Yao Ming took off with all his strength, defeated German center Kaman, and won the jump ball.
Rockets attack first!
Lowry passed half court with the ball and began to organize the offense.
Soon, McGrady used the cover of his teammates to reach the outside line and asked for the ball.
Lowry flicked his wrist and the ball came.
T-mac didn't hesitate after receiving the ball, he raised his hand and hit a three-pointer...
"Shua~"
Basketball goes hollow into the net.
3:0, the Rockets took the lead.
"Oh, this goal was scored so neatly!"
"We can see from this first round that the Rockets' coordination is much more sophisticated than at the beginning of the season."
Zhang Weiping commented appropriately.
"Yes, and the Rockets gave me a special feeling today, that kind of pressure from a strong team. And the players' confidence and decisiveness seem to be much stronger than before."
Su Qun responded.
The game continues.
After the transition between offense and defense, Lance Stephenson took the initiative to take on the Clippers' first offense.
Opposing him was none other than his teammate of the Iron-Blooded Pacers in the original time and space—Paul George.
But today is different from the past.
In this time and space, the two did not have much intersection, and they only had some simple exchanges in the early days of the summer league.
In the eyes of Paul George, Stephenson is just a fool who doesn't know the heights of the world.
Facing such an opponent, Pickle Pepper will not show mercy at all.
He lowered his center of gravity, spread his arms, and assumed a standard defensive posture.
Stephenson's mentality has always been very good. Even though the game was booed by the fans from the beginning, he still maintained his confidence.
I saw him making continuous crotch dribbles, approaching George step by step.
I have to say that Stephenson's feel for the ball is still very good.
One move at a time, giving people a feeling of one person and ball, free and easy.
But unfortunately, the opponent he encountered was Paul George, who was far more talented than him.
George not only has superior physical fitness, but his defensive skills are also among the best among his peers.
Especially with Dpoy-level big brothers like Tony Allen and Battier in the team, his defensive skills are much better than his own at the same time in the original time and space!
While Stephenson was dribbling like a butterfly, George kept his eyes on the central axis of Stephenson's nose-chest-crotch and was not fooled by his fake moves.
In this way, Stephenson's dazzling movements give people the impression that... he is as fierce as a tiger in one operation, and he is standing still with his eyes fixed.
This made the Rockets fans at the scene extremely happy.
They booed one after another, adding more pressure to Stephenson.
After all, my junior brother is a first-year rookie, and he has never experienced the feeling of being targeted by all the fans.
Seeing that the fake move was ineffective on George, he gritted his teeth, crossed over, and accelerated hard.
Who would have thought that Stephenson's explosive first step not only failed to pass the opponent, but when he lowered his head and charged forward, George stretched out his left hand and directly blocked the ball!
A one-on-one fight!
After completing the steal, George immediately dribbled the ball to launch a counterattack.
McGrady and Griffin on the side also started speeding up at the same time, and the Rockets instantly formed a three-line fast break.
On the Clippers' side, the two last defenders, Baron Davis and Eric Gordon, quickly returned to defense.
But it’s really not easy to defend two against three.
While running back, the two looked at each other and immediately reached a tacit understanding, giving priority to defending George and McGrady on both wings.
George, who was dribbling the ball, reacted quickly. He looked in McGrady's direction and threw the ball toward the center.
The next moment, a figure rushed over and caught the pass.
It's Griffin!
The place where he caught the ball was one step inside the free throw line.
Generally, when a player receives the ball in this position, if he wants to attack the frame, he usually has two options.
One is to take another step in, then push both feet on the ground to complete the take-off.
The advantages of taking off with both feet are high stability and sufficient force, but it also tests your jumping ability and explosive power.
One is to take three steps, rush to the vicinity of the three-second zone and then take off on one foot.
Jumping on one foot is faster, but the power is slightly weaker, and it is easy to deform when encountering a collision in the air.
Both of these handling methods are reasonable, but they also have a common disadvantage - giving the opponent time to react.
And Griffin's way of handling it is completely different from others.
After catching the ball, he pushed hard with both feet and jumped directly!
Attacking the basket directly from this distance, the Clippers duo didn't expect it at all, and naturally they couldn't react.
As a result, Griffin soared into the sky and flew directly to the basket.
It is worth mentioning that when he jumped to the highest point, his head was already higher than the height of the basket!
"bang!"
Flat basket dunk!
Griffin's explosive dunk directly set the Toyota Center on fire.
Some fans held the back of their heads, and some covered their mouths, all looking like they couldn't believe it.
The season has gone on for 16 games, but when they saw Griffin dunk, they still couldn't help but feel excited!
"Hey, this ball is scheduled to be among the top five balls today!"
"Griffin's dunk is really a pure aesthetic of violence. At that distance, most people would not choose to take off and dunk. Even a guard as experienced as Baron Davis would not have thought of it!"
Zhang Weiping sighed with a smile.
"Yeah, it's been a long time since there was such a violent dunker in the league."
"I saw that some domestic fans gave Griffin a nickname, 'Griffin', which is indeed very appropriate!"
"And Griffin, a young man, not only has great dunks, but his various skills are actually very good. He is definitely ranked among the top players in the post."
Su Qun added, his tone full of appreciation.
Shen Fei in the box nodded slightly after seeing this dunk.
"Everything is difficult at the beginning, but today is a good start."
The Asian young man murmured to himself.
............
Changing sides and fighting again, the Clippers launched another attack.
This time, Baron Davis patiently directed his teammates' movements and ignored Stephenson who was frantically asking for the ball.
But as the attack time passed by one minute and one second, he suddenly discovered that the Rockets' defense was watertight!
In desperation, Davis had to find another way.
He raised his right hand to signal his teammates to step forward to pick and roll.
Kaman arrived quickly and set up a strong cover.
With the help of the pick-and-roll, Davis finally got rid of Lowry, and then met Yao Ming's defense.
The small one is the big one. The bearded man will naturally not miss such a mismatch.
He immediately dribbled the ball 45° to the left and then signaled his teammates to pull away.
When the fans at Toyota Center saw that Yao Ming was about to be challenged, they immediately cheered for their team leader:
"Defense!!!"
"Defense!!!"
"Defense!!!"
....
Amid the mighty noise, Davis launched an attack.
He took two steps backward to open up space, then suddenly accelerated, rushed towards Yao Ming, and then made a huge crossover towards Yao...