Dwight Howard and Shaquille O'Neal are arguably in the same vein, inheriting the Magic's fine center tradition.

With Howard at the core, the Magic have built a strong team with the third-highest regular season record in the league and 0.5 wins more than the Kings.

The Magic team unexpectedly defeated strong opponents in a row, passed the Celtics, and eliminated the Cavaliers, which can be said to have the strength of the top team in the league, and everyone believes that the Kings meet the Magic, this is a game of pinpoint vs. Maiman, before the two teams, there may be at least 6 games, and even 7 games.

The Magic team is also in great shape.

In the previous games against the Cavaliers, the three-point rain was particularly happy.

This is also Orlando's confidence, when it comes to outside projection, Orlando is definitely not comparable to the Lakers, they are enough to compete with any team in the league, and the Kings are no exception.

Amway Arena forms a blue landscape, and fans wearing blue magic jerseys occupy the space, and some players even wear retro jerseys, some are number 32, some are even number 1.

The Magic perform a pre-game ceremony.

The lively ceremony ended, and the Magic left the starting lineup.

Point Guard: Jamil Nelson, Shooting Guard: Vince Carter, Small Forward: Francisco Garcia, Power Forward: Rashad Lewis, Center: Dwight Howard.

This lineup is the ultimate version of last year's big and four small lineups.

The general idea is still that Howard has a center with four shooters, among them, Vince Carter plays the organizational vacancy after the departure of Turkoglou, and Nelson mainly breaks through the ball to make up for the team's shortcomings in breaking through this area.

On the Kings' side, the lineup is unchanged, and it is still Jason Kidd, DeMar DeRozan, Ron Artest, Chris Bosh and Tyson Chandler.

Chandler meets Dwight Howard, who is considered the biggest mismatch in the matchup between the Kings and the Magic, and the two are not at the same level.

This made Chandler feel very unhappy, he is average in offense, but defense is his specialty, even Yao Ming and Bynum he has already defended, not to mention such a stupid big man?

The two jumped the ball, and their eyes converged.

Chandler is murderous, while Howard is cynical and has a playful smile.

"Toot ~"

The whistle blew and the two jumped.

Howard was indeed faster than Chandler, touching the basketball first, flicking the ball back, and Jamil Nelson in the backcourt held the ball and pushed forward.

The audience rang out with the shouts of "kill the king", and as soon as the game began, it seemed that the atmosphere in Orlando was up.

Howard aggressively ran to the paint area to ask for it, and the Kings didn't bother to wrap it up at first, allowing Howard to ask for the ball in a deeper position, and Chandler gradually pushed him out with great difficulty.

Although the position is deep, Nelson hangs out more far for fear of being broken, so when Howard catches the ball, he steps on the paint area with one foot.

Wearing Superman's armpads on his monstrous thick arms, he held the basketball that Nelson hoisted with both hands.

Howard turned around and attacked with a frame.

One-on-one, Chandler held one hand high, preoccupied, and unafraid.

Howard took a step to the left with the ball, swinging the ball with both hands, as if he was about to break to the left, and the action was still relatively standard.

Then in the virtual shaking, he dribbled to the left, his body spun suddenly, turned to the right, jumped in a big stride, and did not look at the person, the whole person "rubbed" the ground, and flew up like a rocket.

In the air, confront Chandler, who judged accurately.

Twisting his waist and throwing the ball, the basketball smashed on the basket and missed.

Chandler was knocked out of breath by Howard, and naturally he couldn't pick up the rebound, and he flew up and was taken by Jason Kidd, who rushed inside.

The long arm is extended, and he turns around and spends fast with the ball.

The Magic's retreat is fast, and the whole league knows that the King's offense and defense transition are fast, so they will guard against the King's fast attack, the Magic team left only Howard alone to scramble for the frontcourt rebound, and the other four, after Howard shot, began to retreat, and when Kidd advanced, the King had no chance of fast break.

Howard moved a little faster than Chandler and was the first to retreat through the half.

Kidd organized from the outside, first giving the ball to Chandler at the top of the arc, who gave DeRozan fake cover to the side turn, and then really covered with Ron Artest. 、

Blocking Garcia for Artest, Garcia chases Artest inside.

Artest changed direction, pulled the ball out of Howard, and then suddenly dropped a small high and Chandler got the basketball.

An easy shot from the basket hits.

"Don't change guards easily!" Stan Van Gundy shouted from the sidelines that he was a little unhappy that his team was so easily beaten by the Kings.

In fact, Artest's half-volley ability is average, and Howard doesn't need to pounce so much, just wait for Artest's last shot.

Howard also immediately realized his defensive mistakes, so in the next round of defense, he didn't let the Kings play easily again.

It's just that the Magic's own offense didn't score.

The main problem is that the Kings completely ignore Howard's offense, stick to a block-based defense on the outside, and don't give the Magic an easy shot.

Howard missed two offensive shots in the opening game, and the Magic changed their offensive strategy.

The first is the high-level pick-and-roll, Nelson and Howard carried out high-post blocking, Nelson was very fast, and after the pick-and-roll, he rushed straight to the basket, and Kidd's speed around the defense was a little slower.

Mainly down to the quality of the pick-and-roll, Nelson shot wide in Chandler's pursuit.

But then, Howard followed up and slammed the basketball with both hands to complete the rebound.

2 to 2, the two teams played for more than 2 minutes and were tied.

The offensive efficiency of both sides is very average, and experts attribute it to the fact that there are many championship newcomers on both teams, and it is always a little cold to play such a high-level game in the finals for the first time.

Both teams didn't score, so the game was a bit of a scorching one.

Howard hit twice on the inside and found that Chandler was really not good at playing, Chandler didn't jump, no matter what Howard feints, he didn't jump, just raised his arms high and interfered very Buddha-likely.

Howard's feints can't fool Chandler, his pace is not fast, and his strong attack is very inefficient.

The Kings began to look for a forward to attack, Artest passed to Chris Bosh for a mid-range jumper, and Bosh hit a mid-range jumper against Lewis's defense.

Howard covered Garcia off the ball and then picked up for Vince Carter high post.

Vince Carter broke through the King's inside line and passed to Garcia who was running out of position, Garcia received the ball in the bottom corner, and raised his hand to shoot the ball the moment he received the ball.

"Huh!"

The basketball hollow into the net, the accuracy is amazing!

This three-pointer triggered the first collective cheer of the fans in the audience, and the momentum of the Magic team suddenly rose by a quarter.

"Cast them to death!"

"Shoot Sacramento!"

Garcia has retained his excellent form in the Kings period, and his various running skills are also very good, Artest has done a good job of defending with the ball, and has not done a good job of holding the ball without asking for it, giving Garcia a little space, this trace of space, Garcia decisively grasped, hit, and scored.

"Change the guard!"

Wang made a gesture on the sidelines, signaling Artest and DeRozan to switch defenses, Atarst defended Vince Carter with the ball, and DeRozan defended Garcia, who ran more without the ball.

Stan Van Gundy secretly praised in his heart, saying that Wang Tomorrow is the fastest coach in the NBA, which seems to be true at all, and Wang Tomorrow's hand adjustment will be completed on the sidelines.

DeRozan defends Garcia, Garcia's difficulty in running out of opportunities has increased several levels, while Vince Carter, who is still subject to the Kings' terrifying outside defense, is very mediocre.

The two teams played defensive basketball, and in the first half of the game, the Kings led the Kings by 10 points 11-10.

Wang will make adjustments tomorrow, replacing Tyson Chandler, who has a foul on his back, replacing Marcin Gortat, and defending Dwight Howard in a wheel battle.

Howard smiled.

"When I was in the Magic, you were my substitute, and now you go to the king, and you can actually become the first substitute? You think you can stop me? ”

Gortat also smiled, and his tone was cold: "You can just try it, what else can you do except have a stupid strength?" ”

"Joke!"

Howard snorted coldly and opened his hand to ask.

Nelson ignored Howard and went straight to the punch.

Howard's face darkened, a distraction, no card owner Gortat, suddenly dodged and appeared in front of Nelson, Nelson's head shrank, in order to avoid his former teammate's cover of the sky and the sun, twisted his waist, and his movements were completely deformed.

Howard stood under the basket and the rebound bounced far.

Although he has a strong rebounding ability, if he bounces so far, he can't grab it.

The basketball was still picked up by Kidd, who landed on the ground, turned around and didn't have any luck, and sent a long pass.

The pass was so sudden that the Magic team didn't have time to retreat, and when they looked up, the basketball crossed the half court and fell into the hands of DeRozan, who was speeding down.

"Oops!"

The fans in the stadium exclaimed, because the speed of DeRozan's fast break was so amazing.

Like a purple bolt of lightning, DeRozan rushed into the three-point line like a thunderbolt, and then in front of the chasing Vince Carter, he staged an exaggerated flat-frame two-handed dunk, smashed into the frame, and the bounce height was extremely terrifying.

After all, this is the new league slam dunk king, as if he is using such a dunk action to pay tribute to his predecessors.

Vince Carter picked up the basketball and took a deep look at DeRozan.

This shot is not to blame Carter for retreating, DeRozan has already started to play a fast break when Nelson shoots, and then Kidd's pass is just right, and Vince Carter is running like the wind, and he can't catch up with DeRozan.

Howard aggressively asked for the ball under the basket, and Gortat was behind his back.

"Bang!"

Howard slammed his back into Gortat's chest, elbowed his left foot, turned around with a big stride, and struck a small hook shot through the person, jumping with both feet, hooking hands with one hand, and the movement looked particularly stiff, like a frog.

Howard has actually made a lot of progress in his low-post skills, at least this step is particularly good at the position card, and the center axis foot is particularly firm.

Gortat also has small hooks, unlike Howard's stiff jumps, Gortat's small hooks are leaning on people's hooks.

Howard's hook hand, three points rely on technique, seven points rely on talent, ordinary people can't cover it, they can only give him offensive pressure and try to deform his technical movements.

"Bang~"

"Huh~"

The basketball hits the back edge of the basket and jumps twice and falls into the basket.

Gortat was not annoyed, and the king on the sidelines applauded him tomorrow, "Put a good Marsin, it's this kind of defense, push him outside the penalty area, let him hook, don't let him turn around easily." ”

"This trapping beast tactic is really powerful."

Michael Curry said: "Stan hasn't figured out this problem yet, and when he does, I'm afraid the Magic are used to this kind of singles cycle, right?" ”

"It has nothing to do with me, the most important thing is that Howard doesn't like to block and dismantle, if he is willing to block and dismantle, the Magic team is still a very difficult team, but he firmly believes in his low offensive efficiency, if he was Yao Ming, I would have covered it a long time ago, but he is still just a monster after all."

"Are you going to cut him?"

"It's cut now, it's not good to defend, and before halftime, if the number of fouls allows, I'll let the players cut him and further disrupt the rhythm of the Magic."

After Wang Ming finished speaking, he looked up and saw that on the big screen above the court, there were real-time data of the players on the field.

Stan Van Gundy finally found out what was wrong.

Howard has made two consecutive offenses, but the Kings are still firmly one-on-one, and Gortat is like a wall of flesh in front of Howard, no fouls, purely interference.

Howard scored eight points in the first quarter, but the Magic still trailed the Kings 17-21.

Soon, Howard's offense failed, and after receiving a pass from his teammates, he turned around and missed the attack, and the rebound was grabbed by Kidd for the third time, and the dribble was fast.

In the fast break, Kidd crosses to Chris Bosh.

Bosh hit a mid-range catch-and-shoot jumper and scored 2 points.

"Toot ~"

Van Gundy asked for a timeout.

The timeout was called just right, and Wang was supposed to make a substitution tomorrow, with Jason Thompson on the inside and Kasby and Nocioni on the outside.

The Kings rotate 9 and the Magic rotate 8.

The Magic made changes to sharpshooter Redick, defensive titan Matt Barnes, and interior lineman Blanton Buss.

Originally, Petrus was supposed to play in the swingman position, but Petrus was still on the injury list, and Matt Barnes came on.

Matt Barnes is also very strong, especially on the defensive end, and can contribute a lot of energy.

Howard didn't rest, he was still on the court, he was in good health, strong like a monster, and his physical strength was also the top in the NBA, and it was not difficult to play forty minutes a game.

This kind of crucial finals can rest for several months after the game, so if you can let the main team play for 1 minute more, let the main team play for 1 minute more.

At this time, Howard also knew that he was attacking fiercely on the court, but the effect of leading the team was average, and he began to take the initiative to block and cover for the team's outside.

There were some high-quality pick-and-rolls, especially after a pick-and-roll by Vince Carter, who went straight to the inside and completed a split dunk in front of Gortat, which boosted the morale of the whole team.

During this time, the Magic team is Vince Carter playing.

The 33-year-old Carter is still at his peak at the end, and if he is given enough shots, he will still be the league's top scorer averaging 20+ per game.

The Kings, on the other hand, unswervingly used Kidd to control the overall situation and steadily advance the course of the game.

With Jason Thompson receiving Kidd from the basket and causing Howard to foul and hit both free throws from the free throw line, the Kings led the Magic by six points 29-23 in the first quarter.