"I know, now the media out there are looking down on us, they think we've lost two games in a row, they think we've lost CP3, they think we've lost this series, but is that really the case?" After apologizing, Kassel began to motivate the team.

"Nope! Not at all! They forgot that we were the team with home field advantage, they forgot that the next game was going to be played in the Staples Center, they forgot that we just lost CP3, we still had Blake, and Don, and DeAndrew, and Corey, and all of you! Kassel's emotions grew agitated.

The eyes of the team members also burst into excitement.

"Yes, we lost two games, but we lost one by one and lost by eight points in one, but what the Rockets lost to us, almost every game was 30 points, what does this mean, it shows that we are fully capable of defeating the opponent, even if CP3 can't play, we can do the same!" The more Cassel spoke, the more agitated he became.

The team members also felt a burst of blood rushing upwards.

"Yes, James is revived, yes, Michael is a wonder man, but it's not them, it's not the normal performance of the Houstonians, we're playing far more consistently than them, it's a series, it's not a single knockout game, so we, it has to be us, we're going to be the winners."

"Coach, I'm going to defend James and do my best." Brewer said with a grim face at this time.

"Coach, I'm going to hold Michael, that's what I have to do." Josh Smith also clenched his fists.

Cassel nodded and continued: "The Battle of Tianwang Mountain, this word, I believe most of you know. Needless to say, all we have to do is win this game, in our home stadium, for the more than 20,000 fans who came to the stadium! Also for the injured CP3! And for ourselves! ”

He said as he reached out to the team.

"For CP3!" Tang Shuai shouted and put his hand on top of Kassel.

"For the fans!" Griffin followed suit and put his hand on it as well.

"For ourselves, for the honor of Los Angeles!" Smith shouted.

One by one, the hands of the players were put up. Towards the end, Billups also put his hand on top.

"For victory!" Cassel glanced at the player and shouted.

"For victory!" The team members finally shouted in unison.

On April 26, U.S. time, at the Staples Center, the Clippers hosted the Houston Rockets to challenge, and the two sides drew 2-2 in the previous series, which will be the battle of the two sides in the series.

The Staples Center arena is packed, and even though the entire outside world is now looking down on the Clippers, fans have always been loyal to the home team.

The team's owner, Ballmer, showed up at the arena as a big fan of basketball. He is obviously not absent from such occasions.

There were also two familiar figures in the arena at the same time, Iverson and Kobe, these two former opponents, actually appeared on the sidelines at the same time, which was also the first time Kobe Bryant appeared in front of the public after retiring, the two of them talked and laughed, or talked about their life after retirement, or said some happy things. The communication between the two people is always accompanied by laughter.

Of course, anyone who knows a little bit knows it. What is the reason for the presence of these two celebrities?

In fact, in some inconspicuous corner of the stands, there was a girl in a purple dress, her face flushed, and her eyes motionless at the Clippers' half.

Like the last time she watched the All-Star Game, Zhu Shan once again sat silently in the corner. There was only Tang Shuai's figure in his eyes.

In the Clippers' half, Tang Shuai was warming up for the end, although the outside world was not optimistic about the Clippers, but he was full of confidence in winning after successively obtaining AI's corssover bag and Alston's street ball king dribble bag.

"Toot!"

The time to warm up is fast enough. The two sides are about to start the battle of Tianwang Mountain, and the starters are starting to play one after another.

Although Paul was injured and couldn't play, he still appeared on the sidelines in a suit and leather shoes, and he was about to play, he pulled Tang Shuai and said softly: "The rhythm must be steady, and the position should be pressed." ”

The Rockets are a team that has always been good at disrupting battles, and a large part of the reason for the Clippers' fourth loss was that Smith started and followed the Rockets' fast pace, and finally lost the game in a daze.

Although Paul could not play, his judgment of the situation was quite accurate.

After Tang Shuai nodded, he followed the other team members to the court.

Before the game started, the scene was already full of cheers.

“we.will.rock.you！” I don't know who shouted, and the audience sang in unison.

The Clippers turned their heads unconsciously.

The same soundtrack, which was played during the game against the Warriors, reverberated through the Staples Center arena before the game began, perhaps for the first time in NBA history.

The last time the song appeared, the Clippers were not the favored team, but they finally managed to snipe the Warriors with hard work, and this time, although the opponents are different, the same thing is that they are still the underestimated side.

We will blow you.

Even if Paul is out for the season due to injury, even if Griffin is injured, even if he loses two games in a row, but as the song says, we're going to shock you, again.

Tang Shuai stretched out his hand and clenched it into a fist, and then raised his hand into the air.

The scene burst into bursting cheers.

The match between the two sides has officially begun!

The Rockets' starting lineup is the same as in the previous two games, still playing twin towers, with Capela in the starting No. 4 position.

The Clippers made adjustments, Smith, who started the last game, returned to the bench, Tang Shuai served as the team's starting point guard, Brewer mentioned the starting point guard position, Pierce became the team's starting small forward, and only the interior was still the original Griffin and Jordan Jr.

Jordan Jr. squeezed Howard away and put the ball back into the Clippers' halfcourt, and the Clippers had the opportunity to take the lead.

The cheers of the fans at the scene were deafening.

Tang Shuai advanced to the front court with the ball and was not in a hurry to attack. With the weakened Street Ball King's exclusive dribble bag, he really doesn't have to worry about conceding the ball unless it's Leonard or Westbrook standing across from him.

It is precisely because of the existence of this skill pack that he can rest assured to observe the defensive formation of the Rockets.

He reached out and made a "4" gesture.

This tactic has been around since the Reeves era, and Reeves can't handle work and emotions well, but there is no doubt about his coaching ability. These conventional tactics were sufficient.

After Tang Shuai made a tactical gesture, the Clippers' tactics quickly fought.

Brewer ran to the inside of the three-point line to make a block, and Tang Shuai took advantage of the blockade to break through to the inside.

After Paul was absent, Tang Shuai was the Clippers' outside offensive point no matter what position he played, and his empty cut immediately attracted the defensive attention of the Rockets. Prepare the bag clip at the right time.

Tang Shuai is very deep, and after having the Corssover breakthrough bag, he is even very likely to score so directly.

It was this threat of his, and when he was about to get to the basket, the entire Rockets were pressed and contracted defensively.

Tang Shuai didn't choose to attack directly, but just made a layup posture, shook a shot and began to run outside the three-point line on the other side, and did not forget to make a move to be ready to go back to the layup at any time during the run.

It's like telling you. I could go back to the basket at any moment.

It is precisely because of this potential threat that the Rockets' shrinking defense has not dared to expand.

Paul saw this from the sidelines. There was a faint hint of excitement in his eyes, the key to the success of this tactical implementation is whether the opponent's defense can shrink through the breakthrough, and now Tang Shuai is doing quite perfectly on the field, even better than him.

In fact, it is normal for Paul to feel this way, after Tang Shuai has Iverson's exclusive corssover bag. In terms of breakthrough ability alone, he is already almost the same as Iverson, and although he has not yet shown this strength, the threat is real, which forces the Rockets to shrink defensively. In contrast, Paul's breakthrough lethality is much inferior to Iverson's, and Paul's threat comes more from his passing after the break, which are two different concepts.

Tang Shuai started to break through from the right three-point line to the inside, broke into the interior and returned to the left three-point line, and it was only then that the Rockets' defense was ready to re-expand.

But in fact, during the time that Tang Shuai was in and out, the other players of the Clippers team did not stand up, and they had all completed their tactical runs.

Jordan Jr. blocked Griffin, Griffin had already reached the free throw line and was ready to catch the ball and shoot, and on the other side, Pierce also took advantage of Brewer's block to get to the right wing outside the 45-degree angle three-point line where Tang Shuai was standing.

Tang Shuai glanced at it when he was about to reach the three-point line, and when Brewer blocked Pierce, he directly hit the ground to Pierce on the outside.

An advance amount, and when Pierce ran to the position, Tang Shuai's pass also arrived.

At this time, the Rockets' defensive focus was all on the inside, and it was too late to save.

Pierce even had time to adjust his stance and then use his most accustomed three-point shot.

Pierce, nicknamed "The Truth", is a grossly underrated three-point shot, and while his shooting percentage isn't too high, his key three-pointers and open three-pointers are very lethal.

Under the basket, Howard jammed Jordan Jr., and the shrinking Capela was ready to grab the rebound.

But.

The basketball slashed through the air in a perfect way and fell straight towards the basket.

In the eyes of the audience, the basketball fell precisely towards the net bag like a flaming tail.

"Huh!"

With a crisp sound, Pierce hit a three-point shot!

"Perfect tactical execution! Textbook tactical positioning! Mike Smith, the narrator at the scene, couldn't help but exclaim.

The scene burst into cheers.

After the goal, Pierce raised his right hand high and made a three-point pose, but his face was extremely calm.

In such a key battle as Tianwang Mountain, Kassel chose to believe him, and what he is doing now only proves that Kassel's judgment is correct.

“defnese！”

Pierce's goal set the mood in the home arena in one fell swoop. Without the help of a DJ, the fans at the scene have already started to cheer for the home team in unison.

Compared to the Clippers' tactics, the Rockets were much simpler, with Harden holding the ball to the frontcourt, transitioning the ball to Beverley, and then running around the baseline. After successfully using the off-ball pick-and-roll to replace the defender from Brewer to Pierce, he immediately asked Beverley to get the ball back.

And just after Harden asked, the Rockets players had already pulled away.

Harden singled Pierce.

In the first round, the Clippers didn't mean to wrap up.

As soon as Harden saw this, he dribbled the ball and directly chose to break through.

Harden's offensive three-board axe, breakthrough is the most lethal part of it, and his speed is not weak, and it is very difficult for the aging Pierce to keep up.

Harden also knew that Jordan Jr. on the inside had excellent defensive ability, so he didn't go inside after taking two steps. Instead, taking advantage of Pierce's weakness of slow footwork, he directly chose a mid-range jumper with a quick stop.

With a "bang", the two-point shot hit steadily.

Cassel on the sidelines didn't speak, just dragged his chin and thought about it, Pierce is 38 years old after all, although the offensive ability is still there, but the defense is indeed a little more than enough.

Tang Shuai still did not choose to attack on his own, he knew that Pierce and Griffin had limited playing time. I also know that my breakthrough can attract the bag, so I put more energy into the offensive organization. Somewhat similar to the first leg, the Clippers' offense focused on Pierce and Griffin.

Tang Shuai's breakthrough is very threatening, and the two get more opportunities to shoot in some open positions, which also makes the Clippers' offensive success rate quite high, especially Griffin, although the injury limits his athleticism. But on the contrary, his mid-range stability has improved a lot, and he frequently scores on mid-range shots.

However, the score on the court has not been able to pull away, and the Rockets are still the main Harden as always, Harden plays very smart, knowing that Pierce's defense can't keep up. Changing the way and Ariza blocked and switched defenses, which made him quite efficient on the offensive end, and as long as the Clippers had a package, he quickly split the ball, and the other four Rockets players played three Clippers players, and the success rate was also good.

18-18, the two sides fought against each other in the first half of the first quarter, and the score was very anxious.

The Clippers quickly made substitution changes, bringing on Josh Smith and Booker for Pierce and Griffin.

The Rockets, for their part, also replaced Howard with Beasley.

Beasley's experience this season can be said to be legendary, in the first half of the NBA season, he also played for the CBA Shandong team, and won the CBA regular season MVP, and when the CBA season ended, he was immediately recruited by the Rockets.

In recent years, it has become commonplace for CBA foreign aid to play in the NBA, and it is nicknamed "CBA Grading Return" by fans, the most well-known is the foreign aid Hudson of the Liaoning team.

However, Beasley successfully counterattacked this time, after being recruited by the Rockets, he quickly became the immediate force of the Rockets' bench, and after a few games, he has become the sixth man, with a shooting rate of more than 50% to cut an average of nearly 15 points per game, not much playing time, but the scoring efficiency is surprisingly high.

It was his outstanding performance in the regular season that made the head coach of the Rockets, Bickerstaff, trust him, and it was his magical play in Game 4 that allowed the Rockets to win the game.

As soon as Beasley came up, Harden made a pick-and-roll with him, and then returned the ball to him, and he made a jumper one step outside the free throw line, and the two-pointer grazed the basket and went in.

That's what Beasley is better than Morris, as an interior player, he can cut inside like Morris and shoot from mid-range.

Beasley was a big player in college, and he was also selected as the top pick in the draft, beating Westbrook and Love in the draft, and he still has strength, but he also has a lot of weaknesses, and defense is one of the big ones.

Tang Shuai also knew this, so when he held the ball to the front court, he directly signaled Smith to land and go to Beasley alone.

Smith was much stronger than Beasley in terms of size and strength, and as soon as he leaned in after receiving the ball, Beasley was pressed back a step.

It's just that Smith's ball quotient is indeed more average, and he has an advantage when he sees it. didn't look at the running position of his teammates, and directly chose to hit hard, pressing Beasley all the way to the basket.

As a scoring method with a high success rate and high lethality, the back shot is becoming less and less common in the league, and it is one thing that the players themselves do not pay attention to this technical training. The main reason is the change in basketball style, and the interior players are becoming more flexible, which has led to a much faster bag and help defense than before.

Smith soon met the Rockets' interior defense, and Capela met him with his hands held high.

It wasn't until he saw Capela come up that Smith wanted to pass the ball, but Capela held his hands high, and he couldn't pass it at once, and after he hit too deep, his teammates on the outside were also cut off. In desperation, he had no choice but to choose a step-back jumper.

With a "bang", Smith turned and jumped out of the basket, his strength was athleticism, and this backward back was clearly not his strong point.

Tang Shuai was also a little helpless, if Griffin was present at this point in time, it would definitely be a dozen and one accurate, and Smith's ability was still relatively poor.

The Rockets grabbed the rebound, and Harden broke through directly to the frontcourt. Forcing a layup despite the defense resulted in Booker's defensive foul.

The fans at the scene booed.

Harden walks to the free-throw line.

Taking advantage of Harden's free throws, Cassel called Tang Shuai to his side.

"Score. You've got to break through to score, Howard is down, the Rockets' interior defense isn't good, you've got to break through to score. Kassel said bluntly.

Tang Shuai nodded, in fact, after Smith's singles failure, he also knew that such a hard fight would not work. It's time to step up and score.

Harden hit two free throws to give the Rockets a four-point lead at 22-18.

Bickerstaff's face was full of joy, and if he continued to play at the current pace, the Rockets had a high probability of winning the battle of Tianwang Mountain, and once they won this game, it would mean grabbing home-court advantage. The next game is played in Houston, and the promotion is basically a certainty.

"There's still nothing the Clippers can do with Michael (referring to Beasley), he's the biggest takeaway for the Rockets this season, and maybe the biggest X-factor for the Rockets to advance." On the commentary bench, Rick Barry analyzed.

"The Clippers are not far behind." Mike Smith is the Clippers' home commentator, and his speech is naturally biased towards the home team.

"The Clippers' scoring points are concentrated on Blake and Paul, but after all, they are injured and older, and their playing time is limited. Barry, like the outside media, doesn't seem to be very optimistic about the Clippers.

"But Don ......"

"Don? He's too young! Before Smith finished speaking, Barry directly interrupted him, "It was a mistake for the Clippers to choose to let him control the team, the last game was in Houston, he couldn't control the ball during the period of time, although he scored a lot, but the rhythm was completely messed up, but now, Blake and Paul are off the court, and he doesn't shoot when he wants to score!" ”

Smith looked at the celebrity in disbelief.

Barry noticed Smith's gaze and realized that it was on the home court of the Clippers, and it was a bit inappropriate for him to say so directly, and then added: "I mean Don hasn't learned how to control the tempo of the game, which is the most important trait to be a good point guard, and he still needs to play to gain experience." ”

Just as Barry was commenting, Tang Shuai still advanced to the front court with the ball, and immediately after arriving, he asked Smith to block and dismantle, and made an extra gesture to ask Smith to dismantle the ball out.

Smith is tall and big, and the quality of the pick-and-roll is still very good, and the one-step pick-and-roll inside the three-point line blocks Beverley solidly.

Tang Shuai's defender was replaced by Beasley at once.

Tang Shuai shook violently with a cross step, and the AI exclusive corssover exclusive package was activated instantly.

Beasley wanted to retreat to defend, but immediately found that Tang Shuai's whole body was full of feints at the moment of activation, and he couldn't judge which direction Tang Shuai was going to break through.

Tang Shuai took two cross-steps in a row, and the streetball king's exclusive bag allowed him to fully exert the power of Iverson's crossover bag, and the changing steps drove his body, and the whole person became a sharp arrow full of strings.

Beasley didn't know which direction the arrow was going to go.

Tang Shuai suddenly moved, and he suddenly accelerated to the right to break through.

Beasley's center of gravity was unstable, and before he could come back to his senses, Tang Shuai had already burst past him.

Too fast! It's so sudden!

After the breakthrough, Tang Shuai was fast, and without waiting for Capela's help to come up, he directly scored a pick-and-roll.

The fans at the scene were in an uproar.

Bickerstaff's eyes widened suddenly, in the previous round of the competition, although Tang Shuai's breakthrough also had a certain deterrent effect, it was not at the same level as the one in front of him! Although Beasley's defensive ability is not very good, but the dazzling breakthrough made him in a trance, not to mention this suddenness, ordinary players can't react at all!

In fact, not only Bickerstaff, but also Kassel and Billups were also stunned, Tang Shuai's breakthrough ability is clear to them, it is not bad, but how can there be this ability in front of him, this is simply a qualitative leap!

ps: This chapter is a 10,000 starting point coin reward and 100 RMB transfer for the sister to kiss! Thanks to chaillee and the 1888 tip of the blank 22 that remained! Thank you for the monthly pass support of Long ∈ Dashao, the blank 22 left behind, Time Chicken, Duanmu Gloomy, ZYC1029, the familiar back in the dream, Kylz, and Porcupine 12! (To be continued.) )