The strongest unicorn in basketball

Chapter 347 There are back and forth
The Rockets' opponent in the first round of the playoffs is the Clippers. The match between the two pairs is the most intense in the eight-game series in the first round of the playoffs!

In the end, the Rockets fought the Clippers in seven games, successfully eliminated the Clippers, and advanced to the Western Conference semifinals.

The poor Clippers stopped in the first round again.

And when the Rockets and the Kings started playing, the Kings had already rested for a week!

After the Rockets traded Howard this season, they hired Mike D'Antoni as a coach during the offseason. The team immediately took off and returned to the top four in the Western Conference.

It's a pity that the Rockets' lineup now only has Harden as a superstar, and the team owner Alexander is a famous miser who is not willing to pay a dime for the luxury tax.

Therefore, the team's upper limit is always limited. Although Harden's performance is amazing, and he has played second only to Westbrook this season, the team has never been able to make a breakthrough in the playoffs, and has not yet been able to advance to the conference finals.

This year seems to be the same. Although Harden is very strong, he still seems to have no chance of winning against the Kings.

On May 5, the Rockets came to Saskatchewan to play the first game of the semifinals with the Kings after only two days of rest.

Tonight's starting lineup for the Rockets: Beverly, Harden, Trevor Ariza, Ryan Anderson and Clint Capela.

To be honest, it is indeed amazing that Harden can bring this mediocre lineup to the fourth record in the Western Conference.

But when facing the king, such a lineup looks very shabby!

Li Pu beat Capela to win the jump ball.

As a rookie with the 14th overall pick in the first round in 25, Capela lacked basketball IQ, shooting ability and excellent skills, and was able to be selected in the first round because of his excellent physical fitness.

The height is 208cm, the weight is 95kg, but the wingspan is a full 225cm, and the combat power can reach 282cm.

More importantly, his speed is very good. It only takes 3 seconds to complete the 4/3.28 field run, which is faster than DeRozan's physical measurement data of 3.31 seconds!

It's a pity that even with such housekeeping skills, he can only be regarded as a younger brother in front of Li Pu.

In terms of height, weight, wingspan, jumping, and speed, there is almost nothing Capela can compare to Li Pu, let alone Li Pu's kaleidoscopic offensive skills!

Therefore, on the first offense of the Kings, Bledsoe handed the ball to Lip.

After Li Pu received the ball, he chose the low singles Capela.

Capela's body is very slender. Although he has gained weight after entering the league, he is still not Li Pu's opponent in terms of strength, and was pushed by Li Pu to the penalty area.

Seeing this, the Rockets immediately chose to attack.

If it was someone else, the Rockets might not be able to flank. After all, the Rockets' defensive strategy is infinitely changing defenses, but when Li Pu is the ball holder, they did not hesitate to flank.

In other words, when the teams in the league saw Li Pu holding the ball, their first reaction was to pinch him!
Today's Li Pu ranks first in the league on the defensive end, and is even a bug on the offensive end. No one can defend him one-on-one.

However, when Ariza double-teamed Li Pu from the baseline, Li Pu just made a light pass and passed the ball to Middleton in the bottom corner.

Now Li Pu's teammates, although they are still the same people as before, have made great progress in strength, and everyone is a first-class player in the league.

After Middleton received the ball, Beverly, who was on the line, immediately rushed to defend.

Seeing this, Middleton feinted with a shot fake, and then passed the ball to the open Bledsoe.

Bledsoe, who was in the open position, immediately chose a three-point shot, and the basketball went into the net!

Bledsoe's three-point production this season is not high, but his shooting percentage is very high, a full 38%, which is very accurate for an attacking guard!
Next it's the Rockets' turn to attack!
This season, the Rockets, which D'Antoni transformed into a bombardment style of play, averaged 115.3 points per game, third in the league, second only to the Kings and Warriors, but conceded 109.6 points per game, fifth from the bottom in the league.

It can be said that the Rockets are a team with strong offense and weak defense. They can't prevent people and don't care at all. More importantly, they have to be able to score!
Harden slowly took the ball to the frontcourt.

Compared with the 8-second offense of "Son of the Wind" Nash back then, Harden can't wait to use 8 seconds just to dribble to the frontcourt.

However, such a squirming fast break works very well. Harden, who came to the frontcourt, and after a pick-and-roll with Capela, attracted double-teams and distributed the ball to Ryan Anderson on the outside.

Anderson missed a three-pointer from the bottom corner, and the basketball bounced out of the frame!

The reason for this is mainly because Giannis moves too fast.

When Anderson caught the ball, it was clearly open, but when he shot, Giannis had already jumped in front of him.

"Shh!"

But tonight Anderson was like a godsend, he actually threw the ball in front of Giannis!

Then it was the Kings' turn to attack again, and Giannis held the ball in a high position to face Anderson and directly chose to make a strong breakthrough.

The reason why Giannis did this is obviously because Anderson just hit a three-pointer and he planned to return an answer ball, and the second is because Anderson's own defense is very bad, and he can't defend Giannis at all.

Sure enough, Giannis accelerated with the ball, headed into the penalty area against Anderson, and was assisted by Capela.

However, Giannis was not afraid at all. He still chose to force himself under the attack of the two, and then smashed the ball into the basket hard through the two!
"Ah ah ah ah..."

Seeing this ball, the whole scene was about to explode.

Such an answer ball slam dunk with blood spurting, it's really exhausting!

If this ball is not the top ten ball, I am afraid that the more than 17000 fans present will be the first to refuse!

This season, the Kings officially opened the new arena, the Golden No. [-] arena.

As early as 2013, Vivek promised the people of Sacramento that a new arena would be built in order to acquire the Kings.

Last year, the new arena was officially completed, and it became a new symbol of Sacramento almost instantly.

This arena is currently the most advanced and environmentally friendly indoor stadium in the country. It is the first stadium to obtain LEED Platinum certification and the first stadium to be fully powered by solar energy. It can accommodate 17500 spectators to watch NBA games.

Although Giannis's goal ignited the audience, the Rockets did not seem to be affected.

Soon they were on the offensive end. After Harden picked and rolled Capela again, he retreated beyond the three-point line. middle.

After Capela received the ball, he immediately chose a dunk and returned a dunk to Giannis.

The arena, which was bursting with cheers just now, suddenly became quiet.

Who would have thought that after the start, this seemingly weaker Rockets would have back and forth with the Kings?
(End of this chapter)