Although Leon is now increasingly looking at the self-development of his players in training and games, it does not mean that he does not prepare for the game in any way. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Before playing with the Houston Rockets, he also had an in-depth study and understanding of the ball, watched most of the Rockets' scores this season, and selected a few representative games for detailed video analysis.

In Leon's view, this Rockets are a typical pseudo-powerhouse, somewhat similar to the Celtics in 2002, the difference is that the Celtics have better talent, and the Celtics are in the weaker East while the Rockets are trying to survive in the gap between the West's power.

First of all, from the perspective of the core players in the team, Yao Ming and Francis are both stars hovering near the All-Star, and they are relatively far from superstars, but they obviously have relatively large potential. From the perspective of role players, Mobley, Cato and others have good strength, can gain a foothold in the NBA, and have a skill. It's just that compared with the championship-level role players of the top teams, there is a gap in both ball skills and mental attributes. And they have too few really strong players on the bench, whether it is Taylor, Norris, Padgett or Piakowski, they are all players in the lower reaches of the league, and they all have serious flaws, especially on the defensive end, which is very fatal for a team.

The NBA's strong teams, or core players are very strong, out-and-out superstars, such as the Spurs, the former 76ers, or a large number of generals, and a gathering of very powerful players, such as the Pistons, Pacers, Mavericks, or super teams like the Celtics and Lakers. As for the rockets that are not touched by either of them, and both of them have a little bit of meaning, then they can only be pseudo-strong teams.

There are also different types of pseudo-strong teams, and the Rockets benefit from the good tuning of head coach Van Gundy, fine pre-game preparation, and strong combat effectiveness in the encounter mode of the regular season, so they can often play the giant killer, and at the beginning of the season, they once rushed to the first place in the West, winning consecutive battles, and the limelight is unmatched.

As the season progresses, the lack of strength of the core players and the lack of bench depth will slowly plague them, and the consequence of being weak or not strong is that when they play the game, they will feel that this is a strong opponent worth paying attention to, but when they look at the record, they are only hovering in the middle.

Leon knows what it says, he knows that the Rockets will definitely play with the Celtics in the first half, according to his summary from watching the video of the Rockets, if the game is only played in the first half, the Rockets will be a very strong team, but with the third quarter, they are an ordinary strong team, and with the fourth quarter, they will directly become a pseudo-strong team.

The wrestling in the third quarter and the end of the fourth quarter are very testing the individual ability of the players and the psychological quality of the team, and if the Rockets can't do these two things, Leon is not worried that they will be able to overturn the Celtics at the Toyota Center!

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"I'm going to let you play early in the third quarter, probably after the first timeout, remember your mission, defense and mid-range, don't be obsessed with three-pointers, and in the third quarter, shooting percentage comes first. Strive to play with an advantage in three minutes and pave the way for the rest of the game. Also, be flexible, cooperate with Anderson, don't foul, you're going to be a key part. At halftime in the locker room, Leon was facing Wang Zhizhi and instructing him what he was going to do in the third quarter.

At the end of the first half, the Celtics only led the Rockets by 3 points at 57:54, and the two sides were really inseparable. Wang Zhizhi didn't get a minute to play in the entire first half, and it looked like Leon wasn't ready to give him time to fight against Yao Ming. This has made countless Chinese fans in front of the TV set anxious, and the TV station's commentary has been anxious.

Of course, Leon will not give up using Wang Zhizhi, a useful chess piece, and he even acted as a "spy" for the Celtics before the game, sharing the information related to Rocket and Yao Ming collected during the national team's training to his teammates to formulate a way to deal with Rocket and Yao Ming.

Now, in the second half, he will personally play to complete this season's NBA China Derby.

At the beginning of the third quarter, the seats in the Toyota Center were still a little sparse, and the fans at the scene took advantage of the halftime to go out for a walk, and it didn't matter if they watched for two minutes less. The two sides were still in the same lineup as at the start of the first half, and after a 15-minute break in the middle, Yao Ming looked to have recovered a lot.

The problem of physical strength is a problem that will plague Yao Ming now and in the future, and Van Gundy is also aware of this, on the one hand, to control Yao Ming's playing time, and on the other hand, to exert his offensive efficiency when Yao Ming is full of energy, so as not to let him fall into a long hand-to-hand fight and a war of attrition.

Therefore, at the beginning of the second half, Yao Ming once again hit consecutive jump shots, and he was indeed unstoppable when he was full of physical strength, fast speed, and complete movements. His height, combined with his skill and soft touch, make a defensive stalwart like PJ Brown helpless.

On the defensive end, Van Gundy made some adjustments, he no longer let Padgett play against Garnett, but let small forward Jim Jackson interfere with Garnett in advance, and Padgett used his height advantage to play Pierce at the small forward position.

This strategy worked well at the start of the third quarter, as Garnett was a little uncomfortable facing the experienced and physically strong Jackson, missing two mid-range jumpers, but fortunately PJ Brown grabbed two rebounds, one rebound, and one mid-range shot for Reed, so that the Celtics did not get the score overtaken.

And at 2 minutes and 55 seconds into the third quarter, Francis's offensive pass was hit by Reed, and the Celtics chose to make a substitution. Wang Zhizhi replaced PJ Brown and Chris Anderson replaced Kevin Garnett, another two-inside rotation, and the Celtics' offensive assault team seemed to come a little early in the third quarter.

Wang's sudden arrival sparked a commotion in the stadium, with many Chinese fans holding up placards in their hands to show their support for the two Chinese players.

Thousands of miles away, the game was broadcast live again, and the somewhat drowsy commentator who was originally commenting suddenly came to his senses, "Oops, it's changed, it's about to play!" It's finally time to play. This Celtics coach Leon didn't know what he was thinking, he didn't give a minute in the first half, and the first two minutes of the second half were roughly put on hold. This game is good-looking, the duel between the two Chinese insiders, look at this posture of the two to directly face each other. ”

With Wang Zhizhi's arrival, many people became excited, including Yao Ming, who stepped forward to high-five Wang Zhizhi and say hello.

But Wang Zhizhi himself looked very flat, he didn't even accept Yao Ming's high-five, but walked up to him and bumped into Yao Ming's body, saying that I will be in the opposite position with you next.

Yao Ming clearly felt Wang Zhizhi's desire to fight, and his body was no longer so soft. After Yao Ming experienced the strength training of NBA science and his own diligent efforts, his strength is very different from that in the CBA, while Wang Zhizhi seems to have stopped a little in strength.

But this time, Yao Ming could obviously feel that Wang Zhizhi's strength had made great progress, and when he wanted to use his arm to get rid of Wang Zhizhi, it was not so easy. Wang Zhizhi's arms, which originally had no muscular lines, were much tougher than in the past, which was inseparable from Dave Cowens's devilish basic training guidance.

The Rockets served out of bounds, and the player who served noticed that Wang Zhizhi began to defend Yao Ming three-quarters of the way around, almost not giving Yao Ming a chance to catch the ball.

This defensive strategy quickly worked, and for two consecutive rounds, Yao Ming had no way to receive the outside feed, while the Celtics attacked normally, and Wang Zhizhi also hit a mid-range shot through the cooperation with Arenas, and the situation suddenly became unfavorable for the Rockets.

When Francis finally relied on a long drop ball to get past Wang Zhizhi and hoist the ball into Yao Ming's hand, Yao Ming received the ball and was about to dunk vigorously, Chris Anderson fell from the sky like a big bird and fanned the ball out of Yao Ming's hand.

Wang Zhizhi and Anderson high-fived, and Van Gundy called a timeout. (To be continued.) )