On December 20, U.S. time, Joe Hay took over the team's second game, and they will face the Atlanta Hawks at home.

With two consecutive home games, Qiao Hai naturally wants to imagine two consecutive wins.

But the Hawks are not an easy opponent to play against, and so far this season, the Hawks have a 10-14 record, which is the same as the current Rockets.

Even, their lineup structure is not much different from the Rockets.

On the outside, Jason Terry, who averages 17.2 points and 7.4 assists per game, Glenn Robinson, who averages 20.8 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, and Raheem, who averages 19.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, also has Raheem on the inside.

Coupled with Theolatliff, who averaged 8.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game, on paper, the Hawks' lineup is good, and the reason why the record is not up is because several cores of the team can't be integrated together, and the chemistry is poor.

Head coach Ron Krueger is on the verge of stepping down.

However, this does not mean that Qiao Hai can take his opponent lightly, on the contrary, Qiao Hai needs to raise 200% attention to deal with the challenge of the Eagles.

A team with many strong points like the Hawks, once it explodes, the Rockets have no hope of winning at all.

Therefore, before the game, Qiao Hai's preparation was very thorough.

On the defensive end, after discussion with the team's coaching staff, Qiao Hai finally decided to use the Rockets' excellent individual defense to target Jason Terry, put Glenn Robinson single, which has seriously declined in strength, and on the inside, defend Raheem one-on-one, and strive to strangle Rahim.

Therefore, the starting lineup of Qiao Hai in this game is point guard Steve Francis, scoring guard James Posey, small forward Ron Artest, power forward Kevin Cato, and center Yao Ming.

Posey defends Jason Terry, Ron Artest defends, and Kevin Cato one-on-one Rahim.

It seems that as long as they can lock up Jason Terry, the Rockets will win a small half of the game, but when the game really starts, something unexpected often happens.

For example – Glenn Robinson exploded.

At the beginning of the game, the two teams played their own irons, and in the first 1 minute, neither team scored, until Yao Ming on the Rocket's side received the ball in a high position to create a threat, and passed obliquely to Ron Artest at the bottom line, assisting Artai to hit a shot.

Then, the Eagles also scored, and Illan Newbell passed the ball and Glenn Robinson hit a three-pointer.

And this was the beginning of Glenn Robinson's outburst.

After hitting a three-pointer, the rest of the Hawks continued to play the game, but Glenn Robinson hit three consecutive mid-range shots and then another three-pointer.

In this way, Glenn Robinson scored 12 consecutive points.

Hit a shot in the middle and then go on to score.

In the first quarter of the game, Glenn Robinson scored 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting, and the Rockets' wing was directly blown up.

The Rockets' own offense was also average, with Steve Francis shooting 1 of 5, Ron Artest shooting 2 of 5, Yao Ming 1 of 3, and James Posey making 1 of 4 three-pointers, but Kevin Cato played the best, scoring 6 points on 3-of-4 shooting.

In the first quarter of the game, the Rockets trailed by 8 points at 20:28.

In the second quarter of the game, Qiao Hai gritted his teeth and insisted on the first quarter of play, Glenn Robinson really reduced his shots, but in this quarter, the Rockets' offense was still not good, Francis and Yao Ming continued to play iron, and it was strange that the Rockets' offense was good.

Qiao Hai had to increase the playing time of the bench players, and Jamal Crawford exploded after hitting two irons in a row, scoring 9 points in a single quarter on 4-of-6 shooting, which can be regarded as supporting the Rockets' offense.

In the third quarter, Qiao Hai continued to play in the first half, although they were already 11 points behind at halftime.

But soon, the feel of the rocket came, and the comeback came.

In this quarter, Francis and Yao Ming's hand was still average, but James Posey broke out, scoring three three-pointers in a row, plus a two-point shot that stepped on the line, and scored 11 points in a single quarter on 4-of-4 shooting.

Ron Artest also shot 3-of-4 from the field, including two three-pointers, to score 10 points.

The Rockets were 37:19 in the first quarter, and after this wave of outbreaks, the point difference directly exceeded by 7 points.

In the fourth quarter, the Rockets' hands all returned, and on the Hawks' side, Glenn Robinson's hands grew colder, and the Rockets played a 26-14 again in the fourth quarter.

In the end, the Rockets defeated the Hawks 101-82 and successfully won.

In this game, Steve Francis didn't feel good, but he still had the most balls and scored a team-high 23 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists on 7-of-16 shooting, Ron Artest had 22 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks, and Yao Ming scored 17 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks on 4-of-12 shooting.

James Posey's explosive score in the third quarter was crucial, and he also scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting in the game.

Jamal Crawford off the bench scored 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting.

Relying on the outbreak in the second half, the Rockets won the Hawks and took down the two consecutive wins after Qiao Hai took over, this wave of two consecutive wins is very critical, relying on this wave of two consecutive wins, the Rockets directly surpassed the Clippers and re-ranked tenth in the West.

They are one win away from the SuperSonics in ninth place in the West and three wins away from the Suns in eighth place in the West.

Just when Qiao Hai thought that the team had started the crazy chase mode, on December 21, the Rockets played back-to-back games against the Timberwolves, and in this game, the Rockets lost.

Steve Francis is still the team's top scorer, but he has a mediocre touch, shooting 8-of-19 and finishing with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists.

Yao Ming's performance was not bad, but he didn't receive a few shots, and ended up with 12 points, 12 rebounds, 1 steal and 3 blocks on 4-of-9 shooting.

In this game, the Rockets clearly had a problem, and Steve Francis once again forgot that there was still a passing on the basketball court.

Qiao Hai had to pull Francis for a one-on-one conversation after the game.

For this Rockets, passing is really a very important thing, and with passing, a center like Yao Ming, who relies on the passing of small players on the outside, can exert his power.

Even Shaquille O'Neal, who is invincible on the inside, has a saying that a guard is three in a row, which shows that the big shark also relies on the passes of the guard, otherwise why didn't he say that he could make a triple without a guard?

……

After losing a game, Joe quickly pulled the team back.

Playing the Jazz at home, Steve Francis remembered the passing incident again, scoring 26 points and eight assists on 9-of-12 shooting in the game.

Coupled with Yao Ming, who also scored 26 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks on 9-of-16 shooting, the Rockets relied on the explosion of the twin stars to defeat the Jazz 105-96 and win another victory.

In this way, before Christmas, the Rockets taken over by Qiao Hai were 3-1, with an overall record of 12-15, and their form has rebounded significantly.

They are also quickly catching up with their opponents in front of them, and the SuperSonics in ninth place in the West are only 0.5 wins ahead of the Rockets, but the Suns in eighth place in the West are tenacious, and they are still three wins ahead of the Rockets.