Yao Ming kicked his feet, relaxed his arms, and won the ball.
The 2.06-meter Heat center Joel Anthony is too small in front of him.
Rockets attack first!
Lowry held the ball and pushed past half court.
At the same time, Su Qun began to introduce the lineups of both sides:
"The Rockets are still familiar to everyone: Lowry, Tracy McGrady, George, Griffin and Yao Ming."
"On the Heat's side, Chalmers and Wade partner in the backcourt, James Bosh forms the forward line, and Joel Anthony is the center."
While talking, the Rockets had completed their first attack.
Yao Ming asked for the ball in the low post. After receiving Lowry's pass, he simply hit his back twice and immediately turned over and shot.
Faced with the huge height difference, Joel Anthony could not affect Yao's shooting at all.
The basketball hits the net!
2:0, the Rockets took the lead!
During the transition between offense and defense, Chalmers came to the top of the key to organize the attack.
With the help of Bosh's screen, James came out from the inside and successfully received the basketball.
But soon, a slender figure followed closely.
The visitor was wearing Rockets jersey No. 13, and it was Paul George.
Pickle opened his arms, lowered his center of gravity, left a step away, and started to defend.
For the past two days, George was too excited to sleep.
In the league, besides Kobe, the one he most hopes to play against is James.
Before the game, head coach Mark Jackson gave George the task of using all his strength to limit LeBron's performance.
In order to complete this task, Paojiao copied a lot of James' videos and also consulted the team's two top defensive masters-Tony Allen and Sean Battier.
Finally, he even called his idol, Kobe Bryant, to ask how to defend James.
The answers given by the three people are basically the same and can be summarized into three points.
1. Be willing to invest but not sudden.
Although James has shooting ability, he is not stable. He is very accurate when he is accurate, but he will continue to shoot when his hands are cold.
And his breakthroughs are always online.
Once James is allowed to speed up, it will be too late. If he blocks it forcefully, there is a high possibility of giving away a two-plus-one opportunity.
2. Try to squeeze through the pick and roll.
There will be a lot of pick-and-rolls in James' games, one after another, until an opportunity appears. This is a huge test for the defender's physical strength!
3. Try to cut off the connection between James and his teammates.
Unlike a pure scorer, James has outstanding organizational skills. This means that it is difficult for you to double-team him.
Because once James notices an opportunity arises for his teammates, with his size, vision, and passing skills, he can send the ball to the right position as soon as possible.
In other words, when facing LeBron, defenders often encounter a "two cups of poison" dilemma.
Should we limit his personal offense or cut off his connection with his teammates?
This is an unsolved mystery of the Alliance.
Kobe's suggestion on this was that he would rather let James score points than let him drive his teammates.
After George received the three suggestions, he thought about it for a long time and finally had a general idea.
Before going on the court, he told his teammates: "Let me defend alone, I want to try it!"
Seeing how courageous George was, the big brothers of the team were naturally happy to give him a chance and readily agreed to the request.
And now, it’s Pickled Pepper’s first challenge to LeBron!
............
James assumed a triple threat posture and observed the rookie in front of him.
Taking a tentative step, George adjusted his steps slightly and kept his center of gravity steady.
Another shot fake, but George remained unmoved.
[Something.]
James thought to himself, and then he raised his hand to call for a pick-and-roll from his teammates.
Joel Anthony rushed over.
Although the No. 1 pick in 1996 fell far short of expectations, his physical talent was indeed good, and his thick frame also allowed him to handle pick-and-rolls tightly.
George raised his long legs and struggled to squeeze through the pick-and-roll.
But in the few tenths of a second he was delayed, James had already accelerated to the free throw line and took three steps to meet Yao Ming, who was defending.
Yao Ming raised his arms, ready to block the shot.
But it was difficult to stop James who was starting at a fast pace. He slightly tightened his abdomen in the air, used his lag in the air to get past Dayao's defense, flicked his wrist, and threw the ball...
The ball hit the backboard and bounced into the net.
2:2, the Heat equalized the score!
"Hey, James made the ball very easily. The Rockets' defense hardly hindered him."
Zhang Weiping commented timely.
On the court, George raised his right hand to indicate that the ball was his problem.
[When encountering a pick-and-roll, you should retreat and not squeeze past, otherwise you will not be able to keep up!]
He thought secretly in his heart.
In the next round, James made a comeback.
The same recipe, he called Joel Anthony's pick-and-roll again.
This time, George retreated to avoid the opponent's delay.
James got an open shooting opportunity from outside the three-point line, but he did not take the shot. Instead, he passed the ball to Wade who was running back and cutting inside.
The Flash was extremely fast and quickly rushed to the three-second zone after receiving the ball, giving Yao Ming on the other side of the basket no chance to react.
I saw him kicking the ground hard with both feet and rising into the air...
At the critical moment, McGrady jumped high and missed Wade's dunk from behind.
"Beep!"
The whistle sounded, the thug committed a foul!
McGrady complained that he was wronged and walked to the referee to explain: "I was all on the ball and didn't touch Dwayne's hand at all!"
But the referee just shook his head after hearing this and had no intention of changing the decision.
Maddie was speechless, turned around and left.
During Wade's free throw, the on-site director performed a slow-motion replay of the previous round.
The video clearly showed that this was a standard block and there was no suspicion of foul play.
"This ball was either a misjudgment or the home team whistled."
Su Qun sighed.
"It's okay, it's okay. Although this ball was called a foul, the Rockets' morale has obviously improved because of this block."
Zhang Weiping said optimistically.
After changing sides and fighting again, Tracy McGrady felt unhappy and decided to launch an offensive.
Facing Wade's defense, t-mac decided to use his height advantage to attack.
He caught the ball in the low post, then turned around and turned into a face-up attack.
I saw McGrady holding the ball in one hand with his right hand, taking two tentative steps, and then directly hit Wade's head!
Although the Flash is only 1.93 meters tall, he has a monster wingspan of 2.1 meters and excellent jumping ability.
In the seven years since he entered the league, Wade has been the absolute shot-blocking leader at the guard position!
He has countless big centers at his disposal, not to mention ordinary wing players.
However... in the face of McGrady's absolute talent, Wade can only watch the ball and sigh!
t-mac jumped too high!
It was obviously taking off from the same place, but the height was higher than many players taking off during a run-up!
Even though he is a shot-blocking master like Wade, he can only try to interfere symbolically.
"Shua~"
The basketball hit the net!
4:4, the two sides drew again.
After scoring, McGrady smiled slightly: "ball.don’t.lie (basketball doesn’t lie)."
Wade's eyes widened when he heard this, obviously feeling that he had been provoked!