Soul of the Golden State

Chapter 789
Relying on Olajuwon's magical block, the Rockets successfully defended against the Warriors' offense and launched a counterattack at the same time.

During the fast break of the Rockets, after receiving a pass from Olajuwon, Drexler rushed to the frontcourt with sparks and lightning all the way, ignoring Mullin who was defending him, and directly accelerated to complete the breakthrough and broke into the penalty area One-handed dunk, scored two points for the team.

After that, the Warriors missed another shot, and the Rockets launched a counterattack again, but this time, the Warriors retreated in time, preventing the Rockets from launching a counterattack.

However, after landing on the ground, Olajuwon no longer lowered the post, but took the initiative to move up and came to play a pick-and-roll for Drexler. Olajuwon's pick-and-roll was in place and blocked the defender Mullin. Strict, gave Drexler a lot of room for breakthrough.

Drexler immediately broke into the penalty area. Divac couldn't keep up with Drexler at all, and was completely broken by Drexler with another acceleration.

After a successful breakthrough, he took off two steps away from the basket. In a hurry, Rodman didn't even have time to take off to block the block, so he could only watch Delexler successfully dunk.

With another dunk, the Rockets successfully equalized the score. Obviously, when the two cores of the inside and outside line start to exert their strength, it is the biggest test for the Warriors' defense.

Fortunately, although the Warriors can't defend against the Rockets' Big Two in defense, but in offense, the Rockets' defense also can't prevent the Warriors' offense.

Under Li Weisi's tandem, the Warriors played bravely in the first quarter of the game, making almost every shot from the outside, which made the Warriors not at all inferior to the Rockets in the offense.

Due to the tight score between the two sides, neither Olajuwon nor Drexler dared to rest too much during the rotation stage. They both only rested for 2 or 3 minutes, and they dared not rest at the same time.

Officially relying on the stars to take the lead, the Rockets were able to lead by 31:30 at the end of the first quarter.

Compared with the Rockets' starting lineup, their bench lineup is very scarce. Since Robert Horry and Sam Cassell are both in the Warriors, the Rockets' current bench lineup can only be led by veteran Jeff Malone.

In addition, there are Mario Eli, Pete Chilkat, Scott Brooks, Chucky Brown and others. It can be seen that except for Eli, almost everyone else can be called the marginal players of the team.

Therefore, in the transition period, even though Olajuwon or Drexler are leading the team respectively, the Rockets still do not have an advantage, and it is not easy to maintain the score.

So when the two sides returned from the starting lineup, the score was 37:38, and the Rockets still led by 1 point.

In the following games, compared with the first quarter, the feel of both teams declined, especially for the Warriors. Although the feel of the outside line did not decline like a cliff, the number of missed shots gradually increased.

This is no wonder, after all, the Warriors at this time are not the Spurs for 14 years, and it is impossible to maintain a frighteningly high shooting rate all the time.

Simply, the Rockets' offense was also frustrated. Because in this quarter, Olajuwon reduced his shot opportunities and shifted the focus of defense to the outside line, which led to an inevitable decline in the Rockets' shooting percentage.

As a result, at the end of halftime, the Rockets still led 57:54.

It has to be said that from the beginning of this game to the present, the Rockets are the side that is more prepared, and they also have an advantage in the use of tactics and dominance of the scene.

Although the Rockets only rely on two stars to play, the Warriors are in full bloom, but basketball games are sometimes so unreasonable. Individual stars can really lead the team and defeat opponents who are stronger than themselves. The Warriors' shooting percentage also declined in the second quarter.

Entering the second half, the Warriors' shooting percentage continued to decline. Coupled with Olajuwon's large defensive area, the Warriors' tactics such as passing and cutting, breaking points, and pick-and-rolls all had little effect. In this last resort, Li Weisi I can only stand up by myself and increase my singles.

Although Kenny Smith is 191cm tall, he is just a shooter after all. He is good at catching and shooting. Smith has no clue about the important task of defending Li Weisi.

After being scored consecutively by Li Weisi, the Rockets coach and team star Rudy Tomjanovich took the initiative to change the formation, let the team's shooting guard Vernon Maxwell defend Li Weisi, and let Smith defend Richmond .

To be honest, this decision is taking a huge risk. Although Maxwell's defense is better, if Smith is allowed to face Richmond, will not only Li Weisi fail to defend, but Richmond will Also open?
However, it turns out that Tang Shuai's decision is correct, because when Richmond singles Kenny Smith, although he can successfully get rid of Smith's defense every time, he will always make a layup or a mid-range shot afterwards. At that time, Olajuwon encountered interference.

It has to be said that having Olajuwon as the last barrier of the team's defense has greatly increased the Rockets' fault tolerance rate.

Therefore, Li Weisi, who was mighty for half of the third quarter, began to quiet down in the second half of this quarter. The Warriors, who had already overtaken the score once, were once again overtaken by the Rockets.

Until the end of the third quarter, the Warriors failed to recover the point difference. At 73:78, the Rockets entered the fourth quarter with a 5-point advantage.

In the last quarter, after Mullin hit a three-pointer at the buzzer from the corner, the Warriors finally recovered.

After that, they first shot from the outside to force the Rockets to expand their defense, and then took advantage of the emptiness of the inside to pass several good balls inward and scored the ball. Go-ahead score again.

The reason why Olajuwon's defensive area began to decline at this time is mainly because he was tired.

He rested for only 3 minutes throughout the game. Although he is very talented, he is still a human being, not a tireless machine. Therefore, the Rockets' inside defense has a flaw that can be caught by the Warriors.

However, this year's Olajuwon is really a god-like existence. He is obviously exhausted, but when he gets the ball on the offensive end, he becomes arrogant again. When he turns around and breaks through, his speed is still clean and neat. Caught Divac off guard.

In this way, relying on Olajuwon's miraculous performance at the last moment, the Rockets not only overtook the score again, but also maintained their lead until the end. At 106:103, the Rockets took the lead in winning a game at the Warriors' home court. victory.

The loss in the first game of the series not only caused the Warriors to lose their home court advantage, but also pushed the entire team to the cusp.

(End of this chapter)