"Damn! If you go on like this, you're really going to lose the whole series! ”

May 31, before the start of the third game of the series.

The Thunder didn't schedule overly heavy workouts, but instead did a lot of video analysis.

The coaching staff knew they couldn't win the game without targeted restrictions on the Rockets' current style of play.

In the last game, the three Durant teamed up to cut 88 and failed to win the game, which is a full explanation.

It's not about how many points they get, it's about limiting how many points the opponent can get!

Wang Chao is just that, he has played explosive performances in the playoffs not once or twice, and it is unrealistic to want to limit his scoring.

But even Da Yao scored 30+ points every game, even if the Thunder team's internal weakness is a fact, it can't be tolerated.

"This game must be strictly guarded against Da Yao, whether it is around the front defense, wrapping or any other way, we can't let him score as recklessly as in the first two games!"

Thunder head coach Scott. Brooks' face sank as he looked at several interior players in front of him, especially Perkins and Collisson.

"The next game is on our home stadium, the referee may give some support in terms of blowing the whistle, you guys are a little bigger when you defend, don't let him be so comfortable receiving the ball and attacking, we can't lose again!"

——

What kind of desperate people who have half a foot on the edge of the cliff will burst out in order to survive?

Wang Chao noticed it immediately at the beginning of the game.

This game was the same as the previous two, at the beginning of the Rockets gave a lot of the ball to Da Yao to attack the basket, which was the most efficient way to score.

However, unlike the previous two games, Da Yao only hit 1 goal in 4 shots, not because he had a bad hand, but only 4 shots, and the opponent had already committed two fouls, respectively from Perkins and Ibaka.

A foul was when Da Yao was stuck in the inside position to ask for the ball, and the Rockets just hoisted the ball to Da Yao inside, and Perkins behind Da Yao suddenly pushed Da Yao's waist hard, pushing Da Yao and almost falling to the ground.

Another foul was that Da Yao had successfully received the ball, carrying Perkins and turning to shoot, Ibaka shot from one side, jumped up suddenly, and slapped Da Yao with a hat on his face, and hit Da Yao's arm heavily, the sound was very crisp, and it was completely conceivable how much effort the opponent used.

Da Yao's arm immediately turned red, and he even missed a free throw when he made a free throw.

Wang Chao couldn't help but squint his eyes.

"I can't beat it...... That's it? ”

There's never been a shortage of this part of the league, or rather it's part of the playoffs.

Basically, those championship-winning teams in the league will have a dirtier player who will come out to do some so-called dirty work at a more critical time, and use off-the-board moves to help the team win more easily.

Spurs' Bruce. Bowen is a man who knows a thing or two about this.

Not only the Spurs, but the Lakers have Artest, and the Heat have Haslem and Joel. Anthony, the Warriors are even more, Green, Bogut, Pachuria, almost all of them are notoriously dirty.

Former Celtics starting center Kendrick. Perkins is also a player with a very dirty style of play, after all, as an interior blue-collar center, Perkins has nothing to be good at, except for the rebounding and defense, his other ability to gain a foothold in the NBA is those dirty little moves in the game.

More than one player in the league has publicly commented that Perkins is dirty when he plays, but there's no denying that any championship team must have such a player on their team, even if it's just to protect their own players.

Obviously, the Thunder, who have already lost a little bit of a red eye, have not hesitated to use these small actions in the game, and let the old bird Perkins do it!

After playing the high-end game of the finals for so many years, Wang Chao has long been surprised by this situation, and at the beginning, he was still mentally disturbed by the malicious actions of his opponent, worried that he would be ruined by serious injuries caused by actions such as stepping feet.

However, after obtaining the steel and iron bones, Wang Chao gradually learned to ignore these guys.

Excuse me, but did you just do anything? I didn't feel it at all.

This is also the reason why Wang Chao would fight with Pierce of the Celtics and Artest of the Lakers in various wrestling battles during the initial Magic team, but in the following seasons, he has completely ignored the other party.

Wang Chao can ignore it, it doesn't mean that Da Yao can.

Watching Da Yao compete with Perkins when he was stuck in the inside line, the action was quite intense, and Wang Chao's eyelids couldn't help but jump wildly.

Da Yao, who already has the attribute of a glass man, and the possibility of being injured is very likely, it is not a good thing to play with his life like this!

Seeing an opportunity, Wang Chao directly called a timeout, and after returning to the bench, he said to Da Yao. "Brother Yao, you will go down to avoid it for a while, the other side is obviously targeting you, I am afraid that there will be a risk of injury if you continue like this."

Da Yao rubbed his somewhat reddened arm, was silent for a moment, and then shook his head.

"No, I've got to be on the pitch at this time, and if I'm only on the pitch, they're going to throw a bogey, focus on me, and create better scoring opportunities for you and the rest of your team-mates."

"Although their movements are a bit big, it's not the first time I've encountered this kind of thing, if I'm afraid to avoid fighting just because of this level, what else will I play?"

Wang Chao: "......"

He has absolute power with the Rockets, from the general manager to the head coach, down to any player and even the assistant coach, no matter what he says, he will not dare to slack off.

But the only exception to this is Da Yao.

As his idol before crossing over and the big brother at this stage, Wang Chao has always had a very respectful attitude towards Da Yao, which is completely different from others.

And Wang Chao can somewhat understand Da Yao's thoughts.

This is the stage for the Western Showdown.

For Wang Chao, who has played in the finals six times, it may not be nothing, but Da Yao's ten-year NBA career is the first time to reach the Western Conference finals.

This is very special for his career, how can he give up so easily?

Wang Chao couldn't help but think of the original history, in the semifinals of the 08-09 season playoffs, the Rockets vs the Lakers, Da Yao ignored the dissuasion of the team doctor and coach after being injured, insisted on forcibly debuting on the stage to stage the return of the king, and led the team to defeat the Lakers who would win the championship later.

The Rockets were inspired by Da Yao, and the whole team played very hard, and finally lost to the Lakers 4:3, which was also the only tie-break in the Lakers' championship journey that season.

Since that game, Da Yao has been devastated due to injury, reimbursed for the 09-10 season, and re-injured after only playing 5 games in the 10-11 season, and finally withdrew from the league.

It can be said that although the injury in that playoff game was not the direct cause of Da Yao's continuous injuries, it was also one of the important triggers, and if Da Yao had not forced the injury to play for the team's victory, maybe his career could have been extended a little longer.

But even if he asked Da Yao later if he would regret the impulsive choice he made at that time, his answer would never regret it.

After thinking about it, Wang Chao said: "In this case, then we will change the style of play next, when attacking, Brother Yao's position is mentioned in the middle distance free throw line, try to avoid direct physical contact with the opponent, Thomas Jr. plays, we increase the number of times we hold the ball to break through the offensive frame, put pressure on the opponent's inside, force the opponent to foul, and wait for their inside line to carry enough fouls, the action will not dare to be so unscrupulous!" ”

After the timeout, the Rockets, led by Wang Chao and Thomas Jr., began to frantically hold the ball and attack the frame.

Thunder Ibaka shouted that he was full and couldn't eat.

He can't prevent Da Yao's inside attack, but the outside player's ball-holding and punching the frame is his favorite.

Wang Chao is about the same height as him, and his ability to bounce and stay in the air is amazing, and the difficulty of blocking is a little bigger, Thomas Jr. was completely sent to the door, and Ibaka sent 3 blocks in a few minutes, but he also received one more foul.

At halftime, the score was 57-54, and the Thunder had a three-point lead at home court.

In this game, Westbrook was rarely extremely efficient, shooting 4 of 8 in the first half, 5 of 5 free throws, and scored 13 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

Durant scored 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting and 3-of-4 from the free-throw line.

This kind of play made the Thunder's home fans finally see some hope of victory.

If the Thunder can win this game, then there is still hope for a reversal, on the contrary, if they lose this game and fall behind 3:0, then there is really no chance of winning.

But how could Wang Chao make it so easy for them to get their wish?

Wang Chao held the ball in the top arc of the three-point point single, and raised his hand to feign to shoot in the face of Ibaka's defense! Ibaka stepped forward to defend, but this was really a feint, and after deceiving the opponent's center of gravity, Wang Chao immediately broke through with the ball, and hit a mid-range stop-and-go jump shot! ”

From the third quarter of the game, Wang Chao began to gradually increase the number of attacks with the ball.

The Thunder team had expected Wang Chao's increase in hands, but even if they were mentally prepared, they still couldn't stop Wang Chao's ball-holding offense.

Ibaka's speed can't keep up with Wang Chao, let alone Ibaka, even Durant, is far inferior to Wang Chao in terms of speed, after all, the current Wang Chao's speed and agility have reached 96, even in the guard is a very high value, coupled with more than 90 explosive power, Wang Chao's instant burst out of the speed is comparable to Maddie at the peak, especially the first step of starting, which is amazingly fast.

What's worse is that Wang Chao's three-point projection is much stronger than Maddie's, so when defending Wang Chao, the priority of preventing him from projecting three-point shots is always higher than the defensive breakthrough.

In the entire third quarter of the game, Wang Chao shot 7 of 9 and 4 of 4 free throws, and the offense all came from inside the three-point line, scoring 18 points.

Thanks to Wang Chao's efficient play in the third quarter, when the game entered the fourth quarter, the scores of the two teams were tied, and Da Yao, who had rested for a whole quarter, also reappeared after the start of the fourth quarter.

Looking at Wang Chao, who still had spare energy, and Da Yao, who had been well-rested and energetic, the fans at the home of the Thunder only felt a sense of despair that was almost suffocating.

A single Wang Chao or a big Yao is difficult to deal with, in the fourth quarter of the game, the two of them played together, can the Thunder team withstand it?

At least the previous two games have proved that they may not be able to bear it!

The Thunder players understand that, too.

Seeing that Da Yao actively raised his hand to ask for the ball as soon as he appeared on the stage, Perkins, who was standing next to Da Yao, had a flash of sharpness in his eyes.

Da Yao received a pass from his teammates, and his position at this time was one step inside the free throw line, within his range, so Da Yao immediately raised his hand to shoot a jumper.

Perkins, who was standing in front of him, didn't follow Da Yao to jump in vain defense, after all, he couldn't reach it even if he jumped up.

But when Da Yao shot and landed, Perkins moved his foot forward a little vaguely.

Da Yao, who was all focused on the basket, didn't notice it, and stepped on Perkins' instep when he landed, and suddenly stumbled, followed by a tingling pain in his ankle, and the whole person immediately fell to the ground.

"Damn it!"

I didn't expect to prevent it!

Wang Chao's anger suddenly surged into his mind, and he immediately rushed forward, like an angry lion, and slammed it towards Perkins.

At this time, Perkins was still spreading his hands, with an innocent expression on his face, and was suddenly pushed by Wang Chao, and he was directly pushed to the ground by a huge force.

Wang Chao's strength is not small at all, and the strength of 88 is enough to overturn Perkins, who weighs 122 kilograms, in a running situation.

"Are you looking for death?"

Perkins, who was pushed to the ground by Wang Chao, was instantly furious, and when he got up from the ground, he rushed to Wang Chao as soon as possible to fight back.

The crowd that rushed up quickly separated the two, and more Rocket players gathered around Da Yao.

Da Yao, who was holding his ankles, looked very painful, and rested for a long time before limping up, and then returned to the locker room with the support of his teammates.

At the same time, everything that happened was replayed on the big screen.

Under various ultra-clear cameras, Perkins's small movements are fully revealed.

Anyone can see that the foot he stretched out before Da Yao landed was deliberate, obviously running to abolish Da Yao.

"This behavior is terrible! It is against the ethics of sports competition, and the referee should immediately give him a second-degree malicious foul! ”

CCTV Sports Channel, Yu Gui, who was in charge of commentating the game, was angry.

"It's a basketball arena, not a boxing ring, and even boxing has rules, Kendrick. Perkins, this man doesn't deserve to be a basketball player at all! ”

"Now we can only pray that Da Yao will not be injured, preferably just a slight sprain, with his current age, the impact of the injury on the competitive state is quite large!"

"Wang Chao also has to calm down, we can understand his mood when he rushed up to give Da Yao a head just now, but impulsiveness will not change the result, but may lead to more serious consequences, we must be patient."

After repeatedly watching the replay, the on-site referees finally blew a second-degree malicious foul for Perkins and expelled him directly, and only gave a verbal warning to Wang Chao.

Anyone who is not blind can see how bad Perkins' foul is just now, and it is understandable that Wang Chao will be angry, after all, Da Yao, as the core player of the Rockets, has too much impact on the team once he is injured.

(End of chapter)