Legendary basketball manager

Once a young team like the Thunder starts to gain momentum, it is difficult to hold back.

McGrady knows this very well.

Therefore, after Harden helped the Thunder score consecutively, T-MAC immediately realized that it needed to stand up!

The Rockets' offensive round.

McGrady held the ball through half court and came to the top of the arc to organize.

Tucker stepped up, setting cover for him.

McGrady used the screen, took a sideways step, threw off Harden's defense, and then jumped up to shoot.

And Ibaka, who assisted in the defense, seemed to have predicted this a long time ago.

He took off early and tried his best to jump to the limit height.

And McGrady is standing still, and the take-off is not enough.

If he makes a shot at this moment, there is a 50% chance that Ibaka will block it.

In the blink of an eye, McGrady found Danny Green who suddenly moved.

He changed his mind immediately, waved his hand, and passed the ball.

And Durant, who was defending Green, thought that McGrady was going to shoot, so he relaxed his vigilance, and he hasn't found Green slipping away until now.

Danny Green puts his bow and arrow, catches and shoots...

The fans at the scene seemed to see the basketball hollow into the net, so they stood up one after another, raised their arms and prepared to cheer.

The generals of Thunder were terrified.

Although Danny Green is only a substitute for the Rockets, his shooting ability is what the coach repeatedly emphasized in the pre-match meeting!

[Oh, it's over...]

Harden thought to himself.

The Thunder managed to gain some momentum, and once the goal was scored, they had to start all over again.

but...

"Duang!"

The ball hit the back edge of the basket and bounced out.

Durant rushed inside, jumped high, and took off the rebound.

Then, he immediately took long legs and rushed towards the Rockets half court.

After moving to a place about two meters away from the three-point line, Durant suddenly stopped the ball, and against Danny Green's defense, he shot resolutely...

After the basketball left his fingertips, it spun at a high speed, drawing a beautiful arc in the air...

"Shu~"

Hollow into the network!

At 35:27, the point difference returned to single digits!

After the ball was scored, Green was very annoyed.

If Durant's unreasonable three-pointer can be explained by talent gap and inability to defend, then the open three-pointer just now is too inappropriate!

Green put his head in his hands, and then raised his hands to apologize to his teammates: "This ball is my fault. I didn't play well..."

His teammates didn't blame him, and Tucker, who was passing by, patted Green on the back to show his comfort.

The game continues.

In the next few minutes, the two sides played inextricably.

Although the Rockets are superior in lineup configuration, the Thunder seem to be fully prepared for this "ultimate basketball" lineup.

Neither Durant nor Harden panicked in the face of the Rockets' infinite defense changes.

They used the pick-and-roll in unison, replacing the defender in front of them with Ben Wallace, and then singled out from beyond the three-point line.

Although Daben is the best defensive player four times, he is not good at defending perimeter players.

Whether facing Durant or Harden, Big Ben is at a disadvantage in terms of speed.

Both the Thunder and the juniors use the dribble to pass it, and then easily complete the attack.

Seeing this, Shen Fei in the stands frowned slightly.

Although Daben has returned to his 30-year-old physical condition, his lateral movement speed is still not enough for big players to defend against small players.

This is almost a common problem of traditional centers.

Ben Wallace is no exception.

Although he is only a little over two meters tall, in terms of tonnage, he is not inferior to big centers at all.

Such a weight naturally limits the speed of Big Ben's lateral movement.

Simply put, within the three-point line, Ben Wallace is the gate guarding one side.

But outside the three-point line, he is just a slightly clumsy ordinary insider.

What Shen Fei is worried about is that after watching this game, the Heat will use the same strategy to deal with the Rockets in the future.

[Wade can't guard against it, and James can't stand it...]

[At that time, Spoelstra should guarantee that one of these two people will be on the court at any time to deal with our ultimate basketball lineup. ]

Shen Fei thought to himself.

However, he wasn't too worried.

After all, the meaning of infinite defense is not to defend every ball.

In other words, any defensive method cannot be 100% successful.

Especially when the opponent is a giant like Durant, if he can be restrained to a certain extent, it will be considered a success!

Whether it is Durant or Harden, they may be able to successfully single the big book, but every time they will endure high-intensity physical confrontation.

This is bound to consume a lot of physical energy for the two of them.

If the Thunder cracked the method of infinite switching defenses, there is only Duden and Duden in singles...

Then in the second half, the Rockets' advantage will slowly appear!

After all, human physical ability is limited.

............

Look back to the field.

After all, Durant and Harden are in the prime of life.

During the second quarter, they used singles one by one to drag the Thunder forward.

The two teams have been in such a stalemate, and the point difference has been maintained at 5-8 points.

With 6 minutes left in the second quarter, the score came to 46:40, and the Rockets led by 6 points.

Taking advantage of an official timeout, both sides made lineup adjustments.

For the Rockets, Mark Jackson waved his hand and directly replaced four players. The lineup became:

Curry, Roy, Danny Green, Griffin, Yao Ming.

The Thunder coach - Brooks, decided to continue to kill the core players.

Durant and Harden remained on the court, and Westbrook, Perkins, and Nick Collison came off the bench.

With all three young players on the court, the Thunder is not inferior to the "mash-up" Rockets in terms of talent.

As soon as he came up, Westbrook used a sharp breakthrough to kill the Rockets' penalty area.

This time, in the face of Yao Ming's supplementary defense, Guigui no longer went up, but calmly distributed the ball to the outside.

Durant caught and shot from outside the three-point line, relying on his excellent static talent, let Danny Green sigh again...

Bingo!

Basketball hit the net.

At 46:43, the Thunder were only 3 points behind!

Looking back, facing Westbrook's defense, Curry immediately responded with a three-pointer with a step back.

49: 43.

In the transition between offense and defense, Harden passed Roy with the help of a screen, and hit a layup against Griffin.

49: 45.

Rocket attack.

Roy made a huge crossover, passed Harden, took a dribble and made a sudden stop at the free throw line for a jump shot...

Answer. ball!

51: 45.

In this way, the two teams come and go, still maintaining a balance of power.

But overall, the Thunder have a slight advantage at this stage.

Relying on Durant's fiery touch, they narrowed the point difference little by little.

When there were only 2 minutes left in the second quarter, the score became 61:58. The Thunder were only 3 points behind, and they still had the ball!

Mark Jackson had no choice but to resort to a timeout.

After the timeout ended, the Rockets replaced all starters.

But as I said before, once a young team takes off, it is difficult to suppress.

When they are excited, the adrenaline will be released frantically, which makes them often perform supernormally, and they are tireless!

At the end of the second quarter, the two teams tied at 66 and returned to the same starting line!

This result made the Thunder generals extremely happy, and it also made the Rockets players dissatisfied.

It is worth mentioning that Durant scored 18 points in the first half, while McGrady only scored 10 points.

This means that if Xiaoshuai chases 9 points in the second half, he will be able to surpass McGrady and become the top scorer!

............

Back in the locker room, Mark Jackson saw the depressed players.

"What's the matter? We don't seem to be behind?"

Mark Jackson asked with a smile.

Everyone shook their heads.

"It's really uncomfortable to be caught up with a big lead."

"We won 15 points in the first quarter, and we gave it all back in the second quarter, which is really hard to accept."

"But I think that this half of the game is not without good news."

Mark Jackson continued.

The players recovered a little because of his words.

"What's the good news, coach?"

Lowry asked.

"At least...on the Thunder side, Kevin didn't rest for 1 minute, and Russell and James also played for a long time."

"And we strictly follow the rotation plan and allocate everyone's physical fitness reasonably."

"If there is no accident, our physical advantage will gradually show in the second half."

Mark Jackson said seriously.

"The three on the opposite side... except for Russell, none of them are good at physical fitness."

"We can strengthen the physical confrontation in the second half and continue to consume the physical strength of Kevin and James."

"In this way, our advantages can be manifested faster."

Teacher Tony analyzed.

Mark Jackson nodded after listening.

"Yes, so we must increase the intensity in the third quarter."

"As long as we can interrupt their momentum and regain control of the rhythm of the game, the victory still belongs to us!"

The rocket generals nodded one after another.

"By the way, there is one more thing you can pay attention to."

"Tracey has a good chance of winning the scoring title this season. We try to give him as many balls as possible."

"Also...Kurant has to focus, he's the only competitor."

Mark Jackson said.

There are many unspoken rules in the NBA.

One of them is-when a player has the opportunity to win honors or break records, teammates should try their best to be as adult as possible.

This is almost an unwritten rule. Once someone violates it, not only the fans will be unhappy, but even the teammates will be unhappy.

The most classic case is that Irving did not pass the ball to Love, causing the latter to miss the record for the highest score in a single quarter.

Of course, this event has not yet happened in this time and space, nor will it necessarily happen.

The Rockets will continue to nod.

But there is one exception, and that is McGrady himself.

"I don't care about the scoring champion, I really don't care."

"Everyone can play normally. I only have one goal, and that is to win."

Maddie said solemnly.

"Don't worry Maizi, there will be victories, and you will also have the scoring champion."

Yao Ming responded with a smile.

"Okay, okay, the game is about to start, let's get together and cheer."

As Mark Jackson spoke, he walked to the center of the locker room and extended his right hand:

"In the second half, increase the intensity! Let the Thunder understand why our Rockets are number one in the league!"

"o. Three!"

"Go. Rockets!!!!"

............

The time-out is over and the game continues.

At the beginning of the third quarter, the Rockets began to increase their intensity as Mark Jackson arranged!

To this end, they adjusted the starting list and replaced George with Tony Allen.

The appearance of Mr. Tony directly became the beginning of Durant's nightmare!

In the first half of the game, the Rockets basically used George and Danny Green to defend the young coach.

Both are good defenders, but both are more skilled than aggressive defenders.

But Tony Allen is different.

His defense is full of physical confrontation, like a dog skin plaster, stuck to the opponent's body!

In the first round of the third quarter, Mr. Tony rushed towards Durant "dancing and dancing".

His exaggerated body language is like demonstrating to Xiaoshuai!

But Durant wasn't timid.

Still in the low post, he opened his hands for the ball.

But when Westbrook lobbed the ball, Tony Allen behind him suddenly took a step forward, jumped high, and destroyed the pass!

With sharp eyes and quick hands, Curry took control of the ball immediately and launched a counterattack.

During the fast break, McGrady plugged in at high speed from the right.

After receiving a pass from Curry, he took his long legs and went straight to the inside of the Thunder.

Ibaka returned to the defense quickly and stayed in the three-second zone.

Seeing this, T-MAC speeded up again and rose into the air facing the opponent.

"Bang~"

The two had a physical confrontation in the air.

One is a shooting guard and the other is a power forward.

But relying on the kinetic energy of sprinting and his own strong core strength, McGrady did not lose the wind in the confrontation!

After bouncing Ibaka away, he relaxed his ape arm and sent the ball into the basket with a light pick.

"Beep!"

Then the whistle sounded.

T-MAC scored two points, and a penalty will be added!

After making the extra penalty, the score came to 69:66.

The Rockets regained the lead!

Offensive and defensive conversion.

Tony Allen began to press Durant closely from the Thunder's halfcourt.

During this period, he also said a few words of trash from time to time.

It can be clearly seen that Durant's expression is a little impatient.

Thunder attack.

With the help of the pick-and-roll, Westbrook broke through to the free throw line, stopped the zombie jump shot...

Strike it!

Griffin jumped high and received the rebound.

But just as he was about to pass the ball to Curry, he found that Westbrook had stopped in the middle.

Griffin turned his head and looked for McGrady again, and Sefolosha was already in place.

Looking for George again, also to no avail.

Griffin gritted his teeth and simply dribbled forward by himself.

In fact, Griffin's ball control level is very good at the power forward position.

His ability to protect the ball is very strong, he is rarely intercepted, and he can perform some showy operations from time to time.

It's just that in the Rockets, there are too many people who can advance, and it has never been Griffin's turn to perform.

This time, it is a rare opportunity.

Griffin rushed toward the Thunder halftime like a bull!