As the saying goes, when the road is narrow, the brave will win.
When there is a wall blocking the way forward, some people choose to retreat, some choose to change paths, and a very small number of people choose to knock down the wall!
After recovering from health, Tracy McGrady definitely belongs to the last category.
Looking at Noah in front of him, t-mac gritted his teeth and kicked his feet hard on the ground.
The next moment, he was like stepping on a spring, rising to a terrifying height.
Noah also reacted at this time and jumped up hard.
He knows that his jumping ability is not as good as Tracy McGrady, but he believes that he can use his strong body to interfere with the latter's frame attack.
"Bang~"
The bodies of the two collided violently in the air.
Then...
Noah actually fell backwards!
"bang!"
McGrady slammed the ball into the basket with one hand.
Dunk from behind!
This was McGrady's response.
"Oh my God, a shooting guard challenged the opponent's center, and in the end the center was knocked away. What kind of explosive power is this!"
Yang Yi exclaimed, he was once again shocked by McGrady's talent.
"It doesn't make sense at all. Noah grasped this shot very well, both in terms of position selection and timing of his jump. This was a DPOY (Defensive Player of the Year) level defense."
"But Tracy McGrady didn't care about this at all and just dunked on Noah's head, making all Noah's efforts meaningless."
Yu Jia shook his head and sighed.
As soon as the ball was scored, the eyes of the Rockets players immediately changed.
When Rose completed the shocking "dragon-slaying" pass just now, they were more or less hit.
But now, confidence and excitement have returned to the faces of the Rockets soldiers.
During the transition between offense and defense, Tony Allen stepped forward and waited for Rose's arrival.
In the last round, he was terminated with an ankle injury.
Although he said he didn't care, Tony Allen was holding back a lot of energy in his heart!
He was determined to make Rose "skin off" even if he couldn't guard him.
Ever since, in this round, after Rose came to the top of the arc, Teacher Tony bullied him and kept using physical contact to interfere with the latter's dribbling.
Rose's physical fitness is superb, and so far in his career, he has never been afraid of pressing close to him.
But Teacher Tony is a defensive master after all. Every physical confrontation made Rose very uncomfortable, and his movements were very clean.
Even though the referee stood less than one meter away from the two of them and observed, he did not find any foul action.
This is the biggest difference between Tony Allen and Dream Green, Beverley and the like!
His tough defense has never been based on "dirty" moves.
Rose was annoyed by Allen.
Under this entanglement, he lost the rhythm of dribbling, so it was difficult to get rid of the defense.
In desperation, Rose could only pass the ball.
In the end, the Bulls' offensive round ended with Gibson's hook shot under the basket.
Griffin took off the rebound and passed the ball to Lowry beside him.
The small steel cannon quickly launched a counterattack.
After halftime, he observed the positions of his teammates and opponents.
It has to be said that the Bulls are indeed the top three teams in the league in defensive efficiency.
Facing the Rockets' quick counterattack, they didn't panic at all.
The five players retreated extremely quickly, all returning to their own half and finding their defenders.
Lowry also realized at this moment that he might not be able to fight back.
But he found that Rose, who was facing him, did not choose to defend closely, but stood at the three-point line and watched.
Lowry did not hesitate and decisively chose a position two steps outside the three-point line to shoot.
The basketball drew a rainbow-like arc in the air and hit the net!
"Roar!"
Lowry was very excited after scoring the goal.
He had been suppressed by Rose before, but now he made such a difficult three-pointer face to face, which felt a bit proud.
In the box, Shen Fei nodded thoughtfully, with a smile on his lips.
When Lowry can hit a three-pointer, the Rockets' offense will become extremely simple.
And once Lowry is replaced by Curry, it's a shotgun exchange.
By then, this chasing three-pointer can become a conventional weapon, and Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and others will also have greater offensive space.
............
As Lowry hit a three-pointer, the point difference between the two teams was once again widened.
After Rose's continuous exertion, his physical fitness once again reached a bottleneck period.
During a free throw, he put his hands on his knees and gasped for air.
Beads of sweat kept falling from Ross's forehead, and anyone could see how tired he was.
Nearly half of the game was played, and Rose only rested for two minutes.
The rest of the time, he almost carried the Bulls' offense on his shoulders and tried his best in every offensive possession.
Although the other Bulls players are playing very hard, they obviously cannot match the Rockets' talent.
In normal games, they can also help Rose reduce consumption on the defensive end.
But today, when every Rockets player encounters Rose's defense, they will choose to play singles in order to consume the latter's physical strength.
As time goes by, people with extraordinary talents like Rose begin to lose their physical strength, and their technical movements may even become deformed.
Once the roses fail to bloom, most of the Bulls' offense will stop.
At the end of the second quarter, the point difference between the two teams not only did not narrow, but actually widened.
When the red light on the timer came on, the half game was over, and the score was temporarily fixed at 60:45, with the Rockets leading by as many as 15 points.
Rose looked tired and walked to the locker room without looking back.
............
"We have to find a way to share the pressure with Derek."
In the locker room, head coach Thibodeau said solemnly.
All the bull generals nodded.
"Now the score difference is 15 points, and we are already standing on the edge of the cliff. In the second half of the game, everyone should not have any psychological burden and take bold action when there is an opportunity."
"Especially, when Derek rushes in to attract the pass from the defense, you must grasp it."
"Kyle, in the second half, you make bold shots. Even if the ball is 50% likely to be blocked, you make bold shots for me. Do you understand?"
Thibodeau looked directly at Korver and said seriously.
Korver, nicknamed "Jay Chou from Beautiful Country", nodded repeatedly.
He is a long-famous shooter and was once one of the Five Tigers.
As a pure shooter, Korver has also made the All-Star team and been selected for the national team, which shows how superb his shooting skills are.
Korver also has another characteristic - the regular season is much more accurate than the playoffs!
This year, he ranks first in both three-point field goals made and three-point field goal percentage.
The only one who can compete with him is Curry.
The latter's shooting percentage is actually higher than Korver's, but unfortunately he missed too many games due to injury and failed to enter the rankings.
............
After Thibodeau laid out the tactics very carefully, the halftime break was coming to an end.
At this moment, Rose, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly said: "In the second half, we have to get back the point difference."
After that, he left the locker room on his own.
The teammates looked at each other, but then smiled again.
They knew that Rose, the silent leader, would explode in the second half!