On March 6, the Rockets slaughtered the Cavaliers 94-71 on the road, ending a losing streak.

After the game, LeBron James agreed with the claim that the Rockets are the Cavaliers' nemesis at a press conference. "They are our natural enemies! With Yao Ming and Maddy on offense and Battier and Hayes on defense, it seems that they are too good now. I don't know how to defeat them. ”

James was well-rounded, contributing 27 points, 7 assists and 8 rebounds, but with the defense of Battier and Hayes, he shot less than 40% from the field and had 6 turnovers.

After playing the Cavaliers, the Rockets defeated the Celtics away and avenged the home defeat.

After that, the Rockets returned to their home court and lost to the Nets 99-104. Yao Ming, Maddy, and Hayes combined to score 70 points, but the Nets' trio also played well. Jason Kidd returned from injury and played his best game of the season, scoring a triple-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 16 assists. Vince Cartoon scored 27 points and Richard Jefferson 24 points, and the two were unstoppable under Kidd's pin-and-needle lead.

The Rockets suffered their ninth loss of the season, and with 20 games left in the season, the Rockets have little hope of breaking the Bulls' record.

After beating the Magic and taking the Suns back-to-back, the Rockets finally got a chance to adjust. Multiple games in a row against the underdogs.

Chuck Hayes's stats have been stable during this period, but he has never been able to break through the bottleneck in the offense. It's mostly about passing, and assistant coach Tom Thibodeau is good at defensive philosophy and can't give him more advice when it comes to passing.

Hayes pinned his hopes on one man. On March 14, Magic Johnson came to Houston.

After the All-Star Game, Magic Johnson took the initiative to talk to Hayes, and Mao proposed to be his assistant coach, which made Hayes happier than being elected MVP. Of course, he was willing to ask Johnson to be his personal assistant coach, but Johnson just took the time to go to Houston today to give Hayes some advice, watch a Rockets game and go back.

Heyer entered the friendship of the landlords and first invited Johnson to a big meal. After the meal, Hayes found a quiet spot in the café and humbly asked for advice. Johnson didn't talk nonsense, and said with a smile: "Chuck, I've been following your game, your awareness is very good, but the pass is often half a beat slow, you tell me first, how do you usually pass the ball?" ”

"I saw my teammates running, and then I adjusted my posture and passed over...... You're asking this, right? Hayes didn't understand what Johnson meant.

"In other words, you usually think 'teammate is in place, I'm going to pass it' and then pass the ball, right?" Johnson asked again.

"Isn't it all like that?" Hayes smiled wryly.

"Who's to say it's all like that? I'm not, if you want to be faster than others, you have to do it before you think about it. Because you want to, you're slow. Johnson said.

"Do it before you think about it?"

Hayes mouth snapped. If you regard ball skills as a kind of martial arts, in addition to powerful moves, you must also be assisted by superior mental techniques in order to become a first-class master. Johnson woke up Hayes with a word, and passing is not only a technique, but also a realm.

"Erwin, if only you had said this to me two months ago, I always thought it was because my body was too hard, and I practiced yoga at home for more than a month." Hayes laughed.

"Your body is indeed too hard, this must also be strengthened, and the effect of doing yoga is definitely not as good as systematic training. Now you're going to play, there's no time. At the end of the season, if you're willing to sacrifice your vacation, come to me in Los Angeles. I'll guide you through the exercises. However, whether you can be a good passer or not is mainly up to you. I'm not in good health right now, so I can't practice with you, so I can only talk about the method. Johnson laughed.

Hayes didn't expect Johnson to be a sparring partner either, he had AIDS for so many years, it was a miracle that he didn't hang up, and it would be strange if he could still play basketball.

"How many other people have you taught besides me?" Hayes asked.

"All the Lakers players have heard me theorize. It sounds easy to do it before you think about it, but it's not that simple when you do it. Your team's Derrick (Fisher) is an example, he listened to my theory or averaged less than 3 assists per game, what kind of point guard is that? Kobe Bryant is good, and if he hadn't focused on shooting, he would have been able to improve to more than eight in a game. Lamar (Odom) also got on the hook, and he did do it before he thought about it, but unfortunately it rarely got to the place where it was. ”

Hayes finally understood why Odom was able to pass the ball to his teammates on the sidelines, and he just practiced before he wanted to, and practiced until he went crazy. Odom is very soft with the ball, and it is estimated that he is also imitating Johnson to play.

"I'll surpass Kobe Bryant and Lamar." Hayes said. Don't dare to say anything else, he is confident that his reaction speed is faster than Johnson's peak, as long as there is a method, don't worry about not improving, even if he can't compare to Johnson, it is still possible to become a master.

Johnson also believes Hayes can improve. Because Hayes' biggest impression isn't the scoring, it's not the rebounding, it's the speed with which he's progressing.

The two chatted for a while, and Hayes talked about how he practiced passing. He practiced trick passing, seeing his teammates run out of position and passing out in the fastest way, in order to be fast, the passing action was often awkward, and there were many mistakes.

Johnson unceremoniously laughed at him, saying it was a waste of time. "Technique is only one aspect, if you're not agile enough, it's hard to do what I do, you have to make your hands faster, dribble fast, play the ball fast."

Johnson at his peak, his speed was also average, and his bounce was even worse. His strength lies in his agility, and he is very fast at the rate at which he feints on fast breaks, which few people can match. Although he has an interior height of 206cm, he is a pure outlier, and now among all the interior lines in the league, no one can move faster than him.

Hayes thought about it for a while, and felt that his dribbling movements were really slow, because he was not adapted to his body when he was reborn, and it was difficult to master the rhythm of dribbling, so when he dribbled, the force exerted by his hands was very small, and later developed a habit. If you pay too much attention to the feel, you will lose the speed.

"Anything else?"

Before Johnson came to Houston, he had already thought about Hayes's shortcomings very clearly, and said without thinking: "Of course, there are others, the most important thing is to have a good vision and quick reaction, I feel that you are outstanding in these two points." Where you are poor is the body coordination surname. When you're making passes, your feet are very uncoordinated, and I watch the game and I feel like you're often out of balance when you pass the ball. ”

"Body coordination last name, that's right. If I don't adjust my movements and pass, I really feel awkward and I can't pass well. Elwyn, how can I improve my body coordination? Hayes was agitated and spoke much louder.

Magic Johnson is a big man of 206cm, and the coordination of his body when dribbling and running is absolutely terrifying. No matter how fancy the movements are, he doesn't feel like he's off balance at all, and there is no incongruity at all when the ball sways from side to side in his hand. Hayes is too far behind Johnson in this regard.

Among the various physical abilities, coordination training can be said to be the most difficult, because in addition to genetics and athletes' psychological surnames, there are also muscle strength and muscle endurance, technical action proficiency, speed and endurance relationship, body center of gravity balance, body flexibility and so on.

There is a way to coordinate surname training the day after tomorrow. Johnson said: "Of course I know how to improve, and I have a plan for you. You come to me in Los Angeles and train systematically for a month, it will definitely work, it depends on how much you can improve. Now, you can concentrate on finishing the season. Don't rush it, because it's tiring and not suitable for you to practice right now. ”

"Good. I'll listen to you all. What exactly is the solution? I want to be mentally prepared to practice. "Even if Hayes doesn't practice now, he wants to know exactly what he wants to practice.

Johnson admired the self-motivated man the most, and did not whet his appetite, giving Hayes the prepared plan.

The training program was developed by several experts in Los Angeles who specialize in athlete coordination. To put it simply, there are eight main items: 1. Practice a variety of unaccustomed basketball movements; 2. Complete the action in reverse, such as reverse running, reverse jumping; 3. Change the speed and rhythm of the action that you are used to, such as shooting the ball quickly when dribbling; 4. Complete complex actions in a game way. For example, dribbling the ball around the human pile, using various fancy movements to pass the ball into the passing frame (equipment used in skill competitions); 5. Create surname movements, such as practicing street ball; 6. The use of unaccustomed combination movements makes the mastered movements more complicated; 7. Change the range of action space and try different rhythms; 8. Use signals or conditional stimuli to make athletes do various exercises to change their movements.

If you break down the plan, it is divided into dozens of items. It's an intensive training that's physically demanding. Therefore, during the preparation period and training period, it is necessary to lay a good foundation, and you can only train during the holidays.

"Why don't you speak? Don't you think this plan is scary? You can start with two sets and slowly increase the amount. Johnson laughed.

"What's so scary about this? Two groups are too few! I want to try out what group my limit is first, and then I can quantify it. Hayes clenched his hands into fists and said excitedly, "I'm going to push the limit!" ”

Johnson froze. Before he came here, he hadn't thought about someone like Hayes.

If it were other players, playing to the level that Hayes is now, he would probably have relaxed his training a long time ago. Even if he works as hard as Kobe, he is also finding a way in other aspects, such as practicing back play and enriching offensive means. Hayes has a lot of offensive means, rebounding ability is already in the top 10 in the league, and he is fierce defensively, but he is still not satisfied and wants to be a master passer. How much will he improve in the future? Can he be like "Big O" Robertson?

(To be continued)