arm!
In the next round, Boston repeated the same tactic.
Rasheed called for the ball in the same low post again. Under Odom's obviously inferior height and strength in one-on-one defense, Rasheed seemed to have returned to his youthful days of dominating the paint at the University of North Carolina. This time, as Rasheed began to dribble with his back to the basket, and Marion on the wing tried to double-team him, he cleverly used his right foot as a pivot, completed a half-turn towards the outside, raised the ball high with both hands, and launched his signature straight-arm fadeaway jumper.
The basketball sailed past Odom and Marion's fingertips, landing steadily in the net.
Against the Lakers ' small-ball lineup, Rasheed Wallace displayed absolute dominance in the low post. From a visual perspective, Rasheed, who was completely dominating Odom, was playing almost like Shaquille O'Neal O'Neal on the opposing team!
"Damn it! We can't let him play like that!" Phil Jackson shouted from the sidelines, a rare moment of unease, forcing him to call a timeout prematurely.
The Lakers ' small-ball lineup lasted less than half a quarter before being completely torn apart by Boston's spacing penalties and Rasheed's dominance in the low post. Jackson had no choice but to bring Shaquille O'Neal O'Neal back onto the court from the bench, reverting to a traditional big-man lineup.
When O'Neal returned to the court, the game returned to the physical rhythm of a half-court set.
At this point, Rick Carlisle's "layered trap" on the defensive end began to take effect.
Facing a fully fit O'Neal, Boston did not resort to the same relentless, foul-prone tactics they used in the previous game, nor did they employ mindless double-teaming to leave their outside shooters open.
Rick Carlisle's arrangement is clearly layered.
The first layer was to guard Quentin Richardson relentlessly. Stephen Jackson was like an unyielding piece of chewing gum, sticking to Richardson the entire court. No matter how much O'Neal called for the ball in the paint, Jackson wouldn't even turn his head, never giving the Lakers' most accurate shooter any space to receive the ball.
The second layer is to resolutely collapse the defense during pick-and-rolls. When Kidd or Marion initiates a pick-and-roll on the perimeter, Boston's defenders immediately leave the long two-point line open and quickly collapse back below the free-throw line to cut off passing lanes to O'Neal.
The third layer is strategic openness. Boston chooses to simply leave Sean Marion's long-range shots and Charles Barkley's three-pointers open. As long as they are outside the three-point line, Boston players will only stand two steps away and symbolically raise their hands.
Midway through the second quarter, O'Neal pushed past Big Ben in the low post and received a pass.
Boston's trap was quickly closed. Garnett quickly came to help defend from the weak side, blocking O'Neal's turnaround path.
O'Neal was double-teamed on the baseline, his gaze sweeping across the entire court. Richardson was tightly marked, Kidd was fronted, and only Marion, standing on the right 45-degree three-point line, was completely unmarked.
O'Neal had no choice but to pass the ball out.
Marion received the ball, looked at Chris Paul Pierce who was a good two meters away from him, and had no choice but to bite the bullet and shoot his weird "38-style" three-pointer.
"Clang!"
The basketball slammed heavily against the rim, and Big Ben secured the rebound.
Marion was assigned more defensive duties in the playoffs, and his mid-range and long-range shooting became very inconsistent.
This was Rick Carlisle's cunning strategy: using tight local numerical superiority to force O'Neal, who was double-teamed, to pass the ball to some of the Lakers' least reliable long-range shooters.
This defensive strategy effectively limited the Lakers ' offense in the second and third quarters. O'Neal struggled in the low post and his energy was severely depleted.
The red light came on as the third quarter ended.
The Boston Celtics entered the fourth quarter with an 8-point lead, 76-68.
Lin Qi glanced at the scoreboard above his head and breathed a slight sigh of relief. Rick Carlisle's tactical setup and the players' execution had met expectations. As long as they could maintain their defensive rebounding in the fourth quarter, Boston could secure a crucial victory on the road.