unfinished glory

Chapter 101 Opening Battle ([-])

Time passed quickly, and in a blink of an eye, November 11st, the 1-2005 season, started the NBA regular season.

In the opening game, the league painstakingly arranged four games. In the Eastern Conference, the new No. 76 pick played against the old No. [-] pick. The Bucks challenged the [-]ers away.

Li Chongxiao couldn't figure out what was the relationship here, could it be that the two top picks were acting rather rebellious?But one has real skills, and the other is hehehe.

Three games are arranged in the West, the Kings against the Hornets.New Orleans was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, leaving the Hornets with nowhere to live and could only temporarily use Oklahoma as their home court.

The opener was the league's relief for the Hornets and positive reward for the citizens of Oklahoma.

Then there's the Sonics against the Suns, and the Western Conference semifinals repeat.

The main event naturally belongs to the defending champion. In the first game of the new season, as usual, the Spurs will present the championship ring at home.

The opponent the league arranged for the Spurs is the Rockets.

Before the game against the Rockets, the coaching staff and players of last season's championship Spurs took over the championship ring from owner Holt one by one.

In the simple awards ceremony, the Spurs are still at their home SBC Center, raising a banner that reads "2005 NBA Championship".

After receiving the ring, Li Chongxiao intentionally wore the ring, walked to the Rockets' bench, stopped in front of Yao Ming, sighed at the ring, grabbed the sleeve of the training suit and wiped it.

The live camera focused on Li Chongxiao, who raised his eyebrows at Yao Ming, Yao Ming's face also turned into a wry smile, and the audience burst out laughing.

Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that Li Chongxiao was joking with Yao Ming. Little Van Gundy shook his head with a smile, and the other players looked at Li Chongxiao's ring enviously.

However, McGrady was a little angry, thinking it was a provocation to him, spitting dirty words in his mouth, and the atmosphere suddenly became embarrassing.

Yao Ming immediately restrained his smile, waved his hand at Li Chongxiao, and said to his teammates: "To be honest, I really envy Daye. I came before him, but I haven't achieved much yet. But now we have Tracy, With Michael, with so many good teammates from you, I believe that I will be able to get that ring."

He then smiled and said, "At that time, let the league also arrange for the Spurs to come over in the opening game, and I'll make that kid look good too. No, for this game, we'll give this kid a good look!"

The words stabilized the emotions of the teammates, and Van Gundy nodded again and again. Yao Ming finally showed the temperament of a leader.

……

The Spurs' lineup is Nesterovic, Duncan, Bowen, Li Chongxiao and Parker.Mohammed, the main center of last season's playoffs, degraded a lot in one summer vacation. When he returned to the team, he failed the physical examination. After a month of training, he was in mediocre condition.

Facing the "superior" Yao Ming in this game, Popovich simply played Nesterovic, who is taller and in better condition.

And Ginobili played as a substitute, which is a continuation of last season's playoff tactics.

The starting lineup for the Rockets is Yao Ming, Juwan Howard, Tracy McGrady, Finley and Ralph Alston.

The power forward Swift they introduced this season seems a little unaccustomed. He performed poorly in the preseason, and both offensive and defensive ends failed to meet the requirements of Van Gundy Jr.

And last season's main point guard Bob Sura was reimbursed for the season due to injury. They had to trade with the Raptors and traded Mike James for Ralph Alston.

Then they picked Finley for nothing and added David Wesley to the sixth man, deepening the depth of the bench.

Judging from this year's lineup, the Rockets are undoubtedly much stronger than last year.But they are not without hidden dangers, the main reason is that the inside substitutes are still relatively weak.

Yao Ming's substitute is still only an age-obsessed Mutombo, and there are only Juwan Howard and Swift at the power forward position.

The game officially started, Muhammad lost to Yao Ming in a jump ball, and the Rockets attacked first.

After halftime, McGrady started to ask for the ball. Facing the defender Li Chongxiao, he still maintained his usual arrogance.

He caught the ball with one hand, then took a dribble and pulled it out. The ball hit and the Rockets scored two points first.

The Spurs are still attacking as a whole, relying on tactics to create space, allowing Duncan to easily single-handedly beat Howard successfully.

The second goal was still McGrady's singles with the ball. This time, he missed his pull-up and was hit by a fast break by the Spurs. Parker's speed and Alston couldn't catch up at all.

The Spurs players were still in the excitement of receiving the championship ring at the beginning. Duncan succeeded in consecutive singles, and Parker made various breakthrough throws.

而麦迪半节比赛出手了7次，只命中2球，火箭队8：18落后马刺10分了。

Van Gundy Jr. called a timeout to let McGrady calm down a bit, and asked to shift the focus of offense to Yao Ming.

In the whole half of the game, Yao Ming didn't even catch a pass from his teammate and scored two points only by grabbing the frontcourt board. He also played very badly.

After re-entering the court, Yao Ming received a pass from Finley, carried Nesterovic to the basket, dunked successfully, and caused a foul by the opponent, which made the home audience exclaim that the ball was played like O'Neal.

Yao Ming, who scored the goal, also roared, venting his grievances for not getting the ball. After the free throw, the Rockets were still 7 points behind.

In the second round of the Rockets' offense, Yao Ming showed his hard-working footsteps. After picking up Nesterovic, he cut to the basket and dunked again, causing another foul.

Popovich quickly called a timeout, and said to Li Chongxiao, "You compatriot is really good. Today, you have become Shaq Yao."

"I can do it too!" Li Chongxiao said nonchalantly, and then Popovich gave him the tactical board, saying that you can arrange it.

"OK!" Li Chongxiao took off the tactical board, pretended to draw four arrows, all pointing to the top of the arc, and then said to the others: "Give the ball to Daye Bryant, and he will send the opponent home!"

Then there was a burst of laughter, Popovich shook his head, let Muhammad play Nesterovic's place, and beat Yao Ming to the front.

Li Chongxiao knew about Yao Ming's training plan, so he curled his lips and didn't dare to say anything.

Yao Ming made another free throw, and the Rockets chased the point difference to 4 points.

The Spurs attacked, and Parker actually gave the ball to Li Chongxiao after halftime.

Li Chongxiao was not timid when he took the ball, he bent down and made a breakthrough posture, McGrady was unmoved.

He then tried to take a step forward with his right foot, but McGrady stepped forward instead, obviously blocking the shot, and did not believe that he could break through.

Seeing that McGrady made some mistakes in defense, Li Chongxiao suddenly activated, passed McGrady in one step, and went inside.

Yao Ming was caught off guard by McGrady's loss of position. Seeing that Li Chongxiao came in, he hurriedly stepped forward to block the shot, but Li Chongxiao had already taken off.

After measuring the distance between the two sides and the altitude in the air, Yao Ming felt that he couldn't cover it, so he hid to the side.

Li Chongxiao flew past Yao Ming's body and completed a flat-frame split dunk.After landing, he passed by Yao Ming and said with a smile, "You hid pretty fast."

Yao Ming knew that this kid was playing tricks, so he punched him angrily, and then served the ball.

After halftime for the Rockets, Muhammad started to circle forward, but Yao Ming already had a countermeasure, squeezed Muhammad out of the three-second zone, and then received Alstom's lob, turned half-turned and stood on tiptoe to catch the ball Put in the basket.

Then he was circled forward again and received the ball in the same way. Facing Duncan's supplementary defense, Yao Ming passed the ball from the opponent's head to Juwan Howard, and the latter made a mid-range shot.

The Spurs' defensive tactics against Yao Ming were shattered, and they could only defend Yao Ming routinely, but Muhammad was not tall enough. Yao Ming made two consecutive jump shots and quickly scored 12 points.

Fortunately, he rested after the game, giving the Spurs time to breathe inside.

In the second half of this quarter, Li Chongxiao also made a three-pointer against McGrady and caused a foul by the opponent with a feint.

Seeing that McGrady was getting angry and was about to start fighting balloons, Jr. Van Gundy simply replaced him and asked him to calm down.

Finley stabilized the situation with David Wesley on the field.

In the first quarter, with Yao Ming's outburst, the Rockets scored 26 points, only 4 points behind the Spurs.

(End of this chapter)