"Audience friends, the game is about to start, let's take a look at the starting lineups of both sides......

This game may not have much impact in the United States, but in China, it is obviously very popular, so it is also broadcast live in China.

In the starting lineups of the two sides, the Kings have not changed, and it is still a combination of Cousins, Thompson, Iguodala, Li Tian, and Evans.

The starting center of the Rockets is Dwight Howard, who just joined the new season, the power forward is Terrence Jones, who entered the league last season, the small forward is Chandler Parsons, who is known as the rich and handsome of the Rockets, the scoring guard is the bearded James Harden, and the point guard Patrick Beverley.

"Yao Ming! We saw this game Yao Ming came to the sidelines to watch the game! ”

At this time, the camera captured Yao Ming sitting on the sidelines and put his figure on the big screen, which immediately attracted the attention of domestic commentators.

"It's been a long time since we've seen Yao Ming appear on the home court of the Rockets, Yao Ming chose to watch the game today and I don't know if it's related to Li Tian? Okay, let's talk about Yao Ming later, now let's go back to the game, the game has officially begun! ”

The referee blew the whistle for the start of the game, Howard won the jump ball, the Rockets took the lead in attack, and after Beverley had possession of the ball to halfcourt, the ball was in Harden's hands.

Li Tian stopped in front of Harden, but at this time, Howard had already stuck in the position to ask for the ball on the inside, so Harden did not attack by himself, but handed the ball to Howard on the inside.

Howard's position was deep this time, Cousins was completely pushed behind him, and after receiving the ball, he turned around, and Howard squeezed Cousins away to get a space jump.

Cousins was obviously not willing to let Howard score directly, and immediately jumped up and stretched out his hand to slap the basketball in Howard's hand.

"Tick!"

Cousins paid for his move, and his hitter not only didn't stop Howard from putting the ball in the basket, but also picked up a foul.

Scored a free throw, Howard caused a kill to the Kings in the first round, but fortunately, Howard's free throw did not go in, and Cousins protected the rebound.

Li Tian actively ran to the front court, and before the rest of the team members were completely in position, he began to run.

Harden's defense has been criticized in the past two seasons, and so far this season, it seems to be slightly better, but on the defensive end, it is still difficult for Harden to maintain concentration for a long time, and at this time, perhaps the game has just begun, Harden's defensive attention is very unfocused.

A sudden stop and backrun in the run, without even using the cover of any teammates, Li Tian threw off Harden, and at this time, Evans happened to control the ball outside the three-point line at the top of the arc, so he sent the ball towards Li Tian.

At this time, Harden took a big step forward and raised his hand to interfere, but this kind of interference is really limited to Li Tian.

After receiving the ball, he jumped up and opened his hand to throw, and Li Tianzhong hit it steadily.

"Li Tian scored first under Harden's defense, Harden received the ball from the backcourt, and we'll see if Harden will fight back...... Hey, the Kings switched defenses, and Iguodala defended Harden. ”

Just when domestic commentators and fans were looking forward to the continued confrontation between Li Tian and Harden, they suddenly found that Li Tian did not defend Harden, but switched defenses with Iguodala to play against Parsons.

Harden also found out about this, his eyes were wide, he was a little unhappy, just now Li Tian shot a ball, Harden was still ready to return a ball, but now it is not Li Tian who is defending him, which makes his interest immediately retreat a lot.

Iguodala went to defend Harden, which was indeed Adelman's arrangement before the game, and Li Tian's outside defense ability was certainly not bad, but there was still a gap between him and Iguodala in terms of both body and skill.

Another more important reason is that Li Tian's physical condition is not very good, so Adelman released it from the defense to allow Li Tianneng to have more energy to participate in the attack.

Because it was not Li Tian's defense that made Harden's desire to attack drop a lot, coupled with Iguodala's tight defense, Harden did not attack again, and the ball continued to be handed over to Howard on the inside, but this time, Howard was not able to complete the offense easily.

Under Cousins' top defense, Howard turned and missed a hook shot, and the rebound continued to be grabbed by the Kings.

This time, the Rockets' retreat picked up a bit, and Beverley pestered Evans to keep him from a chance to push quickly.

"Huh!" Although the speed of the counterattack was not as fast as the previous round, the result was the same, taking advantage of Harden's defense was not so focused, Li Tian once again found an open opportunity to shoot through the run, and then received Evans' pass and shot.

"Chandler, switch guards with James!"

Rockets head coach McHale watched from the sidelines that Harden's defense was so unfocused, and Li Tian seemed to have a good hand, and he immediately shouted into the court as the Rockets players advanced.

Hearing McHale's shouting, Chandler Parsons and Harden both nodded, Harden is indeed a little interested in opposing Li Tian, otherwise he would not have said that in the pre-game interview, but that is just about offense, but now Li Tian does not defend him, and if he wants to defend Li Tian with all his might, he is not interested.

Relatively speaking, Iguodala's desire to attack and firepower are not as strong as Li Tian's, and he is happy to let Harden defend him.

The alignment between Li Tian and Harden, which domestic fans were expecting, did not appear, and after McHale made this adjustment, the two were completely misaligned.

However, that doesn't mean the game on the pitch isn't exciting.

After switching to Chandler Parsons defense, Li Tian suffered from stronger defensive pressure, and Parsons was more motivated to defend than Harden, and he followed Li Tian very closely.

The Rockets players also know very well that it is not a good thing for a shooter like Li Tian to find his touch, so the whole team is very careful about the delay in Li Tian's running, so that Li Tian rarely gets the opportunity to shoot when he catches the ball.

If Li Tiantie was determined to look for an opportunity to attack, he could have gotten more chances, but the situation on the court at this time made him not do so.

The Kings' offense, Cousins mentioned the free throw line high to get the ball, Li Tian and Evans two crossed the right side of the middle distance, Li Tian rushed to the top of the arc, and Evans cut to the basket.

Cousins, who was holding the ball, glanced at the running of the two, but did not pass it to anyone, and after Evans left with the defender from the inside, Cousins smashed the ball to the ground and began to attack himself.

With the ball in front of the basket and a change of direction, Cousins found space to break through from Howard's side, and then dribbled straight to the basket.

This completely guard-style play made Howard's defense a little passive, and the Monster quickly followed sideways, but it already gave Cousins room to start.

Finding space to break through from Howard's defense, Cousins took two big strides, directly throwing off Howard and rushing into the three-second zone with half a step.

Cousins naturally didn't miss such a good opportunity, grabbed the ball with his right hand and jumped up, avoiding Howard's big hand that jumped up to block, Cousins smashed the ball into the basket!

"Bang!"

"Beautiful! Cousins, that's all the way a guard plays! Cousins looks like he's on a par with Howard today. ”

Cousins scored his sixth point in the first quarter, and Howard also scored six points on the other side.

In the first quarter of the game, the confrontation between Li Tian and Harden, which was expected in China, did not appear, but the confrontation between Cousins and Howard was very hot.

In terms of offensive ability, Cousins is clearly better than Howard now, he scored 12 points in a single quarter, while Howard only scored 2 points after that, scoring 8 points.

However, Howard gave Cousins a big hat in the matchup, which made Rockets fans excited for a while.

At 27:26, after the first quarter of the game, the difference between the two teams was not much.

With Cousins' desire to attack so strong, Li Tian, who only played half a quarter in the first quarter and went off the court, did not get many offensive opportunities and scored 4 points.

On the other side, Harden's desire to attack didn't seem to be too strong, playing nine minutes on the court and scoring five points.

"Lee and Harden were both decent in the first quarter, and we expect them to have more conversations in the future."

The domestic commentator undoubtedly spoke the voice of the domestic fans at this time, although the confrontation between Cousins and Howard is also very popular, but in the hearts of domestic fans, what they want to see most is undoubtedly the confrontation between Li Tian and Harden.