On April 17, the Wizards ushered in the curtain call of the regular season, hosting the Houston Rockets led by Boss Ford and Yao Ming.

The inertia of history is very strong, and the Rockets are still 43-38 with the same record as the Suns, but the Rockets have a 3-1 lead. In other words, a win in the last game of the Rockets guarantees a playoff run.

The only way for the Suns to make the playoffs is for the Rockets to lose and win themselves. This is exactly what has happened in history.

On the last day, the league only scheduled four games, among which the Wizards vs. the Rockets and the Clippers vs. Suns were undoubtedly the focus of fans' attention.

On the rookie list, although Yao Ming is temporarily ranked first, Xiao Si is close behind, but it is foreseeable that if the Suns enter the playoffs, Xiao Si will win the best rookie.

It seems that the Suns are playing the vice president of the West, and the Rockets are challenging the first in the league, no matter how you look at it, the Suns have a better chance of winning. Because from January 8 when the Wizards hosted the 76ers, until the end of the season, the Wizards have only lost one game to the Kings.

The Rockets don't look like they have a chance to win, and every position is blown up. Since the Rockets are bound to lose, but the Suns are facing a weak team, the Suns, who seem to have only one of the four possibilities to enter the playoffs, actually have a big chance of winning.

Before the game, Hu Qingniu concentrated the players, and as a rule, this is the time to arrange tactics and starters. The Wizards' starting points for each game are arranged according to the opposing team, so it is extremely unstable, and everyone else except Jordan is likely to sit on the bench.

As soon as the training of the Wizards team ended, a group of shirtless men surrounded Hu Qingniu in suits and leather shoes.

The image of the coach is still very necessary, Hu Qingniu is in shape, and said to this group of muscular men.

The players who heard their names below stood to the side. Tim Hardaway, Michael Jordan, Grant Hill, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing. Hu Qingniu read the name and stood to the side one by one.

Everyone was buzzing, this was probably today's starter, but Hu Qingniu's next sentence made their jaws drop.

"All five of you will be on the bench for this game, playing five to 10 minutes, trying to rest and prepare for the playoffs. The Rockets will fight hard in this game, but it doesn't matter to us, it's important that we don't get hurt. ”

The crowd was in an uproar, Barkley said on behalf of the players.

"Coach, are we going to give up this game?"

Hu Qingniu responded: "Of course not, every player on the field must play their own strength, this is the most basic competitive spirit." We're just avoiding the Rockets, don't fight hard with them, be conservative. ”

It is naturally impossible for Hu Qingniu to let the team give up the game, which will have a great impact on the team culture and team image. Letting the original team's starters play as little as possible is already a concession to the Rockets, and it can also serve the purpose of resting the main players. It's stupid to compete with a team on the edge of a cliff for an unimportant game where players are at high risk of injury.

Hu Qingniu's compromise method is to kill multiple birds with one stone, not only to maintain the team's image, but also to protect the players, and also sell the Rockets a good one.

Even so, the Wizards' starting list has caused a small amount of controversy.

Tyronn Lue, Larry Hughes, Jeffries, Haywood, and Kwame Brown started as five young teams, which still makes some people feel that the Wizards are too loose. Especially the fans of the Suns, they must hate Hu Qingniu to death.

Before the start of the game, Yao Ming came over and hugged Hu Qingniu first, although Hu Qingniu's figure looked very embarrassing in Yao Ming's arms, a little birdy. But Hu Qingniu still cooperated to complete this action.

"Brother Hu, thank you." Yao Ming said honestly.

"Haha, no thanks, I'm just rotating normally, after all, we're going to prepare for the playoffs. But we won't be waterproof, and if you want to win, you have to rely on your own strength. Hu Qingniu responded with a smile.

"I know, Brother Hu is very principled, and he seems to be a good comrade." Yao Ming joked.

"Alright, let's go back and warm up."

After the two exchanged pleasantries, they each returned to their positions. A young Chinese journalist captured this precious image, Yang Yi, a basketball reporter for Beijing Youth Daily. As the first Chinese journalist to follow Yao Ming in the United States for a long time, he has both ability and ambition.

Along with the photo, Yang Yi sent a brief press release titled "Hu Yao hugged before the game, Hu Qingniu seems feasible to return to China to coach." This is Yang Yi's style, first laying out the facts, and then putting forward his own bold ideas, which aroused heated discussions among fans and earned enough eyeballs first.

But this style of speculating on the psychology of others has also been criticized for more than ten years.

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The game was about to start, Yao Ming and Kwamei walked to the middle circle to prepare to jump the ball, they were old acquaintances, and they knew each other very well.

This time Yao Ming lost the jump ball, Kwame Brown's physical fitness has strengthened a lot this season, the bounce is almost not inferior to Garnett, plus the 2.23 meters arm span, this time he easily surpassed Yao Ming to shoot the basketball with one palm.

The veterans will play cautiously, but the younger players will be a little more dynamic. As soon as the opening kick-off was the Wizards, everyone except for the slow Haywood was in early positions and waiting for Larry Hughes' organization.

Why not organize the guard Tyronn Lue to organize, because Hu Qingniu has long stated that Tyronn Lue is only responsible for dribbling through the half court, and the team's organizers are the five people of Double Hardaway, Hill, Jordan, and Hughes. When they are on the court, hand the ball to their organization in the order described above.

Now only Larry Hughes is present, and it can only be organized by Larry Hughes. Defending him was Boss Fu, and today's Boss Fu looked very serious, unlike the one who used to giggle on the court.

Because this is the first time that Fergus has a chance to break into the playoffs, the Rockets have finished 11th in the West, 9th in the West, and 11th in the West in the first three years of his career.

Boss Fergus once said, teach us the big man, and we will be invincible. Now is the time to rely on Yao Ming, a big man.

Larry Hughes pulled away and raised his fingers to signal his teammates to run, knowing that with his physical strength, Francis had no chance of winning. At this time, it is better to let your teammates run instead of watching yourself play alone.

This is the subtle influence brought by Hu Qingniu, if it was Larry Hughes of the Wizards team who didn't think about it so much, first of all, regardless of whether his teammates can run out of position or not, if he doesn't cherish the ball in his hands, he still has to pass it, then don't think about touching the ball again this round.

But with Hu Qingniu's hard work for several months, everyone on the Wizards now trusts their teammates and likes to play together, which is much easier than singles.