full court guidance

Chapter 41
"Houston Sportsman" is a professional sports newspaper with a small circulation. On the morning of May 5th, their latest headline read in large characters: "Chinese players teamed up to suppress American players, and the Rockets are still Americans' own team. team?"

The article reads: According to people familiar with the matter, Bob Sura, the Rockets’ starting point guard, was finally hidden because of conflicts with two Chinese players. He became the biggest victim of the Rockets and contributed to the Rockets’ two consecutive losses Lay hidden.

In the regular season of this season, Bob Sura played 61 times for the Rockets, 59 of which he started as a starter. He is the team's unshakeable main point guard.His performance is also very good, averaging 10 points, 3 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. With a height of 5.3cm, he also plays a role that cannot be ignored on the defensive end.

Unfortunately, the two Chinese players, Yao Ming and Late, had some conflicts with Sura. Late even told the coach publicly that if Sura played, he would refuse to play for the team.

As the team's most important three-pointer at present, with Yao Ming's support behind him, coach Van Gundy had to choose to compromise and use Mucci Norris, who has a better relationship with Yao Ming, as the team's starting point guard.

Mucci Norris' strength has declined seriously, and he has no ability to become the team's starter at all. In the first two games against the Suns, the Suns mainly attacked Mucci Norris, so that the Rockets could not see the hope of victory at all.

Once the article was published, it immediately caused an uproar.

Many media with a huge circulation even reposted it, and many netizens on the Internet believed that Yao Ming and Late's actions were entirely to satisfy their own selfish desires and disregarded the interests of the team.

Already 0:2 behind the Suns, now that the media is stepping on it again, the Rockets suddenly become panicked.

Rotation players such as Scott Padgett and Ryan Bowen have been greatly affected.

On the contrary, veterans like David Wesley and Juan Barry are calm and seem to be used to such scenes.

They have already experienced the unscrupulousness of the media. Every year, whenever the team's record is not good, there will always be one kind of media jumping out, making up one shocking news after another, regardless of the consequences of doing so. What a negative impact on the team.

McGrady, who was recuperating from injury, immediately expressed his desire to come back early and strive to win today's game.

The Rockets doctor examined him and rejected his offer to pay.

Van Gundy also specifically found Yao Ming and Late, and comforted them to ignore the nonsense of the outside media, and let them just focus on the court.

As long as they can win a victory, the media will immediately shut up obediently.

Yao Ming has dealt with the media a lot, so naturally he doesn't take it personally.

Being late was very indifferent, and he didn't take the nonsense of the outside media into his eyes.

The silence of the two seems to have tacitly acknowledged that the news report is the truth, and the unscrupulous media immediately followed up, especially the "Houston Sportsman" immediately published a brand new article.

In the article, the "Houston Sportsman" wrote: "Yao Ming is completely at a disadvantage in the head-to-head confrontation with Stoudamire. The No. 02 pick in the [-] draft should be given to Stoudamire. Meyer is playing for the Rockets. With the cooperation between him and McGrady, maybe we can reach the finals. As for this year's undrafted rookie, maybe he has made amazing achievements outside the basketball court, but he He has always been a softie who can only shoot three-pointers from the outside. He has no ability to lead the team to win. Basketball is a competitive sport, and failure is the original sin. If you are late, you should immediately get out of the court and go back to his scientific research. "

The general public is the easiest to be incited. Seeing the news from the media, many people chose to side with the "Houston Sportsman" and criticized Yao Ming and Late.

Then the "Houston Sportsman" continued to follow up: Yao Ming and Late became the Rockets' team bully, which did not happen recently.When McGrady’s back injury recurred this season, it was actually a conflict with Yao Ming. In the end, he had to bow his head and apologize to Yao Ming before he could return to the game. Yao Ming’s rookie contract will expire soon. The Rockets management should reconsider , Is such a player worth renewing?

The recent report made McGrady unable to sit still.

He immediately stated publicly: "The relapse of my back injury is not due to the conflict with Yao Ming, but to be able to participate in the game better. The relationship between Yao Ming and I is very good. We are very good friends. Don’t talk about it. Everyone knows that occasionally there will be some small frictions between friends because of issues of ideas, not to mention that Yao grew up in the East, and many ideas are completely different from ours, but after we had frank exchanges, we have gained mutual understanding. With understanding, we are still best friends. On the court, I am also trying to believe in him more and give him more support. I think Yao will be an excellent leader, and I am willing to be the best around him assistant."

This is the first time McGrady has talked about who is the boss of the team in public, and unexpectedly admitted that Yao Ming is the boss of the Rockets.

You must know that when he just transferred to the Rockets, almost everyone thought he was the real core of the Rockets.

"As for being late, my relationship with him is naturally not as familiar as that of Yao Ming, but he is a good man, smart and he gave me a lot of useful advice. Everyone in our team likes him. The firepower he provided us on the outside , which has greatly improved our team's offensive power. I believe fans who have been following Rockets games know that since joining the Rockets late, we have often scored over [-] points, which was unimaginable before. I don't know that some media Why release some disturbing news when we are at a disadvantage, they seem to be more willing to see us lose to the Suns than to support the Rockets to work hard and break into the Western Conference Finals!"

McGrady's speech was fairly restrained, and he didn't say anything excessive.

Mucci Norris, who was criticized by the media recently, was not so easy to get along with. He responded to the media's criticism in an interview later: "I know that my strength is not enough to start a team, but the coach arranged As the starter, I naturally have his reasons. The insider mentioned by some news media must be Bob Sura, right? He is not willing to be replaced by me, so he uses the media to disrupt the Rockets' dressing The atmosphere in the room. I think he is a disgraceful guy. In the series against the Mavericks, Bob Sura completely disregarded the team's tactical play, which was the root cause of his being taken from the team's starting lineup. In the game, I will give full play to my energy and try my best to do the work assigned to me by the coach. Our Rockets will not admit defeat easily."

The Rockets management is not stupid, and reacted quickly, and the team suspended Bob Sura.

At this critical moment, absolutely no one should be allowed to make troubles.

Before the start of the game that day, Van Gundy announced the team's tactics again, asking the players on the field to pay attention to suppressing the rhythm, and not to be led by the Sun's fast break, unless it is a must-go counterattack opportunity, otherwise must wait for all players to pass halftime Start attacking again.

On the defensive end, we must strengthen the peripheral rotation, do not give the Suns outside players easy opportunities to get shots, and try our best to suppress their shooting percentage.

Inside, Yao Ming gave up defending Stoudemire and sat at the basket to maintain deterrence.

Yao Ming had some different views on this, but in the end he had no choice but to find that this seemed to be the best way.

Stoudemire's athletic ability is really amazing. The pick-and-roll cooperation between him and Steve Nash has been very skilled, and it is almost unstoppable to catch and cut the ball.

At this moment, Late suddenly raised his hand: "Coach, let me guard Steve Nash in this game."

"This..." Van Gundy hesitated.

At present, the Rockets players are stretched, late is young, but his lack of physical strength is a big problem, but with his defensive ability, it is no problem to defend Steve Nash, but what about Joe Johnson and Marion?
Today's lateness is already an indispensable giant of the team, Van Gundy also had to sell his face, and pondered for a while: "Well, it's up to you to defend Steve Nash, and you also need to take more responsibility on the offensive end. Nash's defensive ability is not strong, so we should seize this point to attack."

After all, Van Gundy's expression sank: "Late, I allow you to fire at any time at any time today."

"Yes, coach."

Van Gundy said to Yao Ming again: "Yao, if you have a chance at the basket, don't hesitate. You already have the ability to dominate the basket, and the Suns' defense can't stop you. If you have the opportunity, you can also seek cooperation with Late. The team The attack depends on you two."

Steve Nash is a good man. When the two sides were warming up, Nash deliberately found Late and encouraged him: "Late, you are a different player. I believe you will achieve great achievements in the future. Don't take the words of the media. At heart, they're just sensationalizing."

After the warm-up, players from both sides played and the Rockets started: Yao Ming, Scott Padgett, Jon Barry, Late, and David Wesley.

Suns starters: Amare Stodamire, Sean Marion, Jim Jackson, Quentin Richardson and All-Star point guard Steve Nash.

Comparing the lineups of the two sides, the gap is very obvious.

Stoudemire is not inferior to Yao Ming in strength. Steve Nash is a passing master and has super scoring ability. He has entered the 180 club for three seasons in his career.Shawn Marion was also an All-Star.Jim Jackson and Quentin Richardson are also stars whose scoring ability has been recognized.

Looking at the Rockets, they are so shabby that they explode. Among the starting players, there are three players that are not rare in other teams.

But no one expected that just relying on Yao Ming and being late, they would set off a shocking climax in the next game.

(End of this chapter)