Howard and Da Yao's jump ball, naturally the former wins, even if affected by injuries, the explosiveness is not as good as before, but Howard's bounce and outburst are still the top level in the league, and Da Yao has also been affected by injuries, and basically doesn't jump much on the court, completely hitting the floor.

Spurs possession, Toney. After Parker dribbled across the half court, he glanced at Wang Chao standing in front of him, didn't think too much, and passed the ball directly to Duncan inside.

Duncan vs Garnett is also a more interesting matchup in the past ten years, but now the two 38-year-old veterans are facing each other again, and it is no longer a thing.

Duncan took advantage of his tonnage and power to squeeze his back to the basket and hit the basket at a 45-degree angle with his trademark turn to shoot the ball in and out on top.

2:0。

The Spurs took the lead, and it was their only lead of the game.

Because as the Rockets got the ball, the Rockets were always in the lead in the following games.

The Spurs have no way to take the Rockets' offense, although they have the league's strongest interior defensive combination, Howard + Duncan, but the defensive intensity on the outside is still seriously insufficient, after all, Leonard, the core player of the team's interior and outside defense, ran to the Rockets.

The Rockets are precisely a team that focuses on outside projection, playing small-ball tactics and even magic ball tactics.

Garnett played for a few minutes and was off the court after showing his face a little, replaced by Middleton.

Wang Chaoding personally marked Duncan in the position of power forward, and would not let the opponent's offensive efficiency skyrocket because of Garnett's departure, and on the defensive end, Duncan had to frequently pull out the outside defense, after all, the Rockets had four shooters on the outside, and if they didn't go out, they would inevitably be greeted with a hollow three-pointer.

The Spurs players were all forced to pull out to the outside, and only the solos of Da Yao and Howard were left on the inside.

is still the same sentence, your uncle will always be your uncle.

Even if he can't run fast and can't jump, Da Yao is still able to use his superb skills to hang Howard under the basket.

This is the crushing of physical, technical and IQ, if Howard is at his peak, he may be able to take revenge on the decline of Da Yao's athletic state, but now Howard's state is not much stronger, and the good statistical performance in the regular season is entirely due to the Spurs' tactical system.

At this time, without the assistance of Duncan and other players, facing Da Yao alone one-on-one, Howard once again turned into the monster who was manipulated by Da Yao at will, eating, sleeping and playing.

It's also a shame that Da Yao is not as good as before, and he is a little physically exhausted after eating a few shots from Howard under the basket, and he didn't make Howard, who is a three-time best defensive player, too embarrassed, but Da Yao's fate did not make the Spurs' unfavorable situation better.

It was Whiteside who came in for Da Yao.

Howard looked at Whiteside, who was full of talent and seemed to have stepped on a spring under his feet, and his eyes were full of shadows of his former peak.

Of course, Whiteside does not have the ability or qualification to be compared with Howard in his prime, but against Howard in his twilight years, at least he has more advantages in terms of mobility and interior card rebounding.

The Spurs can't play an advantage on the inside, and they don't have a chance on the outside, even if Ginobili on the bench comes on the court, he has to face Leonard and Butler at the same time, and he doesn't have any chance at all.

The Spurs only took the lead once in the game at the start of the game, and after that there was no chance of equalizing or even overtaking.

In the first game, the difference in strength between the two teams was already obvious, the Spurs were not the opponent of the Rockets at all, after all, it was difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice, no matter how Popovich strategized and taught, the cards he could play were still only a limited number of cards, in addition to Howard, there were only GDP and role players such as Green, Dio, Mills, etc.

But when it comes to the depth of the bench, no team in the league can match the Rockets.

On the bench sat Thomas Jr., Chandler. The only concern for the Rockets, with players such as Parsons, Middleton, Whiteside and Gobert, is who should be given a little more playing time.

Compared to the Rockets, the Spurs can be said to have no advantage in any position, and they can't limit Wang Chao's play, how can they win the game?

The Spurs, who lost the first game of the Western Conference finals, followed up with another loss in the second game of the Western Conference finals on May 21, falling behind 0:2 on aggregate.

Although they lost 12 more games in the regular season than last season, the Rockets have not lost at home since entering the playoffs, and have only lost one game in the first two rounds combined.

Da Yao's return from injury made the strength of the Rockets extremely terrifying again, far ahead of the whole league.

On May 25, after returning to San Antonio, the home of the Spurs, the Spurs finally got one back, relying on Howard and Duncan twin towers at the same time, one with 28 points and 16 rebounds, and the other with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Not only the interior twin towers, but the Spurs' outside three-point shooter is also in full swing. Green made 6-of-9 three-pointers, Mills 3-of-5 and Dio 3-of-3.

But even with such a super-level performance, the Spurs only narrowly beat the Rockets 112-109 three-pointers.

The victory in this game did not make the Spurs fans happy at all, they only felt desperate, the gap in strength between the two teams is visible to the naked eye, although the Rockets lost this game, but the Spurs played at a super level to play like this, you can't expect the Spurs to be like this in the next games, right?

Moreover, anyone who has a heart can see that the Rockets did not do their best in this game, which can be seen from the Rockets' conservative use of Da Yao.

Da Yao, who has not long returned from injury, is like a cherished animal in the Rockets, strictly controlling his playing time, and does not do any dirty work on the court, just catch the ball under the basket and attack.

And in this game, facing the Spurs' No. 1 devil home in the league, Da Yao played for a short time, only played about 18 minutes in total, even when the Rockets were behind and the situation was precarious, Da Yao did not appear.

This is enough to show that the Rockets did not pay attention to the outcome of this game, or selectively released the water, and chose a milder blunt knife to kill.

This is also understandable, the Spurs, as an old powerhouse in the league, are not very clean, even if Bowen has retired, there are still players on the team who do this kind of dirty work.

If the Spurs play a 3:0 game in this game, no one can guarantee that the opponent will not do any dangerous behavior in the case of a quick loss.

Of course, Wang Chao is not afraid, he has the talent of steel and iron bones, unless he pulls out a knife from the opposite side and stabs him 21 times, or staging an American-style home, he will not be injured at all, but Da Yao can't.

finally recovered from injury, Wang Chao didn't want Da Yao to be scrapped again without playing two games.

Although the Spurs have strength in Wang Chao's opinion, they are not a strong opponent after all, and the Rockets have a 2-0 lead, so they can slow down the pace a little and avoid unnecessary trouble.

Sure enough, although they lost to the Spurs in Game 3, the Rockets immediately won back in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final Series on May 27.

is also playing at home, but the Spurs in this game no longer have the same momentum as the last game, like a beast forced to a dead end, and the result is that Wang Chao led the team to win the game 107:94, rewriting the total score to 3:1.

In the case of falling behind 3:1, there are no examples in history of the final three-city reversal, but that is still too few, especially on the stage of the Western Finals, considering the Spurs' aging lineup and lack of outside scoring ability, the probability of a comeback is almost equal to zero.

Sure enough.

In Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, the venue returned to the Toyota Center, home of the Rockets.

On their own turf, the Rockets showed their terrifying offensive ability to the fullest, scoring 67 points in the half, and the team's score was 95 points higher at the end of the third quarter!

On the other hand, the Spurs scored only 71 points in the third quarter, trailing by 24 points.

Spurs players such as Howard and Duncan sat entirely on the bench in the fourth quarter and watched the whole game.

After all, with a 24-point difference, it is almost impossible for a team with a low offensive rhythm to catch up with a team with a low offensive rhythm like the Spurs.

Howard sat on the bench with a slightly complicated look in his eyes.

Before I knew it, it had been two years since I left the Magic team.

In two years and two seasons, Howard has completely changed his mentality from the player who has just won three consecutive championships and become the league's No. 1 center.

Whether it was to the Lakers and Kobe Bryant to form a super F4 combination, or to the Spurs to partner Duncan to form the league's top twin towers, or to lead the Magic team alone after Wang Chao left the team at the beginning, several attempts ended in failure.

The three consecutive championships in the Magic team were originally thought to be just the beginning of a brilliant career, but they didn't expect it to be the heyday.

At this time, Howard will still think of the days when he fought side by side with Wang Chao from time to time, and he will also imagine that if Wang Chao stayed in the magic at that time and he willingly became Pippen by his side, would they have been attacking the second triple crown dynasty now?

It's a pity that there is no if, Howard made his choice, Wang Chao also has his own plans, and the three-in-a-row championship period of the Super Demon Combination is destined to be just a memorable past, nothing more.

4:1。

The Rockets defeated the Spurs at home and eliminated the Spurs with a score of 4:1 to officially enter the Finals, which is also the third consecutive year that the Rockets have reached the Finals.

In the first year, because of Da Yao's injury, the Rockets lost to the Heat in the Finals, and then in the second year, they got one of the Big Three of the Green Army, with a 72-10 record in the regular season and won all the playoffs, and swept the Heat 4:0 in the finals to avenge the revenge.

And now, in the third year of Wang Chao's arrival with the Rockets, the Rockets have once again entered the Finals and launched a charge in the direction of the defending champions.

(End of chapter)