Pick Westbrook

Chapter 328 The closest thing to victory

Chapter 328 The closest thing to victory

Houston, Texas.

Toyota Center.

The Rockets host the Hornets.

At least half of the Chinese in the arena came to watch the game. They held banners and Yao Ming's mugshots and yelled at the court at the top of their lungs.

The Rocket Bear knelt on one knee and waved his hands, trying to ignite the emotions of the fans on the scene.

"This is what Dayao means to the city of Houston. Regardless of whether he can win a championship in the next career, he is at least the top five superstars in the history of this city."

Su Qun said sincerely.

Yu Jia said: "Director Su, do you think the Rockets will retire Dayao's jersey after his career ends?"

Su Qun said with great certainty: "Undoubtedly, it will!"

"Whether it's economics or court dominance, and Yao played for the city for 10 seasons, he deserves to be retired by the Rockets."

"What's more, during Dayao's time with the Rockets, he never forced the team or applied for a trade, which is very rare among professional players."

"In my opinion, not only the Rockets will retire Dayao's jersey, but he will even be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in the NBA."

Hearing this, Yu Jia was a little shocked. After all, all the players who can enter the NBA Hall of Fame are very remarkable players. Whether it is hard glory or soft statistics, they have to be outstanding.

But Dayao has never won the regular season MVP, won the league scoring champion, never won the blocked shot champion, and never led the team to the conference finals.

"However, Dayao is indeed considered to be tied with Howard of the Magic as the number one center in the league today. It's just a pity that the Rockets didn't give Yao more support for his record."

Yao Ming ranked seventh on the MVP list this season. Considering the Rockets' poor record, he can still be in this position, and his dominance on the court is visible to the naked eye.

Yu Jia and Su Qun were extremely dissatisfied with this point. If Yao Ming's team had a better record, why would he not be able to get those hard honors.

The game begins on the field.

Yao Ming jumped off the offensive ball again, and the Rockets attacked.

After Kyle Lowry advanced with the ball, he immediately gave the ball to Kevin Martin on the weak side. Facing Leonard's terrifying defense, the latter was very self-aware and did not try singles again, but took the initiative to go inside. Tune.

After seeing this pass, Li Lai frowned in surprise.

Because at this time it was not Yao Ming who received the ball inside but Luis Scola.

Du Feng saw the serious emotion on Li Lai's face, he quickly flipped through Luis Scola's regular season data and said.

"Luis Scola averaged 15 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists per game in the regular season. It is worth noting that his shooting percentage reached 49%. He is a very efficient player."

“在这赛季的3月14日火箭队与篮网队的比赛上，斯科拉砍下了44分，在刷新生涯得分纪录的同时还得到了12篮板3助攻2抢断1封盖的数据。”

"Scola is a very typical player who is strong on offense and weak on defense. He doesn't jump high, run fast, or have good wingspan, but his low-post skills are excellent, and his feet are weird and he feels good."

Scola catches the ball with his back and singles Lewis.

Because of Yao Ming's shooting ability, Jordan did not dare to go to the defense and could only let Lewis face Scola's singles alone.

At the same time, the Rockets still have Kyle Lowry, Kevin Martin, Chandler Parsons and other players standing on the outside three-pointer. The three-pointers made 35% of their three-pointers.

Neither Paul nor Vince Carter dared to double-team inside at this moment. Leonard, who should have double-teamed at this time, hesitated at this moment, because he was afraid of Kevin Martin's scoring ability, and he also did not choose to go in to help defend.

Swish!

Faced with the Hornets' defensive strategy, Scola decisively played back, tricked Lewis into taking off with a smart footstep, and then shot from the left side.

At this time, the Hornets players on the field had to choose to rush into the inside to double-team to limit Scola, but what everyone didn't expect was that Scola pulled the ball back again with a fake shot, turned around and made a small hook .

Go in!

"Scola's footwork is really good. It seems that he often exchanged his experience with Yao Ming in the team training game."

Kenny Smith couldn't help but praise.

Barkley remained silent at this time, his eyes fixed.

The key reason why the Hornets were able to win the first two games was that Yao Ming and the main players of the Rockets had difficulty keeping up with the Hornets' offensive efficiency at critical moments.

In order to solve this problem, the Rockets' coaching staff tried to play Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin in the rotation at the same time in the last game to keep up with the Hornets' offense.

In this way, Yao Ming can also have a longer rest in the rotation stage, so as to ensure the efficiency of the critical decisive moment.

But what coach Kevin McHale never expected was that the Hornets' bench lineup completely restricted the performance of Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin, and the outside offensive and defensive combination of JR Smith and Jimmy Butler was amazing. .

Coupled with the fact that Beverly's mad dog hindered him in every possible way on the court, the Rockets didn't have the expected effect at all.

More importantly, Oden also became the Hornets' bench surprise soldier, which made the already bad situation of the Rockets even worse.

"But it's completely different now."

"The Rockets found Lewis's weakness and let power forward Luis Scola play the role of Yao Ming in the first quarter of the game to take the initiative to attack."

"The Hornets don't dare to double-team Luis Scola at this time, and Lewis can't defend the opponent alone. All problems are solved instantly at this moment."

"Ming Yao, Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin will all get plenty of rest."

The Hornets coaching bench, Stevens also discovered this at this time, he frowned and said to Li Lai.

"Coach, what do we do now?"

Li Lai frowned tightly, but he hadn't thought of a solution to this problem.

It is impossible for the Hornets players to double-team Luis Scola on the field now, because the consequences of that may be more serious than not double-teaming Luis Scola.

So the only way Li Lai can think of now is to change people and adjust, but the key is who to change, Dior?

If this is done, the Hornets' rotation offense will have big problems, and Lewis can't play Diaw's role at that time.

"Keep attacking!"

Li Lai did not make any changes at this time, and still let the Hornets play the game according to the original established method.

The first quarter is over.

The Rockets took the lead in the first quarter for the first time since the series, 28:26.

路易斯-斯科拉在第一节比赛迎来了爆发10投5中，罚球4罚3中，拿下了13分3篮板的数据。

The second game.

Hornets regular rotation.

The Rockets made another change at this time.

They did not take Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin at this time, but let Yao Ming, who had a 2-minute break in the first quarter, re-enter the game.

Stevens quickly reminded: "The Rockets saw Yao Ming's terror dominance against Oden in the last game, so they plan to use Yao Ming to single-handedly defeat the opponent at this time."

Li Lai couldn't help but look at Rockets coach Kevin McHale more at this time. He was completely impressed by the strength shown by the opponent in this game.

The strongest defensive point of the Hornets' rotation is Beverly and Jimmy Butler, so Kevin McHale was smart not to take Kevin Martin and Kyle Lowry at this time, just to stagger the Hornets at this time defensive strengths.

Kevin Martin and Kyle Lowry will be picked up again after Yao Ming is off the field, and at that time Beverly and Jimmy Butler also have a rest.

"Kevin McHale deserves to be a defensive champion during his player period. This wave of defensive rotation against the Hornets has done very well."

Luis Scola's efficient performance before, and Yao Ming's unexpected rotation lineup later, the Hornets have indeed encountered the biggest challenge since the playoffs.

At the end of the second quarter, the Rockets had led by 52 points 44:8.

Du Feng looked at Li Lai anxiously and asked.

Stevens also didn't think of a good solution, looking at Li Lai, he almost asked the same question a second time in this game.

"Coach, what do we do now?"

Li Lai clasped his hands together, looked towards the field and said at this moment.

"Play double organization."

Du Feng was startled and didn't react immediately.

Stevens thought of something immediately, he clenched his right fist and hit his left palm, and said suddenly.

"Yeah, why didn't I think that we still have the double organization style of Dior and Paul."

Rockets coach.

Coach Kevin McHale looked at the scoreboard on the court with great satisfaction.

In order to solve the physical problems of Yao Ming and other key players, and at the same time to break through the Hornets' defensive system, he took great pains during this period and finally came up with this perfect plan.

Judging from the pictures on the court, the Hornets have completely fallen into Kevin McHale's strategy. Whether it is Scola's offense or Yao Ming's leadership rotation, they have all played very good results.

Kevin McHale is confident that under such a tactic, the Rockets can win 4 consecutive games in one go, and directly win the Hornets to advance to the Western Conference semifinals.

"Being able to lead a team with obvious weaknesses to the conference semifinals in such a fiercely competitive Western Conference this season is enough to leave my name in history and be added to the discussion of the best coach in history."

The second half of the game begins.

After seeing the lineup of the Hornets, Yu Jia was instantly surprised.

"Paul, Leonard, Vince Carter, Diaw and Jordan?"

Su Qun immediately said: "Don't underestimate the lineup of the Hornets. They were able to defeat the championship-level Bucks in the regular season because of this double organization."

"Paul made a pass, and Dior made a second pass to the top of the arc at the same time to open up space."

"At this time, the Hornets' cut-in and interior space will become extremely large, and it is easy to play a pleasing offense."

"More importantly, although Diaw's height is not as good as Lewis's, his defense is much better than the opponent's."

"At this time, whether the Rockets let Scola or Yao Ming attack, they can find a very reasonable way to defend."

Yu Jia said somewhat incomprehensibly: "Then why didn't the Hornets get such a lineup ahead of schedule in the first half, they have been under pressure from the Rockets all the time."

Su Qun smiled and said, "The coaching staff of the Hornets thought they could hide this from everyone, but they couldn't hide it from me."

"If Diaw played early in the first quarter, he would not be able to lead the Hornets' bench in the second quarter. Now the Hornets may not only be 8 points behind."

Yu Jia frowned slightly and was still a little puzzled and said: "Then it's ok now? If Dior and Paul play at this time, then the Hornets will inevitably have an unorganized vacuum in the fourth quarter."

"At that time, how do they plan to compete with the Rockets? You must know that Yao Ming, Kevin Martin, Kyle Lowry and other core Rockets players have rested a lot of time in tonight's game."

"Tonight's fourth-quarter battle will definitely be more motivating than ever."

Su Qun was stunned, but he hadn't thought about it, but based on his understanding of the Hornets' coaching staff, he knew how rigorous and meticulous Coach Li Lai was in the coaching process.

So Su Qun guessed that the Hornets must have figured out how to solve this problem at that time.

The field game begins.

Diaw holds the ball in a high position, Paul catches the ball at a 45° angle on the right and then plays a pick-and-roll with Jordan.

Yao Ming had to keep up at this time. The Rockets' penalty area was completely empty. Jordan went down the penalty area, and Paul threw the ball into the sky with one hand.

boom!

"The City of Empty Pickup is here!"

On-site commentary desk.

Kenny Smith analyzed and said: "Yao Ming is also unable to defend, and his defensive steps are even slower than DeAndre Jordan and Oden."

"So after being hit by Paul on a pick-and-roll, he will completely miss DeAndre Jordan, and he can't even keep up with the opponent."

"If the Hornets continue to play like this, the lead that the Rockets worked so hard to build in the first half of the game may disappear."

Barkley on the side strongly agrees with his old partner, but he sees further than the other party.

"The Hornets are frequently consuming Yao Ming's physical strength, making him exhausted in defending inside and outside."

"If they play like this for the whole quarter, Yao Ming may not have time to complete the attack, and he will consume all his energy on the defensive end."

Switch offense.

Kyle Lowry glanced at Yao Ming at this moment, and the latter shook his head again and again to indicate that he would hit Scola on the weak side.

Scola thought that he would be able to score easily with Dior alone, as he did in the first half of the game. What he never expected was that whether it was the strength of his back against the man or the footsteps of the defensive dribble transfer, Dior All did an excellent job.

Duang!

Scola chose a difficult hook, and the basketball hit the rim without accident.

Jordan squeezed Yao Ming and grabbed the defensive rebound.

"The Hornets defend Scola's offense!"

Rockets coach.

Sweat dripped from Coach Kevin McHale's brow.

Just now, the Rockets have been recovered by two points. If the Hornets continue to play like this, the Rockets' lead will definitely disappear before the end of the third quarter.

So Kevin McHale yelled at the court at this time, "Give the basketball to Yao!"

Yao Ming took the ball to attack on the court, and then hit a difficult fadeaway jumper.

Li Lai smiled slightly when he saw this, the Rockets had come to this point, and Yao Ming had to work hard to score at this time to consume energy.

But the Hornets' offense at this time is also deliberately pulling Yao Ming out to consume the opponent. The superimposed effect of these two is not as simple as 1+1.

"Ming Yao in the fourth quarter will continue to be unthreatening."

In the fourth quarter of the game, Li Lai replaced Paul ahead of time, allowing Dior to stay on the court and lead the substitute players to play.

JR Smith and Jimmy Butler played well during this time period. One of them hit 3 three-pointers in 3 minutes, and the other completed a dominant defensive performance with one steal and one block.

The main players of the Hornets played again after a 3-minute break, and the Rockets still did not withstand the pressure at this time.

I can only watch helplessly as the game closest to victory since the season was handed over to the Hornets.

105: 100.

The Hornets scored 3:0 to the Rockets, holding the match point.

(End of this chapter)