Rebirth of My Rocket Dynasty

Chapter 22 The Hot 96-97 Season
On November 1996, 11, the Rockets started their first game of the new season.

The first opponent is the Kings.

The current king is not the gorgeous king of the later Princeton system.

Now they can only struggle for a playoff spot under the leadership of Richmond and Chris Jackson.

Such a team is simply irresistible in front of the Rockets.

On the outside, Richmond faced Drexler, and Horry couldn't bear the impact of adding a group of young bench gangsters.

And the inside line, under the attack of the big inside line headed by Olajuwon and Kevin Garnett, completely collapsed.

In the first game, the Rockets had 7 players in double figures and bloodbathed the Kings 110 to 85.

In this game, the powerful offensive power displayed by the Rockets is astonishing, because their main players only played an average of 30 minutes.

The longest playing time was 35 minutes of Horry's.

Olajuwon only played 30 minutes before resting off the court.

Kevin Garnett is only 32 minutes.

Such a group of substitutes made all the teams shudder.

Whoever can compete with them will have to fight their physical strength, and all 12 players will take turns to play.

Engaging in wheel wars, who can compare.

Immediately, the Rockets came to Phoenix again, and with Barkley gone, only Kevin Johnson and Dan Marley continued to stick to the sun.

It's a pity that the Suns collapsed under the strong inside attack of the Rockets.

The power forward group composed of Kevin Garnett, Malik Rose, and Osella Harrington is directly speechless.

All three scored 55 points and 35 rebounds.

It's a complete humiliation, without Barkley's sun insider.

In the end, the Rockets became the sun's nemesis 115 to 95 times.

On November 11th, the time to test the Rockets came.

The Rockets met the Jazz. The Rockets played 4 games with the Jazz last season and were beaten 3:1.
Very helpless.

And this year's Rockets, the momentum of two big victories is for the Jazz.

With that, the whistle sounded and the game started.

When jumping the ball, starting from this year, it's time to become Garnett, face Foster and win easily.

Point to Mark Jackson.

Jackson received the ball, arched his butt, pushed off Stockton who was trying to steal the ball, and firmly controlled the ball in his hands.

Steadily lead the half court, and start a positional battle.

Mark Jackson made a gesture.

Kevin Garnett got to the ribs right away.

And Malone had no choice but to follow.

When Mark Jackson saw it, he immediately lobbed the ball to Olajuwon.

Olajuwon, who held the ball, leaned back gently, testing Foster's defensive strength.

Seeing that the strength is not very strong, he immediately increased his strength, leaned back, and squeezed out the space to turn around and cut inward.

After Foster stepped back a little, Olajuwon immediately turned around and stepped forward to layup.

The moment Olajuwon turned around, Byron Russell stepped up to make up defense.

And Foster behind him also suddenly exerted force, pinching Olajuwon.

However, Olajuwon seems to have known the plan of the two.

After the turn, a pinpoint ground pass bounced to Drexler who followed up behind Byron Russell.

After receiving the ball, Drexler has strong legs and a straight abdomen, and he is about to dunk.

But Malone, who was defending Garnett in the ribs just now, returned to defense, and was about to block Drexler when he got up.

Drexler was not afraid at all. He straightened his waist, retracted his hands, and changed the dunk into a layup, a beautiful sliding layup.

"Shua" goal, two points count.

"Carl, you're too slow." After Drexler scored a goal, he satirized Malone, then turned and left.

Malone didn't say anything, just picked up the ball indifferently, served it from the baseline, and then continued to attack with Stockton.

Stockton controlled the ball, looking at the guy in front of him twisting his huge butt to defend, he was not only emotional.

The guy in front of him, as long as he stays with the Rockets, he will definitely get the championship ring.

Look at the gang of boys on their bench, each of them has more impact than the other, how are they selected.

Come on, let's play a good game first.

As soon as Stockton beckoned, Malone immediately came over to do the pick-and-roll.

Pick and roll, pick and roll, this is the simplest tactic, but also the most complex tactic.

In today's NBA, only Malone and Stockton can make such excellent pick-and-roll tactics.

After Malone walled off Mark Jackson, Stockton faced Garnett.

Garnett flails his arms, blocking Stockton's passing and offensive lanes.

Malone, who succeeded in blocking, took Mark Jackson to the inside.

Typically now is when Stockton returns the ball.

Take advantage of the dislocation attack, and Malone lays up or shoots.

Suddenly Olajuwon came out from the inside.

Malone was directly stuck.

Stockton passing the ball to Malone is not enough.

Stockton hits a wide cross.

Hand it over to Hornacek, who just got off the defense on the weak side.

The moment Horry was blocked, Stockton's pass arrived.

And it's very comfortable, you can shoot the ball without hesitation.

The ball enters the net hollow.

Flip over to rocket attack.

Mark Jackson still handed the ball to O'Laurujuwon.

This time it was Malone's pincer attack, and Olajuwon's second pass.

The ball arrived in Garnett's hands, and Hornacek, who was nearby, quickly stepped forward to defend.

But because of his height, Garnett bullied Hornacek severely.

Right in Hornacek's face, arms up, a jumper.

The ball enters the net hollow.

Looking at Hornacek, Garnett shrugged and walked away.

Attack again.

The Jazz continued their class.

The rotation of the ball, said Malone.

Old Malone had one arm and made a direct layup. Mark Jackson couldn't guard him at all.

Fortunately, Malone missed a layup.It popped up directly.

Olajuwon jumped fiercely and directly hugged the ball into his arms.

Drexler on the outside saw that he was right on the rebound, and immediately turned over and accelerated, directly hitting the opponent's rear.

Just as Drexler accelerated, Mark Jackson passed the ball very accurately into the hands of the 'glider'.

Drexler, without even thinking about it, just got up and dunked.

Although, the 'glider' is old, but Drexler is not so old that it can't fly.

An elegant dunk without the slightest pyrotechnics, that's Drexler.

Unlike Jordan's always arrogant and domineering dunks, watching Drexler dunks will always feel that he is an artist.

It's a pity that the old-fashioned Jazz will never be knocked down by a ball.

They took the ball silently and started to attack again.

In the frenzied atmosphere of the Jazz's home court, both players launched a tenacious defense.

Stockton faced an old fritter like Mark Jackson.

Others can do their own little tricks, and they are all guys who have been in the league for a long time.

Such things are familiar.

On the bench, Cassell is also eager to try.

Malone faced off against Kevin Garnett, Ocela Harrington and Malik Rose.

After Malone became familiar with one person's defensive style, he immediately replaced it with another person.

In this way, Malone was almost submerged in the Rockets' power forward group.

As Malone and Stockton were restricted, the Jazz's scoring ability dropped sharply.

The same is true for the Rockets. Under the Jazz's melee defense, they are also struggling.

The match between the two sides made the audience drowsy.

Dull, extremely dull.

However, in the last minute of the Dole game, a good show was staged.

Last minute, 1:69.
Double reverse draw.

The Jazz opened the scoring first, and Hornacek made a tenacious three-pointer under Horry's defense.

Overtaking the score, the Jazz's home court cheered thunderously for a while.

Unfortunately, in the next attack, Horry scored a three-pointer with the same head under the defense of Stockton and Byron Russell.

The double reverse was tied again.

31.4 seconds left.

The Rockets called for a timeout.

Lao Tang picked up the tactical board, drew the tactics and shouted loudly: "Remember, we need a method, defend hard, and Malone double-teams and double-team me hard. If you really can't stand it, you must be ruthless in fouling, you can't Let them play 2+1. Stockton, mark you to me, bite him, his rhythm is not very fast, you can hold him down. Hornacek here, Horry you If you want to post it like brown sugar, other people should pay attention to rotation, don't give them a chance, you know."

"Understood," the Rockets nodded.

"Okay, let's play, the victory is ours." Lao Tang encouraged everyone.

"Victory is ours, come on, come on, come on." Olajuwon took the lead in shouting.

"come on"

"come on"

"come on"

The Rockets shouted in unison.

Then play.

Stockton held the ball firmly.

After halftime, he was wasting time. He wanted to attack at the last moment to prevent the Rockets from overtaking.

With the last 17 seconds, the Jazz started to move.

Suddenly, Malone set an off-ball screen for Hornacek, blocking Horry.

Stockton, who was in neutral, stretched his body and flashed a little space, and passed the ball directly. Hornacek caught the ball and made a shot.

At this time, seeing that Hornacek was about to shoot, Horry and Garnett both rushed towards Hornacek.

The old and spicy Hornacek faked a real pass and handed the ball to Malone who had already made an air cut.

Malone gets the ball and is about to layup.

On the inside, Olajuwon did everything without hesitation, and directly dribbled the ball to keep Malone.

Malone made a free throw.

No one knew about the first penalty. What Malone was muttering about, it was thrown out anyway, but it didn't go in.

Ma Long's face darkened a little.

The second free throw was still nagging, and it was thrown again, but it was a pity that it was bumped on the rim a few times, but it still didn't make it.

Malone's face was already dark.

The rebound was taken by Garnett and hugged tightly.

This time it was the Jazz who paused.

The old monster Jerry Sloan didn't know what he was talking to the Jazz players.

Lao Tang came up and said to the players: "Good job, we still have one chance, the last 9.4 seconds, make good use of it. Hakim, you have to block the position for the outside players. They must Thought we were going to play inside, but we didn't, Mark, Garnett, you come down, Allen and Cassel, you come on, Horry, Clyde, Allen, you three stand separately, Cassel, come on Catch the ball, give it to Hakeem, shrink their defense, let them shrink their defense to the inside.

Hakeem, who you decide to pass to, we must kill them, go for it, guys. "

The Rockets returned to the field and started to run according to Lao Tang's tactics.

Cassell received the ball, stepped away from Stockton's defense, and handed it to Olajuwon inside.

As soon as the ball reached the inside, Malone and Byron Russell pounced on Olajuwon like hungry wolves.

And Olajuwon took a look.

Quickly passed the ball out.

Ray Allen at the catch.

The guy who was later called 'Killer Ray'.

Catch the ball, jump up, shoot.

The ball drew a beautiful arc in the air in the Delta Center Arena in Salt Lake City, and fell into the basket leisurely.

The sound of "swish" directly silenced the fans in the Delta Center.

All the hustle and bustle is over.

With the basketball falling into the basket, the red light for the end of the game also lit up.

72:75
The Rockets beat the Jazz with a three-pointer and took away a rare victory at the Delta Center Arena in Salt Lake City.

(End of this chapter)