The strongest unicorn in basketball

Chapter 53 go all out
At 19:30 that night, the Thunder ushered in the Rockets who had lost Dayao at the Chesapeake Energy Arena at home.

Rockets starting lineup tonight: Kyle Lowry, Kevin Martin, Sean Battier, Luis Scola and Brad Miller.

Due to the loss of Dayao, the Rockets' center position had to use the 34-year-old veteran signed in the summer, Brad Miller, as the starting center.

The former All-Star Miller, known as "the greatest point guard", has comprehensive skills and excellent coping ability. He is an important part of the gorgeous Kings team and is also the current favorite of Rockets coach Adelman.

But as prominent as his strengths are, his weaknesses are equally prominent. Neither single defense nor assisted defense can be called good, and as he grows older, his footsteps slow down, and his defensive ability continues to decline.

The Thunder's starting lineup tonight has changed slightly, with Ibaka replacing Green as the starting power forward.

Of course, the main reason is that Green sprained his ankle in the last game and missed due to injury.

But it is undeniable that as Ibaka continues to improve, he has begun to threaten Green's starting position.

You must know that last season, Ibaka didn't even start a game!

Therefore, the Thunder's starting lineup for this game is: Westbrook, Sefolosha, Durant, Ibaka and Li Pu.

Although Li Pu did not perform well in the first few games, he has secured the position of the team's starting center. After all, he is in the starting lineup and has greatly improved the team's inside defense!
As for Krstic, who competed with him before, he has been reduced to a backup center, and Bai Ade, who is higher than Li Pu, is still working hard to enter the rotation lineup, struggling, and it seems that there is still no improvement.

To be honest, this situation is really beyond Presti's imagination. Li Pu is the future, and Bai Ade is the present?

Co-authoring the future and the present, Li Pu, you want it all, right?
The game officially started when Li Pu won the jump ball.

The Rockets seemed to know that Miller couldn't win with a jump ball, so they retreated frantically from the beginning. This caused Westbrook to get the ball, but found that the opponent had retreated to half court, unable to launch a fast break at all.

Since it can't be a fast break, the positional battle naturally becomes Westbrook and Durant switching singles.

The first shot was naturally Westbrook.

After playing a pick-and-roll with Li Pu, he directly chose a mid-range zombie jumper.

In the case of not completely getting rid of the defense, he rushed to make a shot, and the result can be imagined. Naturally, he missed the shot.

However, at this moment, Li Pu had already slid down to the basket, jumped up high, and pressed the ball into the basket again.

The inside combination of Miller and Scola is too eye-catching on the defensive end!

It's not that they don't want to defend actively, it's just that Li Pu is too tall, they can't defend at all.

But when they fell, the two saw Li Pu sullen, and when they returned to the defense, they murmured: "Money, my money!"

"What's up with this guy?"

"I don't know, why do I feel that he scored a goal more sad than the two of us?"

The two looked at each other, but were completely puzzled.

Also confused about the situation is Westbrook.

When returning to defense, Westbrook knew that his shot just now was a bit hasty and the timing was not good. Thanks to Li Pu's supplementary dunk, this attack was prevented from returning in vain.

So, he stretched out his hand to give Li Pu a high-five, "Well done!"

However, Li Pu ran past him, ran past, passed...

"Money, my money!" While running, he was still muttering.

"What the hell..." Westbrook suddenly felt extremely embarrassed. With his hand still outstretched in the air, he had to hit his left hand with his right hand to relieve the embarrassment.

Although Li Pu has been immersed in his own world, but for the game, his spirit is abnormally concentrated.

Soon it was the Rockets' turn to attack.

Scola and Miller are terrible on the defensive end, so how good they are on the offensive end.

Low-post footsteps, high-post support, COSCO shooting, both of them are proficient in almost all kinds of offensive skills, which is why Adelman knows that they are not good at defense, but they still want to partner with them.

Lowry has successfully squeezed out Brooks at this time and became the Rockets' starting point guard.

Compared with Brooks, "Steel Cannon" Lowry has a stronger body, and his passing is stable, and he is not afraid of confrontation in defense. It can be said that he is the most comfortable point guard who has worked with Yao.

It's a pity that the cooperation time between the two is too short, and the peak periods are perfectly staggered.

After Lowry distributed the ball to Miller near the free throw line, he went in and walked along the baseline to the bottom corner.

Miller, who is holding the ball near the free throw line, is definitely the most dangerous, because in this position, whether it is a high position support or an offense with the ball, it is the most threatening.

However, Li Pu's defense made Miller quickly give up the idea of ​​independent attack.

No way, Li Pu's defensive area is too large, standing in front of Miller, he can't even see the basket.

Miller, who was holding the ball with his back, was constantly feeling the bursts of strength from Li Pu behind him. If Miller wasn't heavy enough, he might have fallen to the ground by now.

But at this critical juncture, Miller suddenly hit the ground back and passed the ball. The basketball bypassed Li Pu's body and came into the hands of Scola who cut inside.

It turned out that Miller seemed to be almost fumbled by Li Pu, but his eyes were already scanning the field, observing the running positions of his teammates on the field, and then he went to the fairway.

This precise pass is exactly Miller's housekeeping skill.

Scola, who got the ball, first raised the ball high and made a false shot. Hearing a "whoosh" above his head, Ibaka flew over Scola's head.

It's just a ball game, isn't it?
Having said that, with Ibaka being swung away, Scola was empty at the basket.

No way, Ibaka still loves to dance even though he is already in the second grade, and he is fooled by Scola, who is old-fashioned!

Get rid of Ibaka, Scola ball again, ready to put the ball in the empty basket.

But what followed was a powerful hot pot, and it was Li Pu.

It turned out that although Scola ordered Ibaka to fly, he bought time for Li Pu's defense.

Li Pu, who let Miller go, came to the basket almost instantly, and topped the big cap, pressing the ball directly on the backboard.

Thunder fast break.

After receiving the pass from Li Pu, Westbrook pushed Lowry to the frontcourt like a bulldozer all the way, and then under Lowry's interference, he missed another layup.

It turned out to be Li Pu again, only following Westbrook behind him, and dunked the basketball that popped out of the basket into the basket again with a double-handed dunk.

In the first two rounds, Li Pu contributed 4 points, 3 rebounds and 1 block!

It seems that Li Pu is in good form today, and he has gone all out from the beginning.

(End of this chapter)