Chapter 54: A Rocket Without a Center
Yao Ming's coming to Houston is not small or big, many people in the industry in China know it, but in the United States, there are many fewer people who know, first of all, Houston needs an inside line too much, Tom Jakovic reported to the management almost immediately after discovering Yao Ming, and began to contact Yao Ming in a highly confidential situation, and few teams in the league know Houston's intentions for Yao Ming, and the second point is that Yao Ming has not officially announced his participation in the draft, although last year, he already had some intentions, But it didn't work out for various reasons, and there are too few yellow players in the professional basketball league, or rather, Mo Xi is probably the first yellow player to officially play, therefore, many people are not very optimistic about Yao Ming, but because he has a Mo Xi in front of him, and some people think that Yao Ming's ceiling will be very high, of course, more people still think that Mo Xi belongs to the "domestic training" after all, and he has been exposed to American basketball since he was a child, and he has been in college since he was a young John Thompson. Graduated from the famous center school Georgetown, in fact, there is still no comparison.
But in any case, at least at this moment, Yao Ming is not the protagonist yet.
"Now~ let's welcome, one of our backcourt duos, Catino Mobley-"
Mobley ran out of the tunnel with his hands held high, and although Houston's record is terrible now, it doesn't stop fans from loving this brilliant attacker.
"Finally, it's our "privilege" ~ Steve F. - Lang - West - S. "
There was a cheer that was even frenzier than Mobley's appearance had just begun, almost lifting the roof of the arena.
Yao Ming watched with great interest on the sidelines, the domestic basketball atmosphere is not as warm as here, as if it is about to melt people, even Houston, which is already at the bottom of the league, is like this, so what kind of scenery should those big cities, New York, Knicks, Miami, those basketball regions, Indiana, Boston, and Utah be.
Yao Ming never expected that when he came here, he was about to be conquered just by bursts of cheers.
Now Houston has lost the chilling interior and forward group of the past, and has completely become a team dominated by guards, and now has a poor record, which has nothing to do with the fact that Tom Jakovic has never coached such a team.
The two sides began to jump the ball, Mo Xi jumped to the ball very easily, Francis originally wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to jump the ball just now, sneak up and force the Knicks, who expected Mark Jackson to sit down directly and force Francis back two steps.
Mark Jackson glanced at Francis very arrogantly, what do you use to force Lao Tzu!?
The Knicks' tactical intent in this game is very clear, that is, to give the ball to the interior and let Mo Xi play, no one on the inside of the Rockets can defend him, and at the same time, the Knicks resolutely pressed the offensive time into about twenty seconds and forcibly lowered the tempo.
Mark Jackson slowly controlled the ball and advanced, came to the outside of the three-point line, and pushed it inside with his back to Francis, and after four seconds it turned to the face frame, Mark Jackson suddenly pulled to the side, but the speed was too slow, Francis immediately followed, but Mark Jackson didn't want the space left and right, but the space above.
Mark Jackson quickly hoisted the ball to Moxi, who was already in a good position in the low post.
Mo Xi took the ball off the air without any hesitation, squeezed his back, pushed the Rocket center back and turned around, striding sideways and hooking his hand.
Without any hindrance, the ball hollowed into the net and the Knicks scored the first point of the game.
Francis planned to use his personal ability to return one at the beginning, after all, Mark Jackson's speed is really a fatal injury, although the strength is enough, but he is old and can no longer keep up, but Francis also failed to show his bouncing talent in the slam dunk contest that year, Francis killed it, but was directly closed by Mo Xi and Thomas, Francis was pressed to the ground and rubbed before he could lift into the air, fortunately, he was quick and barely passed the ball, However, the ball didn't reach Mobley as hoped, and the ramp side of Rie Prewell suddenly hit and the Knicks stealed.
Houston quickly returned to defense, but they found that there was not a single Knicks player around them, and when they turned their heads, they saw that the Knicks were slowly advancing, directly giving up the fast break, and wanted to carry out the positional battle to the end.
It's Mo Xi again, the ball is given to Mo Xi again, this time Mo Xi strengthened the physical confrontation, and directly chiseled the opponent's center to the basket, after getting to the basket, Mo Xi suddenly retracted his strength, so that the other party had the opportunity to stick up, at this time, Mo Xi directly took a step back and turned around, shot in the frame, and the rocket center directly pounced.
"Drip·~"
Mo Xi raised his fist high, 2+1 success!
Mo Xi made a steady free throw, and the Knicks opened with a 5-0 lead.
Mo Xi followed three consecutive singles, without the slightest hint of the team offense that Van Gundy has been emphasizing, but the Rockets' interior line really can't do anything about it, they can't suppress Mo Xi's play at all, Mo Xi turned over the clouds and rain on the inside, turned over and jumped, turned around to shoot, turned around to shoot, turned around and made a layup, Mo Xi said that his low-post offensive skills have not been fully used, you just tell me no?
Although the Rockets are crazy about chasing points under the leadership of the backcourt double guns, the efficiency is too low, and the score difference is getting bigger and bigger.
After eight minutes of playing in the first quarter, Van Gundy replaced Mo Xi off the court, and Mo Xi's performance in these eight minutes can be said to be a character in NBAlive (at this time, 2k1 has just come out, it is not too popular, and it is true that the people in the live are more bt), six shots, three of three free throws, and easily cut 15 points, 7 boards, 1 assist and 1 block in a single quarter, and this may also be the most rebounds in a single quarter, and the Knicks also led the opponent 21:11 by ten points.
Halfway through the second quarter, Mo Xi returned to the court, and without Mo Xi, the aging Ewing was not something that the Rockets' interior could fight against, but the scoring efficiency decreased slightly, and the Rockets gradually stabilized the difference to 13 points.
When Mo Xi returned to the game, everyone in Houston chuckled in their hearts, even Yao Ming, who was semi-neutral.
Before coming, he knew about Mo Xi through the finals videos of that year, and at that time, Mo Xi was very powerless in the face of Duncan and O'Neal, although he also saw Mo Xi from other videos later, but he also fought with Mo Ning and others in the Olympic Games, he felt that he might have a gap with Mo Xi, but he must have been able to make up for it in a short time if he worked hard enough, but now, he was just watching from the sidelines, and he didn't fight him in person, Yao Ming was already feeling the pressure. Yao Ming's fists clenched involuntarily.
In the face of the re-entry of Mo Xi, the Rockets' approach is very single, they simply don't use the center, directly put three forwards on the court, forcibly speed up, and use the way to increase the offensive round to counter the high efficiency of Mo Xi, but the Rocket's forwards are very tall, so at least they can protect the rebound.
But sometimes, when a player plays well, it's not a way to fight, you can only pray.