When everyone was unexpected, the Rockets relied on several beautiful cooperations between Wen Hao and Harden to narrow the point difference to 2 points. At this time, the Celtics coach finally woke up and the Rockets' backcourt
Over time, they have begun to cooperate. They do not lack tacit understanding as the outside world said. And once players with the strength of Harden and Wen Hao start to cooperate, it will be very scary.
So Stevens made arrangements for the Celtics players: "Rondo mainly defends Wen Hao. Your physical fitness is much better than him. You can completely cover him, preventing him from making jump shots or breakthroughs."
Boo, you mainly guard Harden, still guard his left hand, and let his right hand go. Remember, the purpose of letting you guard is to cut off the connection between the two of them. You can guard them alone if you can't guard them, but you can never let them guard the other two.
People cooperate."
"Got it, coach." Rondo nodded while wiping his sweat. At the same time, he looked at Wen Hao from the Rockets and said to himself: No. 5, just wait. I will definitely let you see what it is.
It's called true defense.
As soon as the second quarter came on, the Rockets still had all their main players on the court. They wanted to overturn the score.
Seeing this, the Celtics could not show weakness and did not replace the main players, allowing Rondo and Barb to continue to lead the main players to fight against the Rockets.
The first goal was attacked by the Celtics. On offense, the firepower of Rondo and Barb was definitely not weak. Barb's sharp breakthrough and Barb's elusive passing made the Rockets hard to guard against. They quickly scored a goal.
ball.
Looking back, the Rockets attacked. Harden controlled the ball, while Wen Hao kept circling around in the paint, trying to get rid of Rondo's entanglement. Barb mainly defended Harden, mainly preventing Harden's left-hand breakthrough, making it difficult for him
Break into the paint and only give Harden a long shot.
But the Celtics obviously underestimated Harden's offensive firepower. Although Harden is a left-handed general, he has always spent a lot of time practicing with his right hand in the summer of the past two years. Now his right hand ball control ability has become very good.
Stronger, at least reaching the upper-middle level of the league. At this time
Seeing Babu guarding his left-hand breakthrough, he made a simple change of direction and penetrated the inside with his right hand. When the opponent's center Joel Anthony came to cover the defense, he used his European step again, one step past Anthony, and he was in the unmanned position.
Defensive situation, easy layup.
Next time, Barb did not dare to let go of Harden's right hand, but stood in the middle to defend, so that he could guard against Harden's left hand and his right hand. But in this way, Harden's left hand advantage once again
He used his speed to get past Babu and succeeded in a front-on layup.
Seeing this, the Celtics head coach knew something was wrong. Although the connection between Wenhao and Harden was cut off, it was obvious that Babu could not defend Harden alone, so he had to adjust his defensive strategy to let
Rondo, who has better defense, defends Harden, while Babb mainly defends Wenhao.
In the next attack, Rondo mainly defended Harden, and the effect was much better than that of Barb. Although Harden changed directions left and right, accelerated and decelerated, he still couldn't break through Rondo's defense. To be honest, Harden's biggest advantage is the fast break.
Counterattack, this kind of ball he has the highest success rate, either scoring the ball or causing a foul and free throw. His ability to play this kind of ball is even comparable to that of James.
But when attacking in position, Harden's effect is not very good. His speed is not too fast, and his jumping is not too high. When encountering a well-defended outside player, it is difficult for him to break in.
Harden dribbled the ball and saw that there was only more than seven seconds left, but he still couldn't break through. When he was helpless, he suddenly saw Wen Hao shake off Babu's defense from the inside and come out to get the ball. Although Harden was unwilling in his heart, but this time
For the sake of the overall situation, Shi passed the ball to Wen Hao.
After Wen Hao caught the ball, he made a fake shot. Babu rushed over and flew over Wen Hao's head. Wen Hao then calmly entered the inside and scored with a throw.
For the second ball, the Rockets followed the law and Harden passed the ball to Wen Hao. Faced with Barb's defense, Wen Hao made a very fancy turn - turned around 360 degrees on the spot. He turned around and came down.
, Babu was so shaken that he couldn't even find the north, and Wen Hao broke into the inside line easily. Joel Anthony was cautious this time, fearing that he would be shaken by again, so he came over to defend with small steps.
At this time, Wen Hao threw the ball directly towards the basket and turned back to defend. Behind him, Howard fell from the sky, made an alley-oop, and made a one-handed dunk.
Although the commentator at the North Shore Garden Arena belongs to the Celtics, when he saw such a wonderful offense, he couldn't help but shout: "Good shot!"
"Oh my God, that's the best shot I've seen all night."
Haythorn looked at Wen Hao on the court and continued: "The breakthrough of Rockets No. 5 is really sharp. Although as a Celtics commentator, I am not willing to say anything good about the Rockets, but his breakthrough is really
It’s so sharp.”
"Yes, the Rockets' shooting guard Harden is very efficient in fast break counterattacks, but not so good in position. Many teams have seized on this and dragged the Rockets into position battles, and finally defeated
The Rockets. Now that the Rockets have Wen Hao, they can completely rely on his breakthroughs in positional battles. And
He is good at passing the ball, and after breaking through, he can create a lot of opportunities for his teammates. In this way, the Rockets have terrifying combat power in both fast breaks and positional battles. In addition, their inside line of Warcraft and
With Yao's height, this Rockets team is too scary." Gorman, who resembled a Zen master, shook his head and said.
"Yeah, if they keep this trend, I'm afraid they can compete with teams like the Heat."
"I wonder if our Rondo and Barb can withstand the Rockets' backcourt combination."
At this time, Wen Hao of the Rockets broke out. He kept passing the ball inside and outside, seizing the opportunity to attack by himself, revitalizing the Rockets' offense. The Celtics' main focus was on defense and offense.
They didn't put much effort into the game, and the defense couldn't prevent it, so in the middle of the second quarter, they trailed the Rockets by 7 points, 35-42.
Seeing this, Celtics head coach Stevens had to call a timeout again. During the timeout, he followed the advice of their assistant coach and no longer emphasized defense, but asked the players to focus on
On offense.
"Although we just wasted too much energy on the defensive end, the Rockets' offense was playing too smoothly and we couldn't guard it at all. But on the offensive end, we didn't put in much energy, so we are now 7 points behind.
. Instead of doing this, it is better to focus all your energy on offense. Rondo and Barb, your breakthroughs are at the forefront of the league. If you use all your firepower, few people can stop you. Then we will use this
One point, use our offense to attack them and see whose offense is stronger."
Rondo has no objection to this. Whether it is defense or offense, they are both what he is good at. Barb is obviously excited. To be honest, he is not very good at defense. What he likes is offense. Attack, attack, and then attack.
Use offense to defeat the opponent. In his words, as long as we score more points than the opponent, we will not lose, so why bother to defend.
So in the second half of the third quarter, the Celtics started to attack.
As a point guard, Rondo dribbled the ball past half-court. Under Joel Anthony's pick-and-roll, he accelerated past Wen Hao and entered the paint. Then suddenly he hooked the ball with his right hand from behind. It seemed that
He wanted to pass the ball from behind to Anthony who was following up. But just when Warcraft was about to cover up the defense, he suddenly took the ball back and scored directly for a layup.
Playing a pass behind the back and deceiving the defender for a layup. This is Rondo's signature offense.
The North Shore Garden Arena burst into cheers. This is what the fans want to see. This is the Rondo they like.
For the second goal, Rondo once again engaged in a pick-and-roll with Anthony, and it was still a fake pass from behind. This time, Warcraft was prepared and did not fall for the trick. Instead, he stayed in front of Rondo. But after Rondo recovered the ball, he did not
For a layup, he suddenly flicked back. Babu got the ball from outside the three-point line and shot a three-pointer directly, making a solid hit.
Rondo left it to Babu to handle the next ball. Babu crossed the ball and squeezed into the inside with his speed. Then he pulled the stalk in the air to avoid Warcraft's block and scored again.
The North Shore Garden Arena is boiling again.
"Great, Rondo and Barb are both open, disaster is coming for the Rockets." Gorman, who was wearing glasses, shouted.
Haythorn said with a smile: "Yes, so far this season, Babb and Rondo have averaged 45.4 points and 18.6 assists per game. As long as they both open up, the team will have 90 assists."
% will win."
"As long as we maintain our current form, we will probably win today's game easily."
The two commentators took turns commenting on the outcome of today's game, and on the court, Wen Hao and Harden were already locked in a fight with the Celtics' backcourt.
Now that the Celtics have opened, the Rockets naturally cannot show weakness. After Wenhao dribbled to the frontcourt, after Harden's screen, he took advantage of the short time before the opponent could catch up and shot directly from the three-point line. Three
Hit again.
Possessing the unstoppable three-point skill of a point guard, his three-point shooting rate can reach almost 70% when no one is guarding him. In this case, he will naturally hit the ball steadily.
When Rondo saw Wen Hao hit a three-pointer, he didn't show any weakness. After dribbling the ball past half-court, facing Wen Hao's defense, he first bent down, and then slowly changed direction and moved forward slowly as if in training.
At a moment, when he saw that Wen Hao had moved one foot backwards and had not even landed on the ground, and his center of gravity was unstable, he suddenly started to make a huge change of direction, from left to right, which was so large that it was surprising.
His arms are extremely long, and with such a wide range of dribbling, he looks very impressive.
Wen Hao's other foot just landed at this time, and he hurriedly tried to slide to defend, but it was too late. He could only watch Rondo drive inside and score a sideways layup.
Wen Hao looked at Rondo's back with a smile on his lips: "This kind of battle is interesting." (To be continued.)