NBA: The man who passed the ball to Yao Ming

At 12:8 p.m. local time in Houston on December 7, the game between the Rockets and the Kings at home was officially kicked off amidst cheers from the packed Toyota Center.

It can be seen from the starting lineup at the beginning that the Kings team that has just completed a five-game winning streak is completely different from the Kings team that lost the opening game against the Rockets.

Their head coach, Adelman, put away Bunch Wells and Abdullahim, who had been firmly seated in the starting lineup, and used Kevin Martin, a second-year player who gradually found his presence on the offensive end this season. And rookie Francisco Garcia, who was selected with the No. 23 overall pick this year.

Coupled with the white devil Mike Bibby, the stabbing Artest and Brad Miller, who can be regarded as the best passer at the center position, formed the new starting lineup of the Kings.

Although this lineup cannot be compared with the luxury five-tiger lineup at the beginning of the season in terms of strength on paper, it has clearly made the Kings' lineup planning based on 48 minutes more consistent.

The Rockets' lineup has been relatively stable recently.

The only change today is that Birdman Anderson, who was tentatively placed in the starting power forward position in the last game, returned to the bench, and Chuck Hayes once again became Yao Ming's partner in the interior, and was matched with the outside line. Small forward Shane Battier, shooting guard McGrady and point guard Zhang Jinshui.

After the game started, the Kings' second-year freshman Kevin Martin was the first to take center stage.

He did not live up to Adelman's expectations. Through a sudden shot from outside the three-point line and a defensive foul caused by Chuck Hayes after breaking into the inside line, he went to the free throw line and made two free throws to help the Kings win 5 games. The perfect opening of 0 is a real blow to the Rockets, and it also tells everyone who pays attention to this game that their recent five-game winning streak is in the limelight, and it must not be underestimated.

However, after having played nearly 20 NBA games and experienced many ups and downs, Zhang Jinshui's mentality will not be affected by this little twist.

As if nothing happened, he followed Van Gundy's pre-match deployment step by step, first passing the ball to Yao Ming who got the position inside.

However, the Kings definitely came prepared today, and immediately double-teamed Yao Ming.

Zhang Jinshui was also unambiguous, and immediately ran back and cut into the inside line, received a hand-off pass from Yao Ming, successfully attacked the basket, and helped the Rockets score their first sports stop.

Immediately after that, Zhang Jinshui still looked for Yao Ming who had gained a position in the interior in every attack, and used the double-teamed Yao Ming as the starting point of his offensive tactics.

He turned himself into a connecting node between Yao Ming and McGrady. After receiving Yao Ming's points, he quickly poured the ball to McGrady on the weak side, helping the latter get a good offensive opportunity and Hit two pull-up jumpers.

When the first quarter of the game progressed to the 4th minute, the score on the field became 10 to 10, and the two sides returned to the same starting line again.

Just when the audience at the Toyota Center thought that the Rockets had regained their usual rhythm and would use a wave of force to throw off the score and regain control of the situation on the court, the Kings' defensive strategy suddenly made a small change. adjustment.

Adelman switched Artest and Kevin Martin on the defensive end, allowing the best defensive player of the 03-04 season to mark McGrady, and immediately achieved some results, reducing McGrady's offensive success rate.

The white devil Mike Bibby stood up from the offensive end.

He has the league's top breakthrough ability, even if he fights with Zhang Jinshui who has the blessing of [Shadow Follows], he will not suffer at all.

With the help of Brad Miller's pick-and-roll, he successfully entered the inside and scored 2 points. Once he directly broke through Zhang Jinshui, attracted the attention of the defense, and then distributed the ball to Kevin Martin in the right corner, assisting the latter. Hit another 15-pointer to give the Kings a five-point lead back to 10-5.

At this time, the fans in the stands of the Toyota Center finally felt the difference between the Kings and the Rockets' opponents in the past few games. They really have the ability to drag the Rockets into some rhythms they don't like.

And Zhang Jinshui on the field has also put away his understatement at the beginning of the game. The current performance of the Kings is definitely worthy of their five-game winning streak in the past five games.

After taking the ball to the frontcourt again, Zhang Jinshui waved directly to the inside and called Yao Ming to the top of the arc to help him set a pick-and-roll.

Usually at this point in time, Zhang Jinshui would choose to take advantage of Yao Ming's high position support to run without the ball most of the time, to disrupt the Kings' defensive system.

But now that the score is behind, and the Kings are indeed a bit difficult, Zhang Jinshui still decided to use his arsenal to help the Rockets get some points to stabilize the center of gravity.

So, he directly triggered the golden badge [Best Route] with his mind, and followed the green prompt line that appeared in his sight, cast [Lightning First Step] to break into the three-second zone of the Kings, and then dodged Garcia with a horizontal jump He made up the defense and easily made an empty basket, helping the Rockets narrow the trailing score to 3 points.

In the stands of the Toyota Center, there was a burst of cheers immediately.

However, before the cheers fell, Mike Bibby had already rushed into the front court with the ball at high speed, pretending to wait for his teammates to get in position, but taking advantage of Zhang Jinshui's lack of concentration on defense, he suddenly accelerated and rushed from Zhang Jinshui's right hand Passed the past and easily completed a layup, which reopened the difference between the two sides to 5 points.

Mike Bibby's breakthrough response was indeed very beautiful.

Moreover, it seems to be a declaration, silently reminding the Rockets and the Rockets fans on the scene that in this game, their Kings will never let the Rockets easily control the rhythm of the field.

In the stands of the Toyota Center, a tense atmosphere began to pervade again. The strong performance of the Kings so far has indeed caught everyone by surprise.

On the sidelines, Van Gundy, who has seldom shown a serious expression in recent games, has a stiff face. He crosses his arms and walks gently in front of the Rockets' bench.

However, he just made a hand down gesture to the Rockets soldiers on the court to stabilize, and he didn't directly speak loudly to the Rockets soldiers on the court.

It can be seen that although the situation on the court is a bit tense, he still hopes that the Rockets players can handle this not-so-big crisis by themselves.

And Zhang Jinshui was indeed trying to rely on his players to solve the problem. While taking the ball to the frontcourt, he shouted loudly: "Brothers, don't panic, let's play another one."

At the same time, in his mind, the metallic system voice asking whether to trigger the purple badge [Tit for Tat] just fell, and he immediately shouted with his mind: "Trigger."

After dribbling the ball to the frontcourt, he saw that the Kings' two inside big men hadn't retreated to his defensive position, so he didn't call Yao Ming's high pick-and-roll, and directly used [Lightning First Step] to rush in from Mike Bibby's right side The three-second zone of the Kings.

In the blink of an eye, Brad Miller and Garcia could only watch Zhang Jinshui go directly to the basket from their side.

However, just when Zhang Jinshui jumped up and was about to put the basketball on the basket easily, Artest, who was supposed to be marking McGrady near the three-point line on the right, suddenly flew across from the right and blocked the ball. In front of Zhang Jinshui.

Zhang Jinshui, who originally just wanted to complete an easy layup when he took off, had no energy left to dodge and maneuver at this moment. All his layup angles were shrouded in Artest's arms.

I have to admit that Artest's supplementary defense this time is definitely the top in the league, and instantly pushed Zhang Jinshui to a corner.

Seeing that his palm was about to slap Zhang Jinshui's layup, many Rockets fans in the stands could not bear to turn their heads to the side, unable to bear to watch the situation on the court.

Fortunately, Zhang Jinshui knows that he has the special effect of "Tit for Tat". As long as he can throw the ball to the basket without being blocked, he should have a [-]% chance of hitting it.

Without any point of focus to change his posture in the air, Zhang Jinshui gritted his teeth and did the opposite, directly hitting himself into Artest's strong body, and then bounced off his own body At that time, he threw the basketball high into the air and narrowly avoided Artest's block.

"Beep!" At this moment, the referee's whistle blew first, calling Artest a defensive foul that violated Zhang Jinshui's cylinder.

The Rockets fans in the stands, whose hearts were already in their throats, finally breathed a sigh of relief. Those who turned their eyes to the side also turned back to the basketball that was slowly rising and then falling slowly above the court.

I saw the basketball draw a very high, short, seemingly weird pseudo-arc in the air, but it was a coincidence that when the basketball fell, it was only ahead of the position where Zhang Jinshui threw the ball. A little bit, but it just hit the edge of the basket.

"Huh?!" There was an exclamation of both surprise and joy immediately in the stands.

Immediately afterwards, in the midst of all eyes, the basketball paused briefly on the edge of the rim before finally falling into the rim.

In this round, from Zhang Jinshui's unexpected rush to the inside and the opportunity to easily go up to the basket, to Artest's sudden attack from the side, forcing Zhang Jinshui directly to the corner, and then to Zhang Jinshui's escape from desperation, not only caused Overcoming Artest's foul, he also managed to throw an incredible goal and get a 2+1 chance.

Although the whole process is only between lightning and flint, the reversal and reversal of the plot is no less than a wonderful suspense movie.

In the stands of the Toyota Center, earth-shattering cheers erupted immediately, and the originally sluggish atmosphere of the arena was swept away in an instant.

Not only the stands, but the Rockets' benches were also set ablaze. Players such as Alston and Birdman Anderson stood up one after another, waving towels to cheer for Zhang Jinshui.

Sprewell was the most exaggerated. He jumped up and down excitedly, and even jumped next to Van Gundy, asking loudly: "Coach, now the first quarter is about to pass 6 minutes, should I be replaced? I want Play with Zhang Jinshui!"

The Rockets players on the court rushed over excitedly and pulled up Zhang Jinshui who had fallen to the ground.

After Zhang Jinshui got up, he immediately pouted and raised his arms horizontally, showing his biceps to the players of the Kings. He just wanted to use this kind of provocative way to let the Rockets fans at the scene know that Toyota Center is the site of the Rockets. The Kings seem to be pretty good recently, but here, they can't turn the sky.

Then, Zhang Jinshui walked to the free throw line and steadily made the extra free throw, which also helped the Rockets only trail the Kings by 15 points 17 to 2.

Van Gundy on the sidelines shouted in a timely manner: "Players, speed up the frequency of your feet, let them see our true defensive strength."

"Ok!"

"no problem!"

Yao Ming and McGrady immediately responded loudly.

Under the leadership of these two superstars, and the Rockets fans in the stands chanted the slogan of "defense" in unison, the momentum of the Rockets on the defensive end suddenly rose.

First, Yao Ming fanned Mike Bibby's layup after barely breaking through Zhang Jinshui out of bounds, and then McGrady successfully intercepted Artest's offense with the ball. A few rounds of revenge against him on the defensive end.

While gradually stabilizing the rhythm on the defensive end, Zhang Jinshui continued his fiery performance on the offensive end.

He first used up the quota for the second [best route] today, and entered the inside line along the system's green indicator line.

Although Artest's bug-level supplementary defense ability invalidated Zhang Jinshui's system prediction, Zhang Jinshui, who had already been on guard in the previous round, still used his flashes in the air to cleverly cause Artest Special defensive foul, and went to the free throw line and made two free throws, helping the Rockets equalize the score.

The greater significance of this round is that it forced Adelman to replace Artest, who committed two offenses, so that the Kings' perimeter defense was immediately weakened by a notch.

Although McGrady was also replaced at this time, it did not prevent Zhang Jinshui from letting Yao Ming lift up to catch the ball, and then he began to cover off the ball with Sprewell, Sean Battier and Chuck Hayes Next, the Kings ran at full speed in the half court, and successfully ran an open three-pointer in the bottom corners on both sides.

Taking advantage of the fiery state during this period, Zhang Jinshui stepped on the rich green on the soles of his feet twice to make long shots steadily, and finally let the Rockets become the leader of the game for the first time with 23 to 20.