The Houston Rockets are in high spirits and are unbeaten since February, and their sixteen-game winning streak has equalled the longest winning streak of any team this season.

Yang Yiming is also in high spirits, surpassing Ben Simmons, who was in the limelight at the beginning of the season, and "lifelong enemy" Jayson Tatum in the latest rookie power list, and finishing second behind the Jazz's Donovan Mitchell.

Today they will travel together to take on Eastern Conference powerhouse Milwaukee Bucks.

1/

Yang Yiming's self-confidence has improved greatly after being reused in two consecutive games, but he will face an opponent today against Giannis Antetokounmpo, who gave him a headache in the first leg of the two teams.

If the NBA is a reality show, Antetokounmpo is the most brutal reality of them all.

If basketball is a dream, then Brother Alphabet is the most unreal nightmare of them all.

If the three-headed, six-armed god had an incarnation, it would probably look like a Greek monster!

Yang Yiming and Antetokounmpo had already played each other once, and at that time, Yang Yiming experienced what it was like to be "unable to defend" for the first time in his life. At that time, he still had the blessing of "sealing cheats", but unfortunately even the cheats had no way to take the Greeks, and after analyzing the technical characteristics of the other party, he almost came to the conclusion that "you can disarm and surrender in advance". When it came to the official confrontation on the court, Yang Yiming reluctantly limited the opponent's shooting rate (45.5% of 3 three-pointers shot 0), allowing Brother Alphabet to score 28 points, but he also paid six fouls and left the court for the first time in his career.

So this time when he met the enemy again, Yang Yiming started to prepare a week in advance, even on the red-eye flight from Oklahoma City to Milwaukee, he didn't have a chance to close his eyes and rest for a while, but grabbed the "military advisor" Yu Xiaochun and went through Antetokounmpo's technical video over and over again.

"Brother Alphabet is really hard to prevent." However, every time he watched the video, Yang Yiming had to shake his head again, and he couldn't help but feel the strength of his opponent.

"yes, but it's obviously not your own dilemma." On the flight in the second half of the night, Yu Xiaochun was already covered in sleepiness, and his upper and lower eyelids kept fighting, but at the same time, he couldn't bear to discourage his good friend's enthusiasm. He pointed to the players on the video who had become the backdrop and said, "You see, so many people can't stop him, so don't push yourself too hard." Let's take a break. ”

"So if I can defend him, wouldn't I be the best outside defender?"

Yang Yiming's words immediately drove away Yu Xiaochun's sleepiness: This is indeed the truth, if the goal of a friend is the best rookie, how can a future Hall of Fame player be satisfied with the status quo of "I am as bad as others"?

"I'm sorry, I didn't think that much." Yu Xiaochun adjusted his sitting posture in the seat, put on the glasses he took off when he was sleeping, and also leaned in front of his laptop to stare at the screen and said, "So, Brother Alphabet is indeed the most difficult person you have ever defended?" ”

Yang Yiming nodded, and immediately shook his head:

'To be honest, a lot of players are very difficult to defend. Needless to say, the NBA's superstar, just any ordinary player or rookie, may have one or two special skills. But if we find out their way, we can at least find a targeted way to achieve the purpose of restriction to a certain extent. But it doesn't work at all to be an alphabet brother. It should be said that his offensive methods are not dazzling, and sometimes the goal of each action is clear, but you just can't limit it. He's always taller, faster, stronger than you..."

"Higher, faster, stronger, Olympic spirit."

"Kind of that. It's like opening the Olympics, he can beat you in every event..."

"Antetokounmpo's physical advantage is indeed all-round..."Yu Xiaochun fell into deep thought after saying this. Yang Yiming didn't speak, and Yu Xiaochun guessed that he may have remembered his biggest competitor on the rookie list, Donovan Mitchell, who showed an all-round physical outburst around All-Star Weekend.

Sure enough, for the slightest physical advantage, people living in this jungle of basketball will be willing to pay the greatest price.

I don't know what price Mitchell paid in exchange for today's outburst...

The more I thought about this question, the more dizzy I became, Yu Xiaochun simply stopped thinking about it and found a different topic:

"But Yiming, aren't you sleepy? It's back-to-back today. ”

"Oh, there are some." Yang Yiming said and put the progress bar of the video back to the front, and looked at it again, "I still have to say that Nina's hypnotherapy effect is too good, if she didn't help me recover my strength regularly, I don't think I would be able to survive now." ”

Of course, Yu Xiaochun knew that what Yang Yiming said was not the whole truth. Nina's help is indeed great, and Yang Yiming's own natural exuberant physical strength is also a part. Otherwise, how can a yellow man who has never experienced the intensity of an NCAA game go from strength to strength when other rookies are running into the rookie wall?

Did Nina delay the rookie wall that rushed to Yang Yiming?

Or is there a secret in this that Yu Xiaochun doesn't know? But the sleepiness struck again, and this time he couldn't hold on at all and decided to leave the problem to his old friend called "Later".

"I'll sleep again, and you can rest after you finish reading."

Yang Yiming nodded absentmindedly. "I guess he's going to keep watching", Yu Xiaochun thought to himself, and quickly joined the army of snoring around.

2/

The Rockets' battle isn't as tough as the back-to-back schedule seems. Yang Yiming watched the video analysis of the entire flight, and in the end it was almost useless.

Just because the rocket is too powerful!

The outcome was pretty much clear in the first half, with the Rockets leading by 12 points, and James Harden's buzzer-beating three-pointer dribbling past half was a microcosm of the entire first half: it didn't take much effort. He scored 21 points in the first half and made all sorts of three-pointers.

In the end, the Rockets won 110-99, and the seventeenth consecutive win was the second in team history and the best season in the league.

This comes after the Rockets' three key rotations didn't play: None, Ryan Anderson, Joe and Johnson on the sidelines today.

Antetokounmpo played 38 minutes, scoring 30 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks and 1 steal; Yang Yiming played 19 minutes, only half of the opponent's opponent, and scored 10 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block. Six minutes into the second quarter, the two sides officially faced each other for the first time. Yang Yiming continued to implement the strategy of putting three points to prevent Brother Alphabet from breaking through, and made a step outside the three-point line. The Greek monster didn't mean to shoot, and strode the ball at Yang Yiming to kill. The two made physical contact, and Yang Yiming was quite stable under the coil, and he was not resisted at one time, but forced Brother Alphabet to stop the ball. But the latter was also extremely flexible, turning the dribble into a three-step layup, bypassing Yang Yiming and throwing a right-handed shot. Yang Yiming, who couldn't make up for it, watched his opponent shoot above his head.

The embodiment of complete physical superiority!

Luckily, he was able to hit the anser ball right away. Chris Paul assisted Yang Yiming, and he took advantage of the Bucks' team-wide attention to Paul's fancy dribbling, and slipped from the left 45 degrees all the way down the perimeter to the opponent's box. Paul sent a high ball, and Yang Yiming saw that although Brother Alphabet missed the position under the basket, he was still only a few meters away from him, so he didn't dare to slack off at all, and scored on the empty board.

As soon as the ball entered the net, I saw Antetokounmpo's giant palm pressing over and slapping it on the rebound!

That's just a little bit worse!

Yang Yiming, who was still snickering, was turning around to thank Paul and making a good gesture, but he didn't expect the Bucks to quickly send out the baseline ball. Brother Alphabet grabbed the basketball that went into the net, stepped on the baseline, threw the ball to his nearest teammate, and immediately jumped back into the court. The teammates understood, and before Team Rocket and Yang Yiming came back to their senses, the ball had already returned to Brother Alphabet's hands, and he strode up and ran wildly!

Obviously, no matter how many times Yang Yiming has watched the technical video, he has no skills.

He could only be in the Bucks' restricted area, watching this "Greek monster" throw off the front and back interception of the rocket trio, and kill the dragon to the other end of the court, and deduct points with both hands!

It's really a super powerful guy - Yang Yiming, who witnessed all this, shook his head and nodded again. He ran back to his position, signaled to his teammates that it was his mistake, and immediately threw himself into the next round of offense and defense.

It is because of such "invincible" opponents that basketball becomes interesting!