"This is our home court and we need to defend it..."
During halftime, Jerry Sloan angrily scolded the players in the locker room, blaming them for not playing tough enough and not fouling hard enough.
Deron Williams was a little dissatisfied. He wanted to tell Sloan that the referee did not give too many home whistles today and he was called for a foul after making the slightest move.
If he continues to commit brutal fouls under this situation, I'm afraid he will have to leave the game with six fouls in less than three quarters.
It's a pity that Delong's status is not as good as Sloan's now, so he dares to be angry but dare not speak out.
Others, under Sloan's scolding, expressed that they would play tougher in the second half.
Jerry Sloan was then satisfied.
In fact, he also noticed that the referee's penalty was not as biased as the Jazz in the previous game, and he also knew that if he continued to make small moves in this situation, he would be called a foul, and the gain would not be worth the loss.
But he still chose this arrangement. He wanted to express his dissatisfaction to the referee and put pressure on the referee.
If the referee really dares to blow a few Jazz players down, the fans at the scene will explode.
At the beginning of the second half of the game, the Jazz players became much tougher.
Actions that I didn't dare to do in the first half are now appearing again and again.
The referee gave two whistles at first, but the Jazz players refused to change their ways.
This makes things difficult for the referee.
If the whistle continues, Boozer, Deron, and Okur may all be sent off.
Sending off a star can easily cause controversy. If multiple stars are sent off, they may all be investigated.
If a referee repeatedly ejects a star player in the playoffs, he will definitely be fired.
Without the star, the fans would still be disappointed.
When the Jazz attacked, Boozer pushed Zhang Zhiyuan, then got space to catch the ball, jumped up and shot, and the ball went in.
The referee didn't blow the whistle, so Zhang Zhiyuan couldn't protest. After all, he said before that only children complain.
The Rockets attacked and Zhang Zhiyuan moved. Boozer was worried that he would not be able to catch up, so he got close to Zhang Zhiyuan before he started, and reached his hand under Zhang Zhiyuan's armpit. Their hands were entangled.
Zhang Zhiyuan threw him hard, broke free and slapped Boozer on the face.
"Fake Squid."
Boozer pushed Zhang Zhiyuan hard, and Zhang Zhiyuan raised his hands to show his innocence.
Alston stepped in to support the situation and almost caused a conflict.
The whistle sounded and the referee had to blow the foul.
However, what shocked Zhang Zhiyuan was that in the end, the referee only called Boozer a common foul and not even a technical foul.
And he and Alston were only warned, nothing happened.
If this was left for 10 years, this kind of conflict would have to be at least given to a technical prisoner, and maybe even deported.
Zhang Zhiyuan noticed that the scale of penalties was becoming looser.
Fortunately, the referee seemed to be unbiased.
The Jazz were attacking, and Zhang Zhiyuan was also quietly tugging on Boozer's jersey.
This small move has little effect, but it can make the opponent feel sick and angry.
Deron hit the basket, causing Yao Ming's thug to foul and went to the free throw line.
Van Gundy protested violently off the court, believing that Yao Ming did not foul.
During the transition between offense and defense, Boozer, who was almost dead from exhaustion, didn't want to run with Zhang Zhiyuan, so he grabbed Zhang Zhiyuan's shorts. Zhang Zhiyuan pushed Boozer, but Boozer fell to the ground but forgot to let go, and Zhang Zhiyuan's shorts were pulled off.
The scene was once indecent.
"I'm going to sue him for sexual harassment."
Zhang Zhiyuan said to the referee.
"He's pushing people, he's pushing people."
Boozer also protested righteously.
This farce angered the referee, who gave Zhang Zhiyuan and Boozer a technical foul respectively, showing their bottom line.
"Jazz played really dirty, there were too many little tricks."
"This is a Jazz tradition, ever since Marlon Stockton."
"Fuck, if you can't beat me, take off your pants. Why doesn't Boozer go beat wnba?"
"Fortunately, Brother Zhang is wearing underwear."
...
Chinese fans automatically ignored the Rockets players' little moves, and when they caught the Jazz's little moves, they became messengers of justice and angrily criticized them.
As for those neutral fans in North America, their first feeling is that this is the real playoffs.
The game continued. After being warned by the technical offender, Zhang Zhiyuan and Boozer restrained themselves, but the others still punched hard.
When Deron and Alston were fighting for the basketball, no one knew what happened. Anyway, Alston started bleeding from the corners of his eyes. Fans who didn't know the power of NBA players' elbows might have suspected that the Jazz player had a wrench hidden in his crotch.
The Jazz players are tough, but the Rockets are not soft either.
In the end, the main factor that affects the outcome of the game is strength.
The Big Three of the Rockets are showing off their power, while the Jazz are exhausted.
Yao Ming caught the ball under the basket, Okur blocked it from behind, and Kirilenko ran to double-team and steal the ball.
Yao Ming passed the ball to the outside, McGrady received the ball, Halprin made up the defense, and McGrady passed the ball again.
Battier helped Zhang Zhiyuan block Boozer, Zhang Zhiyuan caught the ball and hit two points.
The Jazz counterattacked, Boozer took a mid-range shot, Zhang Zhiyuan covered his eyes to defend, and the ball missed.
During the transition between offense and defense, Zhang Zhiyuan threw Boozer away to catch the ball, Kirilenko made a defense, Zhang Zhiyuan distributed the ball, and Battier took an open shot and hit the ball.
When the "buy up" combination is present, the Jazz are prone to loopholes.
Especially when Boozer couldn't guard Zhang Zhiyuan, this vulnerability became even greater.
Zhang Zhiyuan got better and better as he fought, while Boozer got worse and worse and became more and more angry.
The angrier he gets, the more attributes will be sucked away, the greater the gap between him and Zhang Zhiyuan, and the worse his performance will be.
In a vicious cycle, Boozer performed undercover in the third quarter.
He only scored two points on 1 of 6 shots. Zhang Zhiyuan, who was on guard, scored 9 points and 2 assists on 4 of 5 shots.
At the end of the third quarter, 88 to 64, the Rockets already led by 24 points.
It can be said that the game has been spent.
In the fourth quarter, the Jazz did not play the main force and Jerry Sloan had given up.
Yao Mai of the Rockets also did not play, and Zhang Zhiyuan was on the court alone to lead the substitutes.
Van Gundy is helping Zhang Zhiyuan achieve his goals. After all, Zhang Zhiyuan's playoff score in this game is expected to hit a new high.
Zhang Zhiyuan was not polite to Van Gundy and was ready to transform into Kobe and take over the game.
He first used the fetter chain on Jilishek, who was facing him, and then started to fight in singles.
He turned his back and passed Jilishek, gaining space to take action immediately.
This opportunity is not very good, but it is enough.
Gilisek was never Zhang Zhiyuan's opponent, and now that he has been weakened, he cannot interfere with Zhang Zhiyuan too much.
The ball goes in.
"It's 23 points, tying his highest score in the playoffs."
Sun Zhengping has been counting his scores for a long time.
"We will definitely break the record today."
Zhang Lili agreed.
The Jazz counterattacked and Fisher hit from mid-range.
During the transition between offense and defense, Zhang Zhiyuan ran without the ball, and his teammates helped him cover and block people.
Then Zhang Zhiyuan took the ball and hit again.
"25, a new high in points scored in the playoffs."
Sun Zhengping shouted.
"It's amazing."
Chinese fans cheered.
After Zhang Zhiyuan scored two goals in a row, the Jazz began to double-team him to prevent him.
But this still didn't stop him from taking action.
Unable to get close to the basket, he started throwing three-pointers.
The first shot missed, and the second shot didn't hit either.
Just when everyone thought he would be able to adjust, he continued to throw three-pointers as hard as he could.
The ball goes in.
"Xiao Zhang really dares to vote, and he really dares to score."
Zhang Li said with lingering fear. Seeing Zhang Zhiyuan continue to take action after two straight irons, he was worried that Zhang Zhiyuan would lose the game.
"Good guy, he finally revealed his true nature. I guess he had been holding it in very hard before."
Barkley complained.
In just six minutes, Zhang Zhiyuan actually took 10 shots and hit 5, leading the team to a 16-8 spurt.
During the Rockets attack, Zhang Zhiyuan caught the ball and was knocked down by Jazz edgeman Dee Brown.
Van Gundy quickly replaced Zhang Zhiyuan, and if he let Zhang Zhiyuan bully others, the Jazz players would really take a wrench out of their crotch.
Afterwards, the fringe players from both teams came on the field, and even people like Lucas III and Spanoulis got to practice for several minutes.
At the end of the game, the score was 118 to 87. The Rockets beat their opponents by 31 points. The commentators and fans were stunned.
You know, during the entire 2006-07 regular season, the Rockets never defeated their opponents by 31 points.
The style of this team is slow tempo, positional warfare, and winning by defense. It is easy for them to win, but it is very rare to win by a big score.
Not only was this game won by 31 points, it was also a playoff game, a life-or-death battle for match points, and it was extremely valuable.
On the Jazz side, the best performer was Deron, who scored 23 points on 9 of 18 shots.
Boozer played poorly, shooting 6 of 20 from the field, and only scored 18 points including free throws.
This series was originally his fame game, but because of the emergence of Zhang Zhiyuan, he no longer has those highlight moments. The Jazz may be able to strengthen Delong in advance because of this.
Boozer lost the chance to become famous, but Zhang Zhiyuan stepped on him and officially became famous in this series.
In the past, when the media talked about the Big Three of the Rockets, it was more or less a joke.
In this game, Zhang Zhiyuan's performance was fully worthy of being named the Big Three.
In this battle, he made 14 of 24 shots, 4 of 9 three-pointers, 3 of 4 free throws, and scored 35 points, 3 rebounds, and 8 assists.
Yao Ming played a relatively short time, making 7 of 12 shots and scoring 20 points including free throws.
McGrady played 30 minutes, making 8 of 19 shots and scoring 22 points including free throws.
The Big Three scored 77 points together, almost as much as the entire Jazz team.
After winning this game, the Rockets gained three match points 3-1. They had three opportunities, and they only needed to win one of these three opportunities to advance to the second round.
The probability of advancement is as high as 87.5%.
At the end of the game, Zhang Zhiyuan returned to the locker room, and the audience did not boo again.
After losing so miserably, they didn't have the nerve to provoke anymore.
Some more rational fans even appreciated Zhang Zhiyuan's wonderful performance.
If Zhang Zhiyuan can switch to the Jazz, they can immediately become Zhang Zhiyuan's fans.
At the post-game press conference, Boozer was besieged by reporters.
"Carlos, you only scored 18 points today, but allowed your opponent to score 35 points. Why is this?"
the reporter asked.
"Everyone has times when they don't perform well, and that's normal."
Boozer said, in fact, what he wanted to say was, 'Madefak didn't play against Zhang Zhiyuan the whole time. Zhang Zhiyuan scored more than ten points in the fourth quarter, it's none of my business.'
"The team is already 1-3 behind, and there is only one home court left. Do you think the team still has a chance?"
the reporter asked.
"Of course, everything is possible and we will not give up."
Boozer said.
In fact, what he wants to say is that if there is a hammer that can't beat it at home, how can it beat two away games?
"What kind of player do you think Zhang is?"
the reporter asked.
"He's very strong."
Boozer said.
Thoughts: "This bitch is just a bastard, he will do anything and has no limits."
In addition to Boozer, Deron and Okur also suffered some soul torture.
Compared to the grim looks on the faces of the Jazz players, the Rockets players were much more cheerful during the Q&A.
Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady said a lot of words to praise Zhang Zhiyuan, which made Zhang Zhiyuan feel a little embarrassed.
[The undrafted pick showed off his strength, scoring 35 points and 8 assists, and the Rockets led 3-1. ]
[Averaging 24 points per game in four games, a new star is rising.]
[Teams that want to rebuild can consider buying Zhang, he is worth a gamble. 】
Zhang Zhiyuan scored 40 points in the regular season, but he received far less praise than he does now.
It seems that all media and fans have acquiesced in one rule, that is, the data in the playoffs is more valuable.
After this game, Zhang Zhiyuan has a vague tendency to become a first-class star.
The next day, the Rockets received another piece of good news.
The Mavericks lost to the Warriors 99-113, falling behind 1-3.
This made those basketball experts very embarrassed. Before the playoffs started, they predicted 4-1.
Now it is possible that it is 4-1, but it is the Warriors who advance.
Rockets fans are happy. If the Warriors eliminate the Mavericks, the Rockets' next opponent will be the Warriors, successfully avoiding the 67-win Mavericks.
Advancing to the Western Conference Finals seems to be just around the corner.
The result of the game between the Mavericks and the Warriors was shocking, but this was not the only one that was surprising.
In the game between the Bulls and the Heat on the same day, the Bulls won 92-79, with a score of 4-0, becoming the second team to advance.
The Pistons had previously defeated the Magic 4-0 and had already advanced.
Before this, many fans felt that the Heat should be able to get one or two wins to defend their dignity.
Unexpectedly, the hot face was gone.
The team's two superstars were defeated by a Bulls team that didn't even have stars.
The defending champion didn't even get past the first round, so he fell too quickly.
In addition, there are two games on the 29th.
The Suns defeated the Lakers 113-100 and took a 3-1 lead.
Nash had 17 points and 23 assists.
When the number of assists reaches a certain level, it becomes more eye-catching than the points scored.
Kobe's 31 points were eclipsed by 23 assists and were nothing.
Falling behind 3-1 basically means the Lakers' season is over.
The Raptors lost to the Nets 81-102, falling behind 1-3.
In the first round series, it was either 4-0 or 3-1, and there was not even a 2-2 tie.
Obviously, the league can only influence the referee's penalty scale, but cannot completely control the outcome of the game. Otherwise, there would be no battle at Tianwangshan. This is not in the interests of the league.
Although the alliance is very dissatisfied with this situation, there is nothing they can do about it.
