The day before the opening game of the new season of the Rockets, Qiao Hai saw off the entire Rockets team at Houston International Airport.

In the first game of the season, the Rockets played away against the Pacers, and in the preseason, the Rockets just played two big games with the Pacers, one win and one loss.

Therefore, the opinion within the Rockets for this opening game is - to fight for victory.

……

Joe Hay dragged Darryl Morey and Stan Lorefour to watch the game live from his office inside the Compaq Center's training hall.

Before the live broadcast began, Qiao Hai pulled Stan Lorefour to chat about Kevin Lefour.

Little Lefu ran with Stan Lefu for several years in a row, from Los Angeles to Vancouver, and then from Vancouver to Houston, and the continuous transfer seemed to make Little Lefou's progress somewhat stagnant.

"Stan, Kaiwen is going to be in high school."

"Yes."

"Let him go back to Los Angeles for high school next year."

"Huh? How? Stan Lefour tilted his head, a little confused.

"Don't let him follow you anymore, an already familiar environment is the most conducive to the growth of children."

Stan Lefu nodded: "You have a point. ”

Kevin Love's school has changed and brought different coaches, different classmates and teammates, and different ways of playing.

Therefore, a familiar and stable environment can help Lefu grow better.

After a few words of Kevin Love, the game officially began.

In the picture, two teams prepare to jump the ball.

Qiao Hai saw the players jumping on the court, Brad Miller on the Pacers' side, and Kevin Cato on the Rockets' side instead of Yao Ming.

Qiao Hai couldn't help frowning: "It's Kevin who starts?" ”

Stan Lorefour shrugged his shoulders and expressed helplessness: "Rudy said that Yao still has to press and can't start so early." ”

Qiao Hai stopped talking, Tang Shuai's cultivation method of Yao Ming was gradual, and Qiao Hai didn't know if this cultivation method was good or bad, but it was for sure.

Yao Ming did not start, and Boozer was still on the bench, so the Rockets' opening offense could naturally only play on the outside.

At the beginning, Steve Francis started his various singles, either direct long-range shots from the outside, or carrying people to break through directly, and Eric Strickland was very difficult to defend.

Coupled with Ron Artest and James Posey teaming up to block the offense of Ron Mercer and Reggie Miller, the Rockets opened the game to take the lead.

It's a good start.

But Qiao Hai didn't feel happy, and in the entire first quarter, Yao Ming's playing time was zero.

In the second quarter, the Rockets replaced the bench, and Yao Ming finally came on the court.

As in the preseason, Yao Ming's task is still to defend and shoot, Yao Ming has not many opportunities, the ball and shots are still concentrated on the outside, Steve Francis, who is in hot form, left the court for a break, and Jamal Crawford began to shoulder the offensive responsibility.

But apparently, Jamal Crawford doesn't have the ability to carry a team's offense on his shoulders alone.

The Pacers rotated a lap, and AlHallington, the super sixth man, was still on the court, so the Pacers overtook the score in the second quarter.

As soon as the score was overtaken, Tang Shuai immediately replaced.

Da Yao played a decent half of the game, scoring 4 points, 4 rebounds and 1 block on 2-of-3 shooting, so Da Yao was still on the court.

Tang Shuai changed back to Artest and tried for a while, and the effect was average, but fortunately, the team resisted the Pacers' counterattack.

At halftime, the score was 47:44, the Grizzlies trailed by 3 points, and the game looked very anxious.

Da Yao scored 4 points, 6 rebounds and 1 block on 2-of-4 shooting in the half, and performed well, but at the beginning of the second half, Da Yao was pressed to the bench by Rudy Tomjanovic again.

On the court, Yao Ming was absent, Steve Francis and Jamal Crawford formed the backcourt, small forward Artay, and Kenny Tomas Gacato on the inside.

The offense of this lineup played well, but the defense dropped sharply.

In the face of Jamal Crawford's defense, Reggie Miller quickly shot his own three-pointers, hit three three-pointers in a row in the third quarter, and played five or six minutes, and the Pacers instantly stretched the difference to more than 10 points.

Tang Shuai urgently called a timeout, hesitated for a while, and replaced Kenny Thomas with Yao Ming, who was in good shape in this game, Cato moved to the fourth position, and after the height of the inside line increased, he asked Ron Artest to change the defense of Reggie Miller.

With such an adjustment, coupled with the Rockets slowing down the pace and playing positional battles, the defense is back, and the offense is still excellent.

Seeing this, even Qiao Hai had to applaud Tang Shuai, Qiao Hai had a system, and his adjustments would be timely, effective and aggressive.

Tang Shuai does not have a system, but he can also adjust in time to recover the decline, which is the embodiment of Tang Shuai's coaching ability.

No wonder Popovich said that Tang Shuai's coaching ability is above him.

……

After the Rockets adjusted, they quickly narrowed the gap to 5 points.

In the fourth quarter, the Pacers led by 5 points, and the game became more and more intense, this game was the first game of the season for both teams, and they both wanted to get off to a good start, especially the Pacers, who were still playing at home, and this game was even more inmissible.

The head coach of the Pacers is Isaiah Thomas, and at the beginning of the fourth quarter, he began to focus on stability, after all, the Pacers are still leading by 5 points, a defensive battle, and a 5-point advantage is equivalent to a 10-point advantage, so he naturally has to grasp it.

The Pacers chiseled in two points one after another, at this time, Yao Ming was originally present, but his slow disadvantage was gradually beaten out by the Pacers, and Tang Shuai had to replace Yao Ming.

Yao Ming left the field, and Qiao Hai knew that basically, for Yao Ming, he should not be able to play this game.

In 22 minutes, Yao Ming's playing time was frozen, and in these 22 minutes, Yao Ming scored 8 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block on 3-of-6 shooting, and his performance was not bad.

For this performance, Qiao Hai can give Yao Ming 90 points, after all, he played less time, and played a whole quarter in the second quarter, and his physical fitness declined in the second half of the quarter, and he basically didn't show any performance, plus he didn't play at all in the first quarter when he was really able to play his strength.

If Yao Ming is given a certain amount of playing time in the first quarter and Yao Ming's appearance is reasonably allocated, there should be no problem in scoring rebounds and breaking doubles in this game.

……

For the rest of the fourth quarter, Yao Ming really didn't play again, and Kato and Kenny Thomas partnered and played the final game.

The Pacers were firmly in control of the score, and in the end, they defeated the Rockets 91-87 to win the game.

The team lost, and Qiao Hai took a breath and turned off the TV.

Then, he opened his laptop and flipped through the statistics for a while.

Yao Ming had 8 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block, and the best player on the Rockets' side was Steve Francis, with 32 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

Ron Artest also played well, with 22 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists, and was used by Tang Shuai as an important piece to make up for defensive holes, first as the main defense of Ron Mercer, and then as a guard for Reggie Miller, when the Pacers came off the bench, he also had to go to the fourth position to defend AlHarrington.

Jamal Crawford didn't play well, and the rest of the players didn't play much, and the Rockets lost and couldn't win their first game of the season.