the great gatsby

Chapter 440 The world belongs to young people after all!
2013年4月30日，2012-13赛季季后赛正式拉开了帷幕。排名东部第二的尼克斯第一轮的对手是排行第七的波士顿凯尔特人。

The Celtics breathed a sigh of relief. They worked so hard to get to the second place, just to avoid the Miami Heat. As for whether the Knicks are difficult to deal with, they don’t care. No matter how difficult they think It's not as terrifying as the Miami Heat, and maybe they can use the Knicks' youth to make a fuss.

Ray Allen left for Miami this season, which greatly damaged the strength of the Celtics. However, the Celtics also had a few good moves. They recruited Courtney Lee and Jason Terry, which can be regarded as supplementing the strength of the team, but Their biggest problem is not that Ray Allen left, but that the core of the two teams, Pierce and Garnett, has aged seriously.

Pierce was born in 1977 and is already 36 years old this season, while Garnett is one year older than Pierce. Born in 1976, he is now 37 years old. Most basketball players start to decline at the age of 30. At the age of 34, they are already in the twilight years of their sports career. At the age of 36 or 7, they have already entered the coffin with one foot. Many athletes have arrived At this time, they already exist as substitutes, or simply as the leaders of the locker room. It is already remarkable that these two can still serve as starters, but it is already unrealistic to expect them to do more.

Even so, the predictions of the experts before the game still felt that the Celtics not only had a chance to beat the Knicks, but even felt that the Celtics had a good chance of winning. Gatsby was unwilling to even refute. A reporter asked him Opinion, he just smiled.

But in the locker room, he said to his teammates: "We have used a season to prove ourselves, but there are still people who look down on us. Our strength does not come from other people's evaluation, but from our heart, what we have to do now is to fight back fiercely, Drummond, tell me, what is the best counterattack?"

Green said loudly: "Sweep them!"

"What did you say?"

"Sweep them!" Green roared angrily.

Gatsby smiled: "Very good, then we'll...sweep...them...them! Who are we?"

Green yelled, "knicks!"

"Who are we?" Gatsby raised his voice.

"Knicks!" Jeremy Lin and Thompson Leonard joined in.

"Who are we?" Gates asked louder.

"Knicks!" Iguodala, Bogut and other veterans also joined in.

"Who are we?" Gatsby shouted.

"knicks!" "knicks!" "knicks!" Everyone joined in, even the coaching staff. "knicks!" "knicks!" "knicks!"...

"Okay, then let's go and slaughter them, let's go!" Gatsby led the way out of the locker room and ran into the stadium along the player tunnel.

"Whoa!!!"

Applause, cheers, roars, flashing lights, searchlights, and flying confetti came to our faces, and the orange-red fans cheered for joy. The strong atmosphere of the playoff battle permeated the entire arena.

"Central, Central, TV station! Central, Central, TV station! I am Yang Yi, and I am now at Madison Square Garden in New York to bring you a live broadcast of the 2012-13 season playoffs. Tonight's game is at the home court of the New York Knicks. Smith is playing against the Boston Celtics at home, and Director Zhang and I will accompany you to watch the game!" Yang Yi roared, the sound at the scene was too loud, and he couldn't hear the screams without piercing his heart.

The media area is already crowded with media from various countries, carrying long guns and short cannons, explaining the live competition to their respective audiences in various languages.

Gatsby ran into the stadium, first went to the first row to high-five Spike Lee, and then chatted with Lin Yu and Li Xinlan next to him. The seat was arranged by Gatsby, and the front row seat was hard to get, that is, Gatsby It was easy to get the tickets.

"How do you feel?" Gazibi asked Li Xinlan with a smile. Li Xinlan raised her voice and shouted in Gazibi's ear: "This atmosphere is completely different from the All-Stars. It is very lively, but also very noisy."

Gatsby laughed loudly: "This is the first round. Come and see it in the finals. It will be even more lively then."

After various ceremonies, the competition officially began.

Celtics starters: Jeff Green, Paul Pierce, Bradley, Garnett, Brandon Bass.Rondo did not appear in the starting list, nor did he appear in the player list, because Rondo felt knee discomfort in the game against the Eagles in January. After an MRI examination, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee, confirming that the remaining Match reimbursement.

Knicks starters: Gatsby, Thompson, Leonard, Green, Bogut.

Bogut and Bass jumped the ball in the middle circle. Bass was only 203cm tall and Bogut was 213cm tall. Bogut reached out and passed the ball to Gatsby.

Gatsby held the ball for half the game, and Jeff Green came over. Bradley is an old rival. It was Bradley who defended Gatsby in the playoffs last season, and he was almost destroyed by Gatsby, so Coach Rivers asked Jeff Green to guard Gatsby. Jeff Green's height is 206cm, his height and wingspan are enough to cover Gatsby, and his steps are relatively fast. Of course, Coach Rivers does not ask Jeff Green to be able to Just pester Gatsby, just to be able to interfere.

Gatsby was not in a hurry to play singles, he handed the ball to Green, turned around and went inside and began to run without the ball. Gatsby is now 198cm tall, already a tall point guard, and his figure looks strong enough. But he still looked nimble when he ran, circling around in the crowd. Green was taller after all, and he was not as flexible as Gatsby in his movements.

Green has been staring at Gatsby. As soon as Gatsby's space came out, Green's ball came immediately. Gatsby caught the ball and shot with open hands, and hit a three-pointer!

Li Xinlan seldom watched football. She was a little surprised when she saw Gatsby's hit. She turned to Lin Yu and asked, "How good is Gatsby?"

Lin Yu smiled and said, "He may be the best player in the world."

Li Xinlan was thoughtful.

The Celtics had the ball. Bradley dribbled the ball across half court and handed it to Garnett. Garnett supported him from the high post and passed the ball to Pierce. As soon as Pierce received the ball, Leonard wrapped around him. , Pierce felt a little breathless - Leonard's defense was too tight. If he was young, Pierce would have many ways to beat Leonard alone, but now he feels powerless.

Pierce tried to break through, but was stabbed by Leonard with a big hand. Pierce hurried to pick up the ball. Leonard had quick feet and long hands and took the ball away first. Going forward, Jeff Green was a step slower, and Gatsby caught the ball in front and dunked straight into the air!

This dunk was very violent, almost gliding over to dunk, startled both Lin Yu and Li Xinlan: Is this Gatsby so fierce?

Coach Rivers immediately called a timeout. Less than a minute after the game started, he called a timeout without hesitation. He missed Rondo very much. If Rondo was there, the game would not be so passive. Rondo is reimbursed The previous performance is obvious to all. He played 1 games this season, averaging 38 points, 37.4 assists and 13.7 rebounds in 11.1 minutes per game. Even though Rondo is not as good as Gatsby, with Rondo, the Celtics have a soul , Now the Celtics can't even find a suitable candidate to replace Rondo.

Game back.

Rivers asked Garnett to support him from the high post, while others increased running, passing and cutting, trying to make the ball move. He wanted to take advantage of the shortcomings of the Knicks players' youth and use more complicated tactics to make up for the team's lack of talent, but he quickly I'm disappointed. The Knicks' defense is simply disappointing. Gatsby and Thompson on the outside locked up Bradley and Green. Buss on the front line doesn't know how to attack at all. Bogut can help defend with confidence. Green's The pace is fast to follow Garnett. Garnett's pace has slowed down now, and the physical confrontation has also declined. Facing Green, a young and strong boy, he can't fight at all, so he can only use jump shots to solve the problem.

"The Knicks' defense is too good. The current Celtics lack offensive talent. Pierce and Garnett are old. Facing the two defensive champions Leonard and Green, they can't do much. Ba Smith is not an offensive player at all, and Bradley is also a defensive player, so Jeff Green's offense is a bit of a spectrum. Jeff Green and Durant are rookies in the same year, but his offensive ability is much worse than Durant. Thompson is more than enough to defend him.

The Celtics' problem now is offense, not defense. Of course, they can't defend them. If they face other teams, the Celtics' defense is acceptable, but now they are facing the Knicks. , How ferocious the Knicks' offense is. Just the two top three-pointers Gatsby and Thompson are enough for them. There is also a ball-conducting core like Green and an air-cutting expert like Leonard. Bogut is in the center. The screen was so solid that the Celtics couldn't find the key point even if they wanted to defend. "Yang Yi said.

After the first half, the Celtics trailed by 18 points, and the decline of the Celtics is already obvious.

After the start of the second half, the Knicks' offense became more and more violent. Coach Rivers continued to make adjustments. Jason Terry, Courtney Lee and others were all sent on the field, hoping that there would be a hero who could turn the tide. In the face of Si's absolute strength, everything is in vain.

At the end of the game, the score between the two sides was 76:110. The Knicks won by 34 points at home. The disparity in the results of the game shocked many experts. They may have thought that the Knicks could win, but they dare not even think about it when they are so strong Yes, after all, there are too many young people in the Knicks. They thought that young people would fall apart in the playoffs, but they didn't expect that it would backfire.

(End of this chapter)