After the first half, Drexler really had the idea of retiring. He forgot how he got the two points in the first quarter. The 3 points in the second quarter were proper balloons. He shot 1-of-5 from the field today. In this way, those two points should be free throws.

Drexler's career has been more than ten years, and there will certainly be times when his hand feels extremely cold, but at most, he is not in good shape and can't shoot, but today it is not that he has a problem, but all his shots have been interfered with by Zhang Qi and even covered.

Counting again, his five shots look a little less, but it's not that his teammates won't pass the ball, it's that he can't pass it.

Zhang Yu was like sticking to his body today, with a pair of long arms and explosive feet, the Rockets players didn't dare to pass him too many balls, so naturally he didn't make a few shots, and he didn't even have a few assists.

And how is the evil koala baby performing?

I'm sorry, his offense hasn't been affected in the slightest, that's the most infuriating!

Drexler, who is accustomed to seeing wind and rain, has an unhappy face on his face, and you can imagine how his mentality will explode! And this mentality will inevitably affect the judgment of the defense, so Zhang Zhu's offense is better than usual.

The stats prove it, with Zhang chipped in 23 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, as well as 4 steals and 1 block in the first half, which shows just how successful he is on the defensive end.

With a score of 53:39, the Rockets really can't do anything now, and they were able to get away with the supersonic in the last round, and that was by inspiring the veterans to get through the danger. But facing the Lakers today, these veterans in the Rockets do not have the environment to explode again.

The Lakers are an absolute 1v1 defense in every position, and no matter what tactics you play, unless there is a point that can blow us up and activate the rest of the teammates, you can't do enough damage to the Lakers.

The current Rockets are just that, if three or five years ago, the three giants could have done this. But now, even Olajuwon, who is in the best form, can't do everything on his own as he did two or three years ago, and his explosive output is no longer at its peak.

Not to mention anything else, Olajuwon at that time reached 97 in terms of personal ability, and there are only a handful of inside lines with an ability value of more than 95 in history. But now, when Olajuwon was at his best in the first round, he only reached 91 ability, which is almost a notch down from that time.

Moreover, even the inexplicable Olajuwon back then, facing Mutombo, who is now at his peak, is afraid that he will not be able to deal with O'Neill like him.

The Rockets are not not strong, but they are too old, their teammates are like dogs, but the opponents are not strong, and they can only blame the team's management for their limited ability, and the lineup composed of them has fatal flaws.

In fact, later fans knew why the Rockets' Big Three did not succeed, they were just one Rondo away from the Green Army!

If the Rockets hadn't sent Kassel away last summer, they wouldn't have failed.

But history has no ifs, and only the Jazz and the Bulls can pose a threat to the Lakers this year, and it can even be said that only the Bulls and Lakers have the ability to compete for a championship.

This is actually quite boring, and some fans even feel that this year's playoffs are actually not much suspense and highlights before reaching the division finals.

On the Lakers' side, as long as Zhang Yu is not injured, there are 7 people on the team who can play, and they can basically enter the division finals.

The same goes for the Bulls, as long as Jordan Pippen is not injured, making it to the division finals is not a problem.

The Lakers continued to bully people with their individual abilities in the third quarter, and Zhang still restrained Drexler. Although the defensive pressure on the interior was a bit high, Mutombo and Mason were always able to hold their breath and not let Barkley and Olajuwon play back-to-back scores, and each point took more effort than usual.

After the game came to the end of the third quarter, Kidd and Starks didn't even feel that the pressure was too great, and the two of them actually had the spare energy to meddle in the interior, which made the Rockets play?

Kidd, in particular, is the most hated, and his harassment has made Olajuwon feel upset for a while, and since this guy started coming to the interior to assist frequently, Olajuwon has to watch out for Kidd to steal the basketball every time he tries to break through Mutombo's defense.

However, if the master makes a move, once he is distracted, the threat will drop by at least 30%.

Mutombo, as a two-time DOPY, is still the most elbow existence outside the "Big Four", and if he can't restrain the aging Olajuwon at this time, then he can also return the trophy to the league.

After the third quarter, the score of the two teams came to 80:65, and the difference in points had gone to a relatively safe number for the Lakers.

Barkley had 21 points and 10 rebounds, Olajuwon had 18 points and nine rebounds, and Drexler had five points, three rebounds and two assists.

At this time, you don't need to look at the process, just look at the data, you can know that the Rocket team is already in a bad situation, and if you want to turn the tables in this case, you can only see if the opponent gives you a chance.

Of course, the Lakers will not give this kind of opportunity, Zhang Qiu and Kidd are young and old, and the remaining three are all in the mature period of about 30 years old, when the body is just beginning to decline, but the experience is at the peak of the playing year, and they have long passed the stage of falling off the chain.

Starks is a prime example, his chain has fallen countless times in the playoffs in previous years, but no one can make the same mistake forever, and his two strongest years are exactly the current two seasons.

The Knicks couldn't bear him last year and kicked him out of the team, which was the last medicine to give him maturity!

This is a man who has lost a championship tournament, he has no chance to make mistakes, and only by winning the championship can he wash himself away.

That's why he's training harder with the Lakers this year, and he'll have to prove himself in the last two years of his prime, and the Lakers have naturally picked up a big bargain.

From the beginning of the second half, Harris used the in-form Starks as the main team, this person not only contributed extraordinarily on the defensive end, but also outstanding on the offensive end in the fourth quarter, and the tournament experience is extremely rich, and it is really much better than the immature Finley in the past two years.

In the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, Starks was like an incomparably sharp dagger, scoring 6 points in a row for the Lakers, and so lightly stifled the last fight of the Rockets.

It was a hearty victory that didn't give the Rockets a chance to turn around.

But even so, the Lakers still didn't dare to be careless, and their main lineup stayed on the court to maintain a 20-point advantage until the last five minutes, until the Rockets replaced the three elders first, and the game went into garbage time.

The Lakers still seemed cautious, but the Lakers fans in the scene had already begun to celebrate the team's advance in advance, and some slogans for the Rockets were everywhere, presumably thinking that a 2-0 lead would be enough to set them up for the final victory.

Zhang Qi also thinks so in his heart, but there is a difference between thinking and doing.

This season, unless the Lakers lead by 30 points in the final quarter, they must let the opponent pull off the main force first, and they will put away their weapons and let the game go into garbage time, otherwise they will continue to play.

Drexler walked to the players' tunnel as soon as the game was over, and was the first to leave the court.

Who is the most frustrated and who is the most embarrassed today?

Of course, only Drexler was the most unlucky, only 9 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists in the whole game, and the shooting was even more embarrassing 9 shots and 2 shots, this is his performance in the whole game, it is no longer appropriate to use embarrassment, he is just being pressed to the ground and beaten violently!

Zhang Yu doesn't have to eat and drink in the future thanks to the young lady, in this game he not only completed the task of blocking Drexler, but his offense was not delayed at all, and he cut down 42 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists, 7 steals and 3 blocks that made Drexler more passive, breaking the playoff steal record, which is also the highest single-game steal record in his career.

'We're unbeatable at home, but that doesn't mean we're invincible away from home. Well, the next one is the real test! ”

Zhang Fu's words after the game made the reporters a little trance, it seems that the day before yesterday he just said that "the next game is the real test", why did he come again today? Is this still the koala baby they like?

The koala baby secretly thought in his heart: "It's not time to pretend to be forced yet, what is the urgency of 2:0, and it is not an example of not being overturned by others, and it is not too late to pretend to be forced at 3:0!" ”

He doesn't care what the Rockets' current mental state is, and there is no need to know this now.

In the next game to Houston, the Lakers don't need to make too many adjustments, as long as they make good use of their advantages and don't die, he has absolute confidence in eliminating the Rockets in this round, and it is not impossible to sweep.

On the other hand, the Knicks finally pulled back a game on the road, although as soon as the ratings were counted after the game, the league found that the old-fashioned matchup between these two muscle-to-muscle muscles seemed to be no longer loved by fans, even with New York, the largest metropolis in the United States, it was not as good as the ratings of the other three games.

In fact, it can be seen from the ratings statistics of the regular season that the Lakers have the highest ratings for the game, followed by the Bulls, and the Knicks can only rank fourth.

If nothing else, it's because this team's game is too boring.

Two years earlier, the Knicks' style of play was already ugly.

After Van Gundy took over, he completely turned the Knicks into a team that specializes in interior and defense, they can almost only defend, especially in the playoffs, it is difficult to see them score 90 points, most of them are seventy or eighty point battles, such a game will be good to watch, although he is really intense!

Of course, the biggest reason may be because these two teams do not have an idol-level star, especially not an outside superstar.

This seems to have become the basis for the dominance of the ratings in the past two years, and fans are increasingly fond of watching the exquisite and fancy technical performances of the outside stars, and everyone is slowly losing interest in the steady play style of the inside stars, which is mainly hand-to-hand combat.

In the second round of the playoffs, after the first two games, except for the Heat and the Knicks, the rest of the teams were 2:0. The situation is already clear, and if there are no major changes in the next game, I am afraid that a three-group sweep is coming.

The Bulls were the first to lose the suspense of their series, and the Hornets who returned to their home court this time finally had a little desire to fight, but the gap in overall strength was still too large, although Glen Rice played an excellent performance of 32 points, but the Bulls were net 11 rebounds in the frontcourt, and the number of turnovers was only half of the Hornets' performance, a star's play can only be a drop in the bucket, useless.

The Hornets have a slight advantage over the Bulls except for the three-point line, and they are all inferior in other aspects, or even hung and beaten.

This kind of gap, the Hornets can only dream if they want to win, even if their luck is explosive, but in the case of too large a gap in strength, it is also useless.

The Bulls created the first 3:0 of the second round, and whether they can sweep it now depends on whether the Bulls want to go back to their home court to play again.

However, for the Chicagoan, who is aiming to defend the title, this is still just the imagination of Charlotte fans, and the Bulls don't want to waste too much energy on the Hornets.

It's the same with the Jazz, they also don't want to waste energy on the Clippers, and if they can end the fight sooner, it's better to end the fight sooner.

But the Clippers are different from the Bobcats, the overall strength of this team is not bad, they can't beat the Jazz, the reason is that the system is not perfect, the chemistry is not good, and the lineup is not well matched, but it is not because of the lack of strength, if it is really talented, this Clippers team is much higher than the Jazz.

Therefore, playing the Clippers is a late change for the Jazz, the Jazz have already felt the pressure in Game 3, these guys are back to play at home, and with the valuable experience gained in the first two games, they already have the ability to win against the Jazz at home.

But it's still that problem, the Clippers are not stable enough at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and it is easy to drop the chain at critical moments, whether it is for the opponent to get a key score, or if they don't get a key score, this breath will not come up, it will affect the win, and it will also affect the mentality of the players.

In the third game, the two teams were in a stalemate throughout the game, you chased me, and the game was very anxious, and the whole process was basically: stalemate - "Jazz won the key round" - "The Clippers relied on their personal ability to start catching up" - "lost again in the key round" - "chased again" lost again......

But this is much stronger than the Clippers' previous two games, the Jazz naturally feel the pressure, who told them that they have little room for improvement, they can only maintain consistent stability, but once the Clippers move forward a little bit every game, their danger will become bigger and bigger.

Of course this can't work, Jazz knew that it had to be solved quickly to be safe, and the third game showed the ability to press the bottom of the box, and finally pressed the Clippers down again.

The final score was 106:102, and the Clippers only lost by 4 points in this game, but they still lost after all, and the score of 0:3 means that even if they evolve and reach the level of the Lakers and Bulls overnight, there is basically no chance of turning the tables, because it is impossible for the Lakers and Bulls to win 4 games in a row against the Jazz.

"Jazz only has stability, no outbursts!"

Through these three games, Zhang Qi summed up something that he didn't know if it was bullshit.

Harris must have thought it was bullshit, and the Jazz game seemed so deceptive.

When you're watching them play, you feel like you can get through it. But when you get to the game, you find yourself against a team that has to play above average to win.

The most painful thing is that whether it is a mid-stream team like the Bobcats, a pseudo-strong team like the Clippers, or even a top team like the Lakers and Bulls, they will all have the same feeling when they actually face the Jazz, that is, they must play well to win the game.

Those guys, as if they can automatically adjust their strength according to their opponents, are very weird.

On May 9th, the third game between the Lakers and the Rockets will also start, if there is another 3:0 today, then it really has to make David Stern think about it, is it a good trend to be strong Yu Qiang?

If the playoffs have to reach the division finals every year, or even the finals, it is a bit suspenseful, is there too much excitement missing?

Well, I don't know if David Stern really thinks it's bad to have three 3:0s, so the third game between the Lakers and the Rockets is very exciting, and the battle is also the most anxious game of this round of the playoffs.

When the Rockets returned home, many thought they would be easily defeated by the Lakers, but that was not the case, and the struggling Houston struggled to strike, and the biggest change was that the role players finally had a little presence, which was the biggest weakness of their first two games.

For the Lakers, this was a very difficult and embarrassing game, because in the second minute after the opening, Mason had to go down to watch the play with two fouls, and it was difficult for the Lakers, who lost their main power forward, to limit Barkley again.

Ben Wallace's first season is already more mature than most blue-collar interior players, and there are few defensive rookies like him, because defense is not only based on talent, but also on the accumulation of experience and physical tempering.

However, some of the defensive wizards, such as Rodman, such as Mutombo, such as Payton, such as Mourning, they all showed amazing defensive ability in their first season, and Big Ben has such defensive talent, and the difference between him and these people is that the offense is much more *** Rodman is much worse.

Mason has been very consistent in the playoffs, not only can he entangle Barkley defensively, but he has not suffered much in terms of organization, and he can even score a few points when the team needs it, if he doesn't always blame his teammates with his big brother's style and like to complain about his teammates' mistakes, this is really a perfect player

But looking at this urine, today's penalty is obviously not good for the Lakers, Mason can't play for long, they have to have someone who can step up.

It's a pity that although Big Ben's talent on the defensive end is good, it is always his first year, and he is facing the cunning and difficult Barkley, and it is impossible not to suffer.

As a result, Zhang could only raise his voice, and the passion of the substitute Starks also began to burn, the former scored a personal high of 46 points in this year's playoffs, and Starks also scored 24 points.

But when the Lakers raised their fists, the Houstonians remained calm, especially Drexler with 22 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists, completely sweeping away the slump in the first two games. Barkley exploded with 42 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists, beating Mason to 6 fouls, and also beating Ben Wallace and only 1 turnover. Olajuwon limited Mutombo to just 16 points, but two of the Big Three played well and only one was a little sluggish today, which was enough for the Rockets to get a rare victory.

Of course, this premise is that the substitutes also play well, otherwise the Big Three alone will not be enough to win.

The performance of the Rockets' bench players became a key factor in the victory of this game, and if it were not for the role players and benches who combined to contribute 40 points, the Rockets would not have been able to take the victory when Zhang scored 46 points, especially since the final score was 108-110, and even if these benches scored two points, the final result was uncertain.

It was a disappointing night for the Lakers, who shot 36-of-78 from the field, which wasn't bad, and with the rebounds and turnovers not losing to the Rockets, they didn't deserve to lose. But the point is, the 35 free throws they gave to the Rockets were too hurtful.

Zhang Mao had reason not to be convinced after the game, although he didn't say "godfather didn't love me this time", but he obviously thought that the Lakers had been suppressed by the referees, which was the rhythm that the league didn't want the Lakers to play a sweep as well.

If the Lakers hadn't eaten so many fouls tonight, the Rockets' two-point advantage would not have existed, and it would have been difficult for Barkley to burst 40+, and the Rockets would not have been able to pull one back.

Mason felt that he was hurt, he only played less than 20 minutes today because of too many fouls, but his action was not bigger than the previous two games, but it was already a little more restrained than at home, but he was still fouled by the referee in a row.

Not only that, but even Mutombo and Zhang Mao, who have always been good at controlling their fouls, both suffered 5 and 4 fouls tonight. This is very abnormal, the intention of the alliance is also a little too obvious, godfather is really trying to sell advertising!