Until the end of the third quarter of the game, whether it was the scene or the Celtics fans in front of the screen, they were still immersed in the excitement of Li Yang scoring 40 points again. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Stevens, as the head coach, is obviously more sober than the fans, and he is not happy that Li Yang has performed well alone, and in this game, the team has fallen into the problem faced in the previous games, that is, relying too much on Li Yang's scores.

Even Li Yang scored 40 points in the third quarter of the game, and before entering the fourth quarter of the game, the two-point score was only 89:94, and the Celtics only led by 5 points.

With two teams scoring almost a game in the third quarter, Stevens was undoubtedly very unhappy.

"Defensively, when the fourth quarter starts, we need to do a better job on the defensive end, especially not allowing the opponent to play a counterattack, and when the opponent enters a positional battle, we need to limit the opponent's attack on the basket with joint defense. ”

"But, Chris, you need to stick to the opposing top attacker and not let that guy get an easy three-pointer. ”......

Stevens emphasized defense at the start of the fourth quarter, and sent in a lineup like Sullinger, Crowder, Lee Young, Middleton, and Smart who are very suitable for joint defense, and several players are physical and fast players, whether it is defending the opponent attacking the basket or rotating the defense in time when the opponent divides the ball.

When Li Yang and others came on the court to start the fourth quarter of the game, Stevens found that a very favorable situation was that the Rockets did not send Harden, in Stevens' view, this is undoubtedly a tactic that can allow the team to better implement their sudden increase in defensive intensity, so he immediately made another gesture to Li Yang in the court, signaling Li Yang to organize the team's defense, and what Stevens wanted was a few minutes before the fourth quarter of the game.

The Rockets took the lead in attacking, and they used a lineup with a starting lineup mixed with the bench, with Howard staying on the court with two bench players along with Beverley and Ariza.

After the start of the game, Beverley dribbled to halfcourt and almost did not hesitate to put the ball in Howard's hands, and in this game, Howard has already scored 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, showing his lethality against the Celtics on the inside.

But obviously, the Celtics were not ready to let Howard's lethality continue to be reflected in the fourth quarter of the game, Li Yang did not rush forward to attack when Howard took the ball, but when Howard dribbled and began to attack, he immediately retreated to Howard's front of the defense.

In the previous three quarters of the game, the Celtics all adopted the tactics of defending the outside of the Rockets, and at this time, they suddenly combined defenses and began to attack Howard, which obviously caught Howard off guard.

When he realized that Li Yang was close to him, Howard was busy picking up the ball and preparing to pass it to the outside, but his movements were obviously not as fast as Li Yang's hands.

"Smack!"

Just as Howard picked up the ball and was about to lift it out, Li Yang's palm accurately cut into the basketball that Howard was holding with both hands, cutting the basketball off.

"Beautiful steal, Li Yang cut the ball directly from Howard's hand, and the Celtics counterattacked!"

But the Rockets obviously haven't recovered from the offensive state of the game in the third quarter, except for Beverley and Ariza, two players who are already better defenders, who are actively retreating, the rest of the Rockets players have not been able to retreat to the half court at the first time, and Howard even asked the referee for a foul while slowly retreating.

In the face of such a good attack opportunity, Li Yang naturally would not give up, controlled the ball in his hands, and Li Yang led his teammates to launch a fast attack.

Outside the three-point line to force a breakthrough through Ariza's defense, Li Yang took the ball directly to the basket, and attracted Beverley's pinch near the three-second zone.

Although Beverley was very active in defending back, Li Yang's ground-hitting pass timing was just right, so Smart didn't have to worry about Beverley's defense at all, and smashed the ball directly into the basket with a two-handed slam dunk!

After the start of the fourth quarter of the game, with the opportunity brought by defense, the Celtics counterattacked and scored two points, the Rockets blocked and dismantled, and the Celtics defended very well......

After being disrupted by the Celtics in the previous round with a low-post single, Howard opted to play with Beverley in this round and then tried to get a chance to cut directly to the interior to attack the basket.

However, the Celtics' combined defense came into play again at this point, and before Howard could receive the ball, two defenders had already appeared on his side, forcing Beverley to abandon the intention of passing.

After seeing that Howard had no chance, Beverley began to guide the ball outside the three-point line, but the Celtics' defense at this time was quite good, and the active rotation defense of Li Yang, Crowder, and Middleton made the Rockets players unable to find a shooting opportunity at all.

The ball finally came to Ariza's hands, and Li Yang's active rotation defense just now allowed Ariza to barely get a chance to shoot, which can indeed only be called reluctant, because when Ariza took a jump shot, Li Yang had already rushed back to interfere.

Ariza obviously didn't have the good feel that Li Yang had today, and under Li Yang's interference, Ariza's shot bounced out of the basket.

At this time, another benefit of the Celtics' joint defense also showed itself, they did a good job of protecting the rebounds.

This time, the Celtics didn't fight back, but they fell into a positional battle, and the Rockets still didn't stop the Celtics from scoring, Li Yang broke through the ball, and Middleton finally hit a three-pointer from the outside!

10 points! In just two rounds, with excellent defense, the Celtics stretched the margin to double digits.

On the Rockets' side, they are also vaguely aware of the changes in the Celtics' defense, but the fourth quarter has only been played for less than a minute, and McHale has not fully woken up.

So, in the next two rounds, the Rockets missed again under the tight defense of the Celtics, and on the Celtics side, one time was Crowder who seized the opportunity to complete the counterattack, and the other time fell into the positional battle, Li Yang hit a backward shot with excellent individual ability.

By the time McHale finally realized he was calling a timeout, the gap between the two teams had widened to 14 points.

After the timeout, the Rockets sent Harden and adjusted their tactics against the Celtics' defense to stabilize the situation again, but in the face of the Celtics, whose defense has been upgraded, they have not been able to play an offensive high-tide.

At 109:122, the game was over, with a 13-point difference, and the Celtics won the victory over the Rockets.

scored 40 points in the first three quarters of the game, and Li Yang handed over 46 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 1 block and 3 steals.