Two days before Christmas, the Houston Rockets suffered a two-game losing streak to the Los Angeles Clippers in their final game of seven consecutive home games.

Chris Paul missed the game against his old club due to injury, and James Harden scored 51 points again, plus eight assists, but unfortunately couldn't help the Rockets win.

118 to 128.

The Rockets, who have lost two in a row, have a 25-6 record, which is the same as the second-largest Warriors in the West. After Christmas Eve, they're heading to Oklahoma City to challenge the Thunder, who lost last year's playoffs and formed a Big Three this summer, in the Christmas game.

The opponent who was still struggling in the mire mentioned above has quietly won four consecutive victories recently, climbing to fifth place in the West.

What the road ahead is sinister and unknown.

Coach D'Antoni made a point to call the first emergency meeting of the new year. Participants, all the players of the Rockets; Time, 7 a.m. on Christmas Day; The location is at Houston's Bush International Airport.

1/

The airport was empty and sparsely populated on Christmas morning. Yu Xiaochun only bought a ticket home on the first day of the Spring Festival one year, and the airport on the first day of the Lunar New Year is also this scene, fortunately, there are still some holiday decorations in the Houston airport at Christmas, a huge Christmas plant is erected at the entrance, and fake colorful gift boxes are surrounded by a place, so as not to look so cold and desolate. When Yu Xiaochun and Yang Yiming arrived, Coach Mike D'Antoni and the other Rockets players were basically there, and the meeting had already begun.

“… The first thing I want you to understand about tonight's game is that winning is not a game, but if we follow the tactical set, it will only be us who will win. "Coach D'Antoni put everyone in a circle and started mobilizing.

"Chris Paul still won't play today, and he needs to rest again." The coach patted Paul's shoulder next to him, he was dressed in a suit and leather shoes, and wore a thin tie with a black Louis Vuitton checkerboard, looking much more serious than the other Rockets in hip-hop attire. "But Chris has organized a discussion about the Thunder before, and the strategy for this game is very constructive, so Paul, you can elaborate on it."

"Okay." Paul took a step forward, straightened his tie, and said in a grand manner, "We had this discussion at the time, and there were three main arguments at that time, and there should have been many teammates who you were also involved in: changing coaches, playing team basketball, and letting Wei Shao take on more responsibilities. Of these three points, the first point is obviously impossible for us to target. At least so far, I haven't heard from me, and I don't know if Coach Donovan is going to leave class with 12 hours left - Mike, if he asks you to find a job, you need to let us know as soon as possible. ”

Everyone snickered.

"It's clear that the Thunder are winning in a row, and it's us who have just lost in a row, so my position is more dangerous." D'Antoni joked, but the speaker had no intention of listening, and his words were like a zipper, putting everyone's smiles on their faces.

"So what we're really able to target is the last two points." Paul continued, "But at the end of the day, it's actually one thing, and that's is, isolating Wei Shao and making the Thunder unable to play team basketball. ”

"That's true, but how?" The veteran center forward Nene asks questions. Although he has been resting on the side of the game this season, this time against the Thunder, the old Brazilian center may have to replace the lightly injured Capela to protect the Rockets restricted area.

"Okay, how to isolate Westbrook is the focus of this emergency meeting."

2/

Paul gestured to De Antoni and signaled that the tactical part of the arrangement would once again be presided over by the head coach:

"There are three main aspects of isolation. First of all, the defense against Willis, James (Harden) and Eric (Gordon) you two come over. Coach D'Antoni greeted the Rockets' backcourt duo.

Harden is dressed in hip-hop today, with a printed shirt and ripped jeans, a gold chain with the letter "R" of the Rockets logo hanging around his neck, and sunglasses at seven o'clock in the morning.

Gordon is relatively well-dressed, a mix of athleisure and business style, but all kinds of trendy brands and famous brands are worn all over the body, which can be regarded as low-key luxury.

"There are two aspects to the task of the two of you-" The coach called the two to his side and wrapped his left and right hands around him respectively: "On the one hand, when Wei Shao is attacking, the two of you take turns to defend him, the principle is to resolutely not give shots outside the three-point line, and put a step inside the three-point line, but you can shoot but do not give a chance to break through and create damage." This is the most important place, so keep it in mind. In the first few games, the Thunder's winners and losers were Wei Shao's three-point shots and mid-range shots. More shots, the Thunder loses, three more points, and the Thunder wins. ”

"On the other hand, you two have to use offense to contain him and consume Wei Shao's physical strength. In fact, Chris's truce today is not necessarily a bad thing. Why? Paul is on the court, probably right against Westbrook, with clear defensive goals and a physical advantage – no offense. D'Antoni himself interjected and apologized to Paul.

"It's okay coach, I know you're not serious." Paul smiled faintly, sure enough, top sports never convince people easily.

"But today Paul rested and we went back to the way we started the season, which was that we had two firepower points on the outside. But before, it was Harden who was the main offense and Gordon was the secondary offense, and today it has to change a little..."

"What change coach?" Eric Gordon noticed the peculiarity of today's arrangement and was the first to ask.

"Today's change is that I want both of you to attack!"

"All the main attack?!" It wasn't just the two of them who exclaimed.

"Yes, I ask you to not only play with the ball yourself, but also to play with pick-and-roll! Thunder's tactics, generally in order to save Wei Shao's physical strength, will not arrange him to defend the scoring point in the opponent's guard, but hand it over to the other person in the two Thunder guards, but today, we have to force Wei Shao to contribute! ”

"Force him to help?!"

"That's right. Because we happen to have two scoring points that we can't ignore, plus we block and pick each other, that is, when James attacks with the ball, if it doesn't defend you, Eric you come up and do blocking and picking with Harden, and force Wei Shao into this round of offense. No matter who he switched to in the end, he passed the ball to the man who was defending. If he doesn't post it again, you guys just shoot, three-point shot! All in all, forcing him to defend, forcing him to spend his energy on both of you every round, I can not shoot, but I have to consume the strength of your main commander first! ”

I see!

3/

"So that's the first aspect, Mike, you just said there are three aspects, what else?" This time it was Anderson who took on the task of transitioning the topic.

"The second aspect is the anti-pick-and-roll, the Thunder's inside and outside pick-and-roll. The connection between Adams and Willis. ”

"It sounds like my job, coach, how do you want to arrange it." Nenei's deep voice sounded again.

"It's my task, but today you worked hard, brother, you took over!" Capela leaned on Nenene's shoulder, and the two looked like they had forgotten their friendship for the rest of the year.

"The key to anti-blocking and dismantling is, Nene, absolutely not mentioned! Defend the basket and the paint area! ”

"Why is that, Coach?" Nene asked.

"Because I don't want to give Adams any chance to hit the basket! He's a little younger, and maybe a little more tonnage and punch - Nenei, and I didn't mean to offend you. ”

"Huh." The Brazilian centre-forward gave a disdainful smile.

"But Adams' mid-range shooting is his weakness, and since there's a weakness, we have to make the most of it. If you play pick-and-roll, the Thunder generally play inside the three-point line, which means that Wei Shao has reached his least efficient offensive area. In this case, our guards can single-handedly block and follow Westbrook closely – and if Nene is also drawn to the high post, it is likely that Adams will directly receive a pass, an empty dunk, or a strong shot under the basket. But the center is stuck to the basket, and Adams doesn't have that opportunity, so he can only choose the worst mid-range shot, or hand it back to Wei Shao to reorganize, then our defense will be considered successful. ”

"Understood, Coach!"

"And what about the last third point?"

"The third point is actually the simplest." Coach D'Antoni paused, and his eyes swept to the Rockets' players, "How to defend against the other two giants of the Big Three." ”

No one said a word.

Maybe this "simplest" question is also a question that has been in everyone's minds for a long time, but they dare not say it.

"It's really simple." Coach D'Antoni emphasised again:

"Don't treat them like superstars, just treat them like ordinary people, defending one-on-one."

"One-on-one?!"

"That's right, Ariza, you defend Paul George one-on-one, get in position, defend the ball. A superstar like him, if he can't catch the ball after running two rounds of tactics, he won't run, he will just stand and wait for the ball to come, understand? ”

"Understood!" Ariza was often assigned to defend the opponent's spearhead, and he was accustomed to this arrangement, and answered crisply.

"The task of defending Anthony... I'll leave it to you, Yiming. D'Antoni's gaze turned around, and finally landed on Yang Yiming.

"Me?"

"That's right, this Thunder game, you play the starter!"