The quarrel between the Celtics caused exclamations from the fans in the audience. Cleveland fans had no idea that their opponents had so many internal conflicts.
As a result, many fans immediately acted as spectators, and even the live camera showed a close-up of the Celtics' team bench.
The situation of falling behind is difficult for the Celtics, but for the Cavaliers, the game that originally seemed to be suspenseful is becoming less suspenseful.
Break time.
There was joy on the Cavaliers' bench.
LeBron James was quite relaxed and even sat there and joked with Zhao Feiyang beside him. Kevin Love also joined the two of them later, chatting with them about various gossips.
For the Celtics, head coach Brad Stevens finally calmed everyone down. Seeing that the conflict had reached an insoluble state, Stevens had to make a difficult decision.
"Kelly, please go down and take a rest for now!"
"I will give you time to continue playing..."
Obviously, Stevens chose the latter two between Irving and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Such a decision also made the look on Owen's face extremely ugly.
"What?"
"Coach Brad, are you sure you want to do this? Replace me for two new guys?"
Stevens went up and patted Irving on the shoulder and whispered comfort in his ear, "Kyrie, don't be like this... I didn't mean what you said! I just hope that there can be peace between you two. Calm down for a moment, you looked very tired after playing for so long, so you need to take a rest..."
"But don't you know this is my home court? How important this game is to me?"
Owen asked coldly.
Stevens had to compromise, "I promise, I promise to replace you in the last three minutes! Of course, if these guys don't perform well, I will replace you as soon as possible..."
With such a promise, Owen finally acquiesced in all this.
Beep.
The final quarter begins.
The Celtics replaced Irving, and the other positions are all main lineup players. The Cavaliers still did not replace LeBron, but let Zhao Feiyang come on to organize the offense, while Love was responsible for the response in the interior.
Celtics serve.
As soon as the basketball was released, Brown immediately took the pass from his teammate and rushed towards the half court. After arriving at half court, Brown looked for an opportunity to play a pick-and-roll screen with Tatum. Brown took advantage of the situation to throw the ball, and Tatum followed up and successfully reached the basket.
Snapped.
A layup shot, the basketball fell steadily into the basket.
It was the Cavaliers' turn to fight back.
Zhao Feiyang advanced with the ball, and after halftime he pretended to pass the ball to JR Smith. After JR attracted the opponent's attention, Zhao Feiyang dribbled the ball into the two zones. Love came up to the high post to cover, and Zhao Feiyang continued to attract the attention of the opponent's players.
The next second, he rushed to the right side of the basket and threw a pass. The basketball fell into the hands of Love, who broke open and entered the basket on the left side.
Love, who received the basketball, successfully caught the ball and dunked it.
As the clock ticked down, the Cavaliers' offense remained fluid. Zhao Feiyang's organizational ability was fully revealed at this time. Under his leadership, the Cavaliers' passing and receiving operations were quite stable, and they performed very well on the offensive end.
For the Celtics, after the internal strife in the team disappeared, the cooperation between Tatum and Brown also led the team to a 7-0 spurt.
This wave of chasing points further narrowed the Cavaliers' original lead, and also made the situation on the court look like it was about to change.
call out.
When the two sides narrowed the point difference to 9 points, the Cavaliers replaced LeBron James.
In the Celtics team bench, Irving was on the court when he saw LeBron, and he also walked up to Stevens and asked for him to play.
Stevens knew that Irving might still be unable to deal with the two of them, so in this case he could only continue to fool Irving, "Kyrie, just wait! It's not time for you to take action... .I need you to seize the time to rest, and we need your winning goal at the critical moment..."
Hearing what Stevens said, Irving reluctantly chose to believe it and sat back on the team bench again to rest.
In the remaining few minutes, the situation on the field indeed changed further.
The Cavaliers' offense was very stable, but the Celtics' young people began to explode. Especially Tatum on the wing, even in the face of LeBron's interference, he still shot two stable three-pointers.
It was also these two three-pointers that narrowed the Celtics' point difference to 4 points. At this time, there were only 3 minutes and 24 seconds left before the end of the game.
114 to 110.
The fierce confrontation between the two teams aroused excitement among the fans.
Last season, the Celtics ranked first in the Eastern Conference. They finally reached the Eastern Conference Finals and faced off against the Cavaliers. Although they only won one game in five games, the Cavaliers' lineup has changed and the Celtics have further strengthened them. , in this comparison, it is difficult to say that they cannot beat the Cavaliers this season.
Therefore, this seemingly ordinary regular season battle actually highlights the gap in strength between the two teams.
call out.
The referee's whistle sounded, and this time the Celtics called a timeout.
Stevens had to take his players off the court to rest after Irving asked to play three times. After Brown and Tatum arrived on the team bench, Stevens also called several people together.
"There is not much time left for us now! I hope you can put aside your previous grievances... No matter what, winning this game is what we should do..."
"You are already adults, not those little boys in middle school...so I believe I don't have to say anything more to you..."
"Of course, if you insist on winning or losing, then I can let you all sit on the bench regardless of whether you win or lose... If anyone doesn't believe it, you can give it a try!"
Stevens looked at Brown and Tatum, and then at Irving. None of the three spoke, but they all nodded at the same time.
Although I don't know if the problem has been solved, there is only this much Stevens can do at this time.
call out.
The pause begins quickly.
Celtics serve.
Irving continued to advance with the ball.
Perhaps he really listened to Stevens' words, or perhaps he saw that there was not much time left in the game. After halftime, Irving did pass the ball to Tatum, who was in a better position.
Tatum broke through from the wing and rushed to the basket. The layup failed and the ball was transferred to Brown in the bottom corner on the other side.
Brown got the ball and made a decisive long-range mid-range shot.
Uh-huh.
The ball went in.
112 to 114.
The Celtics are 2 points away from catching the Cavaliers.
