full court guidance

Chapter 173
The Warriors made some fine-tuning of the team lineup, and almost all got some rest time, only to be late in the first quarter today.

The Rockets made fewer adjustments. Yao Ming played very strongly in the face of double teams, but the high-intensity confrontation in the first quarter still made him sweat profusely.

Relying on Yao Ming's violent performance in the interior, the first quarter was tied 26:26. The Warriors' offensive efficiency was not high. Because of fear of Yao Ming's deterrence at the basket, Warriors players seldom choose to break through to the basket. Yao Ming had a chance to breathe, otherwise he might have exhausted his energy in just the first quarter.

Yao Ming was the last one to walk off the court, and just after high-fiving head coach Tom Thibodeau, he sat down in the rest area and slammed down with dead wave ceramic dolink (you understand Japanese English).

He must seize every opportunity to recover his strength, otherwise the next game will still be very difficult to play.

Thibodeau took the tactical board and re-fine-tuned the team's tactics: "In the second quarter, we continued to strengthen our defense..."

Yao Ming felt a headache when he heard the words "strengthen defense". He felt very nostalgic for the time when the Big Three were still together.

Although Van Gundy is also a coach who pays great attention to defense, in the last half of his coaching season, the team's offensive tactics were often arranged by Late. If Van Gundy and Late disagreed at some point, Van Gundy would still Take the initiative to regress.

So in the second half of last season, instead of saying that the Rockets are still a top defensive team in the league, it is better to say that the Rockets have actually become a super team with stronger offensive power, but they have not lost their defensive roots. team.

At that time, Yao Ming played very easily. Even if he encountered an opponent double-teaming inside, he didn't need to do everything he could to attack his opponent like today.

Because he has two reliable helpers, a super shooter who is trustworthy on the outside, and a super breakthrough player with outstanding talent, he only needs to pass the ball to his teammates, and the next thing he needs to do is very simple.

No one wants to play in an easier way, even Yao Ming, who was extremely violent in the first quarter.

He was able to play dominant data under the two-person off-ball double-team, or even Hill's indistinct three-person defense. One of the important reasons is that Murphy's lack of confrontation ability and his top defense ability are relatively weak. Poor, let alone Harrington, there are often some minor flaws in the choice of the defensive end, even if Hill is experienced, there is no way to make up for such obvious and huge shortcomings of these two people.

But Yao Ming still consumed more energy in the first quarter, and he even felt more tired than usual after playing two quarters.

If the team doesn't make any changes, Yao Ming knows that he can only stick to half court at most.

Billups also saw the problem. At this time, he didn't care about respecting the coach's decision, and immediately expressed his opinion: "Coach, sorry to interrupt, I think we should strengthen our offense. Yao needs help. He I'm tired now, and I don't deny his dominance at the basket, but this style of play consumes too much energy for him, and if we don't have him on the court, we won't get any advantage."

Billups actually likes Thibodeau a lot, because this person doesn't have so many twists and turns, as long as it is a player he likes, he can't wait to treat you with all his heart.

And he doesn't treat the players as his own tools like Larry Brown, at least he has a good relationship with the Rockets' current players.

The biggest problem for the Rockets now is that they can't open the outside line and can't stretch the Warriors' defensive formation, which allows the Warriors to choose to double-team Yao Ming unscrupulously.

David Wesley is really not good anymore. His strength is already very weak in the regular season, and he has completely become a hindrance in the Western Conference Finals. In addition, Hayes has no offensive ability. The Rockets have two points. It can be almost completely emptied at will, which makes the Warriors defend like five people defending three people. Even if the team's defensive ability is poor, they can use their numerical advantage to forcibly improve the defensive quality.

In fact, the Rockets are not without anyone on the outside. They also have defender Spanoulis from Spain and second-year rookie Monta Ellis. Both of them are enough to replace David Wesley in the team.

But what outsiders don’t know is that Spanoulis doesn’t know whether it’s because of acclimatization or other reasons. He seems unable to adapt to the level of confrontation in the NBA. Du's trust, in such a critical game, Thibodeau would not dare to let him play.

Ellis' problem is even bigger-he didn't have Kobe's life, he got Kobe's disease.

From the moment he entered the league, Ellis regarded Kobe as his idol, and believed that only Kobe was better than him in this league.

So here comes the problem, in the late deal, Ellis can only be regarded as a bonus in strict calculation, it is used to balance the salary comparison between the two parties, which makes some unscrupulous media compare him with late when they talk about him. A direct comparison of the value of his contract, and then think Ellis is worth only one-tenth of late.

How could the proud Ellis bear it?

So as soon as he appeared on the stage, he wanted to score crazily, proving that his strength was definitely not as bad as the media said.

He even hated Yao Ming because Yao Ming is also Chinese.

Ellis doesn't like to share the ball with others when he plays. Once the ball is in his hands, it is almost impossible to pass it out. This is why Thibodeau is willing to use David Wesley, who has almost no way to adapt to the NBA. , It's just the reason for arranging Ellis, who is better in both state and strength, to play as a substitute.

But now the Rockets can't help it. Billups can barely be an outside shooter, but they still need a breakthrough master to disrupt the Warriors' formation. Ellis can take on this responsibility very well.

The break between the quarters was not long, and Billups couldn't express his opinion tactfully, so he had to get straight to the point: "We lack enough offensive power on the outside, so the Warriors can double-team Yao unscrupulously. We need to open a breakthrough on the outside. , I think Monta's impact will help us a lot."

Thibodeau glanced at Yao Ming, and found that Yao Ming nodded his head very secretly, obviously agreeing with Billups' opinion.

The Rockets are Yao Ming's team, and Billups, as the second head of the team, has completely agreed with Yao Ming. It is impossible for a rookie coach like Thibodeau to act arbitrarily.

After thinking about it for a while, he changed the tactical adjustment that he had been considering for a long time: "I think what Chauncey said is right, Yao has a very strong basket dominance, but we must find a way to help him save energy, Monta, You start the game in the second quarter, pay attention to cooperating with your teammates, attack the Warriors basket, try to draw fouls from the Warriors inside players, it is best not to force shots, we must play with a high success rate."

Monta Ellis just nodded.

On the Warriors side, the atmosphere is much more relaxed than that of the Rockets.

After Yao Ming forcibly drove the rhythm of the team and almost stunned the Warriors, the players of the Warriors are now completely let go.

The nervousness of reaching the Western Conference Finals for the first time has long since disappeared.

Old Nelson also gave the players another booster by the way: "Our targeted tactics have worked. Yao Ming has to put in more energy than before to help the Rockets score. We just need to stick to our tactics, even for a short time. Let the Rockets take the lead, we still have a big advantage, don't put pressure on us, we will win."

Before the game, the media predicted the relationship between the two sides. It is generally believed that this time the Western Conference Finals will reach the tiebreaker.

Compared with the Eastern Conference, which has a huge disparity in strength, this year's Western Conference is particularly competitive. The gap between the strengths of the top seven teams is not as large as imagined, and any team is likely to reach the finals.

Among them, the Suns and Spurs are typical old faces leading a group of role players, because they cooperate well and have a good record in the regular season.

As for the Mavericks who encountered the miracle of Waterloo, the reason for the loss should be borne by the young general Avery Johnson. If he hadn't chosen to give up his advantage and choose to play against the Nuggets, the Mavericks are likely to will have the last laugh.

The Warriors and the Rockets are very similar. In fact, these two teams are actually equivalent to rebuilding the team, but they have established a superstar as their core from the very beginning, and with their outstanding performance, they finally won. Very impressive record.

Yao Ming and Late are the strengths that both sides have obvious advantages. These two superstars from China, whoever can play a more perfect performance in this round of the series will be able to lead the team to victory.

Compared with the Warriors, the Rockets are a little less convincing in reaching the Western Conference Finals. If the Nuggets hadn't eliminated the Mavericks, with the current Rockets lineup configuration, it would not be easy to beat the Mavericks.

It is because of the fierce competition and suspense in the Western Conference this year, and the two Chinese players as the core team reached the Western Conference Finals, which greatly aroused the enthusiasm of Chinese fans to watch the game, which led to the ratings of this year's NBA playoffs. The league management was overjoyed.

But as players, Yao Ming and late didn't actually think that much.

The two sides made adjustments to the lineup at the same time. In the opening stage of the second quarter, Yao Ming, who was already sweating profusely, got an extremely valuable respite time, and was pushed to the bench by Nelson when he was late.

The Rockets put on the most important firepower on the bench. Monta Ellis, a rookie who played for the Warriors last season, went berserk.

(End of this chapter)