In the second half, Coach Thibodeau only allowed the starters to play less than 4 minutes, and then beat Noah, Boozer, Belineri and Jimmy. Butler's four main forces were withdrawn. This is mainly to protect them, after all, there is no need to fight to the death in the preseason.

As a result, Sun Xiaotian was able to stay on the court for a longer period of time. But the Rockets are still playing with all their main team, after all, three of their main lineup have only joined soon, and they need to run in more.

Jeremy Lin beat Sun Xiaotian in the first half, scoring 13 points and adding five assists. At least for now, Sun and Lin are temporarily ahead against Jeremy Lin.

……

Nate held the ball on the outside, and Sun Xiaotian relied on his body at this time to get Harden tightly stuck, ready to play with his back to the single.

Nate was quick and hoisted the ball to Sun Xiaotian. Many young players start out with frontal singles, and back-to-back singles are skills that are slowly honed later. Aren't Maddie and Kobe Bryant all like this!

However, Sun Xiaotian is different, he has honed his back skills in college. And it has also become an important scoring tool for him, making him look more technically well-rounded.

Sun Xiaotian leaned his back against Harden, although he was taller than Harden, but when Sun Xiaotian carried it a few times in a row, he unexpectedly found that he didn't move. This bearded man has so much power!

Sun Xiaotian couldn't, his shoulders shook first, wanting to mess up Harden's judgment. But just when Sun Xiaotian chose the bottom line and turned around, a big hand directly covered Sun Xiaotian's shooting sight. Until Sun Xiaotian landed, there was no way to shoot the ball in his hand, and only one mistake ended.

When he returned to the defense, Sun Xiaotian shook his head helplessly. He knew that his advantage in college might not be an advantage in the NBA.

This is not over, looking back, Harden is facing Sun Xiaotian's defense, and he ignores him at all. Since Harden is left-handed, Sun Xiaotian will look very unaccustomed to defending him.

Harden is used to breaking through to the left, Sun Xiaotian just waits to stick to him, as for whether he can prevent him in the end, leave it to his teammates who make up for the defense!

However, Sun Xiaotian's wishful thinking came to naught. I saw that Harden took less than two steps, and suddenly shot the basketball. Sun Xiaotian instinctively jumped up to block him, at this time the referee's whistle sounded, and Sun Xiaotian fouled his hand!

And that's just the beginning, in the next few rounds, Harden took what he wanted when he faced Sun Xiaotian, and he scored 10 points alone.

Coach Thibodeau called a timeout, but he actually called it specifically for Sun Xiaotian. He understands that the self-confidence of rookie players is very important, and if this continues, it will be very detrimental to the establishment of Sun Xiaotian's psychological advantage in the future.

"Welcome to the NBA! This is the NBA! It's just the preseason, and when it comes to the regular season and the playoffs, the intensity of the game is different again. So, there's a lot more you need to learn, and today you'll start with James. Learn from Harden! Coach Thibodeau said to Sun Xiaotian.

"I've been learning from him!" Sun Xiaotian actually popped out of his mouth with such a sentence, which made Coach Thibodeau a little confused.

Returning to the court, Sun Xiaotian faced Harden again, but at this time Sun Xiaotian's eyes were different, his eyes were full of desire and determination.

I saw that Sun Xiaotian didn't let his teammates cover for him, he first took two steps to Harden's left hand, but Harden defended very well. Suddenly, Sun Xiaotian dribbled with his back, accompanied by another jump to the right. This jump directly threw Harden more than a meter away, and Sun Xiaotian saw that there was no one around him to defend him, so he didn't care! Hand up and down, a steady shot.

Sun Xiaotian's goal made the audience sigh in amazement. Teammates on the Bulls' bench also waved towels like victory flags.

Maybe it was because he was played by Sun Xiaotian, Harden took it seriously. He called Jeremy Lin to ask for the ball, and so, the bullfight between the two began.

After Harden passed halftime, Sun Xiaotian bent down and opened his arms to see what Harden would do next.

I saw that Harden first took a cross-step, and suddenly leaned forward, or protruded to the left. However, Sun Xiaotian had already judged that before Harden broke through, he steadily blocked his way.

At this time, Coach Thibodeau on the scene understood why Sun Xiaotian just said, "I'm already learning!" That's it. It turned out that Sun Xiaotian had been observing Harden's playing style and trying to figure out Harden's preferred offensive rhythm.

In particular, it can be seen that Sun Xiaotian is a thoughtful player, and his ball quotient is very high, and such a player is exactly what Thibodeau likes.

Seeing that the breakthrough did not work, Harden suddenly took a step back and retreated directly outside the three-point line, only to see him leaning over and shooting.

"Huh!"

The ball really went in!

"Wow... Whoa..."The scene erupted in strong cheers.

Look at Harden again, after shooting this three-pointer, he made a 3-point gesture with both hands, and looked at Sun Xiaotian next to him and started trash talk!

"Do you like that?"

Looking at Sun Xiaotian, Xibodu off the field knew it.

"Boy! You still have a long way to go, and this is just the beginning, but that judgment was really beautiful. ”

However, Sun Xiaotian was not discouraged by this ball.

Looking back, Nate deliberately handed the ball to Sun Xiaotian.

"Just do it! You're going to have to respond! Otherwise, he'll look down on you! Nate said. Sun Xiaotian understands American culture, and responding is the best way for you to save face.

Sun Xiaotian was not nervous at all, and at this time Gibson came out to cover for him. Sun Xiaotian left Harden behind under cover, but at this time, Jeremy Lin didn't know where to run over, and he and Harden directly made dumplings for Sun Xiaotian.

Sun Xiaotian saw the situation and hurriedly spared the 3-point line.

"This is forcing me to single out Harden!" Sun Xiaotian thought in his heart.

And at this time, looking at his teammates, they all opened up space for Sun Xiaotian one after another.

Sun Xiaotian glanced at Harden and took a few steps back, ready to accelerate.

Suddenly, Sun Xiaotian started, he relied on his body, and he killed Harden against him. At this time, Asik on the inside line hurriedly came over to make up for the defense, but Sun Xiaotian didn't look like he wanted to back down. I saw him hold the ball... After three jumps, and the blocks of Harden and Asik were almost in place, Sun Xiaotian threw the ball towards the basket in the air, and his body lost his balance and fell to the ground.

"Toot!" At this time, the referee's whistle sounded, and the ball bounced twice on the basket, and it went in.

“2+1!”

The Bulls' teammates on the court hurriedly ran forward, pulled Sun Xiaotian up, and patted him on the head.

"Well done! Attaboy! ”

Sun Xiaotian stood up, his face was still calm, and he hit the ball steadily.

McHale called a timeout at this time, and this timeout also interrupted the struggle between Harden and Sun Xiaotian. Harden hasn't played since, including Jeremy Lin. McHale removed the Rockets' starting lineup and replaced him with a pure bench.

－－－－－

In the end, the score between the two teams was fixed at 105-94, and the Bulls lost the game. Sun Xiaotian played 18 minutes in the first half and played 27 minutes, contributing 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting, plus six assists and five rebounds.