Ten consecutive wins, the Rocket's state has fully recovered, the offensive end has exploded, and a stable three-core has been formed, and the defensive end is still a little immature, but against most teams in this league, the Rockets' defense has not suffered.

The day after beating the Phoenix Suns, the headlines of major media were that the Rockets won the Suns by a big score, winning ten in a row.

"The Lakers with the OK combination in a row, and the direct rival Suns in the top eight in the West, this Rockets have firmly sat on the throne of the eighth place in the West, they have completely entered the state, ten consecutive wins may be just the beginning, and their ranking may jump."

"This Rockets is a young team, the interior core Yao Ming is a rookie, Steve Francis is only 26 years old and has just entered his prime, Ron Artest is 24 years old and is still in the growth period, Carlos Boozer is the sixth man of the Rockets, and he is only 22 years old......"

"Such a rocket obviously has a great future."

"The Rockets' 10-game winning streak, which is the second 10-game winning streak in the NBA this season, was contributed by the Spurs, who are now the league's No. 1 streak."

"So, ten consecutive wins mean that this rocket has completely risen, and their outbreak is coming......"

……

After ten consecutive wins, the Rockets were finally "recognized" by many media outlets, and they were frantically touted, but it was ESPN, which was objective this time.

ESPN's assessment of the Rockets is: "The Rockets with a ten-game winning streak are currently in explosive form, and as Kenny Smith said in the game commentary, this Rockets don't have S-class players, they just have a few A-level players - Yao Ming, Steve Francis and Ron Artest. ”

"Except for Steve Francis, this Rockets does not have absolute strength for the time being, relying on Qiao Hai's coaching ability and reasonable tactics, these A-level stars are kneaded together, so they can compete with several other teams with more than one S-level player."

"In this league, the teams with a pure lineup that are stronger than the Rockets, there are Lakers, Grizzlies, Spurs, Mavericks, Kings, etc. in the West alone, so this Rockets are not championship contenders, they can only be regarded as a playoff-level strong team, not even as good as the Nets and 76ers in the East."

"Maybe in the regular season, they can win 10 games in a row with their explosive form, but in the playoffs, in a real matchup, it will be difficult for them to beat teams with S-level players, especially teams like the Lakers with two S-level stars."

……

Qiao Hai read all the reports, and he accepted all the praise from the major media.

As for ESPN's objective evaluation, he is also very recognized, no matter what, the current Rockets are not the top team in the league.

Just talking about this wave of ten consecutive wins, the Rockets have defeated only a handful of strong teams, and the Timberwolves and Lakers are barely considered top teams.

And the Rockets won the Timberwolves by crushing the three cores against one core, and winning the Lakers is just a kind of inertia brought by Qiao Hai, no matter who loses, Qiao Hai's team will not lose to the Lakers.

Next, the Rockets' schedule is very difficult, they have to fight the Spurs and Mavericks in a row, and both games are still away games, Qiao Hai has foreseen that a wave of two consecutive defeats is already close at hand.

……

……

San Antonio, before the Rockets arrived, Greg Popovich had been working on the footage of the Rockets' 10-game winning streak.

In the Spurs' tactical video room, there were six or seven coaches, all of whom were Gregg Popovich's assistants.

Popovich's most important assistant coaches are currently Brett Brown and Mike Budenholzer, and of course, Chip Engelland was also highly regarded before this game.

"To sum up, Joe's team will always focus on shooting, on running, on moving the ball, and of course, the most important thing is still space, so what we're seeing is that this Qiao Hai's Rockets will create space through the defense of blocking and dismantling and passing."

At this time, it was Chip Engelland who was speaking, and Popovich made perfect use of Chip's understanding of Qiao Hai and analyzed the offensive routine of this rocket team almost completely.

"We can see that the offense of this Rockets is biased towards the outside, and their offense is a three-core, Steve Francis and Ron Artest are naturally on the outside, and even Yao Ming, who is a center, will always operate in the middle distance, high post and even outside the three-point line."

"So, against this Rockets, our defensive strategy can be expanded first, locking in the mid-range and outside the three-point line, so that their offense is completely inaccurate, forcing them to break through the inside."

……

This Spurs team is no longer the same as the Spurs of two years ago, David Robinson is getting older, but he still does a great job of protecting the basket.

Tim Duncan has entered his prime, and this season's Tim Duncan can even be said to be the first person in the league, even Shaquille O'Neal and they can't compare to Tim Duncan this season.

On the outside, Tony Parker has gone through the confusion of his rookie season and become the little sports car from France, and Manuginobili, who was traded from the Grizzlies by the Spurs, has also become the Spurs' best sixth man this season.

Bruce Bowen is the Spurs' iron gate on the outside, and the starting point guard position is Stephen Jackson, who left the Grizzlies on a free transfer.

On the Spurs' bench, in addition to Manu, there are also Marik Cross, Steve Smith and Kevin Willis......

Judging from the lineup, this Spurs team is too strong, and against such a team away, the pressure on Qiao Hai is still quite large.

In particular, Greg Popovich must have studied Joe's rocket thoroughly.

Qiao Hai still knows a lot about his own team, and he knows that the problems of this team are quite obvious, even if the Rockets have won ten consecutive victories.

The offensive center of gravity is seriously outward, of course, Qiao Hai can also make adjustments to let the team play inside, but the Rockets have too few means to play inside, only a breakthrough from Steve Francis and Ron Artest, and a low singles from Carlos Boozer.

These two sets of playing styles are still relatively low-level, and some teams with poor defense can be used, and against super defensive teams like Spurs, there is no chance at all.

Defensively, Yao Ming is not good at protecting the frame, so Qiao Hai's partner for Yao Ming is generally Chris Anderson, and Cato occasionally starts.

If the center does not protect the frame, the Rockets' defensive system is naturally problematic, but against those teams that are not strong, the Rockets' defense can still rely on the team's overall excellent individual defense to support it.

But against a top team like Spurs, it is also a little insufficient.

If the Rockets play against the Spurs, and the Rockets are targeted by the Spurs, the game will naturally be hopeless......