Chapter 404 Harden comes on stage and changes the situation!
However, it was all too late.
No matter how explosive Westbrook is or how fast he is, he can't beat Curry's shooting speed.
Rockets No. 30 took a calm shot nearly 50 feet away from the basket.
Westbrook jumped high, but he could only watch the basketball fly over his head.
The ball drew a rainbow-like arc in the air...
"Shua~"
Three-point arrow, the flames of hell!
Curry immediately responded to Westbrook with a logo-shot.
After scoring the goal, Curry lightly punched his chest and then raised his hands to the sky.
The dullness of his celebrations was in sharp contrast to Westbrook's previous excitement.
But the fans at Toyota Center are not as calm as Curry.
They stood up one after another and chanted Curry's name in unison:
"curry!!!"
"curry!!!"
"curry!!!"
...
On the court, Westbrook frowned slightly and looked unhappy.
"I'll hit another one."
Turtle shouted to his teammates as he walked to the baseline to catch the ball.
Durant nodded noncommittally.
Others have no opinion.
The Thunder can be considered a newly emerging youth team. The young players communicate frequently and are very familiar with each other.
Everyone knows Westbrook’s character very well.
At this time, if he is not allowed to fight again, Turtle will feel very unhappy...
As a result, Westbrook advanced with the ball again and started a singles at a 45-degree angle on the left.
The fans at the scene all guessed Turtle's intentions.
So they all stood up spontaneously and shouted slogans in unison:
"Defense!!!"
"Defense!!!"
"Defense!!!"
...
Amid the overwhelming cheers, Curry's confidence greatly increased.
He still concluded that the opponent did not have stable shooting ability, so he took a step back again.
For this kind of position selection, all you have to do is tell Westbrook - you vote, I will let you vote.
Guigui did not hesitate and confidently shot a three-pointer...
"Duang!"
The ball hit the front edge of the basket hard and bounced out.
Yao Ming controlled the rebound and handed the ball to Tracy McGrady beside him.
T-mac lowered his head and accelerated toward the enemy half.
However, the Thunder generals retreated quickly.
McGrady had just passed halftime, and four of their players were already in position.
Perkins, the only one still in the Rockets' half, also followed Yao Ming's pace and ran hard.
McGrady simply slowed down when he saw this.
Over the past month or so, the Rockets' positional offense has improved greatly.
They have become accustomed to converting such uncertain counterattacks into positional attacks.
Then, McGrady used his peripheral vision to observe that Yao Ming was cutting in at high speed, while Perkins was pulled away by one body.
t-mac immediately thought of a plan.
I saw him lowering his center of gravity and slowly moving towards Yao Ming's position.
When Dayao passed by, McGrady suddenly took a step sideways and blocked Perkins' path.
The latter was taken aback.
In order not to run into McGrady, Perkins could only stop temporarily.
And in this gap, t-mac flicked his wrist and passed the ball to Yao Ming in front of him.
In an instant, there was no obstruction in front of Dayao!
Yao Ming raised his long legs, took a step, held the ball with one hand in his right hand, and rushed towards the basket...
Ibaka, who was on the other side of the basket, ran to help defend.
But seeing Yao Ming sprinting at full speed, he couldn't help but hesitate.
And this hesitation of less than a second caused Ibaka to lose the opportunity to help defend.
"bang!"
Yao Ming set the court on fire again with a powerful one-handed chop!
In the box, Shen Fei smiled and shook his head.
When Yao Ming rushes up, he is like a high-speed train!
Even a shot-blocking maniac like Ibaka would inevitably feel frightened when seeing an opponent like this.
This...is the height of the East!
As soon as this goal was scored, the score came to 12:6.
Thunder coach Scott Brooks frowned on the sidelines.
He was vaguely aware that the Rockets might gain momentum and was hesitant to call a timeout.
But now the game has only been going on for more than three minutes, and it seems a little early to call a timeout...
But while Brooks was hesitating, the Rockets tried their best again!
George anticipated Sefolosha's passing intention, started early, and intercepted the ball on the passing route.
The Rockets launched a counterattack!
During the transition, Curry found McGrady with a great pass.
After t-mac got the ball, he pulled it up and shot...
Sefolosha tried his best to take off, but when he reached the highest point, he suddenly found that... he could only touch McGrady's elbow!
"Beep!"
The whistle sounded and Sefolosha's thug committed a foul.
This is not over yet!
McGrady just threw the ball...
"Shua~"
Shortly after the whistle blew, the basketball hit the net.
If you score a three-pointer, there will be an additional penalty!
This is actually an opportunity to score four points!
"Roar!!!"
After scoring, McGrady excitedly punched the air and roared in celebration.
When he stood on the free throw line, the Rockets fans at the scene stood up and gave t-mac exclusive cheers:
"mvp!!!"
"mvp!!!"
"mvp!!!"
...
McGrady can afford this MVP award.
Since this season, he has averaged 27.9 points, 4.5 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game.
27.9 points. This score may not be outstanding compared to McGrady's previous scoring championship seasons, but it is still good enough.
He is currently 0.2 points ahead of Durant, who is second in the scoring list.
As long as McGrady doesn't lose more than 16 points to the coach tonight, he will be able to win the scoring title after a long absence!
Another thing that must be made clear is that this season McGrady did not take over everything, but shared many opportunities with his teammates.
As a result, his personal data is bound to be affected, but what follows is the full bloom of the Rockets!
All in all, if the Rockets can successfully defeat the Thunder tonight and create a historical record of 73 wins and 9 losses...
As the absolute top player of this team, McGrady has no reason to miss out on this year’s mvp!
............
His eyes returned to the field.
McGrady took the referee's pass, took a deep breath, and hit the extra penalty steadily.
14:6, the Rockets have led by as many as 8 points!
On the sidelines, Scott Brooks put his hand on his forehead and finally signaled a timeout to the technical table.
He is worried that once the Rockets gain momentum and the point difference reaches double digits, it will be difficult for the Thunder to turn around!
During the timeout, Brooks kept cheering the players.
"The Rockets feel hot, but they can't always maintain such a shooting rate. The difficulty is only temporary!"
"Stabilize your mentality. We can play more with Curry on the offensive end! Russell, I don't think there is a problem with your previous shot selection, but I still hope you can hit the inside more."
"Even if he lets you go, you can still get past him with your ability!"
...
"Guys, our talent is no worse than theirs, calm down and play our Thunder basketball!"
Brooks spoke impassionedly for a minute, which could be regarded as boosting the morale of the Thunder boys.
However, when he said, "Play our Thunder basketball," the players without exception looked at Dewey.
Thunder basketball is just about Durant throwing a ball at Westbrook, and then Westbrook throwing a ball at Durant.
Do you go back and forth like this, using your super personal ability to score points, and then the whole team defends together?
Oh, by the way, when Harden comes on the bench, the Thunder's basketball can evolve further and become - Durant finishes with Westbrook's kick, Westbrook finishes with Harden's kick, and then the cycle repeats...
Of course, although this style of play is simple and crude, it is indeed the optimal solution for the current Thunder.
When you have three players with super personal abilities, you can indeed arrange it like this.
After all, the sport of basketball is all about putting the ball into the basket.
Whether you play complex tactics and score a simple ball in the end, or you play solo and score the ball with difficulty, the result is the same.
Sure enough, after the timeout ended, Durant stepped forward to solve the problem.
He got stuck in the low post and successfully received Westbrook's pass.
Although he was held back by George behind him, Durant relied on his static talent to make a simple turnaround and fadeaway jumper, and then steadily sent the ball into the basket.
14:8, this goal can be said to stop the bleeding!
During the transition between offense and defense, Tracy McGrady actually dropped to the low post and came to the mirror position where Durant launched his attack.
Curry immediately understood what Big Brother was thinking, and with a flick of his wrist, he sent the ball over.
The ball speed of this pass is not very fast.
While it was still in mid-air, Durant suddenly patted Sefolosha from behind.
The latter understood it, and the two of them switched defenses instantly.
And McGrady naturally noticed this.
Although the two men switched defenses quickly, they still left opportunities to take advantage of.
But T-Mac did not take the opportunity to attack. Instead, he paused and waited for Durant to arrive.
"You are too confident and you will regret it."
Xiaoshuai saw this and said seriously.
Maddie turned her back to him and did not refute after hearing this.
The next second, he suddenly made a behind-the-back dribble, directly exposing the basketball in front of Durant's eyes.
Xiaoshuai was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously reached out to steal it.
But McGrady's dribbling angle from behind is very tricky and he also controls the intensity very well.
The ball passed by Durant's fingertips but was not intercepted by him.
Not only that...
Durant's center of gravity tilted forward in order to get the ball.
Therefore, when McGrady turned around and shot a jumper, he had no time to jump to interfere and could only watch on the spot...
"Shua~"
The basketball hit the net.
"pretty!"
Well-known ESPN commentator A-Smith came to the scene to provide commentary today.
When he saw Tracy McGrady's work of art, he couldn't help but exclaimed.
"If there is an artist on the basketball court, that person must be Tracy McGrady."
"I can only describe his playing style as elegant, even elegant!"
a-Smith added.
At the same time, Shen Fei in the stands couldn't help but nodded.
Tracy McGrady's shot can only be described as an expert and a bold one.
The confrontation between him and Durant was equivalent to a battle between generals of the two armies in ancient wars.
This kind of confrontation will have a great impact on the morale of both parties.
Both McGrady and Durant know this very well.
But even in such a critical round, t-mac dared to choose such a freehand method (if he was slightly careless, he would send the ball directly to Durant's hands), which shows his confidence in his own skills!
Shen Fei could not imagine that other stars in the league could imitate this way of handling things!
At 16:8, the score difference returned to 8 points.
And after this goal, the Rockets' morale surged.
After the transition between offense and defense, Durant once again singled out George.
But this time, Paojiao relied on his strong defensive awareness to predict Xiaoshuai's offensive options in advance, and when he was raising the ball to prepare, he cut the ball off with one palm!
During the counterattack, George, who came in at high speed, received a pass from Curry and dunked easily.
In both offense and defense, Paojiao showed his versatility.
As strong as Durant, he didn't even take advantage of him!
During the remainder of the first quarter, the Rockets steadily expanded their lead.
But the red light on the timer came on, and the score was temporarily fixed at 35:20.
The Rockets had a dream start, leading the Thunder by a big score!
In the second quarter of the game, both sides substituted substitute players at the same time.
The Rockets have put on the "Ultimate Basketball" lineup: McGrady, George, Danny Green, Tucker, and Ben.
The Thunder left Durant and Ibaka on the court and sent out their super sixth man-James Harden!
After the organizer changed from Westbrook to Harden, the Thunder's offense became much smoother.
In the first round, Deng started a pick-and-roll with Ibaka in the high post.
As Harden was walking, he suddenly flicked his wrist and passed the ball to Ibaka with a hidden pass.
Ibaka, who had been silent for a whole quarter, was finally able to show his talent in the face of an empty penalty area...
He took off with both feet and made a powerful two-handed chop, giving the Thunder a good start in the second quarter!
A good offense can often drive players' defensive enthusiasm.
Ibaka turned around and gave Tucker a hot shot in the penalty area.
Harden had quick eyes and quick hands, controlled the rebound, and then immediately launched a counterattack.
During the transition between offense and defense, Durant's movement attracted the attention of Rockets players.
Harden "took advantage of the opportunity", drove to the basket in one line, and used one of his unique skills - the European step - when facing his boss.
Different from Wade's boldness and Ginobili's unpredictability, Harden's European step has a unique rhythm.
He stepped out with his right foot while collecting the ball, and then connected with the European step.
To put it simply, Harden's version of the European step is one more step visually compared to the normal version!
In Ben's eyes, Harden took three steps in a row before making a layup.
Even a strong defensive player like Ben Wallace was stunned by the opponent's operation.
His feet seemed to be nailed in place, and he could only watch Harden complete the layup.
After the ball was scored, Ben immediately stretched out his hands toward the referee and rolled them up and down.
Apparently, he thought Harden walked!
The referee immediately shook his head.
He was standing not far away just now and saw the whole process clearly.
Harden used the standard "012" move.
The step taken when collecting the ball does not count towards the three-step layup...
This is a good shot!
With this wonderful layup, the Thunder narrowed the point difference to 11 points.