"The Celtics replaced Parish who had two fouls and replaced Bill Walton. The arrival of Walton has injected new vitality into the Celtics. The UCLA-graduated center is as smart as ever. As long as his knees are not a problem, he can contribute to the team when he stands on the court."

Most has never lacked praise for the Celtic players. Even the water dispenser manager at the end of the bench, Most can find their shining points and praise them.

However, Most's evaluation of Walton is quite pertinent. When he is not injured, he is definitely a center forward who can dominate the field.

Since entering the league, Gan Guoyang has had several matches with Walton in his rookie season. At that time, Walton was still in the unlucky Los Angeles Clippers - at that time, the Clippers almost dismantled half of the team in order to get Walton, but they got a semi-crippled version.

Even this semi-crippled version can occasionally show off his strength when he is healthy and teaches a lesson for Gan Guoyang, a rising star. At other times, he either lingered in sickness and watched the healthy Gan Guoyang jump around on the court, or lost with the team. The Clippers' strength is really poor.

After coming to the Celtics this season, Walton has been in good health so far. The Celtics have also specially formulated a physical rehabilitation and maintenance plan for him to escort this fragile giant.

Unlike the Trail Blazers period, Walton had cut off a long red hair and no longer had his prominent bohemian headwear, but had a normal hairstyle.

This seems to be showing the world that he is no longer the rebellious pride of heaven in Portland, but just the sixth person in the field who works hard.

"Beep!" The referee whistled, the timeout ended, and the game continued. Gan Guoyang's two free throws allowed the Trail Blazers to lead the Celtics 14:7 by 7 points.

"Ange serves, DJ is at the top of the arc, Bird goes around to the right to receive the ball and jump shot... I don't make it, Bird's touch feels a bit bad in the first quarter..."

The Celtics' serving tactics were very simple. Johnson received the ball at the top of the arc, and McHale gave Bird a cover at 45 degrees on the right. Bird went around from the sideline to the horn and received Johnson's pass and shot immediately, but the ball hit the basket and bounced high.

Gan Guoyang saw Bird's move and knew that the ball was probably not going to make any shots, because the route was wrong at the beginning. He had already calculated the landing point of the ball in his mind and was ready to take the rebound and launch a counterattack.

However, Bill Walton entangled Gan Guoyang. His original position was even more outside. Bird's ball collapsed a little far away. Walton used his long arm to drive the basketball first and transferred the ball to the Celtics players on the outside like playing volleyball.

"Still-Alive! (Also the ball right!) DJ Johnson grabbed the ball from Walton, and he passed the ball to Angie, and Angie walked in... and passed the ball to Bird, who took the ball outside the three-point line in the corner... The ball went in! He made a shot! A three-pointer!"

Bird made a bottom corner three-pointer, and Boston Garden Plaza was instantly boiling without defense. In this era, three-pointers were more valuable than dunks, and Bird was the best three-pointer in the league.

14:10, Bird scored six points on two attacks, and the difference between the two sides suddenly narrowed to only 4 points, and the game just started.

In the following rounds, Walton fully demonstrated his difficulty. At least for Gan Guoyang, he would rather cancel the foul on Parrish and let No. 00 return to the court than fight with Walton in the inside.

In addition to fighting injuries during the offseason, Walton also actively trained strength and gained more than a dozen pounds.

Walton's height was originally 6-foot-11 inches without any moisture (compared to the fact that Olajuwon's 7-foot water content is too high), and his wingspan was long. After gaining weight and strength, this experienced veteran caused great trouble to Gan Guoyang on the defensive end.

"Gan turned around and hooked after receiving the ball... Missed, Walton won the rebound, and the Celtics counterattack! This will be the opportunity for the Celtics to equalize. DJ Johnson, stopped and jumped! The ball entered! DJ hit a jump shot in the counterattack, and 14:14, the Celtics tied the score!"

Dennis Johnson was very decisive in the counterattack, and he made a jump shot at the top of the arc. Of course, if he made such a ball, he would be decisive, and if he couldn't make it, he would be brainless. Dennis Johnson's nerves have always been large. If he doesn't play according to the routine, he is the fatal X factor of the Celtics.

After the score was tied, Ramsey immediately called a timeout, which made the Celtics feel bad. Ramsey knew that if he wanted to defeat the Celtics, he had to maintain a suppression from the beginning, otherwise it would be extremely difficult to reverse and win at Boston Garden Plaza.

"We need to maintain our impact force. Our impact force is slowing down and decreasing. We cannot fall into the rhythm that the Celtics are used to. We must dominate the trend of the game. You don't play hard at the basket, open up space, don't let Walton entrench in the inside, mobilize him. Colt, you replace Valentine and continue to speed up the offensive rhythm. Cauchy, you also play, defend Bird alone, we don't attack him, defend alone, don't let him drive the Celtics' offense." Ramsey made adjustments during the timeout period.

After missing a series of offenses, the Trail Blazers' offense entered a weak period, so Cauchy and Corte needed to play to increase their propulsion. At the same time, Ramsey decided to insist on not taking special care of Bird in defense.

Ramsey knew that Bird had the strength to defeat a team by himself, but he would rather be thrown to death by Bird than want the Celtics to fully play in a good state under Bird's mobilization. In this case, the Trail Blazers would only fall into a more difficult situation.

At the same time, facing some problems encountered by Gan Guoyang, Ramsey, as a coach who knows Walton very well, knows that Walton's advantage lies in its excellent defensive position and tall figure in defense, forming a barrier within the three-second zone; proficient in attack methods in offense, plus the most outstanding pass among the center.

Therefore, Ramsey asked Gan Guoyang to run more during the offense and expand his range of activities; in defense, he would defend himself with all his strength. With Walton's current state, the Celtics would not expect him to play singles with the ball.

The Celtics also made some substitution adjustments, Sam Vincent replaced Danny Angie. The presence of two double-seaters in the backcourt has always been the feature of the Celtics, which also makes their offensive organizational points extremely numerous.

But the Celtics' best offensive organizer is not point guard Dennis Johnson, but small forward Larry Bird.

This white man with excellent passing skills has a sensitive sense of smell that is no less than that of Magic Johnson. His passing often has the effect of tearing the opponent's defense and hitting the key points directly.

"Bird passed the ball to McHale, McHale faced Mitchell Sampson... and passed it back to Bird. Bird cut into the basket and passed the ball behind him... Oh, it was cut off by Gan. The Trail Blazers' counterattack, Cort killed the basket and made a layup, 18:14. After the Trail Blazers' timeout, they made two goals in a row, both of them were Cort, and his breakthrough was very fast."

All four points after the timeout came from Cort's breakthrough, and his form began to improve again after recovering from smoking marijuana.

In the goal just now, Bird threw away Cauchy with a beautiful empty cut. After receiving the pass from McHale, he saw Sampson step forward to make up for defense, so he did not choose to make a forced layup. Instead, a beautiful back pass handed the ball to Walton who followed up from the middle. However, Gan Guoyang's hand was really quick and knocked the ball out of the moment Walton was about to start the dunk.

If Gan Guoyang, like Sampson, makes every effort to make up for the basket, Walton will have an opportunity to dunk easily, but this successful defense gave the Trail Blazers the upper hand again.

Ramsey's excellent strategy and scheduling, coupled with the Celtics themselves in poor form, they finished with a 33:28 lead in the first quarter.

In the conversation with Walton, although Gan Guoyang could not make the Celtics' inside line upside down like he did at the opening, he did not give Walton too many opportunities to play.

Even so, Walton still sent an assist, blocked and three rebounds at a time, and did not allow Gan Guoyang to continue to grab the frontcourt rebounds or score singles.

"The Trail Blazers played like the Los Angeles Lakers in the first quarter, with a strong and oppressive offense, gambling defense, and a very impactful lineup. The Celtics must find a way to deal with it, especially Bird, who needs to find his form."

Most mentioned gambling defense refers to the strategy of the Trail Blazers never double-teaming against Bird and not passing. If Bird is allowed to shoot in the first quarter, then some Trail Blazers will suffer the whole game. Unfortunately, except for that three-pointer and three-pointer, Bird never scored again in the first quarter.

At this time, on the Blazers' bench, in the short period of rest, Ramsey still did not miss any opportunity to coach the players because he was going to be on the second team, and whether the second team could withstand it would be very important.

"Clyde, if the team's offense is in trouble, use your ability to solve the problem and survive the beginning... And, Sampson, hold on for a while and be willing to end up. You have to support the defense, especially for you, McHale, I believe you can handle him."

The Celtics' bench, KC-Jones also seized all the time to solve the problems that arose in the first quarter.

"Start more from our low posts and reduce the number of shots. Our shooting is not good. I hope to level the score as soon as possible in the second quarter. Kevin, don't be afraid of Mitchell Sampson anymore. You are the opponent now, don't be afraid of him." KC Jones said to him as he looked at the most stable scoring point in the inside line.

"I know, I know, I know."
Chapter completed!