Forward to the basket

"What a difficult guy!", this is Chris Paul's first impression of Rondo.

Just like what he sighed at the moment, Rondo is so difficult to deal with. According to Chen Feng, when Rondo defends those defenders with outstanding skills and fast speed, he is the personal care of his broken pants and legs.

He didn't give the opponent room to start quickly, and he kept interfering with the opponent's dribble. Every time he confronted within the team, West always had to complain to others, and he was personally harassed by Rondo.

Now Rondo is dealing with Paul in this way, close-fitting, and pursuing physical collisions. Such collisions will not cause any harm, but they are enough to make people feel awkward, at least it will make you feel restless.

Although Paul can keep his mood unaffected by the opponent, Rondo's defense really makes him a little uncomfortable, especially the breakthrough that he is good at, which can be regarded as being completely hindered by this kid.

Rondo's speed is not as fast as lightning and flint, but his footsteps are very agile, and his two long arms can always make opponents trying to break through him feel that he will steal the ball at any time.

If Rondo defended once, it might still be luck, but Paul has hit the wall with Rondo two or three times in a row, which made Rivers, who has been a little uneasy on the sidelines, breathe a sigh of relief.

"Damn, bet right!" Seeing that the Hornets' fast break was contained, Rivers's nerves were tensed for a long time, and it was finally a sign of relief. At least he would not worry about being defeated by his opponent.

Especially the trick of letting Rondo mark Paul is finally safe and sound, and the effect looks pretty good.

Alex, who was in charge of the commentary, even described Rivers' move as a surprise soldier. The Celtics, who had been beaten for a long time, finally breathed a sigh of relief after the opponent's stormy attack.

However, the score between the two sides is still in a stalemate. The Hornets have always maintained the lead relying on the previous impact. Although the gap is not large, Paul's go-betweens have kept the team's offensive success rate always high.

The battle between David West and Jefferson has begun to heat up. These two guys are fully fired. West's mid-range jumper can be called his deadly killer.

But Jefferson's turn and back hit near the three-second zone can also cause enough damage to West.

These two guys fighting back and forth almost became the main theme of the second quarter, especially in the few minutes after Pierce was replaced for a rest, the two of them almost arranged all the points.

"Ayer showed his strength in the face of a strong opponent, and he also let us see the Celtics tomorrow." This is Alex's constant sigh in the commentary booth.

In the first quarter of the game, Jefferson's performance was very good, so now, he can already describe his play in the past few minutes as wonderful.

However, in the confrontation with West under the basket, Jefferson still suffered a bit of a dark loss.

Jefferson has been using a head-to-head style of play to fight the opponent in hand-to-hand combat at the basket.

This also caused Jefferson to carry his third foul in less than 10 minutes of the second quarter. Rivers had no choice but to temporarily replace him with Perkins.

When Jefferson left the court, he won the applause of many home fans. It was also because of his outstanding performance that many people temporarily forgot that there was a bald boy sitting on the Celtics bench.

But not everyone forgot about Chen Feng's existence. Auerbach, who had been watching the game with his brows tightly frowned, glanced at Chen Feng who was gearing up on the bench from time to time.

"That kid's butt always seems to have something growing, and he can never sit still."

Although Auerbach hadn't watched Chen Feng play a few games, but just two or three games had made Chen Feng's shadow imprinted in the bishop's mind.

Jefferson's excellent performance didn't make Auerbach look too excited. The stalemate seemed troublesome to him. At least the Celtics didn't have much advantage now.

The cunning Auerbach now kind of expects such a restless guy to do something.

Otherwise, with such a stalemate, if it drags on to the fourth quarter, the life of the Celtics must be very sad. After all, the Hornets still have a slight advantage in pure competition of strength.

However, just when many people thought that the first half of the game would end in this entanglement between the two teams, Paul, who had been silent for five or six minutes, suddenly exerted strength on the outside.

Paul, who was stalked by Rondo for a long time, made a beautiful pick-and-roll with West near the three-point line without warning. He deftly slid in at the top of the arc and passed by.

Although this pick-and-roll did not allow Paul to completely shake off Rondo's entanglement, the momentary space left was enough for Paul to do something with the basketball in his hand.

When Rondo was catching up with Paul's footsteps again, he wanted to stick to his opponent to prevent the opponent from making a breakthrough, but he didn't expect that at the second of sticking, he only saw Paul throwing the basketball high and high.

Not a shot!This was the first thought in Rondo's mind. When he looked back at the direction of the basketball, it also proved that his previous judgment was correct.

But judgment alone won't stop a basketball from going, and neither will it stop a tall figure soaring above the Celtics' basket.

A big guy was grabbing the basketball fiercely with his own hands and smashing it towards the basket crazily. Under him, Ratliff's current face was only left with a daze and a pair of helplessly raised hands.

"Damn it! It's Tyson Chandler!" Rivers slammed his hand on the tactical board when he saw this scene, but now he doesn't care whether his hand hurts .

"Bang!", the strong force pulled the basket, causing the entire basketball hoop to shake.

The sound of both hands pulling the rim expanded infinitely along the microphone. For the first time, Celtics fans felt that the alley-oop really had no beauty to speak of, only this piercing sharpness remained.

Ratliff's raised hands just now have been crushed by Chandler's ferocious alley-oop.

When Chandler fell, he had already been knocked to the ground, subconsciously covering his old injured knee with his hands, although Perkins quickly pulled him up from the floor.

Under the basket that was ignored by everyone, Chandler, who was called the "Champion of Boxers", was also looking at Ratliff fiercely. He tensed his arms tightly, showing his strong Biceps, and like a gorilla, started to growl at Ratliff.

"Don't try to stop me! You limp guy!" Chandler not only roared hard for his successful attack, but also waved his thick arms at Ratliff in demonstration.

"Hey, buddy, don't be too rampant! This is not New Orleans, it's not your turn to act wild!" Pierce couldn't see from the sidelines, so he yelled at Chandler.

"Then you come up to guard me, don't let that guy get in the way of the basket! I don't care about other people's mood when I dunk, it's better to let him get away, or he will definitely get hurt!"

Chandler was originally a rough guy, so when faced with Pierce's warning, he would not be polite. If there were no referees watching, he would probably be a little more presumptuous.

As for the booing from the home fans, it is estimated that this guy will never care.

But what Rivers should care about now is not the bickering between Chandler and Pierce, but the expression on Ratliff's face that he looks anxiously at.

Although it looked relatively normal, Rivers noticed that Ratliff's hand had been pressing his injured knee, and he did not respond to Chandler's provocation.

Many discerning people can see that Ratliff's mental state has suddenly become very poor, as if he was stunned by Chandler's blow, and he didn't even react to Rondo's baseline serve.

If Perkins hadn't reacted quickly enough to catch the basketball in time, Paul might have a steal and layup.

Helpless, frustrated, Ratliff's face was full of such expressions, and he always subconsciously touched his knee, as if that place began to ache again.

"I hope that guy doesn't have a problem at this time." In addition to worrying, Rivers can only pray that Ratliff can survive these 2 minutes.

At least it can be delayed until the end of the second quarter, so that when entering the locker room, many things can be relieved.

But God seems to be busy, he didn't hear Rivers' prayer, and Szczerbiak failed to succeed in the Celtics' offense this round.

This is not bad news, the main thing is that Thibodeau and Rivers have noticed that in the rebound competition, Ratliff is obviously a little afraid of another head-on confrontation with Chandler.

He is obviously avoiding physical contact as if he was doing a protective action. It is difficult to grab a rebound with such a move. His height does not have an advantage in the first place, let alone deliberately avoiding such an impact.

"Doug, this can't work. Ratliff hasn't recovered from his injury. He is no longer the three consecutive shot-blocking champions. He is just a veteran with a history of injuries."

Thibodeau was the first to speak when Rivers was still hesitating. As a coach guiding players' defense, he knew very well what a fearful big man could do inside.

"Man, there are still 2 minutes, I just need this guy to last 2 minutes, stick to the end of the second quarter, I will think of a solution!", Rivers understands Thibodeau's thoughts, but now he really doesn't want to At the key points of the first half and the second half, what troublesome things happened again.

"Theo, you guy should show the prestige of the shot-blocking king back then, don't let that Tyson act wild in front of you!", Rivers' heart was roaring at this moment.

It's a pity that Ratliff couldn't hear Rivers' call at this moment, and Paul didn't give him this chance.

Just after halftime, Paul made a sudden shot without any hesitation in front of Rondo. The basketball was passed high and floating by him, but the goal was very clear, and it went straight to the sky above the basket.

Chandler is still in the same position, but this time he glides farther than last time, and when he catches the basketball, he has a very fierce downward movement.

Under the basket of the Celtics, Perkins was stuck by West and did not have time to return to the defense.

Only Ratliff took off to face Chandler, but he was very hesitant, and everyone could see that he seemed to be avoiding such a direct collision.

But Chandler, who had already vacated, didn't give him a chance to evade himself, head on, hit him, and slam dunk!

"It's over!" Rivers groaned as he saw Ratliff fall on his back.

(Third update! I will do my best!)