start with scouting

Chapter 660 So Good Intentions

The strategy was decided at the meeting, and various trainings for the Kings began. First, practice the mentality of being continuously fouled.

In the training base, Su Yang stared at Cousins ​​and said: "Remember! In the next series against the Rockets, we will inevitably encounter foul trouble when defending James Harden. No matter how outrageous it is, everyone must control their emotions ..."

Harden is a master foul maker, and the league is bound to favor the Rockets for whistleblowing. Su Yang is worried that the mentality of the Kings players will burst, especially Cousins, who has a powder keg personality, will not be able to get a technical foul. To be avoided in advance.

Cousins ​​and the others expressed their understanding one after another, and then Su Yang personally took the whistle and blew the penalty indiscriminately.Cousins ​​and others were mentally prepared, and it was a practice match, so they were not at all irritable, but the effect of interrupting the rhythm in advance was no problem at all.

The next day, the Rockets played the fifth game against the Warriors. Pachulia seemed to be fine and continued to play normally.

It's a pity that it's useless. Pachulia, who didn't dare to steal criminals anymore, had a great defensive effect. Harden caught the military training, Paul caught the mid-range shot, and it was the only breakthrough for the Warriors. It was a waste of Durant's difficult score.

In the end, the Rockets won the fifth game with a small victory over the Warriors. The probability of returning to the home court to advance is very high, and they are almost locked in the Western Conference Finals.

Taking advantage of the still time, Su Yang found the video of the Rockets game after Paul joined, and quickly scanned all of them. He found that Paul and Harden had misunderstood several times, and guessed whether it was possible to engage in a wave of psychological warfare to reduce the difficulty. .

But after thinking about it, the king is the image of the invincible god of war, and those little tricks will only damage the image, just like when the Lakers and the king were in a hard fight in the Western Conference Finals, Phil Jackson jumped out to mock the king's location in Sacramento. Son.

While preparing for the battle, the lottery meeting was officially held.

The Celtics won the No. 30 lottery and aimed at the favorite Mark Fultz. ESPN called Su Yang to ask what he thought of Fultz.Su Yang said bluntly: "We only have the [-]th pick this year, and we plan to trade it away, so I didn't pay attention to the situation of the draft. If you want to ask me my first impression, this guy only needs to stay healthy and be at the All-Star level. "

In this draft, the Kings don't have any target players, and they don't plan to find treasures from the potential draft picks. Anferney, Brogdon and others can go to the Summer League and sign some two-way contracts to play the preseason, or to domestic players. They level up.

As for Fultz, that's a bit of a pity.

But even if he is really healthy, Su Yang believes that the upper limit will not be too high, because the golf quotient is relatively low, which is quite fatal.

In a blink of an eye, NO.11 in May, the Rockets defeated the Warriors at home, advanced to the Western Conference Finals 4-2, and joined forces with the Kings.

After failing to hit the Western Conference Finals for two consecutive years, Durant still scored high points and lost. Many discussions believe that his plan in the free market may change. If he joins the Spurs and Leonard, it may be the best way to beat the Kings. It's a perfect configuration.

Whether the Warriors will renew Thompson's big contract has also become an important event in the off-season. The main thing is that after the new Warriors boss Lacob took over, he has not been able to produce results, which proves that this lineup is really not good. came.

In the Rockets press conference after the game, when talking about his thoughts on facing his old opponents again, Harden replied: "We haven't considered too much yet, we will definitely put in [-]% efforts, but we will definitely meet many times in the future, no need in a hurry."

Paul replied: "This is our good opportunity. Now many people think they are invincible, but we will prove that wrong. Both James and I can organize and score. The king's defense does not restrict us so much. powerful…"

The same problem, Harden and Paul have slightly different attitudes, the former generally attaches great importance to it, and the latter attaches great importance to it.

Rockets boss Alexander also accepted an interview after the game. Talking about the upcoming Western Conference Finals, he said excitedly: "This is the result of our long-term hard work. No matter what the result is, we will continue to work hard. This is the spirit of the Texans! "

At noon the next day, various predictions came out one after another.

Gambling websites place the most bets on the Kings beating the Rockets 4-3 to advance, and the buyers give two reasons to support such a decision: first, the Rockets lineup is strong enough, and they have shown enough strength in the two rounds of the playoffs. It has been completed; the second is that the king's promotion lacks storytelling, it is too smooth, and the league certainly does not want the series with the highest ratings to end too early.

As usual, ESPN organized 21 experts to make predictions, 14 of them believed that the Kings would advance, there were five games, six games, and seven games, but there were no four games, and 7 believed that the Rockets would advance, only seven games and six games , without four and five.

John Hollinger, a well-known data expert, also made a prediction. He tweeted: "If the Rockets can control the King's performance below 110 points, then the probability of their final promotion in the series will be more than 80%, otherwise it will only be 20%. ..."

Commentator Bill Simmons tweeted: "I think the Rockets have a better chance of winning because Sacramento doesn't have any famous nightclubs and entertainment projects, James Harden will put all his energy on the game, it will be a terrible moment for the Kings. "

Bulls star Pippen commented on the show: "The reason why I support the Rockets is very simple. They have the best defensive resources in the league. Ariza, Tucker, Paul, Capela, a few of them will let the Kings The screens are difficult to execute, the game will become one-on-one a lot of times, the Kings are not good at that rhythm, and the Rockets are very good at..."

Among all kinds of discussions, in the East, the Raptors defeated the Wizards and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, competing with the Cavaliers for the finals.

However, related topics did not even form a hot search. Most fans and the media agreed that the king's game against the Rockets could determine the championship. LeBron might feel a little angry and tweeted that the emperor from Cleveland was preparing to make a contribution.

Too bad that tweet is still being ignored.

From the chosen one to the failure to win consecutive championships, fans and the media view LeBron as another Karl Malone.

According to the schedule, the Western Conference Finals will start on the 14th.

The king still has three days to prepare.

Su Yang arranged training as usual, and even led the team to Los Angeles to watch Drake's small concert.

On the plane back to Saskatchewan, Thomas Jr. reminded everyone that the mayor of Saskatchewan was making a bet with the mayor of Houston.

The bet was initiated by the mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner. The content was that if the team loses, the other team will have to wear the jersey of the other city’s team to work for a day. The mayor of Saskatchewan, Kevin Johnson, accepted it calmly and emphasized that Time to keep screenshots as souvenirs.

Su Yang didn't even bother to pay attention to it. American politicians really want to rub a little bit of everything in order to gain fame and attention.

The next day, the first game of the Western Conference Finals came.

Su Yang arrived at the Golden One Center at [-]:[-] p.m., arranged warm-up training, and then accepted the pre-match interviews with reporters.

ESPN team reporter Lindsay first asked a question: "James Harden just accepted an interview and said that you emphasized that you don't have to face his fouls when you play the Warriors, which made him feel a little hurt. Because you have worked together in the Thunder for two seasons, you should treat him. Knowing very well, he's been stigmatized on the subject of fouls and he's also said to hope you're just using a psyop tactic..."

Su Yang thought for a moment, then smiled and said: "He's right, I know him very well, but some of his behaviors are deliberate fouls, and my words like that are a bit of a joke, and I hope he will get out of his comfort zone. , to regain those methods that really don’t need to consider referees or opponents to score, and help him move towards a higher level of honor...”

The content of the interview was released quickly, and many fans lamented that it turned out that Su Yang worked hard. Even after leaving the Thunder, he still wanted to help Harden improve. But it seems that Durant was not given any advice.

(End of this chapter)