unfinished glory

Chapter 42 Supersonic Rockets

After gnawing on the hard bone of the Pistons, the Spurs went on to win two consecutive away games.He defeated the Milwaukee Bucks one after another, and then Li Chongxiao showed off his power in front of the Chicago Bulls' college teammates. Luol Deng was defended 12 of 3 by him.

Both games won by more than [-] points, which gave Li Chongxiao and Bowen a chance to practice, and they would be on the court for a few minutes at the same time.This is Popovich testing the tacit understanding and cooperation between the two.

With these two victories, the Spurs achieved a record of 17 wins and 2 losses, surpassing the Suns with 17 wins and 3 losses, and topped the league.

The next game was against the league's third-ranked Sonics.The Supersonics have a record of 15 wins and 3 losses, placing them in the Eastern Conference and ranking first.

In the post-Jordan era, the strong west and the weak east have always been the main theme.

The Supersonics are also soaring this season. Under the guidance of the best head coach McMillan last month, the team was kneaded into one piece, and the offense and defense have greatly improved.

The core of the team, Ray Allen, has also gradually revealed the strength of the "fifth position".In the case of Carter's emotional situation, there is a tendency to gradually replace it.

In this game, he performed well and scored 32 points under the defense of Bo Wen and Li Chongxiao.

In order to test the lineup of Bowen + Li Chongxiao, Popovich let them play for 8 minutes at the same time, and then replaced them at the same time halfway through the second quarter.

The result was that no one stepped up from the bench, Barry was out with a mild ankle sprain, and Devin Brown and Udrih were poor.At the end of the second quarter, the opponent's two defenders, Antonio Daniels and Luke Ridnour, seized the opportunity and played a wave of 12:4, directly extending the score to 47:35.

Ginobili and Bowen had to go into battle again to stabilize the situation.However, the Supersonics became imposing, and they couldn't defend against them. At the end of halftime, the Spurs were 60:41, trailing by as much as [-] points.

Although Duncan played hard in the second half and scored 39 of the 24 points in the game, the Sonics still had the last laugh. They won 102:98.

Li Chongxiao played averagely, scoring 7 points and 5 rebounds, but his defense was unambiguous. Radmanovic made 5 of 1 shots in front of him.

In two losses to possible playoff opponents, Popovich has several strands of gray hair.After finally defeating the Pistons, they also found a way to deal with the Suns. Looking back, the Supersonics became a stumbling block.

If he knew Chinese, he would definitely sing: I just captured a few monsters, and then captured a few demons, why are there so many demons and monsters!

Duncan made another harmony: I just turned over a few mountains and crossed a few rivers. Why are there so many bumps and bumps?
Judging from the previous situation, the Suns should be the biggest opponent of the Spurs rushing out of the West, and the Spurs coaching staff predicted that the Mavericks will be second.

But the Mavericks were slashed twice late last month in Texas, making things a little easier for the Spurs.

As for another neighbor, the Houston Rockets, the MMs are still in the running-in period, with 6 wins and 11 losses at the moment, staying outside the playoff circle.

After winning the Pistons, the Spurs were quite satisfied and prepared to deal with the Suns wholeheartedly, but they were hit by the Sonics.

If they face the Supersonics in the playoffs, the lineup and tactics will obviously have to be adjusted again, but it is hard for Mr. Popovich, and the gray hair will take over the world.

But there wasn't much time to worry about it, the Spurs packed up and headed to Houston.Next is a back-to-back, an away game against the Rockets.

This is after the preseason match, Li Chongxiao and Yao Ming met again on the court.

The NBA regular season has been played for more than a month. Yao Ming is still the core of the Rockets inside and the team's second choice. However, Li Chongxiao has changed from a player at the end of the bench to the main rotation.

Li Chongxiao thinks that he has made remarkable progress in the past month or so, but he still has a heart for the embarrassment he faced McGrady last time, but he doesn't know if McGrady remembers this rookie who completed a dunk on his head.

The Spurs are still playing the regular lineup, the Rockets here, followed by Yao Ming, Juwan Howard, Tracy McGrady, Ryan Bowen and Bob Sura.

The game started, and Yao Ming won the jump ball after the music of the crazy train at the Toyota Center ended.

The Rockets attacked, and McGrady faced Bowen and pulled out his hand. The ball hit the side of the basket and popped out of the baseline.

The Spurs' first ball was transitioned from Duncan to Nesterovic, but also missed.

In the second round of the Rockets, Juwan Howard missed a shot, and Yao Ming got an offensive rebound from the basket and dunked in.

The two sides seemed to have made an appointment, and Nesterovic also scored on the offensive rebound for the Spurs.

Li Chongxiao observed from the sidelines, mainly watching the matchup between Bowen and McGrady.McGrady's personal offensive desire today does not seem to be very strong. Except for the first ball, he took the ball a few times as a transition, playing like an organizer.

As for Yao Ming, he played like a blue-collar player on the court.On the defensive end, he needs to block the Spurs' players and let the Rockets' Howard or McGrady get the rebound.

On the offensive end, he often comes out to block people, but few Rockets players let him go.

He has to get stuck several times in each offensive round, but the other Rockets players can't pass the ball in the first place. They seem to trust McGrady more and think about McGrady's hand almost every ball.

McGrady passed two balls to Yao Ming, but unfortunately they both missed.

Soon after halfway through the first quarter, the score on the court was 8:6, and the Spurs took the lead.

Yao Ming made the second free throw. At this time, it was Ginobili's rest time, and Devin Brown was replaced.It didn't take long for Bowen to follow. He got two fouls and had to sit on the bench.

After a lapse of more than a month, Li Chongxiao faced the Rockets again. This time, his mentality was much more mature.

McGrady held the ball at the top of the arc and made a fake shot on tiptoe, but Li Chongxiao was unmoved.Then McGrady dribbled the ball to the right, turned around and made a jumper, but missed under the interference of Li Chongxiao.

Back in the Spurs' frontcourt, Duncan hit the iron first, and then was intercepted by McGrady in another round of passing, passing it to Howard and hitting two points.

The tempo of both sides is very slow, and it is very difficult to score every time.If you are watching the game in front of the TV, you will feel that the sound of the basketball hitting the floor is extremely dull.

Li Chongxiao completed two steals in the next two rounds.Once against Reece Gannis, cutting off a pass.

The other time was against McGrady. After being double-teamed by Li Chongxiao and Devin Brown, McGrady missed the ball.

It's just that the Spurs failed to convert these two goals into points, and the field is still 10:8.

Maybe it's because he hasn't played for a long time, maybe he was irritated by Li Chongxiao's steal. In the next round, McGrady was on the baseline. Into a 2+1.

After McGrady made a free throw, the Rockets went ahead by one point.

When McGrady made a free throw, the Spurs replaced Duncan and Parker at the same time. In back-to-back games, Popovich will always find a way to save the players' energy.

The Rockets also took Yao Ming down and replaced them with Dikambe Mutombo. The legend of the "African Mountain" has been circulating in the NBA. Many people believe that he is almost 50 years old, not 38 as he claims.

McGrady stayed on the court to do the main attack, and he repeated the same trick in the next round, but Li Chongxiao was not fooled this time.McGrady forcibly pulled up and missed the shot.

But the Spurs' basket, like a cover, failed to score a goal in 4 minutes.This time Udrih hit the iron, and Mutombo made two free throws when he turned around.

In the next possession, Ginobili missed a pass and was intercepted by Tracy McGrady. The Rockets made a fast break, and then Popovich called a timeout to calm down.

After a timeout, Barry replaced Brown. He blocked McGrady and gave Li Chongxiao room to shoot. The latter hit a two-pointer and finally broke the Spurs' scoring drought.

It's a pity that the good times didn't last long. McGrady caught the ball at the top of the arc and directly pulled it out, drew a very flat arc, and hit the basket.

Faced with this kind of goal, Li Chongxiao has nothing to do, and the same goes for Bowen.

For the Spurs, Ginobili missed a layup, Nesterovic got an offensive rebound and missed a shot.

The same is true for the Rockets. McGrady made another three-pointer at the top of the arc, but this time he missed.Howard grabbed the offensive rebound and passed it out. McGrady made a two-step buzzer shot from beyond the three-point line, but still missed.

The iron fight in the first quarter ended, and the Rockets led temporarily at 18:12.

(End of this chapter)