Bishop of the Abyss

Chapter 72 72. Counterattack from McGrady
With the Timberwolves defeating the Rockets in the second game of the first round, the Timberwolves are currently leading with a big score of 2:0.

This scene made many fans silent. Obviously, the Timberwolves are far stronger than people imagined.

Before the start of this round of the series, many people thought that the Rockets had a chance to upset the Black Eight, but the two consecutive victories directly left the Rockets fans speechless.

Judging from the depth of the lineup, the Rockets are not inferior to the Timberwolves at all, and their defensive efficiency is also comparable to the Timberwolves.

But in this round of the series, what people saw was an easy sling. What people saw was that the Timberwolves won two big victories without any effort, making the Rockets' situation instantly become passive.

At present, the Rockets still have the possibility of overturning the Timberwolves in theory, but from a practical point of view, people really can't think of a reason why the Rockets can come back and advance.

In particular, the Timberwolves' restrictions on Yao and Mai on the defensive end are simply too perfect, making it difficult for Yao and Mai to work together to break the situation.

As for the role players, they lost themselves under the defense of the Timberwolves. Among them, David Wesley and Bob Sura combined to contribute a poor 34 points in two games.

On average, each player can only hand over about 8 points in a single game.

This score is not much different from the season averages of the two, but the problem is that the Timberwolves' defensive focus has always been on Yao Ming. In this case, the role players of the Rockets are still playing so poorly. away.

Next, the Rockets must win the G3 playoffs, otherwise, once the Timberwolves make another move, the Rockets really only have a theoretical promotion left!

…………

On April 4, the third matchup between the Timberwolves and the Rockets in the first round officially started at the Toyota Center Arena in Houston.

As soon as the game came up, the fans discovered the changes in the Rockets' lineup. The biggest change was that Jeff Van Gundy chose to start Yao Ming and switched to the 39-year-old veteran Mutombo as the starter.

Uncle Mu has been playing as a substitute for Yao Ming in the Rockets this season. During the regular season, Uncle Mu averaged 4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.

As a veteran center who was selected to the All-Defensive Team six times in his career, won the block leader three times, and was elected the best defensive player four times, Mutombo, who is [-] meters tall, is very clear about his position.

It is to contribute as much as possible to the team on the defensive end and put himself in the position of a blue-collar center.

In his peak season, Mutombo averaged 4.5 blocks per game at most. Even though Uncle Mu is no longer young, his excellent defensive sense can still make this Congo mountain a King Kong in the Rockets' no-fly zone.

The purpose of Jeff Van Gundy's operation is relatively obvious, that is, he hopes that the starting lineup can be completely developed around McGrady, and then let Yao Ming miss the strongest defensive time period of the Timberwolves, and try to play a role on the bench.

After all, the first two losses have fully proved that even if Yao Ming starts the game, he will be brutally targeted by the Timberwolves.

Even when he cannot easily attack, it will also delay the performance of other teammates.

So in this game, Jeff Van Gundy simply put Yao Ming on the bench and let the entire Rockets start to launch an offensive around McGrady, and Yao Ming can take over the banner as soon as McGrady is off the court to ensure the Rockets' offense will not fall into stagnation.

In the first quarter of the game, McGrady returned to the home court feeling very hot, which also has something to do with Yao Ming's fate.

When Yao Ming is on the court, McGrady has to consider more offensive priorities, but when Yao Ming is not on the court, McGrady is the core figure of the entire Rockets.

You can play as you want on the court, and you don't have to consider other issues at all on the offensive end.

In addition, the Rockets are currently behind by a big score of 0:2. From a practical point of view, it is only a matter of time before the Rockets are eliminated, so this has allowed McGrady to completely let go of the game and become very confident on the court.

This kind of mentality can be said to be broken, or it can be said that there are too many lice and it is not ticklish. In short, McGrady played very well in this game.

At the end of the first half, McGrady scored 27 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, leading the Rockets to lead the Timberwolves for the first time to end the first half.

In addition to McGrady's fiery touch, the Timberwolves' lagging behind in the first half was also directly related to the bad touch of "Madman" Sprewell.

The madman played superstar performance in two consecutive games, which made the defensive coach Jeff Van Gundy look ugly. In this game, Van Gundy simply pinched the madman, allowing the madman to enjoy the Kobe treatment in advance.

The madman's offensive ability is very good, and the offensive methods are also very rich, but the biggest flaw of the madman is his passing vision. Once he encounters a pincer attack, it is difficult for the madman to calmly sort out the attack.

This is one of the reasons that limit the madman's access to the ranks of stars.

The reason why Jeff Van Gundy was unwilling to flank the madman before was mainly because he was afraid of the excellent shooting ability of the Timberwolves, especially when the center player Divac could pull out the three-point line, which made Jeff Van Gundy very uncomfortable. Willing to lose the big for the small.

However, the madman's performance in this round of the series was too impressive. He scored nearly 30 points in two consecutive games. Even if Van Gundy was afraid, he had to make changes.

Otherwise, the Rockets will really die, and it is very likely that they will face the end of being shaved by the Timberwolves.

After coming back from the second half, McGrady's touch was still hot. Even if Luke decisively attacked McGrady, he couldn't stop McGrady from scoring all kinds of gods with his hands.

Seeing that McGrady was possessed by God on the field, Luke stood on the sidelines with helplessness on his face. In this case, McGrady couldn't defend at all.

In the game between the Rockets and the Spurs in December of this season, McGrady staged a classic 12-second 35-point God performance.

From this point, it can also be seen how incomprehensible the hot-handed McGrady is. On this point, Spurs coach Popovich definitely has more say than anyone else!
"Dudu!"

随着比赛结束的哨声响起，最终在麦迪狂砍49分8篮板7助攻的表现下，火箭主场108：101力克森林狼，艰难地将系列赛总比分扳成至1 : 2。

The victory in this game gave the Rockets a little respite. Even if the Timberwolves have a much higher chance of advancing than the Rockets, if the Rockets can continue to make a comeback at the next home court, then this round of the series will return to the starting point.

As for whether Luke is willing to give the Rockets this opportunity, the main thing is to ask the "Son of God" McGrady who is celebrating on the court at this time.

Scored 49 points in a single game in the playoffs, which not only broke McGrady's career high, but also put a lot of pressure on the Timberwolves.

When the Timberwolves led by 2:0 in the series, everyone thought that the Timberwolves would surely win this round of the series, but McGrady's performance seemed to tell everyone that the series was far from over!
…………

At the press conference after the game, Luke sat in the interview position and answered many questions calmly.

Even though most of the problems were related to McGrady's personal performance in this game, there was no anxiety or regret on Luke's face.

It seems that the team losing a game is not a big deal, or that Luke is determined to win this round of the series, even if the Rockets win the next game by virtue of McGrady's God performance, Luke will not take the Rockets seriously.

Luke's expression made many Rockets fans feel uncomfortable. This feeling seemed to be contemptuous, and he was not at the same level as Luke!
Until a reporter asked Luke whether McGrady's performance still made the Timberwolves full of confidence in this round of the series, and if he had confidence, when Luke felt that the Timberwolves would eliminate the Rockets in a few games, the scene instantly became silent.

"Every loss is a growth, but sorry, it's time for this series to end."

"I don't know if Jeff has cleaned up his family, but there are two more games, and I will personally choose a spot to send him home to fish!" Facing the microphone, Luke said in a slightly cold tone.

(End of this chapter)