The Whip of the God of Basketball

Chris Anderson and Wang Zhizhi, two players with completely different personalities and backgrounds, became the key combination to contain Yao Ming in the third quarter tonight.

After relying on a three-quarter pass and Anderson's block to successfully block Yao Ming's attack and stop the Rockets, the role of these two generals did not stop there. After the timeout, Van Gundy asked the Rockets to launch more attacks from the outside, use more breakthroughs to launch attacks, and use Yao Ming's height advantage to strive for more secondary attacks.

Van Gundy's idea is correct. Since Yao Ming is not easy to open up, there is no point in continuing to delay and attack. After all, Yao Ming is not O'Neal, and even O'Neal cannot defeat the Celtics' defense alone. With Kevin Garnett and PJ Brown out of the game, the Celtics' internal protection will inevitably decrease in strength. Relying on outside assault, coupled with Yao Ming's containment and secondary offensive threats, is the best way to solve the current situation.

Of course, it's a good idea, but it doesn't mean it will definitely work. Van Gundy had two misunderstandings. This is inevitable when directing from the sidelines. No one can cover everything.

The first thing Van Gundy thinks about is that although Kevin Garnett and Brown are off the court and the Celtics are weakened inside, it does not mean that Anderson and Wang Zhizhi are weak. Players on the outside can break out and score if they want. Just come in.

On the contrary, after the two kings came off the court, the Celtics strengthened their defense on the inside. After Leon's timeout, James Posey replaced Michael Reed, which was an obvious signal. They used the height and help defense of the small forward position to Make up for the defensive deficiencies of Wang Zhizhi and Anderson.

Moreover, Wang Zhizhi's defense is not a weakling as Van Gundy thought. His help defense is still scum and has no sense of existence. However, when he is focused on dealing with Yao Ming on the court, he is not that indifferent.

In the first attack after the timeout, Francis engaged in a pick-and-roll with Yao Ming in the high post. Francis walked from the middle and Yao Ming came down from the side. But Wang Zhizhi of the Celtics didn't care about Francis at all, and allowed him to break in from the middle. Anderson came over to cover up the defense. Taylor missed, and Posey on the side came to replace him.

In this case, Francis failed to find an open pass at the first time. Yao Ming was watched tightly by Wang Zhizhi. Jim Jackson's position was not very good, so Francis had to choose to throw the ball himself. Anderson's fingers almost skimmed the ball, and the shot missed due to interference. Posey grabbed the rebound among four people, and then the Celtics launched their counterattack.

The Celtics' counterattacks are almost omnipresent, and fast offense has been integrated into their blood. As long as they have the opportunity, they will make shots in a short time at all costs, without giving their opponents time to react.

During the counterattack, Paul Pierce held the ball and pushed away Jackson with his back to hit a fadeaway jumper. When the Rockets defense was not in position, he decisively chose a single. The Celtics completed the goal in 8 seconds.

When Mobley missed a three-pointer in the next offense, the Celtics launched a counterattack again. James Posey received Arenas' ground pass and succeeded in a layup. Van Gundy only felt that the situation on the court was There is simply no solution. The Celtics only relied on their second lineup, which made the Rockets a little embarrassed.

This was the second point of confusion for Van Gundy. He thought that after solving the offensive problem, the Rockets would gradually gain an advantage in the offensive and defensive battles. Who knew that his offense was not open, but the fast breaks that made the Celtics famous continued to succeed. This is also a problem that the Rockets have to face when Yao Ming is on the court. Even though Yao Ming's retreat speed is not slow among centers, he is still too slow in the face of a second quick counterattack like the Celtics.

Letting Yao Ming continue to run back and forth on the court is undoubtedly a waste of his energy, so next, Francis still resolutely passes the ball to Yao Ming. This time the ball passed through Jackson's hands in the corner and passed from the baseline defense to Yao Ming's hands. Yao Ming squeezed Wang Zhizhi away and received the pass from the side. This was a good pass. Wang Zhizhi was completely out of position. Yao Ming could directly face the basket when he got the ball.

This time Anderson didn't have time to make up the defense. Seeing that Yao Ming was about to hit a one-handed dunk, Wang Zhizhi caught up from behind and slapped Yao Ming on the forearm. The ball dropped and the referee blew the whistle for a foul.

A fierce thug fouled, and Yao Ming could even feel pain in his little arm. He looked at Wang Zhizhi. Wang Zhizhi's face was calm and there was no fierce look on his face. This was a normal and necessary foul.

In terms of friendship, Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi have an average friendship. Their personalities are quite different. Yao Ming is open-minded, optimistic, cheerful, and has a sense of humor; while Wang Zhizhi, who comes from a military family, is introverted, silent, and sensitive. In addition, they interact with each other in the CBA. The experience of being a mortal enemy will naturally not make you a close friend.

But Yao Ming also knows that Wang Zhizhi is a relatively pliable person with top-notch playing skills, but his style occasionally seems a bit "faced". On the offensive end, he is sometimes domineering, but on the defensive end, he has fallen a lot behind. In the CBA, he was still able to rely on his height, wingspan, and awareness to become China's shot-blocking leader. In the international arena and the NBA, he is far behind, at least that's what the Rockets' video analyst thinks.

But tonight, Yao Ming felt that this Wang Zhizhi was completely different from his impression. His strength, toughness in defense, and calm and firm eyes all interpreted a different Wang Zhizhi.

Yao Ming stood on the free throw line and made two free throws. The Rockets finally scored and recovered some of the gap.

"You have to work harder on offense, don't just shoot!" At this time, Dave Cowens, who was sitting on the Celtics bench, yelled at Wang Zhizhi.

Cowens is now focused on training the players' basic skills in the team, especially the basic skills of the inside players. Wang Zhizhi is a key target of assistance. In a business league like the NBA, the team is where the players work. Players have to rely more on themselves if they want to improve themselves, because the coach is your colleague, unlike the university, which is your teacher and does not teach you to improve your personal abilities. obligation.

A good tradition of the Celtics is the strong family team atmosphere. Although this atmosphere is also weakening with the changes of the times, old Celtics like Cowens will treat every Celtic All players are regarded as partners and future successors. So he tried his best to guide and help everyone, and Wang Zhizhi benefited a lot from it.

After hearing what Cowens said, Wang Zhizhi quickly ran across the half court. He started to jam Yao Ming in his ribs to ask for the ball. He wanted to play singles!

It was very easy for him to beat Yao Ming in the CBA. His skills and Yao Ming's relatively thin body left Yao Ming with eternal regret. Today is different from what it used to be, a No. 1 pick and a small role on the edge of the bench, but Wang Zhizhi is still Wang Zhizhi, and Yao Ming is still Yao Ming. He will not feel afraid in his heart because of this gap.

Pierce passed the ball to Wang Zhizhi. After receiving the ball, Wang Zhizhi directly turned his back and walked from the baseline to squeeze in. This is not Wang Zhizhi's good offensive method, but he still used his speed advantage to squeeze in.

Under the interference of Yao Ming's long arms, Wang Zhizhi missed the layup and the ball slipped out from the edge of the basket. However, Wang Zhizhi stuck in position, raised his arms high above his head, and grabbed the offensive rebound.

But after he got the ball, he put his hand down, and it was difficult to think about it again.

"Hands up, hold them up!" Cowens stood up from the bench and shouted anxiously. Wang Zhizhi still had not completely gotten rid of some of his previous bad habits.

Yao Ming was like a big mountain covering Wang Zhizhi's head, leaving no gap for Wang Zhizhi. If Wang Zhizhi lingered for a while, he would attack for three seconds. Facing Yao Ming with his strength in the bottom plate, he has no ability to get stronger.

Just before three seconds, Wang Zhizhi pushed the ball behind him with his right hand. The ball bounced on the ground and flew into the hands of Chris Anderson, who was following.

Wang Zhizhi seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, knowing that Anderson would appear in this place.

Birdman took off.

He doesn't care that there are two people in front of him, Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi. He doesn't care that Yao Ming is 7 feet 6 tall. He doesn't care that he is still three steps away from the basket.

Because he wanted to dunk, and he hadn't dunked happily in a game for too long.

The poor basketball was smashed into the basket, and Chris Anderson dunked the ball into the basket through two people, one opponent and one teammate.

After the goal, Wang Zhizhi caught the falling basketball with both hands. He handed the ball to Yao Ming, ran away, high-fived Anderson, and returned to defense.