Chapter 391: De-Anthony Begins to Panic
It's strange to say that the Rockets were beaten by the Kings in a wave of 12-0, not because the Kings were dazzled by tactics and couldn't defend themselves, Zhang Feng only simply blocked and dismantled with Rose after half the court every time, and almost did not break through to the inside to score.
The Kings' defense is not airtight, not even a single bag, the only reason is that the Rockets are sleepwalking, neither scoring points, nor grabbing boards, and not getting into the rhythm of the game at all.
After seeing the Rockets perform like this, the fans woke up like a dream, it turned out that a game that was very important in their eyes was basically no different from an ordinary game in the eyes of the players.
Not to mention the players, even Rockets head coach De Antony did not have the slightest panicked look on his face, he sat in his chair with his eyelids drooping, as if he was an old monk, and he didn't feel anything about the Rockets trailing by 12 points.
"I've only seen it with dynastic teams, like the Warriors before them, and that's how a strong team performs," Kenny thinks the Rockets have a lot of big looks.
"It's also possible that he didn't react," Buck added, nodding.
"The Rockets reacted, but the Kings took a very short time to attack each time, and the Rockets players didn't notice that the Kings had scored 12 points, maybe in their subconscious, the Kings were scoring about 6 points right now" O'Neal commented on the game from a new perspective.
Sure enough, Paul of the Rockets was the first to notice that something was wrong, and he hovered at the top of the arc, dribbling with his right hand and directing with his left hand, asking the other Rockets players to run.
Paul commanded, the Rockets finally moved, Harden slipped to the right wing to pick up Paul, Capela mentioned the elbow zone to set up a human wall for Paul, and Ariza and Tucker lined up on the left and right sides of the baseline to wait for a shot.
Perfect formation, perfect execution speed, after confirming that his teammates are in place, Paul bent down and accelerated to the left to dribble, Zhang Feng chased after him, while Harden ran from the right wing to the top of the arc.
Finding that Harden was activated, Zhang Feng began to ponder Rocket tactics. It's not that the same team has to make a lot of assumptions to guess tactics, and it is definitely not okay to guess blindly, but fortunately, there are two basic premises that can eliminate many unnecessary assumptions for Zhang Feng.
First of all, the Rockets only have Harden and Paul in the athletic state at this time, indicating that the tactical focus must be on these two people, and the other Rockets players can be put aside first.
Secondly, through the defense, Zhang Feng knows that Paul has not accelerated further for a long time, and it is very likely to switch to passing, although it is not easy to determine who to pass to, but Harden must have the greatest chance.
It took a blink of an eye to understand these two points, and then Zhang Feng gave Rose a look.
Since the two became teammates, they have won 6 games in a row, and the tacit understanding between the two is terrifying and the daily training they usually have, the two have formed a unique way of communication.
Seeing Zhang Feng's eyes, Rose instantly understood that he was ready to steal, and since he was asked to steal, it was naturally Harden who was defending by him.
In less than 1 second, Paul made a sharp stop in the left short corner, and then it was a set of shooting feints, Zhang Feng only symbolically reached out to interfere, and did not block with the jump.
While Paul pretended to shoot, Harden had already made a basket along the top of the arc, and when Paul saw that the time was ripe, he no longer pretended to shoot, and directly made a ground-hitting action, wanting to pass the ball to Harden.
In Paul's vision, as long as Harden receives the ball, it will be a baseline score.
Unexpectedly, before Harden reached out to catch the ball, Rose suddenly made a steal.
In terms of core strength confrontation, Rose is not as good as Harden, and Harden is not slow to react, so Rose's steal was not successful, but he has touched the basketball out of the original route.
Seeing the basketball leave his hand, Zhang Feng turned around and strode forward, snatching the basketball before Harden and Paul joined the circle.
Defending fast offense has never been Harden and Paul's strong point, and Ariza, who was on the left baseline, stepped up and chased Zhang Feng with his arms waving.
The two galloped at high speed, and when they reached the three-point line, Zhang Feng made a gorgeous emergency stop and raised his hand to shoot, but he couldn't fool the experienced Ariza, and could only accelerate to the basket twice.
Just one step away, Zhang Feng came to the paint area, adhering to the spirit of never getting tired of deceit, he stopped again and raised his hand to shoot, this time Ariza still did not jump and block.
Since Ariza always jumped, Zhang Feng really shot the basketball.
With a 'bang', he hit a 2-point shot, and the Kings led the Rockets 14-0.
Such an embarrassing point difference made the Rockets fans at the Toyota Center lose the motivation to shout, and the entire stadium suddenly became much quieter.
"The Rockets can't play like this, De Anthony should call a timeout, even if the number of timeouts is precious now, but it can't be cut by the Kings" Barkley was more anxious than the players on the court.
"What can you do when you call a timeout? Is there a problem with the tactics of the rocket? Is there a problem with the Rockets' defense? Can you deal with Zhang Feng by shouting a timeout? O'Neill spread his hands in confusion.
"It's really like what Shack said, there are no major problems with the Rockets' offense and defense, but the Kings came earlier, and I'm sure Harden and Paul will find their groove soon" Kenny is more optimistic.
After the three finished speaking, the live camera cut to Rockets coach De Antony, who still drooped his eyes, as if he didn't have any worries about the current situation of the Rockets.
The game continued, the Rockets attacked again, Paul handed over the ball after half time, and Harden received the ball and immediately changed hands under the crotch. After two consecutive dribbles, Harden passed Rose, had a wide space in front of him, and would shoot very highly.
It seemed like the score was finally about to be scored, and Rockets fans and the Rockets bench were ready to celebrate.
Unexpectedly, Harden was halfway through the execution of his shooting action, and he stopped and passed the ball to Capela. Although it is a bit regrettable, but the assist is okay, Capela feels that it is open earlier, and it is also a good thing to use the offense to drive the defense.
Rockets fans thought it was good, but they didn't expect it – Capela's layup was covered by the hoop. Such a mistake is simply incomprehensible, not to mention that there were no Kings players under the basket at that time.
Turning around, the rebound was picked up by Randolph, who threw out a long pass.
Coincidentally, Zhang Feng wanted to return to defense in advance this time, he thought that Capela was determined to score, but he didn't expect that in the end, the early defense turned into a fast attack.
At this time, the Rockets backcourt players were still at the three-point line in the frontcourt, and Zhang Feng slowly adjusted his posture, and then shot 3 points steadily.
'Hmmm' hit another 3-point shot, Zhang Feng scored 14 points alone, plus his 3 points from assisting Rose, the King hit the Rockets 17:0, and it took less than 5 minutes.
The 17-point gap is really a bit big, even if 3 points are prevalent now, it will take 6 3 points to catch up, but at the end of the game, where will the Kings have the opportunity to shoot so many 3 points?
"De Antony got up, he was supposed to call a timeout, he started to panic"