The news of the game at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit quickly spread throughout the entire league.
In the NBA, no effective defensive strategy can be kept secret for more than 24 hours. The next morning, head coaches from every team in the league had game clips on their desks showing how the Pistons used "double-teaming Wade, leaving Ben Wallace open, and breaking up Boston Pick-and-Roll -and-roll."
Over the next two weeks, the Boston Celtics went through their most difficult period of adjustment since the start of the season.
On December 1st, they will host the Houston Rockets, coached by Jeff Van Gundy, and on December 3rd, they will travel to San Antonio to face Gregg Popovich's San Antonio Spurs. Following that, they will play back-to-back away games against the Hornets and Pacers.
Both Van Gundy and Popovich are experts in coaching half-court defense. When facing the Celtics' starting lineup, they copied Larry Bird Brown's strategy, and even did it more thoroughly.
Against the Rockets, Van Gundy instructed starting center Kelvin Cato and power forward Maurice Taylor to stay inside the paint, allowing Ben Wallace to receive the ball at the free-throw line and in the corners. Against the Spurs, Popovich went even further, having Tim Duncan and Carl Malone ignore Big Ben and be ready to help defend Garnett and Pierce every time they received the ball.
Head coach Rick Carlisle tried various methods on the sidelines. He tried having Big Ben stand in the corner, and he also tried having Big Ben stay under the basket, but as long as Big Ben lacked a consistent finishing ability beyond ten feet of the rim, the opposing center could openly stand in the center of the paint as a free agent, completely blocking Wade's driving routes and Pierce's isolation plays. If Rick Carlisle substituted Big Ben, the starting lineup's defense and offensive rebounding would immediately drop a level.
In the eight games played over the past two weeks, the Celtics' starting lineup's offensive efficiency per 100 possessions plummeted from first in the league in mid-November to twenty-first. Ben Wallace was forced to take 9.2 shots per game due to opponents intentionally leaving him open, but his field goal percentage dropped to a dismal 37%.
The Celtics didn't completely collapse during this targeted attack because Kevin Garnett delivered the most terrifying individual performance of his career.
When the team's tactical coordination was shut down by the opponent's five-on-four defense, Garnett carried the team on his shoulders alone. On offense, he would pull up for mid-range jumpers under double teams at the high post, shoot three-pointers from beyond the arc, and also act as the de facto point guard at the top of the key to distribute the ball to his teammates. On defense, he had to run all over the court to help defend.
After completing the grueling schedule in mid-December, Garnett's average stats soared to an astonishing 28.1 points, 13.0 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 1.5 steals, and 2.2 blocks per game, with a field goal percentage of 51%, a three-point percentage of 42%, and a free throw percentage of 80%. All five statistics are among the league's best.
Even so, thanks to Garnett's superhuman performance of playing the full 40 minutes in every game, the Celtics only managed a 4-4 record in these eight games, bringing their overall record to 16-5, and their dominance from the beginning of the season, where they could finish games in three quarters, was nowhere to be seen.
In mid-December, Sports Illustrated and ESPN columns unsurprisingly listed Garnett as the top favorite for the regular season MVP, while simultaneously mocking Boston's offensive struggles.
"Averaging 28+13+8! Kevin Garnett is having an epic MVP season, but Ben Wallace is crippling Boston's offensive spacing."
Larry Bird Brown provides a league-wide tactical guide: Leave Ben Wallace open, double-team Wade.
December 14th, 11 Late Night, Boston Auerbach Training Center.
It was snowing lightly outside, and the entire training hall was quiet, except for two overhead lights on the main training field on the first floor.
Bang, clang. Bang, clang.
The monotonous sound of basketballs hitting the rim echoed in the empty arena.
Lin Qi, wearing a black wool coat, walked down from his third-floor office and stood in the glass corridor on the second floor, looking down. Head coach Rick Carlisle was standing beside him, holding a statistical sheet of recent games, his brow furrowed.
In the center of the court, Ben Wallace, wearing a gray short-sleeved training uniform, stood alone at the free-throw line.
There was a cart full of basketballs next to him. Big Ben grabbed a ball from the cart, bounced it twice on the floor, placed his feet on the 15-foot free throw line, looked down at the ball, bent his knees, and jumped to shoot.
"Clang."
The basketball bounced off the front edge of the rim and flew away.
Big Ben walked over, retrieved the ball that had rolled far away, put it in the cart, then grabbed the next ball, walked back to the free-throw line, and continued repeating the same actions. Although he had practiced his free throws diligently and could make one or two mid-range shots when no one was guarding him, as a tactical finisher, this efficiency was simply not enough against the targeted defense of the NBA level.
" Rick, have you thought of a solution?" Lin Qi asked, watching Big Ben repeatedly retrieve the ball downstairs.
"Not yet," Rick Carlisle sighed, rubbing his aching temples. "I've tried many methods. But as long as Dwyane has the ball at the top of the key, he has no three-point range, and Big Ben doesn't pose a mid-range or long-range threat. Van Gundy and Popovich are willing to leave Big Ben alone to double-team the ball handler. Unless we bench Big Ben in crucial moments, as long as he and Dwyane are on the court at the same time, this spatial deadlock simply can't be solved with conventional pick-and-roll variations. If we continue like this, Kevin will be exhausted before the playoffs even begin."
Lin Qi quietly watched Ben Wallace struggling with the free-throw line downstairs, tapping his fingers lightly on the metal railing twice. "If the conventional pick-and-roll isn't working, then we can't use the conventional approach anymore. For the next couple of days, have Boyle control Kevin's playing time. As for how to change Big Ben's role in the starting lineup, I'll work with the coaching staff to redesign a system after this week."
Just as the team was still searching for a way to break the deadlock caused by Big Ben's offensive side effects, a Hollywood movie-going frenzy off the court helped Boston shield themselves from the onslaught of media criticism.