As a Kobe hater, he was actually teammates with Kobe!

59 to 41, at the end of the first half, the Lakers' lead had reached 18 points.

After the game entered the second half, McGrady first tried his touch, making two consecutive pull-up shots, a three-pointer and a long two-pointer, but all of them missed.

The Rockets can only pass the ball to Yao Ming.

After Yao Ming received the ball in the low post, he took on Darko Milicic and played with his back to the basket. After pushing the defender to the basket, facing Zhou Ze who wanted to come over to assist in defense, Yao Ming half turned in the opposite direction and hit a hook shot on the backboard, making the score 62 to 43.

"Go around!"

"Go around!"

"Don't let him catch the ball!"

Zen Master Phil Jackson yelled from the sidelines.

Front-circling defense is the defensive style that Yao Ming fears the most. The Rockets management is too stingy. There is no point guard who can safely pass the ball to Yao Ming, and there is no power forward who can help Yao Ming clean up his mess. Once Yao Ming is moved away from the basket, the Rockets' rim protection will have big problems.

Kobe fell to the right wing midfield position, facing McGrady's defense, and directly passed the ball to Zhou Ze who suddenly cut inside from outside the three-point line. Yao Ming and Uncle Huo were chasing him frantically from behind, and finally they could only commit an early foul to pull Zhou Ze down.

"Brother Yao...we are family, why don't you let me dunk once more?" Zhou Ze, whose dunk was once again ruined by Yao Ming's early foul, complained unhappily.

"Xiao Zhou, you had a great time running away from me just now..." Dayao said.

Although Zhou Ze's bullet speed is abnormal now, and the burst is a little faster, it is only a little faster. However, it is still difficult to completely get rid of the opponent in a crowded positional battle.

Looking at Zhou Ze walking up to the free throw line, McGrady said to Kobe with a slightly surprised tone: "Man, I didn't expect you to pass that ball. I thought you were going to play one-on-one."

"Ah...is that so?" Kobe was also stunned.

If my good friend McGrady hadn't mentioned it to me, I wouldn't have noticed this subtle change.

"Kobe, it seems you trust this little guy very much." McGrady said with a smile.

"Of course." Kobe said with a firm tone.

But just as he finished speaking, Kobe's face darkened, and "bang!" he heard the sound of Zhou Ze missing the first free throw.

"Zhou, I didn't expect that as the league's top shooter of the new generation, your free throw shooting is so bad." Yao Ming joked.

"Hey, Yao Ming, Tracy, I suggest you use the Hack-a-Shaq tactic on me." Zhou Ze responded with a smile on his face.

McGrady and Yao Ming were immediately at a loss.

To be honest, there are teams that want to use the "Hack-a-Shaq" tactic against Zhou Ze, but they don't have the courage.

First of all, Zhou Ze is recognized as a gigolo inside player in the league.

Secondly, Zhou Ze averages less than 3 free throws per game, which is a very small sample size. Who knows if he is really inaccurate or not.

...

...

At 10:17 into the third quarter, the Rockets were on the attack. Yao Ming again tried to play in the low post, this time against Darko Milicic. Smush Parker pressured Alston to pass, waving his arms and disrupting his passing vision.

Darko Milicic tried to go around, but this time he didn't do it in time, causing Yao Ming to not only receive the ball but also almost face the basket. Zhou Ze quickly came over, stepped outside the reasonable collision zone, covered his crotch with both hands, and waited for Yao Ming to rush over after receiving the ball.

"Pfft!"

"drop!"

The referee's whistle and the sound of the two giants falling to the ground sounded almost at the same time.

Rockets No. 11!

Offensive foul!

Zhou Ze and Dayao fell together.

Including this foul, Yao Ming has already committed 3 fouls.

This made the situation even worse for the Houston Rockets, who were already lagging behind.

"T-Mac, this little guy is very versatile." After seeing Kobe successfully causing Yao Ming to foul, he couldn't help but say to McGrady with a smile.

McGrady didn't say anything, and he and Kobe went to support Zhou Ze/Yao Yao at the same time.

Everyone helps their teammates.

The Rockets had fouled out, and Zhou Ze once again stepped onto the free throw line. Before the free throw, Zhou Ze said to Darko Milicic, who was defending Yao Ming, "Yao Ming is out of energy. You need to be more physical when defending him."

"You're not a good person!" Yao Ming cursed in his heart as he watched Zhou Ze point out his shortcomings in public.

"Hey, man, you don't need to defend him too tightly. He doesn't have the energy to shoot three-pointers. Watch out for his open cuts." Yao Ming also gave advice to Juwan Howard, who was mainly defending Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze's mouth twitched as he thought to himself, "I don't know if this big guy has great wisdom, but he definitely has 800 tricks up his sleeve."

Both Zhou Ze and Yao Ming are not in good physical condition, not to mention that Zhou Ze was working particularly hard to grab offensive rebounds tonight, so his physical strength consumption was naturally greater.

but...

The Lakers have better bench depth.

Chris Mihm's return from injury has relieved a lot of pressure on the Lakers' inside line.

Zhou Ze was substituted out shortly after making both free throws.

When he came on the court again, 4 minutes and 21 seconds had already passed in the fourth quarter.

McGrady finally found his touch in the fourth quarter and scored consecutively, narrowing the gap to just 18 points.

But after Zhou Ze returned to the court, he made a three-pointer while receiving the ball on the run, which widened the gap to 21 points again.

McGrady then took advantage of Yao Ming's pick-and-roll and broke into the basket. Facing Zhou Ze who jumped up from the basket, McGrady did an air pull-up to avoid the defense, stretched his arms, took an extreme shot, and hit the backboard.

"Tomato!" Seeing that he was just a little bit away from blocking McGrady, Zhou Ze couldn't help but curse subconsciously.

"What? Do they like tomatoes so much?" McGrady looked at Zhou Ze in surprise, then looked at Yao Ming behind him.

Despite being behind by about 20 points, the Rockets did not give up and kept chasing.

McGrady's form is back.

But Kobe's state has always been online.

What's more, there is one more Zhou Ze.

In a half-transition, the Lakers mobilized their defense through a series of passes, and finally passed the ball to Zhou Ze. McGrady came to make up for the defense, and Zhou Ze's body suddenly fell down, tricking McGrady into jumping up. Then, Zhou Ze did a split in the air, causing the opponent to commit a three-point foul.

This shot seemed to completely extinguish the Rockets' momentum to catch up.

McGrady also held his head in his hands, his face speechless.

Yao Ming walked over and patted McGrady on the shoulder to comfort him.

"Yao, your compatriots are really well-rounded..." McGrady said sincerely.

Dayao's expression froze.

There were 5 minutes and 21 seconds left in the game.

Rockets coach Van Gundy requested a timeout.

Substitute the main players on the field and choose to surrender early.

After Zhou Ze made 3 of 2 free throws, the lead returned to 20 points.

The game completely lost its suspense.

Just when the Lakers were about to replace Zhou Ze in the next dead ball round, an unexpected scene occurred. The absent-minded left-handed magician Odom passed an extremely outrageous ball, and Zhou Ze flew to save the ball in the first time.

Zhou Ze rushed towards the Rockets' bench.

The 120kg Zhou Ze was like a human bomb chariot, and the players dodged him one after another, but the Rockets general manager was not so lucky.