Yao Ming was defended by Kurt Thomas, Fisher handed the ball to Maddy, the Suns' 122 defense looked a lot like man-marking, and the Rockets woke up after Maddy broke through and was trapped. With 15 seconds of time already running out, Maddie handed the ball to Hayes, who was pulled to the perimeter.

Marion defended, Hayes shrugged his shoulders, Marion took a small step forward, Hayes lowered his center of gravity, increased the frequency of the shot, and squeezed Marion into the three-point line.

A simple emergency stop shift can also be easily passed, but Hayes uses the speed shift method to pass people, and the effect is far less than Nash's, because of the body coordination. His muscles were too strong, and the feints naturally weren't as realistic as the skinny Nash, so he couldn't shake off Marion.

Hayes immediately switched to his back dribbling, and Marion had already learned this method many times during the regular season, and he was tortured a lot. In order to resist Hayes, he unconsciously bent his arm against the opponent's back, and the sharp-eyed referee saw this scene and immediately blew Marion for a foul. Marion spread out his hands, and his face changed like Dou E...... The Rockets sent a sideline ball, Battier passed to Maddy, Maddy missed the pull-up jump, and the Suns defended successfully.

"Give me the ball! Pass it to the inside! In the middle of the defense, Yao Mingming's teammates shouted.

Yao Ming opened his mouth to ask for the ball, but it was a rare thing. He's no longer the hairy guy he just got into the NBA. In the past, he was not used to the offensive rhythm of the Suns and was afraid to play against the Suns. Now he is not afraid. He wanted to prove himself, and he began to dare to take responsibility.

There is a crystal trophy on the closet of Yao Ming's house, which reads "NBA Rookie of the Year", but this is not an award given by the NBA, but the American media SBC (this media abbreviation is terrible), and the real trophy of the 2002 NBA Rookie of the Year is placed at Stoudemire's house.

Yao Ming was the top pick, but he didn't win the best rookie, he was not convinced at the time, and he wanted this trophy very much, because it was an affirmation. Now that he thinks about it, he feels like he's a little bit small, is it really that important to be a rookie of the best? If he wins the championship and holds the championship trophy, will he still think about the trophy of the best rookie?

Yao Ming has been improving, and so has Stoudemire.

When he first entered the NBA, Stoudemire played a brutalist style, and both men wanted to end the offense with dunks. But now, Stoudemire has perfected his mid-range shooting. Yao Ming also admires Stoudamier's point, and it must take a lot of time to practice hard to do this. His speed, explosiveness, combined with his mid-range shooting, make him a difficult opponent to defend.

In the face of Hayes' defense, Stadamire took advantage of his height advantage to hit a mid-range shot. 2 to 4.

If he surrenders, Hayes will be in big trouble. His height disadvantage has never been compensated, and the most feared thing is that tall opponents find their outside shooting touch, and if Stodameyer still shoots in the next round, he is ready to make a big foul to make him happy.

The Rockets attacked, Fisher handed the ball to Maddie, Maddie reversed to Yao Ming, Yao Ming turned past Kurt Thomas and made a layup. 4 to 4.

Yao Ming returned with a smile after the goal, and he became more and more confident, not only because he has reached the peak of his form this season, but also because he has a group of excellent teammates who can comfortably get singles opportunities.

Battier tangled Marion, who lacked the ability to attack with the ball, and Fisher defended well against Nash and didn't allow the latter to break through easily. Fisher's physical advantage is key to defending Nash's passes, and if the Suns choose to block and switch defenses, he can also play against the rest of the Suns.

Without Nash's thread, the rest of the Suns players won't be able to play. Stadameyer receives the ball on the left. Hayes defended tightly, he took a few steps in the frame, then quickly turned to the baseline, threw the ball, and deflected. Yao Ming won the rebound, handed it to his teammates, and after passing half court, Yao Ming received the ball and singled Thomas, turned around and hit a jumper. 6 to 4.

"Yao Ming's hand feels good today, and if the sun doesn't wrap it, it will be difficult to prevent his singles. He's so ugly when he plays, it's always those two moves. Barkley laughed.

"The sun didn't dare to wrap Yao Ming, that would only make them lose faster. Yao Ming is the league's only remaining traditional center and is an excellent interior star. In the 4 games that the Rockets played the Suns in the regular season, Yao Ming got star data of 21.4 points and 8 rebounds per game, and he is no longer afraid of the Suns. Smith said.

As soon as Smith finished speaking, Stoudamire cut inside and scored in front of Yao Ming after receiving a pass from Nash. 6 to 6.

Seeing this scene, Barkley immediately shouted: "If you want to talk about stars, Yao Ming is far away." He's still too soft, Amare (Stodameyer) can dunk on his head almost every game, although he can score offensively, but the defense is still too bad, I can't get used to this the most, such a big man is always blown up by Amare! ”

"Yao Ming's scoring and rebounding have always been no less than Stoudamire, so he can't be considered a blowout, right?" Smith smiled wryly.

Barkley said: "You have to understand the psychology of our Yao Hei, no one can score in front of Yao Ming, no one can score inside, no one can dunk in front of Yao Ming, no one can score, more rebounds than Yao Ming, understand? I also want Yao Ming to blow up all the opponent's interior players! If he can't do it, it's Yao Ming who will be blown up, who made him grow 2.26 meters tall? He should be more dominant. ”

Smith was speechless.

While Barkley and Smith were chatting, the Rockets slowed down, played a positional battle, and transferred to Yao Ming, who took a few steps, turned to the baseline and hooked his hand, and the ball went in again. 8 to 6.

The score didn't pull away, but the Suns played extremely uncomfortable because they got caught up in the Rockets' positional offensive rhythm and didn't play the fast break. The joint defense did not have a good effect on Yao Ming, and the rocket resolutely adjusted the ball at a 45-degree angle to Yao Ming for a single, Yao Ming's hand felt very good, and he was almost sold. When Yao Ming was dribbling the ball, if the weak-side player stepped forward to steal, Yao Ming passed the ball. His pass may not be able to give the open space, but as long as it is in the hands of Maddie and Hayes, the Suns will not be able to defend it.

With five minutes left in the first quarter, Yao Ming turned around and missed a jumper, and Hayes saw an opportunity to grab a frontcourt rebound. missed the jumper, but it caused a foul on Stoudeyer, and after making 1 of 2 free throws, the Rockets led 22-16.

The Suns called a timeout after Marion had already been fouled twice before going off the break. If Hayes fouls Stodameyer again, the situation will turn unfavorable.

Fisher did a much better job of controlling the tempo than Alstom, he could always take the ball through the half court very steadily, drag it for more than 10 seconds, and then hit the inside, Hayes and Yao Ming were ambushed on both sides of the three-second zone, no matter who they played, the Suns were uncomfortable, the two of them moved very slowly, but the shot was very accurate, and the slow three steps killed people.

Barkley laughed: "If the Suns continue to defend like this, their lineup is going to be problematic, and after Marion goes off, the Suns don't have a qualified bench, and if Hayes makes a foul on Stadameyer on the inside, this game will be decided quickly." ”

"Marion has a poor physique and Hayes, he struggles defensively, and both fouls were on Hayes. Hayes played hard, but I think the flip side of it is that the league is being too strict on contact right now. If you put me in the league now, I guess I'll be guilty of a full penalty before I finish a game. Kenny Smith laughs.

"Haha, people say the league is much cleaner now, and that's what those bosses want to see. The current rule is that a bastard like Beal (Lambir) can't play for a season and is banned for life. Barkley laughed and said: "When I first entered the league, the outside defense could hold the opponent's waist with his hands, and the inside could also bend his arms to defend against the defense, and the referee would not blow it...... Damn, now you have to blow a foul when you raise your arm and touch a hair. I always felt that that kind of high-intensity confrontation was the real game. ”

Many fans say that the strength of NBA defense in the 21st century is higher than that of the 90s, citing the fact that modern people are much stronger and allow for defensive defense. Obviously, these people have been watching football since the 21st century.

If you look at the videos of past NBA games, you will find that the defense of that time is not at all what modern players can imagine.

As for saying that the NBA did not have joint defense in the past, and players could get a lot of one-on-one opportunities, it is a mistake.

First of all, not allowing joint defense does not mean not allowing the bag, it is very common for a player to break through and be pressed in the middle by four people, and this person is often Jordan...... Against the Pistons Bad Boy Army, if Jordan wasn't in good health, it would be difficult to finish the game with sound limbs.

Secondly, after the NBA joined the joint defense, in order to reduce the difficulty of breaking through (theoretically), it set the rule of defending three-second violations, which stipulates that if the interior player does not have his own fixed defensive object, he cannot stay in the three-second zone for more than three seconds; A "non-stationary defender" is defined as an interior player who is more than an arm's length away from a defender. With this rule in place, it's easy to see why the 3-2 and 2-1-2 defenses, which are popular under international rules, are no longer popular in the NBA, and the stumbling center has to focus on how to avoid defending for three seconds. It can be said that the current NBA actually has only one kind of joint defense, that is, 122 joint defense, and other joint defense methods have changed a lot.

Let's talk about the strength of the previous NBA confrontation, or it can also be understood as the strength of the referee's blowing of penalties. One word can sum up the NBA's defense back then, that is, "dirty"! Almost every team has a few thugs, hooligans, and putting Bowen in that era, maybe he didn't have a chance to play at all, because he was still too honest.

At that time, there was no reasonable collision zone, and the macho men could hold and fall under the basket to their heart's content. It is normal to use your hands on the outside, hold your waist, and top your thighs, and it is common for stars to fight, and they will not be banned for a long time. When Barkley first entered the league, he once hugged "Big Bird" Bird and helped "Dr. J" beat Bird, who was bleeding profusely. At that time, the league was a combination of basketball and kickboxing.

What about now? In front of the penalty area, there can be no hand top and no interference with the breakthrough forwarder, otherwise it will be fouled. So if you want to defend, you can only exercise your pectoral muscles.

The Suns didn't have big enough pectoral muscles, so they got into trouble.

(To be continued)