The rocket's plane flew to Los Angeles.

Qiao Hai hasn't been to Los Angeles for a long time, the city where he made his fortune, but since he left the Grizzlies and stopped coaching, he rarely goes to Los Angeles, at most once a year, also to inspect Hoop Sports.

At Los Angeles International Airport, after collecting their luggage, the players walked out of the arrivals exit.

Then the next second, they stopped.

Because at the exit of the arrival, in front of them, there are films of reporters.

Holding cameras, cameras, voice recorders, and other weapons, they pointed at them, and when they appeared, the flash flashed continuously, and the airport hall instantly turned into a vegetable market, and all kinds of voices came.

Steve Francis took one or two reporters, Yao Ming also took one or two reporters, but most of the reporters stayed, and when Qiao Hai finally walked out of the exit, almost all the reporters surrounded him......

Almost all the microphones, voice recorders, and mobile phones with the recording function turned on were aimed at Qiao Hai.

"Joe, how do you feel about changing teams and coming back to Los Angeles?"

"Joe, when you coached the Grizzlies, you maintained a complete win against the Lakers, can you still maintain a complete win after changing teams?"

“……”

Qiao Hai walked forward with the help of airport security, putting up his sunglasses as he walked, blocking the dazzling flashlights, and then calmly answering the questions raised by these reporters.

"It's good to be back in Los Angeles, after all, it's the City of Angels."

"I don't want to say too much about the total win against the Lakers, everything depends on the result, and the result so far is that I still have a complete win against the Lakers, and I hope that winning will continue to be maintained, so in this next game, our goal is undoubtedly still to win."

"You're right, the Lakers are strong, they're the defending champions, they're not having a good record right now, just because they're not in good shape, and now, Shaq is back, Kobe Bryant is back in shape, and this Lakers team is at the peak of their form."

"But we're even better than them, you know, we've won eight in a row!"

'Nine wins in a row is good, and even we want to get 10 wins in a row and more in a row, as long as we want to, and keep the confidence, keep the momentum, keep the hard work, it's not a problem.'

Soon, Qiao Hai walked outside the airport hall, the Rockets' team bus had been blocked by the security wall, Qiao Hai walked over quickly and waved his hand to the reporters on both sides.

It was the end of this sudden pre-match press conference.

……

Qiao Hai said very little about the Lakers, and in fact, there was really nothing to say, this Lakers team has changed a lot compared to the Lakers when he left.

The general manager was replaced by Mitch Kupchak, the head coach was replaced by Rick Carlisle, and the changes in the players were huge compared to the Johi era, without Scott Pippen, without Bruce Bowen, without Tyronn Lue, without Ruben Patterson, most of the bench rotation players were also replaced.

Compared with the Phil Jackson era, the players of this Lakers team have not changed much.

Ron Harper has retired, as has Holliss Grant.

The current Lakers, in terms of the main force, the OK combination remains the same, Derrick Fisher is the starting point guard, the small forward is Rick Fox, and the big forward is also replaced by Samaki Walker.

Compared to the Phil Jackson era, the starters changed two.

On the bench, only Robert Horry is still in the main rotation, and Bryan Shaw has dropped a bit, with Devin George and Stanislav Medvedenko taking his place.

For Qiao Hai, the few places that can make this Lakers team feel familiar to him are probably a few main players, O'Neal, Kobe, Derrick Fisher, Rick Fox and Robert Horry.

With such a Lakers, Qiao Hai actually has no grudges, but he still has an insistence in his heart that he insists on maintaining a winning record against the Lakers.

……

On the other side, Rick Carlisle studied the Rockets' lineup for a while, as well as the tactical play of the last five games.

After watching the video of one of the games, he turned off the video recorder, rubbed his temples, and said to assistant coach Dwyane Casey next to him: "Dwayne, what do you think of this Rockets?" ”

Dwayne Casey thought about it for a while, and then said: "To be honest, this Rocket's lineup is really not strong, Steve Francis should be a second-rate star, Yao Ming has high potential, but now, he is only a fixed-point shooter, Ron Artest is their No. 3 star, but he is only a little better defensively, and the others are very average." ”

"But it's the kind of squad that they've won eight in a row." Rick Carlisle shook his head.

"So, Qiao Hai's coaching ability is too strong, and their tactics are excellent."

Dwayne Casey began to tout Joe Hay very directly, and Rick Carlisle nodded, he took out a tactical board and drew two lines.

"Actually, their tactics are very simple, which is the most basic high post blocking, but they have Yao Ming and Carlos Boozer, two high-quality cover players, and Steve Francis and Ron Artest on the outside are physically strong, and the breakthrough threat is huge."

Rick Carlisle continued to analyze: "The players of the Rockets fit exactly into Qiao Hai's tactics, so they bring their current excellent record. ”

Dwayne Casey nodded, and Rick Carlisle continued to analyze: "So, our defensive task is much simpler, lock the mid-range and don't let them break through easily. ”

It looks like Rick Carlisle is about to set the defensive tone for this game.

Dwayne Casey frowned: "Rick, did you watch the game between the Rockets and the Timberwolves?" ”

Rick Carlisle was stunned for a moment and shook his head.

Seeing Carlisle shake his head, Casey quickly found the video of the Rockets' game against the Timberwolves from Rick Carlisle's desk.

Soon, the playback began.

……

Before the start of the game, the Rockets held another pre-game tactical meeting.

In fact, they have already discussed how to play this game once, and the result of the previous discussion was to use joint defense to limit Kobe Bryant on the outside, and for O'Neal, the Rockets' idea is to use Cato and Chris Anderson to go one-on-one top defense and play wheel battles.

But Qiao Hai still knows a lot about the OK combination, and he has always felt that this defensive strategy game is inappropriate, so he decided to re-discuss it.

"For O'Neal, I don't think it's okay to fight one-on-one wheel battles, if we defend it like this, the big sharks will definitely wreak havoc on the inside line and muddy our inside line."

"What then? Clamping O'Neal and Kobe Bryant at the same time? We don't have that many players. ”

"The inside line guards O'Neal, and the outside line implements a wheel war against Kobe."

“……”