NBA: The man who passed the ball to Yao Ming

At 55:5 p.m. local time in Minnesota, the Rockets' away game against the Timberwolves is about to start in 9 minutes, but the attendance rate of the Timberwolves' home stadium at the Target Center is less than [-]%.

Although there are also die-hard fans who try their best to cheer for the Timberwolves and shout "Retirement", today's Target Center is definitely the most dull arena that Zhang Jinshui has encountered since entering the NBA.

Zhang Jinshui can probably guess that this has a lot to do with the current situation of the Timberwolves.

In the new season, the Timberwolves have 6 games, 1 win and 5 losses, ranking second to last in the Western Conference.

Since the 03-04 season won the first place in the Western Conference in the regular season, but at the end of the season, the team hero Sprewell was let go. The Timberwolves declined rapidly. Last season, they only finished ninth in the Western Conference and did not even enter the playoffs. The record in the first season was even worse, sinking directly to the bottom of the Western Conference.

Although the season has just started, there are already gossips claiming that Wolf King Garnett is very dissatisfied with the Timberwolves management and expressed his willingness to leave the team internally.

Zhang Jinshui knows that this is not just a false rumor of gossip, because in the last life, after the end of the 05-06 season, the Wolf King forced the Timberwolves to trade himself to the Celtics, which also opened a precedent for giants to form a group.

Under the signal of the assistant referee, Zhang Jinshui, who completed the warm-up, returned to the bench together with other Rockets substitute players.

Today not only Zi Chunlin, but also Zhao Min'er did not show up at the scene, Zhang Jinshui suddenly didn't even have anyone to say hello to, and he couldn't help feeling empty in his heart.

At seven o'clock in the evening, with the referee throwing the ball high into the air, the game officially began.

The Timberwolves first grabbed the ball by Olowokandi.

Their starting lineup is center Michael Olowokandi, power forward Wolf King Garnett, small forward Szczerbiak, shooting guard Trenton Hassel and point guard Marko Yaric.

On the first attack, defender Jaric took the ball to the frontcourt and handed the ball to Garnett at the top of the arc.

After Garnett dribbled the ball twice, he tentatively made some physical contact with Uncle Huo, and then passed the ball to Szczerbiak, who was standing outside the three-point line in the bottom corner, and the latter jumped up directly and took the ball He made a steady shot to the basket and helped the Timberwolves start 3-0.

Although many people in the league spoke for Garnett, accusing the Timberwolves management of not helping Garnett find enough good teammates, Szczerbiak, who stands beside Garnett, is definitely a very high-quality outside shooter.

Since he was selected by the Timberwolves in the 99-00 season, he has grown into an excellent small forward. He averaged 20 points per game last season and has already touched the threshold of the 180 club.

It's the Rockets' turn to attack.

After Alston took the ball into the frontcourt, he gave the ball directly to McGrady, who was inclined 45 degrees to the right.

McGrady made a feint, pressed Szczerbiak who was defending him all the way to the inside, and completed a layup.

2:3.

The Timberwolves began to be dominated by Garnett's offense. His face-up singles skills, like Yao Ming's low-post singles skills, can be regarded as the strongest in the league. Uncle Huo's defense has very limited restrictions on him.

Next, Garnett feinted twice and hit a high jumper in front of Uncle Huo. Another time, he used a fake shot to shake Uncle Huo's center of gravity away, and went directly to the bottom of the basket to complete a dunk.

Help the Timberwolves directly open the score to 9 to 2.

Although the Timberwolves' record is terrible, Garnett is still the wolf king who can be as famous as Duncan and Nowitzki.

Without Yao Ming's protection from the wind and rain, the Rockets' inside line is really vulnerable to the Wolf King.

With the Timberwolves opening today with a smooth offense they haven't seen since the beginning of the season, the stands at Target Center finally got really lively.

Fortunately, the Rockets have McGrady.

He first received a pass from Alston and hit a three-pointer directly. Then, after the second shot, he began to use Uncle Huo's pick-and-roll to enter the inside to cause damage, and assisted Anderson and Uncle Huo respectively. CIC hit.

在比赛的前6分钟，麦迪总共拿下了7分2次助攻。帮助火箭队以13比13和森林狼队战平。

During this period, McGrady once again proved to the world how important a super backcourt is to a playoff team.

In the absence of Yao Ming, the Rockets can't play many tactical moves, and the presence of McGrady can make the Rockets give up tactics with peace of mind. Point guard Alston only needs to bring the ball to the frontcourt and hand the ball to him. up.

He can rely on his personal ability to help the Rockets solve many problems.

Of course, due to the limitation of physical strength, this kind of fighting alone cannot last long.

On the Rockets bench beside the court, Van Gundy had already turned his head and said to Zhang Jinshui: "Zhang Jinshui, get ready to play, remember, with Garnett and Szczerbiak both present, first slow down the offensive rhythm and increase the success rate. .”

Zhang Jinshui understood the meaning behind Van Gundy's words. The rocket's advantage time was after the Timberwolves' main players left the field.

He nodded, stood up from the bench, and pulled off his training pants.

While replacing Zhang Jinshui, Van Gundy also replaced Swift and Luther Head, and replaced Uncle Mu, McGrady and Alston.

As for the Timberwolves, all the main players are still on the court.

The wolf king Garnett on the inside and Szczerbiak on the outside are indeed two defensive pain points that the current Rockets lineup cannot solve.

Although Zhang Jinshui has deliberately slowed down the attacking rhythm, kept attacking and defending steadily, and did not give the opponent supernatural soil.

However, it still couldn't stop Wolf King Garnett from scoring 2 times inside again in the next 2 minutes, and assisted Szczerbiak to hit his second three-pointer in the game.

Fortunately, Zhang Jinshui's breakthrough has just been raised to 90. He scored two points in a breakthrough into the basket. After a breakthrough, he assisted Swift in a lob, allowing the Rockets to only trail the Timberwolves by 16 points 19-3.

With only 2 minutes left in the game, the Timberwolves finally put on the bench.

Zhang Jinshui took a deep breath. Next, the strength of the lineups on both sides changed, and it was time for him to lead the Rockets to chase points.

However, the development of the situation on the field was somewhat beyond Zhang Jinshui's expectations.

As soon as the Timberwolves' bench lineup came up, they stretched out the defensive posture in the area, strictly preventing Zhang Jinshui's pick-and-roll breakthrough.

It seems that Timberwolves coach Casey has never thought about lying flat. His defensive deployment is definitely made after watching all the past games of the Rockets.

Fortunately, Van Gundy has a backhand for this, and this is one of the important reasons why he reused Luther Head in today's game.

After Zhang Jinshui dribbled the ball to the front court and saw the opponent's zone defense, he beckoned to Lutherhead. After the latter moved beyond the 60-degree three-point line on the right, he passed the ball to him.

Then, under the continuous off-ball cover of Huo Ershu and Qiongbali, Zhang Jinshui successfully came to the unguarded right bottom corner.

Luther Head, who has been cooperating with Zhang Jinshui in this set of running tactics since the beginning of the summer league, passed the ball in a timely manner.

Zhang Jinshui received the ball from outside the three-point line in the bottom corner, stepped on the rich green under his feet, and steadily threw the ball into the Timberwolves' basket.

This goal allowed the Timberwolves fans at the Target Center to appreciate his cold-blooded killer essence, and at the same time moved the score on the field to 19 to 19.

Target Center fell silent again.

Everything started to develop in a positive direction, but then, the Timberwolves' bench defense showed resilience that Zhang Jinshui had never expected.

At the same time as the zone defense, their backup small guard Anthony Carter followed Zhang Jinshui's off-ball movement very closely, and even defended an offense from the Rockets for 24 seconds.

Zhang Jinshui could feel that the running positions of his teammates with him today were not as flexible as before. This should be due to the excessive physical exertion caused by the devil's schedule in the past period of time.

Fortunately, the Timberwolves' bench players put all their energy on defense and made little progress on the offensive end.

The two sides have maintained a score of 19 to 19.

But Van Gundy and Zhang Jinshui's expectation for this 2-minute matchup is not just to keep the score at a tie.

In desperation, Zhang Jinshui had no choice but to use the arsenal early.

In the 50 seconds before the end of the first quarter, he called Swift's pick-and-roll twice, then triggered the gold badge [best route], and went into the Timberwolves' inside penalty area along the white indicator line.

When the Timberwolves did not have Garnett, the top inside defense, Zhang Jinshui successfully broke through all the defenses and made a layup. Once, he was forcibly pulled down by the opponent's inside player during the layup, and went to the free throw line and made 2 of 1 free throws. , Helping the Rockets lead the Timberwolves by 22 points 19 to 3.

在这一节里，张金水5投3中，罚球2中1，贡献了8分1次助攻。

"Zhang Jinshui, how much stamina do you have left? Can you play for 2 minutes in the second quarter?" Van Gundy asked directly during the break.

Zhang Jinshui wiped his sweat with a towel, poured a bottle of sports drink into his mouth, panted and said, "Don't worry, coach, I have no problem."

Having said that, in fact, Zhang Jinshui already felt a little tired.

After back-to-back, he rushed to Minnesota. Even if he is as young as Zhang Jinshui, it is already too much to bear, not to mention Uncle Huo, Anderson, David West and other main rotation players of the Rockets who are over 30 years old.

Van Gundy, who has been paying close attention to the situation on the field, has actually sensed this keenly, and his expression has gradually become serious. He already has a plan deep in his heart.

Give it another go in the second quarter. If the situation on the field is still going out of control, then give up the game decisively.

Anyway, the Rockets are not under the pressure of record now, and the devil of the Rockets' schedule is obvious to all in the NBA.

It's just that he still underestimated Zhang Jinshui's extreme competitiveness as long as he played.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Zhang Jinshui took advantage of the Timberwolves' lack of a solid foothold as a substitute, and immediately entered the opponent's formation to complete a layup.

Then Luther Head, who has seen only sporadic playing time over the past six games, stepped up, hitting a [-]-pointer from the perimeter on a drive from Zhang Jinshui and cutting inside to catch a pass from Zhang Jinshui. Completed the layup and successfully became the last straw that crushed the Timberwolves' bench defense.

29:21.

When Van Gundy replaced McGrady and other main players, Zhang Jinshui and Luther Head successfully helped the Rockets gain an 8-point lead.

As for the Timberwolves, they decisively dispatched all the main players.

The banner of the two teams' offense once again returned to the hands of their respective superstars McGrady and Garnett.

Although the Rockets lacked Yao Ming, they couldn't resist Garnett's offensive at all, but McGrady's offense was also a nightmare that the Timberwolves could not solve.

火箭队和森林狼队一路从29比21，打到35比27，又打到39比32。

The Rockets have maintained a lead of 7 or 8 points.

After a period of rest, Zhang Jinshui finally recovered most of his physical strength, and made his debut again in the 7th minute of the second quarter.

Zhang Jinshui and McGrady finally appeared together for the first time in this game.

With McGrady attracting the Timberwolves' defensive attention, Zhang Jinshui finally got enough space to attack.

As soon as he came up, Zhang Jinshui passed the ball to McGrady, and then ran around with Jaric who was defending him.

With McGrady attracting the opponent's defense, Zhang Jinshui easily gained shot space at the top of the arc through Uncle Huo's cover and hit a three-pointer.

Immediately afterwards, after Zhang Jinshui was accidentally intercepted by Jarich, he activated [Tit for Tat] to snatch the ball back from the opponent, counterattacked and assisted McGrady to complete the dunk. .

And with the presence of Zhang Jinshui, McGrady's offense has also become like a duck to water.

He made a three-pointer once, and once he drove into the opponent's inside line, he made a dunk like a god descending from the earth.

Although the Timberwolves' offense is fairly smooth under the blessing of Garnett, it cannot match the twin stars of Tracy McGrady and Zhang Jinshui.

In the end, at the end of the first half, McGrady scored 19 points, 2 assists and 3 rebounds, and Zhang Jinshui scored 15 points, 5 assists and 1 steal. Together, the two helped the Rockets lead the Timberwolves by 53 points 41-12.

In the stands of the Target Center, Timberwolves fans who have recently become accustomed to the team trailing by more than 10 points at halftime looked up at the technical statistics on the big TV.

Some fans said with emotion: "That rookie named Zhang Jinshui is really good. No wonder the recent news keeps talking about him."

"Oh, yes, if we Timberwolves can also select a rookie like this, how can we be reduced to where we are now."

As the whistle sounded, Zhang Jinshui, McGrady and other players walked back to the locker room together.

After a while, Van Gundy walked into the locker room, his expression excited, and he patted Zhang Jinshui and McGrady on the shoulders.

In this game, he actually had the consciousness to give up, but he didn't expect that McGrady and Zhang Jinshui insisted on carrying the Rockets to a double-digit lead.

Next, Van Gundy didn't make any tactical adjustments. Without Yao Ming, the Rockets' tactics were somewhat fragmented.

He just said to McGrady and Zhang Jinshui when the players left the locker room: "The longer the game drags on, the more unfavorable it is to our physical strength. In the third quarter, I hope you two can give it a go and take the game away!"