"Our team needs to play a little bit tougher, especially defensively, and make it too easy for the Kings."

Trailing by 10 points at the end of the first quarter is definitely not what the Rockets expected before the game, and it is not what they want to see now, while the Rockets fans in front of the screen are discussing, Rockets head coach McHale is constantly reminding the team to do better on the defensive end.

After a short break, the game resumed in the second quarter, and both teams made some changes to their lineups, and in order to give the main team a chance to rest, both sides used a half-main and half-bench lineup.

On the Rockets' side, Jeremy Lin and Parsons, who were at the end of the first quarter, led a group of Rockets benches on the court. On the Kings' side, Isaiah Thomas returned to the court, Li Tian and Evans came to the sidelines to rest, and Cousins, who was off the court in the last two minutes of the first quarter, did not return to the court, and another starting interior lineman, Jason Thompson, partnered with Robinson.

On the Kings' side, Evans left the ball almost completely in Thomas's hands, and the Rockets Harden's departure gave Jeremy Lin enough possession, and the court quickly turned into a duel between two point guards.

In fact, after two seasons of growth, Isiah Thomas has also become a decent scorer, and his offense is very lethal. Isaiah Thomas showed momentum for a while in the early part of the season, and if it weren't for the ball distribution issues with Evans, Isaiah Thomas might have been able to make some name for himself this season if he compressed his playing time after Jim Ain's arrival in the middle and late season.

However, with the rise of Lee Tian in the mid-to-late stages, and the resurgence of Evans, who has returned to the point guard role more often, Isiah Thomas has received a lot less attention.

Although Isaiah Thomas is still nominally the starter, when Evans needs to control the ball, Jim Ain prefers to put Li Tian on the court, while Isaiah Thomas plays the role of the team's sixth man.

For example, at this time, Li Tian and Evans, who were substitutes, stayed on the field, while Thomas led the team's substitutes to fight on the field.

In terms of strength, Thomas is not worse than Jeremy Lin, but the state of the two is obviously not the same today, although Jeremy Lin did not have much offensive performance in the first quarter, but in this section, he played very strongly, and just after the second quarter came on the court, he scored 4 points with a sudden shot.

Although Thomas also had three shots after the start of the second quarter, he only hit one shot, seeing that his offensive state was not good, Thomas did not force the offense again, using the blocking and breaking through with his teammates, Thomas was more of an impact on the Rockets' defense, and then created opportunities for the rest of the Kings.

Although Li Tian and Thorton have been off the court at this moment, Salmons and Garcia have also maintained a certain amount of attack power on the outside of the Kings on the court.

At 28:37, after three minutes of the first quarter, the difference between the two teams was 9 points.

Taking advantage of the official timeout, McHale once again emphasized the defense with the team and sent Asik, the defensive core of the interior line, to the court.

McHale's adjustment really worked, Asik came on the court so that the Rockets' outside players no longer need to be distracted to take care of the interior defense, and the Kings' outside line no longer easily got offensive opportunities

However, the Kings didn't let the Rockets have any better time, and after knowing that Vivek Ranadave was on the scene for the first time, the Kings' players showed their strongest fighting spirit, and after the offense was limited, the Kings' players began to cause problems for the Rockets on the defensive end.

As a result, for a minute and a half after the official timeout, neither team scored.

The Rockets took the lead and couldn't hold their breath, seeing that the team's offense was not working, McHale took advantage of a dead ball opportunity to replace Harden on the court.

Harden's play-on game really solved the Rockets' scoring problem, and as soon as he came to the court, he broke through and drew a foul to get a free throw.

Jim Ain, who was on the sidelines, didn't look right, and took advantage of Harden's free throws to send Li Tian, Evans, and Cousins on the court at the same time.

Harden hit two free throws to make it 30:37, and the gap between the two sides narrowed to just seven points.

In fact, no matter whether he can get an offensive opportunity or not, as long as he enters the half, Li Tian will not stop, and Li Tian may not be able to get his own offensive opportunities after running, but his running can disrupt the opponent's defense, which is likely to create opportunities for teammates.

With Cousins' high cover, Li Tian appeared outside the three-point line, but he was unable to catch the ball and shoot. Asik took a step forward in advance and stopped between Li Tian and Evans, preventing Evans from passing the ball to Li Tian at the first time.

Although Asik soon stepped back and moved towards the basket next to Cousins, Harden had already re-posted at this time, not giving Li Tian a chance to attack.

After several consecutive moves by the Kings players were disrupted, time was running out for the offense, and Evans had to choose a strong attack of his own, and his mid-range shot was disrupted and the ball bounced off the basket.

In the previous round, Harden had just finished attacking, so after coming to the halfcourt, the ball was handed over to Harden again.

Dangling left and right, after receiving the ball and making a feint, Harden quickly dribbled the ball to the three-point line, and the ball just rushed into the interior to cause a kill.

Li Tian was not completely shaken away by Harden, Harden dribbled into the three-point line, and Li Tian had already posted it.

Leaning on Li Tian, Harden tried to force his way out of the basket, but he was forced to stop by Hayes, who stepped forward to help defense, along with Li Tian, after only rushing to the three-second zone.

After a spin to try to pass the ball and finding that his teammates didn't have too good a chance, Harden opted to force a shot.

"Bang!" Under the interference of Li Tian and Hayes, the ball bounced out of the basket, and the rocket offense also failed.

With the Kings' Li Tian and Evans players who are good at defense returning to the court, the Rockets' offense, which hopes to play offensively, has been re-limited, and the Kings' offense is no longer as efficient as in the first quarter under the Rockets' defense.

In a defensive battle like this, it becomes extremely difficult to score, and it is also very difficult to close the point difference.

At 43:51, the second quarter of the game ended, but the scores of both teams in this quarter were not very high, the Rockets scored 21 points, and the Kings only scored 19 points, of course, for the Kings, such a first half was still successful, because after the half, they still had an 8-point lead.

"In the second quarter, both sides didn't play very well offensively, but with the advantage of the first quarter, the Kings maintained the lead, let's take a look at the stats of both sides......"

"Let's take a look at Li Tian first, Li Tian scored 8 points on 3-of-4 shooting in the first quarter, and he didn't get many shots in the second quarter, scoring 2 points on 1-of-2 shooting, so that Li Tian had 10 points after the end of the first half, as well as 2 steals, a rebound and 1 assist."

"In addition to Li Tian, Cousins also scored 10 points on the King's side, and on the other side, Harden scored the most, with 13 points......

At half-time, the commentators and fans were discussing the performance of both sides in the first half, and the players of both sides returned to their dressing rooms to rest and prepare for the second half.

"We did a good job defending in the second quarter, we need to defend like that, but on the offensive end, we need to play a little bit smarter. Jamie, James, break through and rush to the basket as much as possible, and then split the ball, don't force the offense, we need to strengthen the transmission of the ball, OK? ”

As soon as he entered the away dressing room, McHale stood in the middle of the dressing room with a tactical board and began to talk.

Compared with the Rockets, who are preparing to enter the playoffs, the whole team of the Kings is obviously more relaxed at this time, and the appearance of Vivek Ranadave only makes them more motivated, but it does not make them nervous, and they are quite relaxed at the moment when they are about to enter the holidays.

In fact, the Kings players are skeptical about whether Vivek Ranadave will actually show up.

"Lee, are you sure our new boss is on the scene? I didn't see it in the front row. Cousins asked, skeptically.

Li Tian hadn't spoken yet, and Thomas Robinson had already taken the lead in shouting at this moment: "DeMarcus, you have to believe Lee, because ...... Oh shit, I almost said I slipped out. ”

Robinson stopped halfway through speaking, but the other Kings players were clearly not prepared to let him fool around at the moment.

"Thomas, go on!"

"Guys, if he doesn't say it, the next season, we're going to give him the jerseys to wash."

"That's a great idea!"

The king's players shouted and surrounded Robinson, which made Li Tian speechless, of course he knew what Robinson wanted to say, Robinson, as his iron buddy, did not hide Robinson's identity from Robinson, in fact, Li Tian did not feel that he wanted to hide anything.

Robinson knew this, too, so after a burst of threats from the Kings' players, he immediately compromised and said, "OK, OK, guys, don't get excited, I said." Because it was Vivek Lanadave's daughter who told Lee the news, well, that's it. ”

After Robinson finished speaking, there was a moment of silence in the locker room, and just when Li Tian and Robinson were surprised why these people didn't speak, a ghost crying wolf howl sounded in the locker room.

"Oh God, Lee, how the hell did you do that, I mean, to get in touch with the boss's daughter."

"We didn't even know about it now, damn it, hey, Lee, tell me what else you know?"

"Why Lee? I'm going to practice shooting starting tomorrow! ”