The Timberwolves have won six of the eight games since February, playing in a decent manner, always hanging slightly behind the Lakers.

And at the beginning of March, there was another series of trips to Texas. First was to challenge the Mavericks on the road at No. 1, then the Rockets and Spurs, and the Texas top three. Then return to the target center on the evening of the 10th to welcome the Mavericks' return defense. In other words, the Timberwolves spent early March playing against a Texas team.

This arrangement made the Timberwolves players scold, feeling that the schedule was too bad.

"It's like going to a hot pot of oil, Texas, even buy Karma! This is unfortunate news. Lefou's face was full of sadness, the top three in Texas are teams with three super inside lines, Nowitzki, Yao Ming, and Duncan are more difficult to bite one by one, and he thinks of the pain in the future, he seems to be depressed, and even his head is drooping.

"It's not that painful." Zheng Ke looked at Lefu's expression, and couldn't help but encourage: "Anyway, we are now the second in the West, and the third in the combat power rankings, the Mavericks, Spurs, Rockets and others should be afraid of us." A little bit of confidence, okay? ”

"Confidence has always been there, the problem is, I have always had a sense of foreboding"

Lefou's hunch became true, and in the first game against the Mavericks, the Timberwolves were defeated.

In this land where Zheng Ke was just crowned All-Star MVP not long ago, Nowitzki avenged his revenge. All of them, whether it's the new generation of power forwards or the older generation of power forwards. Speaking of Nowitzki, on the one hand, there are doubts about his weak style of play, and on the other hand, he is distressed by his invincible step-back jumper.

Now, 31, Nowitzki is still in the prime of his career. Perfect shooting skills. His ability to score in the half, his top-notch footwork and breaking rhythm, and his low-post singles skills have grown stronger with age. "When a big man of 2.13m makes a step-back jumper in front of you that resembles an outside player, all you can do is keep your eyes open and pray that the basketball is better not to score," Lefu said in an interview after the game. ”

35 points and 9 rebounds.

It only took Nowitzki 31 minutes to get a perverted statistic, which is a scoring ability that is only possible when Zheng Ke is shocked to see it and feels like he has a good hand.

The team returned home with a devastating defeat at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. But while silently licking his wounds, he was going to the space city to challenge the nascent Rocket Team again.

This time. Zheng Ke really did his best.

Two days ago, Dallas, he was won by the Cowboys in the third quarter, which was a very shameful event for him. Although Zheng Ke scored 35 points, he was still very unhappy in his heart. Thinking about this Texas top three, which is known as the touchstone of a strong team. You have to win two games.

So as soon as the game began, Zheng Ke rushed left and right, unstoppable. Faced with Battier's back-to-back singles; When facing Martin in a misplaced position, he took one step, crashed away, and used a very unreasonable bulldozer-style breakthrough layup; In the face of the double bag, Zheng Ke sometimes decisively divided the ball, sometimes forced into fouls, played the first quarter like a solo performance, and scored 16 points on the head of the best outside defender in the league!

The players played well. Whitman smiled from ear to ear, looking sweaty. Zheng Ke, who walked off the field, Whitman patted Zheng Ke's ass affectionately, signaling that he was doing a good job!

"This Rockets team is unlucky to meet us, they had a chance to win the championship last year, but it's a pity."

After Zheng Ke sat down, he put on the Timberwolves' T-shirt and long-sleeved jacket to cover his mysterious black arm guard on his left hand, and the expression on his face was very relaxed.

"That's true." Billups came down to rest before Zheng Ke, and when he heard Zheng Ke say this, he also felt that it made sense, nodded and continued: "It seems to be the case. Last year, the Rockets did all the Spurs, and the lineup composed of Maddy, Artest and Yao Ming is still very thoughtful. ”

"How did you get rid of the rocket last year, tell me about it!" Thorton leaned his head over and asked Billups curiously.

"You don't know what to do, that game is really a thrilling game, seven fierce battles, almost we knelt!" Speaking of last year's great achievements, even a man like Billups, who usually doesn't talk much, danced with his eyebrows, gestured in his hands, and began to comment on last year's battle with his little brothers.

The relaxation of the Timberwolves players is reflected in the collapse of the Rockets as a whole, and the impact caused by Zheng Ke is more deeply seen on the original court. Among the Rockets' squad members, there is no shortage of talented people, with Hayes and Landry both being strong players on the bench. The locker room atmosphere is the first in the league, but there is no real blood, everyone is an all-star in the tailwind, and the hard battle is unbearable at all, not to mention the problem of falling off the chain at the end of the season.

With a team like the Timberwolves, it's hard for the Rockets to really play their own character. is not aggressive, being led by the nose, even if Yao Ming is overturning the river and the sea on the inside, in the overall situation, the Timberwolves always have the initiative.

The suffocating defense, the fast break like mercury leaking bottom, this is the biggest impression left by the Timberwolves to the world, and this kind of tactics like the Dream Eight team is becoming more and more loved by NBA teams, and even from the limelight, this kind of defensive counterattack from the bombardment tactics and out of the bombardment tactics is sweeping the new tactical system in the basketball world. A small turnover, a steal, a block, or even a long-range rebound can make the Timberwolves the sharpest of the game.

The gap between the two pinnacle teams that used to face off in the West is now widening

After the second half, Zheng Ke was playing more and more comfortably, and he was enjoying the game and enjoying the thrill of playing against Battier. Under such defensive intensity, every ball thrown in made Zheng Ke inexplicably excited, and he broke into the inside line of the rocket again and again, or throwing, or passing, or layup, or dunking; Again and again, he completed back-to-back singles, step-back jumpers, and pull-up jumpers to show off his full arsenal.

Full Swing mode!

With 4 minutes left in the third quarter, Zheng Ke singled Battier with his back, and after he hit Battier a few times, he shook his shoulders with his back, used his left foot as the axis, and drew a semicircle with his right foot, making a gesture to throw. Battier was already a frightened bird, and when he saw that Zheng Ke was about to make this move again, he took a step forward and flew to block it. Unexpectedly, Zheng Ke actually made a feint, his right foot continued to rotate, his left foot did not move, and his body bypassed Battier's defensive range.

At this time, Yao Ming, the Rockets' interior lineman, was stuck behind the experienced Brad Miller, and a light suddenly flashed in Zheng Ke's mind, and he threw the ball to the rebound in a ghostly way.

At that moment, Zheng Ke didn't know what was wrong with him, maybe it was really God who drove him forward.

He took two quick steps forward, leaped up, and caught the basketball that bounced back from the rebound in the air, and with this amazing momentum, he flew higher and higher, his hands were replaced by one hand in the air, his body bowed, he twisted slightly, and his right foot was raised in a balanced subconscious manner, and he swung down with one hand!

The fans of the Toyota Center watched all this in amazement, thinking that they were not dazzled, and at that moment, what they saw in their eyes was clearly the shadow of the No. 1 of the year.

"Zheng Ke greeted Maddie with such a dunk at the Toyota Center!" Almost everyone thinks of this sentence because this dunk is so classic.

However, Zheng Ke's own temperament, strength, bounce and movement are completely different from Maddie, he is already a top dunk player with the "dunk king", and his style is unique. Wilkins used the words "ethereal violence" to describe Zheng Ke's dunks, proving that he is indeed one of the few players in NBA history who can dunk his own unique style.

The game came to an end under the control of the Timberwolves, and Zheng Ke scored 45 points on his own, without giving face to his big brother in the national team.

The last stop in Texas is San Antonio, a basketball mecca that has survived more than a decade of ups and downs and still stands in the NBA.

Duncan and Popovich are indeed a rare and excellent pairing, and when the unsmiling boss meets the unsmiling head coach, then the style of this team is determined to be unsmiling. Rigorous, patient, and tenacious are the most profound signature impressions that the Spurs have left on the NBA for more than ten years, just like when others talk about the most rigorous team in the NBA, the first thing that comes to mind must be the Spurs.

Zheng Ke is no longer the hairy boy he used to be, in the eyes of the Spurs and Popovich, he is the most dangerous player in the West, and Jefferson was also brought in to deal with him.

But even such a team has a day of injury troubles, the system is still the same system, but the figure of the Frenchman Parker is missing, the player who gradually mastered the core offensive power of the Spurs after 07 years did not appear in the game between the two teams, so that Zheng Ke won and felt a little imperfect.

The two teams were only separated in the last three minutes of the last quarter, and the Timberwolves led by Zheng Ke still led by 10 points, and finally Popovich replaced all the substitutes and announced his surrender.

After a lap in Texas, the Timberwolves won 2 wins and 1 loss, which can be regarded as a complete retreat (to be continued......