Start without the ball

Chapter 58 Rocket
After the warm-up, the players return to the tunnel to start playing.

Walking in front of them is the Houston Interested Team. They are imposing and full of sincerity in the transfer market, but they are not willing to spend money.

But this can't be blamed on Morey. The Rockets' owner is indeed a bit unskilled. There are many players who are interested, but only those who are interested.

Morey can only give two maximum salaries and start to carefully calculate every expense to avoid the luxury tax.

Although it costs less money, the Rockets' performance is good!A strong contender for the Western Conference Finals every year.

On the other hand, the boss of the Thunder, because he was reluctant to spend an extra 800 million before, after Harden left, he was extremely generous when renewing players, which was almost pathological.

Adams earned $4 million in 1 years, Singler earned $5 million in 2500 years, coupled with the failure of the Big Three, the current salary structure of the Thunder is very unhealthy.

Due to the new collective bargaining agreement, the player's maximum salary has skyrocketed, and the team's situation will sometimes become extremely embarrassing.

Either pay a huge salary to keep the players, while locking up your own operating space, or watch the players lose in vain.

Except for Paul's contract, Morey's other operations are excellent.

After the Rockets played, the lights at the Pisacek Energy Center dimmed.

The fans began to cheer, welcoming the Thunder players to the field.

With the rising status of the team, Li Haoyu is now in the third from the bottom.

When Li Haoyu ran out of the player tunnel, the home fans cheered enthusiastically to welcome the rising star.

After the entrance ceremony, the game started soon.

Rockets starting: center Capela, power forward Ennis, small forward Tucker, shooting guard Harden, point guard Paul.

Thunder starters: center Adams, power forward Grant, small forward George, shooting guard Ferguson, point guard Westbrook.

In the jump ball, Adams passed the ball to the turtle by virtue of his height.

After Turtle reached the frontcourt, he handed the ball to George on the left.

George's continuous crotch dribbles teased Tucker's defense, and Tucker was very focused.

Grant stepped up to the pick-and-roll, and George used the pick-and-roll to make a three-pointer.

"boom"

The first shot was ironed, and Capela was about to get stuck behind Adams and get the rebound.

He found that he was too disadvantaged in the confrontation, and did not squeeze Adams' position away from the area where the rebound fell.

When the basketball fell, Capela jumped up and grabbed the basketball with both hands, and Adams behind him flicked with one hand, and after pulling the basketball away from Canberra's position, he successfully grabbed the rebound.

Li Haoyu said to Diallo beside him:

"Our insiders are good at offensive rebounds"

Diallo: "It wasn't forced by you and the iron turtle."

Li Haoyu:? ? ? ? ?

After Adams took the rebound, he passed the ball to the iron turtle at the top of the arc.

The armored iron tortoise turned on the Q skill power sprint, accelerated to the basket, and was about to hit the Rockets, but his foothold was not stable.

Paul was watching the rebounds and was thrown away by the iron turtle.

Capela hurried over to defend, blocking the layup space of the iron turtle.

Westbrook didn't make any progress with this goal. After returning from injury, Westbrook's layup skills are always a bit lacking.

Ennis protected the rebound and the Rockets attacked.

Paul crossed the midfield and passed the ball to Harden, who was 45 degrees to the left.

Harden made a shot fake, Ferguson didn't fall for it, and Harden started dribbling.

With his right leg in front and repeated dribbles under the crotch, Ferguson couldn't hold back and wanted to try to steal it.

Harden seized the opportunity and rushed from the left.

Ferguson quickly adjusted his focus and followed Harden.

Harden dribbled toward the basket with his left hand, stretched out his evil right hand, grabbed one of Ferguson's arms, and tucked it under his armpit.

When starting a layup, the ball is put together with both hands, the right arm passes under the pinched hand, and rises upwards.

"Drip~"

Thug foul by Ferguson.

The next thing is to go through the procedure. The porcelain mamba came to the familiar position, took the basketball from the referee, weighed it twice, and pulled out the basketball in his hand.

There was no suspense in the two free throws, and the score was 2-0.

Looking around, the field is full of Harden's free throw talent.

Obviously Harden has a very high golf quotient, and at the same time is willing to delve into it, and can create his own unique style of play under the rules.

While breaking through, the non-ball-handler can make a series of complex movements, and only after very hard training can they reach the point of proficiency.

Thunder attack.

Westbrook greeted Adams to step forward to pick and roll, but Paul was blocked to death.

Westbrook rushed to the right side of the three-second zone, and Adams also turned around and split to the basket after blocking Paul.

Capela now faces a choice, whether to block Westbrook or defend Adams. For a while, he fell into a dilemma.

In the end, I chose to be in the middle, and wait for someone to make a shot before defending.

Westbrook passes the ball to Adams.

In this position, Adams' hook has a very high hit rate.

After firmly grasping the basketball with his big hand, he exerted force on his wrist, and the basketball flew to the net.

2:2.

In the next game, Ferguson obviously had nothing to do with Harden and was beaten by a fancy sling.

Donovan looked at the misery of the hypocritical defensive champion, and asked Li Haoyu:

"Can you guard him?"

Li Haoyu: "Me? Coach, stop messing around. I'm a free-for-all defensive ball-handling superstar. I'm not as good as Ferguson."

Donovan: "How about you post him instead of letting him catch the ball?"

Li Haoyu: "Head, Harden is as tall as me, and his strength must be better than mine. He can trap me and take the ball forcibly. My post defense is only effective for short players."

Donovan:
In love, Donovan regards Li Haoyu as a magical conch, and he should consult Brother Yuzi whenever he has any questions.

From now on, call me Lee, the coach behind the scenes, Haoyu.

The defensive problem can't be solved, and the offense has problems again. George and Westbrook haven't found the right shot today.

George only made 6 of 1 shots. As for the tortoise, let's not mention it, it hurts feelings.

Fortunately, the Thunder's rebounding advantage is too great. Facing the impact of Adams and Grant, Capela is struggling to support.

Although the Thunder are strong, they have many offensive opportunities, and the two sides have fallen into a stalemate.

第一节比赛还剩3分21秒时，双方战成24比22，火箭领先2分。

Donovan requested a timeout.

When returning to the field, both sides lined up.

Rockets: Center Hartenstein, power forward Anthony, small forward Green, shooting guard Harden, point guard Gordon
Thunder: center Noelle, power forward Patterson, small forward George, shooting guard Li Haoyu, point guard Schroeder.

Harden didn't go down to rest
Rocket attack.

Gordon passed the ball to the wing Harden after halftime.

Facing Li Haoyu, Harden started dribbling the ball directly, without ink marks, he just wanted to dribble Li Haoyu.

The basketball veers to the left hand, shoulders out to the right.

Li Haoyu went to block the left hand holding the ball, Harden changed the ball to his right hand again, and made a breakthrough easily.

26:22.

Li Haoyu: (___)ノ｜
It seems that the slag defense is about to be exposed.

　I came back late from working overtime these two days, and there is another update at 10 o'clock. I'm done with work tomorrow, so I can update it earlier, sorry.

　　Thanks for the reward from the money-making and dreaming boss.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)