unfinished glory

Chapter 43 Hold On, We Can Win

In the second quarter, Li Chongxiao only played for 2 minutes, and received his second foul while grabbing rebounds with Mutombo.

Bowen rested off the court long enough, and when he replaced, he stole McGrady.The Spurs scored four points in a row to close the score.

At this time, Jeff Van Gundy made adjustments, replaced Tracy McGrady, brought up Yao Ming, and maintained his aggressiveness on the court.

The Rockets are now half main force and half substitute. Maurice Taylor is Yao Ming's longest-time partner. He knows Yao Ming's power and characteristics on the offensive end.

He fed Yao Ming two balls in a row, and Yao lived up to expectations. One turned around and made a jumper, and the other caused a foul and made two free throws.

Li Chongxiao nodded his head again and again off the court, it is reasonable to play like this.

There is a big offensive weapon. Instead of taking advantage of his good physical strength to score more points, he uses it to do some dirty work, which is simply putting the cart before the horse.

O'Neal will not defend?He has been criticized for being lazy, and he has three second defenses so far in his career.But which coach will force him to focus on defense?Phil Jackson is not honestly hoarding some defensive fighters and engineers on the inside and outside to protect the Sharks.

Yao Ming's bouncing speed, moving speed and other useful physical qualities in defense are far inferior to O'Neal's. Naturally, it is difficult to have the power of "serious" O'Neal on the defensive end.He relies more on his height and awareness to maintain a high defensive oppression against offensive opponents.

But Yao Ming has a big disadvantage, that is, his physical strength is relatively poor.According to the Rockets' strategy of taking both offense and defense into account and playing well, if they play for three to 10 minutes per game, they will probably lose their strength.

If it is a coach like Popovich or Phil Jackson who can train, he will definitely get two "bodyguards" for Yao Ming to do dirty work first, and then arrange his playing time reasonably to give full play to his offensive power.

After all, Jeff Van Gundy has only been in one team, and he is not a genius himself. This kind of team building strategy that adapts to the changes of the players and deploys flexibly is far inferior to his teacher Pat Riley.

After joining the Rockets, he brought in his former student Patrick Ewing as an assistant coach. It seems that he wanted to make Yao Ming the next super insider.But I don't know if he has thought about the difference between the two in terms of physical fitness and athletic ability.

As for Olajuwon's style or Ewing's style, who is more suitable for Yao Ming, this Li Chongxiao still can't judge.But he took the time to look at the statistics of the league. Yao Ming's average per game this season is similar to last season.

It’s also an outside superstar plus an inside monster. The OK combination established the Lakers dynasty. At this point, the MM combination loses both data and records. In addition to factors such as players needing to adapt, ability gaps, and the boss’s willingness to spend money, the coach is also hard to say. its responsibility.

Just when Li Chongxiao was thinking wildly, Manu Ginobili suddenly broke out on the field and scored two three-pointers in a row, tightly biting the score.

Then he was replaced for a rest, halfway through each quarter, no accident, Popovich would replace Ginobili to rest.

"Demon Sword" can only kill people when they are full of energy.

"This is also a product with insufficient physical strength." The physical strength monster Li Chongxiao curled his lips, and graciously handed the boss a towel and water.

The Rockets replaced McGrady, and then he and Yao Ming took turns to play the main game. The two scored three goals each and jointly scored 12 points.

Fortunately, the Spurs are unambiguous. Parker, Brown, Horry and Duncan have all made achievements. Although the score is still six points behind, they have not been stretched too far.

In the last two, Li Chongxiao played with Ginobili.

The "Demon Sword" who had had enough rest recovered his physical strength, but his hand feeling was gone. He hit two irons with three points in a row.

Fortunately, Bob Sura saved face and sent a foul, allowing Ginobili to make two free throws.

Here Yao Ming is not to be outdone, who is he afraid of when he is physically strong?

The little brother Li Chongxiao suffered again. After the pick-and-roll switch, facing Yao Ming's offense, what can he do, he can only foul.

Dayao made two free throws again. In this quarter, he made four of four shots and four of four free throws. He scored 100 points with 12% shooting.

What is a big killer, this is a big killer!
Next, Horry made a mistake. McGrady took the ball and ignored Yao Ming's request for the ball. Against Li Chongxiao's defense, it was a three-pointer.

Faced with this kind of ball from this kind of player, Li Chongxiao can only do his best to interfere, and if he really scores, he will admit it, and the coach will not say anything.

Fortunately, McGrady's low and flat arc hit the front of the basket, and Li Chongxiao picked up a rebound for nothing.

Back to the Spurs offense, Duncan hit the iron again, leaving the Rockets with 12 seconds to attack.

McGrady dribbled the ball to the frontcourt by himself, and Yao Ming didn't want to play at this time. They all watched McGrady play singles.

After more than 3 seconds, McGrady moved, and Ginobili came directly to encircle him.

The Spurs are not stupid. It is obvious that you want to play singles, and it is impossible to give you a one-on-one chance.

Under Ginobili's double-team, McGrady made a forced shot and was caught by Li Chongxiao. He didn't touch the basket and fell directly into Duncan's hands.

At halftime, the Spurs trailed by 4 points in the away game, 34:38 ​​Rockets.

In the locker room, Popovich didn't arrange too many tactics. The Rockets' offensive routine was already obvious, relying on the two stars to drive it.

Strengthen the defense against Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, double-team when necessary, and make it difficult for them to play singles. This is the main defensive strategy of the Spurs.

At the beginning of the second half, Duncan and Yao Ming each scored a goal.Immediately after Bowen sent the third personal foul, McGrady made two free throws.

The two sides still maintain this slow rhythm, and it takes two or three rounds to hit a goal.

But the situation is gradually favorable to the Spurs. The Spurs have more people who can attack, and the Rockets are not very good at defending.

At the same time, on the defensive end, the strategy of focusing on Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady was implemented. The role players could not grasp the ball given by the two stars.

By 8 minutes into the third quarter, the Spurs chased the score to 49:50, only one point away.

Then Li Chongxiao was replaced and made a goal to overtake the score.Then the Spurs led all the way to the end of the third quarter.

58:54, the Spurs turned and won by four points.

In this quarter of the game, the Spurs adopted a double-team tactic. The MM combination only took 6 shots, hit 3 goals, made 6 free throws and scored 6 points together.The other Rockets players made 12 of 9 shots and only scored 1 points.

Relying on Duncan's outstanding performance, the Spurs scored 24 points in a single quarter, and the offense finally returned to normal.

But the team also has hidden dangers. Nesterovic, Bowen and Li Chongxiao have all fouled four times.

Popovich didn't emphasize anything during the festival, and only said some spiritual encouragement such as "hold on, we can win".

At the same time, I warned Bowen and Nesterovic who were on the field not to hesitate when defending, and to shoot when it is time to shoot.

There are also Malik Rose, Horry, Li Chongxiao, Devon Brown and many other spare tires sitting on the bench, ready to fight at any time.

(End of this chapter)