NBA: The man who passed the ball to Yao Ming

In the sky above the Toyota Center, after the game against the Grizzlies, the voice of "MVP" once again sounded in unison.

Zhang Jinshui was a little dazed for a moment.

He recalled the progress of today's game a little bit, only to realize that in the more than 8 minutes of this game, he had entered the inside 4 times, completed 1 inside sneak attack, and had 3 tough shots. He broke through for a layup with the ball and got two hits and three free throws.

再加上在两个底角跑出空位三分后各自命中的一记三分球，他在这场比赛中已经6投5中，三分球2投2中，罚球3投3中，拿下了夸张的15分1助攻。

In short, he really relied on his own strength to help the Rockets forcefully overwhelm the Kings, who were absolutely outstanding tonight.

Just like the last time he was honored by the voice of "MVP", Zhang Jinshui did not show a modest and shy smile, but had a firm gaze, raised his right arm high, and pointed his right index finger to the sky, saluting the Rockets fans in the audience.

At this time, the referee's whistle sounded, and the head coaches of the two teams made adjustments to the lineups on the field.

For the Rockets, Van Gundy replaced Yao Ming, Chuck Hayes and Sean Battier, and Zhang Jinshui and Sprewell led the bench for Birdman Anderson, Uncle Mu and JR Smith.

For the Kings, Adelman removed all starters except Kevin Martin and replaced them with two false substitutes, Bonzi Wells and Abdullahim.

In the case where the starting lineup and the Rockets are evenly matched, the Kings still have enough energy to send such a substitute lineup, which is actually equivalent to indirect proof that the current Kings have indeed become a reborn team. It's a notch better than at the beginning of the season.

After the game restarted, as soon as the Kings came up, Bonzi Wells held the ball at 45 degrees on the right side of the three-point line and singled JR Smith. The thin JR entered the three-second zone, turned around and scored 2 points with a jumper, reducing the point difference on the field to 1 point.

As for the Rockets, the madman Sprewell, who has long been unable to hold back on the bench, will naturally not let the opponent's bench lineup focus on the front. After receiving a pass from Zhang Jinshui in the frontcourt, he directly Kevin Martin, who was strong in offense and weak in defense, went inside and made a tough layup, helping the Rockets widen the point difference to 3 points again.

This ball actually fully demonstrates how important the joining of the foster brother is to the Rockets' reinforcement.

Before the arrival of the supportive brother, the Rockets' bench lineup did not have the ability to play singles with the ball. Zhang Jinshui could only rely on Zhang Jinshui to activate the offense of the bench lineup through pick-and-roll breakthroughs again and again.

But now that he has a supportive brother, Zhang Jinshui no longer needs to consume his energy as before when playing with a substitute lineup. Moreover, the Rockets' entire offensive hierarchy of the bench lineup is much more three-dimensional than before.

While controlling the rhythm of the offensive end and handing over the stage spotlight to Sprewell, Zhang Jinshui is also carefully reading the defensive system of the Kings. When he finds some defensive loopholes in the opponent, he can also attack suddenly Play a better effect.

In the last 3 minutes of the first quarter, the Rockets relied on Sprewell's breakthrough layup and a long-range shot from beyond the three-point line, plus Zhang Jinshui's pick-and-roll breakthrough to assist Birdman Anderson's soaring wings. The Rockets scored another 7 points.

However, Bonzi Wells and Abdullahim, who had just played for the Kings, also played a big role, helping the Kings get some points.

When the first quarter ended, the Rockets led 30 to 26 by 4 points, barely overpowering the Kings.

However, through the performance of this quarter, the entire Rockets have fully realized that the opponent they face tonight is definitely one of the strongest opponents they have encountered in the past six or seven games. The original Suns are not far behind.

After a short intermission, the second quarter started soon.

The Rockets replaced Zhang Jinshui and JR Smith with McGrady and Alston according to the previous rhythm, and became a lineup led by McGrady and Sprewell.

Generally speaking, the Rockets in this period should have an absolute advantage in terms of paper strength no matter which opponent they compare with.

But the Kings sent Artest, who was put on the bench early in the first quarter because of two fouls, and with the assistance of Bonzi Wells and Abdullahim, Their lineup also maintains a very strong competitiveness compared with the Rockets.

But when he saw Artest playing, McGrady immediately became excited.

At the beginning of the first quarter, McGrady had a very efficient performance on the offensive end, but when the opposing opponent was replaced by the top defensive player Artest, McGrady did not adjust for a while and was restricted by the opponent for two consecutive times. This round, this can't help but make McGrady very upset, and has been waiting for the opportunity to face the opponent again.

At the beginning of the game, after receiving a pass from Alston in the frontcourt, and the opponent's defender was Artest, McGrady didn't even reach out to call for a pick-and-roll, and immediately accelerated one step from the right side of Artest. past.

Even Kobe Bryant of the Lakers once publicly expressed that the speed and span of McGrady's first breakthrough is definitely the most difficult to guard against in the entire league.

However, Artest's defense still maintained a very high level. Although he could not stop McGrady's breakthrough, after being broken, he was only half a step behind and stuck to McGrady from the side and rear, successfully pushing McGrady to the ground. The momentum of the breakthrough came down and gave Abdurrahim the space and time to defend McGrady.

However, McGrady was not in vain at all. Facing the defense of Abdul Rahim who came from the side, he jumped high and made a huge abdominal stretch in the air, bypassing Abdul Rahim at the same time. Durrahim raised his arms and the basket, and from the other direction of the basket, threw the basketball into the basket in the opposite direction.

32 to 26, McGrady used this extremely beautiful breakthrough layup to help the Rockets open the score to 6 points.

After landing, amidst the cheers from the Toyota Center, McGrady swung his right arm vigorously in the air and let out a long roar.

In the offense and defense of this ball, Artest showed abnormal perimeter defensive ability, but McGrady proved with facts that his offense is still one of the most unsolvable existences in the NBA, even if the best defensive player of the year comes It doesn't work either.

It's a pity that the Kings, who have recently taken on a new look, didn't die down because of this offensive and defensive failure.

And at this time, he stood up from their queue, and it was Artest who was overwhelmed by McGrady in this offensive and defensive round.

After the offensive and defensive transition, he first received a pass from outside the 45-degree three-point line on the right, made a fake move to break through, and then jumped up without knowing whether it was a tactical arrangement or a flash of inspiration, and suddenly shot a cold arrow and made a hit. Some unreasonable three-pointers.

Immediately afterwards, in the face of the Rockets' offense, Artest, who was standing behind McGrady and put one hand on McGrady's back, suddenly rushed forward and cut off Alston's pass to McGrady.

He controlled the ball in his hands, took a not-so-fast but solid tank step, carried Sprewell's pursuit on his butt, pushed all the way to the empty inside of the Rockets, and completed a counter-attack dunk.

It took only one and a half rounds for Artest to narrow the point difference that the Rockets had worked so hard to open to one point again.

The bench of the Kings immediately burst into cheers, and the previous sluggish momentum was completely reversed.

The faces of the Rockets' players have become much more serious.

At the critical moment, whether they can withstand the pressure depends on McGrady and Sprewell.

After taking one of Artest and proving himself, McGrady did not make a one-on-one breakthrough against Artest. Instead, he passed the pick-and-roll of Birdman Anderson and replaced it with Abdullahim's misplaced defense. And then stepped across the opponent and entered the inside line. With the Kings' overall defense shrinking inward, he accurately found Sprewell standing in the right corner.

The supportive brother, who has always been known for his big heart, made a clean three-pointer regardless of the catch and shot, helping the Rockets stabilize the somewhat flustered position.

35 is better than 31!

Next, under the leadership of McGrady and Artest, the Rockets and Pacers played back and forth, and the score on the court has been hovering between 2 and 4 points.

Until the fifth minute of the second quarter, the score on the court came to 5 to 40, and the two sides made lineup adjustments again.

The Rockets sent Zhang Jinshui, Yao Ming, Chuck Hayes and Sean Battier in one fell swoop, restoring the starting lineup at the beginning of the game.

On the Kings side, in addition to leaving the former All-Star Abdullahim at the power forward position, other positions have also been replaced with the starting lineup.

Considering Kyle Martin's excellent performance in the game today and Sprewell's physical exhaustion after playing for 9 consecutive minutes across two quarters, at this time the two teams are definitely the most competitive at hand. The lineup is up.

The situation on the court also continued to maintain a stalemate.

Yao Ming, who got the position inside, caught the ball and quickly turned around to complete a mid-range shot. Andre Miller immediately pulled up to the high position to support, and passed the ball to Kevin Martin, who cut inside, to complete a back run layup.

After McGrady made an unreasonable long-range mid-range shot with the help of Sean Battier's pick-and-roll, Artest immediately made another hit with a weird jumper posture at a 45-degree angle outside the three-point line. Take the three-pointer.

And when Zhang Jinshui took advantage of his teammates' three consecutive off-ball screens to run out of open space and hit a three-pointer, Mike Bibby took advantage of the Rockets' defensive foothold and directly broke through Zhang Jinshui, who had not yet recovered his stamina bar, killing Go to the basket and score an easy layup.

双方的比分，也从40比38，一路变成了42比40...44比43...再到49比47。

During this period of time, the Kings, who were in good shape, put pressure on the Rockets, even greater than the Suns led by Nash.

However, during the whole process, the Rockets players remained very calm, especially Zhang Jinshui.

At this time, in Zhang Jinshui's arsenal, there is actually a purple badge [explosive ability value table] that can be triggered actively. If used properly, there should be a chance to help the Rockets open the gap of 3 to 6 points.

However, Zhang Jinshui was not in a hurry to do so. On the contrary, in his opinion, the Kings at this time could indeed be regarded as a good touchstone, which could be used to test the resilience of the Rockets.

Moreover, in the past period of time, the Rockets' opponents were relatively weak, which was not enough for the Rockets to expose their problems. The confrontation with the Kings allowed the coaching staff and players to take a good look at whether their running coordination has reached impeccable the point.

Ultimately, the Rockets ended the first half with a two-point lead, 55-53, after Zhang Jinshui's step-back 2-pointer with the ball in the final three seconds was unlucky enough to hit the flip side of the coin.

Amid a wave of encouraging applause from the fans in the stands at the Toyota Center, the coaching staff and players of the two teams returned to their locker rooms.

On the sidelines of the SB TV commentary, Kenny Smith sighed and praised sincerely: "The Kings played really well today. If they continue to play at this pace in the second half, I think it's really hard to win the game." Hard to say."

"Yes." The big-mouthed Barkley nodded with some worry on his face, and catered to him: "Looking at the current situation, because the past period of time has been too smooth, the Rockets seem to be a little unprepared. If the second half If they can't adjust their mentality in time, it is really possible to overturn the Kings' gutter."

"How can it be said that the gutter capsized?" Lahm, the host of SB, who had been afraid to speak loudly in the past two or three weeks, finally became red again at this time, and he said with great interest: "Let me see, the past paragraph For a while, everyone praised the Rockets too highly. Judging from this game, the Rockets are on par with the Kings. No matter who wins or loses between the two teams, it is definitely not a gutter. "

"The strength of the two teams is equal?" Big Mouth Barkley looked at Ram in disbelief.

"Otherwise? The score is 50 to 48, and it's the home court of the Rockets. Isn't all this enough to explain the problem?" Lahm replied confidently.

Big Mouth Barkley looked displeased, he really wanted to propose another bet with attractive odds, to give the opponent a good slap in the face.

But as far as the current situation of this game is concerned, it is really difficult to predict who will win and who will lose. After all, preparation before the game and on-the-spot performance are sometimes more important factors than real strength.

In the end, Kenny Smith came out to smooth things over and said: "This game is quite suspenseful. Let's see what happens in the second half, and then evaluate the strength and performance of the two teams."