For McCollum's repeated provocations, Cheng Lei was very calm, today's task is to defend, as long as he does a good job of defense, Cheng Lei will consider scoring these singles.

"Don't you see the three-pointers scored?" After giving McCollum an understatement, Cheng Lei began to run back, ready to defend.

The two sides started an offensive battle in the first quarter, and on the Rockets' side, Harden was in excellent shape, scoring eleven points in the first quarter, and the scores of the two sides were tight, and there was a chance to attack the last one before the end of the first quarter.

The ball possession of the Trail Blazers, Lillard certainly couldn't let go of the opportunity to take the lead in the score, pressed the big screen countdown time, and started the last offense of the first quarter.

Nurkic also gave up the interior and ran directly outside the three-point line, and in the only time available, many people were ready to help Lillard do the opportunity to block.

With two seconds left in the countdown, Lillard barely got a not-so-good opportunity to step inside the three-point line and lean over the basket.

With everyone watching, the ball went into the frame, and the Trail Blazers ended the first quarter with a two-point lead.

"It's really annoying, the last ball has been defended very well!" Capela said a little frustrated.

When Nurkic came up to block and dismantle, Capela and Paul switched defenses as quickly as possible, and Capela's defense was already very in place, Lillard still leaned over and threw the ball out, and the key was that he really threw it in.

"It's okay, it's still early, it's just a goal, don't think about it!" Harden comforted Capela.

De Shuai quickly made a summary of everyone's performance in the first quarter, overall, the game is still within the controllable range, and the situation on the court is also expected by De Shuai, today is not only Harden feels good, but the opponent's Lillard also feels very good.

However, when the two pairs of main players rested, the play of the bench players was crucial, and when it came to the ability of the substitutes, the substitutes of the Rockets never disappointed Deshuai.

Entering the second quarter of the game, both sides came off the bench, and the main players were seizing the time to recover their physical strength.

As soon as the Rockets got on the court, they showed what it means to be a bench bandit.

Gordon and Tucker, the constant rampage, coupled with the strong frame protection of Zhou Qi on the inside, made the second quarter less than two minutes into the Trail Blazers, the Trail Blazers were beaten into a sieve, and the Rockets played a wave of 8:0 small climax, suddenly overtaking six points.

At this moment, the coach of the Trail Blazers couldn't help it, and directly replaced all the main forces on the court in advance, and the Rockets also removed the substitutes and played the main team.

In order to make up for the hole caused by the department, as soon as Lillard came on the court, he was full of firepower, shooting inside and outside, and his playing style was quite unreasonable, so that Paul did not have any good way, and when the defense was in place, many difficult balls were thrown by him.

Fortunately, on the Rockets' side, Harden is also very powerful, every time Lillard wants to erase the score, Harden can always stand up and score in time, and always let the Rockets maintain a three-point lead.

The golden twin guns, one gun is already hot, and there is another gun, of course, you can't watch Lillard perform alone.

Therefore, McCollum also took the initiative to strengthen his own attack.

However, after several attempts, under Cheng Lei's defense, he did not find too many good opportunities, and the effect of each forced shot was not very good.

McCollum, if he can't open it, Lillard will be under a lot of pressure.

Paul's defense did not slack in the slightest, and like Cheng Lei, today, Paul also focused most of his energy on defense.

Sure enough, it worked, and Lillard at the end of the second quarter began to decline due to the decline in physical fitness, and the next few forced offenses failed to score the ball.

On the Rockets' side, Harden is still leading the offense, attacking himself while also creating opportunities for his teammates, Anderson got a few good three-point shots, and Capela also easily dunked a few baskets inwardly.

The game began to move towards the rhythm of the Rockets.

The coach of the Trail Blazers saw that the situation was not quite right, so he could only call a timeout immediately.

After the timeout, the Trail Blazers' tactics also changed, and Lillard stopped blindly attacking and began to pass the ball to Nurkic inside.

As a white center, Nurkic has formed a good chemistry with the outside double gun since he came to the Trail Blazers, except for being a little worse than Capela in terms of bounce, but he has not suffered at all on the inside.

Lillard took advantage of his breakaway, pulled people away, and smartly passed the ball into the hands of Nurkic on the inside.

After a few feints, Nurkic scored two points with a master shot.

Later, the Trail Blazers also changed their offensive habits in front and began to play from the inside, which is also what many teams will choose to deal with the Rockets.

Nurkic relied on his own footsteps and stable mid-range shots to keep scoring on Capela.

Seeing that the lead in the score was getting smaller and smaller, after Nurkic scored six points in a row, De Shuai couldn't sit still, and he was not going to call this timeout, but now he had to call it.

Calling this timeout is nothing else, just to calm Capela down, he's a little bit up now.

"Capela, don't be impatient, in addition to their double guns or single defense, the other three points, the defensive position shrinks a little inside, and is ready to help defend at any time!"

With a little over a minute left before the end of the second quarter, the Rockets still have a one-point lead, as long as they don't let the Trail Blazers reverse the score before halftime.

The effect of the timeout is still obvious, when the Trail Blazers are playing inside, Anderson leans in the direction of Capela at the right time, and Harden's position is also shrunk a little inward, as long as Nurkic gets the ball, he can wrap it at any time.

The reason why De Shuai arranged the tactics like this is obviously because he saw that the Trail Blazers' forward line was very poor in handling the ball, and their forward shooting ability was extremely unstable.

Harden's position shrank, naturally, Evan Turner had more opportunities on the outside, and Lillard also seized the opportunity and passed the ball to Evan Turner, but Evan Turner's three points today were indeed inaccurate.

didn't need Harden to pounce desperately, his three points all ended in iron.

In the end, Evan Turner was not confident in his three-point line, and after receiving the ball, he had to dribble a few times and step into the three-point line before he dared to shoot.

The coach of the Trail Blazers shook his head again and again, there is no way, now the salary opportunities of the Trail Blazers are locked, and there is no good forward, sometimes, it is really uncomfortable.