Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 70 70. Rigid Jeff Van Gundy
In the first round of the playoffs, the Timberwolves beat the Rockets by 21 points at home. This was something that many fans did not expect before the game.

Even though the Timberwolves' odds of winning this round of the series are far greater than that of the Rockets, the overall strength of the Rockets is not bad at all.

This is why before the start of the playoffs, many fans felt that the Rockets might be upset by a black eight.

As a result, once the playoffs started, the Timberwolves directly defeated the Rockets by 21 points at home, which made many fans gasp.

Especially the Houston fans. Before the start of this round of the series, the Rockets fans were still looking forward to an upset from the home team.

Pressed the Timberwolves, who were invincible in the regular season, to the ground and stomped crazily.

However, this victory of the Timberwolves is like a pot of cold water that directly extinguished the fantasy of the Rockets fans, so that the Rockets fans had to return to reality and had to bear the fear from the Timberwolves.

In addition, the Rockets' core Yao Ming's performance in the first game of the playoffs also attracted a large number of fans to complain.

For the fans, they don't care what Yao Ming experienced on the field, what they care about is the final stats Yao Ming contributed.

7 points and 8 rebounds, no matter how you look at it, this data should not appear on Yao Ming, especially in the playoffs.

After all, even Juwan Howard had 11 points and 6 rebounds in the last game, so Yao Ming's performance undoubtedly became the object of crazy complaints from fans.

As for McGrady, although he scored 38 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in the last game, he only shot 39.2% from the field, which also caused dissatisfaction among Rockets fans.

This also led to the fact that most of the sports news on the second day was ridiculed against the Rockets Gemini, and the people who mocked were all Rockets fans who had previously boasted about Yao Mai...

...............

"Good job Lue, 21 points at home against the Rockets, it was a morale-boosting game."

"Now the fans are responding very well. If the team can continue to keep the home court in the next game, I believe this round of the series will be basically stable!"

In the office, general manager McHale was obviously in a good mood. Even though the Timberwolves only won the first game of the playoffs, winning and winning by a big score are definitely two concepts!
Being able to beat the opponent by more than 20 points in the playoffs is an obvious improvement in the overall morale of the team.

As a former NBA player ranked among the top 50 players in the league by ESPN, McHale knows exactly what this big win means.

This victory means that players can play more confidently in the next game, it means that the cohesion of Timberwolves fans has been further improved, and it means that owner Glenn Taylor is in a good mood.

Now, in McHale's view, Luke is simply his own lucky star. Apart from this guy who often causes troubles on weekdays, McHale really looks more and more pleasing to Luke now.

Of course, even if Luke did cause a lot of trouble on the field, Luke never got involved with the team, and because of Luke's reputation, the Timberwolves saved a lot of trouble.

Thinking of this, McHale smiled even more when he looked at Luke.

"Jeff's coaching ideas are too rigid. He will definitely make changes in the next game, but I can basically foresee his changes."

"Although the depth of the Rockets' lineup is sufficient, there are still too few players who can really fight tough battles. There are too many to guarantee. The Rockets should be able to solve the Rockets within six games."

"For a tiebreaker..." Luke paused for a moment and then shook his head, "The Rockets have this strength, but Jeff doesn't."

Hearing Luke's tone of voice was still as arrogant as ever, but this time McHale didn't have any disgust, and even Luke's arrogance was not too beautiful in McHale's eyes!
"That's good, that's good." McHale laughed dryly. At first, McHale subconsciously wanted to warn Luke not to underestimate the enemy, but McHale swallowed the words abruptly.

This time McHale didn't want to be as cautious as before, after all, Luke had never heard what McHale said before.

Instead of beating Luke with words, it is better to let go of trust in him completely. McHale has no other way except to choose to trust Luke.

...............

The Timberwolves and the Rockets played the second game of the first round of the playoffs, still at the Timberwolves' home stadium, the Target Center Arena.

目前NBA季后赛的比赛制度是2-2-1-1-1，也就是前两场比赛会在战绩出色的球队主场进行，后两场比赛会在战绩差的一方主场进行。

As for the last three games, the rankings are used and so on. The team with a better record will have the home court advantage when they play 7 games. This is the main reason why all teams want to improve their rankings in the regular season.

When the overall strength of the two teams is completely equal, the home field advantage will become very important, and even the first two home games are likely to rewrite the results of the entire round of the series.

After all, when a team returns to the home court with a big score of 0:2, the psychological pressure on the players is definitely much higher than before the game. If the psychological quality is poor, they basically have to go home early to fish.

After the game started, the ball was still taken by the Rockets. The starting lineups of both sides in this game are the same as the last game.

The Rockets have no room for adjustment, and the Timberwolves have no need to adjust. Even if Nehbar's performance is very good, but in terms of Nehbar's current defensive ability, it is the most sensible choice to play the sixth talent in the playoffs.

When Yao Ming came up, he didn't directly land in the low post like before, but stood in the middle distance to catch the ball.

The passing route at this position is very wide. If the Timberwolves are still decisively attacking forward like in the previous game, Yao Ming is nearly [-] meters tall and fully capable of passing the ball to any teammate.

Seeing Yao Ming standing still in the mid-range position, Garnett hesitated for a moment, and did not step forward to flank, but let Yao Ming hold the ball in that position.

According to coach Luke's instructions before the game, as long as Yao Ming is not holding the ball in the penalty area, there is no need to flank Yao Ming.

Even though Yao Ming has a mid-range shooting range, Luke doesn't believe that Yao Ming can kill games with mid-range shots, and Luke also doesn't believe that Van Gundy will let Yao Ming kill mid-range shots throughout the game.

With Garnett not coming to attack, Yao Ming observed for a while and directly completed the shot in the middle distance.

"Shu~"

Yao Ming's mid-range shot made a steady hit. It seems that Yao Ming's shooting in this game feels good.

On the offensive end, the Timberwolves still give the ball more to the offensive strengths, and Cassel, Madman and Garnett will participate more in the offense.

Facing Garnett is Juwan Howard, who has basically no athletic ability. As a power forward player, Uncle Huo's average number of blocks per game this season is only 0.1.

From this point, it is not difficult to see how bad Juwan Howard's defense is. Facing Garnett, it is lucky that Uncle Huo can guarantee that he will not be blown up.

As for the player facing "Madman" Sprewell is Bob Sura, a white player with a height of 96 meters and a weight of 91 kilograms.

On the normal historical trajectory, this season is the last season of Bob Sura's career.

Sura's offensive ability is not bad, but his defensive ability is really hard to describe, otherwise the madman would not have scored 26 points efficiently in the last game.

The Rockets' defensive ability is strong because Yao Ming sits in the penalty area. All teams that want to break into the inside must face the mountain of Yao Ming.

But the Timberwolves' offensive methods are different from other teams. Other teams will try their best to hit the ball to the basket, but the Timberwolves are a balanced team inside and outside.

Three-pointers, mid-range, breakthroughs, there is no offensive method that the Timberwolves are not good at.

Therefore, while having a personal advantage on the offensive end, Yao Ming's defensive effect has been reduced to the lowest by the Timberwolves.

The Timberwolves are not a team that relies on scoring in the penalty area. Even the leading star Garnett's scoring method is a mid-range jumper, which makes Jeff Van Gundy stand on the sidelines and worry.

"Shu~"

Facing David Wesley, who is only 1.8 meters tall, with his back to back, Cassel once again used a turnaround jumper to complete the strong attack, helping the Timberwolves score the first goal of the game.

As for why it was again, because Kassel scored multiple goals in the same way in the last game, hitting David Wesley so badly that he started to suffer from hypoxia, and his face was full of helplessness.

In the offensive round of the Rockets, this time Yao Ming still held the ball in the mid-range position, and the Timberwolves also did not step forward to flank.

The Timberwolves' defensive action made Yao Ming hesitate, but as Jeff Van Gundy kept shouting from the sidelines, Yao Ming still gritted his teeth and made another shot.

"boom!"

Yao Ming's shot was a bit too strong for this ball, and the rebound was firmly accepted by the tall and long-armed Garnett.

After all, when Yao Ming pulled to the outside to shoot mid-range shots, the Rockets were left in the penalty area with only Uncle Huo, who was [-] meters tall, fighting for rebounds.

But Huo Ershu has never been an excellent rebound protector. This season, Juwan Howard's average rebounds are only 5.7 times. Fateful wolf king!

After accepting the rebound from the backcourt, Garnett immediately passed the ball to the frontcourt. During the counterattack, Kassel and Sprewell completed the connection. Put the ball into the basket and help the Timberwolves take another two points.

Looking at the situation on the court, Luke stood off the court with his arms crossed, with a vague sneer on his face.

Obviously, Jeff Van Gundy's adjustment was completely within Luke's expectations.

As Luke said with general manager McHale before, Jeff Van Gundy's coaching ideas are too rigid, so rigid that Luke can cope without thinking.

As for why the assistant coach didn't give Jeff Van Gundy an idea, because the current assistant coach of the Rockets is called Tom Thibodeau.

That's right, it is the defensive coach who coached the Bulls in later generations.

Thibodeau's defensive philosophy is all learned from Jeff Van Gundy. Instead of waiting for Thibodeau to give Jeff Van Gundy advice, it is better to pray that Van Gundy can enlighten himself!
Throughout the first quarter, the Rockets' adjustments did not help the team become better. Even though Yao Ming improved in terms of statistics, he scored 8 points and 4 rebounds in the half quarter, but the Rockets were still behind in terms of score.

As the madman succeeded in singles against Bob Sura many times on the offensive end, the Timberwolves quickly widened the point difference, and the point difference was about to run to double digits.

At the end of the first quarter, the Timberwolves ended the contest with 26:19, leading the Rockets by 7 points at home.

　Ask for a monthly ticket, ask for a recommendation ticket, ask for support, thank you, third child!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)