The 1996-1997 season lasted for one month.
13 wins and 3 losses.
The Celtics ' numbers sent the Boston media into a frenzy, but also made the entire league uneasy.
What truly made the coaching staff of each team lose their hair overnight wasn't the 13 victories, but rather a few lines of advanced statistics delivered to their door by Lin Qi's data company.
In the 1990s, a slow-paced era of intense physical battles and average total points per game of just over 90, the Celtics ' bench averaged 37.4 points per game, ranking first in the league.
Hiding nearly 40% of their firepower on the bench is seen by the entire league as an unreasonable and thuggish act.
Even more critically, video analysts across the league all saw the same nightmarish period in this report: the first six minutes of the second quarter and the last four minutes of the third quarter.
These two periods, which were originally meant to be a "garbage transition" for the starters to catch their breath, rotate, and waste time, have now become a massacre show for Boston. Often, when the starters fight tooth and nail to keep the score close, as long as they can hold on until this time, Boston's substitutes can completely break through the opponent's defense in just a few minutes.
The coaching staff of each team secretly referred to this period as " Price Time."
Four months earlier, when Lin Qi brought Mark Price to Boston, the media didn't even bother to give the 32-year-old, who had suffered a serious knee injury, a separate feature.
But now, this old guy is averaging 50.8% field goal percentage, 43.5% three-point percentage, and 92% free throw percentage in 20 minutes per game. His average points per game seem to be only 8.8, but he has become a low-output, efficient, and deadly " 180 Club " sharpshooter.
Lin Qi knew very well that the league's video editors would eventually figure out this lineup, and Price, at 32, had to conserve his energy by playing with his knees.
But so what?
For at least this short period of just over a month, " Price Time " has been an unsolvable problem that Lin Qi has thrown at the entire league.
Will this bench strength, supported by spacing and rhythm, only be good for dominating weaker teams in the regular season, or can it truly compete with championship-caliber teams?
Soon, the Celtics will have the opportunity to test their mettle.
That night, at the Boston FleetCenter Arena, the Seattle SuperSonics faced off on the road.
This is not an easy target to manipulate.
Last season, the Seattle SuperSonics fought their way to the NBA Finals, battling Michael Jordan's 72-win Chicago Bulls in a six-game series. The starting the Glove, featuring Gary Payton, Reign Man Kemp, Sean Trey, Schrempf Hersey Hawkins, was at its peak and boasted top-tier strength, defense, and transition offense in the Western Conference.
The competition has officially begun.
" The Glove " Gary Payton was like a pair of iron pincers with amazing biting force, trapping Sam Cassell from the very first quarter. As soon as Sam Cassell crossed the center line, Gary Payton's solid chest would forcefully block him, and his two long arms would constantly interfere with the dribbling route. Every physical contact was characterized by the stealth and toughness of an old-school defensive guard, with one dirty trick after another.
"Hey kid, I heard you're doing well in Boston, got your starting position secured?" Gary Payton trash-talked Sam Cassell in his ear. "Don't think you can be the boss here just because you got a ring in Houston. You won't even get past halftime tonight."
On the other side, Sean Kemp's impact also caused the Boston Celtics' interior defense a lot of trouble.
This power forward, who had a falling out with the team's management this summer due to his contract renewal and even became somewhat self-destructive, was noticeably overweight when he reported for training camp. However, whenever he charged into the paint, his brute force, relying on his superhuman talent, was still extremely powerful.
Kevin Garnett, in his second year in the league, was clearly outmatched in physicality. He was a fraction of a second too slow on two separate occasions, allowing Kemp to use his size to push him aside and slam the ball into the basket. Just past the halfway point of the second quarter, Garnett had already picked up two fouls and could only sit back on the bench in frustration.
Mutombo calmly guarded the basket, and although he blocked several of Kemp's attacks, the Celtics ' half-court offense continued to struggle.
Sam Cassell was hampered by Gary Payton's tight defense and unable to initiate plays freely; Eddie Jones, under Hawkins's close guard, received the ball on the weak side several times in a very rushed manner, forcing him to miss shots; Robert Horry, although able to create space, was accustomed to the rhythm of receiving the ball around a strong center during his time with the Rockets. Facing Adelman's Princeton offense, which required frequent high-low passing and off-ball cuts, he was clearly still finding chemistry with his teammates in choosing when to pass the ball.
As for Garnett, he tried almost his entire offensive arsenal tonight. He frequently pulled up to mid-range and long-range positions to face the basket, attempting to use his agility to drive or jump and shoot. He also tried posting up to receive the ball in the low post and even exploiting mismatches during the Seattle SuperSonics' defensive switches. However, although Kemp's physique has changed, his lateral quickness and explosiveness in shot-blocking remain. Coupled with the Seattle SuperSonics ' signature high-frequency weak-side help defense, Garnett struggled to cope with isolation plays at every position, often having to rely on his superior height and wingspan to force a shot.
However, the Seattle SuperSonics also struggled in positional play. Mutombo's impenetrable defense in the paint made it difficult for the Seattle SuperSonics to break through, and Kemp's inconsistent offensive contributions prevented the Seattle SuperSonics from mounting any counter-attacks. Both starting lineups were essentially torturing each other with playoff-level defensive intensity.
At halftime, thanks to Mutombo's two successful interferences under the basket in the final minute, the Celtics withstood the opponent's comeback attempt and led by only 3 points, 46-43.
In the away team's locker room, Seattle SuperSonics head coach George Carl chewed gum furiously, a barely concealed sneer playing on his lips.
He was certainly not one of those blindly arrogant ordinary coaches. As the league's most skilled "madman" at manipulating rotations and full-court press, Carl had thoroughly reviewed the Celtics' previous games before the game. He knew very well that Boston's real trump card wasn't their starting lineup, but their second unit led by Mark Price and Chris Mullin on the bench.
But in his coaching logic, this is not an unsolvable problem at all.
He grabbed a black Mark and circled the Celtics ' rotation times heavily on the tactics board.
" Boston's bench efficiency has been hyped up by the media lately, but don't forget, that's based on the premise that previous opponents didn't give them enough physical contact." Carl turned around, his sharp gaze sweeping over the young men on the bench. " Mark Price and Chris Mullin, those two are almost 70 years old combined, riddled with injuries. They can bully those weak defensive teams with their rhythm and ball movement, but they've run into us..."
Carl slammed his fist on the tactics board!
"I want you to put full-court press on those two old guys from the very first second of the transition! Use physicality to wear down their knees, and use the legs of the young players to disrupt their passing lanes! Once the playoff-level physicality is in place, those two veterans' bodies won't be able to handle it."
This is George Carl's classic thinking: if the opponent's offensive system is sophisticated, then crush it with a more aggressive and ruthless defensive press.
He had predicted that the Celtics would field this bench.
He also accurately predicted Price and Mullin's physical weaknesses.