On the television screen, the Staples Center in Los Angeles, three thousand miles away, was already bustling with activity.
Lin Qi leaned back on the soft sofa in his suburban Boston villa, holding a glass of purified water with ice in his hand.
The broadcast cut to the sidelines, where Boston's head coach Rick Carlisle was holding a clipboard, his brow furrowed as he confirmed something with his assistant coach. On the big screen, the Los Angeles Lakers' starting five for this game had just been announced.
Derrick Fisher, Jason Kidd, Michael Jordan, Sean Marion, Shaquille O'Neal O'Neal.
Commentator Mike Breen's voice, tinged with obvious surprise, came through the speakers. " Charles Barkley is on the bench. Phil Jackson moved Sean Marion to power forward in Game 1 of the NBA Finals."
Lin Qi took a sip of ice water, his gaze fixed on the formation and positioning on the television screen. In last year's NBA Finals, Boston was able to drag the game into a quagmire, and their core defensive strategy was to collapse the defense. Because the Lakers' outside shooting was inconsistent at the time, Rick Carlisle could boldly have Gary Payton, Pierce, and Garnett abandon their matchups and go to the paint to double-team O'Neal at any time.
Rick Carlisle's original plan tonight was to strategically leave Charles Barkley open during half-court set plays.
However, Phil Jackson's lineup change directly rendered this defensive plan ineffective. Marion moving to the power forward position meant that all four of the Lakers' perimeter players possessed reliable long-range shooting ability and mobility. This was a standard "four-outside-one-inside" stretch formation.
The game whistle blew, and the jump ball was played. O'Neal passed the ball to Kidd, and the first half-court battle of the NBA Finals officially began.
Following his usual defensive routine, Garnett had one foot already on the edge of the paint, ready to help Ben Wallace defend. But Marion, his matchup, didn't push into the paint at all, instead pulling up to the right corner three-point line. Meanwhile, Fisher and Kidd positioned themselves at the 45-degree angles on either side, while Jordan settled in the left corner.
The paint area of Staples Center was completely cleared out in an instant.
Without help defense on the weak side, Ben Wallace could only defend O'Neal weighed over 300 pounds, one-on-one in the low post.
Kidd's pass was very direct, a high lob to the inside. O'Neal received the ball, backed down against Big Ben, and after his feet were firmly planted, he immediately pushed off backward. The significant weight difference caused Big Ben's defensive center of gravity to inevitably shift back half a step. In that half-step space, O'Neal quickly executed a simple half-turn towards the baseline and dunked the ball into the basket with one hand.
Pure dominance by sheer size. The camera cuts to Rick Carlisle, who is waving his arms rapidly on the sidelines, urging Garnett to be mindful of the timing for help defense.
In the next possession, when O'Neal once again made a deep call in the low post, Garnett did not hesitate, leaving Marion in the corner and taking two steps towards the paint to double-team him.
The moment the double team formed, O'Neal raised the ball overhead and precisely shifted it wide to the weak-side corner. Marion received the ball and, without hesitation, released it with his extremely unusual but surprisingly accurate chest shot, a move he made in the regular season.
With a "swish," the three-pointer swished through the net.
For the next few minutes, the game unfolded in a monotonous but efficient manner. When Boston didn't double-team, O'Neal dominated Big Ben in the low post. When Boston did double-team, the Lakers' perimeter players could always find an open shooter through one or two passes.
At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers established a double-digit lead of 32-20.
In the second quarter, trailing Lakers, Rick Carlisle brought in rookie Dwyane Wade, attempting to use his penetration to change the Lakers ' half-court defensive formation.
Wade received the pass at the top of the arc. Facing Fisher's defense, he didn't call a screen. After a sharp crossover, Wade used his explosive first step to blow past Fisher by half a body length and drive into the free-throw line.
With the Lakers ' perimeter players positioned, the paint was very open. Wade took three steps, made a dodge-and-pull motion in the air, and tried to avoid the defense under the basket to complete the layup.
But O'Neal, who had been standing on the edge of the Crash area, was not fooled at all. He saw the moment Wade released the ball, used his massive body and wingspan to rise up from the spot, and slapped the ball straight out of bounds.
Wade lost his balance and fell heavily to the floor.
Lin Qi watched the replay on the screen with a calm expression. In the regular season's transition offense, Wade's speed and hang time were indeed difficult to defend. But in the NBA Finals- level half-court offense, facing a top-tier defensive positioning center, a guard who lacked a mid-range and long-range shooting threat and only knew how to drive to the basket with his head down, his offensive intentions were too easy to predict.
With Wade's drive thwarted, Boston's offense stalled. The Lakers ' bench seized the opportunity to bring in 40-year-old Patrick Ewing.
Patrick Ewing entered the game, facing Boston's aggressive perimeter defense, he immediately moved up to the top of the key and set a screen for Kidd.
Patrick Ewing's broad shoulders precisely blocked Billups's path as he squeezed through the cover.
In the instant Billups was delayed, Garnett was forced to switch onto Kidd. Patrick Ewing then took advantage of this brief mismatch, bouncing out to the free-throw line.
Kidd's pass was immediately delivered to Ewing. Ewing Patrick Ewing the ball and, facing the Boston interior defense that couldn't catch up, with his feet barely off the ground, relied on decades of muscle memory to unleash his signature high-arc jump shot.
The basketball went through the net cleanly.
At halftime, the Lakers led 54-42.
Lin Qi noticed the halftime player statistics displayed on the broadcast. Of the Lakers ' 54 points, Michael Jordan only took four shots and scored 8 points.
The camera cuts to the players' tunnel, where Jordan chews gum as he walks towards the locker room. His jersey isn't even completely soaked with sweat.
Lin Qi frowned slightly. This was the most fatal flaw in Phil Jackson's lineup change. By pushing Marion to the power forward position to create space, the Lakers punished Boston entirely in the first half through O'Neal's low-post isolation plays and three-pointers from the outside.
This means that during the most physically demanding half-court battles, Jordan got almost two full quarters of "tactical rest."
Boston had planned to wear down the Lakers ' veterans with high-intensity physical play, but now Jordan is full of energy, quietly waiting for the decisive moment in the fourth quarter.