The inter-section break ends soon and the game starts again.
Howard only rested for two minutes before getting back into action.
Yao Ming had just returned from injury, and coach Mark Jackson didn't want to overuse him, so he still kept him on the bench.
In order to restrict Howard, Jackson sent out veteran Chuck Hayes, who had not played for a long time.
Haiye is 1.98 meters tall. But judging from his size, he is not the material to play inside at all.
However, beneath his unassuming appearance, he possesses a unique ability—historical lower body strength!
How to describe how stable Hayes' foot plate is?
Fans can think of many star insiders, such as Duncan, Garnett, Stoudemire, and even the aging shark Shaquille O'Neal, who have tried to post up Hayes in the low post.
But all their hard fights, without exception, ended in defeat.
To put it simply, if you want to beat Hayes, you have to rely on skill and don't try to use brute force.
With him on the court, at least you don't have to worry about Howard's crazy singles.
Shen Fei in the box shook his head silently when he saw this scene.
In his opinion, although Hayes has the ability to defend big inside players, overall, he is not a qualified substitute center.
First of all, Hayes' skills are relatively rough, he does not have the ability to attack with the ball, and he cannot use shooting to open up space for the team.
Letting him play means that in the offense, the team needs to play 4 on 5.
Secondly, although Hayes has amazing lower body strength and can defend the opponent's strong attack, once he encounters a smarter opponent (who knows how to maneuver and avoid head-on confrontation), his defensive ability will be greatly reduced.
"It seems that we have to find a backup center for Yao Ming."
Shen Fei murmured to himself.
............
The game continues.
As soon as the Magic came up, they showed a different attitude towards the game.
Without Yao Ming's restrictions, Howard began to make waves in the paint.
He first grabbed an offensive rebound when his teammates were shooting, and dunked in the second takeoff.
As Warcraft completed two takeoffs, Hayes basically watched helplessly.
Then, Howard attracted double-teams in the low post and used a cross-half-court pass to find the open Quentin Richardson, helping the latter hit a three-pointer.
This is not over yet.
Howard not only shows his power on the offensive end.
On the defensive end, he also showed the style of Warcraft.
In the first round, Rockets veteran Kevin Martin broke through the Magic's perimeter defense, rushed to the penalty area and made a throw.
Howard was like a magic weapon descending from the sky, sending the ball flying with a volleyball hat.
In the next round, Lawson used a change of direction to dribble past Jamal Nelson.
After arriving near the free throw line, because he was afraid of Howard, he chose to stop at the free throw line and shoot a jumper.
Unexpectedly, the moving speed of Warcraft is far beyond ordinary insiders, and he actually stepped up and blocked the shot again.
These two successful defenses also helped the Magic counterattack.
Rashad Lewis, the "Mr. Billion Dollar" who performed poorly in the first quarter, hit three-pointers in two counterattacks!
"Oh! The Magic team hit a 10:2 climax in just three minutes."
"The score between the two teams is now 44:35, and the point difference has been narrowed to single digits!"
Zhang Weiping commented timely.
The fans at Toyota Center have fallen silent.
They set their sights on Mark Jackson on the coaching bench, hoping he would make adjustments quickly.
However, the Rockets coach looked calm and watched everything that happened on the court calmly.
His confidence is not groundless.
Soon, the situation on the field changed.
In the transition between offense and defense, Ty Lawson dribbled the ball through the half court and directed his teammates to move.
At this time, Martin, Courtney Lee and Scola, who have shooting abilities, all moved to the outside.
Hayes mentioned outside the three-point line and set up a pick-and-roll for him.
Lawson used the screen to accelerate and passed the opposing Magic backup point guard, Chris Duhon.
After breaking into the inside line, he did not rush to take action, but observed Howard's position with his peripheral vision.
Seeing that he was already on his footing and ready to chase the big block, Lawson immediately changed his tactics and passed the ball back to Hayes.
Then, Lawson quickly ran to Kevin Martin and set up an off-ball screen for the latter.
Martin used the pick-and-roll to reach outside the three-point line.
After receiving the pass from Hayes, he set up a "crooked machine gun" and took action decisively.
The basketball left his fingertips and spun at high speed, drawing a beautiful arc in the air...
"Shua~"
Hollow into the net!
47:35, this is a three-pointer that "stops the bleeding"!
After tasting the sweetness, Lawson did the same thing in the next round.
It's just that this time the target of the ball became Courtney Lee.
Xiao Li lived up to expectations. Under the cover of Lawson, he threw a gap and hit the knife outside the three-point line, adding another three points to the team!
50:35, the score difference widens again!
"Hey, the rocket tactic is quite rare."
In the comment room, Zhang Weiping said with surprise.
"Generally speaking, it's the big man who picks and rolls for the small man."
"But in these two rounds, the Rockets asked point guard Lawson to set up pick-and-rolls for the two wing players."
"This tactic is very novel! The Magic team has obviously never seen a similar tactic before, and they can't cope with it all of a sudden!"
Director Zhang analyzed with a smile.
............
On the court, the Magic players seemed to have been poured cold water on them, with their depression written all over their faces.
Especially Howard.
Since the second quarter, every time he defended the opponent's pick-and-roll, he worked tirelessly to rush to the outside.
Who would have thought that the Rockets would switch to Lawson as the pick (setting the pick and roll) in the pick and roll.
The small guard's pace is so fast that even Howard has a hard time keeping up.
In this way, the Rockets can naturally get some space on the outside.
At the same time, on the sidelines of the Rockets coaching bench, Mark Jackson was beaming, obviously very satisfied with the tactics just now.
In fact, it was Shen Fei who inspired him to let defenders set up pick-and-rolls for big men.
When he first heard this idea, Mark Jackson didn't agree.
However, by chance, he asked his team members to run this tactic during training, and the results were surprisingly good!
This led to Lawson's performance today.
[Isn’t the manager a monster? At such a young age, he can think of so many tactics that he has never heard of but are very effective...]
Mark Jackson was confused.
And as this wave of counterattacks was suppressed, the morale of the Magic team also plummeted.
Halfway through the second quarter, the score reached 57-42, and the Rockets always maintained a lead of more than 10 points.
At this time, the main forces of both sides were almost rested and went into battle one after another.
When Yao Ming, McGrady, George and others returned to the court, the Magic once again fell into extreme passivity!