The focus battle of the Houston Rockets and the Boston Celtics.

First in the West vs. Second in the East.

The two teams that are the most likely to challenge the Warriors and Cavaliers for dominance in the East and West this year have been listed as "imaginary enemies" for the championship by the Rockets from the beginning of the season.

The Great War is imminent!

1/

To be honest, although the Rockets have won 14 consecutive games, the whole team still held back their strength before the game started, wanting to avenge the Boston Garden Arena. In that game, the Rockets led by nearly 30 points at halftime, and the Celtics were on the verge of collapse, but they did not expect the situation to change in the second half, and the Celtics not only equalized the score, but also took advantage of Harden's two controversial offensive fouls in the final moment to win the game in one fell swoop.

It's like yesterday.

The Rockets, who vowed to win, started passively at home. The Celtics may have the psychological advantage of winning the first leg, and on the night of March 3, it was hot to the touch, with his forward group of Howard, Monroe, Morris, Smart and Tatum each blossoming under guard Kyrie Irving.

Although the Rockets still have James Harden and Chris Paul to connect the team, and the interior sends Clint Capela to wreak havoc on the basket, the Rockets' three-point shot has not been opened, so the first two quarters have been played extremely hard. They lost by two points at 30-32 in the first quarter and by four more at 28-32 in the second quarter.

Yang Yiming usually appeared in the rotation between the two quarters, he played 10 minutes in the first half, there were not many opportunities, and he was hurriedly replaced, and he could only watch his teammates play on the bench.

The team's scene couldn't be opened, and he couldn't play on the field to contribute, Yang Yiming's heart was inevitably a little anxious. It just so happened that the basketball idiot Yu Xiaochun was sitting next to him, so while watching the game, he got together with Yu Xiaochun's head to discuss the situation on the court. Unexpectedly, this discussion between the two of them really changed the situation on the field in the end!

2/

At halftime, the Rockets' locker room was packed. Journalists, team doctors, equipment staff, and staff from all walks of life are constantly coming in and out, and that's the usual situation in home games. But in the midst of this noise, a slightly hoarse but sonorous old male voice always grabbed everyone's attention.

He is the coach of the Rockets, Mike D'Antoni:

'We're only six points down and we're just getting started. I want you to forget the result of the first half, the six points don't matter. The important thing is that we play our basketball, open up the transition offense, open up the three-point shot. I repeat, it doesn't matter if it's 6 or 16. We've all faced worse than that, but if we do our part, the previous fixtures have proven that we will win in the end! ”

"Irving is playing really well, but we don't have to be afraid – I told you all before the game that Irving is something that Celtics are going to rely on, so it's all part of our plan. If he can play singles, dribble with difficulty, score three points, and score 2+1 from a negative angle, even if he scores all these goals, we will resolutely not attack the defense. It's not scary to play a one-on-one ball, he can't be in this form all night, but we can't watch him play. Mark people, not balls! When Irving plays one-on-one, everyone has to look at their defenders to death and don't give him any chance to split the ball! In the first half we were caught by them too many chances like this! ”

After spurring everyone, Coach D'Antoni laid out tactics against the Celtics again:

"Chris [Paul], they had too many low posts out of place in the first half, and it was probably a special arrangement by Coach Stevens. So in the second half, I want you to stay on the line and leave all the defensive tasks in the low post to your teammates. If there's a change of defense in the high and low positions, you still stand on the line and tell your teammates in advance to let them go to the low post - everyone else should always keep an eye out for Paul's signals, and as soon as he gives the command, all the teammates on the court should move immediately..."

When listening to Coach D'Antoni talk about this, Yang Yiming's brain suddenly felt like a lightning bolt: Isn't this exactly what he and Yu Xiaochun discussed in the first half?

Yu Xiaochun analyzed Yang Yiming that in the first half, once the Celtics couldn't open the offensive situation, they would repeatedly use various means such as covering, rotating, blocking and dismantling to create a one-on-one opportunity for Chris Paul to have a low position with his forward group - quite a bit of the Finals LeBron James "touching" Stephen Curry - but this Celtics team is a soldier in the face of Paul, even if it is a reckless man Smart who has close to zero attack power with the ball, he has to try to bargain on Paul.

This offensive idea made the Rockets very uncomfortable, and it was the heavy forward group that was afraid of the opponent that the Rockets never dared to sacrifice their most mobile "five small combinations", so they could only always put a center. Capela went off the court, and he was topped by Nene inside, but the old center's offensive ability could not meet the requirements of the Rockets' blocking and dismantling, and his ability to defend the frame was also limited.

Sure enough, Coach D'Antoni changed his tone and immediately talked about the problem of the Rockets' interior line:

"The Celtic front line is too threatening, we've all seen that. Our first priority in the second half was to avoid giving the opponent a chance to mismatch in the low position, as I said earlier..."

"The second is to strengthen the protection of the outside line against the inside line - their frontcourt rebounds are also very fierce, a bit like gambling, that is, they hope to delay our transition to offense by rushing to grab rebounds. So our outside line also has to join in, not necessarily grabbing, but must be stuck in the slot! ”

"Finally, the third one, our inner line, can only suffer and grit our teeth and persevere. Defend on top, and follow up when attacking. Remember, when we are tired, our opponents are even more tired! …”

As soon as D'Antoni had finished speaking these three points, he saw a large yellow hand raised timidly in the sky above the heads of the crowd.

"Oh, Yiming, do you have any questions?" D'Antoni saw that it was Yang Yiming, slowed down his speech, and asked kindly.

"Coach, if I play, will I be able to solve these problems?"

"Ah, what do you mean? D'Antoni probably didn't expect Yang Yiming to suddenly appear and take the initiative to ask for help, and was taken aback. After he asked, the dressing room, which was still noisy just now, suddenly quieted down, and Yang Yiming obviously felt that the people around him who were still looking at each other just now stopped what they were doing at this time and turned their eyes on him neatly.

Yang Yiming carefully organized his language again, kept his tone as calm as possible, and said, "I mean... Coach, do you think there is anything I can do to help the team in the tactics you just mentioned, please feel free to ask. ”

Yang Yiming's adjusted sentence was indeed much more appropriate than the sentence he said impulsively at the beginning, and everyone immediately turned their eyes back to Mike D'Antoni who was standing in the center.

I saw that this prestigious old handsome man was silent for a few seconds, frowned, his eyes swirled in his sockets a few times, and then snapped his fingers and said to Yang Yiming: "Well, what you said has some truth - wait, get ready, I will call you at any time in the second half." ”

Well!

Yang Yiming exerted all his strength, suppressed the ecstasy in his heart, and nodded at his mentor with great satisfaction.