The strongest champion puzzle

Chapter 208 Rocket's Ambition

The Rockets' changes this season are mainly due to the rise of newcomers. In addition to second-year Beverly replacing Jeremy Lin as the starter, the same second-year power forward Terrence Jones also became the starter.

Of course, the addition of Howard is big news.

Now the Rockets' lineup has both inside and outside. It is relatively perfect, and the offensive end is also very sharp, but there are some problems on the defensive end. This is also the gap between them and several top teams.

But even so, this season's Rockets are considered to be one of the teams capable of competing for the championship, although this one is relatively late.

With Howard here, it is conceivable that the Heat's rebounds will avalanche again.

However, Howard's offensive ability has not improved over the years, which is a typical waste of talent. After coming to the Rockets, he didn't play very well due to tactical reasons, and he felt that his physical fitness had declined before he was 30 years old.

But he is still an All-Star, and he firmly controlled the rebounds at the beginning, allowing the Rockets to attack with confidence.

The Rockets' starting lineup composed of young players is also full of vitality, especially Beverly, who not only defends extremely desperately, but also has an excellent ability to seize opportunities on the offensive end.

This kind of first position that doesn't need the ball and has defense, the Heat also want to think about it.

It is understandable that Jeremy Lin could not compete for the starting position. Jeremy Lin's core style of play has no core strength, and Zhang Xiaotian knew that there would be problems.

The core of the team must have the ball, and if it does not reach this upper limit, it must adapt.

Jeremy Lin tried hard, but without the ball, he is just an ordinary player, not worthy of Lin Crazy's worth.

This is also the reason why Zhang Xiaotian is forbearing now. If his own strength has not improved, even if a team is willing to try to make him the core, it will become the embarrassing scene Jeremy Lin is now.

The Rockets have been very active on the offensive end. Harden can score and assist, which is somewhat similar to James.

But the Rockets' defense is far behind, and James and Wade can basically play casually.

But during the rotation period, the Rockets' style changed.

The substitutes Asik and Motiejunas are all big men, and their speed dropped immediately.

Although there are ideas for the Heat's insiders, in fact they have no one on the bench, only Jeremy Lin can play, and other players have more obvious advantages and disadvantages than Jeremy Lin.

Most importantly, their rotation players and starters are a bit of a mismatch.

Unlike the Heat, although the rotation players are a group of old men, they are basically configured for the starters.

Therefore, the Rockets' smooth offense disappeared after the substitute players came on the court, and the rhythm became slower.

The Heat also don't like a slow pace, but the players' personal abilities are still slightly better.

Originally, in the first quarter, they were pushed a little tight by the Rockets' offense. The Rockets took the initiative to slow down, but it slowed them down, but they were still a little tired playing back-to-back.

During the intermission, the Heat also summed up the first half, one is the rebound, and the other is the problem of marking Harden.

Rebounds can be said to be unsolvable, but for inner defense, they definitely need to pinch.

The Rockets are a team with outside lines, so they need to pay attention to other points when attacking.

Harden must still let Wade defend. Although Wade's defense has declined slightly due to physical reasons, it is still top-notch. It is no problem to deal with Harden.

There is also the No. [-] position. Spoelstra is extremely dissatisfied with the defense of the No. [-] position. Chalmers has also become the starter with the least playing time.

But Norris Cole didn't do well, and Spoelstra couldn't figure out how these two guys couldn't even handle Beverly.

Bosh can't help it, and he can't force it against the big center.

The problems have been found, but it is not so easy to solve.

Wade's defense against Harden is actually very good, but after Harden became the core, he has really improved a lot, and several times the ball directly created scoring opportunities.

On the Heat's side, there was a small crisis due to the collective strikes of the Big Three.

Spoelstra didn't think that the team's offense would have problems at all. During the intermission, he only emphasized defense.

In this case, Zhang Xiaotian started to strengthen the attack ahead of time.

He is still different from before, even if he doesn't activate his skills, he can still fight, but the efficiency is lower.

Parsons was also a little uncomfortable being defended by Zhang Xiaotian. He is also a bully now. He will not perform well when he encounters a strong defense, and he will desperately score points when he encounters a weaker one. His statistics are better than Zhang Xiaotian.

Now in turn restricting Zhang Xiaotian a few times, he couldn't help but be stunned.

"Well, you can't win this game."

"Idiot, brother, I haven't exerted my strength yet."

"Hehe, it's brother who didn't work hard. Believe it or not, I'll get you zero letters next time. Why don't we make a bet. I know a good store, and the loser will treat you."

The two are relatively familiar now, and it's not so bitter and bitter to talk trash.

But on the court, the loser will definitely be deflated.

In the last few minutes of this quarter, both Wade and Zhang Xiaotian took a break. When James led the team alone, the Heat did not hit a rainy three-pointer. Instead, they were grabbed by the Rockets for offensive rebounds, abruptly expanding the score advantage to 10 points.

The number of rebounds in a single quarter is less than half of the opponent's, which is really helpless.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, it was time for James to rest.

The Rockets still play inside, but they have two big men during their rotation.

However, Asik and Motiejunas were both slow. Jeremy Lin handed the ball to Asik. Asik was about to make a move subconsciously, but he didn't realize that Zhang Xiaotian had come over to attack like lightning.

The Heat's attack was not so fast before, and Asik was intercepted before he had time to react.

Zhang Xiaotian picked up the ball and pushed it forward quickly. When he reached the opponent's half, he grinned at Parsons who quickly returned to the defense. He ran over the opponent with an accelerated change of direction, and dunked like a tomahawk.

Parsons' face was a little green. The two sides had been in contact with each other before, but Zhang Xiaotian was too embarrassing this time.

He is a man who wants to save face, or this guy still has a fluke mentality.

When it was the Rockets' turn to attack, Parsons tried a single.

When he was forced by Zhang Xiaotian to make a hasty shot from outside, Parsons was sure that the Zhang Xiaotian who gave him such a headache appeared again.

Seeing Zhang Xiaotian scoring consecutively and closing the score to the worst 3 points in less than 3 minutes, Rockets head coach Kevin McHale realized the problem.

McHale was also single, so he immediately replaced all the main players in a timeout.

The Heat are the public enemy of the league. Some strong teams are unwilling to fight against them because they can't beat them anyway. Some teams really want to win their morale, and the Rockets are one of them.

They haven't won against the Heat for a long time, and now the Rockets will never let go of the opportunity.

(End of this chapter)