On May 17th, the game between the Thunder and the Rockets was played in the afternoon, but this time period will not have too high ratings in the United States, most families in the United States like to sit together after eight o'clock in the evening to watch the game, and fans do not like to watch the game in the afternoon, so eight or nine o'clock in the evening is the prime time, and the league has always liked to arrange the games that attract the most ratings at this time, so seeing that the Knicks basically start the game at this time regardless of home and away, you can also see which team the league favors the most at the moment. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The Knicks players did not go to the game between the Rockets and the Thunder in the afternoon, and although the Thunder were their potential opponents in the Finals, the Knicks still chose to focus on their own game first, and just watch the video of the game afterwards.

Wu Huang also didn't see Yao Ming's tragedy in this game, the little giant was almost in the front and back of Ibaka and Perkins, every time he touched the ball, he could see that he finally squeezed near the penalty area line under Perkins' defense, but Ibaka was already surrounded like a big spider at this time, plus the Thunder outside line will also cooperate with the inside line to shrink the defense, Yao Ming has no chance to make the next move, he can only pass the ball in his hand as soon as possible, otherwise he will be entangled by Durant and Westbrook, and it will be difficult for him to pass the ball at that time.

Ibaka has become the link between the Thunder's interior and exterior defense in the playoffs, he has the league's top three air and help defense capabilities, and the only single defense that is still lacking has reached the league's mid-table level, but even if it is not a single defense, the two unique skills of air and help defense alone are enough for him to compete with Howard and Chandler for the throne of the best defensive player.

Naturally, the Oklahoma media were excited, praising another Spaniard who had made a name for himself in the NBA, and Serge Ibaka was a top-notch mobile man on the defensive end, who was like a state-of-the-art anti-aircraft missile system when dealing with the breakaway offense of enemy perimeter players, and he had the style of Garnett's youth.

What's this...... The Spaniards are indeed good, but such an evaluation is inevitably too big! Ibaka's performance this year is undeniably very strong, but his height, arm span, and even athleticism are one notch behind the peak wolf king, not to mention Garnett's ability to command teammates to defend is completely lacking in Ibaka, and one-on-one defense is also much worse, even in terms of defensive ability, he is half a cut behind Garnett.

If you really want to compare Ibaka to anyone, then Josh Smith is about the same.

Both of these two are No. 4 players with ridiculously large defensive ranges, good at helping to defend blocks, and extremely good air defense. However, Josh's offensive and individual defense ability is still much better than Ibaka, so Ibaka will not have real All-Star strength, and it can only be said that in recent years, there have been fewer and fewer strikers with excellent defense, which makes him exceptionally good.

But no matter what level Ibaka has reached, at least today's Rockets team is overwhelmed by this guy, especially the Rockets who like to play one big and four small, or even all small lineups this season, once they meet Ibaka, they will be considered to have met their nemesis.

The Spaniard's best fit to defend is a small lineup, and as soon as the Rockets' perimeter player breaks into the restricted area, he will definitely face his blocking threat, and his shooting percentage will drop significantly. And after the offense fails, it is easy to be attacked by the Thunder Sanshao, who is good at seizing counterattack opportunities, through a quick counterattack.

The Rockets basically died in the first three games of the Thunder's counterattack and fast break, and today was no exception.

Yao Ming watched his team lose resistance in the third quarter, and the thought of his teammates' poor strength inevitably rose in his heart. The fact is that when encountering a strong team like the Thunder, players like the Rockets, who usually play well, suddenly become like CBA-level, which can't help but make him think "What would happen if I played in the Knicks at this time?" ”

"Anyway, at least it won't be swept 4:0, right?" Yao Ming smiled wryly, this is the first time he has been swept in the playoffs, especially since the Thunder are so young, which also means that unless the Rockets can bring in one or two star-level players, they are destined to fail the Thunder in the future.

Wu Huang did not call Yao Ming after learning the news that Team Rocket was swept by the Thunder, but sent a comforting text message.

Of course, he knew that it was too brain-dead to call Yao Ming at this time, and if he was swept away, he would only be willing to listen to the comfort of his parents and sisters, and he didn't want to listen to other people's calls, so just send a text message at this time.

"Guys, the Thunder have become the first team to qualify, we must not fall too far behind, and we will have to put an end to the suspense of the game in the shortest possible time." Wu Huang and his teammates are having dinner in the hotel's restaurant, and the nine o'clock game allows them to eat at the normal dinner time.

"I don't want to play a fifth game." Gasol said from the heart, after playing a shrunken season, now of course he can play one less game.

"They won't get a chance to come to New York again!" David Xi's expression was quite fierce, but Emperor Wu secretly complained that it was the negative effect of being ugly.

Two hours later, the players from both teams returned to their locker rooms after the pregame press conference, but the Pacers' locker room was too quiet before the game compared to the Knicks, who were still talking and laughing.

Danny Granger did his best in the locker room to encourage his teammates, but his unpassionate demeanor and tone made it seem ineffective, and perhaps even made his teammates less confident.

Larry Bird was in the dressing room shortly after, having not been in his team's dressing room before the first three games, and he was worried that his arrival would put unnecessary pressure on these players, Larry Bird was well aware of his place in these young players, but these things can translate into heavy pressure during the game, especially when they are not as good as their opponents.

But today is different, although Larry Bird does not expect the team to come back from defeat to victory, he does not want to see his team swept by the Knicks for two consecutive years, which will make him very faceless in front of his friends, how can he make fun of Michael's big bad team in the future?

As soon as Larry Bird appeared in the locker room, some of the Pacers players immediately subconsciously lowered their heads, and they did not dare to look up and meet Bird. Big Bird's naturally somewhat gloomy eyes make him a little scary in these young players, and Bird is the kind of face that is not angry and self-threatening, and it is easy to make people afraid of his face, so his prestige is very deep in the Pacers.

"In your eyes, I see weakness and incompetence!" Larry Bird wasn't here to encourage them, he had always been harsh, so seeing that these players didn't dare to look up at him, he was even more angry, "You are all soft eggs, that yellow-skinned guy has been kicking your ass, but I saw that instead of resisting, you took off your pants." ”

Larry Bird's rebuke doesn't actually have any effect, but tends to make the players even more out of shape. In fact, he, like Jordan, is not very good at managing the team, and whenever the Pacers are in trouble, Bird will always criticize the players for being soft and the coach is incompetent, which is very debatable.

On the other hand, the Heat, who have been in trouble for the past two years, every time Spoelstra loses and is controversial, Riley always comes out as soon as possible to support the young coach, which are two situations worth comparing.

The Knicks didn't know that Larry Bird did them a big favor today, and the big bird not only sprayed the players in the locker room during the pre-game period, but also didn't hide from the young head coach Vogel, who was also criticized by Bird for being too weak.

Larry Bird didn't go to the locker room to scold these players, but he couldn't get used to seeing his players show a bad look, and finally he couldn't help it, so there was an outburst in the locker room!

He's also guilty of the common mistakes of legends, who always hold young players to their own standards. Bird had never coaxed anyone back then, so he was most unaccustomed to this kind of situation, and he really felt that even if it was 0:3, there was a chance, but most people didn't think the Pacers still had a chance.

After Wu Huang came out, what he saw in his eyes were Pacers players like frosted eggplants, these guys were like being destroyed by several female ***s, all of them were languishing, and they were all listless.

"What's wrong with these guys?" Of course, Wu Huang couldn't guess that they were sprayed by Larry Bird in the locker room for more than ten minutes, especially Granger, who was named and criticized several times, was angry and ashamed at the moment, he already felt that he was likely to be traded next season, and even looked up at the Knicks players, and had the urge to go to this team to hug his thighs, at least this can make him not lose so badly.

The Knicks said they weren't interested, more than 10 million main players were too expensive, and the guy had better stay with the Pacers and continue to suppress Paul George

However, as soon as the game opened, Bird's pre-game remarks seemed to have some effect, as soon as the Pacers were on the offensive, although it seemed that they were throwing nonsense, and most of the shots were unreasonable brute force, but this kind of broken jar and broken style of play caught the Knicks off guard for a while, so the Pacers had Granger three points on the outside, and Hibbert on the two-point board, under the leadership of the two, the Pacers directly beat the Knicks 15-5 in the opening game.

Wu Huang felt that this rhythm was not quite right, and he couldn't understand why he was falling behind by ten points all of a sudden?

The Pacers players were even more confused, and they couldn't figure out how they were so confused that they were actually leading by ten points?

Larry Bird finally laughed in the private room, he felt that his lecture had an effect, and secretly said that this generation of players are all his mother's cheap bones, and if you don't scold him, you won't be enlightened.

"Stabilize first, they have good luck at the beginning, we don't want to be messed up ourselves, we will find an opportunity to fight their counterattack in a while, and if we don't have a chance, we will chase them point by point." After a pause, Wu Huang instructed the players, and D'Antoni on the side was very embarrassed, who is the head coach here?

The Knicks players received orders one after another, and they were indeed a little panicked, but Wu Huang's calmness made them stabilize their mentality, and they really didn't need to pay attention to it, as long as they found an opportunity to play a wave of offense, they would pull it back.

Although the mustache is so angry in his heart, there is a backbone like Wu Huang in the team, and this team is not easy to collapse.

After the timeout, the Knicks immediately set off a counterattack, at this time the Pacers replaced several benches to change defensive mobility, but it was useless, Granger and Paul George made mistakes one after another, Hibbert shot 0 in the bag, if it weren't for the referee's mercy, blew the Knicks a few fouls, let the Pacers players get to the free throw line to score a few points, it is estimated that they were really killed by the Knicks' wave of offense.

Then Vogel replaced Collisson, but there was no slightest, this Jun shot 0 of 2 under Wu Huang's defense, and the Knicks not only scored continuously on the offensive end after the timeout, but also showed strong strength on the defensive end, especially Wu Huang, the best team, after playing a mental and hard defense, George Hill and Collison were difficult to score on him.

The first quarter of the game began to be more and more unfavorable to the Pacers after entering the rotation time, and Gallinari and Monroe on the Knicks' side were hot as soon as they came up, and the two helped Wu Huang brush up 3 assists one after another.

"I won't go down in the first half." This is what Wu Huang said to D'Antoni after the first quarter of the game, his physical condition has long been praised in the long rest of the first round, plus he has not tasted meat on the road these days, let alone played the first half, even if he played 48 minutes and two extra times today, it will not be a problem.

So Wu Huang plans to stay on the court like this today until he is sure that the Knicks will win the game.

Of course, D'Antoni didn't dare to disobey, in fact, he also planned to do so in his heart, but he was mentioned by Emperor Wu first, which made him very faceless.

The Pacers began to frantically wrap up Wu Huang from the second half of the first quarter, and Bird's pre-game remarks played some role again, and the Pacers players finally defended Wu Huang as a father killer this time, pushing and pulling elbows and pulling everything. But the result was that Wu Huang got 5 free throws in the first quarter, and this is still for the referee's sake, and if it were the Knicks' home court, the Holy Sect Master would have killed them with free throws.

The Indians relied on a mad dog-like momentum to fight against the Knicks today, but in addition to causing the Knicks to be uncomfortable at the beginning, the New York players have found a way to deal with it as the game progresses - they found that the madness of the Pacers players is more like a red-eyed bull, although the running is tireless, the offensive end is enough to play hard, and the intensity of the defensive end is also very large, but most of the time they lack reason and tactical use, which is just blindly rushing and slamming, It's more like a person in a desperate situation who performs the last madness before he dies.

The Knicks don't play fast anymore from the second quarter, they can't slow down this season, you can go crazy if you want, but we don't go crazy with you, we're going to play success rate now.

Since the second quarter, the Knicks have been passing the ball more and more often, rarely shooting within three passes, and each offense must turn the basketball in the hands of five people, fully mobilizing the Pacers like a mad cow, while looking for easier shooting opportunities to increase the success rate of each offense.

Wu Huang's thinking is very clear, as long as his side continues to score points with positional offense for a period of time, the Pacers players will become more impulsive and chaotic today, and then they will change their rhythm to play defensive counterattacks for a while, and use offensive and defensive transitions to hit the Pacers' aggressive but chaotic rhythm of the game, which will definitely get twice the result with half the effort.

In the middle of the second quarter, the Knicks seized such an opportunity, Wu Huang led the Knicks to grind the Pacers in the positional battle for a long time, suddenly changed the rhythm and played a counterattack, and used the Pacers' quick transition opportunity to miss the shot for several consecutive rounds to play his signature fast offense in the first two seasons.

This change in the Knicks' rhythm quickly disrupted the Pacers' defense, and after Wu Huang used his personal ability to score 4 points in a row, he assisted Iguodala and David West to dunk violently, and the Knicks played a wave of 8:0 attack wave to bring the difference to 16 points in the blink of an eye.

Larry Bird looked at the score that was pulled away in an instant, and was so angry that he scolded "waste" in the private room and broke the red wine glass in his hand.

It's a rhythm that's as familiar to Larry Bird as the Pacers players on the court — isn't this another rhythm that has been carried away by a wave? (To be continued.) )