I just play ball

Chapter 330
For such a compliment, reporters from the Houston Post and other reporters showed disbelief in their eyes. This is indeed at the home court of the Rockets. Normally, it is necessary to talk in a good direction, but the title of "best scorer in history" seems to be irrelevant. No matter how you understand it, it will eventually seem a little inappropriate. After all, Harden's current career high score in a single game is only 46.

"Did you just say the best scorer in history?" The Houston Post reporter asked hesitantly, tilting his head slightly, as if trying to find something from Li Yue's face, a bit like a policeman interrogating a prisoner.

"Yes, you heard that right." Li Yue nodded sincerely, "You may think it's a bit exaggerated, but I'm a professional, I know very well that James has that kind of potential, you don't have to wait too long, and you will see the prophecy come true real."

The Houston Post reporter still looked skeptical, "How do you evaluate his performance in the previous two games?"

"I didn't pay much attention to the first game. In the second game, he played a little abnormally, which is normal. As an NBA player, there will always be times when he is not in good form. After all, even Michael Jordan only scored 4 points in some games."

The answer was logical. The Houston Post reporter couldn't find any details to ask, so he could only take a step back in resentment. Other reporters began to ask other questions, which were probably routine questions, and they could be dealt with in a few simple sentences.

After finishing the interview, the two returned to the locker room, and D'Antoni called the two to participate in the pre-match meeting.

There is only one point in the meeting, which is to pay attention to the Rockets' crazy counterattack. After all, this is the Rockets' home court, and it happens that they have re-entered the second round after a few years. By the way, pay attention to controlling emotions. The referee will most likely make biased calls .

Everyone expressed their understanding in unison, and immediately began to prepare.Kobe took advantage of his spare time to make a speech, hoping that the whole team will treat this game as the first game of the series, because it is often considered to officially enter the playoffs when they come to an away game, and the result of this game is quite critical. If they win, they may go all out. If it fails, it may be tied by the Rockets.

...

In the arena, TNT commentary seats.

"Just received the news that the Rockets will directly use a three-guard lineup at the beginning of the game." Marvin Abbott said, "This will have a completely different impact on the game. What do you two think?"

"I can understand Coach McHale's thoughts." Reggie Miller said, "From the first round against the Clippers to this round against the Rockets, it is not difficult for us to find that the Rockets are always very easy to fall behind too much at the beginning of the game, resulting in the following The game is extremely passive.

The specific reason for this situation is that they lack a qualified organizer. Their starting point guard Beverly is only good at defense, Harden doesn't seem to be thinking about the game, and Parsons is not as versatile as Li Yue.

So Jeremy Lin, who is calm and organized, can only fill this time, but the problem that follows is that their second team loses the organizer, but they play half of each game with 8 players, and the problem is ok so serious. "

"You think the key to the back three lies in Lin's organizational ability." Marvin turned to look at Thomas, "What about you?"

"I also agree with Reggie's speculation." Thomas nodded slightly, "But it is obvious that such an arrangement is a bit wasteful, because Harden has performed very well in almost all home games and back-to-back games this season. On the contrary, there are more away games with rest time. The core of his extremely poor performance this time is whether he has had enough rest. Considering the level of the local entertainment industry in Houston, I predict that Harden will play an unbelievable performance in this game, which will greatly reverse the image in the hearts of fans. "

"Do you think it is enough to arrange Harden to be the organizer at the same time?" Reggie emphasized inductively. "As for the process of your reaching this point of view, I think it needs to be discussed. Unless I see the data analysis with my own eyes, it is hard to believe."

"The Rockets are about to debut, let's see if Harden will be as speculated." Marvin raised his voice, "And half an hour ago, Li Yue believed in an interview that Harden is very likely to become the best scorer in history..."

...

On the sidelines, Li Yue sat on a chair and looked around.

The Toyota Center can accommodate about 9000 people, but there are still a lot of empty seats at the moment, maybe because of traffic congestion, maybe because there are very few die-hard Rockets fans, maybe because the fans feel that there is no hope of winning and don’t bother to watch, maybe because of time Because the Rockets basketball game is insignificant compared to the Texans football game in the same city.

The announcer yelled loudly, Howard got up from the bench, walked to the field with the only bright light in the audience, Jeremy Lin, Beverly, and Parsons followed one after another, the last one appeared was Harden, and the audience cheered like a general, It's hard to feel enthusiasm and excitement from it, as if it's just here to pass the boring time of ordinary nights.

But Harden was full of excitement. He high-fived his teammates one by one and shouted slogans to boost the morale of the seven pairs.

"I used to be in Harden's state." Kobe, who was sitting next to Li Yue, said suddenly, "About 05-07, I felt that I could destroy all defenses, and I could play five of them one by one. Can enter ZONE mode."

"So amazing?" Li Yue was stunned, "Is there any way to learn it?"

"There is no specific way." Kobe shook his head, "Just play with 100% state and don't think about the result."

"Maybe it's because of the local nightclubs in Houston, Harden has no interest." Nick Young interjected, "but the nightclubs in Los Angeles make him addicted to it, and the management and coaching staff lack restraint, so it is easy to get distracted."

Just as he was about to continue to understand, the long whistle sounded, and Li Yue got up and walked to the middle circle, and gave the Rockets high-fives one by one.

In terms of lineup, point guard Blake vs. Beverly, shooting guard Kobe vs. Jeremy Lin, small forward Li Yue vs. Harden, power forward Landry vs. Parsons, center Gasol vs. Howard, and the referee Tony Brothers.

The short whistle sounded, and Tony made gestures with his left hand, and then he held the ball with both hands and threw it up lightly.

Snapped!Howard touched the ball first, swung his arms and vigorously dialed towards the Rockets half court.

Beverly trotted forward to pick it up, slowly brought it across the center line, and then threw it to the top of the arc.

Jeremy Lin received the ball, took the initiative to retreat to open the distance between Kobe and Bryant, and raised his hand to signal the team to implement a certain tactic.Howard and others immediately started to cover the running position, but Harden stopped in place, and opened his hands to ask for the basketball.

Jeremy Lin hesitated for a while and chose to hand over the ball. Seeing this, Li Yue bent his knees and squatted halfway, posing for a single defense.

Harden set up a three-threat action, protecting the ball on his right waist with both hands, and stepped on the test step frequently with his left foot as the axis.

Considering that Harden is good at walking and breaking through, and now he has not made a decision for a long time, Li Yue decisively turned sideways to block the left, but Harden moved laterally with the ball at the same time, took two steps to open the space, and stopped at the top of the arc. take off.

Li Yue swooped with all his strength, and the tip of his right finger touched the basketball. Unfortunately, Harden's hand was too strong and steady, and he failed to interfere with the flight trajectory of the basketball.

The Rockets scored 3 points first and took the lead for the first time in the series, but the audience only gave sparse applause.

Harden shook his head a little unhappily, retreated quickly as if angry, and by the way raised his hands high to signal that the audience became irritable.

The Lakers attacked, and Blake took the ball to the right wing, then turned and threw it to the top of the arc.

Landry caught the ball and immediately divided it 45 degrees to the left. Kobe received the ball and raised it high, and passed it to the waist.

In a typical triangle attack, Gasol catches the ball with his back and slowly begins to back Howard.

At the same time, Blake rushed to the right sideline to stand on the fixed frame wall. Li Yue took the opportunity to shake off Harden, strode to the right 45 degrees, and then used the oncoming Landry to cover, with Parson who switched defenses. Si, stop at the top of the arc.

There is no advantage in such a matchup, but Landry, who received the ball from Gasol, changed hands and passed an empty cut to the rim, is facing up to Beverly. Regardless of height, weight or strength, he can be called Dominant in all directions, even the position is in the paint.

Landry took off slightly to catch the ball, landed and turned back to walk to the baseline, while Beverly raised his hand and put it down, not choosing a tactical foul. Then he heard a bang, and Landry dunked with both hands and scored.

The Rockets attacked, Jeremy Lin dribbled the ball to the top of the arc, and passed it to Harden on the right.

At the same time, Beverly started running from the right bottom corner, came to the basket along the bottom line, and ran to the left sideline with the double screen of Howard and Parsons, but the Lakers' defensive formation did not change accordingly, because Beverly Not Redick, the screen-cutting tactic is unconvincing, as if Chuck Hayes ran to the top of the key and threatened to shoot a three-pointer.

Unexpectedly, after Howard got the cover, he continued to move to the right and came to the right waist.

Harden immediately passed the ball, Howard received it, and instantly hit Gasol hard.

Howard is very powerful, like beating crazily with a 100KG sledgehammer, but Gasol is like an iron block. to space.

Howard was naturally unconvinced, and slapped the ball violently to make a strong hit, and Gasol was squeezed two steps away in response.

With space, Howard immediately turned back and walked to the bottom line, but it seemed that it was difficult to violate discipline because of continuous force. A simple layup missed the basket. He was so scared that he quickly caught it, but he had already encountered Gasol and Rand. Enclosed.

Unable to force it, Howard was in a hurry. He observed left and right for a while, twisted his body and passed the ball vigorously to the right wing.

Harden took off to catch the ball, and after landing, he sent out a three-position posture inertially, the specific details were exactly the same as before.

Li Yue has not yet decided whether to continue to block left and right, Harden suddenly took a big step to the right, and then he put his shoulders down and pushed hard against him. The strength reached as if he was facing LeBron, and the speed was even faster. quick.

In the blink of an eye, Li Yue twisted his hips sideways and followed closely with his feet in small steps, but Harden suddenly stopped and pulled the ball back, retreating to the three-point line skillfully as if drinking water from a glass, and flew towards him. Make a quick shot.

The basketball went into the net, and the referee blew his whistle at the same time to punish Li Yue for a foul. Harden got a chance to add a penalty.

Li Yue was dumbfounded, and was about to go to the referee to argue, but saw Wharton shaking his head and waving, and then he got up and walked to the technical platform.

He nodded in agreement, it would be better for the coaching staff to come forward, but the central play screen did not respond in time, so it was difficult to verify whether it was a foul by the thugs, and it seemed that they could only suffer from being dumb.

He hit two consecutive three-pointers in the opening game, one of which was still actively seeking matchups, and the defensive end was no longer directing traffic. Harden finally won loud cheers from the audience.

The Lakers attacked, Blake took the ball to the right wing, raised his hand to pass to the top of the arc, and then strode to the right sideline.

The whole team played the tactic of attacking for the first time again. Li Yue used the cover to reach the top of the arc, received the pass from Gasol, and put his hands directly to the basket. There happened to be Kobe who rushed to the basket with the help of Gasol's screen. Although Jeremy Lin, who was in charge of defense, suddenly chased behind him, he was unable to pose any real threat due to his height and wingspan.

Kobe took the ball and took off. He thought everything would be a matter of course, but he never thought that Beverly would fly to block the shot and slap on the basketball, knocking Kobe to the ground. folder.

In the blink of an eye, Kobe took the ball and hit Beverly's thigh, trying to fight for the bottom line.

But Beverly seemed to have expected it a long time ago, and he grabbed the ball abruptly, turned around and pushed forward quickly.

D'Antoni got up and rushed to the sidelines to ask Tony why he didn't call the foul. McHale applauded loudly not far away.

Players from the two teams came to the front court in the blink of an eye. Harden received the pass, stood at the top of the arc, and raised his hand to ask for space.

Seeing this, Li Yue took a step forward, ready to block left and right, but Harden directly pulled the ball and retreated, without warning, he made a three-pointer head-on.Li Yue leaped, the basketball flew past his fingertips, hit the backboard with a bang, rebounded and fell into the net.

"YES!" Sheldon, who was sitting on the sidelines, stood up and applauded, and the audience cheered loudly. The central big screen repeatedly played the scoring screen from multiple angles, and the entire Toyota Center was celebrating Harden's opening three-pointer.

"It seems that Harden's performance tonight is very likely to be what Isiah predicted." Marvin said, "The difference between James Harden's state in this game and the first two games in the series is like hell and heaven." .”

"It is worth mentioning that the Houston Rockets averaged 26.6 three-point shots per game this season, with an average of 9.5 hits per game, ranking first in the league at the same time, and James Harden accounted for nearly a quarter of them. It is 37.5%." Isiah Thomas said, "Perhaps the three-pointer will be the key to the Rockets changing the direction of the series."

"I think it's difficult." Miller said, "As a player who is good at three-pointers, I know the shortcomings of this technology. As long as the Lakers change their defensive strategy, Harden will no longer be able to play as easily as he is now. Get a shot."

On the field, Li Yue settled on the right wing, received a pass from Blake, and took advantage of the situation to assume a three-threat posture.

Harden sideways blocked the right, making it clear that he would not let the shot go, trying to force him into the inside and accept Howard's special care.

After waiting for a while, Li Yue suddenly pulled the ball back and moved sideways, forcefully throwing off Harden to gain room for a shot, and the face-to-face was a dry pull.

Swish!The basketball is hollow into the net.

Harden showed a little shock, Li Yue smiled and said: "You will, and I will too."

(End of this chapter)