In the Kings locker room, their head coach was arranging tactics for their players. Tactically, he asked the players to make more use of Cousins to attack the Rockets. In addition, he directed their
Point guard Thomas also made a request: "Thomas, you were evenly matched with the Rockets' No. 5 in the first half. Your breakthrough...
There is almost no difference in jump shots and assists. The only difference is that your three-pointers are better than his. In the first half, he didn't make any shots, but you made three of four three-pointers, with a shooting percentage of 70%.
So I ask you to continue to use this against them in the second half and shoot three-pointers whenever you feel the opportunity is right."
Before Thomas agreed, Kaoshen said first: "If he does this and shoots three-pointers when he gets the ball, won't our offense be in chaos? Who will organize it?"
The Kings head coach shook his head and said: "No, you should believe Thomas. He has the potential to become an excellent point guard. He will still know when to shoot and when to pass."
Seeing that the coach had made up his mind, Kaoshen said nothing more.
Thomas said to the coach: "Coach, don't worry, my hand skills are very smooth today, and I will definitely complete the task assigned by you."
…
Soon, the second half of the game continued, with the Kings attacking first. Thomas tried to break through, but the Rockets followed McHale's instructions and narrowed the defense, making it impossible for Thomas to break through. At this time, Thomas passed a screen by Kaoshen.
He took a step back, came outside the three-point line, raised his head slightly, and "swish", he hit a three-pointer.
For the Rockets, Wen Hao continued his performance. After controlling the ball and reaching the frontcourt, he passed the screen of Warcraft and hit a jumper from the free throw line.
Seeing this, Thomas was secretly proud of himself. When the Kings were on offense, he dribbled the ball past half court and handed the ball to Kaoshen. After circling the inside, he ran out and passed Kaoshen and caught it casually.
Jump shot immediately after the ball, and the basketball hits again.
"Oh, my God, five out of six, Thomas is going crazy." Drexler exclaimed in a somewhat unkind tone but with surprise.
Brad also shook his head repeatedly and said: "Five out of six shots, McHale should find a way to stop him. If he keeps shooting like this, the Rockets will be in trouble today."
"Defense has always been a problem for the Rockets. It has never been solved since McHale took over. They failed to guard Cousins today, and now Thomas is open. If a team has two points opened, then
It’s really hard to defend. Especially for a team like the Rockets that is not good at defense, I really don’t know how they can survive the second half.”
"It's time for McHale to call a timeout. If he doesn't call a timeout for another ball, I will rush down and call a timeout for him." Although Drexler said this jokingly, you can see from this sentence how serious he is.
Anxious.
Unexpectedly, Drexler's words were like a prophecy. Just after he finished speaking, Thomas rushed to the Rockets' frontcourt and hit his sixth three-pointer. Six of seven three-pointers!
"Wow!"
In the Kings dugout, the players on the bench shouted and jumped up, and even their always calm coaching staff raised their arms and cheered. Thomas' three-pointer today was really crazy.
Rockets head coach McHale urgently requested a timeout. Even if it was not for arrangement, he had to call a timeout to interrupt Thomas' touch. If a player feels so hot, who as the opponent's head coach can bear it?
After a pause, he shouted to the Rockets players: "Expand the defense, we must expand the defense, and we can't let them shoot three-pointers easily." At the same time, he turned around and said to Wen Hao: "You get off the court first, and then take over in the third quarter.
At the end of the game, Beverley comes on."
Although Wen Hao was unwilling to accept it, he had no choice but to take a rest. In fact, he also understood that McHale had his own reasons for arranging this way. Now that the Kings' Thomas three-pointer is going smoothly on the court, the Rockets must strengthen their control on the one hand.
The opponent's three-point defense must also strengthen its three-point offense. Although Beverley does not have Wen Hao's organizational ability, he is much better than Wen Hao in shooting three-pointers. Therefore, Beverley is now substituted.
.
Maybe McHale's defensive tactics worked, or maybe it was just a coincidence. In the five minutes when Beverley replaced Wen Hao, Thomas continued to score three points, but it was not as scary as six of seven shots. In the third quarter
In the remaining eight minutes, he made only one of four three-pointers, and the Rockets continued to maintain a stalemate through three-pointers made by Beverley and Jeremy Lin.
At the end of the third quarter, Thomas had already scored (points and nine assists, which is definitely All-Star data. Wen Hao was benched by the coach in the third quarter, and his score only increased by 4 points, now 15
Scored 8 assists.
The media reporters had already started sending messages on Twitter at this time. Rockets team reporter Fegan tweeted: In the first half, Wen Hao and Thomas were evenly matched, and in the third quarter, although I don’t want to admit it,
But the difference between the two seems to have been determined. In terms of three-pointers alone, Wen Hao loses too much to Thomas. Wen Hao, he really needs to develop three-pointers as soon as possible.
After a two-minute break, the fourth quarter of the game continued.
Drexler said: "It seems that the Rockets and Kings will continue to struggle in the next game. After the Rockets expanded their defense, the Kings' three-point shots were not so smooth, and the Rockets' own three-pointers also gradually
It’s coming up, and it seems that the two sides will probably not be able to decide the winner until the last minute of the fourth quarter.”
However, the situation in the NBA has changed suddenly, and anything can happen. Less than two minutes before Drexler finished speaking, Thomas suddenly felt explosive and hit two consecutive three-pointers, giving the Kings a 5-point lead over the Rockets.
Although McHale called a timeout later, Thomas still couldn't stop Thomas' touch. After resuming the game, Thomas hit two three-pointers in a row, but the Rockets missed both attacks. As a result, the Rockets were already behind.
It reached 11 points. At this time, there were only the last 5 minutes left in the game.
The entire Toyota Center is filled with a kind of despair. Although it is theoretically possible to recover after falling behind by 11 points in five minutes, everyone knows that this hope is slim. Many fans have already begun to leave. Their departure is not because of
Thomas's three-pointers were because they could clearly see that the Rockets were in chaos. The offense was unorganized, the defense was out of the question, and the Rockets had collapsed.
At this time, McHale replaced Wen Hao on the field after a dead ball. He knew that a comeback was unlikely. The reason why he replaced Wen Hao on the field was just to let Wen Hao reorganize the offense.
It's okay to lose, but you can't lose so ugly.
But McHale didn't know that in Wen Hao's heart, he didn't think he had lost the game. Anything could happen until the last second.
