New York fans originally thought that the Rockets should no longer be a threat to Artest without Artest.

But after the end of the second quarter, they looked at the score, and at 40:48, the Knicks still trailed the Rockets by 8 points, although they chased the difference back to single digits.

Yao Ming and Scola completely broke the interior combination of New York after Artest went off, Adelman did not plan to use the outside line to attack today, the role of the outside line is defense, and the inside line is the key to victory.

David Lee, plus Kenyon Martin, couldn't stop the Rockets' two unique interior combinations.

After two quarters, Yao Ming shot 7-of-10 from the field and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, scoring 20 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Scola, the European MVP, is also excellent, whether it is Kenyon Martin or Birdman Anderson, when encountering Scola's floor flow and technical flow, it seems that they have no way to start, so that Diamond scored 12 points and 5 rebounds in the half.

Crawford, the Knicks' nerve knife, didn't recover in the second quarter, scoring just seven points on 2-of-10 shooting in the first half.

Although Zhang Yu had an excellent appearance, shooting 6 of 11 in the half, 2 of 4 three-pointers, and 5 of 6 free throws, scoring 19 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, he could not narrow the gap between the two teams to within five points on his own.

At halftime, in the Knicks locker room, D'Antoni shook his mustache excitedly and said loudly: "Listen! The Rockets do whatever they want in the paint zone, and we have to step up and press them to shoot from the perimeter, otherwise it's too easy for them. If we lose this game, Robinson's sacrifice will be useless, for Robinson's sake, I want you to show your skills in the second half, their perimeter defense has broken half, give me a complete blast of them! ”

Little Potato was on the side, and he wanted to say, "Coach, I'm not dead yet, which play is this?" ”

In the second half, D'Antoni started with Quentin Richardson and Crawford was on the bench as the sixth man.

At the beginning of the second half of the game, the Rockets continued to let Yao Ming fire first, and Yao Ming was still powerful in the third quarter, but what was it like in the fourth quarter? That's not for sure, so while Yao Ming still has the strength, he can squeeze a little more.

Zhang Yu was going to try to get inside to trap Yao Ming in the second half, Adelman should have already had a coping arrangement, and Weaver immediately moved to the weak side.

Yao Ming held the basketball to attract Zhang Yu to come to the bag and quickly passed the ball to Weaver.

Zhang Yu looked back and saw that he, the opposing player, had run far away, and a big empty three-point once again widened the difference between the two teams to 11 points.

Several backcourt players of the Rockets have a three-point shooting rate of around 40%, so if you want to contain Yao Ming, you really have to consider the consequences, even if Artest is not there, it is still difficult to contain Yao Ming.

Zhang Yu's defense after him didn't dare to wrap Yao Ming anymore, and honestly looked at his opposing players, and the little giant could let go of his hands and feet and singled David Lee.

In the second half, D'Antoni also made a change, using Birdman Anderson to defend Yao Ming, and David Lee to defend Scola who is about his height.

Birdman Anderson is 208cm tall and has an arm span of 223cm, if it was in the CBA period, Yao Ming, who could indeed defend, was very uncomfortable, but now, strength is Anderson's biggest weakness, and the 230-pound Birdman is destined to only take around the front defense.

Alstom's passing ability has never been very good, the key is that this product often does not pass the ball to Yao Ming, he is more suitable to play with Maddie, and the street ball king also prefers to pass the ball to Maddie, Alstom's relationship with Maddie is much better than that with Yao Ming.

As soon as the birdman circled ahead, Alston began to play by himself, throwing several long-range shots in a row, and one missed!

At 8 minutes and 30 seconds in the third quarter, Adelman couldn't bear it anymore and replaced Alston and replaced Brooks again.

During this time, Yao Ming couldn't receive basketball again, and it took a long time to get to the position, Alston didn't pass a single pass, and he shot three of them, all of which ended in iron, and the Knicks took the opportunity to chase the score to 44:51.

Xiaobu actually wants to throw it himself after he comes on the court, these two styles of play are very close, the difference is that Xiaobu has just entered the league and is relatively honest. The most important thing is that Maddie has provoked public anger this year, and even Yao Ming has leaked his dissatisfaction with it, of course Xiaobu will not be close to Medido, and now Yao Ming is the real boss, he dare not pass it on.

Anderson failed to go around the front, and Yao Ming stuck him behind him this time and received a pass from Brooks.

Once the birdman can't go around, it means that his defense is half defeated, he can't withstand Yao Ming's strength, the little giant easily squeezed deep under the basket, turned and hooked his hand to score a goal, this is Yao Ming's first score in the second half.

The Knicks attacked, Zhang Yu advanced with the ball, and when the little potato went down, he became a real point guard.

Weaver's defense is mediocre, far inferior to Artest, and Adelman only needs to let Battier change defense, as has been the case in previous seasons, and the opposing outside stars have been handed over to the Bartide team.

Battier's individual defensive ability is not top-notch, he can only be called excellent, his defensive moves are clean, and he is very popular in the league, except that his penetrating defense is sometimes criticized.

Zhang Yu's pull-up jump shot after this breakthrough was blocked by Battier's eye-piercing defense, which feels like going to your eyes, making you worry about whether he will accidentally poke you blind with one finger?

"Huh!"

In the face of Battier's "plug-in defense", the basketball still swiped into the basket.

Zhang Yu secretly called luck in his heart, this ball was purely blind by hand feeling, but it was scored after all, Battier's defense is too disgusting!

The Rockets attacked, still concentrating on playing Yao Ming, Anderson and Yao Ming were entangled in one, the action was too big, and the referee blew the whistle in his mouth.

Anderson fouled, this is his third foul, the Birdman's defense is highly motivated, and he always has a desperate momentum on the court, there are advantages and disadvantages, and easy fouling is one of the disadvantages.

D'Antoni hesitated for a moment and didn't replace Anderson and let him stay on the field.

The Rockets re-attacked, this time Scola scored a goal in the low post with his back on his back, and David Lee didn't have much to do with the Argentine's delicate back footsteps, who is more like Olajuwon on the Rockets' two interior lines? Anyone who has watched Scola's performance knows that the Argentine is better than Yao Ming's footsteps, otherwise he would not be able to survive in the NBA, a place full of muscles, with a height of 206cm.

Halfway through the third quarter, the scores of the two teams did not widen or shrink, with 3 minutes and 40 seconds left in the game, the score was 52:60, and the Knicks were still eight points behind the Rockets.

Yao Ming has scored 26 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks, and the little giant has performed very well today.

Adelman watched his team take the lead, and Yao Ming seemed to be gasping for breath, so that the little giant could still exert his power in the final quarter, Yao Ming was replaced with 4 minutes left in the third quarter.

D'Antoni only hesitated for a moment and decided to continue to keep Zhang Yu on the court.

Yao Ming went down, the Rockets now don't have Maddie, Yao Ming, or even Atay, who can still get points? Now is a good opportunity for the Knicks to close the score.

Zhang Yu also knows what he has to do, so far, his tally is 22 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, which is already excellent, but it is not enough to win, he needs to score more points. To deal with Battier's defense, speed is the best way, the Battier team is old, the pace can't keep up, no matter how experienced it is, it's useless.

Holding the ball at the top of the arc, Zhang Yu pulled away and accelerated directly to the side to break through.

Battier is really struggling to defend Zhang Yu, "Red Rabbit" doesn't want some players to be used to breaking through in one direction, his left and right hands are all-round, and he can break through in both directions at will, which makes him unable to move in advance, and the best experience and defensive awareness are useless in the face of Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu was originally afraid that there was a Yao Ming on the inside, and it was not easy to score when he broke in. But now the inside line of the Rockets, Scola 206cm is still like a dot, what does Hayes mean by 198cm? Barkley II?

Hayes is 198cm tall and has certainly better footwork than most insiders, and can make up for the breakthrough of outside players in time, but he blocked Zhang Yu with his sliding step this time, and at the same time used his strong body to force Zhang Yu to make mistakes.

Zhang Yu is very self-aware, knowing that he has a hard fight with Hei, and playing confrontation is the most stupid behavior, especially this guy who can still play the inside line, he must have something outstanding, at least the physical confrontation ability must be stronger than him for nine streets. He's already close to the three-second zone, where he's shot extremely reliable, no longer hitting inside, and after a stop, he shoots the basketball in the air with a wide angle of leaning back......

Hayes stretched out his arm to reach, but couldn't do anything, turned his head to look at the basketball, and the little orange thing smashed on the rebound and bounced into the basket accurately!