On October 30, in the first game of the season, the Rockets went to Indiana to challenge the Pacers (translated as the horse walking team in Taiwan). Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

On the hotel's bus to the arena, Reed looked left and right, admiring the Indiana street scene and said, "The first two seasons were played at home, and this is the first time I've played away from home, so I'm really not used to it." ”

"It's not good news for our big rookies to start playing away from home." Maddie looked at Yao Ming and said with a smile: "But this also shows that we are going to have a new start and play a different season." ”

"Well said, Tracy." Tang Shuai continued: "In the previous seasons, due to some inconvenient reasons, our results were very poor. But now we have great players and a lot of quality. Like I said in training before, we've got to make the playoffs this season. ”

"The Pacers have been very strong this season and we can't afford to be careless." Olajuwon instructed the young players in the style of a big brother.

"That's right, unlike the Eastern Conference champion Pacers team of more than two years ago, that team had Miller and Rose at the core. Now the Pacers, Miller is old, and Rose is gone. But Jermaine. O'Neal (the difference from the Lakers' big shark O'Neal, often referred to as O'Neal Jr.) has grown, and with the strong Artest and Harrington, the Pacers have the strength to make the playoffs and even the top four in the East. Tomjanovich suddenly sighed and said, "It's a pity that Jason isn't here, otherwise let him analyze it for you." ”

At this moment, Wang Yuanfei is waiting in front of the TV for the game to start. Data analysts usually don't travel with the team to the away game, not to mention that Yuanfei still has schoolwork to complete every day.

***

The match began, and the match was followed by hundreds of millions of fans in China, and was broadcast live by China's largest media outlet, CCTV. According to media reports, the game was watched by nearly 200 million people.

The Rockets' starters are Olajuwon, Thomas, Jefferson, Maddy, and Billups. The Pacers are O'Neal, Harrington, Artest, Moser and Strickland. Miller is out with injury.

Xiao Ao jumped the ball to win the big dream, Moser got the ball and dribbled to the three-point line, and in the face of Maddy's defense, he chose to split the ball to Artest. Atay singled Jefferson with the ball, and he crushed it with a bulldozer physique, but Thomas couldn't help defend it. Atay picked up the basket, and the Pacers scored first.

Billups took control of the ball at a leisurely pace and pushed unhurriedly through the half. Jefferson reached out for the ball, and Da Meng also leaned on Xiao Ao to prepare to catch the ball and play single. But Billups was leisurely in control of the ball.

"This guy's possession is weird, he has a lot of left and right, and usually this kind of dribble is easy to break, but his center of gravity is very low, and it's not easy for him to steal." Defender Strickland made a split second judgment.

Chauncey swayed left and right sharply to break through, and Strickland was about to block, only to find that he had been blocked. It was Thomas who stepped forward and made a solid pick-and-roll. Billups faked a three-pointer and went in! Rockets overtake.

The Pacers counterattacked, Xiao Ao singled a big dream, and the ball went in! 3：4。

Chauncey once again exaggerated the ball, and this time Big Dream stepped forward to block the dismantling. Xiao Ao didn't dare to leave the three-second zone too far, and stayed in an awkward position closer to the basket, and Moser hurriedly made up the defense. Chauncy is like a long blind pass to Maddie in the back of the head, Maddie catches the ball in the empty position and throws a large two-point, and the ball goes in! 5:4 The Rockets overtook again.

The first quarter lasted 8 minutes, and the two sides were tied at 17. Tang Shuai waved his hand and made substitutions, four up and four down. The players on the field became Magloyer, Oku, Turkoglu, Reed and Billups, and only Billups continued to play.

"Coach, do you want to test my resilience?" Billups smiled at Strickland, knowing that the third-rate point guard wasn't good enough to deal with him. Under his exaggerated dribbling action, the ball didn't know when it had flown into the hands of Oku in the bottom corner. Harrington's defense didn't keep up in time, a three-pointer was scored, and Oku scored his first career goal!

With Billups' ease of playing, the Rockets led the Pacers 25-22 at the end of the first quarter.

"Chauncey, you played great." Tang Shuai is very satisfied, Billups has played with a degree of relaxation in both sets of lineups, which fully reflects the style of a general. "That's how we beat our rhythm with Chauncey and Tracy's organization."

The Rockets were even more vigorous in the second quarter, as the Rockets' bench bench was much better than the Pacers', and the main players such as Maddy and Big Dream were also well-rested. Maddie scored 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting in the quarter. The Rockets also extended their lead to 51-44.

But an accident happened at the beginning of the third quarter, when Big Dream accidentally sprained his ankle while competing for rebounds with O'Neal Jr. Although the injury did not seem serious, Tang Shuai still safely let him go to the infirmary for treatment, and motioned for Yao Ming to appear.

As the little giant's feet stepped on the floor of the Conseco Arena for the first time, the local Chinese fans in Indianapolis cheered, and although Yao Ming was a player of the visiting team, the Chinese fans did not care about this. It's great to see the champion from China make his debut for the first time!

"Give me all the balls, and I'll teach that rookie a good lesson." Jermaine. O'Neill shouted to his teammates.

Sure enough, O'Neal Jr., as a first-line star in the league, is not at all comparable to the fledgling Yao Ming. He made three attacks in a row, and even Thomas stepped forward to help him stop him. And Yao Ming's head already showed beads of sweat, not from fatigue but from nervousness.

Xiao Ao once again singled Yao Ming successfully, and also caused him to foul, scoring 3 points in a row. Tang Shuai shook his head and sent Magloyle to him.

"You're weak, rookie!" O'Neal Jr. yelled at Yao Ming, who walked off the court. The referee glared at him, but said nothing.

"I'm sorry, Coach." The tall Yao Ming lowered his head like a child making a mistake.

"You don't need to apologize. In the fourth quarter, you'll be on the court and get ready. ”

Yao Ming looked at Tang Shuai, with a grateful look in his eyes. "Yes!"

O'Neal Jr. had 11 points, 2 rebounds and 2 blocks in the third quarter alone, and the Pacers took the lead to 72-75. With the Pacers' obvious advantage under the basket, it also became difficult for the Rockets to score.

Yuanfei kept shaking his head in front of the TV. Billups' biggest weakness is that his breakthrough ability is relatively weak, and his shooting rate of breaking into the basket is only about 50%, and he is not good at attacking at all. At this time, Maddie can only be counted on to use his personal ability to break the deadlock. Thankfully, Wallace for the Rockets played well. He trained hard this summer and finally showed his talent for defending the big gate, defending Harrington and Artai well, and stifling the Pacers' two main scoring points.

Tang Shuai deployed his troops again, and Pony Jr., Oku, Wallace, Maddie and Parker came into the field in the fourth quarter. This lineup has an absolute advantage in size, and it is going to fight to the end with the powerful O'Neal under the basket. Sure enough, the Rockets relied on the breakthroughs of Maddie and Parker to tear apart the Pacers' defense again and again, and the balls thrown by the guards were also rebounded many times by the Ma Twin Towers to snatch the frontcourt rebounds. The Rockets regained the upper hand, and Yao Ming was once again in the field.

After playing for almost 40 minutes, the tired little O'Neill gradually couldn't easily push away Yao Ming, although he still had an absolute advantage, but he was no longer as freehand as before. And Maddie is still attacking the Pacers' basket again and again.

With Harrington's final shot of iron, the game ended. Yao Ming, Jefferson and other players stood up and cheered loudly for their teammates. 97:95 The Rockets relied on the excellent play of Maddy and Billups to win a hard-fought away victory over the Pacers.

In this game, O'Neal Jr. played a good stat of 24 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks, and Artest also had 20+6+5. For the Rockets, Maddy played 39+8+4, and among the three new recruits, Billups played 30 minutes and got 13 points and 7 assists; Oku played 19 minutes and had seven points and four rebounds; Yao Ming played 11 minutes and failed to score on 0-of-1 shooting, with only 2 rebounds, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls (real data in history). The first step of the Chinese little giant in the NBA was quite difficult.

"Boys, you're amazing!" In the dressing room, Tang Shuai praised the players loudly: "You have made a good start to the season. But don't be proud, the Pacers have the soul of the team after having Miller, and their real strength will be even stronger. But we will also be stronger, rookies Yao Ming and Oku will grow, and other young people will get better and better. ”

"The team doctor said I was fine, but I needed to rest for a week or two. During this time, the inside line of the rocket has been handed over to a few of you. Olajuwon looked at Little Pony, Yao Ming and Oku and said: "The day after tomorrow, I went to the Denver Plateau to play the Nuggets, the opponent is very weak, and we must win." Not only to win, but to win more! ”

Hakim was right. Denver didn't have a good record last season, and this season they are missing their top scorer Fan. Axel and the main center Lafrenz can only rely on a few rookies to win the world, and they are not our opponents at all. Thomas also shouted.

"How does it feel?" Maddie patted Yao Ming on the shoulder and cared about him. Maddie knows that whether the Rockets can win the championship in the future depends on how far the big man in front of him can grow.

"I was so annoyed that I played so badly." Honest Yao Ming said truthfully.

"The next fight is back, no problem." Maddie encourages Da Yao.

"If I don't score in the next game, I'll invite the whole team to lunch." Yao Ming said loudly.

"Lao Tzu loves newcomers like you to death." Thomas hugged Yao Ming and laughed.

Tang Shuai looked at the disciples with a smile. This team is no longer something that the current Nuggets can stop.

(Little fun fact: Yang Yi, a famous media person, rushed to the locker room after the game that day, and was thinking about how to comfort Yao Ming.) Yao Ming grinned when he saw him, and said that the eyes of the list are beautiful. Williams also made his promotional debut on the same day, making 0-of-5 free throws. Later, Yao Ming's parents and others also came, and everyone didn't comfort Yao Ming, but Yao Ming comforted everyone. From this little thing, we can see Yao Ming's character, which is indeed resolute, can laugh at adversity, and is also good at thinking about others. ）

***

As expected by Big Dream, the Rockets defeated the Nuggets 93-74 on November 1. Nuggets due to the top card Zhu Wan. Howard missed, didn't even have a consistent scorer, and James, the team's top scorer. Posey also had only 16 points. Billups, the three newcomers of the Rockets, contributed 21 points and 5 assists, Oku had 6 points and 5 rebounds, and Yao Ming only made 1 of 5 shots, got 2 points and 7 rebounds (real data in history), and it can be regarded as finally opening.

That night, the Rockets flew back to Houston. What awaits them is the next day's back-to-back games, the first home game of the season.