In the Kings' locker room, their head coach is laying out tactics for their players. Tactically, he asked his players to use Cousins more to hit the Rockets. In addition to that, he also made a request of their point guard Thomas: "Thomas, you were on par with the Rockets' No. 5 in the first half, and there was almost no difference in your breakovers, jumpers, and assists, the only difference was that your three-point ratio was better than his. He didn't shoot a single shot in the first half, and you shot 3-of-4 from three-point range, and you shot 70 percent. So I'm asking you to continue to use that in the second half to hit them and shoot threes whenever you feel the opportunity is right. ”

Before Thomas agreed, Kao Shen preemptively said: "Then if he does this, he will shoot three points when he gets the ball, so isn't our offense chaotic?" Who will organize? ”

The Kings head coach shook his head and said, "No, you should trust Mars, he has the potential to be a good point guard." When to vote and when to pass, he will still grasp it. ”

Seeing that the coach had made up his mind, he didn't say anything more.

Thomas said to the coach: "Coach, don't worry, I have a good hand today, and I will definitely complete the task you have given." ”

……

Soon, the second half of the game continued to begin, with the Kings attacking first. Thomas tried to break through as soon as he came up, but the Rockets followed McHale's instructions and narrowed the defense as soon as they came up, leaving Thomas unable to break through. At this time, Thomas took a step back through a cover of Kaoshen, came to the three-point line, lifted it slightly, "boom", and hit a three-point shot.

On the Rockets' side, Wen Hao continued his performance, and after controlling the ball to the frontcourt, he hit a jump shot from the free throw line through the cover of the monster.

When Thomas saw this, he was secretly proud in his heart. When the Kings attacked, after he dribbled the ball past half court, he handed the ball to Kaoshen, and after going around the inside line, he ran out and passed Kaoshen, and immediately jumped after receiving the ball, and the basketball hit again.

"Oh my gosh, five out of six, Thomas is going crazy." Drexler exclaimed in a somewhat unkind tone, but with a look of surprise.

Brad also shook his head again and again and said: "With five of six shots, McHale should find a way to stop him." If he throws like this, then the Rockets are hanging today. ”

"Defense has always been a problem for the Rockets, and it hasn't been solved since McHale took over, and today they couldn't defend Cousins, and now Thomas is on. If a team has two points open, it's really hard to defend. Especially for a team like the Rockets who are not good at defense, I really don't know how they will survive the second half. ”

"It's time for McHale to call a timeout. If he doesn't call a timeout for another goal, I'll rush down and call a timeout for him. Drexler said this jokingly, but it can be seen from this sentence how anxious he was.

Who knew that Drexler's words were like a prophecy, and as soon as he finished speaking, Thomas rushed to the front court of the Rockets and hit the sixth three-pointer. 6-of-7 three-pointers!

"Wow!"

In the Kings' breakout area, the players on the bench shouted and jumped, and even their normally composed coaching staff raised their arms and cheered. Thomas' three points today were insane.

Rockets head coach McHale urgently called a timeout, even if not to set it up, he had to call a timeout to interrupt Thomas's touch. A player feels so hot, who can stand it as the opposing head coach?

After a timeout, he shouted to the Rockets players: "Expand the defense, must expand the defense, and we can't let them shoot easy threes anymore." At the same time, he turned around and said to Wen Hao: "You go off the court first, and for the rest of the third quarter, Beverley will play." ”

Although Wen Hao was unwilling, he was helpless and had to rest. In fact, he also understands that McHale's arrangement is also reasonable, and now the Kings' Thomas three-point shot is going well, and the Rockets should strengthen the opponent's three-point defense on the one hand, and strengthen the three-point offense on the other hand. Although Beverley does not have Wen Hao's organizational ability, he is much better than Wen Hao in shooting three-pointers. So now put Beverley on the field.

Maybe McHale's defensive tactics worked, or maybe it was just a coincidence, in the five minutes that Beverley replaced Wen Hao, Thomas continued to score three-pointers, but not as terrifying as he shot six of seven. He made just one of four three-pointers for the remaining eight minutes of the third quarter, and the Rockets kept the score deadlocked through Beverley and Jeremy Lin's three-pointers.

By the end of the third quarter, Thomas had 28 points plus nine assists, an absolute All-Star statistic. Wen Hao was pressed to the cold bench by the coach in the third quarter, and his score only increased by 4 points, and now it is 15 points and 8 assists.

The reporters were already tweeting at this point. Fagan, a reporter with the Rockets, tweeted: In the first half, Wen Hao and Thomas were evenly divided, and in the third quarter, although I don't want to admit it, the superiority of the two seems to have been separated. Speaking of three points alone, Wen Hao lost too much to Thomas. Wen Hao, he really needs to develop three points as soon as possible.

After a two-minute break, the fourth quarter of the game between the two sides resumed.

Drexler said: "It looks like the Rockets and Kings will continue to entangle in the next game. After the Rockets expanded their defense, the Kings' three-point shooting was not so smooth, and the Rockets' own three-point shooting gradually came up, and it seemed likely that the two sides would not be able to separate the winner until the last minute of the fourth quarter. ”

But the NBA arena has changed dramatically, and anything can happen. Within two minutes of Drexler's finish, Thomas suddenly exploded and hit two three-pointers in a row to give the Kings a five-point lead over the Rockets.

Although McHale called a timeout after that, he still couldn't stop Thomas's hand, and after restarting, Thomas hit two more three-pointers in a row, and the Rockets missed both of these attacks, so that the Rockets trailed by 11 points. At this point, there were only five minutes left in the game.

The entire Toyota Center is filled with a mood called despair. Although it is theoretically possible to recover from 11 points down after five minutes, everyone knows that hope is slim. A lot of fans have started to leave the stadium. They left the court not because of these three-pointers from Thomas, but because they could clearly see that the Rockets were in chaos on the court. The offense is unorganized, the defense is even more invisible, and the Rockets have collapsed.

At this time, McHale replaced Wen Hao on the field after a dead ball. He knew that it was impossible to turn the tables, and the reason why he changed Wen Hao to play was just to let Wen Hao reorganize the attack.

It's okay to lose, but you can't lose so ugly.

But McHale didn't know that in Wen Hao's heart, he didn't think he had lost. Anything can happen at the last second.

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