The world of basketball

Chapter 183 Losing
After being selected by the Rockets with a low pick, Zhou Qi's life after that was even more difficult because he found that he had no ball to play.Even Capela didn't have a lot of playing time back then, let alone Zhou Qi.

Later, Zhou Qi was placed on the bench one after another, and sent to the Development League. Even in the development league games, Zhou Qi's performance was not too impressive because he did not have much dominance, especially in the development league. on the data.

At the beginning of last season, the Rockets were in a precarious situation. Because of Paul's injury, Harden played a bit difficult.Even if Harden is fully fired, it is difficult for the Rockets to reach a better ranking. Paul finally came back from the line of fire, and the Rockets reached the second position in the Western Conference.

During that period of time, Zhou Qi also suffered injuries, and his game status in the Viper team was not very good, so Anthony even had the idea of ​​​​cutting him, and almost implemented it.

Fortunately, D'Antoni finally gave Zhou a chance, and Zhou Qi also firmly seized this opportunity. How many consecutive bursts kept him from being cut, and finally became a member of the Rockets' rotation , and the Rockets also benefited from this, and got the twin-tower lineup of Zhou Qi and Capela. improvement.

So the big defeat in the last game made the main rotation of the Rockets hold back a lot of energy. They felt a sigh of relief in their hearts and couldn't go on. In this game, the Rockets' rotation players are so desperate on the defensive end and their shooting accuracy on the offensive end is much higher.

In the third quarter, Popovich chose a point-chasing lineup, Jeremy Lin, Jimmy Butler Belinelli, Kuzma and Mu Xiaobei. The score is very accurate, it can be seen that Popovich wants to speed up.

But that's not what I'm good at.So this attempt actually ended in failure.

After playing for 5 minutes in the second quarter, the Spurs felt hot, but they couldn't prevent the Rockets.If you want to chase points to defend, defending against the opponent's scoring is the primary task, followed by being able to score yourself.

Of course, there is no comparison.Both of these are crucial. If you can't guard against the opponent or you can't score, you can't talk about chasing points or anything.

But the defense of this lineup is indeed a bit worse.Because they are indeed a little thin in heart, the inside combination formed by Kuzma and Mu Xiaobei not only lost their height advantage, but also their confrontation ability was also worse.

However, the Rockets and Spurs players did realize their mistakes in the first half of the game. They never dared to choose to double-team Chris Paul and James Harden, because it would be cool to double-team and leave the open space.

In fact, the Spurs have done a very good job of defending giant strategies, and they have always been very good, because Popovich has very successful experience, that is, they successfully defended LeBron James in the 2014 Finals.

Of course, it cannot be regarded as a successful defense, but only some restrictions, but even these restrictions are a very necessary condition for success.

For players like Paul Harden and James, it is impossible to completely limit them. Even if you limit them in one game, it is impossible to limit them for the entire series, so it is good to limit one aspect of them. up.For example, restricting James when playing the Heat is to let him shoot, and the Bumblebee is on her passing route, which makes it a bit difficult for James to play.

For some reason, the Spurs seem to have forgotten this strategy in this game. Although Chris Paul and James Harden did not score high in the first half, they sent a considerable number of assists.The Rockets played very smoothly and naturally on the offensive end, and their shooting percentage was naturally high.

The second half of the third quarter.Popovich also replaced their regular lineup with Jeremy Lin, Jimmy Butler, Kuzma Aldridge and Mu Xiaobei. The lineup with the most tacit understanding, since they have played like this all season, and they have played well, then they need to continue to play like this, instead of making some fancy lineup changes.

When they are already familiar with their lineup and style of play, if they change their style of play rashly, or make their players feel uncomfortable, this will cause them to be a little dazed on the defensive end, and may attack The end running position will be heavy, and the offensive feel and rhythm will also change. This may be the reason why the Spurs did not close the point difference at the beginning of the third quarter.

When the Spurs made no mistakes, they played much better in the second half of the third quarter, especially after they did not double-team James Harden and Chris Paul.The Rockets' shooters got relatively fewer shots, and Harden and Paul, who hadn't shot a few times in the whole game, were a little cold. They missed several shots in a row and were beaten by the Spurs. It became a few counterattacks and fast breaks, and finally the Spurs approached the score to 12 points before the end of the fourth quarter.

As a basketball commentator said, for a superstar, his hands may be cold for a while, but it is impossible for him to be cold in a game. This sentence is very important for James Harden and Chris Paul in this game. Applicable, they were busy making balls for their teammates in the first half of the game, and they didn't take many shots, so they didn't shoot much, so the feeling of just igniting during the warm-up was a bit cold, but in the fourth quarter, they played a few consecutive singles All hit.

On the contrary, the Spurs don't know how to get fat. Several strategic offenses failed to score, and many open three-point shots failed to score or the air cut layup was interfered and failed to make a hit.

At the end of the game, the Spurs still failed to catch up with the point difference. The Rockets rebounded strongly at home with a huge point difference of 130-110-17 and won the second game to tie the big score at [-]-[-]. .

During the whole game, the Rockets had seven players in double figures, Harden scored 16 points and Paul scored 15 points, which is incredible for the Rockets.And Gordon scored 18 points.Green scored 15 points, Zhou Qi and Capela scored 13 points, and Rivers scored [-] points.

For the Spurs, Mu Xiaobei was in average form. He only made nine shots out of 22 shots. He made three of nine three-pointers. Although he scored 24 points, the hits were really not good, and Zhou Qi, who was facing him, made three-pointers. The period of consecutive hits was indeed a mistake in Mu Xiaobei's defensive choice.

(End of this chapter)